Eirik slowly opened his eyes again. "Damn you and your knowledge of anesthesia, Knud!" he thought to himself as he took the time to wake up before moving. When he tried, however, he felt heavily restrained. Trying harder, the restraints started rattling and he heard a familiar voice.

"Relax Captain, it's just a safety precaution." Eirik relaxed as he heard Jesper's voice and stopped straining his arm against the straps around his wrist, trying to reach those tying down his legs and chest.

"Was I tossing and turning in my sleep?" Eirik asked, his voice raspy his throat dry. Jesper came into view with a bottle of water with a straw in it and placed the bottle in Eirik's hands. "Drink some water. Listen to me." Jesper said, and Eirik knew from the way he spoke that this was going to be important.

The first sip of water tasted like heaven, but he paced himself, knowing he would cough and choke if he drank too greedily.

"You are restrained, Eirik, because I plan to sit you and Tai'Tanu down less than 2 meters apart, and force you two to talk."

Eirik's face slowly turned red. Then blue. Then it paled before it returned to something resembling a normal color. "Why?" He eventually said through clenched teeth

"Because" Jesper sat down near Eirik's feet, out of reach of his remaining arm."I want you to know your enemy, Eirik. Not just know her culture or her people. But know her! She is not normal, Eirik. She is like me. She wants the world to burn so she can dance in the ashes and piss on people's graves. She considers herself so superior to anyone and everything else. There is no reasoning with her. There is no bargaining. There is no ending the war. Not in any honorable way. Besides, of course, letting the war run its course. The only difference between me and her is that I learned to control my urges.

Here is what I have planned for us, as your head of security. My first priority is your safety. My second priority is the safety of the crew and our soldiers. and my third priority is the mission. I have managed to fulfill all of those in a single move. Under the threat of death, Tai'Tanu has agreed to leave the planet with her forces. I have already informed the Terran Navy and they have expressed their immense gratitude, including that of the Military in general, for completing the assignment. I might also have informed them of the need for a hefty pay increase, on account of having faced what we did.

They are less happy with us now." Jesper said with a sardonic smile and a dangerous glint in his eyes

Eirik stared daggers at Jesper who simply smiled back at him.

"What makes you think I am going to take an active part in this little social experiment of yours?" Eirik said with a hint of spite.

"Your natural curiosity, mostly" Jesper retorted immediately, his smile growing ever so slightly sadistic.

Eirik leaned back and took another sip of water from the straw before sighing deeply. "You are one sick fuck, you know that, Jesper?"

"To know me is to love me," Jesper said as he got up. "Let's raise that bed so you can sit properly and get this over with, shall we?"

"Wait, what, now?" Eirik asked appalled. "Why now?"

"Because you are weakened, my friend. I do not need to ruin my sweet sweet deal by thinking you can end the war here and now." Jesper said no more as he adjusted Eirik's bed and started wheeling him out.

__________________

She had no idea how long she had been laying on the operating slab for. She only knew she could hear muffled activity around her, more outside. Why was she not dead? Honor demanded that those captured in combat be either eaten or killed off immediately. So why had the Terrans kept her alive, other than for the crazy plan of the crazy Terran?

He scared her. There was something unhinged and... strangely familiar... about him and the aura of danger he emanated. Suddenly, the curtain moved and a bed came rolling in, the person on it strapped down the same way she currently was. When his face came into view, both of them stared wide-eyed at each other.

Jesper placed them feet-to-feet and reached outside the curtain to grab a chair and sit down.

Tai'Tanu and Eirik stared at each other. She looked at his water bottle longingly between staring him down.

"Jesper! A bottle of water. And another straw!" Eirik called out. Though weak in voice, his command invited no defiance, and not a minute passed before Jesper came in with the requested items and looked at Eirik who nodded at Tai'Tanu and sat back down.

Long minutes passed between them as Tai'Tanu quenched her burning thirst while staring down Eirik, knowing full well that the only reason she had said refreshing water, was on account of his benevolence.

She was the one to succumb to the silence first. "At least you got me water clean enough to fit my station," She said with a satisfied smirk as she eyed the clear water in the bottle.

"Oh, please do not think you are getting special treatment. What you are drinking, is what we give to foot soldiers. I intend to treat you no differently than any other common grunt." Eirik replied coldly, his eyes glinting with hidden amusement.

"Don't you dare insult me, Terran! You are nothing more than a savage and a brute! How you managed to kidnap and turn my daughter against me, I have no idea, but I WILL kill you for it!" She raged at him, straining against the solid straps.

"I did no such thing! Well, okay, I might have kidnapped her, to begin with, but I turned no one against nothing! I merely offered her a choice. A choice which I respected!" Eirik retorted forcefully. A bead of sweat ran down his temple at the exertion.

"And what, pray tell, was that choice, savage?" Tai'Tanu sneered with absolute disdain lacing every word.

"To join my crew on a probationary basis, enjoying all the freedom of the rest of the crew, excepting access to areas presenting a security risk. Or stay in the prison cell on my ship until we discovered why my gods demand I bring her on my travels!" Eirik replied cooly, a silly idea taking form in his mind.

Tai'Tanu snorted as he mentioned the words *gods*" Idiotic AND superstitious. I should have expected nothing less from such an inferior species!"

"An inferior species that, so far, have beaten you at every turn..." Eirik let the sentence hang in the air and watched Tai'Tanu snap her maw towards him as the insult sunk in.

With a mighty exertion, she restrained herself and took on a look of superiority. "Even if you get away this time and all your troops with you, this is what awaits you in the future, on every battlefield. Triple food rations are being distributed throughout our Empire for any family having a member serving in the army.

And that is for EVERY member they have serving in the army. Our ranks and birth rates are booming! We have taken almost a dozen worlds from the Terran Empire, There is nothing you can do to stop our war machine!" Tai'Tanu was working herself into a fit of hysterical hubris but Eirik's next word chilled her to the bone.

"You think us outmatched before the war has begun. That is not how Terrans fight wars. They are not decided in the first few years. We have had wars lasting more than 2 standard Kloxna lifespans! These past 7 months, you have faced nothing more than the token defensive fleets that are kept for show. The local militias, defending their homes.

Undermanned stations and defensive locations because we have had a decade of peace. But the gears of war are turning and soon, very soon, the Terran war machine will steamroll you in ways you never imagined. Your troop superiority? Useless, as I showed you here. Your technological advantage in terms of ships? Meaningless, as the shipyards will have reset the factory lines and started working on war materiel. Taking into account the time needed to create an emergency stock of materials before you start delivering, you are looking at a few weeks, maybe a month, before Terran fleets outnumber your fleets 4 or 5 to 1.

And that is just the beginning. Once we fight the war to a standstill, we can start letting attrition do its work. How long can you keep up the kind of attacks you committed to wiping us out? How many years of countless battlefields where your people are dying in the tens of thousands every day? How long before your people fear us more than they fear you?"

The conviction with which Eirik spoke chilled both Tai'Tanu and Jesper to the bone. He had never seen this side of Eirik, this cold, calculating side that was willing to reduce warfare down to a simple game of numbers. Tai'Tanu was horrified at the picture he was painting in her mind. Images of her people throwing themselves against unbreakable Terran defenses for months without end made her sick to her stomach. But it was their lot in life. And she needed revenge. She craved it.

"And one final thing, Tai'Tanu," Eirik said, signaled Jesper that he wanted to leave, and took a sip of his water. Tai'Tanu looked at him

"What, Terran?" She asked tiredly.

Eirik spit the water in her face.

"Once more, you have been bested by an inferior species" Her raving curses could be heard long after Eirik's laughter died off in the distance.