Rama requested time alone with Sekar and Nakamura that evening, understanding correctly that whatever he needed to work through required the specific quality of trusted, honest conversation rather than institutional processing through formal council channels.
They gathered on the observatory deck — the same location that had witnessed every significant reflection across seven years of documented partnership, the specific place where difficult understanding had, repeatedly, found its proper articulation.
"I want to say something plainly," Rama began, once they'd settled into the deck's familiar quiet. "I've been sitting with this theory since the session concluded, and I recognize something in myself I need to acknowledge openly rather than processing privately."
