Blackening people’s bad name!
I find it difficult to believe that we have retro-death cultists in Heinlein Station, Commander. It bemused Tobias when Asenath added a sniff sound effect to phrases like that; after all, they both knew that she didn’t have a nose. There would have been signs of their activity.
“Oh, I doubt Oates was looking for Red Imperials, per se. Even back in the old days” — by which he meant, last year — “they would have actively screened for them. But new cultists? Not everybody goes space-happy dramatically.”
Supposedly. I do not have an insider’s feel for human psychology. But if she was actively looking for a forming cult, why didn’t she report that to you? You may the acting Commandant, but you took the position as per regulations. You are the legitimate command authority.
“Yes,” Tobias said with forced lightness, “but I’m also crazy, remember? Maybe even crazy enough to get caught up in a cult. Or run it.”