Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

way that said the subject was closed."I believe we should identify it as the Pink Dawn," Kelvinsaid, "at least for the crew's sake. I don't think our crew'smorale would hold up if they thought we were up against theCuritiba.""No armaments are listed on that vessel," Ava said."Listed," Glayet said."So you don't believe..." Ava started to say."We are at war," Glayet pronounced slowly and carefully."We need to stay away from the subject of probabilities,"Elmore added. "The odds of us coming within scan range ofthe Pink Dawn are less than one in a billion.""So you're saying it has to be the Curitiba?" Kelvin said."I don't see how we escape that," Elmore said, "unless it issome unknown."Heymon added, "In which case the odds are even lowerthat we would encounter it.""Unless it was looking for us and not Sol," Glayet said.That caused a lot of rustling of chairs, but no actualcomment. Thinking of that was too uncomfortable. A knownentity like the Curitiba was safe compared to that. So far therehad been no real fear of encountering a hostile alien powerout among the stars, but that confidence was groundless,based on the presumption that any civilization capable ofspace flight would broadcast signals that human science coulddetect. Now human science can detect quantum signals thatcould not be detected when they left.260