Daughters of Demeter

I came to a sudden stop the moment I felt the hand on my left shoulder and the barrel of a gun pressed into my back, between a couple ribs on the right-hand side. My ears twitched slightly as the hot breath of the gunman tickled their fur when he spoke.

"Just act calm and nobody gets hurt," he stated softly. "Now how about you be a good doggie and take me and my buddy back to your ship? We've got some business with you and your captain."

A quick glance to my left confirmed there was a second gunman standing directly behind Jenna. His pose mirrored the guy behind me, with his pistol pressed into the android's back and his other hand on her shoulder. And from the look on my shipmate's face I could tell she wasn't any more surprised than I was.

The fact that the mining colony's promenade was nearly empty combined with the minor detail that these two thugs waited until after we visited the port control office to pay our landing fees all but convinced me that the local authorities were looking the other way, if not actually complicit in the situation themselves. Either way I was confident the port's security people weren't going to be rushing to our assistance. I just hoped that also meant they wouldn't get in our way.

Another thing I was confident about was that these two guys weren't professionals. If they were assassins I'd already be dead, and if they were experienced bounty hunters I figured they'd have incapacitated me immediately rather than try and talk or threaten me. Which meant they were amateurs, or opportunists. Maybe even just a pair of miners who were hoping to get lucky and cash in on the bounty.

It also crossed my mind that if this sort of thing had happened just twenty-four hours earlier, I'd have been a lot more scared. The ultimate outcome probably wouldn't have been any different, but I'd have had a lot more stress and anxiety along the way. Today was different. I was different.

It's not that I didn't care anymore, or that I wasn't scared. I definitely cared and I was scared of dying or being seriously injured. But when I woke up an hour earlier from my fitful restless sleep I finally realized something.

I might not have been a special forces marine with decades of experience like our captain, but I still had military training. I also had a genetically modified body that was faster and stronger than any normal human in the sector. And I'd probably seen more combat in the past year than these two thugs behind us would see in their entire lives.

Above and beyond all that, I was simply tired of being scared. And I was tired of people threatening me and my girlfriends and my shipmates and my family. In a way I'd run out of things to stress over. There were only two things left that I was worried about. Our captain was due to emerge from the Re/Gen pod in less than two hours, then we'd finally find out if she was ok or not. And my sister was still in that damned cryo tube, I wouldn't get her out of there until after we moved the ship and I had my med-kit with me just in case.

So when I found myself standing in the main concourse of a dangerous port with some thug holding a gun to my back, I wasn't stressed or anxious. I wasn't shaking, and I wasn't even all that worried. I might have been a little bit angry though.

In a level voice I stated, "Fox."

"Huh?" the guy asked.

"I'm a fox," I elaborated in that same level tone, "Not a dog. Different genus, entirely different species."

The thug grunted as he pushed his gun a little harder into my back, "Whatever. Just get moving shorty, we're taking you and your ship. Try anything and I shoot."

"If you shoot me then you won't have me or my ship," I pointed out.

"So what, you want to die here or something?" he growled. "You got a death wish?"

He actually seemed confused that neither Jenna or I were acting scared of him. Obviously we weren't following whatever plan or script he'd cooked up in his head. Meanwhile every time he spoke I felt his breath against my tall fuzzy ears, and between that and where he was pressing his gun into my back I had a very good idea of how tall he was and how close he was standing behind me.

With a sudden thrust of my genetically enhanced leg muscles I smashed the back of my head into his face, then twisted around with a burst of inhuman speed and wrenched the gun from his hand before he'd even had a chance to react to the broken nose and missing teeth. I finished off by delivering a firm punch upwards into his throat, and the thug dropped to his knees. His eyes bulged out in shock as he coughed and choked for breath while blood ran from his mouth and nose.

Finally I pointed the captured handgun directly at the face of the second gunman. My ears were folded back and my tail twitched angrily behind me as I stated one word, "Surrender."

He looked just as surprised as the first guy, but along with the shock he had a healthy dose of fear in his eyes. A second later he dropped his gun then turned and ran for it, fleeing across the promenade towards one of the many bars and strip clubs.

I kicked the dropped pistol in the opposite direction, well out of reach of the first guy. He was on hands and knees by that point, coughing up blood and spitting out teeth but it looked like he'd survive.

Then asked Jenna, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," the android replied. "A little surprised, but fine."

"Then let's get back to the ship," I stated.

