It actually took another three weeks to convert all of the shuttles for general use. I had been sorely tempted to hire a long haul transport to stick them all in and carry them back to the Dizahl System. Cooler, and apparently smarter, heads prevailed and we used Sheph's personal and professional connections relentlessly to offload each shuttle as soon as we completed their conversions.

The credit computer on the Udelis ratcheted up as each influx of a ridiculous amount of credits came from every successive sale of the shuttles. By the time we sold them all and were left with the shuttle on the top of the Udelis, the three in the shuttle bay on the new ship and two mounted underneath, all of our personal accounts were so overflowing with credits that we were all too shocked to talk about it.

No one had complained that I had divided the credits equally among all of us and not just between myself and the people who officially worked for me. Simone, Gleas, Beatrice, Sandy, Deborah, Hailey, and myself all had an equal share. I gave Sheph a share as well, despite her protests. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have sold off the shuttles so quickly.

After that, the salvage job was just us having fun. I had been a little worried about gathering everything as fast as possible, especially after the public service announcement I had made a month ago. I didn't have to worry about it at all, though. Sheph's contacts in the government let her know that the entire thing had blown over as if I hadn't said anything.

There were no riots, no protests, and no real public backlash, not that I had intended that. I just assumed there would be something happening because of it. It was then that Sheph let us know that Uzahne's approval rating was down to fifty-two percent and Ahaen's was at forty-eight. We all knew what that meant for the upcoming elections.

I tried to get her to tell me her approval rating and she kept it to herself. She had even muddled her thoughts just enough that I couldn't get it from the surface of her mind. I had to admire her for the effort and didn't press her.

Since we didn't have to rush, I hired a local large cargo hauler and they parked it near the alien wrecks. With that much more room for storage and their crew to help move that storage, the job went that much faster. Even the cargo hauler crew were amazed at the speed that we were stripping the ships.

By the time we had stripped the last wreck, we managed to find ten more shuttles, three small reactor cores that were supposed to be for small scout ships and had never been used, eight large laser cannons and their power coils, twenty-two small assault laser cannons, eighty straight-fire missile launchers with a hundred reloads for each, and five maintenance shops worth of replacement parts and electronics.

They would all have to be adapted and changed for general use, of course. The straight-fire missiles could easily be upgraded to either heat seeking or beacon seeking and the laser cannons could be adapted to fire with multiple power coils to offset the power drain when they fired. All in all, it was a fantastic haul and we wouldn't be selling too many of them. I didn't mention all of the consoles and computer parts we harvested, either. Those we would also keep and adapt for our own use.

With the money that I had now, Sheph had discretely inquired about purchasing a space station core. She had been right and it was pretty astronomical to buy one outright and it took her nearly the entire time we worked to find a business that would consider selling one to us if we proved ourselves. When she came to me during supper and told us the name of the business, I laughed out loud for several minutes as I held my sides.

“What's so funny?” Sheph asked and saw that Simone and Hailey were laughing, too.

“We... we bought... this ship through them.” I said between laughs. “Oh... oh. That's funny.” I said and finally calmed down. “They are one of our biggest clients.” I said and waved at the huge list of parts and supplies we had salvaged. “Most of this is being offered to them to be purchased before we open it for anyone else to buy.”

Sheph looked over the primary list of items and her face split into a huge grin. “Tell me you have an employee's name.”

“HA!” Simone barked a laugh. “We know the owner!”

Sheph couldn't help it and laughed, too.

It didn't take her long to arrange an amicable trade with the Bogorim Corporation for practically all of the salvage we had for a habitat station core and two dozen of the compartmentalized station attachments. They essentially stacked like blocks around the core of the station and were easily attached and could be customized in any configuration we wanted.

The best part was that it would be delivered and put into place by the time we arrived back in the Dizahl System. Sheph had already arranged with them for the appropriate permits and permissions necessary for having a space habitat in a populated system. Since it was a habitat, it came with everything necessary to have people living on it. Life support, air generators and circulation, power, heat, lights, and the appropriate safety measures to ensure that the people living there wouldn't be able to space themselves accidentally.

