After we shared the dessert and they all enjoyed it, it was time to adorn the nest with their groomed feathers. It had been three weeks since the last time and the first avian woman stripped off and assumed her favorite position of reclining on a particularly thick branch and I had to adjust my technique around her pose. She liked that I never asked her to make it easier for myself and I always pleased her, no matter how inconvenient it was for me.

When it was the second avian woman's turn, she fought, scratched, and screeched at me that I wasn't allowed to do it to her. I managed to get her bent over the side of the nest and took her from behind, and she chirped and warbled angrily at me for degrading her in such a manner and cursed me in both her own language and in common.

Secretly, she loved that I was strong enough to fight her off and take her anyway. She adored the fact that I never scolded her for acting so unreasonable or tried to curb her behaviour or stopped her from being angry about it. She felt how she felt about me and because I accepted that, she had accepted me in return.

Val just had as much fun as she possibly could. She wouldn't stick with a single position and she always wanted to be thoroughly groomed no matter what we were doing. I obliged, of course. None of us were committed to each other, especially because I wasn't one of their race, and they knew that it was just good fun for us all to have. The three of them dispersed their loose feathers and down throughout the nest and finished the adornment.

“You're welcome to stay here all night again.” I said as we all dressed.

“It is tempting.” The first avian woman said, a little sad. “I've gotten too used to the underground.”

“I keep telling you to come up here on your days off.” I said and she waved my concern away.

“I'll be here for years yet.” The first avian woman said. “I also don't want to get too used to the outside here.”

“Don't worry about this suddenly being taken away.” I said.

“Are you going to hand command back over to her?” She asked.

I opened my mouth to answer and Val covered it with her hand.

“Don't lie.” Val warned me and moved her hand.

“I'm supposed to be on vacation.” I said and looked out at the spectacular view. “I didn't want to rework this place, or take over, or anything like that.”

“You wanted us from the start.” The second avian woman said accusingly.

“I did.” I said and turned to look at her. “Your little chirps and tweets when we're having sex really turn me on.”

Her face went bright red as she blushed. “You!” She spat. “I can't believe I let you...”

I reached out with Presence and shared a calmness technique. “I can't express how much I appreciate that you do.” I said and she closed her mouth. “All three of you have been the best thing I've found at this mine.”

“It is too bad that you can't keep us.” The first avian woman said.

I nodded. “Even if I built you another aerie in the Dizahl System, I still can't keep you. Not only isn't it fair to you, it's completely unfair to your species.” I reached out and cupped the side of the first avian woman's face and then gave her cheek a kiss. “You deserve to have a real Tiercel in your life.” I moved over and did the same to the second avian woman, then to Val. “All three of you deserve it.”

“You're going to make me warble if you keep talking like that.” Val said and kissed me on the lips.

I smiled. “I guess I'm missing you before I have to.”

“I'd say so.” Val said and the four of us stepped into the lift. “How much longer are you staying?”

“Another couple of years, until the thoughts of all the people I've killed fade from people's perception.”

“Is that all it will take?” The first avian woman asked.

I nodded. “It's starting to fade already, and it's only been two years since the massacre.” I said. “Another two years, maybe three, and I can pardon myself and head home.”

Val shook her head. “Why don't you pardon yourself now and just stay as a custodian or something.”

“That feels too much like cheating the system.” I said and the three avian women laughed.

“You are the oddest man we have ever known.” The first avian woman said.

“Thanks.” I said and the lift opened. “I'll see you tomorrow.”

They each gave me a kiss, one reluctantly, and I left through the cargo hatch and used Presence Run to go all the way back to the administration center. I went inside and to my residence, quickly did up a bath and added Hailey's favorite bubbles, then climbed in to lay back and relax. I soaked myself in the water and closed my eyes to meditate and thought about Hailey.

She had grown quite a lot since I had been in prison and my joke earlier about her being an inch taller wasn't far from the truth. She was taller than her mother already and if her growing continued, by the time I left here to go home, she would be pretty close to my height if not a little taller.

I smiled at the thought. Imagine, all these years she's been looking up at me and soon she'll be taller and I'll have to look up at her. I concentrated on our connection and I felt a familiar tingle respond around the scars over my heart. The time is going to fly by before you know it. My chest burned lightly and I chuckled. Yeah, yeah. I know. Hurry up.

*

A week later, the administrator laid in her bed and she didn't know what to do. She had used her administrator access and saw all of the changes, both physically and electronically, and she knew intellectually that it was better... and yet, she liked the way things had been before. Both the prison mine and the prisoners were simpler and easier to control.

