Allison started plotting the FTL course that would take her into interstellar space which would allow her to open a wormhole as per regs since there was no emergency. Then she paused and started plotting a new course. Bit was concerned.

“Allison, aren’t those Bastion station’s coordinates?”

Allison nodded.

“Yes, they are. I have to drop something off.”

Bit cleared her non-existent throat.

“Do I have to remind you there is a sizable bounty on your head, placed by the Utan rebels? Why are we heading to where bounty hunters and other scum hang out?”

Allison shrugged.

“Told you, need to drop something off. Besides, I haven’t shot anyone in over a day I’m getting the jitters.”

Bit groaned.

“Not very funny, Allison. You are in violation of direct orders.”

Allison smirked.

“No I’m not, the orders were all possible speed. Regs say if it is a non-emergency wormhole should be generated in interstellar space. They don’t specify which interstellar space.”

Control from the flagship spoke to her.

“Shadow One, you are plotting a course into League space. Please advise why. You are directed to go to home base.”

Allison bit her lower lip. She’d already committed a war crime in the last week, what was one little white lie?

“Uh, sorry, got a message from one of my assets via hypercomm. They won’t talk to anyone else and the intel could be valuable in the fight against the Sal’nash. Please advise the admiral I will do the meet up and then head to home base. No trap, it’s very public and high security.”

She didn’t wait for a response, she just jumped to FTL. At her max speed it was less than thirty minutes away. She didn’t bother hiding Bit this time. She wanted them to know just how stupid it would be to mess with her. Bit was armed to the teeth because they had been expecting her to be on combat patrol. Her drone wing where in formation with her and was also bristling with weapons. She was given a landing bay with no issues. By the time she was climbing out of her fighter she was face to face with a nine foot tall… octopus-thing. If he wasn’t wearing brightly colored red green and yellow parachute pants and a very flamboyant hot pink hat, she’d think it was right out of Cthulhu. He slapped his tentacles together. He sounded like he was getting off just seeing the fighter.

“Oh my, one of the orgasmic System’s Alliance fighters. Beautiful, deadly, sleek. And what are these?”

He looked over the nearest drone wing.

“Wafer thin, deadly profile. So many weapons. Black as night. Oooh.”

Allison watched him as he walked around the drone wing with his two wolf-man bodyguards. She assumed this was Yoggi. She could see why he enjoyed squishing people to death… she also realized how much this reminded her of the hentai she’d found on Hazel’s personal holo-recorder. It wasn’t a good memory. Damn my sister was weird. She typed into her AR HUD. Bit, if I die like die die, please erase my Alliance-Net history and my holo-recordings… Yoggi finished his tour and stood in front of her.

“Oh, beautiful and deadly.”

Allison raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

“They aren’t for sale.”

He put all four tentacles to his chest.

“Would a patron of the arts rip canvas and paint from hands of a genius? Perish the thought.”

Allison was truly confused by this thing… man. He bowed with a flourish of his tentacles.

“Harbormaster Yoggi, humble proprietor of these docking bays at your service, Battlelord.”

Allison looked around.

“I don’t see any water.”

He laughed very flamboyantly.

“A holdover from my youth.”

Allison motioned at Bit.

“If you don’t want to buy them, why are you so… excited about her.”

Yoggi wrapped his tentacle around Allison’s shoulder. She was pretty thankful for the armor because she wasn’t sure how slimy they were.

“My dear, child, the legend and artistry are about the ship and the pilot. Your kill count is impressive, and you haven’t even reached your first molting. You have yet to create your masterpiece. Of course, once you outgrow a simple starfighter, I would love to own a piece of your legend, but to try and part you from it while you’re still painting such amazing works with it… would be a travesty. I assure you, your craft are safe here, whatever your business may be, your fighters and you are off limits on the docks. Now then, I am sure you are here on important business given the recent Sal’nash attacks on the League and Ratoans so I will not delay you, but I simply must have a drink with you when you can spare the time. And when you’re ready to molt and outgrow this beautiful craft seek me out, I can get you… such wonderful blossoms of death to continue your legend.”

