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Once she had finished swallowing she looked over at Arthur who was sitting next to her. He was passing his empty rice bowl to Yoshi, who replaced it with a full one. The boy was just about to begin shoveling the contents into his mouth when Teska said, "Arthur was very brave. In fact I don't think I've ever met a braver young man in my life, singing hymns to keep away demons for ten days."

Arthur blushed and refused to look at those seated around the table, a forkful of rice inches from his mouth. "They only showed up after four days," he mumbled.

"That leaves six during which they were there," Gabe commented. "And you sang for all six days?"

Arthur looked at the starship captain worriedly and said, "I guess so."

"I'm pretty certain that's a medical impossibility," Gabe said, "Right El?"
Dr. Elisha Vanderhoft, the head of the Dawntreader's medical staff, looked up at Gabe and raised an eyebrow. "Are you asking on the assumption that I can determine what's possible and impossible?"

Gabe mouthed something at the Doctor but Teska interrupted whatever he was trying to get across with, "Stop trying to grill my charge, Gabe."

Gabe looked at her, eyes wide. "I wasn't trying to grill him. Not at all, was I, Jennifer?" He looked at Jennifer, sitting across from him, but she had been watching Yoshi while the exchange took place.

"What was that, Gabe?" she asked, turning to him.

"Teska here is implying that I was trying to torture Arthur," Gabe explained.

Jennifer looked around the table and caught Kirika pointedly not looking at Gabe or her and nodding. She turned back to Gabe and said, "I have no doubt you were doing just that."
Gabe feigned shock and hurt and looked away from the assembled with a sniff. Arthur didn't seem to know what to make of the conversation until Tevvin leaned across the table and ruffled the boy's hair.

"Don't worry, Arthur," Tevvin said, "Gabe was just messing with you. No harm intended."

Arthur tried to look disgusted at the attention from Tevvin while also taking a surreptitious glance at Gabe. Gabe was watching and gave him a wink and a smile.

"We believe you," he said.

Tevvin nodded and smiled at Arthur again before sitting back in his chair and turning to Teska once more. "So Teska, what's your final take on the whole situation?"

"To me it looks like Admiral Embry's forces raided a loyalist research base to steal some new technology," Teska replied, "Plain and simple. I gave Quentin the chip Arthur had. Quentin tells me the designs it holds would give any modern navy a tactical advantage."

Tevvin looked to Commander Quentin Reishar, the head engineer of the Dawntreader, who was also seated at the table with them. "Quentin?" he asked.

"Well, Tevvin," Quentin began, "The main design on the chip is for an improved dimensional fracturing unit. It's functionally quite revolutionary. Skipping all the technical details, it basically defeats current hyperspace jamming technology by vastly increasing the focus and efficiency of a standard military hyperdrive."

"So ships mounting this device can't be kept in or out of hyperspace?" Tevvin asked.

"At least not by current jamming technology," Quentin said.

"Basically," Teska said, "with this technology Admiral Embry's forces will be able to disengage from the loyalists whenever the odds aren't in their favor."

Tevvin nodded.