Hi, I know this chapter is little late, but first week in a school took more tie then I thought.

I'll try to post in normal shelude, but there could be complication sometimes. I thank you for your patiance.

Enjoy new chapter :D

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I woke up with splitting headache. I looked at a clock at nearby display. I slept whole seven hours and I still felt little tired. I thought back and this was first time, I felt so tired. It had to be, because I overcharged my body when I was angry.

I looked at state of my ship on one of the functioning panels and it was terrible. Outer hull was patched on so many places that I had problem even find original plates. Sensors and shield emitters were only sparsely placed along hull.

When I got to weapons, I found out they were seriously undercharged. I looked for a reason and I found out readings from the power source were terrible. It was power source readings normally seen in more powerful shuttle, not a spaceship.

I shook my head. I wouldn’t be able to get to Qunar with ship in this state. I needed to make at least basic repairs before I could venture forth. Rest, I’ll finish them on my way. I needed to find out what was wrong with power source, before I made my decision.

When I finally came to power source I found it in lockdown state. I looked around for active power source, but I couldn’t find it. I looked around rest of the ship until I found it at engine room. That was how they traveled with such weak power source. When they traveled, power source rerouted most of the power to engine. It had to be really uncomfortable to be here while nothing worked.

Good thing was that I could unlock original power source and replace torn power lines going through the ship. I sighed with relief. Only one important thing was left to check. I went to workshop.

I found it full of garbage and destroyed machines. Most of machines, I used before were broken or in horrible state. I went straight to replicator, but it was too locked out. Also they had to let out their frustration on it, because I could see it was damaged on purpose. I scanned it and I could see Nanobots hidden inside small capsule where it was almost impossible to get without codes to the replicator.

I would need to repair it, before I go and save Eleanor. I made list and shut down automatic defense. Instantly, I got messages that were blocked by it. Most were from Liray and Harr, but couple of them were from Lany. They all asked me what happened and warned me because they placed bounty on my head.

I went back to bridge and after I read messages, I did wide scan of my surroundings. What I found out didn’t help my mood at all. There were about forty people two kilometers from my ship and they were approaching it fast.

My readings told me they were armed and some of them had even jury rigged rocket launcher. I did quick preflight check, but when results came in, I sighed and lifted ship up. Almost everything turned up red so waiting would be pointless.

I moved my ship about forty kilometers north and placed it behind small hill. Before I could repair replicator, I needed more energy. For that I would need to unlock power source and replace power lines. My only luck was that there was a lot of scrap material on ship. When I repair replicator, I could feed it with them.

I shut down power source mercenaries used and moved to my old one. I connected directly into it and used the codes to activate it. With silent hum it started. I still needed to charge it to get better results, but even in this state it was working better than one mercenaries used.

With quick scan, I found out where most damaged power lines to replicator were. I needed to power it and start making out parts. I replaced all necessary power lines in about an hour. Now came time to restore power replicator and make necessary repairs to make it work.

Luckily this replicator was made sturdy so even with all damage done to it, it could still work. I needed to make it work only until I produce new parts and replace old ones. With small smile I started to work on it. I worked for more than four hours, before I could produce first parts from replicator.

First I replaced ones in replicator and then I started to work on power lines. I fed replicator as much material as I could, but for full repair I’ll need more. I wanted to speed it up so I build two repair bots that could take care of non essential repairs and clean up the ship.

I worked three days strait and managed to replace all power lines, sensors and shield emitters. I managed to repair thrusters, control panels and some of the weapons. More I couldn’t do, because I didn’t have materials. I could mine some, but that would take too much time.

I knew what I needed to do. I opened Com link to city. “Harr, if you have time, I’d like to talk to you.”

There was silence for a second, before he picked it up. “I thought you run away. Liray and Johnathan told me you wouldn’t, but I wasn’t so sure. With bounty on your head.” He told me.

“Yes, I’ll have to go away, but before that I need something from you. I need as much scrap as you can get your hands on.” I said.

