I wasn't stopped once on my way back to the docking bridge as I weaved through the passageways of The Hab, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Outside of Tayle, Uncle, and my little group of troublemakers, no one knew me as anyone other than the stupid brat that was going to leave and make it big. To the survival-oriented self-centrism of the people who lived here, there wasn't a reason to waste time on building a relationship with someone when there wasn't going to be a payoff.

I was at least a little surprised that no one came up to me and tried to suck up to me now that I had something they wanted. Everyone I passed on my way back to the ship treated me with polite indifference. My guess is Sakchai must keep them on a tight leash, otherwise, I would have expected at least one person to come up to me trying to trade for some personal fabricator time. They wouldn't have gotten anywhere, especially since from what I saw of the ship readouts on my NIL the fabricators were pretty much running non-stop, but I expected someone to at least try.

Arriving back at the docking bridge, I called for the lift. A nervous knot made its appearance in my stomach on my way back. I don't know how Hailey is going to react to my wanting to bring some of my friends along when we leave. It hadn't come up in conversation once on our flight over. She'd taken long enough to get used to me, how would she deal with having more people around?

I could always order her to accept it, but that didn't feel right. I know I would resent anyone telling me I had to get along and spend time around someone like Kal. This isn't to say that I expect Hailey to dislike my friends the same way I do Kal, void I hope not at least, but she may come to resent them if I force them on her.

With me, she switches between being an aloof, professional officer and an affectionate and empathetic... Well, I don't know really. We're closer than any of the few friends I've had before certainly, but I can't say that we're in any kind of romantic relationship either though. I mean, there are times it feels like it, like when she licked my fingers clean, void just remembering that is enough to get me to blush.

I barely pay attention as I walk onto the lift back into the ship, stepping around the containers and barrels of materials waiting to be lifted. How did I go from worrying about how Hailey will react to my friends, to worrying about my relationship with Hailey. I've only known her for a few weeks, but I can't get her off my mind, even when I'm not around her.

I still don't have any answers as the lift comes to a stop inside the ship, delivering me and the rest of its cargo. I see on my NIL that Hailey is in the workshops monitoring the fabricators and feeding them material. To the side, I see several empty grav-sleds waiting to be loaded and returned. It's a simple matter to load and set them to follow me as I make my way to the fabricators to see Hailey.

Entering the workshops, I'm struck by the smell first. The distinct odor of rotten algae curdles in my nose alongside the more familiar smell of ozone distinct to the ship's machinery. Hailey stands in front of one of the fabricators, a sleek silvery gray machine with no features other than blinking lights, a chute through which to feed the raw materials, and a delivery bin to receive the finished products.

It is surprisingly quiet, the only noise a low hum that you could almost mistake for the regular background noise of the ship's systems. I expected a deafening cacophony of sound that you would need to yell over to be heard. Hailey turns at my approach with the new batch of materials, likely seeing my arrival on her NIL.

"I'm back, figured I'd check in and bring the next load of materials with me."

"Thank you, Captain, I appreciate it. The fabricators are running smoothly."

"Yeah, I saw they've been giving them a real workout. I looked at their order log, they're trading for everything from bulkheads, life support filters, and aquaponics trays to EVA suits, hand tools, and what looks like the parts to assemble an entire shuttle from."

"You are correct, they have ordered the ship kit in the catalog that contains all the parts to assemble a short-range shuttle."

"Huh, well I'll be damned. Anyway, checking on you wasn't the only reason I came to see you. I wanted to talk, and run an idea by you I had real quick. Why don't you take a break, it's almost dinner time so we can head to the cafeteria and eat while we talk." Hailey gave me a slow nod.

"The resource hoppers should last until after we finish our meal."

"Even if they run out, it's not that big of a deal. It's not like I gave them a hard deadline for when their order would be done. Oh, and don't even think you're staying up all night to keep them fed, we're not in that big of a rush to get this done. So I don't want you thinking you need to work yourself to exhaustion, got it?" Hailey gave me another nod, a small smile on her face.

"Yes, Captain, I will clean up and meet you in the cafeteria."

I returned her smile before leaving. Even when she was in her 'on duty mode' she acted more familiar and comfortable around me now. I was happy she'd finally started letting go of the last of that awkwardness around me. I hoped this meant that things would go smoothly with inviting the others on board.

