After two hours, Val had squawked herself hoarse and had become completely passive. I had kept tweeting and chirping to her that she was going to have the nicest nest and it was going to be up high and that only she and I would be able to get to it. That had given her an almost euphoric experience and her whole body had relaxed. She cuddled into me for the last hour and cooed contentedly.
I could easily read her thoughts and she couldn't believe she was having this experience after spending so many years in prison. I didn't ask her what happened or why she was there, because it didn't really matter what happened to send her here. She was here and would stay here for as long as The Order wanted to keep her here.
Just before our time was up, we stood up and I tucked the blanket and sheet away. I had already cleaned her of all her feathers the night before, so it would be weeks before she made any more. I absorbed the Presence Barrier and the woman that stood just outside didn't react. I heard her thoughts and she was surprised, and a little delighted, that I had succeeded in doing that to an avian woman. Of course, she immediately thought about me trying it with the other two to try and break their spirit, too.
I didn't tell her that the reason they were reacting like they were was because they were susceptible to the sounds of generic mating calls and that it drove them a little wild until they answered them. After that, the male had to work a lot harder to keep their attention and make it a lot more personal. The two avian women were fighting the call and didn't want to acknowledge me as deserving their attention, so it hit them just a little bit harder than if they had just accepted it and then walked away.
As I led Val down the stairs, the dispensary opened on the other side of the main shaft and everyone crowded around it to get their food. I didn't walk over to it right away, though. I brought Val over to the two avian women and they glared at me.
“If you would watch her for me and not hurt her, I'll make it worth your time.” I said.
Both of them thought about refusing, then they saw Val's passive state, which meant she had really enjoyed what had happened and needed to be protected.
“You better not be offering what I think you're offering!” The second avian woman spat.
“A delicious meal and perhaps a cubicle to sleep in... and not with me.” I said.
Both women thought about it, then nodded and held their arms open.
“Thank you.” I said and turned Val over to their care, then I walked over to the dispensary. I almost laughed when I saw three stacks of three food trays already prepared and a reserved sign on them. “Hey, fellas.” I said and handed over four food supplement packets to each of them.
They practically jumped for joy and then they did up all nine meals, three each, then gave them to me.
“I won't need meals for a couple days.” I said stored them all and looked at the people around me. “Okay, who wants to rent their cubicle for tonight for one delicious meal?” I asked and four people raised their hands. “I'll only need two, and like I said, just for tonight... oh, and close together, if that's possible.” Two of them dropped their hands. “We have two winners.” I said and walked over to them. “Which cubicles?”
“Eight and nine on the bottom.” One of the men said and pointed. “If you touch my stuff...”
I chuckled. “I give my word that I'm just sleeping and I'll cover everything in Presence to protect it.” I said and took out a thick blanket and a fluffy pillow.
“What the...” He started to ask what I was doing.
I hung the blanket on his shoulder and handed him the pillow. “So you can sleep just outside.” I said and then handed him a meal. “Enjoy.”
The guy gave me an odd look.
“You can keep the blanket and pillow, too.” I said, since it was just a normal blanket and not one with a spell on it, and his mouth opened in surprise. I gave the same thing to the other man and he didn't hesitate and started eating the food right away. I walked over to the avian women and they also had surprised looks on their faces. “Ladies, if you would.” I waved to the cubicles. “Number nine is yours for tonight. Do you want to feed Val, or should I?”
“We'll do it, just so you don't choke her.” The first avian woman said.
I nodded and followed them into the ninth cubicle, covered everything in solid Presence, and then put a sheet and blanket on the bed. The three of them sat down and I handed them their trays. Val stirred a little with the great smelling food so close. Instead of eating the food themselves, they chewed some of it up and then carefully fed it to her, almost like what a mother bird did for their chicks.
“I'll leave you to it.” I said and put the third tray of food on the bed and stepped out of the cubicle, then covered it in Presence to give them privacy. I went next door and covered everything with solid Presence and then added a sheet and blanket to the bed. I sat down and ate the food and it was really good. I finished quickly and set the tray aside to wait and then covered the front of the cubicle with solid Presence.
The dispensary finished handing out all the food and waited for most of them to finish and accepted the empty food trays back, then closed up. I checked on the avian women and they were eating some food themselves and also feeding Val. It looked like it was going to take a while, so I laid back on the bed and closed my eyes. I hadn't had a chance to properly meditate since I arrived here, so I took the next ten minutes to enter a meditative state that kept me alert.
Oh, wow. I thought in awe as I felt the Presence around me. It was almost thick enough to put my hand through it, which meant you couldn't detect it unless you were in deep meditation. It's almost like the East Forest Glade, except that Presence could be felt without meditating. I thought. I wonder if it's because there's nothing external here to let the Presence flow?
In any case, I quickly attuned myself to the enormous flow of Presence and let some of it flow into me. I started to glow immediately and I started to cycle it through my body. I felt renewed strength fill me, as well as energy, and I concentrated on my body. With so much Presence to play with, I could feel the different Presence of the dirt and grime that was starting to build up on me.
