The meal done and the plan in place, Jasmine began collecting the plates to take down stairs.

“Let me get that for you,’ Beau offered.

“Its no worries mate,” Jasmine assured him balancing the white china in one arm.

‘Now now, I insist, you got us cleaned up and fed, the least I could do in return-”

Beau reached out to take the dishes when the sudden and distinct tearing of fabric halted his pursuit.

The hawaiian shirt, while colourful and flattering, was simply not able to withstand the girth of the man wearing it. The sleeves torn from their paneling, Beau had no choice but to rip them off, leaving him with a sleeveless vest.

“Yeah well, I didn’t like the shirt anyway.” he sulked and threw the fabric scraps on the table in disappointment.

“If you didn't like it,” Ryo piped up in his actual voice “why wear it?”

“‘Cause its the only thing I could get on,” Beau folded his arms, “The universe seems determined to have me naked,”

“I mean, if you really want to find some more clothes we can search the rest of the cars for gear,” Jasmine shrugged as she turned to leave.

“That’s an option?” Ryo asked, following her to the kitchen.

“Well, yeah, it's kinda my job to go through and categorize all the belongings,” she dumped the dishes in a hot and waiting sink, the pair looked at Jasmine, who smirked, “it’s kinda fun really,”

She stepped past Ryo and Beau, walking out onto the deck and whistled.

“Hey Rynard! Care to introduce yourself?!”

The ten foot tall tyrannosaurus-look alike bounded over the railing with practiced ease, much to Xants chagrin and the other humans surprised.

“Yeah Jasi?” The Captain stood, posing a little to show off.

“Care to take us down stairs? The guys want to search some cars for better threads,”

Using the Dino-lift was quicker than climbing down the yacht to the informal carpark.

Right at their feet was a large plastic tray filled with car keys.

“Take your pick and see what we find.”

All the names were there, Toyoata, Hyandai, BMW, Mercedes, Ford, Ferrari, all the luxury and others amongst the mix, Ryo frowned.

“(You have all these keys and you drive around that rust bucket?)” He threw his thumb over his shoulder at the aging Nissan.

“That's MY rust bucket,” Jasmine replied defensively, “or rather, Checkovs’, its the car I was abducted with,”

“(So? You could still drive a different car,)” Ryo replied dismissively, perusing the keys during conversation and ignoring eye contact.

“I don't want to drive a different car,” Jasmine folded her arms.

Ryo picked up a set of Lexus keys and pressed the immobiliser.

“(Then you can keep the rust and I'll have the chrome,)” he smirked before running off to find the source of the beeping.

Jasmine let out a groan of frustration, she hadn’t had to deal with that kinda shit since highschool.

Beau was still surveying the keys before him.

There were hundreds of vehicles and not nearly enough keys, but he reached for something familiar to start his search.

He plucked up the keys with a big american flag and a chevy badge hanging from the ring.

“Wanna bet it’s a pick-up?” he smiled.

“10 bucks says it’s red with a ‘freedom’ decal,” Jasmine laughed, Beau raised an eyebrow happy to play along.

“I say it’s black, but there's the full sized flag tucked away somewhere,” he held out his hand, and Jasmine took the shake.

“Deal,” she laughed.

“So, hand shaking is not just for greeting then?” Xant asked, observing the human interaction.

“Not always,” Jasmine naturally went into explanation mode “it can also be used as an agreement for a verbal contract,”

“A gentleman's agreement,” Beau added despite not being able to hear Xants question, “‘course, a mans only as good as his word, and words aren’t what they used to be,”

As they made their way through the car yard with Beau periodically pressing the beeper, it came apparent that Jasmine had lost the bet.

Beau opened up the passenger door and without looking reached under the chair and pulled out an american flag, steam pressed in a triangle.

“Wait, its your car isn’t it?!” Jasmine exclaimed.

“You’re the one who took up the bet,” beau held out both hands in innocence, “Without asking more questions,” he tapped his skull with his index finger and a giant grin on his face.

The chevy was huge compared to the pajero, an urban tank on the inside, in the tray were several steel lock boxes. Neat, tidy and orderly.