Allison decided not to shove the tentacle off. Yoggi seemed… decent. For a crime boss who likes squeezing people until their heads popped off. She tapped her chin as he released her and moved off.

“Yoggi, what would it take for you to hold on to a weapon for me, securely, it won’t have a warhead, but I might need it one day. I can’t take it home… they are… well uncompromising with some things. Also, I’ll need something to carry the payload on and a tarp. And no loose lips or body parts people speak out of.”

He rubbed his tentacles together.

“The whole recording of your dogfight with the Sal’nash including that glorious explosion at the end.”

Allison sighed and held out her hand.

“Deal. But it wasn’t a dogfight I was running for my life.”

One of his guards/assistants handed her a handheld holo-projector. She swept the files requested over to it and handed it to him. Allison really did not want to know what the purpose of that recording was for but help getting things stowed away was probably worth it. A swarm of naked mole people appeared and pulled the indicated torpedo out of Bit. Allison removed the nanite payload and put it under a tarp on a hover-cart. The mole people started to move to refuel Bit. Unlike League craft her fusion reactor was self-contained and required no external reactant. The League reactors could last centuries. Whereas Bit’s was ten years if used hard, twenty if it was conserved. She stood in front of them.

“No need. She’s good. We just got sorted out. Hands off.”

They toddled off with the memorial torpedo. Allison pulled the cart behind her and entered the station. In other words, she transitioned from the relative safety of the docks where Yoggi extended his protection into the wild west.

She negotiated with a trader to buy a grey cloak with very tight fibers. It was gorgeous. It was also an easy disguise. She slipped it on and activated her holo-web’s image distortion. Everyone looking at her was fine, but any electronics, like cybernetic eyes or cameras wouldn’t be able to get a good image of her. She watched several market goers rush past her. She sighed. That probably wasn’t a good sign. She put her hand on her right pistol’s grip and got ready for a fight.

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Allison was not surprised to see the scorpion slavers from her last visit had made a reappearance. Each had a metal baton in their hands. She couldn’t tell if it was the same three. Some aliens were really hard to tell apart. The biggest of them pointed his baton at her.

“Not a man. Bounty. We collect. Rematch.”

Allison was already over it and drew her pistol with lightning speed and stunned the biggest one. She looked between the other two.

“That was the lowest setting, who wants to see what the highest setting does? It’s a hell of a lightshow. You don’t get to see a Qual’sa pistol shooting someone everyday.”

She slid her thumb along the side of the pistol. Anything organic it hit would likely be disintegrated. Her bluff didn’t work and they charged her. She sighed and tossed the cloak off. She formed her armor’s energy shield and blocked their initial hits. She slid her pistol into its holster and reached her hand down. A shimmering turquoise blade of energy appeared in her hand and she sliced through their batons. They sparked and fell down. They tried their tail spikes next but the armor redirected the kinetic energy of their strikes right back at them nearly ripping their tails off and knocking them off balance. Allison capitalized on that to shield rush them. They were knocked on their butts. She stood over them waving the energy sword towards them.

“Take your idiot boss and get out of here before I actually get mad at you. You lot look like Sal’nash to me and I really do enjoy killing those.”

They retreated with their fallen leader. Allison picked up her cloak and clipped it back on before continuing on her way. The market slowly returned to normal. She caught a group of more armored looking humanoids who’d witnessed the encounter. They had beat a hasty retreat once they saw the outcome. Maybe Bit was right, maybe coming to a station run by crime bosses wasn’t the best choice with a bounty on my head. Never going to tell her that though.

Apparently, the bounty wasn’t high enough to go up against her, because no one else tried to collect it. She wheeled her cargo into Bastion’s Rest. Lorna almost dropped the tray of dishes she was carrying when she saw her. The Yorleer rushed over after she rid herself of the tray. She spoke quietly.

“Are you insane? Bounty just came through for you. What are you doing here?”

Lorna rushed her into the back room. Allison looked down at the cart.

“So uh, could you watch something for me, not sure for how long, just needs a bit of power.”

Allison lifted the tarp slightly. Lorna peeked.

“What is it?”

Allison bit her lower lip.

