Into the Black

The Princess looked up at me, looking like someone desperately reaching out for something, anything, to hold on to, because their whole life had gone up in flames. Probably for good reason, she’d had a lot of shocks this last week. “A decision?”

I nodded to her. “Yes, you have to decide what you will do from now on. Your sister, it seems, if forming a government in exile. But we have no clue on where she’s gone, or where she’ll set up shop. And if your friend here is any indication, the Fleet will mostly side with the new Emperor. Chasing after her will definitely put us in the path of the fleet, and may lead the fleet to your sister. But that’s a choice, and you’d be able to help build a resistance against your brother.”

“Your second choice is to be a good little pet to this ‘friend’ of yours, and pop out a few kids so that he can try and get more power.” She shuddered at that thought, and I didn’t blame her.

“Third choice, you join my crew, at least until we can make our way out of the Empire. Won’t be the easy life you’re used to, and you’ll be paid a crew wage, and expected to learn and pull your weight, same as the rest of the crew. It will be tough, and it’ll be dangerous, but you’ll be alive and free.”

Sheila considered that, and then sighed. “Captain, I would like to formally join your crew.”

I smiled, and nodded. “We’ll deal with the paperwork when we get back to the ship. For now, I need to persuade the Admiral here not to tell anyone about us.” Turning back to the Admiral, I concentrated on the power I wanted to use. It was the first time I’d used my ‘Alter Memory’ power, and I decided that I’d keep the changes simple. I just changed the last couple of minutes, from just before the Princess started talking, making it so that, as far as he knew, the conversation never happened, and there was just a black-haired woman of moderate attractiveness, along with a hot Asian chick that grabbed most of his attention.

I decided to have a bit of fun, and filled the time he would have missed with the conversation being gone (and the long amount of time needed to alter his memory) with a false memory, where he paid me a good sum of money to bend me over his desk and show me just how manly he was. Naturally, I had him both transfer the funds to my bracer, making me 20K credits richer, but also erase the camera logs. I waited until we were well out of the office before releasing the Charm.

Once we were out of the Admiral’s office, we didn’t talk again until we were back on the civilian side of the station. I checked the ship’s datanet, and saw that the others had already completed their jobs, and the money had already been deposited in the various accounts. We swung by the bank to set up a dummy account for Sheila, and add her to the crew, the Corporation, and the automatic pay splits, as part of the crew.

Boring stuff, but best to get it done now, before we were actually running for our lives and needed it. She had some money, being a princess and all, but after discussing the fact that her brother would probably have someone inside the bank looking for transfers on that account, it would be best to not use them until we got outside Imperial space.

After that boringness was over with, I declared that some retail therapy was in order, both to get Sheila out of the dumps, and to make sure she had all the supplies she’d need if she was going to be a permanent member of the crew. We swung through the marketplace on our way back to the ship, and she picked up some new clothes, as well as the other necessary supplies of daily living. Along the way, I saw a few things that caught my eye. Oh, sure, it wasn’t bunches of new weapons and armor, couldn’t expect them to sell that on a military installation, but there were some things that would be useful.

What could be more useful for a fledgling smuggler and ne’er-do-well than weapons and armor, you ask? A wide range of entertainment options for those long hauls through hyperspace, that’s what. I dropped 5K of my own money on various games and vids (only a few of them were porn, honest), so we would have something to do on board ship. The ship account paid for fresh supplies (including a store of alcohol).