“I’m afraid I have better things to do,” I said.
“You can’t fly away. Not on my ship.”
“That’s strange because Computer seems to think I’m still the captain.”
“You know Computer,” Stryder said. “He’s a stickler for the rules.”
“Unlike you,” I growled.
We reached the deck. “Computer. Show Stryder on the screen.”
Outside, yards from the ship’s hull, stood my mutinous ex-crew. They held a pair of small children—Rogizians—under each arm.
“I Challenge you,” Stryder said. “Prove to the crew you deserve to be their captain.”
He wore a triumphant grin on his face. He always did know how to press my buttons. I believed in the rules. I trusted them. They kept us sane in a galaxy where the alternative was chaos.
But looking over my crewmates now, with their cargo tucked under their arms, I knew they were never going to stop fighting me on this issue. It’d almost cost me my life. They wouldn’t fail the second time around.
If I accepted the Challenge, Stryder wouldn’t follow the rules. It was a bunch of nonsense, and yet that sense of doing what was right, what was just, still niggled at me from the inside.
Alice placed her hand on my arm. “You deserve a better crew than this. A crew that understands you have a streak of honor in you. That it’s a good thing, not something they should exploit. They need you. You don’t need them.”
It wasn’t that simple. Was it? Decline his Challenge and others would declare me untrustworthy. But if I faced them, there was no doubt they would stab me in the back.
It was a no-win situation. The only way to win was to not take part.
“I decline your Challenge,” I said.
The crew gasped.
Stryder’s eyes narrowed. “That’s against the code.”
“So is mutiny,” I said.
“The other smugglers won’t be happy about you turning down a Challenge from a crewmate.”
“Then it’s good you’re no longer a part of my crew,” I said. “None of you are. I’ve had Computer remove you from active duty. I should have done it a long time ago.”
“That doesn’t matter!” Stryder said. “We’ll tell other smugglers you removed us after I made the Challenge. Because you were too afraid to face me yourself!”
Word would travel fast. I would be left with a bad reputation and no one would hire me.
Just then, a crowd of Rogizians encircled the crew. They all looked around eight years old. A couple looked a little older but still hadn’t yet reached their teens. They bore no weapons. They were a passive and non-aggressive species.
Stryder dropped the kids he held clutched under his arms and leveled his pistol at the locals.
“Computer,” I said. “Activate weapons systems. If anyone opens fire, retaliate.”
“Order confirmed,” Computer said.
The weapons on a smuggler ship were basic. A smuggling ship was made for speed and agility, not warfare. But it was more than enough to make the crew shake in their boots.
“Drop the natives,” I said. “You have five seconds to comply.”
“He’s bluffing!” Stryder said. “He won’t open fire on us!”
“Computer,” I said. “Countdown five seconds. If my former crew does not release the hostages they’re carrying, open fire.”
“Order confirmed,” Computer said. “Five… Four… Three… Two…”
Before the countdown reached one, the crew released their hostages, who sprinted toward their loved ones.
“Computer,” Alice said. “De-activate the speaker system.” She turned to me. “What are you going to do with them? You could turn them over to the Enforcers.”
“As their captain, I would be as guilty of their crimes as they are,” I said.
“But you didn’t order them to come here,” Alice said.
“That doesn’t matter. I’m still the ship’s captain. So long as that holds true, the Enforcers will arrest me.”
I re-activated the speaker system. “Rogizians,” I said. “These smugglers tried to abduct your people. You should punish them any way you see fit.”
A child of no more than eleven or twelve stepped forward. “We do not believe in imprisonment or any other punishment.”
“Then hold them here,” I said. “Call the Enforcers once I leave.”
“We have no prisons and we cannot hold them,” the eleven-year-old said.
“Then force them to do hard labor,” I said. “Make them dig in the mines for you.”
“We cannot take slaves. We refuse to become like them.”
I hissed through my teeth.
“I’ve got an idea,” Alice said. She whispered in my ear.
Could it work?
“They are my gift to you,” I said. “Take them. Use them for the next ten years in your mine. Release them in ten years and one day. And let them find their own way home.”
The eleven-year-old stroked his chin in thought. “A gift?”
“From me to you, to apologize for what they did to you today.”
“You can’t do that!” Stryder said. “We would be slaves in all but name only!”
The elder cocked his head to one side. “You are not slaves. You are gifts.” And he nodded. “Yes, this is something we can accept. We thank you for your gifts.”
“Wait,” I said. “There’s one more I wish to give you… Computer, expel pod number seven.”
The pod slipped out from under the ship. The locals picked it up and carried it away. The crew struggled but they were no match for hundreds of little people.
Stryder scowled up at me. “They’ll never keep me here! And when I escape, I’m coming for you, Nighteko! Do you hear me? I’m coming for you!”
Watching them get dragged away left me with a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
“It’s over,” Alice said. “It’s really over.”
“Yes,” I said. I kissed her on the tip of her nose. “It’s over. And now you’re going home.”
I held her tight. I wouldn’t get to touch her for much longer.
Soon, she would leave me.
And then I would never see her again.
Alice
We made loud, passionate love so often, I began to wonder if we were attempting to christen the ship room by room. It was empty, and except for Computer, no one else could see what we were up to.
Did computers like watching humans have sex?
It would take just
