Yep. There was a mark.
Chuckling softly, Lee scooted closer to the wall to give her a little more space, which she quickly enveloped, her chest continuing to rise and fall in a gentle rhythm.
He didn’t remember all of last night. He remembered eventually finding their way back to his dorm. Remembered downing thosedamnedchocolates, as evidenced by the lid that lay askew from their hollowed tin on his desk. Remembered more stolen kisses, and the little smile playing along her lips,accentuated by glazed eyes as the flavortrip of chocolate and delirium set in.
Careful so as to not disturb Kat, Lee gingerly sat up, pulling his holoblock up onto his lap to get ready for the day. Just under one more week to go; he’d see what he could find.
The brilliant effects of the gold, amethyst, and emerald sparks shooting off from the energy rings had long since dulled to a mere muddle of color as Lee stared past the latest duel going on before him.
He’d forgotten all about the tournament he’d signed up to run earlier this month—back when he’d still been trying to make this work. Honestly, had one more Gamma been signed up to help, he would have already ditched. But it was just Ciela on the roster with him.
He checked his hyperband as a message came in.
The Greatest Romp You’ll Ever Find: tourney still going?
Sighing, Lee typed back a quick response.
Lee: be there soon.
He was supposed to already be out of here, but a whole string of cadets had filtered in to join the tournament as they were closing out that first bracket.
He waved the competitors off as their score readings came in, nodding impatiently towards Ciela to get the clock runningfor the next duo. But at least they were down to the face-off rounds. Winner take all. It wouldn’t be long.
He wondered what Kat and Nikola had figured out with the communication signals. Just gauging from Nikola’s reactions during that initial conversation, it sounded like he already had a loose idea in his head. Maybe he could find a way to scramble or firewall their signals. It would be nice to have a way to be able to contact Tonya, without risking alerting the entire galaxy to their location. So many little details to coordinate. It would be a real feat if they could actually pull off everything in the manner—and timeliness—in which they wanted.
He motioned for the next duo to get started, checking his hyperband yet again for messages from any of the others. Jed, or Zane. Whistler. Kat. Nikola… So many friends were in on this now. So many counting on them finding something.
No less than forty-seven minutes over when the tournament was supposed to have finished, Lee hit the lights on the room. He followed Ciela out to some casual chatter at the cascade of points that would give the Ultra winner a pretty comfortable berth in Academy rankings for a while. Little did she know they had the entire Academy for the taking. Come next week there would be two fewer Gammas in the running.
Bidding Ciela good afternoon with an added, “Nice job today—” as an afterthought, he slipped up through the Heptagon, grabbing his holoblock from his dorm, before heading down to find Kat and Nikola.
Upon entering the Hideaway, Lee’s eyes automatically trained on his and Kat’s favorite spot by the green juice bar, the tables sitting mostly vacant tonight. But after scouring the room, he finally located them, tucked once more into one of the armchair corners of the room. Hanna also sat there alongside them, face polished as ever under the glow of her holoblock. Itseemed like they were getting two for the price of one, with this project.
“Hey,” Lee called, sliding into the fourth stuffed chair in that corner.
It still felt odd, viewing the Hideaway from this angle. They could view both the green juice station and the vending machines in one sweeping glance. He could count on two hands the number of times he’d sat over here in all his years at the Academy. Most of them occurring during that first year, while he and Kat had still been finding their stride. Back when Gamma cadets held the universe in their calloused palms, and the AMG could do no wrong.
It wasn’t time to get comfortable, now.
He opened his holoblock as Kat leaned over, sharing the holo-expanse she and Nikola had been collaborating on while Lee had been trapped down below.
“I think we’ve figured it out—the schematics for it, anyway,” Kat explained, with a crediting nod towards Nikola. “We’re going to set up the signal with the same framework that worked last time, with the knowledge that there is no actual forcefield blocker at this point. But Nikola thinks there’s also a way to encrypt it, so that only those keyed to our signal will be able to register the communication for what it is.”
“Hypothetically?” Hanna asked, eyes not leaving the glow from the holoblock before her.
“Yes,” both he and Kat said, his eyes sliding over hers, the pale grey irises purveying the expressive equivalent to a shrug.
When he glanced back over, he found Hanna observing them over trimmed, darkened, and cocked brows.
Lee matched her stare. And, with a tiny smile, Hanna let her eyes drop back to the latest holograph she was working on. “You two are awfully invested for an extra-curricular research project.”
“Placement?” Nikola supplied, adjusting the black rectangular frames against his nose.
“Sure, that,” Kat agreed.
Hanna just snorted. “Okay, I’ll buy it.” Then she flipped her holograph screen around to face them. “But since we’re talking signals, anyway. I had another idea for you both.”
“I’m all ears,” Kat frowned.
