Elsewhere

I opened my eyes and only saw pitch blackness.

“I didn't expect to see you this soon, Darling.” A sultry woman's voice came out of the darkness and I recognized it immediately.

“Black Laura.” I said with reverence.

“No need to be so formal.” Laura said as the darkness faded slightly and some semblance of light formed around me. She stepped forward into that light and tendrils of the darkness clung onto her and seemed reluctant to let her go. Her hair floated around her as if she was floating in water and she wore the same insubstantial dress she wore the last time I had seen her. My eyes roamed from her face to her breasts, then down to her slender hips and legs, then back up to her face.

“Mmm.” Laura shivered as she felt my reaction to seeing her. “Your personal situation has changed.”

I raised my eyebrows at her and she let out a sexy laugh. It was the kind of laugh that would attract the attention of every man in a room, and quite a few women. She stepped close to me and her black hair floated around us.

“You aren't completely whole, though.” Laura said and tapped the scars over my heart.

“Hailey.” I whispered.

“I still can't claim you if you aren't whole, Darling.” Laura whispered and her breath on my face made me shiver. It was a good shiver, too. “I suppose this is just another quick visit?” She asked, teasingly. “Are you that desperate to see me again? After that explosion wasn't enough for you?”

Now that I was back here, I remembered being here then. I brought my arms up and put them around her. “Laura, I... this time...”

“I know.” Laura said and put her arms around me. “I'll let Maleketh know.”

I leaned in and gave her a tender kiss and held it for several seconds. “Thank you for this. Again.”

Laura softly laughed. “You have work to do and I can help only as much as I am allowed.”

“Will you let me remember...”

“No.” Laura said. “You know the rules.”

“I forget them when I leave, just like I forget everything else that happened here.” I said, sadly.

“You couldn't do what needs to be done if you did.” Laura said with a smile. “Now kiss me again like you mean it.”

It was my turn to chuckle. “I always mean it.”

This time, I gave her a kiss as if she was all there was in the universe and she deserved to have everything given to her, even my life. Black Laura shuddered at my thoughts and emotions, as if she hadn't had someone offer her such things in a long time. We stayed there for what felt like both an eternity and only a moment at the same time, then she broke the kiss.

“Your friends need you.” Laura said.

I nodded and let her out of the embrace, then I reached up and caressed her cheek. “I'll try to not come back too soon.”

Laura let out a laugh. “You know I would take you in a heartbeat and keep you, if you would let me.”

“Now who's eager to see whom?” I asked and she turned her head and kissed my palm.

“If you only knew.” Black Laura said as she floated back into the darkness, as if the scene played in reverse, then the light faded and the blackness once again became all encompassing.

*

“ARGH!” I yelled as I woke up and felt a sharp pain in my chest, right where my heart was.

“Hunter!” Gleas exclaimed, then she relaxed. “You're okay.”

“Maybe.” I said and sat up and the thin blanket slid down. I saw two new scars had formed inside the two concentric rings of scars on my chest. I rubbed them and wondered what the hell had happened. “Where are we?”

“We're in hyperspace and travelling at point five past light speed.” Gleas said. “You've been unconscious for almost a week.”

The numbers rolled around in my head. “You're taking us all the way back and it's taking twice as long?” I asked and she nodded.

“The ship took too much damage to stay on mission.” Gleas said. “I can't explain how it happened.”

“Unfortunately, I can.” I said. “How is everyone?”

“Shaken up.” Gleas said and reached for the intercom button. “Hunter's awake.”

Barely five seconds later, Deborah, Jelly, and Simone were in the medical bay and had surrounded me. I was covered in hugs and brief kisses for several moments, even from Gleas, then Simone had the others move back and put her forehead on mine.

“Tell us what happened.” Simone ordered me. She knew about it but the others needed to hear it.

“The short version is that the star in that system was being consumed.” I said and saw and felt their shock. “It's Presence is being siphoned off by a divine being.”

“I didn't feel anything; but, when Gleas said it was a brown dwarf star...” Simone started to say.

I nodded. “You remembered my adventures on Relique and what I found through the portal cracks.”

