The mission to rescue Miles Brent had ended in a complete anti-climax for the men and women of 1st Squadron.

Miles himself had escaped and subverted the ship that had taken him, rolling out the welcome mat for 2nd Squadron to come in and ‘rescue’ him.

Which left the Dauntless and her crew with a whole mess of prisoners, and some very interesting… opportunities.

Jerry and the Admiral watch the alien woman through the one way glass quietly. On the table next to him was the pirate's personal effects, neatly tucked in a bag, and a plate with a sandwich and some fries on it. His mind wasn't on the room, or even the pirate, who was quietly humming to herself. Jerry was... processing, exactly what Admiral Cistern had just told him.

"So sir. Allow me to recap. Just so we're clear. As we know, Miles Brent, our former captive, subverted the enemy. Instead of hanging the enemy, we’ve used the Lincoln doctrine and made friends instead. To that end, we've enlisted their pirate ship, the Claw, into the new Earth Foreign Legion as a privateer."

"Correct."

"Said ship is now running missions for us under the name Tiger, with ten volunteers aboard her, and we've been recruiting other pirate vessels."

"Yes."

"The consistent thing we've learned about the galaxy from numerous sources is that women outnumber men by over a hundred to one. Women are the warriors. The leaders. The public face of a family. Everything. Physical differences between the sexes barely matter, because the aliens basically have space magic which levels the playing field completely."

"Yes."

"So we were being hit for damn slaves, because men are rarer than hen's teeth and when you've got enough money that can be a lot easier than just trying to date. Beyond gods only know what other criminal possibilities there might be."

Cistern nods, watching carefully as Jerry slowly massages his temple.

"So really the thing we're most at threat of is that no one's really going to take us seriously because they're going to be too busy making moony eyes at us, and are more interested in getting a boyfriend than the contents of our character, our accomplishments, or generally valuing us as fellow sapient life forms."

"That is the long and short of it."

"...Permission to speak freely sir?"

Cistern nods. "Granted."

"...The fucking hell is wrong with this galaxy? I mean. On one level, I suppose I appreciate how some women feel back home a bit more now, but at least there's an even gender ratio on Earth. This is just."

Jerry gestures at the bound pirate, waiting for him to enter the interrogation room.

"I'm about to go question this pirate scum, and even bound she's probably going to be doing her absolute best to hit on me. When she should be worried she's going to catch a bullet from a firing squad."

Cistern joins Jerry in aggrieved sigh.

"I understand Jerry, I do, but let's not go too far. Even for speaking freely."

"My apologies sir, I was finished. Actually, I was just thinking, annoying as it is. It's an advantage."

"...Oh? Go on Commander."

"They're going to underestimate us. Hard. We can take advantage of that. There's a strong tradition of female spies and saboteurs back on Earth, because men in positions of power ignored women to an extent. If men hold the soft power in the galaxy, then we can use that soft power to accomplish everything we can, then surprise the xenos with our hard power at critical junctures and it'll be completely unexpected."

Cistern smiles. "That's the ticket son. Exactly what I was hoping to hear, from you and the rest of my field commanders, especially in special operations and intelligence."

A vague look of disgust crosses Cistern's craggy face.

"Even if it is a bit difficult to accept the idea that our apparent place in the universe is either selling our flesh or living quietly as a house husband. I know your record. I'm sure you feel the weight of that particular insult as sharply as I do. You've commanded men in the field for decades."

"Yes sir. It is... grating. As a concept. The idea that being an escort is more of an acceptable profession for me than being a Marine and a special forces professional is..."

Jerry snorts.

"Well I'd rather say no more of it sir."

"I understand, commander. The absurdity of our situation is frustrating, but the opportunities are vast, and we have the tools to exploit them. Or we soon will. The first thing we need to address is our dire lack of people while we work to bring more humans safely out of cruel space. Bringing as many people from Earth out as we can has always been our objective, and nothing has changed from our initial contacts with the aliens. It has become starkly clear that we will need more manpower and the EFL is just the start. So go gentle on our pirate there... she's not got too much of a rap sheet, and the masters at arms manning the brig report she's been fairly well behaved. So I want you to evaluate her for bringing her into Earth service. Without making it clear that's what you're doing."

