Well, here after a horrible delay is the next chapter, part 1 and 2. Hope it was worth the wait... I'm afraid I haven't much time to write these days.

Remember as always that this is PG-13 and there's the occasional rough spot, but nothing too offensive I hope.

Rayman © UbiSoft Ent. Story © Rayfan, also known as me.

PIRANHA

Chapter Nine Part One: Bad Behaviour

Anxious as he was to get back to his cabin, uneasy though he was about Elly, Piranha was heading at a fast run for the war room.

First Mate! The heavy metal insignia thumped against his chest as he ran, and he kept glancing down at it with disbelief. How had that happened?

Perhaps it hadn't happened at all. Until this First Mate business was confirmed by Anaconda, Piranha had no confidence in a mere badge. Even the robot Tulik who'd put it on him had seemed to have some reservations, and the rest of the officers had looked appalled.

Keeping an eye out for possible ambushes – he needed to get that blast gun back! – he sped past the scattered robots, human pirates, and slaves still out, late though it was, in the corridors.

In the short time since the fight with Blargh, some sort of news seemed already to have rippled through the ship. As he passed, robots eyed him with an odd, bemused air. Human crew frankly stared; and as he ran he saw the occasional surreptitous thumbs-up or even an excited upraised fist. He returned the gestures, though with some misgivings. What was he being sucked into?

And there was also the moment when rounding a corner, he ran almost onto the point of a sword, and there was a brief battle. The interesting thing was that as he was attacked by three men – one of them looked slightly familiar, either Blargh's or Hacker's man – four other men, complete strangers, joined in a moment later. On Piranha's side. That brought the scuffle to a quick end, the attackers fleeing.

He looked at his defenders. "You like to come along?" he asked. They grinned.

So he ran on, now accompanied by an informal bodyguard. He had to slow down for them, evidently pirates, however tough, didn't do a lot of long-distance running. And he still met the same mostly unreadable, but attentive stares from the robots, the same muted interest from the human pirates.

Slaves, of course, out on errands, had more urgent things on their minds than the vagaries of officers' power struggles, and paid him no attention.

As he approached the war room through the wide, burnished metal corridors, he slowed to a walk. This area was clear of the crates and boxes stacked in most other sections of the ship, and the corridors were longer and straighter. There was nowhere to conceal an ambush, and nowhere to dodge from an attack. So it was even more obvious that the place was unusually populated, especially for this late at night. There were a lot of pirates here, both men and robots, hanging quietly around in small groups. They didn't stir, few of them even talked among themselves, but he felt their eyes on him as he strode past. Again he thought of his energy gun. Sometimes he met those eyes directly, as if daring them to threaten him. But they only watched, impassively.

At least no one was trying to stop him from seeing Anaconda. That might be a good sign.

He paused in front of the war room door. He looked around at the men accompanying him. They were grinning more than ever. Perhaps that was a good sign too. For somebody, if not for him.

"Go on in," one said. "Go see the Boss."

Piranha looked at the metal door, still somewhat dented from the antics of the previous night. It struck him that he had neither eaten nor slept in a long, long time. He straightened his hat, resettled the badge on his shirt, brushed the remaining dirt and dust of the fight off his jacket, and pushed the door open.

The large, empty room was nearly unlit. There were only the faint pinpoints of a few tiny wall-lights up in the corners, a backup safety lighting system. Piranha stopped just inside the door as it closed behind him. He peered into the darkness uncertainly.

"Where the hell have you been?" came the voice of the Boss, somewhere off to his left. Piranha swivelled quickly. There, some thirty feet away across the room, barely discernible, was a darker patch in the darkness: the tall black robot, his form blurred by his heavy cloak, lounging in a chair near the wall. "Get over here."

Silently, Piranha advanced across the room, almost entangling himself in a couple of chairs before his eyes adapted fully to the darkness.

Anaconda didn't stand, but up close it was clear that he was not as relaxed as his pose suggested. There was tension in his voice as well. "So you finally got here. Do you realize I have a dozen people out combing the ship for you? I hear you've been busy."