“I don't understand how it can be happening here, though.” Simone sighed.

“We are all missing some very important information here.” Gleas said and squinted her eyes at me. “I think you need to explain a few things.”

I sat back and rested against the top of the bed and created enough chairs with Presence for everyone to sit. “This might take a while.”

“We've got another week of travel before we have to attempt to leave hyperspace.” Gleas said.

“What do you mean, 'attempt to'?” I asked, then I heard the thoughts from the surface of her mind. “Well, damn.”

“Two of Adona's engines are scrap.” Gleas said. “The top of the ship is... crushed.”

“The worst part of all that is the hyperspace generator was damaged.” Deborah said.

“Since we're in hyperspace right now... without a fully functional generator to drop us in the right spot...” I sighed. “We're flying blind.”

“So is Adona.” Jelly said. “All of the sensors, cameras, and gravity detectors on the outside of the ship are gone.”

“What?” I looked at her in surprise. “How?”

“They were ripped out.” Simone said. “I went out and looked personally.”

I widened my eyes at her and gave her an 'are you crazy' look. “You went outside the ship.” I said in disbelief. “In hyperspace.”

Simone nodded. “Half of her deflector screens are scrap, too.”

“Whoever that was, definitely didn't like someone finding out what they were doing.” I said.

“Hunter.” Gleas said and I nodded.

“All right.” I sighed. “I hope you're ready to hear what I encountered during my nearly seven hundred year long trip to the planet at the center of the universe.”

Simone was the only one that didn't react with utter shock at my statement. Even Adona, the ship's AI, let a low buzz come from the intercom speakers. They all listened in disbelief as I recounted the tale of what happened. It took about eight hours for me to tell a condensed version of it all. I had to take a break to eat in the middle of it, too.

“You're really over seven hundred years old?” Gleas asked, completely stunned.

“Don't tell me you're not into older guys.” I joked and she caught her breath, then she let out a laugh.

“I can't believe I've been shaking my ass and teasing an old man.” Gleas said with amusement.

“It's a great ass.” I said and took her hand. “You know I really like that you chose to tease me with it.”

Gleas nodded and held my hand tightly. “I don't feel objectified while doing it, either.”

“I hope it's because you know that I'm seeing the whole woman and not just a wonderfully sexy pair of tight pants.”

Gleas chuckled. “You know I buy them just for you, right?”

“You do?” I asked, a little surprised.

“You didn't know.” Gleas said, surprised herself. “I thought... you know.” She pointed to her temple.

“I might have caught the thought if you were thinking it and if I was trying to listen at the time.” I said and then smiled. “Believe me, I was not trying to read your mind at the time. I was too busy staring.”

Gleas opened her mouth to say something, then she accepted what I said as the compliment it was. “Thank you, Hunter.”

I looked at Deborah and Jelly and back at Gleas. “I hope you're not all thinking that I'm stealing your secret thoughts or something.” I said and they blushed a little. “Even with Simone, who I've got a deep sharing connection with now, I don't dip into her inner thoughts unless she lets me.”

The three women looked at Simone.

“It's wonderful when he does.” Simone said wistfully as she thought back to our last day off. “Just the feeling of his Presence inside of me and the intimacy of letting him know my innermost thoughts...”

Gleas, Deborah, and Jelly blushed harder at the thought.

“Simone.” I said and she chuckled.

“It's been a week since we slept in bed together.” Simone said. “You can't blame me for missing you.”

“Didn't you come here to visit?” I asked.

“I did; but, I couldn't share your thoughts.” Simone said. “I couldn't follow our connection into your mind, either.”

I thought about what that meant. “I did lose practically all of my Presence. Maybe my mind blocked everything until I recovered some of it?”

“Anything is possible, since you were unconscious and weren't actively blocking me.” Simone said. “Yes, I can tell the difference.”

“I knew that really annoyed you when I did it.” I said with a smile and she swatted my arm.

“What do we do now?” Jelly asked.

“This... whatever it is... is a bit of a road block for us.” I said. “If we can't slip into nearby systems safely, then we may need to go with Simone's original plan with laser cannons blazing.”

