It took us three weeks to get the outside of the ship to look like what Luxea had planned. Not only did we have to remount the gravity sensors, we added quite a few more and used up all of our spares. We also had to move all of the deflector screen emitters and their power conduits out to the new hull. The ship didn't have as many deflectors as my ship did and it only covered critical areas, so we were going to have to salvage a lot of them from the wrecks when we started that operation.
Our work didn't go off without a hitch or two. Slight miss-cuts on some of the support members had made mounting the plates on top of them impossible to match up with each other, which meant that we had to open the hull up around them and cut them off, make new structural mounts, then put them into place to set everything right. If Luxea hadn't been the engineering woman of my dreams, there was no way that we would have ever pulled something like this off, no matter how long we took to do it.
“That is a thing of beauty.” Rhubin said from the shuttle's cockpit as he sent images of the ship back to us. We hadn't altered the alien shuttle yet, so we weren't going to be using it in public until we gave it the same kind of makeover.
“It almost looks like a Destroyer.” Simone commented.
“A what?” Luxea looked at her with surprise on her face.
“It's a sub-class of an old frigate.” Simone said. “It's heavily armed and carries two platoons of marines for assaults on hard targets, either in space or on the ground.”
“Are you joking?” Luxea asked and brought up the image of a transport that she had used as a model for the reconstruction. “This is what I was trying to emulate.” She said and activated the holographic projector.
“Oh! I see.” Simone said. “Can you rotate it for me?”
Luxea turned the display until Simone held up a hand.
“Here are the differences.” Simone said and pointed to the engines. “The ship I'm thinking of has a bank of engines here and here, not along the back in a row.” She made the rotate motion and Luxea turned it for her. “The cargo hatch is the same, except it should split in the middle to allow a quicker opening time.” She said as the ship turned again. “There should be two observation bubbles, here and here, and the cockpit should be a little more pointed.”
“Oh, god.” Luxea said and then sighed. “Who else is going to think this is a warship?”
Simone had to think about that for a minute. “Probably anyone that's visited a military shipyard more than once.” She said. “Definitely anyone knowledgeable about starships and their history.”
I put my arm around Luxea's shoulders and gave her a one arm hug. “It's okay.”
“No, it isn't. It actually is a transport ship design. I didn't realize they had adapted it for military use.” Luxea sighed. “This was the only design that we could adapt the ship to. Everything else would require cutting some part of the ship off or adding so much that it would reduce its functionality to zero.”
“Then we'll make due.” I said.
“Hunter, we can't just fly around in something that looks like an old warship!”
“Why not?” I asked.
Luxea looked at me like I wasn't making sense. “They will constantly challenge us, that's why!”
“We won't have to worry about that for a little while.” I said. “We're going to be salvaging the wrecks and filling the hold for the foreseeable future, right?”
Luxea sighed again. “We can't fly an unarmed ship that looks like a warship into an inhabited system.”
“We only have to do that once and the people in the Fogaris system know we're coming.”
“What do you mean we only have to do that once?” Luxea asked.
“There's a reason why I asked you to leave some room between the ship and the new hull in certain spots.” I said. “There's lots of space to mount some heavy lasers and maybe a couple of those assault lasers, assuming the aliens have similar systems.”
“Are... are you joking?” Luxea asked. “You want to arm the ship and make it into an actual warship?”
“I wasn't going to, then fate seems to have given us the perfect opportunity.” I chuckled. “I was happy with just having all the extra storage space. Now we can have that and be able to protect ourselves if anyone tries to hijack us.”
“Hunter, I...” Luxea sighed. “You're going to argue that we need to do this, now that we know it does look like a warship.”
“Argue? No. Point out? Yes.” I leaned down and kissed her on the lips. “I'll restrain myself and we'll only take two of the high velocity weapon power coils from one of the larger wrecks.”
Luxea caught her breath and stared at me. “Hunter!”
“Ha hahaha! I'm joking!” I said and gave her another kiss. “I can make due with half a dozen of the medium power coils until we can get a replacement for the reactor core.”
“Hunter!” Luxea exclaimed and I laughed again.
Rhubin flew the shuttle back into the shuttle bay and sealed and pressurized it, then came up to the cockpit to meet with us. “So, are we going now or what?”
“We are definitely going.” I said.
“Hunter, we... we shouldn't...” Luxea said, her tone of voice sounded defeated.
