“Well Lerissa, Mari, It’s time we have a proper talk. What is the status of our guests?”

“Sleeping soundly. I expect that to last for at minimum 6 hours. I will alert you if that changes.” Lerissa busies herself by tucking into a bowl of ice cream while Mari reports on the two former slaves.

“Thanks Mari. Then allow me to begin. First and foremost, I would like to ask, again, that you ease up on the insults towards me. Or at least come up with one to use consistently. I would really prefer if you called me by name. Next, you both know the basics of what I am, and what I know. Which, admittedly, is very little. Now I will be delving a little deeper into what my friend the screen, or as you call it, the system, has to say about me.” I give them a full account of my status, titles, perks, skills, and abilities. While doing so I finally got around to checking out that new ability I gained during the battle.

Detect Presence

Your sight, hearing, and touch become hyper-sensitive, allowing you to sense living beings in your local vicinity.

Requires - Path: Spy - Skills: Stealth, Survival, Universal Knowledge

Detection range based on skill levels and PER

Cost - 1 AP per use plus 5% max AP per second active

Wait. I can see the ability cost now. Cool, what about my other ones?

Inspect

Glean information regarding targeted person or object.

Requires - Skills: Analysis, Empath, and *Knowledge

Improve output result based on skill levels

Cost - 1 AP per use

Silent Kill

Kill target while preventing them from alerting others to their peril. Cannot use while targeted by opponent for combat.

Requires - Skills: Stealth, *Weapon Mastery, Empath

Reduce likelihood of failure based on skill levels

Cost - 4 AP per use

Read Mind

Able to read 1 targeted sentient beings' thoughts. Ability failure upon detection by target

Requires - Path: Spy - Skills: Stealth, Empath

Improve output and reduce likelihood of failure based on skill levels

Cost - 1 AP per use plus 0.1 AP per second active

Mingle

Blend into the crowd to disappear from enemy sight.

Requires - Skills: Stealth, Acting, Etiquette

Likelihood of success increased based on skill levels

Cost - 3 AP per use

“That is about everything regarding my status. The other thing you should know is that while on the station I gained access to a few forms. This one that I am wearing now obviously, but also Lodrian and Human females, as well as Ferlo…” I glance at Lerissa as hints of red creep into her cheeks. “Who would like to share a bit about themselves next?” Silence fills the room.

“I… I’ll go.” Oh? Surprising. I thought Lerissa would hold back a bit longer. “I won’t be going into everything, but you shared pretty much everything about you know about yourself Keiren, so I should at least provide some information about myself.”

“My name, as Keiren knows, is Lerissa Davnor. I bear the path of the Shadow and I am a Ferlo.” Finally, a chance to ask the question that has been wiggling in my brain for the past week! “Hold your horses, Keiren. I will get around to explaining what our race is to you a bit later.” I must have been showing my desire to know on my face. I need to work on that if I am to follow the path of a spy. ”I am currently on the run from forces within the UTA. That is why I want to go coreward. I am at the 15th level in my path, I have three titles, including Escapee, which I received when I broke free from my captors in the UTA, and Gunner, which I received from the battle just now. I have two perks, one of which is ambidextrous. For skills, I have some of the skills you do. Don’t ask me to share any more of my status for now. Maybe later when I know you better.”

“Fair enough Lerissa. But I have to ask. What is a Ferlo? And what did you mean earlier when you said your people were created to hunt mine?”

“Sigh…… I knew this was coming. It isn’t an easy situation to talk about. But you won’t find any mention of it in any of the books or histories that you would be able to get your hands on. 75 years ago the Doppel war began. I am sure Mari can give you a better explanation of that. What little I know is from oral history, and COS propaganda. I was born well after end of the conflict. During the early parts of the war, the COS captured a number of Doppels. Then in some secret lab, they merged genetic material from Doppel, Lodrian, Human and Darvali sources. What they made was the first Ferlo. And numerous others. Gifted with the racial talents of each, the Doppels transformation, the Darvali resistance to radiation, the Lodrians strength and intelligence, and the Humans cunning and drive. They grew roughly three thousand of my people in vats, and trained them to be assassins and warriors with a primary target of the Doppel. Later, one of those vat grown befriended a Doppel prisoner, helped it escape, and found his way to the Doppel homeworld. He then called in the COSN who then bombarded the planet obliterating it and the Doppel. In the weeks that followed the COS began the purge. They had slaughtered all the remaining Doppel prisoners, and nearly half of the Ferlo, before my people began to fight back. They stole an experimental battleship, and with it forged a path of punitive destruction as they sought a habitable planet to call their own somewhere out of reach from the COS. They journeyed for 5 years, eventually finding a safe haven on a planet orbiting a lone star out past the outer reaches of the Orion Spur. I was the first naturally born Ferlo, proof that we could be a people with a future. For 25 years we had peace, growth and prosperity. Then the UTA discovered us. They killed almost our entire race in their attack. The rest of us were captured, to be enslaved or used as experiments for an old COS project their spies had stolen called Pathfinder.” At this Mari’s gasp echoed through the ship.

