It took a month and a half to get Adona completely repaired and improved. By the time we were done, both on the inside and on the outside, she could be considered an entirely new ship. She was armed to the teeth, according to the old expression, and her new hull gleamed in the lights of the mobile ship dock. Her name had been emblazoned onto the sides of her hull and everything was in pristine condition. Everyone was surprised when they saw her.
“Adona! You're gorgeous!” Gleas exclaimed when she saw the external feeds from Adona's upgraded sensors.
“Thank you.” Adona said and you could almost hear the blush in her words.
“I can't wait to co-pilot on you again.” Hailey said.
“We need to give her a proper maiden voyage before you can do that.” I said and gave Hailey a hug.
“How does a nice cruise around the outer system sound?” Gleas asked. “I doubt we want to try hyperspace right off the bat.”
I chuckled. “It's all right if we do.” I said. “I spared no expense in her refit.”
“I have two hyperspace generators now!” Adona said happily. “If one gets damaged, the other can be quickly attached and brought online in only seconds!”
“We are never going to suffer what happened again.” I said.
Even with my regeneration, it had taken an hour for me to heal. Everyone else had to spend some time in the medical bay to fix the damage. No one had suffered broken bones, thankfully; but, they did have a lot of deep tissue bruising and muscle tearing that wasn't going to heal very quickly on its own. Herbie tended to them and I assisted, so no one was out of commission for more than an hour.
“Let's go pick up the others and we can all enjoy Adona's second first flight.” Gleas said, then chuckled. “That sounded so weird.”
“Disengage the umbilical and take us out.” I said and touched Gleas' shoulder, then reached past her to use the communications console. “We're off, chief. Thanks for doing such nice work.”
“Thanks for the credits to put my whole extended family through the academy.” The chief laughed. “Are you sure you're happy with only the engine refit we did on Udelis?” He asked suggestively. “I have a third cousin that wants to be an officer...”
I laughed. “You're on your own for that, chief.” I said. “Good travels.”
“Good travels.” The chief said and cut the call.
Gleas floated us out of the mobile dock and Adona turned on her new running lights. It showed off the accents of her new hull and gave people looking into space at her something to see, besides a generic shape. Beatrice flew Udelis alongside and we both eased over to our space habitat and docked to adjacent hatches on the docking ring. Gleas sent a message for everyone to meet on Adona.
“Mom! You're so pretty!” Opina gushed over the open com channel.
“Thank you, Opina.” Adona responded.
“You are quite striking.” Udelis said.
“Th-thank you, Udelis.” Adona said in a soft voice.
“Whoa, whoa! Hold off, you two.” I said. “I know Adona is super sexy right now; but, no hanky panky until I can get some kind construct made in case there are any... results... from you two pairing up again. All right?”
There was a low buzz from the intercom speakers for a second.
“Agreed.” Udelis said.
“I don't want to lose any potential children, so I agree as well.” Adona said. “You have six days to provide a suitable receptacle.”
“Six days? There's no way that...”
“Hunter, the Bogorim Corporation called. They are ready to deliver your new shuttle.” Sheph said as she came onboard and everyone else came in behind her. “It should be here by tonight.”
“That's a relief!” I said. “Adona, you have the shuttle plans. Can it hold an AI if I add an appropriate processing computer and maybe some secondary nodes?”
“We will give you the appropriate specs.” Udelis said.
“That's not what I asked.” I said, slightly frustrated.
Simone chuckled and hugged me. “Is grandpa getting grumpy?” She asked and kissed me. “Maybe you need a nice afternoon nap?”
I shook my head. “The old man jokes are getting old.”
“Come on, everyone!” Hailey said. “Observation deck!”
Everyone but Gleas went to the new stairwells beside the cockpit entrance and went up the stairs to the large observation deck. It looked like two large bubbles only from the outside. Inside, it was a really nice lounge that was just as opulent as the rest of the ship.
“Gleas, set the course and get up here.” I said over the intercom. “Adona can warn us if anything happens.”
