Daughters of Demeter

"Hey cutie," Sarah greeted me as I came down the ladderway and joined her in the small hold. "What's up?"

I replied with a question of my own, "Are you just about done here? It's time we got under way."

My blonde girlfriend nodded, "Yeah I'm almost finished, but the last of it can wait until after we're moving."

"Do you want me up in the cockpit with you?" she asked a moment later.

I smiled, "If you don't mind? I'm sure it'll be fine, but I'd appreciate the company."

Sarah smiled back, "Of course Amanda."

She put her tools back into her toolkit and sealed that up for now, then followed me up the ladderway to the main deck. I led the way into the small cockpit, then wrapped my tail around over my right hip as I sat down in the pilot seat.

"If we end up keeping this ship I'll have to make sure all the seating is tail-friendly," my girlfriend commented with a grin as she settled into the copilot seat to my left.

I grimaced, "I'll try not to complain about the chairs for now. I know you and Cam were busy working on more important things."

Both our engineer and mechanic spent several hard hours getting everything ready to put my plan in motion, as did Jenny and Jenna. There wasn't as much for me to do apart from managing things, and Rebecca mainly stayed out of it. She agreed with everything I suggested and ultimately approved of my plan, but she didn't feel up to taking part in it herself. And that was fine, it actually worked better having her and the Demeter and the rest of the crew well away from the action.

In fact after all the preparations were complete I could have almost executed the whole thing by myself, but I was very grateful when Sarah volunteered to accompany me. Nyssa wanted to come too but I told her in no uncertain terms that she was not coming on this trip. I wanted my sister to stay on the Demeter where she'd be safe.

Our shipmates finally left for Rolandan-2 about five hours earlier, once most of the preparations were complete. Sarah and I bid the others farewell, after transferring some equipment and tools and a few other things over to the MV Eris-Nine. With the Demeter travelling at Jump-1 they'd have already reached their destination by now. Both the ship and her captain would be very visible at the public spaceport in the city near Tamsin's shipyard.

"We were all busy cutie, even you. We all did our part. Now it's time to finish the job," Sarah replied.

I nodded as I reached out and took hold of the scout ship's controls. The engines had been at idle for a while, the Eris-Nine was fully prepped and ready to go. She had more than enough fuel on board for a couple jumps, and she was fast. If everything went according to plan, both Sarah and I would be reunited with the Demeter and the rest of our little family in no more than half a day. If things didn't go well... At least we'd know everyone else was safe. But I was confident my idea would work.

"Then here we go," I stated as I slowly throttled up the engines.

The small ship smoothly began to climb, and within seconds we were accelerating away from the barren grey landscape and out towards the stars. It took less than twenty minutes to clear Regulon-4's gravity well, and as soon as we were out in open space I began plotting a level one jump.

Fortunately that process wasn't so different between the Eris and the Demeter. There were a few factors I had to keep in mind, the smaller ship had significantly less mass and its jump drive was more efficient, but the overall principles were the same. Nonetheless I took my time then made sure to double- and triple-check the results.

Sarah waited quietly in the copilot seat, and while I was busy she kept watch over the sensors and the engineering readouts.

"Alright this should do it," I finally announced. "Normally this would take a little over three hours with the Demeter, but it'll be just under two hours for the Eris-Nine."

My girlfriend smiled, "Nice. Except I feel like there's one thing we need to do first? Call it superstition, but I'd feel better if we did it. And it'll only take a few seconds."

"Ok?" I gave her a quizzical look. "What is it you want us to do?"

Sarah looked back at me, then glanced down at my legs for a moment before responding with a smirk, "I think we'll have a better chance of success if you lose the pants, cutie. The less you're wearing the more of a badass you become."

I knew she was just kidding around, she didn't seriously believe that would help in any real way. Which is why the smirk faded from her expression a moment later as I got back up out of my seat and undid my belt. I let my pants drop, and kicked off my shoes as well. I even took off my socks.

Then it was my turn to smirk as I asked, "Good enough? Or do I need to take off the panties as well?"

My girlfriend stared wide-eyed at me and her mouth opened and closed once before she found her voice again. "I uh, you know what? I'm not going to complain either way."

"Right," I grinned, and the panties came off too.

Then I took a moment to free my belt from my pants, since I wanted to keep my side-arm with me just in case. Not that I expected I'd need it, I had no plans to leave the ship during this trip. Plus we had a couple of those smart rifles with us as well, incase things really went sideways.

Half my wardrobe ended up in a little pile in a corner of the cockpit while I sat back down with my tail once again wrapped around over my hip. Then I finally reached out and engaged the Eris-Nine's jump drive.

Instead of a shudder coming up through the deck plates, the Eris had more of a gentle hum. The effects were the same though, the stars outside the windows blurred and stretched into blue and purple hues as the small ship surged forward and made the transition into jump space.

Then I looked to my girlfriend and asked, "So what's left to be done? We have a hundred and fifteen minutes in jump, but I'd like to be back in the cockpit and ready for trouble in one-ten or less."

Sarah replied, "I have about twenty minutes' worth of work left preparing Beckybot for her next assignment, then maybe a half hour to get everything wired up inside the cryo pod."

