Navigating the Stars by Maria V. Snyder

Author:Maria V. Snyder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Maria V. Snyder

After a few torture sessions…sorry, physical therapy… and visits from the doctors, I’m declared… well… not healed, but good enough to ease back into my life. Officer Radcliff ends my security detail, but that doesn’t stop Niall from escorting me back to my housing unit.

Of course my parents notice this. When I’m tucked into my own bed, Dad leans forward and says, “I think a certain officer will not be dismissed so easily.” He tilts his head toward the entrance to our unit. “One who has worked extra shifts.”

My insides do a strange little twirly thing.

“Niall is just feeling guilty,” Mom says. “The boy will get over it soon.”

Gee, thanks, Mom.

Before they retreat to their offices to get some work done, but be within hearing distance should I need anything, I ask about the Warriors. “How bad is it? Are all the Warriors smashed to pieces?”

“Pretty much. We’re concentrating our efforts on reconstruction and analyzing the factory, but we’re not reporting everything to DES,” Mom says.

“You think the looters wormed into DES’s data clusters?” I ask. I was able to get to classified files and I’m not near as skilled as many others.

“It’s a possibility. And, there’s just something…off about their responses to us.”

Another thing I can help with, searching for signs that someone wormed into the Q-net. Once I can read more than a couple paragraphs without a headache.

“And we found evidence that the Warriors do have those hearts.” Mom’s face lights with excitement.

I sit up straighter. “Did one survive?”

“No, but we found particles of that black substance in the chest cavity of a few of them. Not as much as we’d hoped. It breaks down very quickly once it’s broken.”

“Have you figured out what that material is?”

“Not yet. The chemists are working on it, but we do know it absorbs X-rays and a number of other rays so it doesn’t show up on any of our scanning equipment. Once the diggers excavate another pit, we can examine an intact Warrior and confirm it.”

Sounds like a lot of work.

“When you’re feeling better, we’d like you to finish reconstructing the General,” Dad says.

His comment reminds me that I haven’t dreamt of the General since he was attacked by those shadow creatures. Irrational grief floods through me.

“Lyra, are you okay? Should we call the doctor?” Mom asks in concern. “I told you it was too soon, Spencer.”

“She’s going to have to face-”

“I’m fine,” I assure them. “Just tired.”

They hurry to leave so I can rest. Except, I lie there wondering why I’m so upset about the first quiet night of sleep since I touched that heart.

I return to soch-time on the tenth day after the attack. Niall is waiting for me at the end of soch-time. I’m not surprised to see him. He’d escorted me to soch-time two hours earlier. Even though he’s off duty, he’s taken this whole protection thing pretty seriously. And I’m torn between touched, annoyed, and suspicious.

Niall falls into step beside me and he laces his fingers in mine.

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