The next three days passed by like slow molasses in winter. With no Hailey to keep things lively and entertaining, all I did was work making satellites. I even skipped sleep for two days and kept working. We all ate meals together and Hailey sat across the table from me, rather than next to me like usual. When we watched television, she sat on the other side of Simone and not on my lap like she used to.

The collective mood on the ship dropped over those three days and by the time we arrived at our destination, none of them were enjoying themselves and they all had thoughts of not supervising Hailey and me anymore. That wasn't their decision, though. They hadn't realized until then how integral their happiness was tied to Hailey's happiness. Now that she wasn't acting like a child and filling everyone with youthful enthusiasm, they had no choice but to treat her like a normal person.

“All right, people. This is it.” I said. “Ready weapons.”

Jelly and Isabella nodded and prepared to meet any threat as Beatrice dropped the ship out of hyperspace at the farthest point from the planet. Luckily, there was only one planet and no moons, and since it was a completely Order controlled system and the coordinates were not generally known, our appearance at the proper coordinates didn't alert anyone to our unscheduled arrival.

“Adona, what's the space around the planet look like?” Simone asked and inquired the computer herself as well.

“Three ships. One fast courier, one fast cargo hauler, and one guard ship.”

“Oh, damn.” Isabella said as the targeting info came up on her screen. “It's a Spectral class guard ship.”

“What's that mean?” I asked.

“It's loaded with shuttles and a garrison full of guards.” Isabella said. “They can empty the whole ship in ten minutes and land everyone as a cohesive force.”

“Oh, no.” Beatrice said. “What do we do?”

“Keep going.” I said and she looked at me like I was crazy.

“Hunter, there's no way we can go up against...”

“Have they contacted us yet?” I asked.

“No. The data said we need to reach the inner beacon before they'll initiate contact.” Simone said.

“Drop a satellite and lets see what they are saying.” I said.

“On it.” Simone said and a discrete hatch opened at the back of the ship and a satellite slipped out under no thrust. It shared our momentum and that carried it along behind us. “No one's reacting to us at all.”

“Good.” I said. “Stay on course, Beatrice. Simone, when they call, play the message.”

“I've got all three ships targeted and locked. No internal warnings.” Isabella said and Jelly nodded confirmation. “We can take out their bridges and engines as soon as we are within range.”

“Even with the unscheduled extra ship?” I asked.

“We only have to worry about them launching the shuttles.” Jelly said. “If Isabella is right, and I don't doubt her for a second, we'll need to disable the bay doors.”

“They may blow them to clear the way when we do.” Isabella warned us.

“Then use the hidden missile launchers and target inside the bay.” I said and the four women in the cockpit took in a sharp breath. “Yes, I know what that means.”

“We're approaching the inner beacon.” Simone said in a subdued voice. “Preparing message. Inquiry received. Sending.”

A few seconds later, she sighed.

“We've been approved for inner orbit and the shipment will be ready for us to pick up by the time we get there.” Simone said, full of relief. “System defenses are standing down.”

Beatrice relaxed slightly and kept her eyes on her instruments.

“Status update!” Simone said and looked at her plot. “The guard ship is moving for the Lagrange point.”

Both Isabella and Jelly let out sighs of relief. I smiled and put a hand on their shoulders and gave them a little squeeze.

“Thank the Goddess.” Isabella whispered. “I'm not supposed to meet her for a while yet.”

I chuckled and let her shoulder go. “She has the patience to wait for important dates.”

“Plots and targets updating.” Jelly said. “Covert firing solutions on the guard ship will be at minimal distance in half an hour. They'll reach the inner jump point in an hour.”

“We have a two hour approach to the planet, so that's plenty of time for them to jump out from the closer point.” I said. “It's pretty smart to set things up this way.”

“Especially if you don't know the layout of the system beforehand.” Simone said. “If you just jumped in at the normal point...”

“Instant target.” I said. “No need for identity confirmation, false signals, or anything. Just the arrival would tell them all they needed to know.”

“I am really glad we raided all the other places first before coming here.” Simone said.

“They aren't.” I said with a smile and she chuckled. “Beatrice, stick with their approach protocol and give us a nice inner orbit right where they tell us to go.”

“That's going to put us right inside the orbits of the courier and the cargo ship.” Beatrice said.

“It also gives us the best firing solution.” I said. “I can't understand why they don't have a large space ship group here.”

“Either they're lazy or they assumed no one else would find the place.” Isabella said. “If I was in charge, I would have a Cruiser class stationed here. At least.”

“Lots of firepower?” I asked.

“Unbelievably.” Isabella grinned. “I would have turned tail and run if one had been here.”

