C7 Negotiation (Patreon)

Part II.

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Druka cranked the hatch open, and the two climbed inside the small, metal room. Tori tapped the intercom button, and when it lit, she asked, “Sir, are you there? I brought Druka to meet you.”

After a short delay, the two heard a deep groan followed by words in the Krakun language, “Yes, I’m still here, Tori. I feel like crap, but whatever he put in my drink hasn’t done me in yet.” The commissioner moaned, and it sounded like he moved his mouth closer. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Druka.”

Tori’s mate fidgeted nervously for a moment before stepping closer. “Uh yeah, look, I’m worried… I mean, I’m wondering…” he said. “How can we trust you?”

Tori shot him a look. She mouthed, That’s rude! but the commissioner took it in stride. “That’s a fair question,” he said. “You’re worried that once you release me, I’ll turn on you, kill you both.”

“I didn’t…” Druka said, backing off a step. But after a moment, he retook his place beside the intercom. “Well, you must admit that krakun don’t value geroo lives. If you’re really angry about being poisoned—”

“Of course, I’m angry about being poisoned, Druka!” shot Troykintrassa. “How could I not be? But I’m not angry at the two of you. I know you didn’t do it.”

The geroo slowly blew out his breath. “Well, what I’m trying to say is, krakun have a reputation for punishing slaves collectively, regardless of who messed up.”

“Druka!” Tori hissed quietly at her mate.

“You mean like how the company will punish everyone by purging the ship,” said the gigantic lizard just beyond the wall. “And perhaps I’m lying about rewarding you.”

Tori glared at him, but he only shrugged. “I’m sorry, but the thought had crossed our minds, yeah.”

“Well, I’m not lying,” said the voice over the intercom, “but if I were, then I’d just tell you more lies now. There’s really no way for me to prove intentions, is there?”

She shrugged and Druka scowled. “Well, I don’t…”

Surprisingly, the commissioner didn’t sound offended. He explained, “I want to get out of here. I want to get to a doctor. Of all the geroo aboard this ship, the two of you shouldn’t even be here. New transfers shouldn’t be subject to everyone else’s fate.” He groaned again, and there was a dull thump like a huge creature had banged its fist against the deck. “I need your help, and I will reward you for it.”

No one said anything and an awkward silence hung over them.

At last, Troykintrassa offered, “Here… Do you know what is the most valuable thing a commissioner can ever give a slave? The reason, in fact, why most commissioners won’t form friendships with anyone from the crew, because they know slaves will beg for it endlessly?”

The pair shared a look before Tori offered, “Uh… tokens from the lottery?”

“You’re very close,” said the krakun. “If you help me, I promise that not only will I get you to a krakun doctor and return the two of you safely back to your original ship, but before I let you off, I will reset both of your birth tokens. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t talk about your age. Just let people forget how old you are, because the two of you will get sixty years starting from the moment you get home.”

Her eyes opened wide. Just getting surgery was bribe enough, but sixty more years instead of the thirty-two she had left? Wow! And not just her, but Druka as well? That was worth more than all the money Aziz had slipped into her strand!

Druka gasped, “You’ll give us more years?”

“I want to live, and you can help me. You want to live longer, and I can help you—both in the short term and the long.”

He covered his muzzle with both paws and leaned back against the wall. Tori gestured at him helplessly. See? she mouthed. How were they supposed to tell him no, when the commissioner could offer them almost anything?

She covered her eyes with a paw. “But what about everyone else aboard this ship?”

“I can’t help them,” Troykintrassa sighed. “It’s company policy to purge a ship if the commissioner is attacked, and I’ve been attacked.”

Druka scooted closer to the intercom. “So, you’re going to fly through the gate, then call the company, and tell them to purge the ship.”

Tori tried to correct him, “No, Druka—”

But the commissioner said, “Yes, that’s right, Druka.”

