“Only the mercy of Gavd prevented you from being destroyed in space, and this is how you repay the god’s generosity.” Bekdi moved so close to Captain Cota their chests were inches apart.
Captain Cota took a slow step back. “I cannot speak of your gods since I do not know them, but I respect the generous and thoughtful decisions made by the Kowri crew who found us in distress. We recognize that our presence here is disruptive, so Ter’s enthusiasm for fixing our ship might have overshot his good sense in how to address others. We offer sincere apologies.”
“I don’t,” Ter snapped. “They were interfering with my ability to work, and that is unacceptable.”
Captain Cota’s pupils narrowed more, but he kept his gaze on Bekdi. “Engineer Ter, report to the brig. You are on report, and you will serve twenty-two hours in confinement for gross contempt. Security chief Regi, please escort him.”
Ter’s tail stilled before it started whipping about, slapping the back of his thighs. “I have work which requires my presence.”
“Your work will be completed by assistants or the Kowri, from this point forward, you are not permitted outside the ship without either Security Chief Regi or myself as escort. Now return to the ship.”
Ter pulled on his ear and stared at the captain for an uncomfortable amount of time, but then he moved toward the ramp. Bekdi intercepted him. “You will not be allowed to escape punishment for your actions. You insulted the gods, cast aspersions on their morals, and assaulted a respected technician.”
“I did not. I threw a badly seamed ship scale, and if Hrole has too few cells in his eyeballs capable of properly processing light signals, then that is his dysfunction and a good explanation for why he cannot lay a seam able to prevent a pirate ship from flying down the gap in the middle.”
Regi threw himself between the two men. “Bekdi a’Gavd, your authority extends to all those under the purview of the great Lord of Justice, but Ter is not one. He will return to the ship, and you will not see him again. No other Kowri will.”
Ter spoke. “But I have to—”
“Enough!” Regi roared, and Ter stumbled back several steps, his long arms flailing and his tail twirling in a circle before he caught his balance again. “Go to the ship.”
Bekdi closed on Regi until they were chest to chest with Regi looking up at the much larger male. “You are a Kowri under the authority of the gods; therefore, I order you to have the outsider report to the temple pronaos,” Bekdi demanded.
This was not going well, and Ter could say something offensive at any time, so Dante employed a few skills learned in endless hours of soccer drills and darted around both Kowri, caught Ter by the arm and jerked him hard enough that Ter had to concentrate on keeping his two legs and one tail under his body, leaving him no energy to protest the manhandling. The translator didn’t offer any suggestions for the sharp syllables that came from Ter’s mouth too fast for the tiny computer embedded in their brains; however, cursing sounded like cursing in any language—even an alien one. Dante shovedTer up the gangplank and would have taken him straight to engineering, only the Kowri who had passed Dante earlier were coming down the ladder, so Dante shoved Ter into the first room inside the ship.
“What are you doing in my ship? This is Coalition territory,” yelled Ter before Dante triggered the door to close.
A half second later, Ter triggered it to open, and Dante triggered it to close before it had opened more than two inches. They were still doing that—open, close, open, close, open, close—when the two Kowri passed them, giving Dante and Peaches a wide berth.
“Let me out, you asymmetrical monstrosity of a half-wit,” Ter shouted.
Dante triggered the door to close. The two left, but they weren’t even halfway down the ramp when one called out in a loud voice, “The outsiders have erased all data to hide that they were stealing our technology.”
The Kowri audience who had gathered around the ship erupted into angry cries.
Dante had seen a mob or two in his time. His father’s politics tended to inspire either devotion or abject fury. However, he could now say with certainty that mobs, like profanity, transcended species. When Ter triggered the door to open this time, Dante didn’t close it, and Ter stood behind him, his tail hanging straight down.
“Excrement stains on food rations,” Ter whispered.
“Yep,” Dante agreed. That did seem to capture the general mood.
Chapter Three
When Bekdi turned to the ship, striding toward his two men, Dante shoved Ter back into the room and triggered the door closed. He had the advantage of a poisonous sidekick, so he stood guard and prayed that either Regi or Cota could control Bekdi. If he bullied his way up the ramp, Dante was going to have to stop him, and he didn’t want to. In fact, his stomach was in knots.
Some god, either the type the Kowri believed in or the one his grandmother prayed to, must have listened because Regi stepped in front of Bekdi before he could put a single foot on the gangplank. “You overstep yourself. Nawr is the elder for the cold weather temple. Only a plenum can override a decision already made, and the temple has decided that the ship is Coalition territory.”
Bekdi looked at his two men.
One proclaimed, “The outsiders wiped all their communications and engineering data before we could retrieve our proof.”
Bekdi growled at Regi before he stomped away. The crowd parted for him, but the general volume of angry voices increased exponentially. Regi said something to Vk, and she hurried up the ramp into the ship, Captain Cota behind her. They both stopped near Dante, who was still peering around the curve of the corridor.
“Where is Engineer Ter?” the captain asked.
Dante poked his thumb toward the door behind him without speaking. He strained to hear the crowd outside. Regi was out there alone.
Regi stood for a short time at the bottom of the ramp, and Dante considered going to stand next to him. Peaches tended to leave an impression. Either a rare moment of common sense or a less rare spot of cowardice made him watch from the ship. Regi waited until the crowd’s complaints had quieted before he strolled up the ramp. Of course, he was still fluffy enough to ruin that façade of calm.
