I landed Monna back inside Adona's large shuttle bay and Monna sighed in relief. Noma and I left her there and went inside the space habitat and everyone was waiting anxiously for us.

“It's okay.” I said. “I just... had to let some anger out.”

“We saw.” Simone said. “None of us knew you could do something like that.”

“I didn't know I could, either.” I said.

Peggy walked into the room and came over to me with a portable display. “Someone from the Bogorim Corporation is on the line for you.”

“Peggy!” I exclaimed and I tried to hug her, and her hand was across my cheek instantly.

“My answer is still no.” Peggy said and handed me the display. “I'm sorry about what happened.” She said and touched my hand in a rare display of affection, then walked away and went back to the office.

“She stayed away before because she didn't want to intrude.” Sheph said.

“She also didn't want you to take advantage of her.” Simone almost succeeded in hiding her smile.

“I would have at least stolen a hug.” I said honestly and accepted the call.

“Hello, Hunter.” The short alien that owned the Bogorim Corporation said from the display.

I said his name in his native language, since it wasn't pronounceable in common. “To what do I owe the pleasure of hearing from you directly?”

“I wanted to pay my condolences for your loss.” The short alien said. “I very much regretted not being able to attend your wedding and now I regret not making the time.”

I shook my head. “We knew you couldn't reschedule an interplanetary conference with all of your businesses and employees, just to stand around and watch an alien mating ritual.” I said. “How many millions of credits would you have lost if you had to change it?”

“I would guess about the same cost to excavate a two thousand foot wide and a thousand foot deep crater.” The short alien said.

“Word travels fast.” I said and he let out a small laugh.

“The images are quite impressive and Opina was kind enough to forward the video when I asked.”

“Thanks, Opina.” I said sarcastically.

“You're welcome, Grandpa!” Opina said happily. “He wanted proof it was actually you and not some weapon you've developed.”

“I was reassured that this wasn't something that threatened me and mine.” The short alien said. “It was quite spectacular to see, I must say.”

I took a deep breath and let it out. “How much...”

“Oh, I'd say you've saved me a few hundred thousand credits worth of strip mining.” The short alien said to my surprise.

“Excuse me?”

“We've had a geological survey of the entire planet for over a hundred years. It was much too cost prohibitive to dig when it is so much easier to smelt asteroids and harvest precious metals and ore from them instead.”

“But... I crushed everything.” I said.

“Yes, yes. Wonderful work. I've already sent a hundred mechanical sifters out there with trusted workers to sort out the metals from the giant piles of sand and grit. I must say, grinding it up was quite ingenious instead of just throwing out large chunks that couldn't be sorted properly.”

“You're joking, right?” I asked. “I did all that and you're thanking me?”

“Well, I could fine you and exorbitant amount for destroying property that's been in my family for a hundred and fifty generations.” The short alien said. “Would that make you feel better?”

“If you mean exorbitant for me, I think I could handle it. If you meant exorbitant for you, then no.”

The short alien let out another small laugh. “You know I will find the financial gain in anything I set my eyes upon, Hunter.”

“You're just not going to let that go, are you?” I asked. “I don't want to know what you're making from my satellite network every day, all right? I don't.”

The short alien let out a full laugh this time. “Each new satellite in another system increases my revenue exponentially. I didn't quite believe you when you said that would happen, and here we are.” He said. “You really should increase your base costs.”

“If I made it more expensive, then less people would use it and defeat the purpose.”

The short alien nodded. “Now, back to this massive hole you dug into my planet.” He said. “I am tempted to offer you a finder's fee on anything precious we found.”

“I would accept that if you had hired me for it. You can turn it into operating costs for the workers that have weeks of work ahead of them.”

The short alien nodded. “That's reasonable.” He said. “Now the important question.”

I sighed. “Go ahead.” I said, knowing what he was going to ask.

“Will this happen again?”

“Yes.” I said. “I may not be here a lot when it happens, though. I have a mission to complete.”

“Hmm. Well, I see that you have ordered a long haul's cargo full of electronics and parts, which means you will be busy locally for quite some time.”

I sighed again. “I'll try and find somewhere else to...”

