We travelled back to our home base in the Dizahl System and had no trouble hiring a temporary pilot. We didn't hire a permanent one, mainly because Luxea didn't have the time to find us a trustworthy long-term one or research their job history extensively.

Luxea had received some of the preliminary programs for running the ship we were in the process of buying, and its schematics, from the sellers. She shared them with me and I saw that the plans weren't the generic ones that people would normally see. They were the engineering ones with all the underlying passages and service ways necessary to work on the electronics in the ship.

Even I had a hard time adjusting my mind to accept the oddly shaped openings that were clearly not made for humans. Of course, once I put myself into the mindset of one of the aliens and what they would need to do for their species, the layout snapped into place and made sense. I explained the trick to Luxea and after a few minutes, she understood what I meant.

“Hunter! That's it!” Luxea exclaimed. “That's why the ships are designed this way!”

“That's what I just explained.” I said, and she laughed.

“No, not that.” Luxea said and worked on her datapad for a minute. “Here, look.”

“What is it?” I asked as I stared at a picture of something that looked like it was half whale and half horseshoe crab.

“Look familiar?” Luxea asked with a grin and pointed to my datapad.

I scaled the schematics back and looked at both, then after I turned the picture to about a forty degree angle, I saw it. “No way! It's designed after a creature?”

“It has the same segments in the outer plating and the cockpit is right where the eyes are supposed to be.”

“That's either brilliant or completely stupid.” I said, and she laughed again.

“It took a lot of engineering to make the ship look like that, rather than go with a standard design.” Luxea said and took her datapad back and brought the schematics up. “If I had to guess why they did this, I'd say it's to stop other races from trying to salvage their ships.”

“Like we tried to do and nothing matched, so we left it all alone.” I said. “Damn, that's smart.”

“They would have had to build up their own industries from the ground up to make everything that's needed, because they can't buy anything from anyone else.”

“I guess that's why we got the ship so cheap, then.” I said. “There's only one place that sells replacement parts.”

Luxea chuckled. “Except that we have hundreds of partially wrecked ships that we can salvage to get all of the parts we will ever need.”

I grinned. “I think this is a good enough reason to celebrate with a good meal.”

“Getting a good pilot wasn't enough?” Luxea asked.

“Only if he was staying.” I said. “I won't trust him with anything important until you vet him properly.”

Luxea nodded and gave me a kiss. “Let's get the others and head over to the restaurant.”

“Hey, I had another idea.” I said as we went to the cockpit to get Rhubin. “We're stopping in the Fogaris system...”

“I doubt we'll find a pilot there willing to fly the ship, especially an enemy one.” Luxea said. “They need all the pilots they can get.”

“I was actually thinking about doing another food run.” I said.

“Food?” Rhubin turned away from the console. “Tell me we're going to the restaurant!”

“Celebratory dinner.” Luxea said.

Rhubin hit several buttons to put the ship into standby mode and stood. “Let's go!”

We went back through the ship and knocked on Simone's door.

“We're going to dinner.” I said and the door opened. Simone had on a black skintight bodysuit and a blue sweater that ended halfway between her chest and her waist. I could see that she wore the personal shield amulet under the sweater, just like Luxea had hers tucked under her top. Simone also had on high heeled boots and her short black hair was styled to stand straight up.

“If there's an emergency, that's going to make wearing a helmet difficult.” Rhubin said with a grin.

“It's collapsible, smart ass.” Simone said and touched it with her hand and it laid down. “See?”

“That's great!” Luxea said as it popped back into place. “You've got to tell me the secret!”

Rhubin and I rolled our eyes as the four of us left the ship and the two women discussed hair care products and tricks of the trade that all women needed to know to pull off their looks. We arrived at the restaurant and were greeted like family. The owner took us to our regular table and when we ordered, I asked for a spaceship special, which was our code for a massive take-out order. The man's eyes lit up and clapped me on the shoulder.

“We'll get started as soon as your meals are done!” The man said and left.

“Are you sure we're not taking advantage of him?” Luxea asked. “He always makes us a lot of food when we order out like that.”

“Maybe a little advantage.” I chuckled. “We pay him well, though.”

“He must order foodstuffs by the ton just for us.” Rhubin said.

“What's a spaceship special?” Simone asked.

I explained about the bunch of times that we had filled the cargo hold with ready-made meals for up to five hundred people at a time.

“You do it so much that you have a code for it?” Simone asked, quite surprised, and we laughed.

“We give him a lot of business.” I said. “The first time was when we were in the Fogaris system. We had just finished search and rescue operations and started salvaging the wrecks...”

Luxea and Rhubin chimed in as I told the story and Simone listened, then the food was brought over and we all kept talking and ate. She was surprised to hear about the other food runs to the people we had saved and had hidden. I reached out and took her hand as she thought about what that could have meant to her people, if someone as nice as us had done that for them. I let her hand go and we stayed there for over two hours and kept talking while we waited.