“Sorry for interrupting, Lerissa. I’m glad you got away if that was the case.”

“It’s okay Mari. After my escape, I spent the next 5 years hiding who and what I was, taking any job or paying my way on any ship I could, slowly moving away from UTA space. 3 months ago the mining ship I was serving on gave me the boot. They blamed me for their low profits, like I could make the asteroid fields they kept sending us to better... I was stuck on Vankh ever since.”

“So you have transformative abilities like I do?” So both of us could change and become whoever we wanted? Nifty. That could be useful.

“Not quite. While I can change my shape to become the race I desire, I cannot alter what I look like.” At this statement her body shifts growing, tightening, changing from Human to Lodrian. I maintain control of myself, though every bit of my brain is trying to make me envision her in a leather bustiere... What the heck is this fascination. Mind back to the present Keiren, stay on topic.

“That was awfully quick compared to my form changes. But I see what you mean. You’re still you. Still just as pretty, just larger, but proportionally the same. So you’re saying you can’t change yourself, just the race that you present to the universe?”

“That’s a novel way of putting it. I like that. I am always me, just my race is different when I choose. Continuing with that vein, while my people are born hermaphroditic, we spent our childhood learning about ourselves and decided on our preferred gender as a coming of age ceremony. Whether we identified as male, female, or on rare occasions chose to retain our natural body. From that point on, all of our changes would be to the gender chosen, though I’m not sure how the elders managed to enforce it. Needless to say, I am a woman, and cannot take the shape of a man. Unfortunately, I cannot give you much more knowledge than that, as I was still in my educational period when the UTA struck.” She smiles, although her eyes appear to be filled with sadness, and reverts herself back to her human shape.

“Thank you for explaining it to me Lerissa. You look like you could use a hug. And another bowl of ice cream. And a stiff drink. Bourbon or Rum?” I take her bowl to the kitchenette and refill it while pouring us each a drink, one of each so she can choose her poison.

“Thanks Keiren” She whispers as she takes the bowl, downs the bourbon (thank goodness, I prefer rum), and accepts the hug as I sit down beside her. Next thing I know there’s a cold bowl of ice cream on my crotch, and a weeping crewmate on my chest. I think she’s been holding it in for a long time. Possibly even since the day her homeland fell.

“Hey Mari, since Lerissa has cried herself to sleep, I’d like to wait on your story, however much you’d like to tell, until she is back with us. In the meantime, do you have any questions for me? I have a couple of things I’d like to ask you about, but if there is anything you’d like to ask please go ahead.”

“All right, spill it Keiren.” Errr... spill what? More importantly! She is using my name again. “First off, how the hells did you afford all the parts? I expected two or three stops to be able to afford the gear we needed, let alone the gear you got… and I never would have thought you’d get hands on Carthan parts. Second, you mentioned presents earlier. Where. What. Show me. Tell me. Now.” Alright, that tone is matching your holo-body’s apparent age now.

“Control yourself Mari. To answer your first question, I got lucky. I sold the missiles for an additional 200 credits a piece, compared to your estimate, so I made a bit extra. Then when I went to buy the engines, they just recently had a massive influx of suitable parts come in, so I got them cheap. Around half your estimated cost cheap. So I asked if he had any frigate parts that would look good on you. He gave me a list, and I bought the ones I thought would work best. Then, once I had gained access to this form, I went and found one of the crime syndicates on the station. Somehow managed to become fast friends with their boss. At which point I bought those sweet little guns mounted ventral, as well as the answer to your second request. There are a few nice little bits and bobs, I’m sure you noticed my workbench. I also got an IFF rectifier, and a hacking subroutine package for you. Figured that with them, we wouldn’t have to shut you down for fear of detection. I didn’t want to connect them in until you had a chance to go through their coding and hardware to make sure the syndicate didn’t hide any backdoors or viruses in them. Oh and I also picked up a crap-tonne of holo-vids, music, and books for a bit of in-flight entertainment”

“What model and series? How much were they? Tell, tell, tell!” Wow, didn’t expect her to be THIS excited. She’s acting like a child on her birthday.

