Ears’ ears twitch in time with some inscrutable dream activity before her breathing settles back into the steady rhythm of deep sleep. She’s comfortably nestled in the crook of Ian’s arm, using his shoulder as a makeshift pillow but he remains awake, contemplating the revelations of Dex and Jarren and trying to piece together what is real. Another nocturnal twitch by the little Kowakian brings a twang of concern and wistful smile to the human’s lips, breaking his concentration.

Carefully, Ian eases away from his little friend, his mind made up, doing his best not to wake her in the process. As his arm gets clear, she rolls the opposite direction, yawns with her beak opening wide, stretches shakily, and immediately resumes her dream, exhausted. The sleep deprived human looks around the dimly lit and virtually empty cargo bay, his eyes passing over the nearby stockpile of pornography and gambling tables, still questioning their reality.

The maroon protocol droid is standing at the far end of the bay, toward the front of the ship, it’s round eyes glowing softly, apparently trying to look nonchalant and blend in. It keeps self-consciously glancing toward the human as if it’s watching him. In Ian’s primal brain, the wary and suspicious animal part that calls for caution, alarm bells sound, sensing something is wrong. Lacking an overt way to manifest this warning, his subconscious mind searches for a way to let the conscious know that something is wrong. Subtly he begins to see the droid, the source of the alarm, as of a monster constructed of cast off parts. The droid’s drill-arm and tubular lower leg trace a threatening silhouette and project menacing shadows onto the freighter’s hull in the dim light. In Ian’s mind, its eyes radiate not soft white light, but malignant intent. Once elegant and state-of- the-art, the droid has become a mechanical abomination, no doubt planning his eventual demise in it’s evil processor. I’m on to you, he thinks, boring a hole through the droid with the acid of his stare.

Feeling the human’s gaze, the droid looks back and forth with the soft whir of servos checking to see if Ian is looking at it or something else behind it. It’s doing the best it’s programming will allow to spy on Dex and Ian at Jarren’s behest. Dex is sound asleep in the crew quarters with it’s master, but Ian remains awake, so logically it is watching him. It watches as Ian tucks his blaster in his belt and heads for the exit. Certainly these activities qualify as suspicious and worthy of reporting, it calculates.

Ian passes by the droid, glaring at it in madness, sidestepping past it so as not to touch it. He then keys the door open with a quiet woosh and slips out into the night.

As soon as the door closes behind the human, Y-3PO clanks his way into the crew quarters and prods Jarren in the ribs with the grind face of it’s now functional drill-arm. With a soldier’s instincts, Jarren is immediately awake and alert if not still extremely fatigued and drained. Sitting up, he listens as the Tin Man tells him that Ian has left the ship with his blaster.

Dex, sleeping with his back to the center of the crew quarters wakes as well but shows no signs to the alien and droid. He continues his deep breathing and remains still so he doesn’t alert them that he’s awake. Fighting back his heavy eyelids, he listens. He’s able to hear the whole story since the protocol droid lacks a sense of discretion (to Jarren’s chagrin). So, Dex thinks to himself, he has the droid spying on us does he? He supposes he really can’t blame the alien for being distrustful. He doesn’t trust him… or the insane Ian either. You can only count on yourself.

[OOC: Well, much of what was in the last round of replies is off since it was preempted by Ian’s actions. Mal and Rick, please disregard any actions that take place after you went to sleep and take it from here. That is to say, there is no morning conversation with Coozer yet, etc.]