The thought of Elly flashed anxiously across his mind. Piranha stood up straighter. "Yes," he said, calmly, "that's why I came here. I thought I should speak to you right away." He reached for the silver insignia, glittering faintly with tiny pinpoint reflections, to unhook it from his shirt. As his hand approached his chest, however, Anaconda sat abruptly upright, and Piranha heard three ominous clanks behind him – jerking around, he saw the faintly lit raised gun barrels of Anaconda's bodyguards on the other side the room. Could they see in the dark as well as the Boss?

One of the guards came striding across the room, holding a very large blast gun on Piranha. Piranha froze, his hands up. The guard came right up to him, seized the open flap of his jacket, yanked it half off him, and grabbed roughly at his chest, keeping the gun muzzle a few inches from his head.

"He doesn't have it on him, Boss," grumbled the guard. "Only knives, and this popgun here." He shoved Piranha away and retreated to stand against the wall near Anaconda. Impassively, Piranha straightened his jacket.

"You could ask me, you know," he said to Anaconda, collectedly. "I can talk."

"I'm all too aware you can talk," said Anaconda. "Explain yourself."

"First of all," Piranha smiled coolly, reaching again towards his chest while the guard eyed him sullenly, "You see this round metal thing? I was about to take it off. I promise it doesn't explode." He unhooked the insignia and held it out to Anaconda. "At least," he added, "not literally. Here, take it, I make no claim to this."

Anaconda waved it away impatiently. He stood up and began to stride about in short irritable bursts. "We'll see about that," he said. "First of all, tell me why you ambushed Blargh."

"Ambushed? A fair fight doesn't count for an ambush on this ship, I hope?"

"And of all places in the engine room?"

"It's a nice roomy place for a conversation."

"Don't you know that weapons are forbidden there? Don't you know what the penalty is?"

Piranha shrugged. "It doesn't matter, does it? We didn't use weapons. Surely a little fist-fight wouldn't cause any harm?"

"But you lured him in there and shot him! With a certain blast gun."

Piranha stared at him. "Shot him? Blargh? Who told you that?"

At that moment, a beam of light swept through the room as the door slammed open and shut again. The huge pale form of Hacker came lumbering in. "Boss! Listen to this!"

Piranha smiled. "Hacker! Such good timing, we were just talking about you."

Hacker, halfway across the room, halted so abruptly he almost fell on his face. Perhaps he didn't have as good night vision as some of the robots.

"What are you doing here?" he squeaked.

"Come over and talk with us," said Piranha, coolly. "I'd be fascinated to hear what you have to say."

Anaconda folded his arms across his chest. "Yes, Second Mate, tell me the news."

"Oh," said Hacker, feebly, "It's nothing... Look, I just remembered something, have to go–"

"Come here," said Anaconda, in an icy, implacable voice.

Miserably, the bulky robot slunk closer.

"So," said Anaconda, his eyes on Hacker, "Piranha, you admitted you had some sort of brush with Blargh in the engine room..."

"Yes. But I didn't shoot him."

Anaconda narrowed his glare at Hacker – who happened to be very concerned with a rough spot on the floor – then homed in on Piranha.

"So you're telling me you didn't shoot Blargh, and you didn't have any weapons in the engine room, and you didn't assassinate him? Then why do I keep being told he's dead?"

"Uh – there was this Challenge..."

"You challenged him?"

"Er – yes. There were a few hundred crew there and –"

"A few hundred crew? What – So you didn't lure him in there by himself?"

"Certainly not," said Piranha with scorn.

Anaconda was looking at him meditatively, his small yellow eyes bright in the dimness. "You challenged him so soon... Rather in a hurry, aren't you. But how could you fight him? No weapons!"

"That's what I said, Anaconda. It was a fist fight. That was his own idea."

There was silence. Anaconda again glanced at Hacker, who was very interested just then in tidying some loose flakes of metal trim along his arms that had probably been peeling off for decades.

"Is this true?" the Boss said.

Hacker was silent. Anaconda folded his arms again.

"Well," Hacker muttered, "Well, yeah, I think so."

"You think? You, the one who always knows everything? Were you there when it happened?"

Hacker gazed off into the darkness. "... Yeah."

Anaconda glared at Piranha. "Was he there?"

