Gleas had called her family and friends and they had given her their best wishes for getting a great job so soon, and she didn't know how to react to that. On one hand, she was happy that they were happy for her, and on the other hand, she was sad that they were happy to be rid of her. I didn't find this out until during the long commercial break after the monster movie and Gleas finally admitted what had made her despondent.

She had kept herself together until I put my arm over her shoulders and she broke down and cried. She mumbled something about not being able to take being treated like everything was normal when her life was going to change so drastically. I hadn't meant to do that to her, especially not to the point that it caused an existential crisis for her. It took her about an hour to recover herself and then she froze when she realized what had happened.

She had just cried all over her boss!

“H-Hunter! I... I'm sorry!” Gleas tensed up and tried to stand, so I put a hand on her shoulder to catch her. She stopped and slowly turned her head to look at me, so I gave her my best welcoming smile.

“Gleas, it's okay.” I said and tugged on her shoulder slightly.

“But... but I...”

“No, this doesn't count.” I said and her eyes widened. “I didn't say anything about breaking down and crying after I was already in the room.” I joked and she closed her mouth to stop her protest. “Please, sit back down.”

Gleas seriously considered just running away from embarrassing herself in front of me.

“I'm sure there's another ridiculous movie or something coming on, and I don't want to sit here and watch it alone.”

Gleas stared into my eyes to see if I was still joking, so I gave her shoulder a squeeze and sat back on the couch to look at the screen and hung my arms on the back of the couch to show her that I was relaxed. After a few moments, she sat back herself and her neck rested against my arm. She turned her head to look at me and I used a calming technique and let it fill the both of us. She took in a deep breath and let it out, then she relaxed and looked at the screen.

I was surprised to learn that she hadn't sat down like this in a long time, and it made me think back to the last time I had done it. Thoughts of Diana filled my mind and that had a different kind of calming effect. Gleas felt the shift in the flow of Presence going through her and looked back at me.

“I just remembered the last time I sat down to watch something with a woman and how it had backfired on me when I tried to play a joke on her.”

“Oh? Do tell.” Gleas said with a smirk.

I chuckled and told her about it being my first time meeting a random woman after a very long term relationship, and how I had tried to diffuse the situation when I teased her by stopping on a show about dolphin mating rituals.

Gleas laughed and covered her mouth to try and hold it in. “You didn't!” She exclaimed and I nodded. “That poor woman!”

“I know.” I said and laughed. “I suck at romantic gestures, apparently.”

“Apparently?!? Ha ha!” Gleas had tears in her eyes by this point from laughing so hard.

She eventually calmed down and we enjoyed watching another monster movie, and the atmosphere was both friendly and jovial again. All it took was adding my own embarrassment to counter hers, and things equalled out again.

*

Surprisingly, Beatrice's family were as happy as could be that she had found such a lucrative job and sent her off with their best wishes. Her significant other was sad about her having to leave, then she had the brilliant idea to ask if they could come along. She waited until late that afternoon before she called the ship and Hunter agreed to try it for a week, just to see if having someone they cared about would change their work habits or affect the other people on the ship. Plus, there was lots of room. One more person wasn't going to make much difference.

Gleas and Hunter ate supper together and it wasn't strained or awkward, even though it was only the two of them. After they had both shared personal stories, it made them more companionable. She was a pilot and he was the Hero of Chofaris; but, they were also people. They had problems and they had faults, and once Gleas realized this, she knew that she didn't have to be so reserved around someone she thought was more important than her.

The realization didn't cause a fundamental shift in her attitude or anything, it just let her see Hunter as a person and not the imposing figure that the media had made him out to be. Of course, now that she saw him as a person, she thought about all of the things he had done in a new light, especially since she also knew the real reasons behind those things.

When they finished eating, without either of them saying anything, they went back to the large living room and sat down on the couch to keep watching whatever was on. Gleas would occasionally catch Hunter looking at her at random times as she thought about him, and if she didn't know any better, he might actually be nervous about it.

