Chapter Nine

D ante ducked through the door, eager to get away from the audience that had surrounded the ship. The Kowri ships that had arrived lately must have brought a plethora of tourists who wanted to gawk at the alien outsiders. Dante hated how they stared at him, how whispers swelled as they passed. He preferred hiding in the dim interior of the pirate ship. How ironic that the place where he had once been kept as a slave was now his sanctuary.

Regi secured the exterior door before he turned to Vk. "Officer Vk, I would like an explanation for why you found it appropriate to leave your duty area against orders." His voice had an artificial calm.

She stood straighter. "I apologize, sir. Exalted Gimi explained that if multiple members of the crew were found to be god-touched it would help your position in the council."

"While I yield to exalted Gimi's logic, that did not require you to leave your duty post without speaking to me. You were assigned to protect Dante." His tone made Peaches chitter in complaint, and Dante ran his finger down her spines, soothing her.

"I understand sir, and I will accept any disciplinary measures. I assure you that I only hoped to improve our legal position, and since our radios do not work and the Kowri have declined to share their communications technology, I had no way to reach you. I used my best judgment, although that judgment is flawed." Her nose was crumpled like old, used tissue.

Dante put a hand on Regi's arm. "I was with you. She knew you wouldn't leave me undefended. She made Gimi promise not to leave my side for a moment until we found you. So I fully trust that she was careful with my security."

Regi took a deep breath. "I understand that she did not physically place you in danger, but taking requests from individuals outside the chain of command is unacceptable."

Vk's nose trembled. "I understand, and I will be more cautious of our Kowri allies in the future."

"Avoid following their orders, as well."

Dante winced. He could see how hard those words hit Vk.

"Sir, I would never take orders from anyone other than you. You have said Gimi is our greatest ally, and she provided a logical argument that the amount of time that I spend with Dante would make me the one most likely to be noticed by your gods. It appeared I had nothing to lose in the attempt since, as she explains it, most Kowri are never noticed by your gods, and at worst, I would prove that I am average."

"I cannot debate Gimi's logic given that she is the exalted of Onidba. However, do not act without explicit permission from either the captain or myself." Regi was almost growling.

"Yes sir, I acknowledge my error and will not repeat it. I will not file a response to your complaint." Vk's nose uncrumpled a little.

Regi huffed. "I am not going to file a formal complaint. These are unusual circumstances. I will not have your career impacted because you attempted to assist us in a difficult situation. Return to your internal audit of systems."

"Yes sir." Vk glanced toward Dante before she turned and hurried into the ship, catching herself on the wall when she lost her balance in the tilted corridor.

Dante's stomach was knotted from the drama. "I was never in a moment of danger."

"Which is why I will not file a formal complaint." Now that Vk was gone, Regi started toward the ladder. "She does not deserve to have her career impacted by this situation, especially when Gimi took advantage of her desire to help." He started up into the main ship.

"I'm not sure if it is taking advantage when Gimi is attempting to assist us. Unless you believe that she is someone else who is only pretending to be our friend."

"Of course not. She has provided far too much assistance and been far too public in her support for me to have any doubts in her motives. However, Vk should not be making these decisions on her own. As evidenced by Alb a'Oba's betrayal, Kowri can lie."

"Can't everyone?"

Regi stepped off on the level where Dante had his quarters. He liked being separated from the living quarters where crew members haunted the corridor. "Some sapient species can only lie if they create a new reality within their own minds," explained Regi. "I knew one such individual who endured significant pain to convince himself that his daughter had chosen to cut contact with him rather than remembering that she had died in an unfortunate dock incident. The Coalition reclassified him as unemployable due to mental illness because his species could not lie without such difficult and painful self-deceptions."

"I don't know whether to envy his ability to erase painful memories or feel horrified. Still, I'm sure Vk is smart enough to be suspicious of anyone other than Gimi. Given that, you were a little harsh with her." Dante passed Regi and pressed his hand against the entry pad for his quarters. Peaches was already trying to rappel down his shirt, and Dante slipped a palm under her, easing her to the floor of his quarters as soon as the doors slid open. She was getting fatter than ever, and she waddled as she headed over to her diminutive suitor. He snored in the corner until she pounced on him.

"I am harsh because I cannot have that behavior repeated."

"Are you sure you're not in a bad mood because you're having to deal with your mother?" Dante asked.

For two or three seconds, Regi stood frozen in the doorway, every whisker still. Then he shook himself. "My mother's arrogance and refusal to acknowledge my legitimately held point of view is an issue which has existed for so long that it has become nothing more than one of the constants of the universe," he said in a dismissive tone. "Given the stories you have told of your own father, I trust you understand." He glanced over, and his demeanor shifted. "I apologize. I should not have said that. I know issues of personal comparisons are a minefield in intercultural communication."

