Carbon had coached him a bit more to be more functional in the link. His thoughts spilled out less, and he no longer had that laser-focus she liked unless he actively wanted to do it. Right now he didn’t. He wanted this to be as comfortable an experience for Kaleta as possible and that did not include trying to bore a hole in her mind.

Kaleta pretty obviously didn’t want to link with him. Which was unfortunate because she’d been instrumental in starting so much shit that everyone else in the room was mad as hell at her. Alex was reasonably sure that the waitress was, too. He’d never worked in a restaurant but was sure that the customer that steals booze and drinks so much you have to call for paramedics was not your favorite.

And since Eleya, Carbon, and even her fraternal sister Neya were visibly upset with her behavior, he got to be the good cop. Everyone here can vouch for my ability. Let’s get what happened sorted out.

Her discomfort was even more obvious in the shared mental space. Kaleta’s presence radiated anxious spikes in all directions, a nervous hum filling the imagined area out like cosmic background radiation. It was just there. Something that he’d never experienced with anyone else, though none of them had expected him to be some sort of barbarian.

“Ad akai-na, Kaleta. Sa meha tetsh.” Alex started with a reasonably formal greeting in her native language, bold but not forceful. This was showtime. Everyone was having a bad time and he was going to make it way worse for Kaleta with professionalism and courtesy and she would never know that was completely intentional on his part.

The greeting turned everything into a staticky, sickly surge of alarm. That escalated quickly, stinging metallic threads laced through them both, the shared mental space dissolving into a gravityless howling blur before she got herself back under control.

When it was just that initial surprise, Alex had felt pretty smug about her reaction. He had even concealed that feeling like he knew what he was doing. Suppressed it and maintained a smooth, soft presence without missing a beat. The very image of self control. Like he had been trained by a professional.

That selfish enjoyment had drained away quickly as Kaleta spiraled into something destructive. The shared space had almost stopped existing for a moment.

Carbon and Neya both had a lot going on. Neya was a bundle of hurt that felt abandoned and had been considering suicide for some time. Carbon was a mess of repressed... everything. Neither of them had done anything like that in a link. Not even close to it.

What the hell had just happened to Kaleta?

“Kaeten?” He inquired if she was all right with a much more gentle affect.

Kaleta had coalesced into a bundle of incandescent-hot razor blades tied together with barbed wire. The answer was hasty, as though she’d just realized he had spoken again. “Te.”

Yes? Yes, she was all right? That was unmitigated bullshit. Alex did not bother keeping the skepticism he felt a secret. That reaction was not fine. At least he was sure the only damage Kaleta could do in here was saddling him with some emotions he didn’t want to deal with.

“Te.” Kaleta insisted, again, more effort behind it as she gathered herself up into a more disciplined form. Those anxious spikes returned, blunted with careful control but now dripping resentment.

He ignored that. It was probably about him demonstrating proficiency at something that was supposed to be Tsla’o only. Even if that was wrong and he was just being full of himself, it was very clear she did not need any more prodding at whatever delicate structures were keeping her psyche held together. Alex crafted the concept of beginning a task and shared it into the space between their minds, heavy on the inquisitive feelings.

Kaleta understood what he meant, her presence still evening out as she went to work selecting the memory. It was arranged quickly, no surprise there as she had just been thinking about that event, and presented to him. It slipped down into Alex’s mind.

It started out with Kaleta standing in a compact kitchen that was akin to the one he was used to now, with nicer furniture. The chairs had legs that had been carved, the countertop a white sparkling stone of some sort. Kaleta’s eyes turned to the jacket hanging off one of the chairs. Brown leather bomber style, the patch on the shoulder marking it as belonging to someone from the Void Abyssal. The bird on the back was a stylized raven, wings outstretched in flight and red eyes stitched in metallic thread.

