Ten minutes later, the Scarlet Throne and the Imperial fleet each dispatched their last workboat, heading toward the only gravity well in the system.
Normally, when a new star system was discovered, if its gravity-well passage was stable, a deep-space probe should be placed nearby to automatically analyze the gravitational data. Within a few hours at the earliest, or a few days at the latest, it would gather all the information on the gravity well, allowing the system's routes to be added directly to the star map. Of course, most newly discovered routes were classified military information. Even the fastest would take a year or two to be opened to the public and civilian agencies.
Many routes with immense military value remained secrets unknown to the public even a century after their discovery. Everyone knew that a hegemon was measured not only by the systems it controlled, but also by the routes under its control.
In short, the Scarlet Throne and the Imperial fleet opposite it were destined to share the honor of discovering this system—and, naturally, the star route leading to it. Each side would plant a gravitational sensor recorder near the gravity well and let it do its work, without interfering with the other. Their conduct was quite proper.
That said, relations between the two countries remained rather delicate. Although they were "jointly" participating in an "archaeological expedition" to investigate the ancient ship, they were a long way from genuine cooperation and neighborly goodwill. Otherwise, when each side chose a planet to investigate, they wouldn't have left each other alone while keeping their warships' gunports open and shields raised in a state of basic confrontation.
The armed prospectors on some untamed planet probably behaved much the same way.
Under these circumstances, a chain of suspicion was inevitable. Both