Ean opened her mouth as though to say something, but then she closed it again and unfurled her long fingers, hand palm up. Cota continued his survey of the command staff and when no one else appeared interested in speaking, he stood. “Dismissed.”
Regi was closest to the door, so he escaped into the corridor and started towards the storage area that Dante distressingly called home.
He reached the first junction when Vk stepped out to meet him. “We need to converse in private,” Vk said. There were no words more effective at creating panic. Regi's hair bristled, making his stripes ripple across his arms.
“Lead on.”
She strode off at a good pace, triggering the door to a secured corridor that led to engineering, but once the door closed, all sense of urgency evaporated. “I apologize,” she said, “but Ean was behind you, and she looked particularly interested in having a word.”
“May the gods send you double blessings for saving me.” Regi ran a hand over his arms to smooth his fur back down. No doubt she wanted to discuss his willingness to believe Dante's story.
“What did you do to make her look so intent on conversation?” Vk asked.
“The others question my judgment in believing Dante's story.” Since being a Kowri had already created a distance between him and the rest of the crew, Regi was not bothered by their distrust. He had earned permission, and that was all he needed. He studied Vk. “You don't seem concerned.”
She huffed, her nostrils flaring. “I trust your judgment. Do you remember when we were attacked by the Quigam raiders? You countered every maneuver. So if you say that Dante is one of the good guys, the security staff believes you. It also helps that we found more evidence to corroborate his story.”
“What did you find?” He headed for the far end of the corridor, away from the door with Ean.
Vk followed. “One of the crew quarters had a dyl stick.”
Regi winced. Given Dante's description of a rod with an electrical charge, he assumed the slavers had been using them, but he had hoped he was mistaken. The tools had been developed by one of the smaller species to maintain control of large food animals at interplanetary ports. They carried a hell of an electrical charge, and even Ean's people could not remain upright after getting touched by one.
“Did it have genetic material?”
“Degraded strands on the tip are similar to Dante. The pirates also used it as a blunt force weapon. The sides of the dyl stick were covered in the genetics of four discrete huumans. Three of them contained only the genetic variations common in individuals and one of those variations is Dante.”
Mercy of the gods. The pirates had shocked and beaten creatures who had difficulty breathing. Were the pirates not already dead, Regi would have been tempted to do something immoral.
Vk continued. “One of the genetic codes contained an additional half-strand not present in the other three. It might be a related species or a huuman of a different caste or gender.
“Dante said that there was another who taught him how to play a game using broken pieces of equipment they had scavenged.”
Vk's expression grew cold. “If I get my hands on any of them, I will happily rip their spine out through their front.” She hesitated. “Unless they are one of the rare species that has the spine in the front, in which case I will rip it out from the back.” Vk was not normally one for hyperbole, so Regi hoped she never caught them. He would hate to arrest her.
“Any other updates?”
“I have a request.”
Regi stopped at the door that would lead to the storage area, and Vk moved uncomfortably close.
“The next time the captain has one of our drills, please request that all members of command staff participate. That way when we have an emergency, there will be less of a chance that stupidity will be fostered.”
“Who did what?” This close, he could see Vk’s nose flaring.
“Bevti nearly destroyed evidence. She was getting ready to clear the control settings in her room when we came for the security sweep. We stopped her in time, but we have a problem. There was a second pirate on the ship. The hygienic facilities were used in Bevti quarters hours before Ter gained access to the command codes, and hours after you killed the first pirate.”
Clearly the gods were still blessing them. “I assume you have all the staff doing sweeps?” If she didn’t, Regi would write a formal reprimand for not interrupting the command meeting to ask permission to do that.
“We found the settings right before the command meeting. I thought Bevti would mention it, or I would have contacted you. I already ordered everyone into emergency positions, and I have security pairs searching the decks.”
Regi nodded. There was nothing else they could do, but he needed to brief the captain. He had to make a stop first, though. “Five-minute checks from the teams. Be ready for anything.” If the gods were still watching, they knew what time would bring. But since they had only this ship and were unlikely to find yet another pirate ship, they had to prepare.