Kaleta recognized the style wasn’t Tsla’o, which landed her on the obvious answer: it was Human made. Her inspection of it carried a feeling of relief, a weight lifted as she looked it over, leaning in to inspect the stitching. Even a bit of hope creeping in.

This moment was shattered as someone further in their home cleared their throat and began singing softly. Sounded feminine to Alex, though he was initially confused as he couldn’t understand what was being said. It wasn’t in English, maybe Dutch or German. He only knew a couple of words in either but it- Yep, that definitely sounded like an über alle he just heard, so yes: German. Weird.

She set her pad down and retrieved a knife from the drawer, gripping it tight as she crept out of the kitchen area. This was a more conventional apartment as Alex would understand it, Kaleta skulking quietly down a short hallway that did smell faintly of alcohol, following the sound to what she thought of as their bedroom. Heart hammering in her ears as she peeked around the corner, nerves on edge and already afraid of what she might see.

It was the most benign thing Alex could imagine in this situation. A Human woman was indeed sitting on their bed, reclined on a pile of pillows and still fully dressed by both Human and Tsla’o standards. Long black hair in a ponytail as described, pale skin, maybe in her mid to late thirties. Dressed in a black tank top, olive drab pants, heavy tan work boots, one of which was still firmly planted on the floor. A red stripe running down the side of the pants marked her as part of the medical team. Sharadi was still dressed as well, missing his jacket but otherwise presentable in a casual setting. Snoozing away, curled up beside her with his head resting on her chest, getting a serenade and some gentle petting along the top of his head. Same black fur as Carbon, though carrying more silver than Eleya had.

The woman noticed the movement and turned to look, a smile on her face when she spotted Kaleta gawking. She extricated herself from Sharadi and pulled a blanket over him, switching to English with just a hint of an accent. “Hello, you must be Kala? The personal assistant?” She asked with what Alex found to be a friendly smile, while approaching at what Kaleta found to be an alarming speed. “He said you would be here later, and you certainly fit the description!”

“Who are you?” Kaleta managed to get that out around the swirling mix of dread and surprise as she shifted the knife in her hand, flat of the blade pressed against her arm and concealed behind her.

So far this lady was pleasant, bordering on charming, and while there was a distinct smell of alcohol in the area she did not appear to be intoxicated in the least. The Human stepped into the hallway, Kaleta’s eyes widening as she did because this lady was also really dang tall and that tank top showed off the physique of someone who spent a lot of time in the gym. “Apologies. I’m Lena Weber, one of the Medical Officers from the Void Abyssal. Sharadi hit the tequila pretty hard... He hit everything pretty hard. We cut him off about an hour after he started. Switched him to electrolytes while he hung out and helped with the barbecue, but he is still very drunk. He’s going to feel that tequila in the morning, so make sure he hydrates more when he wakes up.”

Kaleta nodded, all her previous training and experience that stretched beyond her own life brushed neatly out the door by the giant Goth woman that she couldn’t understand. She sure understood those biceps, her gaze lingering on them before her eyes turned to Lena’s delts, taking a detour on the way to gawk at her chest first. “I, ah- I do not-”

“He is fine, just asked if I would stay until you got back. Couldn’t just ditch him since he got drunk at our party. On a more serious note, please make sure he gets into therapy. I am sure you already know, he needs a lot of help. Real sweet guy, but he’s obviously still very broken up over his wife and carrying around some serious hurt.” She smiled sadly and took Kaleta’s hand in hers... A handshake, though Lena did pat the back of her hand. “I am sorry to just dump this on you. I need to get back to the ship, my shift started over an hour ago. I am sure station medical is perfectly capable if you need any assistance with him.”

Lena left her standing there, very much confused by all of this. The Human had probably assumed she had a translator like all the other Tsla’o she had run into that day, who knew they would be meeting Humans. Lena turned back as she pulled her jacket on, calling from the kitchen. “I hope it is not too unusual a thing to say, but you have gorgeous fur. I have never seen anything like it.” With that, she departed and the memory faded from his mind.

