The military governor of the Turank Coordinating Ministerial State, an elderly Tuhann named Marshal Tanbo, was in surprisingly good spirits. After all, he was a marshal, and an old man besides. He still deserved to be treated with some dignity.
So when Yu Lian met him, he was in a room in the rear cabin, hunched over a table piled high with food, eating with gusto. The Tuhann preferred mild flavors, and got the fats and proteins their bodies needed from plants and fungi. They were, in the most literal sense, a herbivorous people. The dishes spread across the table before him were consequently so green and pale that they made Yu Lian's eyelids twitch just to look at them.
Even so, the cooks in the Fuxi's senior officers' galley had prepared the food with care. It might have been bland, but at least it was tasty, and Marshal Tanbo seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it.
From his appetite and the way he was eating, you'd think he was a strapping young man having his last meal.
Yu Lian watched the old Tuhann marshal finish his meal with a smile. In the meantime, he'd also polished off a lollipop and a cigar.
At last, the old man set down his utensils and smiled philosophically. "I'm afraid I owe you an apology. I was terribly nervous before doing this. I've gone nearly a day and a night without food or water."
"Oh? Before doing what?" Yu Lian asked with a smile.
"Why, this despicable deed, of course. I used to be a respectable man, yet I was forced to become little better than a terrorist. Yes, I'm despicable, vile—an extradimensional worm more contemptible than an amoeba." He cursed himself loudly and frankly, yet remained as refined and dignified as ever.
If