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C Find out more about Reggie 27

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Looks like people want to find out about the angry Hyena.

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No matter how he tried to calm down Zack couldn't get that conversation with Reggie out of his mind. The hyena's eyes had been filled with anger and yet something behind there, sadness grief, guilt maybe. He just had to figure it out, as he sat there he decided that he needed to speak to someone about it. Try and find out what the story was.

Standing up he headed out heading for the mess hall, it had been a few hours and the ship had lifted off he guessed maybe there was a few people there now. He was right the small hall was packed as he stepped inside his eye caught sight of a familiar face Qerry was sitting with his brother along with two other wolves. He couldn't help but note the two grey wolves sitting either side of the panda had a paw each on the panda's thighs. Qerry himself look flustered and as he caught Zack staring he flushed and smiled then looked away. It might have been the bunny's imagination but he thought he saw a flash of guilt there.

He waved to Kelo and Reese who were sitting at a table along with Karlos and a young black haired human man. The human looked like he was around Zack's age, late teens early twenties. The boy also didn't stop gazing fondly at the badger and even at a distance Zack could spot a crush.

Grabbing a ration bar and a drink from the dispensers he walked over to Qerry's table. The red panda grinned widely, "heya Zack!" The little guy was beaming as if he'd just seem an old friend after being apart for years, not a new friend for a few hours.

"Hi, mind if I join you guys?" The bunny said as he looked about for a seat.

"Table's kind of full, new guy," there was a slight edge to the voice of Qieth as he stared at the bunny. The two wolves either side were giving him distinctly unfriendly looks. "I'd suggest you find another one."

"I... I'll see you later," the rabbit mumbled wandering away to Kelo's table. "Hey, mind if I join you guys."

The pony had seen the exchange and smiled kindly, "sure, sit down. Don't worry too much about the pack, Qieth, Roy and Digsy they take a while to warm up to newbies. Things'll change after your first raid. Until then some of the crew will keep you at a distance, you prove yourself in your first raid and people will be a lot friendlier."

Reaching out the raccoon squeezed the rabbit's shoulder as he sat down, "scratches cool but water runs."

Nodding and smiling at Reese the rabbit just accepted the reassurance that was meant behind the worlds. The he nodded at the badger and offer a paw to the human, "Zack."

Taking it and shaking it the human blushed, "Paul, I'm Karlos's hostage."

It was a weird way for someone to introduce themselves, weirder still to see a hostage looking like a love starved kitten at his captor. "hostage?"

"Yeah on a raid three weeks ago, the guys got into a bit of trouble and Karlos took me to keep him safe," his accent was clearly that of an elitist, probably from Earth or Mars.

"You from the core?" Zack asked as he opened his ration bar.

"Yeah, my dad is a CEO at Calio Corp, he came out the try and buy up access rights to Gallius asteroid, but then well, on the way back these guys took me." The human started a little after he said that and added quickly. "Not that I mind, Karlos has been really really nice to me and everything, it's been a real... adventure."

The badger gave an embarrassed smile and patted the human on the hand, "eat your ration bar Paul, then I have got to overhaul the number three turret make sure it's firing fine after the damage we took on the last raid."

"Yes, Karlos do you want me to go back to our room or can I help you?" Everyone at the table could clearly see the human wanted to stay with the badger.

"Hey, calibrating the guns is a one person job, Karlos will need to focus. However, you could join me and Zack in the engine room if you want, we are working on two of the engines," Kelo cut in with a friendly smile, getting a grateful look from the badger. "Karlos will come get you once he is done."

Nodding and looking down a little shyly the human agreed silently, though Zack couldn't help but notice how slowly he nibbled on his ration bar, drawing out his meal as long as possible.

"Hey Kelo, could I ask you about Reggie?" Karlos choked on his drink as the rabbit asked and the pony looked away.

"Erm look, it's not a nice subject I really don't want to get into it," the pony muttered quietly not making eye contact with the rabbit.

"It's just, he cornered me in the engine room earlier and he said you guys all turned on him, I want to know why," now that the topic was broached Zack had to have answers.

"Look, about eight months back we had to take another hostage, a young woman named Danni. Reggie took her hostage, so he had to look after her until we can drop them off at a core world." The horse began to explain he didn't look at the rabbit as he talked, he focused on the cup in his paw. "Anyway she spent a few weeks in Reggie's room and then... look she was beat up pretty bad, bruises to her face and she said he did it because she said no."

"Our medic Daisy, "Kelo nodded at the pink bunny Zack recognised from the medbay. "She confirmed they'd had sex and well, there was no evidence of rape, but you didn't see her, she was really beat up. Captain didn't believe her though and he said Reggie could stay. We skipped a couple of raids to get her back to the core early."

"He said he didn't do it," Zack muttered half to himself.

"Look kid, I say I watch what I eat but I still got this gut on me," snorted Karlos slapping his stomach. "We rob people for a living and he has a who bad bunch of bleedthroughs, he ain't somebody I am ever going to trust again." With that the badger stood up and walked away saying, "I'd suggest you don't trust him either."

Kelo stood up next and nodded at Paul, "come on, time to get to work. Zack, look if you want to know more speak to Dejo, he'll be up on the bridge, but do it quickly we need to get those engines working as soon as we can."

