"I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that."

Amber's eyes narrowed, "May I ask why?"

She nodded at the box, "I was hired to make sure that these boxes get delivered as they are to the destination so I will have to protect its integrity until it reaches its destination while it's in my care."

Amber furrowed her brows, "Did you miss the part where I told you the thing in the box is dangerous?"

"My answer remains the same despite that. I'm sorry. If you want to get to it, you will need to step over me to get it."

The blonde haired Merc actually reached for her gun and I had to make a grab for her arm to stop her.

"Wait! No, don't!"

She turned to me, "Tera… You have to understand… This is actually worse than I thought it was. We have to stop that thing from reaching its destination."

"Could you explain?"

Reese crossed her arms before Lisa could say anything, "It doesn't matter what it is though. I'm still sending it to its destination, even if it means an entire station explodes or something."

Woah, really? That's just cold blooded… Are all traders like this?

Amber narrowed her eyes at her, "Even if I were to tell you it might put the rest of the galaxy at stake?"

She scoffed, "What has the galaxy really done for me anyway? But let me put it this way… I let you break whatever is in that box, the galaxy is saved but my reputation is ruined and I won't get any more jobs in the future which then ruins me. Would the rest of the galaxy come and save me from that? I didn't think so. That's why… Do forgive me if I decide to prioritise my own well-being over the galaxy's."

"You selfish little…"

I raised my hand again, "Wait, wait! Calm down, Amber! She's telling us that we can't do anything to it while she's taking care of the delivery! But once it's out of her hands, we can destroy it!"

Reese raised an eyebrow, "Wow, you really needed to say it out loud? Geez. Yeah, sure. I don't care what happens to it once I deliver it. It's going to the Denibi Trade Station which is where you're going anyway, right? Just go do what you need to do when it's there. I'll even let you tag along as my 'escorts' to witness the handover so you know who you should be targeting."

Amber's jaw tightened, "This is a really big and unnecessary risk when the thing is right within reach here now…"

Reese shrugged, "As I said, if you want it here, you'd have to kill me to get to it."

I looked at Amber, "Seriously… You can't tell us what that thing is even now?"

She shook her head, "I really want to but I can't… But just know that if they are sending this to the Denibi system via a third party trader… This makes it a million times worse than I expected the situation to be."

"Can I ask why?"

Amber hesitated for a moment, "That… Thing… Is something the UTG is working on in secret… Something quite terrible if I might say…"

Reese scoffed, "Please. Every government out there is also doing something terrible behind the scenes, that's not new. How many factions possess weapons that can glass planets from orbit?"

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Amber shook her head, "This is different… But the fact that they are using a third party to transport this to Denibi can only mean one thing… These guys are actually selling it to another faction."

I blinked, "Wait… You mean to tell me that those soldiers and the officer that put up the job are traitors?"

She nodded seriously, "If this was just them transporting it from one military facility to another, they would have no reason to engage a third party to transport it unless they are unable to use the normal channels to deliver it. And if they are heading to the Denibi system where it's one of the largest hotspots of illegal activity and gathering of outlaws at the edge of civilised space… They are most likely selling it off to another faction."

Amber then pointed to the box at the side, "This thing is already bad enough in the hands of the UTG. If others get their hands on it, it will be even worse!"

Seriously Amber… You're just making me curious about what is actually inside the box…

"Could we… Open it up and see what's inside?" I asked.

"Definitely not," Reese protested even before the last word left my mouth.

Surprisingly, Amber agreed with her, "Unless you know the password to open the crate, I would also recommend against opening it, Tera. They would have various security features installed and one of them might cause an explosion if you were to try to open it."

"Those thugs seemed to have no problems trying to break it open though?"

"That's because they don't know anything, Tera. They most likely thought the box contained a cache of weapons instead of what it actually is."

I sighed, "Alright, alright. Let's just… Deliver it to Denibi Trade Station and then deal with it over there. At least this would give the least amount of trouble right? I heard that even if someone starts shooting another person there, no one would even bat an eye."

Amber bit her thumb, "As much as I hate to admit it… That is certainly true… We would certainly invite some attention if we were to just destroy it here as well."

Reese placed her hands on her hips, "Then we are in agreement! I won't speak about this to anyone else so I hope that you will continue to protect me on this trip!"

Amber raised her hand, "Hold up. We now know that that was most likely stolen by those traitors who aim to sell it to another faction for profit. What would you do if their superiors found out and they rat you out? Would we have to end up protecting you from a military assault as well? And wouldn't this stain your reputation too?"

She grinned, "Please. Do you think this is my first time picking up dubious crates that I don't know the origins of? You need not worry, I have some backup plans should that happen."

We waited for her to tell us but she just remained smiling at us, showing that she had no intentions of telling us what siad plans were.

"Actually… Wouldn't it be better that you turn this in to the military instead? Let them know that you are carrying something that is stolen from them?"

Amber immediately rejected the idea, "No way, Tera! Giving it back to them is the exact thing I do not want to happen! I would rather we destroy it right now than to give it back!"

"And that would obviously ruin my reputation so no thanks."

Ugh… You guys are so problematic…

"Fine, fine… We'll just go with the original plan of dealing with it after we reach the Denibi system… And if some military patrol comes along and starts questioning us… What do we do?" I asked.

Amber immediately glared at the trader, "If your plan for that involves handing it over and saying you didn't know about it, I will blow up your ship right there. You hear me?"

"Geez… You're making me wonder if I should take you along as my escorts now…" She sighed before jerking her thumb behind her. "I have an incinerator at the back. If that happens, I'll just toss those boxes in it. How about that? If they were already caught anyway, I would not have any loss from this aside from some wasted time."

I turned to Amber to see what her opinion about this was and she nodded.

Alright, I guess that would work. Although I wonder why she would even have an incinerator on her ship in the first place?

Maybe it's there precisely for situations like this?

Guess that's a professional for you.

In the game, when you're smuggling stuff and you are about to get caught with it, you can simply dump the stuff out of the airlock and there wouldn't be any problems for you.

But I suppose in this universe, they could see you throwing stuff out of the ship and it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that you had something to hide.

Oh well, as long as we have a plan I guess.

In the end, we just parted ways with Reese and stepped out of her ship, leaving her to organise the rest of her cargo in preparation to leave tomorrow morning.

As for Amber and I, we pretty much already had our ships stocked and prepared to fly at any time after the pirate raid so we didn't really need to prepare anything for tomorrow.

Thus I fully intended to just go back to my ship and slack there for the rest of the day.

But then Amber wrapped her arms around mine and gave me a very specific look and I knew I wasn't going to get much sleep that night…