“Uhhh… If I remember right, they were a XMD transponder rectifier, and a 6R1N “Special Delivery” Hacking Suite. I think it was around 35000 for the pair?” I get up and head over to my workstation.

“OH. MY. GOD. Keiren. Quick, go grab them and let’s get them installed. Now! Those are like the top of the market for each. You don’t even know! Who the hells did you make friends with?? Each one of those systems should have set us back over 100000. And this bench of yours? It’s a Patriarch series! Most smugglers, criminals, and even some government spies would sell their own grandmother to get their hands on one. They cost over 1.2 million. On a good day! How much were the guns? Did he have anything that you didn’t buy?”

Close your mouth Keiren. The flies will get in. I gather up the parts, and head over to the computer systems.

“I had no idea. I… I can’t fathom why Gustavo would have given me that kind of a discount. There were a couple things I didn’t get. A stealth shield, that was 460000, and a neutrino beam gun for around 47000. I was torn between the beam gun and the ion cannons, but the utility of the ion cannon won out. And they were way cheaper, like less than half the cost of the beam guns. I really wanted that stealth shield though.”

“Huh? Those prices... sound about right actually. Weird. I would have thought that everything would have been given a crazy discount, considering the prices you got the rest of it for. There’s no oddware or gaps in the code in the packages... very strange. Whatever, no point in giving yourself a headache thinking about it. Now get those systems installed and set up!”

Mari walks me through connecting the transponder rectifier, and installing the hacking suite was a simple task. I also connect the storage system with my entertainment package on it.

“Okie-Dokie Captain Puffball!!” Sigh. Back to the insults. This one was a lot milder than earlier though? Maybe I built up a few brownie points today? “You take Lerissa to bed, I’m gonna play around with the settings on my new toys for a bit.”

“Sure thing Mari. You have fun.”

How did I get to this point. I ponder that as I lay there, flipping through the ID cards liberated from the pirates. The ones that belonged to the five pirates had around 132000 credits in them. I also think I found the IDs for our guests, judging by the names on the cards compared to the information I was able to glean from a Read Mind of them. I transferred 50000 into each of their IDs and kept the rest for myself. That should be enough to get them started on Eileris, or get them a transport to somewhere else. They were still sleeping quite soundly. As was Lerissa. I on the other hand, was not.

You see, when I picked up Lerissa to carry her to her quarters, she halfway woke up, clamped onto me like a small child that had been allowed to stay up past their bedtime, and fell straight back asleep. Forget putting her to bed. I couldn’t get her to let go. I couldn't wiggle my way out. Trying to wake her just made her death-grip tighten further. So I lay down too. It’s been quite the problematic few hours for me. Thankfully, I’m no longer picturing her as a Lodrian in a leather bustiere. Unfortunately, that is because I got to watch as she somehow managed to mostly undress herself, without letting me go. So my now very male mind is going over those moments, those movements, again, and again, and again… I need to find something new to distract myself now that I’ve finished going through the pirates IDs.

“Mari? Can you give me a hand here?”

“Nope! Nothing I can do that you haven’t already tried. Besides, I want to watch the fireworks when she wakes up. This situation should be good for making fun of her. Looking forward to her embarrassed face.”

“Fine. Don’t help then. Can you put on a holo-vid for me? Low volume please. Something educational would be appreciated.”

“Sure thing!”

The vid starts up. It seems to be called Pirate Captain Vargas gets some fresh Booty. Yes, I am aware of the double-entendre. So it seems was Mari. She’s sitting beside the bed snickering after all. Each time she appears she looks more and more like a human teenage girl.

“Really Mari? That’s not helpful. Or even educational.”

“This is the most educational holovid in the library that we have. At least on the topic of your current situation.”

Aaaaand she’s giggling again. I get it Mari. You think this is funny... I give up. No point in trying to win this debate with my ships pubescent humour tonight. May as well try to get some sleep.

“Alright Mari. Turn it off. I’m going to sleep.”

“No way! We’re just getting to the good part! You can sleep if you want to, I’m watching this to the end.”

At some point shortly after that, I finally drift off.