Anwei could almost see Karis relax, her muscles unknotting, her tendons slackening as she ate. She ran her cleaned skewer through her teeth to get off the last bits of char, put it aside to be cleaned, and started loading up a new skewer with meat. They only had the one small hibachi, she didn't want to cook too much at once. The airscrubber might miss some of the smoke, and the smell might be familiar to certain people.

"My culture taught that everyone was to be eaten - all aliens, and any of our own species who was unfortunate enough to fall in status. And really," she set the skewers across the coals, "I do seem to get in a better mood when I eat food that reminds me of home."

If her AI had been here, he would have been screaming at those words. Home was everything bad for Anwei, and if she was thinking fondly of it...but he wasn't here.