Chapter Four

R egi sat in his office staring at the wall. He should complete his Coalition paperwork or go to the temple and explain the situation. However, he stared at the computer display. Most of the Coalition ships he'd served on had outdated equipment. Cota's ship was the first time he'd had a computer that worked each time he'd loaded a program. Coalition ships were sound, but lights would flicker, and engineering would have dozens of floor tiles pried up at any given time as they tried to trace wiring or crystal errors. Before his most recent Coalition ship had fallen into a black hole, it had never required a visit to a station for emergency repairs. He was an idiot for not seeing the pattern.

His door chimed—an obnoxious sound that made him lay his ears back. He triggered the opening mechanism to find Dante. After the trauma Dante had suffered, the threat of a Kowri mob would, no doubt, cause considerable concern.

"Are you okay?" Dante asked before Regi could ask the same question.

Rather than dismissing the question as he would had any of the crew asked, Regi considered his answer. "I'm uneasy given Bekdi's fury, but Kowri say that a warrior may win the day through expeditious action or plodding progress, but one who takes a moderate route will fail. Since Bekdi appears to be moving quickly, I have chosen to take the cautious path. I am hopeful I can minimize the damage."

Dante blinked at him.

"We are safe," Regi promised. He only hoped the gods found wisdom in his words.

Dante came in, triggering the closing sensor with an easy wave. "I'm going to ignore that obvious lie because I'm more worried that your crew seems to have kept secrets."

"It doesn't matter." Regi opened a security program.

"It does." Dante took the chair opposite Regi. "It's crappy of them not to tell you, and it has put us in danger."

Regi winced at the reference to bodily function. Sometimes Dante sounded too much like Ter. "Why do you make references to scatological processes?"

"‘Scatological'?" Dante looked confused.

"References to excrement, or in this case, crap."

Dante's face developed an impressive number of new wrinkles. "Why would the translator know that word?" He sighed. "Richard. That man did have an impressive vocabulary. And now the rest of the universe knows more English than most English-speakers."

Regi tapped a quick note to himself to make an entry in the official translator. They needed a team to work on English before making the language available for the public databases. Archaic or academic words needed to be removed before other huumans were judged for their ignorance of their own language.

"Had your species been identified by the Coalition, a team of translators would have worked with your government to ensure that no one individual exerted too much influence. The slavers had no such safeguards in place."

"Either way, your captain deserves some scatological language thrown at him for leaving you in the dark." He ran his finger across Peaches' quills. She circled before settling in for a nap on his thigh.

Regi did not want to defend the captain or Ter—not now. Later he would approach the situation with logic, but it had been a long time since he had been made to feel so separate from the crew.

"How bad is our situation?" Dante asked in a hushed voice.

"I shall plod my way to success. Gimi believes the gods bless us, so she will not allow Bekdi a'Gavd to push the exalteds to move quickly, and if the others think as logically as she, they will not believe his more outrageous claims."

"And his less outrageous ones?"

Regi sighed. That was the problem. "I will handle the temple."

Dante rubbed his face with enough vigor to shift his skin, which appeared uncomfortable. "For most of my life, people moved around me. They left me out of important decisions and hid information. Whether my father was trying to be kind by hiding the details of my mother's murder or manipulating me for campaign publicity, he made me feel stupid. I don't care how bad the truth is. I don't care if there's a ninety-seven percent chance that we're all going to be dead inside a week. I would rather know. Besides, I've beat odds worse than this."

"True," Regi admitted. Dante's rescue from the slavers was so unlikely that only the gods made it possible. "By deleting the files, Ter has ensured his guilt. There is a chance the temple may decide to execute the engineering staff or the entire crew other than the two of us."

"Because we're Divashi's favorites," Dante guessed.

"Yes. Exalteds cannot be killed. However, we can be confined to the temple to minimize any harm we may pose. We would live the rest of our lives watched by acolytes and exalteds."

"Fun," Dante said.

Regi was almost sure that was an incorrect translation.

Dante propped one ankle up so it rested on the knee of his opposite leg. "Gimi believes her Goddess of Logic would favor us. Would her goddess's favor extend to our crew?"

"Perhaps. The situation is difficult, but at the very least, she would counsel the others to move slowly to avoid traps of illogic, and Nawr would likely side with her. So if Bekdi hopes for a decisive victory by morning, he will be disappointed."

"What is the likelihood that your people will allow Ter to get away with a slap on the wrist?"

"Slapping is not a potential outcome."

Dante huffed. "That's a saying for minimal punishment."

Other than Ter, Regi had never seen a species with such colorful language, both in terms of profanity and metaphor. If huumans and fudlahralahs ever met, the two species would either forge an alliance no one could break, or they would loathe each other.

"I think it unlikely my people will allow Ter to escape significant punishment, and death is the most likely sentence. However, the captain will do anything to protect Ter, including putting the rest of us at risk."

"And the temple won't allow Captain Cota to do that, so they would be more likely to take us into custody and then kill the rest of the crew."

Regi tilted his head in affirmation.

"Lovely," Dante said, and again, Regi assumed he did not mean that literally. "What other punishments are available?"

"Pain. Imprisonment in the temple. Revocation of adult authority. Stripping of all titles and competencies. The last is unlikely given that Ter has not earned any professional competencies through the Kowri schooling or apprentice system." Regi had never thought about how his people and the Coalition compared, but the options to pay fines or go on scheduled arrest were not available in the Kowri Empire. As a member of the Coalition military, he was required to keep certain hours and present himself at his duty station at specific times, so the exalteds would not see scheduled arrest as punishment, and the use of money to repay for crimes against society would translate into bribery. He could not suggest it.

"He would complain if he was sentenced to pain, but it sounds like that would be the best option."

