I linked the Phantom’s data stream back to Battleship Resolution and waited as the much more powerful battleship’s comm system synced with Velerion and the Hall of Records.
Captain Sponder was hiding something, and I was going to find out what that something was.
For the first time I felt my cipher implants working alongside my mind, speeding up the transfer of information, making it easier for me to communicate with the ship. I took a moment to adjust, to become accustomed to the feel of it, like my brain had become wireless and connected directly to the data streams. For a moment I couldn’t move, shocked by the ease of the data transfer and the speed of information moving through my mind. But I was also grateful. I had a lot of records to search and not a lot of time to do it.
Kass was quiet as I worked.
Fifteen minutes later I froze in my chair. I had it. I fucking had the proof we needed to take Sponder down. “Kass, who is Delegate Rainhart?”
Kass scoffed. “A traitor. Your friend Jamie and her pair bond, Alex, found out recently that he was the one who gave Queen Raya the details about the Starfighter base that had been destroyed. He betrayed Velerion and gave the Dark Fleet exactly what they needed to wipe out almost all our Starfighters and cripple Velerion’s defenses.”
Oh shit.
“What’s a delegate?”
“They are appointed by the commissioners. Kind of like Graves to General Jennix. They work for the commissioners as trusted appointees to negotiate, meet with constituents and merchants, take care of a lot of the day-to-day responsibilities of the commissioners who are elected to the Hall of Records.”
“Like their chief of staff?”
“I am not familiar with that office.”
“How long do we have?” I was anxious, the adrenaline flowing after a puzzle like this had been solved. We had the answer, and we had to do something about it. Now.
“Five minutes, tops. Find anything good on Sponder yet?”
“As a matter of fact, I—”
BOOM!
“Mia! Hold on!” Kass’s shout accompanied the Phantom rotating suddenly. I was strapped into my seat, but even in space, inertia was real and my head was thrown back.
“What the hell?” I shouted as an unnatural flare of heat washed over me. The control station in front of me caught fire and was immediately put out by the fire suppression system.
“Kass?”
“Rebooting the system,” Kass replied, his voice even.
Within seconds I had my screens back and everything looked normal. “What was that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Anything on scanners?” I asked, my gaze roving over everything in sight looking for enemy ships or anything that could have been the source of the attack.
“No.”
That made no sense. The ship rattled around us, shaking like we were in the middle of an earthquake. I checked my monitors and could not believe what I was seeing. “Kass, the entire right side of the Phantom is gone.”
“I know.”
He knew? “Were we hit?”
“Not from the outside.”
“What?” Alarms filled the small cabin, and the ship’s emergency power system took over, shutting down my station completely and funneling all emergency power to Kass’s flight controls. My flight suit responded to the ship’s ping, my helmet rising to cover my head.
The control panel in front of me jumped and rattled, forcing my gloved hands to lift.
“I can’t get my hands on the controls.”