Page 216 of Commander’s Mate

I stood outside the room with Degatu and watched her move between tables. She had proper clothing now, dark green without insignia, and a small clerk slate clipped at her belt. The new language implant had integrated quickly; she could read Farseek standard well enough to catch spelling errors and was becoming dangerous with access permissions.

A frightened child reached for her sleeve. Harper crouched so they were eye level and waited until the child could speak.

“She is doing well,” Degatu said.

“She is tired.”

“Everyone is tired.”

“She is my solmatu.”

“That continues to be irrelevant to whether she can do useful work.”

I glared at him.

He had become far too entertained by my domestic education.

Inside the room, a Haloran aide stepped close to Harper to deliver records. Male. Well-dressed. Scented with expensive oil. He looked at her longer than necessary.

I took one step.

Degatu caught my forearm.

“He is staring.”

“He is delivering records.”

“He can deliver them from farther away.”

“Are you protecting her or embarrassing her?”

That stopped me.

Harper accepted the records, dismissed the aide politely, and returned to work without ever knowing how close I had come to proving I still had much to learn.

Degatu released me.

“I dislike you,” I said.

“No, you do not.”

Unfortunately, he was correct.

A summons from command rescued me from further humiliation.

Dreadnought Eight had sent its first reconnaissance packet from the Breskaa system.

We met in the war room. Tivid projected the mining colony across the central display: desert rock, extraction shafts, worker barracks, processing buildings, guard towers, supply domes.

“Dread Eight can arrive first and remain outside normal traffic lanes,” Degatu said. “They will conduct remote surveillance and deploy a small recon team if the system remains quiet.”

“What about ship patrols?” I asked.

“Intermittent. One Sargus battle carrier passed through eleven days ago. No permanent military installation is recorded.”

“Recorded,” Pyrr repeated.

Exactly.