The ship set down with a thud onto the landing pad that covered nearly the entire roof of my home. The restaurant already had a strange, blocky appearance that didn’t match most of the buildings surrounding it despite the ship sitting on top of it. With rounded tops that shone with hundreds of solar panels, the other buildings of the city seemed to hum as the constant wind passed over the city with only a small silent area at the front door of my place.

  Still clad in my combat armor after our quick retreat, I climbed to my feet and headed back to the small armory just behind the cockpit. As the door slid open, it revealed the mostly empty room with racks and shelves to store powered environment suits and small arms to repel boarders. Walking over to the large rack on the back wall that seemed designed for a single suit of combat armor.

  I took my helmet from the crook of my arm and put it on the charging shelf, waiting for the small beep that signaled it had connected. It took a few moments to verify that my suit would be capable of charging on this system. The secret sequence of armor plates was all it took to trigger the suit section that protected the torso and arms to release its form-fitting hold. I stepped into the arms of the torso rack that slid through the sleeves to replace my arm and take the weight of the upper half of the armor off of my shoulders. As I stepped out of the armored pants and stretched my legs, a sultry voice of the Goddess of Passion came from behind me.

  “This room is really sad right now. I can feel your passion calling out in pain to place that suit of war in this empty prison. Can we please get enough weapons and explosives to fill most of the shelves? It’s the only way to calm that fire in your soul a little.”

  After a short fight with my eyes to keep them from rolling, I turned to look at the goddess that had become famous for making my life difficult. Her eyes glowed with purple energy as she studied me, using her powers to read and intensify my passion for the tools of war and my desire to use them for my singular goal. I knew I couldn’t win this fight, so I played along.

  “You’re right, Z. That’s why as the captain of this vessel, I’m assigning you to prepare it for me. I’d love to do it, but I have another passion I need to work on. You must know how hard it is for a normal Echi like me to be split between two passions.”

  For several seconds she stood in the doorway, a look of stunned frustration written across her face as she tried to find a way to get out of the work I’d just given her. When her divinely ingrained duties overcame her laziness, she stuck her bottom lip out in a pout before replying to me.

  “I can’t believe you just used my duty oaths against me. You’ll definitely be the God of Manipulation when you’re reincarnated.”

  Chuckling a little as I turned to leave the room, stripped to the waist after removing my padded undershirt. I walked around the central table where I’d laid my rifle before takeoff, shifting it to one of the charging pads before repeating the process with the pistols and knives. Sure that this ship was now at least capable of arming me for a fight, I made my way to the door, stepping around the goddess that had begun imagining how to best stock our little cache, using her thumbs and index fingers to form a little frame to help her focus.

  The corridor beyond was just as sterile as the room I’d just left, its cold, gray walls and blackened steel floor feeling far less personal than the average freighter. Pausing to lean against the bulkhead, I tried to imagine what could be done to make this ship look more friendly without impeding its function as I spoke to the ship.

  “Dream, are you available? I think we can start talking about those personalizations that you requested.”

  Without warning, the translucent blue form of the ship’s AI appeared beside me and spoke immediately, causing me to spin to face the potential threat before I forced myself to relax.

  “Yes, Master Everrune, I’m free to discuss those preferences. Where would you like to start?”

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  I relaxed against the bulkhead and studied her momentarily before answering.

  “First, I like to resolve one thing about how you enter a room. We can’t have you popping into existence without warning. This ship is run by combat veterans. That’ll likely trigger an unwanted response. Do you have the ability to slowly appear or at least to signal your location before you appear?”

  After a brief moment of confusion, she disappeared. After a moment, a swirling blue mist reappeared and grew into a woman’s form while a sound like a soft swirling wind came from its center. Confusion was still written across her face when the AI’s persona finally fully materialized.

  “Is that better, sir? I’m unsure why this is an issue, but I’m happy to comply. Is there anything else you’d like to set as well?”

  Turning to look around the ship’s public areas, I spoke as I ran my hand along the bulkhead.

  “That’s perfect Dream. Thank you for doing that even though you don’t understand. We need to do something about the feel of the ship. It feels like a brand-new military ship, not a civilian freighter. Are these walls and floors chameleon steel?”

  As she nodded, the walls shifted colors and patterns, changing from a deep red to an active display of a rolling ocean. After a few moments, she looked back at me with a proud smile breaking across her lips. I returned her smile as I studied the walls, floors, and ceiling as they continued to shift.

  “This is perfect. Let’s start by matching the basic structure of the apartment downstairs, like the floors and wall colors. And yes, I authorize you to connect with my home and restaurant systems. I may need you in both locations, so please let me know if you need anything to make that possible.”

  The corridor shifted back to its original color, and Dream’s persona froze as she worked behind the scenes. With a quick jerk of motion, she returned to control the hologram as the room began to shimmer and change. The first things to shift were the walls, turning a faded sandy color before the deck shifted to look like the Fire Wood that clad my floors.

  “Thank you, Dream, this looks much better. I need a place like this where I can let my guard down a little after things get bad. The goddesses are in a similar situation, so keeping this environment and not quickly appearing will help that.”

  The AI slowly nodded, but the confused look remained. I returned to the personalization settings without wanting to go down the rabbit hole of emotions with an AI.

  “Please also allow the goddesses to personalize their cabins and match my cabin to my bedroom downstairs once Stesa finishes her work. Now we need to talk about the next thing, your appearance. I don’t mind your physical appearance, but we need to find you a more professional wardrobe. Can you please work with Uraura to find something you’ll like, but that’ll be appropriate if we have important passengers?”

  Glancing down, she studied her appearance before looking back up at me.

  “I understand, sir. We still need to go through some more of the safety settings and system controls, but at the moment, you have a guest that just arrived at the elevator. Would you like me to let her up?”

  I gave my AI a sweeping bow before heading out of the ship. I checked my watch, answering her question as I descended the lift to the cargo bay. “Thank you again, Dream. Please allow her up. Stesa is here to keep working on the apartment, and she’s only a few minutes early.”

  It only took me a few minutes to leave the ship and drop down the stairs to the top floor of my apartment. The door to the lift dinged as it opened, and Stesa stepped out, her arms full of tiny plants as she walked in. She walked around the living room for several moments, not seeing me on the landing that overlooked the floor below as she placed the plants on the mantle and the window ledges.

  With all those in place, she turned to face the landing, moving to the small bookshelf built under the stairs. Her eyes widened, and one of the plants slipped from her grip as she saw me. For a moment, she met my gaze, biting her lip slightly before breaking from my gaze to disappear below the bookshelf.

  Confused by the reaction, I leaned on the railing and watched the top of her head move around before dropping below the riser of the stairs as she kept placing the plants. I glanced around to see what had caused her reaction, finally noticing my bare arms and legs clad in a skin-tight padded undersuit. Embarrassment shot like a flame through my body as I realized what I’d probably looked like to her. Sprinting down the stairs, I walked towards my bedroom, not daring to look back as I shouted to her.

  “So sorry about that. I’d been training in a combat suit, and I’d forgotten to change. Give me a minute, and I’ll help you once I’m more properly clothed.”