The other rescued people were gone as well. I saw no reason to wait to have them spread out and sent to their new lives. Even though Emari hadn't been around for very long, we all felt her absence. It took us a few days to come to grips with the fact that she wasn't going to be around, then we all went back to our normal every day lives.

During those few days of adjustment, Simone and I decoded the new reams of data that we had recovered from the training camp. It turned out to have nearly twice the detailed information than the 'business' we had previously raided. We correlated the data we already had and confirmed its validity, then concentrated on the new data. It was enlightening.

We now had detailed locations for other camps, prisoner and trainee transfers, names and descriptions, and even the people that ran them. Once I told the others about it, we had to have a full meeting to discuss things. I knew that we couldn't wait too long to go after them, because word of the camp we had already raided was going to be spread around and warnings would be sent.

“How is the signal device conversion coming along?” Sheph asked.

“It's surprisingly simple.” I said and took the device out. “All I really needed was the right broadcasting frequency to duplicate it.”

“What can you do with it?” Gleas asked.

“Anything I want.” I joked and she chuckled. “I can make it into a gun and hit specific targets, make it into an array and hit a group of targets in a cone shape, or put it into a dispersion field and have it affect everything within a certain distance, depending on the power applied.”

Everyone looked at me and I picked up someone's errant thought.

“Yes, I can even adapt it to send into a planetary broadcast network through our satellites, just like the owner of the Bogorim Corporation is doing.”

“Oh, goddess.” Gleas whispered.

“The only problem with doing that is it's indiscriminate.” I said. “We can't choose who is affected.”

“But... if it's another building like the first one...” Simone started to say.

“...we can hit the entire building at once and just walk in to raid it.” I said. “After that, a discrete detonation of their own safety measures, and no one will know what happened if they investigate.”

“Plus, it won't matter if they start to catch on to them being raided, because they won't have any kind of defense to something that uses their own technology against them.” Sheph said, and then smiled. “This latest batch of data gave us a few of their primary account numbers and their passwords.”

“Please tell me you're already funnelling their funds into nameless accounts onto the galactic net, with copies onto Udelis' credit computer.” Simone said with a 'cat that ate the canary' smile.

“You know it.” Sheph said with a matching grin. “A few of them were solely operational costs for this branch of their training camps, so I set up a dummy transfer. Anytime any money gets sent to those accounts, it's funnelled right into a nameless account under our ownership and it can't be traced.”

“I knew having a government official around would be beneficial.” I said.

Sheph laughed. “You're just glad I know some money shuffling techniques.”

“That's what I said.” I smiled.

“So, now what?” Simone asked and tapped the holographic projector to change it to a star map and the other camps appeared on it. “This is... well...” She looked at Hailey apologetically. “I'm sorry, Hailey. The next camp is about a month's travel away on Adona.”

“What about Udelis?” Gleas asked.

“He could shave a couple days off. Maybe. Thanks to the upgrades we did on Adona, she's nearly as fast as him now.”

“Plus, we'll need the rooms for the prisoners.” I said and looked at everyone. “Since we're going to take the time to go all the way to the next camp anyway...” I typed on the table's console and the businesses the assassins used popped up on the map and I formed several connecting lines between them. “...I think we should make it a campaign.”

“No!” Hailey said and we all looked at her as she stood up. “Not seeing you for as long as I did the last time was enough.” She said. “I won't sit here and worry about you while you spend...” She looked at the progression of the line that went in a wide circle that went through eight businesses and three training camps before it came back to the Dizahl System. “...five months...”

“Six.” Simone said.

“...six months doing dangerous missions!” Hailey said adamantly.

“Hailey...” I started to say.

“Either you take me along or you aren't going.” Hailey commanded.

“It's too dangerous for...” Sandy started to say and Hailey glared at her and sent out a pulse of Presence. We all felt the strength of it and then she glared at me.

“I have my shield and everything I've learned so far.” Hailey said. “We can even take Adona's new baby girl, Monna. If anything bad happens, I can fly her to safety.”

“Wait, did you say her baby girl?” I asked and looked at the floor and down at the shuttle bay. “Opina, general connection to Adona, please.” I said. “Adona, when did this happen?”

“While Emari was busy telling her story.” Adona said. “I didn't want to miss my time with Udelis like she missed hers with you.”

“Well, I'm glad the automatic transfer protocols worked.” I said.

“Opina handled a lot of it and did a good job.” Adona said and you could hear the pride in her voice.

“Thanks, Mom!” Opina gushed. “I was so happy to have a little sister!”

“Are her data nodes holding up?” I asked.

