Even Lily's somehow being married to the young man, Lynx, he went by, was more of a 'nod and smile' moment than it perhaps should have been. Lily's outlook in interpersonal relationships was, shall we say, unusual. While she had a vast store of knowledge, she still had a curious lack of integration between the knowledge and her own experience. Probably had something to do with her being synthetic, without the usual 'growing up' period the rest of us had to come to grips with what society considered normal.
Lynx himself was just barely too young to deal with the situation on his own, being a ward, somehow, much as Lily herself was my ward. His guardians, somewhat surprisingly, were Tillery Woodhen and Pepper Siamendes. Though perhaps no less strange a guardianship than Lily's having, technically, four legal parents. Though, in practice, I'd filled the role of primary parent.
There was the worry that Lily would, again, feel the very real emotional pain that came with finding out she wasn't actually married. But I would deal with that when it happened. I've said, and thought, numerous times, that no parent in history has had to deal with the issues I have in "raising" Lily and later AuroraBlue. Be that as it was, when the time came, I would do for her what my mother had done for me when I'd had my heart broken as a girl: hold her close, let her cry, and just love her for who she was.
In the meantime, I would deal with the man who'd come to my office.
We'd first met years before, when he was the Tactical Officer on the Destroyer Escort IAV Chiang Mai and I was a ground force 'special asset' assigned to Intel, shortly after the end of the war. We'd spoken a bit then, but hadn't really become friends. The Chiang Mai was built to support the kind of operations I'd been assigned to, but the Navy, Ground Force, and Intel parts of the crew tended to stick to their own.
When I read the IAV Saule Silencieuse's duty roster, it actually took a moment to realize I knew her captain. And, now, he was here in my office making a courtesy call while his command finished her shakedown.
"Lady Kawanish, I am at your service," he started by way of introduction, giving me a polite bow. I remembered his distinct speech pattern: Soft spoken formality. Very proper. Always enunciating clearly. No contractions.
"Captain Hawke. Welcome to Hale's Moon." Outside my office one of his crew, a slender, vaguely effeminate man, was speaking with Genni. Neither of them were in Alliance Navy uniforms.
"My thanks. I wished to contact you directly before Saule Silencieuse finished her current mission. I understand you will be transferring some of your resources to us, yes?"
I nodded. He wasn't an especially large or physically imposing man, but he still had the air of command I'd recognized on the Chiang Mai. "That's the plan yes. A backwater colony like Hale's Moon is a mixed blessing for our sort of work, and it's been a something of a challenge to keep our Intelligence operation here concealed. Your ship should solve a lot of that."
He looked at me thoughtfully for a moment before replying. "Yes, it should. We can have a transport bring your equipment up at any time. In the meantime, you are welcome to inspect the ship at your leisure."
I would, to be sure. The Kamkamoss class was new and packed more ELINT and signals processing equipment than I'd ever had available on the Orbital or here on the surface. Not counting Blue. But there was still a transport's load or two of gear I'd want to transfer to the Corvette.
"Thank you, Captain, I will. Now, here is what I will need to bring up . . ."
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