The mummy reached up with his other hand to rub his chin thoughtfully. Shreds of mummified flesh fell away in the gesture, but he seemed to feel no pain as his fingers flayed his own decayed skin. “You mother must be an interesting woman,” he commented dryly, “to think that pirates can be civilized and should have manners. I can only assume she married into the family. That or times have changed more than I thought they might. Either way, I assure you, such assumptions are not only false but are so far from the truth to as to be scarcely be related to it. We can, however, be reasonable when the situation calls for it.”

The muzzle of the hand cannon did not waver once. “I doubt many people lose their hands on purpose. Well, there are always those few looking to improve themselves, I doubt that has changed in the past several hundred years! You don’t look the type though. The eyes aren’t quite wild enough.”

Dropping his free hand to his lap, and stirring up a small cloud of dust in the process, the dead man continued. “But… trade…” The words came clearly through his lipless mouth and desiccated tongue. “It sounds so…. [i]honest[/i]… so [i]wholesome[/i]. I’m not sure my crew would stand for it.”

The mechanical hounds by the door growled threateningly, conveying that they were the crew and that they had their own opinions as to the habits of pirates.

“Still, it would be unreasonable to at least hear your offer,” he remarked genially. The animated corpse waved a hand in her direction. “After all, a scion of the House of Heterodyne must have something worthwhile to exchange for her life. Oh, we could battle but I think it would be a pretty close thing between my crew and your Jaeger bodyguard.”

Jötz managed to keep the look of surprise off of his face, instead forcing his eyes to narrow as if in suspicion as he eyed both the corpse and the clanks warily. “Her ladyship ist under my protection,” he lied smoothly, “und hy vill fight to da death to protect her!”

The pirate’s dead body stood then, slowly and stiffly and with a great creak of long disused and leathery muscles. Sections of skin along the joins tore as he rose to his full height. He had been a tall man in life, and death had did very little to shorten him. His balding head with its few remaining strands of brown hair nearly brushed the ceiling. Still, the gun was kept pointed towards the pair.

“I thought as much,” came the cultured reply. Ghastly as his voice was, it remained urbane. “Even I’m not foolish enough to directly cross the Heterodynes. But you have trespassed, and I can not ignore that. I do have a reputation to maintain. Or rather I did. And I would like to keep it that way. So what is it that the Lady Heterodyne offers the great Captain Jacob Ludd?"