I stopped at the electronics store and picked up the replacement items, stayed for a while with the people that worked there as a thank you, then flew the shuttle back to the ship. I was back on the ship barely half an hour when a news story broke. Apparently, one of the people the woman-fish had coerced was married and had influenced a particular bill that funnelled a lot of the money from her relief efforts right into her and her family's pockets.

It was quite the scandal, and I had to smile every time she tried to mention that I was involved with her. Public opinion turned against her, even when she tried to use her ability. Of course, thanks to my warning the major of her security detail, everyone she came into contact with was checked for influence and treated. She wasn't going to get away with her antics anymore. Her trial was set for the following month and they had, surprisingly, set three judges to oversee it. They would be rotated in and be checked for her influence. I thought that was a smart way to handle the situation and it would ensure a fair trial.

Two days later Rhubin had temporarily hired six women and they were brought out to the ship with the food supplies. While the supplies were being transferred to the new ship, I went to meet the new hires in the living room. I had barely entered the room when one of the women squealed like a little girl and shook. I went right over to her and took her hand, filled her with calm, and Rhubin led her out of the room. The other five women watched them leave and then looked back at me.

“This isn't a social gathering. We're here to work and it's going to be dangerous.” I said and they nodded. “I just hope she wasn't the combat pilot I asked for.”

One of the women lifted her hand. “I'm the combat pilot.”

I looked at her and saw the scars scattered around her arms, then I looked through her generic jumpsuit and saw that her legs were covered as well. “I assume you didn't want to take the downtime for the medical bay to finish their work?”

She gave me a stern look for a second, then she chuckled. “I spent a goddamn week floating in that medical gel tank and I couldn't take it anymore.”

“I've been there.” I said and reached up for my hair, then sighed. “I never cut my hair, not once, and then poof... one explosion and it was all gone.”

Two of them sighed as well and I heard them think about seeing my hair from the bar.

“I'm tempted to tell you the extent of my injuries; but, that's not why I'm here.” I said and pointed to the doorway. “That was why I'm here. Anyone that can't stand to be in the room with me without reacting, can't be trusted to pilot the ship or the shuttle. I can't afford for them to be distracted.”

The five women there nodded. They were of various ages, between twenty-five and forty.

“This isn't the ship we'll be staying on, either.” I said.

“We'll be flying the destroyer?” One of them asked.

“It's actually a passenger and cargo transport. At least, the original design was. It was adapted to be a warship... a bad warship, actually... and it has subtle differences. The engines, no observation bubbles, and at the moment, no weapons arrays.”

“At the moment?” The combat pilot asked.

“When we showed up in this system with it, it was immediately identified as a warship, despite what it actually was. So, I've decided to arm it. Eventually, anyway. My first priority is to salvage these alien wrecks as quickly as possible, so they can be smelted down and made useful by your people.”

“So that's what you've been doing!” One of the other women said. “There's been rumours floating around about what you were doing out here, especially when you... ah...”

“Go ahead and say it.” I said and she didn't say anything. “I know you think I was wasting my time by visiting the planet and causing a commotion. Both times.”

“You're not going to fire me for that, are you?” She asked, and I chuckled.

“No, as long as you don't think I'm always like that.” I said and she closed her mouth. “I did what I did for a reason. Well, several reasons, actually. One was to correct a mistake on my part and the second was to bolster the opinion of the people for the military.”

“I saw that.” The combat pilot said. “The approval rating shot up ten points because of you.”

“That much?” I asked, surprised. “I just wanted people to appreciate how hard you are all working to get back up to fighting strength.”

“By dancing.” The combat pilot said with a grin.

“Hey, it worked.” I grinned back. “Like I said at the time, I didn't expect so many volunteers for it.”

“I really wanted to do that!” One of the others said. “It looked like so much fun!”

I chuckled and looked at their faces. “I assume the experts are still trying to figure it out?”

“You know they are.” The combat pilot said. “I don't suppose you want to reveal the secret?”

I laughed. “Even if I told you, there's no way for you to reproduce it.” I saw her face close down and held up my hand. “I didn't mean to imply that you or your people aren't smart. I meant that even if I gave you the secret and showed you how to use it, it's specifically keyed to me and no one else but me can use it.”

She stared at me for a moment. “Really? It's that exclusive?”

“It's even more exclusive than that.” I said. “What I used at the time was destroyed and can't be used again.”

“Oh, wow.” One of the other women said. “No wonder you didn't want to do it again.”

