She stood and clapped Glitch's grappler arm, and he nudged her back. Then she spoke behind her hand. "How does this guy keep flarking up his systems? No wonder Flower calls them boys."

  In mock affront, Glitchy squealed out at her. Somehow looking smug. She shot back with a smirk. "Watch it bub, at least us fleshies can heal. You just rattle yourself apart, Glitch-meister."

  He shoved her shoulder, she shoved back and McGreery ran a hand down his face as he said in deep resignation, "Children, please."

  She kicked Glitch's mobility platform and moved back before he could retaliate as she said, "Yeah, G-man, settle down. This is serious business here."

  He squeed and I blinked. "Quite a mouth you got on you, buddy. Where did you learn that one?" A couple squees later and both Shay and I nodded. It was true. My Vash was a bad influence.

  McGreery sighed, giving up, then said, "Well if we're done here, and I'm being used as a glorified space taxi, we should get going. Germaine and my impatient ex await."

  I nodded and hugged Shay. "Well, we're off."

  She nodded and gave first Glitch, then her father, pecks on the cheek. "See you tonight then."

  I waved over at Meep, who had her back to us but her grappler raised into the air and waved back. I really needed to outfit my older pingers with the improved sensors her model has.

  With that we headed back toward the ship while I rubbernecked, seeing the progress made to the Agri-Dome. What a technological masterpiece.

  Chapter 4 - Shipyard

  It didn't take long to make a single orbit, chasing the Medusa shipyard, to dock with it, the gravity well projected at its base giving us a full G of gravity. I still can't believe the massive scale of the thing. It dwarfed even New Terra, our capital city, by a factor of five.

  On our approach, Medusa flight control told us to hold for clearance, to make room for us in the flight patterns of its traffic envelope. McGreery... well he wasn't one for what he calls 'all that bureaucratic bullshit', and he just said, "Well you better make room now, because we're docking while you sit on your ass twiddling your thumbs. I've got Vega Hasher onboard, you bootwaffle."

  The man was sputtering, "Miss Hasher? Of course. Access granted, proceed to glide path delta green, clearing airspace now."

  He smirked at me and said, "Would you look at that little dirter? You're somebody."

  My cheeks burned as I said, "I don't feel like somebody, I'm just me."

  Glitchy just squeed something that made me blush more. I shoved his grappler, and he shoved my shoulder back. I told him, "You have to say that because you're my best friend."

  I sighed when the door opened into the bay, and Prime military personnel, not Sky Rangers, were hastily assembling in some sort of makeshift honor guard. The thought of Tau Ceti having a military was such an alien concept to me. The Galactic Federation had the only military force. Our Sky Rangers were just our system's police force.

  I saw a familiar face in the row of armed men and women, a blocky man who stood at attention at their front as we disembarked. "Ray? Really? Every time?"

  Colonel Ray Kvarian was the leader of Prime's dark fleet. Well, we would have a completed and growing fleet soon. I had met him for the first time when the man executed the rift jump of Medusa Station into the Tau Ceti system... on manual control.

  He was a sensitive, one of the minority of the population who could feel the distortions of a rift. When someone was determined to be a sensitive, by GF law, they were shipped off to old Earth for navigation training and conscripted into the military. It was a capital offense to not report the gift. And I've learned our fleet had twelve.

  I've often wondered why sensitives were even needed anymore except in the Rift Jumper fleet that was still mapping the endless expanse of rifts in our galaxy. All the local rifts have been mapped thoroughly.

  Though I guess there is always the chance of the gravitational eddies between stars and globular clusters could extend or even tear new rifts, though it takes centuries or eons to do that... with the exception of unintentional navigational drift caused by too much space traffic projecting their bump drives at extreme angles away from the end of a rift. But that hasn't happened in centuries since the current guidelines require ships to project their bump drives at least a light minute in a straight line after exiting a rift before adjusting their navigation toward their destination.

  The man just stared straight ahead and said in his precise, well-educated tone, "Yes ma'am. It is protocol for high ranking officials."