I kept the first thug's gun with me until we passed a waste receptacle, then dropped the weapon in the trash as Jenna and I continued on our way to the lifts. Fortunately nobody else tried anything, in fact no-one even showed their faces as we left.

"Are you all right Amanda?" my companion asked once the doors closed and the lift started moving.

"Yeah I'm ok," I shrugged. "I'm just done with people threatening or attacking us. Right now all I care about is my girlfriend and my sister, and keeping the rest of us safe."

She nodded slowly, "I understand. But I think both your girlfriends and your sister would like you to be a little more careful. I know I certainly would."

I grimaced, "I'm sorry Jenna. I was pretty sure those guys weren't all that dangerous. Just desperate and foolish."

The lift stopped a moment later at the correct level, and the two of us headed down the long grey stone corridor until we reached the doors to the Demeter's landing bay. Jenna must have used her internal comm to let them know we were coming, since the ramp had just finished lowering as the two of us arrived.

Sure enough Sarah and Cammie were both there waiting for us. The cute blonde engineer had a handgun on her belt, but the catgirl remained unarmed.

"How'd it go?" my girlfriend asked as Jenna and I came up the ramp.

I pulled her into a hug while Jenna and Cammie did the same. And as the ramp raised back up and the main airlock doors slid shut behind us I replied, "It was fine. We ran into a minor complication, but nothing came out of it."

"I wouldn't call that nothing," the android remarked. "I for one learned a valuable lesson. Amanda does not like being mistaken for a dog."

Sarah frowned, "What do you mean? What happened?"

Jenna stated in a matter-of-fact tone, "Two armed men threatened us, and one of them referred to your girlfriend as a dog. So she broke his nose and removed some of his front teeth, then took his weapon and used it to chase off his companion."

"That's not exactly how it happened," I replied with a blush. "There were a few more steps in between."

Before any of my shipmates could respond I quickly added, "Anyways the point is we're safe, we paid the port fees, and nobody died. I'm pretty sure we have about ninety minutes left before Rebecca's finished processing, that should be plenty of time to move the Demeter over to that crater on the other side of the world. So how about we prep for launch? I know we're all going to want to be by her side when the captain emerges, but I'd also like us to be on site next to the MV Eris-Nine by then."

"Yes boss," Sarah replied with a sloppy salute. Then she and Cammie headed to engineering, while Jenna followed me up to the cockpit.

Fortunately getting the ship out of the docking bay was a lot easier than it had been to get in. With the engines powered up, the landing bay depressurized and the doors open, it was basically just a matter of backing the ship straight out into the chasm. Then once we were clear I brought the bow around and angled it upwards before slowly increasing the throttle.

Jenna was seated next to me in the copilot position looking after the comms and sensors, while Sarah and Cammie were both in the engine room keeping an eye on the ship's systems. Not that I was expecting any problems, we were only making a short suborbital hop around to the far side of the world. Where the shuttle needed more than five hours to cover that distance, the Demeter made the same trip in just over forty-five minutes. When we arrived I brought the ship down to land about a dozen meters to the left of the MV Eris-Nine.

"I don't think anyone else has visited since you left the Eris earlier," Jenna reported while I went through the landing checklist. "The hold is still open and depressurized, I'm reading the Beckybot on the main deck, and I did a sensor sweep of the crater before we landed."

I acknowledged, "Thank you Jenna, that's good to know. I think we'll still take precautions when we go over there, since she's been unattended for over half a day."

"Of course," the android agreed. "Although I don't imagine any of us will be visiting the Eris immediately? There's only about fifteen minutes to go before our captain rejoins us."

"Yeah," I nodded, even though the thought left me both excited and a little bit anxious. After all, that's when we'd find out for sure whether or not Rebecca was ok.

After another minute or so I completed the landing checklist, although I intentionally skipped a few items. For one thing we didn't completely power down the ship. The engines were shut down but the power plant was at idle, and I kept all the sensors active. Finally, before leaving the cockpit I set up one of those automated proximity alerts that we used to use back before Jenny looked after all that stuff for us. That way if any other craft turned up while our AI was busy we'd still find out about it before they got too close.

Once all that was complete Jenna and I headed aft to meet our girlfriends in the ship's mess. Sarah and Cammie and I all got something to drink as we waited, and when we were down to the last couple minutes the four of us made our way down to the secondary hold. I headed straight for the Re/Gen pod to check the status panel on the side, and my heart skipped a beat.

"It says there's still four hours to go," I frowned. "It's already been about nine hours though, she should be almost finished."

