They were young males and, from the slight distension of their throat pouches, they were here to prove a point-which given how incredibly hierarchal their society was, was pretty much the point of being a young male Silsviss.

"This are not seeming like a problem," Presit announced, her voice cutting through the ambient noise with an ease Torin had to admit she admired. Although no one became less aware of the Silsviss, they all became entirely aware of Presit. And the camera.

Odds were good pirates would prefer to remain off the evening news; Torin noted which Krai were keeping their faces hidden as Ceelin panned the camera around the room. Then she noticed that all three Silsviss were looking at her. When one started to rise, Torin glared his ass back onto his stool.

"I don't know what you were expecting," Rergis began, but Presit cut him off, the points of her teeth barely showing.

"Pretty much what I are finding, actually." Turning to look up at Torin, she added, "You are being too big to be following normal-sized people around. You might as well be staying here while Rergis are showing me the facility and explaining what actual extenuating circumstances he are referring to. Ceelin!" She chivied the camera back out the hatch, giving Rergis no choice but to follow her, trying to explain.

As everyone but the Silsviss returned their attention to their drinks, Torin walked over to the bar, silently acknowledging that Presit had effortlessly put Torin right where she needed to be. Odds were good Firrg was in this bar. No one continued to pay docking fees for the privilege of staying on board their own ship and since the captain's contact for unloading stolen ore had to be someone fairly high up in the power structure of the processing plant, she wouldn't drink anywhere they might run into each other. Or, for that matter, anywhere where she might have trouble getting back to her ship.

Finding her in a dim room full of Krai when most non-Krai couldn't even tell the genders apart-di'Taykan excepted-would be no problem. Torin had planned to find her by doing some eavesdropping among the Krai who'd hidden from the camera but, fortunately, there was a faster way. Firrg hated Humans. The bartender was Human. The fact that the Corps spent a long time teaching recruits to look beyond nearly universal default species parameters meant said parameters were alive and well in the general population.

Torin sat down, pointed at the beer spout, and said as the bartender put a glass of pale draft in front of her, "Which one is Captain Firrg?"

Dark brows rose toward the polished, mahogany dome of the bartender's head-he was old enough he might have been caught up in the permanent depilatory phase that had been popular with male Humans two decades ago or he might have just felt that in an establishment that catered mostly to a species with minimal bristling across their scalps, hair was a bad customer service idea. Didn't matter. He leaned toward her and growled, "Who wants to know."

Torin took a long swallow of beer, then met his eyes as she put the glass back down on the bar. "I do."

After staring at her for a long moment, he snorted and shook his head. If he recognized her, that was the only indication he gave. "You planning on starting something?"

"Not in here."

His grunt was noncommittal. He might have approved, or he might have wanted to see Firrg get hers. Again, didn't matter. Torin had no intention of taking the captain down in a place where a fight would be so distinctly to the Krai's advantage.

"Table just inside the door," he said after Torin took another swallow and set the glass down again. "Firrg's in the red, got the jagged scar across her head. But those five she's with? They're her crew and they're male and they'd die for her."

Torin nodded her thanks.

"I don't care how good you think you are," he added when she stood. "You can't take them all."

"I won't have to," Torin told him, sliding her slate across the credit reader and turning to go. "The thing between us is personal."

Torin knew how to walk across a room and draw every eye toward her. She also knew how to blend, look like she belonged. No one noticed her by Firrg's table until she pulled another chair up, sat down, and said quietly, "I hear you hate Humans. The Heart of Stone, which has, at the very least, a Human captain and two Humans in the crew, has taken a friend of mine captive. I plan on killing whoever gets in my way when I go in to get him back. I figure Humans killing Humans should make you happy, so you'll be willing to tell me where I can…" She twisted out from under the hand of Firrg's crewman reaching for her arm, grabbed it, drove her thumbnail into the nerve cluster on the inside of the wrist as hard as she could, slammed the spasming hand down onto the table, and said to the groaning crewmember still attached to it, "Piss off. The grown-ups are talking."

On anyone but a Krai, Firrg's expression would have been a smile. When a Krai showed that many teeth, something or someone was likely to end up eaten. "Why should I tell you anything when you're damaging my crew?"

Torin shrugged. "I could have driven my elbow into his nose ridges and assumed someone would keep him from drowning in his own blood."

"You could have," Firrg agreed, her nod throwing the jagged scar zigzagging across her forehead into relief. The edges looked too even to be accidental and Torin had a suspicion she knew the source of at least some of the pirate captain's hatred. Scars being easy enough to remove, that was a statement. It said, Hi, I'm completely bugfuk! among other things. "And you're right," Firrg continued, her expression holding the rest of her companions in place. "Humans killing Humans makes me very happy. But you're Human, and I don't do favors for Humans." She spread her hands. "So I can't help you."

"Last word on the matter?"

"Yes." Firrg looked happy to be turning her down. Her crew laughed.

Torin had really hoped they could do this the quick way. She didn't have time to fuk around and no choice but to take the time. Leaning forward, she said in thickly accented Krai, "I've heard that the reason you hate Humans is because it was a Human who laughed as you ran like a coward from a fair fight." Then she stood and walked out of the bar, trailing her fingers over the gray plastic frame around the big menu screen on her way by. Behind her, chairs scraped against the floor as they were shoved back, and there was a lot of loud swearing that Torin would bet serious money came from everyone but Firrg.

Hating Humans-or any other species as a whole-wasn't that unusual, no matter how often the H'san sent out slightly sad messages insisting that the member species of the Confederation were one big happy family. Everyone knew someone who hated their family, but no one seemed willing to clue in the H'san. Had Firrg just hated Humans, the odds were good, given that it had been established Firrg was a pirate and pirates were violent and unscrupulous thieves, she'd give the order to have Torin killed before Torin made it back to the Second Star.

"Captain Firrg hates Humans, I mean, really, really hates them. Don't know what she thinks about di'Taykan, but Humans, Humans she obsessively hates."

Obsession meant she'd do Torin herself. Obsessive hate meant she'd get up close and personal to do it. Rational people were a lot harder to manipulate.

Just past the Dargonar, about twenty meters from the Second Star, Torin stepped into a large storage alcove, half filled with replacement parts for ore processors unloaded from the fourth ship on the docking arm-the ship that didn't belong to the Silsviss, pirates, or an ex-Marine hunting pirates. When it came down to it, it was a wonder the station got any work done. The alcove wasn't entirely private, but the angles would interfere with the security cameras. The two Krai already using it took one look at her face, grabbed their clothes, and ran.