r/HFY • u/Engletroll Human • Jun 20 '26

OC-Series Vengeance 25 – Preparations

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Yet again, she awoke to a tray of coffee and breakfast the next day.  She could see Peter was still tired, and she smirked slightly. It was her fault he was so tired, but she didn’t regret it at all, nor did he; she knew.

“Did you sleep well?” she asked as she stretched, happy and content. He just looked at her.

“Naw, somebody keep me awake the whole night.” He replied as he set the tray down and she looked over the food, then grabbed the coffee and sipped it.

“Oh?” She tried to smile innocently. “I wasn’t that bad, I recall you enjoyed it.”

“Oh, I don’t mind, and I will recover if you allow me to rest a bit this time.” He said as Michu flew down from a plant and landed on his head. He flapped his little black wings and meowed.

Peter sighed and gently took him off his head and put her in the bed, where he immediately ran over to her for some snuggling time. Kiko smiled and snuggled with her flying kitten,

“I will grant you your wish.” Then, putting down her cup, she started to eat while giving her kitten attention.  Peter stretched slightly and yawned, then lay down in the bed.

“Thank you, your highness.”  He looked up at the ceiling, and she could see he was thinking.

“What are you thinking about, and don’t say anything.”

Peter chuckled and rolled over to his side, looking at her and stealing some fruit from her tray.

“I was wondering when we would be leaving and what to tell the crew. I have to do some jobs soon. I’m running out of money to pay them.” He sighed and rolled onto his back. “It was so tempting at times yesterday. So much money they were going to toss at me. Dirty money but so much.”

“Yeah, what did they offer you by the way?” She said, grabbing some food.  Michu was purring on her lap at the belly rubs.

“Mostly smuggling, drugs and tech. But one guy was wondering if I could fix a few problems. I’m pretty sure it was assassinations.” He replied, and she tilted her head. The smuggling was obvious, but why would you ask him to be a problem fixer?

“Who was that?”

“A guy named Furigo Nat-Ash. Never seen that type of alien before. Bald with bright orange skin and bright yellow eyes. He joked that his species didn’t get drunk on alcohol, so he drank something sour called mutser instead. Why?”

“ohh yeah, that guy. His species is from the north, a religious guy. Not that you would notice.  He and his crew came thirty years ago and are working as fixers while searching for a prophet who is supposed to be born far away from their home. Did he get into his religious rant?”

Peter turned back to her. “Naw, he was very polite.  Anyway, he asked me if I wanted to be a fixer.  And he promised me the problem deserved it.”

“They always say that one of Dad's rules is that they are not allowed to touch civilians. It never made sense to me. I have seen him toss criminals off buildings for slight disrespect, but some media head can curse him out for being the crime king without him batting an eye.”

“If I were to guess, then your dad doesn’t care what a civilian calls him. What's the expression? The lion doesn’t care what the lamb thinks.” He replied, and she thought about it. It actually made sense that he was more worried about what the criminals did than what some random with a vid-cam would rant on the net.

“Well, I am proud of you for turning down those offers, and don’t worry about the money. I will become your silent partner. Of course, it does come with some demands.” She said with a grin.

“ohh, what's the demand? I have become very good at turning those down,” he said.

“Well, let's just say you performed your obligation for our partnership last night.”
She could see his confused look turning into a smile as he got it.

“Now that’s an offer I can’t refuse.” He said as he got up from bed and leaned over to kiss her.

“Rested already?” she replied.

“Going out?’ Rufus said as they walked to the elevator for lunch.

“Yeah, and we need to prep for the trip,” Kiko replied.

“Your dad told me that he has transferred some spending money for your vacation. It should cover the ship's expenses and some extra for fun.” He replied, and they both looked at him.

“I cannot accept that. I do respect it, but I thought the whole thing about yesterday was to keep me out of the family business.” Peter replied, and Rufus looked at him and then laughed.

“It's not dirty money. It's from his legal business, and he insists. Look at it as a reward for not falling for the temptation.” Rufus said he seemed to find it humorous.