Kaleta did not waste any time severing the connection.

“So. That was Lena Weber, a Medical Officer from the Trailblazer Void Abyssal.” Alex blinked in the lights. Pretty good name for a ship that size, honestly. “Sharadi had gotten drunk at their little shindig. She helped him back to his quarters, and stayed with him until you arrived because he asked her to.”

“That is all? There was no entanglement?” Eleya’s annoyance about this entire situation was not relieved in the least by this information.

“That’s the boiled down version. He was napping on her, he was getting petted, but they were clearly fully clothed and not doing anything else. He got the soft kitty treatment, Weber said he was a ‘sweet guy’ who helped out at their barbecue even after they stopped serving him alcohol, and then asked this one,” he nodded at Kaleta, “to make sure that he got into therapy because he was in dire need of it. Said Kaleta’s fur was beautiful, and then she bounced because she was late for work.”

“How was I to know what was said? A machine does not work in the link, there was no way to translate!” Kaleta immediately jumped to her own defense, ears and antenna pulled down low with embarrassment.

“Hey, I don’t want to hear it. You had four days where there was a pile of Humans, including the one who talked to you, who looked out for your Aeshen when she could have just dumped him on station personnel, still in the system. They were probably parked like, right there.” Alex gestured at a spot right in front of him with both hands, anger flowing freely now. “You could have given any one of them the most generic description and I bet they would have known exactly who you were talking about. Black hair, female, red stripe on the pants? Even if there were ten people that fit, it would have taken a single email to sort out who it was. So don’t give me, or Carbon, or anybody else that bullshit. You decided not to find out what was said.”

Kaleta gasped softly as she raised her hands to her face, covering her muzzle as she stared into the middle distance.

“You didn’t even think about that, did you?” Alex kind of wanted to throw the chair he was sitting on, but it really wouldn’t have been productive. He was sure it wouldn’t actually make anything better. Everything here looked expensive so he’d definitely feel bad after wrecking it. Might feel good for a couple of seconds.

She shook her head.

“Fucking hell.” He wiped a hand down his face and dragged his chair back to the other side of the table. A little bit of distance between them was a good idea right now.

“How did he come to think that was an affair?” Neya got to the question before anyone else. She had tempered her voice, the disdain she had exhibited towards Kaleta smoothed out for the time being. “It seems more like a doctor taking care of a patient. In an unorthodox manner, but that is to be expected from aliens.”

“I do not know!” Kaleta shouted, distraught. “He has refused to speak to me about it. About anything that happened that day. Whenever I ask, he storms about and usually retires to his office. Sometimes sends me away. I have asked others who were there, and they said nothing of his behavior was unusual aside from being jovial and drinking a lot of neon-colored Human drinks. He said he felt betrayed that I had gone around behind his back to find just that, but he had left me no choice. How can I help if he will not listen?”

Carbon leaned on the table, fingers laced together and staring at her hands and she spoke quietly. “Why have you not let him go, Kaleta? This sounds like torture.”

“I- I cannot. He is too important to be allowed to rot. His role in the recovery of the disaster could be filled by others, but how long would that take?” She inhaled deeply and wiped her eyes again. “And I know your mother would not want you to lose another parent to the Cataclysm. Of all the things I try to hold him together for, you are the most important. I had earnestly thought that you had been pressed into this marriage. I know of the things the Empress said to you. I thought this needed to be undone, for you. That it might let him see I can be trusted and he can begin healing.”

Kaleta paused for just a moment and let out a reedy laugh. “All I find is that you appear to actually care for each other. He comports himself so well I could not tell he was Human in the link. He seeks to protect you, to aid in the resolution of this despite what has transpired... and I have attempted to put a spear through that.”

“Yeah, well. I’m still mad about this afternoon, but being mad doesn’t fix problems.” Alex had found that it did provide some nice propellant as long as you were focused on putting it to use, though. “So he’s being a petulant shit. You know him pretty good, how do we fix this?”