“Nonsense.” The short alien said. “I'll provide a map and landing coordinates for safe zones. There are a lot of things I would like dug up around here.”

Noma put a hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

“Thank you.” I said. “You're not going to mind having huge holes all over the place?”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

The short alien smiled. “I've already solicited bids on the site you excavated to make a cliff adventure business.”

I almost laughed at the speed that he had turned my mistake into a profitable business venture. “All right, I better go before you make even more money from me.”

“From whom did you buy the electronic components and five brand new space ships?” The short alien asked and laughed as he ended the call.

“He is definitely a master at making money.” Sheph said. “It's almost scary.”

We all nodded at that.

“When is the shipment due to arrive?” I asked.

“Next week. The ships will be delivered as one shipment two weeks later.” Sheph said. “I was tempted to have them deliver each one as they made them; but, you weren't here and the components you ordered while out weren't going to arrive until after you came back anyway.”

I turned and looked at Daniel. “I hope you're ready to start some heavy work next week.”

“Are you kidding? I'd be at the shipping yard right now if I had the components already.” Daniel said.

I looked at his wife, Deborah. “Don't worry, no late nights or monopolizing his time.”

“Hunter.” Deborah stepped close and put a hand on my arm. “We'll work day and night to get this done as soon as possible.”

“I can't ask you to...”

“You don't have to ask.” Simone said. “We're not doing this for you.”

I took a deep breath and let it out, then I nodded.

“Come on. Let's go get something to eat.” Gleas said and took my hand, and we all went to the large communal kitchen and made a meal together. We just cooked the food, though. No Couples Cooking lessons this time. None of us felt comfortable doing that yet. Peggy came in and joined us as we all sat down to eat. It was mostly quiet, until Sandy gave Beatrice a kiss.

“Sandy!” Beatrice gasped.

“I love you.” Sandy said and kept eating.

“That's... beside the point.” Beatrice said, her face red.

Simone let out a chuckle. “I think that's exactly the point.” She said. “Kiss'em if you got'em!”

Jelly kissed her fiance, Deborah kissed her husband, and I turned my head to look at Peggy with a smile on my face... my third one that day... and she slapped my face.

“Still no.” Peggy said and Simone barked a laugh.

*

Kara sat in her room aboard the dreadnought as it exited hyperspace in The Order's home system. Her heart and mind were filled with all the things she had seen on her latest mission. It had started out so well and almost seemed... fun. It reminded her of the times she had been on Relique when her party and Hunter's had joined up. Everything was easier when he was there, and it was the same now.

Then his wife died.

His wife. Kara thought, her heart pained. During the trip back here, she finally went through all of the messages from him that he had sent. To her surprise, there were a lot of them. He had sent them sporadically and she hadn't noticed the sheer amount. It had been almost five years of messages and she was angry at herself for not answering them. Most were just normal communications that anyone would exchange. Those she had only skimmed over. It was the odd ones that she despaired over.

Kara had read about the things he had gone through and regretted not answering them at the time. If she had, she might have had a chance to... she shook her head. She had missed her golden opportunities to be there for him when he had reached out into space for her and she had ignored him. She hadn't realized that she had hurt herself all this time by ignoring his need, so she had accepted that pain into her heart and it added to her regret about everything.

“We are approaching planetary orbit.” A voice said over the intercom.

It broke Kara out of her thoughts and rumination over her mistakes. She donned her robes and put on her Light sword, then left her room and went to the detention cell near the middle of the ship.

“AHHH!” The scaly alien screamed as soon as the door to the cell opened. “AHHH!”

“I thought I told you to gag him.” Kara said in a defeated tone. Hunter's words about mad screaming had been prophetic and Kralish had started screaming non-stop after the fifth day in hyperspace.

“He keeps chewing through them.” The guard shrugged. “He's gotten really good at it and they only last a few minutes now.”

Kara sighed and nodded. “Open it.”

The guard opened the cell and Kara covered the scaly alien's mouth with Presence to shut him up. She used Levitation on him and carried him behind her as she went through the ship to the shuttle bay.

“By the Goddess! That thing's real?!?” The pilot exclaimed loudly as Kara boarded the shuttle to go to the surface and a floating torso came in behind her.

