Gregor's eyes widen slightly and a sharp bark of surprised laughter is jerked from his throat before he can catch it, fingers coming up to press over his mouth almost immediately. His voice is a little choked still when he speaks.
"Good God, Captain, please, that's entirely unnecessary." Gregor wrests control of himself and folds his hands loosely in his lap, his eyes still bright. "But yes, I rather thought you might have figured some of it out. I think knowing everything would send my--thankfully immediately absent--security people into colonic spasms, to say nothing of poor Simon, but Miles chooses his own people well and carefully and we rather did take into account that someone working as closely with him as you are would be able to do some complex arithmetic. At any rate, as ranking officer," to put it mildly, "and the person whose Imperial Ass Miles and Ivan--Ivan Vorpatril is here as well by the way, if you haven't bumped into him yet, and I believe you two have met previously--are doing most of their scrambling to cover, the responsibility of the decision to formally break security officially falls to me." He flips a hand up, palm out, in a releasing gesture. "Consider it broken."
He settles back on the couch a little and some of the humor drains from his face as he locks his full attention on Bel and lets his voice drop low.
"Please understand, Captain, that for all I find Miles' scrambling for a solution to a problem that is already fixed amusing, I feel the need to impress upon you that I do not do this lightly. We aren't here of our own free will, we don't know why, and we don't know what sort of danger in which we are all collectively entrenched. While I am not so self-centered as to believe that this is all an elaborate plot on my behalf, most of the people here know me as Greg Vorbarra, possible holder of a countship on a little world that nobody else here has even heard of, and nobody else special besides, and I would like very much to keep it that way. I believe the fewer variables in this equation, the safer we'll all be. That said," and he straightens a little now, chin tilting up to look at Bel with a more considering gaze, thoughtful if not quite abstracted, "we didn't get to know each other as well in the Hegen Hub as I may have liked, as we both had urgent duties to which we needed to attend, but I know that Miles trusts you with his life and the lives of the people under his command, and there are few higher commendations of your character that I could think of. Therefore We trust you, as well." Bel, Betan to the bone, might not intercept that Imperial We, but Gregor presses it there carefully anyway. "And also with Our confidences. I understand that you probably have a great many questions you would like answered, the answers of some of which might be better heard from Miles' own voice, but I will inform him that he may be as frank with you as his discretion permits him and will debrief you myself as well as I can in the meantime under the single condition that you please just call me Greg." Another smile works his way over his face, faint but warm. "Or Gregor, if you like. But go ahead, ask me anything."
THANK GOODNESS FOR BEL TBH
"Good God, Captain, please, that's entirely unnecessary." Gregor wrests control of himself and folds his hands loosely in his lap, his eyes still bright. "But yes, I rather thought you might have figured some of it out. I think knowing everything would send my--thankfully immediately absent--security people into colonic spasms, to say nothing of poor Simon, but Miles chooses his own people well and carefully and we rather did take into account that someone working as closely with him as you are would be able to do some complex arithmetic. At any rate, as ranking officer," to put it mildly, "and the person whose Imperial Ass Miles and Ivan--Ivan Vorpatril is here as well by the way, if you haven't bumped into him yet, and I believe you two have met previously--are doing most of their scrambling to cover, the responsibility of the decision to formally break security officially falls to me." He flips a hand up, palm out, in a releasing gesture. "Consider it broken."
He settles back on the couch a little and some of the humor drains from his face as he locks his full attention on Bel and lets his voice drop low.
"Please understand, Captain, that for all I find Miles' scrambling for a solution to a problem that is already fixed amusing, I feel the need to impress upon you that I do not do this lightly. We aren't here of our own free will, we don't know why, and we don't know what sort of danger in which we are all collectively entrenched. While I am not so self-centered as to believe that this is all an elaborate plot on my behalf, most of the people here know me as Greg Vorbarra, possible holder of a countship on a little world that nobody else here has even heard of, and nobody else special besides, and I would like very much to keep it that way. I believe the fewer variables in this equation, the safer we'll all be. That said," and he straightens a little now, chin tilting up to look at Bel with a more considering gaze, thoughtful if not quite abstracted, "we didn't get to know each other as well in the Hegen Hub as I may have liked, as we both had urgent duties to which we needed to attend, but I know that Miles trusts you with his life and the lives of the people under his command, and there are few higher commendations of your character that I could think of. Therefore We trust you, as well." Bel, Betan to the bone, might not intercept that Imperial We, but Gregor presses it there carefully anyway. "And also with Our confidences. I understand that you probably have a great many questions you would like answered, the answers of some of which might be better heard from Miles' own voice, but I will inform him that he may be as frank with you as his discretion permits him and will debrief you myself as well as I can in the meantime under the single condition that you please just call me Greg." Another smile works his way over his face, faint but warm. "Or Gregor, if you like. But go ahead, ask me anything."
Let's see what happens.