Kira pulled a face. “You know I don’t keep that nasty stuff on my ship.”
Humans and the Tuann didn’t share the same taste buds. Whereas Kira wouldn’t wish that bitter, dirt tasting sludge on her worst enemy, humans craved it.
She’d been threatened with bodily harm on more than one occasion when Raider and the rest of the Curs ran out.
“That’s why I added my own stash,” Raider called at her back as the emperor followed her into the corridor.
“Be careful. The emperor wants something,” Jin warned through their internal comms.
“Like I couldn’t guess that for myself,” Kira muttered.
Torvald glanced at her. “What was that?”
“Nothing.”
Absolutely nothing.
And that was how it needed to stay.
Torvald peered over Kira’s shoulder into the tiny nook that she had remodeled to serve as her kitchen for her former crew of two.
More of a closet than anything, it contained the bare minimum. A few cabinets that acted as storage for the pre-made meal packets and nutrient solutions. A sink for any dishes she might have. A wave heater to warm up her food on those rare occasions she actually took the time to sit down for a meal.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but this does not look like a kitchen,” Torvald observed.
Kira took a deep breath. “No, it does not.”
Gone were her sad looking table and its pair of chairs. It was replaced by weapons cabinets that lined one entire wall. Her guns were arranged in neat little lines inside. Everything securely in place.
The crates containing her ammo and other demolition paraphernalia were stacked to one side.
That wasn’t all Kira found as she opened one of the weapons lockers. Tuann weapons were stashed inside. She selected a zuipi from the open locker, holding it up to inspect.
The zuipi didn’t look like much, resembling a bastardized version of a bow sans string. Kira had seen it in action enough times to know how formidable it could be in the hands of someone who knew how to use it.
Soul’s breath was required to operate the zuipi, enabling the wielder to shoot something that Kira described as energy arrows. Only these arrows could penetrate human armor and many types of metal.
“Jin, is there something you would like to tell me?” Kira asked in a carefully controlled voice, conscious of Torvald’s curious gaze on her.
Kira bared her teeth when the line crackled with a conspicuous silence. Jin didn’t really think he was fooling her, did he? The ship was as much his creation as hers. He had this thing wired with microphones and other sensors that enabled him to listen in on conversations anywhere in the ship.
Kira had drawn the line at cameras, not wanting to feel like an animal in a zoo, but she’d conceded on the listening devices.
She’d been a very different person in the early days after her coma. She’d walked a little too close to the edge, taking chances that were almost suicidal. Jin had needed a way to check on her while letting her wallow.
This had been their compromise.
With Torvald’s presence, there was no way he was keeping his distance—which meant he was ignoring her.
“Very well.” Kira turned on her heel, marching toward her former armory. “If you’re going to be like that, I’ll figure it out for myself.”
If in the process she was forced to maim someone for having the audacity to touch her ship, that was too bad.
Torvald trailed behind Kira as she made the short trip, reaching her destination in less than two minutes.
She stopped abruptly on the threshold of what should have been her armory, only to find it restored to the functionality it possessed when Kira first bought the ship.
No, Kira took that back. It was far nicer than the kitchen the ship had back then.
