Page 67 of Guardian's Heart

"Thanks, Kevin. I always love meeting my fans—especially ones as hyped as you!"

To be fair, the kid was making it easy for Nock's head to get bigger. "I can’t believe I’m talking to you! You’re, like, my hero. I tell everyone at school about your streams! So what are you working on now?"

"I'm working on a top-secret stream right now about Space Guardians."

"Cool!" Kevin enthused. "When can I see it?"

"Hopefully soon. We need to find out some things first."

"Like what?"

"Nock," I warned the Kred to shut up.

Nock deflated some, but his smile returned in no time. "What about you? What are you schooling in?"

Kevin bloomed under all the attention. "I want to be a Superior Commander like Uncle Xandros, so he's been training me remotely. Actually, right now, he gave this kinda really cool homework."

Nock surprised me; he seemed genuinely interested in Kevin. "Oh yeah? What’s the assignment?"

"I'm supposed to research planets that have been put under quarantine and write about what happened there. You know,like diseases, plagues, or, um… I dunno, alien infestations or something. I have to learn their locations and degrees of quarantine, so I won't ever send my men to them," Kevin answered seriously, and I froze.

Nock, however, didn't. I wasn't sure if he was just more of a pro when it came to surprise revelations or if Kevin's words went over his head, and he just rolled with the flow. At least not until he finished his sentence, proving her was wilier than I had ever given him credit for.

"Quarantine planets, huh? That’s… actually pretty fascinating and interesting because I’ve been looking into some pretty big stuff about diseases myself. There was this plague that wiped out half the population on one planet… It’s a bit of a mystery, honestly."

I was about to reign Nock back in, but again, he proved himself to be more in control than I thought. "I can’t say too much, top-secret and all, you know. But let’s just say the Space Guardians are very interested in it. Hey, Kevin, do you have a list of those quarantine planets?"

It would have been easy to pull that list up ourselves, but Nock involving Kevin made the kid happy. "Sure, I’ve got it saved on my comm."

Nock leaned over conspiratorially to Kevin. "You mind sending it over? I think you might’ve just helped me with something big, Kev."

"Really? You mean, like, I could helpyouwith your secret Space Guardian stuff?" Kevin's smile lit up the room.

"Absolutely. You’re already a hero in the making, Kevin. Just zap me that list, and I’ll do the rest. And hey—don’t tell anyone, alright? We don’t want the Ohrurs getting wind of this.”

Kevin pulled out his comm and Nock his. "I’ll send it right now. This issocool!"

Nock winked at him. "Thanks, Kevin. You’re sharper than most adults I know. Keep an eye on my next stream—you’ll wanna hear what I find out."

"Did you hear that, Uncle Garth?" Kevin ran over to his uncle. "Aunt Silla." He pulled on Silla's sleeve.

Garth leaned over and looked thoughtfully at Nock. "Alright, Nock, you earned this. Do you want a story about the Terrible Triplets? Fine. But this stays between us, got it? The Emperor would not appreciate this one being public knowledge." Here, he winked, meaning, just keepmyname out of it.

Garth continued, “ Back at the training academy, the three of us decided to prove how brilliant we were—Daryus, Xandros, and I. We were in the middle of a mock war game with an opposing team and decided to up the stakes. One night, we snuck into the opposing team’s hangar and took their fighter.”

Nock’s eyebrows shot up. “You stole a ship?”

“Borrowed,” Garth corrected, raising a finger.

Nock grinned. “I’m sensing this didn’t go as planned.”

“Not even close,” Garth admitted, shaking his head. “We got the ship off the ground—barely. Daryus insisted on piloting, of course,because he had a natural gift, and Xandros was in charge of navigation. I was… well, I was supervising.”

“Supervising?” Nock asked, clearly amused.

“Alright, fine, I was sitting in the back eating a nutrition bar and making sarcastic comments,” Garth admitted. “Anyway, we didn’t realize the ship’s guidance systems were busted. Halfway through ourwar game, the nav system started to act up, and before we knew it, we were hurtling toward the academy’s training grounds at full speed.”

Nock winced. “You didn’t…”

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