“The methods I have used so far have been what should have worked on him in the past. He refuses to speak on anything that is not work related, will not link with me. He will not take advice from medical doctors.” Kaleta set her hands in her lap, the stack of failures she had racked up weighing her down now more than ever.

“All right. Everyone who knows him better than I do, input on this? Eleya? He’s your brother.” One of them had to have some insight here.

The Empress leaned back in her chair, arms crossed over her chest. “This is out of character for him. I have complained about his lack of fortitude in the past, particularly when compared to Nova, but if he has been like this for more than a year with his Zeshen attempting to help him the entire time... It is something that struck him very deep. I believe Nova’s death is involved, he was so enamored with her and that wound is clearly still open. Had he sought any sort of therapy before this, Kaleta?”

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She shook her head again. “I had advised him to speak to a professional about what he was going through. I listened and counseled where I could, though I lack experience in such matters. Mostly he drank.”

Eleya hissed through her teeth again. “You should have told me, or at least reached out to Lema or Tanse. They would have acted immediately.”

“You could have told me as well.” Neya added with a little shrug, barely loud enough to hear. “I may not have been useful for getting Sharadi help, but I would have been pleased to speak with you.”

The silence that followed that was profound. Carbon reached over and set her hand on Neya’s shoulder, while Kaleta realized she’d let her fellow Zeshen rot alone for a year.

“I should have. I should have but I was scared. Everything is gone and...” Kaleta gritted her teeth and choked back a sob. “I am sorry.”

“That’s water under the bridge now. We can only work on changing the future, so let’s focus on not making the same mistakes again.” Alex wished he had a boss he trusted back in the Confederation because they could really use a transit shuttle’s worth of therapists. “So he’s understandably still got a lot of damage about Nova dying. It doesn’t sound like he was making moves on anyone at the party, particularly since his own people would have noticed and told you. They would have told you, right?”

“Yes, if not directly then there would have been gossip about it.” She nodded in agreement.

“Alright.” Where the hell did this leave them? Had Sharadi just gone off the deep end at some point? He looked over at Carbon, still quietly consoling Neya, and something that had happened between them on the Kshlav’o came to mind. “Oh, man. No. No fucking way.”

That got everyone’s attention, all of them turning to him with varying levels of alarm.

“Eleya. How does he really feel about Humans? Like the first time he got tapped to work with us?”

She raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “He was operating under the same assumptions many of our kind do. His attitude changed with exposure, but there has always been an undercurrent of arrogance whenever they came up.”

“All right, all right.” That wasn’t a big surprise, a lot of people took their sweet time when it came to changing opinions, particularly when they could get away with just acting friendly every few years. “Theory: He got treated very well by people he thinks are beneath him. I’m coming back to Weber saying that he drank so much they switched him to electrolytes - those neon drinks Kaleta mentioned - but he still hung out and helped with their barbecue. He was jovial. She called him a real sweet guy, knew that his wife had died and he was not doing anything to take care of himself. He was speaking so freely after knowing these people for a few hours, and they integrated him into their ship-family without a second thought.”

“I do not... Hmm.” Eleya rubbed her teeth together as she pondered that. “I do see where you may be going. This was not physical infidelity, it was emotional.”

“Exactly. I know people in this family have a hard time accepting acts of compassion.” He did not intend to but his eyes darted to Carbon for a moment. “So this might not just be about Nova, though anything involving her would cut deepest. If he forgot about her while he was drunk, or felt an attraction even if he didn’t act on it, I’m willing to bet that he is in a bad enough place where that would feel like he betrayed her. Shit, even forgetting he was supposed to be miserable might do it.”

Nobody missed the fact he had glanced over at Carbon. Eleya in particular was surprised at that little glimpse of information, and Neya slightly perturbed. Carbon looked like a guilty deer caught in the headlights, not expecting that incident to have come up right now.

