Page 249 of Every Almost

Frankly,it was turning into the best party Charlie had ever been to, and she'd been to some real kickers at Caltech back in college. Whoever said geeks couldn't party had never been to a mechanical engineering soiree.

The Niblets breached the containment gate sometime during the second hour. Nobody saw it happen, yet one moment the corner was orderly, and the next there were three of them up onthe dessert table. The cake the size of an engineering console had a section missing from the back of it, cored out clean.

Borran crossed the library at a speed Charlie hadn’t known he could manage, but Selowen calmed him, not moving at all. “They will be finished shortly,” she said.

They did finish, quite quickly.

They also left with a streamer.

Borran stood at the end of the table with his arms crossed and his tusks catching the light, watching people eat his food. When Reyna got to him, he said four words. "Aye, the Wee Captain," and put a plate of incredible looking food in her hands. Charlie watched Reyna give him a hug, knowing that was the entire conversation.

Tavi ran the music like a man possessed to the point that the Emberkind's library had an actual beat to it. People who had never danced in their lives were doing whatever the hell they thought dancing was, and Charlie loved every one of them for it. Torvax stood by the door, documenting and protecting, all the things he did best. Maren watched her lights work, and Charlie saw her smile every time she watched a crew member enjoy the atmosphere.

And Reyna, in all her infinite wisdom when it came to running a starship, who had a protocol for absolutely everything, did not appear to have one for this.

That was the part that got Charlie. She would watch Reyna keep getting caught by crew who wanted to speak to her, by juniors who'd never had a reason to talk to her before, and every single time she stopped and turned her complete attention on them, she listened to everything they had to say. But in the space between, in the half-seconds when nobody had hold of her, Charlie watched her scan the room, counting heads and checking exits, completely reading her people the way she read a bridge.

Forty some-odd people in this library for her, and the woman was running a status check.

"That one's her favorite," Orion said, appearing at her elbow.

Charlie turned to him. "Sorry?"

"Pinlo," he stated. " For twelve years now." He was watching Reyna. "She has never once said it out loud to anyone on the ship except Selowen and me." He turned to Charlie. "Good job."

Charlie looked back across the library.

She had asked for Pinlo because Pinlo madeherfeel like she could take on anything. That was the whole and entire reason. She'd walked into that habitat wing and asked Selowen if the one she liked best could be the one to visit the birthday party.

Turns out, it was Reyna's one, too.

They madetheir way to her, eventually. She should have known they would.

"Charlie!" And of course it was Tavi.

Towing the captain by the sleeve through a crowd, Tavi approached. "Charlie, she's asking who did this. Tell her who did this."

Charlie eyed Tavi with the most subtle stink eye she could form. "Nobody did this, Tavi, like I told you earlier." Charlie said. "It just happened."

"It justhappened," Maren repeated, arriving with Orion. She said it flatly, obviously in on it with Tavi to blow Charlie's whole cover. Her shimmer was flashing wildly, and the one thing Charlie could say she learned about Noethan's besides their shimmer is knowing when one is setting up an ambush. "Captain," Maren continued, addressing Reyna directly. "An accurate account would be that Charlie came to us exactly eightdays ago and proceeded to have the entire event structured before she finished telling us it was even happening."

"That's not—" Charlie tried to explain.

"She wrote a full dissertation for Borran about Earth," Orion added, cutting Charlie off completely. "Pages and pages of the foods they make and how they're eaten, adding details about which ones are for celebrations, including birthdays, and why."

"Okay, that's a big—" Charlie tried again.

"She described what a summer night looked like on Earth to me," Maren interjected this time. "It was the only way I was able to build the lights and scene you see around you now."

"Maren."

"You saidstring lights, Charlie," Maren's shimmer flared bright as she argued with Charlie. "You described your porch at home with Frank and Helen and Katie." She shook her head teasingly. " You forget, I have it recorded. Documented. Would you like me to play it back?"

"Absolutely not," Charlie said quietly, lowering her gaze to the floor.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Maren said, not letting the smugness dampen at all.

"She asked about Kaelari customs," Orion gently stated directly to Reyna. "She wanted to know what Kaelari people do for celebrations, gatherings. She said, and I remember it precisely, 'I want to give her an Earth one, but I want her to feel her own people in the room.'"