My estimation of a few days turned into a week to find the best pattern to start salvaging the alien wrecks. Their odd shapes and their not-pristine condition made it that much harder. At least their emergency hatches were the same as the hatch on the bottom of every shuttle and we could use the shuttle when necessary. Luxea had worked hard all week, despite still being angry and ignoring me. She had even taken a room on the new ship instead of staying in my room with me.
While she brooded over what I had done, the rest of us had stripped the outer shell of the alien shuttle and had replaced its plating to make it look more like a normal shuttle, while mitigating the impact to the shuttle's versatility. Like the large ship, changing too much would reduce the shuttle's usefulness to nothing and it would defeat the purpose of changing the look. It had a lot less things on it to move out to the new hull and we were done just in time for me to get ready for the dinner party that Olugaell had invited me to.
I tried to refuse on everyone's behalf, then I was politely and pointedly reminded that the invitation was for me only and perhaps a guest if I so wished, so I couldn't really find or make up a reason to refuse. I could have just said no; but, I had been through a lot with some of these people. I didn't believe that insulting them by continuing to refuse a simple dinner invitation would keep me on their good side and I reluctantly accepted.
Luxea absolutely refused to go with me, and after she had a long and lingering glare at Simone, she claimed that she would be unavailable, too. I accepted that explanation and then I had to decide what I wanted to wear. Since it was a semi-formal dinner, I had been tempted to wear my armored uniform, then I figured it might be a little insulting if I showed up fully prepared to do battle. After looking through the clothing I had on my ship and not finding anything suitable for a casual state dinner, I looked through the clothing I had in one of my bags of holding.
“I haven't worn this in a while.” I said and took out the fancy suit that almost looked like a tuxedo. It was still in perfect condition, since the things inside the bag were unaffected by how long they had been in there. It also had Jessica's Preservation spell on it. All of my clothes from that time had the spell on them, including my powered armor uniform, and I could maintain the spells forever as long as I kept adding a little Presence to it. I took a shower to clean up and used Presence to tie up my hair a few times to make that cape-like shape. I thought about trimming it down several times, especially now that I was back in space and had to somehow tuck it all inside a space suit whenever I put one on.
I just couldn't bring myself to do it, though. I had grown it since I was a child and my Presence maintained its healthy look. Over the years, it had changed from its dirty blonde color to a more golden blonde, similar to what my mother's hair was. I sincerely doubted it would ever become that golden, though. I skipped covering part of it with Presence to hide it, since no one I would meet would realize how long it actually took to grow it to the length it was now. I dressed in a simple shirt and the suit, added a couple of bags of holding and a Light sword, then made them invisible and left my room.
“Hunter? Your escort is here.” Rhubin said over the intercom. “It's another fast patrol ship.”
I pushed the button. “I figured as much. Thanks.”
“Should we show them the temporary docking ring that can join two ships together?” Rhubin asked.
“Hell, no. They'll steal it in a heartbeat if they know it actually works.” I said and he laughed. “Tell them I'll meet them at the hatch at the top of the ship.”
“I miss having the shuttle there to play with.” Rhubin said, his voice a little sad.
“You like having the shuttle bay on the other ship more.” I countered.
“Damn straight! No more space walks to check the shuttle's integrity!”
I chuckled. “I'll see you when I get back.”
“Don't have too much fun.” Rhubin said. “You know why.” He said needlessly.
“Yeah.” I let the button go and walked over to the middle of the ship and looked up through the hull to watch the fast patrol ship flip over and put its own shuttle hatch over ours. I waited until there was a good seal from their umbilical as it attached to our hull and climbed the ladder, then I opened the hatch and saw a woman staring at me from the other ship.
“You didn't cut internal gravity to pass between ships?” She asked, surprised.
“It wasn't necessary.” I said and pulled myself into her ship and flipped over, then used Presence to close and secure the hatch of my ship, then did the same for her ship. I checked the telltales and depressurized the umbilical attachment and released it.
She stared at me the entire time. “How did you do that without touching anything?”
“Presence.” I said and her eyes widened.
“What about your hair? How are you keeping it all together like that?”
“Same reason.” I said. “It barely takes any energy.”
“Can... can I touch it?” She asked.