Piranha shrugged. "I saw him before the fight. I don't know how long he stayed. There was quite a crowd. Ask any of them."

Anaconda considered for a moment. Then he sat back in his chair and made a dismissive gesture. "Ah well, no matter. Keep that insignia, Piranha – though I wish you'd find a better spot to put it, it looks like some sort of cheap jewellery on your shirt and you're far too dandified as it is. In any case, it looks like the plans for the invasion will have to be altered, since you'll be going down as First Mate and, I suppose, as the War Chief. Should be interesting." He aimed his cold glowing eyes again at Hacker. "All right, Strategy Chief, you can go now. And see if you can restrain your voice box for an hour or two."

Hacker, although some nine feet tall, looked no bigger than a footstool as he bowed to the Boss, turned, and fled out the door. Then Anaconda turned back to Piranha, who had somewhat resignedly replaced the metal insignia on his shirt.

"Piranha. You're a troublemaker and no mistake. But this time you've made more trouble for yourself than anyone else. It's going to be quite an expedition for you, considering you'll have to pick everything up on the fly. I should keep you here tonight and have Tulik give you some briefings..."

"Oh," said Piranha, softly, "Just when I was meaning to go and talk things over with Hacker."

Anaconda fell silent. His eyes glowed a little brighter. "Oh, were you?" he said. "It's an unfortunate thing, how new officers so often have to overcome such unwarranted objections from the old ones. Regrettable..."

Piranha looked at him thoughtfully. He didn't reply.

Anaconda went on, airily, "Well, since you have things to attend to, and so do I... I'll let you go. I want a report, however, as soon as anything happens. If anything should happen to occur."

"Anything such as...?"

Anaconda shrugged, the long dark cape swirling around him. "Things happen all the time, don't they?"

Piranha turned to leave. As he reached the door, it burst open yet again. Another robot, a small one only five feet tall, rushed in past him, almost knocking him over.

"Boss! Boss! I just heard Piranha shot Hacker two minutes–"

Piranha, standing by the door, palmed on the room's light switch, flooding the place with glare.

The small robot, startled, turned and saw him. "Oh," he said.

Anaconda emitted a peculiar scraping sound not unlike a sigh.

"That's enough, Piklon," he said. "Goodbye."

"Yes, sir," said the robot, and darted back out the door.

Without a word, Piranha turned the light back off and went out the door himself.

He wasn't expecting the reception he received as he emerged from the war room, not only from the men who had accompanied him, but also the many dozens waiting around in the hall. It looked like even more had accumulated while he was in with Anaconda. They all started up eagerly as he emerged – it was him finally, not another false alarm.

A little surprisingly to them, he was not being dragged out in chains by the guards. Seeing that Piranha really was still wearing the silver oval insignia of the First Mate, the crew let out a jarring cheer that reverberated up and down the corridors.

He straightened up and stared at them all. The look on his face was cold, even arrogant, but with the faintest trace of an ironic smile.

"What are you all hanging around here for?" he snapped. "I take it you're waiting to tell me where one Hacker is hiding out?"

The sight of a hundred and fifty simultaneous unwashed, unshaved, gap-toothed grins could have been unnerving. Piranha grinned a little himself.

The officers' bar was near the officers' residential quarters, a couple of levels down from the war room and towards the back of the ship. He was glad to have the company of that small army on the way over. Despite the obvious opinion of the majority, there were two more attacks, and he passed a few other malcontents who saw the crowd around him and evidently changed their minds.

He also picked up on a few muttered remarks from those malcontents that brought out his very coldest smile.

On the other hand, as he went along the crowd around him continued to grow. In fact, he had the feeling that this was the best excuse for a party the ship had seen in quite a while.

As the phalanx of pirates neared the officers' bar, once again the corridors seemed to be more and more crowded. There were a lot of crew about, there was still plenty of random drinking going on, and a distinct air of suppressed excitement. He caught sight of Bubo on the floor throwing dice with a few others. As Piranha and the mob of pirates approached, he got to his feet, grinning, shoving at the others around him to get up too. They all fell in with the group accompanying Piranha.

