Clumping through the doorway with less grace than she would have liked, Pirra kicked off her boots wearily and then leaned against the wall with a long, deep whistle.

“That kinda day, huh?” Alexander asked.

Her eyes had drifted closed, but they snapped open and onto him. “Not worse than any other lately. You wouldn’t believe the amount of administrative work they’ve got me doing now!”

“Tell me about it,” he replied with a grimace. “I spent all day having to fill out forms just to propose my latest study.”

“Bureaucracy, the devil we can’t live without,” she sighed. “But wait, new project? Is it your rewrite on . . . what are they called again, diddylions?”

“Dandelions!” he replied, grinning. The word was difficult for a Dessei to pronounce. “They were once a very common Earth plant, driven to extinction in the ecological collapses. But yes . . . finally I’m going to reconstruct them!”

“Oh, that’s great! I know you’ve been wanting to get started on that for years!”

“This time, the academy assures me, they’re going to sponsor me.” He took a deep breath. “I just still have to wade through the paperwork.”

“Good luck. It’s certainly more useful than the paperwork I have to fill out,” she replied with good-cheered grumbling.

“And speaking of that . . .” Alexander went on. “How’s this attempted murder case going . . . ?”

“Oh, that’s the biggest taker of my time. We’ve got to go over every inch the man stepped on the ship. I’ve got a pile of medical reports on his augments and state of mind over the last day to go through . . .”

“I just can’t believe the man thought he could get away with it,” Alexander said. “What was he thinking?”

“I have no idea. When we brought him in he yelled something about the ship being outside of anyone’s jurisdiction. And I guess technically there’s a gap of about two hundred meters where that’s true . . .” She shook her head. “I just can’t believe anyone would think there wasn’t legal precedent for this. It was a Union shuttle, so he’s fully in our jurisdiction.”

Alexander listened carefully – he had always been a good listener, she thought, and when she was finished he gestured her towards the main room.

“Well, you can leave that all at the door. Come on, I’ve got dinner ready,” he said, waving her to follow. “I made your favorite – streakfish with guava.”

“Oh, you’re the best husband,” she said playfully, running up behind him and hugging his head. She pecked the closest thing she could manage to a kiss onto the back of it, making him laugh.

Sitting down, he pushed a plate towards her.

It even looked like he’d cooked it well – and he definitely had made it, as the only other beings on the ship that could cook it at all were the AI chefs. And despite her fiddling with the preferences, on this particular dish they never did it justice.

“So, did you decide on the last officer to fill the slot on your team?” he asked.

Pirra tore her eyes off the streakfish. “No,” she said quickly. “I’m still weighing my options.”

“Really?” he asked, surprised. “It’s been awhile . . . is the choice that hard?”

Taking a fork, she jabbed at the streakfish distractedly. “Yes and no,” she replied. “I’ve got a candidate, but I’m unsure about him.”

“Who is it?” he asked.

“Kessissiin,” she replied shortly.

Alexander didn’t reply immediately, frowning and looking down at his own food. He was not eating streakfish, but an Earth fish that was actually edible to him.

She now poked at the gauva – which was not true Earth guava, merely a very clever genetic recreation palatable to Dessei.

Sighing, she stabbed the fruit, then tilted her head back, opening her mouth.

Under the area that a human might call a chin, near where her head met her neck, the throat pouch opened wide, its teeth downward pointing.

Dropping the guave in whole, she closed it, her narrow throat stretching visibly as it went down.

Alexander had long gotten used to the sight of her kind’s way of eating, though many humans were quite alarmed to see a wide open maw whenever they ate. Some even though the singer on their face was how they ingested! They’d starve as a species if that was the case.

In a moment she’d swallow her streakfish down whole as well, which would be quite a bit more dramatic a sight.

“I just am not sure if-” she began, picking back up the conversation – only to be interrupted as a request for entry came from the front door.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She jumped slightly, as if caught doing something wrong, but then stood before Alexander could.

“I’ll get it,” she said, and hurried off to the door.

Her system told her that it was Cassandra Caraval, and she hesitated before answering it, watching the woman on the external camera.

The woman was standing there patiently, looking slightly nervous but still smiling pleasantly.

Nothing about it was suspicious, but Pirra still felt off about her.

Alexander must have noticed her hesitation in actually opening the door, as she heard him rise in the other room and start walking her way.

She opened the door.

“Hello,” Cassandra said pleasantly. “I hope it’s not a bad time.”

“We were eating dinner,” Pirra said, trying to not sound defensive. Though Dessei were usually defensive around meal-time, in ancient times feeling vulnerable both during and after.

“I apologize . . .”

Alexander walked up. “Oh, Cass, what’s up?” he asked happily, smiling brightly.

Pirra was happy to let him butt in. She moved to the side, feeling a slight bit of guilt at her demeanor, but her unease with the woman’s return was hard to hide.

“I did not mean to intrude, I only wanted to extend an invitation,” she said. “Iago and I were hoping you’d join us for dinner tomorrow night.”

Pirra said nothing. But Alexander was prepared.

“Oh, that would be wonderful!” he said. “Though you know that Dessei have some unique eating habits compared to humans, right?”

“Yes, I know,” she said. “And of course Iago and Elliot know,” she added. Her eyes went to Pirra.