  And that was the conundrum. I held no rank, yet everyone treated me like I was one of the leaders of our little sedition. Every time I asked about it, I always got the runaround from Lady Peregrine, Doctor Germaine, and even my traitorous girlfriend. At least McGreery has the temporary rank of General as long as the Betweeners hold to the deal that they aid in the rebuilding of Prime's infrastructure and patrol the system with our lone ship, providing our only defense for the next few months.

  I blew out a breath in exasperation. "Well do it then, blow your silly whistle."

  The man grinned and said, "It's a bosun's call, ma'am." He nodded at the woman next to him, and she raised the pipes and made the shrill two-tone whistle and the people who stood at rest, snapped to attention.

  I sighed and started, "Permission to come a..." Rex made an exasperated sound beside me and just strode past, Glitchy trundling and sparking along behind him. "...board?"

  Ray called out to the boys' backs, "Permission granted." Then to me, he said, "Captain Peregradopolis is expecting you, would you like an escort to..."

  I grinned up at the man and dashed after the impetuous ones. "Thanks, Ray, but I have an escort." Then I raised my voice. "If the two crystal licking bootwaffles would wait up that is." I heard a snort then an electronic approximation of that snort as the guys slowed for me. Just great, now Glitchy is taking on McGreery's bad habits.

  I slapped the back of their heads as I hustled past. Then grinned to myself at their exasperated sounds as they moved up to flank me as we navigated our way through the almost deserted corridors. Every able-bodied man or woman was on the far ends of the various arms of the superstructure, which spread from the station like sweeping snakes, helping to construct the warships.

  McGreery told me, "Two of the remaining three shipyards will be jumping in-system in two weeks. I'm still thinking it is going to be too little, too late. By now, Earth has sent an expeditionary fleet to find out why their stealth tumbril carrier hasn't reported successful pacification of Tau Ceti yet. That would mean, if they took the most direct course, they will be arriving any day now."

  I shrugged, there was nothing we could do about it. So I offered with one squinted eye, "That's where my plan comes in?"

  He chuckled. "Are you asking or telling me? And I think your time would be better spent developing defense weaponry for the fleet instead of your little tricks. It's not a plan, it is a bluff."

  I started to sashay as I told him, "Well Lady Peregrine agrees with me on the subject. And I won't build weapons."

  He grumbled, but with a roguish smirk. "Abigail always did have bad judgment. She let me go hadn't she?"

  Ok, I snorted at that, even though in truth it was sad. They had split up because he thought she didn't take his warnings that this exact scenario could happen if Tau Ceti didn't have some sort of defense against Terra's pacification fleet. But what he didn't know at the time was she was in complete agreement and was already working on the problem as head of Covert Sciences before she became president.

  She was forbidden to talk to anyone about their work, including family. So it wound up tearing their family apart, even though they wanted the same thing, to protect the people of Prime.

  I squinted an eye in pain as a cute woman with cat augments came bounding up to us squealing, "Fixie!" She wrapped her tail around my waist as she laid her head on my shoulder while we walked.

  I sighed. "Hello, Sai."

  Her catlike ears twitched. It would be overly adorable if I didn't know that Lady Peregrine's personal assistant was also her personal bodyguard and likely an assassin.

  Sai was a Neko modder, well a 'true' Neko to be precise.

  Modders were an odd but fun segment of the population who liked getting cybernetic implants or medical procedures to modify their appearance to add animal-like aspects to themselves. The most popular were the Nekos, who almost worshiped cats and wanted to take on their aspects. Some just went for ears or whiskers. The more hardcore would even opt for the cybernetic tail implants that precluded them from buying normal clothing as they had to be modified to accept the tail.

  But then there were what they called on the modder scene, the Trues, or True Nekos. They were the ones who opted for all of the above, plus the intracranial behavior modification implants which were usually only used on convicted criminals. They used the tech not to pacify like they were originally intended, but instead to instill and enforce catlike mannerisms in the individual.

