Chapter Two

D ante woke feeling as if something fuzzy and dead had fallen into his mouth. With a grimace, he tried to roll to his side to find he was pinned by Regi's weight against his left shoulder. "Regi?"

Regi twitched, his hand coming up to rest on Dante's chest, but he didn't open his eyes.

This was nice. With Regi sleeping next to him, Dante could imagine a future where this was normal. He wished he understood Regi's people well enough to know whether he should hope for a future. Other than the fact that pregnancy required three individuals and that Regi had the Kowri-normal two fathers and one mother, Dante knew precious little about how Kowri personal lives worked. The potential for social humiliation was rather high.

Rather than embarrassing himself, Dante confined himself to fantasies. He had almost drifted off to sleep again when the chime for the door sounded. Regi startled, jerked upright, and then rolled off the edge of the slanted bed to the hard floor.

In a flash, Regi bolted to his feet and drew his weapon. Being a security officer on an alien police vessel gave a man good reflexes. When the door slid open, Vk stood there, her nose crumpled to half normal size.

"What's wrong?" Regi demanded.

Fear and Regi's powerful voice made Dante's head throb in time with his heartbeat. Getting drunk was never as much fun the next morning.

Vk held her hands low. "There has been an altercation outside the ship. No one is injured, but the captain requests you attend."

Regi smoothed his hands over his uniform top and glanced over to Dante before he strode out of the room with a grace that made him resemble a predator. Vk's nose lengthened a little, so hopefully this wasn't too serious. "Are you all right? Your color is alarming," Vk asked him.

Dante rubbed a hand over his face. "I'm hungover."

"Hung over what?"

Dante blinked. He'd never realized English was so illogical until aliens started asking him to explain himself. "It means my body hasn't processed out all the poisons from last night's drinking."

"‘Poisons'?" Her nose scrunched up tight again. "Do you need medical assistance?"

Dante sighed. "I'll be fine. Water and getting a chance to pee will fix at least fifty percent of it."

Vk still appeared concerned. "I should assist Regi, but I can request Thet'thec monitor your health until the toxins are processed."

Dante wondered how bad things were if Regi needed help. Dante knew he didn't understand much of the politics between the Coalition crew and the Kowri, but the Kowri did seem to think he had some authority since one of their goddesses had taken a shine to him. Maybe he could use that authority to back Regi up. "I'm fine. In fact, once I pee, I'll be down to watch Regi get annoyed with people."

Vk's nose tightened even more. "Perhaps you should stay here."

Now Dante was more worried. However, he waved her concern away before heading toward the bathroom. He hoped Vk wouldn't do something like lock the door or call Thet'thec to keep him in his room. That fear made him hurry through peeing, splashing water on his face and pulling on a clean shirt. Yesterday's pants would have to do because alien boots took too long to get off and he wanted to get outside.

Peaches was waiting on her crate when he left the bathroom, and he scooped her up before heading toward the main exit. He had just finished clambering down the slanted ladder when a pair of Kowri marched toward him. They were both large males—da-males. Regi insisted da-males were slower to anger and, despite their size, less likely to start conflicts than either di-males or females. However, Bekdi a'Gavd was a da-male, and he was as aggressive, offensive, and xenophobic as any shotgun-totin', homophobic redneck from back home.

Between the fear souring his stomach and the hangover, Dante was close to vomiting, but he refused to turn tail and run from trouble. He wasn't a slave, and he had as much right to defend himself as anyone else on this ship. "What are you folks doing inside the ship? I thought Kowri avoided this place."

"Move," one snarled, and neither slowed.

Dante's courage was thinning, and he was eyeing a narrow side passage when Peaches came to life. She stood on her back legs, turned her back to the two Kowri and shook her quills with a tiny high-pitched war cry. It would have been cute if not for the rattling poisonous quills that could kill with a scratch. And she was standing on his shoulder while doing it.

The two Kowri knew the danger because they both stumbled backward, their eyes large and their fur standing on end so they looked particularly fuzzy and cute. "Dop!" one cried out.

Dante scoffed. "Of course she's a dop. The temple knows Peaches and Peewee still live on the ship." Dante felt a little guilty that the name Peewee had stuck for the small male that continually tried to court Peaches, but if the shoe fit, the tiny dop had to wear it.

"You're Dante a'Texas," the other male said. Dante noticed that they never called him Dante a'Divashi, even if Divashi showed her interest in him. One day, Dante would slip and reveal that Texas was a place and not a god, and the Kowri were not going to be amused. "We have been ordered to secure the communication and engineering sections. We would request you step aside to avoid any injuries." The male stared at Peaches, so he was concerned about his own hide. Smart man. Dante had seen someone die from dop poison, and it was an ugly and painful death.

