They Called Me Defective, Until I Tamed the Interstellar Commander novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Not Here

I found him in his quarters with the broken chair swept into a corner and a fitness review open on the table.

He looked up when I came in, and he saw my face.

"Dax told you," he said.

"Dax told me what the scan means." I put the printout down on the review. "The archive told me the rest."

He read the line at the bottom of the page without moving.

"Six months ago," I said. "Before I was tested. Before anyone knew what I'd score."

"Yes."

"You filed a request to override the lottery. You asked for me by name."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Not here," he said.

"Not here."

"The inspector's still aboard." His voice was low and even. "He had the room searched while I was on the bridge. There's a tap in the wall behind the bed. I haven't pulled it, because pulling it tells him I know."

I looked at the wall behind the bed.

I looked at the sheets we had slept in.

A hot, awful embarrassment crawled up my neck.

"Somebody listened to us," I said.

"I don't know if he was listening. I know that he could have been."

"And you didn't tell me."

"I was going to tell you after you'd slept."

"You were going to tell me after." I heard how flat my voice was. "Is that why you came to the Hall?"

"I came to the Hall for the ceremony. Every commander does, if he's unassigned."

"No. You came for me."

"Yes."

"You sat in the back row for the whole afternoon."

"Yes."

"And when the registrar read my number, you stood up."

"Vesper."

"You stood up," I said, "and you watched my fiancé drop my ring in front of every colony.

"You watched my sister take his arm.

"You watched three hundred people laugh at me, and you did nothing."

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