The Captain's table sat down to dinner exactly on time, always.
    Kamele waited five beyond seating time before leaving her stateroom, moving not to the dining area but to Associate Provost Crowley's room up aisle among the premium rooms. Not exactly what the Chair would expect, she was sure.
    Lunch had been quiet, with Chair Hafley arriving late and leaving early, explaining the while that she and her companion had been invited to dine at the Captain's table for the official dinner, with full pomp.
    With the table's full admiration accepted, the Chair and her onagrata rushed off to choose wardrobe for the event then barely a half-day away.
    “Kamele, didn't we check-off 'no' on that?”
    Theo's question, held with perfect timing until the pair were out of earshot, had brought a quick round of laughter and nods, and a serious reply.
    “Yes, Theo, we did,” Kamele had acknowledged. “Dinner with the Captain is an optional cost I thought beyond the necessity of the department's finances. Perhaps it ...”
    Emeritus Professor Crowley, usually circumspect, had interrupted  the moment to suggest, “An opportune time, I think, for the rest of the committee to explore the specialty restaurants and offerings for our individual dinners.”
    “ As an advisor and team member, I'd like to suggest this: let us not meet as committee of the college again until tomorrow! We will very shortly be hard at work in a location with constraints on food choices – indeed on choices of many kinds. Let us follow the lead of our Chair, as I'm sure she has beseeched each of you. Let each of us faculty use the remainder of this day as relaxation and make the most of our evening meals!”
    Turning, he'd bowed then, not to Kamele, but to her daughter.
    “And you, Theo, perhaps you ought to consider visiting the Young Person's Lecture Hall this evening, where there will be a smörgåsbord, talks, and presentations by the Visitor's League!”
    Kamele had to hand it to him – when it served his purposes, Vaughn Crowley could be a very effective leader.
    And so here she was, at Crowley's own stateroom, knocking. He'd promised a quiet dinner party, with just a few friends.  Kamele could deal with that.

    “Wine. Wine. And ... wine. Please, if it isn't acceptable let me know; I have several other containers standing by.”
    Crowley hovered as if suffering real concern over his choices, as he had over the cheeses he'd offered as appetizer.
    “The Visitor's League has taken the ship by surprise, I think,” he said by way of explanation. “No one considered that twelve dozen hi-top traveling youngsters would not be traveling on their own, or with barbarians. So the ship feeds the young on finger foods, leaving expensive cheese as a choice for us.”
    Kamele took the glass, savoring the fruity aroma. “This,” she said after a careful sip, “is a very fine wine!”
    “Indeed it is.”
    That from the third of the trio, Captain Cho, who had been not the least put out at Kamele's bemusement on arrival.   
    “We are suffered to order from the top third of the menu, I fear,” Crowley said, said, the shake of his head wistful, “for the Visitor's League must always choose the middle way in things.”
    “And our budget?” asked Kamele with only distant interest as she permitted herself another sip.
    Crowley shrugged.  “My studies have created surplus for the department over the years. I'll sign for the meal, for I have ordered it.”
    That much settled, Crowley sat carefully.
    “As I say I must say again, I thank you both for joining me here. It would not be good for the Chair's eyes to see us sit to table nor for the Chair to consider that we might.  Why, if she did she might consider us a conspiracy.”
    He raised his glass then, awaiting theirs. When the three were raised he offered, “To honest scholarship and true knowledge!” and then sipped, cheerfully. 
    “Now, we'll have a very fine meal and a very useful discussion.”

   
    Kamele was pleased that they kept to lighter topics during dinner, including the advent of the Visitor's League,  which she'd never seen in operation.
    “I've spoken with several of the advisors,” Crowley said around a bite, “and they are very able at making connections.  Already I am asked to provide some contacts with Delgado... where, I suppose, they would do little enough harm. I believe I will follow through once we have our situation clarified.”
    “And so, this is what they do: they arrive at a planet, with a connection in place, of course, and they explore the world, their students drawn from worlds they've previously visited.  The goal, as much as there is one, is for members of the League to visit or be resident on all worlds which speak or understand Terran, and which have humanity in common. It is said that this particular tour is seventeen Standards old by now, and will on the twentieth anniversary quadricate.”
    Cho was faster on the question, Kamele having been in mid sip.
    Crowley laughed.  “Yes, I know.... it is a play on the inner Terran. They will split the teachers, advisors, and travelers resident with the group then and they will form four teams  from the one, staying most of a year on the host planet while each group develops plans and destinations of their own.”
