Lunzie interrupted, feeling smug. “You know Admiral Coromell, don’t know?”

Sassinak’s jaw did not drop because she would not let it, but Lunzie could tell she was surprised. “Do you know Admiral Coromell?”

“Quite well, yes.” Lunzie watched Sassinak struggle with the obvious implications, and decide not to ask. Or perhaps the implications weren’t obvious to her. By now Coromell would be as old as his father had been;

      5

Sassinak would have known him as an old man. Lunzie fought off yet another pang of sorrow, and concentrated on the present moment. “Coromell actually recruited me, temporarily, back before the Ambrosia thing.”

“Recruited you!” Was that approval or resentment? Lunzie did not ask, but gave as brief a synopsis as possible of the circumstances of that recruitment, and what followed. Sassinak listened without interrupting, her eyes focussed on some distant vision, and shook her head slightly when Lunzie finished.

“My dear, I have the feeling we could talk for weeks and you’d still surprise me.” There was nothing in the tone to indicate whether this most recent surprise had been pleasant or not; Lunzie suspected that respect for Coromell’s stars might be part of Sassinak’s reticence. To underscore that reticence, Sassinak pushed away from her desk. “I feel like stretching my legs, and you haven’t really seen the ship yet. Want a tour?”

“Of course.” Lunzie was as glad to take a break from their intense conversation. She followed Sassinak out into the passage that led nearly the length of Main Deck.

“It’s so different,” Lunzie said, as Sass led her down the aft ladder to Troop Deck. She wondered why the walls—bulkheads, she reminded herself—were green here, and gray above.