It wasn’t often that Tahlia Faye made it out this far from the core systems, but sometimes there were things that necessitated a hands on approach. She’d been chasing rogue signals in the system for well over eighteen earth months, determined to find the source and correct the problem. As VP of crisis management, the young woman took a very proactive stance on such things, prefering to stop issues before they became a crisis, rather than solving them afterwards. And the only reason she herself had come out this far was because the previous three teams she’d sent had found nothing.<br/><br/>“If you want something done right, do it yourself…” she muttered under her breath as she took a good long look at the scans of the relay. Everything appeared to be in perfect operational order, but she knew it wouldn’t have been that simple. Otherwise the previous teams would have figured it out. Turning to the captain, she gave a curt nod. “Bring us in closer. I’m hoping to not resort to EVA, but that’s why we brought the pod.” the last part was said more to herself than the crew on the bridge.<br/><br/>The  Pod was Tahlia’s trump card, and no one was pleased to learn that she’d intended to be the one to operate it.  Or that she’d taken half the flight here to retrofit it with her own array of tools and devices. Executives were expected to let more expendable employees handle these sorts of things, and at the most supervise from the safety of the bridge. Tahlia was never going to be that kind of executive, even when her father died and she became CEO of the communications branch of ITC. not that anyone on this ship knew that, or they’d tie her down before letting her go anywhere near the shuttle bay. She worked for ITC using her middle name as her surname, so no one would know she was really Tahila Richter, Heir to arguably the most powerful dynasty in the galaxy.<br/><br/>“Miss Faye. as captain I really must once again make note of my disapproval of this plan. Our technicians are more than capable, some of the best in the fleet.” she silenced him with a wave of her hand.<br/>“I know. That's why i chose this ship, Captain. But even if i’d started training them in the tests i’m going to perform, with the tools i’ve developed from the time we left the docks, we’d still be out here another week or more. Your concern is noted.” she gestured dismissively, silencing the man. Of course there were other reasons why she wanted to be the ones performing these tests, but all she had in her head now were suspicions and ideas, nothing concrete. And if those wild imaginings turned out to be true, this was information that would have to go directly to the top, before anyone else saw it.<br/><br/>---------<br/><br/>Two hours later, deep in the midst of her eleventh of fourteen tests, Tahlia’s eyes slowly returned to the view outside the pod’s wide window. “Come again captain?” she said softly, pressing a few buttons to open the coms.<br/><br/>“Ms. Faye we have an incoming ship not responding to hails and a disabled transponder.” he couldn’t keep the concern out of his voice. “You may want to return to the ship as quickly as possible.”<br/><br/>She glanced down at her controls and readouts, before looking back out at the relay. She had three minutes until this current round of testing was done, and she wouldn’t be able to leave with the relay wide open and exposed like this.  She reached for the coms button, but froze as a dark shadow passed between her and the light from the star, her breath catching in her throat as she watched the massive ship overhead. They were definitely in weapons range, and from the looks of things, that was their intent. As if she’d been burned, she snatched her hand back from the control panels, knowing her small Pod was invisible to sensors unless she was actively using the communications or the engines. And as close as she was to the relay, practically hugging it, the routine functions would read similar to the satellite she was working on.<br/><br/>As the information continued to download, Tahlia crammed her fist in her mouth, watching as the two ships came close to each other, fearing what would happen next.