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For one second, it made me miss something completely stupid.

The break room at the Earth lab. Not the lab itself. The room everyone complained about.

One crooked table. A heating unit that burned food at the edges and left the center cold. A dented kettle somebody kept repairing instead of replacing. Coffee so bitter we used to joke that it could disinfect the counters if the actual chemicals ran out.

I used to know exactly where my cup would be, which shelf held my food, which chair rocked if you leaned too far backward.

There had been something comforting about having complaints that small.

A transport passed outside, its lights sweeping briefly across the room, brightening the terminal screen and then disappearing.

I pushed the memory aside before it could become something larger.

“Sera’n would have liked you.”

The thought came out without warning.

Veyr looked up.

The room changed. Just slightly.

I looked down at my hands. “I mean the part where you both think procedure is a personality.”

Veyr set the food down. “You miss him.”

It wasn’t a question.

I swallowed. “Yes.”

The answer surprised me with how quickly it hurt.

I had been too busy running to really sit with that part.

Sera’n might be hiding. He might be detained. He might actually have been reassigned.

Maybe.

But every time I pictured his station, I saw the pendant sitting beside the unfinished work.

He wouldn’t have left it.

“I keep thinking I should call him.”

Veyr said nothing.

I stared at the terminal. “He was who I went to when something here didn’t make sense.”

“Zuna?”

“All of it.”

I rubbed my thumb against the side of my hand. “He never acted like I was stupid for not understanding how things worked. Or like I should be grateful just because I had a room and food and wasn’t being hurt.”

Veyr remained quiet.

“He explained things,” I continued. “Not always nicely.”

“That appears to be a trait you appreciate.”