"Your demeanour remind me of my old man," Zhiva said while looking at me from the corner of his eye. "Always business first."
The contemptuous look in his eye when he referred to his father didn't fit the reaction of a grieving son, but I could feel his resentment.
When I met General Perkuna in Eden a while back, the way he addressed Zhiva appeared more like a superior covering for a subordinate's mistakes in the military.
I kept my mouth shut. Better not to mention General Perkuna's death to avoid any conflict. My position of vulnerability in the Ultramax is precarious, judging from the experiences since my arrival.
Zhiva's Perunian space pirates provided a temporary shelter for peace.
After a bit of awkward silence, Zhiva finally calmed down, and opened his mouth to ask, "So, back to the shard. What other tech do you have?"
His question annoyed me. I liked no one, including Arabaki, to dig into my business.
"What do you mean?" I asked, feigning ignorance.
Knowledge is power and giving out information freely is trouble.
"I don't need to explain how life works on the Ultramax or any prison," Zhiva replied, lifting his chin with a haughty air. "Exchange like for like."
"Depends on what you need," I replied.
Zhiva chuckled. "The boys think I'm helping you too much. You have two routes - prove you're useful or…"
The sounds of moans and grunts came wafting from the next cell to the room as Zhiva pointed upwards. "… that, but you don't seem like the type to be someone's bitch. Half the guys think you're a danger."
Whether it is a good thing, my position to bargain is poor. "Plus, you've a worthless toy with you."
True, Trey is worthless. No guarantee both of us could leave together despite the similarities of our crime.
"What do you want me to do?
"You know… I heard stories about the Kamuy when I was young," Zhiva leaned back on the wall with his eyes shifting side by side. "About how ruthless and fearsome they are."
Then he cocked his head at me. "For the life of me, I never expected the Deridian to be an actual Kamuy."
"You are not here to tell me about your childhood bedtime stories."
Zhiva lifted his eyebrows at me and says, "you're right, so let's play a game while shut in this damn place."
"What game?"
"My favourite - it's called pay the favour back. Or getting to know you better," he replied in a slow but dangerous tone.
"Rules?"
"I ask a question and quote the favour I did. You answer."
"And if I refuse?" I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Good question, but you need supplies at some stage… and your toy, too."
Zhiva thought he cornered with a veiled threat about Trey, my 'toy'. I might play along.
"Then add the condition—"
"You are in no position to bargain, really," he reminded me.
"If I can't answer, you are free to ask."
"Fair. Added." Zhiva nodded and asked, "what does that shard do? That's for convincing Garan to treat him. Worth about five questions."
"Stealth armour of the ship. Reduces detection."
I didn't mention the additional use of it for trans-dimensional rifting, a special capability of our ships.
Even if I did, that knowledge won't help us get out of the Ultramax.
"Does your war cruiser have the same armour?"
I nodded.
"Oh yeah, I fought you once," Zhiva said while rubbing his chin.
"How did you know it's a war cruiser?" I asked.
"Uh. You don't get to ask the questions but no harm in answering - the Nuwan shipbuilders designed Nuwan leisure cruisers based on a few saved images of the old Kamuy war cruiser," Zhiva replied while he glanced down like he was thinking of another question.
He looked up with his eyes gleaming. "Are you a clone?"
"I don't know. I could be, or I am really, a fossil. Ask another."
He smirked at my answer. "Then who gave you those cybernetic implants?"
The question gave me a sense of his roundabout method of asking. Can't get an answer through a straight question, sure why not just go around it? Typical interrogation method to catch someone off guard.
"Ask another. Because I don't know."
Actually I did. The Kamuy cyberneticist, Kaseo, was in charge of my cybernetic implants since young. Come to think of it, by the curse of the cybernetics, Kaseo left his face with him, forever remembered.
Useless to speak of the dead who only occupy my dreams now. I had to think of some bullshit story to draw Zhiva away. The only solution to create a nonsensical yet plausible story was to use the Nuwans as a cover story.
Before he could speak, I added, "my life had been with the Nuwans."
That was the half truth. I lived so long, a few lifetimes over of many species, with the Nuwans. Even longer than the time spent with my species.
"Ah ha, so the Nuwans kept the survivors," Zhiva exclaimed, falling for the story with that glint in the eye like he discovered something spectacular. "Yet their leisure cruisers still sucked."
He must have hijacked the Nuwan leisure cruisers as a space pirate. Against the speed and agility of a Perunian warship, those leisure cruisers fail.
"The Nuwans built those for leisure, civilian use, not military," I pointed out.
"That's why I also suspected modifications of your ship or it was an actual Kathy war cruiser," Zhiva said. "You're the first to escape my grasp."
Oh yeah, I remembered trying to get his warship off my tail. The rest couldn't match the speed of my war cruiser and broke off the attack. Not Zhiva.
The damn Perunian, like his predecessors, wanted to win so badly at any cost. It took a few swings around the asteroid belt in Narakan to throw his sensors off to end his pursuit.
Finding a war cruiser in the Asteroid belts was like looking for a needle in the deepest oceans. Zhiva was just lucky that my aggression levels were not as high, compared to the days of my youth.
Maybe if I was younger, the fight would be a draw with both of us blowing each other up. Mutual destruction at its finest.
"I don't like to be blown out of this dimension to another," I said, thinking of my war cruiser.
My war cruiser is… rather was a means of survival wandering around the sea of darkness in space. No war cruiser, no Arabaki, and my life would have ended up miserable, like the ancient Kamuy projected in the relic during my last meeting with the Nuwans.
"I like you," he flashed me a smile. "If we ever get out of this Ultramax, I want a rematch."
"If we ever get out…," I muttered, looking at the gloomy surroundings of the Ultramax and the annoying noises of carnal behaviour.
"Honestly, why do you protect that human?" Zhiva asked.
I leaned back against the wall. "His Iktomin implants. I thought it would be funny to use him to hunt them down."
Ah yeah, Trey's implants stored a viral code, which my droid left as a precaution.
"Hahaha, those media brainwashing assholes?!" Zhiva slapped his thigh in amusement.
Nobody in their right mind liked the Iktomins voluntarily, except the Iktomins themselves.
"What can your implants do?" He pushed me for more information. "Record, hack anything, so on and so forth?"
"Explode." I lied through my teeth with a straight face.
The exploding legend of the Kamuy came in useful now, so might as well use it.
Actually, I wondered if the Kamuy cyberneticists ever inserted the detonation circuit to trigger an explosion if I was dead. The scans of myself over the long lonely nights in space revealed nothing in the cybernetic relays.
Information on my atomite system also revealed nothing, but I was one of the very few Kamuy to survive the process of atomite system implantation.
He laughed for a moment, then looked at me with his smile fading away and asked with utmost seriousness, "you aren't serious, are you?"