It took a week to get back to the empty jump point that we had used previously, and now we had about six hours to cross the space to the next jump point. We could have jumped again right away; but, Luxea warned us about excessive wear and tear on the ship, especially with all of the extra mass we were carrying. So, we floated along at a good speed without rushing, since there was no one here to show off to. That made me chuckle, since Rhubin had argued several times that he liked to show off to himself and didn't need an audience.

We were barely an hour in normal space when the sensors detected movement. Rhubin called us to the cockpit and Luxea sat down and used the active scanners to check the surrounding area.

“Oh, damn.” Luxea said with a sigh and looked at us. “We're inside a sensor net.”

“Inside a...” Rhubin shook his head. “There can't be a net here. We're in the middle of nowhere!”

“There's no way to detect who owns it or how long it's been here, is there?” I asked.

Luxea shook her head. “All I can say is, whoever it is knows we're here and...”

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

“Active scan just picked up a ship!” Luxea said and checked the data. “It's a fast courier ship!”

“A fast courier...” I paused and closed my eyes and felt the flow of Presence. “It's from The Order, isn't it?” I asked, and she nodded. “Can we outrun them?”

“If they weren't right on top of us, sure.” Rhubin said. “Luxea, get the navigation computer working on new jump coordinates.”

“It's already running.” Luxea said. “It's going to take a few minutes, though.”

“We need to stall or something.” Rhubin said. “Hunter, do you have any ideas?”

“Just one.” I said pointed to the communications controls. “Call them.”

*

Kara was ecstatic that they had only been waiting for a couple of hours when a ship entered the hastily constructed sensor net. Even with the right coordinates, there was always some drift between jumps and the computers almost always had to recalculate to ensure the drift wasn't catastrophic. The ship had only been a couple of degrees off of the projected course, and she told the pilot to power up and get them over to the ship as quickly as possible.

“It might not be them.” The navigator said.

“What do you mean?” Kara asked.

“The numbers I'm getting from the scan are way off from the ship specs we have on record.” He said.

“No, it has to be them.” Kara said as she felt the flow of Presence. “I know he's on that ship.”

“Well, we'll find out in a minute.” The pilot said. “They're not even trying to avoid us.”

Kara nodded, and then the navigator jerked his hand on the console. “What is it?”

“They're contacting us.” The navigator said, surprised.

Kara stepped to the side and out of the communicator's pick-up range and nodded. The navigator hit the accept button and a man's overly happy moustached face appeared on the small display.

“This is The Wave! Our fast courier ship is transitioning to another hyperspace jump point and we saw you on our scanner. Are you here doing that, too?”

“Actually...” The navigator started to say, and Kara stepped into the pick-up's range.

“Hello, Rhubin.” Kara said with a smile.

“Ah, dammit.” Rhubin said.

“Come to a full stop and prepare to be boarded.” Kara ordered. “The Order has unfinished business with you.”

“I.. ah... can't do that.” Rhubin said. “We've got too much cargo to...”

“We will open fire.” Kara said and nodded to the navigator, who powered up the small laser emitters on the front of the cockpit. “As you can now detect.”

“Yes, I see it.” Rhubin said as his face glanced down at the readout.

“The gunner is an expert, so the least that will happen is you'll lose power.” Kara said. “I hope you're wearing your flight suit in case of air loss.”

“That's quite a threat from a member of The Order, who is supposed to promote peace and calmness throughout the universe.” A man's voice said off-screen. “Or is that a lie as well?”

Kara caught her breath because she recognized the voice immediately. “Ullir.”

The view changed from Rhubin's face and showed her the upper torso and head of a man with a blast shield embedded into his face over his eyes. He had long and wild dirty blonde hair in a mass around his face.

“Wh-what happened to you?” Kara asked, her voice soft and shaky.

“Do you really want to know, or are you going to shoot a hole in the hull and kill me instead?” Ullir asked. “As you can see, I'm not wearing a spacesuit.”

Kara thought frantically for a moment. “Go put one on.”

Ullir chuckled and shook his head, which made his hair wave around his shoulders enticingly. “Why would I give up an advantage over you?”

“You... you don't need an advantage, Ullir.” Kara said. “Please, I just want to talk.”

“I don't need the Presence to tell me that was a lie.” Ullir said, and Kara closed her mouth. “You want a lot more than that.”

“Of course I do!” Kara exclaimed. “You assaulted the council! You assaulted me! Then you left! You left me! YOU ABANDONED ME!”

“You don't need to yell.” Ullir said. “I didn't abandon you, I fled from my captors.”