I nodded and we all waited patiently as our ship floated into the assigned orbit. Once we were there, Hailey came to the cockpit and took over control of the weapons controls. She looked over everything and sat down, to the approval of both Jelly and Isabella.

Simone, Jelly, Isabella and I were already all geared up with everything we needed, so we went to the shuttle bay and boarded Monna. Jelly eased us out of the ship through the open bay doors and flew down to the surface of the planet. No one spoke as the empty cargo shuttle flew along the proper flight path for shuttles to approach the mining facility.

Jelly took us in with a textbook landing on the large landing pad. “Nothing new on the satellite network. No other shuttles, ships, or personnel.” She said and hit the switch to open the rear cargo bay.

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Simone and I unstrapped and went out through the side hatch and Isabella unstrapped and went into the cargo bay. Only one person was there to greet us and he worked for the factory.

“That's a really nice shuttle.” The man in the uniform said. “Where did you get it?”

“It was a custom job.” I said and wasn't surprised that our guard uniforms put him at ease.

“You're kidding!”

“Nope. Cost a good amount of credits, too.”

The man looked into the cargo space and whistled. “You could fit an APC in there!”

“That and a hover car.” I said with a smile. “With room to spare.”

“Ha! I'd love to have you guys on my regular run!” The man said with a laugh. “You could take a whole shipment up all by yourself in one trip!”

“That's what it's for.” I said. “Despite my pilot not minding making multiple trips, it's a damn pain in the ass, especially transferring in vacuum!”

“I hear that!” The man said and handed me the datapad with the form for my signature. “What a logistics nightmare it is to coordinate multiple ships with multiple shuttles, then trying to keep track of which one took what and to which ship, then try to make sure everyone got what they ordered!” He laughed and I signed the datapad. “Follow me. Your crate of a hundred medium quality focusing crystals is just inside the shipping bay doors.”

“I can't believe he went through so many of these things.” I said and shook my head and Simone stayed half a step behind me.

“We tried to give him fifty high quality crystals the last time he ordered a shipment and he went through them at the same rate and asked for another shipment.” The man shrugged and opened the large door. “So, orders from the boss said not to waste the good crystals on an inexperienced Presence user.”

“Smart decision.” I said and the man grabbed something that looked like a handle from a rack of them by the door, then walked over to a square crate that was five feet wide on each side. He slapped the handle to the side of it and hit a button, then the crate lifted a foot off of the floor. I turned and waved to Isabella and she ran over, gave me a salute, then took the handle and moved the crate out into the main area and then walked at a normal pace to the cargo shuttle.

I turned back around and my eyes roamed over all of the crates that were clearly marked. Low quality, medium quality, and high quality. “I guess a lot of people go through them quickly.”

The man chuckled and pointed at the low quality crates. “Trainees and recent graduates.” He pointed at the medium quality ones. “Fifth year apprentices and usually mid-range masters.” He pointed to the high quality crates. “Personal Order guards, masters with twenty years experience, and temple heads and council members.”

“You're kidding.” I said and he shook his head.

“We go through the high quality ones at the same rate as the low quality ones.” The man said, then chuckled. “The barely trained and the highly trained burn through their focus crystals at the same rate. Who knew?”

I chuckled. “You.”

“HA!” The man barked a laugh. “Ain't that the truth.”

I turned my head slightly to Simone and she nodded, which meant the security footage loop was in place. I nodded in return and she stepped forward and touched the base of the man's skull and put him to sleep. I caught him and we carried him over to the small booth near the door and went inside.

Isabella came back with the handle and I pointed to the closest stack of crates with the high quality crystals in them. She nodded and ran over to it, climbed the ladder beside it and attached the handle to the top crate. She hit the button and the crate lifted a foot into the air, so she pulled on it and let it go. It slid forward, tipped over and slid down the side of the crates fifteen feet to the floor, then it tipped back upright. She climbed down the ladder and grabbed the handle and ran.

“Give her a hand while I go into the mine.” I whispered to Simone. “Heck, get Jelly to help, too.”

“Hunter...”

“I'll be fast.” I said and covered myself in the Stealth technique. “We timed this perfectly, remember?”

Simone nodded and I left the small booth and ran to the back of the shipping bay to the large set of double doors there. Off to the side was a normal door and I went over to it. I had to use a very small bit of Presence to check the other side, then opened it and went through when no one was there. It took me almost ten minutes at a normal run to reach the junction we had found on the mine map.

This was where Isabella had recommended Simone stand to be the most effective. I knew by the time I was down to the prisoners to disable their charges and started my way back, she would be here waiting to cover me.

I didn't rush, since that wasn't the point of the mission. I made my way down to where they had the prisoners working and found the two Order members that were in charge. Stupidly, they stood side by side on a platform, right at the entrance to the mining area that the prisoners were working in.

