Luna shifted in my lap, nudging me until I resumed petting her. She seemed to sense my anxiety. Or she sensed we were close to a planet. Either way, she had been especially clingy this afternoon, and I appreciated the comfort.

I wasn’t sure what I’d do with her when we landed. Torran didn’t have a private landing pad capable of holding Starlight, so I would have to land in a public spaceport. I hated leaving Luna alone all day, but I wasn’t sure taking her with us was a good idea, not with the way Torran had reacted.

Most spaceports allowed crew to sleep on the ship for as long as it was berthed, so at least we wouldn’t have to pay for a hotel.

And I still hadn’t decided how to return the gifted comm. I needed to talk to Torran, but after our telelock practice yesterday, he’d been surprisingly scarce. He wasn’t avoiding me, exactly, but he seemed to be making an effort to be where I was not.

So maybe he was avoiding me.

Even now, with Valovia glowing green, brown, and white on-screen, he wasn’t in his usual spot at the comm terminal. Instead, Chira had taken his place. The pale Valoff had assured me that Torran was fine when I’d asked.

Eli and Anja were at their terminals, but Kee had holed up in her control room with Lexi, searching for info on the heist, the guards, and anything else she could find. Now that we were close to Valovia, Kee had real-time access to the Valovian networks and the knowledge needed to use them, so she was taking full advantage.

The minutes crept by. Starlight reported our destination to ground control and got nearly instantaneous approval to land. My anxiety crawled higher. In space we’d be hard pressed to escape, but once we were on the ground it became infinitely harder, and Valovia seemed awfully eager to accept us.

Torran finally entered the bridge when we were just five minutes from atmospheric entry. He met my stare with a level gaze, his expression smoothed into flat nothingness.

“Remember that you promised us safe passage on your honor,” I said. My voice came out steady despite the nerves squeezing my chest.

I caught a tiny flicker, as if he wanted to break my gaze but overcame the urge. “I remember.”

Personal honor was a cornerstone of Valovian society. Would Torran destroy his to capture a human crew? I wanted to believe the answer was no, but I wasn’t exactly impartial. I liked Torran and his crew. Over the past week, I’d stopped seeing them as enemies.