I stopped at the living area and everyone there stared at us. Or really, stared at the man and the body floating behind us. I turned off the platform and helped the three avian women step off of it.

“You're leaving us here?” Val asked, surprised.

“Only until I deal with this idiot back at the administration center.” I said and waved at the man that tried to kill me. “I have to look up the procedures and appropriate punishments for it.”

“Someone is in our cubicle!” The second avian woman nearly screeched.

The poor man didn't have a chance as all three avian women crossed the distance in mere moments and tore him to shreds. Not a single person tried to intervene and they did the same thing to him as they did to the guard. I quickly did up six posts and put them in the same holes as before, and the avian women mounted the pieces in the same manner.

“I'm glad that the nest wasn't in there.” Val said and strung the man's intestines across three of the posts.

“Me, too. There's not a lot of extra blankets to be had in the storage, and they are too thin to work for your needs.” I said. “Do you need me to...”

“No.” Val said sadly. “We won't need to sanctify the nest, since it wasn't violated.”

I nodded and looked at the first avian woman. “Shall I clean the place up for you?”

“Please.” She said. “We would normally leave it; but, the smell is not pleasant this time.”

I used Presence to gather up all the blood and compressed it down into a small ball and shoved it into one of the legs of the mounted guy. “I'll grab one of those spray cans that negate smell from the supply, too.”

“Thank you.”

“Val, I'll have power hooked up to the entryway to your nest when I come back.”

“Power? What for?” Val asked, confused.

“You'll see.” I said with a smile and walked over to the platform.

I turned it on and changed the settings, then turned the dial and shot out of there faster than people could see. The man that tried to kill me screamed bloody murder as he was dragged through the air at the same speed.

“Relax.” I said as we came to a stop a few seconds later and turned off the platform. “I don't even know what your sentence is going to be. I can't kill you until then.”

The man stared at me with wide eyes as I stored the platform, because he had never seen something so large disappear into thin air like that.

I guess he missed me taking out and storing the seven crates. I thought and looked at the top of the stairs. “Oh, hey there.”

“What was that thing?” The Order member asked.

“A quick anti-gravity transport.” I said and walked up the stairs. “I've got seven crates of unrefined crystals. Do I leave them here or take them down to the refinement factory?”

“It's the only extra thing we do, besides watch the monitors and guard the mine entrance.” The guard with him said.

“Then I won't interfere with your job.” I said and took out all seven crates. “I forgot to get cargo handles, though.”

“We always keep some spares nearby in case one breaks.” The guard said and pointed to a small closet that was tucked into the rock face.

“What's with the prisoner and the body?” The Order member finally asked.

“Attempted murder of the co-administrator and fellow prisoner.” I said.

“You reacted harshly.” He said and looked at the partially melted body.

“He fell on his laser drill when he attacked, and no, I didn't trip him.”

The Order member reluctantly nodded, because I didn't lie.

“I don't know what to do with the body, though.” I said. “Hell, I don't even know how to identify him.”

The guard chuckled. “You don't know a lot and you think you can run this place?”

“Geez, I just started today. Cut me some slack.” I joked. “I'll pick someone's brain about it on the way to the holding cells.”

“I'd say ask someone that's not on duty, so you don't bother anyone else.” The Order member said.

“Good idea.” I said and used Presence Run and disappeared from their sight. I was at the administration center a few seconds later and went inside and to the normal holding cells.

“What the hell?” The guard there asked.

“Attempted murder on the co-administrator.” I said and he nodded. “Take care of him for me, will you? I need to look up the proper procedure for this kind of thing.”

“Why didn't you just kill him like the other one?”

“That was a gruesome suicide surprisingly. He tried to melt off my face and fell and melted his own.”

The guard winced at that. “At least it was quick.”

I nodded. “What cell do you want him in?”

“Put him next to The Order member.”

I did so and looked at the body. “What do I do with this?”

“It has to be identified and processed, of course.” The guard said. “I'm too busy to...”

“That's okay. I was going to ask one of the off duty guards for help.”

“Good idea.” The guard said and went to his half-console. “Frank's off and I'm almost sure that he doesn't hate your guts.”

I chuckled. “If he's the pipes guy, then yeah, he can tolerate me. Thanks.”