Now, they were so far above her current level of training that it scared her. She wasn't even sure how the orders for new equipment were handled, because the software had been changed. That angered her and she felt a familiar tingle in the palm of her restored hand and she started to smile. Almost immediately, the door to her residence opened and Noma quickly strode over to the bed.

“No, don't.” The administrator said and tried to pull her hand out of the way.

“Now, now. Hunter told me to take care of you.” Noma said and grabbed the hand and sucked on the middle finger.

“S-stop.” The administrator said as she felt her excess Presence be sucked out through her finger. “Damn you.” She said when it was gone.

Noma let her hand go and gave her a smile. “You know he's doing this for a reason.”

“Yes, to keep me here and unable to reassert control.” The administrator said.

Noma let out a girlish laugh that the administrator had never heard before. “He said that was what you would claim.” She said, then she leaned in close. “He told me that I shouldn't tell you this.” She whispered. “We've known each other for a long time and you did feed me when you could, so I'll let you in on a little secret.”

“What is it?” The administrator asked automatically.

“Hunter doesn't want you dead, even after what you did to him.” Noma said.

“Then why is he keeping me weak?”

“He's making me suck your Presence through each of your fingers on purpose.” Noma continued.

The administrator then realized it was true. Noma always used a different finger each time.

“If you tried to use your ability before readjusting your reattached hand to Presence use, you would tear it apart.”

“Wh-wh-what?” The administrator was shocked.

“You need to keep working your exercises and get your hand back to full functionality like the medical technician said. He knows all about your ability and that's why he's so concerned that you'll lose it if you're not careful.” Noma said. “Your personal guard is even more worried. Not because of your ability, though. It's because he actually likes you as a person and wants you back to full health.”

The administrator wasn't sure what to say about either thing.

“Like Hunter said, you just relax and don't let anything worry you, except getting better.” Noma said. “Believe me, you've got years to adjust to the way things are run before you have to take over again.”

The administrator stared at her with a slightly open mouth.

“I don't think Peggy will stay on when Hunter hands things back over to you, though. She likes him too much.” Noma said with a smile. “It's too bad she won't accept casual sex from him, because Hunter is very, very good at it.”

The administrator gasped.

“Oops! I think I said too much.” Noma chuckled and waved her hand. “Forget about that last part. Go to sleep and let all the other worries float away for now.” She stood up and walked across the residence and opened the door. “Goodnight.” She said and left.

She did not just say that he would... with the cleaning lady... I mean his assistant. The administrator thought. She's twice his age! At least!

The administrator shook her head in disbelief and looked down at her hand. You could still see the slightly lighter part of the skin where the missing piece had been grafted and regrown. The medical technician had said that it would completely fade in time and that she wouldn't have any scars at all.

He's not counting the mental scars. She thought and hugged her hand to her chest, rolled over in bed, and went to sleep.

*

A month went by, then another and another. Life at the prison mine went on. Shipments of finished crystals were sent out regularly. People there lived their lives, the guards and workers went on vacations, no one made any kind of ruckus, and the administrator watched it all. She really didn't fit in with her old style of handling things and to her surprise, several different people visited her occasionally to teach her about how the place was run and the procedures that had been adapted.

The software lessons had been the most valuable. Once she had been shown how streamlined everything was, the software almost worked intuitively. Orders were added in a normal fashion, then they were sorted into the proper queue and given a priority automatically, because it was checked with what was already in stock and the order was increased to a preset minimum. It even had estimated travel times and turnaround numbers for the transport ships.

It was absolutely amazing to see and the administrator knew that if Hunter had broken while she tortured him, there was no way he would have been able to get her to understand what it was that he meant by making everything better. Even one of the ideas would have stumped her in trying to implement it. It wasn't until you saw what was changed afterwards that you understood.

At the beginning of the next month, nearly two and a half years after Hunter had arrived at her mine, the administrator finally decided that she had enough. She sent a discrete message to The Order and it set something into motion that would surprise everyone at the prison mine... except for Hunter. He had kept a close eye on her and knew what the message said, since she was using the normal network and not his secured and untraceable one.

He let the message go through unaltered and started to make the proper preparations.

Two months later, a large Order ship jumped into the system with two small assault ship escorts. They flew in through the defenses, since they had security clearance, and parked in low orbit. The side of the large ship opened up and twenty shuttles launched at the same time. They each had a guard squad on board and they were trained in base assaults.

All of the shuttles screamed through the atmosphere and plummeted to the plant's surface. They landed in force, a little harder than they normally would, then every shuttle opened as one. Twenty squads of fully armored guards flowed out of the shuttles and swarmed the shipping warehouse.