“You know, it’s better you don’t know. Kind of one of those deals. Just put it in your cold storage, hook it up to power and bury it. I’ll pay… or we can come to some sort of agreement. Look, I need this someplace safe no one will think to search for it. It is important and it is more trouble than I can bring home with me.”

Lorna crossed her arms.

“But trouble you can leave with little old Lorna huh? I barely know you.”

Allison sighed.

“I don’t have many friends in the… well in places like this. I thought we made a connection. If I’m wrong, I’ll take it and go, maybe Yoggi can look after it or Madam beady eyes.”

Lorna grabbed Allison’s arm, the touch sent a good shiver down Allison’s spine. She had no idea what was going on with the plant woman, did she have pheromones or something?

“Not so fast. Look, I stay neutral. I like it when my place doesn’t get shot up. Why is it so important.”

Allison looked at the horror she’d created and sighed.

“This is a weapon of last resort against the Sal’nash. If they ever invade a planet in force and land their hives it will wipe them out. It is the kind of horror that should not exist, but I made it exist and I might need it one day. It is dangerous and it cannot be disturbed, or it will wipe out this station. If I take it to a planet… all life will be destroyed. If I just leave it hidden someplace and someone finds it… This is what we’d call Pandora’s box. It contains all the evil in the universe, and it will be visited upon whoever opens it. It looks like any number of generic food containers; It will be hidden in plain sight and you will never be able to open it accidentally. You will be the only person who knows this even exists besides me. I will take one of your empty canisters and I will roll right back out like I didn’t drop anything off.”

Lorna looked at the tarp covered canister.

“You’d trust me with this?”

Allison nodded.

“Yes. I know you won’t tell anyone, and you won’t sell it because I know you don’t want to unleash evil on the world. I don’t either but I will when I need too.”

Lorna sighed.

“Fuck. Yes. But I need two things from you, one a kiss of those beautiful lips and two, you drink my blood. I’ve heard stories about vampires. I want to know if they’re true.”

Allison coughed as she choaked on her saliva. She was not expecting that. In fact, she was sure Yorleer had no blood she could actually drink it was more like sap. Allison finally decided the Yorleer wasn’t joking and figured the worst that would happen would be her nanites got pissed at her for drinking poison.

She stood on her toes and kissed Lorna on the lips. The skin-to-skin contact was intoxicating. She didn’t want to stop. They melted into each other. Allison suddenly really wanted to find out what the Marshal was talking about by getting into all the right places. Her lips traced their way to Lorna’s neck and her fangs came out. She sunk them into the barky skin of the Yorleer. The green blood flowed into her mouth and all she could taste was pure ecstasy. Lorna was seriously infatuated with her. She knew she was too young for the plant woman but maybe in a decade… She really wasn’t into women, but were Yorleer actually women? She stopped and Lorna stumbled backwards. Allison licked her lips. She needed a top up, she hadn’t had blood in almost three days. Lorna fanned herself.

“Oh, we’re doing that again.”

Allison held up her hands.

“I want to but uh, I’m really too young for you. So, let’s say, ten years?”

Lorna rubbed her neck where she was bitten.

“You were literally sucking my blood out and killing me, how can that feel so damn good?”

Allison shrugged.

“Mystery of the universe. So, deal’s a deal, right?”

Lorna was almost vibrating.

“Yes, just, give me a few minutes so I can walk again. You could sell that and make a fortune and you wouldn’t even have to take your clothes off.”

“Not really where I see my future going…”

Allison started hunting down a similar sized cannister. She found one in the form of a cannister of lard that was empty. No wonder everything tasted amazing, she fried it in animal fat.

“So, Lorna, why do Yorleer eat meat?”

Lorna looked at her like she was nuts.

“Why do you eat?”

Allison shrugged.

“It’s good? I just uh, don’t know why you even eat all… don’t you just photosynthesize?”

Lorna held out her arms.

“Do you see a star shining on me?”

Allison blushed.

“Oh… sorry.”

Lorna laughed.

“I was just fucking with you. Yes, we can, but we need to be on our home world and in soil. Otherwise, we need to eat food just like you. Other stars just don’t do it for us. Trust me, having lived there for about thirty years, you want to be anywhere but there. The males are soo preachy and they take weeks to get a sentence out even through the root network. Gah, I couldn’t wait to leave that in my ion trail.”