I nodded as I got up out of my seat, "All right. I'll come and give you a hand. Or at least keep you company."

My girlfriend glanced down at my bare lower half and grinned, "Just having you nearby will give me plenty of incentive cutie."

"Uh-huh," I deadpanned as I rolled my eyes.

Despite the teasing and innuendo we were all business when we got back to the hold. I acted as Sarah's assistant, just like I'd done way back when we were both new to the Demeter and she was working on Jenny's capsule. In a strange way this wasn't even that different, except instead of a Re/Gen tube we'd be working on a cryo pod this time. We had all four of those on board again, since we'd brought the two back from the Demeter along with all the other gear we needed.

Sure enough it was just under twenty minutes of work before Sarah finished up with the android. The last step involved loading some new programming into it, which Jenny provided and was stored in Sarah's portable terminal. When that was done we got the Beckybot to lay down in one of the cryo pods, then my girlfriend got started on that. There was some more equipment to load into it, then the status panel required a few modifications.

It only took her another twenty-five minutes to finish that. When she was done the cryo pod identified the android as a healthy living human who'd been successfully frozen, despite the device not even being activated. Then Sarah and I manoeuvred the capsule into position up against the loading ramp, so it'd be ready to go the moment we landed.

There was one last thing I needed to do before we returned to the main deck. I'd found Jamison's datapad in one of the cabins and got Jenny to hack it for me so I had full access to it. I used that to take a very short video, depicting the Beckybot's face through the cryo pod window, then panned down slightly to record all the green lights on the status panel. After I saved the vid the two of us headed back up the ladder.

With almost an hour to go we ended up getting some drinks from the tiny galley, then sat down close enough to cuddle on the padded bench in the small mess.

"You figure all this is going to work?" Sarah asked as she slipped an arm around my shoulders.

I snaked one of my arms around her waist then leaned my head against her shoulder and replied, "I don't think we're going to collect the two million ecks, if that's what you're asking. But yeah, I do think this will take care of the price on our heads. And with the Demeter and our captain being very visible two systems away, I'm hoping that'll be enough of an alibi that we aren't going to trade one set of enemies for another this time."

My girlfriend nodded slowly, then had a sip of her drink. She sounded almost philosophical as she asked, "Do you think we're doing the right thing?"

That was harder to answer, but I did my best. "Yeah. We know what kind of stuff Ayala Kelsonian was up to, we know what she wanted to do to Rebecca. We can't know how many of her inventions and research projects she shared with her family, but you heard what Jenny uncovered. Ayala's brother father and grandfather all attended the same university on Rolandan-2, and studied similar programs."

"Right," Sarah grimaced. "That and the fact that they're offering double the ecks if we're delivered alive does not fill me with joy."

"Same," I sighed. "I'm sure that's why they specifically wanted me and Cam, along with Rebecca? They probably wanted to figure out how we got our ears and tails."

After a gulp of my drink I added, "Anyways I know this is going to affect more than just a few evil rich people. There's going to be guards, staff, a lot of people who aren't actively trying to kill us. And I've thought about that a lot. The thing is, those people know who they're working for. They might not know every awful thing the Kelsonians are up to, but it's Ecclestone's World. It's all about money and power."

My girlfriend was quiet for another minute or two, as she slowly sipped her drink. Eventually she set the empty glass down on the table in front of us then nodded once more, "Yeah. I might want a couple stiff drinks afterwards, and I think maybe we'll have earned another vacation. Actually it's too bad we won't be able to collect that two million? Then again, maybe we can sell the Eris when we're done."

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Something tells me she'll end up being part of Princess Rebecca's flotilla-in-exile."

Sarah suppressed a giggle, then the two of us just quietly cuddled for the rest of our time in jump. Which unfortunately wasn't very long. All too soon we were heading back into the small cockpit and beginning our final preparations for arrival at Ecclestone's World.

"Can you watch the sensors for me?" I asked as I checked over the helm and nav displays. "I'll be flying us manually, following a makeshift vector that Rebecca put together from the data Jenny recovered."

My girlfriend replied, "Sure thing cutie. I'll need to head down to the hold again for the final step, but that's not until right before we arrive."

I sighed, "Too bad we didn't have time to automate that. Just make sure you hold on tight if we have to leave in a hurry!"

"Oh don't you worry," she stated. "I'll be very careful Amanda. I have no intention of missing the return trip, I can promise you that."

"Good," I said as I gave her a quick smile. Then it was time to focus, and all my attention was on the task at hand.

The transition back to normal space went without a hitch, and after verifying our location on the nav display I was proud to see we were right on target. I stayed quiet though, with my hands on the controls as we began our approach.

Like usual nobody contacted us, and I was very careful to avoid everything else in orbit. The vector I was following led us on a path over empty fields and farmland, well away from the city and port. Our destination was a large mansion and a dozen assorted outbuildings on a huge private estate that covered a couple hundred hectares. It was about a hundred and twenty-five kilometres south-west of the capital, which was ideal.

