“Skorr.”
The unfamiliar name echoed through the cargo bay before Neirdith repeated it to herself, then louder while looking at the huge Cyborg. “Skorr.” Skorr seemed to perk up at the sound of their name and raised an arm in an unfamiliar but friendly looking gesture. Skorr then gestured to her and said her name before looking at Seth and saying his. They tried to move but were still held fast by the overhead crane. With a wave of annoyance it spoke in that same guttural language while swatting at the offending crane before flicking their eyes back to hers. She nodded knowingly before raising her wrist and reaching for her assistant.
“Wait” Seth said, causing her to pause “How do we know that it won't just kill us the instant we let it lose?”
“I just know, they won't hurt us.” she said while walking over to Skorr. Reaching her hand and placing it on their armoured front she looked deeply into one of Skorr’s glowing eyes while asking “Skorr, you aren't going to hurt us are you, you just want to have a friend right?” Again that strange feeling of connection washed over her and she felt a mixture of steady happiness and strong will in return. Sighing as she removed her hand she turned to Seth smiling, “See, there is no way they plan to hurt us.”
“I didn't see anything. You just asked them a question and stood there with your eyes closed for a few seconds.” Seth said with a confused look scratching his head.
“Come here and ask Skorr something then.” She said with a sigh while waving Seth over.
Moving up curiously Seth looked at her questioningly. She motioned for her curly haired friend to place his hand on the metal behemoth as she had, he did as instructed while saying “Hey there, uh, Skorr. You aren't going to murder us all in our sleep right?”
“SETH!” Neirdith yelped, “Why would you ask them that, it's so mean.”
“Was something supposed to happen?” Seth asked, removing his hand.
Skorr remained in place but their eyes got noticeably brighter as they switched between her and Seth.
“Wait, you didn't feel anything, like no connection or something?” She asked him incredulously.
Seth turned towards her with a strange look “No I didn't, Do you?”
“Yes!” she practically shouted, taking him aback. “When I touch them I feel like I am connected to their emotions, I can feel them and they seem to be able to feel me, watch this.” She once again placed her hand on the front of Skorr “Okay, now tell me a joke, a funny one, not one of those puns you seem so fond of.”
“Okay, wow, no pressure right?” He said with a chuckle “A joke, a funny joke, hmmm funny, funny… OH I got one.” he exclaimed “So this pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel shoved down the front of his pants, he goes up to the bartender and orders a drink and the bartender hands it to him asking, ‘Hey, what's up with the steering wheel?’ the pirate replies ‘ARRR, IT BE DRIVING ME NUTS!'" with the punchline Seth roared with laughter and Neirdith had to laugh along. Behind her, a familiar noise erupted from Skorr.
Suddenly serious, Seth looked at the laughing cyborg with shock written across his face. “Holy shit it laughed at my joke, this is crazy. Oh man what are we going to tell the Captain?”
At the mention of Captain Finch her mood darkened, that irritating old frostbag would probably just kick Skorr off the ship at the first opportunity, that didn't seem right to her and she wasn’t about to let him kick her newfound friend out into the cold without a fight.
Before she could give voice to her thoughts the ship lurched disturbingly and they looked at one another in shock. The ship was at full warp, such a jolt could only be a few things. The fact that they were still alive and in one piece meant it was probably an interdiction. While not experienced with interdiction they both knew of the concept and rushed out of the cargo bay.
Before she ran out, Neirdith turned and looked apologetically at Skorr and motioned for them to stay as she pressed a button on her assistant and ran out. With a loud clunk Skorr was released from the overhead crane but stayed put, seeming to understand her directions.
She and Seth ran down the main corridor towards their stations. But before they had even made it halfway they were met with the sight of the side airlock being forced open as several heavily armed humans and a swaggering yeown wearing an elaborate red coat stalked through.
The yeown yelled at them "Stop where you are and put your hands up." Seth and Neirdith did as instructed, noticing the nasty looking plasma guns that the pirates were carrying. She shuddered at the memory of the dead slaaveth she had seen on the other ship. Plasma weapons were not a pleasant or pretty way to die.
“Why Hello there.” The yeown purred in a soft silky voice. “I am the great captain Medrigil and you… are now my guests.” The red coated furred alien smiled widely revealing their sharp teeth in a very unfriendly way.
Neirdith took a moment to take in their posture and figure and quickly noted that this yeown was a male, of slightly below average height for his species and very garishly dressed. They were even wearing a tricorn pirate cap like you would see in the holovids.