I left there and stopped at the supply section and grabbed a can of scent nullifier, one of the large spools of power wire, a large battery pack charger, a bank of lights, and a few other little things that could be useful, namely sets of actual tools. After that, I went to the guard's living area and found the pipes guy in the recreational area.

“It's my day off, dammit.” Frank said.

“I just need help on proper procedures and with this guy.” I pointed my thumb at the body.

Frank sighed. “I want double pay for the hours I work.”

“Done.” I said and he looked at me in surprise.

“But... the budget...”

“What budget?” I asked with a smile.

“You need to really dig into the database to find out what being the administrator means.” Frank said.

“I'll pay you out of my own money if necessary.” I said. “It won't be, though. This is an Order facility. It should have millions of credits available.”

Frank huffed. “Yeah, good luck with that view.”

“What?” I looked at him in confusion. “This place is supposed to be completely self-sufficient. If there's not a huge influx of credits for all the work that's being done here, then there's something seriously wrong with the system running the place.”

Frank gave me an apologetic look.

“Oh, goddammit.” I said. “I guess I am paying you with my personal money.”

“Hey, if you can afford it, I've got no problem working on my day off.” Frank said.

“I could pay to run this place without any staff, so yeah. I can afford one guard's salary for a few hours.” I said. “Let's go.”

Frank nodded and followed me to the administrator's office and he helped me work out how to determine the dead prisoner's identity and what to do with the guy that had tried to kill the interim administrator. The body was supposed to be disposed of, usually by mulching it to cut down on the rotting smell, then buried in a selective spot well away from the food growing areas.

I was relieved to learn that and I got rid of the body, then sent notices to his family and The Order to let them know what happened. The guy that was still alive was to have the same treatment for attacking someone that was working for the facility, no matter if it was a guard or the administrator. I thought that was a little harsh; but, since it wasn't my rules and I was the acting administrator, I had to enforce them. The living assailant was treated the same as the dead body and was mulched and discarded and the same notices were sent to his family.

I didn't understand why they could discard so may viable workers so easily, until I saw the caveat that no resistance was acceptable. Any attempt to kill the administrator was met with brutal force and the result had to be broadcast to the other prisoners to stem the attempts on the administrator's life. Then I understood why she had so much power and no one wanted to go against her.

It meant instant death... once she was done playing with them, that is... and no one, from the prisoners to the guards to The Order members... wanted to try her patience. None of them wanted to defy her.

I almost laughed at that. She was a smart one. I thought. She built the system to rely completely on her happiness and that any defiance was met with swift and brutal justice. I had to give her props for that. It was an ingenious and completely closed system. If she wasn't happy, then no one else was, and lives were lost.

Frank was an invaluable resource in discovering all of this and he let me find all the intricacies that she had embedded into her procedures. He definitely earned his salary that day as he taught me all of the ways in which the old administrator had twisted the normal way things were supposed to be run to fit her view of how things were supposed to be run.

They almost matched up; but, not quite. Only someone from the outside would be able to see the subtle differences and then they were glaringly obvious. Everyone there was so invested in her view of things that none of them questioned why they were run that way.

It was going to take me a while to show them the difference.

I was up to the challenge, and I had a couple of months to break them of their habit of going along with whatever she wanted, especially since a few of them actually liked the way she handled things. I didn't try to do it all at once, since they would have rejected it immediately if they knew that was what I was doing. I had to be as subtle as she had been as she instigated all of it and I did my best to subvert everything she had established.

The two months passed almost as if they didn't happen.

New showers had been constructed beside the living area. The living area had been expanded out to accommodate everyone in the mine and no one had to fight to claim the cubicles anymore. The platform I had made to ferry the avian women had been duplicated and it was used to ferry the workers from the living area to the mines.

The biggest change however, was the loss of the restraints. None of the prisoners wore them, except for the big alien, and that was only because they kept him safe from hurting himself. He had gained several favors because he had the electronic key, and no one wanted to cross him.

He also absolutely loved the custom made digging machine I had made for him. He shared his bed with both the giant laser drill and the giant digging machine and he wouldn't give them up for anything. He went to work every second day, whether he was digging or drilling, and he was completely happy.

