After wandering the streets of sector six, casually window shopping, I contacted Harlen to get his teleportation code for the shuttle bay. I had planned to stop at a restaurant. However, as I still don't have any local currency, it would be better to eat on my ship.

Stopping a young lady, carrying two large bags, that didn't avoid my approach. I ask her for directions to the nearest teleportation device.

Smiling up at me, she replied. "Sure, just follow me."

"Thank you, Miss. may I carry your bags?"

"Hmm, are you sure they're fairly heavy, and you don't look strong?" She said while eying my admittedly less than impressive physique.

"No need to worry, I am stronger than I look." Winking at the concerned lady. "My name is Slate Collins." I take a bag and hold out my right hand.

She takes my offered hand and replies. " I know I am Harlen's wife. Figured you would be hungry by now, and since you don't have any money... Anyway, my name is Rachel. Nice to meet you."

Furrowing my brows. "How did you find me?"

Smirking up at me. "That was easy. I was purchasing programs nearby when I saw an obvious tourist looking through the shop window. Who fits the description Harlen gave me. Also, Harlen called me a moment ago to tell me to keep an eye out for you since we were in the same area."

"I see. Well, that's convenient." Pulling out a small cube from my pocket, I place the two bags inside and hand it to the wide-eyed Rachel. "Here, take this. There are also funds for Harlen and you to help stock the ship." (by funds, I mean gold bricks.)

Rachel took the cube and turning it over, looking at it from every angle asked. "How do I get the stuff out?"

"See this indent here, stick your finger over that and when it beeps, place your eye over it. That will bind it to yourself, and then just focus on the cube to see what's inside. Focus on any item you want to retrieve. Same thing in reverse to place items inside. Easy enough with practice."

Over the next three days, Jarlen brought in a small group to take care of ship maintenance. To my surprise, half are A.I.'s. Charily, the leader of their group, claimed they could rebuild any ship from scratch if we get into trouble. Until he actually saw the ship now, he and his crew spend all their time exploring. While asking the ship A.I. questions regarding systems.

I let them wander around. They will eventually figure out my ship will self repair most problems. We only need them for cleaning and, in an emergency, a quick patch job. Oh, and I also uploaded the software for my ship A.I. apparently, 'she' insists we call her Sue. Let's see what else. Yes, the shopkeeper I met brought my purchases the next day and installed the charging ports himself. He offered to give each a personality, but I refused. They're for guarding the doors when we dock. The rest of the time, I intend to keep them deactivated.

Harlen and his family moved in. I merged a couple rooms together to make a two-room apartment for them. Their daughter Jenna seems like a good kid. However, she is too nervous around me and only nods my way before ducking behind one of her parents. Rachel is a skilled cook but never makes meat in her dishes. Instead, she has a plate of green squares that are rather bland. They each always eat one at every meal, but they don't seem to enjoy them. Maybe I should go fill the freezer with some meat from my stock. Even my robot friends sit down to eat with us, but they drink some liquid that strangely smells like strawberry syrup to me. I admit it has tempted me, but I shall persevere.

Harlen, well, he has gone a tad overboard with supplies. But he has a point: since we have the storage space available and were not worried about ballast, we may as well be over-prepared. He has also filled an entire storage bay with various trade goods such as small electronics, fabrics, and ores. In his words, 'we may as well make a profit during our flights between worlds to grab our crew. Besides, what if we find other civilizations out there to trade with?'

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Well, I can't argue with that logic.

With two more days to our scheduled launch, everyone got better acquainted. Even Jenna got over her fear of me. Now she follows me around everywhere, asking millions of questions about my life, my world, the ship, and whatever else enters her tiny head. It's cute watching her short legs pumping to keep up with me all over the place. Eventually, though, her mother will grab her up for lessons or 'help' in the kitchen.

Charily's group seemed down as they figured out their job would not be what they thought. However, none left. They split up into different sections to work on what they were most comfortable with. A couple joined Rachel in the kitchen. Some went to work in the hydroponics lab. Charily asked if he could be a communications officer. I didn't have any problem with that, so I allowed it.

Jarlen never found someone for navigation. I told him to forget it as Sue can handle navigation, anyway. I find it odd that he hasn't asked for a position yet.

Ever since I gave Sue that personality upgrade or whatever it was, she has shown up in a hologram following me around. It wouldn't be so bad, but the guise she chose was a little girl in a red dress, looking like the computer from an old zombie movie.

