Page 149 of Stars At Dusk

Since then, she’d avoided him at all costs, even bedding in her office. She’d ordered an air mattress and linen a few days earlier. Then, according to Mirage, she’d set up one of the empty corners of her lab as her new digs.

She was sending a message, and he’d got it loud and clear.

He didn’t push to speak with or see her, but damn, it hurt. It cut him up that she still wasn’t ready yet for a future with him. Her lack of faith in what they could be was eating away at him, and he wondered whether he’d lost her for good. Lost her to hopelessness and her work.

That said, she was giving her all to her project. First, she’d sent through initial schematics to incorporate her fuel concept into a new model corvette - the basis for upgrading all of The Sable Group’s engines. Then, collaborating closely with Mirage, Harlow and her team were testing and retesting simulations of her fuel fusion concept, examining every algorithm and vector to pick up any deviations within the combustion chamber of a working engine and tweaking the control systems accordingly. It was mind-numbing, slow work, and he didn’t envy the team. He’d offered to help, but Harlow had said it wasn’t necessary.

Which had twisted the knife in his gut even deeper.

All he could do was hope she’d come to see the beauty of what they had together, because years of hits and misses with other women told him she was‘it’for him.

On a positive work front, King Auban and Prime Minister Terion had come to the party, signing off on Kainan’s proposal for carte blanche action to go after the Rinnax group and infiltrate Rhesia’s comms for intel.

Mirage had set to work unleashing metanoids containing automated code from King Auban and the Prime Minister’s comm devices. Now Mirage could silently surveil calls, messages and locations, sifting through hours of data to pinpoint any conversations or discussions that would lead them to the enemy.

Despite all the activity going down, Kage was restless. He stood and paced his office, clenching his fists, needing some action to siphon off his edge.

An alert sounded from his comm tab. He reached for it and swiped the screen.

‘Mirage?’

Odd.The AI mostly used the Riders’ neural node network to reach him. Calling him direct via comms was highly unusual.

‘Kage. Something’s going down. My sensors have detected incursion alerts from the pair of meta mote chips we implanted in the Rinnax clones.’

‘Here on Eden II?’

‘Yep.’

‘Ballsy!’

‘Additionally, our surveillance drones and cams have been knocked out to the north of the rock. Someone is also trying to hack our comms, including our neural node network, so I’m keeping us all off it. It’s a massive attempt, which I can handle, but I need you to check out the surveillance cams and drone network - and the attack’s origin - in person.’

‘Where?’

‘Somewhere over the cave that Ruben Rinnax called home.’

‘I’ll go check it out,’ Kage said, typing commands into his comm tab to summon Void X from the surface. ‘I’m the best person to fix anything anyway. And Mirage, get Zane in on this. You could use his help. Especially against the clones. They must be behind this.’

‘Copy that,’ the AI replied.

‘Do we need to shut any other systems down?’

‘Nada. No need to panic yet.’

‘Got you. I’ll keep you posted.’

Kage moved, first, towards a slide-out drawer along his office wall. He pulled out a full meta suit and donned that, pulling on his anti-grav boots. He activated a set of hidden shelves above it and selected a pulse sword ballistic rifle, two handguns and his knives, which he tucked into their slots in the suit.

He hooked his helmet under his arm and headed for the door, locking down his office.

Pausing in the corridor, he glanced towards the closed door of Harlow’s office. He felt an overwhelming need to reach for her, to touch her. His feet took an unconscious step in her direction before he paused. He couldn’t do it to himself. She wasn’t ready. All a confrontation would do was fox with his heart, possibly twisting it into a deeper ball of misery than it was already in.

He walked away, using his node to try and reach Kainan. He only got static, so he picked up his pace.

Kage reached the orbital pad and only had to wait a minute before Void X appeared. He hopped into the craft, turned on stealth mode and raced out of Skylab towards the mountain ranges and wild plains to the north of Eden II.

He pulled up the plain’s map layout on his HUD, determining the fastest route. He winged over the silver lunar highlands littered with ancient sanctuaries and temples where great festivals must have been held, celebrating the splendour, power and wealth of the Paladians at their peak.

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