“Why would you need it and what happened four nights ago?” he asked.

“Ship I’m calling you from belongs to me and it was stolen by mercenaries. There was one friend on board of ship and they sold her. I need to get to her before someone kills her or worse.” I said.

I couldn’t hear him for about a minute. “Are you there Harr?”

“Yes, I’m here. I’m just thinking, what can I do to help? Best would be contact a scrapyard and take it from them. I can lend you some money, but I don’t have too much.” He said.

“I can trade replicator time for scrap. I can make factory new parts.” I said.

“Hmm…. That could work. I’ll contact scrapyard and made a deal. Do you need anything else?”

“Yes I’d like to meet with you and others before I leave. Invite Norman, detective Kirkland and Greg if you can. I’d like to leave behind some items that could help you, if something happens.”

“I’ll go and prepare everything. When should we meet?” he asked.

“Tonight would be best. We could meet at Golden Well, if Johnathan doesn’t have problems with it. I’ll tell you what happened yesterday.” I said.

“Ok. Take care of yourself.” He said and ended call.

I’ll need to sneak inside the town. Hurum has four gates, but I won’t be able to use them. I’ll have to go through the wall.

To help me sneak I scrapped both drones and remade them. I made them almost same, but I used completely new parts with higher specification. I added new sensors and enhanced remote control. Best thing was that I could use more powerful processors and use more memory. This enables me to use more complex instruction with better response.

Last thing I did was enhancing remote control on Paladin. After that I waited until it was dark enough to sneak into the city. In the end, it was easy to sneak to the Golden Well. I only had to wait until guards on wall look other way and climb over it.

When I walked inside, I could see everyone was already here. They were seated around the room. Liray, Harr, Norman, Johnathan, Detective Kirkland, Greg. What surprised me was that even Lany, Jerry and his granddad was there.

I retracted the visor and smiled at others. I greeted everyone and we moved to center of room where tables were already prepared for our meeting. We seated around it. I looked around and everyone waited for me to start.

I told them about what happened on my meeting with Kingpin and how I managed to acquire the ship. I saw Liray looking at me expectantly through my telling. I knew what he wanted to suggest to me, but I wanted to say it my way.

“… I was enraged and my power source started to pump more and more energy into me. I went after them and quickly dispatch two of them. Third, I interrogated to find out what happened to my friend. With my last strength, I tossed him into the brig and fell asleep on the pilot chair. When I woke up, I made as many repairs as I could. After that I contacted you and here we are.”

I could see them looking confused at me. “What do you mean by power source and overcharging?” asked Greg finally.

I knew they would notice it. “Exactly what I said. You probably already suspected that I’m not completely human. To tell the truth, it’s even more… strange.” I said changing my skin to normal mechanical tone. I didn’t even know when I started to think about as normal skin.

Everyone, but Liray looked wide eyed at me.

“I know, it’s not what you expected, but this is who I am. I was born human, but circumstances changed and now I’m in this body.” I said and waited for them to say something.

When they didn’t tell anything for whole two minutes I raised my voice in worry. “Say something already. I’m starting to get little scared! ”

First to speak was Harr. “To tell the truth, I’m not sure what I think about this. It’s just too different from everything I imagined, that I don’t know what to say.”

“You look cooler like this. Can I look at you closer?” said Lany with smile.

I smiled back at her. “Yes, come here and look.”

She came up to me and looked, poked and prodded me while other considered what to say.

“It doesn’t matter how you look. I think you proved to us long time ago on whose side you are.” said finally Greg.

I smiled even more when others let me know that nothing changed with my revelation. Only one left was Norman who looked incredulously around himself. “How can you trust her? She lied to us from first day we met.” He turned to me with stone face. ”I’m sorry, but I can’t trust you. I shouldn’t hire you as my bodyguard.” he stood up and left Golden Well.

I wanted to go after him, but Liray placed hand on my shoulder and shook his head. “I’ll talk to him when we finish. I told you he has trust issues. Give him time and he’ll come around.”

