It was all Garret Vance could do to stop himself from fidgeting. He didn't want to be in the meeting, but it would look too suspicious if he was absent.

His plan to bring the ansible station back had succeeded, but not in the way he had hoped. Now things were a mess. Somehow, his rival on the HQ Board had gotten to the site first. He cursed himself once again for underestimating Dominic's ambition. Now Lynch's dog, he was probably debriefing the students of Nexus as they spoke. Currently Amber Lynch, the woman in question, had the entire Board's attention and was dutifully answering questions from its senior members.

"Madame Lynch. You might see why this incident with the ansible station leaves us a bit confused. Please enlighten us once again," said one of the executive members of the HQ Board. He was an older man by the name Purvius. Thin, neat, dressed in blue.

"Of course, Highman Purvius. Project Nexus was supposed be a long term, top-secret, research and military endeavor. Given the rim worlds continuous communication and travel advancement and the fact that they are spread out much further, we needed a way to send ships to any of their planets without spreading thin.

"Given the danger of spy interference, we decided that the best option was to raise the crew aboard the ship, taking years to assess their strengths and weakness, as well as determine any liklihood of betraying this vital secret at any point in time.

"Due to errors in both character assessment and technological precautions, that plan changed utterly," here she spared a contemptuous glance for Garrett.

"Indeed it did," Garrett said, interjecting. He was thinking on his toes, not entirely sure what he would say. However, he knew that Lynch couldn't be allowed to control the narrative. "But the self same disaster revealed certain opportunities that have given us leverge and on the whole advanced homeworld interests."

"Well, we've heard that before," A man named Jaredson said. A junior member and another underling of Lynch's. They grow more numerous by the day, Garrett thought. He suspected they were sleeping together, meaning her hold on him would be particularly hard to break. Garrett didn't judge her one way or the other for this. He had used such tactics himself. It was how he'd met Victor's mother. Jaredson continued: "But what exactly are these advantages that you continue to assure us of? Yes, it's true that you have never failed to deliver results, as you have also reminded us many times, but the war effort presses on and time is short."

So, this is what she was after. So far, Garrett had managed to keep most of the incidents under wraps from anything but the few, full members of the HQ board. Lynch wasn't quite there, and she wanted in. She was trying to force his hand.

"That bold on the first day. This one has a bright future," Garrett said jokingly to chuckling agreement from the other members. This seemed to set Jaredson off.

"But I worry about yours," he said.

Garrett caught Lynch throwing the welp a sharp glance. He'd been too direct, too forward, with a full member. Lynch cleared her expression, but it was too late. You've shown your hand, Lynch. Not only are you sleeping together, but you actually like him. Lynch didn't seem the type, but then again, the same had been true of him when he’d fallen in love with Victor's mother. Perhaps they weren't so different. It was really a shame the welp would likely be destroyed in the crossfire.

"We can make a presentation and have it ready for the board in a few day’s time. We’ll have to filter the most sensitive information, of course, but it’s time we shed some light on some of the current operations, broadly.

"That's good to hear," Lynch said. She surely realized that what he would present but be mostly surface level information and fluff, but he would not be able to escape revealing some amount of useful information. What was more, she was playing the long game. If things went sideways she could always blame Garrett for not sharing enough information for HQ, as a whole, to act.

But Garrett knew the truth. There was no long game. Time was short. These events, one way or the other, were going to resolve themselves in a matter of months, maybe weeks. And if things went sideways, petty political game for status would mean nothing.

Garrett thought of Dominic, and shivered to imagine a world where such would be the fate of anyone of importance. HQ had a board of around twenty people, but only seven were really in charge. HQ was often referred to by those aware of it’s existence as the silent flame. Something that turned the wheels of the engine of the homeworlds. If that were the case, than these seven people were the greater part of that flame, and the other members and all the rest of society were merely vying to be at the top of the coal pile. Fuel for the burning seven.

-----------------------------------------

“What’s this about a dream?” Fumio asked, running his hands through his jet black hair. He didn’t look incredulous, it was clear he believed Victor. It was more of a sense that there was something *else* they had to deal with.

“I’m not sure it was a dream,” Victor said thoughtfully. Not exactly.

“Then exactly what was it?” Eve asked. Her arms were crossed as she leaned against the wall of one of the larger domiciles on the Quarters Deck that they had reserved as a conference room.

“I’m not sure. I think I was seeing something that was actually happening.”

“Does it have something to do with the other Victor?” Fumio asked. “Maybe some sort of weird connection?”

“Maybe. It could be some sort of temporal feedback, like they used to get when they had speakers and microphones too close together back in the day. I don’t know.”

Fumio rose and shook his head. “Victor, I’ve got duties I need to get back to. Can you handle this yourself?”

Victor looked at Fumio, then Eve. What exactly had he expected them to do? For that matter, whatever had happened in his vision, it had clearly happened far away. What could HE do about it?

“Yeah, sure,” Victor said sheepishly. He felt sure telling them was the right thing to do, but he felt silly now. Beyond that it was happening there wasn’t really anything to do or establish.

Fumio nodded, patted Victor on the shoulder, and left the room. Victor stared at the badge labeled Dominic Landaar for a long time before he realized Eve was still in the room. She stepped forward.

“So you’re psychic now, too?” She said jokingly, raising an eyebrow. Victor smiled awkwardly and shrugged. Who knew?

“Well, whatever you’ve got to work through, work through it,” She said. She came close to Victor and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. “We’ll finish that talk we were having later,” she said sweetly. After she left, the smell of her lingered lightly in the air.