The reconstruction crew hadn't let anyone up here while they were working on it, so even though I had 'looked' at it, being there and seeing everything that could be seen, was quite a sight. Hailey was plastered to the closest window and was staring at everything she could see. The others had spread out and chosen their own windows to look out of.
Gleas was up the stairs two minutes later and stopped when she saw the sight. “Oh, wow.”
“Yeah.” I said and put an arm around her waist. “Just look at that.”
A massive carrier ship floated just off to the side and dozens of smaller ships swarmed around it doing various tasks. Beside it was a passenger cruise ship and it had two small space tugs ease it towards the carrier to park them close to one another, I assumed so they could transfer cargo or passengers.
Gleas let out a sigh and rested her head on my shoulder. “Look at what people can do with technology.”
It was amazing, to say the least. Not just one race, hundreds of space faring races were out and travelling around the universe, and all of them were doing something. Most were out there for their own gains, some worked out there for the betterment of everyone, and others... well, they could be downright evil.
I almost chuckled at that thought. There were not a lot of people who actually thought of themselves as evil, or thought that they were doing evil when they did the things they did. I hoped to bring some of that evil to light, now that we had set to rights everything we had. It took several hours for Adona to make a slow cruise around the populated parts of the system, then we went back to the station.
We had some plans to update.
We had to change nearly all of the previous plans we had made, especially since we wouldn't have an immediate escape option. Jelly was out, since we didn't have a shuttle to ferry us. We chose a small freighter that Gleas was familiar with and booked passage for three people to the system. It was a slow ship, so the trip would take two weeks to go directly there.
We would need to take an unknown amount of time to find and hopefully infiltrate the training camp and find the real prisoners with Simone's telepathy. We would also search for the torture device. When we secured the device that we weren't sure they actually had, we would kill the people running the place and escape into the population with the freed prisoners. If the device didn't exist, we would kill them all anyways, just a lot more messily, and escape. Hopefully.
Simone, Gleas and I would make the trip and would complete the mission. Hailey was pretty upset with me for trying to go again, and I told her that I wasn't going near that other system again. I also had Adona send an anonymous message to the galactic core and registered a special anomaly in that region. I even had her give them a copy of the sensor readings she had, before they were ripped out of her.
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I wouldn't know if anyone heeded the warning, though. Things like that didn't usually get posted on the galactic net unless there was a massive loss of life in or near the system. It had almost happened to us; but, since it was only one incident and not corroborated by another ship, it may be ignored. I sincerely hoped not.
Our newly constructed shuttle was delivered that evening. It was more like a small cargo ship that could carry both the APC and the government hover car inside. It didn't take me long to add in the extra computer core and data processing nodes that Udelis and Adona gave me as specifications. I hooked everything up and even set up an automated process for them, that way when they did decide to... copulate... I wouldn't have to be there to initiate the transfer personally.
We loaded up for our mission and I tried to give Gleas one of my invisible bags of holding. She warned me that she couldn't see the 'damn thing' and would lose it if asked to carry it. Since I couldn't leave it visible for her, Simone and I split her share of the equipment and food and decided to stay as close to her as possible. We had planned to mingle a little to try and not stand out there, then realized we would be outsiders anyway and gave up on trying to fit in.
The last thing I did was use Presence to alter our appearances, including using the same technique on Simone that Ohazith used for hiding her arms from being seen. We dressed in the cheapest looking clothing we could find and I created new medical IDs to get us through customs, assuming they had anything like that. I also told them that if anything went awry, I would activate my full Detect Presence and scrub the mission before I would allow any harm to come to them.
With us fully prepared, I kissed Hailey goodbye, despite her not wanting me to. Since I wasn't going to lie to her, I couldn't tell her that everything was going to be fine and that I would be back soon. All I could say was that I would try my best to always come back to her.