“Once the gravity is back on.” I said and she pushed the button on the panel by the ladder. We had both been floating about four feet above the floor when the artificial gravity came back on and I caught her before she fell to the floor. “You need to be a little more careful of your surroundings.” I said and levitated us down to the floor.
“You flew?” She whispered, her voice full of awe.
“We can all fly in space.” I said with a grin.
She wasn't sure what to make of that statement.
“Perhaps you can tell the pilot we're good to go?” I asked.
“Y-yes.” She said and hit the intercom button. “Passenger secured. Move out.”
“Roger.” The pilot responded and the ship moved out a little, poured on the speed, and flipped over slowly to ease the feeling of centrifugal force.
“Roger is an odd name for a woman.” I joked, and it took her a second to realize what I meant.
“Oh! No, I... my name is Grace.”
I held a hand out to her. “Hi, Grace. I'm Hunter.”
Grace took the hand and shook it. “I know who you are.” She said. “Everybody does.”
I chuckled. “I doubt that.”
Grace gave me an odd look, then she walked over to a screen mounted on the bulkhead and dragged me behind her. She didn't say anything as she turned the screen on and set it to a local news station. I had to blink my eyes at what I was seeing.
“How did they get that footage?” I asked in surprise as it showed me standing calmly between Rhubin and Luxea during the ship's manoeuvres. My long hair floated out behind me as the ship flipped over and it responded to the motions and my feet remained planted to the floor. After thinking about it, I was pretty sure where it had come from.
“An anonymous source.” Grace said and changed the channel. “Hold on. One of these should have your rescue footage on it.”
I stood there wordlessly and waited as she found a station that was currently critiquing my rescue operations. I might not have followed their normal procedures; but, the footage was spectacular, especially when I wielded my modified Light sword to cut my way into areas and sheered off debris to get it out of the way to rescue trapped people.
“Is it true that you don't have any formal training in SAR operations?” Grace asked.
“Formal? No.” I said and watched the screen. “I've got a ton of practical experience, though.”
“I know.” Grace smiled. “The military had to release the actual number of hours you were a part of the operation.”
I turned from the screen and looked at her. “That's not all, is it?”
“Your ship and SAR team rescued three times the number of survivors than any other team.” Grace said. “Let me tell you, I was shocked at the numbers.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“What about the public?” I asked, knowing what she was going to say.
“To put it mildly, they are losing their minds.” Grace said. “When they found out you weren't even getting paid for it...”
“Tessa must have told them.” I said and held in my sigh.
“You mean the captain of the SAR Training Facility?” Grace asked, and I nodded. “She's been interviewed twice now about your adventures.”
“I suppose that's where the rescue footage is coming from.” I said.
“More keeps showing up.” Grace said and changed the channel to show the Udelis as it slipped between two wrecks, flipped over and parked beside a wreck and somehow matched the rotation, then the cargo hatch opened and spat out several space-suited people. “Ooo, I haven't seen this one yet!” She said excitedly and watched with rapt attention.
*
Twenty minutes later, Uzahne's aide spoke. “He's on the fast patrol craft and will enter the atmosphere soon.” She said and tapped her ear to put the communication device back into passive mode. “They will land in about fifteen minutes.”
“Places, everyone!” Olugaell said and her house staff scrambled to get into position and readied themselves to serve at the dinner party. “Is everyone set?” She asked and they all nodded. “The drinks poured? The food properly heated? The sea crab chilled to ten degrees?”
A chorus of 'yes, miss' responded and she nodded happily.
“Good work, everyone.” Olugaell said. “Let's make this a party to remember.”
“It already is.” Uzahne said. “Even if all that happens is we sit down to eat and don't talk, everyone is already talking about it.”
Olugaell chuckled. “Launching a propaganda campaign to focus on Hunter's exploits was a great idea.”
“We needed to extend an olive branch to Luxea, and what better way to do that than to focus on someone that will grudgingly accept being branded a hero by the people?”
“What makes you think he'll accept it?” Olugaell asked.
“He accepted the invitation.” Uzahne said with a smile. “He knows he's being paraded for the government in exchange for us letting him bring an armed ship into our space.”
“We can't abuse his complacency.” Olugaell said with a grin. “Not much, anyway.”
Uzahne laughed and hooked her arm around Olugaell's elbow, careful of her forearm fin. “Let's go and greet your guest.”
