Kira spotted the vivid green of Odin's eye as her friend stepped out of the shadows. A patch covered the other. An earring glinted in one ear. It served to announce that Odin was in their feminine aspect today.
"What kind of change?" Odin asked.
The J1N plowed into a set of low hanging wires. They wrapped around its body, hindering its forward momentum. Despite that, the drone didn't stop. There was a crack before debris rained down from above.
"That kind."
Odin's frown held a hint of accusation. "What did you do to Jin?"
"That thing isn't Jin."
"How is that possible?"
Kira dug her thumbnail into the pad of her pointer finger to steady herself. "A few things happened after you took your leave from the Quorum."
At Odin’s imperious glance, Kira ran through the sequence of events that had happened since they’d seen each other last. "Elise orchestrated an attack on the adva ka. We all nearly died. Jin's existence as a soul bound was exposed in the process. The Tuann put him on trial. We survived only for a hidden enemy to inject Elena with an isotope that allowed the Tsavitee to teleport her to their home world. One of Jin's spawn went with her. He hitched a ride with it."
Odin stared, her expression growing more horrified with every sentence.
"I really hope you're close," Kira finished, unable to keep her desperation out of those last words.
"I am."
Kira’s breath left her in a whoosh of relief. Thank all the Gods that existed.
"But I'm not there yet."
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.