“I don’t fraternize with the crew.”
“I can understand that. They’re not the people I would have picked to spend so much time with, either. A boorish lot, all things considered. But they’re here and we’re here, so we might as well—”
“It’s not a question of them as people. A captain cannot allow herself to fraternize. Discipline is hard enough to maintain aboard this ship. Social distance must be kept if they are to have any respect for me at all.”
Tyla turned to her and smiled. “I know exactly what you mean. Vanadi Lochintal had the most awful problems with her servants when she tried to treat them as equals. They would talk back to her, jobs weren’t getting done, they would disappear at odd hours when she needed them. Some of those people had been in her service for decades, and they tr