The owner's wife came out with a huge smile on her face. “We've started stacking and wrapping them, so if one of you could accompany the first shipment to your cargo hold?”

“I've got it.” Rhubin said and stood. “See you back on the ship.”

“Thanks.” I said and he nodded and left with the woman.

“So, this place is pretty dead some days?” Simone asked and I nodded.

“It picks up when some of the passenger ships pass through the system.” I said and turned to Luxea. “Remember the first time we came in here?”

“You barely had any credits! When you told the owner how much you were going to spend, he practically shoved food down our throats!” Luxea laughed. “I never felt so full!”

“The first time of many.” I laughed as well and sat back in my chair. “It's one of the reasons why this station has been our unofficial base of operations.”

As if he heard me, the owner poked his head out of the kitchen and waved. I waved back.

“We have a series of transshipment containers not far away and all of our messages get routed here.” Luxea said. “We're working on getting a little habitat to put into orbit, either near or attached to the containers. We just need to get some more capital to afford it.”

“You guys don't think small, do you?” Simone asked.

“We used to.” Luxea said and glared at me, then she burst out laughing. “His ideas are both scary and appealing!”

Simone couldn't help but laugh, too. “I can see that now, not that I needed the proof.” She said. “Not after seeing him bring back (Undecipherable)'s hands for Aphatoris.” She reached out and took my hand. “You know how much that meant to her.”

“She was actually going to refuse them until I mentioned having the funeral.” I said and she nodded. “I'm just glad it worked and her heart healed a little.”

“Wanting his hands because he touched her was a little excessive; but, he did abandon her without warning when he got everything that he wanted.” Simone said and let my hand go. “She was justifiably angry.”

“Well, I was taking his head anyway. Why not the hands, too?” I asked with a smile.

“Only you would want to go face the horned terror head on.” Simone said and shook her head.

I chuckled. “All right. Even I have to admit that I was pretty stupid at the time.” I said and Luxea took my hand this time. “I should have planned more and had some kind of backup to take over if something happened to me.”

“I was going to bomb it from space.” Luxea said. “Rhubin would have remote piloted the shuttle into the building to open it up for me to get a good target lock.”

I raised my eyebrows at her and she smiled crookedly. “What about The Order ship?”

“Rhubin had it locked in as a target as soon as I had hacked into the satellites around the planet.”

“Thank you.” I said and gave her hand a squeeze.

We sat there and made small talk until the owner came out and said that the cargo hold was filled. I paid him for the food and then gave him a huge tip to cover making the shipment, replacing the containers, and tipping him and his cooks for all of their hard work. He didn't object, mainly because he would need the extra capital to replace all of the meat and vegetables that he had just used up.

“We really appreciate you doing this for us.” I said and stood to shake the man's hand.

“You and your friends have honored my restaurant for a long time now.” The man said. “I and my family are more than happy to help you out when we can.”

I used my Presence to check him over and saw that he was as healthy as a man could be. “If you have anyone here that's hurt, let me know. I'll do what I can for them.”

“No, no, no.” The man let my hand go and waved me away. “You do not have to provide expensive medical services to us! We are just cooks!”

I laughed. “It's not expensive at all.” I said and turned to see his wife come back into the restaurant. “Miss, could I trouble you for a moment?”

“Yes, yes.” The woman said and came right over to us. I held a hand out to her and she looked at her husband. He nodded and she took my hand.

I let my Presence check her over and looked with my Detect Presence technique. “How did you break your arm?” I asked her, and her hand went right to her forearm to cover it.

“I was a child back on...” She smiled. “We only had basic medical facilities then. It only aches if I'm not careful.”

“Can I offer to fix it for you?” I asked.

“No, no, no.” She said and shook her head. “I cannot be off work for a week while they break and reset it and I would have to keep it immobile with a med-pack.” She took a breath and let it out. “I cannot accept such an expensive and unnecessary procedure.”

“This may tingle a little.” I said and held her hand tightly and then put my other hand on her elbow.

“What are you doing?” Both she and her husband asked at the same time.

I closed my eyes and formed Presence around her arm and left it slightly blue as I made it solid. I then infused her arm and tissues with Presence and the rest of her body shook from it. I used a tiny Presence blade to carefully slice through the proper spots in the jagged and poorly healed fracture of her arm, then I slid the bone barely a fraction of an inch. Once it was back where it was supposed to be, I used Presence to seal it back together and healed it. I absorbed all of my Presence from her arm, including the solid covering I had used to hold it steady, and the whole thing had taken only a few minutes.

“I hope that didn't bother you to much.” I said and let her elbow and hand go.

The woman stared at me and didn't know what to say.

I held out a credit chip to her. “Your next medical scan is on me.”

She didn't move to take the chip and kept staring. Her husband wasn't sure of what to do, either. I chuckled and put the chip in his hand.

“You're curious about checking it, aren't you?” I asked and turned to Luxea. “We need to get going.”