Jenna frowned as well, then she seemed to stare into the distance for a second or two before grimacing. "I tried to contact my sister and found a brief message she left for me several hours ago."

"It seems there were some complications early on in the process," the android explained. "Jenny was forced to reset the clock a number of times, before she was able to overcome the problems she encountered."

"What kind of problems? And if she got through them does that mean Rebecca's going to be ok?" I asked, and the worry was clear in my voice.

"I'm sorry Amanda, my sister didn't elaborate beyond what I've just reported," she replied as she shook her head.

Then I felt Sarah's arms around me again. My blonde girlfriend suggested, "Why don't we use this time to start working on the Eris? You and I can head over there and recover your med-kit, and I can take a look at her engines and computer interface."

"Who knows," she added. "Maybe I can find a way to hot wire it and bypass Jamison's lock on the controls?"

I sighed, "Ok. Jenna, Cammie, can you two please monitor things from the cockpit? We'll stay in contact over comms, but I want you two watching the sensors and keeping an eye on the ship. Both ships."

"Of course Amanda," our android nodded.

Cam added, "Good luck with the Eris."

Sarah and I had to accompany the others up to the main deck again first, to get our e-suits out of the locker next to the shuttle. Then when we returned to the lower deck I also grabbed a carbine from our cache of weapons, since I'd left both the smart rifles on the Eris along with my med-kit. My girlfriend had a couple packs with her, one contained her tools and the other held a portable terminal she was going to use to try and access the Eris' computer. And when we were both ready we used the main airlock and ramp to exit the ship.

The two bounty hunders' bodies still lay on the grey dusty ground where they died, and like before I made a point of not looking at them. I stayed focused on the ship as I led Sarah up the ramp and into the small hold.

I kept my carbine ready as we sealed and pressurized the hold, then I opened up the iris hatch at the top of the ladder.

"There's no sign of life over there apart from you and Sarah," Jenna commented over the comms. "The Beckybot is still there too, where my sister left it."

"Thanks Jenna," I replied as I climbed up the ladder.

I was still cautious when I reached the main deck, but nothing had changed since I left it some fourteen hours earlier. My and Rebecca's smart rifles were on the deck in the corridor just outside the cockpit, and the body of that young man lay in a pool of dried blood in between the pilot and copilot seats. Our damaged android sat motionless on the bench seat in the small mess area, and that was it as far as bodies on board.

Sarah frowned at the Beckybot with the shredded remains of our captain's e-suit still hanging loose over its cracked and blistered artificial skin. After a moment the cute engineer commented with an exaggerated sigh, "I don't think the warranty's going to cover that."

I knew she was trying to lighten things up but my mood was a little too sombre for jokes. Instead I gestured aft, "Why don't you have a look at engineering? I'm going to take care of the mess up front."

"Ok Amanda," Sarah replied. And this time she knew not to bother teasing me about my maid instincts, or anything else for that matter. "Any idea who he was?"

I shook my head, "Nope. I assume we'll find out when we get access to the ship's computer."

She nodded as she started moving aft towards the ship's small engine room, "I'll get on it right now."

I had some mixed feelings as I unceremoniously dumped the young man's body out the main deck airlock, to land on the barren dusty ground a few meters away from the other two bodies. On the one hand the guy was probably just some frightened kid. He watched his boss and coworker die pretty horribly, and it wasn't a big surprise that he ended up panicking. On the other hand he shot my girlfriend, and he was part of the crew that kidnapped my sister. So I killed him, and now his remains would probably spend the rest of eternity in the airless void on the back end of Regulon-4.

After sealing and cycling the airlock I continued with the clean-up. I rounded up the weapons and brought them down to the hold, and also carefully folded up Cammie's e-suit. I wasn't sure if the catgirl would want it back after what happened, but if she did then the suit could be cleaned and patched almost as good as new.

Then I set about the unpleasant task of cleaning the blood off the deck in the cockpit while Sarah continued working in the engine room. By the time we were due to return to the Demeter I'd finished tidying up, but our engineer hadn't been as lucky. At least she made some progress, she'd set things up so Jenny would have an easier time accessing the Eris-Nine's computer.

When we met down in the hold I gathered up my med-kit along with the weapons and Cammie's damaged suit while Sarah cycled the pressure and opened up the hatch. Then the two of us headed back over to the Demeter so we'd be there when our girlfriend emerged from the Re/Gen capsule.