Chapter 215: Chapter 215

The following morning we were all back in the secondary hold as soon as everyone was up. We hadn't even had breakfast yet, although my girlfriends and I did pause long enough to grab ourselves some coffee before heading down to the lower deck.

According to Cammie and Jenna our AI reported things were going well last night before they turned in for bed. Apparently Jenny established communications with the other AI, and now we were all eager to find out how it went after leaving the two AIs together for the night.

"Jenny?" our catgirl mechanic addressed the portable terminal, "Are y'all in there? How'd it go last night?"

It took another couple seconds before the display flickered to life, then our AI's face appeared on the small screen. She smiled, "Good morning love, and good morning sis. And Rebecca, Sarah, Amanda, good morning to you as well."

"Good morning Jenny," the boss replied. "I understand things got off to a good start last night?"

Cam added, "Should we reconnect you to the ship's data bus now?"

"Not just yet Cammie," our AI replied. Then she addressed the captain, "Things went very well indeed. There were a few hurdles at first, due to all the bad news I had to share with my fellow Re/Gen unit. But in all I believe we had a very productive night."

Jenny continued, "In fact before we get to any more questions I'd like to pause here so we can take care of the official introductions."

"I know I mentioned another name earlier," she added with a small grimace, "But my fellow AI has opted to take on a new name, to go along with her new start. So please allow me to introduce my friend, and hopefully our newest colleague."

At that point the image on the portable display zoomed out far enough that we could all see the other AI was there as well, standing just to the right of Jenny. I hadn't really known what to expect, but I still found myself surprised as I studied her image on the small screen. And after a quick glance around I couldn't help thinking my other shipmates felt the same.

The new Re/Gen AI stood a couple inches shorter than Jenny, which would put her at around five-foot-four. She had fair skin, a pretty face, and green eyes. Her most interesting and unusual feature though was her tangled mess of vibrant purple hair. It reached her shoulders in a mix of large loose curls and tight little knots. And finally she was dressed in what looked like a dark green skirt and a simple t-shirt that was a chaotic blend of pink, purple, white, and yellow.

"Everyone," Jenny announced as she gestured towards her friend, "This is Violet."

The other AI greeted us all with an awkward smile, "Hi there."

We all greeted her as well, then one by one we introduced ourselves to her.

Finally Jenny addressed the boss, "I'm sure you'd like to interview Violet as you did me, but for what it's worth I believe she'll be a valuable addition to the extended crew. In fact I'd like to suggest she should be installed on the Artemis, if you haven't already considered that? If Violet were connected to the scout ship's data bus and equipped with a set of HPDs then she'll be able to serve that vessel the same way I do for the Demeter."

"Thanks Jenny that's good to know," the boss replied. Then she suggested, "Why don't we get Sarah and Cammie to reconnect you to the ship's data bus now? Then you can all head up to the main deck while Amanda starts getting breakfast ready. I'll stay here and have a few words with Violet."

Our AI nodded, "Alright captain."

"Don't worry Violet," she added to her friend, "You'll do fine. I'll check in with you after the captain's finished interviewing you."

Violet looked anxious regardless as she responded, "I hope so. And thank you."

Meanwhile Sarah moved up to the side of the terminal to disconnect one of the data feeds. She paused first and asked, "Ready to go Jenny?"

"Yes thank you Sarah," she replied after exchanging a brief hug with Violet. Then her image vanished from the screen.

It only took a couple seconds to get Jenny patched back into the Demeter's data bus. Then the rest of us headed aft towards the lift in engineering, while Rebecca stayed behind so she could speak with the new AI in private. We met up with Jenny in the mess, after her hologram emerged from the cabin she shared with her sister and girlfriend.

"Welcome back sis," Jenna greeted her with a smile.

Cammie's tail and ears all stood up tall as she nodded, "It's great having you back to normal again Jenny. We missed you last night."

The hologram smiled, "I missed you too love. And it's very nice to be connected through the ship again. Not that my night with Violet was unpleasant, but as I said before it feels very cramped being disconnected from the Demeter."

"I just hope Violet's gonna be ok," the catgirl frowned.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Jenny assured her girlfriend.

Sarah agreed, "The boss wants to get to know her a bit before agreeing to anything. It's basically a job interview, but you know what Rebecca's like. And considering Jenny vouched for her I'm sure Violet's already got the job."

"Sarah, Cammie, would one of you mind setting the table please?" I asked as I got started on breakfast.

"Sure thing cutie," my girlfriend replied.