“I was not holding you captive!”

“No?” Ullir asked. “I wasn't allowed to leave your side, not even at night.” He said. “What would you call that?”

“I told you that you needed to be by my side constantly to learn.” Kara said. “All I wanted to do was teach you what you needed to know.”

“No, you wanted to teach me what you thought I needed to know, not what I should have known.” Ullir said. “Do you have any idea what it was like for me to go out into space and have no practical knowledge of anything?”

“I would have taught you about...”

“When? After I was killed on my first mission?”

“Ullir, that wasn't what the council intended.”

“You obviously weren't at the same meeting I was.” Ullir said. “They knew I wasn't going to join The Order, so they arranged to get rid of me before I could make the decision I was always going to make.” Ullir said. “Kara, stop deluding yourself. I was always going to leave. I wasn't going to be brainwashed by them, or by you, into joining an organization that killed my parents and my potential lover.”

“Wh-wh-WHAT?” Kara yelled.

“Do you really think I haven't kept track of the bounty on my head?” Ullir asked. “Now I'm wanted for three murders and the bounty is right up there with some of the worst criminals in this part of the universe.”

“I recommended against them making what happened at the resort public.”

“You got it wrong, though. I didn't murder them. Murder requires intent and premeditation. That wasn't what happened. Those men killed a woman who cared about me deeply, right in front of my eyes, and I lost control of myself and killed them.”

“I saw the bodies.” Kara said. “I also know how you did it.”

“Do you?” Ullir asked and held a fist up, and Kara gasped as small lightning bolts rolled around his knuckles. “I had no idea something like this existed, and then they killed her and my heart was so filled with anguish that lightning burst out from me and killed them.”

“Ullir...”

“I nearly died.”

“N-n-no.” Kara whispered and touched the display screen.

“I have permanent scars that will never fade because of what happened.”

“Y-your eyes.” Kara said. “Your beautiful eyes.”

Ullir stopped the lightning bolts and leaned in close to the communication display. “Why are you coming after me when you know I won't go back?”

“Because, I...” Kara stopped talking and frowned. “You're delaying me.”

“Of course I am.” Ullir said. “Luxea, do you have the new coordinates yet?”

“In another few seconds.” Luxea said.

Rhubin added power to the engines to get the ship up to speed.

“Open fire! Take out their navigation or their engines!” Kara exclaimed. “Don't let them get away!”

The navigator pulled the trigger and their laser emitter shot over a dozen shots and he walked them along the front and side of the ship to try and disable it. Both he and Kara were surprised when not one single shot came near the hull.

“Deflector screens are great, aren't they?” Ullir said from the communication display and Kara glared at him. “I'm tempted to use my new technique to disable your ship; but, I can't leave you stranded all the way out here like you were about to strand Rhubin and Luxea.”

“I would have sent someone to come and get them.” Kara said after a moment.

“They would get here eventually, or you would think they would, right?” Ullir asked, and she didn't respond. “The thing is, you wouldn't even think to check once you had me in custody.”

“Ullir, you need to answer for your crimes!” Kara said, and tears started in her eyes. “You've strayed so far from the path of Light!”

“And you haven't?” Ullir asked and she caught her breath. “You're so desperate to get me back that you just fired a dozen laser bolts at a fast cargo ship. Any one of those shots could have ruptured the hull and killed everyone inside, or hit the reactor and killed everyone inside, or...”

“The emitters only send out low power laser bolts.” Kara said.

“Ah, the justification of the righteous.” Ullir said. “Doesn't it feel great to know you're always right and everyone else has to bend to your will, all because you're a member of an all-powerful organization?”

“That's not what The Order does!”

“It's right in the name, Kara. The Order. What else would they do but impose order on everyone else?”

“Ullir, why are you fighting against me so much? I only want what's best for you!”

“Wow, the Presence really wavered there.” Ullir said. “I'm sure the other two members of The Order behind you are cringing right now at that blatant lie.”

“I will take you in to face your crimes.” Kara said, adamantly. “Once we get that out of the way, you can get back to living your life the way it should be lived.”

“With you.”

“Yes.” Kara said, then she caught her breath. “No, I... I meant...”

“On that truthful note, we're off.” Ullir said and waved. “If you need any fast cargo deliveries, call someone else. The Wave won't accept cargo or passenger work from The Order.”

“You can't just leave!”

“Sure we can.” Ullir said. “Watch us.”

“I know your ship! I know your company! I will find you!”

