"No," said Lynx, blinking, suddenly keenly aware that he had been sucked, wholecloth, back into a military life.

That people asked normative questions of senior officers, on a need to know basis, and that to not answer those questions was far more suspicious than to spin some glib reply.

"No, I don't mind at all."

He cracked a slow smile while he gathered his thoughts, rubbing his jaw, then his head.

"...I didn't leave," he said, finally. "I was badly injured, rehabilitated and...eventually reassigned."

He paused.

"But they say lightning only strikes once, Lieutenant. So I think this time around, my tenure will hold."