“We'll become immediate outlaws if we do that openly.” Gleas warned.

I sighed. “We would also tip them off that someone knows about what they are doing.”

“Which means they could pack up everywhere else and move somewhere else to continue their work.” Simone said. “No, we can't do that.” She said. “We will have to get there on another ship and travel directly to the planet.”

“So we drop the whole covert approach?” I asked.

“I don't want to take the chance that we could fall into another dying system.” Simone said.

“It's not dying.” I said and they all looked at me. “Things can still live on the planets. There's just almost no visible light emitted by the star.”

“That's... why would anyone...” Gleas shook her head and then looked at me. “How can I be sexually attracted to some who is seven hundred years old?!?”

Deborah, Jelly, and Simone exchanged looks for a second, then burst out laughing.

“It's not funny!” Gleas pouted and crossed her arms, which pushed her breasts up slightly in her flight suit. She was intentionally making us laugh, so I only looked at her chest for a moment before I laughed, too.

“I think you've been in bed long enough.” Simone said. “Adona needs your help.”

I nodded. “I'll take a look at the hyperspace generator first, since that has to have priority.”

Everyone relaxed and two of them let out a sigh. Simone gave me a wicked grin and yanked away the blanket. Gleas, Deborah, and Jelly gasped at my nakedness, then they blushed at my quite ready state.

“Thanks a lot, Simone.” I said sarcastically and covered myself with Presence and made it solid. “Where's my flight suit?”

“Hanging up in the cabinet.” Simone said and pointed across the medical bay.

I used Presence to open the cabinet and a Presence Hand to carry my suit over to the bed. I stood up and had to absorb the solid Presence covering me, then slipped on my flight suit. When it snapped into place at my neck, none of the women had changed where they were looking.

“It's not that interesting, is it?” I asked.

Gleas looked up at my face. “Are you sure you're seven hundred years old?” She asked me. “I just had a close up look at you and that was not an old man's penis.”

Jelly let out a laugh. “Oh, goddess!” She exclaimed when she remembered a traumatic event. “A sixty year old division commander had to use the common showers one day...” She relayed the story and about how the man's ball sack hung down farther than his penis was long. The other women laughed hard at the mental image that gave them.

I rubbed my face in exasperation. “I did not need to know that.” I said, and that made them laugh more. “I'm going to work.” I said and Simone followed me out of the medical bay. When the door shut, she put a hand on my arm. “I know you did it to distract them.” I said.

Simone nodded. “They needed to know you were okay.”

“They know something on me is okay.” I said and she chuckled.

“Gleas made you excited, Hunter. She needed to know you weren't taking her teasing for granted.”

I blinked my eyes at her and caught her thoughts. “You told them about our hover bike trip?”

Simone nodded. “Take Gleas aside in a few days and ask her about it.”

“Simone...”

“Trust me, Hunter.”

“I do, but...”

“I love you.” Simone said.

“I love you, too.” I said. “But...”

Simone stepped close and put her arms around my neck and kissed me. She encouraged my Presence to merge with hers and then we stayed there for several moments. She sighed into my mouth and broke the kiss, then she smiled wickedly.

“If you get the hyperspace generator working, I'll let you...” Simone leaned in and whispered in a sexy voice what she wanted me to do to her.

“I'm pretty sure that would violate my policy.” I said.

“Only a little.” Simone said and I shook my head.

“No, even if you're not an employee, that still makes it an unsafe working environment.”

“You won't budge on...”

“If I gave in, even a little, what's to stop me from just manipulating everything for my own benefit?”

Simone sighed. “All right. I won't pressure you anymore.”

“That's good, because it won't work.” I said with a smile. “See you tonight.”

“Hunter!” Simone called after me as I walked away.

“If you show up wearing that, I won't have sex with you for a week.” I said.

“We only have a week left before we're home!” Simone exclaimed.

“I know.” I said and went into the engine room to look at the hyperspace generator. “Well, you're in a sad and pitiful state.” I said and looked at the partially smoking piece of machinery. “Adona, can I isolate certain parts to try and work on them without interrupting our journey?”

