As I worked on reattaching the artificial legs, Mr. Landing regained consciousness.

“AHHH! MY FACE!” He yelled and tried to touch it with his now missing arm. “AHHH! MY ARM!”

“Dammit, you're stubborn.” I said and used Presence to knock him out. “Looks like I need to modify your memory, too.”

I thought about just killing him and dissolving all the regrown organs, then sighed. It wasn't really his fault that I was duped, so I only dissolved one of the kidneys, one of the lungs, the spleen which he didn't really need anyway, and debated the intestines. I looked at the medical supplies and decided that I just had to accept that he would have to keep most of the regrown items.

I looked at his face and dissolved the connections in the eye socket, then picked up his old cybernetic implant and slipped it into place. Just for fun, I dissolved part of his skull and cleaned out the underside of the metal plate he used to have there and slid it into place. It looked like it had never been removed, so I went to work on reattaching the artificial arm.

I wasn't a detailed surgeon; but, I could see very well with Presence, so I managed to get it seated properly and attached the nerve endings to the contact points. It wasn't really necessary for me to do that, though. It just made the arm fit back on that much better. I put him into the medical scanner and made a scan, then added it to a blank datapad and put it in Amanda's pocket.

With Mr. Landing reassembled, I levitated him and Amanda out of the medical bay under stealth. I took them down to the shuttle bay and opened the doors, stood the both of them up on their feet near the landing pad, then reconnected the battery on the small communications device. I put the device in her hand, made them visible, and used Presence to have her thumb push the button.

I stepped back and watched the security station monitor that I had set to the ship, and a shuttle disembarked. I had to wait for them to enter my detection range before I could see that it had a squad of troops on it. They were heavily armed and surrounded the man I assumed was Mr. Bretburn. I confirmed it as the shuttle landed and their thoughts turned to protecting him and thought his name. I let Amanda and Mr. Landing go, so they both collapsed as the troops poured out of the shuttle.

“I hope she at least has the data.” The man said, disappointment in his voice. His prosthetic was most of his face, his chest, and his groin. Whatever had happened to him, likely a very localized explosion, had damaged his front too much to heal and it had to be replaced. Surprisingly, his organs and things were all intact.

“Sir? Are we going to the medical bay?” The captain of the squad asked as he handed his boss the datapad Amanda had, while the others carried Amanda and Mr. Landing into the shuttle.

“No. I believe some judicial negotiations are going to be needed to sway him to help me.” Mr. Bretburn said as he looked at the faked data. “Let's go.”

I took the opportunity to slip an expanding black barrier device onto the top of the shuttle, under stealth of course, and watched them load back up and take off. I watched the security station's monitor as they flew all the way back to their ship. When they docked to it, I smiled and took out a datapad.

“Five. Four. Three. Ah, screw it.” I chuckled and sent the command.

The entire ship was engulfed in an instant as the black barrier consumed it from the inside out, then the barrier disappeared. I looked at the datapad and it was still functioning, so I recalled it. Two of the ten focusing crystals had been emptied and I thought that was a fantastic energy to material conversion ratio for such a big ship.

“They must have had a lot of energy based materials onboard.” I said and closed the shuttle bay doors. I walked back upstairs after dropping my Stealth technique and met a few people in the media room.

“We're almost packed!” Monica said excitedly.

“She's gone a little crazy.” Simone said and shook her head. “You could almost swear that she's never been on a week long resort vacation before.”

“I haven't!” Monica said loudly. “What's it going to be like?”

Simone chuckled. “It's barely an hour away by shuttle.” She said. “The planet, that is. I'm not counting descending from orbit.”

“Anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour for that.” Jelly said as she came up the ramp with her fiance. “If we're taking Monna...”

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

“YOU BETTER BE!” Monna yelled through the intercom speakers.

Jelly laughed. “...it'll be three minutes, tops.”

“How long do we have before the show starts?” Simone asked as she came out of her room.

“Twenty minutes.” Opina said through the intercom speakers.

“That's just enough time for a good groping.” Simone said as she reached me.

“Hey, you don't know where my hands have been lately.” I joked.

“I meant me, stupid.” Simone grinned and grabbed my butt, so I jumped a little for her and she laughed. After a few minutes, everyone else showed up and we all sat down on the couches to wait for the show to come on. I didn't say anything for a few minutes, then I leaned out to look down at the very end of the farthest couch.

“Peggy.”

“I'm not talking to you.” Peggy said, her face covered in a frown. “It's apparently in my contract that killing my boss is against company policy.”