I couldn't actually clean myself without using water; but, I could use Presence to scrape a bunch of it off and crushed it into a microscopic dot and tucked it into my pocket. I did the same with the dried blood splatter and dirt on the jumpsuit and put that in my pocket as well. After that, I let the Presence of the planet pass into and out of me without restraint and lost myself in the flow.
For about ten minutes.
“Hey!” The man who rented me the cubicle exclaimed and pounded on the solid Presence that covered it. “I changed my mind! You can have your stupid blanket back!” He said loudly. “Get out of my cubicle!”
I let out a sigh and eased myself out of the planet's Presence.
“Open up and get out!” He nearly yelled.
“Just a second.” I said and shook myself as I sat up. “Whew. Okay. That was a rush.” I stood up and was a little wobbly. “Ha. Damn. Maybe too much of a good thing.” I used Presence to strengthen myself and stood up straight, then I stored the blanket and sheet as I absorbed the solid Presence Wall over both cubicles.
“Here.” He smiled and tossed me the blanket.
I didn't catch it and it fell to the floor. It was torn in several places, as if it was dragged along a jagged wall or along the ground. “I'm glad you treated it well.”
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He didn't like that I hadn't caught it or reacted. “Get the hell out of my cubicle.”
“What about the pillow?” I asked, because it was tucked under his arm.
“You gave it to me.” He said and gave me a huge fake smile.
“And the meal?”
“Fair compensation for the time you've been in here.”
“I can't believe how stupid you are.” I said and stepped out of the cubicle.
“You're lucky you didn't touch my stuff.” He said as he looked around and saw that everything was intact.
“What stuff?” I asked, then covered the bed, the torn blanket, and the pillow under his arm in Presence, then I held my hand out in front of me. Everything inside the cubicle flew together and formed a large ball as it made a crunching sound, since most of the things he had weren't supposed to be round.
“HEY!” He yelled.
“Deal breakers aren't worth my time.” I said and slowly closed my hand. The ball of items got smaller and smaller with more crunching sounds, especially the metal of the bed frame.
The man stood there and stared at the ball as it got smaller, then I clenched my fist. It gave one last jerk and compressed to the size of a softball, then it dropped to the floor.
“Have a good night.” I said.
“I'LL KILL YOU!” The man bellowed at losing all of his worldly possessions and then he turned towards me.
“Stop.” I commanded and he did. “Remember what happened yesterday.” I said and I saw the scene with the threatening man as it went through his mind. “Take one more step and you'll die.”
The man smiled. “You're not going to be around much, working all the time.” He said and took a step back. “Maybe you won't have anything to come back to when...”
I used Presence and made sure that the sound of a wooden bat hitting a watermelon reverberated throughout the living area, then the body dropped to the floor.
“No one threatens what's mine.” I said and that carried to everyone as well.
I reached down and grabbed the body by the collar, then I tossed it out of the cubicle and it arced through the air and landed in the middle of the living area. It was a fair distance, and everyone had watched it flail around like a rag doll. I bent down and picked up the softball and tossed it out to land beside the body.
“You forgot your things.” I said to the body and then looked into the next cubicle where the three avian women were. “Hi, there. Slight change of plans.” I said to their startled faces, and Val seemed back to normal. “I own this cubicle now and it's surprisingly empty.” I joked. “Do you want to give me a hand decorating it?”
“YES!” Val yelled and jumped up. “You're still making me a place tomorrow, right?”
“Of course.” I said. “I'll start it right after work.”
Val nodded and I started to take out blankets for her. “I won't do a full nest, since that has to be permanent.” She said and arranged the blankets in a circular pattern. “We'll need a good base for the bottom when we make the real one, too.”
“I'll see if I can scrounge up a nice bed cushion or something.” I said and she nodded as I handed her a few pillows. She took them and placed them in strategic spots, then added more blankets and tied them together.
“There!” Val said, quite happy with her work. “It might not be too comfortable; but, it's better than nothing.”
“I thought about saving the other bed, then realized it would have years of that guy on it.” I said.
Val let out a squawk. “Good! No other smells are allowed!” She said, then stepped into the nest and walked around it, then she felt it was wrong somehow.
“Try adding some of your feathers.” I suggested and she let out a loud chirp.
“Yes! Great idea!” Val said and quickly opened up her jumpsuit.
I covered the cubicle in solid Presence to hide her as she pulled her jumpsuit off of one of her shoulders and exposed one of her breasts. She dug inside the jumpsuit and around to her back and pulled out the sack I had given her. I chuckled at the sight of the squashed thing, since I had wondered where she had hidden it. She opened it and plucked a few choice feathers out of it and tucked them into the blankets, then she added a bit of down in seemly random spots and nodded.
“Yes, much better.” Val said and closed the sack and put it behind her back. She pulled her jumpsuit back over her shoulder and into place and closed it. “Now we need to christen it.”
I absorbed the solid Presence over the cubicle. “I promised I was only going to sleep tonight.”
“Hunter! We can't sleep in it without sleeping in it!” Val exclaimed.
