What the hell was that? Tool-child-creation? Here is the thing, when on the fly translation software works without problems you won’t notice it is there. However, thinking about it, I only spoke English. And I did not think that the whole universe spoke English too. I might be self-centered to a degree but not to that degree.

So this was actually the first time I came up against something that the translator had problems with. Maybe the original word was too complex, maybe there were too many connotations of the word to properly infer what Nyx wanted to express, maybe there was no English word that conveyed the same meaning and thus translation was impossible.

I was about to ask Nyx for an explanation when I was interrupted by shouting from the bridge. I could not make out what was actually being shouted but I could tell that various people were involved in an argument. Then I saw the green glow of a plasma bolt whizz by the open hatchway.

What the hell was going on over there.

Irene: Something is happening.

Malcolm: No shit, they started shooting at something else but us.

Irene: Each other from what I can figure. Give me a sec.

Irene: Okay, I just got contacted by one of the people on the bridge and they are willing to surrender. However their leader is unwilling to let them surrender.

Malcolm: Always the same shit.

“Guys, we are going in on my mark.” I told my two crew mates.

I was more than happy to let them solve their differences between them but I did not need more dead people here. Especially not if one of them could be Brelic. Not that I was in love with the guy or anything but I’d rather he sorts himself out and won’t ever be used as a bargaining chip against me again.

Malcolm: Irene, we are going in, let them know not to shoot at us.

Irene: Give it two minutes and then go for it.

Waiting for two minutes while they were waving their weapons around was not fun. It felt like forever. When the timer ticked down the last five seconds I hoped they all had gotten the message.

“Three, two, one… go!”

All three of us raced down the hallway. I mean as much as you can race down a 10 meter hallway in half a g of gravity. Ralgau left, Ygglog right and me in the middle behind them both. Ralgau and me with lumbering steps while trying to put speed on. The Drak on the other hand… he was off like greased lightning. Not sure how he did it but his four legs seemed to be well adapted to the low gravity environment.

He arrived about a Drak length ahead of us, took another step into the hatchway, then pushed with two of his legs off the right wall while jumping hard forward with his left legs. That made him sail forward and to the left, right out of view.

When Ralgau and I made it to the hatchway, we saw the guy standing behind Brelic move his weapon in Ygglog’s direction. Before he could get it in line with our crew mate though, the Drak already fired. And nailed the pirate right in the faceplate.

We stormed in after him, our weapons aimed at the people in the room, me covering the right side, Ralgau the left. The dead body and our very own ant-guy crashed into the floor at the same time. Although he slid and then rolled while the dead dude just slumped.

“What the fuck?” I yelled.

The adrenaline was pounding in my ears. And even though my focus and perception were heightened, I still had a hard time processing what I just saw. For one I had never seen the Drak move like that. I mean he had kicked me across the cave of the asteroid when he first saw Nyx but outside of that moment he seemed more like a worker than a fighter. And although I had seen the brutally taken out pirates at the airlock, seeing shit happen live was on a whole different level.

“We need to show strength, captain!”

He had gotten up in the meantime and turned towards me. Then he lowered his torso in something like a bow to me. I looked at Ralgau to roll my eyes at Ygglogs antics but what I saw really threw me for a loop. He had held his rifle loosely in both hands before, ready to act. Now he let go with his right hand, balled it to a fist and then banged it against his chest while lowering his head.

The only thing I was able to do was ‘tsk’ in response. I really had no words. But then again when someone gives you a gift you don’t argue with them. You say thank you and then make the best of it.

So I straightened up, let my right hand with the plasma pistol fall to my side and looked at the people on the bridge. There were eight of them, various species although the majority were Fell and Sorren. I guess they were just more common in this corner of space. The ninth person was Brelic. And he sat on a chair and seemed to still try to sort out what happened.

“Was this your captain?” I asked in the direction of the bridge crew.

“N… no,” the only Grelic on the bridge stuttered out. Then he added in the same stutter “S… Sir!”

I guess we really had put the fear into those guys. But then again, if I would be in their shoes and had seen the Drak pull off what he just did, I would also be careful. Plus his deference to me had them shaken. I mean if the person that you consider the biggest badass suddenly defers to someone else, you better make sure that you are on your best behavior when talking to that person.

I waited for a few seconds looking at the guy that had spoken. When no more information was forthcoming I sighed.

“And pray tell, where is the captain then?”

“She... she went to engineering before we docked. When Vesex told her about the boarding attempt she said she will coordinate defense of the engine room.”

I pointed at the dead guy.

“Vesex?”

The Grelic nodded but it was accompanied by a sneer. Or that is what I figure. As you know even different cultures between humans have slightly different facial expressions even though there is research that micro expressions apply universally. But here we were talking about a totally different species. So I could not be sure that it was a sneer. But my guess was, he didn’t like the Vesex dude.

