Page 222 of Every Almost

“The engineering department resolved the Sylpha Canopy situation in a single operation,” Cael said. “Rather than the standard sectional approach, we implemented a resonant frequency destabilization of the composite matrix. One single pulse. The netting released, and all recorded Gliders wererecovered completely without injury in record time. Instead of three hours, the process only took eleven minutes.”

We implemented.Technically, it wasn’t a lie. Not quite. Cael hadn’t exactly said his name. But he had stood in the middle of the room, not mentioning Charlie, and let those around him fill in the blanks in a way they always did.

Charlie suddenly noticed how Maren’s shimmer went flat and still. Then her eye wandered to Tavi, who began to open his mouth but stopped when Charlie caught his eye and gave a small shake of her head. She had learned the lesson that fighting it in the moment only made you the problem.

On the wall, Vondra hadn’t moved. “Explain the destabilization,” she said. “I am not familiar with the technique in a field application.”

There was a pause. It was a small one. But Charlie heard it, and so, she suspected, did the Admiral.

“It’s a resonance principle,” Cael said. “The composite has a natural frequency. Applied correctly, the pulse destabilizes the thermal bonds across the entire structure at once.”

“Applied correctly,” Vondra said. “And what frequency did the operation use in order to be ‘applied correctly?’”

The office suddenly became very quiet.

In a flash of movement, the door to the office opened, and Torvax came in. Reyna was trailing right behind him, and Charlie immediately noticed her posture, the heavy thwack of her boots on the floor, the tension in her shoulders. She waspissed.

Charlie learned later that Torvax had been passing the office and had heard Cael on the call with the Admiral, without the Captain. He’d gone to find her without a single word.

Now, in this moment, she saw Reyna step into her own office, take in the display and Cael standing in the center, andseemingly understand the entire situation in the time it took to cross the threshold.

“Admiral,” Reyna said.

“Captain.” The water shifted. “Your Chief Engineer was about to tell me the resonant frequency his department used at the Sylpha Canopy in today’s rescue.”

Reyna looked over at Cael, and Charlie watched as he didn’t look at anyone.

“Were you?” Reyna said, her voice low.

“Captain, I was giving the Admiral the operational summary?—"

“He was about to tell me the exact frequency,” Vondra interrupted. “Chief. Please answer the question.”

Silence.

“Chief Rask, I do believe the Admiral is asking for the thermal coefficient of the composite,” Reyna stated. “The one that made the resonant approach viable over sectional cutting. I’m sure you’ll have that, since it was your department’s operation under your leadership. I imagine you know it personally, based on the outcome.”

More silence.

Cael’s markings flickered amber, cycling toward violet, and then toward a muddy blue-green, the vision of a Kaelari man’s composure coming apart in real time, written across his skin in colors everyone in the room could read.

On the wall, Admiral Vondra went still. The space around her seemed to darken.

“Charlie,” Reyna said without taking her eyes off Cael. Charlie stood up straight.

“Captain.”

“The Admiral has asked a question. A question I know you can answer.” Reyna broke her gaze from Cael in order to look over at Charlie, her gaze piercing Charlie in a way that madeCharlie need to take a quick intake of breath. “Will you please provide the information the Admiral is seeking?”

And Charlie Wickett, sitting in the Captain’s office of a spaceship several light years from Earth, with a galactic Fleet Admiral watching from the bottom of an ocean, answered it. She gave Vondra the frequency and the thermal coefficient. She explained why the bonds released uniformly, why sectional cutting would have burned the membranes, and why eleven minutes beat three hours. Her hands came up off from her sides and moved through the conversation the way they always did, because the whole process and the data and the execution lived in her fingers, her wrists, and the space she carved in the air while her brain worked. And somewhere in the middle of it, the old feeling in her chest let go, because for the first time in a very long time, the room had turned to look at the right person.

But that wasn’t exactly it, was it? The room hadn’t turned to look at her.

Reyna had put her in front of the people who mattered, ensuring they saw her and acknowledged her by giving Charlie the platform she deserved.

When she did finish, the water on the wall held still for a long moment.

“That is a very elegant, well-documented, and executed solution,” Vondra said. “Thank you, Charlie Wickett.”