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"Rey," Kess said softly. "That's not what I asked."

Reyna stared, wanting nothing more than to move past this conversation.

"Is there a medical concern, Doctor?"

"No," Kess said. "Just an observation."

The same words repeated. Reyna braced for more, for a pointed question, something underneath the clinical one. But it never came. Instead, Kess stood in the corridor and simply looked at her with nothing but patience.

Reyna understood that she was being let go.

"Then continue to observe, and let me know if it becomes a concern."

Kess held her gaze. Then she nodded, once, dismissing the conversation entirely. Yet Reyna knew there was more there. A note she had heard from this woman for thirteen years without ever once acknowledging it out loud.I'll be here when you need me.

"Captain."

"Doctor."

Kess turned down the corridor toward the Med Bay and began walking while Reyna turned toward the bridge. Neither of them looked back.

Reyna walked down that corridor. Eleven paces. Twelve.

She had said the crew was thriving, and every word of it was true. Kess had asked her something else entirely and knew it. But she'd stood there with Reyna's full scan under her arm, and she let it go.

Thirteen years Reyna had known Kess. Her quirks, her mannerisms, even when the woman decided to tell her she was being ridiculous. The woman had never let anything go in all that time.

Reyna reached the lift and stopped. She wanted to thank Kess. She had felt the thanks arrive in her mouth now and had to swallow it, because Kess was no longer there. But the truth was, you could not thank someone for looking away without admitting there had been something to see.

As Reyna stepped into the lift, she closed her eyes and took a very deep breath.

TWENTY-NINE

FULL CAPACITY

The disagreement escalatedover a simple temperature differential of only 0.3 degrees.

Charlie had flagged it in the Niblet habitat three days ago. The enclosure's ambient warmth was running slightly above the parameters Selowen had established for the juvenile colony, and Charlie wanted to recalibrate the thermal regulator before the variance compounded. It was a small fix that would take twenty minutes, max.

Reyna had denied the request.

But she didn't deny it because the fix was unnecessary. There was a perfectly valid reason. The habitat wing itself was undergoing a scheduled systems check and Reyna had locked all non-critical modifications until the check was complete. Nothing personal, just protocol. The kind of reasonable, by-the-book decision that a captain makes fifty times a day.

But Charlie had submitted the request again. So, Reyna had denied it again. Then Charlie had submitted it a third time with a three-page technical justification. Instead of playing this game of approval tag, Reyna called Charlie into the habitat corridor.

After twenty minutes, they were still standing outside the Niblet enclosure, the conversation having escalated past the point where either of them was using their indoor voice.

"Sometimes you can be so stubborn!" Reyna's voice echoed off the corridor walls. "And arrogant! And a real fucking pain in my ass."

Charlie turned around quickly. "Stubbornandarrogant?! Well, listen here,Captain." The title landed like a gauntlet. "I'm stubborn because I'mright, and I'll so much as die first before I let anything go wrong on my watch. And arrogant? Same fucking reason, because I'mright. So, forgive me for being stubborn and arrogant about the god-damn Niblet habitat so the little space potatoes don't fucking die!"

She was breathing heavily. Reyna's eyes were wide, watching Charlie, her own chest heaving. Charlie stared into her eyes, her frustration and exasperation turning to something else. She watched as Reyna's eyes grew dark. Charlie's breathing didn't slow as she felt desire begin to lick against the edges of her anger, rapidly turning into something entirely different.

That's new.

The quiet of the corridor was suddenly deafening. They were so close that Charlie became entirely too aware of the heat radiating from Reyna's skin. She realized she knew this already, the way she always had when they were this near. But this time the heat was different, sharpened by anger and adrenaline and months of pretending this wasn't exactly what Charlie was trying to control.

Suddenly, her control was slipping.