"Barbaric," Straik mutters. "I can't believe that happened on my ship."
"Why did your ship have slaves in the first place?" Kaspar retorts, and Straik is silent. Something tells me he doesn't know the answer to that, either.
"According to Helen," Mathiras continues, "Stinkfoot was in charge of the mutiny. He had her taken out of stasis because he was curious about a slave like her, but he didn't tell her she was a clone. Just mentioning that sends her off into fresh tears." His nostrils flare and his tail flicks, agitated. My big brother is very protective, and I can tell it bothers him that Helen cries…or that Helen was abused. Probably both. "But from what I can gather, they didn't touch her because she's worth more on the slave market whole."
"You mean a virgin," Kaspar says grimly.
"Yeah." Mathiras pauses, and I know we're all thinking of our little sister, Zoey. Zoey, who we protected like crazy, because a pretty human virgin goes for a shit ton of credits on the black market. Her new mate better be watching over her, or he's going to have us to answer to.
"So they abused the three and left the qura'aki untouched," Straik prompts. "That doesn't tell us what happened to the crew. Did the humans kill them?"
"From what I understand from Helen, there was a big argument and a lot of screaming. Stinkfoot was killed, and the crew was divided. One group snuck out in the middle of the night with about twenty stasis pods—"
"Twenty more keffing pods?" Straik interrupts. "How many keffing slaves did my keffing family ship have on it?"
Oh boy. His day is about to get SO much worse. I sit up, a little excited for my turn to share.
"Yeah, well, the crew that was left ended up being two males. From what I understand, they were nice enough to the females but skittish that the others would return. They took a pod and left the females behind because they didn't want to be caught dealing slaves."
I make an angry noise in my throat. "So they just left them behind?"
"It would seem so. That was three years ago and no one's ever returned for them, mutineers or otherwise." Mathiras shakes his head. "Three years, stranded in space on a ship you don't know how to run. I can't imagine."
"They don't know how to run the ship?" Kaspar asks, surprised. "They sure were quick to gas us."
"They did have three years to figure this shit out," I point out. "So basically, Straik's crew was shit, they played with their toys, fought with each other, and left them behind. Do I have it summed up?"
Straik makes an angry noise in his throat.
Mathiras raises a hand. "I don't think they were Straik's crew. The only men Helen remembers seeing were 'ugly' and 'skinned like a tarsi fruit'."
"Szzt," I say, thinking of the bright orange, rubbery-rinded fruit. It's a pretty good comparison. I also wonder if Jade likes tarsi fruit. She must have had them at some point for the qura'aki to know what they are. I make a mental note to bring her some when she wakes up, just so I can see her reaction.
"I would never hire szzt," Lord Straik says in his most indignant, stuffy voice. "They are absolutely not trustworthy."
"So your ship was probably stolen long before the girls got woken up," Kaspar concludes.
Mathiras nods. "I think so. I'm no longer angry at them for trying to kill you idiots. They're just doing what they have to do to survive. I'm actually surprised they managed to last this long."
I'm sadder that they're not around for me to kick the shit out of. Bunch of slaving szzt…or just pirating szzt. It's entirely possible that Straik's crew hired some szzt for shady work on the down-low—like, say, helping move slaves—and the hired crew turned on them to steal the profit. It happens a lot. "Well it's obvious we can't leave them behind," I say to my brothers. "They're our responsibility now."
Kaspar nods.
Mathiras has a grim look of displeasure on his face, but he nods, too. "We can't leave them. No one knows how long that ship's air filters are going to keep working without proper maintenance. And Helen said they'd eaten all their food except for a little bit of noodles. If we leave them, we're condemning them to certain death. We have to take them—and the Star—back with us." Mathiras continues to flick his tail, thoughtful. "And I hate to say it, but we probably need to approach the authorities."
"What?" This time, Straik speaks up. "We're not taking four human slaves back on my ship. Slavery is utterly repugnant and I won't have it."
"Uh, you have a ship full of clones already, buddy," Kaspar points out.
I lean over. "He freed them."
Kaspar frowns. "Oh."