“Not to mention we are quite friendly with most of our Gamma year. I know of at least one more who will be only too eager to assist us with narrowing down our search.”
As Lee met her gaze once more, Kat grinned, positively cat-like.
Her eyes glittered. “Let’s see what damage we can do.”
CHAPTER 37: KAT
THE CENTRAL star system of the De Myra Solida grouping consisted of a small handful of planets: De Zolar, De Medis, De Lovia, and De Carmos. Then there were the celestial bodies’ moons and orbiting objects, and a slew of smaller, lesser planets. The list went on and on.
Legs crossed, leaning back on her hands, Kat stared up into the glittering constellations and arcing star trails slowly rotating around the cosmosphere.
This part had been Lee’s suggestion. She and Lee and Zane could sit around collecting data on a holo-spread… or they could be a part of it. And after an evening in the stiff Hideaway chairs, and a morning spent in trainings, he hadn’t needed to ask twice.
Originally designed for astronomy purposes, the cosmosphere projected a three-dimensional, domed holograph that could be programmed to display any configuration of the known galaxies they wished to observe—such as the De Myra Solida grouping and its neighboring star systems.
While Lee kneeled at the center, adjusting the cosmosphere’s locational parameters, she drifted off near De Zolar. How funny it was to be staring up at these stars. They’d personally visited a couple of these pinpricks of light in recent months, literally stood on the surface. Each time, they’d seemed isolated and separate. Their own miniature tale of destruction. But staring upat them now, their tales all seemed interconnected. She hadn’t expected to be back here so soon.
“You guys have been hogging all the fun.”
All three of them looked over, Zane actually climbing to his feet as Whistler crossed through the doorway. He wore his usual crooked grin and a classic French braid as he strode through one of the southern star systems of the glittering dome. He had come knocking after all.
“Welcome to Astrology 101, where we decipher what tomorrow’s breakfast will be as it’s written in the stars,” Kat sang, wrapping her arms around her legs and patting the floor beside her.
Whistler chuckled, slapping hands with Zane as he sat, the mats shuffling under her. “Lee mentioned something about you guys wanting to know about raids out to the De Myra grouping?”
“Yeah. We have reason to suspect Segura may have a base in there somewhere. And that in addition to using us with our raids, the General is also using the shadow markets to track them down.”
“That is quite the mouthful to take in.” She could only guess at the emotion going on in his head as Whistler blew out a breath, blinking down at the mats. “So this won’t help a ton, I don’t know much about the shadow markets,” he said, once he’d recovered enough to speak again. “But Ciela and I also had a raid nearby—last term. Next star system over.”
“I can work with that,” Lee called over, still tinkering with the coding. He’d gotten the parameters where he wanted, halting the stars in their rotation. Kat pictured little cerise x’s glowing over the planetary objects she and Lee had personally visited and those they’d denoted the night before with too limited atmospheres to support any sort of life. And if they added in Zane’s and Whistler’s lists… this could actually work.
“It’s an actual physical mass we’re looking for this time, right? Planet-moon-asteroid, whatever, it won’t be another ship hiding in some elusive forcefield?” Zane asked.
Lee scrunched his brow, craning his neck to peer from the code of the cosmosphere’s projection device to the actual lighted dome. “I mean, I’d assume. Unless they have a back stock of mega-ships and crews just at their beck and call, waiting and ready for them.”
“I wonder if the General will try and use that—their shield frequencies,” Kat murmured. “We had that all mapped out in our notes from when we boarded Segura.”
“I mean they probably could have…” Whistler said. And his tone alone had her whipping her ponytail around sideways. “Except for the fact that we wiped them, Nikola and I, during those last few minutes on the cruiser. Before it all went south…”
It was Kat’s turn to gape.
“Don’t worry. I kept a personal copy just in case we ever needed a reference point. They could probably still find it anyway on the mainframe. But we weren’t going to make it easy for them…” He trailed off when they all continued to stare at him.
“I can’t believe you hid that.” Kat shook her head.
“You and Waters aren’t the only ones keeping secrets. We were all there.”
Not for the first time, she felt the seriousness settle over all of them like a cold chill. The goosebumps pebbling her arms a reminder of just whose plans they meddled with and what the repercussions would be if this didn’t work out…
She wriggled her toes, letting the stars carry on in her peripherals. There were still so many possibilities to narrow down. This part was going slow. Achingly, and impatiently. But what had she expected? She and Lee decide to flee the Academy together and they just up and go? Go how? Go where? Thatbrought up all sorts of logistical issues and dead ends. They’d be dead in the water before they ever got started.
She let her eyes rove back to the cosmosphere around her. The answers had to be out here, somewhere with De Myra Solida. If they could only find them.
“There.” Completing the sequence, Lee stepped back from the holo-projector.
Kat watched in utter amazement as a dozen or so pricks of light, where her imaginary x’s had hovered, dissolved from the cosmosphere. “What did you—how?” Kat blinked.
“You truly are brilliant, aren’t you?” She laughed under her breath, recovering.
