"Permission to come aboard?"

"Granted."

He stepped inside and dropped his bag.

"So," she said, looking at his bruised face. "You've been in a fight then?"

"Oh, Alex and I created a horrible scene. In full view of several of our fellow officers." Sev grinned.

"You know, just a row would have done. You didn't have to go for a full on knock down, drag out." She handed him a cup of coffee.

He shrugged. "We decided a couple of punches would add a bit of authenticity. They had to drag us apart, it was very convincing." He winced then. "Painful too. I just hope he'll be okay though, back on the Treb. Alex is very stressed right now."

"Having you out of danger removes a major source of that stress," Maiga reminded him. "Now come on, let's get underway. It will take us a couple of days, maybe three, to get to Hollow Jimmy from here. So, I'll have plenty of time to brief you on the job I have for you to do."

"Job?"

~o~

Alex knew they were all looking at him, the Trebuchet's crew, and officers, as he walked through the corridors towards Bara's cabin. He didn't think of her as the captain any more. Somehow since that conversation with Maiga that's no longer what she was.

What was she then? Still his commander, certainly. His jailer he thought sometimes. A lunatic who it was his job to restrain from acting out her more insane impulses. If he'd been there on the bridge a few days ago when she'd hacked off Sev's hair, with her knife - her damn knife! - he might have finally done something to restrain her permanently.

As it was, when Sev told him, Alex had almost gone looking for her right then. But Sev restrained him in turn.

Her bodyguards would kill him if he tried anything. She'd appointed a couple of new ones since she'd planted the old one in the prison facilities on Hollow Jimmy. The new boys were keen to please and impress her. And they stayed at her side even on the ship now.

They had laughed, Sev said, but only after she laughed. For a second before that, he said he saw the shock and horror in their eyes. The laughter was relief. Relief that she hadn't killed Sev. And terror of what she might do next. And self-defence. A laugh that begged, whatever she does next, don't let it be to me.

Those bodyguards stood at the doors of her cabin and he summoned a haughty look and didn't speak to them, when he pressed the door buzzer. A moment later, she answered.

"Alex! Oh, please come in."

He hesitated a moment, embarrassed, as she wore only a bathrobe. Her hair was wet and Alex could hear the shower running in her bathroom.

"Ah, I can come back later."

"No, come in please."

He walked in and she waved him to a chair. "I'll make you some tea," she said. "I can see you're upset."

"You've heard about Sev? About the fight?"

"Yes, I was advised about it at once. I'm told Sev came and took his belongings from the ship and left again. Deserted."

Alex froze, watching her, her back turned to him. Don't let her want to go after him, to punish him, please. After a moment she turned back with the tea, then pulled up a chair beside him, and laid a hand on his arm.

"Alex, I'm so sorry it had to happen this way. But I think you'll come to see that it's for the best." When he didn't answer, she went on. "Sev never quite fitted in, did he? Not even in the old days."

"He was always different." It had been one of things that attracted Alex to him, his courage to be different in a conformist world. A courage Alex had always lacked, leaving him unable to act on his desire, except a few times. On shore leave, usually, when he let the drink and Sev's persuasion go to his head. "Always different." He repeated it in a whisper.

"And that can be attractive," Bara said. "I know. But in the end people like that, can't be relied on."

"Yes." He lied, because he was a coward, and didn't have the nerve to strangle this fanatic now, before she killed anybody else.

But at least now he had a job to do, for Maiga, who had courage enough for both of them. Stay here; keep Bara from committing too many more hideous crimes. Stay here and pretend to be the oh-so-loyal first officer. So he lied. "Yes, I see that now."

"And you came back here, back to your post, back to me. Alex." Now she took one of his hands in both her own, "I can't tell you how touched I am by your loyalty. I know things haven't been easy between us lately, but I'm sure we can work through that now."

"Yes, Captain, I hope so."

He glanced up to see steam coming from the door to her bathroom now.

"Er, do you know your shower is still running?"

"Yes. Actually, there's something I have to tell you about. I think you'll be pleased, as you're always saying being first officer conflicts with your engineering duties."

The shower cut off, making Alex glance sharply in that direction. There's someone in there. He turned back to Bara when she spoke again.

"Well, that isn't going to be a problem any more. You're going to be able to focus on being chief engineer. I absolutely don't want you to think of this as a demotion. Your work in engineering is still invaluable to me."

Alex stood up as a figure appeared in the bathroom door, a black man, wearing nothing but a white towel around his waist. Water drops glistened on his lean and muscular body.

"Alex," Bara said, "allow me to introduce our new first officer. This is Max."

~o~

The Friss approached Hollow Jimmy, with Sev at the controls. Maiga watched him closely, to make sure she was happy with his ability to handle the ship. They got clearance to land and he brought them in to the berth that Maiga had paid for in advance. The lease still had a while to run.

Sev had a delicate touch with the thrusters and the ship touched down smoothly.

"Nice work," Maiga said. She headed through to the sleeping quarters and picked up her bag from the bunk. Sev's belongings were scattered around the small cabin. Just a couple of days with him had made her want to teach him a few lessons about keeping the place tidy, but she'd restrained herself. Not her problem any more.

"Okay," Maiga said, finding him waiting for her in the living quarters. "Do you have any last questions about the ship?"

"No, I'm happy I can fly her."

Maiga nodded. She looked around the cabin and reached out to touch the wall briefly, before turning back to Sev.

"Take care of her. And good luck."

"To you too, ma'am."

He saluted her. Perhaps discipline wasn't his strong suit, but he could pull off a snappy salute when he wanted to. Maiga returned the salute, then opened the hatch and stepped out of the Friss.

"Carry on, Lieutenant."

"Yes, ma'am."

He closed the hatch and she left the berth. As soon as the doors closed behind her, a red light came on and the small landing bay started to depressurise. She could have stayed and watched it through the window, watched the Friss take off into space. But she didn't, already missing her little ship. Sev would take good care of it though. The last couple of days she'd found he liked nothing more than taking things apart and putting them back together, making them better. A natural engineer. She'd have liked to introduce him to Jaff, they'd get along famously. Perhaps later.

Maiga headed off through the docks. The same stares she'd run from greeted her return. But she didn't turn away from them this time. She even smiled at a couple of people she recognised.

There was Jaff, who she'd just been thinking of, and he couldn't do anything but stare too, hanging from a harness high up near the ceiling, working on the light fittings. She waved at him and he waved back automatically, still gaping.

Maiga walked on, guessing he'd be on his Snapper, and calling Chervaz already. Chervaz. That part of coming back she had not been looking forward to. Though she had missed him, and she at least wanted to open negotiations with the idea of affecting a reconciliation... still, that kind of highly emotional scene made her uncomfortable.

But that wasn't the highest priority on her agenda. It was something that would have to wait until she dealt with more important matters.

She left the docks now and walked through the long corridor into the human sector. Although quiet otherwise, no crowds, there seemed to be a lot of Watch patrols around. Things had indeed started to change since she left. One thing hadn't, she guessed, and every time she passed an obvious camera, she smiled at it. There'd be less obvious ones around too, but Gry would have to do without her smile on those feeds.

A beep from her Snapper told her it had completed synchronising with the station network and she noticed it was three in the morning, human time. No wonder the corridors were so quiet. Then she looked ahead and saw someone running up the corridor towards her. Someone wearing a combination of nightclothes and hastily donned street clothes, with a long dressing gown streaming out behind like a cloak.

Wixa skidded to a stop in front of Maiga, staring, and too winded to speak

Maiga smiled.

"Yes. I'm back."