Liam ran the scan again just to be sure.  Ivory sat in the copilot seat going over the ship's systems.  After the first two scans Liam had asked her to check the scanner itself.  Taylor-06 sat behind them watching the ship computer analyze the data.  Scott was in the cargo hold pacing.  His anxiety put everyone on edge, and it was in all of their best interest if he kept his distance.  By Dr. Ho's timetable they had a day at most to get back home if they were going to save Patricia.

The shipboard computer beeped.

"The scan confirms it.  That's Breadcrumb."

Liam looked through the viewport at the wreckage floating outside.  It had once been a small buoy.

"I'm confused.  Is it working or not?"  Ivory punched a few keys on the small keyboard beside her, and the computer returned an orange display of the buoy's schematics.

"It's transmitter is still working, but everything else is slag."

"Shit... what are we gonna do, boss?"

"Do about what?" Scott growled as he entered the cockpit.

He plopped down in the remaining empty seat.  His eyes were closed, and Liam could see the signs of fatigue.  They'd been operating nonstop without rest or reprieve for almost a week.  The R.Nano could only do so much.  Liam swiveled his seat around so he could face the big blue cat.

"Breadcrumb is down.  We have no way of getting back home."

Patricia had designed a simple system.  Breadcrumb transmitted a low frequency beacon on rotating channels.  Anyone who stumbled across it would think it was an anomaly, but those looking for it could follow the signal back to the buoy where they could download an approach vector for Homebase.  Without the download Homebase was impossible to detect with standard surveillance devices.

"I don't accept that."  Scott opened his eyes and leaned forward.  His voice was calm, the look in his eyes intense.  "We've come too far.  I refuse to let her down when we're so close to saving her.  Liam... you have to fix this."

Liam felt the weight of everyone's gaze.  They were waiting for him to come up with a plan, for him to solve the puzzle and save the day.  He studied their faces, his friends, his people, his team.  Patricia's family.  Liam didn't need any encouragement.  He needed to save Patricia because she was his sister, and the backbone of Eagle X.  Without her they'd fall apart.  Liam furrowed his brow, and turned back to the controls.

"Taylor-06, I need your help," he said, pointing towards the copilot controls.

He ignored the shuffling beside him as she and Ivory switched places, instead focusing on recalibrating the foci of the ship's scanners.  It always looked easier when Pepper handled such things.

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to adjust the scan parameters to detect patches of tiny debris."

"Tiny debris?"

"Yeah.  Scalpels, bedpans, linen.  Little things."

"This ship isn't designed for that, boss," Ivory said over his shoulder.

"Not individually, but maybe it can find a bunch of it."

"Like the stuff jettisoned out of the infirmary during the accident!" Taylor-06 understood where he was going with it.

"Exactly.  Can you do it?" he asked.

"I think so."

Taylor-06 typed while Liam reshaped the the scanners cone from short and wide to long and narrow.  It would take longer but they'd be able to search a further distance.  Scott sat quietly for nearly five minutes, two minutes longer than Liam had anticipated.  He took mental note of the impact the mission had on improving Scott's temperament.

"This is taking too long," he growled as he took hold of Taylor-06's seat, his claws puncturing the leather covering.

"I've been dying to ask since we met up, Scott. Did anything happen between you guys?  You've been acting different."  Liam feigned his normally playful expression, and shot Ivory a wink.

He expected Scott to make a wild outburst and storm off to brood in the cargo hold.  When Scott merely leaned back and glowered Liam gave Ivory a quick double take.  She glanced over to make sure Scott wasn't looking then blew Liam a kiss.  His mind races to put the pieces together even as he silently mouthed the word wow.  He had so many questions, but there was no time.  The question silenced Scott for the moment, that was all they could ask for.

"I have to ask-" he began.

"No, you don't," Scott growled.

"But-"

"Liam, I think I've done it," Taylor-06 interrupted.  "We'll have to do slow sweeps, but we should be able to detect something."

Her optimism gave him hope.  His plan was a long shot, but they didn't have many options.  Keeping Homebase undetectable was a task Patricia tackled with vigor.  EC couldn't find them and the Pale Garden couldn't find them.  Their little craft didn't stand a chance.

"Would the construction probe have scanners?" he asked no one in particular, remembering they were towing an extra vehicle.

In their mad dash to loot what they could before station security arrived he never had a chance to do more than a quick search for explosives or transmitters back on Alpha Arietis Station.

"You'd think it would," Ivory replied.  "I doubt it would have anything long ranged though."

"If we can't find anything, I'll go out in the probe.  We can search a wider area that way."

Five minutes passed.

Then 10.

15.

30 minutes.

The scan had been running for nearly an hour.  Ivory was fast asleep, her legs stretched across the aisle to rest on Scott's lap.  Taylor-06 studied the readouts as fast as they came, her digital mind capable of understanding the data before it was processed and translated.  Liam read through the user manual of the Mk III deep space manned welder probe on his datapad.  Scott brooded, then grumbled, then brooded some more.  Liam suspected Ivory's feet were the only things keeping him seated.

"This is taking too long."

