I escorted the female alien down in the elevator and she took me out through a different exit and we appeared at the end of what seemed to be a random alleyway between two shops. She slipped her arm partially around my waist when we were out in the crowd, like mine was around hers, and she led me down the corridor of bustling businesses to a darkened storefront. I gave her an inquiring look and she smiled as she opened the door and the lights and smells hit me in the face.

“Ooo, hidden food is always the best.” I said and she nodded.

We went inside and the place was fairly crowded. She pointed to someone off to the side of the room and we went over to the man. After a quick conversation and a fifty credit chip bribe, we were let into the private dining area. Neither of us spoke, verbally or mentally, until the waiter came and took our orders. I accepted her recommendation for what to eat and as soon as the waiter left, I covered the table in a slightly blue Presence barrier and cut off all sound.

“I'm going to speak normally, if that's all right?” I asked and she nodded. “Can you tell me the name of your race?”

She had an apprehensive look for a moment. “You don't want to know my name?”

“Simone Ignat Dominique Alexandra Lynede, I'm tempted to call you Sidal for your initials.”

Simone smiled. “Just Simone is fine.” She said. “You prefer Hunter.”

I nodded. “The other names refer to parts of my life that I don't want to be reminded of right now.”

“You've had...” Simone's eyes widened. “...no, are you really?”

I nodded again. “I'm only about ten years short of celebrating my seven hundredth birthday.”

“But... but you...” Simone shook her head. “How?”

“Magic portals and divine interference.” I said and her mouth dropped open in shock. “You're wondering why I'm telling you?” I asked, and she nodded. “Because I know you'll keep it a secret.”

“How?” Simone asked. “We only just met!”

I chuckled. “I've met another of your race before.” I said and held out my hand. “If you'd like, I can share that time with you.”

Simone was tempted by my offer. Very, very tempted.

“Perhaps after the meal?” I asked and pulled my hand back. “Here comes our food.” I absorbed the Presence barrier and all the miscellaneous sounds around us could be heard again. She turned and listened for the waiter's mind and didn't pick it up until it left the kitchen.

What is your range? Simone asked me mentally.

Let's just say that there's nothing on the station I can't reach if I concentrate. I responded.

The waiter delivered our meals and drinks, then left. I let Simone mull over what I had said and as we ate, I concentrated on Luxea. She was currently looking through a digital inventory of programs she thought might be useful.

“Hey, beautiful.” I whispered and used Presence so that only Luxea could hear me. “I'm having dinner with another telepath.”

“Oh? Does she look like Ohazith?” Luxea asked. “Assuming she's the same species.”

“She is the same race and she looks completely different.” I said. “Larger breasts, shorter hair, no extra arms, and her Presence is about twice as strong.”

“Are they as nice as mine?” Luxea asked, immediately thinking of the breast comment.

“I haven't looked yet.”

“Yet, huh?” Luxea chuckled. “Do I need to warn you again about sleeping with strange women?”

I smiled. “I want to examine why she doesn't have extra arms and I'll need to look for that.”

“Okay.”

“That's it? You're not going to get angry if I see another woman naked?”

“It's fine as long as you don't sleep with her.”

“You mean right away, right?” I asked jokingly, and Luxea laughed.

“Can you at least wait until we have a fight or something before you start shopping for a replacement?”

I laughed, too. “Considering we never fight, that's going to take a while.” I said and I felt her agree. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.” Luxea said and then she saw a program she absolutely had to have. “I've got to go.”

“Have fun.” I said and let her monitoring fade into the back of my mind again.

“You're not even using electronics.” Simone said. “How far away is she?”

“Um... let's see.” I used Presence to look around Luxea. “She currently in station two in a data shop.”

Simone hid her surprise well. “Impressive.”

“We still have personal communication devices as backups.” I said and showed my wrist com.

“They can be hacked and the signal pirated.” Simone said and I smiled.

“So, when did you start working for...”

“Do you want me to strip right here or should we go somewhere more private?” Simone asked, her tone just a bit cold.

“I'd actually like to get to know you better first.” I said and she gave me a knowing look. “Yes, really.”

“Let me see, then.” Simone said.

I opened my mouth to say no, then brought a touch of Presence to my fingertip and held it out to her. She leaned forward and pressed her forehead to my fingertip and I gave her a temporary sharing connection. When I shared my limited detection range with her, that only covered about two-thirds of the station, she shivered for a moment and fell unconscious. I chuckled and used Presence to reduce the shock to her system and hold her head, so she didn't drop it to the table. After a few minutes she woke up with a slight headache.

“How can you 'see' so much and not go mad?” Simone asked and rubbed her forehead.

“Compartmentalization.” I said. “If I tried to look at everything at once, like you just did, it would hurt. So, I mentally limit what I 'see' and make it all background noise.” I waved at the restaurant. “Like all this noise. It's there, and you can listen to some of it and make it out if you concentrate; but, if you don't pay attention, it's just noise.”

