me. Because if she’s not ...”
He let his words trail off. He shook his head.
“If she’s not?” Lynda asked. They all needed to know.
“We’re in trouble,” Coop said. “And the situation we landed in is a real mess. Maybe the worse we’ve ever encountered.”
“Is it our business, sir?” Dix asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” Coop said. “But I’m terrified that it might be.”
“Terrified?” Anita asked, her voice trembling.
He looked at her. He realized he had never used that word, not once, in his entire command.
“Terrified,” he confirmed. Then he nodded once and left the bridge.
* * * *
SIXTY-ONE
I
sit there, my mouth open. The captain has just left. I’m not even sure what he’s understood, what he’s really been told.
Al-Nasir is sitting stiffly beside me. The lieutenant gets up. She sweeps a hand toward the food. We haven’t touched any of it.
I get up as well. I haven’t left the table since we started this discussion.
“What was the last thing you told him?” I ask as I reach for a pastry. It looks fresh and home baked, and I even recognize the form. Some things do move from culture to culture. “Did you tell him that the Empire would try to take his ship?”
She smiles at me distractedly. She takes a pastry, too, then waves a plate at Al-Nasir. He shakes his head once.
She sets her plate in front of her place, as if we’re at a formal dinner.
“No one can take this ship,” she says.
I frown. “We’ve found a lot of damaged Dignity Vessels.”
“You do not know if they were damaged by time or by someone else.”
“You have weapons scoring on the side of your ship.”
She blinks at me. For a moment, I think she’s going to pretend she doesn’t understand. Then I realize she’s listening to a link in her ear. Someone has confirmed the translation for her.
She nods. “They did not take our ship, did they?”
I set my plate down, then walk back to my seat. But I don’t sit. Instead, I take a sip of the wine. It’s strong, too strong for a business meeting. I set the glass aside, then go back to the sideboard for some water.
I am moving because it keeps me calm. I want to try the door, to see if Al-Nasir and I are prisoners here, but I do not. I said some alarming things to their captain. Perhaps he is checking on them. Perhaps he is consulting with their people. Perhaps he is checking the translations. I don’t know, but I’m going to give him a little time. Not a lot, but enough to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I hold up a pitcher, silently offering Al-Nasir some water. He nods. I pour him a glass as well, then give it to him. His hands are shaking.
“So what is going on here?” I ask the lieutenant.
“I’m not exactly sure,” she says.
“And if you were sure,” I say, “you wouldn’t tell me, right?”
“I do not know,” she says. “It would depend on my orders.”
She’s honest, at least.
I take a sip of my water, which has a filtered taste. I don’t try the pastry, not yet. I did sound melodramatic, telling him about the Empire. He has no way to confirm what I’ve said, either. It would sound as strange to me as the stories I heard about the Colonnade Wars when I was searching for information about one of their generals, years ago. Something that didn’t concern me, except in the way that it had just intersected with my life.
The door opens, and the captain comes back. His cheeks are flushed, his eyes radiant. He looks like a man who has come to some kind of decision.
I set the water glass down so that my hands don’t shake. I want to be prepared for anything.
His gaze meets mine, and he speaks with more animation than I’ve seen from him. The lieutenant translates.
“I’m sending a team to fix what you call the death holes. It shouldn’t take long. It’s a relatively common malfunction that we usually have safeguards for. Clearly all of the safeguards have failed.”
“Clearly,” I mutter. A common malfunction that kills a lot of people.
“What I need from you,” he says, “is guidance. I’m taking a team to the surface. I want you, Al-Nasir, the lieutenant, and I to accompany them. I need to see this Vaycehn myself.”
My breath catches. In my shock, I note that he actually said “Vaycehn” and pronounced it correctly.
Al-Nasir speaks before I do. He’s shaking his