Read Cassiel Winters 1: Sky's End for Free Online Page B

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    I step in front of the door, and it vanishes. The room’s bigger than the average alcove on the station. It’s also formal, regal almost. On the wall facing me, above a long thin oval table, at which I’m surprised to see FIVE high-ranking officers seated, is the ESE symbol, Orion’s constellation, in gold sculpture.
    Is this the Commandant’s office?
    I focus on the one familiar face at the table; very round and stoic. It’s the Academy’s director Colonel Sato. He nods and beckons me to enter the room with a hand gesture. I step in, confused, scanning the other officers at the table, none of whom I recognize, except the gray-haired, stern-looking man. Yep, ESE Commandant Thomas Abernathy is here, sitting beside Sato. So I am being kicked out of the Academy, and by the Commandant himself. Wow, must be a slow day in the galaxy . This is above and beyond. Really.
    On my side of the table, I’m surprised to see the backs of two familiar heads. King turns to face me, and his face is openly stormy.
    I raise my eyebrows at him. What’s going on here? Then I look at Professor Xeno, who stares at me. His perfectly round, nearly all-white eyes lack human expression, making him impossible to read.
    I sincerely hope the two of them are not here to defend me. That would be . . . extra humiliating. I reach the table and stand behind a chair, one removed from King and Professor Xeno. As politely as I can muster, wide-eyed with a strained smile, I ask the two of them, “What are you doing here?”
    Then I glance across the table at Colonel Sato, attempting to make it clear by my facial expression that I did not ask them to be here.
    But he’s taking in my fitted civilian top, my long hair. His brows knit in disapproval. Heat rushes to my face. When I glance at Commandant Abernathy, he is . . . not disapproving at all. In fact, he’s quite the opposite. He looks me up and down, lingering on my breasts and then my face. His expression is pleased. There’s no other way to describe it. I glance back at King, confused. He’s shooting daggers at the Commandant. Clearly he saw what I saw. Oh, forget this .
    “Look,” I volley. “This really isn’t necessary.”
    King tries to cut in, says my name, but I talk over him. “I have a pretty good idea where I stand, and I won’t be requiring an extensive formal review of my mistakes, which, frankly—” My voice has notched up two octaves.
    “Cadet Cassiel Winters!” interrupts Colonel Sato.
    I leave the sentence, dangling mid-air. Probably for the best.
    “We ordered you here to discuss your status,” he says, in a calmer tone, still frowning. “Take a seat.”
    I sit down in the chair, rigid, and, I realize, pretty resentful about the dressing down they seem determined to give me.
    “Cadet Winters, are you aware of the Thell’eon species?” asks Commandant Abernathy.
    Huh? Why are they asking me about that?
    I look up from the hole I’m boring in the table. All the officers sport very serious expressions on their faces. They’re examining me like I’m a piece of weaponry. I glance at King, who’s so rigid, I half think he might pounce out of his chair.
    Professor Xeno is mindful of me, but does not turn in his chair to make eye contact. Just the other day I asked him what he knew about the Thell’eon. He said we would save that lesson for another day.
    Two weeks ago, Com-Tab News confirmed station-wide rumors that ESE had encountered a new alien species from the remote Deca-Halon galaxy called Thell’eon. The report also noted that while they had not yet been identified as a hostile threat, they were en route to our galaxy, and, thus, we had been put on orange alert. ESE wasn’t always such a tight militaristic operation. But notions of cavalier space travel were quashed when humans discovered one pretty unsettling reality about our universe: there aren’t a lot of Goldilocks planets (those that fall within a ‘just right’ zone in the sun’s orbit, not too