"Hello, Engineering? Can you hear me?"

Nick paused and waited calmly. It was probably going to take them a minute to decide to talk. He spent the time thinking about what to say.

"I hear you, invader."

Nick burst out laughing and didn't bother to hide it. "Oh, oh, that is good. You people show up to this planet, demand surrender, and come down and commit genocide when you don't get what you want instantly. And we're supposed to be the invaders. That's good. Want to try again, dumbass?"

"Maybe you should stop lying. We haven't been here long enough to commit genocide."

"This world is dying. To our knowledge, there were only 44 fuakalas left alive on the planet. You just killed over half of them. The 19 survivors are all here and frankly are about ready to blow this ship up just to make sure you die."

"Who are you?"

"I'm your only hope of living to see tomorrow. I'm a human from Earth. I don't know how your computer knows my language, but if it's because you did something similar to my planet, I'll be happy to help them kill every last one of you, only I'll make sure it is slow and very, very painful. Do you understand your position yet?"

"We don't negotiate with (something.)"

"Yeah, what you just said is so stupid your computer was too embarrassed to translate it. Try again, dumbass."

"You will all die for this."

"Yawn. Yeah, yeah, yeah, bow, kneel, surrender! You're boring. You know, if you pack of idiots had been capable of even pretending to be anything but savages for five goddamn minutes, you could have had everything you wanted. These people were desperate for rescue. Now they want your blood. Congratulations, dumbass."

"We have nothing to talk about, human. This ship will do nothing for you."

"Let me guess, you have a warrior culture, right? Might makes right? Do you have a concept of honor, or is that too advanced for you savages? Because I see no sign of honor in your behavior or attitude."

"Honor is for people deserving of it. And you are the savages!"

"Right, so you really are savages. You don't actually understand the concept of honor. Good to know. Tell me, how does someone as stupid as you manage to get the skills to work on engines? Is there anyone there smarter than you? An adult, perhaps? Someone who isn't too stupid to live?"

"The call has ended, Nick."

"That's okay, Petra. We'll give them a little while, and they'll put someone else on the line. If the boss doesn't let them, I'm guessing at least one of the other three wants to live badly enough to either ignore him or shoot him."

"Nik!eh?"

"Yeah, Jenkins? I'm sorry...Geh...kin...I can't make the sounds properly."

"Your name for me is fine, Nik!eh. I assume you don't mind being called Nik!eh?"

"Of course not. I know you mean me. What do you want to know?"

"I am worried. We do not actually want to die."

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Nick sighed. "I know. I don't want to die either. But if we aren't rude enough to get their attention, nobody is going to live through this. I don't want to kill them all, but I'm going to have to threaten them. Given how stupid this guy is, we're probably going to have to start executing prisoners before they'll listen."

"What is 'execute'?"

"Um...kill them when they can't fight back."

A new voice joined the conversation. "Nik!eh, we have another problem."

"Uh, hi...um...Jen Anna, right?"

"Geh!aoa. No relation." Nick furrowed his brow a moment, trying to get her meaning, then set it aside.

"What's the other problem?"

"The second shuttle, the one that left. It is full of warriors. Eventually, they will return. Are you going to shoot them out of the sky?"

"Probably. I don't see that pack surrendering. If we can take over this ship, they could probably take it back, Petra or no Petra."

"My point is, we have a time limit."

"That is a good point. Thanks, Geh...aowa. If they start to stall I'll push them to hurry up." Nick sighed. "Jenkins, do you have someone willing to execute prisoners? If I have to, I can do it."

"I think every one of us is willing, Nik!eh."

Nick sighed again. "War sucks."

"I didn't get that, but I probably agree."

"All right. I'll give it a few more minutes, then I'm going to have to call and threaten to kill prisoners."

"Nick, you have a call."

"Speak of the devil, literally in this case."

"I didn't get that, but take the call. We are listening."

"This is Nick, the human from Earth. Who is this?"

"I am (something) engineer Kohz Malash," the new voice said. "What do you want, and what do you offer?"

Nick took a deep breath. "I want power restored to the ship, and I want a full surrender. I offer your lives, which is more than you deserve."

"We cannot surrender, Nick of Earth."

"Neither can we. And this ship isn't big enough for all of us. You understand my meaning?"

"What would you have us do? Take you somewhere, back to your planet perhaps? We might possibly do that, in exchange for the Petra."

"Yeah, see, that's not on the table. That's not an option. You people don't deserve Petra, and I'm guessing you chased it across the galaxy because you don't have any Petras. There's probably a reason for that, isn't there?"

"We deserve what we can take."

"And you're supposed to be the reasonable one? Don't convince me to tell my people to exterminate yours. My people are nasty. They might do it."

"Your people are primitives. We have been there. They could not stand against this single ship if we wanted to destroy them."

"We learn very quickly, and now we have Petra."

"You will not take Petra. As you say, we have traveled far to get it."

"Petra was given to me, a complete stranger, rather than let it fall into your hands. That does not speak well of your people."

"It is not for other races to tell us what we deserve."

"Actually, it is. Races do that to each other all the time. And right now, the human race is telling you. You don't deserve Petra. And whoever makes Petras clearly agrees."

"Give us the Petra, and all your people can live."

"All right, first, that's a worse offer than your last one, and second, I don't believe you."

"What do you want?"

"What I want is to kill every last one of you slowly and painfully. You killed a friend of mine, and a lot of other innocent people. What I will settle for is dumping you on this planet. If you're so superior, surely you can figure out how to survive down there."

"That won't work. If we went to the surface and left our ship, you would just kill us then."

"No. I would want to, but I wouldn't. See, I do understand the concept of honor, even if your people don't. If I promise you something, I will keep my promise."

"And the natives?"

"I will convince them before I promise. It may take some doing."

"That last didn't translate."

"It will be difficult. They all want all of you dead. Is that clear?"

"Yes. You cannot guarantee our safety."

"Not yet. You still aren't really offering us anything we don't already have."

"You don't have power to the ship."

"True, but we will figure it out eventually, with or without your help. Even if it took us years, we don't have anything better to do."

"We can destroy the ship."

"You can, but you won't, because you want to live."

"Do not be so sure that we would want to live after surrendering."

Nick frowned and thought a moment. "The officers. They are the ones who would be mad at you for making an agreement, right?"

"Everyone would."

"But I bet it would be easier without them."

"No, it would not."

"Yeah, you're lying. I'm going to hang up now. Talk to you soon."

"No! Wait!"

"Hang up, Petra."

"Done, Nick."

"Thank you, Petra."

"You're welcome, Nick."

Nick sighed, feeling exhausted. I hate this job. But he knew it had to be done.

"Jenkins, we need to kill everyone on the bridge."

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