It wasn’t often that Xanatov was afraid.  In under thirty years, he’d fought duels, faced assassins, fought off armed gangs on the streets, occasionally participated in the periphery of an actually war.  Those things didn’t particularly bother him.  They got his blood racing in a way almost as pleasant as the early stages of loving, and he faced them with sword and pistol in hand.<br/><br/>He’d saved Celeste from a Warp daemon in more or less single combat.  He’d understood the meaning of fear in that battle.   Been nearly slain from multiple wounds despite having shot the thing with his strongest laser before it even noticed him.  He’d have likely bled to death before his guards caught up had Celeste not pulled herself together sufficiently to save him.  Even understanding that was a very minor entity, that encounter had ultimately done more to feed his arrogance than to humble him.<br/><br/>This was a different situation.  Xanatov was no pilot.  He could not get on the cutter’s guns without displacing more competent gunners.  Though frequently able to participate through facilitating lines of communication, most of the last half hour had been spent strapped into a chair, heart racing, watching barrage after barrage of point defense lasers wing or narrowly miss the ship he was in, and there was nothing he could do!<br/><br/>Being no other than he was, the upshot of this was that Xantaov rested a comforting hand on Celeste’s knee and wound up massaging just the slightest bit more intimately than was strictly appropriate in public.  He got out a data slate and thumbed rapidly through people’s rosters of abilities.<br/><br/>By the end of the ordeal, his smug smile was every bit as wild as Zhou’s.<br/><br/>“Oh, I fully agree.  Get this thing fueled.  Wait for my mark to launch, though.”  He got his com bead tuned to the bridge and called to the captain’s throne.  “Nikolai, we need you on the Cutter.  I want to see what one of your abilities can do for us.  Give that key to Claudia with the instructions and put her on the throne ‘til I get back.  Also, get Abran back to the bridge, he’ll find a way to be useful.”<br/><br/>A moment later, he cut the channel, glanced at the pad, then around the lesser bridge.  “Someone get Walker up here too.  I want to see what that thing can do.”<br/><br/>He glanced at Celeste and finished quietly.  “If we get to see the Xeno in action, I’ll ask your opinion of his abilities later on.  He’s said to be a consummate hunter and I’d like a feral worlder’s assessment.<br/>