Then get the rest of the fleet to Prime as soon as we can."Annette asked, "What about everyone starting here, and we can use the Jump Gate to move bac... to Prime? I mean even though they are using hyper-space, we will still have a day, before they get from here to Prime." Any problem with that idea, Admiral?"Jim knew, full well, that the gate was the weak link in that idea."Yes Sir, a big one. If the Gate goes, it will take us longer than we will have, to warp back to Prime." No," Annette said,. While Ricky had taken note of the conversation, he was more interested in what Ronan and Simon were doing.He watched carefully as they put different measures of ingredients into the big pot. Alberto had come back with a modest-sized chest and dropped it on the ground. He rummaged through the chest before he handed Simon different sacks depending on what the man asked for. Simon was reading the items from a list written in his little magic book.Ricky itched to look at the book. His musings were. ." Nina," she stopped me, "You've been lonely, you've been unfulfilled. You met somebody exciting... and tender... and caring, and you-" here she had a little trouble getting it out--"you love her."I watched my friend carefully, wondering what thoughts were going on her head about me.She kept on, and I can see she was doing her best to soft-touch what must have been a shattering thing to discover about her closest female friend. "It is what it is. I'm no one to judge you. I just want you to be. "I will be," I assured her quietly.I did my best to un-wire myself before I got to Peggy's door. The day was going to be hard enough on her without me spooking her with my problems. She had no idea what I was up to, and if things went right she'd never know. I didn't want her blaming herself for whatever it was I would go through. You could say it was a good thing I had to protect her. It kept me from worrying about myself.Following her mom's directions, I found her upstairs, sitting slumped on.