The sudden appearance of the Admiral of the Grand Armada, alone, without any warning or fanfare was almost enough to get Dolce’s mind off his wife. 

Almost.

“That’s Admiral Odacer.” Vasilia said, stunned. “That is [i]the[/i] Admiral Odacer.”  

“That is her face on the shuttle.” [i]She won’t even look at me.[/i]

“Why is she here? [i]How[/i] is she here? We didn’t miss a shuttle, did we?”

“This was the only other one to land.” [i]Was she expecting backup? Was I supposed to have gotten here sooner? What did I do? What didn’t I do?[/i]

“On third thought, why [i]and [/i]how is she here? She has ten thousand ten thousands and wastes firepower on fireworks. Now she shows up alone and unannounced?”

“I...I’m afraid I don’t know why. Or how.”  [i]I couldn’t stop Jas’o. I didn’t bring an army. I let myself get distracted. Now look what’s happened.[/i]

“Well! We can’t just let her do whatever it is that she’s doing for whatever reason she’s doing it, don’t you think? We ought to stop her. Now.”

He startled. He couldn’t help himself. Sorry, sorry! “Yes. Yes of course we should.” Too much was falling too fast, and his mind raced a thousand ways every second, and all it did was pull him farther apart when she needed him [i]here.[/i] “...how, exactly?”

Useless. Utterly useless.

[That’ll be a 1 + 4 + 1 = [b]6[/b] on Look Closely. Going with [i]Tell me about “Admiral Odacer.” What are they doing? What will they do next?[/i]]