“If you can justify stopping an entire company's operations throughout the universe to look for one person on their ships, go ahead and try.” Luxea said. “I'll have The Order covered in trade sanctions from every trading hub on all of the major routes.”

“We have every right to stop your ship to apprehend a criminal!” Kara said.

“Well, you would think that.” Luxea said and smiled. “Oops! It looks like I almost leaked the footage of an Order ship opening fire on a poor defenseless fast cargo ship! No, wait! I did!”

Kara opened her mouth to respond, then they received a copy of that footage.

“Buh-bye!” Luxea said and waved, then Rhubin took the obvious cue and jumped to hyperspace.

“NOOO!” Kara yelled and punched the communications display and broke it.

*

“Okay, that was just mean.” I said with a grin to Luxea, and she laughed.

“I didn't actually leak it. I just sent it to them.” Luxea said. “They don't know that, though.”

“Do you think that's going to stop them from harassing us?” Rhubin asked.

“It's possible.” I said, then chuckled. “It's not likely, though.”

“I'll spread it around the Dizahl System discretely and see if we can get a bit of a public defense going.”

“Won't seeing our deflector screens give away that we weren't damaged?” Rhubin asked.

“What deflector screens?” Luxea asked and played the footage she had, and it only showed the shots and the ship shaking, and not the deflector screens protecting it.

“How did you do that?” I asked.

“I only used the feed from half of the sensors.” Luxea said. “It won't show up as fake, because it's not edited.”

I laughed and put a hand on her shoulder. “Now I wish I had footage of everything else that's ever happened to me at the hands of The Order.”

“We are NOT raiding The Order's home planet.” Luxea said flatly, and I laughed again.

“Let's just get back to what's going to become our base and off-load our salvage.” I said. “Once we do, we can put out some discreet inquiries for anyone looking for what we have.”

“We aren't selling to crooks and thieves.” Luxea said adamantly, and I gave her shoulder a squeeze.

“You're the one in charge of the business, so you get the last word.” I said, and she gave me a sincere and sweet smile before she nodded.

We made it back to the Dizahl System without incident and Luxea arranged for several large transshipment containers to be placed in orbit and linked together to make one large storage space. I asked her why she had bought so many, and she said we were going to fill them with the salvage from the Fogaris wrecks. She said it would take us about two months to get it all and bring it back here, so that's what we did. The 'new' warships in the Fogaris System greeted us like old friends and we had one of Luxea's whims pay off. She had bought a huge take out order from our favorite restaurant and we had filled our secondary cargo hold with it.

The crews of the ships were more than grateful for all of the great and free food. We delivered it to all the ships they had in orbit and each time we docked, handshakes and greetings abounded. Once you went through a horrible experience with someone, it formed a bond that wasn't quite friendship and was more than an acquaintance. It was hard to describe what it was like, because it was something I hadn't experienced before. We also discreetly dropped off another important shipment at the station that had filled our primary cargo hold. No one had ordered it; but, we knew that they really needed it.

After that, we went to the orbiting wrecks and worked day and night, took occasional breaks, and stripped the remains of the ships of everything we could. We even took the things we didn't think we could sell right away. Food synthesizers, formed chairs, and even artwork. You name it, we took it. We were all hysterical with laughter by the time we had finished. Once we were done and left the wrecks practically bare, I had Luxea message the station to let them know that they should send out one of the asteroid smelters to reclaim all of the metal so they could reuse it.

“Hunter! Was that one of your ideas that we couldn't use right away?” A woman's voice said outside of the communicator's pick-up.

“It is, because the ships needed to be stripped for it to work.” I said, then smiled. “Admiral? Is that you?” I asked and leaned over Luxea's shoulder to look into the communicator's pick-up, and I saw the admiral do the same to the woman on the screen.

“It is.” The admiral said and waved at me with a synthetic hand instead of her metal claw.

“I see you got my present.” I said, and she nodded.

“You don't know what that shipment means to us.” The admiral said.

“I visited the medical bay before we left the station that first time and I saw a lot of the patients taking too long to recover.” I said. “So, I have some idea what it means to you.”

“It must have cost a small fortune for all those medical supplies.” The admiral said. “Hunter, you need to visit here so I can thank you.” Her smouldering eyes gave away what she really intended to do. “Maybe we can get that blast shield removed from your face and fix your eyes, too.”

“You mean this old thing?” I asked and slid it off of my face, and her mouth dropped open.

“By the Goddess Chaiya.” The admiral whispered, her face shocked.

