"You certainly bring an interesting crew," Nadian told Brooks. "Here I thought I was the one with the oddballs."

The shuttle had returned to the Craton, taking with it most of Brooks's people. Only the five-man technical crew, he, and Kell remained on board the Raven's Ghost.

They would be leaving in the morning for the temple, and Nadian had invited him to his cabin to talk.

Brooks had assumed it would be regarding the mission, but for Nadian it seemed to be almost a social call. The man was sitting strapped into a chair that appeared, from Brooks's angle, to be attached to the wall.

The cabin was very large by space standards, doubling as the man's office. Aside from a neat desk, which Brooks suspected was for recording livestreams, the room was messy.

There were floor-to-ceiling cubbies with books, tablets, various other objects stuck in clear boxes that were taped or otherwise glued down. Hand-written notes adorned many, detailing their origin and about their speculated use or role in their home societies.

Nade brought out two glass spheres of alcohol from a box on the wall. He smiled and offered one; Brooks nodded, and caught it as the man threw it.

"I could say the same to you," Brooks replied. "Your people all seem interesting."

Nadian saw the deflection. "I asked first, Captain," he said with a bright grin. "I frankly am surprised you agreed to my cuts."

Brooks shrugged. "This isn't just investigating a lost temple. It's a place of potential relic technology. We're fooling with weapons we don't even understand and often times we pay the price." He shook his head. "If I have an excuse to expose fewer people to those dangers, I'm fine with it."

"So you're not worried about the Ambassador?" Nadian asked him.

"He is the last one I would be concerned with."

Nadian took the words seriously. "I keep hearing a lot about Shoggoths. About what they can do - what they're like."

Brooks said nothing. He would share nothing more here.

Nadian took the hint after a few moments.

"I've also heard the stories about Y and Ehni," he continued. "Met a few, but never had much chance to talk to them. Are they as smart as everyone says they are?"

The idea that Nadian had met other Ehni surprised Brooks, and he doubted it was even true. But Y was the most obviously dangerous part of his team. Many people feared artificial super intelligences when they felt their interests did not align.

"Probably quite a bit more intelligent and capable than we think," Brooks told him. "But I don't feel threatened by them. I think they just view us as a transitory phenomena, and one worthy of studying."

Nadian looked genuinely interested in the answer, but also skeptical, excepting the idea of humanity as a transitory phenomena. "I've always suspected they thought that way," he replied. "I admit, I'm not used to being the object of study."

It wasn't quite accurate, Brooks knew. There had been multiple biographies about him. But then, who knew how much of them was even true?

"And your CR?" Nadian asked. "I've heard she's from New Vitriol. I've seen the place - it was pretty bad, and that was years ago."

"The details of Apollonia's life are hers alone," Brooks said.

Nadian looked surprised and almost insulted. "I didn't mean anything offensive."

"Boundaries just need to be made clear," Brooks replied. "You know, though - she was looking forward to meeting you. I believe she is - was - a fan."

"Well, I'm sorry if I drove her away," Nadian said. "I just like my private thoughts remaining private."

"We have no evidence that CRs can actually read minds," Brooks replied.

"When you've met as many as I have," Nadian replied, "You'll know they can. At least some. And you can't always tell who. I had one lady on . . . shit, I forget where it was. Anyway, she came on and was a bit too obvious about it."

"Oh?" Brooks replied.

"Read what was on my mind a bit too well, if you know what I mean," Nadian said, laughing. He sipped his drink. "I actually wondered if Ms. Nor would try to do the same. You know, an ingratiating tactic."

Brooks riled. "She's barely more than a child."

"Don't get your suit in a knot. I didn't say I was interested. But fans can do that as well as people with an agenda. Hell," he shrugged. "There's no difference. Everyone has some kind of agenda."

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"Spoken like a true cynic," Brooks replied.

Nadian's smile was mocking. "Yeah, well, anyone takes a good long look at the universe and they'll become a cynic real quick."

"The problem with cynics," Brooks said. "Is that they tend to be useless in the ways that count."

"I'm useful enough. So either you're wrong or I'm just a liar. When you get to 300 and aren't a cynic, it only shows that you're an idiot."

"I know a lot of people as old or older who feel differently," Brooks replied.

Nadian shrugged. "True believers in the Union." He sipped his drink and then pointed. "You know when I really lost faith with the Union?"

"I didn't know you ever had any," Brooks admitted.

Nadian smiled. "I used to at least respect you guys. I don't believe in your all-encompassing cooperation, it's stifling. But after Terris, you also became cowards. You pulled back from the edges and huddled like a turtle in its shell."

