“That concludes my briefing, sir.”

“And we’re supposed to go find out what happened, sir?” Blankemeier said. “We were supposed to be taking the new ambassador to Cheerick, sir.”

“And you will, after this mission,” Admiral Townsend said. “There are several pieces to this. It’s unlikely that a rock just dropped on the planet and happened to hit the base. Somebody destroyed it. We need to know who, especially if it’s the Dreen. And Dr. Talbot, although not an astronomer, might know enough about the galaxy to direct the probable enemy here. For that matter, there’s the possibility of survivors. So you’re going out, now. As fast as possible. Head to this… what was the star, son?”

“HD 36951, sir,” the lieutenant said.

“Head to that star, find the planet, find out what happened if you can, check for any survivors, then try to find out who did this,” the admiral said. “If it’s the Dreen we have to know if they’re there. It would be good to find out something about their space technology for that matter. All we got from the Mreee was that they had some. What’s the status of your ship? The real status.”

“Just some minor refitting that has to be done, sir,” Blankemeier replied. “Really. We can loft any time. But our personnel are scattered to the winds.”

“Get them recalled,” the admiral said. “Lieutenant Fey has all the background data on the study team on… whatever that star was called. He’s going to be going with you as an advisor and another set of eyes. You won’t be bringing your usual science group with you. Anybody else you want?”

“Commander Weaver?” the CO said, looking over at the astrogator.

“I’d suggest taking the normal SF contingent. They’ve got enough technical expertise to be useful if we need the data without being as… limiting as most of the science team.”