The Federation had towed it back to a repair station.
The technicians there had examined it thoroughly. They had compared its structure, its layout, and its markings against the original records from the shipyard, and everything had matched.
It was the Wardell, damaged but recoverable, and after more than a year of repairs, it had been returned to service.
And because its original transponder had been destroyed, Federation logistics had issued it a new one.
Ning closed his eyes.
That was how it had done it.
It had not stolen an identity or forged a signal. It had not broken any encryption or tricked any security system. It had simply replaced a ship that had gone missing, taking its shape so perfectly that the Federation's own technicians could not tell the difference.
And then the Federation itself had handed it a legitimate, valid human signature, freshly issued and fully registered, with every encryption key and verification code that any real carrier would possess.
