CHAPTER 1 KAT #2
“Are you sure you don’t want to try one?” she asked, standing palms before her at the shiny steel countertop. “The betacarotene could do your head some good and lower your blood pressure.”
“Two please.”
A fresh juice in hand and a few endorphins in her blood; she would have happily surrendered her morning to more of this. But the rest of the Academy would be waking soon, and they had somewhere to be.
While Lee slipped into the showers, Kat found herself a better mirror, double-checking the lines she’d drawn around her eyes under normal lighting scenarios.
It definitely could have been better. The outside corners really did look like they’d been drawn by feral cats with photon-crayons.
But it was fine given the circumstances.
They were running late to meet Zane and Whistler by the time Kat caught up with Lee again.
He waited for her just inside the upper skywalk.
Some clarity had returned to his eyes. But it wasn’t quite enough to combat the rumbling turbulence settling back over her as they climbed the stairways once more.
She recognized the floor for the PARC before they reached any of the Planning and Research Collaboration rooms. How strange to be back up here on the other side of things. She felt a little like a wraith, out of body, and an echo as she drifted through the first door on their left after Lee.
Zane was already inside and waiting on them, his golden-brown face even more drawn than usual this morning.
“Hey,” Lee said quickly, clearing his throat, as they came up to the long table. She and Zane just nodded at each other.
But unlike the last time they’d been here, they didn’t fan out, staking space or sides for themselves. Today the three of them stood huddled at the head.
So much was hinging on how they played these next few days.
One wrong move, and they’d be packing their bags.
Another wrong move, and they would condemn an entire group of people.
Not to mention, re-sentencing their galaxy to a hopeless destruction by dark rays.
There were no wins here—only chances and what they made of them.
Zane and Lee were murmuring softly over the pros and cons of omitting certain details from their reports when Whistler crossed into the PARC, hair neatly braided back behind his head. Brushing past Zane and Lee, she pulled Whistler in tightly for a hug. “Thanks for keeping us updated on Starla.”
“I always look out for my girls.”
Lee was very deliberately running a hand through his hair when she rejoined him and Zane, Whistler also coming over to complete their quadrant.
“What did I miss?” Whistler asked, no sign of his signature crooked grin, as he glanced from she to Lee and Zane.
“Not much.” Lee blew out a breath. We’re trying to figure out how much to say about Segura.”
Kat read the kaleidoscope of emotion that rippled across Whistler’s face at his words. The chills that skated over her once again. Had they really been out there not three days prior?
“So much to say and nowhere to begin,” Zane murmured.
“How have you guys been holding up? Have you heard from anyone?” Lee asked.
“I checked in on Jed and Hanna when I was doing their health surveys,” Zane admitted. “Vital signs are strong.”
But she caught his meaning. It wasn’t a surface trauma any of them now faced.
“We did the same for Nikola—and Levy,” Lee added, quietly.
Commander Blanche had addressed Levy’s resignation with the four of them directly during one of those initial meetings and instructed them to keep it confidential.
But that hadn’t made the news any less discombobulated in Kat’s mess of a head.
She could still try to talk Levy out of it, but was that what the girl even needed? Was that what she would have needed?
“I think everyone’s in a bit of shock,” Lee said. Their subsequent doe-eyed looks were testament to that.
“The twins say hello and send their love.” Whistler smiled, just a hint of mirth there. They had gone from the ultimate powerhouse squadron to—whatever this fractured thing was between them now. But just picturing Kiara and Kamata had some of those cracks seaming in the corners.
She was grateful when Whistler broke the ice for them. “I’ll probably eat these words later. But you have to admit, whatever else it was, that was one affadelic adventure we shared. It was good while it lasted.”
And after days of feeling nothing, it felt nice to laugh. To breath. To relate. The warmth flooding her face a beautiful stranger. Even Zane’s lips turned up a bit in the corners. If there was anyone at the Academy she’d have wanted to get discombobulated with, it was the people in this room.
But Zane’s expression had evened out once more. “This isn’t going to be pretty. There’s no protocol for this.”
“I’m sort of counting on that.” Lee sighed. “For us—and for them.” For Segura. The pretty dream that had launched all of this to begin with. One more ride.
“So how much do we give her today?” Kat asked. “How much of our souls do we bare to our Commander?”
“We can trust Commander Blanche,” Whistler said. “We were out there on her orders. There’s got to be some sort of raider–cadet code or something to protect us. We can speak freely.”
“I’d agree,” Lee said. “She’s kept a close eye on all of our dealings with this raid. I think we’ve got to give her everything, go all in, show the Commander our cards and let her decide how to frame it. That was the point with Segura, right? It was never supposed to be our decision in the end.”
“And if she decides we overstepped?” Zane countered.
Kat crossed her arms over her chest. “She recommended us for that raid, she sent us out there. She’ll listen to us.
” Kat didn’t need to bring up the warning their Commander had repeatedly thrust at them throughout the raid: Do not engage.
That seemingly vital truth was stamped permanently into her brain.
Commander Blanche would hear them out, wouldn’t she?