“No!”
“No?”
“I refuse!”
Galyn tilted his head to one side, staring down at Arkay. The four Decay Lords ere standing around the navigational panel, discussing the various shopping list of potential jobs they could do. The original plan was to explore the local system, but various bounties and job opportunities had cropped up, and Galyn had wanted to keep his options open. One particular job, working as extra hired security in a certain sector, had really got under Arkay’s skin.
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why?” Arkay snapped.
Galyn shrugged. “I would like a reason why.”
“I spent my whole fucking life trying to get away from that pisshole!” Arkay growled, rather aggressively. “I am NOT going back there!”
Galyn shrugged some more. “Alright, I will decline it. Just needed a reason, so I shall put “conflict of interest”. Next job on the docker is…”
“Hang on!” Arkay interrupted. “You’re not going to try and convince me to change my mind?”
“Why would I need to do that?” Galyn asked. “You do not want to. So we will not go. Same way we did not accept that mercenary contract because Retvik felt uncomfortable with it.”
Arkay hesitated and stammered, struggling to form a sentence. “But… you’re supposed to… try and convince me?”
“No, I am not supposed to convince you…” Galyn frowned, briefly glancing at Retvik and Litvir, hoping one of them could help shed some light on both his and Arkay’s confusion. He couldn’t understand why Arkay was acting the way he did. “Have you really had internal conflicts on everything you are asked to do?”
“Kinda…” Arkay sighed, calming down. “Someone always trying to convince me to do something I don’t really want to do.”
“Well, in this case, since you do not want to take this job offer, we will not…” Galyn flicked through the rest of the offers, still frowning. “Most of these are not very good anyway. We are just left with three offers. Two to scan and map out two nearby sectors and one for an espionage and research mission of an isolated world that is potentially controlled by a non-standard SBU entity.”
Litvir tutted, clearly not liking the sound of that last option. A roll of Retvik’s eyes suggested a similar opinion.
“I take it you two do not like that idea?”
“Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen…” Litvir shook his head. “There are only four of us. Should be left to someone with an army.”
“The sector mapping sounds both safer and more rewarding anyway,” Retvik added. “Plus we might find something cool, without so obviously risking being attacked by another Voidborn.”
“Do you like the sound of these mapping expeditions?” Galyn questioned Arkay.
“Uh…” Arkay paused. “We won’t be fighting anything, will we?”
“Not on purpose.”
“And it pays well?”
Galyn nodded. “Of course. We have to help build up Litvir and Retvik’s portfolios, after all.”
The smallest Decay Lord hesitated, then shrugged. “Sounds alright to me then, I guess.”
“So, yes?”
“Yes.”
Galyn smiled. “Alright. Then we shall accept these two tasks…” Still smiling, Galyn tapped several buttons on the navigation panel, adding the jobs to a list on the top corner of the screen. He then swivelled his chair back into the proper piloting position and hinted for the other Decay Lords to do the same.
“Are we leaving?”
“We are indeed.”
“Oh, cool!” Arkay beamed as he clipped his seatbelt on. “About time…”