We were only about ten minutes out from our destination when someone down there finally noticed us and worked out where we were going. The comm crackled to life and an unfriendly voice demanded, "Unidentified scout-class ship, you have thirty seconds to change course or identify yourself."

"The estate is targeting us," Sarah added quietly. "Looks like a ground-based missile system, with laser-turret back-up."

I kept one hand on the flight controls as I reached out and flipped a switch on the comm panel, which activated something Jenny came up with. She'd analyzed all the vids she could find of Jamison in the Eris computers and implemented a voice modulator. If it worked, then Kelsonian's security folks wouldn't hear my voice when I replied, they'd be hearing Jamison's instead.

After a deep breath I responded, "Yeah it's Jamison, Leon. I'm here to collect the two million ecks you folks have on offer. Got a fresh delivery for you, one Rebecca Piper. Alive and well, although currently on ice."

"Uh-huh," the man on the other end sounded skeptical. "Fifteen seconds to change course or show me some proof."

That's where Jamison's datapad came into play. I had it with us in the cockpit, and tapped another control then stated "I just sent you a vid. Check the timestamp, it's as fresh as the cargo."

There was a longer pause before the security guy responded, "You're clear to land on pad two, we'll have people there to accept the delivery."

"What about my two million ecks? I'm not handing over the goods until I see the money," I insisted.

"You'll get your money, but not until my bosses confirm the goods," the man retorted. "So don't push your luck, bounty hunter."

I figured I'd put on enough bravado by that point so I just nodded, "Understood. See you folks in a couple minutes. Jamison out."

After that I switched the comm over to a private encrypted frequency and disabled the modulator. Then I glanced at my girlfriend and said, "This is it."

"Yeah," Sarah nodded. She unbuckled and got out of her seat, then leaned in and gave me a kiss. "Good luck cutie. I'll see you again after the delivery."

I kissed her back and replied, "Good luck love."

As soon as she was down in the hold Sarah activated the intercom and locked it on, so I'd be able to hear whatever happened down there. And less than a minute later we were hovering over the Kelsonian family's private landing pads. There were only two of them, and the first pad was occupied by a big fancy enclosed grav-sled.

It was exactly the sort of thing I imagined rich folks would use, a small cramped driver's compartment up front was separated from the large luxurious passenger space in back. And seeing it there was actually a good sign, it meant that everyone important was likely at home.

There were a dozen people watching and waiting outside as I extended the landing gear then gently set the Eris down. Most of them were armed, and I had no doubt they were part of the Kelsonians' own private army. The three who weren't armed appeared to be dressed in expensive custom-tailored suits, and they looked like they were related.

I felt a surge of satisfaction knowing they had to be Kelsonian's immediate family, all here to get their hands on our captain. They put the price on our heads, and they were responsible for what happened to both Rebecca and my sister.

"Unsealing the cargo hatch," Sarah announced over the intercom, and a moment later I heard it opening and the ramp extending.

Then my girlfriend addressed some of the people outside, "Hey can you guys come grab this? There's no way I'm going to be able to shift it down the ramp on my own."

"Who the hell are you?" a male voice demanded.

That was one reason Sarah was offloading the cargo, the other being I had to fly the ship. But even if we had another pilot on board I couldn't be the one to hand over the goods. I was too recognizable with my ears and tail, and we already knew they wanted me as much as they did our captain. We were both hoping my girlfriend would be less memorable, that she'd just be some cute blonde to them.

Meanwhile the cute blonde in question replied, "The hired help. What's it to you?"

At the same time I could hear some sounds of movement, like men picking up something heavy.

"Careful with that!" my girlfriend chided one of them, "It's worth two million ecks!"

An older male voice asked, "Speaking of which, where is Mr. Jamison?"

Then another voice shouted, "Hey that's Sarah Holloway! Grab her!"

Our time had just run out and we both knew it. The next sound on the intercom was the ramp rising up as my girlfriend shouted, "Go cutie!"

"Hold tight!" I shouted back as I slammed the throttle.

The little scout ship practically jumped into the air like something bit it, scattering everyone who'd been nearby on the landing pad. I levelled off at about a hundred meters then continued to accelerate as I pointed the ship south-west, which kept the estate between us and Port Ecclestone.

Wind noise from the open cargo hatch meant I couldn't hear my girlfriend through the intercom anymore, but fortunately that was sealed after another couple seconds. A moment later Sarah scrambled into the cockpit and dropped into her seat, while I breathed a sigh of relief.

As she strapped herself in she warned me, "They're targeting us again cutie."

I activated the comm and over that private encrypted frequency I said, "Beckybot? It's time to push the button."

Thanks to her built-in safety protocols she couldn't knowingly harm anyone, or even handle weapons. She could follow simple instructions though, like pushing a button. She didn't know that button was connected to the atomic warhead we'd loaded into the cryo pod with her. She didn't even know what any of those words meant.

All she knew was I needed a button pushed, and she dutifully replied through her built-in comm, "Of course Amanda. Pushing the button now."

A moment later the android, the cryo pod, the private landing pad, and the Kelsonian family's huge luxurious mansion all vanished in a flash of blinding light.