Noises at the door. He hurriedly arrowed over to what he devoutly hoped was the function, in the spot it would have been on his Grallt suit’s display, and pressed the activator. The display curved and disappeared into the suit material, and he pressed the neck closed before turning to face the arrivals.
It was Chuckles, with Goober looking over his shoulder. Chuckles said something in their language, and Peters thought to hear syllables in it this time: something like poobapap, a sequence of sounds difficult for a Grallt to enunciate without practice. The ferassi-Grallt shook his head. “Are you ready to answer questions? Don’t bother fiddling with the suit, you won’t be able to get out of it. The controls have been disabled.”
“So I discovered when I went to urinate.” Peters shook his head. “I can bear the odor if you and your friends can.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Chuckles sneered. “The suit will take care of your little indiscretions. Will you come, or be dragged?”
“Oh, I’ll come.” Peters stood. “Lead the way.”
“That isn’t quite the way it’s done,” Chuckles said drily. “You will lead, and we will follow with our nice weapon. We’ll tell you where to go. First, to the right out the door.”
Peters shrugged and complied. The corridor was about ten meters long, and as they walked he looked it over. Light came from fluoro tubes perhaps a bit thinner, definitely less blue in color, than the ones on Llapaaloapalla. The walls were painted a uniform pale gray, unmarred by scratches, chips, and dings. Doors were of dull metal, like aluminum, and didn’t give reflections; the latches were side-swinging vertical bars, again like the ones on the Grallt ship. The floor was unlined, seemingly a single smooth piece; it had been cool and slightly resilient in his bare feet, providing a good grip for either skin or kathir suit feet. In general the place—ship?—was clean, neat, and well kept, almost new-looking.
A pressure hatch at the end opened to reveal steps up to another deck at about waist level; a larger version of the arrangement on the ferassi ship, and Peters began to believe he was about to meet the real crew, or at least the officers. They took perhaps ten more steps before Chuckles said something, then switched back to Trade: “Left here, into the room.” Peters shrugged and swung the latch without comment.
The person behind the desk was ferassi, relatively young, compact, with dark hair cut and parted very much like his own, looking vaguely like a relative of Commander Collins’s. He said something; when he got no response he addressed a comment to Chuckles. The suit constricted and zapped, weakly this time, just enough to make Peters flinch, and the ferassi repeated what he’d said the first time. After a pause he changed languages: “Horsig said you would respond only in the Trade. You’re remarkably cool for a man facing interrogation in a punishment suit. Shall we demonstrate it again? I warn you, we have very little patience with you murdering bastards.”
Peters shrugged and brought himself erect. “You can kill me, but I don’t take moral instruction from pirates, kidnappers, or murderers,” he said calmly. “As for language, Chuckles is mistaken. I will at least respond in any language I know, if only to spit in your face.”
“If your ‘indulgence’ has made you uncomfortable, imagine my sympathy,” said the ferassi with a sarcastic lilt. “Lesson One for spies looking for shipping to plunder: don’t fall asleep, dead drunk, in a rocking chair in full view of all passers-by.”
“On the other hand, innocent travelers who are sitting around waiting for the people they are to meet to get their bowels in operation should be able to do so without fear, except for the aftereffects previously mentioned.”
The officer made an impatient gesture. “Enough of this. What is your name and ptith? What ship are you from?”
“My name is John Howland Peters, called ‘Peteris’ by the Grallt of Llapaaloapalla, the ship I’ve been serving on these past one and eight zul. I have no idea what you mean by pattith or whatever it was you said.”
“Peteris”, the man almost repeated, and nodded, looking over Peters’s shoulder. The suit constricted and zapped, enough to bring the human to his knees. “Shall we try that again?” the officer asked calmly. “What is your name and ptith?”
“My name,” said Peters in a muffled voice, “is John Howland Peters, from Llapaaloapalla. I have no other answers.” He hugged himself, a man in pain, using the motion to conceal a reach for the suit override. Just a little farther with the thumb…
The ferassi leaned forward to shout something peremptory in his own language, probably a repeat of the question he’d asked twice already, and Peters tried to estimate the time. Just about now… the pain started, and he pressed the override. The throat of the suit loosened, the pain stopped, and he keeled over in convincing simulation of a man zapped beyond thinking.
The man got up and walked around the desk to look down at his captive, exchanging remarks with Chuckles. Peters lay as limp as he could, watching through slitted eyes as he came closer. The ferassi had something in his hand, a small version of the push-force weapon, like the one Todd had taken from the nekrit. Better and better…
Peters uncurled in a single spasm, grabbed an ankle, and yanked. The ferassi fell in an ungainly sprawl, and Peters scrambled to get behind him, snatching the weapon as it fell, ending with his left arm around the ferassi’s neck, the weapon’s business end pointed at the other two, and as much of his body as possible crouched behind the officer’s. “Tell your friend to drop the weapon,” he growled at Chuckles. When the Grallt dithered he repeated, “Tell him to drop it, now! I have had the pleasure of killing three of you with my own hands, which leaves me two short of even, and one of my dead was a special friend who deserves extra consideration!”
Chuckles said something in a low voice; Goober looked doubtful, but the weapon fell to the floor, and Peters said, “Good. Now, the activator for the pain function of the suit. Where is it?” Chuckles displayed a small device. “Toss it over here,” he ordered. “No, wait. Swallow it.”
Chuckles looked incredulously from Peters to the device and back. “It’s small enough. Swallow it!” The Grallt managed, gagging a bit in the process.
The ferassi officer writhed, trying to get away, but he was two-thirds the sailor’s mass and woefully out of condition. “Stop that,” Peters said sharply. “Now, as I said, I’m two short on my revenge quota, not counting the extra for my friend Todd, but there’s something going on here that I don’t understand, and I think—I think, mind you—that this whole sequence of events is based on a misunderstanding. My name is John Peters, as I told you. I am a human from a planet called Earth. I have been traveling on the Grallt trade-ship Llapaaloapalla for the last one and eight of zul, almost a half-zul more now.
“Stop that,” he repeated when the man writhed again. “I could snap your neck like a twig, and at the moment that sounds like a desirable action to me.” The ferassi subsided once more, and Peters continued: “You can check this easily. Llapaaloapalla is on orbit. Some two eights of its trade delegation are aground at the hotel where you kidnapped me, including Prethuvenigis, the First of that group. Almost any of the zerkre of Llapaaloapalla, including First Preligotis and the entire bridge crew, and many squares of the other folk, know me; they call me ‘Peteris’. And aground at a place called ‘Big Stone Bay’ you will find not quite three squares of my fellow humans and some eights of Grallt, enjoying the starshine and the sea.” The man had relaxed slightly; Chuckles stood with his mouth open.