*
The fast patrol ship landed on a landing pad not too far away from what looked like a mansion, except it was designed for humanoid fish people. It was covered in fountains and pools of various colors and sizes, with some actual fish in some of them and a few had humanoid fish in them. I couldn't tell if they were bathing or just relaxing, though. I walked down the ramp as a small group of people approached the ship.
“Hunter!” Olugaell said and waved with her free arm. Uzahne was on her other arm and let it go when they were close enough for personal greetings.
“Vice President Olugaell.” I said and gave her a bow of my head. “Thank you for the invitation.”
Olugaell reached out with her webbed hand and I pressed my palm to hers, spread my fingers and added invisible Presence between my fingers in the shape of webbing, then I wiggled my fingers to tap the webbing between her fingers in a proper greeting for her people. She responded in kind, even knowing I had normal hands, then her eyes widened as her fingers met the Presence webbing. The gills on her neck flushed blue as she experienced her people's version of a blush.
I gave her a smile and turned to Uzahne. “Madame President.”
Uzahne held out a hand and expected me to shake it, so I did. Behind her were Ahaen and Sheph, the other two delegates I had delivered. Sheph was the first to offer her hand and I took it, then Ahaen held a hand out for me to shake as well. I could feel her grudging respect for me, especially after seeing the footage of what I had done to save all of those people. She had been surprised by the number of people I had saved, both personally and with the Search And Rescue team.
Since that had been Ahaen's desire from the start and had precipitated their act of piracy for trying to steal the shuttle, she had to admit that my view of waiting to rescue people from a point of strength had been valid and also the smartest thing to do. I knew she would never admit that, and I decided that I wasn't going to tease her about it, either. I let her hand go and looked at the other person with them.
“Admiral.” I said and reached out to take her synthetic hand. “Please, be gentle.”
Shanifra gave me a startled look for a second, then she laughed. “Even if you and Luxea are arguing, I won't try to take advantage of you, despite wanting to thank you for this.” She let my hand go and wiggled her fingers.
“It's a shame you couldn't find anyone to bring with you.” Olugaell said.
“Actually, I did.” I said and reached a hand back towards the ship. They gasped as a woman came down the ramp and looked like she had just stepped out of a fairy tale. Her reddish brown hair was done up in a fancy hairdo and exposed her neck, which made it look longer than it normally did, and her face had just enough make-up to make her lips and eyes stand out. The long flowing blue gown had a moderate cut for her cleavage and only showed just enough of it to tease that there was quite a bit more concealed inside. The hem of the gown just barely touched the ramp as she took my hand.
“Everyone, this is Grace.” I said. “She's a lieutenant from the ship behind me.”
“Wh-what?!?” Olugaell and Uzahne said at the same time.
“Well, we talked for a few minutes and I mentioned having to go to dinner alone. She was sad about that, so I asked her if she wanted to come with me.”
“But... but...” Olugaell stammered.
“Isn't she stunning?” I asked and used a hand to turn her around to show off the dress. “I wasn't sure this style of gown would go well with her complexion, and I couldn't have been more wrong.”
Grace's face was bright red when she faced everyone. “I'm h-honored to be h-here.”
“How did you... what did...” Olugaell couldn't put her thoughts into words.
Ahaen did not have that problem and looked at Grace. “How did you get dressed like that so quickly?”
“I'm not quite sure, actually.” Grace said and her face didn't lose any of its blush. “Hunter did all of this himself. I just stood there and let him...” She glanced at me and back at them. “A dress appeared as if from nowhere, then two hair brushes floated around and...” She looked back at me. “It was like magic.”
I chuckled. “It was just Presence and a deft and well-practised hand at dressing women for years.”
No one was sure how to respond to that.
“Shall we go inside?” I asked and put an arm partially around Grace's waist.
“Y-yes. We should do that.” Uzahne said and turned to her friend. “Olugaell.”
“Of course.” Olugaell said and recovered from the shock of having a completely unexpected guest appear, which threw off pretty much all of their preconceived plans for me. “If you will all follow me.”
We followed as Olugaell led us over to her mansion and we went inside. There were about thirty people in the large room, which included a few humanoid fish people as well. From their thoughts, they were mostly members of the political scene. The few exceptions were members of the military, whose uniforms made them stand out just as much as their mannerisms did.
