Page 248 of Every Almost

"But that is not a measurable standard."

"Oh my God," Charlie put her hands over her face and took several deep breaths. Somewhere behind her, she heard Tavi laughing so hard that, when she turned around, he had to sitdown. She turned back to Torvax instead of give him a death stare.

"Okay, Torvax, old buddy," Charlie clamped a hand on his shoulder. "When Captain Reyna Solas walks through that door, right over there, you are going to make the loudest noise you have ever made in your life, at the exact moment everyone else does. And then, immediately following, you are going to say the wordsurprise." She looked up into the face of a man trying very hard to understand party protocols. "That's the whole thing, the complete entirety of it. That's the assignment."

Torvax considered this, looking over at the door as though it held secrets. "Understood, Charlie."

Charlie took a deep breath. "Fantastic."

"I will be timing it," Torvax added.

"Ofcourseyou will," Charlie responded as she walked away.

The library didn't look like the library anymore.

Maren's lights were down low and gold, threaded along the shelves the way Charlie had described. The entire room glowed like a porch.

Borran's spread went the length of two tables and half of it Charlie couldn't name, but the other half was casseroles of varying flavors, sizes, and cuisines. Borran had done exactly what he said he would. Make them better. There was also a cake the size of an entire engineering bay console, and Orion had put out actual paper streamers he'd made from something in the archive.

The habitat contingent was in the corner, a self-containment gate surrounding them. Selowen had brought six of the calmest creatures on the ship, and the Niblets had immediately taken over an entire chair. Pinlo was sitting in the middle of the group like a small moss-covered queen holding court.

Charlie had changed out of her coveralls. With Tavi's help, she'd found something that fit and looked pretty decent in thecrew closet, consisting of a clean, white button-down with the top two buttons left undone, decent black fitting pants, and dress boots she'd actually shined. She'd looked at herself in the mirror back at her quarters for exactly eleven seconds before telling herself it was because it was a party.

Torvax's voice came over the comm, bringing her back to the library.

"The captain is in the corridor. Sixteen seconds."

The room went quiet all at once, forty-odd people from multiple worlds crouching behind shelves and under tables, and Charlie realized she was holding her breath along with every one of them.

Then the door opened and Charlie watched Reyna walk in from her hiding place. Not only did Charlie's heart clench so violently in her chest when she saw her, the nervous excitement of this whole ordeal made it feel like a giraffe was thrashing around in her ribcage.

"SURPRISE!" Came the collective out pour, and Charlie watched as every single one of Reyna's crew members jumped out from hidden places, showering her with the love they carried for her as a captain, but also as a person.

They completely nailed it. Every crew member got it right, and they all spoke with one voice on the first try.

Reyna stopped in the doorway.

And Charlie, who had spent months learning her face, watched everything happen.

Reyna didn't gasp. She didn't move at all. Her gold held, steady as it always did. But her eyes went across the room, taking in the lights, the tables, the streamers, the crew, forty people grinning at her out of the warm gold of their created porch, and something changed in her that Charlie had never seen before.

She'd worn something different. Not the uniform. Something soft and dark with her rank pinned at the collar, and her hair was up.

Torvax had told her she was coming down here for a systems review.

Which meant she hadn't gotten dressed for a party. She'd gotten dressed for a Monday.

Seventy-five years old and the only thing this woman let herself have on her birthday was putting on something nice and merely going to work in it.

"What," Reyna said, "is this."

"It's yourbirthday!" Tavi bellowed from somewhere in the vicinity of the crowd.

Reyna's mouth opened and then closed, the look of bewilderment on her face hard to miss.

"Happy seventy-fifth, Captain," said Kess, approaching Reyna from the horde, perfectly calm as if she hadn't been crouched behind a chair only thirty seconds ago.

Then the room came apart in an eruption of happy chaos, everybody all at once, as Reyna Solas got swallowed up by her own crew.