“Commander?” I tried again with no results.
“Lieutenant Dorn? Specialist Lovet? Specialist Ferran? Can any of you hear me?” Still nothing. No sound from the comms. The holo-images were completely black.
“What the yavit just happened?!” Quinton exclaimed from behind me.
I turned astonished to hear the Lieutenant cuss. I had not known her long, but she didn’t seem the type who used explicit language.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, my concern growing with each moment that passed.
“All my readings for the team shut down at once.” The Lieutenant was stabbing at her holo-interface as if she could get back the feeds if she attacked it aggressively enough. “I can’t even access the data I recorded from the olthometer.”
I called up my own holo-interface to directly access the team’s comm and holo-feed, but the screen just sat on the main menu not doing a thing. It was stuck in static mode. I felt a surge of panic rush through me.
“Is this a Nanite Network problem or an issue with the team in the mine?” I asked, fully aware of my lack of understanding of the Nanite Network.
While I had used the system extensively in the last three months, so far I had not run into errors, glitches or problems of any kind. Usually, the Nanite Network and the many devices used to access and manipulate it worked flawlessly and required minimal maintenance. But there were places in the Outer Reach of the Empire that were an exception to this rule, which of course included Talion Proxi.
“This is acting like a Network problem,” Quinton confirmed.
“How sure are you about that? Leyva was talking about there being unusual readings.” I asked as I remembered Commander Leyva’s last comment.
“I heard. I didn’t see anything on my feeds before the Network shut down, but that doesn’t mean she could have been referring to something she was getting off the olthometer.” Quinton was currently scrolling through her data pad. She stopped, took a moment to read the screen, and then showed it to me. “Yep, the local relay just shut down.”
I looked at the screen she was referring to. She had accessed the system settings of the Nanite Network directly. There on a black background was bold blue text with a message.
NETWORK ERROR. Connection to Relay Eight is currently down. Technicians are addressing the problem. Approximate wait time for reconnection is thirty-five minutes.
Relief flushed through me at that. It meant that the team was all right. The loss of connection wasn’t at their end. I would just have to trust that once Leyva realized what had happened, she’d pull the team out of the mine. It was too risky to work without being able to ask for help if something happened down there.
The Commander’s last words still bothered me. Quinton was right that the unusual readings could be something simple, but I would feel much better once my team was topside again.
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I shook my head. “Does this sort of thing happen a lot out here?”
Quinton nodded. “Yes, that's why I hate coming out this far into the Reach. I much prefer the stability of life in the Inner Rim and Core worlds.”
“Yeah, and I pulled you from your nice comfortable position at Legion Headquarters so you could slum it with me out here at the edge of the Empire. Sorry about that.”
She gave me a genuine smile, which was something I hadn’t seen from her since she’d joined our team a month ago. “It hasn’t been all that bad. This team’s mission goals have been a refreshing challenge. And my last project leader was…” she paused a moment as if trying to come up with the right word. “Well, let’s just say he wasn’t like you.”
“Oh?” I said as I raised an eyebrow, wondering exactly what that meant.
The Lieutenant blushed, and I could immediately feel a surge of embarrassment course through the woman. “It’s just… I… well… you’re much more personable and obviously care about each member of the team. You also know when to back off and let people do their jobs instead of trying to micromanage––” she stopped as if realizing she was talking to a member of the Imperial family.
Quinton’s cheeks flushed a deeper shade. I noted the way she fidgeted with the data pad in her hands, an evident distraction from their conversation. “Sorry, Highness. I didn’t mean to speak so freely with a member of the Family. I know that sort of thing is frowned upon. I’ve just never worked directly with a member of the Zahn family before. In fact, you’re the first one I’ve ever met.”
I smiled at the woman to get her to calm down. “It’s perfectly fine. I appreciate free speech. I actually prefer it. If I’m doing something wrong, I need to know.”
My admission seemed to relax her somewhat. She put down the datapad and nodded, still avoiding direct eye contact. “Well, you’re not doing anything wrong. Just the opposite.”
An awkward silence fell between us as I tried to figure out what to say about that. I also remembered what Markus had said earlier about the Lieutenant actually liking me, and I realized he was right. I could feel her embarrassment, and under that, an irritation mingling with a sense of uncertainty. There was also a warmth radiating from Quinton––an unintentional invitation to connect, but a stark awareness of my identity and the barrier it presented.
I blinked at the woman, surprised not only at what I had picked up from her, but that I had gotten such deep context into her emotions. Usually, when my Empathic Dome-ni was activated, it shared with me the strongest emotions and sometimes the lesser ones if I concentrated, but my lessons with Caretaker Thaddeus were making me more sensitive. He had said that with time my ability to perceive more emotions and the reason behind them would become stronger. I had not expected my practice at enhancing my empathy to work so quickly, or what the results would be.
She was like an open book to me now. What was once masked a moment before was clear as I grasped onto the thread of her like of me. No, not just her like of me, but my desire to connect. It seemed Markus’s words had more effect on me than I thought. I was lonely. And more than eager to make a connection with someone that had nothing to do with work or my duties to the Empire.
I realized I needed to redirect the conversation before I made things more uncomfortable for Quinton—or myself. I cleared my throat and gestured toward the monitoring equipment.
“So, thirty-five minutes until the connection reestablishes. I guess there’s not much we can do until then unless you put anything on that thing before the crash?” I asked, pointing to the data pad she still had in her grasp.
Quinton seemed relieved at the shift in topic. “No. I didn’t have time to transfer any data. I was going to do it after the team was finished down there.”
I nodded, expecting as much. Before I could say anything else, I felt a vibration under my feet. The vibration intensified, rippling through the floor like a warning tremor. My heart thudded in my chest, and I exchanged a quick glance with Quinton, whose expression shifted to sudden alertness.
An alarm pierced the air, drowning out any lingering awkwardness with a cacophony of sound. I felt a jolt of adrenaline spike through me, the hairs on my neck standing on end. Beside me, Quinton’s eyes widened as she looked behind me. Her face drained of all color.
“Lieutenant, what’s wrong?”
But she did not answer; she kept staring behind me. I turned around to see what had caught her attention, and what I saw struck pure terror in my heart.
Sci-fi ? Telepathy ? Psychics
The technocracy will fall. And my powers started it all. Oops.
- Straight & queer romances. (No harem.)
- Seven-book interconnected series.
- Comedy Space Operas: .
- WLW Psychological Thrillerss: .