disobedience later; he didn’t care at all so long as EJ was safe somewhere. Wyzak wouldn’t make a big issue of him showing up on the Hollbrd until after they were all back on the Sraibur, and if Nokx never made it back to the Sraibur... oh well.
Nokx put the potential threat from his fellow crewmates out of his mind as he surveyed the interior of the ship that EJ put so much effort into escaping. The Horgut weren’t trained mercenaries or even partially trained guards; they tended to be traders and entrepreneurs, not muscle. He expected more of a Slasu, if the Slasu ran the show. And knowing their kind... there was no doubt who was in charge, no matter who stood on the bridge. Not that it made sense. His scales rattled as he eyed the squat alien and did his best not to stare at EJ like a starving haugmawt.
There was no reason for a Slasu to be on a gen ship. They were famously content with their own kind and their part of the universe, and never showed the sort of altruism necessary to staff a gen ship of willing passengers. The Slasu fortunes came from slave-trading. They conquered planets, enslaved the population, stripped anything of value, then sold the beings to whatever other races needed cheap labor or food or did not care about destroying another civilization so long as their own prospered.
Xaravians never did business with Slasu. Being on the same ship stirred the immediate urge to destroy anyone in charge, anyone with a hint of Slasu in them. For too long, the Xaravians had hunted and fought the Slasu. It was part of what had driven them to the rebellion, after the Alliance and Fleet accepted Slasu platitudes and allowed them to exist within the bounds of governed space without consequences for their inhumane practices.
Harzt didn’t let Nokx’s appearance distract him from his business with the gen ship staff. “Where’s the captain?”
“On the bridge,” one of the Horgut guards said. His beetle-like helmet blended with the natural carapace on the species, giving them a remarkable amount of protection from most weapons. The Horgut leveled a blaster at EJ and tilted his head to where another guard waited with a hood to put over her head. “The Earthers are nothing but trouble. Put it there and we will return it to the holding cell.”
Nokx swallowed a growl. Something wasn’t right. Harzt folded his arms over his chest, trying to delay the transfer. If they’d already handed EJ over and the Horgut had their hands on her, there was no reason for Harzt or Wyzak to continue talking to them. No reason for them to argue or barter.
Unless... His eyes narrowed. Unless they intended only to evaluate the security in order to attack the ship later. Had Faros really endangered EJ’s life and freedom to steal some cargo from a shitty gen ship? Based on the state of the guards’ uniforms and weapons—and the fact that they weren’t actually guards—the Hollbrd was the lowest of low-budget gen ships. It wasn’t worth the alloys that kept it airtight and survivable.
His anger burned higher even as he tried to prevent his scales from turning red and orange. Yet Faros thought the gen ship worth enough to risk EJ’s life. He played games with EJ’s safety. Nokx swallowed a growl. There wasn’t much he could do about tamping down the fury that threatened to launch him back down the transfer arm to the Sraibur so he could pummel his captain’s face into mush, and it cascaded through his scales in a tornado of colors. The Horgut guards shifted their feet nervously as they studied him. Curious, no doubt, about what angered the Xaravian. Nokx clenched his jaw until his teeth ached. He would show them. They would all know before they left that cargo bay exactly why he turned red and orange.
The security chief didn’t look impressed as he gazed around the mostly empty hold, and he didn’t spare Nokx a second look, either. “You sure there’s not a reward for returning your property? It was a great deal of trouble to come all this way to turn it over.”
“You could have kept it,” the half-Slasu said, slithering forward and watching them with beady, dead eyes. “The Earthers are valuable to your kind, from what I have heard.”
“Yeah, but that one is a pain in the ass,” Harzt said, jerking his chin at EJ.