By the time Piranha reached the door of the officers' bar, the mob following him stretched back around a bend in the corridor. And there was another bunch of crew, both men and robots, lounging around the door of the bar. They all straightened up in a businesslike fashion when they saw Piranha (who again thought of his blast gun).

But they weren't there to guard the place from him.

"We thought you'd never get here!" said one, a beefy red-haired man with an eyepatch and a spotted bandanna tied around his head in the most traditional piratical fashion.

"We can't go in," said a bronze robot, who was grinning so widely it was fortunate he didn't have to use his mouth to talk – his head might come off. "Only officers allowed."

Piranha smiled. "Can they really stop all of us from going in?" he said.

More grins. Knives and guns began to appear.

As far as stopping the crew went, they couldn't, or wouldn't. Piranha threw open the door, and at the sight of him and the flood of men that poured in around him, the three guards in the bar threw disgusted looks towards the back of the room, lowered their guns, and turned their backs. The few officers sitting at the crude tables and at the bar stood up, staring with varying degrees of hostility, confusion, or, in some cases, discreet curiosity; none of them tried to interfere. For one thing, aside from the guards, only the invading crew were carrying weapons.

Piranha strode without hesitation, barely glancing at his surroundings, straight to the back of the room. There, in a corner, sitting alone at a table with his face turned away, and completely failing to look inconspicuous, was the whitish, squarish, almost obscenely bulky form of Hacker.

Piranha stopped some ten feet away from him. "Well, if it isn't Hacker," he said. "How nice to find you sitting here peacefully doing a little harmless, innocent lubrication, minding your own business as always – barged in on by a rude bully for no reason at all. There, I said your line, your turn to say mine."

Hacker pretended not to hear. Piranha pulled a long dagger out of his vest. Its glint reflected in the slanted mirrors that lined the wall. Hacker didn't budge.

Piranha smiled, that same cold, dark, blood-freezing smile he'd given Blargh before the fight. "Hacker seems to have a hearing problem," he commented to the men nearby. "I suppose we'll need to clean out his ears for him."

Even Hacker couldn't ignore the cacophonous cheer that erupted at that nonsensical statement (nonsensical especially since he didn't have any visible ears). He heaved his massive body off the solid metal bench he sat on and slowly turned around.

Though he was nearly as tall as Blargh had been, and so broad that he was almost square (giving the overall effect of a gorilla-limbed sumo wrestler stuffed with difficulty into a suit of metal armor), Hacker had a knack for looking a lot smaller than he was. His rolling, bulging metallic eyes glanced piteously at Piranha, he slouched a little, his grotesquely long arms dangling helplessly. The lugubrious effect was only amplified by the ragged striped shirt draped around his badly scuffed-up chest, the dirty bandanna covering his head, and the big hoop earrings stuck in where his ears should have been.

"Piranha," he said, in an oddly thin whine for such a massive body, "I couldn't wait to congratulate you! An amazing victory! To think you're already First Mate!"

By now, some of the officers in the bar were also drifting down to watch amidst the mob of crewmen.

"What was that we heard from you a few minutes ago, Hacker, about Piranha being put in chains as a mutineer?" said one, dryly.

"For pretending to be First Mate?" added another.

And a third officer, another robot, said angrily, "What would've happened to us if we'd tried to assassinate the real First Mate? You know what you could be starting?"

Piranha glanced at the speakers, then turned a cold smile back on Hacker.

"You–you didn't understand what I said," the big robot was babbling. "I only meant that he wasn't confirmed by Anaconda yet, but of course, naturally that bound to happen, wasn't it? You can't hold such talent down, I've always said so–" He bent over a little more, holding his massive hands out pleadingly towards Piranha. Piranha was standing solidly as though fixed to the floor, the dagger in his hand, his implacable eyes fixed on Hacker's face. Hacker's eyes kept flicking towards that dagger as though he expected it at any moment to morph into a cannon.

"You dodged out of the engine room before the fight was done," Piranha mused. "Why would you do that, I wonder? Not see the finish? Miss the chance of being the first to start the gossip?"

"Piranha–"

"Oh, but silly of me – if you were just going to make it all up anyway, why would you need to know what actually happened?"

"I was only trying to help you!" Hacker's whining voice sounded oddly near tears. "I was going to get reinforcements! How could I possibly know that you would be able to beat Blargh?"

