Kanushin (Starweaver's Tapestry #1)

Chapter 4: Breach

Black swirled into gray as Diah woke, her blurred vision clearing into an image of blue steel interior. She looked around, the throbbing pain in the upper right of her head made worse by the movement.

The blood from her wound had dried and crusted, clumping her normally silken hair. She blinked again, adjusting to the darkness. The room was empty except for a small crate thrown into the corner.

Diah stood then fell back down as her legs gave way. As she moved to catch herself, she became aware of the cuffs placed around her wrists. She landed awkwardly to avoid them, taking most of the blow to her shoulder instead. She sighed.

"Of course there's cuffs."

Diah rolled onto her back and placed her hands together, channeling her energy into a small purple ball. She placed two fingers inside and tugged at the core, using her other hand to shape it into a dagger.

Satisfied, Diah flipped the dagger around with her fingers and began to saw away at the cuff's connecting latch. She had yet to meet a lock, chain or cuff that could best her.

The latch gave a quiet snap and Diah pulled her arms apart in victory. Picking the cuff's locks with ease, she tossed them to the side. She studied the room once more.

'This is definitely a Kunar ship,' Diah thought as she ran a hand across the featureless wall. 'The steel here can only be mined on Yara. But what do the Kunar want with me?'

Diah walked slowly along the wall, tracing it with her fingers.

'Probably political,' She continued in her mind. 'It's always political.'

Her index finger caressed a groove in the wall, near invisible to the eye. She had found the door, and with it, a way out. She slid her dagger into the groove then pressed against it with all her weight. Even though her Kanushin seemed indestructible in its dagger form, there was a small hint of fear that this may be the one time it broke.

The door clicked, then whirred open to a circular bay. A large silver slab sat in the middle of the space, the light from its hologram illuminating the rest. A handful of plasma rifles and boxes of nucleocores were strewn about the floor. Nothing Diah could use, but also no one around to worry about.

This was one of the only times she was thankful for her mother. Being a member of the Alis, the Chyl's governing bureaucracy, made Wyrna and her daughter constant targets. Wyrna had made sure that, from a very young age, Diah would be able to protect herself and get out of any potentially dangerous situations. While her methods may have been a bit too extreme and, at times, even borderline tortuous, Diah had to acknowledge the advantage it gave her.

She peered around the bay once more, dagger in hand, then moved to the slab. The hologram floated above her, a rotating planetary view of the galactic quadrant they were in.

"This doesn't make sense," She mumbled to herself as she traced the ship's trajectory. "We're moving too fast to be heading for any of these planets."

Diah swiped her hands across the map, zooming in on the ship itself. She rotated the view once more and saw a large cylindrical satellite just ahead. No, not a satellite. A station. Understanding rushed in.

"Tovarro, the only station where you can lose one person in a sea of eight billion," She whispered.

She had to go, and fast. If the Kunar docked on Tovarro, any hope of tracking her down would be completely lost.

Diah inched toward the opposite end of the bay, anxious to find the door to the piloting deck. As she approached the bare wall, muffled radio chatter caught her ear. Pressing her back flat against it, she slowly slid sideways as the chatter got louder.