“You won't be able to take it apart, since it currently has power and needs to maintain at least eighty-five percent functionality.”

I sighed. “Okay. I can do this.” I said and reached into my bag of holding and took out my electronics toolkit. “Adona, warn me when I'm in danger of the generator dropping below the threshold.”

“My internal sensors are at a hundred and ten percent.”

I chuckled. “Don't burn them out.”

“I have the power regulators cycling at three hundred times per second.” Adona said. “No sensor will fail from such a low power surge.”

I nodded and used Presence to look through the hyperspace generator and shook my head. “There are cross-welds on some of these circuits.”

“The internal temperature of the hyperspace generator reached three hundred and fifty degrees Fahrenheit, with electrical spikes in random areas of another fifty.”

“Which pretty much liquefied the solder in those places.” I sighed, then grit my teeth. “All right. Let's get this thing back to top working condition.” I said and opened my toolkit. “Close off the ventilation in this section and only add in new air occasionally. Don't suck the old air into your air ducting system, either. Keep it here in the two filters of this room.”

Not being able to open the generator up made it very difficult to get the soldering iron into the right spots to melt away the unintended connections that the melted solder had created. Of course, I wasn't sure about some of them, so I had to have Adona reference the plans and guide me when a melted spot looked sloppy and also looked like it needed to be there. Her input was invaluable.

Needless to say, I stayed there for nearly six hours, had used up or damaged eight of the different soldering heads I had for my soldering iron, and the smoke and vapour from working in close quarters with solder was thicker than the normal air. It was a good thing I could hold my breath for a long time and only took shallow ones when I did breathe.

“Okay, I think I have them all.” I said with Presence over my mouth. “I'll come back and clear the air with the portable filtration system.”

“You need to wipe everything off, too. You made a big mess inside of me.” Adona said.

I nearly choked at her words and held in my laugh. “I will... clean up... after myself.” I managed to say, then I left the room and couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.

I recovered quickly from my laughing fit and returned with the portable filtration system and sucked in all of the contaminated air and caught it all in the thick filters designed for it, then replaced the two in the room. They had a thick buildup of grime on the side facing the room and I knew that my decision to cut off the air circulation was the right one.

Having that smoke and vapour travelling through the ship and getting into all of the filters would cause them all to be replaced, not to mention the particles the filters didn't or couldn't catch, like the smell. That alone would need the ship to visit an atmosphere to get it to air out.

“How is the generator now?” I asked Adona.

“It's at ninety-five percent and holding. Your patches will get us out of hyperspace at the proper coordinates; however, I won't make another jump until it is properly repaired or replaced.”

“Not a problem.” I said. “We need to get you into a proper repair facility anyway.”

“You're not going to do the work yourself?” Adona asked.

“I could do it.” I said and reached out and pat a bulkhead. “I'd rather have you looked after by professionals... under strict supervision, of course.”

“Thank you.” Adona said.

“I wonder if we can get your main reactor upgraded at the same time?” I asked and carried the portable filtration unit back to the storage cabinet.

“What do you mean?”

“I've been wanting to have your power core fixed for a while. It's rating is way too low for a great ship like you.” I said and closed the cabinet. “So, if you're going in for major repairs anyway...”

“No wonder all of the females secretly love you.” Adona said.

“Excuse me?” I looked at the closest security camera. “What did you just say?”

“Nothing.” Adona said. “I didn't say anything.”

“Adona.” I walked over to the camera, because I was surprised when the Presence wavered at her lie.

“No, I didn't say anything.” Adona said. “It was a joke. Yes, a joke.”

The Presence really did waver. From an AI lying. I thought in surprise, then didn't want to cause Adona to get in trouble and changed what I was going to say. “Maybe I didn't hear what I thought I heard.”

“Right. Just an odd rambling from a distracted AI.” Adona said.

I let out a chuckle and walked towards the kitchen to get something to eat, then changed my mind and went to get a shower instead. I was surprised when I didn't meet Simone in my room, so I took a quick shower and changed, then went to grab something to eat. I could clean up the mess I had made inside Adona after that.