Beau pulled out a gigantic military green canvas bag from the back passenger seat.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need a moment to change into something that isn't going to tear at a moment's notice.”

Jasmine laughed and turned around, a mocking hand over her eyes.

“There's plenty of space mate, I’m not gonna peek,”

Xant and Rynard followed Jasmine's lead, but as ever the scientist couldn’t help but ask questions about the situation. Having human on human interactions before him occurring naturally without prompts revealed more than either aliens probably intended.

“Why would you ‘peek’?” came the innocent question and Jasmine's cheeks turned the slightest shade of pink.

“It's rude to stare at the opposite gender while they change,” She replied, clearly having no intention of entertaining the conversation further. Xant recalled her turning her back when changing in his presence and he suddenly had no intention of questioning further.

“Phew! I am never complaining about standard issue again!” Beau returned from the other side of the chevy having changed into good hiking boots and hunting camouflage. A pair of protective ear muffs hung around his neck and over his plain white t-shirt. He carried his canvas bag in one hand and threw it in the back tray.

He jumped in after in and fished out a set of keys from his pocket, opening up the locks.

Inside the locked boxes were steel cases, the kind Jasmine had only seen in action movies, guns and ammunition. He pulled out one of the four (she counted off handedly) and spun the case open for her to see, inside the grey foam sat a wooden handled rifle.

“Whoa…” Jasmine stared, unsure of what to do.

“Its not going to bite you,” Beau laughed as he pulled it out, “it’s just a hunting rifle anyways, ever fired one?”

“Never seen one in person before,” Jasmine admitted.

“You wanna fire one?”

Jasmine sparked up at first but then quickly brought herself back to reality.

“Uhh, I'm not sure we can fire it inside a space station... Xant?” she asked, the doctor was as lost as she was and turned to Rynard.

“All military grade weapons are to be kept exclusively for training and or missions in the field and can only be operated once orders are given by a commander,” Rynard replied, reciting a safety measure no doubt had been drilled into him since being pulled from the Vat, “but you invoked requisition of all human items and technically, you're currently commander on hand," he grinned.

Jasmine beamed, and announced to Beau that they could basically do what they wanted within reason.

Beau looked around and something caught his eye.

They all walked over to a completely destroyed car, a panel van that had definitely been on fire sometime in the past. Beau reached in through the broken window, popping open the door and put the van in neutral.

“You think you could get Rex there to move it in position?” he asked.

“Sure thing!” Jasmine relayed the instructions and Rynard moved the van with a single push,“Show off,”

The captain laughed in reply.

Beau checked the vans interior, and once he was sure that there was nothing explosive or flammable he walked back to give Jasmine and the accompanying aliens a safety lesson.

“This,” he said pulling out the rifle from its case “is a gun, there are many like it but this one is mine,” he gave her a serious look, “as long as you follow my instructions and dont act the fool we can have a little fun,”

Jasmine nodded her head and answered with a just as serious “yes,”

Satisfied with her answer Beau began listing the parts of the weapon, the barrel, chamber, trigger, Jasmine filtered the lesson through to him word for word and Xant was curious about the vernacular.

“Never point at anything you don't want killed, never have your finger on the trigger, keep the muzzle pointed at the ground, never have it loaded until ready to shoot,”

The weapon seemed extremely dangerous, he wondered if it was in their best interest to be ‘firing’ the thing. Xant watched Beau give the instructions without feeling his presence, it unnerved him to say the least. He caught the human looking over at him directly, a subtle stare before returning to instruct Jasmine.

He rested the butt of the rifle against her shoulder and helped her aim.

“Take your time, no rush, just breathe and feel the shot,”

Jasmine exhaled and slowly pulled the trigger as instructed, bracing as the gun kicked back a little.

The small and concentrated explosion echoed in the hangar and Xant slapped down his ears.

“Wow, that was loud!” she exclaimed while slowly releasing the gun, she had been so nervous it took a while for her muscles to come out of position.

