“Yeah, it’s nebulous.” She said it with a grin and Lucin returned it.

He reached over and tousled her brown hair. “It’s getting long.”

“I’m trying to be normal.”

“And how’s that working out for you, young lady?”

“It’s unique. Being normal.” Molly pursed her lips. She’d never known Lucin to avoid getting straight to the point. Then she understood why he would be the one coming here. Why he was having a hard time bringing it up. Why he would do this at the school. This has nothing to do with the Academy, Molly thought. This is about my father.

Her face must have betrayed it. Lucin’s brows came down in recognition of whatever flashed across her own. He nodded slightly. “We’ve located his ship.” His voice was small and tight.

“Parsona?”

“Yes, Parsona. A Navy operative working undercover on Palan came across it. It was discovered by one of the pirate gangs there and has been impounded. We’re working on getting the paperwork together to get it out of there.”

“On Palan? But that’s on the other side of the galaxy from where Dad was last seen.” Molly leaned back and looked up into the pink blossoms, doing some calculations.

“I’m glad your astralogy hasn’t gone the way of your English,” Lucin joked, a sign he was nervous, or keeping something from her.

“What’re you gonna do with the ship when you get it?”

“That’s why I’m here. Legally, it’s yours. It was all your father had, and he left it to you in his will. The fact it’s been lost for almost ten years doesn’t change that. So eventually, you’ll need to think about what you want to do with it. We’ll need to look over it first, of course. See if there’s a clue in the logs about where he was, signs of struggle, all of that.”

“My father’s dead, Lucin. Don’t give me any hope. I could feel something different in my bones the day he died. It’s hard to explain.”

“There’s no need, I felt it too. Even before I knew he was gone. I’m not saying we’ll be able to find him, or even give him a proper burial. But the Navy needs to know what happened.”

“Why?” Molly felt herself getting a little angry. “He wasn’t in the Navy anymore, remember? Why do you guys care?”

“I care.” Lucin was solemn. “I care, Molly. I want to find out if someone was responsible, and if so, I want to hurt them.” He looked down at the chips of pink color around his feet. “I mean I want to bring them to justice.”

She nodded.

Then she felt that hardened thing inside her twist into a new shape. Another layer of the film that kept her from seeing the world pulled back and the sky and the courtyard came into a tighter level of focus and detail. She looked at Lucin, and she could see the valleys in his wrinkles and the individual pores in his face. Her mind was so keen she expected to see mitochondria swimming around in his skin cells.

“I’m going to go get Parsona and bring her back.”

It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t even a decision. It was a statement of fact, like she was reading about something she did in a history book. It was as real as if it had already happened.

“We have spring break next week,” she continued. “I’ll go to Palan—it’s only, what, three jumps from here? I can be there by Monday, grab the ship, and I’ll be home before the weekend.”

“Molly—”

“As long as the hyperspace drive is working, and even if it isn’t, we can install a new one, maybe your guy can check that ahead of time. See if the astral charts are updated, clear the paperwork.”

“Molly—”

“I can do it myself. This is basic stuff, Lucin. You know I can do this. I’m almost 17, and I’ve already tested out for my private captain’s license.”

“Listen, Molly—”

But she couldn’t stop talking. Thinking. “I’ve flown that ship with my father from one side of the galaxy to the other. I know it like I know my old simulator. C’mon, didn’t you say the ship was mine? I have my license. It’s totally legal.”

“It’s suicidal, Molly. Stop it. Settle down for a second.” He didn’t seem angry. A smile snuck ’round his mouth, Molly’s excitement rubbing off on him. “Palan’s a bad place. The Navy has almost no presence there. Also, you are not traveling alone. What am I saying? You aren’t traveling at all.”

“You know I am. You can help me or you can see if I can do it on my own.”

Lucin leaned away from her, blinking, as if he couldn’t take all of her in. His brows eventually came down, throwing shadows over his eyes. “I haven’t seen you like this since the day you talked yourself into the Academy.”

“Except this will work,” she insisted.

They were both silent for a while. Molly couldn’t tell if Lucin was thinking back or planning forward. “There will be strict conditions, young lady.”

She nodded vigorously. She would agree to all of them up front.

“First, my agent is going to accompany you back. I don’t want any evidence on Parsona lost just because you didn’t know what to look for.”

Molly kept nodding.

“Second, you bring the ship straight back with minimal jumps and she goes into my hangar for a few weeks. We need to make sure we haven’t missed anything and perform a deeper safety inspection than you’ll be able to do on Palan.”

Her neck started to hurt.

“Finally, I want you to have someone you trust accompany you to Palan—I don’t want anything to happen to you on the way there.”

Molly froze. “Who?”

“Someone who can navigate, even help pilot if you end up needing to do shifts.” He ticked requirements off his fingers, but Molly felt like he was describing someone in particular. “Someone you know and trust who will stick his neck out for you if you get in a jam.”

“Cole?” It escaped as a whisper.

Lucin nodded. “He graduated at the end of last year. Several of your classmates did. The war with the Drenards has gotten nasty. I’m sure you’ve been following it. Saunders felt another semester would be wasted on some of them. Cole, Dinks, Riggs, Jakobs, some of the others you knew.”

“Jakobs? Jakobs is out there flying an actual ship with loaded weapons?” Molly was horrified. She knew that’s what the Academy was for, but it never seemed real until right then. They were all still kids in her mind.

“Most of them aren’t doing front-line stuff. Support. Recon. Patrols. It’s the final stage in the learning process. Hell, if things . . .  if things had been a little different, you’d be out there right now.”

“No, you’re right. I wasn’t thinking about ability. I was thinking about—never mind.” Her thoughts returned to Cole. “Do you think he’d want to go? What about his duties?”

