Since the search and rescue team was split between the ship and the cargo area, we actually took turns entering wrecks and rescuing people. When there was a hatch available, the crew in the ship did it, and when there wasn't, the crew I was with did a spacewalk and entered the wreck. We made short work of searching and gathering people, and surprisingly enough, there were a lot more people trapped and alive than any of us had reasonably expected.

Most of them were deep inside the wrecks and were difficult to get to most of the time. We had an occasional easy run with only docking the ship and loading people right away, without actually having to enter the wrecks to save people. We still went in to check, just in case, and moved on to the next to load up on passengers before going back to the station to drop them off.

We worked for six hours straight and took two hours off, then worked for another six hours like the captain of the station had ordered. When we returned to the docking bay with our final load of two survivors, we weren't allowed to take off again. Rhubin didn't protest the restriction and said he was going to bed for at least the next six hours. All total, we had rescued almost three hundred people, nearly double of what the rescue ships had. We had also visited four times the number of wrecks.

No one counted how many bodies we had passed or left there, though.

I was pretty tired as well, so I closed and locked the main hatch and turned to Luxea. “I'm taking Rhubin's advice and going to bed as well.”

“I think I will, too.” Luxea said. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” I said and went to my room, took off my uniform of powered armor and laid it on a chair and plugged it into a power port to charge it up, then took off the blast shield that covered my eyes. “Who would have thought that such a simple disguise could change how I looked so much?” I chuckled and set it on the headboard of the bed, then I went to the bathroom and took a shower. I stepped out and dried myself off, then went to the closet in my bedroom and only put on a pair of underwear. I sat down and started the long process of drying my hair when the door chime sounded.

“Come in.” I said. The door opened and Luxea stood there wearing something that looked like a long sleeved t-shirt that was also a dress, completely form-fitting, and it went down to the middle of her thighs. It was a light blue and I could see that her hair was wet as well.

“Want some help?” Luxea said and held up her large hairbrush. “You can brush mine afterwards.”

I was tempted to say no, then chuckled and waved to the bed behind me. She smiled and came into the room, hit the button to shut and lock the door, then walked over to me.

“What are you wearing?” I asked.

“Do you like it?” Luxea asked and turned around to show me the back. It had a huge circular hole that completely exposed her entire back from her neck to her waist.

“Are you sure you have it on right?” I asked with a grin, and she laughed.

“Of course I do. If I wore it the other way, it would...” Luxea stopped talking and sighed. “It's too sexy, isn't it?”

“Only if you didn't intend for me to stare at you.” I said to her surprise, then she smiled.

“I do want you to look.” Luxea said and stepped by me and climbed onto the bed. “If you want to.”

“What about you and Rhubin?” I asked as she started brushing my hair.

“We're good friends.” Luxea said. “We haven't... had fun... since we were on the long haul transport.”

“You can say sex without me getting uncomfortable.” I said, and she chuckled.

“So, you know that's all it was.” Luxea said. “It was just sex. I wasn't using him and he wasn't taking advantage of my vulnerable emotional state.”

“I can't believe you said that with a straight face.” I said, and she laughed.

“All right, both Rhubin and I did that.” Luxea said and kept brushing my hair. “When he started acting distant and ignoring me, then told me he was busy when he wasn't... well, I wasn't having any of that.”

“Yeah, he told me you were pretty angry at him for that.”

“Did he tell you why?” Luxea asked.

“Do you really want to know?” I asked.

Luxea stopped brushing my hair and touched my shoulder. I turned around on the bed and she looked into my eyes, then she nodded.

“It was because of me.”

“You?!?” Luxea almost yelled.

“He was envious of how women treat me and thought he could act like me to make himself more appealing.”

Luxea's mouth dropped open and she stared at me for several moments, then she started to laugh. “Oh! Ho ho! Ha hahahaha!” She dropped her brush on the bed and hugged herself as she laughed really hard and tears rolled down her face. I was laughing by this point as well and she wiped at her eyes. “By the Goddess, he's really stupid to try something like that!”

“I warned him not to try it a while ago because it goes against his personality.”

