"I trust, Captain Brooks, that you have a very good explanation for what has just happened," Verena asked him.

She had appeared in his office via an augmented reality feed in front of his desk, projected by his system. It was almost completely convincing, only the slightest of blurring around the edges of her body.

Brooks knew she would not be blinded by pride or insult or annoyance. Anything he said would be analyzed dispassionately for flaws.

She wasn't even angry; anger he could have handled better.

"I sent a mission to the Terris System," he replied. "My best Response Team. They will investigate the last known position of Michal Denso's cruiser and its current position."

Verena asked immediately; "Why?"

"Because Michal Denso has spoken repeatedly of home. And to him, I believe that this means the Sunspot."

"What is your reasoning for this?"

"Ambassador Kell feels certain that the Terris system is the home Denso is talking about, and it is our only potential lead - I will forward you my report on the meeting. Since they can't go searching the entire system, they're just going to check the ship and send some probes towards the star to get long-term readings on it, then report back to us."

He sent the file, and Verena glanced away for a moment. "Hold, Captain."

She looked back to him. "This suspicion of the Ambassador's does not justify the risk you have put your team into, Captain - nor does it come close to justifying violating the exclusion zone around the Terris System."

"Respectfully, Admiral-Doctor, it was my prerogative," Brooks replied. "You had no team capable of performing this operation."

"I do not understand why this was performed with secrecy at all," she replied. "You could have told me."

"Would you have let me?" he asked.

"Not on my current information, Captain."

"I predicted as much. But this was my call."

"It places your team in jeopardy," she replied. "For medical reasons it was an unsound decision. How do you justify this?"

"I've invoked Executive Action Command 1."

She shook her head. "This was unwise of you, Ian."

"Nevertheless, it is done."

Verena looked him over as if studying him anew.

She couldn't have her feelings hurt, he thought. But she realized that she had misjudged him.

"My memories tell me that you will be honest when I ask you; do you truly believe that this mission was important enough to risk those lives? And while less important, to betray my trust in this way?"

Brooks felt a surge of pain in his chest as guilt gnawed at him. Going behind her back had wronged her, and there was no way around it.

As strongly as he felt he had chosen right, he owed it to her and to his team to question his own motives. It was not the first time he had done it, but he considered the facts carefully.

"I do," he re-affirmed, both to her and himself.

She nodded. "I am no longer capable of anger, Captain, but I believe this situation would warrant it. As much as I trust your judgment, I feel that this was a pointless and foolish risk."

He could only take her critique solemnly. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Doctor."

"But let us move back onto the matter at hand; as you have said, whether I agree or not, this mission has been launched. And you believe it will give us some kind of vital information."

"That is correct. We may learn nothing - I think that's the likely outcome. But there is a chance - at least some chance, that it may be much more serious than that."

"How so?"

He took a deep breath. "Denso's connection to Terris, his changes, the fact that Kell says he is no longer a human. We know almost nothing about the Leviathan there since it went into the star. We also know nothing of their kind - how they communicate, how they travel long distances, how they reproduce. Or even if they reproduce. They defy physics as we know them in most ways."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

That piqued her interest. "And what is it that you're afraid of, Captain?"

"That Michal Denso is not a man anymore. But that he has become something of a carrier for the egg of a Leviathan. And if so, if he turns into something like that . . ."

He trailed off. There was little need to describe the outcome of such an event.

Verena was silent for a long moment.

"I shall consider on this, Brooks. But I am not yet convinced."

Her image disappeared.

*******

Some kind of sportsball game was being shown on a screen nearby. Apparently, if one had eye implants, they could view it as if they were actually there.

Apollonia had no such implants, and couldn't get them, so she just watched the screen.

She didn't even know the game. She didn't much care, either.

Nursing her drink, she tried to savor the burning alcohol as much as she could. It was only her second drink, and she'd been cut off.

The ice was melting and slowly watering it down, which annoyed her. What bar only let people have two drinks?

