My journey back to the Yelvos trading asteroid took more time, virtually, than I had anticipated. This was completely due to the moment when Meditati suddenly discovered that I was navigating through space while just using my sense of where I had left my swarm.

"You can't be serious! Stay in your space lane! You almost just took out three LOW navigation buoys!" She shouted when I gave her access to observe everything that I was seeing.

As it turns out, I completely missed taking Drivers Ed for navigating through space. This was why I let Meditati give me lessons in VR for about 3 hours of fast time. Mostly for safety sake, and also for what I saw when she enabled my navigation HUD inside my helm. I could suddenly see the invisible LOW transportation system that I hadn't been aware of before. It was a wonder that I hadn't run into other ships in transit or hit all of the navigation beacons that cast paths between star systems. It seems that the LOW were one of the first race of aliens who pioneered paths between stars. Their beacons were marvels of technology that continually created fields to repel space dust and to notify traveling ships of larger bits of matter within their path. Before the Tela started to sell armor plates of cr ships had to travel with the understanding that they could easily be damaged by small objects speeding through space. Most ships worked around this hazard by traveling behind large shields or asteroids designed to take and divert space junk. The LOW created paths that were considerably safer for everyone and in turn reaped the benefits of such a massive enterprise.

"You need to realize though Kevin, that everything that is offered has a price. The LOW are masters of gathering knowledge and these paths between stars are simply another way for them to monitor trade and travel. You possess something that they want, just as the Tela do. I suspect that the LOW will be in contact with you often and will try to learn all your secrets." Meditati said after her space flying lessons were over.

"Yes but aren't the LOW afraid of the Tela and their Arbiters?"

"No, not really, the LOW have diplomatic immunity with the Tela and most alien races of the cosmos. They just offer too many services for anyone to want to get on their bad side. Not only that but no one knows where their home planet resides."

All of this was very interesting news to me. It made me really interested in meeting the LOW. They sounded like a race that held many ancient secrets and mysteries that I would love to learn about.

"It appears that the Yelvos trading asteroid is on a first-level alert," Meditati said when we got closer to the station. I could see the indicators in my helm that notified incoming vessels with security and station updates. "There appear to be small-scale battles taking place with some of the underground mafias inside the station. Your public display of power set certain groups on edge which led to them trying to make grabs for power inside the station. Also, the local security seems to be fighting a local mob boss known as Gilvesh. Her teams were on the move for some reason... ah... I see why. She was trying to steal from your ship and the station leadership learned of this and decided to step in! We had best get back as fast as we can."

When Meditati said this I felt a little worry grow inside me for Ess. The last I had seen of her was of her laying unprotected and unconscious on her nest in my ship.

"There is a service entrance, here, right next to the bay of your ship," Meditati said as she marked out a path for me to follow around the surface of the asteroid. There were ships still in motion around the station and she guided me to a path that was close to the surface and out of any of the ship's movements. In fact, it seemed that all ships seemed to stay away from the area directly adjacent to the station, as though it was a no man's land.

"The station seems to be rather quiet," I said as I noted the missing greeting that I had expected to happen when I got close enough to the station for it to register me as a returning guest.

"Oh, they are watching you. They just don't know what to do about you though. No one enters the defense perimeter of the station without fear of losing their life or for a good reason."

That made sense, if you owned and operated a sealed living area in space, there would need to be some form of defense to keep enemy ships and weapons away.

I made it to the airlock on the side of the station and pressed the button to have it let me in. A series of numbers quickly popped up on the display and started to count down rapidly as the internals of the airlock cycled. Meditati had taken it on herself to provide a visual overlay of the functions of buttons and paths towards places of interest for me. It was almost as though I had my own personal guide and translator.

The airlock door opening countdown hesitated for a couple of moments, I could almost feel the operator up in command as they debated letting me in. I think that whoever was in charge quickly stepped in and allowed the door to open because it only lasted for a short time.

"What is going on in the station?" I asked Meditati as I stepped into the large airlock and let the door close behind me. The system began to cycle and pressurize as Meditati answered.