“We have one of our best agents dedicated to this mission. I think it’d be a good training exercise for Cole if he went and worked with the guy. A bit of escort duty—”

Molly bristled.

“Not that you need it, of course, just that Cole could use the experience.”

“Better,” she said, nodding once.

“If you’re serious about this, I can make it work. It’ll actually make the paperwork easier on both ends since you’re the legal owner of the ship. And nobody’s going to suspect you and Cole are working for the Navy’s interests. That could help with the pirates on Palan.”

Lucin scratched his chin. “I’ll get detailed instructions to our agent, make sure he understands who you are and what needs to be done before you arrive. The Navy will pick up the tab for the flight out and the jumps back, all you’ll have to worry about is being safe.”

“No problem.” Her head felt light. The idea of going on a trip with Cole made her stomach flutter. Even with a Navy chaperone.

“All right, then.” Lucin placed his hand on Molly’s knee and used it to press himself up. “Pack some clothes and your book reader and get ready for the longest week of school in your entire life.”

Hyperspace! She’d forgotten about that. She didn’t even want the weekend to get in the way. For once Molly wished Monday would hurry up and come.

6

From her meeting with Lucin to her arrival on Earth’s Orbital Station, it felt more like a month than a week. Especially with all the lazy scheduling teachers do prior to spring break at Avalon. She tried to concoct busywork for herself, doing all the problems her teachers said to skip, but it barely dented her anticipation.

There was so much to look forward to, she couldn’t decide which part of the trip tortured her the most. Was it seeing her father’s old ship? She wondered if any of his stuff would still be aboard, the old tools scented with oil and the clothes smelling of his hard work.

Or was she giddy at the prospect of owning her own ship? Gods, that thing, even as old as it was, it must be worth a fortune. Molly could start a shuttle agency right out of school. Or be a freelance courier. The opportunities were endless.

To a small degree, it was both those things. But mainly, and it made her feel silly to admit it, she was ecstatic about seeing Cole. She would be sitting beside him on a twenty-hour pan-galactic flight to Palan. Hearing what he’d been up to. Joking with him without the other boys around.

Part of Molly’s preparation for the trip had been to go through her reader and delete a lot of required reading material. Now it was loaded with more adventurous fare, most of it meant for boys. These books were typified by their shallow, male protagonists and the author’s poor grasp of space tactics, but she’d also found a little gem. A series of books about a woman on a frontier planet forging a life for herself. It was the closest thing to a female’s adventures away from Earth that Molly could find, and the setting sounded a lot like her birth planet: Lok.

She was tempted to pull her reader out and start one of the action books, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to take her eyes off the arrival gate. She’d chosen a seat in the Orbital Station, facing the security entrance. Cole’s shuttle should be docking at any minute. Once he arrived and they boarded the passenger ship, their adventure would officially begin.

Molly was glad she’d gotten there first and on a separate flight. Thrusting out of Earth’s gravity well would have been nerve-wracking if Cole had been there. She would’ve been torn between acting cool and nonchalant and wanting to geek out over the experience. It also allowed her to be a tourist. She got to alien-watch a little without him berating her for being a gossip, and she was able to explore some of the shops with all their strange trinkets from various planets.

She’d chosen a foreign snack (the one that smelled least-likely to ruin her breath) and eaten it in the observation bubble, gazing at Earth as it spun below. She felt impatient for Cole’s arrival the entire time, but these were great experiences she probably wouldn’t have thought to do if he’d been there. The alien-watching and the shopping because he might think Avalon had changed her. The Earth-gazing because she feared it would come across as too romantic.

So she sat, chewing minty gum, and stalking Cole’s arrival point. Was she being transparently desperate? She was over-thinking everything.

There weren’t any windows on the airlock side of the Station, so the first hint at his arrival was the stampede of passengers pouring out of security. A man with Cole’s build was near the front—Molly perked up. Then she settled back, trying to look non-committal. It wasn’t him, anyway. Two young men in Navy blacks got her heart pounding, but she knew he’d be wearing civvies.

Molly double-checked her own garb. She had tried on several dresses at the mall before realizing how overtly stupid this would look. Cole probably wouldn’t even like it. So she’d gotten a new pair of khaki pants with these great pockets running down both sides. They kept her legs from looking too skinny, and she fantasized about the things she could organize in them. If she’d actually owned any of those things, of course.

The top was a yellow short-sleeved thing, blousy up top and puffy around the sleeves. It had a slight lace around the collar and hem, and pale blue flowers dotted across the yellow. It looked simple, but Molly liked the way it made the starburst in her eyes stand out. Casual and lovely. Practical and girly. Perfect.

She’d almost bought two of them. Instead, she’d packed some comfortable shorts, a few nice T-shirts and tops, plenty of underwear and socks, and a scarf to tie around her hair. Thinking of this made her reach up and tuck her brown locks behind her ears. Her hair was almost down to her shoulders and she worried Cole would find it too “girly.” She considered cutting it close to Navy regulations, but figured he’d find that too “boyish.”

She was miserable with excitement.

Besides her clothes, Molly had packed her book reader, her portable computer, a new journal she swore she’d be faithful to this time, a flashlight, a small medical kit, and some toiletries. It was more than she figured she’d need, but the panicky sensation she’d forgotten something started washing over her again—then a familiar shape pulled out of the herd and dissipated all her worries.

Cole.

She almost yelled out to him like the schoolgirl she was (but didn’t want to be). Instead, she watched him scan the crowd for her and tried to deduce what emotions were on his face.

He just looked annoyed, she finally decided.

When his eyes finally found hers, she waved and widened her own, as if they’d just seen each other at the exact same moment. His white teeth stood out on his tan face in a friendly smile. He strolled up to her with long, relaxed strides.