The sizzling of meat on the stove woke Michael. It was so nice to have a proper kitchen again where people could make full meals. Furthermore, Ellop was enthusiastic he was able to make his drinks once again as his supply of water collected from the Zoganese stream had run out within a few sleep cycles on the ship. Michael walked to the kitchen to see Azav cooking a meal this time. “Good morning Michael,” greeted Azav.

“Good morning Azav. How are you today?” asked Michael.

“Well I am quite alright, thank you for asking,” said Azav.

Azav was acting warmer than his usual self with his greeting of Michael in the morning and him doing the cooking which he often left for others to do. “It smells really good, what are you making?” asked Michael.

“Why, it’s the meat of a globbersnout,” said Azav.

“What’s that?” asked Michael.

“It’s an herbivore native to Zogan with six tusks and a long pointed nose. They often travel in packs, but their meat is quite popular here as it is both cheap and rather tasty,” said Azav.

Azav removed the meat from the stove and served some pieces onto a plate for Michael. “Here, try it,” Azav said holding the plate and fork out for Michael.

Michael grabbed the fork and plate and tasted the meat. It tasted identacle to ham. “Wow, this tastes very familiar to food back on my planet,” said Michael.

“Wonderful, so I reckon you enjoy it?” asked Azav.

“Yeah, I do it reminds me of home,” said Michael.

“Well, I’ve never been an expert, but I am glad to hear you enjoy it. I’m no chef, my culinary work certainly needs refinement, but I try,” said Azav.

“It’s really good, thank you,” said Michael.

Michael walked over to the table to finish his meal and Sheerya sat down next to him with a plate of meat as well. “Holding up alright?” asked Sheerya.

“Yeah, I’m feeling good,” said Michael continuing to eat his breakfast.

Sheerya and Michael talked for a few minutes and finished up eating. They washed the dishes together and went to the common room to watch a film Sheerya had been recommending the Michael since he arrived. When the show had finished Tiki and Ellop were also sitting in the room to watch the ending of the movie. “You know, Michael have you ever fired a gun?” asked Tiki.

“I can’t say that I have,” said Michael.

“What do you say, why don’t we change that?” asked Tiki.

Seeing how the last mission had went Michael agreed to join Tiki and the two walked out and along a trail to an area in the woods where Tiki had some targets set up. Tiki had brought along a few guns for Michael to try. Tiki handed Michael a pistol. “All right, now all I want you to do is aim at the target,” said Tiki standing behind Michael.

Michael closed one eye as he did his best to point the gun at where he though would hit the target. “Alright, now whenever you’re ready I want you to firmly grip the trigger,” said Tiki.

Michael carefully placed his finger on the trigger and pulled it back. The laser shot completely missing the target as Michael nearly lost grip of the gun. “I’m not very good at this,” said Michael.

“No, it’s fine. It’s your first time I should’ve given you a warning first,” said Tiki.

She stood behind Michael and helped him hold onto the gun. She held on to the gun with Michael. “Now just aim and then pull the trigger when you’re ready,” said Tiki.

Michael listened to Tiki’s directions and aimed the gun once again before pulling the trigger. With the help of Tiki the gun stayed tight in his hand the whole time, but he still missed miserably. “That’s okay, let me have a try,” said Tiki.

Michael handed Tiki the gun. She aimed and shot a few times hitting the target each time. Michael’s face turned red as he became self-conscious of his aim. “Don’t worry Michael, I’ll help you out you’ll get the hand of it. Here, let’s try something easier,” said Tiki.

Tiki grabbed a rifle she had leaned up against a tree and lead Michael over to a haybale. “Now lean your body so your elbow is over the haybale,” said Tiki helping Michael into position.

“Once again when you’re ready take your shot,” said Tiki.

Michael took a shot missing the target once again and he exhaled loudly. “No, no, that was good. You got really close that time. Try again,” said Tiki.

Michael took aim again and fired this time grazing the target with a laser and Tiki began celebrating for Michael. “Great job! You hit it that time,” said Tiki doing her best to give encouragement.

Michael continued taking shots at the target. Tiki would cheer Michael on when he hit the target, and she would give words of encouragement whenever he got close. After both Tiki and Michael had taken their turns shooting at the targets they decided to take themselves back home. It was a little past noon and Michael and Tiki were carrying their guns back. “You did really well. I just want you to know that. I know it can be a little intimidating at first, but nobody expects you to be perfect when you’re trying something out,” said Tiki.

“No, of course. Thank you very much Tiki, you helped me a lot and it was fun,” said Michael.

“Fun? You think I’m fun?” asked Tiki.

“Yeah, you’re pretty fun,” said Michael.

“Wow, thanks, you don’t know how much it means to hear someone say that,” said Tiki snickering.

They arrived at the stone building and pressed the pressure plate to go down the flight of stairs passing through the main room and returning the guns to the armory. Michael placed the guns back in their spots and turned around to leave the armory. “We aren’t done yet,” said Tiki.