Jelly dropped us off at the main space station, where our favorite restaurant was, and we waited for several hours for the small freighter to arrive. When it did, we showed our tickets and went aboard. No one checked our bags or us for weapons, so we went to our assigned quarters unmolested. I had thought it was odd that we had been given the same room, until we arrived at the room and it was a barracks style room. Five sets of bunk beds were in there, with a small space at the end of each for personal items. There were also five other people there, two of which were aliens.
“Wow, we are so lucky that we get to spend two whole weeks like this.” Simone said sarcastically.
“I don't think it's going to be that bad.” I said.
“No?” Simone pointed to one of the men. “He's already planning to assault me tonight, while his buddy gets off on holding you down and making you watch.”
I let a smile appear on my face when the two men didn't deny it. “I don't think so.”
One of the men sneered at me and the other man didn't even look at me. I casually walked over to the one that sneered at me and punched him right in the face as hard as I could. My fist went right through the flesh and bones and the shards embedded into his brain. The other man heard the mulching sound and turned to look at me, and I did the same to him before he could scream for help. Bot men fell to the floor and the two aliens and remaining man stared at me.
“I didn't see them bring anything onboard, did you?” I asked them, then walked back across the compartment. I had barely taken two steps away when both dead men were stripped of everything they had that was even remotely valuable, then the two aliens raided the personal compartments at the ends of the dead men's bunks and shared their ill-gotten goods with the last man, just so he would stay quiet.
“That was brutally efficient.” Gleas whispered at the scene.
“They probably expected me to claim their things.” I whispered back. “When I didn't...”
“Scavenger rules.” Simone whispered. “I just hope they weren't important where we're going.”
“You didn't pick up on anything?” I asked, and she shook her head. “I didn't see any explosives in their heads, either.”
“So, either they are nothing, or they were covert and we'll be arrested as soon as we step off the ship.” Gleas said.
“Not we, me.” I corrected her. “I may even be sent to a particular training camp.”
Gleas gave me wide eyes. “You had this as a backup plan, didn't you?”
“Not really.” I said and glanced at Simone. “I'm relying on her telepathy since Presence users can't pick up on it like they can when I use my abilities. You know that I'm pretty much blind right now while I'm hiding.”
Gleas nodded. “So, you wouldn't have killed some random criminal when we got to the planet?”
I chuckled. “Random? No. Specifically targeted to get the most attention? Possibly... if our attempts at finding the camp fail.”
“That's pretty cold and calculated.” Gleas said.
“I'm planning on killing all of the people involved with the assassins. It's not cold; but, it is calculated.” I said. “I wouldn't ask and I wouldn't even imply that anyone else needs to do it. All I need is support. I could do this all alone if I wanted to.” I reached up and touched her slightly altered cheek. “I don't want to.”
“I know.” Gleas said reached up and put a hand on mine. “I signed on knowing there would be some ambiguous dealings going to happen, especially since I know the incident that led you to this almost killed you.”
“Yeah, I didn't hide what I wanted to do and you know now how extensive this assassin network is.” I said. “Just the credits alone that move through their businesses is staggering, and it is all provided by people hiring them to kill other people.”
“You do realize that's an odd statement for a bounty hunter to make.” Gleas said with a smile.
“I only killed the really bad targets.” I said to make her laugh. “You know what I did to the others.”
Gleas nodded. “The same thing you did for Kalina.”
“Now that we have that settled, we should tuck those bodies somewhere before they start to smell.” Simone said. “I doubt we will get away with opening an airlock.”
I gave her a smile and walked over to the bodies that the two aliens and the other man were ignoring to the best of their abilities, then I stuffed them into my bag of holding and walked back over to Simone.
“How's that?” I asked and smiled crookedly.
“Good god, I love you.” Simone said and laughed.
“I'm glad, because the next two weeks are going to be us sleeping in very close quarters. We have lots of company and we can't do anything.”
“That's what you think.” Simone said with a wicked grin.
“I absolutely forbid you from embarrassing... Gleas.” I said, which made Simone laugh.
“Hey!” Gleas exclaimed and slapped my shoulder. “Use my fake name.”
