are now, but they need to get to the gate and barricade it if Dubashi shows up.” Something they could only do if Grunburg and his engineering buddies succeeded in making a slydar detector of their own in time. “We can’t let him get into System Lion.”
“Damn that Rache.”
“He has his own agenda. We have to focus on ours.”
“Right. I’m going to find some combat armor that fits me, just in case we get boarded.” His eyes narrowed. “Or get the chance to board someone else. Do you want me to see about finding you some?”
“I have a galaxy suit on the Dragon… which I just realized I should have retrieved before the Dragon left the station.”
“Likely so.”
“I’ve been distracted. It’s Bonita’s anyway. I’ve been borrowing it from her. Yes, if you can find me a galaxy suit or, I guess, armor, I’ll take it.”
“You’re supposed to sound more enthused about armor. It keeps you alive when people fire at you.”
“I know, but if people are firing at me, it means I’ve failed to achieve my goals through diplomacy, charm, or appearing too inept for them to bother shooting. In that case, the mission is doomed.”
“I’ll find you some. Nobody can be charming all the time.” Tristan patted him on the shoulder. “You should get some rest. Even if it’s only in a supply closet for a couple of hours.”
Casmir smiled bleakly. “I need to make sure a slydar detector is on one of those ships when we launch, and I don’t think the sultan is going to give me the one in his control room.”
20
“Are you finding anything enlightening?” Natasha Sunflyer asked.
Kim leaned back from the three displays scrolling data and showing images from slides under microscopes. “Actually, yes. I’m debating what to do with it.”
Natasha approached, her hands clasped behind her back. She had been working in her lab while Kim scoured through her deceased father’s files at another work station.
“What did you find? I don’t think he was working on viruses here, nothing deadly certainly. We don’t have a facility with the proper biosafety level for that, and Sultan Shayban specifically said he didn’t want anything virulent and lethal being experimented on here. This last year, my father was helping me study positive-sense, single-stranded RNA mycophages.”
“I’m sure he was, but he brought his data with him from System Cerberus. See?” Kim pointed to one of the displays. It was full of the Orthobuliaviricetes virus, not mycophages.
“He didn’t bring any live samples with him, did he?” Natasha peered around the lab with fresh concern.
“I don’t know. Probably not. This is old research, and I think he refined it further when he was captured by Dubashi. But it was based on something he’d started years earlier.”
“Would it be useful in creating a vaccine?”
“Yes. If I were back home—in Zamek City—at my lab there, we have frozen samples of the Orthobuliaviricetes virus that I could modify. I could create a live culture and experiment on it. Or better yet, hand it off to four virologists far more qualified than I to work on it. They could come up with an antiviral.” Kim thumped her fist on the table. “I know we want the gate to stay closed so Dubashi can’t get out, but I wish I could bundle all this data off to them. Then they’d have a shot at coming up with something before Dubashi’s ship could get there. Maybe.” Kim considered how long it took to create and test vaccines and how long it took a ship to fly from the gate to Odin. Her maybe was a big one. She would at least bundle everything up to send as soon as possible, but she had better hope that Casmir succeeded at replicating the slydar detectors and finding Dubashi.
A letter came in from Rache.
Greetings, Scholar Sato, it started formally, as usual, I hope you are well and will not be hurt in what’s shaping up to be a scuffle at Stardust Palace Station. I was tempted to fly over there and retrieve you, but I am no longer in the area, and coming close would be difficult for me, now that Shayban has that slydar detector. I have arranged for something to be delivered to you, should you need help in battle. But please remember that there’s no shame in hiding in a cabinet in a laboratory, not when you’re a scientist and it would be a crime for your mind to be lost at the hands of