"Yes, although I do not expect him to accept that, and I will not be able to convince my people to accept the sort of punishment Ter and the captain would expect."

Dante stroked Regi's arm. His hand with its one opposable thumb had become familiar at some point in the last month. "I can always tell you're upset when your hair stands on end." He smoothed Regi's fur, sending shivers along Regi's nerves.

"I should caution you against touching."

Dante jerked his hand away. "I apologize. That was rude. I won't touch you again." The words tumbled out and Dante stood so quickly that the chair screeched against the decking and he scooped up Peaches and deposited her on his shoulder in one movement.

Regi shot to his feet. "You need not leave nor apologize."

"I should. I'm not...." Dante turned and would have fled, only Regi abused his power by triggering the office lock. When the door didn't open, Dante whirled back around, the black center of his eyes larger than Regi had ever seen before. Peaches clung to the fabric over his shoulder and chittered unhappily.

Regi held his hands low and unthreatening. "There is no need for an apology. Many species, including Kowri, use touch to reinforce closer bonds. I do not wish for you to place yourself in a difficult position." More to the point, Regi did not want either of them to suffer the consequences because they failed to maintain a professional distance.

"I didn't realize that." Dante stood taller. "I will be careful to avoid touch in the future."

They stared at each other, and Regi studied the curves of Dante's unfamiliar expression; he struggled to understand the thoughts behind those blue, black and white eyes with their touch of ember red where veins peeked through the white.

"Please open the door. I don't like locks." Dante's voice was strained.

Regi flinched. Of course, Dante would be discomfited. Regi kept making unforgivable mistakes. He triggered the sensor, and the moment the door slid open, Dante bolted. In the corridor, a rumbling trill of displeasure suggested Vk was in the hallway. A few seconds later, she stuck her enormous nose around the corner. "What did you do to him?" she demanded.

Regi sank into his chair. "We have more pressing security concerns than Dante's ignorance of social norms. Tomorrow I must go to the temple to speak against executing Ter."

Vk came in and closed the door behind her. "Can't you ask your goddess to get involved and fix this?"

Regi was so shocked that for a moment he could not find the proper words. However, Vk spoke from ignorance and not malice, so he gathered his thoughts. "The gods act for their own purpose. Unless Ter can attract the attention of one, none of the gods will move on his behalf, and Kowri do not ask for the gods' intervention. We are more likely to avoid their help since the gods have enormous hands that are likely to do us harm as they move us into the correct position to receive divine intervention."

Vk blew air until her nose vibrated. "Your gods are as bad as the fictional stories still told on my planet about our early gods."

"Perhaps your old gods were our gods only you stopped listening to them." Regi was horrified such impious words had escaped his mouth. He laid his ears back and his skin tingled as all his fur stood on end. "That was so impious as to put all our lives in danger. Do not repeat what I said to anyone, crew or not."

"I will not," Vk assured him. "I am too ignorant of any gods to speak of them. However, I have become an expert in Dante since you insist I must accompany him when he rides those great beasts he favors, and his expression as he ran from the room is more than concerning."

Regi winced. "I had the bad judgment to lock the door. Locks have an undesirable connotation for him."

Vk's nose wrinkles deepened. "You are not one to forget your manners. Why would you lock the door?"

"It is not worth discussing."

"Clearly it is."

Regi took a deep breath. "Huuman customs are not aligned with the Coalition or the Kowri. The miscommunication is not worth mentioning."

"It is. Ean wants to document all areas where culture, mannerisms, or language either mimics or contradicts known samples in the psychological or linguistic databases. She hopes to narrow down the location of the suns of either Earth or Mars using sociological data to narrow the possible sectors. I have not studied cultures other than knowing which laws certain species are more likely to break. However, Ean explains that certain traits tend to occur in groupings. The two species closest to her own planets are the blaviv and the namall, and they, along with the ril, are all infamous for their bulk and the volume of their voice."

"If that is true, they should look in the opposite corner of the universe for huumans. They are frail compared to those three," said Regi.

She studied him. "Tell me what miscommunication caused a locked door, and I will leave you to fantasize about Ter's death while you simultaneously attempt to save the fool's life."

The truth did not reflect well on Regi. He allowed the touch for as long as he had because he had difficulty controlling his feelings. "I explained that touch is used to deepen bonds and recommended that he avoid touching others so often," Regi said.

Vk's nose relaxed so that it hung to her mouth. Slowly it drew up into a more normal position. "You suggested he touches others too often?"

"This is likely a species trait, but I hoped to save him from misunderstandings."

Vk stared at him, her nose twitching. The silence had grown uncomfortable before Vk said, "You are as great a fool as Ter. How is there room for two such great idiots on one ship?"

"You speak disrespectfully," Regi snapped.

"I respect you as a security chief, but I cannot respect this idiocy." She took a step forward, her expression far too pugnacious for a subordinate. "Dante does not touch overmuch. Dante does not touch at all. He avoids Bevit under all circumstances out of fear that she will initiate contact. He darts out of the way when Ean comes down the corridor because he would not be forced to brush past her aknestis. In engineering, he sits on the highest piece of equipment possible to keep himself from others. I had thought huumans had a social taboo until I saw him with you."

Regi's confusion derailed his anger.

"Speak with him again, and do not assume what is not true," she said.

"I have other work that requires my attention," Regi said. After Ter's show of temper, he could not afford a distraction.

Vk stared at him for a long time. "Better than most, I understand when one's choices in relationships are counter to the culture's teachings. But I never thought you a coward, Regi a'Divashi de Minait a'Otutha qee Pertin e Rel." Her tone and her use of his formal name made Regi wince, but before he could construct a response, she left. He wondered when everything had gotten so complicated.