“Yeah, that's why you got the ‘muffs”

Jasmine took off the safety muffs and wiggled her finger in her ear.

“You’re not a bad shot though,” Beau pointed out to the bullet hole in the centre of the vans door, “care to try for a grouping?”

“Nah im good thanks, shoulder hurts like f- hell,”

Beau acknowledged her decline and offered the gun to Xant.

“Care for a try?”

Xant looked between Beau and Jasmine, who had nothing but encouragement.

“It’s not as bad as I was expecting, you’ll have to brace pretty hard though, but you need to try it at least once” she gently placed the earmuffs on his head.

“I’ve gained physical strength, perhaps this may be a prefect test of limits,” Xant reasoned before mimicking Jasmine’s actions of the gun, following the instructions to the letter before aiming at the same target. He could smell the burnt gunpowder, feel the heat from the butt and barrel. He slid his finger up to the trigger and waited for Beau to give the signal.

Beau counted down, shouting for the clear, Xant squeezed the trigger.

He was not as proficient as his human companion however.

The shot was way off, hitting the back panel near the tire and the sudden kinetic energy that blasted through his arms was quite painful. Galactic council weapons, those that he had seen, were nothing like the one he had fired in his hands. Acid sprayers, electric tasers, cauterizing swords, it said a lot about how they fought each other. Of all things available to them, they chose this weapon, an instant shot ages away from their opponent.

He quietly put the gun in a safe position and offered it back to Beau.

“Not for him, he says,” Jasmine translated.

Beau took it back and set it up for his own round of firing, taking a few steps forward he picked his target, demonstrating his accuracy and speed with the weapon.

Five shots one after the other, a tight grouping at head height, a shot at the window that shattered the glass and another that broke the side mirror.

Jasmine whistled.

“Is that impressive for a human?” Xant quired, eager to find out more.

“It’s better than me at least!” Jasmine laughed, “Hey Beau? Is it okay if Xant asks you some questions?”

Beau cleared the chamber and placed the gun back in its case loosely.

“Shoot,” he smiled, pun intended.

“How long do you train with the weapon?”

“As long as you plan on using it, the day you stop training is the day you don’t shoot anymore.”

“And is using the firearm crucial to your role?”

“Well, it was as a solider, they all need to be trained in the use of their assigned combat weapon but my job was Canine escort detail, checkpoints, IED’s and such. So I had a bit more variety than your average Private.”

“Spades was a bomb dog, Beau was his handler” Jasmine clarified.

Xant stood there for a moment, while he considered the dogs being a very useful companion species to have a Creator and a User as partners in a field was something that he had never even considered.

“And you trusted the dog with this task?” Xant asked sincerely.

“I trust Spades with my life, and I still do,” Beau replied with the same sincerity, “you’d be surprised how many people can’t follow simple instructions when their lives depend on it, it’s half the reason I got out.”

“You changed professions?”

“Yeah,” Beau answered. “I did my tours, I served my country and saved my money, then I got out and brought my best friend with me.”

“So what did you do?”

“I went back to school, get my qualifications to be a Veterinarian,” Beau explained, counting his remaining ammunition as he did so.

Another case of a human willingly changing their career path on a whim, despite how well Beau seemed to handle the weapon, casting it all away for a completely different skill set seemed counter intuitive.

“Was it hard training from your first profession to another?”

“First profession? Military wasn't my first job, I did paper route and movie usher before that, made manager at 16 ‘cause I was over 6 foot, I was a bean pole back then,”

“You were not always this size,” Xant felt his questions wondering, perhaps it was his other consciousness seeking the questions and starting him from the topic, or maybe it was Jasmine's influence.

“Lord no! I was 6.1 but only 80 pounds soaking wet, calling me a feather weight would be generous!”

“So how did you get so large?”

“Exercise, protein and a humourless drill sergeant ” Beau joked, but Xant was happy with the answer and proof that he too might get to the human’s size one day.

The interview was interrupted by a large designer duffle bag being thrown between them.

Ryo had found some designer street ware and was trying really hard to look effortlessly cool.

“Hey! Care to join us?” Jasmine waved, “It's got a heck of a kick!”