  Unfortunately for modders, most people's bodies rejected more than the most rudimentary implants, so the ones who couldn't get more than basic communications or information grid uplink implants, opted for painful surgical procedures to effect the desired physical modifications.

  Sai, however, was one of the blessed people whose body was quite tolerant of even the more invasive implants. She was a True who even went so far as to have her speech patterns modified to reflect her feline ways. So she almost purred or yowled out her words depending on her emotional state.

  It was rare for her to wander far from Lady Peregrine, which told me that Vash had to be with her, being the only person I think Sai saw as more dangerous than herself. It was so nice to see that the method I had suggested to reconnecting Vashon's memories from before the battle that caused her to lose a large percentage of her brain with the emotional responses connected to those memories, seemed to have quite a positive effect on her cold relationship with her mother.

  The sight of my girl smiling in anticipation of meeting with her mom now just warmed something inside of me. She had shared that memories before the injuries that Lady Peregrine ordered Anna Germaine to fix with cybernetic implants, though it broke every law on cybernetics in existence, were like watching a home movie of someone else's life since the brain pattern imprint was disassociated with any emotional feedback that should be there. Only the new memories she made after that had any emotion to her, and were the only memories my girl felt were real.

  She hated both Lady Peregrine and Doctor Germaine for turning her into what she viewed as an abomination and any love she had for her mother to temper that was gone as if it had never existed. But she built her new 'real' memories over time and tells me frequently how I dominate favorite memories, which melts me every time.

  And now, slowly but surely, emotional connections are being made with the memories from the imprint of her past. She was blooming as those associations were made and it was a wonder to watch.

  Sai hopped up to perch on Glitch's yellow orb-like body and rubbed her cheek on his optical port. "Heya, Glitchy." He squeed in a modulated tone, then grasped her with his grappler to deposit her on his mobility platform as he chastised her. She just half purred, half chuckled at his discomfort.

  Then the woman eyed McGreery like she was determining the best way to disassemble him if he proved to be a threat. I would normally tell her to behave, but the big man was eyeing her the same way. I shook my head in exasperation, and told Glitch, "Come on, buddy. Let's leave these two to their dangly bits measuring contest."

  He darted forward with me as I stalked way, causing Sai to fall off his platform in surprise, though it was no surprise that she landed lithely on her feet, her ears flat to her head and her tail swishing in annoyance. Ok, now that was cute.

  As the two rushed to catch up with my best friend and me, Sai called out, "Dangly bits? Really? You can't say d..."

  "Shut up, cat-face."

  Why did those two look amused?

  There were armed soldiers at the doors to the control room, and I slowed as I eyed the huge energy weapons slung over their backs, and the plasma slingers in the unsecured holsters at their hips. They saluted us and stood at attention. I blew some loose strands of hair from my face and exhaled as I slumped. Why did they all do stuff like this?

  Glitch was saluting back and I slapped his grappler down. "Glitch, we're not in the military, stop doing that." He had the common sense to turn his optical port aside, looking sheepish.

  The doors slid open and one of the endless military administrator types blocked the way. "This area is off-limits to..." It was refreshing that this one didn't know me as I ducked under one of his arms blocking my way. And the man backpedaled quickly as Glitch just held his grappler an inch from the flustered man's nose as he advanced with me.

  McGreery clasped the man's shoulders as he followed us. "You did your best, son. I'll put a good word in for you at your court-martial."

  I pointed a finger back at the Sky Pirate. "Behave."

  He patted the man's cheek. "Kidding, of course. You're doing a fine job of... of whatever you're doing here. Carry on."

  I told Glitch, "I'm surrounded by idiots."

  Sai yowled from... in front of us? How did she get there? "Heyyy!"

  Ok, I was grinning and feeling sassy. "Own it, woman."

  The place was bustling with the army of people needed to run an orbiting shipyard. I just followed Sai since I didn't see the people I was looking for.

  She led us into the 'war room', a large conference room next to ops, and into a familiar argument. General Amir was saying, "We can adapt the projection circuitry to make gravity mines, and mine the entire corridor."

