To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch20 Dinner

Dinner

The Polished Plate really lived up to its status as a first-class restaurant, though Alwen couldn't help but think the service would be much more pleasant if the wait-staff didn't flinch every time someone moved too fast, or cringing in disgust when someone asked for any non-vegan items. With the way they acted you would think that the Terrans were all a belching bunch of barbarians. Which wasn't at all the case.

The pirates were as well behaved as Alwen had ever seen them, they were all dressed in their finest clothes, armor and swords were painstakingly polished, and they spoke in the hushed civil tones of high society. To Alwen's experienced eye they were all perfectly behaved, some more than others. Highland had even opted for a sensible kimono rather than the plaid monstrosity he wore just to offend the senses of everyone around him. Alwen smiled to herself when she saw his partner, Kevin, fuss with Terry's collar for the third time that night.

Still, perfect behavior or not, the staff cowered and shuffled nervously whenever they were addressed directly, and would glare daggers whenever they thought no one was looking. This was the third and final night that the Astaroth had booked, and they just looked like they were ready to be done with this. It was now well known to the whole crew that the staff here had called the SS on their officers, and they took sadistic satisfaction in their very apparent discomfort. The staff had even tried to call the SS on the captain and her group when they visited the first night. Station security had strolled up with pomp and swagger, only to turn tail and flee when the ship's ghoulish lawyers descended on them.

She was sitting at a large table with Sean on one side and Alice on the other across from Terry, Kevin, and the ship's helmsman Kathrine, who Alwen had yet to meet. She was what the Terrans called a variant, someone whose ancestors spliced non-sapient animal DNA with their own as a form of fashion. Kathrine had mostly human features, but the narrow pupils, elongated fangs, and long twisty black tail, gave her a strangely appealing alure. According to rumor, Kathrine had it easy compared to other variants, some were born with horrific and sometimes debilitating genetic diseases. The ancestors of those people had not gone to reputable gene clinics for their transformations and now their decedents were left to suffer the consequences. Sadly though there weren't many deformed variants left since most of their conditions either killed them off too young, or made them sterile.

Kathrine was dating one of the Lycanoid marines who had pulled up a chair from another table named Kavic, or Havoc, Alwen wasn't sure since everyone used the two names interchangeably. Everyone aboard seemed to find the pairing infinitely amusing, something about cats and dogs. Alwen didn't get it, but they seemed like a good couple.

Alwen had enjoyed her little chat with Kathrine about the intricate issues faced by Human variants, and Kavic's insight into the situation of the uplifted had only enhanced the conversation. They both seemed to intrinsically understand that Alwen as an alien was only curious and wasn't trying to be pushy or insensitive in her questions and assertions, she wished she could say the same of her date.

Sean for all his well-meaning innocence was disturbingly more ignorant than Alwen was, and seemed to be loaded with what she heard Alice call "Martian elitist bias" under breath. As a sheltered son of a minor Martian family and a person only recently out of his engineering degree Sean felt more alien and different from the Terrans than Alwen did as an actual alien. It was like he had no idea what life was like on Earth. The divide between them felt a lot like the difference between northern mainlanders and southern islanders on Torwen. She had to rapidly change the discussion when he asked if she went into 'heat'.

"So Sean I have to ask, what do you do on the ship. I haven't quiet figured out the actual difference between snipes and 'apes?" It was pretty obvious that she was just trying to change the subject, and fortunately Terry had noticed just a little before everyone else and distracted them from the abrupt change in his usual way, with insults.