Entering the cafeteria I threw my jacket on one of the many empty tables, leaving the wooden case on top of it. My gunbelt soon joined them and I stretched, easing the stiffness in my muscles and relishing the return of my freedom of movement. Now the important question was what to make for dinner.

My thoughts went back to the picture of my... parents. They'd obviously been from two different cultures, and I wondered what kind of food they ate. From what I'd learned with Hailey during my history lessons, my father's facial features, pale skin and, blond hair most likely meant either 'German' or 'Scandinavian' ancestry. While my mother's darker hair and skin likely pointed to a more 'Eastern' descent. I didn't really know enough to be able to narrow it down any more than that. I didn't really have much to go off when it came down to it, just their appearance and their clothes. I didn't even have any names to put to their faces-

The clothes, of course! They looked formal and thinking about it, one usually saved images of important events right? So it was likely this was an important occasion that they would dress up for, and if they were together in the image then it stood to reason it was something important to the both of them. The obvious answer was when they'd been married.

It was worth a shot so I set my NIL to search my ship's database about historical wedding clothes. Instantly I was deluged with clothes in a thousand different colors and styles. Let's see, the primary colors were red, gold, and white right? That's better, from what it's showing me now, it looks like my mother was probably from India.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

So what's a popular dish from India? Sorry I asked, I didn't know that one could have this many different versions of a single dish. There are enough versions of this 'curry' to keep me eating something new for the rest of my life I think, so I'm just going to pick one at random.

I like the name of that one, Korma it is. Looks like I've run into one limitation of the food synthesizers for this one. The recipe calls for bone-in chicken pieces and it can't make the bone parts. Ah, there's a note saying to decrease the cooking time if you have to substitute boneless meat for it.

This isn't too complicated actually, a few spices but not that many other actual ingredients. I should be able to have this finished by the time Hailey finishes cleaning up. That's the chicken marinating and the onions browning, that just leaves starting the sauce now.

Says either 'almonds' or 'cashews', I'm just going to taste them and see which I like better. Hmm, almonds are nice, almost have a sweet flavor to them. Cashews... Oh wow, that's really good. They have a much stronger flavor than almonds, so cashews it is. Ok, So I add those to the onions and let them toast while the onions cook.

I can't help but wonder, is this something my mother would have made for me if she'd raised me? I stare, lost in thought imagining the kind of life I might have had if I'd known my parents. Warm hugs, proud smiles, and coming home to the amazing smell of burnt onion- wait slag! Well, guess it's a good thing I can always try again with cooking.

Spices, onion, and nuts attempt number two. Just to be safe, I'm setting an alarm on my NIL. I stir it occasionally, making sure it all cooks evenly, but I still can't help but wonder what their life, my life, could have been. What did their voices sound like? One of them was a naval officer going by the badge I'd seen in the box, was it my father? What about my mother?

The alarm jerks me back out of my musing to find that the spices and nuts are nicely toasted and the onions are brown. All into the blender it goes until it's smooth. I definitely prefer this way of making a sauce compared to the one I made for the mac and cheese. No messing around with flour and ending up with a lumpy mess if you don't do it just right. Just throw it all in a blender until it's silky smooth.

Alright, time for the chicken then. Toast some more spices, I'm definitely seeing a trend here, throw in the chicken and let that cook. Add the onion sauce and more spices again. Oh scrap, I forgot the rice. Quickly where's the rice cooker. Now the rice. No, rinse it first slagbrain!

I've just finished starting the rice when I see Hailey enter the cafeteria. Her hair falls in curls around her face, still damp from the shower and I catch myself staring. I flush when she catches me, meeting her gaze before looking away.

"Food's almost done, Hailey. I ah, may have had to start over after I burned my first attempt, and I almost forgot to cook the rice. Sorry, it's not ready yet." Hailey shook her head with an amused smile, doing distracting things to her hair.

"That's fine, Rama. I don't mind waiting." I stood there awkwardly waiting for the food to finish cooking, unable to find anything to talk about. Hailey for her part was content to watch me with a small smile on her lips, head tilted. Is it just me or is she doing that thing with her hair deliberately. Oh, she absolutely is, just look at the way those eyes are sparkling, the tease. I'm blushing, aren't I? I can tell because her smile just got bigger.

"I need to uh, go check on the chicken and rice." Tactical retreat completed success- not so successfully, she followed me into the kitchen. Thankfully she seems to have decided to spare my remaining dignity in the interest of gathering the dishes and utensils for dinner.

