Homestar Saga

Chapter 38: Panic Attack

"I saved your entire goddamned station!" Mims shouted at the comms. The Captain had been... irritable. The calm surety he'd displayed in one crisis after another had disappeared shortly after leaving Xill space. In its place was a murderous fury, barely contained.

"And you got paid for that," An annoyed trelg growled in response. "But Trelg National only sells to tier 2 customers and higher. We don't do business with likes of you."

"The likes of me!?" The Captain waved his arms as he screamed at the sales rep. "The likes of me could buy your entire fucking country! I've done shit you can't even imagine. There is no the likes of me!"

"No one cares what you've done, human." The rep told him. "We don't want your money. Argva the Progenitor forsakes all who are not trelg, but he hates humans most of all. Nothing you do will change that. You are lower than the lowest of us, and your soul will burn in the lowest circle of Han-sen, thrice cursed three times over."

"Fuck you," hissed Mims. "I should have left you to the pirates. Next time I will." He ended the transmission, then spent several seconds cursing to himself, body rigid, fists clenched.

"Well," Yvian tried for casual. The sheer intensity of the Captain's rage intimidated her, but she would cast her self into The Crunch before she'd admit it out loud. "You said it was a longshot..."

"If I want your..." Mims started, then clenched his teeth. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He uncontorted his face and toned the anger down a notch. "I mean, longshot. Yeah. The trelg weren't likely to work with us. Looking down on other species is part of their religion. Which is stupid, considering how little they've accomplished." He glared at his console. "But if they weren't so shitty they wouldn't need to be self righteous fuckheads. The more pathetic you are, the more important it is to have someone to look down on."

"We're not like that," Yvian mused. "Pixens, I mean."

"Of course not," Lissa told her. "We're not pathetic."

"We're an entire species of mostly exploited sex workers." Yvian pointed out. "That's pretty downtrodden."

"But it's not pathetic." Lissa countered. "We're a proud people with a vibrant history."

"We're the ones everyone else looks down on." Yvian gave Mims a sidelong glance. He glowered straight ahead not looking at anything in particular. Yvian wasn't sure if he was still listening.

"We're barely better than humans."

Mims didn't take the bait. He continued to glare at nothing. The three of them fell into an awkward silence.

It had been three days since they escorted the human delegation to the Xill hub. When the SDF Dresden arrived Mims had initiated his jumpdrive before he'd even finished introducing the humans to Exodus. He barely finished his sentence before the Jump effect took hold.

Once again, Yvian found herself in the sector containing the Lucendian crystal mother. Its computer suppression field was still active. The Captain had to find his way to the Recompense's bridge to bring the ship to a stop. On his way back to the hangar bay, he started to shake.