The following day Gabriel and Madeline headed over to the docks to meet the two justicars for a meeting just after lunch. They arrived at the ship, looking the same as the last time, albeit with fuller cargo bays. Cani’s ship would however not fit and needed to be left on the surface. As they boarded, Gabriel saw a few cremembers walking around dressed in the commonly used jumpsuits. Mostly engineering and environmental, but the mess officer was on board arranging the kitchen and stocking supplies.

They were directed to the upper floor of the bridge where Rik’Tensel, Zura, and a male Phigos—If he was correct in that the females had a ridge on their heads—were waiting. Gabriel tried to recall how Morthri looked, but he often wore headwear and it’s not like Gabriel was often focusing on the top of his head.

“Gabriel, Madeline, meet Captain Densiri, she will join the meeting,” Zura said.

“So Phigos males and female Cecaiampals have the ridge, that was it,” Gabriel thought and bowed his head. “A pleasure to meet you, Captain,” He said and Madeline repeated the statement, with some modifications.

“And you two as well,” Densiri said and bowed her head.

“Gabriel, would you hit that button next to the stairs?” Zura asked and pointed. Gabriel found the button and a door slid close over the stairs as well as a screen of glass across the railing, separating them from the bottom part of the bridge. “Thank you, now that we have privacy, let’s begin.” Zura motioned to Rik’Tensel.

“As you know, we suspect that a Roniean male by the name of Turan Irnik bought the...” He paused for a second and sighed. “Target we are retrieving.” He shot a meaningful look at Gabriel who caught on. “He is the only one we know of that matches the description, has connections that are somewhat suspect, and traveled through the space needed for this to occur.”

“Did he not try and hide his tracks after getting… the target?” Gabriel asked.

“Yes, through some alternate routes. Sightseeing is what the Roniean government was told. He was observing an unpopulated planet between his former destination and Roniean III. The market was right in the middle. He will likely claim to have been in orbit during the time he was unaccounted for.”

“He was,” Zura said. “Not for all of it, I suspect that photos taken have been tampered with but he has pictures with timestamps.”

“So, we are assuming that he is the buyer, what’s next?” Gabriel asked. “We can’t very well go to Roniean II and kick down his door, as much as I would like that.”

“No, we can’t,” Zura said and brought up several documents and numbers on the screen. Gabriel decided against trying to read any of it. “But, he has cargo unaccounted for, likely from smuggling and strange records, weight and storage space that does not add up, or changes over trips. And luckily for us, he has made many trips into Union space with faulty records. This means the archive must visit to clear this up, or else he must pay heavy fines for falsifying his manifests.”

“So, we go there, knock and ask to compare notes?”

“Yes, we are lucky that he is a Roniean and that they like their forms and regulations. As he is the owner of the ship, he needs to have copies of all manifests dating back the last three years,” Zura explained. “So, in the worst-case scenario, we are wrong and can clear up the shipping mistakes and slap a fine or two on him. But if we can get him to slip up, we can have him arrested based on suspicion.”

“Several days' trip for potential fines?”

Zura sighed and shrugged, the tentacles on her head twitching, “Worst case scenario. But even if nothing comes out of him, assuming the merchant didn’t lie, we are more likely to find clues on Roniean II than here.”

“Yeah, I can’t really argue with that. And I don’t know why I’m questioning it, I still would take the trip with less to go on,” Gabriel said.

“This Turan Irnik is quite a shady individual,” Rik’Tensel said and brought up a picture of the reported route. “While we only suspect he has made the purchase, it is a strong suspicion.”

Madeline stepped forwards, “And how many Roniean ships traveled through the same route?”

“Not that many, while there is a small space station half a day away in FTL it’s otherwise very empty,” Rik’Tensel said and brought up the station on the map. “Unless you work on a mining ship, there is little reason to visit the station. Unless there is a black market in the area.”

“Correct,” Zura said. “So, are we all in agreement?” Gabriel nodded and Madeline flexed her fur ridge in agreement. “Great, Captain Densiri, please continue as planned.”

“Of course, Zura. I will expect you on the bridge for the introductions tomorrow,” Densiri said and headed over to the door leading into the ship.

“Yes, of course, Captain,” Zura said and bowed. “At least I won't be bored on comm duty.”

“Yes you will,” Rik’Tensel said matter of factly. “Any other questions?”

“Just one,” Gabriel said as the idea struck him. “Do you Justicars have code names? I mean are you planning to use any for the mission?”