"You said that already," Ivory mumbled as she shifted her weight to get more comfortable.

"We could fly blindly through the sector," Liam commented, "or we can let the devices do their job.  If we move too far away from Breadcrumb and the beacon stops we'll be lost.  Right now, this is our best option."

"We've found something."

Everyone leaned forward, eagerly eyeing the illegible readout.

"Did we find debris?"

"Clusters of it, all in the same relative path of motion. B-"

"Then we should be able to track the trajectory back along the path and find its source," Liam stated.  He excitedly changed the scanning parameters.

"That can work, but there is something else."

The copilot display flashed red as if cued by her remark.

"What's that?" Ivory asked.

"The system isn't sure but it's large and methodically scanning the sector."  Taylor-06 studied the scanners report, and referenced the raw data.  "Its a ship, but it's hiding its ID tags... I think it's an Amazon."

Liam turned to her slowly, his expression shifting from hope to dread.  Scott growled and jumped to his feet, spilling Ivory to the floor.  She punched him in the leg as she stood, but even her focus was on Taylor-06.

"A Pale Garden Amazon-class ship.  Here?  Are you sure?"  Liam kept his voice level, his expression neutral.  He couldn't let his fear show.  The team needed him level-headed.

"I've been helping Patricia with a special project, studying Pale Garden ship designs, patterns, and emissions.  From the shape of the unidentified vessel and the emission patterns... I'm confident in my assessment.  That's an Amazon ship."

"Did they find us?"

"If they found us, they would've sent more than one ship," Scott growled.

"Maybe it's just a coincidence," Taylor-06 said with caution.

"Bullshit!" the two in the back said in unison.

"Enough!" Liam snapped.

He'd been deep in thought the moment he accepted that there was a Pale Garden battleship nearby, and searching.  Their little ship could be detected at any moment.  Homebase could be detected at any moment.  Amazon-class ships were massive cannon platforms, ship killers much like the EC Interceptors.  Everything he and his people worked on could be lost in an instant.  Eagle X could be dead even at the moment when it could finally stand on its own.

"I need you two to go secure the cargo, and gather any fire suppressors we have aboard."

Something in his tone stopped any quip or snappy remark from Scott or Ivory.  Instead they nodded and followed orders. 

"Taylor-06, I need you to plot that trajectory, and find Homebase.  If they don't know the Amazon is out there, we need to warn them.  If they do then, they need us even more."

"Yes, sir," she replied.  He glanced over, and she was watching him even as her fingers tapped with mechanical efficiency.  "You hesitated back there.  When the construct had a gun to my head, you hesitated."

"I... I thought about what you said in the lift.  I didn't want to..."  His voice trailed off.  "I didn't want you to hate me any more than you already do."

"I don't hate you."  Taylor-06's face brightened at the cheeks.  She flung her head to the side and her hair cascaded down to obscure her face.  "Look.  You aren't perfect, and neither am I.  Let's agree to be better.  Okay?"

"Okay.  I can do that."

"Good."

The two lapsed into silence, their fingers going at the controls of the ship's scanners and onboard CPU.

"You can call me Tee if you still want to," she whispered.

Liam smiled.

Scott and Ivory returned with four canisters of fire suppressant.  They put the pressurized cans in one of the seats, and Ivory sat in the other.

"What's the plan?  I know you have one," Scott said.

Liam placed his datapad on the control console, and swiveled his chair around to face the team.  They met at different stages of their lives, but, despite being from disparate backgrounds, they'd proven to be a formidable force.  Eagle X made that possible.  They were Eagle X.

"Homebase is in danger of being compromised.  Our sworn enemy is closing in, and our friends won't know what hit them.  They've put their lives in our hands, and it's up to us to protect them.  Scott, you and Taylor-06 are going to get the isotope and your mother's DNA to Pepper, and you're going to order the council to begin evacuation protocols."

"But we don't know where they are."  Taylor was unsure, and it showed in her tone.

"We know where they should be, and we'll get you as close as we dare."

"No need to worry," Scott said, "I'm a decent pilot."

"Ivory and I are going to engage that ship."

"Wait, what?  We are?"

"We'll harass them, and keep them occupied as long as we have to."

"This is the dumbest idea you've ever had."

"Bobii V.  Zaryt.  The Kiln World!  None of my plans have been worse than what we did on The Kiln World."

"I can't argue with that one," Scott scoffed.

"Exactly."  Liam said, tugging at his beard.  "We can't assume Patricia's countermeasures will hold, and our people need to be ready, and Patricia needs what we have... no matter what happens next."

Liam's face grew grim as he pointed to the rusted prosthetic attached to Ivory's arm.  The team had found it in Tikka's lair as they scrambled to find a way to get the probe off station before the authorities arrived.  She was more than happy to have a replacement for the one she'd lost.  It was an old model, but she's managed to sync the interfaces.

"Can you fly with that thing?"

"It doesn't have my usual bells and whistles," Ivory responded.  She flexed the mechanical fingers.  "But it'll do in a pinch."

"Are you sure?  Our lives are going to depend on it."

"I'm sure, boss."

"Good.  We're moving out."