Page 108 of Only Cold Depths
Zane leaned his hip against another table, swiping through holograms. Asterin had reluctantly given him access to the House Collier archives, and he was studying images and blueprints of the Stardrop Falls mining museum.
“This place is a death trap,” he grumbled. “Esmina and Pollux could have multiple squads of mercenaries tucked away on the various levels, or even hiding in the bloody gift shop, and we won’t know until we stumble right into the middle of them.”
I rubbed my aching head, staring at yet another failed simulation. “You’re not helping.”
“Just making an observation. I don’t want the two of you to blame me later for not adequately mentioning the absurd amount of danger we are putting ourselves in.”
“Oh, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of other reasons to blame you,” Asterin muttered, swiping through her own failed simulation at another table.
Zane rolled his eyes, but he went back to plotting how we could best slip into the museum. I focused on the cannon again.
Back on theDream World, I had fixed the Techwave cannon enough so that it would fire, so long as the user popped in a new solar magazine on a regular basis. Rigel had confiscated that cannon from my suite, but he, Siya, and the Colliers didn’t know about the solar magazines, so that cannon wouldn’t work for more than a few blasts.
Asterin and I still thought sapphsidian was the key to stabilizing the cannon, so I rummaged through my duffel bag and pulled out the chunk of sapphsidian I’d taken from the dead Serpens Corp mercenary during the attack on the mineral exchange. I hadn’t had any sapphsidian to work with on theDream World, so I hadn’t been able to properly test my theory.
I handed the chunk of sapphsidian to Asterin, who used a laser cutter to slice it into smaller, usable pieces. Once that was done, I threaded a few tiny bits of sapphsidian onto the solar wiring in the cannon’s magazine. I ran one simulation after another, adding different amounts of sapphsidian to the lunarium and solar wiring, but nothing worked, and the cannon kept overheating.
Frustrated, I swiped away the latest failed simulation and started pacing through the workshop.
“Our father does the same thing whenever he runs up against a tricky problem in his lab,” Zane said. “Some of the similarities between the two of you are rather uncanny.”
I shot him an aggravated look and kept pacing.
“On the bright side, if we fail to rescue Kyrion, I’m calling dibs on his stormsword,” Zane said, tracing his finger along the blade, which was still lying on a table. “I’ve always wanted a second weapon.”
A snarl rose in my throat, but before I could tell him to stop coveting Kyrion’s sword, Zane turned the blade to the side. The bright workshop lights hit the large arrow-shaped sapphsidian jewel in the hilt, making it wink at me like a mocking eye.
My own eyes narrowed, and my gaze darted over to the stormsword belted to Zane’s waist. It too featured sapphsidian jewels, just like my own sword did.
“Give me that.” I snatched Kyrion’s sword away from Zane, then held out my other hand. “And your sword too.”
Zane grumbled, but he passed me his weapon. I laid all three stormswords on a holoscreen and made 3D scans of them. Then I studied the resulting holograms, which listed the parts, pieces, and components of the three weapons. The swords were all slightly different shapes and sizes, but they all had one thing in common: the ratio of sapphsidian to lunarium wasexactlythe same.
Of course. I could have smacked myself for not seeing it sooner. I’d literally been carrying the answer around on my belt this whole time.
“Vesper?” Asterin asked. “What have you figured out?”
“I’m not sure yet,” I replied in a distracted voice.
I was dimly aware of Asterin coming over to stand beside me, with Zane hovering on my other side. I quickly assembled a new magazine, adding what I thought was the correct amount of sapphsidian to the lunarium and solar wiring. Now came the moment of truth.
I laid the magazine on the holoscreen, hit some buttons, and ran the same simulation I’d performed a dozen times before.
Testing . . . testing . . . testing . . .
The holoscreen repeated the words over and over again. I clutched the edge of the table, my breath stuck in my throat.
“How long is this going to take?” Zane asked.
“Shh!” Asterin replied.
Zane shot her a dirty look, but he fell silent. The holoscreen flickered once, twice, three times . . .
Testing complete. Simulation successful. Predicted rate of success is 98.3 percent.
I pumped my fist in the air in triumph.
“You did it,” Asterin whispered. “You figured out how to fix the cannon. Way to go, Vesper!”
