Pup
He wasn’t sure about signing on with Ravengers, but they were looking for heavy machine operators and that he could do. The problem was working with softies. They were way too easy to squish and he had to pitch his voice humorously high for them to be able to hear him
That and the official name for his species in Common was Monstrous. Now, that was just hurtful.
They had given him his own bunk. It was nice not to have to share with his litter mates anymore. Food was… well, vegetarian crap. He would have to talk to something about that. All in all, it would be tolerable for a couple of months.
It was in the mess hall that first night that he first spotted the pup. Almost stepped on him, really. Scrawny little thing, Barely came up to his waist. He pitched his voice upwards. “Never said nothing about babies on the ship.”
In a voice so squeaky, it was physically painful, the whelp replied, “I’m not a baby!”
Horuz rushed over. “Just the one. Captain keeps him like a mascot.”
“Hmm… Where’s it’s dam?”
“She got dead. Captain took ‘em as cargo after that. Just never got around to delivery.”
“Not good transporting whelps with grown men.”
“It’s fine just ignore him.”
Three days later a capacitor broke loose. He waited for direction.
The crew boss came over. “If we can get a winch around the top up there,” he pointed, "then we can lift that section and then three or so guys can skid it back into place."
He considered this. The capacitor was only about 4,000 lbs. It wasn't like he had to lift it. It had a natural pivot point. If he scrunched up like this and wedged himself under here, then all he had to do was stand up and walk it into position like this. It was way easier to maneuver himself that a piece of equipment dangling from the ceiling.
The foreman started barking orders and men swarmed around to hook it up. Whole job took minutes instead of the hour the foreman has suggested.
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"You shoulda seen it, Captain! We didn't even need the hoist. He just stepped up-"
He's stopped paying attention to what Kraglin was saying. The pup was just in the hallway and - No, that couldn't be right! "No."
There was silence. "No, what big guy?"
He rumbled. "No you don't get to fuck pups."
He tracked the culprit by smell to a table in the corner. It was easy to pick the man up by his head and it only took one shake to snap his neck. He turned back to the shocked looking Captain and his equally confused looking first mate. "If you are pandering to pedophiles, I want out of my contact now."
The whole crew was watching him. He didn't care.
"What's you name?" Captain asked.
He rolled his eyes, his name was spoken in a register too low for softies to hear. "Call me Winch."