Eris scoffed, impatient. “Can we get on with the brief?” she said to Sher. “Kyla gave me the basics. Details, please.”

“Let me know so I can formally turn it down.” Clo crossed her arms over her chest.

Sher shot Clo a look. “A ship is about to leave Tholos called Zelus,” he said. “It looks like your typical cargo ship, standard S-model spacecraft. Records say Legate Atkis and his crew are delivering to a military outpost and will be taking up a position there. Nothing out of the ordinary, according to the paperwork. It didn’t even register with our intel until we saw these.”

He passed Eris his tablet and Clo edged closer to the screen with a resigned sigh. Eris studied the ship’s schematics with a practiced gaze. She knew every trick her father and brother had in their employ, every secret, but even she didn’t know how Sher and Kyla had managed to obtain a copy of the Oracle’s coding on this spacecraft. Whoever they had hacking into the Tholosian ships’ computers was damn good.

“That’s one flame of a coding structure,” Eris murmured. “The Oracle is keeping a close eye on this one. Could be weapons.” She tapped the screen to get a closer look. “One watches ships like this if they’re sending in supplies to the front lines, especially for a critical battle. There hasn’t been that kind of fight with the Evoli for a few years, but Tholosian resources have been strained since Charon got hit by the asteroid. Food is going to get low if they don’t find another planet that can pick up the slack, and stealing one from the Evoli is a desperate option. Maybe high-risk materials. Something they’d have good reason for the Oracle to watch over. The AI’s programming has become better about detecting supply strains.”

“You’d know, wouldn’t you?” Clo muttered, her lip curling.

“Not helping,” Sher snapped at Clo. He flicked his finger across the screen to bring up an image of the ship at port on Tholos. “What do you think now?”

Eris let out a breath at the image. A typical cargo ship like that shouldn’t have so many soldiers on guard, even for the usual weapon shipments. Her father would have depended on the Oracle’s space scanner to make sure the ship couldn’t be commandeered while in flight. But this? Eris would have used this kind of security to ensure the weapon she had was delivered safely to the battlefront.

For a big win. Possibly Empire-altering. Something that would kill a lot of people.

“That . . . is concerning,” Eris said.

“Understatement,” Clo said. “Hey, Sher, remember how excited I was about a mission before? Scratch that. Assign me to a backwater planet to avoid the slaughter before it starts.”

“And have you miss out on all the fun, Alesca? Wouldn’t dream of it. Stop whining.”