“Ok I’ll do as you say. I hope, he’ll trust me once more.” I said and sat down.

I started to thank them, but Johnathan interrupted me. “We understand. Now, how can we help you? You’re going to save your friend. Am I right?”

“Yes I’m going to save her, but I’ll need more parts for my ship to do it.”

I turned to Jerry’s granddad. “We weren’t introduced, but my name is Leya. I would like to get as much scrap as you can give me. I can trade it for parts from my replicator. They would be all factory new.” I said.

He frowned at me. “My name is Gordon Salem and what parts can you make?”

“If I have enough materials, I can make almost anything. I built my ship with help of replicator.” I said.

He stroked his beard thoughtfully. “Hmm, ok that could work. Now, I’d like to know what happened to my howerbike.”

I winced and looked down when I heard it. “I had to leave it behind, because someone came after me right after I woke up. I can make you a new one.”

When I looked back at him, I saw he wasn’t happy with me. “I don’t need new one. I build this one from first wire to last nut.”

“I understand what you want to tell me, but I just can’t bring it back. I can make you new one or I can give you parts to make new one yourself, but I can’t give you back yours.” I said.

“You………. I……..” He sighed, “Ok, I’ll make a new one. Give me parts and I’ll start immediately work on it. I hope, they aren’t included in our previous deal.”

“Of course and I’m sorry.” I said.

“Let it go. I’ll place scrap in the middle of scrapyard, but I’m not sure how you’ll get it on your ship.” said Gordon.

I smiled. “Don’t worry. I have it all planned already. Place it in some containers and I’ll pick them up in the morning.”

“Ok, I’ll start working on it. I should go and prepare it.” said Gordon and moved towards the door.

“You should hear this second part first. It’s connected to you.” I said.

“What do you mean by that?” asked Gordon.

“I’d like to leave behind couple of things, in case they try to another attack. Also I’d like to produce new parts for spaceport so they don’t have to sell it.” I said.

“That would be good. We still don’t know what they want to do, but the spaceport is one of the things they want. At least we think so.” said Detective Kirkland.

“I’ll start producing parts as soon as I have some materials.” I said.

“I told you I can give you materials, but what more do you need?” asked Gordon.

“I’d like to hide parts in one of your buildings. I’d like to build couple of weapons. If everything goes bad, they could be your last line of defense.” I said.

“What about my family? From what I heard, we could be attacked just by having these items.” said Gordon.

“He’s right, we shouldn’t involve civilians.” said Greg.

“We were involved in it when they attacked this city and our councilmen. All of us would be affected by their plan and that means we have right to defend ourselves as we deemed necessary.” said Johnathan.

“He’s right granddad. We have to help or we would be left defenseless later. It’s our chance to do a good thing.” said Jerry who didn’t say much all this time.

Few of us who know him stared at him while Johnathan look pleased and slapped him the back. “That’s my boy. He has the courage and his heart is at right place. If we don’t help we’ll be just saving time for later and in the end, it’ll cause much bigger disaster.”

“I can’t forbid it to you, but think it through. Like Gordon said, it won’t affect only one person, but whole family.” said Detective Kirkland looking at Lany and Jerry.

“It’s no problem when concerning me. I’m going with Leya.” said Lany.

“What do you mean?” said me and Gordon at the same time.

“You told me I could be your Ap… Are…Apren… you know what. You’ll teach me and I’ll work for a small fee.” said looking eagerly at me.

“You mean Apprentice. That was before I knew about my friend. It would be just too dangerous to take you with me.” I said.

“I don’t care. I can stay on the ship and help you. I won’t go on planet, if it’s too dangerous. Please let me come.” she said with puppy eyes.

“You’ll have to ask Gordon first. He’s your guardian.” I said and dodged matter to Gordon.

“Traitor.” I heard him mutter. “Lany you heard her. It’s just too dangerous and you won’t be able to change your decision later.” he said.

“I won’t, I…” she stopped when Gordon raised his hand. “I didn’t tell you, I won’t let you. Just think about it more. It’ll take me whole night to put everything in containers and in the middle of the scrapyard. You have enough time to think it through.”