Piranha raised the dagger point up, flashing light along it, inspecting it closely in a leisurely fashion.

"Is that your usual caliber of lie, Hacker? My god, I can't believe you're still alive."

"It's not a –"

"So interesting, the rumours running through this ship. There were even a few attempts to kill me while I was on my way here to pay my respects to you. Attempts by people who seemed convinced that I had murdered you – or Blargh, or Anaconda – or who had somehow mysteriously picked up the idea I had hijacked the ship to go after some personal enemies of my own... as if I had any." He looked directly at Hacker and smiled. "Some folks will believe anything, eh Hacker?" Hacker's dangling earrings jingled a little against his head as, quivering slightly, he lifted up his massive hands in a gesture of solemn innocence.

"Piranha," he said, "Don't jump to conclusions about me! Just because Blargh wouldn't work with you doesn't mean I won't! You're the perfect First Mate! It doesn't matter if you're human, it's time the humans took a bigger role on this ship, and besides, I'm your biggest supporter, I was never fooled like Blargh, I know what brilliant things you did defending your planet–"

Piranha took a deliberate step forward, Hacker shrank back a little. Piranha's voice was soft, chilling. "Just what were you up to in the old section today?"

"The–the old section? W-what? That couldn't have been me, I wasn't–"

"You'd never be caught there yourself, you sent your goons, but it was you. Taking down all those doors. What were you looking for?"

"Piranha, First Mate, sir, in all honesty, I have no idea what you're talking about–"

Abruptly, Piranha jumped onto a nearby table, bringing his face up closer to Hacker's eye level. Hacker couldn't disengage his eyes from the cold, fierce stare Piranha aimed at him.

"You're unnecessary, Hacker," Piranha said. "Superfluous."

"First Mate," Hacker said, hastily, drawing back a little more, "Piranha, listen, I've no quarrel with you–"

"That's just it. You don't quarrel. You smile, and cringe, then stab people in the back. I call that superfluous." He reached into his arsenal and pulled out his pistol.

"You don't understand, Piranha! I was just trying to – protect you! You don't have a better friend on this ship than me!" Frantically, Hacker looked over at one of the watching robot officers. "Blasa," he groaned. "Tell him! Tell him I'd never–"

"Do your own lying," snapped the other robot, folding his arms.

The crew and other officers watching the scene were noisy now, making catcalls, laughing, throwing out comments. "Tell him some of your great jokes about him, Hacker! Like you told us!" "Oh, tell him the one about him on his planet, that was a good one, he'll love it!" "What, that one about the fifteen fairies and the helmet and–" Raucous laughter. "Hacker, you want my advice, just buy him a drink and for once shut your mouth! It's safer!" "No, no, let's have a fight! Hacker's a great fighter! Almost as good as a five-year-old female slave!" More laughter. And, as Hacker watched, his bulging metallic eyes flicking from one face, one part of the room, to another, there were more and more calls for a fight. "Where you going to stick that knife, Piranha?" "How many shots would it take to shut Hacker up?" "Maybe a firing squad! How 'bout a firing squad? A six or eight hour barrage ought to do it!" "To shut him up? No, that'd take a ten-ton bomb!" "Let's just drag him out to the garbage chute and toss him off the ship!" "Nah, he won't fit!" "Oh, we'll make him fit all right!"

Still on the table, Piranha took another step closer. His eyes looked completely black. "Come outside, Hacker," he said. He gestured with the gun. "We'll finish this in the hall."

Hacker gave one last despairing look around the room. Seeing nothing but hostile faces, he turned back to Piranha. Then, so violently that Piranha gave a huge leap up and back to avoid an attack, the big robot flung himself forward, crashing first to his knees then flat onto the cracked wood floor, covering his face with his rough, dented, gap-fingered metal hands. Piranha, landing on the floor just out of his reach, his weapons ready, stared at him.

"First Mate! Boss! You're my boss. Me and my men are your servants. We belong to you now." Hacker's voice came out muffled by the floor and his hands. "On my life I swear! On my life."

Piranha, still poised warily on his toes, ready to lunge away or attack, looked at the prostrate monster in front of him, then glanced around at the spectators.