“You are not doing another mating ritual so soon!” The first avian woman said and came around to look at the nest. “You just recovered from the last one!”
Val was about to protest when the second avian woman stepped over as well.
“You will not insult us after we took care of you.” The second avian woman said.
Val was tempted, very tempted, to tell them to mind their own business, then she sighed. “It's not going to feel right if we don't.”
“This is only temporary, remember?” I said to her. “We will definitely christen the real one.”
Val gave me a look that said I had better make it a good christening, then she nodded. The two avian women gave her a quick chirp and she warbled back to them to thank them, then they went back to the cubicle next door.
I stepped into the nest and her feathers fluffed up, as if she wanted to get my attention, and I took her into my arms. I gave her a kiss and she accepted that was all she was going to get, then we settled down into the makeshift nest and cuddled together. She did feel a bit of unease, that it wasn't really her nest yet, and I turned my head to chirp and whistle in her ear. Val warbled and cooed at me, then she let out another sigh and slowly drifted off to sleep.
No one tried to go to the body or to take the ball of stuff.
The next morning, we woke up and Val and I ate a delicious breakfast. Now that she was back to her normal self, she drooled over the flavors and thanked me for sharing it with her. I took the empty trays to the dispensary and dropped them in the slot. Not surprisingly, the body was gone. After everyone ate and before the official start of the shift, Val, the two avian women, and I walked with everyone down to the spot where the supervisor would be.
He showed up a short time later and handed out the laser drills to everyone except me. “I checked and it's not against the rules to let a prisoner borrow a digging tool.” He said, kind of disgustedly. “Here.”
“Thanks.” I said and took something that looked like a cross between an old-style hand drill and a scooping machine combined with a small conveyor belt. It was also three feet long and a foot around.
“Good luck figuring it out.” The supervisor said and waved me away.
I led the three avian women back over to section six and there was still a large area for us to check and harvest crystals from. I wasn't interested in doing that right away, though.
“Hey! You can't slack off.” The second avian woman said.
“Trust me, this is much more important at the moment.” I said and walked over to the empty crate and looked at the cargo handle. “Go ahead and start working. I'll catch up when I'm done here.”
She huffed and the three of them started hunting for crystals.
I took out my datapad and carefully examined the cargo handle and wrote down all the parts and serial numbers that I could find. I kept watching it with Detect Presence and then turned it on. I saw the anti-gravity field activate and traced it through the circuitry to make sure I knew how and why it worked like it did. I turned it off and checked the components again, then turned it back on. I watched the field this time and how it encompassed the crate entirely and gave it a buffer underneath and on the sides to prevent damaging the crate.
Nice. Very nice. I thought and wrote down all of my observations.
“Are you done yet?” The second avian woman asked angrily.
“For now.” I said and checked the time. “Dammit, I'm sorry.” I apologized, because I hadn't realized that I had used up over two hours of the ten hour shift. “It really is important, though. Not just for me, but for you, too.”
“Yeah, right.” She said and carried over two focusing crystals. “Do you know how far behind we are because of you?”
I chuckled. “Don't worry about that. I'll fill this crate in an hour.”
“Wh-what?” The three avian women said at the same time.
“Watch and learn.” I said and walked over to the next section of wall and took out the giant combined laser drill that had six drills in it.
“What the heck is that?!?” The second avian woman asked.
“Something I built for the big guy.” I said. “I need to test it, so... step back a little.”
All three women moved about ten feet away and I held the drill against the wall. The controls were hard to use with my normal sized hands, because I had made it for the big alien, so I used Presence instead. I watched it with Detect Presence and it worked like a charm.
I found three crystals with the first test, then I took out the six drills I had in inventory and did the top five foot section of the wall. They watched me in awe as I made my way down another thirty feet of wall, then I went to the other side of the shaft and did that thirty feet as I came back to them.
“It works great!” I said and took a digital readout of the repaired drill to show the supervisor. I went back and gathered up all the unprocessed crystals and brought them back to the crate. I filled it and still had half a crate's worth of crystals left. “Well, let's head back.”
“It really did only take you an hour.” The first avian woman said, completely surprised.
“Well, I can cover a lot of ground with twelve drills going.” I said and stored their drills. I helped them climb up onto the crate and held them in place with Presence seat belts, then I took them back to the supervisor.
“Why am I not surprised.” The supervisor said with a sigh.
“Because any time I work you get a full crate long before it's due?” I asked and he didn't respond. I dropped off the drills he had issued to the three avian women and took out my datapad.
“Prisoners aren't allowed to have datapads!” He said immediately.
“You have one.” I said and motioned to it.
“That's... I'm an exception.” He countered.
“So am I.” I said and sent him the data on the repaired drill. “It didn't explode.”
The supervisor stared at the data and couldn't believe his eyes. “What... how... it looks like a piece of junk!”
I chuckled. “It still works.” I said. “Say, could you maybe get me a few dozen or so broken crates?”
“What for?” He asked.
“I need building materials.” I said cryptically, then pulled the full crate and the three avian women back to the living area.