“I’ll think about it, but I know what I want. I want to go out, see universe, other planets and learn all about them.” she said and looked back at me with hopeful eyes. “If I decided to go with you, will you take me?”

It will be dangerous, but I could use more help in restoring Paladin V. It took serious beating in last encounter. “Ok, I’ll take you, but you’ll have to do what I tell you, when I tell you. Do you understand?”

She jumped towards me and hugged me, then she moved to Gordon and even Jerry. They too get hug. Then she ran outside. She was probably going back to the scrapyard think about her decision and pack her things.

“I should go too. I have a lot of work and I’d like to do it before morning.” said Gordon. He and Jerry left which left me with Harr, Liray, Greg, Johnathan and Detective Kirkland.

Until dawn we talked about ourselves. They told me about their family and friends and I told them about mine. I found out that Detective Kirkland first name was Arthur. He didn’t have family because like other in his line of work, he was married to his work.

Johnathan was married to a local woman who helped him in Golden Well. She was away right now because he didn’t want to endanger her. She was currently pregnant for five months. He helped me because he thought it was right thing to do, but also because he wanted to raise his son in peace.

Liray told me he stayed on this planet after the war. He was here as soldier, but after war ended he was left here. As there wasn’t a way to return to his planet he stayed here and started to work as local sheriff. After some time police force was established, but it wasn’t for him. They were just too much rules that he wasn’t comfortable with. In the end he opened small school where he thought martial arts.

Lastly Greg told me how he started to work for local police and in time he used connection to work as bodyguard. This helped him to earn more money which he invested in his equipment. He wanted to buy as good equipment as he could and use it to protect others. He didn’t tell us why, but I could see pain in his eyes. Someone dear to him had to die.

About hour before dawn Liray wanted to fight me one last time. I told him that now that my abilities were back, it would be different. No matter, he wanted to fight. I asked Johnathan if it would be alright and when he approved, we prepared for fight.

Both of us stepped in the middle of the room and bowed to one another. I fell in loose stance from which enabled me react faster. He chose to go with more aggressive stance. We started to circle one another and wait for our opportunity.

First to make mistake was me when I stumbled on uneven surface of the floor. I stumbled to the right and Liray immediately jumped at me. As soon as he started to move I felt everything slow down. I used my right leg to brace myself and launched myself at him.

I could see that he was surprised with my reaction speed. He went for my legs and tried to kick my down. I jumped over him and grabbed him by the shoulders. I used them to launch myself farther from him because he was already spinning and coming at me with high kick.

After this brief exchange we both started to once more circle one another. From this exchange both of us knew that I was stronger and faster, but he was more experienced. In a real fight I would just overwhelm him and didn’t give him chance to use his skill. However this fight was different. I wanted to show him that I understood his teachings and even thought I was far from his league, I could still defend myself.

We circled ourselves for whole two minutes before I saw him preparing to launch himself at me. Before he could do so I ran at him. He tried to grab my hands and tossed me over him. I let him grab my hands, but I pivoted myself to the right and used my elbow to strike his face. He instinctively protected his face and jumped sideways.

I didn’t get him with this attack, but he wasn’t fast enough dodge my leg when I tripped him down. I immediately went after him and used my strength to pin him down. We wrestled for about a minute and he took me down almost two times, but in the end I managed to subdue him.

He patted floor two times. “I surrender. You got me good this time, but I almost took you down one or two times.”

I beamed at him. “Like you always tell me almost doesn’t count.”

He shook his head, “Student teaching his teacher. What did I do to deserve this?”

“Ha, if someone deserves it, it’s you. You always beat someone and now someone finally returned it to you.” said Harr with mock anger, but we all could see smile underneath.

After that it was almost time to go and pick up my things on scrapyard. Before we all left, we helped Johnathan tidy up his restaurant and bid our farewell.

