Shreeah coughed a little, the interview for this flight was going very slowly. Could she provide her own vac suit? How about "no" on that one. Was she adept at any weaponry? Of course she was. That was why she wanted to be aboard a scout ship - she loved to do that work. Not a shoot-first attitude, but certainly a "if I have to shoot you better know I'm going to hit" one.

The interview ended and Shreeah was pretty sure that she'd get in. However, by the looks of it, there were some dozen other human and demi-human candidates for the rare spots aboard this mission ship - and she might have some tough competition. Most of them were male, she noticed, and almost all human. She was certainly the most exotic of the bunch.

It was fairly rare to see exotics like her this far into Human space, and she knew it. But since she had that lovely feline quality to her - humans loved that... And they loved the way she didn't care much for uniforms or even much in the way of clothing. She flaunted her feminine aspects when she had to, and when it wasn't necessary she laid down the law about who touched her and who could only look.

She was really hoping to get on this mission ship, though. It might take her through a Kin space that she wanted to see for herself. The Kin out there probably didn't think much of her kind, as they weren't really related at all. They looked so similar, though... With their spots and stripes, and hair and tails. But they weren't so much as blood kin as theoretical kinfolk. Shreeah was an outcast, an outsider because of her beliefs and her practices.

The humans didn't know that, they didn't put even an ounce of effort into learning about the Zh'mrrel ways. So she didn't tell them. Why should she?

Shreeah had found her digs again, a small hotel with even smaller rooms, fit for hardly the lowest of human life let alone people like her. She winced as the smell of the place reached her nostrils. It was a stench of hundreds of people - death, urine, the works. But of course, tell that to the guy running the place? Hah! He'd looked at her like she was insane when she told him the place stunk.

Of course, he knew it did. Why would he bother to scour it for her? But her money was good here, so he didn't just outright tell her to leave. Her few things were left undisturbed in the single room, and she felt at least a little safer here than out on her own. The wilderness around this port city was pretty dangerous, to hear the humans talking about it. Of course, they had to arm themselves to the teeth (what a quaint expression they had!) in order to set foot out there.

Shreeah thought about passing the time while the interviewers chose their crew members, out there. First, a nap. Then, probably, she'd hike out there and see what was all so dangerous about the place.

Shreeah snoozed lightly, and came awake as the sun was going down. Her plans on going to the woods nearby were 'sadly' dashed, when she got a page on her communication unit. The scouter would be happy to have her aboard as their 'hand to hand/away team' expert.

Excitedly, she packed away her things, put on her nice uniform (the one she'd stripped the ranks and insignia from - it fit her, it'd been made for her, by the last group of jerks that she'd hung out with... rest their souls), and headed back to the port buildings instead.

***

Lapinus awoke with a jolt. There had been another shudder in the ship, something fluctuating with the engines as they passed through hyperspace. That was never a good thing. It would always lead to disaster. But, since he was only the onboard navigator and electronics expert, and not the captain, he didn't have much to say.

These stupid humans he'd been holed up with were just about done so far as he could tell. He was done with them, anyway. They never even asked if he could shoot - they just stuck him in the nav seat and told him to get them from place to place. Well, that's not so hard, when it's what he'd been trained to do. But on this old piece of crap ship? Its nav comp was so old he had to completely rewire it at least twice, before they allowed him to get the right parts for the new one.

Of course, they stole those parts too. They were pirates after all.

"Lappy! Get out here!" Yelled one of the crew. He hated being called that, it was so undignified.

"Why?" He called from his bunk, "has the ship started losing its way again?"

He heard the stomping of the captain, and jumped down quickly. The last thing he wanted to do was piss that man off. He was a monster of a human, three feet across and about as thick, and he towered over everyone in the way that only a schoolyard bully could.

Lapinus ducked through the doorway and scooted himself to the nav seats, where he saw way too many red flashing lights.

"Did something hit the ship?" He asked, as he switched to manual navigation override. "I mean, this is way beyond what that little bump I felt could do."

"It was the engines," the Cap stated, coldly, watching Lapinus from over his shoulder. Lapinus' ears were bound behind his head, but even if they weren't that tone that the Cap had taken with him would have caused them to burrow themselves into his shoulders if they could.

Whether or not it was the engines, it didn't matter. Lapinus knew that the ship was headed far out of its proper flight path, and into ... "Habited space, sir," he said, quietly. "I can't avoid it, we're going too fast to stop if we take her out of hyperdrive. I can manage to get us into the spaceways, and avoid collisions with other hyper-ships there, but if we come out now, it'll be into the side of a planet for sure."

He waited, not daring to turn his head and look at the visage of the Cap. He saw the reflection in one of the screens, as the Cap straightened up, crossed his arms over his broad chest, and then nodded once.

"Aye, then, let's do that. But we'd best not get caught until we reach our destination," he warned. "So keep everything under wraps."

Lapinus waited until the Cap had gone from the station, and breathed out again. "Or maybe we could stop stealing stuff and just do normal runs without pirating, so we wouldn't all be wanted men," he whispered to himself. That would be far too much to ask, of course. Lapinus was the only person aboard who didn't really sign on for that action.

Maybe... Lapinus glanced at the hyperdrive sensors. There were dozens of ships out of phase with theirs, traveling at very high speeds, all around them. Surely one of them had to be an official star corps or military ship?

Lapinus was about to make a decision that would affect everyone, not just himself - he hesitated, his hand hovered over the pair of buttons which would allow that oh-so-close envoy scouter to pick up their radio signature.

--When they picked it up anyway.

The ship rocked from side to side, as the envoy ship's phase locks hit it. They were now in the same physical space, traveling at twice light speed.

And they, a pirate ship loaded with booty from three separate cruise line incidents, were about to be boarded by the cops.