Gleas turned and gave him a knowing smile as Hunter turned to glance at her again. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment and it seemed to go on for a long time. It was only a couple of seconds in reality, though. They both looked back at the screen and Gleas leaned slightly in to rest against him a little more than she had earlier and they spent the evening just watching the screen and occasionally sharing small talk.

*

The next morning, a heavily loaded shuttle floated into the ship and landed in the shuttle bay. Gleas stayed in the cockpit and I ran down to greet them. When the side of the shuttle opened, it wasn't just four women returning from their day off. I widened my eyes as several large suitcases and containers were carried out and deposited by two men.

I could hear their surface thoughts and knew they knew that they weren't supposed to be there. “What's going on here?”

The two men stiffened briefly and kept moving the suitcases and boxes out of the shuttle.

“It's my fault.” Perginia said and waved from behind the stack of items still in the shuttle. “I got held up last night and didn't make it back until early this morning, then my husband and his brother helped me load up the shuttle with everyone's things. They didn't have a ride back after I picked everyone up.”

I detected the lie about one of them being her husband, so I caught both men by their collars and pulled them over to the weightless area beside one of the walls. I hung them there and they had no way to move without anyone touching them and they were far enough away from the wall that they couldn't escape. I then used Presence to check them over and disabled their hidden weapons. I turned back to the shuttle and used Presence Hands to lift every piece of luggage out of the shuttle at once and deposited it beside the lowered ramp. The five women stood there and stared at me with wide eyes.

“Perginia, please explain why you lied about who they are.” I said and covered the men's mouths with Presence to stop their protests.

“Please let them go.” Perginia pleaded as she came down the ramp and looked at the two floating men behind me.

“Not until you tell me what's going on.” I said. “Why would you bring two men onto my ship and then lie about it?”

Perginia let tears come to her eyes.

“Stop the fake tears.” I said and she caught her breath. “I've been around enough women to know real crying from fake crying. You won't garner any sympathy from me like that.”

Perginia closed her mouth and wiped at her eyes.

“Not willing to say anything? Okay.” I said and hit the intercom button with Presence. “Gleas, open the shuttle bay doors.”

The loud clang of the door release made Perginia jump.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“Removing pirates from my ship.” I said and moved my hand to the side and slowly floated both men towards the opening doors.

“NO! DON'T!” Perginia yelled and ran over to me. When she reached for me, she hit my personal barrier. “Please, don't.”

“Tell me what's going on... and don't lie.” I said and stopped the men about halfway towards the open doors and space.

“Why aren't you asking them who they are?” Beatrice asked and pointed to the men.

“They will keep lying and I'll have no choice but to space them.” I said and looked back at Perginia. “She values their lives more than they value their own.”

“How... do you know that?” Perginia asked in a whisper.

“By the way you shouted.” I said. “If you hadn't noticed, neither man tried to shout when the doors opened. They could care less about losing their own lives over whatever is going on.”

Perginia sighed. “I... I'm... I'm hiding them.”

I felt the Presence waver and sighed as I moved the two men closer to the open doors and empty space.

“STOP!” Perginia yelled. “Stop.” She said and real tears came to her eyes. “I'll... I'll tell you... everything.”

“I don't want to hear it.” I said.

“Wh-what?” Perginia looked at me with shock on her face. “But... I thought...” She looked at the two men suspended in the weightless area and then back at my face.

“I don't care about hearing all the backstory of everything that's been going on to get you to this point, because it has no bearing whatsoever on you lying to me and smuggling two people onto my ship. You've abused my hospitality and made me an unwitting accomplice in whatever happened and I am not happy about it.” I said. “So, explain why you did this to me.”

“I told you. I'm trying to hide them...”

I felt the Presence waver and used a Presence Hand to pick her up and covered her in a thin layer of Presence, like the two men, and then covered her mouth to stop her protests.

