[ Claudia, on approach to Mid-Childa / September 21, 0078 20:55 ]

Something was off. Teana felt it intuitively. Claudia was approaching Mid-Childa and other ships would soon follow. However, she couldn't help but feel that they had missed something.

Pacing nervously across the corridors of the ship, she found herself standing in front of the door guarded by two stone-faced Church Knights. After a pause, she entered it.

"Major Lanster," Dr. Scaglietti greeted her cheerfully. "I was beginning to feel lonely."

Not bothering with an answer, Teana tossed a datapad across the interrogation table.

"What can you tell me about the picture?"

The Doctor's thin long fingers activated the datapad with practiced ease. He zoomed in on several details.

"What do you see?"

"One thing is for certain, Major: the Kaiserkrone is the real thing."

"And do the surroundings look familiar?"

"They may. Where do you think it is?"

"Southern Mid."

Scaglietti zoomed in again, this time on the night sky outside. Then he began to laugh.

"What is it now?!"

"Forgive me, Major… It's just that barring any tampering, this cannot be Mid-Childa."

"And how do you know?"

"As you may recall," Scaglietti leaned back with a mocking smile, "I have once engaged in a certain spaceflight project on the Mid. As it happens, I still know all of the planet's star maps by heart, and I can tell with certainty that wherever this picture was taken, it was not under the Mid-Childan sky."

Teana was taken aback, her thoughts rushing.

"We must confirm this… Can you tell where this is, then? Is it Earth?"

"Earth?" Scaglietti raised an eyebrow. "I cannot tell, but with access to data terminal, I could program you a pattern-matching routine."

She hesitated but then shook her head.

"You aren't allowed any data devices. First, we must confirm it."

"As you wish," Scaglietti looked almost pleased.

Just before she left, Teana turned around and forced herself to say:

"Thank you."

The next moment, she was running back to the officers' cabins, praying that she still had enough time.