They were staring just as dumfounded.

Piranha took an exasperated breath. Frowning with deep suspicion, he lowered his weapons. Although the surrounding pirates were glaring at Hacker with, if anything, even greater contempt than before, he could see their rather sarcastic grins of approval as he put his gun away.

"Too cowardly to be killed," muttered one. "Two masters! Hedging your bets, you scum, you'll try anything."

Piranha said to Hacker, threateningly, "Aren't you Anaconda's man?"

Not stirring from his submissive posture, Hacker said, "We're all Anaconda's men. But you'll be my direct boss, you'll get your share... you'll get extra... I promise..."

Piranha was silent. He didn't like this at all. He wasn't sure of the consequences if he either accepted or refused. But the onlookers were nodding.

"Hacker," he growled, in a low but penetrating voice, "You're a liar and you're lying right now. But I despise killing a guy who can't fight, so you can stop grovelling. Just keep in mind that if I ever catch you in another lie, about me or anybody else – or if there's ever the least hint that you or your men have been seen anywhere near the old section – that'll be it, Hacker, I won't bother to listen to your excuses that time." Teeth bared in disgust, he put his dagger back in its place. "It's against my better judgement, but you get one more chance. Now beat it. Fade away. Don't remind me you exist."

With a sort of unbelieving gasp, Hacker hunched himself up, pulling his elbows and knees together, glancing up at Piranha but unable to meet his eyes. "You–you won't regret it– I'll never–"

Piranha's teeth bared more, in a fierce scowl. "Shut up, Hacker. I regret it already. Get out."

Followed by jeers and rude noises, not to mention a couple of stray shots from some of the more enthusiastic crew, Hacker scrambled to his feet and thundered as fast as he could across the barroom and out the door.

Piranha watched him go, still glowering. There was laughing and cheering around him now, though, and the crew, tension relieved, their inhibitions unbottled by success, a little drunk just with being in the officers' bar, were pulling out more guns and a couple more shots were fired into the ceiling. The bartender, a small rather tubular-shaped bronze robot, looked about to panic, and the guards at the other end of the room were approaching now, raising their weapons.

Piranha jumped back onto the table. "Men!" he shouted. They cheered him happily. "Well done, men, that deserves a drink!"

They cheered that even more.

"Then we need to get out of here, our work's done for tonight!" He looked meaningfully at the bartender.

"Uh – who's gonna pay?" the bartender ventured.

Piranha, with a coiled little grin, jumped off the table and swaggered towards the bar. "What? Don't you think these men have earned a drink?" he said, casually.

The bartender, hesitating, looked at him, at the men, at the guards (who, looking relieved, were lowering their weapons again) and at the group of officers chuckling together, quite unconcerned, in the back of the room. He sighed.

"Oh, hell. Line up. One drink apiece. As long as there's no more shooting!"

"Fair enough. One drink, no more shooting, and leave those mirrors alone!" Piranha grinned at the crew as they were lining up. "And after you've had your drink – get out! Bubo, let's have you and your friends escort them to the door."

While the crew were getting their drinks, Piranha slipped out of the bar to stand in the hall by the door. He looked up and down the corridor. Aside from the sporadic but increasing trickle of crew coming in (mysteriously, the rumor of free drinks had already made its way outside), it looked pretty peaceful for the moment.

"Ah, I thought you'd be here," said a metallic voice nearby. Piranha turned; Tulik was standing in a doorway down the hall, his arms crossed. The silver robot emerged from the alcove and came towards him. "This is always the best place to find the Second Mate."

Piranha smiled. "Tulik," he said.

Tulik's featureless blue gaze lit on the insignia on Piranha's chest. "You saw the Boss already, Piranha?"

"Yes."

"Good. But what did you do to Hacker? I saw him come through the door – he hasn't moved that fast in the last two hundred years."

Piranha smiled again. "Oh, you know, we came to an understanding."

Tulik crossed his arms again, looking down the hall. "I hope you do understand him, Piranha."

Piranha sighed. "What I don't understand, to be quite frank, is why he's Second Mate."