Ryo shrugged and then casually pulled out twin pistols from his pocket.

“I’d like to try these out instead,’

“Whoa!” Beau exclaimed “those are some nice pieces! Let me get a look!”

Ryo spun them around for him to look at, Beau held the guns in hands before disabling them both in two swift movements and confiscating them.

“Whha?!” Ryo shouted but Beau shook his head.

“If you want to fire a gun, you can use mine, I’m not letting you wave around some drug dealers show pieces until you can show me you can fire this without blasting your own fingers off,”

Ryo scoffed, but followed Beau as he showed him how to use the rifle.

“Jasmine?”

“Yeah Xant?”

“How is it that even without a Freq presence, you both follow Beau’s instructions?”

“Well,” Jasmine shrugged, “it’s a little complicated, but the best I can sum it up is, He’s an adult.”

“So, authority is derived from age?” Xant asked for clarification.

“Not always, I wouldn’t listen to any random ‘adult’ who acted like a dickhead, BUt hes got a lot more experience than me and he hasnt talked down to me at all-”

Ryo squeezed the trigger, but didnt brace hard enough, the rifle slid out from his shoulder, jumped out of his hands and almost smacked into his face.

It was such a surprise that Jasmine couldn’t help but laugh.

“Oh shit! You alright man!?”

Ryo gave her a death glare, and Beau stifled his own laughter as he helped Ryo correct his technique.

Ryo took aim again, but instead of firing at the old car body, at the last second he changed his target and blasted the back window of the Pajero instead.

“Whoops,”

Beau ripped the gun out of his hands but Jasmine was ready to rip him a new one.

“What the fuck do you think youre doing fuck head?!” she charged at him, ready to lay down hands.

“I guess my aim was off,” he sneered.

“Keep on going and it won’t be the only thing(head/dick) that's (I’ll rip)off!” She shouted, rage blazing inside her like a fire

“Pfft, like you could(you don’t have the nerve),” Ryo scoffed, egging her on with his dismissal.

“The fuck I don't?!” Jasmine screamed, a fist raised and aimed at his face as Xant pulled her back and Beau twisted Ryo’s arm behind his back.

Rynard extended his claws and growled audibly, baring his teeth feeding off the intense emotions in the air.

“Okay every body time to calm the fuck down,” Beau shouted, restraining Ryo.

Jasmine struggled against Xant, ready to smack the horrible disgusting, and weak piece of-

"Jasmine!" Xant pleaded, snapping her out of her rage, like water thrown on her face she stood there anger turning to confusion, then pain.

Punching Ryo for his actions was justifiable, but violence was never her first port of call.

She had been literally blinded by her own freq-agression that she never noticed Ryo’s presence.

His stomach was twisted in knots, shame burnt her face, he couldn't even look her in the eye.

Did…

Did she want to punch him, or was it because he wanted her to punch him?

Shame, regret, jealousy, anger, disappointment, self-loathing, complex emotions swirling and weaving their way past her own feelings…

She had been surrounded by aliens for so long, Jasmine had forgotten how complex humans could be. She stopped struggling against Xant, closing her eyes and recentering herself.

“You didn’t need to do that…” She said quietly.

“(... Sorry)” Came the quiet but sincere reply. His face was blank facing the ground, he couldn't fight against Beau even if he wanted to.

“I’m sorry I laughed,” as the words passed her lips she felt the fluctuation in his Freq aura, genuine gratitude for her apology, then regret for his own actions, a spur of anger at himself.

“You going to apologize huh?” Beau demanded from the youth. Ryo winced in pain as Beau twisted his arm a little harder.

“Sorry…” came the audible version. Defeat.

Beau threw Ryo down, letting him go and getting back up off his feet.

“That was a stupid thing you did, I know youre better than that.”

The disappointment stung like a knife to the heart.

Ryo took off towards the ship, Beau shook his head.

“Damn, we’re going to have to keep an eye on him, he’s more messed up than I thought.”

Jasmine and Xant looked at each other,

“More than you know,” she said under her breath.