The yeown were the newest species to join the Union and were on average over one hundred and eighty centimeters tall and very heavily muscled. Long arms with retractable claws on four fingered hands were attached to wide shoulders, their heads were slightly pointed and they possessed large pointed ears on top of their furred heads. This fur covered the rest of their bodies and their powerful digitigrade legs ended in large paw-like feet with claws. While bipedal they were capable of short bursts of extreme speed by using all four limbs. Their long furry tail was used to balance their bodies allowing them to make tight turns even while running at full speed. They were strong and fast and they knew it, they liked to flaunt their apparent superiority from what she knew of them, and this captain Medrigil seemed no different to her.
Captain Medrigil motioned for the other six pirates to surround them and swaggered over to her and Seth menacingly.
Without any preamble the large furry pirate began "Now listen very carefully, because I'm only going to tell this once, show me your cargo manifest and any unlisted items with no funny business. Or my boys here," he said, indicating the rough looking humans surrounding them with plasma guns drawn "Might have to get a little messy with their food." At this comment the other pirates started to laugh, it was a cruel sound, devoid of mirth and deeply unsettling.
Neirdith shivered and looked at Seth realizing that he was tensing up. She knew what he was thinking and hissed "Seth, don’t." He whipped his head towards her his eyes full of pain and fury "Seth, please don't, If you try it they will kill you, and probably me as well." At that he seemed to stiffen again before relaxing, head slumping down in defeat.
Captain Medrigil who had been watching the encounter with mild interest sighed "Bummer, I was hoping for a bit of fun, I guess you are just as clawless as the rest of those Union jackasses." The other pirates laughed again before prodding their guns into their backs. "Get up, who else is on this ship, if we find anyone hiding from us, they die, if you lie about anyone else being here, you die." He smirked.
"There is just me and him," said Neirdith with a nod towards Seth “and the Captain, who is probably on the bridge right now." She hesitated but decided to add with a resigned tone "Since you will probably be using us as hostages you should know that he usually keeps a beam rifle in the bridge in case of emergencies so you will want him to disarm before he comes out, he is an atraxses.
"Smart move dancer." Said captain Medrigil with a leer. Some of the other pirates laughed evilly at his use of the insult.
Bristling, Neirdith retorted "I'm an engineer, not a dancer."
"Heh, we will see about that." Captain Medrigil retorted "In the meantime, come with us, it’s high time to meet the Captain." He gestured towards the front of the Arctic Heart, Neirdith and Seth were left with no choice but to obey.
Neirdith and Seth walked down the hall behind the large pirate captain and his goons, two more pirates behind them with plasma weapons ready. They reached the end of the main corridor and the first pirate to poke around the corner shrieked in pain and surprise as a searing beam of purplish light speared right by their head. The stricken man fell back holding his head, hair and flesh smoking from the near miss.
Captain Filch's voice rang out from around the corner "That's close enough, I can assure you that I missed on purpose and am fully capable of putting the next shot through your left eye at three hundred meters."
Captain Medrigil called out from around the corner to captain Filch "Will isn't that damn impressive, but you see here, I have a problem. I need you out of that bridge room and you don't seem inclined to leave on your own so how about a little trade to make this smoother. You come out of there and walk down this hallway unarmed, and I don't shoot one of your mates here in the gut with a 12 gauge plasma rifle. Now I'm sure a well trained individual like yourself knows exactly what will happen if I do that, am I right?"
"Yeah." growled captain Filch, "You all die or I die trying, I'm not letting you take this ship, I have been it’s captain for longer than you have lived you little fuzzer. My father didn’t spend his life’s work to buy this ship for it to be taken by pirates.” Filch spat from down the short hallway.
"Hey now, no need for name calling. We are both respectable captains here, well…" he paused with a thought. "One of us is respectable." He finished with a snicker. "Tell you what, since I respect my elders I'll just take any cargo and valuables. Oh and that shiny beam rifle you got there, and we will be on our way. Of course we will disable your communications but we will leave you with navigation and warp. I'm feeling quite generous after all." The pirate reasoned. Neirdith nearly spat at the contempt the man seemed to have for their livelihood.
"You promise not to hurt my crew?" Neirdith heard Filch ask suspiciously "You will leave us unharmed and with the means to return to civilized space?"
"You have my word as a Captain." Medrigil stated solemnly "Go ahead and toss out your rifle and we will show you these two here are unhurt."
After a second Filch yelled back, “That's not good enough. How do I know you haven’t already killed them?”
Medrigil growled low and turned to them saying “Go on, tell your Captain that you are unharmed.”
Neirdith looked at Seth who nodded before they both hollered to captain Filch “It’s okay Captain, I’m not hurt. Not yet at least.”
