They were winning, sort of. The vessel that had set a course for them before they'd gone silent hadn't altered its course or acceleration again. It acted as though they'd vanished from its sight, even after getting close enough for optical detection.
Kensa's thoughts churned in the silence, as she wondered if the hit they had gotten on it before it fled had taken out its optical sensors, or… if whatever was driving it didn't have vision. She could only frantically remind herself that every alien humanity knew of yet was either completely fictional, or had turned out to be adaptations of Earth born microscopic primitives that had been carried into their environments by human devices.