“We have to force them to decide quickly,” I say. Both women look up at me like they’d half forgotten I was here, and Shey with no small amount of trepidation. She hides it well, but I can tell she’s scared of me. Good. I want her to be. “You told us more Gaians are dying every day. We’ll have to make sure they understand the stakes,” I clarify, since she looks like I’m suggesting we shoot the lot of them.

“Of course,” Shey says, and turns back to Scorpia. “I’ll need a crash course on Nibiran manners, if you don’t mind? I learned the basics in school, but it’s been many years, and of course, I’ve had no practical application for them.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Scorpia pauses. “Maybe, uh… somewhere quieter?”

Shey glances quickly at me, and at Drom, and then nods. The two of them exit, Scorpia mouthing sorry at me on the way out, leaving Drom and me alone. I glower at the table, still musing over what Shey’s real goal is. Drom sips her beer and shrugs.

“Scorpia and a Gaian. Who would’ve thought?”

I look up at her, torn from my thoughts by shock that she’s actually speaking to me.

“She certainly does have the worst taste,” I say. Perhaps our agreement in the argument has softened things between us… then again, exasperation at Scorpia’s decisions has always been something for our family to bond over. She’s always seemed utterly determined to make everything as difficult as possible, and her love life is no exception. I still haven’t decided if the Gaian president’s daughter is better or worse than her fling with the Red Baron’s pilot. At least Shey has never tried to kill us, I suppose. Yet. Perhaps that’s what she’s really here for—taking us out of the picture somehow…

“Yeah. Gaia has some weird STIs floating around,” Drom says, immediately derailing my train of thought once more.

“That’s… not what I was concerned about.”

“Well, it’s true.” Drom sips her drink again. “Don’t ask me how I know.”

“I really, truly was not planning on it.”

“Then again, I’m sure you had some equally weird shit going around Titan. What’s that saying they have there? ‘Fuck like the world is ending’?”

“Yeah, no, we’re not talking about this.” I push up from my chair. “I’m going to check on Lyre.”

Drom, still chuckling to herself, salutes with her fingers to her brow as I leave the room.