“You don’t want to be here,” Surit said. “You don’t have respect for the uniform, and there’s no point in you faking it.” Tennalhin straightened and leaned back against the pair of lockers behind him. His lips twitched with the effort of holding back whatever he wanted to say. Surit met his gaze levelly. “Go on.”

Tennalhin’s mouth twisted to the side in something that wasn’t a smile. “I thought we had a deal,” he said. “Did I dream that? I thought we had a deal that we were going to pretend to sync until I found a way out, but it’s possible I’ve just lost my tenuous grip on reality.”

Surit abruptly revised his assessment of the whole conversation. He wasn’t sure how it was possible there was any doubt, but apparently Tennalhin had found a way. “In public,” Surit said. “You’ll need to do some pretending in front of other people. Of course we had a deal. I wouldn’t go back on something I agreed to!”

Tennalhin always held himself like someone relaxed, so it wasn’t obvious how tense he’d been until the tiny shift of his body showed it dissipating. The realization gave fresh fuel to Surit’s anger. Half of it was at himself.

“You’re more duplicitous than you first come across, Lieutenant,” Tennalhin said. His generous mouth curved. “I think I like it.”

“I’m not,” Surit said. He needed to meditate, but with the ping on his wristband summoning them to muster, he wouldn’t have time. “This all flows logically from you being primed without formal grounds. I don’t know what’s going on, and none of this is right.”

“My aunt wanted me off-planet where I couldn’t cause trouble,” Tennalhin said. “You were the right person at the right time.” He sounded more cheerful the more Surit had to battle his cresting frustration. “Only it’s starting to look like you’re exactly the wrong person, if she only knew. Fantastic. There’s a red light on your wristband.”

Surit closed his eyes, forcing his thoughts into the bounds of his assigned mission. He was an officer with a briefing to attend, whether or not he had the legislator’s illegally primed nephew fake-synced to him. “I have to report for a command muster. We’ve reached the fleet rendezvous. Tennalhin—”

“Tennal. Tennalhin is what my aunt calls me.”