“If you want me to, I'm pretty sure I can find the specs for the Destroyer.” Simone said, helpfully. “If we are arming the thing anyway, it might as well be accurate.”
Luxea gave her a forlorn look.
“Hey, it's okay.” Simone said and put her arm over Luxea's shoulders. “No one really plans to use shipboard weapons, except for the military. We all know those people are a little crazy.”
“You mean battle crazy, right?” Rhubin asked.
“Uh... yeah... sure.” Simone said and glanced at me with a smile as the Presence wavered slightly.
I held in my laugh. “All right. We need to split up again and get back to the Fogaris system.”
“I have to stay here and keep working.” Luxea said.
“I'll stay with you for stress relief.” I said and she nodded.
“Then it's the same division as before.” Rhubin said and then he grinned. “Unless Simone wants to stay here and leave me all alone... on a luxury craft... with a huge unused shower.”
Simone barked a laugh. “You're pushing my buttons to manipulate me already?”
“I have to at least attempt to seduce you, even knowing it won't work.” Rhubin laughed. “What would my reputation be like if I didn't try at least once?”
“Intact?” I asked, and everyone laughed.
The draw of the huge shower was too much for her to ignore, so Simone went with Rhubin onto the Udelis. Luxea and I gave her permission to stay in our room for the next while, considering we were going to be working for a long time on our respective ships as we salvaged cargo. We jumped into hyperspace and because the larger ship had less power to work with, it took an extra day for us to arrive. When we did, alarms blared and we were immediately targeted with weapons.
“I guess computers would also recognize the design.” I said as several mobile platforms activated near us and readied their weapons. “Luxea, tell me you have the new friendly codes installed.”
“They've been broadcasting constantly.” Luxea said, her forehead covered in sweat. “I knew this was going to happen.”
We came to a stop as ordered and waited as a patrol ship came over to us. Having our other ship make the slower journey with us had been the smart thing to do, because it gave our unfamiliar, and yet warship-like appearance, legitimacy. After several orders to prepare to be boarded, communications were cut off and we were made to sit there for half an hour. No one approached us, not even a boarding party like they said, and the patrol craft stayed nearby with its weapons powered up and targeted at us. The communication display lit up and the admiral glared out of it at me.
“You bought a warship?” Shanifra asked, her voice full of incredulity.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“No, we bought another courier ship, then redid the hull over the last month to change the awful way it looked.” I explained. “It wasn't until we had a good external look at it with a shuttle that someone recognized that it looks like an old warship.”
Shanifra took off her hat and rubbed her forehead. “Do you realize the panic you just caused here?”
“No.” I said and she sighed. “I can guess, though.”
“Did you do this on purpose?” Shanifra asked.
“Kind of.” I said and she frowned. “I thought it would be safe to come here, since you knew it was us coming. I didn't think you would react in a bad way, considering there's nothing inside this ship and you would know that I wouldn't come here with the intention to attack you.”
“Is it armed?” Shanifra asked.
“Absolutely not.” I said. “Not yet, anyway.”
Shanifra sighed. “You can't seriously think...”
“I was actually going to let it slide and take Luxea's advice; but, with the way a friendly force reacted to a transport's hull... and if you look at your records it actually was a transport's hull before the model was adopted to be an outdated and poorly designed warship... I have to seriously consider arming it.”
“I can't let you float around the system in an armed ship.” Shanifra said. “If you do...”
“I've been doing it the entire time we've been here.” I said and she caught her breath. “I've always been here in an armed ship.”
The admiral's eyes darted to her display and she frowned. “Nothing's showing up.”
“Of course not.” I said. “Why would I bother friends by baring arms against them?”
“Show me.” Shanifra ordered.
I hit a button to put the Udelis into the circuit. “Rhubin, deploy the assault laser cannons.”
“Hunter, I don't think...”
“The admiral will send out the kill signal if we don't show her.” I cautioned, and he sighed. A second later, alarms blared over the communications system and the patrol ship and mobile platforms all targeted the Udelis as it revealed weapons that no one suspected it had.
“It's true?” Shanifra asked, surprised. “How in the world did you hide assault cannons on a ship that small?”
“It was my parents' ship and it came like that.” I said. “The weapons are built in and not added on.”
“That's how you handled the scout ship that time.” Shanifra said. “Uzahne said that you hid in the debris field to get away from them.”
“She didn't need to know that we removed the threat and didn't just avoid it.” I said. “Rhubin, that's enough.”