"The Yelvos command is on edge right now. The Tela vessel has arrived and is awaiting an audience with you... in addition to a LOW ship. This is making the Yelvos feel like they are pinched between a rock and a hard place. Not only that but the Yelvos science teams have studied your rapid exit of the station, including your path through a security door as though it was nothing, and have deemed to label you as a Vacuum Threat level to the station and population."

"A Vacuum Threat? What the heck is that?"

"It just means that you display the capability to do immense harm and the utmost of care should be used in dealing with you."

"Ok... " I muttered as the inner door opened and let me out into a divergent hallway with paths leading to different levels of the station. Was I already making enemies and giving reasons for people to fear me?

"These are the service corridors that lead to the parking bays around the outer edge of the station. The entrance to your bay is on this level and to the left about a mile." She said as I flew along the marked path. The inner service tunnels looked mainly like they were used to store various robots and service units. It was a bit messy with random parts and trash piled up in various piles tucked back into recesses along the way. A sign that I noticed in passing changed my opinion of how messy everything was when I saw that each pile was labeled for recycling of different materials. What I had thought to be an empty and abandoned corridor quickly filled back up with dozens of service bots after I sped past, it seemed that the Yelvos were just trying to protect their property from damage by hiding them until I made my way past. That was probably why there was a delay earlier when I pushed the airlock button, they were directing their robots into hiding.

The sounds of welders and robots buzzing behind me were cut off when I made my way through the small fast-cycling side door and into my ship's bay. The shell of my ship was still right where I had left it. I let the extra cr that was inside me and covering me return to my ship, causing a rapid shrinking effect to take place with my body and leaving me several feet shorter than I had been before the transfer. I hadn't realized how much bigger I was with the excessive cr until I glanced back at the huge door that I had just come through.

"Heh, I guess it helps to have a frame of reference to just how big I am sometimes," I said as I made my way up the ramp and into the cargo hold of my ship. Everything seemed ok, just as I had left it. Nothing was out of place and all of the... wait...

I stepped closer to the shelves and found that they had suffered damage. Not the shelves, but the Leva nest billets contained within. There was even one of the billets laying free on the floor a couple of feet from where it had been originally shelved. I looked around and failed to find anything else out of place. There wasn't any trace of whoever had managed to chisel the block free.

"How odd," I muttered as I scratched my head and walked over to the closed door leading to Sublimis's chamber. "I guess my signs scared off the would-be thieves," I said as I opened the door.

A massive head rammed at me through the door and I quickly found myself in the coils of a huge hatchling as she rushed out through the door at me in excitement. I couldn't help but laugh in delight at her antics as it was clear that she wasn't trying to harm me in the least. She was just so over the top excited and wanted to express her delight in seeing me again.

"Hey! You silly girl! I know, I know! I am sorry that I was gone for so long!" I said to her as her massive head kept butting against my chest as the rest of her length fought to make its way into the main cargo hold.

I ended up just reaching my arms around the sides of her head and just holding on as she spun and tried to wrap her length around me. She gave up and calmed down after a while when I started to pet the pattern on her head over and over again while telling her that it was all ok.

"There, there, I am back. You can calm down now." I said as I traced her white scale pattern with my hand. The white armor of the cr flowed like liquid wherever I touched it, letting my petting through so that she could feel it against her scales. "Seems that your armor has become more responsive," I muttered as I looked around at the destruction in my cargo bay. Her excitement had flung us both all over the place and the cr of my swarm had mimicked the damage that would have been caused if it was normal material. It looked like the realism protocols that Nurse had set up before we left were still in place.

A gong-like noise sounded from outside my ship after a while of Sublimis and I just sitting in silence as I stroked her star pattern. Nest billets were scattered around the ship's cargo hold haphazardly from her tail dealing accidental damage. Upon hearing the sound Ess's head snapped towards the smaller opening that led to the ramp and outside bay.

