A buzzer sounded, indicating their departure from the space station. The chief of staff took down the privacy field and spoke into her wristband. “Countdown to launch,” she said. “Lieutenant, find a seat.”

Surit saluted. He wasn’t going to argue further if she wasn’t. But as he buckled into a launch seat, he felt an uneasy prickling down his back: that didn’t feel like the end of it. Surely it must be. This was illegal. They couldn’t make a civilian sync if he didn’t want to.

This whole thing was a mess from start to finish. Surit shut his eyes and tried to put Tennalhin out of his mind.

CHAPTER 6

It had worked. Tennal saw his bed partner out, dressed and showered and ate in the rankers’ canteen, and then allowed himself thirty seconds to sit on his bed and stop hiding the shivers that chased over his body from the ball of tension in his chest.

He didn’t trust the relief, and when he made himself look at things objectively, he was right—it had only worked for now. Lights knew what Surit Yeni was planning, or who he’d complained to after he’d left. Tennal had been trying to read him every moment he’d been in the room but it was like getting blood from a stone. Surit’s surface emotions were muted in the same way his architect presence was muted: all Tennal had gotten were small spikes of confusion and horrified embarrassment.

But Tennal wasn’t synced. The exposed itch of the priming was still there in his head, so Surit would have been able to force a sync if he’d tried. He hadn’t tried.

Bile roiled in Tennal’s stomach, strong enough that he had to go and breathe deeply in the bathroom. He made himself think. He had to keep Surit Yeni at bay for three more days now, before the fleet’s commander boarded and Surit was no longer the biggest threat. Surit—nice, rule-abiding graduate that he was—had seemed revolted at both Tennal’s habits and personality, which was a good start. Tennal wouldn’t have much trouble keeping that up.

His headache was bad enough that he had to stop thinking there. He wasn’t used to looking beyond the next few hours. The morning strategy meeting was about to start. Tennal shoved himself to his feet; that was an important part of his weird outsider status, and if he stopped going, someone might get ideas about treating him as a ranker again.