It actually was a nice dinner. Olugaell had insisted that I sit beside her and Luxea sat on my other side with Rhubin beside her, while Uzahne, Ahaen and Sheph sat across the table from us. Polite and interesting conversation followed, and when the meal was done, the man that had introduced everyone into the room stepped to the middle of it. The lights dimmed slightly and a spotlight shone on him.

“Our minds are filled with good conversation and our bellies are filled with good food.” The man said in the same haughty voice. “Now it is time for the awards ceremony.” He waved at our table. “If the honorable officials would kindly come here to deliver their speeches and present the awards.”

I stopped myself from laughing at the honorable part. Uzahne, Ahaen and Sheph glance at me for a moment, as if they heard me laugh anyway, then they stood up and left the table. I thought Olugaell was going to go as well; but, she stayed in the chair next to mine. Uzahne spoke first and gave a speech that I didn't listen to in the least. I busied myself as I looked around the room with Detect Presence and I was absolutely positive that I saw three Order members across the room.

Even though they were wearing suits and not the traditional robes, I knew it was them. Their Presence was focused and controlled, except it wasn't very strong. I took the opportunity to look over them closely and saw various pieces of equipment like datapads, credit chips, Light swords, and the like; but, no chip readers. I sighed and kept scanning the crowd for anything interesting.

I found several other people, including a few of the fish people, that also had higher than normal amounts of Presence inside of them. Olugaell was not one of them, though. That was a little surprising, considering her not-subtle-at-all advances towards me, and I wondered why she was so interested in me. I thought about the Mask Presence technique that I was using to hide my own Presence, because I thought she might be using it as well, and that made me think of Ozahith. I rubbed the scars over my heart and then felt a webbed hand as it moved over on the table and rested on top of my other hand. I turned my head to look at Olugaell and she gave me a sad smile.

Can you hear my thoughts? I asked her as I briefly lowered my mental defenses. She didn't react at all to either my lower barriers or to my thoughts, so I sighed mentally and put the barriers back in place.

Various different awards were presented to all of the SAR crew members and to some of the survivors who also had joined in on the rescue. Maintenance workers and even administration staff were given awards for performing their duties during the disaster. I thought it was a little weird to give everyone an award for just doing their jobs, then I realized what this dinner really was. It was for public relations.

With that thought in my head, having the civilians dress up to match the fish people so they wouldn't stand out from everyone else, made perfect sense. I felt something like whiskers touch my cheek as Olugaell leaned in close to whisper in my ear.

“You are sad and yet you are smiling.”

I turned my head slightly to whisper back. “They aren't connected.”

“I want to ask what is in your mind.” She whispered as she wiggled the fingers on her hand that covered mine. “Can you tell me?”

“I was just thinking that...”

“...Hunter, Luxea, and Rhubin!” Uzahne said loudly and there was a round of applause.

“Please, excuse me.” I said and she moved her hand as I stood up. The three of us walked over to the center of the room and they gave us a little box with a medal in it. It was a small brass planet on a short multi-colored ribbon and the three women shook our hands, congratulated us on a job well done, then sent us back to our table.

The lights came back up and the man clapped his hands three times. Music of some kind came out of the walls, I assume from hidden speakers of some kind, and half of the people in the room jumped to their feet and went to the center of the room. They stared to dance in fits and starts, and I asked if they were going into seizures.

Olugaell gurgled a laugh. “It is the dance of a sea crab.”

I looked at the dancers and watched their movements, then had to nod. “Okay, I think I can see that.”

“It is modified for bipedal use, of course.” Olugaell said. “Would you care to try?”

“Would you be insulted if I said that I didn't want to look like a fool in front of you?” I asked, and she gurgled another laugh.

“I'm going to try it.” Rhubin said and stood up. “See you later!”

Luxea tried to hold in her laughter as he picked one of the fish people to dance, and then she couldn't stop herself as he flailed around in a poor imitation of the dance. She had both hands over her mouth as she laughed out loud and I turned to Olugaell.

“I hope you understand why now.” I said and she gave me a big smile and a slight nod.

The night went on for quite some time and I wasn't surprised when Luxea was asked to dance. She politely refused on the same grounds that I did, and we shared random topics of conversation among ourselves. Olugaell had left when asked to dance and hadn't returned, and neither did Uzahne and the other two. Not surprisingly, I didn't miss their company, and the night came to an end.

Uzahne came over to us when everyone started to leave. “Hunter, Luxea.” She said. “Would you meet me in my office in the morning?”

“I should ask why; but, you want to talk business, don't you?” I asked, and she nodded.