"Aye aye, sir."

Jerry reaches out and grabs the bag that has the pirate's personal belongings, noting her name is Melari.

"Don't forget the sandwich Jerry."

"...Isn't that your lunch sir?"

Cistern chuckles.

"No, we've been getting some interesting reports about galactic food and what the aliens can and cannot eat. We've had to acquire a nutrient paste on one of our trade runs just to keep the prisoners healthy, but we need to confirm what in the hell is going on. We've got archival information and other interviews, but for this one I want you to get another explanation for the boys in the lab. There's a device in her bag called a bio scanner, it's her personal scanner so it should be calibrated exactly for her. If you offer her the food, she'll almost certainly ask for the scanner. If the pattern holds, she'll reject that particular food. Ask her to explain why."

Jerry nods. "Should be an easy lead into a conversation to get some information out of her too. Some of the pirates I've spoken with have been damn stubborn."

"I'll leave you to it then."

Jerry snaps to and salutes sharply, and in a blink the admiral is gone, leaving him alone with the pirate. The cat looking alien was from a species called a 'Feli', and looked like a Tabby the size of a mountain lion had become a biped, and was then given porn star curves that would have caused a car accident back home.

That too had been consistent, every single prisoner he'd interviewed had been female, and had curves that would have made a surgeon cry. Apparently being stacked proved they had access to food, and were fertile, to better attract a mate, and they'd slim down a bit after having children. The exact opposite of how it worked on Earth... but things going the opposite of how they went on Earth seemed to be a consistent trend too.

The pirate was still quietly humming along, her right ear flicking in time with the rhythm. She was either unconcerned or extremely nervous, Jerry couldn't quite tell. Instead of pondering her further, he just walks into the room.

"Ms. Melari."

He intones, voice deep with authority and cold with indifference.

The pirate flinches slightly.

"Y-yes?"

Jerry takes another look at her and decides to play good cop for this particular interrogation.

The Admiral had just said to play nice.

"I'm Commander Bridger, you can call me Jerry. I'm dropping off your lunch as a favor to a friend. I'm told you haven't been fed yet this cycle."

"Oh food sounds good! You humans sure do seem to eat a lot though!"

"Why wouldn't we?"

"Don't you guys get all the basic stuff you need for life from axiom like everyone else?"

"If I don't eat I'd die of hunger or thirst. Wouldn't you?"

The feline's slitted eyes go wide.

"Whoa! That's super weird. I wouldn't like, be super happy or anything but starving to death ain't really a thing unless someone stops feeding you and cuts you off from axiom. My ah. My captain. Ex-Captain now I guess. Pretty sure I saw her eat a couple of those kinetic rounds you guys seem to like. Anyway, she had a thing for doing that as a punishment. Said a little hunger was good for the soul. She didn't kill anyone that way, but it certainly stomped down anyone getting 'ideas', if you know what I mean."

Jerry nods as he takes his seat across from her. He had a small control panel in front of him with an intercom, panic button and some other controls. Including one to release her wrist bindings.

"That's horrible Melari, well we won't starve you. Either way. However that would work. I'm going to release your wrist bindings so you can eat. I'm trusting you not to cause trouble alright? I'd hate to have to hurt you."

"No worries! I uh. Look. I'd have never believed it. A ship full of men, warrior men, but after getting ripped out of my mech suit in hand to hand and bounced off a bulkhead by one of you with his damn bare hands you ain't getting any trouble from me ma'am. Err. Sir."

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Jerry presses a button on his control panel and the wrist manacles click free. Seemingly eager now, Melari reaches for the sandwich before stopping all of the sudden.

"Uh. Wait. Is that... my stuff? I thought I saw it before... but if it is. Could I maybe have my scanner? Some of the girls have said human food is dangerous and I wouldn't... y'know. Want to. Die. Even if this looks tasty."

Jerry pulls her bag up onto the table.

"Where would it be?"

"I think it was on my belt? Not sure if you guys moved it or not."

