“No. My people don’t know any aliens.”
Regi assumed that last word meant Coalition members or maybe even sapient species. Mercies and blessings of the gods, if his species were not developed, all of them were going to be denounced and hounded from polite society for misusing a vernal species.
“How many planets do your people live on?” Regi tried to suppress his distress, but his fur bristled.
“Two.”
Young, but not vernal. Thank the gods for that. “How did you get onto that ship? The word ‘kidnapping’ does not translate.” Regi kept himself still and he waited. The creature had a delicate grace as his expression twisted this way and that. He had a very flexible face.
“Aliens took me off my planet. They turned me into a slave.”
Regi let the silence fill the air as the male’s respiration grew ragged. Given the creature’s weak breathing, Regi did not want to upset him unduly. “What is your name?”
He gasped. “Dante. Dante Romano.”
“May the gods never gift you the first blessing of failure without the second blessing of opportunity, Dante Dante Romano,” Regi said, the formal words odd on his tongue after so many years.
“It’s just Dante.”
“Dante,” Regi repeated. He could sympathize because he disliked his own people’s habit of complicating a name with so many god associations and parent names. When in the temple, a person had to remember a hundred individuals just to correctly name the dozen who stood in the pronaos. “I do not know the word ‘slave’.”
That caused even more distressed breathing and an increase in moistness as Dante’s eyes leaked. Regi would have gone to get Bevti, only Dante curled his asymmetrical hand around Regi’s wrist. His skin was hairless and pink-hued compared to Regi’s black and gray stripes. “That asshole stole me from my home and shoved me in a small room. If I refused to work, he would hit me with a large stick that had an electric weapon at the end. That’s a slave.”
All Regi’s hair stood on end. Their pirates had held slaves. That was such an old-fashioned term that Regi had not even remembered it until Dante had given more details.
What in the name of the abandoned hells had Poque asked him to solve?
Chapter Four
They sat on the bench, the alien’s odd-numbered digits holding Regi’s arm as minutes ticked past. Regi could not think of how to speak without upsetting Dante. If the pirates had taken up the old practice of slavery, he was a victim—one with weakened breathing. This was a nightmare worthy of Rvion. If the gods could perceive outsiders, Regi would believe that she had claimed Dante.
“Regi, thank you.” Dante spoke the bewildering words softly.
“I have not earned your gratitude. We should apologize for treating a victim so poorly. It did not occur to us that the pirates might be keeping a slave, and that has led to us misusing you unforgivably.”
Air burst out of the alien in irregular huffs. “Not unforgivably,” he said. His tone changed when he added, “other than the one asshole who came in here and threatened me.” Regi had seen the recording in the security program. Captain Cota was going to face censure at the very least.
