Hailey stood up and walked over to the pilot's seat and sat down. “Can I watch you work from here?”
“I'm pretty sure you can do anything you want.” Gleas said and looked at me.
I shrugged and let Simone out of the hug. “Udelis, add Hailey to the approved user list. Oh, and remove Luxea and Rhubin if you haven't already.”
“Command confirmed. New user designation 'Hailey' accepted. Old users already removed.”
“After this shift, I'll start working on clearing his systems of Luxea's influence.” I said and bent down to kiss Hailey's cheek. “No flying the ship while we're still attached to the new ship.”
“I can fly the ship when it's not?!?” Hailey asked excitedly and I chuckled.
“We have all these fantastic people around us and they are also pilots.” I said. “Maybe they can take some entrepreneurial young woman under their tutelage and share their extensive knowledge.”
“Do we get hazard pay?” Jelly asked and that made everyone laugh.
“Maybe.” I said with a smile. “Go get changed so we can get this cargo moving.” I looked at the others. “In fact, I think we all should.”
“We could make a carry chain and just pass everything along instead of each of us moving it piece by piece.” Simone said. “We just have to be careful of the momentum.”
“I'll go into the containers to catch everything and rack it properly, so you don't have to worry about that.” I said.
“Then this is going to be the fastest unloading anyone has ever seen.” Simone commented and we all went to our rooms and changed into our flight suits. Hailey watched us as we really did unload at a much faster speed than anyone could have guessed. I stayed inside the containers to catch the items and place them in the appropriate spots, so a continuous stream of salvage flowed towards me.
We did one six hour shift and took a two hour break, then we did another six hours and called it a day. That evening, I contacted the same work crew that had modified the cell on the Udelis and hired them to redo the room on the new ship. It would happen the next day and they even agreed to install the medical equipment for a small additional fee. After arranging that, I worked on the Udelis AI for two hours, then took Hailey back to our room on the new ship. We had a bath for her and a shower for me, then we went to bed and slept all night.
We all worked hard the next day and when we came back inside the ship for supper, the medical bay was completed, including the technical add-ons that were necessary to make it completely functional. I paid the crew with two of the week pay chips I had gotten from Gleas and the crew leader looked at the credit total.
“You're not going to ask for change, are you?” The alien asked with a smile.
I chuckled. “The rest is a bonus for finishing so quickly. So, have a drink on me.”
The alien nodded and pocketed the chip, then the crew left. I asked everyone to come and see the new medical bay and they were all impressed; even Hailey, who had seen a lot of them. All it needed was to have the software updates that Luxea had designed and it would be fully functional. I checked the programs over first, of course. When they were cleared, I set them to update and install onto the existing software and let it run.
We had supper and I worked on the Udelis for two hours, then went to bed. The next five days were pretty much the same thing. We unloaded cargo, ate, unloaded cargo, then I worked on the Udelis AI.
The things Luxea did to the poor artificial intelligence was as extensive as it was unnecessary. A lot of it just rewrote some of the information files to include her name and a piece of her code that didn't actually do anything. I removed it all, except for the voice and translation files. Those I just cleaned and removed her backdoors in the software. I wasn't going to reduce Udelis back to a screen display, now that we could actually talk to each other.
On the last day of the week, we all took a break. I locked the ships down and covered certain parts with Presence, just in case, then we took a shuttle to the station. I paid to dock for the day and we spent the time shopping and walking around the station. This was the first civilian station that Hailey had visited and she was excited about it. I wallowed in her thoughts as she experienced yet another first with me, and she looked forward to whatever it was that was going to be the next first she experienced with me.
I gave her a hug and she beamed a smile at me, then we all went to our favorite restaurant. The entire staff pretty much fell over themselves when I walked in with a bevy of beauties, then the owner saw Hailey. She was immediately declared the Queen of the Restaurant and a feast was prepared in her honor.
The owner's wife came out to see what the fuss was about and immediately fell in love with her and helped to make the meal even more lavish than it was going to be. We were served and started to eat, then the owner's wife grabbed my arm as she leaned in to whisper.