They had even arranged for a regular maintenance crew to check it out on a monthly basis to make sure it stayed in perfect condition for the terms of the warranty. I laughed my ass off when they said the warranty was for ten years, so I bought the extended warranty with my own personal money and now it would be maintained for one hundred years.

In comparison to the core itself, the station attachments were cheap. I could add as many as I wanted and it wouldn't affect anything, unless I added in high power consumption items, like a medical bay with med-bots or an automated security system with external weapons. I was surprised that those were actually options for the two dozen attachments included.

Just for the hell of it, I changed two of the compartments for those two options, changed one into a park... an actual park with dirt, trees, and everything... and had it be the central place on the first floor. I added a central computer hub for normal security and monitoring that I intended to add an AI to, then I put the other attachments up for debate.

We all chose rooms for ourselves of course, fully furnished with living rooms, bedrooms, and bathrooms with huge showers and tubs. The last one was Hailey's suggestion and no one objected.

“We definitely need a media room.” Sandy said with a smile. “One whole wall has to be a screen, and we need one really long single couch in the middle with other couches and chairs scattered around.”

I chuckled. “I don't think there's anything...”

“There!” Hailey said and pointed to the list. I touched the option and to my surprise, it was almost exactly what Sandy had described, except there was no long couch.

“We can order the couch later.” Sandy said with a laugh.

After everyone put in their input into what a person would need for living on a space station, all of the decisions were finalized and I handed the datapad to Sheph. She looked at it and then looked at me.

“Hunter...”

“Yes, you can come along and can stay for as long as you want.” I said and tapped the datapad. “Look at the number of rooms.”

Sheph checked it and saw that I had added three more than the people present. “Thank you.”

“You gave up running part of a planet for me, so the least I could do was let you stay in a spare room.” I said with a grin and she laughed.

“When are we heading out?” Gleas asked.

“In a couple days.” I said. “Anyone that wants to see their friends and family before we leave for a while can have the chance to.”

“Did you say for a while?” Deborah asked, a little surprised.

“Well, I've got a couple of satellites set up here already, so you'll all still be in direct contact with whoever you want; but, I won't cut you off from physically seeing your friends and family because we've got work to do somewhere else.”

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“How often?” Beatrice asked.

“I'd say every six months. We can take a break and come here for a visit, since we'll be flying around and dropping off satellites to expand the network anyway.” I said. “We probably have to do some judicious planning of flight paths to coordinate arriving here at roughly the same time, though.”

“Well then, with these details all settled, I'll handle the rest.” Sheph said and left.

“Is anyone up for watching our favorite show?” Sandy asked with a gleam in her eye.

“When does it start?” Hailey asked, even though she knew when it started. We all did, because we watched it every night.

“Right after a tickle!” Sandy said and grabbed Hailey's sides and tickled her. Her laughter filled the room and everyone felt her happiness. I used Presence Hands to clear off the table and put the trays into the slot for them, then stood.

“Race you there!” Gleas said the magic words and everyone scrambled to get to the living room first to get the best seats.

*

“We're done.” Uzahne said with a sigh as the latest poll numbers came in. She had worked hard to campaign the last few weeks to try and bring her approval numbers up and she wasn't successful in the least. No matter what she said, offered, or promised, no one believed a word she said. Even her aide had resigned the morning the campaign ended.

Ahaen sighed as she looked at the numbers. “We could delay the election.”

Uzahne shook her head. “It's too late to try anything that even remotely looks like we're stalling.”

“This is all Hunter's fault.” Ahaen said.

Their offices were practically empty as everyone had left the swiftly sinking ship that was their government. Olugaell, the representative of the local fish people, had been conspicuously absent since the day that Sheph had resigned. As far as her staff was concerned, she was only 'out of the office' and nothing was wrong.

