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Everything changed from that point.
Piggy’s eyes boggled in their tiny sockets.
He hesitated, his grip losing strength on the handle he’d popped free.
The platform did not stop but Draw turned his head to one side as if the ship name interested him.
The dozen piggy creature nearby raised their trotters to their goggles, twisted them, and squinted hard at Egara to get a better look at him.
Even the guards armed with the crossbow plasma weapons exchanged a wary glance.
The one with his weapon trained on me immediately took aim at Egara instead.
“Stop,” Draw said. “Take me back.”
The slaves turned the platform back around to face us.
Draw leaned forward in his chair and braced his elbows on his knees.
“If what you say is true, then that would make you…”
“Captain Egara Oskeileb,” Egara said.
Draw leaned back in his chair and pinched his lips between his fingers.
“But you still have no ship, no crew,” he said.
“My ship and crew are where I told you. And they still belong to me.”
“But you cannot call them.”
“Give me access to your communication equipment and I will. I will be at your command and will carry out any mission you wish.”
Draw thought carefully about the offer before throwing back his head and barking a laugh.
“Do you take me for a fool?” he said. “If the warden discovers I agreed to your terms and aided escaped prisoners he would destroy me.”
“Then give me back my shuttlecraft and they will never know I was here.”
I peered up at Egara with new eyes.
His name carried meaning with these people.
I wondered how much Egara had held back about himself.
I wondered why he hadn’t told me who he was.
Draw threw up his flabby arms.
“I can’t take the risk,” he said. “No. This is not a good trade. You will understand, I’m sure, as an individual of your… caliber.”
Egara seemed taken aback by Draw’s decision.
I glanced at the handles of the shivs held restrained and safe beneath Egara’s belt.
With the pigs crowding around and reaching with itchy trigger-happy fingertips for their weapons, it was only a matter of time before a fight broke out.
As fast as Egara was, even he couldn’t hope to defeat them all.