Zack nodded and left his half eaten ration bar, heading straight to the bridge. He found the fox sitting in the co-pilots station talking with Mike.

"Hey, erm Captian, could I have a word?" Zack muttered as the two spotted him.

Deju gave him a calculating look and snapped, "your split remains the same, and you get only a few hundred credits from this run as you didn't take part in any of the raids."

"It wasn't about that, I wanted to ask about Reggie," the fox's face contorted and he saw Mike scowl.

"Alright, what do you want to know?" the fox asked evenly.

"You don't think he did it do you, I mean you wouldn't keep a guy you thought was a rapist on board right?" It was a fully loaded question and Deju began to nod his head.

However, he didn't get to reply before the sunbear snorted out, "ha! We're pirates and he's a skilled fighter, he's still here since..." The sunbear didn't get to finish his sentence as a red furred fist smashed cleanly into his jaw and he slumped back into his chair unconscious.

"Ahhh...fucking hell, damn bear's jaw is made of granite," Deju muttered as he flexed his fingers.

The rabbit's jaw dropped as he realised the ships pilot had just been knocked out by the captain. Deju looked at him and grinned, "don't nobody question my command without facing the consequences. To answer your question, no I don't believe he did it. Danni was cabin crazy, different hostages react differently to weeks with us. Some go quite and wait for it to be over, some get really involved with us become temporary members of the crew, lovers and such. Others claw at the walls trying to get out, she was the latter. She was beat up so bad and the crew was so shocked and outraged I had no choice but to take her straight back to the core, wasting a load of fuel and a few good potential ships to raid."

"Look, I believe he fucked her and but, her wounds were all bruises. No cut's no lacerations and no claw marks, if Reggie had worked her over in a fit of bestial rage then raped her, she would have been sliced up badly." The fox took a deep breath, "Daisy confirmed there was no vaginal bruising or tearing. More than all of that, I have known Reggie for a long time, he was as honest a pirate as they come, an idealist. He stays on a ship where everyone hates him, because deep down he still wants to make a difference. I look into his eyes and I still see my friend, the bleedthroughs don't control him I know it. Eight months living with a crew who think he's a rapist and he's not laid a finger on one of them. You tell me, does that sound like someone who is out of control?"

"I... guess not," mumbled the rabbit, what the fox said made sense. Yet Kelo didn't seem the type to just condemn someone for something they didn't do.

As Mike moaned and started to come around Deju nodded and replied, "well make up your own mind. Now I don't pay you to sit around the bridge and chat and this bird still needs two engines fixed. I believe that's why I hired you in the first place."

"Yes Captain," Zack replied and nodded to the still stunned bear as he left the bridge. The rabbit headed straight to the engine room, where he spent the next few hours with Kelo and Paul. The human was pleasant enough, but it was clear he really didn't understand the realities of life in the colonies. Paul clearly had never missed a meal or three in a row because there is no food on the planet. He had no grasp of the importance of the pirates and the impact the cores attempt to control them had on every day life in the colonies.

Mostly the human wanted to talk about the badger, apparently Karlos had done something that nobody had ever done to the rich boy. He'd put him in his place and treated him with a firm paw. The human divulged a little too much of what he and the badger had gotten up to during his captivity. Paul was due to be let off the ship as soon as they docked at Karas in eighteen hours. Zack could see the human didn't want to go, but Kelo assured him quietly he would be made to. Little lovesick rich human boy's were of little use on a ship of pirates.

Zack tried to talk more about Reggie, but Kelo didn't want to discuss it. It felt weird to push the pony for more. It was clear that he had as much information as he was going to get, so he tried to find out about Qerry's brother and roommates instead. Kelo told him again that many of the crew didn't trust new guys until after their first raid. All new crew members had to be part of the boarding party, apparently undercover agents were common, it wasn't until a new crew member proved himself in action that the crew started to trust them.

After three hours and two destroyed decare units Kelo took the tools out of his paws, got the frustrated and embarrassed rabbit to talk him through. Much to Zack's annoyance the pony managed the delicate job on the first try. He was getting better, but while his mind knew what he should do, his fingers were somewhat lacking in follow through.

Kelo was patient though, he just smiled and told the rabbit that his muscles would learn. Afterwards the horse gently encouraged the rabbit to help Reese with his robot assembly. A few hours working with the robotics, the finer screws and delicate work with the sweet raccoon offering incoherent and yet strangely helpful words proved very useful. By the time the others packed up for the evening Zack was getting much more confident, the droid was half assembled. He identified it as part of a battledroid, an older model that was used on some asteroids instead of police units.

The bunny stayed by himself for a while continuing to work on the droid for another hour or two. As he worked his mind went back to the hyena and his panda friend. Those wolves had their paws on his friends thighs, he found himself wondering what had happened with Qerry before they saw each other in the mess. He also thought back to what Deju had said about they hyena, everyone on the ship had made their minds up, it seemed they had tried and sentenced the hyena with just one person's word and no actual evidence.

The fox had said he had looked into the hyena's eyes and something told Zack the only way he would find out the truth was to go and look the hyena in the eye and ask him for his version of events.

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Vote by clicking thumbs up on the corresponding comment below,

A Go see Qerry

B Go speak to Reggie

C Go back to his cabin and get some sleep