Page 238 of Every Almost

He was quiet a moment.

"I never meant for any of it, Captain," he said, his voice low. "I never meant for anyone to be in danger. The crew, the forward habitats, any of it." His gaze dropped to the datapad again. "Captain, I would never... I just didn't think." He took a deep breath. "I told myself I could handle it on my own."

Reyna noticed his markings had gone dim, the fight removed from him entirely. "And I know this information changes nothing. I know that, even if I didn't mean any of it, it still happened." Cael raised a hand to his forehead. "I nearly drowned people, people I have served with for years, just because I couldn't bear to ask for help." His gaze returned to hers. "Not meaning to does not give any of that back."

And that was the moment Reyna stopped listening for the angle, because she realized there just wasn't one.

She had braced the Cael Rask who filed every failure as someone else's and every rejection as only a temporary setback. But this was not that man. This man was not asking for anything, he was not building toward a request, or a second chance, or asofter landing. He had nothing to gain by the words he'd said, yet he was saying them anyway. It was the first genuinely honest thing she had ever watched him do.

"While I appreciate your words, Cael, it does not change anything. Just as you said, not meaning for what happened does not make it go away." Reyna continued to look at him as he nodded. "You are dismissed from your position as Chief Engineer on the Emberkind, Cael. You are being removed from the ship, today." Cael turned around to look at the door over his shoulder. "Torvax is waiting outside to take you to your quarters and Engineering to retrieve any personal items." She let that stand, then continued. "Torvax will then bring you to the shuttle that will take you to the nearest Coalition station. Kess is currently preparing your medical clearance for safe passage through Coalition space to where you request to go."

Cael nodded, no arguments, no push back. Reyna realized he truly seemed to have known, coming in, exactly what he was walking into. And he told the truth anyway, which was the closest thing to dignity Reyna had ever seen from him.

"Understood, Captain," he said. "Thank you, for the discretion from you and the rest of the leadership team, in my release."

He crossed to the door, but then stopped. He had one hand on the frame, deciding not to turn around.

"Captain, will you..." Cael trailed off. Reyna stayed silent, waiting to see if he would continue. "Will you please tell Wickett... tell Charlie... something for me?" His voice had gone rough. "Please tell her I apologize. I would say it myself, but I do not think I will get the chance of seeing her before I depart. And, frankly, I imagine she has no desire to see my face, apology or not." He looked back at her over her shoulder. "It does not excuse a thing I did to her, but I feel I owe her that much. I would rather it be said through someone of respect than not at all."

Reyna looked back at him.

"I'll tell her," she said gently.

"Thank you," he said. He stayed by the door, as though trying to decide on the next step. Then he turned full around, facing Reyna once again. "She is a better engineer than I ever was, than I ever could have been," he said quietly. "You should have hired her the day she fell out of the sky."

And that was when he touched the frame, and the door whooshed open. Torvax was in the corridor waiting for him. He walked out of her office for the last time, and was escorted down the corridor by her First Mate. The door sealed.

Reyna sat for a long moment with the Emberkind datapad on her desk where he had left it and felt nothing of what she thought she would feel. Instead, she just felt a low, tired ache for a man who had finally become honest at the exact moment it could do him no good.

Reyna calledCharlie to her office at 1400. She had spent the last few hours since Cael's dismissal rebuilding the hierarchy of her Engineering team, and by the time Charlie appeared in the doorway, Reyna had the entire structure completely worked out.

"You wanted to see me?" Charlie said as she entered the office, looking uncertain.

"Charlie, please sit."

Charlie sat down in the chair opposite Reyna, the same one Cael had occupied only hours ago. Reyna looked at her for a moment as she thought about the night in the Observation Room weeks ago when Charlie had asked her the worst question Reyna had ever watched someone force themselves to ask out loud.

Is there a version of this where I just... stay? Not as the human who fell into Borran's batter. As someone who's supposed to be here.

Reyna had told her she would not let her be filed as a variable with no assignment. That if none of the Coalition's protocols fit, she would find something that did.

She had found it.

"When you asked me if there was a way for you to stay," Reyna said, "I told you I would find one."

Charlie went very still.

"I've found one, Charlie," she said, unable to keep the happiness out of her own voice.

"In your first week aboard this ship, you found an inefficiency in the engines that my Chief Engineer had missed for over two years," Reyna began again, starting on her list part of this speech." You built the pressurization staging that saved the Aetherfin. You rebuilt the thermal protocol for the Gliders. Charlie, you brought a cascade back from the edge in ninety-two seconds with a technique that is in no Coalition manual anywhere." She paused, a smile forming across her lips. "And, you taught my crew to dance."

Charlie's mouth opened, then closed again.

"Cael is gone, Charlie. Which means the Chief Engineer position is vacant." Reyna watched her eyes go wide. "And there is only one person on this ship qualified to fill it." Reyna held her gaze, her chest tightening as she watched the emotions flit across her face. "The appointment needs Coalition sign-off, which is already on its way to Vondra," Reyna said, waving her hand dismissively before training her gaze back on Charlie. "But I want to make sure you understand what it means once it clears."

Reyna leaned forward, her elbows resting across her desk. "A Chief Engineer on this vessel is not a displaced civilian awaiting placement, waning around an engineering bay while she figuresout what's next. She is crew, permanent crew, leadership crew in fact, with a post and a rank and a place that ishers." Reyna's heart beat faster. "She would not be a variable anyone gets to reassign, Charlie. She would be exactly what she asked me to make her. She would be someone who is supposed to be right here, aboard the Emberkind, with us."

Reyna watched the words land for Charlie.