Yeah. I'm about a third certain it's what I comprehend it is. But why the hell? Noderate out here is terrible. Like, the bitrate is making like a Corin; it's fried. Bad joke? Yeah, terrible.
I figure the image the Lane Hackers sold us was a digital composite. Our boys didn't twig on it, but the distance indicators to Pacifica were all a-fry. Horst figured were being deceptively dumb when none of the correct locations twigged. That's a lot of work that went into hiding this place.
My pilot who picked it up? Give him a raise and a bottle of the finer stuff. If his stellarator threw a funny he wouldn't have been found for the next few billion years. I'm heading out myself to check it's not a faulty transponder - he did the right thing and wigged it before going to investigate himself.
Either way, the element of surprise isn't mass, it's void - we hit them in twenty-four hours and vent the hull out. Wierd if it is what I think it is - they've had plenty of time to boost it up.
THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)