“You're amazing.” Simone said and looked down at her meal. “I don't think I want to make myself wait anymore.”

I chuckled. “Do you have a place nearby?”

“Yes.” Simone said and hit the little button on the wall for service. “Check, please.”

The waiter had anticipated her and held out a chip reader. I took out a chip and he slipped it into the reader. His eyes widened at the total and he took off the cost of the food.

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“Take ten percent for yourself.” I said and he added the gratuity and handed me the chip back.

“Thank you sir.” He said and slipped his own chip into it and took the tip. “Thank you very much.”

Simone and I left the hidden restaurant and she led me down the street and another alley to a door. We didn't go back to Aphatoris' building, though. She took me inside another smaller space and there was no elevator. After seven floors of stairs, we arrived at her apartment and she let me inside.

“I can't believe I'm doing this.” Simone said as she shut the door.

I stood behind her and reached up and put my hand on the back of her neck. “Please, allow me to get to know you.”

Simone thought about saying no, then she sighed and let her considerable mental barriers drop.

*

The Visidern were a telepathic species that had been on the edge of a solar system that was being slowly torn apart and consumed by a rogue super-massive black hole. The stellar phenomenon was extremely rare and they were the unlucky ones to win that particular lottery. With no other choice but to abandon their multi-planet home system, their society took everything they could with them and fled.

Unfortunately, no other planet or star system could support over twenty billion new citizens.

They travelled for years to try and find some habitable planet to settle on. In some cases they were successful for a time and filled up anything they found. Resources for that many people were also hard to come by. Soon they gained a reputation as a people who would completely strip any area of everything, just to feed their people. Once they were branded as humanoid locusts, it spelled their downfall as a society.

No one would sell them anything. No one would welcome them. No one seemed to care.

The tiny planet they lived on wasn't harsh; but, most of their population lived on the spaceships in orbit. Ramshackle and pieced together habitats often failed and killed droves of them. Those habitats were harvested for any usable parts for the others. Thousands died. Then hundreds of thousands more. Some of them couldn't take it. They killed themselves so that there would be one more morsel of food for their families to eat.

Soon, it became the norm that a man of a certain age would work himself to death just to feed the family. Birth rates dropped because no one wanted to bring a child into their situation. The higher gravity also played a part in their bodily functions. They were weaker than they should be and their extra arms were a hindrance instead of a boon. Even the people in space had to adjust to it so they could keep rotating the population down to the planet.

With no resources to maintain anything, everything started to break down. Essential skills were lost with no one left to teach them. Computers lost power and vast libraries of information were deleted or lost as the parts were cannibalized to try and keep other things running. Some ships left to go off on their own. Some seeking fortune, some seeking redemption, some seeking salvation for them and their people. Most left seeking only death somewhere else. The last group found what they wanted.

By the time the dust had settled, the Visidern were reduced from over twenty billion to barely a million people, mostly female refugees, because they were the ones who could sacrifice a lot for their children and still live. The race, as a whole, was pretty much done.

*

“Oh, Simone.” I said and moved my hand from the back of her neck and hugged her from behind. “I am so sorry.”

“I'm one of the lucky ones.” Simone said, her eyes full of tears. She had 'seen' all of that, too. “I managed to sneak onto a freighter as a young girl. They traded with my people illegally, robbed us of national treasures in exchange for basic rations, and left as wealthy as kings.” She sighed. “I was discovered when we stopped at the next port of call and I tried to sneak off the ship.”

“Good god.” I said and kissed her cheek. “They took your arms.”

“For stealing food.” Simone said in a whisper. “They said it was an appropriate punishment.”

“Can I see?” I asked, and she nodded. I let her go and she slowly stripped off her light armor and then took off her thick cloth top. I took off my uniform coat and stored it in one of my invisible bags of holding. Simone was naked from the waist up and I only had eyes for her sides. I knelt and tenderly touched the slight protrusions that used to be shoulders. Tears came to my eyes as I hugged her, then the bones under the grown over skin moved slightly, as if the extra arms were trying to move to hug me back. I leaned down and kissed where they were supposed to be.

Simone let out a sob and I looked up at her tear-streaked face. She knelt and wrapped her actual arms around me and we stayed that way as she grieved for arms she had lost nearly two decades ago. While we were like that, I opened some of my own mental shields and shared my experiences with Ohazith. Simone cried harder. Not because Ohazith had been killed, it was because I hadn't seen her as a freak and had welcomed the extra arms as a part of her and even encouraged her to use them.

“Where were you when I was a little girl?” Simone asked, her voice hoarse from crying so hard.

I knew it was a rhetorical question and answered anyway. “I was about a year from being kidnapped, tortured, and killed in my first life.”