“He should have listened to you.” Luxea said. “I thought I did something wrong to him and he started hating me for it!”

“Wow, really?” I asked, and she nodded. “Then it backfired even more than he thought.”

“It really did.” Luxea said and took several breaths and calmed down. “Because of that, I completely lost interest in him.” She smiled. “In a sexual way, anyway.”

“Do you want me to tell him that?” I asked.

“No, I'll tell him tomorrow.” Luxea said and picked up her brush. “I really needed a good laugh.”

“Yeah.” I said and turned back around to face away from her. “Me, too.”

“We did a lot of good work today.” Luxea said and brushed my hair. “We saved so many people.”

“We did... and we didn't.” I said, and she sighed.

“I... I know.” Luxea said and kept brushing. “I could see the loss on all of the search team's faces.”

We didn't say anything else while she brushed my hair all the way up to my head. It had been the first time she had completely brushed my hair. When she was done, we were both relaxed and calm. She handed me the brush, we changed places, and I brushed her hair. It didn't take as long because her blonde hair was barely down past her shoulders.

“We should get to bed.” I said and handed her the brush.

“Okay.” Luxea said and moved over to put the brush down on the top of the headboard next to my blast shield disguise, then she hooked the bottom of her t-shirt dress and slipped it up and off in one motion and laid it on my uniform. I stared at her nearly naked body because she only wore a small pair of underwear that barely covered her ass, then she climbed under the blanket.

“I didn't mean...”

“I don't want to sleep alone tonight.” Luxea said, her voice a little shaky, and she turned onto her side to face away from me. “I don't want sex or anything, so you can relax.”

“Luxea...”

“I'll even stay on this side of the bed.” Luxea said. “I just...” She stopped talking and didn't say anything else. I held in my sigh and climbed into bed beside her and laid on my back. I counted in my head and waited for two full minutes before I spoke.

“All right.” I said, and she turned over without a word and laid against me, then tucked herself in as close as she could and put an arm over my chest, which completely ignored her last statement.

“Thank you.” Luxea said.

I could see and feel her Presence was low and didn't react to mine, since my own was low, too. She wasn't excited at all to be pressing her bare skin against me and I successfully ignored that as well. I had a nearly naked woman next to me in bed and I wasn't sure why I still felt relaxed. I should have been nervous or scared that she would try to take advantage of me, especially since I knew what she did with the men she met.

I knew she was picky and didn't take just any man to her bed; but, she had been right when she told me to not get involved with women like her, Cassie and Evelyn. It was too much of a hassle. They had a lot of baggage to deal with before they could look past their own wants and needs to think about the wants and needs of someone else. I drifted off to sleep with thoughts of being completely eaten by a giant faceless woman and her impossibly long sharp teeth.

*

Master Kara Moor and her fast courier ship had arrived in the Drizahl System a week before, after they had triangulated the last data they received from the trackers in Ullir's things. She had been surprised that they were all still active, so she had been skeptical that they would actually find him there. When they boarded the station and talked to the port master, he directed them to the station's security chief.

The major was more than happy to accommodate Order members and to tell them anything they wanted to know. She asked about Ullir, and he had no idea who she was talking about.

“We know he was here.” Kara said calmly.

The major shrugged. “I don't know what to tell you.”

“We have his ship specifications and the port master said the ship was docked to the station.” One of the other Order members said. “Twice within the same hour.” He stared at the major and practically saw the light bulb go off in the major's head.

“Oh! You must mean The Wave.” The major said. “Boy, what a great ship.” He said. “It jumped to the next system in only ten minutes.”

“It WHAT?!?” Kara yelled.

“Surprising, I know!” The major said. “It's damn fast in normal space, too.”

“That... it couldn't... no ship...” The second Order member mumbled.

“Do you have proof?” The first Order member asked.

“If you won't believe the port master's logs, you can talk to the passenger they took there and back.” The major said. “She booked a room here for a month and has been telling everyone about the fastest ship in the universe.”

“We can talk to her later if it's necessary.” Kara said. “Where did the ship go?”

“We hired it to take passengers to the Fogaris System.”