“If that is true - and I must say, it certainly seems like something my brother would do - I understand how those feelings would extend to someone who carries Nova. It took me half a year to become comfortable with the idea of linking with Navaren’s Zeshen after he was killed, and another half a year more to work up the courage to actually do it. I was afraid of what I would see and feel.” Eleya finished her glass of wine, ruminating on the subject as she gestured to the waitress for a refill. “If I felt like I had betrayed him as well? I am not sure I would ever have done it.”

Well, that was heavy. “Now we have a motive. How do we get it through his thick skull to actually knock that shit off? Kaleta can’t do it because he’s probably afraid of being in contact with her. He’ll act like everything is fine until he collapses into a black hole if you call him up. Just leaves me and Carbon. You think I could push him enough he’d-”

Carbon cleared her throat. “I will do it. I will give him a chance to make things right.”

A quick glance around the table found pretty much everyone in agreement with that, though Eleya looked uneasy again. This was another indication that Alex’s warning about how little patience Carbon had left for her was accurate.

“Are you sure? That’s... I saw how you were after the last time you two talked.” Alex didn’t want to just say no, you can’t do that. It was her father, after all, and she was an adult. He also didn’t want to just sit by and let that fucker abuse his wife.

“That had taken me by surprise. As I am aware of how he is now, while it may be difficult, I will be prepared. I would like him to realize what he has done, the harm he has caused.” She drummed her fingers on her leg, nervous energy spilling out. “To be willing to help himself. But if he will not, I am prepared to put that part of my life behind me. Mother would be appalled- she would be furious that the Cataclysm continues to claim our family, but there is so much left to do that we cannot coddle him.”

“All right. I honestly don’t know how I would have convinced him to do anything by wheedling him about how shitty a parent he’s being in the hope that he’ll have a breakdown... and that somebody who’s there could put him back together. So I’m guessing you have a better plan of attack than that.”

“I do not, yet.” Carbon exhaled through her teeth, steeling herself for what came next. She looked to Eleya. “I would like to request your assistance in that regard. You know him as I do not, I believe you can provide knowledge that would give me a tactical edge in this endeavor. Insights I would not be familiar with.”

“Yes. Yes, of course.” Eleya was momentarily shaken by that turn, her expectations for being tapped as an advisor to this endeavor had clearly been sitting at zero. Her recovery was quick, composure returning almost immediately. “I would be pleased to assist you.”

Alex suspected she would have inserted herself into it anyway had the question not been asked.

Carbon nodded. “Thank you. As I said, I do not know where to begin. I could help someone through crises like this, but convincing them to allow that to happen is something I have little experience with. Particularly not with someone close to me.”

Eleya’s eyes darted around the table as her mind was set into motion. “Is it agreeable for us to part ways for the evening? I require a clear view of what Kaleta has tried so we do not double back on paths already tread, and that process cannot begin soon enough. We can reconnect in the morning, hopefully I will have a better timetable then.”

“I see no issue with that.” Carbon looked to Alex and Neya respectively.

Neya simply nodded her agreement in return.

“Sure.” Alex had slightly more to say about this idea. “Man, I was looking forward to dinner here. Their soup was really good.”

Eleya regarded him, stony-faced, and shook her head. “I will have it sent to your cabin.”

“Oh, best of both worlds. Say no more.” Getting to just go home and have fancy catered dinner? Perfect. Couldn’t do better after today. Hopefully it’d be on dishes that could just go straight into the recycler so nobody had to clean them.

“Good. I will arrange that and retire to my quarters. Kaleta? You will accompany me for the rest of the evening.” Eleya stood and waved the waitress over, discussing the distribution of what had been planned for the meal.