“Hunter!” Tessa exclaimed and came over to me and dragged her date over with her. “I can't believe they had so much rescue footage of you!” She said with a huge grin.
“I wonder how they got it all?” I asked, sarcastically. “It's almost like it was from someone that was right there with me the whole time.”
“I know! It's amazing, isn't it?” Tessa laughed. “I bet they're making a bunch of credits from the licensing fees.”
“I bet they are.” I said and motioned to my date with my free hand, because I still had my other hand partially around her waist. “This is Grace. She agreed to accompany me tonight. Luxea decided she needed to be away from me for a while.”
Tessa nodded. “I saw the conversation when I was briefed about your incorrect status tonight.” She said with a grin and held a hand out to Grace. “It's nice to meet you.”
“L-likewise.” Grace said, slightly flustered, and shook the offered hand.
“No need to be nervous.” Tessa said. “My date is low on the pecking order, too.”
“Hey!” Jaset said.
“Hush dear. The grown ups are talking.” Tessa said with a grin and pat his hand.
He shook his head and chuckled. “I'll be over at the refreshment table.”
“Get me one of those sparkling things!” Tessa said as he walked away.
“He's going to get you back for that later.” I warned her and she laughed.
“I'll distract him before he can.” Tessa said. “I haven't told him yet that I took the whole week off to spend it with him.”
“Hunter, I would like to introduce you to some of the other guests.” Olugaell said from beside me.
“Of course.” I said. “Grace, would you like to come along, or do you want to stay here with Tessa?”
“If the captain doesn't mind the company, I'll stay.” Grace said.
I let her waist go and turned to Olugaell. “Lead the way.”
Olugaell smiled and snaked her arm through mine and led me across the room to start the show.
*
“By the goddess.” Grace whispered and took a deep breath and let it out.
“Easy, now.” Tessa said. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I think so.”
“I know hanging around all these important people is hard on the nerves.”
“No, it's not that.” Grace said. “I've spent time around the top brass a few times.”
Tessa looked at the other woman for a moment and then smiled. “You mean Hunter.”
Grace nodded. “He's just so... so...”
“Manly?” Tessa offered.
“That... and kind of overwhelming.” Grace said. “He's got this aura about him that sends shivers down my spine.”
“Are they good shivers or bad shivers?” Tessa asked, curious.
“Oh, definitely good.” Grace said, then her face flushed red again. “I probably shouldn't talk like that.”
Tessa chuckled. “It's okay. He saw me in my underwear once.”
“You're kidding.” Grace said and Tessa shook her head.
“We were kind of verbally teasing each other, then he saw what I was wearing under my space suit and he made a fantastic pick-up line that totally threw me.” Tessa said and she felt a little tingle in a certain place. “I sometimes regret not waiting for him to come back.”
“Only sometimes?” Jaset asked as he came over with a glass of the sparkling stuff for her.
“Yeah.” Tessa said and gave him a kiss as she took the glass. “Then I see your face again and remember how much fun we have together.”
“Just fun?” He asked with a smile.
“Don't make me say it again.” Tessa said and rolled her eyes.
“Hey, you said it first.” Jaset smiled. “Surprised the hell out of me when you did it, too!”
Tessa laughed. “All right, fine.” She said and leaned in close. “I love you, you big lug nut.”
“I didn't need the qualifier.” He laughed briefly and kissed her. “I love you, too.”
“Go and get a drink for our new friend.” Tessa said.
“Sure.” Jaset said and looked at Grace. “Any preferences?”
“Non-alcoholic and fruit flavored if possible.” Grace said. “I have to go back on duty after this.”
He nodded and left, then the two women turned and looked over to where Hunter was greeting another politician and their spouse.
“Look at the guy's wife.” Tessa whispered with a chuckle. “She's practically drooling.”
“It's probably because he's so charming.” Grace said. “I was dealing with it okay myself until he asked me to come here. Then I was pretty much speechless.”
Tessa laughed. “He definitely knows how to handle himself now.”
“Do you think...” Grace stopped talking.
Tessa gave her a lopsided smile. “I'm sure he sees this as a casual date and he won't... take liberties with you.”
Grace understood what she meant and sighed before she could stop herself.
“You can always ask for a goodnight kiss.” Tessa said with a grin as Jaset came back over with another drink. Grace's blush was back in full force and she took a big gulp of the pink bubbly drink to calm down.