Kanushin (Starweaver's Tapestry #1)

Chapter 23: Declassified

Sky peeked out the window of Bugu's shop when she heard the sound of stomping footsteps coming from the junkyard. Elation filled her when she saw the others had returned, but upon closer inspection, she noticed they had been through the wringer. Kirrik carried Imi in his arms, and the whole group was covered in bruises, scrapes and cuts. They had even managed to bring someone new with them, a towering Kunar whose footsteps were what called her attention to begin with. She turned back toward a napping Nox and Bugu.

"They're here!" She shouted.

Nox's eyes fluttered open and she rubbed them vigorously. Bugu, on the other hand, jumped from the sudden noise and rolled off of his chair and onto the floor. Nox helped him back up and made her way to the window.

"They're looking a little rough," She commented. "I see they managed to convince Balakus to join them, though."

"Is he your contact? The one you mentioned earlier?" Sky inquired. She hadn't realized how close behind her Nox had gotten. She could smell the faint tinge of spice and oil.

"Yeah," Nox confirmed. "I didn't want to tell you all he was a Kunar before you had a chance to meet him. He's a great person, just caught up in the wrong side of things."

The group made their way up the stairs and to the door. Kirrik entered first and rushed to the couch to lay Imi down. Diah and Zaius shuffled to the side out of the way, and Balakus struggled to get in.

"What happened?" Sky asked as she dropped down next to Imi. She pooled her energy forward into her hands and crafted the azure waves of her Kanushin. Kirrik put his hand up.

"That's not going to work," He told her bluntly. "We got ambushed by some members of the Regime. I think one of them may have fried her systems."

"Ambushed?" She repeated and looked toward Nox. The latter shrugged her arms in confusion.

Kirrik looked at Sky with pain and guilt in his eyes. "If you can do anything to help, I'd do anything I could to repay you. Please."

"Let me look," She said. Her irises spun and turned red as she switched her vision over to her electronic sensors. She gazed over Imi's body and kept track of the bursts of energy that fired throughout her. From where she stood, nothing seemed out of place. She moved up and turned Imi's head.

"I need you to do me a favor and hold her eyes open," She instructed Kirrik.

He did as she said. "What is this going to do?"

"I can trace the flow of energy through her body, but there's no obstruction or destroyed areas. Whatever is causing her trouble is inside her processing unit itself," Sky answered. "I'm going to have to force my way into her system and unlock things, piece by piece."

"Will that hurt her at all?" Zaius asked from behind them. The others all stood closely by.

"No," Sky responded. "She's just not going to like the invasion of privacy."

Sky's eyes locked onto Imi's and mirrored the neon green color. Both sets of irises spun as Sky forced a connection between her MenXhip and Imi's central processor.

The room went black and Sky fell through a portal of darkness into a frozen scene. Imi sat on her knees in the middle of a destroyed lab, head turned toward a man coming through the doorway. The lab seemed blasted apart by some sort of explosion. She moved closer and realized the man was a younger Kirrik.

"Imi!" She called out to the frozen android. There was no response. Sky slid past Kirrik and reached a jagged ledge behind him. She looked down and saw the edge of another platform. Her mind ran through the schematics and specs that Imi's chip had divulged to her back on the Nova. She had a simple, but dangerous, idea and needed to make sure she had preserved all of Imi's data that she could. Sky took a deep breath and leapt down.