Kaleta gave her a short bow and got up as well, staying quiet, apparently having accepted the fact that she’d been enlisted to help unfuck this situation right now. She looked sullen, yes, but had just absorbed a series of blows to her world view. The Zeshen was still likely to be getting what she wanted out of this should Carbon succeed.

“How are you doing? This is... It feels like a lot.” Alex stood and helped Carbon with her chair, though she did not need it, and held his hand out. Still felt polite to do.

“It is. It is also something that must be done. For my sake, and for the Empire.” She took his assistance, turning to watch Neya rise from her seat and go to speak to Kaleta. Carbon slipped her arm around his waist and leaned against him. “For my mother’s memory, and my father’s life yet unlived.”

Neya seemed to be giving her a pep talk, given how Kaleta brightened immensely after it was clear she wasn’t about to get chewed out. She could probably stand to have one.

“Well, I’m here for you. I know exactly zip about the guy,” he could make some assumptions based on what he had seen in that memory but he didn’t want to ever know things like that about his parents so he was not going to share it with her. “But if you need to bounce ideas off me or just want to talk about him making stupid decisions, you know. I’m available.”

“I do know where you sleep.” A smirk curled the corner of her mouth, a hint of mischief in her eyes. “I suspect I will be talking about him making 'stupid decisions' a lot.”

“I hope the invitation to discuss your father-in-law’s poor choices extends to me as well, I suspect we will find a fair number more to ‘vent’ about before long.” Eleya joined them, the bottle of wine they had been drinking corked and tucked under her arm.

“My father-in-law. Cute.” He rolled his eyes as Carbon straightened up beside him, close but no longer holding onto him. It was kind of funny. They had an inside joke now. “You got to vent this afternoon and that’s reserved for my wife for the time being. I hope you can manage.”

“I will figure it out.” She looked Carbon over from head to toe and smiled warmly, pulling her niece into a brief hug and whispering something to her before stepping back with watery eyes and giving her a formal bow. “Thank you.”

“Oh, yes. Of course, you are welcome.” Carbon was startled by that but did not push her away or even seem particularly bothered. A little bewildered, perhaps, as she returned the formalites.

“We will talk again in the morning.” She smiled again and looked over her shoulder. “Kaleta? Let us depart, there is much to discuss.”

“Yes, Empress.” Kaleta hurried over, tail swaying behind her in a manner that was almost relaxed, and followed her out of the dining room after the waitress pulled the broken door open for them.

Alex watched the two go as Neya joined them, waiting long enough for them to be in the hallway before he inquired about what was on his mind. “What did she say?” He watched the waitress return to her spot by the other door. Standing and waiting for them to get gone, too. He gestured for them to follow and headed out, pausing only long enough to pick up the cane from the waiting room.

“She said had missed being...” She clicked her teeth and tilted her head as she thought it over, following him through the narrow, richly painted hallway. “There is no direct translation, but it is like ‘the one who has the honor of listening’ which is what someone would normally say to her.”

“Seemed pretty happy about it, at least.” Eleya out here defending her title as the most cryptic person Alex knows even when nearly moved to tears. He turned towards the lifts once they hit the corridor.

“Yes, but it does not make any sense. We converse regularly. It is not often on good terms, but it is a common enough occurrence. I do not understand why she would seem so moved by this botched dinner.” She looked at Alex thoughtfully as she walked beside him. “I suppose I have not asked her for assistance in... decades.”

“The Empress was not wearing her wireless tonight.” Neya added, following close enough to practically be squeezed between them.

“She was not? How did she understand what Alex was saying?” Carbon cocked her head to the side, eyebrows furrowed as she dredged through her memories of the evening. “I have not seen her without those in... I do not remember the last time.”

“Oh right, you guys weren’t there for that discussion. She got an implant. A couple, actually. AMP and a translator.” Alex tapped his head. “Tsla’o version, I assume. Her dictionary is way more complete than mine. Kind of annoyed by that.”

Carbon was disturbed by this information, but given her track record concerning the existence of Alex’s various implants, that was to be expected. “No, she would not do that to herself.”

