Jenny stood very, very still and hoped no one noticed her. A voice that sounded suspiciously like her mother reminded her that her clothes were probably wrinkled from lying on her bunk for most of the morning, and she did her best to counter that no one ever gave a damn if someone's clothes were wrinkled, shut up mom!

  Andy had messaged them all to tell them they were going to have a briefing about the system they would be surveying. He had neglected to mention that the briefing would also include the captain of the ship and many of the ship's officers, and now she knew where all the humans seemed to have gone. At least, she assumed the man sitting at the head of the table was the captain. He wasn't wearing the hat that she expected from watching vids, but everyone had stood up when he'd come in, and Andy had called him 'captain', so probably the captain. The name on the left breast read 'Trout'. He sat facing the members of the survey team, who were standing awkwardly along the opposite wall, and Jenny couldn't help but think he looked so… unremarkable, with the kind of plain, wide face that had art videos about drawing going on about square-shaped heads.

  … and he was giving the floor to Jenny's boss, all right, she probably needed to listen now…

  "This is GRN-2814-3," Andy said as an image appeared on the screen. At first Jenny thought it was the night side of a planet, until she realized the two moons in the same shot where both brightly lit and full. "We don't have a lot of information about it because the first look drone only contained basic surveying sensors, but what it did have collected enough to immediately put this near the top of the second look pile and give analysts enough to give us some general numbers. About the size of Earth or Mars, spectroscopy initially flagged this planet as having no atmosphere. However, the rest of the sensor data didn't corroborate this."

  A graph appeared on the screen, which Jenny was just barely able to make sense of, but which had some of the officers lean forward slightly, and got a weird sound out of Vakhali. "The infrared scans registered attenuation consistent with that of a thick atmosphere, when it managed to reflect back at all. What did reflect back was indicative of an oxygen rich atmosphere. Normally, that alone would have flagged this data for a second look, but the quantum thermograph registered this."

  Another graph appeared, and this time Jenny couldn't make any sense of it at all. It was too full of noise…

  "This reading was full of this interference, suggesting it was pervasive across the whole planet," Andy explained. "Upon examination, analysts at the Galactic Frontier Trading Company concluded that it corresponded to a quantum phenomenon, most likely whatever is affecting the atmosphere to block the light. Fortunately, it was constant enough that the survey drone was able to account for it, resulting in this."

  Large parts of the graph went down, and this time Jenny recognized what she was looking at. How could she not? Quantum energy crystals were the most valuable substance in the known universe right now.

  Even if they did have a stupid name.

  "The planet tested positive for deposits on QEC, which would have already made it a priority," Andy said. "But the distribution data showed this."

  The screen changed again, showing a topographical scan in blue of an unfamiliar familiar planet. It was… not the best. Large portions of the planet were low resolution or just nonexistent because of bad readings, and the rest were lines showing relative elevation, although many of those lines were obscured because they were being covered up by red dots. Still, Jenny though she could make out coastlin—

  And then she realized what she was seeing along with everyone else. The portions of the map that she assumed as landmass was filled with red dots that covered about a tenth of it. Probably more. There were large patches of land where the scanning data hadn't been conclusive.

  "Those dots all denote the likely locations of QEC crystallization points," Andy said, and even he sounded slightly breathless despite clearly having known about this for a while now. "Analysts at the Galactic Frontier Trading Company estimate that if even a quarter of those sites are correct and not just false positives, then we are looking at the largest repository of QEC in the known galaxy, far outstripping what every QEC extraction site in Confederacy space produces combined by two, possibly three orders of magnitude. Because of this, the planet has been declared a strategic resource, which is why the GFTC formed a partnership with the navy to begin third step surveys and secure the system."

  "Thank you, Dr. Gonzales," Captain Trout said. Everyone one immediately turned to face him as Andy stepped back to lean against the wall with the rest of them, letting out a relieved sigh. "I hope this has properly contextualized our orders, everyone. We will be assisting Dr. Gonzales' team in conducting their surveys, in addition to claiming the system for the Confederacy. That means setting up garrisons on the planet, getting communications up and running, and setting up a QEG down there since it looks like solar power isn't an option. Doctor Gonzales, please submit a proposal as to what areas to prioritize scanning for your survey and submit it to Lieutenant Vocthuu so she can inform the relevant officers."

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "I'll get on it, captain, though I need to finish going over the available scan data for myself first."

  "Here's the scan data, Jen," Rose said cheerfully as she handed Jenny a black datablock. The logo of the Galactic Frontier Trading Company was marked discreetly on one corner, the red standing out against the plastic. "Andy wants you to finish going over it as soon as you can and then plot out where to prioritize the initial scans when we get to the planet."

