I woke the next morning to find Hailey still attached to me like a limpet facing toward me. When she was awake, she was usually so composed. Now, as I watched her sleep, her face was completely unguarded and relaxed. Her brow was not narrowed in worry. Her mouth had softened from the tight-lipped frown it often bore, and her shoulders had loosened from their usually hunched position.

I brushed her hair out of her face, thinking about yesterday. I really had made a terrible job of it and had her worried out of her mind for me. Heading for my old hab, I was going to have to be more careful. I was heading there primarily to see Uncle and invite him along with us if he wanted to come.

He'd raised me along with a few of the other orphans on The Hab. I think I'd been the one to try his patience the most though, always getting into trouble, and going places I wasn't allowed to be. He'd been the record keeper for the section of The Hab I'd lived in, recording important events like marriages, births, deaths, ship arrivals, and so on. Most considered his job to be pointless, which is why he'd also been stuck taking care of orphans like me.

He'd never resented us for it, always ready with a kind word or help with a problem. Which wasn't to say he didn't discipline the scrap out of us if we made trouble. I can still smell the rotten algae from the hydroponic vats he made me scrub after I covered the main hallway with a barrel of cooking oil. Given the way his lips kept twitching, I think he was trying not to laugh about the whole thing, but he still didn't let me off. I wonder what he's doing now, probably bored out of his mind without me there to liven things up a little.

A soft sigh draws my attention back to my bedmate. I don't think I'm going to be getting up any time soon as she burrows into my shoulder. I'd still been absently stroking her hair this entire time, and she has relaxed even more somehow. If she relaxes anymore, I feel like she's going to turn into a gelatinous puddle of goo.

I try one more time for the hell of it to assign her own set of quarters. I glare and think hard enough at my NIL interface that I'm surprised it doesn't spontaneously combust to no effect. For whatever reason, the trick I pulled to get her reclassified as crew won't work. I can't simply move her into the quarters either, without the proper authorizations, none of the automated systems will recognize her. She'd be unable to use any of the systems, I don't think that the door would even open for her. In my quarters, I can at least personally set her as an authorized guest.

I still don't feel right sharing a bed with her, though. I mean I'm absolutely falling for this amazing girl, and she's done a few things herself that make me think she might be too. But then she goes and closes herself back off again. Until this whole mess is straightened out it's better she has her own bed, I don't want to take advantage of her, not even by accident.

I wince as a sharp pain goes through my head and it begins to throb. Right, I've spent far too long in bed, that's as good a sign as any I need to get up and actually do something. Easier said than done though with Hailey still attached to me. I try to remove one of her arms, and all that gets me is a muffled noise of protest.

"C'mon Hailey, time to get up."

"Nnf." A frontal assault didn't work, time to attack from the flanks, let's see if she's ticklish. I work my way down her sides gently poking and teasing to see if I can get a reaction out of her. I make it halfway down her side before I feel her twitch slightly, and a grin crosses my face.

"Hailey, if you don't let me get up, I'm going to have to take more serious measures." A single sleepy eye looks up from where she's buried half her face in my shoulder.

"Not gonna." Well, sleepy adorable Hailey or not I still needed to get up, shower, and take something for this headache.

"Alright, I warned you." My flanking attack begins with a ten-fingered assault on her sides.

"Yeep!" There's an adorable shriek as she spasms and jerks to the other side of the bed.

I roll out of bed before she has a chance to react. We're still both in the dirty clothes we were wearing yesterday, and I'm surprised at how well I slept with them on. Hailey is pouting at me from the far side of the bed against the wall.

"Sorry, but I really need to freshen up and take something for this headache. I wanted to get moving today as well and start heading towards The Hab." Hailey's expression quickly regains its impassive mask, her body language closing off, leaving me disappointed at the disappearance of sleepy and relaxed Hailey.

"Understood Captain, I will run a systems check and prepare for departure." It's almost like talking to two different people sometimes. There's Hailey the shy, kind girl who likes to cook with me and has the most beautiful smile, and then there's Hailey the engineer who's cold, aloof, and you can never tell what she's thinking.

"Hey, we're not in that big a rush. Let me clean up real quick and you can have your turn afterward. Then we'll go make breakfast and we can start preparing to leave after that, ok?" Hailey's posture softens slightly as she relaxes a little and nods.

