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her.
    “Well, I didn’t ask for you specifically. I simply requested a female pilot to throw my family off the scent.”
    That made her slightly more relaxed. “There wasn’t another one available?”
    “The two other female pilots are on assignments and you were the only one left. It is not that I mean to be insulting, but that was the case.”
    She nodded. “What is the etiquette?”
    He looked her over. “Do you have a dress?”
    Minerva twisted her lips. “More or less.”
    “Well, most Enjel women wear gowns; the back is arranged around the wings. Women are generally separated from the men during daily life, but in an event such as a wedding, the females accompany their selected male or a member of their family.”
    She knew the answer but she asked, “Why?”
    “Because women on Jela are fair game if they are not mated. That is why the unmarried women are kept in an Aerie. Our men are savages when they are competing for a mate.”
    That he would be so direct was refreshing. “I don’t think I have to worry. I am not an Enjel, after all.”
    “We mate with anything compatible. My mother is wingless and my father bought her, installed her in the Aerie and courted her relentlessly until she chose him. For Selna women, it is socially acceptable to be owned. But, why am I telling you this? Decla was an Enjel colony, wasn’t it?”
    “You don’t know about Decla?”
    “No, it has never come up in dispatches. What was the issue with the colony?”
    She stifled a snarl and double checked the destination information. “A splinter group of Enjel decided to form a colony where men and women could live together as equals. Women were taught to fight from a young age and the men respected their ability to hold their own. They were only into their first natural generation when the miners attacked.”
    “They lived and worked together?”
    “They did and then some arrogant and greedy off-worlders landed and killed eighty percent of the colony in a matter of a week.”
    He shook his head. “I didn’t know.”
    “No one knows. The Sector Guard couldn’t get to the colony fast enough and they had minimal defences. They only had mechs that had been cobbled together from the landing craft two decades earlier.”
    He blinked. “Mechs? Enjels in mechs?”
    “Special units that had been designed to use the wing nerves for attack mechanisms. There were three standard biped mechs as well.” She smiled tightly. “I am going to get some tea. We have a while before the next jump point.”
    She held out her hand and Poppy stepped onto her wrist, sidestepping up to her shoulder.
    “How long have you had that Yaluthu?” He smiled and gestured for her to precede him to the galley.
    “Two days. Poppy was here before I arrived. She was waiting for me in my quarters.” She reached up and ruffled her fingers across Poppy’s chest. Poppy squeaked happily and rubbed against her hand.
    “What species are you, Minerva? You have characteristics that are very familiar, but I have never seen them in a body like yours.”
    He moved easily around the galley, using the dispenser to bring up a pot of tea and some snacks.
    Minerva had lost track of what time it was as they sat at the meal.
    “You did not answer me, Minerva.”
    “It was an impolite question.”
    “I only ask it because all of the furnishings here are suited to my wings.”
    She made a face as he moved around the room with ease. He wasn’t wrong. If Minerva ever decided to get her wings back, the ship was ready for it.
    “I was born on Decla; it is a normal set of furniture for me, and Fixer wanted me to feel at home.”
    He nodded and served her first from all the snacks on the tray.
    She looked at the smooth motions and smiled. “Trained by your mother?”
    “And the etiquette officer. She broke me of all my bad habits.” He smiled.
    She took the pot of tea and poured two precise cups before reaching into her top and pulling out a pack of seeds for Poppy. She