“Just get me to the compound.” Kara said and set Kralish on one of the seats, strapped him in, and sat down herself and strapped in.

“I thought it was just a scary story going around the ship.” The pilot whispered and started the shuttle up. He had been on the ship and hadn't seen what had happened on the planet's surface or the results.

Kara didn't bother reminding him that three guard squads and two members of The Order hadn't returned with her, so any ghost stories going around paled in comparison to the truth.

Goddess, Hunter. Kara thought as she remembered what he did.

The shuttle left the bay and flew down to the planet's surface. It landed right beside the building that the council still used. They had rebuilt the room that Hunter had destroyed and had reinforced it, then installed several new safety measures to possibly stop any further attacks against the council. The biggest thing was the shield barrier between the council and the rest of the room.

Kara looked at the thing with disbelief, especially since she had seen Hunter get by whatever special dampening field Kralish had come up with. A normal force field wasn't going to do anything at all to deter him.

“Master Moor, I'm so glad that you have returned with... what is that thing floating behind you?” One of the new male council members asked.

“This is Kralish.” Kara said and floated the torso of the scaly alien into the room and deposited him in the center.

“By the Goddess' Bright Light.” He said. “We asked you to bring him back, not disable him.”

“I didn't do this to him.” Kara said and didn't volunteer who had.

“Please remove his mouth restraint.” Someone else said.

“I don't recommend that.” Kara said.

“Master Moor, we need to hear what happened in his own words.”

Kara dismissed the Presence covering the scaly alien's mouth.

“AHHH!” Kralish yelled and took a breath. “AHHH!”

Nearly every council member covered their ears at the incessant screaming.

“G-gag him.” One of them managed to say and a guard ran over with a gag and Kralish started chewing on it before it was secured in place.

“What happened to his eyes?” The head of the council asked. She was a humanoid woman with large deer antlers and big doe eyes.

“They were burst in a sonic attack.” Kara said.

“Goddess.” The council head said and shook her head, then she frowned. “Why haven't they grown back?”

“I assume for the same reason that his arms and legs have yet to grow back, even though it's been over a month since he lost them.” Kara said.

“His race has massive regeneration. He even regrew a severed limb when it was cut off with a Light sword.” The council head said.

Kara stood there and wondered how long it would take for them to ask her how it had happened.

“Did the local government give you any trouble?” Someone else asked.

“Yes. They delayed negotiations until we brought in a third party, then they killed all of our delegates.” Kara said, just as Kralish broke his gag.

“AHHH!” Kralish yelled and took a quick breath. “AHHH!”

“I said gag him!” The same council member said and the guard brought over another gag. “What is wrong with him, anyway?”

“He hasn't slept in a month.” Kara said.

“WHAT?!?” He yelled. “How could you do that to him? That's pure torture!” He exclaimed. “A person would go insane without sleep for that long!”

“He started screaming in less than a week.” Kara said.

“Master Moor.” The council head glared at her. “You have broken one of the...”

“SHUT UP!” Kara yelled as a pulse of Presence came out of her and smashed the shield emitter. The force field between her and the council disappeared and the entire council stared at her. “How dare you accuse me of wrongdoing?!? You all assumed I did it without even asking me about it to see if I would lie! Are you all imbeciles? Are you morons? Who appointed such stupid people to the council?”

“You are out of line.” The head of the council said.

“No, you are! I've been standing here and waiting to see if any of you would ask me how Kralish became the way he is, and none of you care how, even after I've mentioned it! You only see that he's like this and because I am standing here with him, you blamed me without a shred of proof.” Kara said. “Do you really think a normal person would do this to another living being and then come here with them? Do you think I would show off by being here with this ruined stump of a lizard?”

None of the council spoke in response to her tirade.

“I was told that I have a role to play, and I came here thinking that Hunter was out of line for telling me that. He gave me a message to tell you when I delivered his handiwork to you.” Kara said.

Kralish broke another gag and started screaming again. One of the council covered his mouth with Presence.

“What is the message?” The council head asked.

“He's coming for us.” Kara glanced at Kralish and looked back at the council. “He's coming for us all.”