“Is that everything?” I asked Crizah'domn, as we watched four of his people carry a large box up the ramp into the Tempest’s cargo hanger.

“Yes. It will take a few hours to get things settled and the animals taken care of, but everything is aboard.” The old bird said.

“Excellent. If you say “Com Com” and then my name, it will activate the internal shipboard communications and let you speak with me no matter where I am on the ship. You can use that to alert me when you, your people and animals are ready to leave.” I told him

“I understand.” He said with a small bow.

“I have quarters prepared for you and your people. They-”

He interrupted me, “I appreciate your offer; but, my people and I would prefer to stay here with the animals. It is our way.”

“That’s perfectly fine,” I said with a small nod. “Just to give you a heads up, once we depart it will take most of the night for us to reach the outskirts of this system. I realize that’s rather slow but it’s a trade off for the ability to jump. The Tempest is slower within a star system but much faster between systems. We’ll make the jump early tomorrow morning and arrive in the system of Golfin almost immediately after. The sensation of the jump is a little unpleasant, but it is brief and has no lasting effects. I say this because I don’t know how the animals will react and I want you to be prepared.”

I took a deep breath to give him a moment to process that and he gave me a nod so I continued. “ We’ll arrive in-system very close to the star, within the orbit of the first planet. After the warpcore spins down from the jump we’ll move to Golfin 4 under traditional warp propulsion and it’ll take thirty minutes to an hour to arrive. So i’ll have you on the ground and fully unloaded by mid-afternoon tomorrow.”

“Thank you Captain Kaine. I am looking forward to seeing my wife and sons again.”

“”I’m happy I can help. If you need anything just contact me over the coms.” He gave me a small bow of appreciation and I left him standing there as I made my way to the port lift. “Taimia, close the cargo bay door and release the umbilical from the airlock.” I said just loudly enough for the mic in my suit to pick it up. I looked back and made sure the cargo bay door was in motion before stepping into the lift.

I rode up to the topdeck and stepped out, crossing to the main bar. "Taimia, can you please make me something to eat?"

"Yes Captain. What would you like?" The computer asked

"Nothing complicated, how about a burger and fries."

"It is done."

"Thank you Taimia." I said, and opened the door to the replicator. I took out the food and set it on the counter, then I reached for a glass to fill with water when I heard a noise that sounded like a gasp. I immediately whirled around but there was nobody else, I was the only one standing there.

Shrugging to myself, I filled the glass with water, then looked around one more time before taking the food and water over to a nearby table to enjoy my dinner. It had been nearly three months since I'd tasted a real burger so when I bit down on it my eyes rolled into the back of my head. It was so good. I couldn't ever remember having a burger taste that good before. "Damn Taimia, you really outdid yourself. I think this is the best burger I've ever had." I said and took another bite.

"I appreciate the praise, but I can't take credit for this. James Malaki inputted Kobe Beef into the system for use with all beef dishes. Kobe is a province of Japan and world renowned for having the best, and most expensive, beef on earth."

I stood up and whirled around in one quick motion as I heard the sound again. It definitely sounded like a person gasping in shock. But looking around there was nobody else in sight. Remembering the way Shade would seem to vanish I dropped the visor to my armor and switched it over to infrared. Scanning the room I found nothing out of the ordinary so I switched the visor over to sound refraction. The blues, greens and reds were immediately replaced with a black and white display. I slammed a hand on the table and watched colored circles pulse out and expand, rippling across the room in all directions and scattering as they bounced off various pieces of furniture.

The soundwaves didn't encounter anything that I couldn't see so I raised my visor back up, sliding it away, out of sight. "Taimia, are you detecting anyone in the room with me?"

"No, everyone else onboard is currently in the cargo hanger. I am not detecting anyone else."

I screwed up my face with both hands. "Maybe I'm just tired. It's been a crazy week." I suddenly yawned as if to emphasize the point. Sitting back down I finished the meal and took the crumbs and tray back to the replicator to recycle. I stretched both arms above my head and let out a big yawn but before I could take a step a beep came over the speakers in the room.

"Captain Kaine?"

"Crizah'domn, what can I do for you? Are you ready to launch?" I asked the old bird.

"Yes Captain, we are ready."

"Understood, I'll get us moving in just a few minutes."

"Thank you Captain; and I wanted to express my appreciation again for your quick departure." He said.

"It's not a problem. Kaine out. Com end." I said, cutting off the inter-ship coms. I quickly stepped into the nearest lift and rode it down one floor to operations. Once on the bridge I took the Captain's chair. "Taimia, begin launch preparation and contact the control tower." I said

"Brigands Hold Port Authority, how may I help you?" Said the voice of a man

"This is Captain Kaine of the Tempest requesting permission to depart." I replied.

"One moment," he paused for a few seconds. "Tempest you are cleared to launch and queue for exit. Please maintain port speed until you are at least twenty-five kilometers from the station."

"Understood, Tempest out" I said and Taimia cut the connection as the RCS thrusters along the wings and on the belly of the ship fired. We gently rose off the deck several hundred feet before rotating the nose upwards. The main engines ignited on low power and we gradually began moving out of the docking hanger. The artificial gravity came on , but not a full G. I thought about it for a moment and I realized Taimia must be using the same amount of gravity the destination planet had. It was smaller than earth by around fifteen percent.

The Tempest pulled into a slow moving line of ships heading out of the station. Once clear, Taimia maintained the speed but broke away from the line. After a short time the main engines fired at full power and I was momentarily squashed into the back of my chair. I heard a muted thud behind me and I wondered about the passengers. Fortunately, the inertial dampeners kicked in quickly and the immense G-forces were gone. I leaned out of my chair and looked back, but no one was there. "I am way too tired for this" I said to myself while rubbing my eyes.

