Fighty curls in the air at its words. 'We're not sure we want to do that,' we tell it 'You are all armed, after all.’ Pokey points at the items slung on equipment belts on each of the newcomers, over form-fitting clothing on Yi-Ka and Shscs, and against Hawu’s bare epidermis. ‘What's to stop you just shooting us and taking the ship?'

Right after we say this, we wish we hadn't – in case these creatures hadn't thought of that yet.

'Why would we do that? The ship is ours already. We made an agreement, did we not, Commander?'

'We did.'

The captain turns to its remaining companion. 'Yi-Ka?'

The long-fingered being looks up and to the left, and starts speaking as if reading something we cannot see.

'Two Blevedian disintegration pistols with custom grips for Ghutarnian use. Line one-oh-three on the armoury listing.'

'Will you not honour our agreement, Commander Gazette?' Hawu asks.

'Huh,' we say. We had agreed they could take what they wanted from the ship, after all. 'Okay then.’

Feely and Cheeky hold out the pistols and Yi-Ka reaches out to take them. Feely relinquishes the first, but Cheeky moves the other around so the lilac being’s fingers can't close on the weapon. Chokey and Mighty wrestle the unruly arm into stillness, and Yi-Ka takes the pistol, peering at our arms with interest. Fighty, meanwhile, just seems to be sulking. Buddy is nowhere in sight, and we guess Sneaky is keeping it hidden, in case they demand it too.

'What exactly are you?' Yi-Ka asks us. 'I can't seem to find a match for you anywhere... Are you some sort of a Jujhing?'

'A what-thing? No, we are an octopus.'

'A what-o-pus?'

'A type of cephalopod.'

'A cephalo-what? You aren't in any of the usual databases. Are your people extra-galactic?'

'Nope. My people aren't sapient like us. We're the only ones.'

'Ohhh. Wait a sec. Xy4?' Yi-Ka continues to look up and right, squinting as it does so. 'A-ha. Got you. An octopus. From the oceans of the garden planet nearby? Uncontacted? I bet the dominant race there would hate to know you beat them to encounters with other space-faring species.'

We laugh. 'Yes! They act like they own that planet. We’d like to go back and rub their faces in you.'

Hawu makes a loud moo-ing sound at this, but before we can ask its meaning the first of the service drones returns, its many manipulator arms laden with cases of weaponry, and it speeds up the short ramp into Hawu's shuttle to unload them.

Stealy seems quite active, and this reminds us what Buddy told us about their ship. We peer up at Hawu and Yi-Ka. 'Are you... pirates?’ We ask.

Hawu looks a bit disconcerted by this. Yi-Ka just smiles. After a moment, the captain answers with a question of its own.

'Are you really a commander, of any sort whatsoever?'

'If we answer your question, will you answer ours?'

Hawu's fronds shiver again. 'Certainly.'

'The ship is stupid. It thinks we are its commander, but we aren't really.'

'And while we are not pirates, we do indulge in the occasional act of what the aggrieved parties might term "piracy".'

'Huh. We're quite new to language in general, but we think that makes you, in fact, pirates.'

Hawu shivers again. 'And you command a vessel, which I think makes you, in fact, a commander.'

'Huh. So it does. And piracy is like stealing, but from a ship, right?'

Hawu seems confused by our question, and we wonder if the concept of piracy is as new to the captain as it is to us.

The other service drones return before it can answer, and Shscs trots in behind them. 'She's tagged and claimed. Let's get out of here,' it says. ‘It stinks of Ghutarn.’

Hawu makes a satisfied noise, and with a last look about the cargo bay, boards the shuttle. We follow Shscs and Yi-Ka up the ramp, and the four service drones follow us in.

The shuttle comes to life and shifts under us, and for a brief moment all our arms seem to weigh wrongly as we switch gravitic fields.

Pokey points at all the drones, strapped up with things they've scavenged from the Dhrahugon.

'That's all you're taking?' we ask. 'If we were pirates we'd want more than that. This ship's got all kinds of weapons and stuff built in.'

Yi-Ka makes a noise we can't interpret, and Hawu wobbles its head. 'We'll... come back for it. We don't have the equipment with us to strip it right now, and it would take weeks to get everything of value. We'll return after we drop you off.'

The journey to the Stony Tide takes less than a minute. From the forward window of the shuttle it looks a lot less predatory than the Dhrahugon. It's quite flat and diamond-shaped, with one particularly pointed end. We think it looks a bit like a ray, until Yi-Ka spots our curiosity and politely informs us that the pointy end is the bow, and after that it looks a bit like ray that’s facing backward.

We dock in a small opening at the rear and the bay doors close behind us. This airlock is just the right size for a pair of shuttles, and it pressurises, opens into the ship, and rolls the shuttle forward into a cramped cargo bay. The ship hums under us immediately, and we guess the engines have begun moving us away from the Dhrahugon.

'Welcome aboard,' Hawu tells us as the shuttle ramp-door descends.

Away from the Dhrahugon our drone won't respond to our shifting weight, so we have to walk off the shuttle on folded limbs, which is as awkward as ever, even in the slightly lighter gravity of this new ship.

'Fortunately, we have a spare bunk,’ Hawu says. ‘We'll show you to your quarters, let you get settled, and then give you the tour.’

The Stony Tide is very different from the Dhrahugon and the Shaxixith'th. The air is thicker and more acrid. The corridors are narrower, and not as clean. There is even mud on the floor, and we can tell the ship doesn't have service drones of its own. It seems like an older craft, and well-used. Flecks of paint indicate the walls don't have their own chromatophores, but have had their colour changed a few times nevertheless. The flat design means the interior spans only two levels – there are no gravity fields at opposing or perpendicular angles aboard this vessel.

'Here we go,' Hawu says as we stop before a door. It taps one stubby pincer at the panel alongside and it slides open. 'All yours.'

We shuffle inside and look around. It's quite small, painted a dull grey colour, and contains only a long kind-of bed. We're not really sure what kind of creature it was designed for.

'Is there any chance...' we begin, and tail off as the door slides closed behind us, culminating with a thunk, and the onset of a rather distinct silence as Hawu disables the door mechanism's power supply.