'I do. I stand by my principles.' She understands what he means. It's easy to talk from the safety of a Company Tower about what people in danger ought to do, but she doesn't take advice on Tradeline actions from anyone but Tradeliners. This isn't so far different. She knows what she's capable of now. That she can stand against opposition - and against her own doubts. It isn't lost on Tayrey that the reason she has to step up her own patrols and call on her friends to support her with them during excursions is that the other military types tend to go on them. Someone less steadfast might have joined them out of worry for her own reputation.

Not Tayrey. Because Peter Smith is right, someone has to think first of those who stay behind. Even in good times you don't send all your leaders on expedition at once and leave your ship vulnerable - and this is the very opposite of a good time.

'I think I understand,' she says then, slowly. 'You want to know what they know, just as you know how much I saw - and what I didn't.' She frowns. 'If your privacy is breached, you want to know by how far, and I can understand that, but my concern is - how much can it still hurt you? If you're treated the way you were before? Will knowing it isn't the real place make it easier?'