"I thought the temple was keeping the Coalition and Kowri separate. Why are you in here?"

The two Kowri exchanged a glance and then the first male took a careful step forward. "We are followers of Gavd, on orders from Bekdi a'Gavd. We do not have time to delay."

Well, crap. If Bekdi was involved, something was wrong. The male was a major power in temple politics, so Dante moved to the side and waved to invite them to pass. Unlike Earth ships where corridors were so tiny that only one person could walk at a time, alien ships had wide corridors, probably to accommodate the larger aliens. Dr. Bevit resembled a sumo wrestler with a dozen boobs and a hairstyle fit for the most flamboyant drag queen, and Ean resembled like a pyramid with her tiny head and her massive... hips? Butt? Entire region above her four stubby legs.

The extra space meant all three of them could have stood shoulder to shoulder and still had room, but the two Gavd followers plastered themselves to the far wall and slid past single file. Dante assumed they knew where they were going, and he hoped the Coalition crew wouldn't try to stop them. Kowri didn't like outsiders, and if Regi's security crew tried to block their way, it wouldn't end well.

Dante had seen what Kowri weapons could do, and he shuddered to think of them turned against people he knew, many of whom he liked. Sure, Ean was annoying in her attempts to get him to talk about his captivity and Ter was the singularly most offensive person he had ever met, but the former had a good heart, and the latter was amusing.

Standing at the ship's exit, Dante saw dozens of Kowri standing around the ship and Regi was toe-to-toe with Bekdi near one of the large protrusions that kept the ship from rolling onto its side.

Regi and Bekdi were both fluffy with fury, as were many of the other watching Kowri Captain Cota stood next to Ter, his hands low as he spoke with a tall female Kowri, and Vk had planted herself at Regi's side, glowering at Bekdi with her nose tucked up close to her face.

Even the sky reflected the mood with flat-bottomed dark gray clouds blocking out the planetary rings that bejeweled the sky.

Dante eased down the ramp, the earlier urge to vomit returning full force. However, his quarters in the ship wouldn't protect him if there was an open conflict, and he refused to hide. When Dante had covered half the distance, Bekdi a'Gavd shifted his glare to Dante. Dante straightened and walked faster. He wasn't going to let anyone intimidate him, not again. It wasn't as though Bekdi was a slaver who could pull out a dyl stick, and if he tried to abuse his power as a law-enforcement officer, Dante trusted that both Regi and Peaches would defend him. That was a lot of protection.

"Good morning, everyone."

Regi kept his focus on Bekdi. "Dante, return to the ship."

"Is there a problem?"

"There is a prodigious problem. Did you convince the unbeliever that the gods exist?" Bekdi poked his double thumbs toward Ter. Regi gave a subvocal growl, and Bekdi's fur rippled.

"I did. I pointed out that if he valued logic, he had to accept that powerful entities have left evidence of their existence. If you can scan for particles left by the gods' interference, then they exist, and his disbelief was illogical."

Regi took a quick step forward, and Bekdi retreated fast, his hand landing on his weapon. Considering Regi was a good foot shorter, Bekdi's caution made him look ridiculous. Maybe he realized that because he took a step toward Regi, his elbows bent in body language so human Dante had seen it on any number of school-yard bullies.

"Dante a'Texas does not offend the gods by insisting they exist. To do otherwise would be blasphemy." Regi spit the words.

"Discussing theology with outsiders is blasphemy!" Bekdi shouted back.

From the other side of the entrance ramp, Ter yelled. "This is unacceptable. I have work I need to accomplish and that brain-damaged disappointment who shames the genetic material his parents contributed stopped me from being able to do that. Tell all these sycophantic followers of illogical gods to get away from my ship."

Captain Cota bellowed, "Engineer Ter, stand down and do not speak." However, it was too late. Bekdi whirled away from Regi and stormed toward Ter. Physically, Ter was no match. Where Bekdi was tall and muscled and broad, Ter was tall and spindly and twitchy. Dante still thought he resembled a poorly assembled scarecrow, but instead of cowering, Ter stuck out his elbows and his tail twitched like an angry cat's.

"You dare insult our gods?"

"If they are that powerful, my words don't bother them. However, you're a small-minded pedant and despot if you think you have the right to tell the rest of the universe how to talk."

"You are on our planet, outsider."

Captain Cota grabbed Ter's arm and jerked him back before stepping between the two. "We apologize, Lawkeeper Bekdi a'Gavd. Ter is intemperate with his words, a trait that gets him in so much trouble that Coalition stations we frequent know his name and reputation. He often questions my own parentage, so I will beg your forgiveness since insulting others has become the only religion he will follow." Captain Cota held his hands low, but his pupils were narrow like a goat's. He was annoyed. Dante just didn't know who was annoying him the most.

"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 shoved Ter 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.