Tori stared wordlessly at the intercom light. “But you said the hospital would—”

“I implied that, yes. I’ll admit, that was a little deceptive of me,” he said. “It’s my job to call it in, and if I don’t, I’ll lose my job. But even if I didn’t call, within hours, the company would find out and we’d be on the same course.”

Druka cleared his throat. “You’re going to tamper with the computers so that the captain will see false information and won’t realize what’s coming.”

“Yes, Druka.”

“And if you flew through the gate and radioed Captain Gutassi, warned him,” he asked, “once you were safely back in Krakuntec space?”

The krakun groaned, and the wall thumped as if he’d slumped against it. “Then, he’d shut down the trinity again, and the company would know that I’d intentionally lost them a ship.” Troykintrassa explained, “Not only would I lose my job, but they’d probably take me to court and destroy me financially.”

Druka stroked the fur on his chin. “Can I propose something?”

“You might as well,” sighed the krakun. “Until the trinity is discharged, none of us are going anywhere.”

Druka rubbed his palms together, then pointed at the intercom. “What if, instead of giving the captain false information, instead of controlling things remotely, you set it all up on a timer.” He cocked his head at his mate and explained, “We wait on the shuttle, you set the computer so that when the trinity is discharged, it turns itself back on and opens the shuttle bay door for us.”

Tori’s mouth hung open. Surely, he could do that! she realized. With only a half hour of tinkering, Daskatoma had created her a triangulation application. Setting a timer sounded infinitely easier!

“Couldn’t we get through the gate before he’d react,” asked Druka, “before he could shut things down?”

“Yes, I’d suspect so,” said Commissioner Troykintrassa. “With a seventeen-hour cycle time, the trinity won’t be fully discharged until oh-three-hundred. Whoever is on duty would have to wake the captain, and the captain would have to wake your engineering chief. We’d be long gone before they could shut it off.”

Druka raised his paws in prayer. With his eyes closed, he asked, “Do you think they could close the gate before a warship could came through?”

“Oh yes, easily,” said the krakun. “The company would scramble a ship quickly, but even then, it would take hours.”

Druka pumped his fists in excitement, almost hitting Tori. “Well, then that’s my proposal. We help you; you give the captain a chance to shut the gate off again after we leave.” With his ears in the widest grin, he explained, “Then, Tori and I can live with ourselves. We did no harm, and the crew is in the same situation as if we hadn’t helped you in the first place.”

“Oh, Druka! That’s a wonderful idea!” she squealed, her eyes tearing up.

“Yes, well, except for the part where I’m losing the company a ship,” growled the krakun. “They’ll be quite angry. I’ll get in big trouble.”

“Yes, you’ll have screwed up a little, sir,” Druka admitted, “but if you explained that you were impaired from being poisoned, maybe delusional, would they cut you some slack?”

A long silence stretched. “They might,” the commissioner finally admitted. “Management isn’t known for their benevolence, but this is an exceptional circumstance.”

Both Tori and Druka were positively dancing in place.

“Regardless,” rumbled the voice, “you’re still asking me to take a risk.”

Now, Tori’s paws were up in prayer, but Druka took this in stride. “Yes, I am, but this is a negotiation,” he explained. “If you want our help, then those are our terms. We take some risk that you might betray us, and you take some risk that you might get in trouble.”

From beyond the wall, the commissioner groaned. It sounded as if he slid slowly across the metal to lay on the deck. At long last, he said, “Very well, Druka, Tori, that does seem fair. I agree to your terms.”

“Oh, Druka! I love you,” Tori shouted.

“I love you too, hon,” cried her mate, taking a moment to wipe his eyes.

“Okay, here’s the new plan,” Troykintrassa sighed. “At midnight, go suit up. Druka cuts the weld, and then the two of you hide out on my ship. At oh-three-hundred, I’ll come out and get things going.”

“Okay.”

“Sure!”

“But you best be there and ready,” he warned. “I’m not going to go looking for you and risk missing my window. I will leave without you.”

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZYh4OkRfyjQSNQJtPubyjDSznQH-s0MopVyD6tH0cSg/edit?usp=sharing

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