“Yes, we’ll be happy to come,” Pirra said, forcing a cheerful demeanor.

“Great, I am so pleased,” Cassandra said, nearly gushing with relief. “I wasn’t sure if . . . Ah, well, it’s all well.”

“He’s my close friend, and you were always a friend as well,” Alexander said. “Would 1800 be good?”

“That would be perfect. Don’t worry about bringing anything, we’ll be sure to have everything Pirra could want!”

She left, and Alexander closed the door, arching one eyebrow to Pirra.

“Don’t say anything,” she said. “I accepted, didn’t I?”

“I didn’t say anything about it,” he replied, putting his hands up. “I know it’s hard for you to accept that she’s back, but . . .” He trailed off, lost in his head for a moment. Lines on his face went deeper. “I’m just really glad for Iago. He’s my best friend and he wouldn’t even talk to me for weeks – so if he’s doing better, I’m only thankful for that.”

At least she could agree with that. Iago had been a good friend to her, as well.

She went back to the living room, though Alexander lingered in the hall.

As delicious as the streakfish looked, she wasn’t sure she could eat it all now. She felt too flustered.

Taking a knife, she slit it in half, and swallowed that as Alexander came back in.

“Saving room, huh?” he said pleasantly.

“Yeah. I didn’t want the rest of my evening to be just sitting around digesting.”

“Oh, so did you have some plans?” he asked, a grin slipping onto his face.

She looked back at him, her crest showing her own amusement. “I’m sure we can think of something to do . . .”

----------------------------------------

Lt. Commander Ebbe was a short, unassuming man with brown hair and brown eyes. He was decidedly average in appearance, but behind his eyes sparkled a deep intelligence that piqued Jaya’s interest.

As they approached, she gestured to the cryo casket next to her. It was labeled with a false name, with no image or window inside to keep the true identity of its occupant a secret.

“Everything that is left of Hoc Rem is in here,” she told them.

“Best not to say the name aloud,” Ebbe said. His voice was softer than Jaya would have expected.

She nodded. “Very well. I wish you luck in finding anything useful. Unfortunately, his brain has largely been destroyed, and his personal data files deleted themselves.”

“Did they suffer physical destruction?” Ebbe asked. “Like internal acid compounds or the like.”

“It does not seem so – there’s some physical evidence that Rem had some systems removed, which could have included those sorts of things.”

Ebbe’s lips went into a grim line. “So they were put in unwillingly without his knowledge.”

“It’s barbaric,” Jaya said. “Not to know, at least.”

Ebbe eyed her curiously and she knew he was wondering if she knew that intelligence officers like himself willingly had such measures installed. Even in death they would give away nothing.

“I agree,” he said.

Jaya looked around the hangar; it had been emptied of all other personnel, as had several other docks, along with other small shuttles docking at them. All of them had good reasons for the security, that would hopefully not draw the attention of spies.

Rare to see it so empty, she thought.

“Here are all the data drives.”

“Have you copied them?” Ebbe asked.

“Yes.”

“Delete all the duplicate copies,” he told her. “I will send my authorization code at a later time, after we have left the vessel.”

Jaya frowned. “You do not wish us to sift the data?”

“We don’t know if any of it is dangerous,” the man said. “And we can be certain that having the data is dangerous. It’s best if you delete it.”

Jaya was disquieted by that – not by the danger, but that they wouldn’t even get a chance to take a crack at it themselves.

“Does this order originate from above?” she asked.

The man did not answer, just fixing his eyes on hers for a moment before looking back. “Prepare the wipe, but don’t perform it until I signal. Just in case we are destroyed.”

A tingle went down the back of Jaya’s neck. “Just how important do you believe this data to be?”

The man looked at her. “I am not at liberty to say.”

Jaya narrowed her eyes. “I am your superior officer, Lt. Commander.”

The man kept his eyes on hers, but she did not blink.

“You’re right, ma’am,” he said. “No offense was intended.”

She did not believe he was accepting their relative ranking so much as calculating that it wasn’t a fight worth taking.

“Until I receive orders from above my rank, I will not be deleting any data,” she told him.

The man kept his face calm, but said nothing to her.

“Get it all on the ship,” he told his crew.

They moved to it, rolling the trolleys onto the ship that contained the data and body.

As they moved out of earshot, she turned on privacy mode. It was a simple acoustic trick, directed interference audio that would prevent eavesdropping.

“Now that we are alone,” she said, “Tell me what you know.”

Ebbe regarded her with confusion.

“Override code #375BGH1JK,” she told him.

The man’s eyes widened, and he studied her, realizing that he had underestimated her.

“I did not realize,” he said. “I’ll answer what I can.”

“What is on this data that makes it so important?” she asked him.

“Hoc Rem had sent out tentative feelers to us some weeks ago. We believe he was just hedging his bets, but he did tell us that even though he did not know who his true masters were when he was first hired, he had done some digging of his own.”

“And?”

“He would not transmit any data on it, but we believed him. If he found a trail back to who we suspect they were it would be extremely important.”

She looked up into the ship where the body was. “Pity most of his mind was destroyed. If he was this secretive, he might have kept the data on his person instead of the external drives.”

“Do not worry,” Ebbe told her. “We have our methods. We will learn exactly what Hoc Rem discovered.”