I was tempted to kill them for being so stupid for only concentrating on the prisoners and not watching the environment, then changed my mind and touched the backs of their necks and put them to sleep. I absorbed most of their Presence, just in case, then moved them back and away from the platform edge. With the watchers removed, it was surprisingly easy to get down to the mining area and find the actual prisoners and kill and dispose of the trainees posing as prisoners. Because of all the mining sounds, no one noticed the wooden bat hitting a watermelon sound as the others died. Once I had them tucked into my bag of holding, I went to the first prisoner.

“Psst! Is this thing on? Can you hear me?” I said into her ear.

The woman jumped and dropped her laser drill. Luckily, it was touch keyed so it cut off as soon as she let it go. “What... who...”

“I'm here to rescue you.” I said.

The woman looked around and shook her head. Her shoulder length black hair flipped from side to side. “I'm finally going crazy after being here for so long.” She said. “I felt two trembles in the Presence a few minutes ago and now I'm hearing voices.”

“Just one voice.” I corrected and she looked right at me. “I'm going to touch your head and disable your suicide charge, okay?”

“You didn't lie.” She said, surprised.

“I can't take off your bindings until I raid the office, though.”

“I've been here for six years.” The woman said. “Waiting for another twenty minutes for you while you waste your time is no problem.”

“Waste my time?” I asked and touched her head.

She grinned and grabbed my wrist, yanked me off balance and twisted my arm around, then flipped me over her back and I landed face down on the ground. She bent my elbow and knelt on my back as she whispered in my ear.

“There's nothing in the office, you fool. No computers, no data to purge, nothing.”

She applied a bit too much pressure on my arm and it popped my elbow out of joint. When I didn't cry out or even flinch, she smiled.

“I think I like you, my ignorant hero.” She said and smashed her fist into the back of my head six times and slammed my face into the rough ground each time.

Needless to say, that rang my bell and stunned me, then my Stealth technique faded as I lost concentration.

“Oh, a pretty boy.” She said and rolled me over, then she straddled my waist and bent down to cross her arms on my chest. “So, what brings you here?”

“Y-you.” I said and tried to get my head back in order.

She smiled and darted her head forward and broke my nose with her forehead with one hit. “Try again, not-so-handsome.”

“You... and focusing... crystals.” I managed to say.

“Hmm. They are worthless to everyone but Presence users, so what do you want them for?” She asked, genuinely curious.

I didn't answer right away, considering I was still reeling from multiple hits to the head, and she leaned back to hit me with her forehead again.

“Give him a break, Liv.” A woman's voice said as she walked over to us. “He took out the two Order creeps that were staring at us.”

“He did?” Liv asked, then looked down at me. “You didn't want anyone else looking at us, did you?”

It took me a moment to smile. “Wanted to kill them... stupid for only... watching you.”

Liv laughed. “Okay, I definitely like you.” She said and leaned in close. “Did I hurt you?”

“Only... my pride.” I said and my head finally cleared from being rattled so much.

Liv grinned at me as she looked at my broken arm and my broken nose. “Just your pride?”

“Yes.” I said and lifted my broken arm and flicked it out to the side. The elbow popped back into place with a bit of a sloshing pop. She looked genuinely surprised when I used the hand on the same arm to reach up and pulled on my nose. She winced a little at the snap, then her mouth dropped open as I easily sat up and she had to roll off.

“Hey!” Liv exclaimed and I reached out and grabbed her by the throat. “HRK!”

“I was trying to be nice to people I was trying to rescue.” I said and stood up without letting her go.

Liv held onto my hand as her feet dangled and she tried to pry my hand away from her throat. Her friend held her hands up and backed away.

“I didn't want your heads to explode when I sent the signal through the intercom system.” I said.

“What signal?” Her friend asked.

“Don't act stupid.” I said. “The signal to set off the suicide charges in your heads.”

Both of them were surprised by that.

“I'm really glad I decided to not let you go until I was done here, because having someone like you out and around would have been a very stupid move on my part.”

Liv's face started to change color because she couldn't breathe, so I let her go. She dropped to her knees and started coughing and her friend went to her and rubbed her back. I tried to brush off the ground-in dirt from my uniform, then gave up. I would have to recycle it and use another one later.

“I think I changed my mind.” I said and gave Liv a dismissive look. “I'm not going to rescue you.”

“But... you said...” The friend started to say.

“You're pretty comfortable here, right? You think of this as home and I was intruding on it, wasn't I?” I asked as I read their surface thoughts and knew it was the truth. “I'm pretty tired of people being ungrateful for my help.”

“No, she... she was only playing with you.” Her friend said.

“I don't care.” I said and started to walk away. “As far as I'm concerned, you can just stay here.”