Zane shifted in front of her, searching the distant sky. No black shadows, no ships. Not yet. He squinted at the palace. The looming walls of red marble jutting out from the rocky island were an ominous sight, but there didn’t seem to be an immediate threat.
“You must come at once, Your Highness.”
“What happened?”
The Praetor flicked beads of sweat off his forehead. “They’ve decrypted the message from your informant on Dali.”
Zane went rigid.
“In five days, a Federation fleet will arrive to take the planet.”
Etov, Sector 4
Undecemmensis-21, 817 cycles A.F.C.
At first,Kalie hadn’t been able to do anything but stare. Hadn’t been able to do anything but pray, that the Praetor was wrong, that Mylis was lying, that they’d never decrypted the one sentence that would shatter her dreams. Then the words had sunk in, and a band of pressure had closed around her lungs.
That pressure hadn’t lightened. Not as she trudged behind the Praetor, barely cognizant of putting one foot in front of the other. Not as she stood mutely in a conference room with her parents while the technicians explained the complex process they’d used to decrypt the helium drivchip. Not as Father’s voice warbled around her, saying her Collectivate had secretly approved Iliana’s request for a Federation fleet to rout out the criminals and restore order to Dali. Not as Mother, pale and shaking, cursed in the ancient Dalian tongue and spat that they wouldn’t bring peace, they’d bring a blockade and a massacre.
And now—as Kalie slouched in her stuffy antechamber, with thefaint glow of Mira’s holoprojection lighting up the drapes hanging like cobwebs and the eerie crimson designs snaking across the walls—now, the pressure crushing her chest choked the air out of her.
“That intel you got from Grant? It’s solid.”
Kalie buried her head in her hands, praying to Azura, to Kallus, to Calla—to the whole court of gods, anyone who would listen. She’d have to inform Mother and Father and start making preparations. But what could she possibly do to stop this? All the carnage the legionnaires had wrought, the civilians slain in their war path—it would all keep happening once the Federation took control, but on a much more destructive scale.
“Cheer up, Hannover. You have five days to prepare. I’ve had less time to get ready for ops.”
“This is a fleet, Mira! This isn’t an assassination, or a bounty you have to collect. This is a dozen battleships, coming to destroy my home. So don’t tell me to cheer up!”
Mira raised her hands. “Bad choice of words.”
She wanted to scream, to rage like Mother had when she’d torn into Carik with every Dalian curse in the book, but none of that would save her people. Taking a deep breath, she pushed her burning anger deep down.
“How do you know Mylis is telling the truth?”
Mira smirked, and Zane made a low sound of displeasure. Only ten steps separated her from him, but a chasm had opened between them, one that ten steps across an embroidered rug wouldn’t bridge.
“Tell me you didn’t reveal yourself.”
“Oh, but that’d be lying.”
Zane thumped his fist on his armrest, and Kalie flinched. “Dammit, Mira?—”
“Relax. I’m wanted on sixty-seven different planets, and they haven’t caught me yet. Besides, I’m using a different face when I’m in the palace.”
“Chip scanners?—”
“I don’t have a chip. We’ve established this.”
As Kalie frowned, Mira waved a hand dismissively, like Zane was an ignorant child. He settled back into his chair, clearly fuming.
Kalie peered at the point where Mira’s arm met the edge of the projection’s camera and dissolved into a shimmering mirage. There hadn’t been a scar on her wrist, nothing to suggest she’d done the impossible and removed her ID chip.
“Grant’s on your side,” Mira said. “He has been since the beginning.”
“It didn’t feel like he was on my side when he pulled a pulser on me,” she seethed. In an instant, she was staring down the dark, fathomless barrel of the weapon that could’ve ended her life. “How do you know?”
“We talked. Oh, don’t worry, I didn’t tell him who I was. When I was picking up my duty schedule in the lounge, I heard some of Iliana’s guards were going to a bar. I tailed them. Morphed into a hooker, told Grant he should hire me for the night.”
