It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's... (FT)

The bridge of a Mothership. Location classified.

"What the hell?" Teresa blurts out, tossing her hair behind her.

"I can't explain it, ma'am," the tech officer replies. "It's like a glitch, except that I ran three diagnostics. They're all clean."

"Then what the hell is that?"

"I'd have to say an echo. Best guess."

"An echo of what?" Teresa asks.

"I have no idea," the tech responds. Teresa rolls her eyes and calls Thorgood.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Conference room, City of The Rebirth, Burnination

"It's a ship," Thorgood is explaining. "From what the scanners are returning, and they could be totally inaccurate at this point given the extreme circumstances t-"

"Please get to the point Thorgood," Jenova cuts in.

"It's a ship, probably a battle cruiser, traveling at .999999 the speed of light."

"Wouldn't that require an obscene amount of energy?" Teresa asks.

"Yes, and it would be quite a technological feat. Also incredibly unhelpful. Even at that speed, crossing a galaxy takes millions of years. That's why civilizations develop FTL travel," Thorgood responds.

"Wouldn't developing a FTL drive be easier than coming up with something that has the energy to power travel at such a speed?" Jenova asks.

"Yes," Thorgood responds.

"So they had FTL, but it's not working for some reason," Jenova says.

"Yes, which likely means battle damage, which likely means that it's a warship," Thorgood responds.

"With a power source capable of propelling it very close to the speed of light. That could be worth investigating," Jenova says.

"I call shotgun," Teresa shouts. Jenova and Thorgood look at her funny.

"We'll intercept in an hour," Jenova says. "Where will it be then?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And so the odd request from Burnination to Rutianas for The Spotlight and two Jumpers to enter Rutian space.