Neirdith heard a clatter from the direction of the bridge followed by shuffling footsteps. She and Seth were roughly pulled around the corner with 8 gauge plasma pistols to their heads. She made eye contact with captain Filch and saw him nod in her direction before switching his eyes to Seth. Satisfied that they were unhurt he walked slowly to the rest of the pirates and allowed them to march them towards the cargo hold.
"So what kind of goods you haulin." Captain Medrigil asked Filch in a conversational tone as they traversed the ship's main corridor.
Looking askance at the pirate, captain Filch replied, “Well, we were on our way to New Dundas, New Dundas is a research colony mainly run by the Razah'vool. Due to this we are loaded with a large amount of scientific equipment and research related chemicals. It should fetch a handsome sum on the black market, certainly more than enough to trouble about us."
"Certainly certainly, we will load up and be on our way and this will be the last you see of us. I may be a pirate but I'm also a businessman. I know better than to destroy a good source of income. Who knows, maybe we will meet again in the future." He laughed giving a very wide toothed grin. The result of his bestial face cracking into such a toothy mess was more than a little unsettling to Neirdith.
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The murmur of the pirates cut off as they all stepped into the cargo bay.
"Mmmmm, I sure love the smell of fine booty in the mornin." One of the pirates said snickering. Neirdith turned to see them giving her behind a very unprofessional stare, he looked up at her eyes and gave a snaggle toothed grin. She gagged internally and looked for the imposing figure of Skorr. She could just make out the top of his body over the stacks of crates piled up in the cargo bay. She thought about the best way to distract the pirates while simultaneously getting Skorr's attention. The more she thought about it, the less likely it seemed that there was a way they could get out of this without any of them getting hurt or worse.
The conundrum was pulled forever out of her hands as captain Medrigil seemed to see the statuesque figure of Skorr looming where she and Seth had left them.
"Well lookie here boys, looks like we got ourselves a little extra spice on top of the roast." Neirdith and her crewmates were dragged around the boxes toward the back of the cargo bay by the pirates. She could see that Skorr's lights were off and they seemed to be dormant, possibly asleep. She started to panic internally, what if the great cyborg was low on power or something and couldn't help?
"Get them on their knees." Barked Medrigil. He rounded on captain Filch "I thought I said no surprises, well, this is what I would consider a surprise. So what are we gonna do about that?" He motioned to the pirate holding Filch and they stepped back and rammed the butt of their plasma rifle into his shaggy side. Captain Filch wheezed in pain and held his side as he fought to stay standing.
"I don't know anything about that, it probably came out of the salvage we picked up a little while ago." Sputtered Filch, wheezing heavily as he clutched his side.
"Oh and what salvage would that be huh?" Rasped Medrigil snarkily before Neirdith pointed to the mass of twisted scrap she had cut Skorr out of only an hour previously.
A flash of recognition seemed to pass over his features and the pirate got a wild look in their eye. "Where, where did you get this? Why on earth would you open it up, do you even know if that thing is safe?" The large yeown stuttered as he took a full step back.
"It looks pretty safe to me… Uuhg!" Seth started to say but was cut off by Medrigil's hand slapping him, hard. Seth spat blood as he hit the deck and there were three shallow gashes across his upper cheek from the yeown's retracted claws.
"If I want to hear your sass I will carve it out of you, understand?” Spat the the red coated man.
"Perfectly." Seth said with undisguised venom.
Moving his attention to her, captain Medrigil gave her an openly appraising look "Now you, you I think we will take. We can make good use of your, unique talents." He chuckled darkly.
Before she could muster a fitting retort her gaze was drawn to movement behind him as Skorr's eyes lit and immediately landed on her face, she gave them a pleading look and thought 'Please save us Skorr, we need you'
The pirate Captain noticed her shift in attention and turned just in time to see the massive hulking form of Skorr turn their burning eyes on him, filled with hate and rage that went beyond mortal limits. As Skorr took a thunderous step forwards he planted his feet wide and gave a primal roar of hate that sounded like the very universe itself screaming in anger.
With surprising speed for such a massive being, Skorr started towards the pirates. One of the pirates raised his plasma rifle and fired at Skorr but the white hot plasma had absolutely no effect. The pirate fired again and again but was grabbed by Skorr’s claw, with no apparent effort Skorr brought their claws together with a soul sickening crunch and the pirates mangled corpse fell from their grip in several pieces. As the wet mangled meat slapped to the floor the other pirates ran for cover and started to fire at the juggernaut.
Skorr seemed to hesitate for a moment before smoothly grabbing a huge slab of wreckage from the debris they were cut from and placing it on the floor between the crew of the Arctic Heart and the pirates. With this task accomplished they once more strode into the open shrugging off all incoming fire in their implacable advance.
