“Officer Charyd, to be a pilot, you must have exceptional vision. Do you expect me to believe the sign changed on you?” Ilise did not hide the anger in her voice.

Charyd crossed his arms as he blocked the doorway into the small room. The metal bar tagged to her ear blocked Alice’s telepathic abilities. He would have to send a message in a different way. Sisyphus sat in there staring at Alice, a bruise on her eye darkening her thin blue skin. Charyd stretched himself out until his uniform pants became capris. Boil shrunk behind him and tried to pull him back. Charyd shrugged the hold-off. 

Posey stood straighter and growled like she was backed into the corner. “Disobeying me can have you written for disciplinary action. I will not tolerate aggressive behavior. I might as well leave you here.”

“Alice?” His eyes locked on the pirate in the room. His dark eyebrows raised up and down in various ways as if he was doing a dance. He was tempted to grow the hair out further to make them bushy to catch her attention. It seemed to have caught everyone's attention. A smirk grew on Sisyphus’s face. A less subtitle strategy was required. He looked back at Boil. “You and I need to go chasing after a rabbit.”

Charyd’s body shrunk back to a comfortable size needed for the planet’s gravity. He left the door open and walked away. Sisyphus's laughter warned him Posey was on his ass. Her fangs glistened. “I asked you a question. Why did you barge into this room?”

Charyd pointed to the sign above the door, it declared “Interview Room 1”. It was all caps saying “ARMORY” a moment ago.

He did not feel like repeating his words. Someone was fucking with him and Boil. Boil was too scared to speak up to his captain. Charyd was about to kick her ass off that title. “We will talk about this later.” She took his gesture as a response. “Continue on with–wait, what were you doing in here?”

“Looking for the Armory.”

“And why is that?”

“You let us in.” Charyd’s tried to make the shrug look uncaring, but he was tense. He did not even have the thought to worry if Posey noticed.

“Return to the ship,” she ordered.

Boil saluted her, but Charyd only narrowed his eyes. He wanted to punch her right now for torturing Alice for information. He was going to save his entire crew, not just Alice. He had to be patient a moment longer. 

“Officer Charyd, when you get back on the ship, I need you to contact the Commander about giving us more time to do this interview. We have a lead.”

“Of course… Captain.” He saluted in the sloppiest way. The action was enough to write him up for drills - but he wouldn’t be her subordinate any longer. He would love seeing her covered in dirt cleaning the Darkstorm as revenge for what she did to his crew. It was a prison, injuries happened all the time. Especially in a death row one. But they were playing ping pong for crying out loud down there. There were no brawls going on. That fresh bruise on Alice’s face was from them. They would all be getting their share of justice soon, on par with Cadoon’s definition of equality.The grinding sound of her teeth reverberated in the hall as she gently closed the Interview room door. Charyd continued down that path away from the prison entrance.

“Where are you going?” Boil whispered to Charyd. “C.P. ordered you back to the ship.”

“Trust me, I’ll be heading back there. I have something to take care of first.” He would park his ass in that captain’s chair, too. 

The boots which followed him stopped clicking on the vinyl floor. “Charyd man. You know that Nereus? Did she do something to you?” Boil was a perfect gunner, aiming to please. Even now his head was lowered, a small frown stretched under his shaved face. “Anything I can do to help?”

He called Charyd man - like a human…. “Sorry. I got this.” He walked up, and placed a hand on Boil’s shoulder. It felt padded. “Don’t follow me to trouble.” He stretched his finger over and clicked the trigger hiding under Boil’s collar.

All the lights were humming and on. He resisted looking down at his own comm device. His game plan started now. If there was a time to make a loud thought, Charyd tried now. Hippety Hop Hippety Hop! Let’s not be late for a very important date.

If screaming would have done anything, he would have. They were close to Interview Room 1 at a corner. Hopefully, no other Nereus would join the communication. 

He knew he succeeded when the emotion of burning passion ready to spread and grab everything barged over his high-run nerves and anger. It only made him tap his toes with the jitters. A simple hello from a very specific Neasus identifying themselves as Alice. “Boil, why don’t you go this way.” He pointed toward the hallway, which would lead to the guard break room. “I’ll head this way.” He pointed toward the other option, which would lead around the free play room and deeper into the prison.