The problem with large feline waste products was not completely solved. The four crates that the Kryx was going in, while they did mask the smell when closed, only had enough volume to last about a month and a half. A couple of weeks before arriving back at the mine Dave had to scoop the litterbox, for lack of a better term. It was not fun, and if it weren't for the very large cat, he would have just ejected the cargo pod. The process involved a small vacuum from the hauler used for cleaning, Dave's own toilet in the hauler, and about five hundred trips back and forth. When all was said and done Cam informed Dave that the hauler toilet was designed to be overhauled at every thousand evacuations and that would need to be done ASAP.

As shitty as that job was, Dave couldn't deny that he had developed a fairly stable relationship with the Kryx. He would crawl through the tunnel and spend time with the animal, sometimes bringing in a pad and watching videos while he sat with it. The Kryx actually paid attention to the images on the screen, and Dave became increasingly convinced that this cat was not only very intelligent but sentient. He did take pause to question that once while watching an old cat video that was popular on YouTube. All was well until an orange tabby appeared on screen trying to chase it's own tail. The Kryx hissed rather viciously at the screen.

Once the orange tabby was off the screen, it calmed down rather quickly. With only wild speculation to go on as to the nature of the response, Dave let it go and made sure that any videos he shared with the Kryx from that point on contained no orange tabbies. A few days before their arrival Dave decided to give the Kryx a name. He had a full on, one sided, conversation with it. "I can't keep calling you cat.", He said, then took a breath before continuing, "And I've never been good at naming things. I was going to go with "A Pimp Named Slickback", but Cam informed me that probably wasn't a good idea." He looked over at The Murph where Cams matrix was installed with a small smile. Looking back at the Kryx he said, "So I will now refer to you as Bigglesworth, or just Bigs for short."

Bigs had been sitting in a most pristine full loaf during the conversation, but when Dave mentioned the name he saw Bigs right ear twitch and it's eyes squint. Shortly after that Bigs went from full loaf to the typical cat curl up and promptly fell asleep. Since there was no hissing, growling, or forceful removal of limbs, Dave figured that Bigs was acceptable. He smiled at the sleeping behemoth and said, "Good Talk.".

The deceleration burn and arrival at the mine went smoothly and Dave decided that Bigs wasn't dangerous enough to keep it sequestered in the pod. He allowed the animal to roam free inside the mine. It would come around like clockwork twice a day for feeding, but most of the time slept on a high perch it had managed to climb up to in the landing bay. Dave gave himself a day of rest before he started dismantling his home. He had moved around several times back on earth, so moving was not of big concern, but this was his first intergalactic apartment so he was a bit bummed.

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He now had two cargo pods sitting in the landing bay. The once retrieved from the Fortune's Profit after his less than exciting trip across the galaxy, and the fold enabled pod that Bigs was found in. The Murph was not design to haul two pods, and the clear utility of having a fold drive meant that he would have to leave the Profits pod behind and load everything into the fold pod. It took him about sixteen hours of work to move all the contents from one pod to the other.

There were two items that he didn't move into the fold pod. One of the GAU-8 cannons and a full crate of it's ammunition. The realization had hit him that the entire reason he was packing up and moving was that he was a fugitive with an ever-growing list of possible offenses. Cam informed him that since these crimes had happened outside the jurisdiction of a planetary government he could and should fully expect bounty hunters or other less than polite folks to come looking for him. Giving The Murph some teeth was a prudent course of action to Dave.

Dave could be considered a jack of all trades. He had picked up quite the variety of knowledge in an array of activities from electrical to welding. He was not master level at any one of them, but was confident that he could get the job done. After consulting with Cam, he chose to mount the cannon underneath the pod as seen while the ship was moving forward. There were several exterior storage compartments down there, one of which he converted to hold the ammunition with an opening to feed the belt to the cannon. The trigger wiring was run up to the command chair and thanks to some scavenging around the mine, he found a big red button to use. Using white paint and small letters he wrote "BRRRRRRRRT" across the top of the trigger.

It turned out to be a three day process to mount and troubleshoot. Everything appeared to work well, although he could not test it with live ammo within the confines of the mines landing bay. Also, he could not reload in space so if he ever needed to run through an entire belt, he would be defenseless after. He made sure that, before they left, Cam would remind him to load the cannon and they would do test firing before leaving for the Sunnara system.

A couple of days later Dave was ready. He had packed everything vital for his and Bigs survival, loaded the ammo into the cannon, hooked The Murph up to the fold pod and left the mine for the last time. After the had cleared the bay doors Cam sent a signal to the mine's fusion reactor to perform a hard shutdown and they were off on their out system burn.

A touch of melancholy had taken over Dave. He thought about the amount of time he had already spent on this side of the galaxy. He remembered the Fa'Wel Captain telling him they could return him home when new fuel was available in ten months. This out system trip to the fold point would end around that ten month mark. He might have been home soon. Then the real question hit him as he whispered quietly to himself, "Do I even want to go home?"