“Oh,” Kiem said. He felt like a hole had opened up in his stomach, which was ridiculous, because this hadn’t been his idea in the first place. He said the first thing that came to mind: “I honestly don’t know how they appointed me. The Auditor said the problem was Taam.”

“The problem is Taam’s replacement. The paperwork must have been rushed,” Lunver said. She sounded mildly aggrieved, as if intergalactic politics was just another obstacle in the way of her operation. “The investigation into Prince Taam’s death is unlikely to find anything new—even Internal Security can’t make up evidence where there isn’t any. However. If you resigned your position, the wedding was annulled, and Jainan remarried, we could make certain the Auditor is happier with the next representative.”

Kiem tried to get his thoughts straight. “I’ll step down if it will help,” he said.

“If that’s what the Emperor wants—”

“Do you have an alternative?” Jainan interrupted. Kiem stopped talking.

Jainan was sitting very upright in his seat, staring at Lunver. “Who would you replace him with?”

“Apologies, Your Highness,” Lunver said to Kiem, “but it should be someone less connected to Taam. The representative doesn’t have to be a prince. Upper nobility, or a general, perhaps. With the cooperation of the Theans, of course,”

she added, with a nod to Jainan.

“I fail to see how that will solve the problem,” Jainan said.

Kiem, who had been about to open his mouth to say he didn’t mind, stopped and rethought. This was how he screwed things up: he went along with what other people wanted and he didn’t think. “I’m with Jainan here,” he said. “Not sure that’s going to fix anything. The Auditor said the problem was Taam—

speaking of, how about that crash data?”

He looked around hopefully, as if they were having a friendly meeting rather than hearing a senior military official ask for his resignation.

“Your refusal has been noted,” Colonel Lunver said. She sighed. “Your Highness, I don’t want to have to take it up to the Emperor.”

“She’ll be so pleased. I think she misses me when I’m not in her inbox,”

Kiem said. He changed his tone to plaintive. “The crash data? I thought that was why you agreed to see us.”

Lunver glanced at Jainan as if she’d expected something more from him, then grimaced and rubbed a hand across her face. “Saffer.”

“I’ll get you that,” Aren said, hastily getting to his feet. “This way.”

As they followed him out, Aren frowned over a mini-screen hovering over his wrist. “I have all the personnel records for the unit,” he said as an aside to Kiem,

“so the colonel got me to track it down, but I’m not really senior officer material.