    “The ultimate goal then?”  Kamele looked to her dinner companions with some asperity. “Is the plan to provide opportunity for the advisors to live a life of leisure traveling among the stars?”
    Cho laughed then.
    “Traveling among the stars is both a reward and a curse, Kamele, especially to a group with such ideals, to consider all of us as worthy of visiting, and worthy of traveling with.”
    Warming to her point she relaxed in the chair, glass in hand.   
    “Imagine, if you will, advising fifteen halflings on the precipice of adulthood... for a trip spanning three years.” 
    She made a motion with her hand that caught Kamele's attention, and that reminded her of Theo, while Cho went on at pace and a quiet chuckle from Crowley as background.
    “Consider you and I, my friend. I find having care of one prodigy of a pilot just beyond halfling a burden at times  and you, ah, I believe you and Theo are in the throes of the dance where she will become all of herself if she hasn't yet. Now add thirteen more and the equations....”
    Kamele sipped, hearing again the phrasing, the words, feeling a just twinge of annoyance.
    “Pilot?” Kamele tasted the word carefully. “Yes, Win Ton did mention that he thought perhaps to have misjudged Theo's autonomy.” Kamele sipped a careful sip of the excellent wine, and said again ... “Pilot.”
    “Yes, Kamele?”
    “I see,” said Kamele as she nodded, “but it was not yourself I was speaking of. I think we knew this, in any case. But the youth, Win Ton. He mentioned playing bowli ball with pilots but I'm not sure he included himself in the .. equation, if you will, as a pilot.”   
    Cho moved her hands expressively saying Kamele knew not what.
    “He ought not to over-speak the case, but he is in fact a very able pilot, with perhaps a better judgment of ships than of society, as is so often the case with the young.  And understand, he has little experience with ships like this ship; in fact in view of certain tendencies of his to overindulge his time visiting with friends I have arranged for him to spend   his putative work hours as an observer and apprentice to the back-up bridge on board.”
    Kamele looked about her as if testing the integrity of the walls.
    The pilot chose to laugh.
    “Well you may think so; but he will hardly be in the helmsman's seat nor the Captain's chair.  Rather he will sit a jump seat out of the way, unless he does very well indeed. But see you, this will mean he and I will change schedules as of this evening; so this opportunity to speak comes at an excellent time!”
    Kamele felt an emptiness, not for herself but for Theo.
    “Change of schedule? Win Ton will not ...”
    Cho cut her off.
    “Indeed. Win Ton's time will be spent on the back-up bridge and largely with the crew of that flight deck. We may thank Theo for that...”
    Kamele felt the defense come to her lips instantly.
    “I'm sure Theo had no intention of drawing Win Ton into trouble...”
    Cho laughed again, her hands making rapid motions ...
    “No, understand it was not trouble. It was that the flight crew became aware of what they were calling the “young Liadens” after the dancing.  One of them mentioned Win Ton and  Theo, you see, and saw an opportunity to permit a reserve officer to train by offering training to Win Ton.  It is a double plus solution, I assure you, for he is becoming difficult about the public lectures, wishing to teach them himself...”
    Kamele put her left hand on her face and sighed loudly.
    “I'm afraid that Theo will take this as punishment,” she admitted, “and having her mope about will make my time that much harder...”
    Crowley gently cleared his throat.
    “I hardly think Theo need be so downcast, Kamele.  The Visitor's League are perfectly equipped to assist.  In fact the dancing Cho mentions has come to the attention of the advisors.  It appears every child who sees the record wishes to defeat it, or to meet one of the dancers who beat the machine.  I'm advised that they have a full lecture and demonstration program of their own – I'm sure Theo can take part in a group a little closer to her own age.”
    Kamele looked toward Crowley without a word. He raised his hands in placation, giving a slight bow.
    “You have not heard from me any words on the subject nearly as strident as those issued by the Chair, I'm sure.”
    He cleared away dishes in favor of the dessert plate as he spoke.
    “ Understand me, please.”  Now he looked at Kamele carefully, suddenly seeming not quite as old and elsewhere as he often looked.
    “I don't doubt Theo's good sense, nor your own, Kamele. I do have concerns of our ability to reason with Hafley should it become necessary.  Her attempt to suborn the investigation, to make it nothing more than a crowning pleasure trip of her administration, is laughable and worse.  If she wishes to misinform herself, then she may. What we need is to not willfully do the same to ourselves!”
    Kamale looked away from the pair of them for a moment.
    “Misinform?”
    This was said to the general direction of the wall.
    “Yes. I'm afraid the scout has information we need.  Our destination may not be nearly as hospitable as the Team imagines.”
