Captain Zinc was growing impatient, it showed in the subtle way his fist was hammering a groove into the bulkhead he was leaning against. His captaincy was of an ornamental nature in almost everything but the most essential of his duties. As such he was facing the old problem all superfluous personnel faced; boredom.
Zinc had a high tolerance for it but he knew that things needed to progress and for the time being the Womb of Terror was stationary when she should have been in hot pursuit of some degenerate pirate.
It grated his mind and kept him thinking, which wasn't doing his heat management and skin any favors. Zincs metal hide was becoming more and more brittle and had formed a couple of fine cracks along his forehead.
Usually he would spend his time in his quarters, polishing his hide to a shiny metal gleam with a grinder to smooth them out a bit but the situation demanded his attention. The Interrogator would be coming back to him with instructions, after dealing with the captive survivor of the Nori incident.
The Interrogator opened the cell door.
He was in high spirits, an opportunity presented itself! He had waited for this for an eternity. He had watched his life end multiple times for something as fortunate as this happen to him. He had been resurrected by the crab people. They had done a little more than that though, they used his abnormal alien properties to create an organism that could replicate lesser versions of itself just by feeding it energy and almost any kind of metal or mineral. The crabs had intended it to build helpful drones for their menial work, but payed for their folly with their lives. The sylvanian drones eventually freed him from the crabs hold but ultimately forced him to spearhead their species as their champion or die. With no choice left, the interrogator did abide, but waited for the opportunity to escape, with patience.
And now, here it sat. His plan was to overtake control of the Womb of Terror and get it as far away from sylvanian space as he could. This Botan guy would be his scapegoat He would make it look like Botan killed or got rid of the Human spacers and Sylvanians on board. Take over, and use the womb of terror to lay chase to the fleeing culprit, and before the Hive had any inclination to his scheme he would be well beyond sylvanian borders and happily finding himself a new life.
He took a seat, and a sylvanian guard, it looked like one of the standard steel combat drones, brought in the subject, bound it to a chair with a chain and stood to attention in the corner of the room.
'Hello Mr. Boyuku'
how are you holding up. I take it the radiation treatments have taken effect?'
'Yes. Thank you. It's been a wonderful time. Good thing you guys managed to get me in time, really, you are my heroes...'
'Well Mr. Boyuku, about that, I couldn't help but notice that you came with a message from your former employer stamped on your VaCsuit. Would you mind me reading some of it to you?'
'uhm'
'Ill sum it up for you. Apparently they say that they were unsatisfied with your work performance and wish you good luck for the future. And, in light of the urgency of the situation I took the liberty of contacting the Company owning The Golden Nori. They told me that they cannot pay your outstanding wages unless the transfer of the funds was legitimated by the Nori's Captain. They too wish you good luck on your future endeavours. So my question for you is, what are you going to do now?'
'If you put it like that... i don't think I have given it much thought yet?'
'Trust me, you don't want to spend any more time with sylvanian hospitality than you already did.'
'Why s that?'
'Oh the hive will definitively find a use for you, you just might not like it very much. There are several prominent options that await you, with such charms among them as; slavery and reprocessing. I would think you had better use of your time elsewhere.'
'Do you have a ship? I need to get back to the Nori. They can't do that with me. I want my money!'
He went on about money and how they had left him out to die alone in space.
'No, I don't have a ship for you. But let me call the captain of this vessel. Maybe you can persuade him.'
The interrogator nodded to the Guard. And the ships Ai directed a get order to the drone. It would fulfill its task. A minute later a still nervously glimmering Captain Zinc was rudely gripped by the humongous pincer of the guard drone and carried to the Interrogation chamber.
The arriving thud he made when he was slammed in a chair to the table Botan and the Interrogator sat at, was noted by an impatient stare from Botan.
'Say captain, hello? hello? somebody in there?'
Botan knocked Zinc's head like a doorbell when Zinc finally had finished understanding what had just happened. He gripped Botan's hand with his heavy zinc clippers and slapped him in the face with it.