Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens Lost Stars by Claudia Gray, Phil Noto Page B

them down further than the second quartile. Still, it stung.
    “Normally,” the commandant continued, “a violation of the honor code would call for disciplinary hearings and potential expulsion. As we cannotget any closer to the truth,
however, this would prove useless. Although I have punished you both, I am not willing to expel two gifted pilots based on such murky information. You will both continue on as cadets. Rest assured,
however—if any similar incident arises during your time at the academy, for either or both of you, expulsion will be immediate and permanent. Do you understand?”
    “Yes, sir,” Thane and Ciena said in unison. Her voice sounded as hollow as his.
    They walked out of Deenlark’s office suite in silence. From there—one of the top floors of the academy building—the view through the green-tinted windows showed what seemed to
be half of Coruscant. A few benches and chairs were located there for junior officers, students, and visitors, so that when they saw thecity spread before them, they would recognize the
commandant’s power. No one was visiting this evening, however; Thane and Ciena were alone.
    As if they had rehearsed in advance, they both walked to the windows before they turned to each other. When their eyes met, she exhaled in the deepest relief. “You didn’t do
it.”
    “Neither did you.” He ought to have known that all along. They smiledat each other, faith restored—but the problem wasn’t solved. Thane sagged back against one of the
metal columns between the windows. “So who the hell did?”
    Ciena scowled. “Somebody who wanted top marks on the project. Probably that snake Ved Foslo.”
    “I’m not as sure about that. Ved’s good with mechanical stuff; he would have placed in the top echelon even without cheating. So why bother?Besides, he’s a stickler for
rules, even when they work against him.”
    “So who would frame us both, and try to make us hate each other?” Her face looked stricken. “Sabotaging the cannon and the data wasn’t just scheming to get ahead. Someone
wanted to hurt us.”
    Who in their class had a grudge against them both? Nobody personally hated them—as far as Thane knew, which maybe wasn’t farenough. “It has to be because we’re both at
the top of the class.”
    Ciena groaned. “You mean we
were
. This knocks us so far down—”
    “Only for now.” He realized he’d balled his hands into fists. “We have to figure out who really did this. Once we turn that person in, we’ll get our rankings back
and get the jerk thrown out.”
    “Nobody who would do something like this deserves to be anImperial officer,” she said, lifting her chin. “You’re right. We get to the truth, and then we make the guilty
party pay.”
    Thane nodded. Outside, ships and hoverbikes darted through the misty sunset of the city. “Okay, how do we begin?”
    Jude agreed to help them, though as they sat at one of the spare data stations later that night, she warned, “My earlier analysis wrongly implicatedThane. Therefore my
skills must be called into question.”
    “Don’t say that.” Ciena put one hand on her friend’s shoulder. “You found the wrong solution because someone set you up to find it. Now that you know you need to
dig deeper, I bet you’ll get the answer in no time. Right, Thane?” She shot him a look and he nodded, as if he hadn’t argued the exact same thing about Jude’s abilitiesoutside the commandant’s office when Ciena first suggested they try this.
    But she believed in her friend. If they were going to find the truth, Jude would be their best guide.
    Jude worked at her terminal for several minutes while no one spoke, or hardly even moved. The only sound in the enormous data analysis room was the soft tapping of Jude’s fingers on the
controls; the only lightcame from the dozens of terminals vacant at that late hour, all of them glowing faintly blue. Ciena glanced over at Thane once to find him already