“I really hate it when people keep lying to me, even after I've given them so many chances to be honest.” I carried her over to the weightless area and hung her right beside the two men. “Now your life is on the line for piracy with these two.” I said to the three of them. “I hope you do realize that by the laws of this system, stowing away with the intent to take over the ship is piracy and I can toss you into space without a trial... or even an inquiry.”

The three of them tried to struggle and move, and I held them by their collars. I was tempted stop them from moving completely; but, that would make this show less dramatic. I wanted them to struggle as much as they could so that they knew they couldn't escape. One of them reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a grenade.

The other man shouted through the gag and Perginia started crying for real. The first man looked right into my eyes and turned the activator and put his finger on the button. He motioned to the bay and I shook my head. He let the button go and held it out to the other man. He shouted again and swung at it, hit it out of the other man's hand, and it flipped out of the weightless area and careened towards the shuttle. The women standing there screamed and then stopped as the grenade hung in the air and stopped moving.

“I wouldn't have minded you killing yourselves for your cause, not even a little bit.” I said and floated the grenade over to hover between me and them. “Trying to kill others, even by accident?” I shook my head. “You people are pathetic.”

The three of them stared at me and at the grenade.

“Are you wondering why it's not going off?” I asked and they nodded. “I disabled it as soon as I found it on you, as I did to the laser pistols you have hidden and I broke the knives you have stashed.”

Perginia's tears floated around and made it look like rain was suspended around her head.

“Gleas, contact the patrol ship that's keeping station on the other side of the wrecks. Tell them I have some trash they need to pick up.”

“Already done.” Gleas said. “They are coming around to bear on us in five minutes.”

“Thank you.” I said and looked at Perginia. “I am very disappointed in you.”

Perginia mumbled something and I chuckled.

“It doesn't matter how sorry you are. You endangered my ship and my crew and you will hang for it.” I said. “I desperately needed your help... you know I did... and you betrayed me for these idiots.” I waved at the idiots. “I'm glad that there were too many others and their things for you to bring everyone with you this first trip.”

The three of them stiffened at my words.

“You don't think I wouldn't know one of the oldest tricks for hijacking? Pretending to drop off extra passengers, only to load up with a crew and then come back?” I laughed. “You must really think I'm stupid to try that, knowing what I've done.”

The two men had stern expressions and Perginia's tears stopped.

“Don't worry. You won't be facing all of this alone. Thanks to the shuttle's telemetry, they'll find all of your little friends hiding in their hiding spots where you dropped them off.”

The two men struggled and tried to punch and kick to give themselves momentum. I watched them with a smile and then the fast patrol ship floated down and stopped in front of the open bay doors.

“Hunter.” Gleas said. “They want to know how you want to handle the transfer.”

“Can you send them the shuttle data for me?” I asked.

“I sent it as soon as you mentioned it.”

“Thank you.” I said and smiled. “Tell the patrol ship to open their main docking hatch and to be ready to secure the prisoners.”

The ship didn't move for nearly a full minute, then it rotated and put its main hatch near the bay doors and opened it. I slid the three prisoners down the rest of the way and absorbed the Presence over their mouths.

“STOP! STOP!” Perginia yelled. “I'm sorry! I'M SORRY! Don't SPACE ME!!!”

“Relax.” I said. “You'll be in official custody in about twenty seconds.”

“NOOOOOO!” She yelled as I pushed them out of the back of the ship. The two men with her let out inarticulate screams as they floated through space without space suits. I turned them so that they landed standing up and held them against the inside hatch and watched the outer hatch close.

“How did we hear them scream?” A woman asked from behind me.

“I covered them in Presence and held the air around them, then used Presence to carry the sound.”

“You can do that?” She asked, surprised.

“For a limited time.” I said and watched the three of them be subdued and taken into custody. “There's only so much air that can be held inside a barrier so close.”

“So, a few minutes at most.” She said.