"Hmm... looks like we have company Ess," I said as I pushed at her tail in order to free my legs. I got the feeling that she could be quite heavy if she wanted to be. She even seemed a little bit longer than the last time that I had seen her. Longer... but different as well. As I stood up I left my hand resting against the side of her head and requested her helm for access to manipulate her cr. I wanted to see what changes her getting longer had had on her body, I got a strange feeling that something wasn't as it should be.

"You know you don't have to do that anymore." Nurse said in my mind as the reply came back from Ess's helm in acknowledgment of my request. "Almost all of this is now swarm cr and is completely under your control."

"I know, I just want Ess to get used to interacting with her helm. Hopefully, she will learn what the responses mean someday. It seems as though everything is just set to default as "yes" whenever I ask. I want to train her on how to make choices herself."

"Umm... about that. From what I gather, your Leva is actually quite a bit more intelligent than you think."

"What do you mean?" I asked as the ominous gong noise sounded again and distracted me from why I had requested permission in the first place.

"Just that her mind is linked to the helm and your swarm says that she and the helm communicate easily."

"That is wonderful news!" I said as I heard a commotion coming from outside the ship. I quickly climbed over Ess's tail and headed to the doorway leading to the ramp of the ship. Ess's large head followed less than a foot behind me.

Through the doorway, we were greeted by a slightly comical and strange sight. It appeared as though an armored platoon of Yelvos were lined up and ready for battle in front of a pile of large crates stacked almost to the ceiling. I say the Yelvos looked comical because most of their bodies looked as though they were standing inside large toilet paper rolls with small holes in the sides for their arms. As for the crates, they were strange because I didn't know why they were there. I couldn't recall ordering so much stuff. Could it be the delivery from the Skii that I had requested earlier? Possibly, but why had they just been delivered now and not earlier?

"What is going on out here?" I asked aloud to the busy ship bay.

After a couple of moments of indecision two of the Yelvos standing at the back of the formation moved and started to shuffle their way to the front and slowly up to the foot of my ship's ramp.

"Jjjjimpvv is that you and Mmmmimpvv?" I asked as I recognized my two guides. They looked funny wearing armor designed for their race but I could still recognize the two Yelvos with ease.

"Indeed and hello again Kevin." Jjjjimpvv sent to me as Meditati provided little dialog popup bubbles above the two Yelvos for me to read if I wanted to follow in on their instantaneous and confusing multi-speak between me, their paired mind mate, their relatives, and the Yelvos station command.

I chose not to get back into that headache again and chose to focus solely on Jjjjimpvv, Meditati could fill me in on any convoluted details that I might miss later.

"Kevin, there have been some developments on our station since you last left our company. It seems that the Tela trader has arrived and is requesting your company and business. Also, an esteemed LOW representative has requested your company as well. We have come to see if we could escort you to the agreed meeting destination." Jjjjimpvv sent. I swear I could see his body sweating through the layers of armor that he was wearing.

"And why are all the rest of these Yelvos here?"

"It was reported that this was the epicenter of a wash of radiation that happened earlier. These android Yelvos are the station's hazmat team in charge of sealing up dangerous leaks. We were tasked with bringing them here out of protocol to assure the station's residents of their safety."

My eyebrows raised skyward as I inspected the double row of armored Yelvos in front of me. Sure enough, they were all synthetic. It was a strange thing to me that they chose to model their android clean-up crew after their own less than agile bodies.

"Huh," I muttered as I turned and looked back inside the mess that was my ship's cargo hold. Quickly I willed the room to smooth out and for all of the billet material to return back to their shelves.

"It is safe. There is no residual radiation from the nest that Sublimis was resting on." Nurse said as she read my thoughts. "It would seem that she absorbed every last trace of the energy from the nest while we were gone."

"And all of those boxes?" I asked as I pointed at the other newly arrived crates.

"Command locked your bay down earlier after a pulse of radiation was released from around this area of the station. Your bay is the last to be searched. These crates have been sitting outside and were delivered by the delivery bots the moment that the doors unlocked." Jjjjimpvv answered while shifting to point his smell sensors offhand at one of the crates.