Tulik was silent. His expressionless face turned to Piranha, and those strange, luminous, sky-blue eyes gazed at him without motion for such a long time that Piranha began to feel uneasy.

"Don't take offence," he said quietly. "I'm new here. I need information very badly."

"Nothing offends me," said Tulik. "I do find your choice of questions interesting, though. And some are not very safe to answer."

"All right," said Piranha. He stood aside from the door, as a number of crew were starting to come out. They seemed remarkably content.

"How's it going in there?" Piranha said to one of them. "Everything okay?"

"Great," said the pirate. "Man, you really showed that zinc-plated – er, sorry, Tulik, sir. And man, you officers get some good quality stuff! Who's next, Piranha?"

"More like, what's next," said the First Mate. "How about locating your sleeping bunk while you can still walk?"

"Oh, hell yeah, why not," said the pirate. He and the others with him bunched up together and began swaying down the hall, singing together – each one a different song.

"I think they like you," said Tulik, dryly.

"Better than Hacker, anyway," said Piranha.

Tulik looked at him sharply. "Yes," he said, thoughtfully. "There's something quite different about you, you know. I don't mean the way you're constructed. Something else, I don't know what it is. People like you."

"Aw, I'm disappointed," said Piranha. "Here I'm doing my best to be an utter bastard and people insist on liking me?"

Tulik's head tilted a little. "Yes, remarkably fine acting abilities, I thought," the robot said.

Piranha raised his eyebrows. "You think it's an act?" Tulik said nothing. Piranha went on, "That's insulting, you know. In fact, I'd say you're about the most insulting lieutenant I've ever had." Tulik still said nothing. Piranha grinned a little, not looking at him.

After a moment, Tulik said, "I've heard you say some peculiar things since you arrived, Piranha."

"Oh?"

"... I understood them, I think. Though I doubt the men do."

"Oh, I think they do," Piranha murmured.

Tulik was quiet for a time. Then said, "Piranha... There is someone else who won't fail to understand. Why do you suppose we are led by the likes of Blargh and Hacker? Do you imagine it's an accident?"

Piranha glanced at him sharply.

Quietly, looking at the floor, Tulik said, "Humans are easy to sway, and they're fickle. They're undisciplined, they come from many different places, they squabble among themselves. And they're gone so soon. In the long run, their opinions don't much matter. The robots are the foundation and the leaders of the ship. But there is only one master; he misses very little, and nothing sways him, ever."

Piranha looked at him silently. Tulik was quiet for a time, facing into the hallway and looking off into space while more men streamed into and out of the bar. (Piranha stepped in a few times to head off the occasional pirate who was hoping to turn around and sneak back in for another drink. Once or twice, when the door opened, he could hear the increasingly mournful voice of the bartender: "Where did you come from?" However, at least there were no sounds of riot inside, so things were going as well as could be expected.)

When the traffic had slowed for a while, Tulik said, softly, "I wouldn't give any other human a slave's chance, as First Mate. I don't know how this is going to work out. But I found your ideas interesting. Even ... moving."

Piranha looked at him quizzically. "Ideas? Me? I didn't realize I had any."

"Perhaps it's just that you're from ... outside. I think outside ideas will not penetrate this ship, Piranha. But I'm curious... I'd like to see you survive for a while."

Piranha grinned wryly. "Then help me with the odds. Show me how."

Tulik was silent again, for a very long time. "... I will help you if I can, Piranha. Even though I don't think that ..." He fell silent again, lowering his head.

Piranha looked at him, then settled against the wall, leaning back, closing his eyes; it struck him with sudden force how very tired he was. "Tulik," he said quietly, "Anything you ever want to say to me... I'll always listen."

"Well, for one thing," said Tulik, lightly, "I think a few more of the men have heard about those drinks."

Piranha started up, eyes snapping open. The rivulet of pirates coming out of the bar had slowed to a trickle by this time. Even most of the officers had left, wearing strikingly complacent smiles. But, with some alarm, Piranha now picked up a distant rumble of voices and footsteps far down the corridors that had a sound like an approaching avalanche. He jumped forward, turning to grin at Tulik.

"Time to close the bar, I think," he said. "Excuse me."

[End of Chapter 9, part 1]