“Yes, I’m fine,” the legislator said to her shortly. “I’m not overexerting myself. You have these readings.” She rested her hand on the case. Tennal was already getting the same itch in his head from the case as he had when Oma had unveiled her remnants.

“Sir,” the bodyguard said. “The ship nearby won’t give a name or a division.”

“Captain Halkana’s unit should be treated as independent allies,” the legislator said briskly. “Ask the … what’s your ship, Tennalhin?”

“The Fractal Note.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You hijacked the ship I put you on?”

“Hijacked is a strong term,” Tennal said, while beside him, Basavi—who had technically been the one who stole it from Archer Link Station—went even more stony-faced.

“Ask the Fractal Note if they need resupply or docking,” the legislator said. “That will be all.”

When the bodyguard had gone, the legislator put on a pair of heavy gloves and opened the case. Tennal was expecting something like Oma’s case, something almost ceremonial, as if the remnants were jewels. But this case was bursting at the seams with equipment—random parts of hardware Tennal didn’t recognize. It looked like the legislator’s people had been stripping the lab.

Nestled in the corner was a remnant. It was small, pea-sized, and looked like a tiny piece of white coral. The legislator plucked it out and held it in the palm of her protective glove. It radiated … not sound, but something like it, a high-pitched feeling in Tennal’s brain.

He didn’t notice he had started forward until the legislator closed her fingers over the remnant and pulled it away.

Basavi’s hand was on Tennal’s arm, holding him back. Tennal had tried to snatch the remnant from his aunt. “Watch it, Captain,” Basavi said neutrally. “Looks dangerous.”

Tennal didn’t move. “It feels like … mine,” he said, strained. That wasn’t the whole truth, but he didn’t know how to articulate that it felt like part of his body, like his lungs or his inner ear. Admittedly, if someone had shown him his own inner ear, he wouldn’t necessarily be lunging to wrestle it from them. Tennal wasn’t even sure what that would look like; maybe nothing like the small pearlescent stone in front of him.

The legislator said nothing for a moment. Then she put her gloved hand with the remnant back in her lap and said, “You were synced, weren’t you?”

“Yes, but it didn’t feel right,” Tennal said. He shot a quick, restless glance at Basavi, who had probably guessed most of it. “We did it in a hurry, and I think we might have gone … too deep? Is that possible? The pilot syncs must be more sustainable. Ours felt like…” He stopped. When he said it out loud to his aunt, it sounded absurd.

“Go on,” the legislator said, for once in her life without judgment.