“Try to keep it a secret.” I said and gave her a crooked smile and a wink, which made her catch her breath. I slipped the blast shield back on and shook my head to cover the sides with my hair. “It was nice meeting you, admiral.”

“Shanifra.” The admiral said. “My name is Shanifra.”

I put a hand over my heart and bowed my head to her. “Shanifra, I must take my leave. I may return someday, especially if you need a fast courier and cargo ship's services.”

“Why couldn't you charm me like this in person?” Shanifra asked, a little sadly.

“It's safer for me this way.” I said, and she smiled, then chuckled, then laughed.

“Point taken.” Shanifra said. “Safe travels, and may the Goddess watch over you.”

We flew out to one of the many safe jump points, entered hyperspace, and left the Fogaris System behind. During this last trip, we had done a cursory survey of the enemy ships and they didn't have anything that we could use, since it was all different standards than what we had already harvested, so we left it all untouched. The Fogaris government could deal with it themselves.

We went back to the Dizahl System and had filled several transshipment containers with salvage. Luxea, being the industrious businesswoman she was, already had a buyer for most of the ship weapons and the hyperspace generators. When she mentioned to the buyer about the generic equipment and items we had taken from the Fogaris fleet ships, they practically begged her to add that to the deal.

She agreed and increased the price accordingly, then asked if they wanted it delivered. They did, so we spent a good portion of a week delivering them to the second planet and the same company that we had delivered their errant employee to. The Bogorim Corporation.

The same alien we had dealt with before did this deal as well. It seemed he always did the important transactions when it affected the company, and he was delighted to conclude the deal quickly. He had even complimented us on the very clean salvage operation we must have had and he said he would keep us in mind if he needed our services again, then walked away without a care in the world.

“We just made a fortune in credits.” Luxea said as she looked at the enormously high numbered credit chip in the small metal case. “Now what do we do?”

“Well, it's been a while since we had a good meal.” I said with a smile.

“I'm driving!” Rhubin exclaimed and pulled us into the ship. We laughed and left the planet at our best speed, then flew back to the station to have another meal like kings.

With an unbelievable amount of credits in our ship, with a backup on the galactic net in case something happened to the ship, we could pretty much do what we wanted. So that's what we did. Over the next few months, we only took the jobs Luxea vetted and were legitimate, and I took bounty contracts that The Order had taken out on people. It didn't take long for word about me to get around, about a bounty hunter with a bounty on his head, who had the guts and the audacity to take bounties from the same organization that had a price on his head.

Surprisingly, that actually put me in high demand instead of being reviled or vilified. Of course, I kept to my word and the bounties I hunted down for The Order were recruited and not killed, faked their deaths, then we set them up with fake identities, lots of credits provided by the bounty, and weapons when necessary. It didn't take long to get an entire network of helpers and their families throughout a dozen star systems that had been victims of The Order, who didn't like what The Order was doing just as much as I didn't like it.

Luxea convinced me to not put a seismic charge on the station beside the super gas giant planet to get back at the port master for stealing our original communications array. Instead, we used its practically abandoned facilities as a staging and meeting area for covert operations... once I quietly removed the port master. His brother was much nicer to deal with, now that his conceited brother was gone. After a nice hefty bribe, he gave us access to all the data on the station and then left us completely alone.

We knew it was risky to work and discuss things there, since I still had all of my tracking devices on the ship. I thought about getting rid of them several times, then after discussing it with Luxea and Rhubin, we figured it was better to let The Order, or Kara specifically, to track our progress.

We weren't doing anything illegal, so she couldn't do anything openly against our company The Wave, and since as a bounty hunter I was doing The Order's dirty work, she couldn't get me for that, either. Kara followed us almost everywhere we went and kept trying to confront me. Sometimes for brief breaks her ship didn't appear in the same system before we jumped out. It was during one of these transfers that I realized The Order could only track us while in normal space, so we started to use that to our advantage.

The cat and mouse game we were playing had entered a new stage.

The mouse led the cat where they wanted and only gave them glimpses of the tail, mostly just to frustrate the cat for the mouse's amusement. We led them all over while we did jobs for both fun and profit, hunted bounties and built a reputation for ourselves. The entire time, I tracked the blue-skinned bastard that killed my parents and his movements. He was still kind of following the same pattern I had discovered almost a year ago, and after several long discussions with Luxea and Rhubin, we decided to set a trap for him the next time he left his base.

There was only one thing that I needed to do first.