When I came to the scrapyard, I could see that everything was already prepared. Even Lany was waiting with her things. She had only small bag that contained only essentials for traveling. Next to her was standing Gordon with Jerry.

“Hi, it was some time, I worked whole night. I would go to sleep, but I want to see how you take everything from here.” said Gordon who looked ready to fall asleep.

“Don’t worry, that won’t be a problem. I’ll just load it into my ship and went away with it for now. When I make everything I want to leave here, I’ll return and give it to you.” I said.

“Should I wait for you here or go with you back for the ship?”Asked Lany.

“So you decided to go with me.” I looked at her and she nodded. “No, I’ll guide my ship here and my bots will help me load everything into the ship.”

“I can’t wait to see it. Can we start already?” she asked.

I laughed. “Yes, give me a moment to connect to my ship.” I said.

I sat cross-legged down on the ground and connected to my ship. I could feel her waking up and I sent small part of my consciousness into it. It was really weird to be at two places at the same time.

I lifted Paladin and moved towards city. I knew there was some air defense installed in city, but if I hug the ground, I should be ok. In a minute, I was already moving over city which caused pretty big commotion. I winced when I saw people looking up with fear.

I let the ship float over scrapyard and sent out bots to load all containers into the ship. From Arthur and Greg, I knew I had about fifteen minutes before police will arrive at the scrapyard. I’ll have to load everything into ship before they arrive. That shouldn’t be a problem.

I let bots do their work and look at Lany who was looking up with wide eyes. When she saw me she run to me and hugged me. “This is awesome. Will I be able to control it like that in the future?”

I thought about how could I make special interface to connect to human mind and about problems that I would need to overcome. “I don’t know. Maybe. It’s harder to connect human mind directly into the ship. It could burn out your brain.”

“You’ll think of something.” she said full of confidence.

I shook my head and turned to Gordon. “Police will be here in about fifteen minutes. I want you to tell them I robbed you. Tell them about me not being human.”

“Why would I tell them that? I won’t tell them anything and this is private property. I don’t have to let them enter.” he said angrily.

“I know you don’t like it, but I need you to do it. When I return with other things, I need to be viewed villain. I don’t want them to search your property.”

“How would my telling your secret help you with it?” he asked.

“Simply, when I return, I’ll send small missile as revenge. I’ll guide it here where nothing remains and then I sent bots to load one of the buildings. They should be convinced that I attacked you because of the revenge and not giving you things for city.” I said.

He looked thoughtful. “That could work, not that I like it, but it covers one thing I didn’t know how to hide.”

“Don’t worry everything will be fine. I’ll go away immediately after the attack so you should bid farewell to Lany. When I save my friend, I’ll try to get back, but circumstances could change. I could be forced to take another route.” I said.

“Ï understand. Just take care of her. I always knew she was destined for something greater then selling scrap.” he said and turned to Lany.

“I always tried to take care of you. I know I wasn’t ideal father to you, but don’t forget about us. You’ll have home waiting here for you every time you return.” he said and hugged her.

“I’ll return, I promise and you were best dad I could wish for.” said Lany crying.

“I know, I was jerk this past couple of years, but I’ll change and when you return, you’ll have brother here.” said Jerry and hugged her too.

“I’ll be glad to have brother.” she said.

By this time all of them were crying and even I had tears in eyes. I blinked couple of times to return to the reality.

“I don’t want to interrupt you, but we have to go. Police is already on their way and they should be here any minute.” I said.

Lany went next to me and two bots swept us up towards the ship. I went immediately to pilot seat and strapped myself. I called after Lany and told her to strap herself into one of the vacant seats. I connected into ship and surprise awaited me there. Three small ships were coming towards my location. They didn’t come from direction of the town, but rather from outside.

I still had little time so I speed up away from town. I didn’t want to have ship fight over city. As soon as I got farther from city, I received call from them.

On display I could see man in his thirties looking like pirate. He wore even eye patch across his eye. “This is Captain Danny Lerk from Firewood mercenaries. Surrender yourself to us and return our ship. We will be merciful.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. I know what you’ll do to me. I’d rather stay on my ship, if you don’t mind.” I said without expression.