"One-way delivery without a sender to return to. How odd." He sent privately to Mmmmimpvv. I just happened to be paying attention to his secret dialog and was able to read the chat bubble that Meditati provided for me to see.

"Well, your androids are welcome to investigate my ship," I said as I started to walk down the ramp before Ess headbutted me gently to remind me that she couldn't fit through the door. "Oh, right." I said as I turned to look back at her for a second.

"Do you mind if I let my pet out for a little bit? She has been cooped up for too long and I would prefer to not let her out of my sight again." I asked as I rested my hand against her head.

I could tell that the next words that Jjjimpvv sent were really hard for him to send because of how sweaty both him and his mind mate got while I waited for their reply.

"We have been asked to invite the whole crew of your ship regardless of race or being." Jjjjimpvv sent before becoming silent while standing in his own pool of sweat.

"Is this for real Meditati?" I asked mentally, surprised that the Yelvos would allow or even consider letting such a creature on their station.

"Yes. The station is at the mercy of the Tela and LOW right now. Their words, individually, are law to most races. Being pinned between the two is like being stuck between two equally terrifying versions of death. The radiation inspection is the only show of power that they can afford."

"Well ok then," I said with a smile as I widened the doorway enough to easily let Sublimis though to follow me.

"You might want to take control of her in some way." Meditati's worried-sounding suggestion came to me as my wrym's large head started to swing towards the two terrified Yelvos. They stood so still that they might have both turned to stone statues while Ess looked them over.

"What? See? She isn't intent on harming them." I replied as her large head swung away from the twins and towards the rows of androids.

"Yes, but if she uses her photon pulses even once it will either kill or blind all light-sensitive beings who are nearby."

"Oh, right! About that..." I said as I tapped on Ess's side a couple of times to get her attention. It was interesting to watch her head as it lifted and turned back towards me without her body needing to move or slither like a snake would against the ground. She simply hovered in place where she wanted to stay.

"Hey girl, sorry about this but I will have to cover up your photon bulbs for a little while," I said as I interacted with her swarm cr covering her entire body. She watched me, seemingly without a care, as I covered up her photon bulbs with cr.

Once again I got an odd feeling that something was wrong so out of curiosity I uncovered a good length of her body so that I could look at her.

"She appears to be in the first stages of starvation," Meditati commented as we both realized that same thing at the same time. Ess had grown, yes, but at the cost of using up her limited internal hatchling's resources. She had her ribs showing all down the length of her body. I needed to get her Queiie to munch on and soon.

I recovered her side with cr armor without comment as my emotions roiled inside me. I hated the thought that my Leva might be gravely hungry and I couldn't do anything but wait for George to get back with her food.

"Are there any Queiie on the station?" I asked Meditati and received a negative as my hand stroked Ess's side gently. To the two Yelvos, it looked as though my Leva was covered in a thin layer of liquid that flowed away from my touch ever so slightly. I could see their hidden dialog as they talked between themselves and their relatives about "reactionary armor and the scary killing machine pet that was surely going to eat their noogies." That last word made me crack up laughing and to ask Meditati secretly for a translation of the word.

Turns out it was close enough to what I thought it might be. They were afraid that Ess would eat whatever made them capable of reproducing.

I couldn't help but laugh the whole time at that word while I watched the androids search my ship for anything radioactive to dispose of. When they were done, having found nothing, I wiped my eyes clear of my tears and agreed to follow the two Yelvos to the meeting place with Ess on a leash.

Before I left though I made sure to seal up my entire ship on advice from Meditati. It seems that the invisible chatter about Leva nest riches went through the roof when the observers saw through the eyes of the androids and at the contents of my cargo.

It seemed that I had enough riches inside my ship to worry all of the Yelvos who had seen it. They feared that their station might become a target for destruction. There was just too much wealth all in one place that any warlike race might consider committing mass murder to obtain it.