As the lift descended, the generated gravity smoothly became artificial.  I had to strengthen my knees to hold myself upright, yet as we came to a stop, the weight of myself returned to its norm.
The doors separated to reveal a vast, oval room with windows around the entire circumference.  The capsule’s doors opened half a level bellow the floor with a ramp leading up to the open space.
Various tables and consoles were lit up, scattered in an even pattern around the room.
Unlike most ships that I had been aboard, every surface was a highly glossed black, causing all of the lights to reflect brightly.  It looked like the ominous lair from every science-fiction film, television show and video game set I could remember.
In the centre was a very impressive looking 3d holographic map of the galaxy, hovering above a wide spiral ramp that lead down into darkness.
At the top were a couple of figures.
At our initial distance, I could more or less make out that one of them was another pink and the other had a humanoid shape.  Without my left eye, it was difficult to properly focus on them until we were standing about ten paces away, next to one of the raised consoles.
Even at a closer range, it was impossible for me to see whether the second being was a kaplo or an alive, for I knew, he could have been human.
Both of them were having a vague sounding conversation about the amount of time it would take to reach somewhere.  It was not until we were a lot closer that they even seemed to notice that we had entered the room.
Their voices dropped to an inaudible level, the humanoid being giving a twist of the head that indicated that the other should deal with me.
I could just about make out his brief appraising glance of me before he turned to leave.  It felt very judgmental.
The pink turned his attention fully to me.
The dark reddish-brown of his feathers was barely perceivable under the low light.
He raised his head slightly, a blanket of low white lights illuminating the area where we stood as he did so.
His face was unreadable as his eyes wandered to and fro across me; taking in my expression, the way I was standing, how my hands were clasped.
“Miss MacPhaid,” his voice was deep and scratched, “I am addressing you correctly, yes?  It is Miss and not Mrs?” he spoke Mrs as it was spelt, forcing me to take a moment to actually comprehend what he was saying.
“Miss is right,” the effort that it took to squeeze my voice up from my throat, over my tongue through my teeth and out of my lips was enough to cause me to choke a little, “missus indicates that I would be married, which I’m not.”
His head tilted by an nth of a degree, “oh, was I saying it wrong?  Missus then.  Why does it matter exactly?”
I have to admit that I liked his question and was fully ready for a full on discussion about gender roles within my race; why it was that women had to announce whether or not they were tethered to a man, at what point in humanity’s evolution the females of the species began to allow their own importance to be diminished by the opposite sex and, going forwards, if all gender assigned titles aught to be forgotten.
Such was the sort of discussion between the very few people I would ever go out drinking with in my college and university days.  Alcohol fueled, philosophical and theological debates being both fun, inevitably pointless and ultimately forgotten by the following gathering, therefore, often repeated.
Unfortunately, “actually, I don’t give a dri,” was the sentence that sprang from his mouth before I could start.
“My name is Hoejo Ruro and I am the second in command on board the Venanth-Nepha, if you need the “why” behind my title, this conversation will take a nasty turn.  My captain, Nesutten Naroc, has asked me to get you to sign a contract in gratitude for us saving your life.”
For three seconds, I stared right at him. 
For two seconds I scrunched my eyes closed and shook my head slightly. 
For seven seconds I opened and closed my mouth as I tried to find the right word to start off the sentence that I would need to respond to him.
For those excruciatingly long moments, he observed me, hints of amusement attempting to twitch his beak into laughter at my awkwardness.
At great length, I managed to get my mouth to make sounds, “I, um, I’m sorry, I don’t…  When, exactly, was my life in danger?”
“When?”  He allowed his mouth to curl up into a smile that could easily have been mistaken for a smirk.  “Why, when we came across your vessel, which had been hit by an e.m.p. from a malfunctioning sphere and was running on life support, we felt it our duty to rescue anyone on board.  Imagine our surprise at your lifeless cargo, being taken home for whatever your human death ritual is I suppose, although it did take us a while to figure that out.  What was more alarming was the fact that you and your crewmates were all unconscious.”  He raised an eyebrow and kept my face under scrutiny for a response as he continued, “most of you, anyway.”
I scrunched my forehead in confusion and twitched my head slightly back and to the side, attempting to absorb his words.  “What do you mean?” I asked, hands shaking and balling into and out of fists, “your gas knocked us all out didn’t it?”
