The Wanderer dropped out of jump space right in the middle of the fleet. If they had to be within weapons’ range Jess had decided they might as well be right in the heart of the fleet, partly to make identifying ships easier and partly because that’s where an attack would be least expected to come from.
Every ship in the fleet was still broadcasting standard ship identification, as Lucien had said they would. Within moments the Wanderer had enough information to confirm that this was the fleet Lucien had described.
Lucien hadn’t been able to list every single ship, but he had managed it for all of the larger ships. Jess frowned as the Wanderer identified dozens of large civilian ships and five cruisers which hadn’t been on the list.
“That’s odd,” he said. “These ships weren’t in Luc
