'If any of them give you trouble over it, I'll stand with you, word by contract,' she says quickly, before Cassandra's last words can really register.

And then they do sink in, and Tayrey feels tears pricking at her eyes all over again, because despite all the pain, that's proof that she was valued, after she was gone. Acts of value - of kindness, like that, still touch her deeply, this damaged young woman who gave up on expecting them.

'Thank you for that. It means more than I can say. And thank you for... being kind to me, when I was too badly injured to offer fair contract.' Tayrey doesn't perceive it as debt, exactly, not considering the context. They were a team, that was part of what it meant - but that doesn't mean she can't appreciate it now. Her last days had been awful, but they'd have been so much worse without people she could trust to care for her.

'I... Fever and I held a private memorial here. We thought you were lost, too.' Ari had been more certain than Fever, because Tradeliners tend to make such assumptions about missing spacers - she's never been happier to be wrong. 'I couldn't do all I should have. Attend to all the responsibilities of a commander - but I spoke for you too. Cassandra is a de Rolo.'