I duck into the bathroom locking the door behind me as the shower starts up. I throw back one of the painkillers from the cabinet dry before undressing and stepping into the shower. As I wash up I bring up the schematic for my quarters. I don't really need my office, I'm not writing reports or managing a crew of hundreds. I'd noticed before that by using my NIL, I can actually redecorate and even change the furniture. I remove the desk and chairs. Instead in the corner opposite the entrance to my bedroom, I place a bed for Hailey. I also add a couch along one wall by the entrance and a small table by the bed. Turning off the shower, I dress in the fresh set of clothes waiting for me while I put the final touches on Hailey's room.

Stepping back into my quarters I let Hailey by me into the bathroom and head for what used to be my office. It's already changed to match my plans. I wonder how it does it? Does it simply transfer the furniture to the cargo bay and replace it? My NIL helpfully informs me that the ship uses smart matter in most of its furnishings to allow them to be customized to suit the tastes of the occupant. Smart matter. Of course. I might as well act like the ship runs on literal space magic at this point because there's no difference between the two.

Alright fine, I don't care anymore. As long as the ship doesn't eat me it doesn't really matter. What does matter is breakfast. I tell my NIL to give me a random breakfast recipe for today as I walk to the cafeteria. Shak...shuka? I don't even know if I'm pronouncing that right. Looks good though, poached eggs in a sauce made of tomatoes, which is what those 'spaghetti' noodles I ate that first day were in. Served with toast with spreads, cheese, and olives. I'll start pulling all the ingredients while I wait for Hailey to finish cleaning up.

It's not long before I see Hailey walking into the cafeteria as I'm pulling out the last of the food we need. She is in another jumpsuit today, Her brow is furrowed with a frown on her lips as she stares at the floor. I use my NIL to flick the recipe for breakfast to her, jolting her out of her thoughts as she looks up at me.

"You look like you were pondering the mysteries of the universe there, Hailey, what's bothering you?"

"You made a bed for me in your office."

"Yea, the ship won't let me assign you quarters so you're moving into mine. Why didn't you tell me you were bunking down in the maintenance area?" Hailey looked away from me embarrassed.

"I didn't think it was that important, and you had more important things to worry about." If I ever managed to get my hands on whoever destroyed this girl's self-esteem all the hells in the universe won't compare to what I do to them. Walking over to her I cup her chin and force her to look at me again.

"Hey, we've been over this, Hailey. You are important, without you this ship doesn't run and I wouldn't be here. You have value and I care about you ok?" Her cheeks begin to flush and she gave me a small nod.

"Tell me, I want to hear you say 'My name is Hailey and I have value.'" A flash of disappointment crosses her face as I remove my hand.

"Come on, you need to say it, Hailey." I saw her blush deepen as she nodded again and took a deep breath.

"My name is Hailey and I have value." She started off soft and timid but with every word her voice grew stronger.

"Again."

"My name is Hailey and I have value."

"Louder."

"My name is Hailey and I have value!"

"Good, now say 'I have someone who cares about me.'" I didn't think it was possible for her face to get any darker, that's a rather nice shade of red actually.

"I- I have someone who cares about me."

"Again."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"I have someone who cares about me." I think if I make her say it a third time she may pass out.

"Good, I want you to remember that ok? Now let's go make breakfast, I've already pulled out all the ingredients" Another short nod, her blush receding as she followed me.

As usual, breakfast was prepared in silence for the most part. Hailey cooked the 'Shakshuka' while I toasted bread, cut cheese, and set the table. Soon we had a table with a large iron skillet filled to the brim with amazing-smelling sauce and poached eggs, stacks of toast, and more spreads and cheeses than I thought could exist. A large mug of another booster called 'tea'

that was made from steeping plant leaves in water finished the meal. It was all incredibly good, including the tea as long as you obeyed the instructions not to over-steep it.

With breakfast finished it was time to get moving. For only the third time I sat down in the command couch of the ship, Hailey standing at my side. Instead of immersing myself in the ship itself, I first pulled up the star charts we had extracted from the system beacon. A galaxy bloomed before me. The Itzli Empire was far larger than I could have imagined. A large golden blob of the southwestern portion of the galaxy was all controlled by the Itzli. Tens, maybe even hundreds, of thousands of systems in a territory that encompassed almost a full sixth of the galaxy.

The system that the hab I was from had a numerical designation, and I quickly located it on the map. Containing nothing but ruined worlds and vast shoals of scrap, it was yet another system exploited and stripped bare before being abandoned by the Itzli. Looking at the map filtered only for abandoned systems in Itzli space, I was proven correct. Thousands of systems had been stripped bare and then abandoned. Many I found had human settlements either in abandoned stations or clinging to some forsaken rock.

