meals in to me here on the previous voyage, and resumed the arrangement without being asked; no doubt the serfs would have been as uncomfortable to see Mira and I in their mess hall as we would have felt about being there. What the Reclaimers did about meals, I had no idea, but if they ate together at all I was certain they'd find catering to the tastes and needs of ordinary mortals something of a trial. At any event, neither Mira nor myself were ever invited to join them, which I'm sure we found as much of a relief as our hosts did [51].
Mira shrugged and bit into the florn cake she'd just spread with ackenberry preserve. 'You know how it is,' she began, a trifle indistinctly, before swallowing and continuing more clearly. 'You can get people to do pretty much anything, if you put your mind to it. You just need to know how to ask.'
Which didn't really answer my question, of course, and being an old hand at verbal evasion myself, I persisted, even as I admired her technique. After a few more moments of verbal sparring, which I have to confess I rather enjoved. I eventually backed her into having to give a straight answer.
'It was easy enough,' she admitted, licking a few stray traces of the sticky preserve from her fingers with a coquettish glance in my direction, to see if I'd be distracted by that old trick. (Which, I'm bound to say, I might have been if I didn't already know her as well as I did, so I just kept looking at her with an expression of polite enquiry until she gave it up as a bad job and carried on.) 'I simply told him it was my duty as a member of the ruling house to confirm that Viridia was safe, just as it was his after having pledged his aid to our people to make sure that the job was complete.'
'I see,' I said, contriving to look unimpressed, although if I'd still been wearing my cap at the time I'd have taken it off to her. Basically, she'd just told a captain of the Astartes that charging off on a private quest before making sure that every single 'stealer, hybrid and implant on Viridia had been tracked down and eradicated[52] would be a gross dereliction of his duty, but he could do what he liked without impugning the honour of his Chapter if he took her along too, as that would make it an extension of his original assignment. Had it not been for her complete self-absorption, she would have been an extraordinary asset to Imperial diplomacy.
'How long do you think it'll be before we catch up with the Spawn?'
Mira asked, after her final recon sweep among the empty platters littering the tray had failed to turn up any further comestibles.
I shrugged 'Hard to say,' I said, which sounded a little more authoritative than ''frakked if I know'', which was actually the truth of the matter. 'I suppose it depends on how good the Navigator is at reading the warp currents, and whether Yaffel has got his calculations right. Even if everything goes perfectly which it never does, we'll probably be following the damned thing for months - if we ever catch up with it at all.'
'Sounds like we're in for rather a dull time, then,' Mira concluded.
'Yes, I'm afraid so,' I agreed, little guessing how far off the mark that was going to turn out to be, and just as well too for my peace of mind 'We'll just have to amuse ourselves as best we can.'
'I'm sure we can think of something,' she said, before yawning spectacularly and stretching in a manner which emphasised her natural undulations in a decidedly pleasing fashion.
'Looks like you're ready for bed,' I said, chiming for Jurgen to come in and clear the debris of our meal. It seemed he and Gladden had reached the sort of compromise that only occurs or matters to underlings jealous of their status in colliding hierarchies, and that henceforth refreshments and their subsequent remains were to be handed from one to the other in the corridor leading to the guest quarters - which seemed like a pointless duplication of effort to me, but if it kept my aide happy, then good luck to him.
Mira grinned at me, the familiar mischievous expression on her face.
'I thought you'd never ask,' she said.
IN THE END, we weren't left to speculate about our mission for very long. After a few hours' sleep, which left me sufficiently refreshed to resume my duties, and left Mira somewhat cranky to say the least, Jurgen's distinctive aroma oozed into my quarters again, accompanied by the more fragrant one of freshly brewed tanna. 'Captain Gries presents his compliments, sir, and would like to see you on the bridge at your earliest convenience,' he informed me, busying himself with the tanna pot and a pair of tea bowls.
'What about me?' Mira asked, following him in from the direction of her own stateroom, still looking somewhat the worse for wear despite a change of clothes and a spraybath. It seemed she found the beds the Reclaimers provided for their guests a little too firm for comfort, although I found mine considerably more conducive to sleep than the overstuffed mattresses of the palace in Fidelis had been.
Jurgen nodded. 'I brought an extra bowl in, miss, in case you fancied one too.'
'Just get me a recaf,' she snapped. 'And that's not what I meant.'
The intransigent expression I knew only too well began to settle across my aide's grimy features, and I stepped in hastily to head off the inevitable clash. 'If you wouldn't mind, Jurgen,' I added.
'Of course not, commissar,' he said, his equanimity at least partially restored by the belated courtesy, albeit one that had arrived by proxy. The look he gave Mira's oblivious back as he left, however, made it abundantly clear that the slight wouldn't be forgotten easily or soon.
'And I've no messages concerning the young lady.'
'Thank you,' I said, as he disappeared down the corridor, the door hissing closed behind him. I picked up the drink he'd prepared and sipped it gratefully, regarding Mira gravely through the steam. 'Please don't treat Jurgen like one of your household servants,' I said, as soon as I was sure he was out of earshot. 'He's an Imperial Guardsman, and the aide of a commissar, with an exemplary record of courage in the face of the enemy. He deserves a bit of respect.'
Mira stared at me, her jaw working for a moment like a ruminating bovine, and the sullen expression I hadn't seen since the day of our first meeting smeared itself across her face. Then, as abruptly as the mist burning off from an early-morning hab spire, it had gone, displaced by another jaw-cracking yawn.
'Of course,' she said. 'Sorry. Not enough sleep.' Then the gamine grin was back. 'It was worth it, though.'
Perhaps fortunately I was spared having to find a reply to that by the return of Jurgen, who ushered the tray-bearing form of Gladden through the door, with an airy wave in Mira's direction. The odour of recaf began to mingle with the others in the room, which was beginning to seem decidedly cramped by now, despite the high ceiling.
'She's in there,' he said perfunctorily, then returned his attention to me.
'I found Gladden outside, sir, looking for the young lady, so I took the liberty of directing him in here. Seeing as she seemed in so much of a hurry.'
'Thank you, Jurgen,' Mira said, with a smile which surprised me almost as much as it evidently did my aide. 'That was very thoughtful of you. Especially as I'd been so unforgivably rude. I'm afraid I'm not at my best when I've just woken up.'
'That's all right, miss,' Jurgen said, fully mollified by the unexpected apology. 'You should see the commissar first thing in the morning.'
'Quite,' I said, while Mira turned away from him, suppressing a fit of the giggles with manifest difficulty. 'Was there anything else, Jurgen?'
'Not for the moment, sir,' my aide said, retreating from the room with an unmistakably self-satisfied air, while Mira fell on the recaf like a kroot on fresh meat.
Gladden coughed delicately. 'The brother-captain extends greetings to the Viridian envoy in the name of the Reclaimers, and suggests you may find a visit to the bridge informative, madam.'
'Then in the name of the Viridian Hegemony, I reciprocate his salutations, and will attend upon him with all due dispatch,' Mira responded, with a remarkably straight face.
'I'll be along too, as soon I've finished my tea,' I said, refilling the tanna bowl.
Gladden looked mildly disconcerted for a moment, but recovered quickly. 'Then I'll convey the news of your imminent arrivals,' he said, and left the room as quickly as he could without appearing to hurry.
Mira turned an accusing eye on me. 'Ciaphas, that was mean,' she said, not quite succeeding in hiding her amusement. 'He was only doing his job.' She lifted the lid from a side plate, next to her recaf, and studied the lumps of reconstituted protein thus revealed with a faintly suspicious frown, before stuffing one into her mouth with a resigned shrug.