Jerry digs through the bag quickly, her civilian attire had been washed, folded and sealed in a plastic bag. One pair of boots, a gun belt with empty holster and bandoleer with a bunch of tools.

"What's it look like?"

"Kinda like a plasma caster grip but with nothing attached."

"Oh like a pistol grip..."

Jerry rummages a bit more before finding the tool in question and holding it up for her inspection.

"This it?"

"Yep!"

Jerry fiddles with the device for a second, turning it on successfully.

"So how does it work?"

"May I? I'll scan you!"

Jerry hands the device over. They already knew what it was. They'd have never put it in the bag if it was a weapon.

"So let's see... broad spectrum scan... been wanting to do this for a while actually! You humans look so much like a Tret but you smell like. Well. Uh. Sex. So..."

Melari's eyes widened again.

"Holy fuck. Are you in season? Like right now? You're giving off so many pheromones! No wonder my head's swimming."

"Humans don't go in or out of season. There’s puberty and impotence."

"...Oh. So it’s like. Always go time for you guys? I uh. Damn. That makes sense. Or something. I. Uh. Hot. Anyway, Let’s. Talk about something else."

Melari squirms a bit, and taps a button on a scanner.

"Let's se- Holy fuck fuck fuck! D-Do you know you have a bunch of extremely potent acid in your stomach?"

"That's the digestive system."

Melari's eyes get just a little wider and she fiddles through a few more screens again.

"...And are you, uh. Taking combat drugs?"

"...Combat drugs?"

"Yeah there's some chemicals in here that should massively boost reaction time and stuff, normally you only see them in combat drugs, or these dangerous things called frenzy patches."

"Oh you probably mean adrenaline. That's all natural."

"...Yeeeeep. Damn there’s all sorts of weird stuff inside you! Definitely not a Tret. So uh... you just. To scan stuff, you point it at something like this, you gotta let the aperture 'see' it right? Then you press this button. You can use these buttons for higher fidelity scans which take a bit longer, they're generally overkill for checking if food's safe to eat or whatever."

"How common are these scanners?"

"I mean a lot of girls just have one. They're useful tools right? I haven't been into a bar or restaurant, even on a shit hole pirate station that didn't have a few kickin around, but especially in more uh... run down joints, they might not be calibrated right, so I threw some credits at a personal one at one point. Which brings me back to the subject of this sandwich"

Melari scans the plate of food and slowly scrolls through the results.

"What the fuck!?"

Melari does her best to back away from the sandwich, trying to push as far away as she can get.

"The hell is this!? If you're trying to threaten me just do it straight up!"

"You're kind of excitable aren't you?"

"You would be too if the people holding you captive just tossed a poisoned sandwich down in front of you! Look, just shoot me! Or don't! I'll cooperate I swear! Honest!"

"...I can't believe they'd intentionally try to poison you or something Melari, what's on there?"

"Well for one I'm a carnivore, so this leafy stuff and that red thing probably isn't the best for me, the avian protein is fine and this... other cured meat. I need to scan deeper on that one, but it might be okay depending on what it was cured with? The first sauce, the white one is okay at first blush, the yellow one would probably give me absolutely goddess awful indigestion... but then there's a decent amount of sodium chloride and ground pain kernels! These stick things are covered in sodium chloride too! If you want to torture me there's far more efficient ways than that!"

Jerry stops dead.

"...I'm terribly sorry, did you say... sodium chloride? Like. Salt? And that's used for torture?"

Melari winces. "Yeah. I uh. Got a demonstration. Of both of them actually, the cap'n used pain kernels on me because I fucked something up. The sodium chloride was used on another girl. In that amount it could give a strong enough shock to my system it would probably kill me if I got it all at once! I mean! Look at the scanner!"

She turns the device around, and sure enough salt and pepper were highlighted in red. A few clicks brings up more information confirming they were highly toxic for Feli... and just about anyone else in the galaxy too.

"Huh."

Jerry stops for a second, entirely unsure of what to say. Instead, he presses the intercom.

"Could we get some food for Ms. Melari that's safe for her to eat please? Maybe just some turkey or something if it hasn't been cured with salt. Smoked would probably be safe."

