Several humans and Galactics start to play music and sing for a crowd getting off of a large vessel. The vessel is carrying many, many individuals who recently stole the ship to escape from a brutal Deregger polity that had just collapsed. -- Anon Guest
They expected police. They expected to be shot. They did not anticipate doctors. They did not expect music. The musicians were behind a barrier, but the music played through speakers as the livesuited Mediks ushered them towards a very prepared area.
They were singing in their variant of Deregger English[1]. Something that must have taken some time to do. "What can we say except 'you're welcome'/ To the beds and the meds and the food/ Yes it's okay, okay. You're welcome/ Don't refuse, it could be rude..."
They also wondered how they got away with that when the Owners were still litigious[2]. It was sufficient distraction to see groups into treatment areas and, thereafter, free treatment.
Free treatment that included a thermoblanket, a healthy meal, and their choice of soft toy to hold whilst they waited for a therapist.
Some of them caught on to the chorus and, if not singing, at least began to hum along.
It was... nice.
Their leader, or at least the one organising things before this point, had one question to ask.
"Aren't we in trouble for Grand Theft Spaceship?"
The counsellor had to take a deep, centering breath. "There are legal precedents that allow the CRC to defend you and re-imburse you for liberating yourselves from a violating polity. I can give you the easy-digest version of your rights and responsibilities that can help explain this."
"We... have... rights?" said the ersatz leader.
[1] English began as a weird language, but centuries of deep time in an isolated colony can make it even weirder than that. See file Strine.
[2] Parody is legal, even centuries after the copyright should have expired.
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