She lifted the cannister of nanites and hooked them up to a power connector then stacked some frozen veggies around it.

“There no one will find it there. I can barely sell the fresh veggies. There is a rumor I pluck them from myself. I don’t we don’t have fruit. I bet if I did though you’d take a bite.”

Allison blushed.

“Okay, I need to get going, I’m already going to be in trouble for going off on my own. Apparently, there is a bounty out on me and my people are trying to keep me out of trouble.”

Lorna laughed and threw up her hands.

“I know, imagine that. Hey, sorry to hear about your friend. We toasted her in the bar when you were doing your eulogy.”

Allison sighed.

“I wish she was the last. I don’t know how many more people I can take losing.”

Lorna poured out a couple of drinks. It was green, and alcoholic, that was all Allison could tell with her scanners.

“I know you’re in a rush but you wanna talk about it?”

Allison sighed and picked up the tumbler and took a sip. She made an mmm sound. Whatever it was, it was delicious. Lorna took a sip of hers.

“Just us girls, Allison, and hey, I’m a bartender, comes with the territory or so I’m told. What happened beautiful?”

Allison shook her head tears were starting to form in her eyes.

“I had a friend… he died then… my Babu… Grandfather he pissed me off so much. Forced me to stay somewhere against my will… not like locked me up… just pulled rank I was so mad. And he got this psychotic bitch pregnant… or maybe he did. I don’t know. She is evil. So damn evil. I just couldn’t imagine why he would… then he married her. I was just so angry. The last thing I said to him was basically I hate you and I’ll never speak to you again. The hate you was implied… and now he’s dead. I ignored his calls… and the one on my birthday. He died thinking I hated him. I was just really upset, and I didn’t know how to make it right. If I wasn’t so stubborn I would have let him apologize but I wanted to make him suffer.”

Lorna put her arm around Allison and hugged her.

“Ah man that is a real shitty situation. Look, people know how you feel, really feel. He knew you loved him, he probably blamed himself for all of it. The best you can do is remember the good times. Go no contact with the step-grandmother and get on with your life.”

Allison downed the drink.

“Yeah, that would be nice… except the stupid there are a bunch of words to describe her that I’m not going to say out loud. She made me her heir. As in hey, now when I die you need to take over for me or my empire of almost three billion people will disintegrate into civil war and millions will die… Oh, and the Rebels who want to kill her and stop her families reign, now my future reign, they put a bounty out on me. Cause you know, my life wasn’t complicated enough with the boyfriend and the prince who is trying to convince me to marry him and the fricking crime lord’s son who is trying to find the girl he fell madly in love with on his three-day vacation the girl who doesn’t exist because she was my cover identity to get close to his father… Oh and yeah, lets not forget my fucking biological mother is the second coming of the messiah and my other mother was this larger than life president who pulled the human race out of a dark age. Now the Sal’nash are like after me…. So, after me. If they see my fighter or me, they will do a suicidal charge trying to get at me. The LSR Primarch is using me as her poster child for a new golden era so she can get reelected, and my aunt is going to kill me because I made her part of my war crimes. I mean… what’s a fucking bounty compared to all that?”

Lorna nodded along and refilled Allison’s glass.

“Oh, and another thing, do you think I can ever jump onto a ship, or down a shaft without landing on my face or back? No. Because that’s for movie superheroes and I’m just plain old Allison who makes everything up as I go, making everything worse. I have armor with a glider that pops out and I still manage to land like a beached whale! Whatever that means.”

Allison downed her drink then put the glass down.

“I need to stop, because I need to go back through a station populated with bounty hunters and criminals that probably want to kill or capture me.”

Lorna shrugged and downed her drink.

“Well, sorry, Allison I got nothing for you. Your life is interesting, and you’re gonna need to just ride the wave. But hey, if you ever need to talk, hit the hyperwave or when your bounty is sorted out, take a seat at the bar. I’m here for you. And ten years I expect you here so we can see what we can get up to with those fangs of yours.”