“To the...” Kara sighed and rubbed her forehead. “By the Goddess.”

“They'll be in hyperspace for over a month at least.” One of the Order members said. “They must have charged a fortune for...”

“I authorized a ten thousand credit payment for five passengers, their luggage, and supplies for the trip!” The major said and laughed. “Imagine! A fast courier ship only accepting that much! Ha ha!” He slapped the table. “I've given their business a four star rating for that and the Bogorim Corporation already gave them a four as well for quick delivery.”

Kara sighed. “Where is the closest Order church?”

“On the second planet.” The major said.

“Master Moor, we should only need their administration services.” The first Order member said.

“They have an office here on the station.” The major said. “Only one occupant, though.”

“That's sufficient.” Kara said. “Thank you for your time, major.”

“Anytime.” The major smiled. “Always glad to help The Order.”

Kara and the two other Order members left the major's office, consulted the station's map, and went to The Order office. The Order member there stood as she entered the office and she waved him aside.

“I just need to borrow your console for a few minutes.” Kara said and he closed his work and blanked his screen for her. She sat down and used her security code and took out the modified datapad and hit the update button and waited. When the datapad beeped at her, she stared at the data it showed.

“What is it?” One of the other members asked and looked at the data. “By the Goddess, how can they be out that far already?”

“Forget that.” Kara said. “How long will it take us to get to the Fogaris System?”

“I said before that it will take over a month, even using these refined coordinates.”

“They will be long gone by then.” Kara said.

“It's possible that they could jump back using those same coordinates.” He said. “It looks like open space for most of them, and we can be there...” He pointed to the first one. “...in about a week.”

“How long will they take from the last jump point that's marked to get to the Fogaris System?” Kara asked.

“Normally, I would say a couple of weeks.”

“And now?”

“Based on the information we now have on the ship and estimating its speed... a week and a few days.”

“Then we need to go right now.” Kara said. She thanked The Order member on duty there and they left the office, then the three of them boarded the ship and took off.

A week later they arrived at the first jump point in normal space and came to a stop and waited, then Ullir's ship popped up in the Fogaris System.

“They are a little bit faster than we thought.” Kara said. “Now we wait.”

After a couple of hours, neither ship moved. Then six hours passed and it still didn't move.

“What do you think they are doing?” One of The Order members asked.

“Maybe they decided to rest for a while.” The other Order member said. “It was a long trip.”

“How long will the next jump take for us?” Kara asked the pilot.

“A day.” The pilot said. “It was smart of them to jump to open space and not near any star systems.”

“Why?”

“Following their trail would be very difficult if we didn't know their hyperspace jump coordinates.”

“Were they intentionally trying to lose us?” Kara asked.

“Who knows.” The pilot shrugged. “I doubt it, since even we didn't know we were coming here until last week.”

Kara nodded and closed her eyes and meditated for several moments, then opened her eyes and smiled. “All right. I'm authorizing another short jump, then we'll sit and wait for an hour. If they left the system, that means we have a week of time to get as close to the Fogaris System as possible using their own jump points.”

“What if they are still there?” He asked.

“Then we know we have at least a week or more.” Kara said. “Either way, we can follow their trail.”

“I think I understand.” The pilot said. “As long as we are more than a week's jump away from them, we can stop almost anywhere on their trail and meet them, because it'll take them a week to get back to the jump point right before the Fogaris System.”

“Correct.” Kara said. “As long as they are still in that system, we can make the smaller jumps and we don't have to worry about missing them in the middle.”

The pilot nodded and the navigator gave him the coordinates for the next jump. The fast courier ship sped up and entered hyperspace with a shiver and a shake.

*

I woke up after almost eight hours of sleep and felt someone on top of me. It took me a second to remember that Luxea had convinced me to let her sleep in my bed. I could see how she had draped herself over me with my Detect Presence technique; but, I opened my eyes anyway to see it with my eyes, because I had my arms wrapped around her in a tight embrace for some reason.