The first pirate they reached they simply kicked with one of their massive legs and the broken body went cartwheeling into a wall with bone shattering force, the now unrecognizable body flopping to the floor. Neirdith watched in fascination as Skorr then grabbed a metal crate with their right hand and effortlessly tossed the one ton projectile like a softball, pulping another pirate who was trying to distance themselves.
Continuing their attack the metal monstrosity rounded another pile of crates to find another two pirates trapped in a dead end, as Skorr advanced the pirates screamed curses and fired indiscriminately in Skorr's direction. Paying the shots no mind Skorr reached the two doomed men and grabbed the first with their right hand while simply crushing the other to a paste beneath their wide foot. The man in their hand screamed in panic and terror but Skorr held him gently, seemingly relishing the horror in their eyes while walking to the main corridor after the pirate Captain and remaining crewman.
**********
Medrigil was in a blind panic, this was not how this was supposed to go. First he had to run from that juicy slaaveth freighter and now the very same demon was stalking him aboard this vessel.
From the sounds behind him all but one of his other men were as good as dead anyways so he had no qualms with cutting and running. He could go back to his hideout and survive on the goods there for a while till things blew over. His second in command was the first to die and the whelp behind him was no good for anything other than as a cheap hit man.
Finally reaching the airlock he heard the thudding footfalls of doom approaching with his enhanced hearing and he turned to the last thug and lied "You hold this door for a second I need to check the integrity of the airlock, I will recycle it open once my check is complete." The idiot bought the cheap lie and turned to face down the hallway towards the approaching footsteps and horrified yells. Medrigil cycled the door closed and shot the controls with a low intensity blast from his plasma gun, effectively sealing the doors behind him. He could hear screaming from the other side of the door clearly now and he pounded his hands against the outer lock willing it to open faster.
His prayers were not to be answered as the screaming and sounds of shots abruptly ceased, and a moment later the inner airlock dented inwards from an incredible blow. The heavy reinforced metal bending like plastic before being ripped entirely away, a giant bloody hand reached for him and he couldn't help himself. He screamed in terror.
**********
Skorr was angry, no, they were enraged. These evil creatures had come and had hurt their new friends. This alone would not have warranted rage, but the fact that they were the same ones from the other ship sent them into a fury the likes of which they had not felt for a long time.
Skorr dissected the first one with their crusher before placing a shield to protect their friends. After double checking that their fragile new friends were safe, including the slightly bigger fuzzy one holding its side, Skorr advanced on the foes.
Kicking one into a wall and smashing another one with a large metal box, they found two at the end of a small alcove. Grabbing one in their hand they stomped the other into the metal floor. Turning with their grim trophy in hand Skorr advanced down the big hall towards where their sensors indicated their targets had fled. The screaming from their right hand was grating but a welcome reminder of their own power as they marched towards the remaining villainous scum.
It seemed as though the large red one had tried to slow them down with one final opponent but rather than chasing them Skorr just threw the screaming man in his hand at the one guarding the door. The meaty crunch from the impact silencing both targets simultaneously. The last one was hiding behind a thin metal barrier, Skorr saw that the door had been fused so they gave it an experimental tap. The force of the motion bowed the door inwards, satisfied that there wouldn't be any trouble, they plunged their crusher into the offending door and tore it entirely free in a shower of sparks and torn wires. Reaching in with their hand they grabbed the screaming figure in the funny hat and held them close to their eyes to get a better look.
This one was a different type from the others, it was fuzzy like the big one in the hanger, but was slightly smaller and shaped differently. With this new quarry in hand Skorr turned and walked back to the cargo hold. Entering the hold they lifted their arm and waved the fuzzy mean one around for their friends to see.
Skorr stomped over to Neirdith and unceremoniously dumped their charge onto the floor. Seth was leaning on the other one, who seemed to be in charge, Skorr pointed to Neirdith and said her name before pointing to themself and saying their name too, they then pointed to the one with Seth in a questioning manner.
Seeing the gist of the gesture Seth said "Filch, his name is Filch."
"Filch" rumbled Skorr, they then pointed at the trembling figure of the evil one and made a chopping motion. To their surprise Filch seemed to understand the meaning and shook their shaggy head before saying something unintelligible. Neirdith turned to Seth and spoke before turning back to Skorr and rushing to them. She wrapped her arms around their leg and the sense of relief and gratitude that they felt from the blending would have made them weep if they were capable.
Skorr reached over and ever so gently put their hand on Neirdith’s back in a protective way while gazing down at this tiny creature fondly. As long as they lived, they would let no harm befall this one.
