By the time I made it through the hatch into the cargo bay, the Valoffs had the levcarts mostly unloaded. Torran carried boxes beside his soldiers, which surprised me. I expected him to stand and point. They had neatly stacked their supplies out of the way against the starboard wall. I considered making them move everything just for the hell of it, but such pettiness was beneath me.

Torran turned at my approach and inclined his head. “Captain.”

“General. Your comm must have failed to deliver the message that you planned to arrive early and board my ship without permission.”

His eyes narrowed. “We had an agreement.”

“The agreement doesn’t override common curtesy. Would you board a Valovian ship without informing the captain?”

“I apologize,” he said stiffly. “I should have warned you that I would arrive early to give my crew time to make another trip back to our ship. I was going to wait outside with the cargo, but with the ramp down, I thought you expected me.” He looked like the words tasted foul, but I didn’t detect any deceit.

The three soldiers with him finished unloading the levcarts and waited, unmoving. It was creepy as fuck because I couldn’t see their faces. I made an instant decision. “Ship dress code is civilian clothes. If your soldiers don’t have any, have them pick some up.”

Torran straightened, trying to use his height to intimidate me. “They are comfortable in armor.”

The top of my head might have come up only to his nose, but I was hard to intimidate. “Good for them. They’ll also be comfortable in civilian clothes. My ship, my rules.”

His mouth firmed into a flat line. When I didn’t budge, he nodded once, sharply. The three soldiers behind him moved at the same time, pushing the carts out of the cargo bay and down the ramp without a word.

“They will return with the rest of the gear and appropriate clothing. It will take them approximately thirty minutes.”

I desperately wanted to leave him standing in the cargo bay for the next half an hour, but he had agreed on the armor. I could also be civil. “Would you like to see your quarters while you wait?”

He stared at me for long enough that I thought he wasn’t going to respond, but finally he inclined his head in agreement. I waved for him to follow. It made me itch to have him at my back, but it was better to find out now if he was going to gut me where I stood.

We were nearly to our destination when I caught a flash of white out of the corner of my eye. I’d been keeping watch for Luna, but I hadn’t been careful enough.

“Luna, no!” Before I could turn and grab her, she froze, held in the air by an invisible force.

Chapter Five