Dabry sighed. “Well, if you can’t perceive that, then taste may be beyond you as well. You’re going to need to learn all the combinations and work from that. Maybe, once we drop out of Q-space, access the V-net to download a datafile…” He trailed off. “Although I suspect that access to V-net is pretty heavily controlled in the IAPH.”

A thought swam across Atlanta’s mind. Perhaps the touches of stress everyone seemed to be placing on things that would happen if the ship were to avoid the IAPH were not coincidental. She studied Dabry’s face, wondering how the ship would react if it thought he were manipulating it.

His eyes wandered over to her. “Did you want something other than a cookie?” he asked her. “There is more tea. We will have a main meal in two hours.”

The room was small and close and overly warm. Nonetheless she settled onto one of the wall benches. She said, “How long have you and the captain known each other?”

“Decades,” he said.

“So you were with her at Rourke’s Leap. But the accounts don’t mention you.”

“They don’t mention Lassite either, but he was the one that carried the envoy message across the Leap to the negotiation platform, and conducted the trade talk in an ancient language. Without that, the Hive Mind would have happily enveloped both the other forces. The only stricture that reins them in is the codified forms of battle. They know that if they start playing outside those rules, a whole bunch of powers will take notice and start ganging up on them.”

“So she wasn’t supposed to have him to send. The Hive Mind meant for the accord to fail?”

Dabry shrugged. “Plenty of accounts of what happened, many at odds. The Hive Mind yanked the promotion afterward, said that she was working with the enemy and forcing a peace. Said a newly created admiral had cracked under the pressure. That’s why they called her—”

“I know, the Ten-Hour Admiral. And she didn’t crack, did she?”

“She did what saved the most lives, not just then, but for centuries to come. She brokered a lasting peace for a situation that had gone unresolved for decades and made it so the Hive Mind couldn’t swoop in and take over two entire civilizations. I don’t know if either of those civilizations fully understands what happened, but I do.”

“You’re proud of her.”

“Damn straight I am, Princess.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“Everyone here knows what you are by now. Including Lolola, who will have been monitoring us. She has everything under control and no doubt the ship has been told to report any suspicious movements to her.”

“I am,” the ship said helpfully, “supposed to say something if you should venture out of the bounds of decks three and four. Or if you begin assembling unknown machinery.”

“Supposed to or will?”