Commander Yutan was in a corner, just watching over us. He was responsible of the four Teculpa ships Hiraku sent with us, but he didn't say a word while the pilot of the Queen Charlotte was arranging the drift with them. He was like a statue, gloomy and ancient, silent, sat down cross-legged on the floor, because no chair was suited for his long body

Captain Valtair was... decent accepting him on board, trying to keep all strictly formal, hiding her irritation under tons of catch phrases from the fleet manual. Yutan, on his side, was acceptable. He thanked Valtair and all the human race for the possibility to join the expedition and said also few words about what he knew about us and about our great achievements. Then he sat down and most of the gentle disguise he was wearing went down. He looked the ship as it had to blow up at any moment and sabotaged every try of dialogue from me or Cassandra.

"All ships drifted well, captain. We are connected to all of them" stated an ensign, while the fizzy sensation on my skin already advised me of the jump. "This first drift will be eight hours long"

Valtair looked at us. "At the end of it we will be out of known territories, we have few data about the system where we will arrive and I hope we will stay there as few as possibile"

"You're waiting for hostiles, captain" Yutan didn't speak loud, but the tone of his voice was so particular that we all listened too him very well.

"What do you mean, commander? You're at war with a family, aren't you? It's perfectly normal considering the possibility of hostiles"

Yutan was still, only his eyes moved a little to catch the eyes of Indira.  "I'm talking about you"

"It's my duty to evaluate threats, commander"

"But you desire them"

I was already in red alert, but seeing Indira jumping down from her seat was enough to tell me to intervene. "I didn't know Teculpas like mind tricks, commander"

"I was just trying to understand better the people I'm with"

"Good idea, and you're plenty of time to do it, but i'd like if you try to be less... enigmatic, when starting a chat"

Yutan stood up, his head just few inches from the roof. I couldn't say he was smiling because Teculpas lips have less positions than ours and they are way less expressive, but I could bet he was enjoining that little game. "I was talking as a warrior to a warrior. How can be enigmatic something like that?"

"Ad as a warrior..." tried to say Indira, wanting back the fight. 

I had to block her. "If you're talking about the captain, unfortunately I have to take her with me for a moment. She has to help me debriefing the human senate about this expedition. I think that" I pointed Cassandra "you could try to understand professor Opender. You can talk to her as a warrior or as anything you think suitable. She is a linguist, she will love every kind of dialogue from you"

That said, I left the bridge, keeping an eye on Indira to ensure she was following me.

"What he was doing was dirty" she whispered to me, when we were alone in the corridor.

"I know and I appreciated your self-control"

"I'm not that stupid, diplomat"

"But there's still something I have to understand. I procrastinated it too much"

Captain Valtair slowed down, looking me as I was a dangerous snake. "Understand what?"

I had lured her to the door of the canteen, knowing we would find noone there. I entered it and took a seat. "Which war, captain? Which fight? Which family?"

"So you're starting with the mind tricks too"

"It's just that... well, Yutan was right. You are a warrior and I need to understand what kind of warrior you are... what kind of warrior you were. I can see when someone passed through fire and blood and survived"

Indira took a point on the wall to stare at, just to avoid my look. She was a good expert doing that.  "The Queen Charlotte is not a warship so its captain can't be a warrior. Easy enough, in my opinion"

"That's just the frustrating part of the situation. I need to know the background of it. We are talking about a bad crash with Teculpa people? Some great war?"

"We are talking about Teculpa, yes, diplomat Callus" She was still staring at the wall "Teculpa and humans"