Source: Recklessness

Velasco awakened to an argument outside the door. It is a quiet argument and somewhat distant, but he can hear it through the shaft of light that slips past the partly opened panel.

"... Don't we have enough to deal with?"

"Well, he doesn't know enough to take care of himself. He has no funds. I can't stay with him. And the hearing is in a few days. "

He feels the tiredness sweeping up on him, but he hears the feminine voice marching over Pyran. "I want to know that you are taking care of yourself. You've been worrying yourself for months over this installation, and I thought it would be over when we got here. But now you've found something else, something new. It's not fair, and I won't have it. It's not fair to me, to Eilie, or to you. After the hearing, I want you to think about your family for a while. All right?"

He doesn't stay awake long enough to hear the answer, but he's known enough married people to know what the answer will have to be.

Then there is blackness and silence, with only a few dreams.

"Only a few days remain before the force hearing for Pyran Arbuthar, to determine if there was any wrongdoing in the matter of the destruction of the unnamed Cocteau native fishing vessel, the death of most of its crew and the injury to the surviving crew member, Velasco Enderion.

"At issue is the question of whether or not Pyran Arbuthar knew of the presence of the vessel and nevertheless continued the descent with the knowledge that the operation was endangering the lives of those aboard.

"The hearing is convened as an automatic response to a fatal engagement with natives of Cocteau, by the members of the Cocteau Refuge Justice Unit on behalf of the Recovery League.

"Likely consequences of a guilty finding include expulsion from the Prometheus Association Compact and immediate removal of Pyran Arbuthar from the expedition."

It is a dispatch with many implict concepts. Velasco had spent portions of the last day lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, experimenting with the glasses to learn more about this new world, and he had been trying for hours to track down the meaning of the comments about the upcoming force hearing.

So now he knew. Before, he hadn't even known what to ask. It was obvious that something large was at stake for Pyran, but not what or why. Now he had some sense of what it was.

He rolls over onto his side, and the motion sets up a dull ache along his spine. But the rehabilitators have told him not to worry about those feelings, and he doesn't. Instead, he feels a strange sadness.