I Like To Know Things

[Vrak Nashar]

"I'm not a very smart man." Drak said as he slowly squatted down beside the man tied to the metal chair, looking at the woman who sat across from both of them. "At least not compared to someone like you. I mean, I know things, I know a lot of things. I know how to fly a spaceship, I know how to shoot a blaster, heck I can even re-calibrate some reactors if they're about to go haywire. You know, those sorts of things. Handy things."

There was a slight flicker of light as some of the illumination from the bulb above glared off of the edge of the knife. "But compared to you guys? Pff. I might as well be a toddler."

He nodded his head.

"I mean, Chemistry? Rocket science? Robotics? That shit is waaaay out of any realm that I could ever grasp. It's a shame really, I think if I applied myself I'd be perfectly capable of learning those sorts of things, but...well I just don't have the time. I mean look at me." He gestured to himself with the knife, then pointed it towards the hull above them. "I'm a Pirate Captain! I don't have time to be going to universities. I have a crew to command! Can you imagine what these yokels would do without me? They'd burn down more villages then you or I could even count!"

Drak chuckled to himself, then his smile quickly disappeared. "Anyway, You get where I'm coming from."

Slowly he stood up, looking down at the blue skinned woman and eyeing her for a just a moment before returning his attention towards the man beside him. He looked at the man for half a moment, then took two steps so he was positioned behind him. The blade slowly slid over the mans shoulder blade, running over his skin but not piercing it. Drak's red hand rested there for a moment, the silvery edge of the knife holding against the mans blue skin.

"I need people like you." He went on. "To help me do what I want."

The blade slowly crept up towards the mans throat. "What do you say?"

 

[Beatrice Govan]

A grimace.

As situations went, this wasn’t ideal. In fact, it was the exact opposite of ideal. How had this happened, how had they been so vulnerable? They came so suddenly and without warning, and the modest security detail had been no match.

Evidently there had been a major oversight somewhere. A mistake to learn from for future preventative measures.

If there was a future.

The Devaronian spoke, a lot. It was somewhere between rambling and gloating, very far from direct and to the point. Thrask’ard’amath supposed that the knife was the point, and that he was just having a bit of fun, perhaps a spot of mind games.

Naturally she was scared, maybe not as scared as her colleague was with a blade to her throat, but it was a dire situation if any. Nonetheless, there was no need to lose her head at this moment in time, the Chiss was sure that this unsavoury fellow would oblige if she wished to do that.

“What is it you require?” Skarda inquired, red eyes watching the tip of the blade with due caution, “Drugs? We do not manufacture narcotics if that’s what you are after.”

It was the first assumption to make, illicit materials for illicit men. It was the logical conclusion, although perhaps a bit judgemental in the face of a dangerous man.

---

[member="Drak Sivas"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Skarda"]

Well, that was pleasant. He hadn’t expect cooperation to be perfectly honest, he’d expected them to try and kill him...maybe stab him a few times, but then again he’d hardly ever dealt with Chiss before. They were strange creatures to say the least. Logical to a fault, bright red eyes, skin that made them half look like they belonged in a freezer.

Weirdos.

For a moment Drak didn’t say anything, he just let the feeling of the room sink into their souls. There was no need to rush this after all, he had all the time in the world, all the time to do whatever he wanted.

The Knife pressed closer against the man’s throat, a thin pinprick of blood beginning to form as the tip of it dug into the edge of his skin. The Pirate smile for a second, horns reflecting the meager light that came from the single bulb above. He let the knife linger there for a moment more, but he found the feel of the moment utterly lost.

“Ugh.” The Devaronian said with distaste.

“You people.” He intoned with a frown. “No fun.”

He did indeed want them to manufacture drugs, it was why he had come so far and why he had attacked their station. Piracy was all about gaining valuable tools for later use, and what was more valuable than his very own researchers. “No. I don’t want narcotics. I want Stims.”

Stupid Chiss.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Silence sat in the air, and her eyes still remained trained upon the knife.

No doubt Skarda was glad that she was on the other side of the room but in the same breath she had no desire to provoke the man into hurting or killing her colleague. Perhaps indulging the Devaronian in his own form of entertainment would prevent a rash move.

It was hard to say.

The tip of the blade drew blood, not much but enough to garner at least some intimidation. Red eyes went from the knife to her colleague’s face where panic was clearly drawn, his loss of composure was to be expected given the scenario.