I'd been to a few other human stations while I worked as a void rat, but the sheer scale of this stunned me. Most of these abandoned human-occupied systems formed a sphere around the Itzli capital system located in the western half of their empire, oddly enough.

Returning to the system I once called home I charted a course to it. From where we were in the Itzli Verge it would take several weeks to fly there. That's fine, there's no rush for me to get back. I still have a lot to learn about this ship, and about Hailey.

Closing the map, I take control of the ship. It feels like I'm submerging myself a pool of cool, refreshing water whenever I do this. The ship is like an extension of me, as if it was the other half of my body that I didn't realize existed before.

Now that I have the star charts, it's a simple matter to designate my destination and let the ship's navigation computer do all the hard work plotting around navigational hazards and gravitational anomalies for optimum speed. I check the route over to see if there's anything that the computer missed that would affect our route, but nothing catches my eye. I set the system to avoid any star systems in our path ahead of time on the off chance that we might run into something unexpected.

Finalizing the planned course, I bring my ship around to the planned heading. It moves as naturally as I walk as I bring the engine's power up. It's a heady feeling, knowing that you have this much power at your fingertips, to know that at a moment's notice, you can just leave far faster than anyone could chase you.

I set the autopilot and disconnect myself from the ship, already missing the euphoric connection and feeling of power. The command couch retracts to its upright position and I stand, pondering what to occupy myself with for the rest of the day, the morning wasn't even half gone yet.

"Well, Hailey, we've got a lot of spare time on our hands, any ideas?"

"Training."

"Training huh? Well, I can't argue against that given how I handled the whole beacon operation. Alright, what's the first class, instructor Hailey?" Her lips twitched at my new name for her.

"Security training first. Then we'll continue your engineering course this afternoon."

"What, like fighting? Hailey, no offense but you're like half my weight, even as skinny as I am. I worry I'd hurt you."

"I'm stronger than I look, but not to worry today's course is on gun use and safety." I perked up at the mention of guns.

"Before you had my attention, but now you have my interest. Lead the way, Instructor." I gestured toward the bridge doors dramatically earning me another lip twitch.

Leaving the bridge, I followed Hailey aft down the main hall to the lift. A short trip later and we had arrived on the lower deck and I followed her off the lift and into the cargo bays. The cavernous holds were filled with metal crates that floated to and fro on cushions of gravity as they vanished or appeared from the utility network from various parts of the ship.

Passing them by, we entered another cargo bay that was conspicuously empty, but only for the moment. I looked up at the hum of gravity systems to see several crates float into sight above before lowering in front of us in a single line. Another lone crate was deposited at the far end of the cargo bay.

Approaching the line of crates in front of us, Hailey removed its top revealing rows of charcoal-gray brushed metal cases. Taking one, she set it down on top of one of the other crates and popped the latches on it revealing one of the most beautiful sights I'd ever seen.

A sleek black rifle rested in the case in a velvety cushion cutout, with several other objects resting in their own cutouts. Hailey picked up the rifle before turning and offering it to me.

"This is a P2-R40 proton rifle, it fires a bolt of graviton-encased protons capable of delivering both a thermal and kinetic payload simultaneously to its target. This is a lethal weapon and I expect you to treat it as such. There is no 'stun' setting, and if you fire this at someone it is because you intend to kill them."

I gingerly accepted the weapon, careful to keep my fingers away from any of the functions my NIL pointed out to me on my HUD. The last thing I wanted was to blow a hole in me or Hailey because I wasn't careful. Hailey turned around again holding one of the blocky items that had been in the case with the rifle.

"This is your 'magazine' for the rifle. The magazine this rifle uses holds approximately forty shots before it is depleted." Hailey inserted the magazine in the bottom of the rifle I was holding, and there was an electronic whine as the rifle lit up with a blue glow.

"This is your magazine charger," Hailey held up another blocky device with a large slot presumably to insert a magazine into, "while it can slowly charge off ambient particles and gravitons in a survival situation, it is preferable to hook it up to an existing power grid capable of supplying them for a more rapid charging function. The ship's armory, including the emergency armory in your office, have high-capacity chargers built in."

Hailey quickly ran me through operating the charger before moving on to the rifle explaining the different indicator lights, the firing mechanism, and various other features. I was just as focused on Hailey herself as what she was teaching me, to be honest. There was something about 'teacher mode' Hailey that I found quite attractive and distracting if I'm being honest.