Luxea was face down on top of me. Her head rested on my shoulder and it was turned slightly, so I could see her peaceful face. Her arms were flopped down on either side of my torso and her legs were in between mine, while my legs were spread open enough to let her. She took long and even breaths and seemed very relaxed, and I could see the Presence inside of her was back to its full intensity. Mine was as well, and I could see it easing out through my chest and into hers.

Okay, that's a little weird. I thought.

I didn't try to stop it, though. I knew that you shouldn't fight against what the Presence did, because all that achieved was causing conflict within yourself. That made me think of Aphatoris back in the Granis System and the way her Presence had reacted to me because she was fighting so hard against it. I smiled and lifted my hand from Luxea's back and looked at my wrist communicator.

No messages. I thought, a little surprised. Actually, I forgot to ask what the crew layover for resting between shifts was. I held in my chuckle, because I didn't want to wake Luxea. That was an odd thought to have.

I put my arm back around her and she squirmed a little; but, her breathing didn't change and she stayed asleep. I used a mental technique to enter a meditative state and then another to relax and concentrate on the flow of Presence around my ship and within my detection range. Nothing was moving, so I knew that everyone had taken time off from the rescue operations because the part of the dock I could feel was empty of people. I changed my focus to just my bedroom and all of the focusing crystals shone in my perception, even the scaly alien's.

Don't worry. I have a feeling that you'll all get a chance to be useful. I thought to them, then let myself enter a semi-sleep state. It let me rest and kept my perception going to let me know if anything happened within my detection range. Less than two hours later, I felt the station essentially come to life and the maintenance docking bay filled with people and machines as they prepped the other rescue ships for another shift.

“Luxea.” I whispered.

“Hmm.” Luxea wiggled her body to rub me in a few choice places, namely my chest and my crotch, then her arms moved automatically as she hugged me.

“It's time to get up.” I said.

“Mmm. I can... feel that.” Luxea said and she moved her legs to the outside of my thighs and pushed my legs together, and she did something with her hips and rubbed herself on me with a twisting motion.

“Luxea!” I said sternly, despite really enjoying what she just did, and her eyes shot open.

“Oh! H-Hunter!” Luxea exclaimed and pushed herself up into a sitting position. “Oh, damn.” She said and looked down at her nearly naked self and where she sat. “I'm sorry! I... ah... you were so warm, and... it felt so...” She shook her head. “I don't know why I... my body, it just...”

“Can you feel my Presence?” I asked, because wisps of it were still floating out through my chest and into hers.

Luxea looked at me with wide eyes. “No, I...”

“Close your eyes.” I said, and she did so without questioning it. “Take several breaths. In, out. In, out.”

Luxea did this, and I couldn't help but look at her very nice chest as it rose and fell with each breath. She was also quite excited and it made her look even more appealing.

“You've felt my Presence before, so you know what it was like.” I said, and she nodded without opening her eyes. “Can you feel it now?”

“No, I... w-wait...” Luxea reached a hand up and touched the middle of her chest. “I... is... I think...” Her hand moved out and she wiggled her fingers a little, then traced the wisps through the air and put her hand on my chest. She opened her eyes and looked at where her hand was, then she looked at me.

“That's right.” I said and put a hand on hers. “It likes you as much as I do.”

The Presence became thicker and she caught her breath. We both felt the dampness between her legs, since our crotches were touching, and her breath sped up and her hips moved forward and back once.

“W-we can't.” Luxea said and forced herself to stop. “Hunter, you... you promised that...”

I nodded and let her hand go, and the Presence lost its solidity and became wisps again. Luxea took two deep breaths, then she very slowly rocked up onto her knees so she wouldn't be tempted to rub herself on me again. Both her underwear and mine were soaked, and she blushed as she moved off of the bed.

“H-Hunter, I...”

“I know.” I said and sat up myself, then stood beside her. “Do you want to shower first?”

“I want to share it with you.” Luxea said. “Very, very, badly.”

I smiled, and she put her hands on my chest, right where the Presence was still easing out of me.

“I should go to my room to shower.” Luxea said and didn't move. We stood there and stared at each other in the eyes for several minutes without saying anything. I saw in her eyes as she made a decision, then she walked over to my bathroom. I followed her and we got into the shower together.