“Coming up on the system now, sir.” 

RJ nodded at Ensign Howell’s comment, his attention on the viewscreen as they dropped out of warp and into the system that the missing ships were all supposed to have travelled through.

“Okay, tell me what we‘re looking at?” he asked, his eyes narrowing as the view on the screen ahead changed. 

The order was mostly rhetorical as his experienced gaze swept over the system revealed in front of them. He studied the chart Howell had brought up on the main screen next to it, overlaying what they could see. He was impressed, for such a new officer the kid was learning quickly. 

He crossed his arms, folding one over the other and tapping his fingers against his pursed lips with one hand, idly noting he needed to trim his mustache. He’d been brought up aboard freighters that often carried high value cargo with minimal weaponry, so it was second nature to him to check out areas of risk first… places that pirates could be hiding ready to swoop in on the unwary. 

Thankfully the system was a simple one, with minimal blind spots, and the tension between his shoulder blades eased a fraction. Of course, he had less to worry about in a ship carrying the sort of firepower the Resolute did. While the Rhode-island class wasn’t one of the big gunships of the fleet,  she could more than hold her own in a fight. She was agile and damn fast. Small though. He’d sluiced out bigger chicken coops in his time. 

“What are you thinking?” Thane, at his side, asked in a low voice.

RJ turned toward his XO slightly, eyes still on the screen. There was a conglomerate of ships clustered together in the middle of the system. They all looked to be powered down, with only low level lighting on. He didn’t like that. He didn’t like that one bit.

“I think it looks like a ratking.”

Thane’s eyebrow winged up. “A ratking? I’m sorry, that’s not a phrase I’m familiar with?”

“We used to get them occasionally, especially on the cattle transporters,” he said, eyes narrowing as he studied the ships. “Rats’ll get everywhere, especially when there’s feed being stored. A ratking is where their tails get matted and tangled up and they can’t get loose. This…” he nodded toward the screen in front of them. “I don’t know what it is about it, but it looks like a ratking. A ship ratking. Okay, let’s get some scans,” he ordered. “What ships are in there, and hail them. Let’s see if we can raise a reply from anyone.”

If they weren’t all dead, that was. A shiver rolled down his spine, one that he ignored. He’d seen dead ships before, floating helplessly in space, and they’d always given him the creeps. And these were definitely giving off those vibes right now.

“There’s definitely a couple of heavy cargo transporters in there,” he said in a low voice to Thane, easily picking out the shape of the hulking, blocky leviathan’s. For a moment when they’d come into view he’d caught his breath, thinking one of them was his sister’s ship. Same class, a KT-17 heavy cattle transporter, but the cargo loaders across the top were the newer automated models, not the older, manually operated kind. 

“Looks like at least one pleasure cruiser,” he carried on. “But that’s an older model, and out here, that’s not a prestige liner. Probably shuttling crew from one location to the other. Do we have any mining operations in the area?”

Thane frowned and looked down, checking on his padd. “Yeah, one two systems over. There’s a trade outpost not far from here as well.” 

RJ nodded. “Yeah, definitely carrying crew not paying passengers. I mean, this is the ass end of bumfuck-nowhere. No one’s gonna pay to come out here… and the rest.” He frowned, twisting his lips. “At least one of those smaller kaplan’s is a gunrunner, and the others look like private ships. We need to know what they’re about.”

“A gunrunner?” Thane looked up, then at the screen. “How do you know that?”

RJ shrugged. “Law of probabilities. The kaplan models are everywhere. So they’re the most frequently used for that, it’s like… a stereotype at this point. Everyone knows that.”

Thane’s eyebrow winged up. “I didn’t know that.”

RJ shrugged. “Well, you probably know a shitload about kitbashing weaponry and a multitude of ways to kill a man with toe-nail clippers that I don’t. All depends on your background and experiences in your formative years.” He leaned in. “For example, I could teach you at least three ways to cheat at strip tarocchi that mean you win without losing more of your clothes than you want to. But then… I’ve seen your wife, perhaps I’ll teach her instead.”

“Be my guest,” Thane chuckled and shrugged at his sudden look. Thane barely even smiled, so the display of humour took RJ by surprise. “Let’s just say you’ll find you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. With either of my spouses.”

“Either of them?” RJ blinked. “How many do you have?” 

“Sir… scans are complete. And…None of our hails were answered sir, but there’s a signal…”

RJ turned, gaze zeroing in on Howell as the ensign stuttered and stumbled over his words. “What kind of signal, ensign?”

“Borg, sir.“