“Come on, Ms. Briggs, you gotta see the doc,” Peters urged. “You don’t know what we know.”
“What the Hell do you know?” It was a scream.
“Never mind, ma’am, just come on, sick bay’s just across the hall.” Peters grabbed the woman to keep her from falling. “Todd, this ain’t workin’. You go get Doc Steward and a stretcher. I’ll hold the fort.” Todd nodded and left. It didn’t take very long for him to get back with the doctor and a couple of corpsmen.
“What the Hell is this all about?” Steward demanded. “Holy shit,” he added when he saw the half-disrobed woman and the two aliens on the floor. “Somebody better have some answers.”
“Just a little friendly rape, sir,” said Peters grimly. He had maneuvered Briggs so that she was half sitting on a chair, half leaning against him. She was white-faced, semiconscious and losing it. The two nekrit were groaning and writhing, testing their bonds.
“Jeesus,” said the doctor. “Wilson! Kiel! Get this woman on the gurney. You’re Peters, right? What’s this alien sex crap your buddy was spouting?”
“Let’s get Ms. Briggs on the stretcher first, sir,” said Peters. He and the two corpsmen maneuvered the woman onto the pallet and the medics moved her out. Peters, Todd, and the doctor regarded the two aliens as Peters began repeating the story.
By the time it was done Steward was grim. “All right, I know what to do about Ms. Briggs. What do we do about these beauties?”
The two sailors exchanged whispers, and Todd acquired a grin that showed no amusement whatever. “Sir, with your permission I’m going over to sick bay,” he told the doctor. “She knows me, maybe I can help a little.” He handed the gadget to Peters, who transferred the knife to his left hand to take it.
“Good idea,” the doctor nodded. Todd nodded back and left, and Steward turned to Peters. “I take it you’ve got an idea about what to do about this.”
“Yes, sir, I got a notion,” said Peters. He looked down at the nearest nekrit, the smaller one. “With all respect, sir, you oughta be takin’ care of Ms. Briggs first, no telling what kind of poisons these bastards squirted into her.”
Steward looked at him a moment. “I also take it that your proposed solution is nothing I’d care to get involved with,” he said quietly. Peters just looked back without much expression, and Steward glanced briefly at the two aliens, then left, shaking his head. Peters grimaced without amusement. He hadn’t expected the man to be so quick on the uptake.
Todd slipped back through the door after a little while, and stood in the doorway bouncing a baggie full of something red up and down in his hand as the two nekrit, now fully conscious, watched.
“That what I think it is?” asked Peters.
“It’s what you suggested.”
“How do we work this?”
“You’ve still got the knife, right?” Todd was smiling. He started exploring around the front of the larger one’s buckle, punched the emergency override combination, and pulled the kathir suit open to expose a muscular chest and belly. “Just cut anywhere.”
“Right.” Peters set to work. “That’ll do it,” he said finally. “Go see if you can borrow a stretcher, we’ll tote our friends down to the ops bay. I ain’t in the mood to untie ‘em so’s they can walk.”
Neither of them had ever been in the captain’s office before. Captain’s suite, actually; it opened off the bridge access corridor just aft of the double doors. The walls were paneled in dark vertical strips with prominent grain, and there were accents of brass and red here and there, including the heavy desk the secretary sat behind.
She gestured and smiled, and Peters pushed the latch. More of the same paneling; the desk was bigger, with inlaid panels of contrasting wood. Preligotis sat behind the desk, looking genial, and Prethuvenigis the trader chief sat in a wooden armchair set at right angles to the desk. “Come in, come in,” the captain said without rising.
They eased into the room. “Please take seats,” Preligotis urged. “You look worried. There’s no need for worry. Sit, sit.”
Prethuvenigis was smiling faintly. “Do please sit,” he urged in his odd accent. “We have a spot of business to conduct.”
“Yes, sir,” said Peters. He eased into another spindly armchair, facing Preligotis, and Todd followed clumsily. There was a short pause as the captain and the trader inspected the sailors, and the sailors took in a few details: pens and pencils on the desk, a framed picture of a sailing ship on the wall behind Preligotis, a tall brass lamp by Prethuvenigis’s chair.
“You take important matters into your own hands, do you not?” the captain inquired by way of an opening.
“Yes, I suppose we did,” Peters said without implying apology.
Preligotis smiled faintly. “If I understand your customs, you must be expecting to be disciplined,” he noted. “As I’m sure you’ve learned, we do many things differently. Tell me: what do your superiors among the humans think of the recent events?”
Well, that was a thing. “We are under threat of severe discipline for assaulting the nekrit,” Peters explained, with a bared-teeth gesture that couldn’t be mistaken for a smile. “When Commander Bolton returned and discovered the situation he was extremely angry.” That was understatement. The Commander had ranted for several minutes on the subject of insubordination and underlings taking matters into their own stupid incompetent hands. The “severe discipline” they were under threat of was a summary Court; it would have already been under way if they hadn’t been summoned up here.
“At you? That doesn’t seem reasonable,” Preligotis commented.
“From his point of view it might seem reasonable,” Peters pointed out. “He thinks of the races we meet as potential trading partners or enemies, and doesn’t care to offend them unnecessarily.”
Prethuvenigis laughed out loud. “Kh kh kh! Peters, how does your society manage if people with such insight are kept in subordinate positions?
“I don’t know that it’s any great insight,” Peters objected uncomfortably, aware of Todd’s grin in the next chair.
“It’s more than many subordinates manage, especially when they’re expecting to be disciplined,” Preligotis pointed out.
“Yes,” the trader agreed.
“Can you squash that?” the First asked. “You have a man assigned to the officers, as I recall.”
Prethuvenigis frowned. “We aren’t supposed to interfere in disciplinary matters within their group, but I can certainly tell my man to explain a bit more completely.”
“It may take more force than that,” Preligotis warned. “It certainly would if I were in Commander Bolton’s place.”
“Yes.” Prethuvenigis sighed. “I’ll go myself.”
“Good,” Preligotis acknowledged with a nod. “Do you think that will be sufficent?” he asked Peters.
“I don’t know. It will certainly help, at least a little.”
“Are you under threat of bodily harm?”
“Probably not.” Peters looked at Todd. “We would expect to be confined, and to lose the little precedence we have among our group.”
“You qualified that carefully,” Prethuvenigis noted. “Do you expect worse after we return to your home planet?”
“Possibly,” Peters admitted.
“Let’s see if Commander Bolton is prepared to be reasonable,” Preligotis suggested. “If worst comes to worst we can offer refuge.”
“We would like to avoid that if possible,” Peters said grimly.
“Yes. Well, we will certainly exert ourselves on your behalf,” the trader said. “It’s the least we can do in the circumstances.”
“The very least,” the First agreed. “Perhaps the rest of it will help. It would certainly have to be considered a strong commendation from us.”