“Good idea.” Luxea said and stood. “I'll message the hired pilot and have him meet us at the ship.” She put her wrist communicator to her lips and walked towards the door.

Simone stood and gave me almost the same look that the owner's wife was. “Yes, we should go.”

I motioned to the door and she walked ahead of me. The owner and his wife didn't move from beside the table until we had left the restaurant. I held in my laugh as they ran over to the door, watched us walk far enough away, and then the both of them left the restaurant, locked the door, and ran for the nearest medical facility.

“Did you really heal her already healed broken arm?” Simone asked.

“Yes.” I said as we walked across the station to where the ship was docked. “The reason it pained her was because it was offset slightly and would pinch the nerves on one side when she strained the muscles, probably from stirring things for too long or lifting too many bulky things.”

“How did you even find such an injury?” Simone asked.

I held a hand out to her and she took it, and I didn't bother trying to not let her feel it as I used Presence to scan her body. She almost stumbled as it flowed over her and returned to me.

“I usually hide it from people when I check them, so that they aren't unnerved by it; but, you wanted to feel it.” I said. I tried to let her hand go and she held on tightly. I gave her look out of the side of my eye and she stared at me.

“You don't need physical contact to do that, do you?” Simone asked.

“No. It just makes it easier and less intrusive if I have their permission.” I said. “That's how I knew she had something wrong. I just didn't know what.”

“How did you learn to do that?”

“I learned several different techniques over my lifetime so far.” I said. “I've had a long time to perfect them.”

“Do you even need the use of a medical bay anymore?” Simone asked, curious.

“No.” I said with a smile. “I can heal much faster than a bath in medical gel.”

Simone stayed quiet and I tried not to read her surface thoughts as we walked back to the ship. As we approached the main hatch, she let my hand go.

“Hello, there!” A man said and gave us a wave. “Did you get hired today, too?”

“I own the ship.” I said, and the man snapped to attention and gave me a salute.

“Sir!” He exclaimed loudly. “I'm sorry, sir!”

I chuckled. “It's all right. Despite the company uniforms, we don't have things quite that formal around here.”

“Hurry up and get in here!” Luxea said over the intercom. “Rhubin's dying to show the new guy what we can do.”

“You better get to the cockpit.” I said to the pilot. “It's quite a show.”

“I'll go, too.” Simone said and they went to the cockpit as I closed and secured the main hatch. After a cursory check of both cargo holds to make sure that everything was secure, I hit the intercom button.

“Okay, Rhubin. Once we're clear of the station, you can go all out.” I said and heard his whoop of glee over the intercom and also through the ship. “Geez, he's like a kid at Christmas.” I chuckled and went to my room. “Hey, you.”

Luxea was there changing into something more appropriate for alone time with me. Namely, nothing. “I've got some extra calories to burn off, so I hope you're ready.”

“I don't know.” I said and rubbed my belly. “I'm feeling a little sluggish.”

“Clothes off. Now.” Luxea commanded and pointed to the bed.

“Yes, ma'am.” I said and quickly stripped off and hung up the uniform, then I climbed into bed with her to help her work off her extra calories.

*

“That can't be right.” The hired pilot said. “There's no way we can move this fast through normal space.”

“I think it's the engine output combined with the modified deflector screens.” Rhubin said. “Something about the way they are configured to work together lets us cut through more resistance than just the deflectors alone.”

“But the engine is only outputting...”

“Yeah, I don't know how it works, either.” Rhubin said with a laugh. “All I know is... we're damn fast and... we're approaching the Lagrange point.”

Both Simone and the hired pilot took in a breath as the ship whipped past that invisible point and then Rhubin kicked in the hyperspace generator.

“Oh, my god.” Simone whispered as she saw a much different hyperspace entrance than most people got to see. She had picked up the exclamation of surprise from Hunter and it fit the situation perfectly.

“Look at these numbers!” The pilot said as he tore his eyes from the physical sight and looked at the instruments. “We're passing one... one point two... one point five...” His voice trailed off as the numbers kept increasing. He mumbled something unintelligible.

Rhubin had to lean close. “What was that?”

“I want to work for you full time.” The pilot said. “I know I haven't proven my skills yet; but, even if I never get to fly this ship, just being around it is a dream come true!” He said and looked at Rhubin. “I'll even take a pay cut! Please!”

Rhubin laughed and clapped the slightly younger man on the shoulder. “A man after my own heart!” He said and leaned back to keep an eye on things. “I'll talk to them and see what I can do.”

“Thank you, sir.” The pilot said and his hands lightly touched the console in front of him. “What a treasure this is.” He said, his voice full of reverence.

“You hear that, Udelis? You've got another fan.” Rhubin said and the little viewscreen used for communications popped up a message.

Voice inquiry to 'Udelis' confirmed.

It's always good to have more friends.

“YOU HAVE AN ONBOARD AI?!?” Both the pilot and Simone yelled together and Rhubin laughed.