Max was given relief from the frustration of trying to decipher the mysterious energy signature when the data came in from Santa Maria about the nearby solar systems. It had analyzed them all for signs of age and instability to see if there was more that he could learn about the state of the region, and this time there was solid evidence and easy-to-interpret data.
Nico was already poring over it and starting to run another set of scans to verify the information which she had seen in the first scan, so Max brought it up on the screens all around them.
Every star system they had scanned had the same signs of instability and the same loose gases around the outer system, which indicated that the star should still be in the middle of the formation and not supporting developed planets with evolved cultures on them.