Once again, Airah and I were sitting together in the cockpit, keeping an eye on the instruments. For a little over three days, we had been travelling through this star-system, following way-points Airah calculated from orbital elements in the database of the Tyton. Looking at them, I could make an inference that the habitat we were going to was based somewhere in the orbit of the gas-giant with many moons, which made sense. If you wanted to hide a needle, a haystack was a good place, as the ancient adage went. It had stuck in the common human language, even if a vast majority of humans had never seen a haystack or hay in general. In addition, the waypoints were placed in such a way that the entry-points in regard to the closest stars in the database were hidden by either the star or one of the planets. It wasn’t a coincidence, the algorithms Airah had shown me made sure of that.

“Ok, we are almost there.” Airah explained, giving me a new waypoint, this one coming with a low approach-velocity, as if we were about to dock. “We should get contacted on the way.” she added.

Her statement made me take an even closer look at the sensors, trying to spot the habitat before we got there, simply to see if I could do it. The interference from the gas-giant made it difficult by creating a ton of false readings and confusing the hell out of the automatic filters, which was clearly by design. Still, I was reasonably sure that there was something up with the fifth largest moon of the gas-giant, what looked like a small, rocky moon with a wispy-thin atmosphere. Looking at the readings we had taken over the last few days, I could see that the moon was orbiting quite close to the gas-giant, just a little over a light-second on average.

Just as the com gave a low, slightly distorted noise, I realised that they hadn’t tried to hide a needle in a haystack, at least not directly. They had taken their needle and hid it within a straw, which was hidden in a haystack. Now that we were close enough, the strange readings I had picked up turned out to be a few larger freighters staying between the moon and the gas-giant, making them incredibly difficult to spot, even if you knew what you were looking for.

Next to me, Airah replied to the strange noise with a strangely formatted ship-registration, identifying us as the Tyton and requesting clearance to land at Jake’s Place. I had to snicker at that, luckily, there was no way for the microphone to pick up my amusement, or the people might have reacted negatively. After a moment, a voice gave us clearance while a transmission gave us a course, starting at the waypoint Airah had set earlier. It wasn’t anything fancy but it showed that my idea about the habitat being hidden on, or rather in, the moon was correct. Airah signed off, before turning to me.

“Yes, it’s called Jake’s Place and yes, it’s called that because according to local legend, a guy named Jake set it up. What did you expect, that they call it Cutthroat Bay or something equally ridiculous?” she asked, an amused smirk on her face.

I had to admit, she was right. Even back in the Federation, a lot of places were named for their first settlers or with some sort of marketing-ploy in mind. Cornucopia certainly hadn’t been named that because the first thing that landed on it was a thesaurus.

“Anyway, if you take us in, I’ll have to prepare a few things for later..” she added, the smirk not turning into a friendly smile.

Following the directions was simple, nothing the computer couldn’t handle without any supervision, even if I kept a close eye on the sensors and my mind ready to spring into action, just in case. Not that I thought we would get attacked but I felt better about things sitting in the pilot’s chair and able to act.

But ultimately, it wasn’t necessary, the course given to us guided me through the thin atmosphere and towards a large, almost natural looking opening in the side of a crater. Just before I got there, landing-lights were switched on and a local guidance-system gave me precise directions, including a landing-bay.

What I had thought was an opening, maybe a hundred meters across, turned out to be a tunnel, heading into the moon. Despite the fact that the tunnel was a lot larger than the Tyton, almost by an order of magnitude, I felt claustrophobic flying through it. Maybe it was because I was used to flying in space, where anything below a hundred kilometers was practically close enough to touch.

The tunnel brought us into a cavernous hangar, with flexible tubes prepared to provide an airtight-seal, with additional tubes for necessary services. Maybe they even had a facility to produce antimatter, but from the simple tubes I was seeing, I doubted it. It would also require some serious power-generation, which was why most of the antimatter-production facilities were in close orbits around stars, using the abundant power from them to synthesize it on an industrial scale.

Soon, I had landed the Tyton in the bay we had been assigned and initiated the link-up with the airlock, which meant that we’d be able to head out as soon as Airah was ready. Once everything was as it should be, I started to shut down the systems into what I’d consider combat-readiness, giving us good reaction-times if needed while preserving as much power as possible. It would also tell Airah that we were here, as the artificial gravity was shut down and only the weak gravity of the moon we were on, maybe five percent of what we were used to, remaining. That, she would notice.

It was strange, now that we were sitting in their bay, I was wondering just what the hell I was doing here. I had no idea what to expect or how to behave, which made me nervous. Sure, I wanted to trust Airah and I had to, but it didn’t sit fully right with me.

Shaking off my discomfort, I stood to go look for Airah. Finding her was easy, it wasn’t like the Tyton had a lot of space, but when I found her, I felt as if my eyes were dropping from my head. She had taken the time to put on some extra clothes, the ship-suit I was accustomed to now covered with a dark, dangerous outfit. A dark-brown imitation leather-mantle up top, with pair of similarly coloured pants below. Rounding the outfit out were a pair of solid-looking boots and, maybe what made me gawk the most, a hand-cannon holstered at her hip. I didn’t know a lot about handheld weapons but what she had, a large, black pistol, looked just dangerous, the type of weapon one would use to end an argument, once and for all.

“Yes, that’s roughly the expression I was going for.” Airah grinned and I realised that I had stared, hopefully without too much lust in my eyes, prompting a blush to shoot up my face.

“Now, we’ll have to dress you up as well. Can’t have you look like a fool or an easy mark. Makes it easier in the long run, you know?” she asked, reminding me just how nervous I had been earlier. Her words didn’t help that in the slightest.

She gently pushed me into my cabin and started to go through my clothes, apparently looking for something. After a few minutes of searching, she placed out an outfit that made me grin despite myself. It was the slightly naughty sailor-suit I had worn at the club when this mess had started. Not quite in line with her kick-ass look but then, my clothes had been bought with the Academy and Starfleet-traditions in mind, not kicking ass at some strange smuggler-habitat.

“Here, why don’t you change into that? I’ll have just the right stuff to accessorise.” Airah gently ordered, before breezing out of my room again, leaving me alone. With a soft sigh, I did as I had been ordered, trusting that she was right. As I wasn’t planning to wear make-up or anything, I was quickly done and back out, just as Airah was coming out of her cabin, with a leather-jacket in a similar colour as the mantle she was wearing in her hand.

“This one should fit you, it might be a little large but it should work.” she explained, holding the jacket out so I could slip into it. It was almost as if I was stepping into her embrace, which I enjoyed quite a bit, even if it gave the butterflies in my stomach some more energy to buzz around.

“And finally, I know that you’ve got your ankle-holster, but you should wear this one as well. Just consider it another accessoire.” Airah said, holding out another, slightly smaller, hand-cannon with leather-holster.

“My pistol is not enough here?” I asked, slightly amused, even as I took the offered gun, carefully drawing it to get a good look. Carrying was one thing but I wanted to make sure that, if it was necessary, I’d be able to use it.

“Oh, I doubt that anything will happen, really. But if you don’t wear an obvious weapon, people will draw one of three conclusions. First, that you carry concealed, which would be alright, second that you are a psion and confident in your power to keep you safe and third, that you are an easy mark. The second and third conclusion can land you into serious trouble, so let’s just avoid the problem altogether, okay?” she explained, making me nod, a little wide-eyed.

“Good, then let’s go, Jake’s Place, You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” she exclaimed, before adding, “Just kidding, it’ll be alright.”

Following behind her, I just wondered what the hell she was thinking. Or what I was thinking.