Page 56 of Guardian's Heart

As I had already learned, the screens seemed to appear out of thin air and were easy to turn; each side was like an open tab in a browser.

"I've set it to your language again so you can read it," Nock explained.

Feeling a little bit more open to the alien technology, I dared to ask, "But what about you?"

He pointed at his eyes. "I put in translation lenses. Don't worry about me. I'm good."

Translation lenses?

Sure.

"Okay then."

"Good. If you find something that will help us, swipe it like this," he demonstrated by swiping at a window with his finger, moving it up and snapping it against the ship's screen wall like a projector.

"So what are we doing? Where are we breaking into?" I sat down in the other captain's chair.

"I've searched through all the databases I could get my hands on: Pandraxian, GTU, Melvian, you name it. The only two I haven't utilized yet are the Cryon's and the Ohrur's." His face remained too neutral.

"You want to use Zaarek's absence to break into the Ohrur system?"

He nodded.

I grinned and cracked my fingers, all in. Zaarek might not be happy about this, but I wasn't about to let that spoil my fun. "Okay, so how do we go about that? Firewall?"

"Quantum Grid is what we call it," he filled me in. "The Ohrur's technology is much more advanced than any in the universe. They purchase the latest inventions and turn them into what they need, so breaking into their Quantum Grid is more or less out of the question."

"Doesn't Zaarek have access to it?" I asked, wondering why we needed to break into it in the first place.

"He doesn't know it, but his access is limited," Nock filled me in, opening a window. "Here, I was able to get a hold of this. It's a hierarchical list of access to their database."

The names or titles I looked at didn't mean anything to me, aside from Space Guardian and Minder. I didn't like the titleMinder, but from what I understood, he or she was Zaarek's direct supervisor.

From the list, I gathered that only four people had access to the unlimited database.

"The Ohrur system is built on an Oligarchy," Nock filled me in, "the four most successful corporation leaders lead their government. Those four families have been in power for centuries."

"So we need to crack one of their passwords?" I guessed.

"That would be the preferred way in."

"I'm assuming you have a program that can do that?"

He nodded but raised a cautioning finger. "Let's call this little enterprise a test. Poke around and see how far or deep we can get."

I wasn't sure I understood what he meant.

"Just let your curiosity fly like you would on any of your Earth programs."

I shrugged. I trusted he had some sort of plan, even though I had no idea what that might be. But poking was what I liked to do.

"So you're getting a bad vibe from the Ohrurs, too?" I asked Nock while searching for anything Space Guardian related.

"I've always had a bad feeling about them. At first I thought it was both the Ohrurs and the Space Guardians, but after spending some time with Zaarek, I'm sure it's the Ohrurs who I need to focus on."

He swiped a screen up against the big wall. "Look here."

My eyes moved up at the screen filled with numbers. "What is this?"

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