"They are?" Dante leaned against the wall since he had no furniture other than his bed. He should do something about that eventually, but the whole ship was parked at an angle that made chairs uncomfortable.

"Yes. Many species find the making of comparisons between the personal experiences of two different individuals insulting."

"Not humans."

Regi blew out a long breath. "I am very glad I did not cause offense."

"Humans often compare their experiences. Although I suppose we do have some cultural expectations now that I think about it. Some people like to draw comparisons to suggest that people are similar because they have similar backgrounds and they will attempt to make experiences sound even more similar than they are." Dante had noticed that with his sisters and their friends.

"Similarities are a valid basis for alliances, although those are rarely personal experiences. I believe most people use work or educational experiences." Regi was staring at the far corners of the room despite there being nothing interesting to look at.

"Humans can use comparisons to compete." Dante had done that, sometimes in very crass and obscene ways, although that was not the sort of comparison Regi was talking about. Still, comparisons were comparisons. "I had two friends who were both very wealthy, and they used to argue about whose parents spoiled them the most. Growing up in a private boarding school I suppose that was inevitable."

Regi frowned at him. "Spoiling is a term that denotes that food has become unhealthy."

"We also use that as a term to suggest that parenting has become unhealthy because a parent has given their child so many material objects that they are no longer willing to work or appreciate what they have."

Regi frowned so that deep wrinkles made his fur ripple. "Spoiling is perhaps the correct term to use."

"I think so," Dante agreed.

"Do you feel the need to either compete or find an alliance of similarity between our experiences—my mother and your father?"

Dante sighed. He wished it could be that easy. Sometimes he didn't know how to talk to Regi, but that felt dangerous. "No. I don't understand what it meant for your mother to invest so much of her energy into her goddess, and you cannot understand the impact my father's willingness to use my mother's death in his campaign had on me. So I think it's best for us to both acknowledge that our parents could have done better and that we are both capable and strong beings despite that."

"I attribute any success I have enjoyed in life to the influence of my fathers," said Regi.

"And I had two older sisters who made sure I always knew that I was loved even when I was going out of my way to behave as badly as possible out of some childish attempt to get revenge on my father."

Regi tilted his head. "How would that provide revenge?"

"My father would do anything to have people admire him, so I made sure no one admired how he handled me."

"An interesting tactic, one I likely would have used had I thought of it, but I went from attempting to be the greatest follower of Gavd to ever investigate a crime to deciding to leave the Empire. After I failed the Gavd tests and was turned away from his service, I was too focused on my own humiliation to think much on how my behavior would reflect on my mother."

Dante couldn't imagine that. Sure, he'd gone to Montana to get some sort of distance and prove his independence, but he'd never gone too far. He'd never left the country. Had he not been kidnapped by alien pirates, he might not have left Texas again. But then Regi was braver than Dante. "Did you have any idea what the Coalition would be like?"

"None. But I knew that none of them were aware of my humiliating defeat in the face of the Gavd tests. At the time that seemed enough. And while my choice has resulted in a life that I am proud of, as an adult I can admit that I would not want a young adult to follow my example."

"I think doing things we would not want others to repeat is the defining trait of growing up."

"Perhaps it is," said Regi quietly. Then he shook free of some heavy emotion. "I should check on Ter to see if he has offended anyone new in the hours since we left the ship."

Dante grinned. "At least with no other Kowri onboard, he only has a chance to offend people who are used to being offended by him." Watching Ter when he insulted others was a unique form of entertainment. Since aliens didn't seem to have invented television, Dante hoped Ter didn't tone down his insults too much.

Regi huffed before turning toward the still-open door.

"Regi?" Dante called.

He turned to Dante. "Yes?"

Dante scratched the side of his neck and dug for the bits of courage he could find in his soul.

Regi took a step closer. "Is something wrong?" he asked with such concern that Dante felt a flush of attraction. He'd always fallen for the guys with a protective streak.

"I keep trying to find a reasonable way to bring up this topic, but I never can. Therefore, I am going to bring it up in an unreasonable way." Dante took a deep breath and braced himself. "I am frustrated that you seem to retreat from any relationship that I would hope to have with you." He wanted to keep staring at the floor or the dop bed where Peaches was curled around the smaller male, but he forced himself to look Regi in the eyes. "I enjoy your company—your touch—and I want to discuss that before you retreat into your work again."

Regi blinked at him, and a voice in the back of Dante's mind told him to take it all back, to accept whatever dregs of affection Regi might show him in passing. However, the words were out in the universe now, and he would not take them back, not when the frustration of this relationship grew every day. It was time to talk about what they were to each other.