As the FTL drive charged, the Mantis stripped the Zoltan ship to a barely-airtight shell floating dead in space. They found absolutely no weapons on board.

Back on their Mantis Fighter, the three were crowded in the weapons room as they waited for the FTL to charge (for a fearsome ship, they were rather lacking in engine power). They ate meat for dinner and recounted the boarding adventure to Magmar, still keeping an eye on the alarms for any incoming trouble.

Magmar nodded along to the tale, their scent betraying mild interest despite their silence. This Mantis, Notch remembered, had been part of a hive with exceptionally large mandibles. Though these were fearsome to wield in a fight, they were rendered unable to speak English and confined to the traditional Mantis language. Notch sometimes found this difficult to understand, as they had not been born speaking Mantis and the two languages did not translate well.

"And that Zoltan, 'e wouldn't fight in the slightest!" Lisandra was speaking. "Lucky Notch had a better idea." They turned to speak to Notch directly. "You're barely an adult, but you'll make a legendary pirate with that sort of thinking!"

"Really?"

Magmar began making a clicking sound, and Notch caught: "Yes...Repair."

Lisandra burst out laughing. "Oh yes, Magmar. You may have done well today, but you're still our only repair crew. Y'know, we should really buy an Engi sometime... maybe with all the money we'll get from our Zoltan?"

Before the others could respond, however, there was the sound of a dull thump against the hull. Lisandra and Magmar reacted instantly, one checking the monitor for breaches and the other standing ready for orders. Notch jumped up to help just a second later.

"Where?" Magmar clicked.

"Here, down in the hold. It looks like a piece of scrap made it through the shields and breached... but how?"

Magmar took this as their cue to run left to the shields. Lisandra looked over at Notch.

"Repair duty for you, Notch." They ordered.

"Yes, Capt'n!" The mantis went to the Engine Room on the right, where there was a small repair kit and a set of stairs led down to the hold. Stairs were a little awkward for the Mantis' six legs, so they slowed right down.

The familiar whistling noise of a breach greeted them, as well as a strange green glow. This confused them until they saw the Zoltan, who was sitting crisscrossed in a cage with their eyes closed.

Notch thought about turning on a light, but the green Zoltan glow was actually pretty good on its own. They quietly skittered over to where the breach was, grabbing some nearby scrap to work with.

The hole was quite small, Notch observed. It shouldn't take more than five minutes.

They brought out some duct tape from their repair kit: the greatest human invention in the eyes of the Mantis because of how much it sped along repairs. However when they loudly ripped off a piece, the light suddenly died down and they could no longer see.

"It's you." The Zoltan spoke from behind, startling Notch. They hissed and glared at the humanoid.

"That light, it was useful. Turn it back on!"

The Zoltan answered evenly. "I'm afraid I cannot. I was deep in meditation when you disturbed me."

"What's meditation?"

"It is to sit down, and think deeply. To retreat from the outside world and centre oneself in order- you are not listening."

Notch had scampered over to turn on a light. The hold lit up with a harsh yellow glare, and they were aware of the Zoltan's calm stare as they returned to the breach.

The green humanoid spoke again. "I want to give you my apologies, Mantis."

"Why?" Notch was trying their best to both listen to the Zoltan and repair the breach at the same time, but Mantis were not known for their multitasking talent.

"I spoke harshly to you in the ship. At that moment I believed you to be past salvation, but after some thought I realise I regret my words."

"Harshly?"

"Harshly, like with anger. I insulted your kind."

Notch snorted. "What? You should hear what all the other ships say to us! Besides, it's kinda fun to hear that stuff; we were gonna kill them anyway so they can... harshly us all they want!"

"I see." There was a hint of disappointment in the humanoid's tone.

After an awkward moment of silence, Notch spoke up again. "I said harshly right, right?"

"To fly a ship, one must first patch one's breaches in understanding."

The Mantis jumped, having forgotten completely about the breach they had been sent to repair. They slapped some duct tape on the hole before taking a welder from their repair kit.

After a considerable amount of effort holding the welder in the proper position with their barely opposable thumbs, they repaired the breach and stood up.

"So..." Notch looked over at the Zoltan, who had begun to meditate again. "We're jumping now. After some jumps we'll arrive at the Slug Nebula. Until then... be a quiet Zoltan."

"My name is Sem." The Zoltan said, much to the confusion of Notch.

"Okay?" They turned and walked out of the hold, leaving Sem alone.