Nothing was there.

No crates of crystals, no workers, no shuttles, nothing.

The guards looked around in confusion for only a moment, then they continued through the warehouse and entered the tunnel to head to the junction that split to go to the mine and to the administration center, and they split up. Ten squads went to the left and ten went to the right.

A lone shuttle left the troop transport and flew down to the planet's surface. It landed at the same time that the guard squads reached both of their destinations. The shuttle opened up and four hooded Order members stepped out with a stern looking man in the center. He wore grey pants and a shirt under minimal personal armor that was just for show. He looked around at the perfect assault landing that the other shuttles had performed and nodded.

“What's the word, Master Afora?” The man asked.

One of The Order members raised her arm and used her wrist com. “Report.”

“Mine entrance. It's all clear so far.” One man's voice said.

“Admin center. No resistance.” Another said.

“Continue.” The man said and Master Afora passed on the order.

The guards in the mine jogged, double time, down the mine shaft to the living area to secure all of the prisoners. The guards at the administration center went inside and swept through it and all of the rooms were locked and secured, as if it was on lock down from an invading force. They went up to the second level to the administrator's residence and found the only door that was unlocked.

“We have two occupants.” The captain of the front team said on his wrist com. “Identify yourselves.”

“I'm a blasted fool and this is the man that loves me anyway.” The administrator said from her couch and her personal guard stood beside her.

“That's... not a proper identification.” The captain said and she identified herself and the guard with her, so the man spoke into his wrist again. “We've found the person that made the distress call.”

“We're on our way.” Master Afora said and she followed the stern man inside the storage warehouse and stayed alert for any traps or assaults, even though the squads of guards had gone through there already. You could never be too careful.

“Mine living area.” A voice said from her wrist com. “There's nothing here. No cubicles and no prisoners. It's just all bare metal walls.”

“What? How is that possible?” Master Afora asked. “Send someone down into the mine and see if anyone is working.”

“Right away.” The voice said and clicked off.

The stern man and four Order members went all the way through the facility and went up to the second floor of the administration center and entered the administrator's residence.

“I asked for help in retaking the facility, not for a replacement.” The administrator said.

“I believe you said you were being held against your will, which means you are compromised and your judgment is questionable.” The stern man said without cracking a smile, even though he knew what he just said countered itself, because she wouldn't have asked for help if she was compromised like that. “Where are the other workers and The Order members?”

“As I told you, one of them severed my hand and he was disposed of. The other willingly worked with a prisoner.” The administrator said. “If you want to speak to him yourself, he's in the next room.”

“Check it.” Master Afora said to one of the other Order members and he disappeared from sight.

He was back a moment later. “There is one Order member and six workers, all restrained in wrist and ankle shackles.”

The stern man looked at the administrator. “Why did you refer to yourself as a fool?”

“Because I was stupid enough to call for help.” The administrator said.

“I don't understand.” The stern man said.

“You will.” The administrator said.

“Mine living area.” Master Afora's wrist com said. “There's no one in the mines at all.”

“How is that possible?” Master Afora asked. “Where did they go?”

“Take a wild guess.” The administrator said. “If they are not here, and they are not in the mines, where oh where could they be?”

“Call the ship!” The stern man said and Master Afora tried and received nothing but static. “Call the guards in my shuttle.” He said and there was no answer. “Someone get me eyes up there, now!”

“It's much too late for that.” The administrator said.

“You!” He spat. “Tell me what just happened!”

“I believe you delivered just the right amount of shuttles for all of the prisoners to escape.” The administrator said. “Oh, and a ship large enough to hold them all.” She laughed. “I hadn't realized that was something he had been planning for and I played right into his hand.”

“Wait.” Master Afora said. “Are you telling us that he's making a prison escape right now?”

“No. I'm telling you he's already gone.” The administrator said and looked at her personal guard. “Do you think he left the assault ships intact?”

“No, ma'am.” The guard said. “As soon as the shuttles hit atmosphere, I'll bet that both smaller ships were destroyed instantly.”

“I would assume that, too.” The administrator said and looked at the stern man. “As soon as your people stepped inside the shipping warehouse, all of your shuttles were commandeered and the prisoners fled the planet.”

“N-no.” The stern man said, sadly.

“I would bid you welcome and I hope you enjoy your stay.” The administrator said with a forced smile, then she reached into a pocket and pulled out the Lover's Passion Fruit that Hunter had given her before he left. She took her personal guard's hand and gave him a genuine smile. “Would you care to join me for dessert?”

“I would be honored, ma'am.” Her personal guard said and smiled back.