I-182-Oliver: Captree Main Orbital, Concourse Café

“I guess they would.”

Marissa Starr looks down at her coffee, a rare event across Oliver’s whole lifetime that his mother has not made direct eye contact with him while they have been talking.

“You know, when you were younger, the Vizierate were very keen to have you join them, put a lot of pressure on to sign you to their academy programme.  It may have been selfish of me, but I always hoped you might follow a path like one of your parents, join the Legion, and I wanted you to go to Legion academy.  But while your father and I both believe that duty play an important part in a person’s life, we equally believe that allegiance should be freely given.  Your father persuaded me that the best thing was to encourage you along the Higher Education Path, and that would leave you free to choose your best duty.  ‘Any kid that the Vizierate wants this badly should be able to opt whatever that want’, he said.

“I think, in hindsight, that was the right decision.”

That’s almost certainly not a proto-tear glistening in his mother’s eyes.