The chuckle that erupted from his throat was a surprisingly pleasant sound, if nothing else, it was the first genuine laugh I had heard in an eternity.  “Why and how would we gas you?  No, no you poor little hutsu, your kaplo took care of that for us.”
With an extreme amount of effort, I forced my face to stay impassive.
“Said she did it to save us the hassle of threatening the lot of you, all she wanted in return was a respectable sum of credits, and your ship.”  Hoejo bent down, lowering his head until it was level with my own, “she was trying to sell you.” 
His breath smelt like, what I can only imagine was, half a dozen, partially digested food cubes.  It was in no way pleasant, yet it was not what was making my stomach churn.
Gheetoh and I may not have been getting on like the proverbial house on fire, however the trust was nonexistent.
Content with my discomfort, Hoejo went on, “we did what any good beings would do and removed you from her possession in case she happened upon other beings that would take her up on that offer.  We made the bargain that in return for her simply giving up, we replenished her ship’s drive.  I should also point out that she had a baton pointed at us the entire time.  We risked ourselves to get you and you crew to safety.”
Rather than the dryness that I would have expected, my mouth was over filled with saliva from where I had been sucking on my teeth so much.  “What about the people in the cargo bay?” despite everything else, I had to know what their fate had been.
“I’m sorry to tell you that we had to leave them with her,” he pursed his beak to one side, “we have a policy, laid down by the Community, which states that we cannot have more than five dead bodies on board at a time.”
I must have looked shocked as he hastily added, “it’s not uncommon for there to be deaths in the business of bounty hunting, its not a profession for the feint of heart.”
My heart faltered, I do not know what I had hoped for.  From the beginning, each step of our infiltration was one potential failure after another.
I steeled myself and focused on what was in front of me.
Hoejo had not finished, “but you know, she was a dumb one.  I am referring to that fact that there is no person in the galaxy stupid enough to try and sell a sheenar, not to mention a Community officer, especially in conjunction with someone whose fame far exceeds any of us.”
“How does that relate?” my curiosity was apprehensive, as I noted the irritation in his expression.
He shook his head, “it does not matter in the slightest to me, but our captain is a stickler for protocol, so to speak.”  The last he muttered low, despite knowing that I could still hear him.
With a sudden flourish of movement, he produced a taucil.
I had never seen one in person, having refused point blank to let Desmosa wear one as part of our contract, yet I knew instantly what it was.  Its appearance was similar to that of a very wide sports band with a solid compartment that housed the behavioural incentives.
The very sight of it made me feel like I was about to retch up to two food cubes and whatever was left clinging to the insides of my stomach.
I took a deep breath, managed to form the sentence, “I appreciate your assistance, but I’m sorry, I won’t be entering any contract,” and waited for the coercion.
For an immeasurable amount of time, Hoejo stared me down.  His eyes bored into me, his face solemn yet intense.
My time slowed down as he opened his beak to speak.
“Fair enough, can’t blame me for trying.”
I froze.
Not just my heart.
Every part of me tensed in an instant, waiting for the punch, for the rug to be pulled from under me.
Into the following silence, he abruptly called out, “Tallou!”
Every inch of me flinched and I had to quickly release some energy lest I knock down every being in the room and loose (what I still hoped was) my element of surprise.  I cursed loudly inside my head as it caused the galaxy display to ripple.
Glancing about me, I was relieved to see that everyone was looking towards where a short hlorsiené was waddling across the room to where we waited.
“Take Miss Laura to the passenger quarters and get her eye back from Eleoca.  Nanis, check the board, there’s a high profile job that needs your attention.”
The tharat headed off, tossing Tallou her baton as she passed him.
Tallou rattled off a string of curses as it bounced off of his arms and clattered to the ground, “stupid, driting hutsu, just you wait.  I’ll be ahead of you one of these units.”
He stood for a moment simply staring at the stick as though he were calculating how best to pick it up without toppling over.  All of a sudden there was a burst of movement and before I could even try to focus on him, he had already resumed his waddle towards us, baton in hand.
“Sorry about the weapons,” Hoejo’s voice snapped my attention back to him, “it’s policy for our crew to carry them whilst escorting anyone who isn’t listed as an ally.  You understand?”  Despite the infliction, it wasn’t a question.