“Hunter did have a hand in all of it and we were wrong to not listen to Sheph.” Uzahne finally admitted. When her friend had left, it hit her hard. She hadn't realized that she been treating Sheph as a subordinate and not as the friend that had been trying her best help her make everything work.

“Then there really is nothing left that we can do?” Ahaen asked.

“Unless you can wave a magic wand and undo all the mistakes we've made the last six months, then no. There's nothing that any of us can do.”

The two women sat there and didn't have any idea what they were going to do next.

*

Olugaell had been campaigning herself, on the platform that they had lived long enough under the rule of the humans. Now that she had direct knowledge of how things operated, she knew that their form of government didn't work. Their own people had even proved it by making a liberation group to fight against it. When the next election was held, she made sure that all of the fish people in every district, city, town, and underwater conclave, voted for her.

*

Nearly everyone on the ship took the option to go back down the the planet surface to visit their family. Jelly had given me a quick goodbye, I assumed because she didn't want to start crying because she had to leave for good, then she left to fly everyone down to Chofaris in her shuttle. Only Hailey, Simone, Sheph, and I had stayed. Needless to say, it was a long two days with no one else to interact with.

Sheph didn't mind the quiet as much as I thought she would. She really enjoyed the freedom she had gained and wasn't shy about sitting right next to me and letting me hear her thoughts. I had told her that I could read her surface thoughts and emotions without trying to, and she was fine with that. A lot of her thoughts were about me, about the ship and her current situation, and about me again.

Occasionally, Sheph would flash back to what I had looked like after the explosion and she would stare at me and my currently two inch long hair that was no longer fuzzy. She really missed my hair. How it smelled, how it felt, and how much she knew a lot of people had wanted to cuddle it like she had that time at the bar.

The two days passed by and Jelly took the time to fly everyone back up to the ship. She had agreed to do so previously so that they didn't have to worry about calling the ship for a ride back. Hailey, Simone, Sheph, and I went to the shuttle bay and waited for them to land.

“Welcome back, everyone!” Hailey said for us as the shuttle's hatch opened and everyone came out.

“Are you that eager for us to be back?” Gleas asked her.

“Hunter said it was really boring with you all gone.” Hailey said and hugged her.

“I did not... say that out loud.” I said.

Everyone smiled or laughed. When they all left the shuttle with their bags, Jelly came out.

“I guess this is it.” Jelly said and looked at me with a kind of forlorn look.

“Is there any way that I can convince you to resign your post at the military and stay on permanently?” I asked. “I know you have lots of family that you love here...”

“What can you offer me, besides a ton of credits and my own shuttle?” Jelly asked.

I opened my mouth to respond, then realized what she said. “You already have everything you could possibly need.” I said. “All I can really offer is a good place to live and some friends to hang out with.”

Jelly looked like she was seriously considering accepting my offer, then she sighed. “Hunter, I... you know I... my family...” She stopped talking and looked into my eyes.

The only thought I got from her was that she wanted a long and lingering kiss. I glanced at Hailey and Simone, and they both nodded, so I turned back to Jelly. She had a surprised look on her face as I bent over slightly and put my arms around her, then I kissed her. I used a touch of Presence as well, since she wanted to remember the kiss for a long time. She wrapped her arms around me and enjoyed the kiss a lot more than she thought she was going to. Her body grew hot and certain things on her body were more than ready for other things to happen.

I gave those spots a very light touch of Presence and tweaked them, which made her jerk, gasp, and moan all at the same time. I had to hold her up as her knees grew weak from what I did. I felt everyone's interest as I broke the kiss and Jelly stared at me with an open mouth.

“Wh-what the hell was that?” Jelly asked as she held onto me. She couldn't quite stand on her own yet.

“You gave me the distinct thought that you wanted me to make the kiss memorable.” I said.

“But... I...” Jelly shook her head. “I'm definitely going to remember it.”

“Jelly.” I said and bent over slightly more to put my chin on her shoulder as I hugged her. “Thanks a lot for everything that you've done for me and everyone here.” I said and let her feel how much I appreciated her. When I let her go, she had tears in her eyes and wiped at them.

