Candide entered the small black saucer after everyone else. The interior was roomier than he expected, but it was still crowded with nine or ten drones with him. A door silently disappeared behind him, leaving only a solid wall. He held his axe tightly enough that his knuckles turned white. All of the drones held small pistols. They had other gadgets which Candide did not recognize. He spotted Aegelief sitting in a pilot's chair. He said, “Aegelief, why didn't Odin come with us? Or Isis? They are supposed to be much more powerful than us.”

Aegelief said, “It's because the opposition's ships are like our own. Our ships know when an omni-being is on board.”

Candide nodded and said, “But their ships are already full of drones and humans.”

Aegelief said, “That is accurate. For the same reason, their ship would not allow us on board if we brought weaponry. We will need to procure weapons once we have infiltrated.”

Meanwhile, Odin and Isis returned to the bridge. Odin clopped over to the side of the room, and a floating camera positioned itself in front of Isis in her chair. Odin said, “Isis is going to broadcast to the pirates.”

Isis said, “Keep the camera focused on me, and make sure to catch my goooood side.”

Odin ordered, “Huginn, tell the shuttle to launch now.”

Isis said, “Hail them.” The image of Pirate and his bridge crew reappeared before her as another holographic projection. This time, they were communicating in real time.

Isis said, “Arrrrrrrr! Ahoy, Matey! I be speaking with Captain Bart of the Cut Throat Rebels, be I not?”

Pirate said, “Isis! Ye black-hearted wench. We was hoping to kill two omnis this day.”

“Ahoy, Cap'n Crunch. How they shivering?”

The stealth shuttle slid through space silently. It made no whoosh. Candide lifted his axe and looked at it. “Why? Why was I supposed to bring this axe to a fight with guns and torpedos?”

Aegelief said, “Do you remember when you arrived on the Asgard? Our sensors categorized your axe as a tool instead of a weapon.”

Candide closed his eyes and exhaled. He touched the cold metal to his forehead. “Their sensors will make the same mistake. Clever little pig.”

With a jolt, the shuttle lurched. Aegelief informed Candide, “We have arrived.”

Pirate told her, “I shall not be swayed any begging for ye life.”

“Parley,” Isis said, “Parley! I wanna parley.”

“Will ye confess to ye many crimes against the universe?”

“Parley. Paaaarleeeeey. It's a fun word. Say it with me.”

The boarding party stepped out of the shuttle into the interior of the pirate ship. The audio of Isis' parley was playing through a sound system throughout the ship. The ship looked much like the Asgard but older and dirtier and ill-fitting. Whereas the halls of Asgard were spotless and open, these passageways were cluttered with machinery and other plunder. The boarding party split into two groups, each silently sneaking in a different direction.

Pirate said, “Harlot! Me only regret is that I shall nay be there get to cut ye siren heart from ye bunny chest.”

Isis said, “I'm sorry, but I cannot stop staring at your eye patch. It's so weird. When you get drunk, do you see double or do you see one and a halved?”

Candide, Aegelief, and three other Asgardian drones reached a room with three rebels in it. All three (two drones and one large male human) were watching the video of the parley and scowling. Candide came up behind them quietly and lifted his axe to strike down the large human. He hesitated.

An Asgardian drone picked up a large wrench and struck one of the rebel drones with it. The wounded rebel fell to the floor. The remaining two rebels spun to meet their attackers and raised weapons.

The big human rebel looked straight at Candide. His face was a mass of tattoos and his mouth was full of fangs. With a swift kick to Candide's chest, the large man knocked Candide against a wall and knocked the breath out of his lungs. The rebel leveled a shotgun-like weapon at the firefighter.

The second rebel drone shot at an Asgardian drone with a large pistol that fired a laser. The laser beam radiated in the ultraviolet spectrum and was invisible except its effect of slicing the Asgardian infiltrator with the wrench in half at its chest. The rebel then turned his laser on Aegelief. The laser reflected off of a gadget which Aegelief held in front of him. The rebel's own laser caught it in its neck and cut its head from its body.

The rebel on the ground turned over and brought its own pistol up, pointing it at the intruders. Another Asgardian tackled the rebel and wrestled with it for the weapon. The pistol went off, killing them both.

Pirate shouted to Isis, “Demoness! A pox upon ye and every rabbit in the seven cosmos! This one day in all of the blasted universe, ye shall show me respect!”

Isis said, “Aww, is him angwy? Is him feeling fussy? Is him all hurumph?”

Odin stared at her in horror.

The last Asgardian drone rushed the large human. The human pirate swatted the lighter creature away with a single swing of his arm. Candide lurched forward and tossed his axe spinning through the air. The axe buried into the rebel's face.

As Candide stared at the dying man, a klaxon alarm sounded through the ship. Aegelief snapped Candide out of his stupor by saying, “Candide, take a weapon.” Aegelief was claiming the human's decksweeper gun for himself. The other Asgardian drone looted the two pistols which fired invisible layers. Candide planted his foot on the chest of the pirate man's corpse and pulled his bloody axe free.

Aegelief asked, “Are their vital signs connected to the ship's security systems?”

The other Agardian looked at a holographic projection of what was happening elsewhere in the ship. He reported, “No, our other squad have been discovered. The fight is not going well for them. We must complete the mission ourselves.”

Isis said, “That's unbelievable. Then what did Odin do to you?”

Pirate told her, “Then he placed another hypnotic suggestion on me. He made me think it was my fault, the barnacle-breathed deckwash-drinking dandy. He made me apologize for what he had done to me.”

“Shaaame on Odin. But if you think that's bad, let me tell you what he told me about it.”

Odin held his head in his hoof, unable to watch anymore but equally unable to stop listening.

A drone approached Pirate and said to him, “Captain, we got a firefight on the lower decks. We been bored.”

Pirate waved off his crewman and said, “Tell me what he said about me, Isis!”