Warp Trail Detected.

The words "WARP TRAIL DETECTED" glazed across one of Hrunk's eyes, as he lazily shifted his mass towards the computer console. Upon closer inspection, he saw displayed on a graph screen a tiny infrared point moving very slowly towards a red star on the local starmap. The star was host to a Bioscore Class 3 planet which he knew as 1 Ithiks. The enemy, however, called it Eeri'ck'tsss.

Life turned out to be the commonality in the universe, the blasted concept would grow in a variety of different chemistries, and it was practically a guarantee that at least one planet in a system would have some kind of life. Most planets rated Bioscore Class 0. These were planets that held onto, at the very best, hibernating microbial life forms. Other planets rated Bioscore Class 1, a world with thriving microscopic ecosystems. Bioscore Class 2 worlds had complex life forms, often both in oceans and on the ground. A nearby planet, 3 Rithiks, was a Bioscore Class 2 world. These worlds are extremely valuable: the wealth of biodiversity in a single planet could lead to dramatic explosions in medical technology for several different species. That's not to mention the price that xenozoos will pay to have alien organisms shipped over. In addition, Bioscore Class 2 worlds generally had breathable atmospheres for a given life form, meaning colonization would be feasible at a much lower price. Bioscore Class 3 worlds would be ludicrously rare worlds with extreme biodiversity and almost total coverage in livable surface.

Bioscore Class 3 worlds were rare because they only form when a planet's life forms are subjected to extreme mutation pressures, such as around flare stars. Despite flare stars being extraordinarily common, they would generally kill off life forms higher than Class 1. The planet 1 Ithiks turned out to be an exception to the rule, and was extraordinarily valuable as a result. Hrunk knew this. His extrastellar enemy, Druros, knew this. NASA Commander Bruce Eddington didn't know this.

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Druros couldn't stand surprises. He and his forty brothers were raised on a strict schedule, and would be strictly punished if they didn't adhere to it. A new blip of exotic matter on sensors was a surprise. The blip wasn't broadcasting a VIN-signature of any kind, and that could only mean one thing: a missile. Such a small vessel could only be a missile. Not a ship-to-ship missle, no, that would be a hell of a waste of a spacewarp drive. A giant antimatter missile, heading towards the red star which *his* people had the *undisputable claim* on. How could the Joodren be so audacious as to presume that Eeri'ck'tsss was *theirs*!

Druros wiped the anger that precipitated from his kneepits into a bucket. He would proceed with the mission as planned. The missile wasn't *his* concern, after all. As patriotic as he may have been, he had a genuine fear of a change of plans. Planning was everything to him, and he really wanted nothing more than to ascend through the ranks and get a desk job at the Space-Command.

Nevertheless, this missile nagged at him, and he couldn't help but wonder whether anyone was going to do anything about it. Finally he snapped, and took another look at the monitor. If he interpreted the assembly of complicated numerals correctly, he was reading that his old enemy, Hrunk, was approaching the missile. That was as strange as a wormfruit blooming at apoastron, and for some of the same reasons.

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NASA Commander Bruce Eddington sat down at his console and read the telenews. He sipped at his bag of coffee, wishing they had included a fair bit more sugar rations. It had already been two years out in deep space, but he noted on his calendar that he was now only a month away from arriving at the Proxima Centauri system. Every single second, he and his crew were constantly breaking the Guinness World Record for distance from the Earth. It was a thought that had initially produced a fair amount of satisfying pride, but the novelty had long since worn off. He was bored, to put it bluntly, and he wasn't quite sure if he could manage another month!

The astronavigator, Alice Erwis, floated to the command module and greeted the Commander. "Happy Birthday, Alice," said Bruce.

The crew of the DV-04 "Bonaventure" decided to celebrate their birthdays on Earth time, rather than a reflection of their true age. The distinction was important, because each day the Bonaventure and her crew voyaged furtherout of sync with the calendars and clocks of planet Earth. The Warp Engine, being a way of hacking spacetime, didn't cause time dilation in the normal rocket science sense. If it did, the Bonaventure would be a Time Machine. Nevertheless, an apparent time dilation was an inevitable result of the finite speed of light. However, time dilation only occurs when the ship is accelerating or decelerating, and the Bonaventure was already at her maximum speed. The initial acceleration to the tremendous and literally impossible speed of 2c put the ship about two months behind normal time. In actuality, Alice Erwis had biologically aged to 31 two months ago.

"Aw, you remembered!" Said Alice.

"I do have a present for you. You're the first to see these outside of myself," said Bruce, and he handed her a printed out and framed picture. There was a black disk in the center of the image with reddish-orange spikes coming out of it, and a tiny blue dot in the corner.

"Oh my god, is this...?"

"The coronagraph telescope imaged this last night," said Bruce.

"That's incredible! It's Proxima Centauri b!" said Alice.

"We're within direct imaging range now, so this won't be your day off I'm afraid."

"Oh this is better than a day off, Commander. I'll be in the observatory!" Said Alice, as she turned away to the corridor. "With your permission, that is."

"Of course."

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