“Give or take a minute or two.” I said and turned to face her. “You must be the plus one that Beatrice asked to come aboard.” I held a hand out for her to shake. “Hi. I'm Hunter.”

“I saw.” She said and took my hand. “I'm Sandy.”

“It's nice to meet you, Sandy.”

“Even under these circumstances?” Sandy asked and looked at the patrol ship as it floated away.

“Especially under these circumstances.” I said. “At least something good came of it.”

Sandy smiled and shook her head. “Beatrice said you had an odd way of looking at things.”

“You mean through walls?” I joked and she laughed.

“Let's get you and everyone up into the ship. I'll handle the bags.” I said and picked everything up, even Perginia's bags and boxes, and we all went up into the ship.

“I can't believe that just happened.” Kalina said. “That did just happen, didn't it?”

“Unfortunately.” I said. “The worst part was, all she had to be was honest.”

“Would that have changed what you did?” Beatrice asked.

“It always has before.” I said. “I might have just sent them back to the planet's surface, or confined them to a cabin for a week until the next shuttle run, or I might have hired them as general labour and had them help load up the salvage.”

“Wow, really?” Sandy asked.

I nodded. “I wasn't lying when I said that I really needed Perginia's shuttle piloting skills.” I dropped off all of their baggage into their rooms. “I would have been pretty accommodating of her faults to get her to stay.” I chuckled. “Now I have to try and find someone else and hope they aren't a fanatic as well.”

“Good luck with that.” Sandy said with a grin.

“Yeah, I know. Combat pilots are a fickle bunch.”

“I meant finding anyone that's not a fanatic about something.” Sandy said and put her arm around Beatrice, who blushed a little.

“I'm going to the cockpit to help Gleas.” Deborah said and nodded to Beatrice. “See you at lunch.”

“I'll switch off with you then.” Kalina said and Deborah waved.

“Then I better get suited up.” I said and started to walk away.

“Wait! How are you going to work without a shuttle pilot?” Beatrice asked.

“Dangerously.” I said with a laugh and left them in the hallway so I could go and get changed.

*

“Can you believe this?” The captain of the fast patrol ship said as he looked at the shuttle's flight data. He had just finished watching the recording of the conversation Hunter had with the suspected pirates in the cargo hold. He couldn't even call them hijackers, because one of them had permission to use the shuttle. “Every time we're around him, we get involved with stuff like this.”

“Sir, he's helping us.” Lieutenant Grace Havershak said and he glared at her. “We only got the report this morning about several government offices being hit by an unknown armed resistance group yesterday.” She pointed to the camera feed and it showed the three prisoners in separate cells. “Those two men were there, as was the shuttle.”

“His shuttle.”

“Yes, and isn't it great that he handed us the raw data from it's computer and didn't filter it for content?” Grace asked.

The captain gave her a slight nod. “Very well. Hand it all over to the planetary authorities as soon as we land.”

“Yes, sir.” Grace said and left the captain's office. She walked down the hallway and made the proper arrangements for when they landed in half an hour. Once that was done, she walked back to her cabin and informed the bridge that she was off duty for the next twelve hours. She stripped off her stuffy uniform and used the shower, then dried off and pulled on a pair of loose shorts and something like a sports bra. She climbed into bed and reached under her pillow to take out a datapad.

Grace flipped through the screens until she found the image she had hidden under a mass of data, so no one would find it, even with an extensive search. She looked into the one sapphire blue eye and her heart fluttered at its perfection, then she looked at the burned through hole where the other one should have been. Her heart fluttered again as she thought about what would have happened had she gone on the date Hunter had cancelled because he knew she was too nervous to go through with it.

It wasn't until she had heard about what happened that she realized she should have accepted the invitation and gone with him. Perhaps if she had, he wouldn't have gone back there at all. He would have been with her... and possibly in her bed... and he never would have suffered through what happened.

Grace stroked the image on the datapad and let a tear drip down onto her pillow.