Well that was a fun way to waste a day. Timetra adjusted her grip on the longboat's controls and aimed the bow for the ship. A glimmer of a sail caught her attention and she looked in time to see the second longboat with the rest of the crew approaching.

They pulled up beside each other and she leaned over, "Anything?"

"Just weird looking pillar things," the Selidran at the controls of the other longboat called back. Timetra did her best to focus on their face, but she was distracted - as always - by their tentacle hair flowing like a separate creature at the top of their head.

Timetra sighed, "Great…"

"What do you think they are, huh? I didn't see any writing on them," another member of the other boat asked. Timetra shook her head and offered a shrug, "Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe the Navy boys will know more."

She flinched. She'd been actively avoiding talking about either Jim or William just to try to help John relax a little, and here she'd gone and brought them up.

Ten sets of eyes looked at her curiously before someone piped up, "Speaking of those Navy boys…is the captain ok? He's been acting weird since we brought them back to the ship."

"Oh, you know John…overthinking things as usual," She tried to brush it off with a small laugh and as vague an answer as she could get away with.

"Yeah, but…why? It's simple right? Just interrogate them both and get the coordinates or whatever."

Oh, It should be simple.

"Vela, you know that we don't do this sort of thing with hostages and all that," another crew member jabbed Vela in the side with a spindly finger, "Of course it's gonna take him a while to figure out a plan. I mean, it's obvious he doesn't want to hurt them."

"You know, I think he was pissed that the blond human shot Timetra and he had to calm down so he wouldn't kill him. It would make sense why he's been cooped up in his cabin for so long," a heavy set Canid offered, rubbing his palm against his chin.

"Nah, it's more likely that the Navy guys told him what they were sent for, but it's something dumb. Why would they only send one ship out for something important, you know?" A Venovegim ruffled his wing carapace together.

"So what's he hesitant for? Just tell us what's up."

The Venovegim shook his head, buggy eyes focusing on the Canid, "He's trying to figure out what to do with the Navy boys. We'd be in huge trouble if he lets them go and they call for backup. But can you imagine Captain Silver having them killed? I think he'd rather throw himself overboard than do that."

Timetra should probably curb the conversation where it was at, redirect their focus back to getting to the ship and telling John what they'd found - or the lack of what they'd found, but she was curious to see what the crew thought. She was sure that they were loyal, but it'd be nice to hear it for sure from the source.

"We haven't seen Raith since we picked those Navy guys up, do you think that she was able to get the info from them? Maybe they told Captain Silver that and now he's trying to figure out how to tell us?"

The Venovegim fluttered his wings again excitedly, "Oh! Yeah, and now we're just stuck with the two Navy guys. Like, what do we even do with them after all this? It's not like they could join the crew, right?"

"What it…"

Everyone looked at Eil the Dromid. He flicked his floppy ears nervously now that he was the center of attention, but he cleared his throat and started again, "What if the captain is buddies with one of the Navy guys? Didn't you see how he kept sneaking in to check on that one when he was healing?"

Timetra gauged the looks on everyone else's face. Shock. Disbelief. Amusement.

"I mean, you said it yourself Taki-" Eil looked at the Canid "-he clearly doesn't want to hurt them, and nobody really knows what Captain Silver did before he had the Stargazer. I'd be nervous about ratting out someone in the Navy to my crew if I was in the captain's shoes - er…shoe…you know? And he likes to follow Navy ships every once in a while…I don't know, maybe one of them's his kid or something, you never know! He's old enough to have an adult son. Or maybe they're a close buddy's kid that he promised to keep an eye on or something."

"Why, but why wouldn't he tell us," Ysolde tapped her talon-fingers on the railing of the boat, "Don't he trust us?"

Eil was starting to get more excited and he waved a hand, "Oh, you know he does, but the Captain musta been through something awful that he'd be worried could happen to his Navy friend or maybe even to us, right? You don't just sprout mechanical parts overnight. I think he's afraid that his friend or son or whatever the heck he is will get hurt or in trouble or..."

He trailed off. The gazes around him had turned to something along the lines of incredulous wonder at the sheer idea of the situation he suggested.

"My bet's on Captain Silver being pissed at that blond guy for shooting Timetra."

The rest of the crew laughed and started placing bets on the other options as well and the Dromid threw up his hands, "Oh, come on! It would make sense!"

"Eil, bud, it really doesn't," Taki patted his shoulder gently. Eil looked at Timetra as if she would help him, "But it would though! Think about it! He follows Navy ships, doesn't talk about his past, he acts weird around the Navy guys, that blob creature thing likes both him and that brown-haired human a lot- it all adds up!"

"So, what of it?" Timetra pressed gently. The crew looked at her and she leaned forward on her knees, "Let's say that crazy idea is right. What then? What would you do about it?"

"Well, Eil would win the whole pot, but other than that…nothing?" Vela shrugged his shoulders. "I don't buy the part of his idea that one of the human's is his son or anything like that, but sure they could be friends maybe? Why wouldn't he tell us though?"

"Who knows what John lived through before we all met him," Timetra whispered. The crew watched her quietly before nodding solemnly. She sat up straight and took the longboat's controls in hand again, "Alright, let's get the news of what we found back to John before he wonders if we've abandoned him."

There was a small ripple of laughter amongst the crew and several of them murmured how they'd 'never do anything like that'. Timetra smiled to herself. If only John would see that.