its been just over two weeks since I had left Frejer's second moon with only the captain's yacht. This time, I am returning, with Boss as an escort, in a massive sentient Ghostship, named Castle. since we are here, Boss decided that it would be a good thing to get Castle reclassified as quickly as possible, so that she wouldn't be shot on sight when we entered the barrier around Tal Oz.

I really don't want to go back, but if we want to offload some of this ore, we kind of have to. Castle has searched the databases, and our choice is to either to go there, or fill up every single ore purchaser in the region, and get so close, and raise so many flags, that we might as well announce to the whole nobility that I am selling a lot of metals, and my next stop is rather predictable to be able to be captured.

from what I have managed to find out, the bounty just for information about my whereabouts, which I pointedly ignored for the past four years, is enough for someone from the lower nobility to raise themselves into the count and vicount titles on merit alone. meaning that successfully capturing me would be more lucritive, and they would attempt it.

"Ghost-Ship Castle, under agreed escort, entering local space of Tetin, Frejer's Second Moon." I hear Boss announce over the open channel. as soon as his broadcast clears, Castle teleports three kilometers off of Fuego's stern.

we had already told her that she would need to launch purely white flairs from each face of the ship, in three successive bursts when she arrived to announce non-hostile intentions, as she was still a Ghost ship. an inspector would come aboard, and verify me as her recognized captain, and then it all gets civilized after that.

it took six hours for the bright yellow inspector ship to break away from the capitol ship docking station in order to greet us, as we couldn't approach yet.

"This is inspector Margret Hutchens, permisson to dock with Ghostship Castle for inspecton, and verification of John Davidson's report of intention to reenter regulatory registration."

"Granted." castle says. "approach port side, follow docking sequence lights. please refrain from engaging ship's inertial dampners within 300 meters."

The inspector's ship follows her instructions, and we go to meet the inspector in the concorse. Castle's proxy stands next to me, in her usual grey bodysuit, that looks more and more like a swimsuit with attached shorts each time I see it. Oh well, at least she isn't naked this time.

An older woman with greying hair steps into the concourse through one of the horizontal doors, rather than the vertical hatches the inspection ship I had used. her green eyes appeared to almost glow. she is a mage; an experianced one.

"Mam, I ask that you dial back your spell." I ask almost immediately. since her eyes were glowing, she was rotating a lot of mana around in her body, lets ease her burden just a little. "I am the salvager listed as Sweets, and have been recognized as the new Captain for the sentient ship Castle." I say plainly.

"I am inspector Ninth Class Margret Hutchens." she gives a buisness smile, "permission to board, Captain;" she looks at Castle, but then back to me, awaiting a response.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Permission granted." as I say it, she crosses the yellow line on the floor of the concorse. "Where would you like to start Inspector?" as she introduced herself as a ninth class inspector, that means she is either the chief inspector of Tetin, or she was here on vacation, and they forced her to do this.

"Protocal dictates that we start in the primary engine room, and from there its ship dependant." she answers while a woman who appears to be her assitant hands her a hand held computer. "I am sorry if you see this as a breech of privacy, but I must state in the record, the legal name of everyone attending this inspection."

"I am the physical proxy for Castle." Castle states next to me. we both look toward the assistant.

"I am Inspector Second Class Natasha Price. I have been asked aboard as I filed the most recent siting report for Castle."

"As I have already introduced myself, I now enter my name into the record." Margret says, as she quickly types in her name single handedly.

"I am Salvager Sweets. legal name, Candice Brighton Tal Oz." as soon as I say it, both inspectors stare at me for a brief second, then both take a knee, place their left hand on the floor, right hand over their heart, and bow their head. "You two have a job to do, now is not the time for formalities, raise your head, and treat me as any other salvager in this prediciment."

"Yes, your highness." Margret answers first.

"No, its captain or sweets while you are perfoming this role." Castle corrects next to me.

Margret nods quickly, and procedes to walk to the aft of the ship where the hyperspace engines are located. because of the nature of the inspection, Tetin is in a communications blackout, and traffic is suspended, with new incomming pilots being flagged away, so the ship's intercoms are strangely silent for being this close to a high-traffic moon. the whole inspection takes four hours, with only the captain restricted rooms not being entered, and Natasha doing little more than observing the whole inspection, with margret pointing things out once in a while, as well as explaining what it would take to disallow a ghost ship from reentering the fleet.

Of course, we pass with flying colors, with Castle being practically a brand new ship, and we end up back at the concorse.

"Well, Captain, here is your ship registration approval, once you announce the number on the bottom of the print-out over the open channel, Castle will officially be reclassified as a registered vessel, as per your request, we will only have your legal name in the inspection report, and not attach it to your salvager licence." she turns and looks at Castle. "honestly, its been a surprising pleasure to see this ship again. I was part of the mission 52 years ago, although I was Natasha's age then, to attempt to gather repair bots for Ark. allow me to say this first then: Welcome Back Castle."

Castle, places her fist over her heart, and then assumes a formal stance that I hadn't seen before, but I guess Margret had, because she started laughing. as she left the concorse.

The two of us go back to the main bridge, and I sit in the communication's chair, pick up the microphone.

Tetin Actual, This is Sweets aboard Castle. Inspection complete, registration number five two six alpha, zulu, zulu, indigo, papa; seven one Oscar Charlie Oscar seven nine Sierra."

"Sweets, this is Tetin Actual. registration recived, and confirmed. welcome back Castle, classifaction as Ghost Ship removed. all normal traffic is to reconvine."

for the first time in ten hours, noise and chatter of the ship's intercoms becomes the norm that I had become used to.

we docked with the capitols station, and propmtly transfered the bodies from our morgue to the station's, and were paid the paltry sum of 200 credits for each of the bodies. At least now they can be interred properly.

we also managed to sell a lot of our excess ores, minus the ones that we already knew we couldn't sell here, and two days later, got underway for the eight day trek to my home system. it would have been closer to go straight home, but we all agreed that it would probably have been a bad idea to just show up in a ghosthip at my old front door.