I let my eyes roam over the bridge crew.

“Who can get me the captain on the horn?” I asked. And got confused looks instead of an answer. What was that about now?

But then Ralgau stepped up and walked to a Fell that was standing next to a console.

“Open a com channel to engineering!” he commanded.

The guy turned to his station and panically pressed some buttons. “Channel open Sir!”

“Captain…”

I trailed off not knowing his name. This time it was easier and the coms guy volunteered: “SondraAlba.”

I started again: “Captain SondraAlba. My name is Malcolm Solo, captain of the Nyx. Since your mister Vesex threatened to take over my ship, I felt it justified to take over this vessel first. Right now I don’t have any ill will against you and the crew of this ship. If you look outside engineering, you will find a group of Stardust MGCD mercenaries. They WILL take engineering. Should any of them come to harm in this endeavour, then the no ill will ends. Put down your arms, let us secure the ship. Then you and I get together to discuss the next steps.”

It took nearly 20 seconds for the answer to come back.

“Why would I trust you?”

“Because I am asking nicely. And because you don’t have much choice. I am communicating from the bridge with you, which we have just taken without losing or killing anybody.”

Ralgau waved his hand and pointed at the body of the guy formerly known as Smarmy. Or Vesex. Depends on who you ask.

“Right. Without killing anybody from your crew. I hope you didn’t consider Vesex a part of your crew?”

“Vesex is dead?”

“Yep.”

“Thank the darkness! We are standing down and I hope you keep your word captain Solo!”

“Thank you captain SondraAlba!” I said sincerely.

Leadership skill increased.

Current Skill Level: 2 / 100

I had no clue why my leadership skill leveled in that moment. I mean I had done literally nothing leader’y. And then it dawned on me that I had just convinced a whole bridge crew of people plus their captain to stand down and not engage into further hostile action. I guess that counts. Considering that the idea of leadership is to guide and steer people into certain actions and behaviors, I was totally on track. And even though that was not exactly what I considered leadership it was certainly part of it. So… yay, skill up.

I informed the mercenaries on the tactical channel that the people in engineering had agreed to stand down. I told them to take over engineering and lock it down but also to do it carefully in case these people were after hostages of their own. With all that done I asked if there was a ready room close by and lo and behold, there was. I told Ralgau to take his former mining companion there but to keep it civil. Then I told Ygglog to lock the bridge crew up in one of the corridors. As long as I didn’t have an agreement, hopefully a binding one, with their Captain, I’d rather not chance it. And if you left people in an environment they are very familiar with, someone might take the chance to be a hero. So the corridor it was.

Then checked in with Irene and Nirazera who wanted to be updated. They both got the okay from both me and Nyx to use the docking port opposite the pirate cruiser and go back on board where they would make their way to this cruiser to sort out the things with the RD captain and the crew.

Meanwhile, I was going to have a conversation with Brelic.

When I stepped into the room Brelic sat on a chair while Ralgau stood next to the door. My big friend was relaxed and leaned against the wall but his hand rested on the plasma pistol he carried as a backup and his face showed an expression of disgust. Then I remembered that these two had not liked each other from the moment we stepped on the asteroid claim. They did have a professional working relationship then but were also on opposing shifts. In hindsight, it might not have been the best decision to have him brought here by the big guy.

Brelic on the other hand sat in the chair, slumped. Like a marionette with its strings cut. Dejected.

“Brelic.” I said as I stepped into the room.

He looked over and his eyes hardened. Immediately he righted himself in the chair and I noticed his change from dejected to pointless defensiveness. Like angry teenager defensive.

I rolled my eyes and stepped past him into the chair on the other side of the table. It was very interesting as this ready room resembled some kind of office almost. Nice plasteel table and one very nice and more cushy chair on one side and two normal, less comfy chairs on the other. Plus some were moved to the wall and could be pulled over. Very nice actually.

As I lowered myself in what I assumed was the captain’s chair, I noticed that I ‘Picard Maneuver’-ed my vac suit. Sci-Fi nerd, I told you! However, on first thought it made no sense because it was a skin tight single piece of clothing made from smart fabric. But then again it made sense because what fans termed his ‘Battle Tactic’ actually made sense. And I like it. And it had become a thing I did to get over nervousness before making a decision or having a difficult conversation. Both of which applied here.

I leaned back in my chair and looked at him. Might as well project the position of strength I was in. Well, not me but my crew. We had just pulled the relic out of an asteroid, avoided getting blown up by RD, avoided getting boarded by them, counter boarded them and the cherry on top, we got this dude alive. Looked pretty strong from the outside. I couldn’t have done any of that without the people around me but since they were around we looked hardcore from the outside.

