“That’s cute.” Stacia allowed the word to trail off as she thought. Scrambled communiqués were actually more work. The kind of effort someone would go through when they wanted to leave no official record of their transmissions. But perhaps exhaustion and stress (and Dina’s warmth) made her paranoid. Or more acutely aware. Stacia extricated herself from their position, raising her glass in an offer to pour Dina a drink as she refilled her own. “It requires a … glyph. Internal use only.”

“I hadn’t heard of it.” Dina gestured for another drink.

“It’s restricted tech. I just had a communiqué like that earlier today…” Again, Stacia’s words stopped short. With her meeting with Zenith Prebius. A Prebius meeting.

Stacia fumbled her glass, nearly spilling her wine. If her connections were correct, a cascade failure of relationships would soon follow. A failure of her community looking out for one another. Perhaps even engineering the disappearance (or worse) of one of their own. But she had to hold it together, hide her suspicions if she were to learn more.

“That kind of precaution is useful for high-level meetings if we don’t want to invoke full protocols.”

“I figured it was something like that.” Dina seemed relieved as she reached for her glass. “It’s only been going on for a few weeks.”

“Yes.” Stacia did not retake her seat. Not wanting to alarm Dina with her misgivings, or make her suspicious, the captain leaned against the wall. Whatever spell of intimacy had been established between them dissipated. Stacia didn’t know where to put her feelings for Dina. She may have unwittingly given Hondo up. Or not so unwittingly, sensing something she didn’t want to admit to. Or worse: another player set her in motion against Hondo.

The aspect of Stacia that was her heart retreated in the moment, frozen by the possibilities, allowing the part of her that was her captain’s duty to take over. Her tone shifted, the icy edge of her command role girding her words. “I’ve had him doing a lot. Private meetings, that is. As a part of the investigation. But I will talk to him about it. Relationships always trump the work if we want a whole, healthy you. That sound all right?”

“Yes, I’d like that.” Dina lowered her glass.

“Good. I look forward to my chat with him.” Stacia took another drink, her thoughts fixing on Hondo. A painful sting of fear swept her up. She needed to go, right now, and collect this fool before he could do any more damage to her or her people.

18 WACHIRU ADISA
The Dreaming City

Every day our ancestors become legends

Stories for us to remember who we are

Pursuing abundant life, love is hard

(Never afraid) To have faith, with room for doubts

(Never afraid) We need to trust in us, where hope routes

Never forget where we want to be, never retreat, never plead

As long as we have each other, we’re rich, we have all that we need

To figure out the best way to serve, as guard.