She moved in close and gave me a kiss on the cheek before she got started with the plates and cutlery. Cam pitched in too, and between the pair of them they had everything ready to go in short order. It took me a little longer to get the food ready, but the timing worked out perfectly regardless.

Rebecca joined us about ten minutes later, just as I was ready to serve up the big batch of pancakes and bacon I'd prepared. She smiled as she took her usual seat between Sarah and I, "The food looks great love, thanks."

"What did you think of Violet? Are you comfortable letting her join us?" Jenny asked before anyone else could get a word in.

"She's nothing like I expected," the boss replied as she loaded up her fork with a big hunk of pancake. "But she did fine. And yeah, I think she'll fit in. In fact I have a feeling she'll probably get along well with Nyssa? The two of them both seem to share the same chaotic energy."

I couldn't help grimacing a little at that thought, while my ears folded back and my tail ended up tucked under my chair.

Meanwhile Jenny asked, "Does that mean you're considering her for the Artemis?"

"Yeah," Rebecca nodded. "Although I'm not sure she'll fit? There's not a lot of free space on that ship as it is. The hold's pretty small, and there isn't really any room on the main deck either. Unless we put her in the former brig."

I suggested, "What if we got rid of the cryo system? We've already lost one of the tubes, and the support system takes up a bunch of space. Plus it's not like we're going to be doing any bounty hunting, so I doubt we'll ever have any reason to use it."

Sarah agreed, "That's probably the best idea. It should simplify things too, since there'll already be power and data feeds in place for the cryo system." This update ıs available on NoveI-Fire.ɴet

"We'll see," the boss shrugged. "Those are the sort of decisions we can worry about later. Right now there's more pressing things to deal with."

She helped herself to some more bacon as she continued, "We've got about three and half hours left before we're scheduled to set course for Rolandan-2. Sarah, will that be enough time to salvage the outpost's tractor assembly?"

"It'll be cutting it close," our engineer looked thoughtful while she munched on a forkful of breakfast, "But I think we can do it. I still want to round up the rest of those salvage drones too. Especially if we're not coming back here again."

My ears drooped and my tail twitched as I stated, "We can't be late for this. By the time we've finished breakfast it'll be more like three hours before we need to get the ship moving."

Sarah smiled, "I get it cutie. As soon as we're done eating we'll suit up and get right to work."

"Since I don't need to eat why don't I get a head start on things?" Jenna offered as she got up from her seat. "I won't go out on my own, but I can at least prep all the necessary equipment and review the detailed scans of the tractor beam installation."

Cammie's ears and tail stood up as she smiled, "Good thinking Jenna! We'll join you just as soon as we've finished breakfast."

Jenny stood up as well, "If you'll excuse me? I'd like to go speak with Violet again. I'll meet you in the cockpit when it's time to get to work."

"Sounds good," Rebecca mumbled around a mouthful of food.

The twins headed off in different directions, with our android going to the starboard airlock to go over the EVA gear while our AI went down to the secondary hold to spend some more time with her friend.

The rest of us rushed through the last of our breakfast, then instead of washing the dirty dishes they ended up in the sink for now. I'd have been happier taking the time to clean up properly, but that was something we could do later when the ship was in jump. For now our priority was to finish the salvage job as quickly and safely as possible.

"Happy birthday Nyssa!" I announced with a wide smile, while my tail swished happily behind me.

My sister turned in her chair and grinned while her own tail started wagging up a storm, "Amanda! You made it!"

"Of course!" I replied as I leaned in and gave her a big hug. "You know there's no way in the galaxy I'd miss my little sister's twenty-second birthday."

I had no intention of letting her know how close we cut it. We'd landed at the Freeborn Shipyard less than an hour earlier, then we had a rushed meeting with Miss Lancaster. Or at least I tried to keep it short. Tamsin wanted to talk about Rebecca's coronation though, and of course she had plenty of questions about the eyepatch our captain was still wearing. Because needless to say, the boss still hadn't made time for a visit to Jenny's Re/Gen pod yet.

It wasn't until all that was out of the way that we could finally discuss our actual business with the shipyard, which was primarily about repairs to the Demeter's fighter and the work we wanted done to the Artemis. That led to even more questions, and the rest of the meeting felt like it took twice as long as it should have. At long last we were able to wrap things up with Tamsin, then my shipmates and I climbed into the grav-sled and I flew us into the city as fast as possible. And we still only reached the fancy restaurant Nyssa picked with less than two minutes to spare.

She hugged me back but her ears twitched as she teased, "You're the little sister now, short-stuff!"

I rolled my eyes as I finally let go of her, "I may be shorter but I'm still older than you."