“Yes, and yes,” Rik’Tensel said.

“Great, what are those?” Gabriel asked.

“Zura,” Zura said.

“Rik’Tensel,” Rik’Tensel said.

“I should have figured,” Gabriel said. “So, we are meeting the crew tomorrow, anything until then?”

“No, at least not from us. If Krihana hasn't contacted you I suppose you are free. And regarding the meeting, try and get here an hour in advance so you can give your friends the tour and set up the rooms,” Zura said and brought up the interior map. “I will take the first room on the left, going down the corridor on this floor, Rik’Tensel will take the second.”

“Got it,” Gabriel said. “We’ll see you tomorrow then.” Gabriel and Madeline said their goodbyes and headed out. “So, any last shopping to get done before we leave? Or maybe we could have that date?”

“A date sounds nice,” Madeline said and grabbed his hand. “Let’s see, we have clothes, but we need movies. And some music would be nice.” She began pulling him towards the exit. Gabriel just grinned and followed along.

While Madeline was sure they had enough clothes to wear, that didn’t stop her from buying a dress for herself and a fancy jacket for Gabriel. Just in case they would end up in some fancy party. Eventually, though they found a shop selling movies. While the Union had streaming services and something resembling the internet, getting those to work in FTL was impossible.

As they entered the store, the Arkron shopkeep looked up, “Ambassador Walker, isn’t it? Welcome to my store. And miss Nioni if I’m not mistaken, welcome as well.” The Arkron said and bowed. Gabriel thought it was a he, but he was even worse with telling Arkron genders than he was with Phigos.

“Thank you,” Gabriel and Madeline said.

“And you are correct,” Madeline added. “Not many Zilgi planetside?”

“Not many no,” The shopkeep said. “I have only met one group before your father's ship landed. Some came past then. Now, how may I be of service?”

“We are looking for movies, believe it or not,” Madeline said and smiled as her fur ridge stood up.

“Then you have come to the right place, what kind are you looking for?” The Arkron stepped around the counter.

“A little bit of everything,” Madeline said and began going over the shelves, leaving Gabriel to his own accord.

The movies were not quite boxes, rather most used plastic pamphlets of sorts and just loaded the movies into the user's pcu. One could also pay a little extra to get the movies on a portable hard drive. It was closer to a small computer with a screen for broadcasting to a TV but as far as Gabriel knew, that was its only function.

The shelves were sorted by origin so Gabriel decided that this was as good of a time as any to learn how all the races were spelled in Station standard. He had some of them down, luckily, when it came to names, he only needed to slowly pronounce each letter in his head to figure out what it said. And since he knew how the letters were pronounced it wasn’t that difficult of a task. The only trouble he faced was that Station standards could be written left to right, up and down,is and right to left. Well, all languages could but this one was made for it to suit whatever the race learning it used. In this shop, it was down.

By the time he had identified all the sections and was trying to figure out the subsections on the Zilgi shelve, Madeline called him over to the counter.

“This is a continuation of the murder mystery we watched yesterday, otherwise I got a little of everything.”

“Good enough for me,” Gabriel said. They finished the transaction and turned to leave, only to be blocked by a very tall and broad Phigos. He was half a head taller than Gabriel and matched that in width. There were more people behind him, but only a handful.

“This might seem like a redundant question but you are the human ambassador correct?” he asked.

Gabriel took a half-step in front of Madeline, “Yes, can I help you?” he asked while wondering if these were part of the same gang as the last time he’d been out on a date.

“I’m told you are very strong,” the Phigos said looking him over.

“So I’ve been told,” Gabriel said.

“Hmm, what do you say we find that out?”

“Look, surely you must realize attacking an ambassador in view of the public is a bad idea. The last that tried had a bad day.”

“What?” The large Phigos asked, surprised.

“What?” Gabriel mirrored.

“I… I was just going to ask if you wanted to lift weights, my friends and I just happen to see you walk in. We were going to wait until you came out but we are in a hurry.” He said with a confused look in his three eyes. At least that’s the impression Gabriel got.

“Oh,” Gabriel said. “My bad.” He glanced at Madeline who shrugged. “We were technically on a date though.”

The Phigos looked from Gabriel to Madeline, “Will later tonight work, in 5 hours, or is that too soon?”

“Sure, that’s fine?” Gabriel said, feeling a little confused.

“Great,” The Phigos gave them an address and left with his group.

“What just happened?” Gabriel asked when they were again alone. Well apart from the shopkeep that had wandered off somewhere.