***********
Neirdith was scared, after watching Skorr brutally butcher the pirates she couldn't help but feel a measure of terror in her core. She knew with a certainty beyond words that Skorr was protecting them but a tiny part of her was still afraid. As the noise died down she turned her attention to Seth and the Captain.
Both were hurt and Seth was still bleeding. Neirdith tore a strip off the hem of her overalls and knelt next to Seth. She wiped the blood off his face, his pained grimace was soon replaced with gratitude as she tied another strip of cloth over the small impromptu bandage. He looked kind of goofy with the large wad over one cheek and the cloth wrapping around his head, she laughed and after an initial glower his face softened and he laughed as well.
"Well that was certainly exciting, and horrifying." Said captain Filch with a groan. "Do either of you want to fill in?"
Neirdith paused and thought about where to start before Seth interjected with his usual bluntness. “Neirdith cut open that scrap pile we salvaged and pulled out a telepathic cyborg, she says it was lonely and just wanted a friend.”
Captain Filch looked disbelievingly between Seth's serious face and her own slightly blushed purple one. His face seemed to swap between disbelief and confusion for a moment before settling on an irritated scowl. With a look at Neirdith he began “So you freed this thing, and made friends with it. Does it speak? And what do you mean by telepathic? No species has ever exhibited telepathic properties to date, I find this all rather hard to believe.”
“Well they aren't really telepathic, it's more like I can feel their emotions when I am touching them.1” she noticed the Captain looking at her doubtfully. “Well it is, they seem to be able to feel mine as well, but it only works when I'm touching them. Seth tried it and Skorr seemed surprised that they couldn't feel them.”
“Seth, is this true?” Asked the Captain.
“Well, I can’t definitively say that I know what Neirdith is feeling, but when I tried it nothing seemed to happen that I noticed at least.” Seth said somewhat gloomily.
“And what did you call it? Scar?” Captain Filch asked again.
“No, Skorr. And yeah, it's intelligent, it doesn't seem to speak Galactic Common though. I'm not sure why because everyone except the jeseo speak Common, well the jeseo don't speak at all, but you know what I mean.” said Neirdith.
“Then how by the south wind did you learn its name?” The big atraxses asked irritably.
“Well” started Neirdith before casting a glance over to Seth while shrugging.
“We just said our names a few times referring to each other before it understood and repeated them back to us, then we waited till it told us.” Seth stated with the nonchalance of someone talking about the dirt under their feet. “Next thing you know we get interdicted and ended up here where we are now. And then Skorr, uh, did that.” he said while pointing with a grimace at the ragged pile of ruptured flesh that was once one of the pirates.
Hunching over again slightly the Captain let a groan escape their lips “Uhgg, I think one of my ribs is cracked. This is very uncomfortable.”
Seth walked over to the large white furred man’s side. “Oh Let me help you to the infirmary then.” Standing and moving to captain Filch’s side, Seth gave him a shoulder to lean on which the large shaggy man did so appreciatively. Before they could start for the medical room though they heard the unmistakable crashes of titanic footfalls, as well as a high pitched screeching. The cause for the screeching soon became apparent as the bulk of Skorr strode into view clutching the ‘Good Captain’ in their monstrous grip.
Neirdith couldn't suppress a small giggle of relief as she watched Skorr cheerfully wave at them with the Yeown still clutched in their hand. As they waved, the pirate's hat fell to the floor slowly. Skorr walked to them and dumped the shivering pirate to the deck where he immediately curled up into a quivering ball. The sight would have been kind of cute if she wasn't so angry at what the man had tried to do, and had already done.
Skorr then suddenly pointed to her and repeated her name before referring to themselves, they then pointed unerringly at captain Filch.
Seth seemed to get exactly what they were getting at and quickly said “Filch, his name is Filch.”
With a low grumble of “Filch” Skorr raised their arm and while looking to the captain, made a quick chopping motion over the quivering pirate.
Shaking their head in equal parts wonder and merriment Captain Filch said “No, we can't execute a prisoner, we will take him with us to New Dundas, they will decide what his ultimate fate will be.
Neirdith looked at Seth and said “You should probably take the Captain to the infirmary now that it's safe.”
Nodding, Seth and the Captain shambled off in the direction of the infirmary while Neirdith turned towards the figure of their erstwhile savior. Rushing to Skorr’s side she wrapped her long arms around his leg and let all the pent up feelings in her to let go in a wash of fear and relief. In return she felt a sense of calm and iron determination from the huge metal figure. It made her feel safe, while she held onto them in relief she felt a huge hand rest protectively over her back and felt a feeling of warmth and pure adoration through their bond. She couldn't help it, she started to cry.