When the medical technician arrived on the transport that also carried the things that the supervisor had ordered, the entire mine let out sighs of relief and sadness. Relief that my supposed tenure was at an end and sadness that the old administrator was going to be in charge again.

None of them realized that the old administrator would need months of rehabilitation to get the full function of her hand back, which also assumed that the surgery was going to be successful. None of that was guaranteed, since the skills of the new medical technician hadn't been tested in the least.

The man had quite the load of medical tasks to handle as it was. When he discovered that he had a major surgery pending, he almost panicked. I reassured him that both the woman and her hand were in stasis and he didn't have to tackle the complicated surgery until he felt like he could handle it. He thanked me for being so understanding and let the surgery slide... for a month... then another and another... and he didn't even look at the capsule for almost a full year.

By that time, the mine had almost completely changed.

I had automated robotic arms that used the laser drills and digging machines to their most efficient means, and the prisoners only had to monitor the work and adjust the precision of the arms to yield the most unrefined crystals. It kept the prisoners busy and also maintained the quota needed to meet the demands of the shipments that needed to be sent out on a semi-regular basis.

The prisoners were happy that they could shower whenever they wanted, the movement of both prisoners and guards had been so streamlined that it took almost no time for them to travel the miles needed, and the guards had so much free time that they weren't stressed out over being stuck guarding things inside of a mine for most of the time.

Everyone was happy and no one wanted things to change.

Then, the medical technician decided that he could handle the surgery without endangering the administrator's life. I assisted the medical assistant, of course. She had grown to appreciate my abilities and how much work I had saved her, and we both did our best to help the medical technician with the surgery.

With all three of us working, our collective knowledge contributed successfully to the administrator regaining her hand. There was a small space where the Light sword had removed a good portion of her wrist, so it took a lot of work to replace that with biomedical grown bone and cartilage to reconstruct the missing parts.

The medical assistant had been right and all the nerve endings and veins and arteries had remained intact. They took several hours to reattach and to get the circulatory system used to having a completed route again. I didn't cheat and try to use Presence to speed the healing, either. I let providence and fate rule the day and waited to see if she would recover on her own.

To my surprise, it took the administrator several months to recover her faculties and to fully wake up to reality. She eventually looked at her restored hand as if it was a foreign object and it took her a week to understand that we had successfully reattached it. It took her nearly six months to learn how to use her hand as if it was her normal hand again.

By this point, I had been in charge of the facility for two years and everyone had fully accepted that I was the guy that handled everything. Like my words had promised, any problem that came up, I handled it. Both the guards and The Order member came to me whenever anything came up and I took care of it.

It wasn't until the old administrator had been transferred to her old residence to rest and relax that she saw all of the changes that had happened while she was recovering. She didn't receive any notices or unexpected visitors who asked her to handle all of the little things that she normally expected them to bother her with. It was all still handled by me.

“You just stay here and relax.” I said and pat her head as she lay in her bed. “You don't have to worry about anything else for a while, okay?”

“But... I'm the administrator.” She said, her voice a little weak.

“Don't worry. You have Noma here to keep an eye on you.” I said and she widened her eyes.

“N-n-no.” She whispered weakly.

“It's okay. She doesn't suck people dry anymore.” I said. “Noma?”

“Yes, my darling?” Noma said and came into the bedroom. She was back to normal proportions and her breasts were a good size and filled like they were supposed to be, and her hips were no longer bony. She had had a spectacular diet of Presence the last two years, thanks to me sharing with her, and she was as healthy now as if she had been a normal person.

The old administrator stared at her as if she had never seen her before.

“Please help her maintain her normality.” I said with a smile.

“Gladly, darling. Thank you for leaving her in my care.”

“I wouldn't trust her with anyone else, my dark suckling.” I said and gave her a kiss and a bit of Presence.

“Mmmm. Thank you.” Noma said. “If you weren't so devoted to Hailey, I would claim you for myself.”

I chuckled. “If I had a credit for every woman that said that...”

Noma laughed and gave me another kiss. “Go on. Get to work.” She said. “I'll keep her busy.”

I hugged Noma and left the room and Noma walked over to the bed.

“Hello.” Noma said and took the administrator's hand. “It's been a while.”

“W-w-wait.”

“No, you need this.” Noma said and started to suck on her finger and absorbed her Presence.