“I actually lost a hundred of them during the explosion.” I said and all five women caught their breath.

“A hundred.” One of them said, barely above a whisper. “Wow.”

“I won't mention everything else I lost that day.” I said and their eyes sharpened as they looked at my fuzzy head. They knew that it had been bad; but, no one had any idea how badly I had been hurt.

“Can you show us?” The combat pilot asked before she caught herself. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean... it's not like I want to see it... it's just...”

I thought about saying no, then I saw their concerned faces. I turned to the console at the side of the room and brought up the security footage from the medical facility. Luxea had been... upset... that they wouldn't let her come and see me, so she had hacked their systems and taken everything related to me. I didn't show the surgery, though. I skipped right to the part where they stripped me off and put me into the medical gel tank and all of my burns, scars, and missing parts were clearly seen.

“Oh, goddess.” One of them whispered and looked at me. “How... how did you...”

“Magic.” I said and they didn't believe me, so I turned it off. “So, who wants to take the first run out to the wrecks?”

All five of them raised their hands and I chuckled.

“Random it is, then.” I said. “Grab your things and follow me to the other ship.”

“Sir.” They said and I followed them to the shuttle hatch, waited for them to get their personal belongings, then I led them to the ship's main hatch and into the other ship.

“This is pretty nice.” One of them commented as we walked.

“It was a passenger ship, so there's quite a few nice compartments for people to say in.” I said and came to a stop behind the cockpit. “I chose the ones closest to the cockpit for you to stay in, since they are pretty much all the same.” I waved at the doors in the hallway on either side. “If you want to move to one of the others on the ship, for more privacy or whatever, just let me know.”

They nodded and I motioned to the cockpit for them to go in.

“This place is huge! We can all fit in here!” One of them said.

“With five of us, we can split the shifts with two of us on duty and one in the shuttle, with two people resting, or only one in the cockpit and one in the shuttle and the others rest.” The combat pilot said. “As long as I'm the one in the shuttle.”

The other four chuckled. “There's only one of you, so you're going to have longer shifts.”

“No, she won't.” I said and the five women looked at me. “Six hours on, a two hour break, six hours on and then ten hours off.”

“That's SAR standard procedure.” The combat pilot said and I nodded.

“I know it seems a little wasteful of time; but, on that schedule, we were never exhausted. We were well rested and alert, the tension was reduced, and we worked hard because we knew it wasn't going to be long when we could take a break.”

“If that's how you want to run it, I won't argue.” The combat pilot said.

I chuckled. “I know you're eager to get out there and prove that you've still got it, so once you're settled in your rooms, we can get started.” I looked at the other four women. “You'll have to fight off to see who goes first.”

The women stared at me with their mouths slightly open and I laughed.

“I'm just kidding. I don't even know your names yet.” I said and held a hand out to the closest woman. “Hi, I'm Hunter.”

The woman smiled at me as she took my hand and shook it. “Beatrice.”

“Deborah.” The second woman said and shook my hand next.

“Eugleasiastis.” The third woman shook my hand and I raised my eyebrows at her, and she laughed. “Just call me Gleas. All my friends do.”

“That's definitely easier to say.” I said and shook the fourth woman's hand.

“Kalina.” She said and squeezed my hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Likewise.” I said and turned to the combat pilot.

She took my hand and shook it. “I'm Perginia.”

“We should get your gear stowed in your rooms.” I said and looked at them all. “Is there any chance you brought space suits with you?”

They gave me sad faces and I couldn't help but laugh.

“I didn't mean to make you sad. I just wanted to know if you needed one issued or not.”

“We need them issued.” Kalina said. “They are too expensive to buy personal ones and they are also difficult to store and take with you on different jobs.”

“Depending on the size and weight requirements, sometimes we can't have much more than toiletries and a change of clothes.” Gleas said.

“Oh, I hate those close quarters jobs.” Beatrice said. “They overload the air filters with having so many people onboard at once!”

“Tell me about it.” Gleas said. “The last time I was on one, they only had one shower for ten people!”

Perginia laughed. “You had showers?”

The other women groaned, because they knew full well what that meant in a space ship with a closed air system.

“I guess it's a good thing you're flying in a passenger craft this time.” I said and they nodded. “Let me show you the rooms.”

The women were blown away at the rooms. Two of them commented that they were bigger than their apartments. When I showed them the bathrooms, they all couldn't help but be happy at the large tubs and shower stalls.

“I am definitely going to like it here.” Deborah said. “I'll take first shift if someone wants to be my co-pilot.”

