"I should warn you that what little I've seen of slaver records," Solae began slowly, "and that was only right before we took this ship," she clarified quickly, "will not have any recognizable names. They might have a physical description and age, but they might also just have a listing of genders." While she had no objection to him reviewing what information was still stored on the ship, she felt it only prudent to prepare him for how impersonal they would be, and how the data could be frustratingly insufficient. It was not all that different from the distant past when humanity had enslaved subsets of its population for being the wrong political affiliation, the wrong religion, the wrong race, the wrong anything they could arbitrarily decide made one superior to the next. The Stellar Empire liked to believe it had moved on, but evidence pointed to it only repeating itself with the excuse that the Syshin were aliens and thus less entitled to the same liberties.

"I still want to see them," Yarue insisted.

"Mia, can you please make any records the Bonaventure has from the previous owners and their business transactions available? Translate them into Syshi as well so our new friends can read it more easily," she ordered to the AI that was present all around them and constantly eavesdropping.

"Understood, Lady Solae. The crew quarters you have elected do not have a sufficient apparatus for viewing. May I recommend that I make the records available on a handheld device?" she cooed with such blatant sensual favoritism that Rosaria looked instinctively to Rene for a reaction. He just shrugged his shoulders. The couple had grown used to Mia's peculiarities- and it was not as if the sentient machine could actually seduce the duchess. Even if she would, she was an overly emphatic fan of the romance she had witnessed in her vessel.

"Thank you, Mia," Solae nodded as she dug around the cargo hold for a device. She handed one over to Yarue before offering another one to Dasin. Both nodded to her in gratitude reflexively. "May I suggest we save that for after dinner? If you have any trouble with figuring out how to use the device, just call out for Mia no matter where you are and she will assist you."

"Can I have one as well?" Rosaria asked eagerly. What education she had was limited what Thorne specifically approved and was readily available on Zatis. The simple devices that Rene and Solae had used throughout their childhood and adult lives was a foreign freedom, with an exciting amount of forbidden knowledge, that was too tempting to ignore. "Will it tell me about other planets? Or about the empire?" she asked. Thorne had very little respect for the empress, her laws, or the politics that did not affect her business. There was a wealth of questions she wanted answers.

"Of course. Mia will only prohibit you from viewing my and Rene's personal data or making administrative decisions. You won't be able to command the ship, for example, or turn off any of the central controls accidentally. Her programming does have some restrictions that require the authority of the primary owner and user- in this case myself- so if there are any issues or conflicts she will page me for my consent," she explained. It was the nicest way of alerting them that a mutiny was impossible. Solae would not have allowed them aboard if she did not trust all three of them, but the safeguards were in place for a reason, and she did not discount the possibility that all these brave new paths they were blazing might be too much for a person to bear.

"Rene and I went to Amber Horizons," she added more conversationally. "Nari and Enro are the elders there. I do not know how long ago you were on New Concordia, or if you are familiar with that settlement, but they were very kind to us."

"Is that where you learned Syshi?" ventured Dasin. Out of the corner of her eye Solae could see Yarue's shoulders relax. Obviously the drop of two names and ordinary individual would not know was sufficient in proving once more that the noblewoman and solider were honest in their proclaimed allegiance.

"No, I learned it long before. I worked in the embassy as a diplomat with a specialization in linguistics," she smiled with a reminiscent fondness. "There was not any language spoken in which I didn't wish to be fluent. It seemed especially ridiculous to me that there was one spoken so frequently on at least half of the planets in the empire that my peers didn't care to master. It's been a very rewarding experience," the duchess confessed, "because in learning a tongue you learn much about a culture."

"Where are you embassy friends?" Dasin asked. "Why are they not here as well?"

"They were all killed by Duke Tan- or the former duke, since he stylizes himself as an emperor now and the empress has stripped him of his title and bestowed it upon me. They used artillery on the building. I was... the only survivor, and only by accident."

This somber admission made the curious Syshin fall quiet out of respect. Even Rosaria was slightly shaken by the prospect of an adversary that so coldly destroyed what was alluded to as a government structure filled with living, breathing human beings. It took a certain amount of callous malevolence to so easily spill that much blood. Even Thorne would have paused before unleashing that amount of violent. To call it a coup felt like too kind and generous a label.