  Lady Peregrine was just watching the exchange as my Ranger, Vashon, growled back, "We only have that tech because we promised... no, made a law, that her advancements were to be used for defensive purposes only. She won't work with the military anymore if we go back on that promise."

  "What does she know about defense? She's a civilian, a dirter."

  Sai was there in the blink of an eye. Peregrine was now standing in front of Vash, both hands on her chest, trying to stop her forward momentum and failing as Sai grabbed with both hands the arm that was reaching for the General's tunic. Between the two women, they stopped my girl inches away from the man who looked just a bit worried, and he was the sort to eat bullets for breakfast.

  Lady Perigrine gasped, as her feet slid an inch further back. "General, that 'dirter' saved all of Tau Ceti Prime, and is still giving more of herself in helping to defend our system though she abhors violence. I suggest you apologize before..."

  Vash's eyes flicked over toward us, and her smile bloomed as she relaxed and stepped away from the almost comical display, causing both Abigail and Sai to stumble at the sudden lack of resistance. She stepped right up to me and kissed me soundly. I adored her lack of impulse control at times like this. "Hey, Vega."

  My cheeks heated at all the eyes on us as I whispered hoarsely, "Hi, love. Are we interrupting?"

  She and Lady Peregrine said, "No," as the General said, "Yes."

  McGreery exchanged an odd, inscrutable look with the President, something passed between them, then he turned to the flabbergasted man. As one of the leaders of our little sedition, he outranked the military commanders. He spoke in a calm, cool, and restrained manner that made my blood run cold, "I suggest you stop pushing to subvert Miss Hasher's tech for military purposes, or you'll find yourself assigned to scrubbing the exhaust ports of the sewage treatment terminal, General."

  This got the man's attention, even more than the possibility of being dismembered by Vashon. He snapped to attention and saluted, "Sir."

  "Now run along, the adults need to talk."

  Amir looked ready to chew glass, being dismissed like that, but he just marched out past us, the glare he gave me made me shrink back a little until Glitch made a growling sound which made him give us a wide berth. We heard him muttering something about unchipped pingers through the door after it closed.

  I hugged Glitchy's grappler. "My hero."

  Vash blurted, "Hey!"

  I grinned up at her and crinkled my nose. She rolled her eyes and hugged me to her as she ushered us to the conference table so we could all sit.

  Vash and McGreery stood eye to eye for a moment, and I was surprised nobody had seen it sooner, the family resemblance was uncanny, and the dangerous way they moved was spookily similar. She had seen him as the enemy for so long, but at the same time, she was happy to finally know her father. After inclining their heads to each other, as if two apex predators were acknowledging each other's lethality, she said, "Dad."

  He smirked and actually held her chair for her to sit. "Daughter."

  Then I gleeped a giggle when Abigail leaned over to whisper in my ear, "They're so tedious."

  I nodded in agreement then blurted, "Oh yeah, Shay says hi, Vash." This got a smile from my Sky Guard Ranger.

  Once we were all settled, I asked, "What's the agenda today?"

  I watched warily as if on cue, Doctor Germaine stepped in from one of the connected offices. She just smiled at the hostile look I shot her. I still couldn't decide if I like and respect her or not. She's done some pretty questionable things and used the ones I love as some sort of ongoing experiments. But she was also one of the most brilliant minds I knew and had been the one to save Vashon when no one else could. And she found my indecision about her amusing like it were just another of her endless experiments.

  She was the one who answered the question, "Anyone up for a road trip?"

  Chapter 5 - Road Trip

  That's how we found ourselves on a month-long round trip to the Tau Ceti Rift in the dreadnought, which I'm embarrassed to say had been renamed the Vega after the events of the attempted Pacification of Prime. My dishy ranger is endlessly amused by my discomfort about it.

  We had to inspect the work done on Operation Grand Bluff, and I thought it quite convenient that that would also coincide with two of our three remaining hidden Medusa Class Shipyards jumping into the system. I think Lady Peregrine had a hand in the timing because she knew how fascinated I was at something of such daunting size jumping in system from the rift.

 

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