After a few rounds with Haru, Sam finally called a couple of hours later, informed us of the ship preparation, and left us to our business. After one more round of stress release, Haru and I dressed in our business suits and entered the hidden room in my penthouse. The room had shelves upon shelves of weapons and gadgets. All made for assassination and espionage.

In turn, I pointed to each wall, “The left wall is gadgets. Lockpicks, explosives, non-lethal gas, lethal gas, extremely lethal gas, and so on. The far wall is weapons. Guns, swords, bows, explosive weapons, sentient weapons, knives. And the right wall is clothing.”

Haru smiled, “Awe, you shouldn’t have. What should we pick?” She asked as she shifted through the assortment of costumes, clothes, and the occasional lingerie.

“Well, we need to take virgins alive. So, that limits our options for where we can go and what we need to do to get them,” I said thoughtfully, taking the revealing lingerie out of Haru’s hands and putting it back where it belonged.

Haru pouted, then thought for a moment, “Why specifically virgins?”

“I don’t know. It’s Jin. He’s weird.”

Shrugging, Haru said, “Fair. But as for what he needs, I think I know where to go.”

“Oh, and where would that be?”

“Well, virgins. Since it’s so specific and hard to find in this day and age, we need to get them while they’re young, and it would have to be a place where crime is low and non-violent.”

I rolled my eyes, already knowing the answer, “Gah. A peaceful world. That’s so boring.”

“Not a peaceful world with high security.”

I froze at that statement and fixed Haru with an intense stare, “Do you mean?”

“Oh, yes.”

“With the—”

“Yep.”

“And the—”

“Yes! I mean that world! We need to go to Carthage, GC-139-M. A perfect place to get what we need and have fun doing it.”

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My smile broadened, and I flicked my wrist to open my commlink, “Sam, get in touch with a prep school on Carthage, GC-139-M. Tell them we are looking to give out scholarships for students.”

“Of course, ma’am,” Sam replied dutifully.

I went to my gadget wall with a smile. I quickly collected all the items needed before I placed the items into two briefcases. I held one out for Haru to carry, but after a moment, I realized she wasn’t standing behind me anymore. I sighed, placed the second briefcase under my arm, turned around, and grabbed Haru, pulling her away from some skimpy red-silk lingerie.

We left the room and got into the elevator. I pressed the button for docking bay five. The door opened, revealing a massive company freighter. The rectangular ship was three hundred feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet tall. Its rectangular shape made it look smaller and longer than it appeared. Two oval-shaped shuttles were attached to the ship’s side, and at the back were four NTR-202 engines. Not as fast as my Mauler, but the ship can still travel the known galaxy in a few hours with a few jumps.

“Hello, Junkie,” I said to the ship.

“Why did you name your ship Junkie? It’s like you want it to crash,” Haru asked, rolling her eyes.

“Well, it’s to be deceptive,” I defended. And climbed up the on-ramp. The ship was made for a mining crew of twenty-five, with three mining lasers on the top, eight on the sides, and three on the bottom of the ship. I quickly navigated the narrow corridors to the bridge with Haru trailing close behind. Once I got into the pilot’s seat, Haru sat in the co-pilot’s seat and began starting the engine.

The ship slowly hummed to life and rose off the ground. I closed the boarding hatch and opened the hanger bay doors as I put on a bulky headset, “Testing, testing, one, two, three. Can you hear me?” I said into the headset’s microphone.

Haru also put on a headset and said, “Testing, testing, one, two, three. I can hear you loud and clear.”

“Freighter VJ-623, this is flight tower Delta. We read you loud and clear. Over,” a man said over comms.

“Flight tower Delta, this is VJ-623 heading out on business. See you in a few. Over,” I responded.

“Flight tower Delta heard you loud and clear. You are clear for travel. Be safe out there. Over.”

“Roger, Roger,” I said, then took control of the thrusters with my left hand and the yolk with my right. Slowly, I increased the ship’s speed and pulled out of the hanger bay. I angled the ship upward and put the ship in full throttle.

Within moments, I broke out of the moon’s gravity and set the ship on autopilot to navigate out of the asteroid belt. While the ship did its navigating, I entered the coordinates for Carthage. Once finished, I got a call from Sam, “Hello, ma’am. I have set up a meeting with Lazuli Preparatory Academy. They will be expecting you tomorrow,” Sam told me dutifully.

“Thank you, Sam,” I said, then leaned back and stretched with a wide yawn, “I’m beat. I’m going to get some shut-eye.”

“I’m right there with you,” Haru agreed.

“Oh? Ready for round six?” I asked with a smug expression on my face, half joking.

Haru rolled her eyes and said, “No, I’m too damn tired for any of that. Good night.”

“Fine, fine. Good night,” I said as I left the room and navigated to the crew quarters for a long, well-deserved nap.

***