He sipped his drink again, his eyes glazing slightly and looking out at the distance. "A betrayal."

Brooks wondered what Nadian was seeing.

He was almost seeing red.

He had been there, at Terris, in Battlefleet C. When millions of the fleet had gone to face an unknown behemoth that was threatening to destroy an entire world.

Their only hope had been to buy time for the civilians with their own.

And after it had gone even worse than their worst fears, with no ability to harm the enemy, and facing unimaginable forms of death, they had pulled out.

He had been the one to give that order, at least to Battlefleet C. The chaos that had engulfed the fleet as a third of its ships, including the command vessels, had been lost, had been almost total. People fighting, advancing, maneuvering, their utter helplessness breaking all cohesion and unity.

When the Captain of his ship, the Kilimanjaro, died, in the most horrific way, he, as Executive Officer had taken command. Told the rest of their formation that they had to pull back now.

He didn't feel pride in it. They were having no effect on the enemy, not even to slightly delay it. They would all have died if they had stayed.

And even after Terris, in those terrifying, confusing days, they did not know if this was an attack by an organized enemy. Would other Leviathans start appearing in other occupied systems?

Yet, despite their experiences, losses, and terrifying ignorance, Brooks knew that every officer on his ship would have attacked a Leviathan again if they thought it would have helped.

He did not appreciate them being called cowards.

He also did not give in to his anger.

"You live in the moment, he said to Nadian. "It's not a fault, but you have to be able to think of tomorrow, too. Our actions after Terris will have ramifications for centuries. Can anyone be said to be ready to make such decisions quickly?"

Nadian studied him. He was not a fool; he could see in Brooks the restrained anger, hidden behind patience.

"No offense intended," he said with a defensive nod. "But you don't personally agree with it taking this long, do you?"

"No," Brooks replied bluntly. "I would have had us back out there by now. But I don't have all the information and command of the Union is not in my hands. I have my voice, the same as everyone else."

Nadian smiled. "You know, Brooks, I thought this conversation would have had a lot more yelling." He sipped his drink. "For a jackbooted thug, you're not so bad."

Brooks found that he was not as amused, though he kept his face neutral. "You don't seem to have a problem with jackbooted thugs, seeing as who some of your backers have been in the past."

Nadian could not always afford to fully fund himself, and had gotten backers on some of his grander ventures - usually Gohhian elite and even some powers in the Glorian Empire.

Nadian just shrugged. "Sometimes we have strange bedfellows. I don't traffic with the worst of them. If they call themselves a Dreadnought I won't go near them, they're even worse than you Union-types. At the end of the day, though, you're the same; pushing your own ideal of perfection onto humanity."

Brooks shrugged. "We don't stop people from leaving. We even help them with grants. Our goals are humanistic at heart, and we're post-scarcity."

"Yeah, well, saying you're humanistic at heart is like saying you're the most humble. I don't buy it and you don't buy it. No, you don't lock people in cages like barbarians. You just trap them with utopia so they never even think to leave."

Brooks took a sip of his own drink. "Who is bankrolling this expedition of yours? It's not just us helping you, though we're the only ones actually out here in the field with you, giving you resources."

Nadian laughed. "And staking a claim."

Brooks's face was neutral. "Everyone wants to know more about relic technology."

Nade let out one last laugh and raised his drink. "On that, at least, we can agree."

"So, it's your turn," Brooks said. "Your crew - tell me about them."

"Ah, they pale in comparison to yours, really. I mean, you even have your own CR and she's a step up from mine."

"Quid pro quo," Brooks replied.

"All right." Nadian raised one hand to count on. "First is Tobias Fromm. Met him about six years ago on Pilecton. Shady place, if you don't know anything about it."

"I know it," Brooks replied.

"Fromm is just as shady. He's tricked and defrauded a lot of people with his little 'gifts'. I helped get him out after the inevitable results of his nonsense, and so he owes me. But before you ask, no, I don't trust him."

He counted a second finger. "Fergus is a competitor, a very good one. We've never seen eye-to-eye, but there's no better mythologist than him, and right now our interests align." He stopped and grinned. "And again, no, I don't trust him."

He lifted a third finger. "And then there's Kat. She's an old hand. Now her I do trust. We've been through the wringer together."

Brooks crossed his arms. "The way you tell it, everyone has a neat little backstory to complement yours. Let me guess, you and Katherine have a romantic history, too?"

Nadian laughed, just two loud hahs that seemed very genuinely amused. "You know what, Brooks? Not many people have the balls to call me out on my bullshit anymore."