The alarms stopped blaring as the weapons were retracted and concealed again.
“Hunter, this...” Shanifra sighed. “We have to rethink our open-door policy with you.”
“Why?” I asked. “I'm still the same person and it's still the same ship. I've never used it against you or threatened anyone or anything whatsoever here.”
“Hunter...”
“Look, you can be all 'this is mine and you can't come in here without my permission' all you want. I'm okay with that. I always have been.” I said. “What I don't like is that once I revealed that I can defend myself when attacked, you need to rethink everything that's happened between us. Really?”
“Do you know how the people will react if we tell them that the ship that helped us so much is armed?” Shanifra asked.
“Some will be insulted that they didn't know.” I said. “Most of them will be ecstatic that the ship that brought them their new government had the ability to defend them, and did defend them, against their enemies.”
“It's not that simple.” Shanifra said.
“Luxea, send what I just said and a visual of the cannons being deployed.” I said and put my hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “If you're okay with it, add in the recordings and the data from the encounter with that scout ship.”
Luxea gave me a look that said she wasn't okay with revealing that she was the one that did it.
“I ordered it, remember? That's on record, too.”
Luxea sighed and accessed the data on the Udelis, quickly made up the data packet, and sent it to the admiral.
“Now send it to everyone in the system.” I whispered.
“Hunter, I can't do that!” Luxea said.
“I can.” I reached down and quickly typed in the commands and she tried to stop me. I turned her chair away with Presence to move her out of the way and sent the data to everyone. All of the ships, all of the habitats, and everyone on the planet received the information.
“I can't believe you did that to me!” Luxea exclaimed.
“I'm sorry.” I said. “It was the only way to stop them from putting a gag order on the information.”
“Everyone is going to know that I'm a murderer!” Luxea said.
“You are not a murderer.” I said. “I ordered you to kill them.”
“It's the same thing!” Luxea said and stood up.
“Is it?” I asked and turned to look at her. “Am I a murderer, Luxea?”
“Yes! You've killed a lot of people!”
I nodded. “Some I've killed casually and others I've been angered by and then killed.” I said. “I've told you why and I thought you were okay with that.”
“I am okay with it! With you! Everyone knows that you're a bounty hunter and that it's your job to hunt and kill people!” Luxea exclaimed as she glared at me angrily. “I'm not like you, though! I don't want to be known for killing people!”
“That's not what you'll be known for.” I said and pointed. “Look at the communications panel and tell me how many of them are for you.”
Luxea squinted her eyes at me as she frowned and then she glanced at the list of messages. They kept scrolling as more and more of them came in. Her eyes started to tear up as she saw the words of congratulations. The number of normal citizens that sent thank you messages started to pass the hundreds and reach the thousands. Mixed in were messages from the military about respect and jealousy for her getting payback for them. Some messages were for Rhubin for his expert piloting and for me for not hesitating in a combat situation; but, the majority were for her.
“N-no.” Luxea shook her head. “No, I... I don't want this. Not like this.”
“Don't worry. Only the people in this system will know you're their hero, Luxea.” I said in a soft voice and tried to hug her.
Luxea pulled away out of reach and glared at me. “I'm not a hero!”
“Yes, you are. People don't congratulate and thank murderers.” I said.
“They thank you!” Luxea spat.
“Only because I'm so charming.” I said. “If I was an asshole, they would probably hate me.” I said and then thought about it. “Then again, some might still thank me. It's hard to say with some people.”
“I can't believe you.” Luxea said through gritted teeth.
“I had to tell everyone here what happened, or they could cover it all up and kick us out for having an armed ship in their space.”
“They can still do that!”
“No, they can't.” I said. “What will everyone say if we are escorted to the border of their space and told not to come back?”
Luxea closed her mouth before she said what she would tell everyone in that situation.
“They will have to wait a little while, until this dies down, before they can lie convincingly.” I said. “I'm sorry if I embarrassed you with this.”
“I'm sure you are.” Luxea gave me angry eyes as she picked up her datapad. “I need some air.” She said and left the cockpit at a fast walk. There was silence in the cockpit for about thirty seconds, then the admiral spoke from the communication's vidscreen.
“I'm glad I didn't offer her an officer's position, too.” Shanifra said. “To think she believes she's a murderer because she defended your ship from attack.” She shook her head. “I suppose she might even believe that all military personnel are the same.”
“I can't say.” I said, even though I got the feeling that she did. I didn't realize Luxea had that harsh of an opinion about it, though.
