Why’d I get assigned to Admiral Tourville, of all people? I know many of my classmates would kill for the privilege of serving under him, but he’s the reason I barely knew my mother, Raoul thought as he held his treecat on his lap.

“Ready to meet the Admiral, Lieutenant?” the Havenite Lieutenant seated next to him on the shuttle asked.

“Yes.” he replied unconvincingly.

The lieutenant raised an eyebrow, not convinced at his tone or complete lack of a poker face, “You don’t look it.”

“He killed my mother.” he dared to admit.

“Sorry, shouldn’t have asked. Should have realized earlier, given your last name. It must be a side effect of working repeated 24s in a row under Admiral Trenis for the past week, before being sent here.” they muttered while looking in their bag for another shot of coffee.

—

“I’d like to talk with you in private, Raoul.” Admiral Tourville said, while puffing on a cigar.

Raoul wondered what this was about, but didn’t dare ask questions.

Admiral Lester Tourville tried to carefully pick his words, but after an uncomfortable silence, eventually said, “I heard from my flag lieutenant about your conversation on the shuttle over, you know. I wanted to tell you that your mother’s death- it wasn’t personal and I hope we can work together successfully.” Unfortunately for the Havenite Admiral, Raoul’s brain stopped fully processing the instant he mentioned the conversation he’d had with the lieutenant that he hadn’t known was Tourville’s flag lieutenant. While his treecat tried to interpret the emotions and feelings of what Admiral Tourville was saying into sign, he wasn’t catching enough of that, beyond “mother’s death” and “we work together”.

“Yes, sir.” he replied automatically, not really thinking about what Admiral Tourville had said.

“Do you remember your mother much?” Admiral Tourville asked

Raoul replied flatly, “Not much, sir. I was little at the time.” The reason I never got to know her is because of you, you know, you Havenite! We may have come full circle to team up against the League and Mesa, but that doesn’t undo all the lives lost, he thought, while not wanting to get in trouble with Admiral Tourville himself so soon.

“She was a skilled warrior. One who, internally, our Navy respected, regardless of official statements on the matter- the old ones, they’re just propaganda anyway. I know your parents probably told you plenty of stories about her. But if you’d like a story or two from our side, I might have them for you.

“Understood, sir.” he replied flatly.

“But, please don’t go tracking down anyone else. I can think of at least a few officers I’ve known who have stories that'd rather not share them with you.” While he didn’t name names, he knew that Admiral Foraker, still at Bolthole and only semi-secretly wanting to get a fleet command, had never been a people person, let alone regarding something like this. He also didn’t want to trigger another round of her PTSD-induced overwork, where she thought that if she just kept working, she could solve any- even impossible- tac problems. That’d resulted in her collapsing a few times when she’d been fueled on caffeine and sugar for so long that she’d looked like a zombie, as she hadn’t been sleeping to avoid the everpresent nightmares.

“Your mother had incredible talent as an officer,” And, of course, she also had those damned fruits of Mantie R&D that made us all lose far too many friends, Tourville refrained from saying. “I hope you live up to her example.”

“If I may?” Raoul finally dared to ask.

“Go ahead.” Admiral Tourville replied somewhat casually.

Raoul’s question wasn’t regarding a story about his mother. Instead he asked something else, “Did you request me? If so, why? I know you knew my mother, before…”

“Before we decided to roll the dice on Beatrice, you meant.” he finished, bluntly honest, before continuing, “And, no, I didn’t. I didn’t request Admiral Foraker, back when she was a Commander, either. Javier- Admiral Giscard just shipped her off to me with a datachip. I didn’t know quite what I was getting into, but we had a pretty good run for a while. Actually, I believe your Admiral Henke was the one to suggest you to my chief of staff.”

I didn’t know I made that much of an impact on the First Space Lord herself, Raoul thought.