There was a loud explosion coming from the engine room, the ship was dead in the water, so to speak. The pirate looked at the humans in the hold, most of them still completely asleep from the gas attack, only a few coming around, and only one was wide awake. They were awash with mirth, laughing to themselves. The pirate demanded what was so funny. They grinned darkly at the pirate, then, and said in a tone that was both amused and filled with warning, "Damn, I'd forgotten how fearless kids can be!" -- Anon Guest
There are some questions that must not be asked, lest the answers happen to you. The most well-known is, How could [this/things] possibly get worse? Only slightly less well-known is, How much trouble could [it/they] be? Pirate Captain "Fang" Thyl'wryk has made the mistake of asking that question. They will learn the hard lessons of the universe in due course.
In retrospect, they made a number of completely logical decisions that could only backfire in specific circumstances. Knowing that Humans Adults were pliable if they had a chance of protecting their young, Captain Fang isolated everyone younger than maturity in a well-protected, well-guarded area far, far away from the holding bay where the adults were. In order to keep the adults tractable, they were allowed access to a security feed. The armed guards in every corner emphasized the threat. Do anything we don't like, and your children suffer. This should have worked, and it might have worked if this wasn't a ship full of nerds.
To be quite accurate - a ship full of Human nerds who saw nothing wrong with answering any and all questions a child would sit still to hear the answer to. Including coaching them through how to perform tasks no child should normally be expected to perform. Many of the Human children could disassemble just about anything on the ship. Lots of the older ones knew the finer points of coding. Then again, this was a ship full of Humans. Captain Fang and the crew of the Remora[1] really should have stayed away.
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