“It comes and goes,” Kat said, shrugging. Some of that mischievous light remained as she studied him. “No ‘stardust’this morning?”
Instead, Lee turned to face out over the railing, hiding his smile. “I was saving that for later,moonbeam.”
He stole a glance over at her. She, too, had turned and was now grinning stupidly into the glass—a grin which quickly turned into a scowl when she caught him watching her.
Smirking, Lee took a long swig from his power drink; he could taste the infused strawberry leaves.
They weren’t going far today. Just out enough to stretch their legs and flex their wings. They’d be taking out one of the small skimmers. The flight itself would only be forty minutes or so, and that included clearing the hangar doors. It was exactly as he wagered Commander Blanche had planned it to be.
But he could do a moon. It meant getting away from the Academy for a few hours.
Dread pooled in his stomach at the prospect of a whole other term still to come, when they were still figuring out how to survive this one.
“What do you say we get out there?” He tipped the last of his drink into his mouth. Tossing the empty cans, they crossed into the hangar.
They breezed through the pre-flight checks while they waited for their cadets to arrive, the anticipation dancing up his elbows. He couldn’t wait to shove the Academy ship into their contrails.
But perhaps he shouldn’t have rushed it.
Tension shrouded the new arrivals as they crammed all six of them inside the cabin for their download. No one was complaining or saying anything outright. But there were definitely looks of hostility aimed towards him and Kat.
Dax alone appeared at ease as they awaited their call number. “Look at us, back together again,” he said, hair falling in his eyes as he slung an arm across Lee and Kat’s shoulders. Dax ignored the dubious expression on Kat’s face as he glanced between her and Lee and the other cadets. “Hey, don’t mind them. They’re all just a little confused still as to what happened out there.”
They could join the club. Lee’s eyes roved over the heads of the other cadets already seated. It was Kat’s movement in his peripheral that drew him back. She’d turned to look at Dax once more, surprise lighting her pale grey eyes. But Dax only gave him and Kat a tight little nod. Then he cleared his throat, muttering something about finding a seat, leaving Lee staring after the cadet.
“Let’s blitz,” Kat muttered, striding towards the cockpit a little too forcefully.
Oh, if ever he was ready.
CHAPTER 11: KAT
THEY DIDN’T give their cadets much time to acclimate.
She and Lee had a way of doing things on their squadron; cadets could either choose to get onboard or be swallowed. But what with Lee’s latest playlist barreling through the ship’s speakers on maximized acoustics, the promise of lower gravity, and Dax’s bawdy singing, by the time they reached third moon, Nelana, they had their cadets bobbing their heads. The local moon was well within Academy range. Same quadrant, even. But she appraised each of them in turn as they donned their helmets and started the clock.
Kat/Lee: 1
The Academy: 0
Crossing the apricot-colored crater on foot and in full gear was a lot like leaping around the anti-gravity chamber. Only more scenic—and dirty. They’d have to send these outer suits in for a dry clean later just to get the dust off. But she didn’t miss her favorite eggshell-paneled walls. Not with this backdrop.
Conveniently, there were no signs of dark radiation interference with this mission, more training shit. They let their cadets mess around for a while, exploring the near-weightless sensation under a full blanket of stars, quite literally,shootin’ the moonat one point with a bit of loose debris that had become lodged in one of the skimmer’s exhausts during landing.They were a good hour into their allotted time allowance before they had their cadets hunker down to begin collection on the requested batches of moon matter.
Kat ran a gloved finger across her rose-gold vizor to clear her view of the crater and the other cadets as she swept another scattering of moon dust into a tempered container.
“What do you think production will repurpose these chemical compounds into?” Dax asked Lee over the shared communication channel. His lack of weirdness around her and Lee today astonished her. He either had a thick skin, or he really didn’t care about the nasty rumors floating around the Academy.
But even astonishment had its limits. She watched Lee’s shoulders arch and fall as he attempted to physically roll off some of the rippling tension from Dax’s incessant questions and buddy attempts. She waited for him to lose his patience and snap at the cadet. But Lee never did.
How infatuated she was with this boy. Even if she hadn’t yet told Lee that out loud.
“Oy, Dax,” she called, motioning with a hand across the sloping expanse. “I need you.”
She didn’t wait before starting for the opposite edge of the crater, a half kilometer from their current position. She had ascended into a loping gait by the time Dax bounded into view, his inquisitive spirit still soaring.
“She called?” Dax said.
“I want a couple of bins from over there.”
