Now, his new operations officer appeared curious about Jeanne. While he didn’t let it impact his work, he’d noticed some looks at her and some tension. What had happened in the Disaster-Federacy? Thomas Theisman wondered. As he kept working on his evening datawork, with Jeanne curled up on his desk and purring, his door chime rang.

“Come in.” he called.

Citizen Commander Warner Caslet walked in, and said, “Good evening, Citizen Admiral. Here are the reports you wanted.”

“Thank you, Warner.” He paused and asked, “Sit down. You wanted to talk to me about something. What is it?”

“Permission to speak freely, Citizen Admiral?” Citizen Admiral Theisman nodded.

“I’ve seen you with Jeanne a lot lately, and I wanted to know what it’s like. Citizen Commander Foraker, my former tac officer, also has a treecat, but she never talked much about the circumstances surrounding her adoption. After all, you heard about the recent reports from Citizen Admiral Cowboy.” Thomas Theisman had gotten the hints and the past reports from his ops officer, and had been wondering when he’d finally ask the questions.

“Good question.” he replied, before falling into more of a less-emotional “don’t-ask-for-details” tone, “I got adopted during survival training in Napoleon Park. She just showed up, and then I knew that my career was going to be seriously altered.”

“Also, I got a message with the reports from Citizen Admiral Tourville. It asked if Citizen Commander Foraker could bring her treecat to the party that we all know you plan on holding in Admiral Tourville’s honor.”

“Of course, Warner,” he replied with a smile, “Tell her that Jeanne will be attending, so she won’t be the only adoptee at the party, either.”

“That’ll be strange for her. The one time I’d seen that happen was on Wayfarer. I’m glad Shannon got the new pods. Even if Intel ignored us, at least she’s got a chance, and her Admiral will take those chances.”