Rati's tran picked up her words, although her meaning was painfully clear from her tone alone. He lowered his arms to his sides, jammed his hands into loose pockets just above his hips and leaned lazily against the wall as he began to speak.<br/><br/>"Actually, you could say I've been kidnapped. I'm part of a salvage outfit based a few light years from here; I was running a sweep in this sector, and I picked up a wave on the emergency channels. I came to investigate, but scans said there were no life signs detected. I was making another pass when my dustwalker got 'jacked by this psychotic graveship. The automated systems decided my 'walker was a runaway escape pod and hauled me aboard. That was going on forty cycles ago. Now my ship's locked down, and I've been wandering the corridors ever since, looking for a way off. You're the first living thing I've seen since I fell into this mess," Rati said.<br/><br/>It was difficult to read the expressions flashing across the alien's face as it listened to his tale. Rati searched his memory trying to decide what species the little creature was; it looked similar to members of a few old tradeship crews he'd run across since joining Crent's salvage shop. What were they called? Solarans? Homans? Something like that. He decided in passing that this little homan was probably female, as it resembled the traders only in the most fundamental traits.<br/><br/>Wait. Did homans only have two genders? Or were there more?<br/><br/>Hm. He couldn't remember.<br/><br/>Finally, the little creature that was probably a female homan started to speak...