I gave a stiff nod, achingly aware of how little I had actually contributed to our exchange.  The feeling was that the only reason that I had been separated from the others was so they could size me up and leave a specific impression of themselves upon me.
I am not sure how they were wanting to look, however what I saw was a leader who wanted to seem distant and mysterious, subordinates who were lacking any respect for one another and a spaceship that seemed as though it were created for so much more than towing prisoners.
“Well,” he was trying make his voice sound disinterested, Hoejo was turning to walk away, “not that this hasn’t been great, but I have business to take care of.”
He was practically out of earshot by the time he finished speaking.
Tallou approached with such a look that cried out ‘why am I doing this?’ that I had to feign biting my lip to stop a smile.
“Off we go then,” he twitched his head towards a lift a third of the way around the room.
“You’re not gonna keep it aimed at me?” his demeanor relaxed me enough to be bold.
Giving me a dead-eyed stare, he sighed, “why?  Are planning on doing something that requires me using it?”
“Not any time soon,” I raised an eyebrow in jest, which I have been told is barely perceivable because the other brow moves at the same time.
His expression was deadpan, the following few moments seemed to be him deciding whether he might use it on me after all if that was the sort of thing that I was going to come out with.  I cannot say that I would blame him.
With tightly sealed lips, I headed for the lift.
As the doors sealed us in, his lips unsealed.
“So, what’s your deal anyway?” his face remained deadpan, yet his voice betrayed his curiosity, “you’re not making some violent display of vengeance upon us all.  We're all curious to know how powerful you really are.”
I hid a sigh of relief at having restrained myself since waking up.  They would have been ready for me.
“I’ve been feeling sluggish in that department since waking up,” I half lied, “could barely lift a plate, let alone open a door.”
“Shame,” my eyes went straight to his face, “I would have loved to see that hutsu Nanis torn to pieces.”
I relaxed a little, “seems a little extreme.  What am I supposed to taking vengeance on this place for anyway?  Weren’t you the beings that saved my people?” I managed to let the word ‘saved’ go as though I almost believed it.
He looked at me as though I were a complete moron before realizing my attempt at baiting him, “wouldn’t know.  I only joined these guys several units ago cause their last navigator conveniently died whilst tracking a target.”
“Navigator?  What’s a navigator doing being my escort?”
He shrugged, “low on bodies, a load of the crew either went missing, died or quit over the past thirty units.  The only reason I’m here is because of the dri-load of credits I was paid in advance.”
“How very professional of everyone,” it had become my turn to affect the deadpan, “should you be saying any of this to me at all?”
Again he shrugged, “you don’t feel like the type to run to your captors to tell them what you know.  None of these capsules have any surveillance tech in them anyway.”  He went silent and fixed me with a pointed stare which was gone the moment my head moved in a way that indicated that I understood what he was saying.
I held my breath, my eyes flicked down to his feet, “this whole place seems seriously dodgy.  If they think I’m sort of superpowered vengeance seeker, it’s a wonder they let me walk around with just one baton pointed at me.”
“They don’t get scared,” he still seemed as though I were boring him, “they’ve got a gas that’ll knock you out the second you try something.”
“Wouldn’t that just knock you all out at the same time?”
“Nah, we’re safe.  We’ve all had shots of chemicals that counteract the effects for a few lals so that the gas can come in, knock you out and be vented.”  He paused, thinking, “even if there’s a problem, we’ve all got these compressed oxygen tanks to cover us.”  From a pocket at his hip, he drew a tiny canister attached to a sealable mouth piece, which he waggled at me as though he were a child showing off a toy that I could never afford.
Smoothly replacing it, he nodded to indicate that we would be arriving at the outer loops momentarily.
“Doesn’t sound like you’ll be on board for much longer,” I tried to choose the right words, yet there was no time.
“I’ll be here ‘til I leave,” he move to the door, “the longer I’m here, the more likely it will be as ashes or with one of those super contracts for myself.  I’m jumping ship first chance I get.”  The pointed stare that caught me the second time lasted a moment or two longer than the first.
I dipped my head and  turned towards the exit, “I hear that,” I said as the doors opened.