    Kamele looked back.
    “I see.  Meanwhile, information or not I  expect I'll still be facing rebellion. Your change of hours... Theo had been hoping to learn something of finger-talk, I gather, and found the public venues devoid of anything but the signs for suffocation and food. I was hoping...”
    Cho sat forward thoughtfully.
    “Professor, I believe I may be able to assist there. Learning finger-talk, finger talk at the pilot level, as it were. Well, if she had not been exposed to it before, it might be best that she learn it from someone who has taught it at Scout Academy rather than from one who learned it from mechanics and longshoreman and bar crew.”
    Kamele snorted an agreement.
    “Go on, pilot.”
   
    “If I recall the schedules as envisioned, and if your Theo will not declare me an inferior replacement, I will make my day long enough to have tea with Theo as she breakfasts.  Thus, she will awake with an immediate interest -- and distraction -- to hand and I will have a quiet enough time to unwind to.  You will have a quiet way to start your day.”
    Kamele sighed, watching the Professor Emeritus fidget with a wine sleeve before nodding agreement to the Captain.
    “We can but try, I suppose, having come this far. No plan is immutable.”
    “Excellent!” said the Captain, but by then Kamele had gathered herself and leaned toward the center of the table with a low, conspiratorial voice.
    “So tell, me, Professor.  You seem to have the details of my life, my daughter's. Win Ton's, and Captain Cho all in order. Melchiza awaits you. What surprises are in store, do you think?”

    Even an old scout could pick out the gawkers and the would-be gallants anticipating Roni's return. He saw the general curious as well, for they paused in their glance but went on. His eyes were not picking out those who might otherwise be watching, those who might be trying to read lips, to photograph, to inform. 
    The senior professor took that to mean no one was assigned as full-time monitor to Lystra Mason, who was now  speaking in monosyllabic austerity with Jen Sar Kiladi in her everyday meal-space.
    “I'm not sure of your meaning. You seem to accuse me of invoking Simple against simple!”
    “A hard word for one of your position to use, is it not? Accuse is a very complex word and it involves complex work.  I do not accuse, Lystra, I simply illuminate. In this case, complex assumption works against the needs of the community and simplicity.”
    “No one told me...” she started, glancing anxiously about to make sure her daughter was not yet returned.
    “Seriously, Lystra. Told you? You disappoint.”
    “Theo ....”
    “Theo,” he broke in, “is not a part of the problem. The problem is a failure to contemplate simple outcomes.  The chair, as you know and I know, has attempted to be extremely complex.  Her route is fraught. Her goal is not simple.  She will not succeed. We agree on this.  We also agree, you and I both, that Kamele Waitley is not the one who should be chair of the department.”
    Lystra Mason looked up sharply.
    “But...”
    “Yes, we have had a long relationship. It was simple, and we were comfortable within it.  I arranged to operate outside of the complex wall of the college, to be where I might walk places and relax.  Theo was a complication, but she was no proof that Kamele Waitley was groomed to take over when Hafley falls.  Who better to know that such an idea is a poor one?”
    He sipped the last of his carried tea then, emphasized his point by pushing on his cane so the head rattled on the table top.
    “Do you think – did you think – I was alone in this project? Had you no indication that, owning my own department meant I might strengthen simplicity elsewhere?”
    “My advisor...”
    “Your advisor is two levels below my standing rank, and if these errors continue, he will be three levels down before you arrive at department head.”
    Now she looked at him sharply.
    “Halfley is not yet gone.”
    “And you have not been permitted to rise despite your work, and despite Roni.”
    “But Roni has acted against Theo!”
    “Theo is not the daughter of the next department head, I assure you.  Hafley has brought about complexity, and Waitley is not in line or she would not have been brought in to act as eyes on this trip.  Were you sent away? You were not. You continue here, exerting your influence. Roni...”
    He was saved from having to speak of Roni's virtues by the turning of heads, but he needed her to feel he'd been clear.
    “As long as Roni understands simple necessities ... and is willing to act upon simple necessities... your future is obvious. Played properly, your goals are clear and simple. Roni has much to offer someone, and her Gigneri ... may well settle matters for you. A simple plan. She must understand where the decision and the necessities lie, and she will have a simple future!”
    “She's young,” Mason said, quietly,  “but quite willing, sir.”
    “Yes, and she has much to offer,” he repeated, bringing a smile to Mason's face as his meal arrived, delivered with all the subtlety the girl's deep bow and plunging neckline could deliver along with the words, “Just for you, sir!”