“We've recalled all ships that have been deployed in other systems and ordered them to return, no matter what their previous missions stated.” Uzahne said. “We are rebuilding our smaller forces fairly quickly, since the shipyard wasn't badly damaged.”

“You need a fast courier ship?” Luxea asked.

“Yes and no.” Uzahne said. “We can discuss it tomorrow, so go and get some rest.”

We didn't see Rhubin as we left and went back to the ship. Luxea didn't pretend to go to her room first and come back to mine like the last two times. She just went right to mine with me and shut the door.

“Don't you need to undress?” I asked.

“Yes.” Luxea said and tapped something on her waist. The entire dress puffed out slightly away from her body, then it dropped to the floor in a mound of cloth and flowing orange energy. It left her in just a tiny pair of panties and it made her styled hair and make-up stand out that much more than it had with the dress on.

“Okay, I have to admit that was neat.” I said and she chuckled.

“I have to try and see if I can get the designs for it.” Luxea said and stepped out of it, turned it off and hung it in the closet. “I want to try and adapt it for normal use.”

I stood there as she started to help me undress. I helped when directed and she stripped me down to my underwear. “Shower time?” I asked, and she nodded. We took a quick shower, since we were both tired, and then we went to bed to go to sleep. Unlike the first couple of times, it no longer felt awkward and we cuddled together under the blanket.

“You know, I feel kind of guilty that I'm using you like this.” Luxea said.

“Yeah, me too.” I said, and she looked at my face. “We can't do anything, and I know it's probably driving you crazy that I'm holding you like this and it's not going anywhere.”

“Hunter, it's not driving me crazy.” Luxea said, and I looked back at her. “That first time when... well, I really... despite it being an automatic reaction on my part when I rolled over on top of you, it was the first time that...” She smiled. “Even when I rubbed myself on you, you weren't trying to paw at me or tried to take advantage of me.”

I chuckled. “I can't say the same.”

“Hey, I said I was sorry!” Luxea said with a smile. “Anyway, the next time it didn't happen, and not the next time, either. We just... look at us. We aren't dating and we aren't having sex, and yet we're here in bed together and sleeping like an old married couple.”

“You mean platonic, don't you?”

“Yes, that's it exactly. It's comforting to just hold someone as tightly as I want.”

“I'm a life-sized teddy bear, then.” I said and she looked at me with an odd expression.

“What's a teddy bear?” Luxea asked.

“It's a soft plush toy for children to cuddle.”

“Oh! You mean a toy bear.” Luxea said and put her head back down onto my chest. “Why did you call it a teddy?”

“To be honest, I think it's a nickname and I've always called it that, even though it actually is a toy bear.” I said and gave her a little squeeze. “I'm using you for comfort as well.”

“What?!? I didn't know that! Oh, no!” Luxea exclaimed and fake gasped, then started laughing. That made me laugh, too. After a few minutes we both calmed down and relaxed, then drifted off to sleep.

The next morning during breakfast, Rhubin came in and we told him about having to meet with Uzahne in her office about work. After he got a shower to get rid of the distinct fish smell that clung to him, the three of us ate and left the ship. We had to ask for directions to the new government offices and went there. The station plans Luxea had on her datapad hadn't been updated to reflect the new layout yet. When we got there, Uzahne, Ahaen, Sheph, and the captain of the station were there waiting for us.

“Good morning.” Uzahne greeted us as we sat down. “Did you sleep well?”

The three of us said we did, which we would have said even if we hadn't. It was a pleasantry that you always responded to positively, so we did.

“Captain.” I said and looked at the captain of the station. “I didn't see you last night.”

“It's Admiral, now.” She said and pointed to her lapel with her normal hand to show me that she had four dashes instead of two. “I've never been one for galas like that and I wasn't going to dance, either.” She held up her claw hand to show that she had no way to hold someone's hand to dance with them.

“I'm sure Rhubin would have asked you to dance anyway.” I said.

“Not you?” The captain asked.

“I'm not one for galas, either.” I responded. “Plus, I can't dance like a crab.”

The admiral chuckled. “There was also no need for me to attend, since I wasn't part of handing out the medals after the meal.”

“I told you that you could have presented them with us.” Uzahne said, and the admiral shrugged.

“Let's just get to the reason why we're all here so early.” Ahaen said.

Uzahne glared at her for a moment, then sighed. “We want to hire you to make a special delivery.”

“No.” I said, and everyone turned to look at me.

“Hunter, we can at least hear her out.” Luxea said.

“No, we don't.” I said. “I won't deliver a missile or a bomb to the enemy's home world.”

Luxea gasped and looked at Uzahne's face... and didn't see surprise there. “He... he's right?!?”

