Jainan didn’t smile, but the line of tension between his eyes relaxed. He rested his hands on the rail to keep himself steady in the lighter gravity and lifted his eyes from his wrist-screen to the five-story-high viewing pane in front of them. The station’s Observation Hall was ringed with similar windows. Jainan wasn’t gawking like Kiem, since he must have seen this view before, but every time he glanced up his eyes went half-clouded, half-longing. His sister Ressid would be arriving with the Thean planetary delegation in another four days.

Kiem got the impression Jainan was nervous.

Congratulating himself on his sensitivity—what if he didn’t try to make Jainan talk when he obviously didn’t want to?—Kiem left him to catch up on his messages and moved around to the next window, where a cluster of blocky industrial habitats were rising into view in the wake of the main station. One of those must be the Kingfisher refinery Aren had mentioned, fed by minerals from asteroids farther out in the sector. Kiem winced at the reminder, and wondered if

Professor Audel had made it to the station yet. He still had a fundamental hope things might all sort themselves out—maybe Taam’s crash really had been an accident—but even he was finding it harder and harder to hold on to that idea.

The rest of the Observation Hall was surprisingly empty. Kiem was keeping half an eye out for the Auditor. Agent Rakal obviously thought they could still find a suspect to satisfy the Resolution, but Kiem was starting to get surer and surer that they didn’t have time. At least if they told the Auditor everything they knew, it would be obvious that Jainan hadn’t killed Taam. Maybe that would be enough to instate them.

The Unification celebrations would kick off in the Hall later, after the Resolution signing, but most of the official contingents hadn’t arrived yet, and for now people moved through it in dribs and drabs. There weren’t many Theans among them. Jainan had mentioned on the shuttle that the habitat modules of Carissi Station were still considered an Iskaner vanity project, despite its position in orbit around Thea, and Theans themselves only tended to use the docks in the Transit Module where travelers caught connecting shuttles on and off the planet. Kiem still had a lot to learn about the subtleties of Thean current affairs.

Jainan looked up from his wristband. “Your newslog articles came out while we were on the shuttle,” he said. “The ones about the crash.”

“Oh yeah?” Kiem said. He leaned forward to catch sight of a wisp from a distant nebula. “Any angry messages from Hren?”

“No,” Jainan said. Something seemed to be bothering him. “I didn’t realize you planned to blame your own bad flying. This paints you as incompetent.”

“Well, it’s a narrative they know. Easy to get traction.”

Jainan didn’t respond. He was frowning at the screen.