Simone's crying fit started again as I gave that experience to her. I softened it, of course. I removed the pain and agony and only gave her the hope and smile I held the entire time. I also showed her that my sacrifice wasn't in vain. Her lips found mine and she kissed me to comfort me and to comfort herself. She felt such relief that she didn't feel any disgust from me, even though I knew her secrets, that she lost herself in the moment and her mind accepted me completely. She embraced me as if she always had and I gave her the same courtesy.

With a quick touch of my Presence, I knew what she needed, what she truly desired, and it wasn't a lover. Not at that moment, anyway. She wanted to be accepted for who she was and who she used to be, so that's what I did. She felt the change in me and surrendered herself completely, both physically and mentally. I could have taken her right then and there and she would have welcomed it; but, we both knew that would have cheapened the experience we were having.

Simone's Presence rose up, for the first time in her life, and eagerly tried to mix with mine. She knew it could be done, because Ohazith had done it, and now she knew how it was done, too. Her entire body tingled as my Presence mixed with hers and her body glowed slightly blue as she took in as much as she could stand, both Presence-wise and memory-wise. When she reached her limit, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell unconscious.

She might be a telepath; but, her experience is almost non-existent. I thought as I picked her up and brought her over to her bed. I laid her down on it and pulled over a chair with Presence and sat down on it. I didn't want her to think I had taken advantage of her, or even imply that I had, so I held her hand and waited for about an hour for her to wake up.

Simone opened her eyes and turned her head to look at me. “Take me with you.”

“Simone...”

“No, I don't expect anything like what you had with Ohazith.” Simone said. “I know you're with Luxea and that you're eventually going to meet up with Lashina in the far distant future.” She smiled and squeezed my hand. I want to have someone near that I can talk to. She thought to me.

“You know what I plan to do.” I said and she nodded.

“The traders I stowed away on? They traded with The Order.” Simone said as her smile disappeared. “Can you guess who it was that caught me?”

I brought her hand to my lips and closed my eyes and went over her memories at the time. I saw more than one Order symbol and their classic robes that hadn't changed since they adopted them as their standard outfits.

“There's not a lot of room on my ship...” I started to say, and she pointed to her private console. I let her hand go and walked over to it and turned it on.

“Look for Argus Shipping.” Simone said and I did so. It was a shipping company that crossed the trade sanctions for a dozen different planetary governments and factions... which also included the recent enemies of the Fogaris system. I knew what special codes to use to get into their private dealings and discovered that they had a retired ship and a shuttle for sale, weaponless of course.

I chuckled. “We've been trying to work a deal like this legitimately.”

“It's a legitimate sale.” Simone said and rolled over on bed to look at me. “The listing isn't.”

“Ah. It means they will only sell to someone in the know.” I said and she nodded. “Can I copy this?”

“Hunter, you can do whatever you want.” Simone said, her voice almost a purr. “I trust you.”

I gave her a smile. “You tested me, even though you were in that state?”

“What better way to find out if you value me, than to give you ample opportunity to touch me as much as you want?”

“What if I'd grabbed your breast or...”

“I would still know where I stood with you, and it would be little more than another woman for you to marginalize.” Simone said and sat up. “You didn't do that, though. You respected me and my body, and didn't even cuddle me like you wanted to, in case I saw it as a violation of my trust.”

I used Presence to pick up her cloth top and armor and floated it over to her. “You'll need to get dressed if you're coming with me.”

“You're going to be here for a week.” Simone said and took the top and armor and set them aside, then she stood. “I'll clear up my dealings here, hand off what I can't to someone else, then I'll meet you at the main ring.”

“I guess we can convert the living room into a temporary room for you.” I said.

“No need.” Simone said and walked over to me to make her breasts sway teasingly. “I'll stay in the reinforced cell.”

“But...”

“It's quite comfortable, considering it's supposed to be for prisoners.” Simone said and leaned over slightly to make her breasts that much more enticing. “You are both vexing and intriguing.”

“So are you.” I said and looked at her breasts. “Are they as supple as I think they are?”

“Oh, yes.” Simone said and gave them a little jiggle, then she stood up straight.

“You know you're making my hands ache.” I said and stood as well.

Simone gave me a huge knowing smile. “Make sure you ravage Luxea a little more than usual tonight.” She said. “For me.”

“I can definitely promise that.” I said and we stared at each other for a few moments.

“Go ahead.” Simone whispered. “I know you want to.”

I smiled a little and reached up, brought a touch of Presence to my fingertips, then cupped the side of her face.

Simone closed her eyes and let the tingling feeling flow over her. “That feels so...”

I gave her a gentle kiss on the lips and cut off her words. She was going to let me do what I wanted, anything I wanted, and she trusted me completely. So, I let her face go, broke the kiss, and left the room.

I had a meeting with my girlfriend to tell her that we had a new member of our crew.