“Goddess, Hunter.” Jelly said. “You didn't have to make me feel so bad about this.”

“Jelly.” I said and cupped the side of her face. “I don't want you to feel bad.” I waved at the people around us. “We all appreciate you.”

“We do.” Deborah said, because she had been the one to have Jelly as a co-pilot the most.

“We had a lot of fun while working together.” Simone said.

“I think we all have our own little stories with you.” Gleas said with a warm smile.

“You guys.” Jelly said, tears in her eyes. “You don't have to do this.”

Each of them came forward and gave her a hug and said the things they wanted to say. I felt Jelly's mood drop after each hug and goodbye, then stepped close to her when everyone had a turn.

“Oh, Hunter!” Jelly said and hugged me tightly as she cried. This went on for several minutes and I held her tightly, then she calmed down and looked up at me. “I'm sorry. I didn't realize...” She looked at everyone's sad faces and she knew we were all disappointed to see her go.

“Why do you feel so bad?” I asked, completely confused about her reactions to our heartfelt goodbyes.

“B-because...” Jelly took a breath and let it out. “I'm not leaving.”

Shock and surprise went through us all, even me.

“Word has spread that the current government is going to fold at the next election.” Jelly said. “The military is... well, to put it bluntly... panicking.” She said. “They have spent so much time building up our forces to fight that they didn't realize the infrastructure to maintain the buildup was going to stagnate.”

Sheph caught her breath. “The military appropriations bill!”

Jelly nodded. “There's no one left in authority to ensure that it gets passed and because the military takes direct orders from the civilian government...”

“...they need to clear out a lot of the surplus before the election.” Sheph said and Jelly nodded.

“I volunteered to take the honorable discharge before any were assigned at random.”

I still held her in my arms and bent down again to hold her tightly. “Welcome back.”

“What are you...” Jelly was confused for a moment.

I let her mostly out of the hug I had her in and left one arm behind her. “Everyone! Jelly's back!”

“Yay!” Hailey exclaimed and ran over to us and hugged her.

“Long time, no see.” Sandy laughed and gave her a hug.

“What... what...” Jelly kept shaking her head as everyone gave her hugs and greeted her back onto the ship. “You guys!”

“So, does anyone else have any more surprises for us?” I asked and they all shook their heads. “Then I think I should give a certain patrol ship a call and see what's up.”

“I don't think you're going to find what you think you're going to find.” Gleas said as a warning and gave a pointed look to Jelly.

“I still have to ask.” I said.

“Just don't make any offers.” Sheph said and warned me as well. “If anyone thinks they have some kind of out that's offered by the Hero of Chofaris...”

“Everyone will call.” Gleas said.

I took a breath and let it out. “I can't just...”

“You should call a few other people you know a lot better than those two.” Simone said. “What about Tessa and her boyfriend? The admiral's aide, Melanie? What about Kitch, the retired SAR captain and his wife?”

I actually sighed this time. “Okay. I get it.”

“You're not going to call, are you?” Sheph asked, and I shook my head. “Good.” She said. “If they wanted a different life, or thought you could get them a better life, they would have called you.”

I nodded. “That's what I just realized.”

“Then let's all get upstairs and prep to split the ships to head back to the Dizahl System.” Sheph said. “It's going to be a long trip with three ships making the jumps at the cargo hauler's hyperspace speed.”

“I'll get the coordinates shared and start the Udelis.” Gleas said.

“I'll be your co-pilot if you'll have me.” Jelly said.

“We're staying for the whole trip and not switching at the rendezvous points.” Gleas said.

“That's fine.” Jelly said. “I can use all of the normal flight time I can get.”

“Hailey and I will rotate between ships, just so there's someone else on the Udelis.” I said.

“The rest of us are staying here.” Sheph said and everyone nodded. “Then let's go.”

We split up and went to our respective ships, shared the coordinates, then jumped into hyperspace.