Chapter 9

We left the restaurant after a nice dinner. Mari had limited herself to the one glass of wine and then water for the rest of the meal. Anna and Katherine had a few glasses of wine each, just enough to get them to the giggly side of tipsy. We wandered around the lower level for a while in our little diamond formation, working off the meal and stretching our legs before heading back to the hotel. It was early enough that I asked if the girls would mind if I went the gym for a bit and they said go. I changed into a pair of shorts and a work shirt and left. The gym was one of those that was in the hotel but could be accessed by the public with a membership.

While I was in the gym, Sam informed me that she was having her first real girl talk session. I told her to have fun and not tell me anything unless they were planning my murder.

The gyms on space stations and ships are not like gyms on planets. There are no free weights, dumbbells, plates, or such. If gravity is lost, you don't want weighted missiles floating around. So designers did their best to mimic the feel of those. A bench press, for example, looked like just a plain bar with cables attached to the ends that lead into the floor and is resting in its place over the bench. The user dials in the tension and goes to work. If gravity is lost, the tension motors lock and you now have something semi stationary to hang onto. The same goes for all the other weight machines in their various forms. They were also all bolted into the floor.

I spent a bit over an hour and a half there before heading up to the room. No one else had entered the gym while I had been using it. I let Sam know to give the women warning.

The hotel suite's holo-projection system was higher end to allow AIAs to move around the room. Sam was floating in a seated position near the women where they were seated and talking. I decided right then that I'd try to upgrade my ship's system to allow this. It wouldn't cost nearly as much as the tactile hologram tech and it would be nice to have Sam able to 'sit' with us at the table in the galley.

"Sam, can you see if the Privateer warehouse has an upgrade to the ship's holo-projectors? Ones that would at least allow you to move around?"

Sam looked surprised and then gave me a big smile. After a moment a slightly disappointed look came over her face and shook her head no.

"Check with the shops then. See if there's any and what kind of trade in value we'd get for the current projectors." I knew it wouldn't be much but I'd try to cut the best deal I could. "And see which shops the Privateers use."

"You," Anna pointed at me, "go take a shower. You can do this afterwards. We still have talking to do."

I shrugged and went into the room I shared with Mari. I entered the spacious bathroom. The shower was big enough for at least 4 people if they were friendly or it looked that way to me. Mounted to a wall in the enclosure were about 15 containers of stuff to use to clean oneself. I was hoping that I could find something that wouldn't make me smell like a piece of fruit.

I tossed my sweaty clothes and work clothes that I'd worn earlier into the laundry chute mounted into the bathroom wall. They would be automatically washed and ready in half an hour. I showered in the enclosure, finding some soap and shampoo that wasn't fruity smelling. I let myself just soak for a while under hot water, loosening my muscles and stretching out in the big enclosure. I also took a few moments to jerk off. The teasing I'd received while shopping had left me on edge and it felt good to relieve the pressure. Come to think of it, I still needed to get some payback on Katherine for that. Afterwards, blasts of warm air dried me off before I exited the shower.

I wandered out to the bedroom naked, out of habit, and started digging through the wardrobe. Katherine had stowed everything and it took me a while to dig out a pair of shorts, underwear, and a shirt. When I straightened up I noticed that it was real quiet. I glanced over to the door, forgetting that I hadn't closed it, and noticed that I had an audience.

As I've said, I'm not bashful. I had been naked plenty of times in the company of others, both male and female. Privateer training saw to that. It was a matter of toughening us up psychologically. Some people might find being in a room full of naked people exciting but when you add in screaming instructors ordering you to do all sorts of different activities, it's not. One thing I did find slightly uncomfortable was the attention I got from the ladies. I'm not used to it and it'll take me a while to get used to it.

Anna and Katherine were both wide-eyed while looking me up and down. Mari was appraising me and seemed happy with what she saw. Sam looked like she was having a ball, not at my state of undress having seen me like this many time. No, she was getting her kicks at the reactions of the women.

I shrugged it off and ignored them, turning away and getting back to getting dressed. I turned back towards the door and they were gone, back to the seating area I assumed, and heard whispering and giggles.

I walked out and headed over to a desk, away from the seating area and let them continue their chat session. The desk was situated in such a way that it faced the seating area and I could see them from the chair. I picked up the tablet that was sitting in the mount on top.

"Pardon for the interruption, ladies," I called over to them. When I had their attention I asked "Sam, can you send me over the information from the data chip?" A 'blip' from the tablet let me know that I had the data. "Thank you. You can go back to talking now." Four heads turned away from me. The occasional gasp and giggle resumed as if uninterrupted.

Sam had also sent me the information on the preferred vendor of ship upgrades that the Privateers used on top of the data chip files. The upgrade through him wouldn't be too bad, the installation on the other hand was a little pricey. Fortunately I could handle that with ease. It'd take a couple of hours to install and another for calibration but I could do it no problem.

Going into the files that were on the data chip I reviewed my orders. Detached duty until further notice. Escort civilian personnel to Prime at safest haste and route. Once on Prime, report to Privateer Corps HQ at earliest convenience.

No mention of who the civilian personnel were listed on the orders, which was interesting but not unheard of. Privateers sometimes did this for the Empire to keep things low key. Using military transport for this would be risky, being seen as elected officials using military resources as a taxi service which wouldn't go over well with the public if they got wind of it. Privateers are a very quiet group. Most people tend to overlook us and when they aren't being threatened by pirates, which is the way we like it.

Also in the data chip files was the breakdown of the salvage from the pirate ship. I got the additional AI-to-ship interface and the spares that I'd requested. The Empire took possession of the stasis pod. A note indicated that the price of the pod would be split at the end of the investigation. I assumed that meant they were going to try to find out who was selling to pirates or if it came off a pirated vessel. The same was being done with personal effects of pirates where they could try to trace back to individuals or other attack. The Privateer warehouse here requested and received most of the weapons and some of the ship systems.

After reading through the breakdown I read how much I'd get and, as I though, I didn't get much. I received 50% and the Empire got the rest though they also paid any fees and storage costs.

The rewards for the pirates were not bad but not outstanding also. And no pirate bounty, just like Sam figured. The bounty was an overall reward for stopping piracy. In this case, it was called a civil crime.

I made some notations, checked my bank balance, paid a few bills including the ship's docking fees which weren't too bad, considering. If I'd been in a busier port the fees would be much higher and I'd be parking my ship in space and shuttling back and forth. I closed the files, sent them back to Sam's unit, and purged the tablet.

About that time, Anna came over and dragged me to the seating area. She pushed me into a chair then seated herself on a couch, laid back and rested her head on a throw pillow in Katherine's lap. Across from them in another couch, Mari was stretched out with another throw pillow. Sam was at the other end, floating in a seated position. I slouched down and got comfortable in my chair.

I looked back and forth at the women and asked "What's up?"

"Well, we know about you. Sam was nice enough to tell us about you," Anna said. I cocked an eyebrow at Sam. "Don't worry, she didn't tell us anything that you probably wouldn't have if we asked. Just what kind of person you were, background, that sort of stuff."