“Right.” Tennal’s lips quirked. “She used the remnants, didn’t she? To enhance it. She must have had one on hand that we didn’t see.”

Surit reached back into his memory and found with a shock that it was hazy, as if his normal visualizations had been sunk into fog. She must have.

“Those remnants are a game changer,” Tennal said, seeing Surit’s fuzzy memory at the same time as Surit did. “Maybe the bloody Resolution is right, and they should all be locked up. Though Lights know I wouldn’t trust the Resolution with them either.”

Tennal was worried—no, Tennal was terrified. He wasn’t showing it outwardly, but it was threaded like veins through his every thought, and he had no way of hiding it from Surit. He wasn’t even trying.

Surit had a duty not to make it any worse. So he pulled all his own fear behind the partition he’d built. And in that small, private space, he thought: Tennal had synced with Surit to save him from Oma, and this was how Surit had repaid him.

Tennal took a breath and slid off the cabinet to his feet. “All right. The bad news is we’ve lost ground. We’re in normal space, farther from where the lab is. But we think we’ve found a way back to where we were.” He looked Surit straight in the eye. “I want to kill your wristband’s comms function.”

Surit touched his wristband. That meant he wouldn’t be able to contact anyone outside the same room. He’d have to rely on the others to relay commands. “Yes.”

Some of the tension left Tennal, and Surit realized he’d been expecting a fight. “That’s not going to work once we head to Orshan Central, but … we’ll think of something.”

“Yes,” Surit said.

As Tennal pushed himself away from the cabinet, Surit’s vision blurred. For an instant, he saw the floor by Tennal’s feet through Tennal’s eyes. Tennal stumbled, grabbed at the bed to steady himself, and they fell apart.

Tennal righted himself and dusted off his sleeve, as if nothing had happened. There had been no reason for them to merge, just then. It had simply happened.

Surit said: “It’s getting worse, isn’t it?”

Tennal tried another forced smile. This one wasn’t any better. “I told you. I trust you.”

He left Surit alone.

Surit didn’t know how long he sat there, his body slowly pulling itself out of a capper hangover while his mind spiraled into controlled fear. He still had a sliver of private space where he could hide his thoughts if he concentrated. He could feel Tennal immediately embroiled in a piloting problem as he reached the bridge.

Yesterday, Tennal had stopped breathing. He had nearly died.