I've just realised why they wouldn't have any ships in front of the node, they would be getting ready to follow the Lucifer out of the system and launch an almighty attack on it.
When I was playing FS1 I could never see the logic in sending the Bastion after the Lucifer, after all it has 16 turrets and the Lucifer has about 30 and 2 "beams". I has so much trouble with the Clash of the Titansand I kept thinking who cares if the Bastion gets destroyed, don't just give up on Earth, let us follow it and destroy. When I eventually got through COTT and THe Great Hunt and I realised the Bastion wasn't coming with us anyway I wanted to chuck my computer out the window.