Page 159 of Star Claimed Omega
Pirate broadcasts laced with their insignia, and woven among them, records of ‘Asset RQ’ being moved, redirected, isolated,The Red Queen.
Miral’s pupils dilated as her Synth-frame archived, sorted, and cataloged.
In minutes, she retrieved terabytes of intelligence, all centering on Soleil and the machinations of the men she once called father and uncle.
TheRed Skull’ssecrets were revealed to her, and she made note of them all.
Next, she replayed the detonation footage of theVermilion Clawin slowed micro-frames, her aetheric circuits filtering for energy irregularities and digital ghosts.
Then, in the chaos of debris, flame, and concussive rupture, there it was: a flicker, scarcely a shadow, but unmistakably authentic.
A small, silent scout ship slipping free of theClaw’sflank seconds before the primary blast.
Cloaked in a stealth shield, this was likely a one-person racing skimmer.
The explosion had masked its heat trail, but it was no match for Miral.
Her pupils flared violet as she activated TRACE-9, her embedded signal triangulation program.
Thread by thread, she unraveled the each particle displacement, all its plasma wakes, every stealth move in the surrounding void.
The signature headed toward a single destination.
Miral’s processors spiked. ‘65 Cybele,’ she whispered.
The station, while a key port in the Wildlight, was a rat’s nest of orbiting filth and forgotten diplomacy, built on asteroid fragments and mercenary ego.
It was a liminal terminus, where pirates, exiles, and DarkNet deal makers went to play, where lawlessness reigned.
A place of no eyes. A perfect retreat to vanish, or to hide what you couldn’t destroy.
She leaned back in her chair, her eyes gleaming with conviction.
Soleilmightstillbealive.
Miral approached the CO’s office at a clipped, urgent pace, energized by her findings.
The reinforced door slid open halfway, then further, sensing her approach.
She stepped through and froze.
‘Oh. Shit. I’m so sorry.’
Holo-maps and shifting stellar charts hovered near one wall.
Light from a planetary ring in the void beyond the window glowed across the room in shades of violet and blue, painting their silhouettes like a dreamscape.
Xander had Savvine pressed against the view-port’s edge, his hands tangled in her dark hair, their bodies flush and their hips swirling in a rhythm of shared heat.
Their mouths were fused in a kiss that might have sparked a reactor.
They broke apart at the sound of her voice.
Xander cursed under his breath as he tore his mouth from his woman’s.
Savvine buried her face in his chest, her lips curved with amusement, her shoulders shaking.
Miral’s eyes shot to the floor. ‘Perhaps I should return another time.’
