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remarks for which she was infamous. So they both remained quiet, and Kyra knew better than to ask him what she already knew: seeing his mother again was the last thing Sean wanted, let alone embarking on a mission with her.
    But he hadn’t been given a choice. Four days earlier, Sean and his teammates had just returned to Fort Lopez from a furlough, when they were summoned to a classified briefing for their next assignment: an expedition to a human-habitable planet located in HD 76700 system. Like the rest of the team, Sean was intrigued by the prospect of being the first people to visit a world that might possibly support a human colony; it was the sort of assignment for which he’d joined the Corps of Exploration. His enthusiasm waned, though, when they were informed that the ship that would transport them to the danui system was the Carlos Montero ; he didn’t need to be told who its commanding officer was even though it was a revelation to the others that Captain Andromeda Carson was Sean’s mother. Sean had never told anyone in his team about his mother, and he was particularly reluctant to air the grievances between them.
    A bump from the gyro’s undercarriage caused Sean to return his gaze to the window. The coast of Albion was within sight, and the pilot had lowered the landing gear. A quick glimpse of the port city of New Brighton, then the aircraft made the left turn that would bring it toward the spaceport on its outskirts.
    If I’m lucky, he thought, I won’t see much of her. And if I do, I’ll just have to suck it up. But why the hell did it have to be her?
    The gyro swept over the spaceport, passing low above shuttles and freighters parked on its vast concrete expanse, until it came in for a touchdown near a row of hangars on the military side of the field. The pilot cut the engines, then reached up to yank the T-bar that unlocked the passenger hatch. “Here you go,” he said. “Good luck.”
    â€œThanks. Buy you a drink when we get back.” Cayce unbuckled his seat belt and stood up. “All right, then,” he said to the others. “Grab your gear and follow me.”
    Sean reached up to fetch his duffel bag from the rack above his seat, pulling down Kyra’s bag as well. She was closer to the hatch than he was, so he waited while she followed the lieutenant from the aircraft. Once again, he found himself admiring her. Petite yet athletic, with olive skin and jet-black hair habitually tied back in a bun, she looked more like the university student she’d once been before enlisting in the Corps. Nonetheless, the Corps uniform suited her well; it was hard to ignore the way its blue unitard clung to her slim body. The contrast she made with Sandy—short and stocky, looking as if she wrestled creek cats for exercise—was striking; there weren’t many women in the Corps as good-looking as the one with whom he’d shared a bed during their recent furlough. Unfortunately, that was another reason why he wasn’t looking forward to the mission; once they were aboard the Montero , the two of them would have to refrain from their usual playtime. Sean didn’t want to have to introduce his girlfriend to his mother.
    The gyro had landed near two spacecraft. One was a Federation Navy shuttle, the recently built version of the type used to ferry passengers and freight to orbiting spacecraft; its side hatch was open, a ladder had been wheeled into place beneath it, and a small group stood below its port wing, apparently waiting for the Corps team. The other was a landing craft; a little larger than the shuttle and nearly thirty years old, with collapsible delta wings on either side of an indigenous-fuel nuclear engine, its midsection cargo hatch open to allow the ground crew to bring aboard the rest of the team’s equipment.
    â€œWe’ll be riding up with Montero ’s crew,” Cayce said, as they walked toward the shuttle. He