There was an urge to give a sarcastic response to his frustrations regarding the lack of fun, but Skarda thought better of it. Even if xenophobic arrogance wished to mock such a pointless creature.

“You want us to make stims for you?” The Chiss asked, almost in disbelief, she couldn’t imagine that they had the facilities to do such, he had said it himself, he wasn’t a man of science, "and we are to presume that you have a laboratory for us to use?"

---

[member="Drak Sivas"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Skarda"]

"That I do." He didn't. "It's a wonderful little thing, I swear, cost me a fortune and a half to build."

Drak actually had next to no idea what went into the making of a laboratory, for all he knew all they needed were some cups and wooden sticks to swirl things around with. That seemed a little preposterous to him of course, but he never quite knew. The knife slowly slipped away from the man's throat, though notably Drak didn't move an inch away from the man. A rather broad smile still painted his face, the grin being a note to just how much he was trying to force his own brand of fun on things.

"It's great, really. I'm sure you'll love it when you get there. Shame that the others on the station won't be joining you but...well what can you do." He shrugged, trying to get a rise out of the Chiss woman with how nonchalant he had been about killing her former coworkers.

Former because they were now dead obviously, they didn't quit.

Chiss weren't very emotive, at least not the ones that he had met, and this woman was very much the same. It bothered him slightly, but only because he couldn't read them all that well. Ordinary people were easy, they showed fear in their eyes, on their face, in the way they moved, but Chiss? They were like brick walls. It was extremely obnoxious, especially given that Drak needed this woman...and probably the man he'd nearly cut from ear to ear, to take the next step in his little endeavor.

"So what do you say?" He said with a broad smile. "Do you want to see what I have to offer?"

Not that there was a choice.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

A dark eyebrow quirked, it was hard to believe that a pirate would be waltzing around the galaxy with a fully functioning chemical laboratory, but stranger things had happened. Perhaps it was built with this grim endeavour in mind. Perhaps it was a lie.

The knife shifted away from her colleague’s throat, but instead he opted to switch to an emotional weapon instead.

Already with a grimace upon her features her jaw shifted, they could mourn in private later, if there even was a later. Many who had perished had died because they insisted upon fighting in a losing situation, but of course the Chiss didn’t discount ill-discipline of bloodthirsty wretches either.

Did he wish for mind games? Her stare moved, locking onto the pirate’s eyes with unwavering determination

“Likely not a shame on their part, I can imagine that death is preferable to your hospitality and living conditions,” Skarda said sharply, very aware that their lives were still in peril. However she would be able to see when pressed if pride ruled his mind rather than sense.

If he wanted them to produce stims, then it would have been completely illogical to thin the ranks of functioning chemists down to one. It would hamper any potential production…

...and perhaps death really was preferable.

“Fine. What do you have to offer?”

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Skarda"]

"That wounds me." Drak said as he pointed the knife towards his heart, his face stern and somewhat serious. She was right in a way of course. While his prisoners didn't usually tend to live in absolute squalor they were probably better off dead. He'd done this exact thing two or three times now, though each time the scientists he kidnapped had told him that they weren't actually capable of doing what he needed. That had angered him of course and well...things had happened. He couldn't quite remember what he'd done, but suffice it to say the scientists had been useless after.

"I have everything to offer." Drak said with a smile. "Your life for starters."

He tapped the blade on the shoulder of the male Chiss. "The lives of your colleagues. Pretty much everything. You're not really in a position to negotiate here. I could just kill you and find another scientists to do my work for me, sure it would be inconvenient, but honestly there's so many of you in this galaxy..."

The Devaronian trailed off and let it to her imagination.

Of course intimidating Chiss was just about as difficult as making them laugh, but they were logical creatures, and hopefully they would see the logic in following along with what he wanted. Everyone wanted to live after all, even creatures that couldn't think wanted to live.

And Chiss could at least thing.

"You do as I say." Drak began with a smile. "Make what I need, and I let you live, feed you, and maybe give you a pillow or two."

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Oh yes, your goading thrills me. It is such an attractive quality that doesn’t completely highlight your personal flaws and insecurities.

Needless to say, Skarda’s tongue was somewhat bitten during that train of thought, her hard red stare still pointed very much in the pirate’s direction. They weren’t exactly the best type of people to intimidate. Of course, it was stressful, of course, she didn’t want to die but in the same breath composure was a Chiss’s best friend.

However, she had no wish to feel inferior to him, her situation be damned.

