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thoughts?” she murmured.
    Sean looked away from the window beside his seat. “Nothing, really,” he said quietly. “Just wondering how I’m going to handle my mother for the next few weeks.”
    Kyra glanced over her shoulder, making sure that neither Mark nor Sandy was paying attention to them. But Sergeant Dupree was studying his datapad while Corporal LaPointe gazed out the window on her side of the compartment, and if Lieutenant Cayce had overheard them from the gyro’s front right seat, he gave no indication. “I wouldn’t worry about it,” she whispered. “She’s probably just as nervous as you are.” She caught the dubious expression on his face. “All right,” she added, smiling slightly. “ Almost as nervous.”
    Sean let out his breath. “You’ve never met my mother. She had her emotions surgically removed years ago.”
    Kyra raised an eyebrow. “You can’t mean that.”
    â€œJust wait. You’ll...”
    â€œSomething you’d like to share with the rest of us, Corporal?” From his seat in the cockpit, Cayce addressed him even though he continued to look straight ahead.
    Sean felt his face grow warm, albeit more in anger than embarrassment. He could have sworn that the noise of the gyro’s twin props would have drowned out their conversation, but apparently Amerigo Cayce had sharper ears than Sean thought. Either that or, more likely, he just didn’t like having his people sharing secrets.
    â€œJust talking about the assignment, sir,” he replied, adopting an easygoing tone that he didn’t feel. “Wondering why we’re so lucky to get tapped for a first-contact job.”
    Lieutenant Cayce turned his head to look at him. “It’s not a first-contact mission... or ‘job,’ if you want to call it that. Our people met the danui a long time ago. It’s in the material you’ve been given if you haven’t read it already.”
    There was a note of accusation in Cayce’s voice, and it was impossible to miss the disdain in his eyes. Four days earlier, the survey team had been given intelligence reports pertaining to both the nord and the danui , with the expectation that the Corpsmen would study them thoroughly before the mission. Knowing Cayce, he’d probably read everything twice already, probably right after running twenty miles every morning at Fort Lopez.
    â€œI’ve read it, sir,” Sean said, meeting his gaze. “My mistake. This isn’t the first time we’ve met the danui ... only the first time we’ve been to their home system.”
    An abrupt cough from the seat behind him. From the corner of his eye, Sean caught Sandy covering her mouth with her hand. The cough was an attempt to keep from laughing out loud. Although Mark displayed no more emotion than he usually did, he was staring at his datapad screen just a little too fixedly, as if trying hard not to chuckle at Sean’s subtle comeback. And while Kyra said nothing, Sean felt her slide her foot against his and, ever so gently, apply pressure against his toes.
    Cayce didn’t say anything. Then a smile slowly spread across his face. “That’s all right, Sean,” he said, assuming a cordiality neither of them had ever felt for the other. “I’m sure you have other things on your mind just now.” A pause. “So... looking forward to seeing your mother again?”
    Damn it, he had been eavesdropping. Either that, or he already knew that Sean’s relations with his mother were not very warm. “I’m sure we’ll be fine,” he said, staring back at Cayce until the lieutenant looked away.
    Behind him, he heard Mark and Sandy move restlessly. He half expected them to say something, but Mark’s Sa’Tong ian beliefs prohibited him from any words or actions that might harm another, and, for once, Sandy refrained from the smart-ass