  Jenny stared at the block with some anxious dread. How much data did she have to go through that it couldn't be sent to her phone directly? "Got it," she said, trying for some degree of enthusiasm as she accepted the datablock. After all, this was work she knew how to do, even if it was for a completely unknown planet and if she got it wrong it will look bad for her future prospects. Retrieving the work tablet that she had received when she'd been hired on to the survey team, she pressed the two together so they'd synch. "Anything I should know about before I start?" Oh good, the data was clearly marked… and huge.

  "No, it's pretty standard. Just follow the instructions, take your time and double check the computer's conclusions by looking at the actual readings every so often. We'll be in FTL for the next week, and the system's still a long way off, so there's no rush. This is just the first jump, and it usually takes at least three more to get to the frontier. Though this is a navy ship, so maybe it can make it in only one more?" Rose shrugged. "Anyway, you're getting the easy job. The boss and I will be going over all the other planets in the system to check for anything interesting that didn't get flagged. Even if it's not as exciting as QEC, all the old metals are still worth digging up."

  "Oh… thanks for giving me the easy job, then," Jenny said as she waited for the data to transfer.

  "You're welcome, rookie. I'd send you for coffee, but I've already got one, so that's probably going to come later. Now come on, let's get to work. If you need help making out any of the readings that are a bit too confused, ask Vak, she's got nothing better to do."

  "I don't," Vakhali confirmed cheerfully as she lounged back on her bunk, "and still getting paid."

  Rose frowned, leaning down and craning her head to see the underside of the bunk above Vakhali's, where she seemed to have attached a screen. "What are you watching under there?"

  "I'm reading, if you must know. I'm thinking of getting a fourth doctorate."

  Jenny frowned. "You have three doctorates?" That… sounded unlike every other rakido she'd ever met.

  Vakhali shrugged. "I'm lazy underachiever. What's the point of getting fifteen doctorates I'm not going to use?"

  "All her doctorates are in fine arts too," Rose said sarcastically.

  The rakido shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a kaxul and a terrible disappointment to my parents. Well, no, they've been very supportive of me, even if my mother keeps telling me about all the new courses available at the Ala'alahan whenever I go home to visit."

  "Yeah, absolutely disgusting how little effort you put into your education," Rose said.

  "And yet I'm probably happier than all my brothers and sisters, so who's actually winning at life?"

  "…you have a point."

  Jenny let their bickering wash over her as she synched her table to her own screen—also stuck to the bottom of the bunk above hers because why not—now that the download had finished, opening the app that would let her read the scan data. She pulled her earpieces from where they were charging on the induction strip, sticking them into her ears. "Play study music," she said, and familiar notes of classical music began to play. Jenny hummed along as she lay back on her bunk, the screen under the bunk above her acting as a connected display for her tablet.

  "Da-da-da-DA-dun… da-da-da-DA-dun-dun…"

  All right… she could do this. This was just basic data reading. Wasn't even a test, there was no exact answer already known. And this wasn't just the raw data she was reading, the app would also automatically mark out recognizable patterns, and she didn't need to do things from memory, this wasn't an exam or a classroom and she was allowed to use reference materials and have the program do the bulk of the work. Simple! She just had to follow the directions and go over a whole planet's worth of readings…

  …

  All right, no reason to panic, she hadn't even read what she was supposed to do yet. She opened the file labeled 'Jennifer, do this', reading the instructions, her heart clenched as she worried if she could actually do any of it…

  …

  Oh, thank all the gods, she could actually do this!

  Transferring the file to her phone so she could refer to it separately, Jenny began to go over the mass of data. It contained thousands and thousands of files, each one a scan consisting of combined spectroscopy, radar and quantum thermograph data, which was apparently the only data that the survey drone was capable of scanning for. That last was really only there to look for QEC, so that didn't really need a lot of interpretation, and spectroscopy was lacking the visible light wavelengths because of whatever quantum thing was messing with the atmosphere, but the other wavelengths were still there and more than enough to work with. The scans had a narrow margin of overlap which was used to generate a map of the planet they were scanning when combined. Jenny began by flagging the ones that the rendering program marked as 'insufficient data', as those clearly needed to be scanned again…

  Lying on her back, she went through the data, checking every tenth file on the list manually by parsing through each layer of readings.

  …

  …

  …

  "Hey, Rose? Is survey work usually like this?" she asked at some point.

  "Oh, no. Usually it's a lot more boring," was the cheerful reply.

  …

  It would probably get more interesting when they got to their destination and started doing boots on the ground survey work to confirm there actually was QEC on the planet. They'd need to physically go down there to do that, right? After all, readings were all well and good, but there's nothing like getting eyes on something to be sure it existed.

  …

  Jenny went back to the readings, her familiar music letting her slip into a fugue of mostly-mindless, repetitive work.