Lindsy was quiet for a moment. She had thought about this. She had thought about it in the alcove after the briefing and on the bridge at 2300 running route calculations and in this room while she was unpacking her cases. "I know" she said. "I thought about it when he offered it and I took the role anyway because it is the right role for what I know and what I can do and because I am not going to turn down something that fits because of how it looks." She paused. "What I cannot control is how people read it. What I can control is how I do the job."

"That is the correct approach" T'Vara said. "What does the role actually involve?"

"Supporting Zedd and Tiraa in command side dealings. Following up with client representatives, verifying technical details on routes and cargo and contract terms, relaying information back before anything is committed." Lindsy turned the pan on the cooktop. "It fits what I know. I have been reading what brokers and clients are actually saying versus what they are presenting for many years. I am good at it."

"She is very good at it" Mei-Lin said. "I watched her catch three things in one conversation with a broker on the docking ring that I would have missed entirely."

"The concern is not competence" T'Vara said. "The concern is that the role puts her in close professional proximity to both Zedd and Tiraa on a daily basis. One of those relationships is now personal. The other is the XO who may not have been." She looked at Lindsy. "That is a complicated triangle to operate inside."

"I am aware of that" Lindsy said. "I had lunch with Tiraa today specifically because I wanted to address the professional relationship directly before it became something that needed to be managed around." She paused. "Which brings me to the other thing I need to tell you both."

"Her eyes" Mei-Lin said quietly.

Lindsy looked at her. "You noticed too."

"During the briefing" Mei-Lin said. "I did not say anything because I was not sure what I was looking at."

T'Vara set her glass down. "Tell me what happened at lunch" she said.

"She confirmed it without quite confirming it" Lindsy said. "She mentioned having trouble sleeping and when I pressed she said it was not the ship and it was not the planet. And then later she said that moments of passion at close range are impossible to ignore even for the most sound minds, at first." She looked between them. "She has been picking up on what people are feeling on this ship. Including what has been happening in the captain's quarters. She already knew before lunch." She picked up her glass. "She also made it clear that Zedd did not consult her before offering me the command liaison role. She was not openly angry about it but she was clear that it had registered."

"That is not a pure Orion characteristic" T'Vara said. "Black irises from birth are consistent with Betazoid heritage. The combination with Orion physiology suggests mixed heritage, partial Betazoid at minimum."

The room was quiet. Mei-Lin turned her glass in her hands. T'Vara looked at the viewport.

"That is a considerable amount of access to what people have not chosen to share" T'Vara said. "I understand it is involuntary at close range. That does not make it less significant."

"No" Lindsy said. "It does not. She almost certainly knows about Cormus and Mei-Lin as well. And about Avery and T'Vara." She looked between them. "I am not telling you this to create a problem that does not need to be one. I am telling you because if you are going to be in proximity to Tiraa you should know what that proximity means."

"How did she handle the lunch" Mei-Lin said. "Knowing what she knew and sitting across from you anyway."

"With more grace than she was required to" Lindsy said. "She was honest with me in ways she did not have to be and she kept what she knew to herself rather than using it. I trust her more after that lunch than I did before it. I am also more aware of what working alongside her is going to require from me."

Mei-Lin set her glass down. "Rallid" she said.

"What about him?" Lindsy said.

"He is always there" Mei-Lin said. "Every time I have seen Tiraa he is somewhere nearby. Not hovering but present. Close in a way that reads as chosen rather than assigned." She paused. "I find myself wondering whether the arrangement between them is purely professional."

Lindsy held that for a moment. "I noticed the same thing. She mentioned him at lunch, said he had been serving her in a capacity for her for years. It's reasonable to think something may be going on, or did at one point."

T'Vara looked between them. "I have not had enough proximity to either of them to form an assessment. What I can say is that someone who stays that close for that many years by choice usually has a reason that goes beyond the job title."

"Neither can we say for certain" Mei-Lin said. "I am not certain it is our business. I just notice things."

"Noting things is not the same as making them your business" Lindsy said. "And in this context it is worth noting given everything else we have just been talking about. What I do know is that Tiraa handled today with discretion and that matters. Having the capacity to sense what she senses and choosing how to use it are two different things and she has been careful with both."

They sat with that for a moment and the quiet that followed was the comfortable kind and nobody felt the need to fill it with a conclusion that was not theirs to make.

Sensing a need in shift for the tone of the conversation, the host made a pivot in the moment.

"To the Dutchman" Lindsy said eventually, lifting her empty glass.

Mei-Lin lifted hers. T'Vara looked at both of them and then at the planet in the viewport and then picked up her glass. "To whatever comes next" she said, which was more than Lindsy had offered and which neither of them questioned.

They held their glasses toward the viewport for a moment and then set them down and the ship hummed around them and whatever came next was going to come when it came and tonight there was good food and good wine and three chairs around a table in with a viewport and that was more than enough.