“Our chief purser is well aware of the special nature of End and some of its citizens,” Blinnikka said. “We won’t take anyone from the planet who is not allowed to leave.”

“You don’t mind if we double-check that,” Ghreni said.

“Of course not,” Blinnikka said. “I am sure the imperial customs office here on End will supply you whatever information you desire.”

“The duke would prefer to examine your passenger manifest directly.”

Blinnikka shook his head. “Apologies, my lord, but by Interdependency regulation that information must come through a request to the customs office, not from the ship directly.”

“Surely you may accommodate the duke as a courtesy.”

“Are you asking my captain to go against Interdependency law?” Kiva said.

“There is substantial overlap between the duke’s interests and Interdependency law.”

“As I am well fucking aware, thanks to your duke’s embargo of my cargo. But in this case there’s not, is there, Captain?”

“No, my lady,” Blinnikka said.

“Well, then.” Kiva looked at Ghreni, steadily.

“As long as I’m here, I would love to see some of the ship,” Ghreni said, after a moment.

“You want a fucking tour,” Kiva said.

“If you wouldn’t mind.”

“Because three days out from departure we don’t have better things to do than indulge your whims.”

“You really don’t.”

“This is your subtle attempt to talk with me alone, yes?”

Ghreni held his hands open, as if to say, You got me.

Kiva nodded and turned to Blinnikka. “I’m taking him to the production floor. If I need you again to spout imperial law at him, I’ll call.”

Blinnikka nodded and left.

“Come on, let’s get this over with,” Kiva said, and motioned to Ghreni to follow her.

The shuttle bay was at the aft of the main body of the Yes, Sir, a long, segmented needle, off from which branched two separate rings, which held the farming and processing modules, among others. Each rotated to provide a baseline .5 standard G, with push fields employed to bring the internal effective gravity to 1 G. Variations could be employed within individual modules and areas for production and other purposes.

As Ghreni noted when they entered an agricultural module. “I’m bouncier in here.”

Kiva nodded. “Haverfruit grow best at .8 G, so that’s what these modules are kept at.”

“End is slightly over 1 G. Were you going to tell the people you licensed to about that?”

“It’s not like it won’t grow at that gravity,” Kiva said. “It’ll grow just fine. And they’d be growing them off of actual haverfruit bushes rather than the hydroponic setup we’re using here.” She motioned to the growing racks, densely packed with lights and fruits arising out of the growth medium. “If you have anything on End, it’s acreage. Not that it matters, thanks to the fucking duke.”