“Yes, I imagine that those poor plant biologists that you previously captured were rather flustered when you demanded that they produce stimulants for you,” Skarda retorted, her tone completely biting, her colleague even now shooting her a glance of ‘are you mad?!’

“Given your self-admitted lack of knowledge in fields of science, I can’t imagine that you’d know a histologist from a pathologist,” the Chiss continued, head held higher-and-higher as she spoke, “yes, you could capture and dispose of many more scientists, but whether you’d get the ones you’d need is another question.”

A tilt of her head, a flare of the nostrils.

“With each raid increases infamy, increases security, and decreases your chance of success.”

If she could have folded her arms across her chest, Skarda definitely would have been doing that during that moment, even if her fellow Chiss was now looking on in complete horror. Pride might have been an issue here, but she would be damned before she submitted to a sub-human brute.

A sneer appeared upon her face, bold and confident, "Do what you want, hun.”

---

[member="Drak Sivas"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Skarda"]

He frowned for a brief moment.

She had a point of course, a small one, but it was a point nonetheless, however that didn't really mean that Drak had to care. He particularly didn't want to care when she used an unpleasant amount of attitude in her tone. He could have done without that. A small twitch of his lips, a raising of his eyebrow, a tightening of the muscles in his hand marked him as being slightly irritated. For half a moment he did consider simply slitting her throat and just ending it there, but...well he couldn't help himself.

"Mouthy one aren't you?" He half backed off for a second, looking at the other Chiss.

The man had remained silent almost this entire time, not saying a single thing. Perhaps he was more stoic than his companion, or perhaps he simply knew that she would do the best talking. Either way Drak now began to wonder something. Slowly he shuffled forward, moving between the two Chiss. There was a thin trail of blood from the mans neck, one that had slowly snaked down his chest and towards the floor. Drak watched it for a moment, then turned to the man.

"Bet working with her is a pain." Drak nudged towards the woman. "I wonder though...does she need her tongue to work?"

His eyes turned towards her. "I presume not."

A hand came up to grasp her chin, quick like a viper, the blade of the knife sneaking forward as he jerked her towards himself.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

There was no winning in this situation.

No matter how compliant they were, there was no doubt that they would be experiencing mistreatment, that much was evident. Was it worse to antagonise him now and pay for it swiftly or to be meek and subservient and broken down over time until it would end.

Frankly, Skarda was a woman who would have chosen to go out with pride clenched in a bloody fist.

The Devaronian came for her, or rather her tongue. It was likely that this was not a bluff, if she continued her verbal sass the Chiss imagined that she would be facing a rather prompt exit from the living world. He would have no qualms with cutting out her tongue, this much she knew but that did not necessarily grant death, well, blood loss aside.

Her chin was caught in a rough grasp, head titled to look upwards at him with the threat of mutilation looming. From a logical standpoint everything in the Chiss body can be replaced, prosthetics were advanced and often superior. An arm, a leg, a heart valve, a tongue.

However there was fear, her blue skin was visibly clammy and her heart pounded hard within her chest. Palms were slick and her breathing rate was increased. Of course, she was afraid, it was only natural.

Still Skarda didn’t break her stare.

---

[member="Drak Sivas"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Skarda"]

"I Suppose you need the eyes." The Devaronian side as the knife came to rest on the womans tongue. He wasn't actually going to mutilate her, not yet anyway. She still had to communicate with him in some form, and honestly the idea of her typing into a keyboard just to have a robot say whatever she wanted to...well it was amusing but would get very old very quick. Of course that didn't mean he couldn't scare her, especially since he could not see it was working. "Though who can fucking tell with you people."

He slipped the insult in as the blade slowly sliced across the woman's tongue, leaving a shallow trailing cut as he withdrew the blade.

"Understand me. I need you, yes, but that need only goes so far as my willing to put up with any bullshit you're throwing my way. There is a very thin line between what I tolerate and what I don't. Make no mistake, I will happily kill you. I will even more happily cut off parts of your body that I don't find necessary." He gave her a dead stare.

Their relationship would have no questions.

He was in control here, he was the one that got to say whatever he wanted, do whatever he wanted. He got to dole out the consequences and he most got to doll out the back talk. This woman, and this man for that matter were nothing but peons, barely above slaves.

"You do what I say, when I say." Drak said simply. "Do that, and you'll live."

For now.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

It was another moment where it was necessary to bite her tongue, unfortunately there was a knife where her teeth would have been. Unfortunate, or maybe fortunate, depending on your view of things.

Skarda winced, feeling the sting of the blade move slowly across her own tongue. None too pleasant, but ultimately nothing fatal.

