When Yannis re-entered the bridge operations were in full flow. During his absence, significantly more data had populated the main screen. Hundreds of asteroids were now listed in varying degrees of detail together with detailed readouts of likely composition. At least fifty asteroids showed machinery, docking apparatus, or fresh surface striations and craters; clear evidence of mining operations.

Yannis settled into his chair and reviewed the data so far on his chair console. Around him the bridge hummed with quiet efficiency. Behind him the door opened and closed and Grace walked in. Yannis nodded at her and invited her to sit, but continued with his review.

Grace thanked him but walked around the bridge instead. She preferred to review the big picture on big screens. This wasn't her command, but she enjoyed an easy familiarity with bridge operations of all kinds; Today it was a well-trained crew using their skills and experience to distil petabytes of scan data into the essential facts.

The closest planet had also been rendered in a high fidelity simulation by now. Atmospheric conditions and weather systems were already populated with near-real time data. Judging by the readings she understood, the planet supported an abundant biosphere. That most likely meant it homed a rich plant and insect population. Higher-order life forms, possibly including mammals, were possible, but not guaranteed. More detail would be forthcoming in the next few hours. Unfortunately it gave the fleet yet another viable target to investigate. Searching dozens of asteroids already came with its own set of problems, the most obvious being the distances involved. Even real time communication could be compromised if the search radius became too great.

On the other hand, planets could hide their own secrets just as effectively under tree canopies, caves, camouflaged structures, and sheer size. Dozens of asteroids would be challenging enough, but a whole planet was a problem on another scale. A big asteroid might have a volume measure in hundreds of cubic kilometres, but they could safely ignore any rock which had no signs of an airlock or a surface construction. There would be no colonists there. But to search an entire planet was a task greater by an order of magnitude. The planet's surface would be measured in millions of square kilometres, with unfamiliar terrain and no existing maps with which they could easily automate surface scans.

Grace watched as additional layers of detail were rendered onto the image. The something surprising popped onto the display, covering the planet with a thin grey line. Grace took a step toward the Planetary Science station.

"That planet has a ring?"

"Yes, ma'am," said the officer. "A surprisingly young feature, considering our observations so far."

"Young? How so?"

"On the scale of planetary formation it is, at least from the data I have so far. We think the low orbit and unusually large fragments dates the ring formation to within the last hundred-thousand years. Smaller particles have been detected, but lack of coherent banding in the ring suggests no evidence of a shepherd moon. My hypothesis is that the planet had one moon which was destroyed by a rogue asteroid or comet, and the remains of both objects formed that ring. Some debris would have escaped the planet's orbit and joined the asteroids in higher solar orbits, and smaller fragments would have bombarded the planet. Compositional scans will tell us more. The science team are warming up their labs already."

"What do we know about the planet?"

"So far we've identified thirteen major landmasses evenly spread between hemispheres. We can see mountain ranges and even evidence of volcanic activity which indicate plate boundaries, and tectonic movement. We can infer a nickel-iron core and a magnetic field, given the plant life observed so far, but nothing beyond that yet. We can't yet tell how high the levels of solar radiation are on the surface, and if the biosphere has adapted to conditions more hostile than we are used to, but the probes will tell us more. Otherwise, from what we can see so far, the planet is perfectly liveable. Oxygen levels are slightly lower than we're used to, but nothing your body wouldn't adjust to in time with increased red blood cell production. If the moon strike theory is correct, we should pick up evidence of an interruption in the tidal pattern consistent with the ring formation. That would have had an effect on the biosphere but we're reading significant vegetation and near-earth normal distribution of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

"Any signs of construction?"

"None yet."

"How about farms?"

"Farms?"

"Cultivated land, cleared forests. Look for straight lines and flat ground mid way between the poles and the equator. Is there an axial tilt?

The officer tapped some keys to find the answer. "Seventeen degrees."

"Concentrate scans on the tropics based on that tilt. Farming is likely to be more fertile there."

"But why farms? Shouldn't I be looking for buildings?"

"We're looking for prisoners and mining. This mission is operating under the assumption that the majority of the colonists will be held in space, probably in asteroids or on the Far Horizon. But if we have a liveable planet there's a good chance we will find people down there too. Not many, but a few. The value here is in the minerals contained within those asteroids. No one is going to spend time shipping personnel back and forth when they can leave them in space. It's a short walk to work and has no possibility of escape. But for prisoners to work they need to be fed, so farms."

"Yes, ma'am."

Grace tapped his screen. "Does the planetary ring present any danger to a landing party?"

"Unlikely, but additional probes are already en-route to the debris field so we can generate a better trajectory map. The surface does show sign of large scale impacts but nothing recent. That and the dense biosphere suggests strikes are rare enough or small enough that they are only causing local damage."

"That's all well and good, as long as you're not standing underneath one of those rocks when they fall, no matter how small it is."

"Grace? A word?" said Yannis.

"Thank you for your time, lieutenant," said Grace. "Yes, captain?"

The captain's personal display was updating the asteroid database in real time. Each rock was tagged with ID numbers and windows of data hovered next to each one, sliding in and out of view as Yannis selected points of interest. Grace watched Yannis tap on one rock after another, review the information they had accumulated so far, then swipe the images aside in favour of the the solar system view. In this image, the asteroid belt was rendered to scale. Each target asteroid floated alone in space, each one hundreds of thousands of kilometres from its nearest neighbour. At the bottom of the screen was the fleet, a handful of white pixels lost in the infinite black sea.

"It's going to take some time to get the detailed information we need in order to plan search operations. Even so, it's apparent we need to split the fleet up to get the job done. There's just too much ground to cover."

"Is that safe? We don't know who else is in the system yet, and anyone could be hiding in that ring."

"Threat assessments are being developed now, but our priority is the rescue."

"My advice is to concentrate on the asteroids, not the planet. The Cabal would most likely have used that for food and water and their base of operations, but kept the colonists in space."

"I concur. We'll need to investigate the planet at some point though. There could be landing craft or other structures down there. Our scans are not finding any infrastructure up here."

"Do you have any useful assessment of the asteroids yet?"

"Data is coming through, but we don't have enough yet to inform our deployment. We have plenty of candidates but not enough intel yet to help us find the priority targets."

"And the Far Horizon?"

Yannis looked up at Grace for the first time. "I'm afraid not. Not yet."

"I understand. Thank you, captain." She paused. "If there is nothing else, I should go and see if my daughter is still in one piece."

"And my crew, if you don't mind."

"No promises, captain."

She walked toward the bridge door and pressed the button. The door slid open. Before she could step through Yannis said, "It's a big system, but we'll find it, Grace."

"I hope so captain, it's a big ship."