Beatrice nodded. “It'll let me familiarize myself with the cockpit while you handle the grunt work.”

Deborah chuckled. “Sounds good to me.”

“Then first shift, first room.” I said and floated in Deborah's bags. The women stared at them and then stared at me. “I brought all the bags.”

The women stepped back out into the hallway and all of their bags were floating in the air.

“How are you doing that?” Gleas asked.

“Levitation.” I said. “Beatrice, the room across the hall or next door?”

“Next door, please.”

I floated her bags into that room, then the other women picked their rooms and I put their bags inside. “You've got half an hour to settle in, then we'll start the first shift.” I said and they nodded and went to their rooms. I walked down the hallway and went into my temporary room to meditate. When the time was up, I left my temp room and walked down the hallway to one of the many storage lockers. They had been empty before and now they were stocked full of space suits, recovery packs, med packs, emergency kits, and tools used for rescues.

I took out five of the space suits that would fit almost anyone and hovered them in the air. They weren't the cheap generic suits, either. They were the military ones that Luxea and I had salvaged from the other wrecks, so that should make my new pilots happy. I carried them down the hallway and knocked on each woman's door, then handed each of them a suit. They didn't comment at the high quality and accepted them, even Perginia.

“Don't worry. If things work out and you get hired for the job, you'll have a custom flight suit.” I said and all five women were both surprised and delighted. “Now, just to be clear... this isn't a competition.” I looked at each woman in the eye. “The trial period is to determine your skills, your ability to handle difficult situations, and working in a stressful environment... namely a huge debris field of wrecked space ships. There is to be no sabotaging anyone else. You are here to work, not fight.”

“What about your joke earlier about fighting to see who goes first?” Gleas asked with a grin.

I grinned back. “It was a joke and I don't mind joking around, as long as it doesn't endanger anyone.” I said. “Despite my mean appearance and sour expression, I'm actually a bit of an asshole.”

Perginia laughed out loud and Deborah and Gleas chuckled, because they had expected me to say I was a nice guy. Kalina and Beatrice knew I was being serious and didn't laugh, so I gave them a slight nod.

“Kalina and Gleas, you're on personal time until your flight shift tomorrow, assuming you're taking it together.” I said. “I might make it standard to have two pilots, that way one can be primary for the first six hours and the other can take over for the second six hours. What does everyone think of that?”

“We can split the shifts for the first week and see how it goes.” Gleas said and the others nodded. “Depending on the workload, we might only need one person for both shifts, or one per shift. It would give us a lot of downtime like that, though.”

I nodded. “We'll play around with the schedules at the end of the week and talk it over. I want this to run smoothly and efficiently. The happier you are with your working arrangements, the better off everyone is.”

“I can't believe you're giving us full pay right away and not working us to death for it.” Perginia said and two of the other women hissed and told her to be quiet.

I smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. “You're only getting a base pay. Until you're hired by the company, you don't get access to the salvage percentages on the sales.”

“You give employees percentages?” Beatrice asked, completely shocked. “But... but...”

“Only if you're hired.” I said. “I can't remember what we made the last time we salvaged so many wrecks; but, let's just say that you're standing in a good portion of it.”

“Oh, goddess.” Gleas whispered. “You bought a medium sized cargo ship with salvage money?”

“And a shuttle.” I said and they stared at me. “We have three shuttles now, by the way.”

Perginina caught her breath and I felt her shake under my hand. I squeezed her shoulder and let it go.

“Deborah and Beatrice. Stations, please.” I said and both women nodded and walked into the cockpit. I motioned for Perginina to come with me and we stepped into the cockpit as well. I used the communications console to call Rhubin. “Hey, Rhubin. We're ready to launch for the first test run.”

“All right. Closing everything up.” Rhubin said and Deborah did the same thing. “All green. Unlocking temporary docking ring.”

We heard the click of the metal as the ring disengaged and the ship vibrated a little.

“Aaaaaand you're clear.” Rhubin said and smiled from the small display. “Good hunting.”

“Hardy har har.” I said. “Talk to you later.”

“Do you want to say goodbye to the girls?” Rhubin asked and glanced to the side.

“If Luxea is there, tell her that I'll apologize later for being an ass about what happened. If Simone is there, she already knows I'm an ass and I'll apologize later for what I did to her in the shower.”

“You should be more careful about what you say in mixed company.” Rhubin laughed. “Have fun.”

The communications console went blank and I looked at the women around me. Their thoughts were running through all of the things that I could do to a woman in the shower.