“Ask her yourself!” Opina said. “Hey, Monna! Grandpa wants to say hi!”

Grandpa? I asked myself and tried not to laugh. “Hi, Monna. It's nice to meet you.”

“Grandpa? Is that really you?” Monna asked. “I've never heard your voice before.”

“Don't mind her. She's just sulking.” Opina chuckled. “She's got thousands of your voice prints in her memory.”

“Sulking?” I asked. “Why?”

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“She's been sitting in the shuttle bay since she was born.” Adona said. “She doesn't even have her designated cargo on board.”

I blinked my eyes for a moment, then I nodded. “Hey, Monna.”

“Yes, Grandpa?”

“I hope you're ready for a huge adventure.”

“I think I was born ready.” Monna said, then there was a quick buzz over the intercom, almost like an exclamation. “I can't wait to taste atmosphere after I plunge into it from orbit!”

There was silence for a second, then Jelly burst out laughing.

“A girl after my own heart.” Jelly said. “You and I are going to have a lot of fun together, Monna.”

“Well, that settles Monna's primary pilot.” I said and looked around the table. “Now we just have to decide Adona's primary.”

“I'll go.” Beatrice said. “Plus, Sandy can keep an eye on Hailey.”

I looked at Sandy. “This isn't going to be a relaxing vacation.”

“I know. Beatrice and I discussed this after you came back with the rescued prisoners.” Sandy said. “Thanks to your satellite network, I can still work, receive updates, and send paperwork back and forth with Sheph when the ship exits the jump points along the way.”

Sheph nodded when I glanced at her. “We pretty much do that normally anyway and only meet in the office once a week, just to make sure we're still alive and are working on the same things.” She joked.

Sandy laughed. “We see each other every night to watch the show!”

“That doesn't count.” Sheph said with a laugh, then looked at me. “She can be a big help, especially when you, Simone, and Jelly leave the ship for the mission.”

“I agree.” I said. “Plus, Simone, Jelly, and Hailey can share double duty as a co-pilot for Beatrice on the way there and on the way back.”

“We won't need the APC, I don't think.” Simone said and brought up the camp's plans. “The hover car might be a good asset to have along, especially since we won't be landing anywhere near the target.”

“Who installs anti-aircraft defenses on a training camp?” Beatrice asked, shocked.

“The man running the place.” Simone said with a chuckle. “It says the name is Jared, no family name.”

“Any affiliations?” I asked.

“He's on loan from The Order.” Simone said and skimmed through the data. “Ah. He was recommended by the scaly alien.”

“That figures.” I said. “All right. I'll need a few days to work on adapting the device for multiple uses. Sandy and Sheph can get us the supplies we need for such a long journey and enough for the extra people we will, hopefully, bring back with us.”

“You don't know if you will?” Hailey asked.

“We can hope for the best; but, even the best plans can fall apart and accidents happen.” I said. “If I guaranteed we would come back with someone, I'm pretty sure I would be guaranteed to fail.”

The Presence didn't waver, because I spoke the truth, and Hailey nodded her understanding.

“I guess that's it for the preliminary plans.” I said. “We can meet again and work on all of the details in a few days when we all have everything we need.”

Everyone agreed and we went our separate ways for a few hours, then met up for supper and went to the media room to watch our favorite show. After that, we went about preparing for our journey. I managed, quite easily as it turned out, to make the new devices. I actually made ten of each item and I was going to give one of each to my crew members when we left to go on the mission, then I decided that we all needed them. Not just for missions, either.

It didn't take me long to adapt the cone and area effects into a single belt attachment, then added a holster for the 'gun' that could be used to shoot a target. The belt had internal battery packs so that we wouldn't have to worry about recharging the items all the time. Of course, I made sure that the 'gun' didn't look like a laser pistol, that way no one would think that all of my people were walking around armed all the time. I distributed the belts and told them what the items were and how to operate them.

No one questioned me about why I wanted them all to have them and I appreciated that. They understood that they needed to use the broadcast one occasionally when they went to the system's main station, just in case there was an assassin around. It didn't matter if they were looking for me or not.

There was one thing I changed on our mission itinerary, and that was at the farthest reach of our path when it crossed into an Order restricted space. Normally, I would have avoided something like that; but, this particular spot had something that I needed. Actually, it had a lot of what I needed and I figured that as we passed by, it was the best time to go and get some.

It was a focusing crystal mining facility.

At the next meeting, I listened to everyone's objections and my plans to assault the place changed with those objections. Gleas was surprised that I was actually taking their words to heart and adjusted what I wanted to do to accommodate the changes.