The main engines stopped as the warp engine engaged and the ship began its true acceleration. I yawned again and walked out of the bridge heading for my quarters. "Taimia, can you wake me up about an hour before we jump?"

"I will do that. Have a good night Captain."

Once inside my quarters I stripped and took a very quick shower before pulling on a clean pair of boxers and falling into bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Something tapped my nose and I tried to reach up to rub it but I couldn't move, my hand was pinned. I opened bleary eyes to see what it was to find a girl's face less than a foot away from mine. I jolted awake with wide eyes. It was Shade and she was straddling me. My arms were straight down by my sides and her knees were on my wrists. I squirmed but couldn't get free.

"Nuh uh uhh." She said as she waved a thin bladed knife in front of my face; then placed it lightly against my throat. I wondered how quickly I could armor but with the knife already against my throat I figured it would be too risky to attempt. "If you try anything, I'll slit your throat before you could blink," she said. Her voice was soft and gentle, almost pretty. Just not what she said.

"What do you want?" I asked her

"I,want to ask you some questions, and don't even think about lying to me. Now, tell me where you got this ship?" She asked

I stared into her eyes considering. The irises of her brown eyes were very open because of the low light in the room and it made her eyes almost look black. Her frown deepened and within those dark orbs I saw violent energy begin to swirl. A few more seconds passed in silence and she held up her empty hand and an orb of dark swirling black and violet energy grew there. "Tell me." She hissed.

Again I kept silent. "Fine, this will loosen your tongue." She said, and pushed the orb right into my chest. I tensed up but it went right through the skin on my chest. A moment later my entire body seized up. My muscles began to spasm and cramp. It was like my entire body was experiencing a charlie-horse. I cried out in agony. She lifted her hand off my chest and the pain vanished almost immediately. My body, arms and legs twitched randomly. She leaned forward again and said "tell me".

As she leaned forward the motion caused the neck of her dress to open up enough for me to get a solid eye-full of her amazing cleavage. My male brain engaged and I became acutely aware that she was straddling my groin and I could feel her intimate warmth through my boxers. The inevitable happened to my utter embarrassment. She blinked, sat up and looked down with disbelief plain as day on her face. "Are you..?" She started but interrupted herself to laugh. She ground herself along my length experimentally a couple times and looked back up at me. "Down boy. We might have time to play later, but I need you to answer my questions. Where did you get this ship?"

"Why?" I asked. "Why is it important? Why are you here? You know we're leaving the system and probably won't come back?"

"Oh I know," she said. "Now tell me where you got this ship."

"Aaron and I found an abandoned shipyard, it was the only ship left there. I was able to access the ship's systems because I am a direct descendent of James Malaki. I don't remember the name of the star but Taimia has it in her logs."

She sat up and her jaw went slack. Then she closed her eyes and after opening them, she put the knife away. "Then you and I are allies in a way. My mother was a Seraphim. She leaned back enough to take the pressure off her knees, freeing my hands. I pulled them out and she settled herself again. I immediately shot back to full mast, but aside from a small crooked smile, she ignored it. "I need your help. I need to get away from here, and I need to find my mother's people."

I pondered everything for a few moments and tried with all my might to forget about what was happening beneath her dress at the moment. "Look, I'll level with you, I only found out about this yesterday. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do. I have no problem helping you but, I'm honestly hardly in a position to help myself right now. And I honestly have no idea what a Seraphim is or where your people may be."

"Can you just take me with you for now? I need to get out of the system, and it needs to be on this ship." She pleaded.

"Why are you so eager to leave your home? Aren't you dating Steiner?"

She barked a laugh. With one hand she pulled the collar of her dress back and laid across my chest. In that position I could see a scar on the back of her neck. She sat back up and said "I'm his slave. If I don't do what he wants, I make him unhappy or he’s just in the mood to do it, he tortures me; sometimes for hours." She took a deep breath. "There is a capsule in my neck that will shock me and if he wants it'll kill me. There's nobody on Brigands Hold that will take it out. Slavery is legal there after all. I can't kill him either. He doesn't let me get close enough. His device has a proximity sensor. The only time he gets close enough to touch me, he has me shackle myself, then he..uses me.” She hung her head; “even at night, he locks me in a closet to sleep."

Anger boiled inside me. In my life, that Fajani outside the hanger is the only person I'd ever killed. And truth be told, I've been angry at people but I'd never wanted to kill anyone before. Now however, my thoughts went red thinking about Steiner and how he tortured and raped this girl for his own sick amusement. Another thought crossed my mind; Aaron had known, he'd known how I'd react and spun the story to make it seem like they were dating. Next time I saw the man, we'd be having a very different conversation. I had half a mind to turn around and destroy the entire moon. I knew the tempest was capable of it. But there would be too many innocent casualties.

"To make it worse, I can't run. He can track me and he has the fastest ship I've ever heard of, except this one. That's why I need you to take me away from here. Once I'm out of range from the tracker I can run. Will you help me?" She asked with desperation in her eyes.

I sat up as best I could with her on my lap. I could see the terror in her eyes and the cracked mask she used to try and hide her emotions. "I'll help you." I said and she wrapped her hands around me. I returned the hug and when we broke she rolled off me and lay next to me with her back towards me.

"Thank you." She said softly. I looked down and watched her for a few long minutes and she eventually fell asleep. I laid back down and tried not to imagine all the ways I could kill Steiner. Eventually sleep found me too.