[LEGACY VERSION] The Emperor of Time (Book 1 - The Kaireyeh Chronicles)

Chapter 14 - Talina

The guard outside the hatch to her mother's quarters gave Talina a shark-eyed stare. An admiral's flag staff pin gleamed on her collar. "The admiral gave orders not to be disturbed."

Coming here was a mistake. Goddess, Talina should be in the engine room fixing the ten thousand things that needed fixing--right now, her mother's people were handling most of them.

She squared her shoulders and knotted her emotions into steel. Dealing with her mother took more than one kind of armor.

"She'll wish to see me," Talina said.

The guard's gaze flicked to the pistol on Talina's belt. What, did she think Talina would shoot her own mother?

Talina swallowed her first response and fixed the guard with a glare. "Tell her I'm here, Sergeant."

"One moment." The guard tapped her comm implant, and the muscles in her throat worked as she subvocalized her request. "You may go in."

As Talina entered, a light buzz tingled her skin--the cabin's weapon scanner was active. Her ears popped. The weapon suppression field was active, too. The ship was barely running, with all available power shunted to the translight engines, and her mother was using a power-hungry weapon suppression system.

Talina swallowed her outrage. She'd get nowhere if she started the fight.

The scanner blinked a red holo around the pistol on her hip.

Admiral Zivali looked up from her desk. "Armament accepted. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, Talina?"

Talina drew a breath and looked around. The Teven Spar, as a light cruiser and not a ship of the line, did not have dedicated flag quarters. The quarters her mother had commandeered were reserved for dignitaries or honored guests, occasionally used by visiting senior officers. They were slightly smaller than Jonas', two rooms with the outer room functioning as both office and sitting area. In the short time since the admiral's arrival, brightly-patterned cushions had appeared on chairs and the utilitarian green couch, and framed certificates of commission and office hung on the bulkheads behind her desk. The citrus of her mother's shampoo hung in the air. It hadn't taken the admiral long to claim this space as her own.

Talina carefully took a seat across from her mother.

"Repairs are going well," the admiral said. She watched Talina with sharpened attention.

Talina gripped the arms of the chair and willed her face not to heat. That was a deliberate jab. Did her mother know how to open a conversation any other way?

"Well enough," she bit out.

She'd thrown herself back into her work after Jonas' confession, but she'd snapped at enough of her crew, and her mother's people, and then the engineers coming in from the Fifth Fleet relief ships, that Lovich had intervened. He'd taken her aside and reminded her he could function as a neutral go-between, and maybe that was a good idea right now. She'd resisted, and he'd presented her with the admiral's orders that he take de facto command of the engine room crew. Lovich had graciously not formally enacted on the orders, but rumors would be floating. And Talina was damned sure her mother had heard Lovich's report.

She clenched her jaw so tightly colored spots danced at the edges of her vision. Her mother had planted Lovich on the Spar because of Jonas, hadn't she? An extra-competent pair of eyes for a raw situation. Jonas. It all came back to Jonas.

Her gut churned and she curled her toes hard in her boots. She couldn't think about Jonas here, not with her mother seated across from her. She was here about the broadcast.