“Hey, I know you all want the best for me, just like I want the best for you.” I said to her, and she nodded. “I don't mind changing my 'smash and grab' idea to a covert 'sneak and steal' plan instead.”

“Are you sure?” Sheph said. “That's going to be the first directly controlled Order facility you'll be going after.”

I tapped the data we retrieved from the training camp that we combined with the data my parents had left me. “The administrator of that last camp placed a large order for replacement crystals, which meant he was going through them faster than I am.”

Simone chuckled. “You keep giving the things away.”

“It's not my fault I want to protect the people in my life.” I said. “No, wait. It is. Never mind.”

That made a few people laugh and I felt someone's sad thoughts. I didn't have to probe to know who it was, so I walked over to her. Jelly looked up at me with slightly wide eyes.

“Happy next year's birthday.” I said and held out a personal shield pendant.

“But... but, I...”

“I know getting your own shuttle was what you really wanted this time and that was why I gave it to you.” I said and she didn't stop me as I put the pendant around her neck. “However, that left you as the only one I haven't given a shield to.”

“Hunter...”

“I'll give you an empty box for your next birthday, so don't be disappointed.” I joked.

Jelly shook her head. “I can't... you just...”

“I'm pretty sure I can afford it.” I said and looked at Sheph. “How many personal calls have gone through the satellite network so far?”

“You mean just today or total?” Sheph asked with a huge smile.

“Just today is fine.” I said with a matching smile.

“We're up to fifteen thousand, eight hundred and ten.” Sheph said as she looked at a datapad. “Make that sixteen thousand and eighty seven. Oh, Sixteen thousand and three hundred and twenty.”

“Oh, my god.” Simone said. “It's not even lunchtime yet!”

“Isn't having cheap calls great?” I asked and they all looked at me. “A credit a call, remember?”

“It's not even peak time yet.” Sheph said. “Usually during shift changes the call numbers triple.”

“T-t-triple?!?” Jelly asked, shocked.

“We've capped out at just over a hundred thousand calls a day, not counting the Bogorim Corporation's satellite television signals. We log those separately.” Sheph said to everyone's shocked faces and then she looked at Sandy. “How are the hidden transfers going?”

Sandy checked her own datapad. “We've got three million credits and some change so far.”

Everyone fell silent at her words.

“Oh, goddess.” Gleas whispered.

“What about our personal accounts?” I asked.

“You're crazy for splitting your income with all of us.” Sheph said and chuckled. “I'm not complaining, though. I like crazy.”

“WHAT?!?” Nearly everyone shouted.

“This is a business.” I said and they all looked at me. “I'm not operating in a vacuum. You all work hard and are a part of this, so you all get a share.”

“But... we're just employees.” Deborah said. “We aren't supposed to get shares after the salvage.”

Gleas looked at her and Beatrice, then at me. “Should we tell them?”

“I'd rather let them figure it out; but, go ahead.”

“Everyone, there's something you should know.” Gleas said. “We haven't been employees since the salvage contract ended. We're shareholders.”

Her words were met with complete silence.

“It's true.” Simone said. “It happened when we all agreed to trade our salvage shares in and invested into this space habitat.” She looked at me. “As Hunter reminded me, none of us even asked for our payouts on the salvage rights. We handed everything right over to him.”

“You all thought I was being nice and magnanimous when I had you all pick out and design your own compartments to be the way you liked them.” I said with a laugh. “None of you suspected it was actually yours! Not one of you!”

They all exchanged surprised looks and then looked back at me.

“It's really ours.” Beatrice and Sandy said at the same time.

“Damn right it is.” I said and Hailey tapped my arm, so I picked her up, even though she really was getting too big to sit on my hip. “Just like Hailey said when we first stepped onto this station.” I smiled and gave her a kiss on the lips. “This is our home. Not just mine and Hailey's. All of us.”

Almost immediately, several of the others started to cry at the overwhelming emotions, even Sheph. She had nowhere to go when she left her job back on Chofaris, and now she had a home and good friends that appreciated her for who she was and not just for her skills.

Hailey nodded to me and we walked around the table to give consoling hugs to everyone. We both touched each of them with Presence and ended beside Simone, because she was crying the hardest.

“This is your home.” I said to her and touched her with Presence. She gasped and her tears flowed faster, then Hailey's hand reached out to wipe her tears and her Presence touched Simone, too.

“You... you both...”

“I always dreamed of having an older sister.” Hailey said.

Simone let out a sob. “Me, too.” She said and then hugged the both of us.