“She is to be your wife.”
It was a statement and not a question, so I nodded.
“Then she is family, too.” She said. “Where are your other friends?”
I was tempted to say that they were arrested, then changed my mind. “They aren't friends anymore.”
The owner's wife caught her breath and held my arm tightly for a moment, then she sighed.
I pat her hand. “This food is delicious.”
“Then eat until your belly bursts.” The woman said and looked at Hailey. “I will be back with your royal crown.”
Hailey wasn't sure what she meant, then the woman came back ten minutes later with batter-covered onions that were made into the shape of a large crown and put in front of her.
“Only you get this delicious treat.” The owner's wife said. “Please try it.”
Hailey looked at me and I nodded, so she broke off a piece and tasted it. “It's really good!”
Both the owner and his wife beamed a smile at her and left us to finish the meal. When we were done, I paid, despite their protests, and tipped the workers for the excellent service. We left there and hopped on the shuttle and went back to the joined ships.
Unloading finished after another week and I worked out a few measly sales, until I was struck by inspiration. I contacted the Bogorim Corporation and gave them a list of the salvage I had available, with a tentative list that I might possibly have in a couple of months. Once they knew that they could get an entire influx of new material components, they jumped at the chance. Their clients absolutely loved anything new and odd and they practically demanded I sell it to them.
I hadn't even explained that the items could be easily adapted to work with our systems. Once I did, they bought everything I had on my list with the caveat that I gave them first priority on the next shipment. I agreed without question and waited until the end of the next day off before I told the girls.
I almost had to cover my ears as several grown women squealed in delight like little girls. It was the first time I had heard those sounds from experienced mouths and then I was covered in both hugs and kisses. Hailey was right there and added her own, mainly because she was swept up in the happiness that everyone was sharing. Simone was in a similar situation and had added in her own hug and kiss. She restrained herself and kept it to just my cheek, though.
I was happy that we had been so meticulous in storing everything, because it made taking out the parts I had sold very, very easy. We loaded up the new ship, since it could carry the entire purchase by itself, and Jelly, Deborah, and I delivered it to the second planet. The same little alien was there to oversee the massive delivery and he was absolutely shocked when I transferred everything into their cargo containers using Presence and didn't need the machinery they had brought for that task.
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I accepted the payment credit chip and the alien reminded me to give them first choice on the next shipment. I promised again and we flew back out to the cargo containers and linked back up to the Udelis. Everyone came into the cockpit as I used a chip reader to enter the very high credit chip into the system. When it beeped and showed us the total had been transferred and a copy was immediately sent to the galactic backup, a sigh of relief came from the others and I chuckled.
“You could swear I was handling volatile explosives from your reactions.” I said and they laughed.
“You kind of are.” Gleas said. “By the goddess, I've never seen so many credits in one place before.”
“Yeah, and this shipment was mostly from the low priority wrecks.” I reminded them and they caught their breath. “When we deliver the next one...”
“Oh, goddess.” Gleas took a breath and let it out. “Hunter... even... even one percent of that...”
“Yeah.” I said with a grin. “Aren't you glad you didn't betray me?”
Gleas had a sad look on her face for a moment, then she reached out and rubbed the fuzz on the top of my head. “I never would, even if it turned out that you really were the evil bastard that screwed your friends out of their share, like Luxea and Rhubin believed.”
I widened my eyes for a second and then laughed. “I still can't believe that it was them that tried to do it to me.”
“Neither can we.” Simone said on behalf of everyone. “They even stole your personal money.”
“Oh, that reminds me.” I said and did up twelve chips with a week's pay on them and then three with the five percent interest. “Here are the loans back.” I said and gave Gleas, Beatrice, and Deborah two chips each. “Here's the interest.” I gave them the single chips. “And these are the two weeks you just worked.” I gave them each two more week pay chips.
They waited for a few moments, then Gleas fake scowled and put her hands on her hips dramatically.
“You better hand over the rest of what you owe us or you're going to be in serious trouble!”
