I raised my eyebrows. “Why would I?”
“Because you seem to care about him.”
“I do.” This I would not lie about. “He’s interesting, lovely, and beautiful, but he is my direct subordinate.”
“Monqilcolnen,” he said, voice growing in volume and drawing out the length of my name.
“What?” I asked. “What do you want from me?”
“The truth.”
I conceded, “I understand, but I don’t wish to discuss it with you at the moment. But to satisfy your protective instincts and honor, I will say I have no ill intentions regarding Wyn. He is safe with me, as anyone is.”
“Thank you,” Kalvoxrencol said. “I do hope you’ll talk about it with Hallonnixmin and Dontilvynsan.”
“More like you will tell them so they ping me about it.”
He grinned. “Yes.”
I shook my head, but I wasn’t angry. I loved my little cousin far too much, and he was finally connecting to all of us. I would never resent or rebuff his care. To change the subject, I said, “We are about to have a detour.”
He perked up. “Why?”
“The Vvekian envoy pinged Talvax. They don’t feel safe traveling by themselves with the amount of technology they have on board.”
“I can understand that. Xoi would love to take advantage of their lack of security.”
Xoi would never attack a Vvekian ship because it would mean war with the Coalition, who would wipe them away like a wave on the sand. But they would take advantage of any slight situation that arose, claiming the right of salvage.
“They have also requested the help of our scientists to continue working on the Cow Project for the base on the moon orbiting Earth.” Caleb had named the project, and every human had laughed when they heard it, so I assumed he was playing some slight trick on us with the name.
“Are we going to rendezvous with them?” my cousin asked.
“We are.”
“If we have to go all the way to Vveki, this trip is going to get a lot longer.”
“Good thing we are not, but we will be meeting them at the border of their space.”
Kalvoxrencol shook his head. “That is more than a month out of our way.”
“Yes, but the Cohort has approved, so we are going.”
“This is going to be an interesting trip.”
In many ways, I thought.In very many ways.
Chapter 16
Accidently on purpose.
“I didn’t mean to hurt their feelings,” Camden said as we walked through the bustling crowd in the promenade.
I’d pinged Camden and asked to meet him before I had lunch with Seth and Urgg to discuss what had happened with Cencay, and their subsequent breakdown in the lift. It had been averylong conversation with the cadet, and many people had tried to use the lift before I had NAID mark it off as under maintenance. While that was against regulations, it had seemed the wisest course of action.
“I’m aware,” I replied, shifting around a large barbarus in the bustling promenade. Cencay had confessed their attraction toCamden, who’d turned them down. He hadn’t been mean, but they had taken it poorly.
“I’m not interested in dating anyone at all,” he said, hugging himself with his eyes on the ground. “And I’m straight.”