"Alright, everybody, it's time for launch, anyone that wants to watch come to the bridge. Oh, Rachel, don't worry about finding Jenna. She is with me." Letting go of the intercom button, I turn to Jenna on my lap. "Are you ready for this?"

Judging by her excitedly bouncing up and down, I would say yes. "Yes, this is gonna be so cool none of my friends believed me when I told them I was going into space with Mommy and Daddy."

While I half-listened to the child chatter, I nodded to everyone as they entered and found a seat. "Charily let the tower know we're ready for departure."

"Yes, sir." He said with perhaps too much excitement as his vocal box stuttered slightly, making Jenna giggle, and several others smile. "Tower, this is The Confiance requesting permission to launch."

"Permission granted, have a safe trip."

Looking around at all the excited faces, I see that they're all gripping the arms of their seats. Even Jenna has wrapped her arms around one of mine. Unfortunately for them, take-off was rather boring as they didn't feel any movement at all. We started rising faster and faster until flames were swirling around the view screens for a couple seconds. Then we were in space. Watching their world become smaller. "Sue set a course for Yarlath. How long do you estimate it will take?"

"Approximately six hours at our current speed. However, we can safely increase the speed enough to drop the time down to around two hours."

Harlen jerked his head up at that. "No, take it down to roughly twenty hours, or we will draw too many eyes."

Nodding, I say, "do as Harlen recommends. We will have plenty of time to stretch your legs when we leave the system."

Turning the main viewpoint towards the massive planet in the center, I whistle. "Sue, how big is that world?"

"By my estimation, fifteen hundred Earths could fit inside that world."

"Wouldn't the gravity crush anyone who stepped on it?"

"According to initial scans and what I learned from the local net, it is an artificial structure and is mostly hollow except for machinery to keep it together and turning. However, as far as I Can tell, the locals have lost the method to build such things, or it was purposefully taken away."

From what I have seen of their tech, most likely, this is not their home system.

Shrugging, I standup, "well, Jenna, shall we go do our lessons for the day?" I have been taking some of Jenna's lessons to learn their written language and history. Watching the girl dramatically sigh and sag her shoulders, I laugh.

"Fine, if we must," she says in a fake whiney voice. Ruined by her sudden fit of giggling.

Waving at everyone that hadn't already left, we depart, "Hmm, I didn't see Gregory on the bridge," I muse aloud.

"Uncle Gregory and two others are always in the video game room studying," Jenna said while scrunching her nose.

Video game room? "Do you mean the simulator?"

"Nuh-uh, I saw them there playing shooting games." She said while crossing her arms.

Chuckling at her antics. "Well, I'll have a talk with them about playing too long then." I supposed to a four-year-old, a simulator isn't any different from a video game.

A few hours later, I was interrupted from my reading by Rachel calling me over the intercom. "Slate, could you take Jenna to get cleaned up for dinner? Please, it is almost ready."

"Sure thing."

"Jenna, it is time for dinner," I softly say while giving her a light shake as she had fallen asleep head on my lap. Reading... well, looking at pictures in an old Dr. Seuss book I found in the library. Not sure how I ended up being the teacher/babysitter on my own ship, but it's fine. Jenna is adorable, so why not?

"Tower control, this is The Confiance requesting permission to land."

"This is Yarlath Tower The Confiance is not in our registry. Please send verification and identification number... Verification accepted, please follow guide to shuttle bay nine. Have a pleasant stay."

"Alright, while Jarlen and I go meet his engineer. Harlen, you post our goods and see if anyone here is interested in trading, also. Be sure to grab stuff to sell on Vespa."

"Sure, and since we're here mind if we purchase real meat, I am sick of protein cakes," asked Harlen with eager nods all around.

"Please do, I didn't want to say anything in case it would seem rude, but I really don't like those things."

As we headed toward the lift, Jenna ran up, "can I go with you, please?"

Turning and smiling warmly, "ask your parents."

"Mom, can I go?"

"Ask your Dad."

"Dad, can I go, please?"

Harlen glanced up from his screen distractedly and says. "Ask your Mom."

"They said yes," Jenna says excitedly.

Raising an eyebrow at Rachel, who shrugged and nodded, I bend down and pick her up. "Alright, let's go then." That scene brought up several memories from my own childhood, and that brought a grin to my face.