Today, I heard someone die.

Kade looked at his words, watching them hang on the semi-transparent screen and hated himself.

Making a turn of phrase, using his snappy tricks in writing to emphasize or draw attention or bring up the drama of a moment felt so cheap when he was talking about reality.

I think it was the one who sold out the colony to the pirates. He was wailing last night, crying and trying to get us to forgive him. No one would talk to him, and eventually he entreated the guards for his promised deal. When they ignored him he started screaming for anything.

The Greggans got annoyed and gave him a bullet.

Maybe they're going to get in trouble now. They argued about it amongst themselves; I thought they were about to start shooting each other, what with their grunting and shoving and threats, but eventually they moved on and started drinking.

Maybe it was partly survivor's guilt, he thought, trying to ascribe some sort of understanding to his own emotions.

His writing had turned technical; cold descriptives. Was that really more respectful or not?

There was a banging on the bars of his cage that made him jump.

"Hey, writer! Wakey-wakey! You hungry, yah?"

It was the human pirate again.

"Hi Surc," he said carefully, turning off his screen. He saw the man's eyes go to it, a hunger in them.

"Brought you more good food," he said, still looking at the dark screen.

"Thanks, I really appreciate it," Kade said, sliding closer to the bars. He reached for the container Surc held.

The man jerked it back a foot. "'Afore I give it. Captain wants an update on his story. You making him seem brave, yah? Unconquerable?" He jiggled the can as encouragement.

"I'm making good progress, but I really want it to be fantastic," Kade said. He reached out for the can. Surc didn't taunt him anymore, letting him take it.

"You better be," Surc said, his expression going sour. "Lemme look, then I tell him how great it'll be. Yah?"

Kade looked at the container. It was beans and bacon inside, like the last one. He'd had these before, they were a semi-precious meal on the colony, though one he had rarely. Kind of rich for his palate. But it was better than a bowl of algae paste.

"Best not," Kade said carefully. "The Captain wouldn't want that."

"He say it's fine," Surc insisted, his tone edged.

"I'd have to hear him tell me," Kade said.

Surc punched the cage, making it clang loudly. Kade flinched.

"Damn it, show me!" Surc snapped. "You don't need your legs to write, I'll break both kneecaps, how you like that? No one to blame but yoself!"

"Hey, man, it's what the Captain said-"

Surc lunged an arm through the bars and grabbed for him. There was no room to escape, and Kade felt the man's clammy hand grab his ankle.

Despite the man's skinny frame, his grip was like iron, and when he yanked, Kade thought for a moment his hip had been pulled from its socket. He cried out, trying to grab the bars. Another yank broke his grip, more through shock than anything else.

"You think this fuckin' game, boy? You're fuckin' meat!"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

His other hand jabbed through the bars, a glint of light, and Kade felt a sharp pain send shock through him, and a scream escaped his lips.

"Gonna fuckin' carve you like a pig!" Surc spit, raising his knife hand again awkwardly through the bars.

A large shadow loomed behind him, and a beefy hand slapped onto the top of his head. Surc's eyes widened as he was yanked back, thrown across the deck.

Kade had never thought he'd be this glad to see one of the guards, and he crawled away, his ankle stinging where Surc's grip had been pulled off, and his leg burning with pain where the knife had stabbed him.

The Greggan made loud barks and grunts at the human pirate, only a few words of which Kade's translator were able to decipher.

"Hurt no Captain's Pet!" it belched, stomping over.

"He was causin' trouble, lyin' about the captain!" Surc moaned.

"No, I wasn't!" Kade cried out in panic.

The Greggan ignored them both. It grabbed Surc by the head again, lifting him up. The man screamed, scrambling to grab its arm and get his feet planted.

He was slammed against a bulkhead, his head held there.

"No. Hurt. Pet. You stupid? Fuckin' human. Captain vented should have you."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Surc moaned. The Greggan made a sound that Kade's translator didn't even bother with, but the feeling was clear enough. The guard dropped Surc and he crumbled, then it slapped him across his face and head with its wide hand.

It sent him crashing onto his side, and he started to crawl away. The Greggan made a mock-charge at him and the man scrambled away on hands and knees faster than anyone Kade had ever seen.

The Greggan turned back to Kade.

The pain in his leg was drawing more and more his attention, and he reached down with trembling hands to his opened pant leg. Pushing the cloth open, he saw dark red and almost fainted.

"Up," the Greggan grumbled, opening the door.

"H-he cut me . . . I'm hurt," Kade said, feeling like he was in shock.

The Greggan grunted and reached down, grabbing him on the shoulder and hauling him up. He didn't want to put weight on his injured leg, but the Greggan put its arm out next to him.

"Stand," it said. "Lean."

Kade had no idea why the guard was being this thoughtful - he had thought it had been about to drag him off.