"Right away Commander, I'll have someone fetch something from the galley that's known to be Feli safe."

Jerry nods, satisfied.

"Well. Since you're not eating that, do you mind if I do?"

"What!? You're gonna eat it!?"

Jerry reaches out and takes a bite of the turkey club.

"Not bad. Could use a little more mayo, that's the white sauce."

The pirate looks like she's about to pass out, and barely registers a small platter of meat being brought in for her as she watches Jerry finish the sandwich.

"...What the hell are you?"

"You saw yourself. Human."

"Far out."

Melari scans the little plate of meat, then nibbles at her food a bit, watching out of the corner of her eye as Jerry finishes his sandwich before wolfing down her little pile of turkey with a satisfied grin.

"I was a bit worried after that first meal, but that was pretty good!"

"I enjoyed my meal too for what it's worth. So, Melari, tell me a little about yourself?"

"Huh!? Wait. Are... you hitting on me?"

Just when Jerry thought the feline alien's green eyes couldn't get any wider...

"No, sorry to say. Just making small talk. We don't know much about the galaxy so everything's interesting to us. I'm just being a bit nosy."

"Oh! Well. That makes sense. Uh. I guess I'm normal enough. For a frontier girl anyway. Litter of six, Mom was part of a small pirate clan, but she wanted us to be in the slightly more legit part of the pirate's business so we apprenticed with the smugglers that worked with them once we were old enough."

"So how many Moms did you have?"

"Just the one really."

Jerry quietly starts taking notes, was this a sign of a normal family structure?

"Really? We've heard it's usually large groups."

"Oh. I mean it still is, but pirate clans are a bit less... well the ones that actually do generational stuff at all, they're not a family you know? Not a marriage. Not usually. I've only seen one or two clans that had a man or two in'em, that weren't uh... product. Usually the skipper's hubby, if they're reeeeeaally successful and secure enough the skipper wants to start having a few kids. My Mom's clan had the run of a small station so secure enough."

"So your mom's clan had a husband? Your father presumably?"

Melari's ears drop.

"Oh. Uh. No. I don't have a father. I uh. Sperm donation. Like from a hospital and stuff not a... whore, but there... it." Melari shrugs. "I don't think there's been a blood line male member of my family in at least three, possibly four or five generations, if not more. We've just gotten by on donations and the occasional... y'know."

Jerry keeps quietly taking notes, the implications of what Melari had just said were huge. Multiple generations where there wasn't a father, or a grandfather, even a great grandfather. Still he needed more information and couldn’t afford to focus on one point..

Time to steer her onto lighter subjects.

"What did you say you did on your crew by the way? Obviously you didn't stay a smuggler.”

"Hmm? Oh! General scallywag really. I was apprenticed to one of the engineering girls to help out around my ship, but I was a fighter. Like I said I was a smuggler before I got picked up by the pirates I was with till recently, which ended up being helpful for 'gray market' jobs. You know using one legal cargo to cover for very illegal cargo, that sorta thing you know? Guess once I get outta whatever hole you guys throw me into I'll probably go back to that, I preferred it to piracy really. Safer. Just to start. I'm still a pretty decent hand with a shuttle too!"

"So how'd you end up on a pirate crew?"

"Got press ganged. Happens occasionally, especially if a girl's got some useful skills, even if it's just being tasty in a fight. Which is why I got picked up, bar brawl. Instead of y'know, any of my actual skills. Always thought that was a bit dumb, but the Skipper wasn't exactly much for... uh. Subtlety.”

"So you kicked someone's ass in a bar brawl and got kidnapped for it? Why didn't you try to escape?

"More specifically I kicked a couple people's asses, pulled a laser pistol and shot two more in about fifty seconds. That got me some of my drinks bought, it was that kinda bar you know? I mentioned I was a hot hand on a stick, and the next thing I knew I was being asked by this massive Cannidor if I knew how to pilot a mech suit on a ship that had to be a couple systems from where I started. I was planning on escaping but the money was good and for kidnapping me they treated me alrightish. So I was content to wait for a good opportunity to leg it."

