But Lee just dropped down gracefully beside her, joining them on the matted floor as he leaned back on his hands.
Together they stared up into the glowing, holographic dome of distant stars. Close enough she could reach a pinky out and snag Lee’s if she wanted comfort, or catch Whistler’s crooked grin for support. Far enough apart that she had space for her thoughts to waft around her, in concentric circles all her own.
“It’s funny how the dark radiation has claimed all of these,” Whistler pointed up to the central planets of De Myra, trailing his finger outward from De Zolar, up to De Carmos, one of the smaller planets near the edge. “But it somehow skipped entirely around Star System Zeta over here.”
“All these years—all these destroyed planets—and we still don’t understand the dark rays,” Lee mused. And Kat’s thoughts again soared out to Segura. How much of this had they already pieced together, only for the answers to be evaded, hidden, and secreted away?
The AMG certainly had a way of suppressing history.
Hours later, after Zane and Whistler had both taken off with promises to continue looking into De Myra and the Commander’s mainframe notes, she and Lee packed up the holo-dome.
“There are still so many,” Kat said, as the last of the glowing holographic wisps of their galaxy disappeared into the little projector tech. “We’ll never narrow it down in time.”
“We’ll find something. Some way to pinpoint and hone us even closer.”
“And if we don’t?” Kat asked, flicking her eyes towards the starry-eyed boy beside her.
“Then we go one at a time, crossing them off one by one, landing moon by moon, until eventually, we find them.”
He talked like they’d have infinite energy reserves. Unlimited time. Like it was actually doable.
But he made her want to believe it could be done. That it was possible.
And she’d bet on him. Every time.
After returning the cosmosphere tech back to the secondary storage bay under the stairs of the training levels, they started back up towards their dorms. “Did you know Whistler and Zane were in this deep?” she asked as Lee ran a hand through the long hair sweeping low over his brow.
“Zane and I had talked a little.”
“And Whistler?”
“You know as much as me. But I think we aren’t the only ones questioning our place in the Raider Program anymore.”
“I just hate this. We have no coordinates to help us locate the base. And no new evidence to stop the General from condemning them. I feel so helpless.” Kat pulled at her ponytail, yanking down from the crown, as if their tangling strands were the cause for all of her problems.
When Lee didn’t respond immediately, she looked over at him.
She was glad she had, because beyond the weary posture they all seemed to carry these days, beyond the frustration from today, he had that look on his face.
Determination. Grit. And a spark.
Thank thevoidfor that spark. She let his mind process in silence. And when she thought she might not be able to stand it a second longer, his eyes flicked to hers. The glint of years of all-nighters, and laser round matches. The reason Leland Waters ran the Academy. After her, of course.
“Maybe there is some place we can snag a couple more answers,” Lee said, finally. And Kat couldn’t help the slow grin that seeped across her lips.
“Talk to me, Waters.”
His idea was ludicrous.
But then again, they usually were. You didn’t get brilliant genius without a little of the arcane to get you there.
“You want to break into the Commander’s suites?” she demanded for probably the third time—at least the third time aloud, since he’d brought up the idea a good ten minutes ago from the privacy of her dorm. And yet every time he responded she was just as flabbergasted as the last.
Lee shrugged, arms crossed over his chest where he stood facing her star flower in the window. “If that’s where we find her mainframe, then yes. I know that message we found pretty much required that she hand everything over. But part of me wonders if there isn’t more to find. Something that slipped through the cracks… Something so trivial she may not have considered it essential to pass along… Just anything to point us towards them.”
Kat pursed her lips. It wasn’t as if she hadn’twonderedall these years about her very-recent ex-idol’s quarters and whereabouts. The luxury. The rank. The Commander certainly had her own bathroom, and ifshealso touted her own walk-in closet…
But to actually break in…
