“Not agreed!” Hairy shot back, shaking his head violently. “You aren’t going to deal with us ‘at your earliest convenience.’ You’re going to deal with us right now. What’s more, the captains aren’t going anywhere until after we’ve settled this. You don’t seem to understand. We’re dealing from a position of power. You don’t tell us what to do, we tell you!”
His words hung in the air, forever irretrievable. Unseen by Hairy, Tambu’s eyes narrowed, and his expression froze into icy grimness.
“Is that how it is?” he said softly. “And just what sort of orders do you and your pirates have in mind for me?”
Any of the captains could have told Hairy that when Tambu’s voice went quiet like that, it was a clear danger signal. What’s more, the men never wanted Tambu to think of them as pirates. Unfortunately, the captains weren’t there to advise Hairy at the moment.
“Well,” Hairy began confidently, “first we demand the right to choose our own captain. Even though we’ll probably elect him from within our own crew, we want copies of your personnel files to see who else might be available and what their qualifications are. Second, we think the crews should have as much say in how the fleet is run as the captains do… including access to you for private conferences. Finally, we want your signature on an order to execute Egor for gross abuse of the authorities of a captain.”
“Is that all?” Tambu asked mildly.
“Well, there are a lot of little things,” Hairy admitted. “We each want a bonus to compensate us for what we’ve had to put up with serving under Egor-and there are some benefits we think every crewman in the fleet should have. We’re still putting the list together. We figure we should make the most of this while we’ve got the chance.”