“I think you got some gym buddies,” Madeline said and chirped. “That was strange.”

“Agreed, maybe we should bring Vnara and Orlon with us,” Gabriel suggested.

“Couldn’t hurt,” Madeline agreed.

With that over, Gabriel and Madeline continued their date. They got stopped twice for pictures, and once for clarifying that humans did in fact eat vegetables. Other than that they were left alone and had a very nice stroll in the almost ever-present drizzle. They mostly window shopped, though Gabriel decided on a whim to buy a string instrument that resembled a guitar, though it had picks attached to the strings and buttons that pressed on the neck.

It was quite strange and only had four buttons on each string limiting the range. It was also a four-string instrument but it still gave Gabriel something to play around with on the trip. He seemed to remember that ukuleles had four strings but he wasn’t sure. Nor was he an expert on guitars, he had just played during his school days mostly.

They asked Vnara and Orlon to join them at The Waystop on the Journey of aging for some Cecaiampal food. Gabriel chose a platter that contained a bowl that looked like chili and salad and bread for dipping on the side. It was as excellent as the first meal he’d eaten a few days ago.

“I might need to hire a Cecaiampal chef,” Gabriel said after the meal was over.

“They don’t like space travel, remember,” Madeline said, packing her leftovers into a container.

“Damn, right.”

“I don’t know who your chef will be, but why don’t you request a few meals?” Orlon said.

“Good Idea,” Gabriel brought up his phone and called Krihana.

“Krihana,” she answered. There was some background humming but Gabriel could not place it.

“Hey, it’s Gabriel,” He said before realizing he was calling quite late. “Am I calling in the middle of dinner, if so, sorry.”

“No, but I am traveling home, is this urgent?”

“Well, no, it was a spur of the moment kind of thing,” Gabriel said sheepishly.

“It’s fine, but please try and keep it short.”

“Thanks, well, who do I talk to about the food during the trip?”

“What is the issue?”

“I would like some Cecaiampal food if it’s possible. Like the one in The Waystop on the… uh,” Gabriel said, blanking on the name.

“Journey of aging,” Krihana finished. “I’ll send the Captain your wishes, but it might be too late to order anything.”

“Thanks, sorry to bother you,” Gabriel said and hung up. “Alright, that’s fixed, maybe. Otherwise, we need to go shopping for food and a cookbook.”

“Planning on cooking your own meals?” Madeline asked.

“Yeah, why not,” Gabriel said. “I’ve only cooked once in space, that’s enough practice right?”

Madeline chirped, “I suppose it was only that time on Scarrusk’s ship. But sure, as long as you take it easy with the strong spices.”

“Of course,” Gabriel said. “On your portion,” He added.

Madeline chirped, “That’s fine, as long as you clean your teeth afterward. But it’s almost time for the competition.”

“Alright, let’s go see what this is about,” Gabriel said.

All four got up and headed over to the gym. It was located closer to the space docks, which meant it was quite far from the Waystop. But a hover taxi later, Gabriel pulled on the door and walked in. It had a reception desk with one changing room on each side. Behind the desk was a large room with equipment. The same large Phigos walked over when he noticed them.

“Great, you’re here!” He said and nodded to Vnara and Orlon. “Everything is set up.”

“Alright, I’m still not exactly sure what’s planned,” Gabriel said and followed him into the gym.

“Nothing much, just a friendly competition. My name is Hathri by the way.”

“Nice to meet you. But what brought this on?”

“Rumours, and questionably statements,” Hathri said. “While I’m sure you are strong, I don’t believe everything without evidence, and we happened to see you in the store and figured we might be able to find out the truth.”

“Yeah, believing rumors is what got the last guys in trouble. If you heard about that.”

“I did,” Hathri said and sighed. “I vaguely knew some of those guys, not any that were involved in the gym, but that was outside the restaurant I can’t seem to remember the name of.”

“The waystop on the Journey of aging,”

“That was it. Anyway, those few I know are easily swayed and didn’t even consider that the rumors were false or at least exaggerated.”

“I can assure you that while I was put in an arena, the rest were made up… Probably, unless you’ve heard anything good. But let’s get this underway.”

“Yes, what would you like to start with?” Hathri asked and began describing the exercises they had planned. Deadlift, curls, squats, and sit-ups with weights.

“Arms first? But I’d like to warm up.” Gabriel asked.

“Alright,” Hathri said.

