Charyd rubbed his chin, then remembered the current body did not have a beard. Wrong Charyd. He strummed his fingers on the wall next to the display panel. The Darkstorm had not shown up to stop him. Yet Charyd was denied access to this room. Flight Officer Charyd had less access than he had hoped. He glanced down at the watch that the guy sleeping at a bar lost. It's an old analog ticking away the time. Outdated, but added the personal touch of the belief that he was the correct Charyd. He had only twelve minutes left to get back to the control room. This was the last bomb cap he needed to put down. From this room to the control room the four bombs were placed.

He would force the Darkstorm to let him in this room. He would break this ship in once he was captain again. He put the smoke cap up top near the ceiling. He opened his comms, all five were signaled active, just waiting for the go command to spew smoke out. He walked the main hall back to the control room. The mess hall was noisy with a few of the crew sitting in there chatting away. They were all excited to be on this mission. Two folks were trying to compete for the respect of their subordinates. The war of Cadoon’s versus the Jearen’s gave each and every soldier here some experience.

A large man with fangs matching Captain Posey’s smiled as he talked. “Now look, fighting around the galaxy Miesser was the longest battle.”

“For your career. Fights were going next door to claim Torando. Those battles lit up the space like it was nova going on. Creating their own pinwheels!” A Cadoon said. He was your typical military man, with broad shoulders, dark brown hair spotted with white, and kept short with clipper settings at two.

“I was there! The first time, a mere Cadet.” chimed a young soldier, her green gorgon hair gathered on the top of her head. Constant hissing as the little tongues dashed out to sense the world around her. Based on her badges, she was only one rank above Cadet now.

“Ah, then you don’t know what really happened then.” The older Lieutenant Commander stood up. Hands behind his back. The attention was all on him.“There was fifty -”

“All active staff report to the control room.” The Darkstorm’s voice interrupted. 

“Immediately!” It switched over to the Captain’s agitated voice. “As in tell them now!”

“This was a recording.” The Darkstorm went out.

The soldiers were all standing up and running to the deck before the speaker finished clicking off. Charyd stepped out of their way, but the Cadoon human’s shoulder checked him. His fist tightened against the second harassment of the day. This time, he couldn’t just sucker punch the guy though. He couldn’t take them all on. They would get their share of crap once they lost this ship and LC Asshole would get more than he deserved. Charyd turned and casually jogged back to the main hub. His eyes darted to where each of the caps were placed. So his entire plan was in place. Now he had to actually figure out what to do next, fast. The execution of his crew was only a day away.

Everyone was gathered in the control room and at their stations. Except for one. Captain Posey stood rigid, hands behind her back, looking at the empty post. “Where is Officer Saar?”

People remained silent, but their eyes darted to and from each other. 

“Saw him heading to the latrine earlier,” Charyd threw in the lie before anybody else could say something.

“When was this?”

“Maybe… half an hour ago, or something?” Charyd made a show of looking at his analog watch.

Posey rolled her purple eyes. The action was clearly subconscious because she cleared her throat and her frame became even more stiff, trying to hide the immature response. “Humans. Right. Tony? Make sure he… hurries up and makes his way on deck asap.”

The gorgon soldier giggled.

“Sir, yes, sir,” the Darkstorm responded and it almost sounded mocking. 

Posey must have thought so too because she glared at the ceiling. 

“Everybody strap in. We’ll be entering uncharted waters shortly.” Posey finally announced why she had called everyone on deck. Everyone available obeyed the command.

“As you know we are hired to deal with pirates. To prove that this ship will not be ordered around by the scum ever again.” The Darkstorm remained silent as Posey spoke. “We have to prove that we are stronger and better. We know this. But unfortunately, the media has romanticized this Pirate Captain Charyd.”

Her eyes landed on Officer Charyd. A small smile on her face at realizing what she had said. “But of course, even when we capture one quarry, another takes its place. The prototype for a new stealth technology named Tollens was stolen by pirates. Thanks to our ship’s security, we know they branded themselves as Exec Pirates. Tony, would you play that piece of conversation from your endeavor?”

The display screen was replaced by a freeze frame of a full mess hall. It lived up to its name. From the food of Cadoon’s spaghetti, tacos of Barmaca, and even a curry of Hisiri. 

Charyd tried not to smile. He remembered the food fight. This was the third day on the ship and they had finally figured out the food replicator. They wanted to see how many different recipes it knew. One of his mates even taught it a few. It took a while for them to clean up the place.

The video started to play. Laughter was going on, but the microphone was able to pick up one key detail. “We should Lightening Strike the Exec base camp. They won’t mock us anymore.”

A group of cheers went up. They were only able to unlock the coffee mugs from the mess hall still, so their beverages were poured into there. Even the beer.

The video ended.