To his vague surprise, Saren disapproved of the concept of slavery just as strongly, although he had dismissed Nihlus' reasons as sentimentality. He hadn't bothered to give his own reasons, and Nihlus, by now more experienced in how to handle his mentor's difficult character, hadn't pried further.
Odds were that he wouldn't like the answer, anyway.
Nihlus was already turning away, looking for Saren who was advancing on the last standing member of the group of slavers. The criminal was just a few steps away from the door to the cargo hold where the group had locked up their merchandise. Nihlus frowned. The last one was a human. What exactly the man was trying to do, Nihlus wasn't sure, but it probably didn't matter much anymore.
He threw a measuring look at Saren, and found him in the usual mood when dealing with humans, which meant angry, or rather, more angry than usual, and with a set to mandibles that promised very unpleasant things for the human.
Nihlus had seen before what that meant, precisely, and while he wasn't squeamish by anyone's reckoning and didn't even disapprove of certain interrogation methods on principle, he wasn't looking forward to a repetition of the experience. Nihlus understood ruthlessness, and violence in a moment of hot temper. He had no real understanding of the cold, precise, almost distant cruelty Saren had shown himself capable of, and he had no wish to understand that any further. He had thought that he knew what the galaxy was like, but even as a child on a nameless mercenary outpost outside of Hierarchy space, or during his time in the military, he hadn't seen the worst of it. As a Spectre trainee, he had wandered places he didn't want to remember, seen the depths to which intelligent life was capable of sinking, and while it had only reinforced his will to put an end to things like those, he felt that he could understand Saren's remote, cold and careless outlook on life better. It wouldn't be his way, and neither he would resort that casually to the methods Saren used, but it was an explanation. He had left it at that.
Maybe there even were situations where Saren's approach was the only one to yield any results. Nihlus had seen too much in the last few months to dismiss that possibility out of hand.
In this instance, however, it wasn't warranted. It wasn't that he felt sorry for the human, who probably more than deserved what was coming to him, but even so he didn't want to see Saren turning his full attention and creativity on the human criminal.
The human was lifting his rifle, far too slow to be any threat to the Spectre who would merely be further enraged by the action, and Nihlus raised his own rifle and rather calmly shot him in the head several times.
It was sensible to be certain, for more than one reason.
The merc collapsed, most of his head gone, and Saren spun around at him, snarling.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Saving you some time." Nihlus replied, meeting the furious gaze of the Spectre. He didn't elaborate further, and from what he could read in his superior's expression, no further explanation was necessary. Saren knew very well why he had done that.
It was hardly the first time he had directly opposed Saren, but that didn't mean Saren had ever gotten used to that, or was inclined to let it slide. It didn't matter. He hadn't done it to provoke Saren, he had done that because he considered right.
Saren snarled again, and for a moment Nihlus wasn't sure that the Spectre wouldn't lash out at him in pure frustration, but then Saren visibly and deliberately relaxed his stance, and his expression calmed and gave nothing away.
Nihlus wondered once again why Saren harboured such hate for the whole species. He only knew that it had something to do with the Relay 314 incident, but had no further details than that. He had asked, once, and Saren's reaction, while just short of actual violence, had convinced him not to do that again. Saren never welcomed personal questions, but this topic was well and truly better left alone with him, and that point had been made with enough force that Nihlus respected that. For now.
But as ever, he wouldn't, couldn't stay silent, even as he fully realised that he might push things too far here.
"Don't you think enough time has passed since Shanxi, and you have wasted enough time hating a whole species for the actions of a few?"
Saren's eyes flared bright, but his voice remained calm. "No. Not nearly enough."
Before Nihlus could question his behaviour any further, he turned away.
"Since you seem so eager to show your sympathetic side today, you can wrap this up and deal with the captives by yourself. I'll see you back at the ship. Don't take too long."
Nihlus shook his head as he watched the Spectre just walk away. This wasn't entirely unexpected. Saren wasn't really the best choice when it came to rescue operations, and he had assumed that the rescue part of this mission would be his task anyway.
He didn't mind. Rescue missions were fine with him. He knew, of course, that what they were doing was to keep the galaxy as a whole safe, but sometimes the bigger picture was too abstract, and he needed to see for himself that he was doing something worthwhile. It kept things in perspective, kept him sane.
As he approached the locked hold, he briefly thought about Saren, who never took the time to see the aftermath of his missions, whether positive or negative, and about what ways the Spectre used to stay if not sane then functional. And whether he was successful at that.