I looked at him without saying anything. While I did that I also got confirmation that the mercs had managed to take engineering without any issues and that the people had surrendered. They had followed the example and locked them into a corridor between two hatchways and guarded both sides. The captain was escorted to the bridge as well.

I rubbed my hands. I loved it when a plan came together. And then I cringed. The Nerd was strong with me today. I guess finally having a moment to breathe after all of this made me a little giddy. You know, like getting a little too much oxygen after being deprived for a while.

“What?” Brelic asked me in an angry tone.

“That is actually my line. And I would like an explanation from you.”

He actually pshhh’ed at that. “There is nothing I can say that would stop you from killing me. I don’t have information on the Red Dawn that I could give you, so get it over with already!”

“What now?” I was taken aback for a second. He thought this was some production to get information and then kill him in the end? Then I started chuckling.

“Dude, really? If I would have wanted to torture you for information don’t you think I would have done it in front of the assembled bridge crew? And do you really think that I went through all of this to kill you? Sorry to disappoint you but you are one person in a huge ass universe. Like me you are basically insignificant.”

“What then?”

Wow, he was really getting on my nerves with his sullen teenager attitude. I was expecting more. Especially as I had gotten to know him a little on the claim and this seemed out of character.

“Let’s start with your story and what happened. As for the ‘then’, we will see.”

He hemmed and hawed for a little but after a while he started telling me the story. Which basically confirmed what I knew. RD had bought his debt long before he signed up for the mining claim. It was actually his scheme to make enough money to buy himself out again. But after we had pissed them off enough and they realized that they had an asset on the claim, they had acted. They had plopped a rock on the claim and hit Rustbucket and killed a bunch of them. When Brelic respawned in the CLON facility a group of them, including Vesex, waited for him. They grabbed him without anyone being the wiser and called in his debt. In exchange for information they would wipe it out. So he had told them about all the people on the claim. When that wasn’t enough he had shared info on the relic that I had found in the cave. Then RD had grabbed a scientist from Frieda and made an attempt to grab the ship. In addition they told him that he now worked for them full time and that is how he ended up in Nirazera’s office with the other thugs. However, they didn’t know that I had recognized him there and were hoping to use him as bait in a fake’ish hostage situation.

I leaned forward on the desk.

“And what did you learn from all of this?”

“That RD are assholes? That I should never have gotten into debt in the first place? That you can’t trust anybody?”

“Are you asking me or telling me?” I countered.

He just shrugged as an answer. Man, it really was like talking to a teenager.

“Listen, Brelic. Here is the deal. What you could have learned is that you could have talked to me and we would have found a solution for the whole debt thing.” I pointed to where Ralgau was still leaning against the wall: “He was in a similar situation and we helped each other to actually get the claim together and now his debt is gone. I have the back of the people that have mine. The other thing you could have learned is that once people have leverage against you it is a slippery slope. You do one thing for them that is not on the up and up and then they have more leverage. Whatever you do, you only get yourself deeper into the shit.”

“Fine.” He replied, not convincing me that he actually agreed. “Now what?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” I leaned back in the chair. “I won’t have you on board the Nyx. I don’t trust you not to sell out again. What I was considering is that you join the corporation and take responsibility for the mining claim since I won’t be there. That would give me someone to take it over and make money for the corp and it would give you an option to work off your debt. Of course, there would be some serious contracts in place to prevent anything like this from happening again.”

I held up my hand to stall Ralgau from interjecting. I saw that he was not happy with the thoughts I had just laid out.

“You would still want me in the corp and even have me run the claim? Why?”

“Like I said, I won’t be around and I need someone to take charge there. Mrk or Krn could do it. Actually probably Krn. But I think you are a good choice for it too.”

“But why? Like you said, I sold you out!”

Ralgau snorted in agreement from where he stood. But he must have been on direct coms with me because Brelic didn’t react to it at all.

“Second chances!” I said. “I am a big believer in second chances. However, I am also a big believer in no third chances. So if you want to do it, then you need to do two things. Get shit straightened out with Nirazera and work with her on a contract that protects the corp and the people in it as well as the claim and it’s crew from personal decisions that might or might not seem like the only choice at the time. Then you need to talk to Irene and get her buyin. In the end I am only one voice here and they are on the council for a reason.”

There was some more back and forth over the things I had just said but in the end I was tired about arguing over this. I was giving the dude a second chance and all he had to do was agree to take it. If he wanted to argue then that was his loss. In the end I simply told him to think it through and he would have a few hours to make up his mind. If he wanted to go for it, I expected him to talk to both of the female corp directors and go from there.

Then I had Ralgau escort him to the corridor where the bridge crew was held and locked him up in there with the rest of the crew. This conversation had already taken much longer than I had anticipated. It was time to talk to captain SondraAlba.