Seized by a sudden panic, I throw myself at the intercom. I barely even know what I’m doing when I shout, “Hey, tech guy! Connect me to that pirate ship!”

One of them - the guy who presumes I’m shouting at him - looks at me with surprise and apprehension as though he hadn’t expected I could talk. Rude. But then, he turns to Typhin. Typhin nods at him, looking unacceptably amused considering the situation. Dude, people are about to die! Well, more so that you just gave the order to ‘advance on the target’, but I can’t allow that either.

To almost everyone(except mine)’s surprise, the comm connects almost instantly.

“Hello, hello! I have a proposition so-,”

“Greetings, Imperials! I have a proposition, so-,”

I stand back from the mic for a second. Did it just echo? Well, the voice certainly sounded as panicked as my own, so… “Hello?” I say gently into the mic.

“...Hello?” a voice responds. A voice I recognize as the same one we had been eavesdropping on just recently. Neato.

“Hi!” I greet cheerfully. Then, suddenly, before I can go into detail regarding my fantastic nobody-dies-plan, Typhin shoves me aside. Huh?

“This is Commander Typhin of the 101’st Task Force. Are you capable of holo-transmission?”

“Y-, yes,” the voice replies, seemingly a bit taken aback by the sudden presence of what seems like an actual person of authority.

“Then, initiate it and we shall respond.”

I’m not sure why this is necessary, but Typhin herds me onto a blueish platform of sorts, facing a small elevated blue disc standing about at my chest. For a human it’d be at their navel, but I’m short. And while I stand there feeling confused and uncertain, all of a sudden, a little blue person appears upon the blue disc! And, golly, he looks scraggly. His hair is short and tawny with his face covered in a fair amount of stubble. I’m pretty sure his hair is caked with either blood or mud, I can’t tell with everything looking so blue.

Either way, he actually does look like a space pirate!! Kind of. Or like someone who has been in a jungle for months. And was just in a fight. Or something.

“It-, it’s a pleasure. I am Erte Starshine, acting captain of the…” He pauses for a moment, staring down at the floor. “-The Misdemeanour.”

“Hello! I’m Mortholomew, but you can call me Mort. I’m-, well, I’m kind of a guest on this here ship, but… But it’s a pleasure meeting you, too!”

For a second or so, we both stare at each other. Assessing our opponents. Then, at the same time, we both say, “”I have a proposition.””

“Huh? Oh, uh, sorry! You can say yours first, it’s no big deal..”

“No, no, we’re in your hands, so, please…”

“Please, it's courtesy…”

Typhin bumps me on the shoulder. I clear my throat and puff my chest out as best as I can. “W-, well, so… Um, would you be interested in betraying your masters and defecting to our side?”

The man in front of me, about the length of my arm, stands there a bit dumbly for a second. Then, someone appears from the side to whisper something in his ear. He proceeds to smack the man in the face. I hear a faint off-screen thud. I try my hardest not to appear affected by the scene I just witnessed.

“Yeah, we’d love to.”

For the next few minutes, we lay out a small plan on how to handle this. They will lead us to the general area before peacing out by giving us the final coordinates. This is because, as we heard earlier, if they get any closer, they’ll definitely get shot down. Which they don’t want. In the meantime, we’ll be making notes of their position. According to what Typhin told me while the pirates weren’t listening, we’d love to just get the coordinates and then leave them to their business, but the rebels will probably catch on and move their base someplace else. In other words, it’s now or never.

I’m not too hyped about it. Bloodshed is… Whichever side experiences it, I just can’t feel happy, y’know?

I’m allied with the Empire, sure, but that’s nothing super concrete yet, so I don’t really see the rebels as total enemies, even if they are a bit mean for just abandoning Erte like that. Meanies.

“Typhin, if there’s any trouble, I’ll eat my big body, okay? If you throw me at them I might be able to scare them away. They’ll run like spooked rabbits!”

Typhin’s looking at me in that way again, like I said something very strange and vaguely funny but he isn’t allowed to smile. “An acceptable final solution, but hardly our first option. Commodore Appo has already decreed that your body should remain in your original system.” He looks out of the cockpit for a second, training his eyes on our pirate guide. “Furthermore, the base we aim to take down will, all things considered, likely be little of a challenge.”

“How so, sir?”

He shrugs. “It’s simply unmanageable to keep a base this far from any civilized system. Their only hope of managing it would be to either keep a very small workforce or to spend far too much effort and resources to keep it working. It’s a small base, I’m sure of it.” He flashes a sly smirk. “Otherwise, they could afford to hire less traitorous comrades.”

“Ah. Okay. Makes sense.”

A few hours later and our destination approaches on the horizon. I draw myself up, trying my best to feel less scared facing the situation. Not that I’m scared for my own life, I’m certain that I’ll survive, but…

I can’t exactly feel the same about Typhin, or Fern, or Atte or anyone else. Or even the pirates and the rebels.

Whatever happens… I just hope nobody dies.