"Captain," the voice of Andromeda Ascendant's AI came over the comm., "we're approaching the Myriad system."

"Transiting back to normal space... now." Beka braced herself against the pilot's headrest as the deck began vibrating beneath her. With a brilliant flash of white light and the roar of her engines, the High Guard warship exited the slipstream and entered normal space at cruising speed. Beka let go of the controls as the headrest slid back, and flexed her hands. "That exit was one of the more interesting ones I've tried," she commented dryly.

Dylan let go of the railing of his command station as the deck steadied beneath him, and nodded toward the main viewscreen, which was displaying a composite sensor image of the system they had just entered. "Probably because of all those asteroids out there," he replied. "That must be how the system got its name. There's got to be thousands of them scattered around out there."

"Two hundred thousand, six hundred, seventy-three, to be exact," Andromeda's AI corrected as her image appeared on one of the secondary viewers. "And at least half of them are as big or bigger than I am. The brown dwarf at the core of this system doesn't have enough gravitational pull to arrange them into a predictable orbit this far out; I recommend no more than half speed."

"You heard the lady, Beka," Dylan said. "Half speed ahead."

"Half speed, aye," Beka replied as she grinned mockingly.

"Mr. Anasazi, if you would be so kind as to deploy a full spread of sensor drones, we can start looking for our lost friend."

"Deploying sensor drones," Tyr Anasazi echoed from his tactical station. "Remind me again why we're wasting all this time looking for the ruined hulk of a three-hundred year old warship?"

"Not just any warship, Tyr," Dylan corrected. "A High Guard frigate. Granted, frigates weren't nearly as dangerous as Heavy Cruisers like Andromeda, but they were still formidable opponents."

"Why, thank you, Captain," Andromeda's holographic avatar chimed as she materialized next to Dylan. "Golden Dawn-class frigates like the Valkyrie Hammer only had about half as many missile tubes and gun ports as I do, but their point-defense systems were notoriously efficient, which made them much harder to kill than comparably sized Nietzschean vessels. As a result, frigates could make devastating attack runs against larger fleets, and still come out intact. They could also field a wing of four slipfighters, which allowed them to make a nuisance of themselves even at long range."

"Besides, Tyr," Beka interrupted, "my contact says that the Valkyrie isn't completely ruined. There might still be useful things we can pull out of her. Spare parts, unused missiles, maybe even some PDL ports."

Tyr didn't look convinced, but as his control panel started beeping, he glanced down at it. "Well, then," he said slowly, "you'll be happy to know that our sensor drones have detected an object that appears to match the size of a High Guard frigate. It's approximately two light minutes out, closer to the sun."

"I've got it," Andromeda's on-screen avatar said. "It's definitely a ship of some sort. I'm not reading any power signatures; it's completely dead in space."

"Beka?" Dylan prompted.

"Already on it," she replied.

"Rommie, go get the Maru prepped," Dylan ordered. "I want to keep Andromeda back until we know for sure what we're dealing with."

Andromeda's android avatar nodded and left the command deck, bound for the hanger bay.

"Just so everyone is clear on this," Dylan continued, "our first order of business is to find out who was using the Valkyrie up until three years ago, and what they were using her for. No one starts scavenging parts until I say so, understood?" He glanced at Beka pointedly, waiting until she grimaced and nodded before he looked back to the display screens. "Tyr, I want you to stay here and hold down the fort."

"Not exactly an exciting job," the Nietzschean muttered, "but better than tramping around inside a dead relic."

"If something goes wrong onboard the Valkyrie, I expect you to show up with the cavalry," Dylan said to him. "Think you can handle that?"

Tyr just cocked his head to one side, raised an eyebrow, and gave that little half shrug of his.

"I thought so," Dylan replied with a small grin. He stepped down off his command station's platform and started for the doors. "Beka, let's go."