“It’s either that or she became fluent in English and shaved parts of her back with the express purpose of jerking me around.” Eleya had not struck him as the prankster type. Certainly had the resources to pull off just about anything, but it didn’t seem like her style. “Royals lead, right?”

She considered that and nodded in agreement. “Yes, I suppose that would be a reason for her to engage in such things.”

“Don’t the wireless hurt after a while?” Alex inquired. Neya in particular had been very specific about not wearing them for more than a few hours at a time without breaks.

Carbon spotted the banks of lifts and bumped his arm with her elbow, pointing to a side corridor before turning down it. “They do, yes... The added weight and less stable transmission both cause different problems.”

“If she hasn’t taken them off in forever, she’s probably just in a good mood because she stopped having a permanent migraine.” He followed, of course. Seemed like she knew where she was leading them. “I mean, as good a mood as possible after all of this.”

“No, it was not simply a good mood. She had tears in her eyes as she said it.” Carbon tilted her head and clicked her teeth together in thought. “The meaning is more reverent. It would normally be spoken to an Imperial, or someone of much higher station.”

“Well, all I know is she seems to like talking to me now and really liked hearing you say like ten sentences.” He shrugged as the sounds of people in the distance started to grow louder. It smelled like food, too. Damn, he really was still hungry. “I’m just glad for that.”

Neya gasped, bright violet eyes turned towards Alex. “She asked about your experience with a mediboard, did she not?”

He did not get where she was going. “Yeah. Told her it patched me up just fine. It’s basically a requirement for getting a brain implant, it’d take a team of surgeons forever to do the work. Then there's a recovery time difference.” He didn’t even know how long it would take to recover from manual cranial surgery, but it was probably more than the hour wait he was used to.

Carbon looked up as they stepped out of the corridor into an open promenade, a wide town-like area. The ceiling was three levels above them and speckled with artificial stars, the ground floor itself lit by shop windows and street lights as though it were night.It wasn’t particularly busy, and the people there largely went about their own evening without paying them any attention. “She must have been planning on getting one when we found out what-”

Her train of thought was derailed by an undignified yip of surprise, with a matching grunt coming from Alex, as Neya poked both of them in the ribs. She was so annoyed. “You are thinking too analytically. She was moved. This is something precious to her, not merely a successful implant.”

“Alright, so what happens in your romance novels?” Was that a low shot? Maybe. Maybe she shouldn’t go poking people in the side because they didn’t immediately pick up what she meant.

Neya hissed through her teeth at his comment but continued after poking him in the ribs again. “She was in a car that got hit by a missile. Consider which sense is involved in listening, and would be most damaged by an explosion going off.”

They walked in silence as what she was getting at clicked into place for both of them. Carbon looked back at her. “You believe she has had hearing loss since the assassination attempt?”

“If not deafened immediately. She has been using the wireless interface to make it appear that she was not so severely injured.” Neya closed her eyes and nodded once, her guess at what Eleya’s deal was now fully understood by all of them. “She used the mediboard to regain what she had lost, in addition to getting the implants.”

Carbon was shaken by this possibility, eyes wide as she looked to Alex. “Is that sort of damage repairable?”

“It regrew all of my limbs.” More than a hint of incredulity crept into his voice.

She held up a hand, realizing that was a foolish question. “I should know, I was there.”

“So she hasn’t actually heard your voice in thirty years.” The motivation behind Eleya’s statement made a lot more sense with that puzzle piece in place, and it explained why she had been so talkative in general as well. “Just whatever it sounds like when someone is piped through a microphone.”

“That would make it something precious for her. Worth a statement so formal. To be moved by.” Carbon sounded like she did not know what to make of that. She drew to a stop in front of a bakery and sat heavily on the bench out front, eyes again turned up to look at the ersatz sky. "I have not thought her capable of such feelings in a very long time."