I laughed and started using the credit computer. “I am not giving you that much money on a single credit chip.” I said and made them each their own personal account in the computer, then transferred four percent of the original total into each of their accounts. “There.” I said and brought up Gleas' account to show her the total. “Are you happy now?”
Gleas' arms dropped to her sides for a moment, then she covered her mouth in shock. “H-Hunter... what... oh, goddess!”
“Kalina was only getting one percent because she had a temporary contract.” I said. “Employees get four percent, plus bonuses.”
I saw tears appear in Deborah's eyes and Beatrice and Sandy were almost there.
“Go ahead and kiss each other. I won't stare.” I said to Sandy with a grin.
“HA!” Sandy barked a laugh then turned to Beatrice. “Shall we?”
Beatrice's face flushed completely red, then she put her arms around Sandy's neck and kissed her. And didn't stop. They made out with each other for several moments and even though I had been joking, I actually stared at them. We all did. When they broke the kiss, they saw everyone looking at them.
“Hey! You said you wouldn't stare!” Beatrice accused us, her face still completely red.
“We couldn't help it.” I said. “Tell them why, Hailey.”
Hailey moved from the pilot's seat and climbed onto my lap. “You really love each other.”
Sandy's face went almost as red as Beatrice's.
“I can't wait until I'm old enough to kiss Hunter like that.” Hailey said with a huge grin.
It was my turn to bark a laugh and then everyone joined in and laughed, too.
“I don't know about everyone else; but, I'm beat.” Jelly said. “I'm heading to bed.” She turned and started to walk away, and I grabbed her hand.
“Hold on.” I said and let her hand go, then took out a handful of credit chips, one for each week she had worked, then loaded them up with a week's pay and gave them to her. “Sub-contracted work.” I turned to the credit computer and brought up the account I had made for her that had one percent of the salvage sale in it. “My standard hazard pay for temporary workers.”
“H-Hunter!” Jelly exclaimed. “I... I can't...” She looked at everyone's faces and then back at me. “I work for the military. I've been working for them this whole time.” She finally admitted out loud. “I've been keeping them apprised of your actions.”
“Like none of us already knew that.” I said and waved at the others. “Why do you think I forced you to take days off with us and then had you come along on this trip?” I asked. “Did you think I needed a combat pilot to fly us from here to the station?”
Jelly couldn't answer that question, because when I had asked her to come along, she hadn't considered what she would be doing at all. She came along just because I had asked.
“Now you know why I asked.” I smiled. “So, enjoy your vacation from work.”
Jelly shook her head in disbelief. “Now I really need to go to bed.” She said and left the cockpit.
“That was really nice of you.” Gleas said.
“Actually, I was a bit of a jerk for not paying her before now.” I said and several of them nodded. “I didn't offer, because I knew she would have refused if given a choice.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if you worked for someone else and someone gave you a few weeks pay, on top of the pay you already get from that other job, wouldn't you refuse on the grounds that it was a conflict of interest?”
Gleas started to say that she wouldn't, then had to think about it.
“Since she's now here, over a month's travel away from that credit source, it didn't bother her too much to accept being paid for that time.” I let a crooked smile touch my lips. “Then I offered her a ton of free credits on top of that.”
Gleas chuckled and the others smiled. “Okay, yes. That much is hard to refuse.”
“Now I have to agree with Jelly.” I said. “We should all head to bed.”
“I'll get the bath ready!” Hailey said and hopped off my lap and ran from the cockpit.
“Don't use too many suds!” I said loudly after her and she laughed as she disappeared from sight.
“We'll see you in the morning.” Deborah said and the others nodded and started to walk away.
Simone, stay for a minute. I thought to her and she moved aside to let the others pass. When it was just us, I held a hand out to her.
Simone didn't hesitate to take my hand and she shuddered as my thoughts rolled over her. “I... I thought you... were going to keep blocking me.”
“I am blocking you.” I said and her eyes widened. “You're only getting my surface thoughts.”
“But... but, I...”
“You're getting stronger.” I said and pulled her close. “Now sit.”