Michael turned around to look toward Tiki. “You wanna see fun? I’ll show you fun,” said Tiki picking up a larget gun and resting it over her shoulder to carry. They returned back to the area in the woods with the targets set up and Tiki handed Michael ear protection. “You don’t need it for the others since the lasers are quiet, but for this one you’re really going to want it,” said Tiki also placing eye protection over Michael’s eyes.

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Michael got into position and took aim at the targets once again before squeezing the trigger. With a large flash of light a large explosion covered the target. Debris rained down from the air including over Michael and Tiki. As the dust settled the burning target was visible once again as well as a crater in the ground. Tiki removed Michael’s ear protection to speak to him. “What do you think? Pretty fun right?” said Tiki cleaning her hair from all of the debris.

“Yeah, that was awesome,” said Michael who was still staring at the target in flames.

“Good, I thought you’d like it,” said Tiki.

Michael took his eyes off of the target he had destroyed and Tiki began talking again. “You know, we haven’t tested the guns on the ship yet, what do you say we go and try it?” asked Tiki.

“Wow, I would love to, that sounds really cool,” said Michael.

“I’ll let Azav know, then we can go and take a moment to try it out,” said Tiki.

Michael waited in the ship patiently as Tiki got permission from Azav to practice using the guns in space. Tiki returned on her own and took a seat in the command chair Azav would often sit in. The ship took off from the ground. “So where are we headed for this training?” asked Michael.

“Well, since we don’t have anything set up yet I was thinking we can just go to the asteroid belt and practice target practice there,” said Tiki.

The ship sped up and arrived at the nearby asteroid belt. “So, I did a little bit of setting up yesterday, the guns are already wired and everything so they should work with the computer,” said Tiki.

Tiki waved for Michael to come over next to her up to the control seat. “So, it’s quite intuitive, you click on the gun icon and that controls the guns you can point in whichever direction you want,” said Tiki demonstrating by steering the controls.

“I’m gonna go ahead first since this is new for me too. Take a seat,” said Tiki.

Tiki took aim at some asteroids and fired lasers at them breaking the rocks into several pieces. After shooting a few asteroids Tiki left the seat and made room left to leave room for Michael. “Okay your turn,” said Tiki.

Michael sat in the seat and it felt strange finally sitting in Azav’s seat. “Alright, now do as I did,” said Tiki.

Michael felt the controls within his hand and aimed them before pressing to fire also destroying a few asteroids and breaking them into many pieces. On the ship’s radar several small vessels were detected approaching. “Hey what’s that?” asked Michael.

“Get out of the chair,” said Tiki.

Michael rushed out of the chair and sat into another to the left of Tiki. “This isn’t good,” said Tiki looking concerned. “I’m going to need to to man the guns while I try to get us out of here,” said Tiki to Michael as she swiped the computer making a holographic control panel for Michael. The small ships approached with hostility as they began taking fire lasers at the enemy ships. Through the chaos Tiki used computer assistance to help steer through the asteroid belt as she sent Azav a video call. Tiki directed the ship out of the asteroid belt and turned around to take fire at the ships that had been chasing. Azav picked up the call on his Galactoband. Two ships emerged from the asteroid belt which both were taken out by Tiki firing lasers. “What’s going on?” asked Azav with shock and confusion.

“We were just flying around the asteroid belt and out of nowhere a few small vessels began attacking us,” reported Tiki.

Azav played back footage of the attack and analyzed the aggressive ships for a moment before speaking again. “Those are Titan’s ships. They must’ve tracked you down. Tell me, Tiki did you check the ship to make sure it was clear of tracking devices?” asked Azav.

“I… wait a minute, I don’t think I did,” said Tiki.

“How long must they have been tracking us? It’s always important to do a sweep through the ship. Now we’ve potentially lead Titan’s whole army to our base on Zogan,” said Azav.

Tiki stood up and searched the ship returning with a blinking device just a few moments later. “It was so obvious too,” said Tiki now holding the device in her hand.

“So can you just eject that from the ship?” asked Michael.

“No, we need to do something else. We need to continue moving with the device to keep anyone following us away from the base,” said Tiki.

“But we can’t just keep going forever,” said Michael.

“Yeah I know. Unfortunately, I think the best move would be to meet my drone on another planet and attach the tracking device to that,” said Tiki.

“But you just got it, and it was expensive,” said Michael.

“I know, but the lifespan is very long on the drone, it would buy us some time,” said Tiki.

Tiki navigated to a planet to meet up with her drone. “Stay here,” said Tiki getting into her spacesuit and picking up the tracking device in one hand. Using the two doors she closed the door behind keeping Michael in the pressurized cell as she stuck the tracking device inside her drone. She returned to the ship and sent her drone on one last mission into the depths of space. “I only had it for a little while, but I’m still going to miss that drone,” said Tiki.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. It is what it is, but at least now we know we’re not being tracked,” said Michael.

Michael and Tiki returned to Zogan landing the ship and entering the stone building. The inside was turned upside down and Azav was in the main area with his arms crossed. Although his face was covered by the mask it was clear he was upset. Ellop and Sheerya were seen collecting up items and moving them. “What’s going on?” asked Michael.

“We’re moving,” said Ellop in a harsh tone.

“Why?” asked Michael.

“That tracking device has been here, so we must leave,” said Azav.