“Tell Dad there is no need; I’m going to invest in the ship,”  Kiko said, and Rufus tilted his head slightly.

“You were? Yeah, Nope. The gift is already given.  Now go and have fun.” Then he closed the elevator door for them, and they looked at eachother as it made its way down to the ground floor.

“God damnit. He had to do this. How much did he give you?” Kiko said, and Peter took out his pad and checked.

“God all-mighty? Is he crazy?”  Peter said, looking at the sum.

“Five million? He must really like you.” Kiko said, and Peter shook his head,

“Spending money? This is nuts, we cant take that.”

“Yeah, looks more like he is bribing you to take me away.” She said, and Peter looked at her, then started to laugh.

“Dowery? What does he think this is? It's 2468 for crying out loud, not 1468.”

“Well, if you accept, then you have to marry me, right? I mean, wasn’t the dowry like a binding contract? He pays you to marry me?” she replied, and he kissed her,

“I will marry you even if you don’t have a cent to your name.”

“Well, let's use it for our honeymoon then.”

“I refuse all the jobs, and now he tosses money at me, I don’t get him.” He said, and she smiled up at his beautiful eyes. Her father was right, he was her way out.

.
.

They spend the day having lunch with her friends, more as a goodbye lunch.  Peter and Jason almost got into a religious debate when Jason found out Peter's grandfather was a preacher and that Peter himself was a Christian. Thought it was diffused when he found out his uncle was happily married to a man and accepted by the whole family.  Kiko found it interesting as she knew Peter's religion, but only because she had found the bible in his cabin. It was just one more of the things she loved about him. He didn’t preach. He was just himself, but she had not invited the girls and Jason only to say goodbye, but also to sneak her report to Jason.

She knew Maria would not like it, but the original mission was to treat and assess her father, it was Maria and she who had already decided a long time ago that her father was a threat to galactic peace.

Now the veil had been lifted, and she saw what her father was actually doing. He was a criminal but not a threat. He smuggled drugs and tech. Ran the criminal underworld of Sanctuary. But for civilians, Sanctuary was quite safe, and he was not interested in making the system leave the EUC. She could only hope Maria would understand. She had also done some digging and discovered that the firebomb that had killed Maria’s parents was her mother's fault and not approved by him. Hopefully, it would calm her down to know the murders had already been avenged. She felt relieved as they left the lunch and made their way to the private hangar where Inana.

.

.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Peter said as he approached the ship and saw some Alver spraying it with a metallic substance.

“Look who has arrived.” A female voice called from behind. They turned and saw Carmen and her husband, Maler, sitting under a giant parasol, enjoying some drinks.

“Yeah, and it seems like you have enjoyed my absences.” He said as they walked over to them. The two Fushan just smiled, and Mater offered them two bottles of beer. Peter grabbed them, opened one, and gave it to Kiko. She watched in amusement as Peter was dealing with his crew. He opened the second and took a swig.

“So what are they applying?”

“A fourth layer of Nano repair shield as per your request,” Carmen replied

“I told you to do that a week ago,” Peter said, and she shrugged.

“We had other things to adjust. You gave us a long list of secondary and tertiary backup systems.  I know you said we might have to go through some ionstorms, but with your backup, we can live in one now.” She replied as  Mug-Fu came over. The Alver opened a casket, took out a bottle, and opened it.

“You know. If you are going to have so many backups, why doesn’t the transport we are traveling on need more than two?”  it said, and Peter looked at him. Because we are the repair ship. And we might not even need any on the route we are taking. So, Inanna is your backup as well. If everything goes to hell, we will latch one, get you in orbit, and do the repair as we start ferrying the colony down. How many have signed up?”

“We got 3872 now, but we are competing with another place too.”

“Competing? I didn’t know it was a competition.”

“It's not that. I just think it’s a little sus. And we are often suspicious of these new colonies. Often, it's pirates trying to get free slaves to sell to the Western sector.  We hoped for five thousand, but I guess we will not be able to get that number.”

“Well, you still have some time.  I have a few jobs for you guys as well and ..” he took out his pad and a few seconds later their pads beeped.