I had Rhubin drop me off in a nearby system to my intended destination and I left all the tracking devices on the ship so I wouldn't be followed. I arranged for passage on a passenger ship to take me to the next system. I dressed in my black uniform of power armor, currently powered down because I had gotten used to wearing it when it ran out of power, then took off the company patches and the vest. I put on the blast shield over my eyes and fixed my hair, then took a small bag of luggage with me.

Luxea didn't say a word as we waited by the hatch for Rhubin to dock the ship to the temporary unloading area that didn't require a fee. When we felt the ship make contact and heard the clang of the docking clamps locking onto the ship, she put her arms around my neck, stood up on her toes, and kissed me. It was a goodbye kiss and had a little bit of desperation in it, so I put my arms around her and kissed her back. I felt her tremble slightly, I assumed because it wasn't like the kisses we normally shared and felt different.

Luxea only held the kiss for a few brief moments and then broke it, let my neck go, and stepped back. Her face was flushed red and she stayed quiet as Rhubin came running to the hatch.

“Don't forget to come back here in two weeks.” Rhubin said and held a hand out for me to shake. “Make sure you buy me something nice.”

I chuckled. “I doubt I'll have much time to go shopping.”

“Ah, well. Maybe next time.” Rhubin said with a smile. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.” I said and looked at Luxea, and she was no longer blushing. “See you in two weeks.”

Luxea only nodded and Rhubin opened the main hatch. I gave them a quick wave of my hand, picked up my bag, and left the ship. I felt their eyes follow me across the crowded landing area and I went over to the reception desk to pick up my physical tickets. They were already paid for, so when I proved I was who I was, they handed them over and I walked away down the station's main promenade. I easily avoided everyone as they seemed to walk randomly across my path, and made my way to the correct gate of departure.

I had about an hour before the ship I was on had to leave; but, I didn't have anything else to do so I boarded early and went to my assigned room. It was a three day leisurely trip to the next system, and I was very anxious to get there and get it over with. I chuckled at my churning emotions and used a mental technique to calm down. I entered a meditative state and the passenger ship left on schedule and drifted out from the station.

It took over a day to get to the hyperspace jump point and then we entered hyperspace. I was concentrating this time and only felt a small change in the flow of Presence, which was so unlike what I felt on my ship. I thought that was curious and filed that information away for later. The journey through hyperspace took about eighteen hours and we dropped back into normal space. It took almost another day to get to the station there and I was well prepared for what was about to happen next.

I left the ship and avoided everyone, just as I had during the trip, and made my way over to the planetary landing shuttles. After a short exchange and a credit transfer, I was on my way down to the planet's surface. When I got there, it was like an airport back on Earth. People were everywhere, and I looked around to see what way to go. A waving hand caught my eye and I turned that way.

“Over here!” The man said, and kept waving at me.

I pointed to myself and he nodded, so I walked over to him. I didn't feel any wavers in the Presence, so I knew he was genuine in his actions.

“Right this way, please.” He said and walked away through the crowd. I looked around to see if it was a joke, and he stopped and waved at me to follow. I was tempted to say no and walk in the other direction, then realized he was walking towards the main doors and there were several rows of hover cars there. Since I needed to go that way anyway, I followed him. He passed through the doors and took a left, then motioned dramatically at a waiting car.

I looked at him and then at the car. “I guess that saves me from having to hire someone.”

The man chuckled and opened the back door, and I climbed in with my bag. I was glad he didn't offer to take it from me and held it close. There was something very valuable inside and it wasn't leaving my sight. The man climbed into the front and powered up, then took off almost straight up.

“Hey, I didn't say where to go!” I said.

“I know where to go.” The driver said and hit the button to close the compartment between us to give himself privacy. I saw him hit a button by the steering wheel. “I have him secured. We are on our way.”

I looked down at the ground and saw we were already a hundred feet up, so I wasn't going to try to escape or jump from this height. I sighed and sat back to wait for us to land and then I would try to escape. We flew for about half an hour, passed several dozen other vehicles, then we suddenly dropped down in a long spiral.

I stared out through the front of the vehicle as we plummeted to the ground, then he pulled up and swung around a small landing area, then set the hover car down as light as a feather. I was a bit too stunned at the expert piloting that seemed to have been designed to keep me from trying to escape, and the man walked around and opened the door.

“Hurry, please.” He said and waved to the house.

I stepped out and looked at him. “What's going on?”

“All will be explained.” The man said and pointed, and I felt a very strong Presence enter my detection range. I turned around to look where it was coming from when the door to the quaint little house burst open.

“HUNTER!” Lashina yelled as she jumped down the stairs, used Presence to correct her trajectory before she landed, then ran over to me in an instant and hugged me.