I chuckled and looked at Sheph, and she nodded. “Oh. Well.” I looked back at Peggy. “Then there's only one thing I need to say to you.”

“This should be good.” Peggy said and looked at me. “Go ahead.”

“I'm sorry that my overwhelming affection for you overrode my common sense.” I said and her eyes widened. “I really like you... as a person and not as a sexual object... and I'll stop annoying you by pushing your personal boundaries so much.”

Peggy's frown disappeared and she gave me an odd look. “I thought you were going to fire me for refusing to go on vacation.”

Complete silence met her words, then everyone laughed, especially me.

“Oh... oh... that's hilarious!” I exclaimed and held my sides. “I make a pass at you and you expected to be fired for it! Ha hahaha!”

“It's... your... company.” Peggy said and her face flushed red.

I was kneeling in front of her in an instant and I took her hand. “Don't be embarrassed.” I said in a soft voice. “If you haven't noticed by now, we don't really offer people jobs until they are considered a part of the family.”

“I don't have a job.” Monica said.

“That's beause you're my mother and you never have to work again... unless you want to.” I said. “Like occasionally cooking and going on death ride missions with Simone.”

Monica opened her mouth to say that wasn't really a job, then she chuckled. “Death ride missions?”

“Oh, not for us.” I said with a grin. “We bring death to anyone against us.”

“Amen to that.” Simone said. “The high and mighty Order is being slowly eradicated from existence.”

“Yes, and it's my goal to make sure that as few people as possible lose their lives because of them.”

Everyone gave me inquisitive looks.

“I'll need Simone's expertise as I creatively construct an Order wide command from The Wise One, that tells all Order members and devotees to the goddess they believe in, to gather at their temples and holy sites to wait for him to handle the atrocities being committed against The Order.”

Simone stared at me for several seconds as she tried to work out how I could miraculously do that, then she got the thought from my mind. “You have his head!”

I nodded and took it out briefly to show them.

“AHH!” Monica covered her face. “What, by god, is that?!?”

“He was The Wise One and is pretty much the figurehead of The Order.” I said and chuckled at my own pun. “Figure head.” I said and put it away. “Simone and I can get it done before we leave tomorrow and then we'll send it out... using their own codes from the home world... and add in the footage of the home world and the sacred site being destroyed.”

“That will definitely get their attention.” Sheph said and nodded. “You've gotten really good at the whole political intimidation thing.”

I nodded back to her. “I learned from the best.”

“I think I deserve another hair curtain for that.” Sheph said unabashedly.

I chuckled and nearly everyone laughed as she dove behind me and buried her face into my golden hair.

*

Hen and her Tiercel stayed on Adona and in their quarters, so Hunter didn't feel too bad about letting Peggy stay on the space habitat to keep an eye on things. No one mentioned the debacle with Amanda and the amputee patient, not even the local military authorities, even though an entire space ship had disappeared within their jurisdiction.

The new message asking all Order members to band together in solidarity and to wait for the situation to be handled was prepared and sent out. After that, the only thing left to do was to pack everything and everyone onto Monna. They all headed to the planet's surface at Monna's best orbital insertion speed, which delighted her and made a few passengers nervous, namely Monica, Kara, and Lashina. They were not used to anything even comparable to combat insertions.

The shuttle reached the surface and landed near the resort and then the passengers spread out to their designated villas. Most of them had a fantastic time relaxing and having fun in the pools and recreational areas. Kara and Lashina, no so much. Kara didn't want to relax at all, since she was still technically a prisoner, and Lashina wasn't allowed out to mix and mingle without wearing pants... that she kept intentionally tearing.

*

I spent a majority of the vacation time with Simone and she spent the majority of her time with Gleas, which meant we both spent a lot of time with Gleas. Gleas didn't object in the least, because she knew that not only was she getting her emotional and physical satisfaction, both Simone and I were getting it, too. The three of us benefited from our time together and we came back from the vacation healthier and more resolved in our purpose.

Our missions began again, only this time, I was the only pilot that was flying Hela. I had been tempted to hire another pilot on a temporary basis; but, there were so many classified things being shared between everyone in the company that I couldn't introduce some random person into the mix and then just hope that they would keep it to themselves. I could erase their memories afterwards... if they survived... and that was an inconsolable no.

No other person in our company wanted to trust a random stranger with our company secrets and no one wanted to bring any new people in and subject them to the same treatment, not without vetting them into the family first. We had who we had, and that was it.