"Hey," a man said, walking up with a smile on his face. He was holding another drink.

She glanced at him, then looked away. "Hi," she said, with an extreme lack of enthusiasm.

From the corner of her eye, she saw him hesitate. He'd been glancing at her all night, trying to catch her eye, and she'd been ignoring him. It seemed to have encouraged him to try a more direct approach instead.

But he was feeling it now. Her presence. People tended to react differently to her; sometimes angry, sometimes afraid. Occasionally curious. But the latter tended to lose interest quickly as sheer proximity made their discomfort build.

"Want a drink?" he asked.

He set it down on the table - and himself in the other chair. "I saw yours was nearly empty."

She didn't know what he'd brought her, but she was not fool enough to accept a drink from a stranger.

"Sure," she said, taking it. Leaning across the table, she dumped it onto his lap, ice and all.

The man cried out in shock and jumped up. "Why did you do that?!"

"Accident," she said, smiling genuinely now. "Want to order me another?"

Confusion and various thoughts went across his face, and he turned to walk away, shaking his head.

Most people didn't seem to have noticed - or at least were pretending not to, save for one woman nearby.

She was one of the big-wig officers on the ship, Apollonia had seen her before. Glancing to her pad, she tapped a button and brought up a list of people nearby. For most people, their systems would automatically identify others who were broadcasting - and it seemed like it was pretty normal for everyone to be doing so - so you always knew who you were speaking to.

She had to check her pad for that information, though. Commander Jaya Yaepanaya, it told her. Chief of Operations.

It meant little to her, other than being a clearly fancy title.

"May I join you?" Jaya called from her table.

Apollonia considered. She wasn't likely to try and flirt with her, at least. Well, she assumed. So far, everyone with a rank on this ship seemed like they were on the up-and-up, and they were in public to boot.

Maybe Brooks or Logus had sent her. Trying a woman to talk to her.

But a part of her was wishing for some kind of company. It was half the reason she was even in this place rather than in her room. She just didn't want some sorts of company.

"All right," she finally said.

Jaya came over and sat, smiling lightly.

There was an odd agelessness about people on this ship, Apollonia noticed. Jaya seemed relatively young - certainly well into adulthood, though - from a distance. But up close there were creases around her eyes that made her seem a little older.

Most people she'd known had started going gray by their late 30s, yet there wasn't a streak of gray in Jaya's hair.

She might dye it, her cynical voice said.

"What brings you to Fortaleza?" Jaya asked. "I thought you preferred to stay in your cabin."

Apollonia scowled. "Monitoring me?"

"Your anti-social behaviour stands out," Jaya replied, sipping her drink. "I would be a poor Chief of Operations if I did not notice it."

"So, what, you run the daily stuff on the ship while Brooks decides where we'll go and makes speeches?"

Jaya's eyebrow arched slightly. "Operations on a ship refers to combat and security-related activities, Ms. Nor. I monitor threats."

Apollonia leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms. "So I'm a threat?" She wasn't liking her company again, but she wasn't about to go pouring a drink onto the lap of someone with authority. Not unless Jaya annoyed her a whole lot more.

"Actually, you are part of this ship's defenses," Jaya replied. "Even if you are not yet an officer, your presence protects us all."

"Being just an asset isn't all that much better."

"I never said that's all you were. But I rest better knowing that you are here. I would like even more if you were happy in doing so. I took it as a good sign that you are out here tonight - that you are at least attempting to mingle and know others."

A hint of a smile appeared on Jaya's lips. "Though it was perhaps not social, I was amused by your methods of . . . rejection."

"Well, you don't take a drink from a stranger," Apollonia replied stiffly. "Kind of obvious there."

"Do you believe it was spiked? Trust me, Ms. Nor, if he had put anything into a drink to offer another, he would have been arrested before he even picked it up. No, such a thing is all-but unheard of on this ship - or in the Sapient Union in general."

Apollonia wasn't sure she believed that, but she nodded just to move the conversation off the topic.