Shreeah and Lapinus talked for a few minutes, and then Shreeah's belt comm buzzed for attention. "We've captured the others - we're going to want to start a sweep of the ship for contraband. What's your status, Shreeah?" Said a crackly voice.

"I'm ... checking out the cabins. I think - " she took on an amazing tone, "I've just found someone - wait, wait!" She said, a convincing tussle into the wall later she added, "it's okay - it's okay, are you all right?" Shreeah gave a very human wink.

The comm link was still open. Lapinus looked at it, and at the Zh'mrrel in a kind of astonishment. "I..." Lapinus said weakly, "I'm all right, now... Please don't hurt me - they hurt me..."

It wasn't much of a lie, either. Lapinus had sustained more than just a few bumps and bruises at the humans' hands aboard the ship.

Shreeah confirmed to her scout crew that she'd found a 'hostage' who had been hiding among the crew's quarters - she even claimed that he'd been so scared that he ran from her, but not in that criminal way - and they bought it. Lapinus for one was amazed. He'd never really been able to charm the guys on the ship - and the women weren't interested in him at all the way that human men seemed to love furry companions.

"How can I thank you," Lapinus sighed, sitting on his bunk and gazing at the dark furred woman.

"Well, you could start by telling me where to look for the weapons that were stolen, and then the rest of the loot if it's hidden well." Shreeah said, all business once again. "Don't worry. I won't let them put you in with the common criminals, pirate."

"I am not a Pirate!" Lapinus indignantly swore.

"Suuuure you aren't. Like I'm not a warrior. But it's okay. You're not the leader and we've apparently been after these creeps for a while."

She stood and indicated that he show her out, and find some of those stolen goods they'd been tracking. Shortly, the rest of the scout crew gathered to take inventory. Shreeah's job done, and the rest of the pirates in the brig under sedation until they could get back to the space port nearest their destination, she decided that Lapinus would help her look around the ship to decide what else might be available for salvage.

"It's a crap ship," he stated, "I mean, it used to be a nice one, but they've just beaten it to death like some of their old captives." There was a starkness to his tone, a desolation that said he'd been there for one too many of those incidents. "But the Cap didn't want to spend the money he'd been making on repairs, no. He just wanted to store it away somewhere."

"Where?" Shreeah asked, absently palming a shiny object. She'd hardly noticed it, until Lapinus pointed out that the keys to the kitchen larder stores weren't really going to do her a heck of a lot of good outside this ship. She shook her head, her huge mop of white furry hair tossing about. "Sorry. I do that. I mean, look at them!" She jangled the keys in front of Lapinus, but he didn't seem to see their importance.

"Anyway," Lapinus said as they cleared out a couple bins of dry goods, "yeah, the Cap has all kinds of money somewhere. Fat lot of good it'll do him and the rest. He won't tell anyone where it is."

"That's silly. Why have money and stuff when you can't share it?" Shreeah asked, and while Lapinus was busy grinning about how naive that statement seemed, he also realized something.

"... Unless the location is stored somewhere on board," he said, quietly.

Shreeah turned to look at him, his ears were tilted a bit and he looked very cute. "Why would you say that? Why wouldn't he just remember where he put it?"

"Well, look at this," Lapinus said as he took her toward the navigation controls. "This is an ancient piece of crap machine." Shreeah nodded, recognizing the signs of wear and tear if not the actual design of the machinery. She wasn't exactly up on modern features of starships so much as the places that those ships could take her. "I've asked a bunch of times if we could replace it, but the only things he let us fix up were the exteriors and the connections. Not the actual navcomp circuits."

Shreeah might have understood what he meant, if he wasn't bouncing around so much while he spoke. "And?"

"And, Shreeah, the information is probably right there, somewhere in the navcomp logs! I mean, we went all over the place, but hardly ever used a standard starship route. We didn't want to get caught, after all. So..."

"So -" Shreeah finally caught on, "so you think you could find his loot."

A furry grin began to spread on Lapinus' soft lips. "I think so, and then maybe, we could retire in style..."

***

Shreeah gave an excuse to her fellow scouts: "Well one of us should help keep this ship on course, right?" She had gone in to give her report debrief, and then decided that she wanted to bring what little she owned into the ship with her. She always did that, anyway, when she conquered an enemy no matter how paltry, she'd somehow manage to work herself into either their accomodations or bringing some of theirs along with her own stuff. This time, she wanted to spread out a bit, and her quarters were shared with some human wreck who thought her scratching was so sexy.

