“Touch‚!” Tambu laughed. But I wish you didn’t have to be quite so morbid with your example.”
“Not to change the subject, captain, but can we afford to get a few more viewscreens installed?” Whitey asked. Then we can keep one thing on the main screen and still have a couple of little ones for talking to each other. I don’t know about you, but I like to see people when I’m talking to them. Otherwise I can’t always tell if they’re serious or joking.”
“That will depend on what those two ships have on board,” Tambu answered. “Whether we’re pirate or pirate hunter, I figure we have salvage rights on both vessels.”
“There should be a bundle after we sell the ships,” Puck declared.
“We’ll see,” Tambu said.
“What do you mean, ‘We’ll see’?” Whitey asked, her voice suddenly sharp. “We are going to sell the ships, aren’t we?”
“Egor to Tambu. Do you read me?”
Egor’s voice blared suddenly over the console speaker, cutting off their discussion.
“This is Tambu. Go ahead.”
“We’re in the clear, captain. This is a pirate ship, all right.”
Relief washed over Tambu like a cool wave, freeing his mind of its slowly building tensions.
“The ship’s name is the Mongoose,” Egor continued.
“It inflicted the damage on the other ship. That one’s called the Infidel.”
“Wait a minute,” Tambu interrupted. “What is the source of your information? How do you know the Mongoose is a pirate ship?”
“I’ve got a survivor here. Found him hiding in the corridor. He’s more than a little hysterical. Keeps babbling that he doesn’t want to be hanged. Claims he’ll tell us anything or do anything if we don’t turn him over to the authorities.”