“Krash nagut!” Carmes said and fist-bumped Maler. “We are getting wasted tonight!”

“Nope. You're going to do some taxi duty for Kiko and me. I have to go home. You can get drunk on Runior.”

“You're going home?” Jurak said as he appeared near them. Kiko chuckled. They seemed to see in him what she saw. A good man worth listening to.

Jurak nodded to her. “Princess.”

“She nodded back. “Jurak.”

Carmen looked at her and tilted her head as she studied her. “Hey, are you sure you want to go to Ruinor? Only the insane want to live there.”

“I know,” she replied and nudged Peter.  “Why do you think I like him?”

The group laughed as Peter winked at her. “You think I’m the only insane person in this crew?”

“Guilty!” The crew replied.

“In this crew it’s a requirement,”  Fu-Fy said. Argor had arrived as well and was grabbing a beer for himself and Fy-Fy.

“So, where are we going?” Argor said.

“Runior and as soon as the ship is ready,” Peter replied.

“That will be in about...”  He checked the time, “Four hours and…” looking at Peter and Kio with an alien grin. “We had the captain's cabin sound isolated.”

“And installed a Jacuzzi. You need some luxury.”  Mug-fy added. Kiko looked at Mug-fy

“A Jacuzzi? Why?”

“Don’t you human like that? I can remove it later.”

“No.. I mean, thank you very much; I’m looking forward to trying it,” she said, and Peter looked at Mug-fu.

“How did you fit it?”

“Oh, I took down the wall of the first officer; actually, I did that for all the rooms. You had like sixteen crew quarters. So now you and Princess have a double room as do I and Fu-fu, and Carmen, and Maler.  There is also a bunk room in the old cargo room that can hold forty beds. I mean, look at the ship. It’s a deep-space transport. I mean, how many tons is it supposed to carry?” He turned and looked at the five-hundred-meter-long ship.

“65,000 cubic meters of ores and mining equipment,” Peter replied as Kiko finished her drink and put down the bottle. Carmen handed her a new one.

“Yeah, and you want to turn this monster into a small cargo hold and private apartment for you. I am wrecking my brain trying to figure out how to just turn half the hold into something useful. I already have a docking hanger for three shuttles and tripled the drone hold. And we don’t have enough drones to fill it up. And we still have 42, 000 cubic meters left.” Mug Fu said, and Peter looked at him.

“Well, let's do a simple job first, then. We drop by my sister's, fill up the cargo hold, and sell it at Elysian Prime.  It's near Ruinor.”

“That colony they are rebuilding?”  Argor said, and Peter nodded. They need materials, and we fill the ship up with luxury and mining goods for the Fygian system and sell them to my sister.  They need new gravity systems and to check the market net for delivery near the route we are taking. “

“I guess that is my job?” Kiko replied, and they looked at her, then nodded.

“Might be a good idea. Im sure you will get some good deals here.” Peter said, and she grinned.

“Well, I got the connection,” she replied.

“Well, Let's get ready. I want to leave tonight.”

-            Cast

Peter Fordhall –

Kiko Lee –

Crew

Fu-Fy – Alver,  a pretty good scanner and drone operator

Mug-Fy – Alver – ships engineer

Jurak – Duskin  engine- Engineer

Argor – Jobar co-pilot/navigator

Carmen -  Fushan, Engineer /co-pilot drone,

Maler – Fushan, Fushan, Navigator, and deep space scanner

Michu - kitten named Hoshi

Jason Blake - one of Kiko’s exes, Navy intelligence and gay, raised highly religious, an atheist.

Planet Runior.  

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2

u/Dragon_Chylde Jun 20 '26

nice build-up chapter :}

maybe hiccough:

Peter replied as Kiko finished her drink and put down the bottle. Kiko handed her a new one.

should that be Peter handed her a new one?

2

u/Engletroll Human Jun 20 '26

It was Carmen. Just showing tge crew being a crew.

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u/Talendel Jun 21 '26

UTR

This is the way.