They allowed Lapinus and she to remain aboard the captured ship while the scouter and it were still connected in hyperspace. Lapinus pointed out that he was a qualified pilot, and would be able to help drop the ship down to planetfall - they couldn't possibly do that all from the scouter anyway. Besides, he explained to her superior when they did finally meet, the ship was so old and broken down if they nudged it the wrong way it'd be lost in hyperspace the same way they'd come to be in the crowded star line anyway.

While the crew of the scouter ship congratulated itself and looked up what the bounties on these pirates would add up to, Shreeah and Lapinus were busy glancing through all the star logs. To Shreeah they made little sense, but she could help in one way. She brought up logs for the trips that Lapinus knew were high hauls. Then, he had time to look through each of them to locate the same coordinates.

And shortly, they found them. One site in common on sixteen runs - no where near anything else, nothing special but it certainly wasn't the Cap's doddering grandmama that they were visiting when the crew were confined to quarters on those planetfall trips. He was obviously loading down the coffers of his own private place, with the loot that the whole group should have shared.

"Isn't it still stealing?" Shreeah asked, earnestly. "I mean, from what I was told, even though no one has found it, it's still stolen goods. But if they can't claim it back, and we take it, aren't we stealing from him?"

Lapinus tried to iron out just why it wasn't - but was having a hard time explaining it because Shreeah would ask strange questions at odd times. She seemed to have very little idea of actual property laws - she did know what was hers, but that was given to her by her friends or had been earned or bought for her missions.

"This is different," Lapinus said, simply, and Shreeah felt it okay to leave it at that. She was tired, sleep would be welcome after such a long day!

Lapinus watched her, as she snoozed. She'd be awake for planetfall, that was hours away. For now, he contented himself by looking through the Cap's private quarters for any sign of where this loot might be located. He'd never been off the ship while they were pirating goods from other ships - and he'd only been allowed to leave the place while in the presence of at least one other crew member. They were still always afraid that this weak link, their navigator - the getaway driver essentially - would bolt from them and turn them in.

They'd think that anyway, but at least Lapinus knew he'd be far away from them soon enough.

***

"What'd I miss?" Shreeah asked when she woke. She'd slept soundly, after all that excitement she felt she deserved it. And besides, she felt comfortable near Lapinus. He made her feel all... tingly nice. She liked his smell, and was convinced that she'd like him even more when they got the chance to bathe properly and groom a bit. She thought maybe he would like being groomed by her.

She had no idea that he spent at least half the time watching her sleep, thinking exactly the same thing.

"I think I know where to look," Lapinus said, "it can't be too far from the landing spot." He patted his vest pocket - Lapinus wore a bit more clothing than Shreeah did at any given time, but it was still mainly function over style. The vest had a dozen pockets and in each one he'd stored separate coordinates where he thought might be good places to hide out.

"We're ready to disengage the hyperspace phase link," said a voice on the intercom, startling both of them. "So are you up to guiding in manually?"

"Of course I am," Lapinus said. "Just give me an idea of when we're unlocked."

They conversed like that for a while, but something was gnawing at Shreeah's mind. Finally, just before they were to start their hypershift out of light speed, she said, "how are we going to find another ship to use to get to this loot of his?"

Lapinus' hand hovered over the "phase" controls. They blinked for attention, and he wanted to hit them on impulse. But...

"We... I won't be needed for testifying, I've already given all my testimony to the law comp." He said, almost to himself. "So... I don't have a job, and now I'll have a record following me that says I'm a pirate."

Shreeah licked her fuzzy lips.

"So I guess there's no ship like the present one, huh?" Lapinus said, and Shreeah nodded once.

He didn't press the phase out button after all. Instead, he fed another coordinate into the comp and flicked on the communicator. "Sarge!" He yelled, "this stupid ship's doing a light-speed shimmy! I can't take her out of hyperdrive without endangering you! You're way too close and your ship is still phased to our frequency!"

There was a minute pause on the other line, and then the sargeant in charge of their op came back quickly. "Then disengage when it's safe, we don't want to lose you and our ship too. Has this happened before?"

"Constantly," Lapinus said honestly. "It's a total waste of time trying to get this ship to do what I want it to. I'll have to spin it around to make it go forward anyway. You guys get down there in one piece with the pirates - you've got records of the stuff they stole."

"Confirmed, we're dropping from light-speed now - good luck, Shreeah, Lapinus." The connection cut, and they saw a brief half-bright light through the fore observation bridge. That was the last they were to see of the scout ship...