But he didn't want to question it, either. Leaning on the offered arm, and shivering slightly at the cold, slightly damp feel of its skin, he hopped along.

He thought it was taking him to some kind of medic. But as they went on and on through halls, the pain in his leg grew and he started to feel flush.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"Captain," the Greggan grunted.

"I- I'm bleeding," Kade said plaintively.

It ignored him. He started slowing down, panic and fear growing. He was going to bleed out and die . . .

By the time they entered the bridge he was panting.

The room gave him pause, though, and a cold fear, rather than the hot panic he'd been feeling, slithered into his gut.

The room was dim; he could barely make out the far side, and it was deathly quiet. None of the raucous noise of the bridge crew could be heard.

A group of Greggans stood near the Captain, but they had all fallen silent, it seemed, looking at him with expressions that seemed to range from very unhappy to murderous.

"And why this now, Cap'n?" one asked, gesturing to him. "Why this human special? You want story? Any of us kill any other for that right."

Tarsota did not reply to them, his eyes moving to Kade, watching him intently for a moment.

"You throwin' all away!" another Greggan grumbled, waving its flipper-like arms in the air. "They know who you are now. We worked so hard to keep them from-"

His words seemed to be a catalyst, and the whole group of pirates began to talk, their words going over each other, their frustration clear even without a translator.

"My boys spent six cyles on stims to scrub all the traces-"

"-lost half our shuttles and didn't even get to use-"

"-feedin' these prisoners is gettin' too costly-"

"Enough," Tarsota grumbled, his voice so strong and deep that the floor itself seemed to shiver in fear. "Get out."

As he spoke, Tarsota reached and slowly, almost gently caressed one of the many trophies on his chair.

Kade realized it was a Greggan skull, a fresh one at that.

Perhaps from the pirate he'd had executed right here, Kade thought.

The crowd of Greggans quailed, turning and stumbling away, though at moments they paused to look back, as if regaining their composure.

Yet when they looked at Tarsota and that skull, they lost their nerve again and fled, until it was only the captain, Kade, and the guard who had brought him.

"Here he is, Captain," the guard said. Something in its voice was different, and Kade was shocked to realize that it was fear. "Just like you said."

"Good," Tarsota grumbled. "Loyal still. Now leave."

Despite the praise, the guard seemed even more terrified, and he ran off so quickly that Kade almost fell, still having been leaning against it.

He caught himself, the pain in his leg forgotten.

In the dim light, Captain Tarsota looked even worse. His strips of skin were blackened and shrivelled, and strange ichor was running down his uniform. Parts of his skin looked shrunken, shrivelled and cracked, while others were bloated and paler. He was breathing loudly, laboriously, through an open mouth.

His eyes still looked bright, however, and they rotated to look at him again.

"Your words," he said, his voice so deep that Kade thought he felt it.

He took a few timid steps forward, up to the platform. Drones moved quickly between him and the Captain, one snatching the small computer he'd been using for the writing.

It connected, and he saw a small flicker of light in the Greggan's eye as his HUD brought up the file.

His eyes went over the words, and Kade tried to remember what he'd written about the captain.

My powers of description are insufficient to describe the greatness of Captain Tarsota. Who could stand to such a gargantuan task?

When I first joined the pirate's crew, I believed the stories I had been told - that he was mad, that he was a monster. Silly stories told to scare children by people who were blind!

He is monstrous in his grandeur and might, cruel and implacable in battle, but kind to his followers, as if they were his own children-

The Captain made a sound of irritation, almost flinching away.

"Enough," he growled, the floor definitely feeling like it was rumbling slightly.

Kade shivered, his knees almost giving way.

"Your words are like pretty lights. Not real." His eyes slowly rotated, his head turning, until all four were set on him. "Not truth."

I'm about to die, Kade thought. He'd had only one value to the Captain, and now he hadn't even done that right.

"Take. Read. Then write the truth. No glamor. No pretty. Truth - good. Bad. All of."

Kade's HUD lit up as a new file was received.

It was the Captain's personal logs. They went back . . . decades, it seemed. The early years were sparse, but in the last few months there was a new log almost every day.

"Go," the Captain said.

The drones pressed towards him, and Kade stumbled back, his mind still numb. He turned, tripping again as he began to run for the door.

It opened and he shot through, stopped by the huge arms of two guards.

Kade fought them for a moment, still in panic, until he saw the Sepht approaching.

It was an old member of its species, he could tell from the wrinkles on its skin. But its eyes were bright, and his HUD informed him that it was a medic.

"Doctor order," one of the Greggan guards said.

They dragged him away from the door, to the side of the hall and shoved him down to the floor. He yelped as his leg hit, but then the Sepht had it in her gnarled hands.

She took one look at his leg. "It's barely a scratch!" she said.