“Aren’t those pretty much the same thing?”Finn asked.
Raider wagged a finger at him.“You’d think so, but they’re not.The first almost always results in something harmless.The second holds the promise of danger.”
“He’s hoping for danger,” Kira mock whispered as she stepped over the first water channel.
Raider’s snort held humor.“Like you aren’t.”
“True,” Kira admitted.
She wouldn’t mind something to take her mind off things.Nothing too serious.Just a little excitement to distract her from the ever present weight of sorrow and regret that she felt in her chest.
Discomfort showed on Raider’s face as he got too close to one of the waterfalls.“Damn, that stings.”
“You could always stay behind,” Kira tossed at him, peering through the curtains of water before giving up with a shake of her head after a few minutes.
It was useless.All she could see were vague shapes and shadows.
From the frustrated look on Finn’s face as he examined their surroundings, he wasn’t faring much better.
“Hey, now, there’s no need for insults,” Raider griped as they worked their way counterclockwise through the chamber.
Finn suppressed a smile as they rounded a waterfall and headed in the general direction of the pedestal and the small pool of water around it.
“I heard a rumor that Talon haskeevaand that human whiskey you said you adored standing by for our arrival when we’re done here,” Finn informed him, naming the other oshota that Kira had just recently accepted into her service.
She still wasn’t quite sure how that happened.One oshota—two, if you counted Raider—and her uncle did—was more than enough for her.
Blackmail, however, proved to be a powerful motivator.
“Good.Because I could use a drink.I feel like I just attended a funeral,” Raider said, his forehead furrowing as he leaned forward to get a better look into a portion of the chamber that had been out of their line of sight from their original position.
“Count me out.I promised to visit Jin after this,” Kira said.
He’d wanted to be here but circumstances and the over protective nature of those around him had made that impossible.
Raider looked over at her.“Speaking of—how is the Tin Can adjusting to his new body?”
“You’re going to need to think of a new insult,” Kira informed him.
Jin was flesh and blood now.
When the J1N drone that had acted as his container for so long was irreparably damaged in battle, she’d been forced to transfer his consciousness to a new vessel.One that held an unexpected resemblance to his original body.
Kira still wasn’t sure how that was possible.She and Jin had gone to pretty extensive lengths to destroy all genetic samples that had been taken from them during their time in captivity as children.
There should have been no possibility of a clone.
The alternative, however, was even less likely.That the Tsavitee’s masters had somehow recovered the original and kept it in stasis for decades.Unageing and unchanging.
It was a mystery that plagued Kira and kept her up some nights.
If little cloned Jins were running around, chances were there might be Kira-clones out there too.
Now that was a disturbing thought.
“He’ll always be Tin Can to me,” Raider drawled.
“Do me a favor—wait until I’m in the room when you tell him that.”