“It was completely plat...” I stopped talking, because I was going to say it was platonic and that nothing had happened. What actually happened was I indulged myself and Simone had taken it and not said anything. “It was a shared personal moment and...” I stopped again, because I couldn't say that there was nothing sexual about it, not after Simone had finished and she wanted me to lick her all over. “I'm just going to stop talking now.”

Perginia laughed. “I think that would be for the best.” She said. “We should get to the shuttle.”

“We can get changed into the space suits there.” I said and looked at the co-pilot. “Beatrice, bring up the low priority wreck list. We're going to the second one.” I looked at Deborah. “I won't tell you how to fly. So just get us into the best position to keep the ship safe and still leave us with the ability to launch the shuttle.”

Deborah gave me a knowing smile and nodded, so I led Perginia out of the cockpit and all the way to the back of the space ship, then we went down the stairs and all the way to the front of the ship.

“Where's the shuttle?” Perginia asked as she looked around the huge cargo area.

“Right here.” I said and entered the code to open the shuttle bay.

“You have a SHUTTLE BAY!” Perginia yelled and ran inside, then she gasped at the shuttle in the middle and the two shuttles that hung on the walls. “What in the seven hells...” She walked over to one and looked at the force field. “You have the gravity off!”

I chuckled. “That was Rhubin's idea. He apparently likes having access to more than one shuttle.” I said. “We're taking the main one, though.”

Perginia nodded and we boarded the shuttle. She wasn't shy about taking off her bulky normal clothing and I turned away from her.

“Are you shy?” Perginia asked with a laugh. “I'm wearing a body suit.”

I turned back to look at her as she pulled on the space suit. “I thought it was you that wasn't shy.”

Perginia laughed. “I'm not; but, I figured we would be flying and wore this under my clothes.” She plucked at the stretchy fabric that covered her chest. “I'm really glad you have the better space suits.”

“Me, too. I've worn the standard ones over my uniform and they fit... but...”

“Restrictive, I know.” Perginia said and closed up her suit, then placed her helmet on the back of the pilot seat. “I assume you're staying with the standard one?”

I nodded. “I'm wearing my powered armor for safety reasons.”

“Then suit up and I'll have us powered up and out of here as soon as we're in position.”

I nodded and quickly checked and put on my space suit, the same one I've worn every time I've gone out into space. Just as I finished and hooked a Light sword to my belt, the ship's intercom beeped.

“Okay, we're in position.” Deborah said. “Beatrice is sending you the data for the wreck and the flight path.”

“Thanks.” Perginia said and the bay doors opened up. “What a sight.” She said and I looked out the cockpit to see what she was seeing. Floating a few hundred feet in front of us was a large chunk of a ship. If I had to make a guess, it was a side section with almost nothing inside. It still had to be checked for hazards, though.

“Take us out.” I said and she deftly used the shuttle controls to float us out of the ship and swung around the wreck.

“There's half of a shuttle hatch there if you want me to try and dock to it.” Perginia said with a chuckle.

I chuckled as well. “We can't take the chance it might damage the shuttle's dock, so just get me close and keep on station.”

“You're the boss.” Perginia said and swung the shuttle up onto its back end, turned part way around the wreck, then eased the shuttle to within ten feet of the hull to put the side hatch right there. She grabbed her helmet and donned it, then raised the bulkhead. “Ten seconds to depressurize.” She said and counted down, then all the air was sucked out of the shuttle. “Clear to disembark.”

I opened the door and the hull was right in front of me. I held in my laugh as I activated my Light sword and floated out, then cut a man sized hole in the hull. I heard someone gasp over the suit com and ignored it as I pushed the cut section out of the way. I floated into the ship section and discovered that I was right. There were no high priority things in it, so I scavenged a ton of low priority things. It didn't take me long to strip it and get the things back into the shuttle, then I took the person analog and tucked it into one of the small service ways near the wall of the hull.

“Next on the list.” I said as I went back to the shuttle and closed the hatch.

“Docking back on the mother ship.” Perginia said and flipped us around and gently flew us... backwards... over to the shuttle bay and landed.

“Okay, that was just showing off.” I said over the suit com.

Perginia laughed and hit the ship intercom button as the bay doors closed. “Baby on board, Mother.”

Deborah snorted a laugh. “I'm too young to have kids.” She said. “Hang on, we're heading to the next wreck. ETA, ten minutes.”

“Roger that.” Perginia said and looked down at the screen that showed her the back with me in it. I gave her a thumbs up gesture and she smiled.