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“Everyone allowed it to happen,” Morwong said. “They prevented us from getting through until she was almost gone. Theyallshould be penalized…”
“You guys aren’t familiar with the bystander effect?” she asked from her cocoon.
They gave her looks without a shred of comprehension.
Soooo… she would take that as a no.
She pushed herself upright, reaching for her water. “What would happen if you put bounties out on all your customers? You’d lose all that business, right?”
Morwong’s brows plunged. He bared his teeth in distaste. “You think I’m worried about theirbusiness?This base is neutral ground. Even pirates return when there’s no bounty out on them. And nonviolent humans arealwaysallowed here, Lucca.”
“What if it’s different now?” she reasoned. If bystanders and angry mobs were new—what else was changing? “I know everyone is feeling… tense over what’s coming. As far as the people who didn’t outright attack us go… you’ll only make them angrier by putting them away.”
Morwong rubbed his jaw. “This a situation you see a lot back home?”
“Sometimes.”
The lines of fire inside his face brightened as he stared at his screen. “Well, that’s disturbing. But we don’t live like you.”
“Everyone would have stood there and let them kill you,” Caligher said. “That hasneverbeen acceptable.”
She shook her head morosely. “They don’t owe me anything.”
“It waswrong,” insisted Caligher. The person who had blown up human ships insisted thatthiswas wrong. “You didn’t start the fight and you’re not a fighter. Everyone could see it was an attempted murder.” His eyes met hers, luminous and haunted.
“Nearly every patron could have helped you,” said Morwong. “Hunting them all down right now would be…”
“It’s not a good time, right?” she said, breaking her stare with Caligher. “You need that force for if the Aerinus comes through.”
Morwong nodded like he saw her point, but he looked no less disgusted.
Caligher gave her a sidelong look. “I thought you wanted peace.”
“Idowant peace.”
“Yet you’re okay with us loosing our fighters on your mothership?” he asked. “Thosefighters? You do realize what’s going to happen, right? I don’t understand…”
“No, you don’t understand. I’m not exactly okay withanything. I have friends on the Aerinus. This whole situation is so vastly fucked up I don’t even know where to start.”
She took a breath, her tone darkening. “But I’ve alsobeenon the Aerinus and if they make it this far… you guys will need every bit of firepower you can get. If that warship wins, it’s going to be worse than what just happened.”
* * *
Morwong put out bounties on the two direct attackers, then filed the names of every complicit patron for later. He leaned back in his chair in a stiff posture, legs crossed at the ankles and a hand splayed over his face, falling deep into thought.
Caligher ushered her out to give him privacy.
They stood in silence in a narrow elevator that faced the outside universe, slowly scaling the inner cliff. Caligher’s tail curled around her leg seemingly on its own.
His hotel was at the end of a quiet hallway at the top. A long window filled one wall, overlooking the skyline.
She stared apprehensively at the bed, and then at him.
But he didn’t look like he was in any mood to ravish her. He was… agitated. Not even looking at her as he moved through the room and set the environmental controls, exuding a claustrophobic air.
She watched him disappear briefly into the bathroom, then re-emerge and check out the window, like he expected something to happen. The ravine glittered with its usual light. He made another round through the room, engaging with things but doing nothing of substance.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