The chicken is tender and fully cooked so I turn off the heat. The aroma of the spices has completely filled the kitchen and cafeteria by this point. My stomach helpfully reminded me that it has been quite some time since lunch and that this 'Korma Curry' I cooked does in fact smell delicious.

Soon, the table is all set with a pot of chicken Korma and another of freshly cooked rice along with a pitcher of chilled tea. Hailey and I help ourselves to the food and the only noise is the occasional scraping of cutlery on dishes as we eat. The food is fantastic, creamy, a little spicy, and rich, there are so many flavors combined in this single dish.

Soon, our plates are empty and our stomachs full. The dirty dishes and utensils go in the washer after the leftover bits of sauce and rice have been scraped into the organic recycler to be reused by the food synthesizer. It took me some time to get used to 'throwing away' food like this when I was so used to saving and scraping for every little bit I could before. There were times I'd been so hungry in the past I'd eaten the disposable carton my food had come in at the station bar just for a little something more to fill my stomach.

Returning to the table with a plate of 'cookies' and a fresh pitcher of tea, we sat down again to enjoy our 'dessert' as Hailey called it. The entire concept of a meal with multiple courses much less one dedicated only to the consumption of sweets was bizarre to my survivalist upbringing. Still, it tasted good, and gave me a few more minutes to work up the courage to breach the subject of inviting my friends along with Hailey. I left the last cookie for Hailey to have as I watched her, she was a dainty and fastidious eater, which was a stark comparison to that first encounter with her spattered in food.

"So, Hailey, what I wanted to talk to you about was well, I'd like to invite some of my friends along when we leave if it's alright with you. Now, I don't want you to say yes just to please me if you're not-" My rushed speech was cut off.

"Ok."

"comfort- Hailey?"

"I said it's ok, Rama."

"You're sure? You're not just doing it to make me happy?"

"Yes, Rama, I'm sure. If they're your friends, then I'm sure they're good people, and I'll be able to get along with them once I get to know them." She had a warm smile on her face, and her body was relaxed, showing no signs of stress or tension. My own shoulders, which I hadn't even realized had tensed up, relaxed in relief at her answer.

"Thank you, Hailey, it means a lot to me. I'm proud of you too, I know it's probably hard for you with me wanting to shove a bunch of strangers into your life in such a short amount of time." Hailey flushed slightly at the praise, a pleased smile on her lips, but didn't lower her head or hunch in on herself as she might have in the past.

"I had your help, Rama."

"You say that as if I'm some sort of people expert, Hailey, when I'm probably worse at talking to people than you are. Not a lot of opportunities for casual conversation as a lone human on their own in this big lonely universe." Her smile turned teasing at my words.

"So what you're saying is it takes one socially inept person to help another?"

"Well, this socially inept duo of ours seems to be pretty successful then, don't you think? I'm not sure the universe is ready for our power." I smiled as my comment elicited a small giggle from Hailey, the sound reminding me of crystal chimes.

"The universe won't know what hit it." Hailey agreed.

"Well, I want to give my friends from The Hab a tour of our ship tomorrow, let them meet you as well so you can get to know each other. The only thing is, we forgot to sync our time to the stations' before our arrival, so we're about six hours ahead of them. Any ideas on what to spend our time doing until we're synced up?" Hailey tapped her lip in thought at the question.

"Well, we just ate, so we probably don't want to do any physical exercise." I shuddered at the thought of trying to work out with my full stomach and vigorously shook my head.

"Then I guess that just leaves more movies."

"I haven't any better ideas, so movies it is then." I agreed, there were worse ways to spend an evening.

*****

"You're both sure that's what he said, that it was a human ship?"

"Yes, representative."

"Well, I suppose this does work in our favor then. We take advantage of his fabricators to get what we need, and then turn him in to the Itzli authorities for a nice reward. We should be mostly done exploiting his generosity by the end of the week if the current rate of production is anything to go by. Add a message to our weekly outgoing package, and make sure it's hidden well enough a casual scan won't find it just to be safe."

"Right away, Representative."

"Well done, you two. After this we'll all be able to live a little easier."

"Just don't forget my share of the bounty."

"I don't care about the money, but you better make sure you keep your promise."

"Yes, yes, I'll make sure you get your little sweetheart like you wanted. Just don't do anything to screw this up."