Simone didn't even look at the vacant pilot's chair next to me and sat down across my lap. She let my hand go and put her arms around my neck, then she pulled herself in close to my chest and rested her forehead against mine. Our Presence mixed together slightly at the contact point and she took in a deep shaky breath. I put my arms around her to give her a hug and let it happen. We stayed that way for only a few moments, then Simone came back to her senses and sat up straight, which broke the contact.
“I can't believe I just did that.” Simone said, surprised at herself.
“I can.” I said and her eyes widened. “It's one of the reasons you came with me.”
“I... but...”
“No, I still can't do a full sharing with you.” I said and reached up to tap her forehead with a fingertip. “You have a bit more rearranging up there to get rid of what Luxea did to you.”
“Hunter, I...”
“It took me a while to figure out; but, she did to you what she did to the Udelis AI.” I explained. “Adding little things here and there and she tried her best to alienate you from me.”
Simone took in a sharp breath. “She... she was trying to keep you alone!”
“Yes.” I said. “She wanted to make sure that it was only her that I could turn to.”
Simone was quiet for another few moments. “It almost worked.”
“On both counts.” I said. “Udelis, thank god, has a read only part of his core. Absolutely nothing can remove the original users from his programming. If it's attempted...”
“The authorities are called because whoever does it is committing piracy and they are trying to steal him from you!”
I nodded. “It's an elegant response, isn't it? I'm really glad my parents set it up that way.”
“But... if Luxea checked everything over... wouldn't she have known...”
“No. It's the same as when we had a hard time trying to figure out how to boot up Udelis the first time. Unless you specifically know what you are looking for and how to get to it, you will never find it.”
Simone sat on my lap, holding me, and didn't say anything for almost a full minute. “I just realized something.” She said and looked into my eyes. “Her plans had to change when you hired all of the pilots. It messed up everything she was working for.”
“You're right. It was easy for her to work her plans around Rhubin, since the three of us were friends and pretty much ignored each other when we're working. With so many more new eyes and ears to watch her...”
“There was no way she could make sure you were alone.” Simone said. “Then you changed ships and stayed on the new one, which left her here on the Udelis.”
“That's when she recruited Rhubin.” I said. “I bet it was her that goaded him into convincing Kalina to quit.” I chuckled. “All it would have taken was a whisper here, an off-comment there, and he would have thought it was all his idea... which was why I was so angry at him.”
“Even I picked up on his feelings of superiority when he claimed that they didn't break your policy.”
“Like I told him, he did break it.” I said. “Look at the mess he's left, all because he couldn't keep it in his pants for two more months.”
“Would you really have lifted...”
“Kalina wouldn't be under contract to me anymore and she could have stayed on the ship, just like Sandy stays with Beatrice.”
“Oh, that idiot.” Simone said, now that she understood the depths of Rhubin's mistake.
“I said that to him much more colorfully.” I said and she laughed.
“I've never heard you curse like that.”
“I never really had the reason to until that point.” I said and she leaned her forehead on mine again.
“I really need to go to bed.” Simone said sadly as her Presence and mine touched again.
“And I need to see if Hailey filled the bathroom with suds.”
Simone chuckled. “Okay, I'm getting up now.” She said and didn't make any effort to move.
“Am I really that appealing?” I asked with a smile.
“You know you are.” Simone said, then she sighed and sat up straight, once again breaking contact.
“It's the hair, right? Women love the hair.” I said and laughed at my own joke.
“Yes, it's the hair.” Simone said sarcastically. “You're not just a physical being, you know.”
I nodded and let her half out of the hug and used the freed hand to type on the credit computer. “How appealing am I now?”
“Hunter, I don't care about how rich you...” Simone stopped talking when she saw the name on the screen was hers. When she saw the credit total was ten percent of the original salvage sale, she took in two sharp breaths... looked at me... then she fainted. Her arms let me go and she flopped backwards.
I easily held onto her, since she was still on my lap. “It's a good thing I didn't let you go completely.” I said with a chuckle.