Item: Why was this coming from the regulators? Regulators had nothing to do with salvage. Regulators didn’t even belong to a division. They were there to oversee breaches of military law.

Thinking wasn’t going to help. Surit wrote his list of questions down instead and resolved to ask.

When he came within range of the refueling post, his mail caught up with him. The only comm was from Elvi Tamori, his alt-parent, who sounded enormously proud that he’d rustled up two dozen neighbors from their village to congratulate Surit on his new job. Elvi knew about the accident with the goats, of course. But Elvi didn’t believe in dwelling on things that went wrong. This was why he never talked about Marit.

Surit smiled at Elvi’s voice anyway as he recorded replies and used part of his allowance to put them back on the priority channel because he hadn’t had any leave in six months and didn’t see why he shouldn’t splash out.

He reported to the station administration office the moment he docked. He’d expected to be assigned Study and Training, the usual code for soldiers on standby, but the duty officer scanned his ID and said, “Lieutenant Yeni? Confined to quarters.”

“Excuse me?”

“Says here confined to quarters pending interview,” the duty officer said. He held out a hand. “Wristband.” He took Surit’s wristband and scanned it, clearly distracted by the screen playing a drama capture in a corner of his desk. A light on the wristband started to glow orange, indicating Surit was out of his assigned area. “Habitat two-oh-six A. You’ve got twenty minutes to find it.”

Surit counted to five in his head. “Does it say why?” he asked politely.

“Classified,” the desk officer said.

Surit stowed his pack in his assigned quarters. They were standard issue for a base or station, almost identical to the ones he’d occupied at the academy. Confined to quarters included the officers’ canteen and the gymnasium, so it wasn’t as if he were under arrest, but he still felt uneasy.

The interview notification chimed onto his wristband late at night, two hours into his sleep cycle.

It pointed to a room deep in the secure station core. Surit stopped trying to suppress his uneasy feelings and dressed swiftly, readying himself as if he were going into battle. Regulators. This was starting to feel personal. As far as Surit knew, his mother hadn’t had any enemies in the regulators specifically, but it wasn’t as if he had a list.

The interview room was gray and featureless, designed to unnerve the interviewee. There was one metal chair. Surit looked at it, decided he didn’t want to put himself at a psychological disadvantage before he really had to, and took up a comfortable at-ease stance instead.