“We don't have any ship available that can get there before they have their own forces built up again.” Uzahne said. “They destroyed every warship we had available and then murdered all the government officials, not to mention every one of the civilians that lived in the capital city and surrounding area.”

“Yes, and it was a horrible loss of life.” I said. “Why do you want to do that back to them?”

Ahaen held a hand up and then her index finger. “Retaliation.” She put up the middle finger. “Revenge.” She put up the ring finger. “They deserve it.” She put up her pinkie finger. “They did it to us.” She closed her hand and made a fist.

“Does that mean you know what city I should bomb to get their government?” I asked.

They exchanged glances and didn't say anything.

“Does that mean it doesn't matter what city I bomb, as long as it's a city about the same size?”

They all looked uncomfortable, and I smiled.

“You haven't thought that far ahead, have you?” I asked, and they still didn't respond. “Well, I have.”

“Wh-what?” Uzahne looked surprised.

“Right now, you have the moral high ground. They bombed the planet and killed civilians.” I looked at the admiral of the station. “What was the estimated population?”

“Nine million.”

“You hear that?” I asked. “Nine million civilians killed in a fleet battle! That's outrageous!”

“It is!” Ahaen said. “That's why...”

“...you should start a communications campaign against them! Contact the galactic core and let everyone know that these alien assholes are unscrupulous and vicious for killing civilians with ship weapons!” I said adamantly. “I don't think you should call for help, since someone might take advantage of your vulnerability and swoop in and assume control.”

“We... we were actually going to do that.” Uzahne said. “Call for help, I mean.”

“You still can, if you trust someone enough to give them military control of the system.”

“We have a few hundred of the mobile weapons platforms spread out over the system now.” The admiral of the station said. “We don't have much of a mobile space force, because it takes so long to build a ship from the ground up.”

“Then build paper tigers.” I said, and she looked at me with confusion. “Build the outside frame of a large ship and not the entire inside. Put a few weapons on it and basic engines. It doesn't even need a hyperdrive generator or a full crew. It only needs to look imposing and not actually be imposing.”

“By the Goddess.” The admiral said as she stared at me. “You're a genius!”

“With them 'protecting' you, you can build actual ships and not have to worry about being overrun, as long as you keep those weapon platforms handy.”

The admiral stood up and looked at Uzahne. “With your permission, I need to get this plan underway immediately.”

“Please do.” Uzahne said.

The admiral walked around the table and stopped beside me, put a hand on my shoulder for a moment, then left the room at a jog.

“You've successfully won another one over.” Ahaen said, a little crossly.

“Someone being nice to me doesn't mean that I've won them over.” I said, and she huffed.

“Hunter.” Uzahne said. “If you won't make the delivery, then we want to hire you as a scout ship for...”

“Absolutely not.” I flatly refused and cut her off. “How many times do I have to keep telling you that I won't risk my ship or my crew over something stupid?”

“If you won't do either of those things for us, then you are dismissed!” Ahaen said, clearly angry.

“Actually, I was wondering if Uzahne had any luck with the 'maybe' part of our deal.” I said, and looked at her face. I saw disappointment there, so I stood up without hearing her answer. “I'll take that as a no, and that means our business here is done.”

“Yes it is!” Ahaen pointed to the door. “Now get out!”

I ignored her order. “I hope you remember all of the excellent work that The Wave did for you and not the atrocity we refused to do.” I said to Uzahne, who took a deep breath and let it out.

“Hunter, I...”

“Goodbye.” I said and nodded to her, then to Sheph, then looked at Ahaen. I could see anger there, so instead of nodding, I turned away from her and went out the door with Luxea and Rhubin right behind me.

“YOU...” The door shut and cut off what she yelled. I could see her gesturing wildly and saw Uzahne as she tried to calm the irate woman down.

“That was diplomatic.” Luxea said with a chuckle as we walked back to the ship.

“She's been unnecessarily angry at me for a while and I don't know why.” I said.

“You could have asked her about it.” Rhubin said.

“What? Do you really think she would tell me what was really wrong?” I asked, and he shook his head.

“How long to prep and get us off the station?” I asked. “Before someone comes up with a lame excuse to keep us here.”

“The ship's on standby, so about ten minutes.” Rhubin said. “What about the last of the rescue supplies that are still in the cargo hold?”

“Luxea and I will check them over and see what we should keep and what we can get rid of.” I said as we walked down the hallway. “I'm taking a detour to the medical bay to check on the injured.”