“Not your ship, but our ship! If you don’t surrender, we’ll shot you down. Bounty is dead or alive.” he said with sinister smile.

“Why so impolite? I should tell you first that I’m original owner of this ship. I know all codes and that includes one to the missiles.” I continued politely.

That shut him up. He looked at my face, but I just continued to look at him which evidently unnerved him.

“I think you are bluffing.” he said finally. “Guys load am up and send her present.”

He cut his connection and I could see theirs missile pods preparing for missile strike. I looked at Lany who looked nervous. “Don’t worry. Couple of backwater mercenaries won’t be able to touch me.”

I turned my ship in hundred and eighty arc and speed up towards the mercenaries. I focused on first ship where signal originated and fired from my laser and plasma weapons. As soon as they hit him, I could see they vaporized half the ship. So much for his threats.

They had probably same shields I had when I got on my ship. They retaliated with their weapons, but my shields held without problems. They even fired their missiles, but I was already too close and I flied underneath them. It was old type of missiles that went after heat source. As I was already behind them both missiles changed their targets and went after mercenaries ships.

They were forced to destroy them and in confusion I got behind them. “Now that we introduced ourselves, why don’t you land your ships on these coordinates?” I sent them coordinates about fifty kilometers from city.

“Why should we listen to you?” said one of the Captains on the ships.

“Because she can destroy us anytime she deems necessary.” said second Captain.

“With what? I know our ships and they don’t have anything that powerful.”

“Didn’t you see how she took down Danny and that our weapons didn’t do anything to her? I tell you, we don’t stand a chance.”

“You can surrender, if you want, but I’ll continue to fight her.”

I shook my head. “Do you even know that I hear everything you say? I can destroy you before you could move your ship. If there is someone who doesn’t want to die, he should put your Captain in the brig and land ship where I told you.”

There was silence on the other end, but after a while new voice surrendered to me. I followed them until they landed their ships on the ground and all came out. They tried to hide couple of crewmembers on the ship, but when I reminded them about their situation they all came out.

I let Paladin hover over them and jumped down. Of course, before I jumped down, I scanned them for weapons and forced to let them on the ship. As soon as I landed on ground three men tried to attack me. I let them come at me and knocked them unconsciousness .

Now I was standing before them and thinking about what to do with them.

“First I’d like to know who hired you and who put bounty on my head?” I said.

No one said anything at first, but in the end one man came forward.

“What guarantees can you give us? What if you kill us as soon as we tell you everything?” he said.

He was same man who surrendered immediately. He looked more capable then others. Some of them look to be just ordinary cutthroats, but all man and women on this captain’s ship looked professional.

“I didn’t kill you and I don’t plan to kill you. I want to know who am I against and this is price for your lives.” I said.

He stroked his chin. “We will cooperate with you, but we want our ships back and we want to be set free.”

“Ok, but I want codes to your ships and promise that you wouldn’t work against me.” I said.

“Why should we give you our codes?.... Deal.” said both captains at the same time.

First I turned to Captain who constantly complained. I had enough of his high attitude. I sent signal to my ship and immediately streak of plasma fired near his ship changing its surroundings into mass of sizzling plasma.

“That’s the reason why you will give me codes! You think you are some powerful mercenary and that no one can go against you. Let me tell you something about you and your ship. Your ship is outdated little crap that is braking before my eyes and as for yourself, I could take you down in five seconds with hands tied behind my back so please try me more.”

He took step back fearfully, but immediately anger lit his eyes and he took step back. He would probably attack, if not for one of his crewmembers and his fist. As they dragged him back, new representative came forward and agreed to our deal. It was same one who surrendered to me on brige.

Who hired them they didn’t have a clue, but I found out bounty was placed by local council members and some foreign company. I wanted to know more about this company, but they couldn’t tell anything new. In the end both of them promised to never work against me. I knew that it was just my wistful thinking, but I hoped at least smarter one would honor our deal.