“Here’s your food.” I handed the metal trays to the crew sitting about the mess hall table. Maelstro, Rolfo, Frag, Munis Muns, Teksan, Brutus, were all sitting around the table, mumbling to each other as I came near. They side eyed me, hushing up as I handed the food to each of them. “Enjoy.” I gave a half-hearted smile to try and seem pleasant. Exactly what I would have done any other day. No one suspected a thing.

  “If you call this pig-swill food, pfft.” Munis sneered at me, snatching up his fork and pying with the food. “Damn, can we get any better food on this ship? If I have to eat up one more once of pig slop, I’m going to blow my brains out.”

  “Please, don’t wait up, here,” Frag pulled a pistol from her waist and slid it across the table, “Use my gun and do us all a favor.” The group chuckled at Munis.

  I smirked as I handed out some drinks to the table, trying to stay as small as I could.

  Munis caught my smirk, unfortunately, and kicked out at my leg, “What are you ughing at, fuck toy?”

  My leg gave out as his foot caught my knee. I let out a yelp of pain and tumbled to the floor spilling the drinks on the table. Brutus stood immediately, wiping beer from his pants. I looked up to see his face in a snarl. This was it. I knew this was going to hurt.

  His massive ape fist swung and backhanded my face as I tried to stand up. I flew back down to the floor, rolling a few times in the spilt beer that was now dripping off the table. Teksan unleashed his hyena ughter.

  “Dammit, Muns!” Malestro grabbed a nearby towel and stopped the beer, “You spilt all our drinks, you bastard.” The Anthro-Wolf threw the wet towel at the old man. “Get us some new ones, crusty bitch.”

  Munis stood and threw the towel on the ground, “Why should I? Fucking wolf-boy, thinks he’s so much better than us. I can’t wait for this deal to be over with. Once I got my cut, I’m buying my own ship. No more stinky-ass Anthros about…”

  I watched Munis Muns stomp away mumbling curses and slurs to himself as he disappeared into the ship. I grabbed the towel as I collected my thoughts. My head hurt like a bitch now. My ears were ringing as I started to wipe up the beer mess. I looked up and caught Frag’s eyes. She gave me a somber nod. I quickly looked away, trying not to cry as my face and knee ached and throbbed. I had to keep a level head.

  “Fucking human trash.” Rolfo snapped at him, “When are we going to jettison that prick? He can find his peace in the endless space.”

  Brutus grunted, “Agreed, let’s atomize the prick.”

  “Chill out, we have a pn remember.” Maelstro looked down the hall Munis disappeared at. He whispered, “We make the deal, keep our distance, Rolfo, you stay in the ship and make sure it’s ready. We cut out our ‘Glorious Captain’ and ditch Muns on some sve mining asteroid. We split out shares and do what we please.”

  Brutus snorted, “I’m still in favor of bsting Muns out into space. Fuck him.” His deep voice rumbled about.

  I started to wipe down the table now. I could see the irritation on Maelsto’s face. He rubbed down his muzzle and sighed.

  “Fine, we jettison Muns into space, and as a cherry on top, I’ll let you bst him with the ship’s guns. How about that?”

  Brutus broke out into ughter, “That’s the best things I’ve heard your dumbass say. Ah ha ha…” He kept ughing, his voice booming about the mess hall.

  My hand swept by the pistol on the table. My mind immediately wanted to grab it and shoot Brutus in his big, dumb face, painting the ship red with his dumbass. My eyes shot up to Brutus, who was still ughing, then to the right, where Frag was looking at me with squinted eyes.

  I shied away and finished cleaning up the mess. I couldn’t have her suspicious at me now. I did find out some more about their pn though. If Rolfo was going to stay on the ship, it would be harder to take off without them. It might get a little messy, but there was room for some escaping after all. I would just need to get Gabriel out alive. I had to come up with something.

  Brutus ughter was cut short by the intercom chirping in with its tin-canned tone, “The Captain is hungry, bring me a heaping dose of food, Nichos, ASAP. That will be all.”

  The Anthros at the table all rolled their eyes.

  I quickly grabbed his tray of food and a rge beer and ran to the cockpit. I needed to try and get the Captain’s pn now. The Fat Pig would have a slew of information on the drop off. Something that I could use to my advantage. I just had to keep up my timid fa?ade, and then I could finally rid myself of these vile creatures. I could be free.

  The door opened and I stepped into the bridge. It was smaller than most. Just a few seats and a plethora of buttons, switches, and levers. Of course, the Pig was in the Captain’s seat, huffing and sweating away.

  “Quickly, food, here, now.” He pointed his chubby finger at the seat next to his. I quickly set down the food and began to back away as the Anthro-Pig grabbed a hand full of food and shoved it into his mouth. “Oh, yeah, that’s good stuff. Great job, Nikki. Now, get out.” He shooed me away by waving the fingers on his grubby hand.

  I began to walk away when I turned and spoke up, making sure my voice was as timid and quivering as possible. “Sir, Captain, I’m worried about this drop off. I don’t know anything about business deals, but I sure hope you’re smart enough to get it done.” I cheesed it up the best I could, pitching my voice higher than before, sounding like a little girl as best as I could.

  Luca slowly turned around his chair, stuffing another bite in his mouth. “Oh, my sweet dear, no need to worry your simple head. Captain Luca has an ace up his sleeve. I know we can’t trust those Gelly bastards. That’s why we’re going to stuff a crate full of junk to take to the drop off, until we get the money paid for. Their package will be at a secondary location, my sweet dear, that way if they try to double cross us, no one gets the goods. And if the crew tries anything fishy, I’ll leave them high and dry to the Gellys mercy. Easy as that, my oh my, look at your face…”

  Luca leaned forward and caressed the swollen side of my face with his food smattered hand. “I know your dear little head is worried about your honorable Captain, but no need to worry. I will make sure to comfort you ter and y all these doubts to rest.”

  My insides just died. It took everything I had not to reach forward and strangle this man with my own bare hands. “Thanks, my Captain, I knew I could count on you being so smart.” I smiled at him and winked. I wanted to throw up.

  “Alright, my dear, go get the prisoner some food, and don’t you say a word to him. Make sure to clean yourself up for tonight. See you then.” He smiled at me with his gnarled smile.

  I nodded and left, feeling dirtier than the Captain’s room. Now, I had some sembnce of a pn going on. Now, I could start forming my pn. I had to let Gabriel know things were in motion. Munis Muns was going to be the one to watch the Prisoner. He was the only one that Luca trusted, or somewhat trusted.

  I had so many thoughts racing through my mind. It was almost time to act. My heart was racing. I would have never thought of any of this until Gabriel had spoken to me. He freed me, and now I was returning the favor.

  This was it. I was ready now.