Tennal, Istara, and Basavi all turned to stare at him. “Why lie about being a reader?” Istara said. “In the army?”

“Did you have a very soft and fluffy experience at officer training, Lieutenant?” Tennal asked. “Have the past few weeks been some sort of aberration? Did I just join at a particularly bad time?”

Surit flushed. “All right,” he said, “that was an unhelpful thing to say.”

Tennal forced himself back on track. He knew there were hidden readers in society, probably more of them than anyone suspected. You weren’t in danger of conscription unless you were a certain strength, and Lights knew there was no good reason to wave the information around in front of people you didn’t trust. Zin was very careful whom she told. Basavi had clearly decided they were trustworthy. Well—she had decided Surit was trustworthy, and Tennal was irrevocably along for the ride.

“I think we should go to the lab,” Basavi said, apparently still on the original problem. “There might be something there.”

Back into chaotic space. Tennal fed the thought into his and Surit’s combined mind. It was easier to think when he used Surit’s mind to do it: he wasn’t as distracted by stray thoughts of his aunt’s absence or of Zin. What do we think of that?

Surit’s thoughts wrapped around his like two strands of a helix. Oma had an insurmountable advantage with her remnants. Nobody on Orshan was expecting what was coming. If they could find anything about how she’d done it, they could pass that information on to someone who could fight her.

The lab was their only option. They both dwelled for a moment on their last frenzied visit to chaotic space, but this time had to be different.

“You have neuromod medical training, don’t you?” Tennal demanded, turning to the medic. It felt like there were harmonics of Surit’s voice under his own. “You were a medical officer on the Fractal Note before, when half the crew were architects. You have experience treating neuromods—if we went to the lab, you’d at least know if we found anything useful. Like a way to stop Oma’s brainwashing techniques.”

The medic looked startled. “I—well, yes, I suppose.”

“We’re not on a known route into this part of chaotic space,” Surit said aloud. Tennal felt an unvoiced echo of the words in his own throat. “We’ll have to navigate the edge until we find a way in. Luckily—”