He swung around at a bulky form filling the door. His first, awful thought was Surit. His second thought was his aunt’s soldiers. But it was Basavi, her capper pointed at the legislator.

Tennal’s backup.

She saw it was the legislator, and her eyes widened, but her capper didn’t waver. “Captain,” she said, very neutrally. It was, very clearly, I heard shouting. Do you need help? In that moment Tennal could have signed over his firstborn to her. It wasn’t just him, losing ground inch by inch to the one person who’d always been able to outflank him. He had a unit. He had people, even if those people were only helping him out of lingering loyalty to Surit.

“I’m all right,” Tennal said, “but thank you.” The legislator had escaped thanks to her team, which meant those unobtrusive bodyguards, and Tennal would bet that if Basavi didn’t lower her capper in a few seconds, they would have guests. “Have you met my aunt?”

After a moment Basavi sheathed her capper and saluted. “Legislator. Sir.”

“Designation?” the legislator said, her coolly interested gaze on Basavi. She seemed completely unfazed at the capper. Tennal supposed it wasn’t the first time.

“Private Basavi, Cavalry Retrieval Unit Two-Eight-Seven, ranker, first-class,” Basavi said, staring at the wall behind the legislator. Her capper was at her belt now, but her hand was still on it. Tennal didn’t miss the implication, though it still took him some effort to get his head around it. There were two sides here, and for once, someone was on Tennal’s.

“So you’ve brought forces,” the legislator said to Tennal. Her eyes went to Tennal’s torn collar, where he’d ripped off his pin. “Captain, is it?”

For the sake of Basavi, standing there with tabs she had earned over years, and Surit, who had given the ship to them and gone to die, Tennal found he couldn’t say no. Instead, he said, “Captain Tennalhin Halkana. Cavalry Retrieval Unit Two-Eight-Seven, now Archer. Don’t even think about retribution against my first-class rankers, sir.”

“An Archer promotion,” the legislator said contemplatively. “Lights, didn’t think I’d see the day. Though you’re not still working for Oma, because I know her, and she never backtracks. She found the Constellation remnants in here, so she won’t be back. She thinks she’s got what she needs. Why are you here, then, Captain Halkana and Private Basavi?”

Coming to the lab had been Tennal’s idea. He had responsibilities he couldn’t shake off. He had a sudden vision of how Surit would have approached this: calm and businesslike even under extreme pressure. Surit wouldn’t have shouted at all.