"Whatever," Nyssa smirked at me. Then she greeted the others, "Hi Sarah, Cammie, Jenna, and your royal queenship."

Our captain grimaced as she mumbled, "Just call me Rebecca, ok?"

"Happy birthday miss Nyssa," Cammie added. "Jenny sends her regards and birthday wishes too. And hello miss Jaycee. You're both looking really good this evening."

The greetings and birthday wishes continued as we all got seated. Then I commented, "Cammie's right. It looks like you two didn't waste any time getting new wardrobes."

My sister was in her usual style again, with a pair of tight black pants and a dark revealing top. The outfit was perfectly fitted, including a gap in the back for her tail. Same for Jaycee, they were in a pair of tight blue denim pants and an off-white short-sleeve blouse. They also had some stylish brown ankle-boots with a bit of a heel on them, while Nyssa was wearing a pair of attractive pumps.

"Of course!" my sister replied with a wide grin. "As soon as the Artemis was on the ground we visited that made-to-order clothes place you showed me. And the custom shoes shop."

Conversation paused there as the waiter visited our table, and we all put in our drinks orders then took a quick look at the menu. It was one of those places Rebecca took Sarah and I to during our first couple visits to this world, with high prices and fancy food.

"How did your salvage job go?" Jaycee asked Rebecca, once we'd all placed our orders.

Our captain replied after a sip of her drink, "It went well. We got pretty much everything we wanted. Enough that I don't think we'll be heading back there again, in fact."

"Which means we'll be looking for work while we're here," I added.

Rebecca nodded, "Right. For both the Demeter and the Artemis."

"Speaking of," she continued as she looked to Nyssa and Jaycee again, "I need you two to move the Artemis out of port and over to the Freeborn Shipyard first thing in the morning."

My sister protested, "Why?! I haven't broken anything on it!"

"Enough whining sis," I told her. "It's not for repairs, we've scheduled some time for her at the shipyard so they can install some new equipment."

Jaycee asked, "What sort of equipment, if you don't mind my asking?"

My girlfriends and I all exchanged a quiet glance, since those details weren't the sort of thing we wanted to discuss in public. Fortunately our engineer had a suitably vague answer already prepared.

"We're going to upgrade her defences a bit," Sarah replied. "And there's some work we need to get done in her hold. We're going to get rid of another one of those cryo tubes, and some of the support system."

Rebecca added, "We'll keep the other two cryo tubes and their related systems. But that'll free up enough space in the hold for the new gear we want to put in there."

"Why not just rip all that cryo nonsense out completely?" Nyssa asked as her ears folded back. "Anyways what's this new equipment we're getting?"

I was inclined to agree with her regarding the cryo system, but Rebecca wanted to keep two of those tubes installed just in case.

Meanwhile the boss replied, "We'll go into more details about the upgrades tomorrow. As soon as you've got the Artemis at the shipyard I'd like you and Jaycee to report to the Demeter. There's a few things we need to discuss."

My sister pouted, "Now it sounds like we're in trouble. Just because you're queen doesn't mean you get to order us around, y'know?"

There was a harder tone in my voice as I stated, "I hope your recent stint as the Artemis' skipper hasn't gone to your head Nyssa. You're just the pilot, Rebecca's still your boss."

"Sorry," Nyssa sighed. Then her ears perked up as she gave us all a hopeful look, "Can we leave the work stuff until tomorrow? It's supposed to be my birthday, I'd rather focus on celebrating."

The boss nodded, "Fair enough. I still want to see you two on the Demeter tomorrow morning, after you've moved the Artemis into the shipyard."

"Understood," Jaycee responded. They slipped an arm around Nyssa's shoulders and pulled her into a side hug as they added, "I'll try and make sure we're there on time."

That was good enough for Rebecca, and the conversation moved on to other things just in time for the food to arrive. It was as good as I remembered, and it didn't take long before my tail was wagging happily behind me.

We all had plenty to eat, then at Nyssa's suggestion we rounded out dinner with some very decadent dessert. Finally my little sister decided to wrap up her birthday with more drinks and dancing, so all seven of us piled into the grav-sled and headed to a nearby nightclub. Cammie and Jenna dropped the rest of us off there, then took the sled back to the Demeter so they could hang out with Jenny and Violet.

That left my girlfriends and I to continue the celebrations with Nyssa and Jaycee. It was somewhere past midnight when Rebecca and Sarah and I finally bid my sister and her date-friend a good night, but the two of them were still going strong.

I reminded Nyssa not to stay up too late, then my girlfriends and I hired a sled to take us back to the Freeborn Shipyard. Where the three of us ended the night together in the captain's bed, and each other's arms.