Jerry dutifully takes his notes, but one word in her explanation stood out. Cannidor. That's a word he'd heard before.

"What's a Cannidor?"

"Oh! Yeah there's a lot of you and it's a big ship so you probably didn't see the Cap'n. Cannidor are some of the most dangerous girls in the galaxy! They're huge and have tons of teeth! They can eat... well. I bet they can eat a lot of the stuff you can! They're wicked strong, wicked fast. The really dangerous ones are Cannidor mercs or soldiers. Proper ones, not your average freebooter. Those girls will come down on you like a sack of trytite ingots in full power armor for even looking at'em funny!"

Jerry takes a quick note to look into Cannidor more before continuing, seeing an avenue onto an interesting topic.

"Their fur can resist plasma fire? That's pretty incredible. Were you a laser or plasma kinda girl, Melari?"

"Both actually, I'd managed to get my paws on a plasma pistol! I always wanted a plasma sword but anything plasma's kinda pricey. The deluxe stuff you know? It's not really an issue for most people but plasma's range can be kinda shit. Depending on the weapon, if you want more than, I dunno, call it, thirty, fifty feet before the plasma unravels, somewhere in there."

"Really? That's not terribly long range is it?"

"I mean it's not bad, especially up close, where you can use plasma weapon’s alternative modes to hose things down with a constant stream of flames. The really fancy plasma weapons even can lob grenades! If you want longer range stuff you need a laser rifle like my old girl. She's probably somewhere in your armory. Hopefully someone takes her as loot or I get her back, because I got that laser tuned to perfection. Usually for something handheld you've only got about a hundred feet of range in most types of atmosphere."

Jerry nods, taking that in, and writes down, '100 foot range for laser rifles in atmo, thermal bloom issue?'

"What if you want to hit something really far away?"

"Well there's some different types of artillery, but I don't know much about stuff like that. I'm just a smuggler and a pirate like I said, and that's the type of shit militaries keep on hand. What's the range on those guns you Humies use? They really are kinetic right?"

"Oh not too much better than a laser rifle."

A white lie, but Jerry wanted to keep Melari focused for now.

"Say, can you tell me anything about..."

By the time an hour had passed, Jerry had absolutely filled his notebook with various bits and pieces of information for intel and the lab boys to dissect, and was convinced that Melari would be a solid enough recruitment opportunity if that's the route that Admiral wanted to take things, either handing her off to an EFL pirate crew, or retaining her in service. In the end the girl was part of the galactic have nots, from a poor part of the galaxy that seemed to offer endless abundance, something else for intel to try to puzzle out, but she wasn't really a bad girl. Just morally flexible, unsurprising given her upbringing and life to date.

"Well I rather enjoyed our chat, Melari, but I'm afraid I need to get back to work."

Jerry rises and stretches a bit.

"Someone will be in shortly to take you back to your cell. Keep behaving yourself and you'll likely earn some privileges. Humans are very big on redemption."

"That'd be nice. Like. Not having to share a cell with six other chicks would be good." Melari casts her eyes around for a second. "Hey... I know it's a lot to ask, but could you do me a favor?"

"Maybe, what's the favor?"

"Uh... the guy who captured me. I think the name Ahmad was on the back of his armor. Could you maybe... ask if he'd be willing to come see me? Or give him a message or something? I kinda want to apologize."

"And hit on him."

"...Only a little."

Jerry suppresses a chuckle, he had been wondering why the pirate hadn't hit on him even after she'd gotten the impression he might be hitting on her. Hell he'd personally dragged pirates to the brig after the attack on the Dauntless and they'd hit on him while he was dragging them to a cell in chains. Seems Ms. Melari already had her sights on someone specific.

"I'll see what I can do, Melari. I'll at least leave a message with the guards to contact him."

"Thanks! I owe you one. Uh. Not sure how I'll pay that back, but I owe you one!"

Jerry steps out of the interrogation room, pleased with the information he'd gotten from her. He looks over to the naval master at arms standing just outside, waiting to take Melari back to her cell.

"Go easy on this one, she might just be switching sides soon enough."

"Aye aye, sir."