Kira’s head went silent. The kind of silence that was almost audible. A ringing that eclipsed everything else.
Kira's lungs expanded. She could feel her chest rise and fall. Yet despite that, it was as if air wasn't reaching them.
Her vision tunneled. From a distance, she heard a tinny buzzing.
Hands caught her shoulders as that buzzing got louder.
Odin, Kira realized distantly. Her friend was saying something. Shouting it really.
"Get a hold of yourself, Nixxy Poo! You don't get to fall apart yet," Odin snarled, shaking her.
Kira placed a hand over Odin's and pushed it away. "Your empathy is breathtaking."
"As is your ability to act like the sky is falling."
Odin pushed to her feet as Kira became aware of where she was sitting. On the ground next to Odin's command chair. The time between when she was standing and the present was a blur.
"I never thought I'd see the Phoenix have a panic attack."
"And you haven't yet."
"Look here." Odin ignored Kira's lie as she touched the controls on the chair's arm. "This is where I'm at."
Trillions of stars blinked into existence as a holographic representation of the universe formed.
"I took the data you obtained from the Tsavitee ship and cross referenced it with the star maps you downloaded from Luatha's nexus. As well as every star map and scrap of information the Consortium has recorded in regards to the attacks and the direction the Tsavitee's ships were detected from. I even dug through Haldeel long range scanners and their considerable database of star maps for possible points of origin."
"That's what you were doing on Almaluc," Kira exclaimed.
She'd always found it strange how Odin had followed her to Jettie when the Sye was so busy tracking down the Tsavitee home world.
"You used the Vega's command codes to infiltrate Centcom," Kira said in discovery.
No wonder Odin had arranged for the ship to be brought planetside. Kira was only surprised Himoto hadn't deactivated those the second the Vega was lost.
"With everything I've compiled, I've managed to narrow the field to this section of space."
The map zoomed into a quadrant of the universe. Over a hundred solar systems were magnified on screen.
Kira raised her knees to rest her wrists on them. "How big is the search grid?"
Odin shuffled, busying herself with the chair's command controls.
Kira's eyes slipped closed. "Okay, then. How long would a search of that section of space take?"
"Years."
Kira breathed through the stab of panic. "Jin and Elena don't have years."
"I know."
"Can you narrow it?"
Odin shook her head with a look of regret. "Not without the possibility of also eliminating their location."
"What if I had someone who has been there recently and could give us another data point?"
Odin's features rearranged. It was like watching water ripple as the Sye's bone structure shifted to create a face with more masculine features than it had a second ago. His jaw was a little more angular. His chin wider and stronger. His lips lost their plumpness, becoming a thinner version of themselves.
Kira watched as Odin went from female to male in a shorter time span than it would have taken to change outfits. The effort as natural as breathing to him.
"The general," Odin guessed.
Kira dipped her chin in the tiniest of nods.
Odin folded his hands over his arms as he considered. "On the grounds we're able to trust a single word out of his mouth, then yes, it could work."
Kira's heart thumped in excitement.
"At the very least it might get us close enough that I can use the J1N's connection to the spawn to locate Jin and your niece." Odin leveled a serious look on her. "That's a mighty big if, though. The generals aren't your biggest fan. There's a whole lot of enmity built up between his kind and you. He's more likely to sabotage us."
Kira didn't care about that. "He'll help."
And if he didn't, she'd just kill him.
"I hope so. Because this is Tsavitee territory we're talking about. One mistake and we won't have to worry about what they'll do to Jin and your niece. We'll be dead."
Or worse. They'd be prisoners at the mercy of monsters.
Odin touched his jaw absently before reaching up to snag the earring dangling from his ear lobe.
"Does that ever bother you?" Kira dipped her chin at his hand. "Having to use an earring to indicate your gender?"
Odin held up the earring. "What? This?"
Kira nodded.
It had to be exhausting, constantly having to signal to others what would have felt obvious to him.
One side of Odin's mouth hooked up. "Most people are oblivious when I switch genders. The observant might notice that there's something different about me, but they rarely suspect the truth of my existence. It's what has let me survive. Their cluelessness. Otherwise, the Tsavitee would have hunted me down a long time ago." Odin's gaze was deep as he studied Kira. "You and Jin are some of the only ones able to recognize my shifts."
"Not quite." Kira rose from the floor. "Diesel and his people know something is up. They think you're a pair of twins. A male and a female."
Odin stopped, turning back to Kira with an arrested expression. "Do they?"
Kira hummed an agreement.
"Fascinating," Odin breathed, his gaze introspective. "They're wrong, but their ability to spot my differences is intriguing in and of itself."
That was one way to see it.
"You must have spent considerable time around them."
"Only what was necessary."
Kira regarded the hacker. "Sounds lonely."
She'd never considered how isolated Odin was. No wonder the Sye made a habit of popping by every now and then.
"I'm alive. That's its own reward."
"Guess I can't argue with that," Kira said.
Odin changed the subject. "Do I want to know how you managed to remand the general into your custody? The Tuann aren't the type to give up possession of their prisoners."
"Probably not."
Odin chuckled. "That sounds like you."
"It does, doesn't it?" Kira said with a smirk.
Odin made a beckoning gesture. "Go ahead and summon him. I'm interested to see what the loyal hound has to say."
Kira shifted, uncomfortably. "About that—"
Odin sent her a questioning look.
"He's not exactly with me," Kira confessed.
Odin frowned. "I was under the impression you had him in your possession."
"I do." This was annoying to have to explain. "At least he was. There was a slight hiccup during transport."
"I take it he escaped," Odin guessed.
"More like I was kidnapped."
Bafflement showed on Odin’s face.
In the resulting silence, the J1N bumped into a screen and bounced off it, changing directions. It drifted in a straight line until it knocked into something else, shifting course again.
"You were kidnapped," Odin stated in a flat voice, dipping his head to peer at her with one eye. "By the forty three, I'm guessing."
Kira nodded.
"And now you're here."
"Yup."
"They wouldn't have let you go so easy. Which of your siblings did they send?"
"I resent that assumption," Kira defended. "I'm perfectly capable of escaping them on my own."
"Which? Kira!"