“I didn’t mention you, did I?” Kiem said, suddenly worried. He had tried to give the impression he was the only one in the flybug.

“No, you didn’t,” Jainan said. “I just—why do you talk about yourself like this?”

That threw Kiem off-balance. Jainan seemed to be expecting a concrete answer. “Er. It seemed like the best way to go.”

“Oh,” Jainan said. He examined Kiem for a moment, then lifted his gaze to a scruffy figure striding her way across the Observation Hall.

Kiem had approximately two seconds to wonder what Gairad was doing on Carissi Station before he recalled she was Thean, and this was technically her home orbit.

“Are you still alive?” Gairad said to Jainan, by way of a greeting.

“The evidence seems fairly conclusive,” Jainan said dryly. He seemed glad to see her as well, in his own quiet way. “Is Professor Audel on station?”

“It isn’t as if you got in a flybug crash and then made me worry for two days straight or anything,” Gairad said. “No, she’s supposed to get here today. Why?”

Jainan didn’t look at Kiem. “I need to see her. Are you here to work on her Kingfisher project?”

“No,” Gairad said, suddenly morose. “My scholarship says I have to attend goodwill ceremonies with the Iskaners. I should be at a protest right now,” she added, as if Jainan would understand. “I just can’t afford to lose the scholarship.”

Kiem saw the tiny shift in posture that meant Jainan’s focus had narrowed to Gairad to the exclusion of everything else. “What protest?”

Gairad’s wristband buzzed and she opened and shut a personal screen, scowling at it. “There’s a big Unification Day protest back in Bita. All my friends are getting at me for being up here with the Iskaners instead.”

“Gairad,” Jainan said, controlled enough to be a warning sign. “You can’t have connections with radicals.”

“They’re not radicals,” Gairad said, as if they’d had the conversation before.

“They’re my friends from university.”

“Especially not during Unification Day,” Jainan said. “Please. Leave them to it. You have your project to focus on.”

The edge of appeal in his voice apparently gave Gairad pause. “Ugh,” she said eventually. “I suppose. At least with you and the professor here, we might get some Kingfisher work done. Did you have a chance to look at my mass analysis of their refinery?” She threw up a screen right there, between her and Jainan, which showed a cross-section of a space habitat. After a moment, Kiem recognized the refinery they’d seen a model of at Hvaren Base. “Here. There’s something weird about the mass distribution that I can’t pin down. Can we go over it this evening?”

There was a sudden shattering, grinding noise. Kiem turned and saw one of the huge bulkhead partitions was moving, folding itself back to reveal another part of the Hall. They must need the full space for the ceremonies. The new part of the Hall had already been set up with a cluster of waist-high stands covered with bubbles of force. Each bubble held a Galactic remnant. Kiem recognized a Resolution staffer adjusting one of the stands.