We all went there and saw the people that were still recovering from their injuries. Some of them were going to take a lot longer than a few days to get better. We talked to a few of them, and I was surprised that I didn't see the woman that had broken ribs. I asked about Melanie, and the medical personnel said she was back on duty. Since there was no chance I was going to track her down in the next few minutes, we left the med-bay and went to the large docking bay at the back of the station where our ship was.

“We might have to move some or most of the supplies still in the hold into the storage cabinets inside the ship to clear the way for all of the salvage we're about to take on.” I said.

“Salvage?” Rhubin looked at me with raised eyebrows as we entered the main hatch of the ship. “What salvage?”

“Have we been here long enough for you to forget that we have salvage rights to the wrecks?” I asked with a huge smile.

Rhubin stopped walking and shut the main hatch. “You can't be serious.”

“Hey, they are all in a nice stable orbit just past the inner planet. No crossing paths, no random flying debris everywhere, and no other ships are allowed to go there because of the hazard.”

“We can't take a lot of things because we don't have the room.” Luxea said.

“You might think that.” I said with a crooked smile.

“Oh, I know that smile.” Luxea said. “That's your crazy idea smile.”

“How could you know that?” I asked. “I've never used it before.”

Luxea and Rhubin exchanged glances and looked back at me. “If you say so.” They said at the same time, and I laughed.

“Damn, you've found me out.” I said.

“What's your idea?” Luxea asked.

“I'm glad you asked that, chief engineer.” I said and put my arm over her shoulders.

“Chief... oh, no. No, no no no.” Luxea shook her head. “You can't be thinking what I think you're thinking.” She said. “We cannot build a new storage area onto the ship!”

“You know how big the shuttle is, right?” I asked her. “Well, I was out there and I saw that it was just barely covered by the ship's deflector screens and that it's dangerously close to being exposed.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Rhubin asked.

“It's simple, really.” I said with a grin. “It means that we have that much room all over the top of the ship before something is out past the deflector screens.”

“Okay, that's crazy.” Rhubin said. “You can't honestly expect the ship to fly fast with almost double its mass!”

“That's the funny thing about space travel. We only have to be careful about the movement starting and stopping and not the speed in between, since everything we carry is weightless.” I said.

Rhubin frowned slightly. “But... we'll lose our ability for quick manoeuvres at short range.”

“Only while we have the collapsible temporary storage racks on the top of the ship.” I said.

Luxea caught her breath and turned to give me a hug as her eyes sparkled. “Hunter! You're a genius!”

“I'm just adapting the temporary airlock idea for cargo.” I said. “It doesn't even have to be a standard size. We'll have tons of free materials from the wrecks to make it any size that we want, fill it with salvage, then attach it to the ship with magnetic locks and cables like we did to the shuttle.”

“It won't damage the hull or be permanent.” Rhubin said. “It should also give us about eight times our normal cargo capacity.”

“So, what do you think, chief engineer?” I asked Luxea. “Want to give my idea a go?”

Luxea beamed a smile up at me. “Try and stop me!”

“Now that's what I want to hear.” I said. “Let's get to work.”

We had the rescue supplies sorted and kept what we needed or thought would be useful, then put the rest onto the deck beside the ship. I was tempted to requisition one of the heavy maintenance droids that were working in the dock for our salvage operation, then realized I would probably have to talk to the government officials to get their permission for the loan. I really didn't want to do that, so our ship left the docking bay with almost no notice and barely a cursory 'cleared for departure' message from the station.

Once we were out of the hanger and into space, Luxea had the navigation computer reconfigured to track down the markers that the rescue teams had used to mark the wrecks for the booster teams. We had received the ten brand new spacesuits from the station, so Luxea had no trouble getting changed into one. I put on the same one I had before, and Rhubin docked the ship to one of the biggest wrecks.

“Okay we're hooked. There's still power and air, so be careful what you do over there.” Rhubin said.

Luxea and I went through the main hatch on the ship and into the wreck. She pointed to the left and I followed her down the hallway. I didn't ask where we were going, since I would find out eventually anyway. She led me down another hallway and through a hatch, then pointed to the side at a set of double doors.

“Do you have that key handy?” Luxea asked with a smile. I chuckled and took out my Light sword and set it to one foot long, one inch wide, and normal intensity. When I activated it, she gasped.

“Don't worry about the size. It's cold in here.” I said, and she burst out laughing. I jammed the Light sword into the panel beside the door, just in case the doors had some kind of security system that we didn't know about, then I quickly cut around the double doors. I grabbed then with Presence Hands and pulled them out of the way, and inside was what looked like a mechanics shop with every kind of tool and machine that anyone could ever think of.

“Now we can have some real fun.” Luxea said with a gleam in her eye.