The copper taste of blood flooded her mouth, if she was a very stupid woman she would have spat it back in his face but she did not in fact take that rather unwise decision, not today. Instead the Chiss just opted to swallow her own crimson, generally not recommended in large quantities but not life or death.

Likely due to the use of the knife, Skarda had decided that she was going to cool it on the verbal tongue lashings...well...at least for now, there was always a later, even if it wasn’t at all recommended for limbs and life.

Still looking the creature in the eye, the Chiss nodded, sparing him from any further sass and tentatively agreeing with his terms.

They were going to be playing the long game.

---

[member="Drak Sivas"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Skarda"]

"I'm glad that we understand one another." Drak said as he slowly righted himself, letting go of her chin and standing on his own two feet. The knife dripped with a little bit of blood, but that wasn't anything to be bothered about. Blood was blood after all, Drak had seen plenty of it in his day. He shifted slightly, stretching so that his back cracked as a loud yawn escaped his lips.

All in a days work.

"Now." He began again, this time a little less serious. "Tell me exactly what you've been working on."

He needed Stims. Specifically he needed stims that would improve and push his crew to the next level. The idiots that he called his crew weren't really the best trained nor were they the most motivated, but Drak hoped to change that. Drugs were an amazing tool in the arsenal of any leader, and Drak needed to give his crew something that made them...better. Something that made them faster, stronger, maybe even smarter, but also something they could become addicted to.

Addicts after all made the best servants.

If they knew that Drak and only Drak could supply them with what they needed, then they would stick with him. Of course it would help if he created some sort of antidote...or rather if these two created some sort of antidote.

He looked at the two Chiss then wandered into the corner of the room, pulling over a metal chair with a loud screeeeeeeech as it was dragged across the floor of the cell. Eventually he placed it down onto the ground, spinning it so he could sit himself down between the two scientists. He pointed his knife towards the woman, flicking some of the blood onto her face. "You, what have you got for me?"

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Now that the verbal foreplay was over it was onto business...or well, slavery.

Her tongue throbbed, a hot stinging sensation running over the organ as the Chiss questioned the very cleanliness of the knife, she very much doubted that he was a creature that kept his weapon maintenance up. Just observing him summoned feelings of rust.

The chair screeched horribly across the floor, letting off the kind of sharp noise that you can feel in you teeth. More mind games, establishing dominance. They just had to keep their heads, this was only the beginning.

Skarda stared impassively, as the blood splattered onto her cheek.

“Currently,” the Chiss scientist said before pausing to adjust to speaking with her bleeding tongue, it was a peculiar sensation, “we are...or rather were working on stimulants to prevent the need to sleep.”

It didn’t sound particularly impressive, there were already a vast number of drugs on the market for such, but this was for purposes greater than simple garden variety uppers. Application would be military, to keep the mind awake and alert over long stressful periods of time.

“Without side effects,” she added.

That was the large problem. Sleep was an absolute necessity, so much that the deprivation of such was considered to be torture. It undid the balance of emotions, destroyed judgement and even caused hallucinations. Yes, you can force somebody to stay awake, but could it be done without the detrimental factors?

---

[member="Drak Sivas"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Skarda"]

Sleep huh? It wasn't quite super strength or speed, but it was something. Sleep was something that everyone needed, hell even he needed sleep, with out? He frowned for a moment and thought about just what his crew could do without sleep. In truth it wasn't as big as a boon as one might believe. On a starship there was quite a bit of down time. They didn't need to all be active at once...but once they were active things usually tended to keep going at a rather accelerated rate.

So then it was more about timing then anything else. Drak mused for a moment, thinking of the possibilities, planning, plotting. It was a way to make money at the very least, a fringe benefit that he could see coming on, it just wasn't quite what he had wanted.

That didn't mean he wouldn't use it though.

"I see." Drak said as though he were actually interested, the knife waving around slightly. "How close were you? Nearly done?"

When they had taken the station they had also taken all of the research on board. Drak was no fool, and although the idiots on his crew usually tended to just want to smash stuff he had gotten them to hold back in order to keep things intact. That meant the good Chiss doctors wouldn't have to start from scratch, but also meant that he had access to knowledge from the entire research group, not just this particular project. While he wouldn't understand most of it, but it would give him ideas.

"Could you reproduce it now?" That was really what he was interested in. Even if it wasn't exactly what he wanted he could still use it.

And after, he would set them to work on what he needed.