SOLVED. YA sci-fi A girl in space academy [s]

[Kittie]

I read this book back in the early to mid-nineties. It was about a girl in her teens who is sent to a military academy and is joined with an alien partner who has six fingers, one of which is another opposable thumb.

This becomes an important detail later when she and her partner become stranded and she fakes the ability to use the gun that only her partner can use do to her extra finger.

I wish I knew anything else about it.

[Tab]

The Winds of Mars has a girl going to a military academy.

Do you remember the cover?
Time period/location story takes place?
Part of a series?
Do you remember any other characters: friends, family, villains, etc?

[oliviasbooks]

Maybe a little bit too new (1998): Singing the Dogstar Blues

[Edward]

The gun sounds familiar. Are we looking for the same book?
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Kittie]

Oh, the first one sounds close, but there was no time travel as far as I know.

I wish I remembered the cover, it was hardback and I just swiped it off of the shelf because it was a pick of the week.

[Allison]

I know this one! It's The Dancing Meteorite by Anne Mason!

Kira is tiny and human and orphaned, and the 6 finger people she blames for her parents' deaths.

[Kittie]

SOLVED SOLVED SOLVED!! Allison, you are my HERO! The Dancing Meteorite is actually the 1st book and the second one The Stolen Law is the one I was thinking about but you put me on the right path! <3 I could kiss you!

[Allison]

Whoo! I knew I knew it!