She was serious, but it wasn't the cold dispassionate seriousness that I was accustomed to from her. It wasn't born from a lack of emotion, but rather from emotion because she cared about my safety. Most would have called her cute if they saw her, but right now I couldn't describe her as anything but beautiful.

"Rama? Are you paying attention?" I was jerked out of my own head by Hailey's voice.

"Yes, sorry Hailey I was a bit distracted but I was still listening." She frowned, lips pursed in skepticism.

"Alright, then tell me what these indicator lights here mean." I dutifully answered her, getting only one of them wrong as I had it reversed with the one next to it.

"Very good, though in the future I would prefer it if you put any distractions out of mind when I'm teaching you."

"Kind of hard to when you're the distraction," I mumbled before my brain caught up to my mouth.

Hailey and I both froze, and my face surely matched the shade hers was turning going by the heat I could feel on my face. She turned away, pretending to reorganize the rest of the contents of the gun case, and I fiddled with the rifle making a show of running it through its various modes and functions to familiarize myself with them until we both had our embarrassment under control.

"Alright, I think you're trained enough on how to operate the proton rifle. Stay here while I go set up the targets." Hailey ordered as she stepped around the crates and moved towards the one she'd ordered dropped at the other end of the cargo bay.

Watching her walk away from me, it took all my willpower to not focus on the sway of her hips. I waited, hands away from the trigger, as she opened the crate and propped up metal sheets as targets at set intervals as she walked back toward me.

Returning to my side, I could see her face was still slightly flushed. She smiled, nodding in approval at my safe handling of the rifle before my NIL lit up as a program was transferred. Each of the blank sheets of metal was now overlaid with a target pattern and labeled with a range indicator as the range program loaded.

"Alright, the range is free, Rama. Start with the closest target and work your way out. I want you to use an entire magazine on each one before you move on. Take your time and get a feel for the rifle, there's no need to rush." I nodded and shouldered the rifle zeroing in on the first target at ten units.

I squeezed the trigger and winced as with a loud shriek and a blue flash the rifle discharged. Regaining my bearings I looked at the target to see that my shot had landed in the outer ring. Hailey gave me an encouraging nod and gestured for me to continue.

I fired again, this time more prepared for the noise and light as I sent protonic death down the range. My results were much better this time, landing somewhere in the intermediate range of the target circle. I fired a dozen more times, my aim improving with each shot until I was consistently hitting near the middle of the target.

"Good, now go full auto," Hailey instructed.

I nodded, thumbing the selector button on the side of the rifle. Taking a breath to prepare myself, I held down the trigger. Reality became nothing but the scream and flash of angry protons as a constant stream of blue fire left my rifle. Almost as soon as it started it was over, the last discharge echoing across the cargo bay as my magazine ran dry.

Looking at my handiwork, I saw that the metal plate was scorched extensively now, with several spots where I had actually landed enough shots in the same place to penetrate all the way through. I lowered the rifle, its barrel hazy from the heat and its stock warm in my hands.

"Good, now do it again with the next target."

Hailey spent the next hour drilling me on accuracy and fire discipline. When the rifle got too hot to use after firing several magazines worth of shots in quick succession, she'd drill me on maintenance and how to utilize the rifle in different situations or environments instead while we waited for it to cool.

Maintenance was covered as well, but it was surprisingly simple, with most of the different components being modular and easily replaced. Eventually, we ran out of time, and Hailey had to get back to work on maintaining the ship, so we packed away all the equipment and cleaned up; the crates would stay there until our next session. I also had other things I needed to learn if I was going to become a good captain for her.

"Thanks for this, Hailey. I appreciate you teaching me how to handle these. I know you're already really busy." She shook her head, a smile on her lips.

"It was no bother, Captain. I was more than happy to teach you, and it was something you needed to know how to do."

"Even so, I'm still grateful." Time seemed to stretch out as we stood there awkwardly, not wanting to go our separate ways just yet. She fidgeted awkwardly before turning to leave, and I took a breath trying to draw in courage as much as I was air.

"Hailey," She turned at my calling her name, but I had already closed the distance and engulfed her in a hug eliciting a small squeak.

"Thanks again, and I'll see you at lunch." Not waiting for a response I turned and left the cargo bay, my heart attempting to beat out of my chest and a irrepressible smile on my face.