“Well, your strategy worked.” Shanifra said as she looked down at her display. “We've got thirty... no, fifty requests to invite you and Luxea to dine at the new government house.” She said. “The new president's request is at the top of the list.”
“Uzahne?” I asked, and Shanifra nodded. “I don't think I can accept.”
“I saw.” Shanifra said in reference to Luxea's reaction. “I'll extend your regrets and let them know what you're doing about the alien wrecks.”
“I'm still allowed to do that?” I asked, and she sighed.
“Yes, even though I don't want to let you.” Shanifra said. “Are you starting right away?”
“In a couple of days, after we examine the debris field and pick out the best wrecks to start with.” I said. “If that changes in any way, I'll let you know.”
“I need to send an escort with you.” Shanifra said. “The patrol ship near you will stay with you.”
“That's fine.” I said. “It'll be nice to have the company.”
Shanifra's eyes went to the empty co-pilot seat beside me, then she nodded and cut the call.
*
On the planet Chofaris, the extrapolated footage of the encounter played on the news and their version of the internet on a constant loop. Rhubin's fantastic flying was analyzed and the precise shooting to remove just the cockpit of the alien's scout ship was praised. Military experts chimed in and gave interviews about the encounter and said that they were lucky to be alive. The whole thing became a national phenomenon and by the end of the day, even young children knew about it and how that fast little ship had saved their whole star system and then given them their government back.
*
“Madame President.” An aide said as she stepped into Uzahne's private office. “The Vice President requests a meeting.”
“There's no need for formality.” Uzahne said with a smile. “Please show Olugaell in.”
The aide nodded and left, then returned with the humanoid fish woman that was a member of the native population on the planet.
“Uzahne, thank you for seeing me on such short notice.” Olugaell said as the aide left.
Uzahne laughed. “Come in, come in.” She said and stood to greet her good friend with a quick hug. “You know that you don't need to request a meeting. Just come right over.”
“I couldn't do that!” Olugaell gurgled a laugh and her fins shook with amusement. “You're the head of the government. I need to keep some semblance of decorum in our offices!”
Uzahne laughed. “We are the head of the government.” She corrected and they both sat down on the couch that she used for informal meetings. “I don't have to guess what you need to see me about.”
Olugaell smiled. “I wish to see our heroes in person again.”
“I suspected as much.” Uzahne said and held out a chip with a recording of the conversation the admiral on the station had given her.
Olugaell took out her datapad and put the chip in it, then watched the conversation in real time. “Oh, my.” She said as she experienced the confrontation between Hunter and Shanifra, then Luxea's reaction to it. “That poor girl.”
“Yes, it's a shame, really.” Uzahne said. “Even if she did want to accept all of the invitations our government officials have sent her, having her reveal that particular prejudice in polite conversation would upset quite a lot of people.”
“Especially my people.” Olugaell said and handed the chip back. “Would Hunter accept if invited alone?”
Uzahne waved for her to keep the chip. “He might, if we kept it to a more... private setting.”
“Hmm.” Olugaell sat there and thought about it. “No openly visible press is a given.” She said. “Maybe ten to twelve representatives of the government? Not including us, of course.” She smiled. “We could include the admiral and her personal staff as well.”
It was Uzahne's turn to think about it. “If we limit the people, we can keep it semi-formal and we won't have to dress up like your people if we don't want to.”
Olugaell laughed. “I told you several times that it's not insulting. We see it as a compliment.”
“I kept knocking my drink over with the fins!” Uzahne said, then they both laughed.
“Would he rather get the invitation from you or from me?” Olugaell asked.
“Oh, definitely you.” Uzahne said. “We can even hold it at your place to keep it more reserved.”
“That is an excellent idea.” Olugaell said and pat her friend's hand. “I will compose it and send it off as soon as I get back to my office. I'll even set it for a week from now. If he accepts, we will have plenty of time to make up the guest list and get everything arranged.”
Uzahne nodded. “Thank you, Olugaell.”
“Now, on to other matters.” Olugaell said. “We still haven't decided what we need to do about...”
The two women discussed their political landscape and what they could do to dig out some of the weeds that had cropped up. It was always inevitable for unscrupulous people to get into public office, since that was what a lot of them did to get either money or fame. Those that had money wanted the fame, and those with fame wanted the money. It was almost always that way, and both Uzahne and Olugaell had some hard work ahead of them to deal with it.