"Guests," Mathiras says. "You're guests."
"Crew," I volunteer. If no one else wants to arm the humans, I will. I'll give ’em whatever they need to feel safe and secure. And at some point, when that suspicious, haunted look leaves Jade's face, I'll even tell her about Earth. Not right now, though. No one needs that sort of bomb dropped on them when everything else in their life is so uncertain. It can wait.
"So we're your guests," Jade continues. "Until when? And where are you going to take us, if not to Earth? Another space station where we'll be sold off once more?"
"Rather just go back to OUR ship and take our chances," Ruth adds, shooting an angry look my way, as if I'm the one to blame.
"You can't do that," Mathiras says. "Let's for a moment forget the one hundred and some odd slaves in stasis—"
Straik makes a strangled noise. Something tells me he's not about to forget.
"—you won't be safe there. You don't have the supplies, and your ship is heading toward an ice field in deep space. In another month or two, you could be lost forever. If you go into that field, you won't be coming out, and no one will be able to come after you."
"Provided it doesn't completely destroy your ship with debris," Kaspar adds helpfully.
"You say there's an ice field. How do we trust you?"
Mathiras gestures at the computer on the wall. "We can show you on the screens!"
"And how do we know it's not another trick? You're still not answering my question. If we leave our ship, where do we go that's safe?"
"There's a farm planet," I begin. "It's called Risda III, and it's friendly to humans."
"Why does that man have his head in his hands?" Helen asks, interrupting.
We all turn to look at Straik. Sure enough, he's shaking his head, his hands over his face. I try to bite back a smile. I can just imagine how he feels about that. The scandalous uncle his family has been trying so hard to make everyone forget will be front and center, and Straik will be tied to him if he dumps dozens of humans in his lap. This has to be his worst nightmare.
Which makes me kinda amused. Straik's decent enough—the way he treats the clones tells me that—but man, he does not have a sense of humor at all.
"A farm planet sounds like a load of bullshit," Ruth says. "How do we know the moment we agree to this you don't drive us straight to a brothel?"
Mathiras seems unbothered by her skepticism. "We're different than the others you've run across."
"You mean you're not pirates?" Jade asks.
"Well…no, we're pirates."
"But you're different," Jade says, her voice flat.
I turn toward her. I get fear. How long did it take before Zoey started to trust us? I know she's backed into a corner and she's trying to bargain for the best position for her friends and herself. But she has to trust us. If they don't come with us, it's a death sentence. "You can trust me. You know you can."
Her eyes soften as she looks at me, and I see the fear and hope in her gaze. She wants to trust. She does. Jade licks her lips, thinking, and then looks over at the girls across the table, and I realize she's not deciding for herself, but for all of them…and that's going to change her answer. "Look at it from our perspective," Jade says in a soft voice. "Ever since we woke up, we've been abused and enslaved and told that what we want doesn't matter. We've met round after round of pirates who all wanted the same thing. And now you show up—"
"Still pirates, I might add," Alice interjects.
"—and you say you're different," Jade continues. "But you used a stun gun on us—"
—after you attacked us first," Kaspar points out.
"—and then you cuffed us, separated us, interrogated us, but NOW we're supposed to trust you." Jade tilts her head, watching me. "How do we know that you're not going to just put us in chains and enslave us the moment we agree to head off with you guys? How do we know we're not condemning a hundred and thirty-two people to the same fate? Because right now, those people are safe in those pods. They're dreaming, and they're safe, and they're not aware that when they wake up, they're going to be slaves. But if I agree to go with you guys and you betray us, I'm fucking all of them over. Not just me, not just Alice or Ruth or Helen, but everyone."
No wonder she's so stressed. That's a lot of responsibility, and Jade's taken it all on her shoulders, I can tell.
It's a good thing she has someone like me. I'll make sure she never takes things too seriously. I'll make sure she smiles. And I can massage the stress out of her shoulders every night.