Gabriel quickly warmed up and then he and Hathri took their places, along with a tall Kirini man with the physics of a future strongman and a tall Roniean woman who clearly never skipped leg day. The Kirini was named Sain and the Ronian Freiya.

The deadlifts used the strange pulley system that Gabriel had used during his first test back on US 535. They started slow and went up by what Gabriel reckoned were about 5 kilos each time. He added weights to the next thing he needed to learn how to calculate and translate. He had no idea how much he lifted, but he pressed on while one after one the rest tapped out. First was Sain, followed by Hathri, and finally Freiya.

Gabriel continued for four more steps but seeing as all had beaten the weights used on US 535 those were not made to set records.

“Wow, you are a lot stronger than you look,” Hathri said. “I mean, you’re the smallest one of us.”

Gabriel could not argue with that, “Not by a lot,” He said instead. “Oh, shit, I should have worn my weight suit.”

“What suit?” Sain asked.

“Weight suit. It’s for matching my weight with what I would weigh on my home planet,” Gabriel explained. “Excuse the wording, that took some effort,” Gabriel added and shook his arms and legs.

“To lift the weights or formulate the sentence?” Madeline asked helpfully, with an unnecessary smirk.

“Very funny,” Gabriel said and grinned at her. “But yeah, I might be cheating a little.”

“Hmm, well nothing to do about that,” Hathri said. “The Kirini homeworld also has higher gravity, though not so much that they use weights.”

“Some do,” Sain said. “But most don't.”

Hathri gestured towards the dumbells, “Rested enough?”

“Yep, let’s go,” Gabriel said. “Any other planet with less or more gravity?”

“Roniean I and Roniean IV also has a little higher gravity. I think the Igris prime is the same.”

“Huh,” Gabriel turned to Madeline as he picked up the first set of dumbbells, “Can we visit… what is your home called?”

“Kir,” Sain said.

“Can we visit Kir? After… you know.”

“After we head back to Zilg for a vacation? yes, fine by me,” Madeline chirped. “You need to start writing these down.”

“I should,” Gabriel agreed. “Alright let’s do this.” They began with 10 reps and then increased the weight. Gabriel struggled more during this step, as he had not boxed, other than a few occasions, his arm strength had lessened somewhat. Still, after Freiya and Hathri had tapped out, Gabriel and Sain were matched but eventually, Gabriel just about won with five additional reps.

“So the rumors were true and exaggerated at the same time,” Hathri said.

“Yep,” Gabriel agreed. He did not plan to tell them that he had nanomachines enhancing his muscles. Mostly because he was told not to. But without those he felt there would not be much difference, accounting for properly weighted limbs. He also decided to keep the human specialty of throwing punches to himself.

They all took a moment to breathe and take a sip of water before getting into position for squats. “Alright, we will do sets of 10, then rest until the beep and then 10 more. If you’re too slow, you’re out.” Hathri explained and pressed a button that began a countdown.

“One moment,” Gabriel said and grabbed some weights. He found a backpack made to transport round weights and slipped it on, loading it until he felt like he was back on Earth. “Alright, no cheating this time,” He said and took the position.

Hathri nodded and the countdown began again. Now that Gabriel weighed his proper amount, these squats took more out of him. He did however beat Sain and failed out just before Hathri with Freiya claiming the victory with another set.

Another break—and a lighter backpack to match his upper body—later, The final competition of sit-ups began. This time Hathri won, with Gabriel second, Freiya third, and Sain fourth.

Gabriel stored the weights and accepted a bottle of water from Madeline, “Thanks guys, this was fun.”

“Thank you for humoring us,” Hathri said. “Even with our awkward meeting.”

Gabriel chuckled, “I’m just glad you weren’t there to kick my ass.” He clasped forearms with Freiya, shook hands with Sain, and bowed to Hathri. “Just one last question, what did you eat to get so big?” he asked the tall Phigos.

“Everything my parents put in front of me and didn’t hide well enough,” Hathri said and bowed. “But on a serious note, this was fun.”

“Yeah, thanks for inviting me,” Gabriel said.

He and Madeline left the gym and began walking back towards the hover taxi. Gabriel decided that was a name for it rather than HTS. He was feeling refreshed after this meeting. With the photos during the day, it was clear that at least some of the rumors were believed to be false. He looked up as thunder boomed over the city and the light drizzle began getting heavier, turning into rain. Luckily they made sure to bring umbrellas.

“Looks like a storm is on the horizon,” Madeline mused and grabbed Gabriel’s arm, huddling under the same umbrella.