Dean looked at his recent crew with a soft smile. “I know, we hardly got a chance to know each other. I wish I had more time with you.” He did his best to hide his tears, but his efforts weren’t as good as he wanted. “But until I get a better idea of who our enemy is, this is the best bet.”

Gavin approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder, “I’ll keep things running smooth until you get back. Might even improve on your work.”

Dean laughed and gave a hug that could crush bone, “My friend, if you can make this baby purr then you are welcome to it. You going to be okay without me?” Gavin nodded solemnly and passed something to Dean in his palm.

Dean went to look but Gavin shook his head and gave the beefy mechanic one more hug. “You were the best meatshield a man could ask for.” Dean gave him one more hug before the smuggler walked away, flipping his friend off. The two chuckled before Katsi tackled him.

“Woah, Kat, you gotta warn a man bef-“

“You call us. For anything and everything.” She buried her face in his chest to hide her tears. Whether they were from worry or something more, Dean couldn’t tell.

“Yeah. I’ll do what I can. Just keep the rest out of trouble, Kat.” She nodded without freeing her head from his shoulder. Realizing she wasn’t going to be stopping soon, he gave a small salute to Anisa who nodded back to him in recognition. “I look forward to seeing you again, cap. And tell Dougie I said ‘Amber branches’ he will know what I mean.” She raised a brow at him but agreed to do so.

Pine held up a sign in his native language that Dean wished he understood. Tak spoke firmly, “We will see you again. And when we do, we will all share a mycosian ale.” He laughed a little and nodded in confirmation.

Patting Katsi’s back a little he whispered, “You and I will have all the time in the world to sort things out once we have this sorted. I’m one of the universal constants and I don’t forget.” She nodded once more before releasing the hug and going to hug her sister.

Dean smiled reassuringly and said, “Until next we meet.” Stepping into the empty hanger bay, he pushed a button and was pulled into the vacuum of space. As he floated in the gravity well before beginning his descent to the nearby planet surface, Sai spoke into his earpiece. “Godspeed, you gloriously crazy bastard.”

“Hey, bud. You aren’t the boss.” Dean laughed a little to himself, “But if Tak’s plan works, I’m sure he will be proud of you like he is of the rest of us.”

“Roger.”

And with that the earpiece melted away from the heat of reentry. He hated to do this out of his suit, but once he completed his entry, he laughed. Free fall was so liberating. Like chains being broken. Upon impacting with the rendezvous site, he looked up at the Ziegfried vanishing from orbit. He had hardly had time to dust himself off when Cosmic Patrol had arrived to collect him.

The inspector in the patrol craft turned to her companion and asked, “Are you certain that your superiors have no questions for the prisoner? He seems to have been a point of interest.”

The woman laughed, “I’m sure someone in the chain of command does, but my superiors are not among them. Simply keep us informed of any odd behavior and we will remain in contact.” The inspector nodded nervously as the detective was read his rights and he was put into temporary containment until he had been properly processed.

---------------------------

Back on the Ziegfried, Anisa stood in front of the whole crew and spoke firmly, "Alright, let's go bring back Douglas and-"

Sai chimed in immediately from the overhead, "Yeah, I'm gonna say hard pass on that. One, none of you are strong enough yet. That planet is deep in Falos territory so unless you have an escort or the strength to clear the path, it is just dumb. Second point of contention, without a proper form to fight with you guys in, my experience and willpower is useless outside the training room. I'm just a projection. Finally, and this is probably the most important one, if Dean is right and someone is hunting him, they will probably know where we intend to take the Dragon Gem. So we need to stash that thing someplace safe, train, and find me some kind of way to give me a way to fight too."

Tak explained, "The closest I can tell, he is enough like a Bioelectric Living Automaton that we could modify just about any mechanoid for him to use it, but I doubt it would have the energy to properly process at human speeds."

Katsi sighed, "Well, I mean, if we use one of the Emotion Crystals as a CPU then we might be able to bypass that. Dean and I were talking about some of the potential they have for things like this. Maybe we can work on that."

Gavin sighed, "I have some connections and I might be able to swing us a battle mech for him to inhabit, but those can be expensive. I mean top of the line combat droids are-"

Sai laughed, "Nah, if we can modify any machine this way, I know the EXACT model I want. It is older but every production model has seen combat and held up. They are nearly invincible."

Gavin sighed, "You mean the hunker junkers that used to be used as security on old mining ships? How in the hell can you use one of those to fight, it is completely unarmed." The laughter he got in response was too much for the smuggler who just threw up his hands and shrugged.

Pine listened carefully to the device that Tak had made for him, simply happy that everyone was enjoying themselves. Anisa spoke again, "Alright, let's take some time to feel the situation out. Maybe Sai can teach us a few tricks that Shawn knew before all of this. Either way, it seems we have our work cut out for us, but I have faith that we can do this." As she looked around the room, she saw tired, but willing faces, all beginning to glow like embers of joy waiting to ignite