“Oh, right.” I said. “Don't embarrass Farrah.”
“I'll try, Jake. I really will.” Simone said and put a normal arm around me.
“I'm watching you closely, Paulina.” I said with a smile and she gave me a quick kiss.
There was a squelching hiss from the intercom speakers and then a click. “We're heading out and need to divert power. Changing to emergency lighting only.”
There was a loud thrum and the lights in the compartment died, then a soft glowing orange light emanated from the edges of the floor.
“Nice mood lighting.” I whispered.
“No wonder those assholes thought they could get away with what they had planned.” Simone whispered to me. “I can barely see your handsomely disfigured face.”
I chuckled and motioned to the cot. “I'm laying down, so you two better join me.”
“Two?” Gleas asked, a little surprised.
“If you think I'm going to let you sleep alone on a ship like this for two whole weeks...” I started to say, then Gleas put a finger on my lips to stop me from finishing the sentence. Without a word, she climbed onto the cot and scooted over to lay against the wall. I climbed in next and put my arm around her shoulders and half pulled her on top of me.
Gleas was surprised but still didn't say anything, so Simone climbed in and copied the same pose on my other side and I put an arm around her, too. I discretely used Presence to create a solid barrier around us, just in case anyone had any ideas about retaliation, then the three of us drifted off to sleep.
The next two weeks were some of the worst space faring experiences I had ever had. I knew that I led a bit of a sheltered space faring life, considering some of the stories Gleas and the other pilots had told me; but, hearing about the horrible living conditions and experiencing them for myself were two very different things.
There was only one shower and I stood guard as Gleas and Simone washed themselves. When it was my turn, they stood guard and I was in and out in three minutes. There was only enough water onboard to run the shower every three days, so the smell inside the ship was pretty potent. Not because of us, though. None of the crew used the showers the whole time we were there.
On the plus side, the sleeping arrangements were fine. We stayed on the same bunk each night and cuddled up for both warmth and protection. My barrier stopped anyone from bothering us, just like it had when I slept in a guard barracks as a child. Occasionally, I would be woken up by Simone giving me kisses and her hand would stroke me, despite my silent and halfhearted protests.
I was a little surprised when she would cover my eyes and then go down on me, that way I wasn't seeing her violating my 'no sex during work' policy. I almost laughed at her slight workaround, considering we weren't actually working while we were travelling, so I let her do what she wanted. She never tried to mount me, which was a relief, just like it was that she always waited until after we had showered to play with me.
At the end of the first week during breakfast, the captain of the ship invited the passengers to the cockpit for a tour. He never would have done that normally; but, Simone had been subtly working on him and added the idea each time we all gathered in the galley to eat the horrible food.
“We really are spoiled by your cooking.” Gleas whispered as we followed the captain to the cockpit. Only the three of us had accepted his offer.
“I tried to warn you.” I whispered back and then we arrived at the cockpit and it was just like Gleas had remembered. To our surprise, no one was there. We looked around and none of the consoles looked like they had been used in a while. Or cleaned. Only the one the captain used seemed to be the one controlling the whole ship.
“Paulina.” I said, and Simone reached out and put her hand on the back of the man's head and knocked him out. I helped her rifle through his memories and then she added in one with giving Gleas, or Farrah, full access to the cockpit and all security codes. I gave the codes to Gleas and she entered them into the console and added herself into the ship's database as an authorized user.
“It's done.” Gleas said and logged out and returned control to the captain.
“Paulina.” I said as we went back to where we stood before.
Simone woke the captain up and stepped back.
“...and that's the tour.” The man said. “What do you think?”
“It's a nice ship, sir.” Gleas said. “I can't wait to come back and start working on it.”
The captain smiled, because having a beauty like her would bring the status of his little freighter up quite a lot at the next stop. “I look forward to working with you.”
The three of us nodded and left the cockpit to return to our rooms. The hardest part about our escape was secured. Now all we had to do was wait and see if we would have a similar situation on the planet.