They arrived at yoda's door, and Hortan reached for the buzzer. Azumi stopped him with a gloved hand on his lower arm.
"That is not advisable," she said, and pushed his arm back. She took a step back and kicked sideways at the buzzer, hitting it with her high-heeled boot. The electric arc that flashed from the buzzer was enough to stun a grown man, and would have resulted in Azumi lying on the floor had she not been wearing her isolated boots as always. Now it merely resulted in Hortan staring even more in awe at the young woman than before, and eventually the door opening as well. The small green commander of CLM peeked out at the floor and uttered a sigh of disappointment before turning and returning to his room.
"I guess it is you Azumi, nobody else has the audacity to come here without permission. What do you want?" The voice grew dimmer as he walked inside, and Azumi followed motioning Hortan to follow.
"Indeed it is I yoda-sensei, but I am merely the delivery girl. I have someone here who want's to see you sensei."
Yoda turned slowly and looked. "Ah, Meatan, the TGFT ambassador. Just the person I have absolutely no use for right now. Speak your mind, I am certain your mewling will dull my senses sufficiently that I may sleep well tonight. "
Hortan was stung by the harsh words from the person he had hoped would help him with the Lebermac situation, and his heart sank.
"Sir, I am here to file an official complaint to stop the situation that may be running out of control. The code that CLM has been living by for a long time, namely that of hailing pilots that you intercept and want to help your cause by donating some minor monetary amount, and not shooting said pilots before they have had a chance to respond, has been broken."
Yoda silenced Hortan with an annoyed swinging of his cane. "Eventually you will get to the point I assume. In the meantime I shall stand here silently and listen in utter misery. Don't mind my agony, go on, be as wordy as you like." The sarcasm was flowing as freely as the waters of the Nile, but to no avail.
"I thank you master yoda, for the chance to address this most unpleasant of businesses which I hope we can solve to common satisfaction. The issue here is the misconduct of the CLM pilot named Lebermac, whom I had the unfortunate experience of encountering earlier today, and who shot at me without hailing with the intended purpose to explode my ship and by doing so, hurting myself and killing my passenger who was not covered by the APRS." Hortan bowed slightly with as much grace as he could muster, it seemed the correct ambassadorial thing to do.
"What the fuck is the problem?" yoda barked, annoyed by now.
Hortan's false sense of kinship had now disappeared completely "Ehm, the problem is that leber shot me without hailing Sir."
"So fucking what? I shoot traders without hailing sometimes. Where have you been for the last fourteen days? Do you have a permanent reality filter installed? Or have you just had your head so far up your own ass that you could see your own tonsils? Your pansy trader guild chose to take the side of those backstabbing treacherous pieces of filth in PA, and that means that a state of war exists between your guild and mine. Do you understand that? Next time I see any TGFT member, I will kill that person on sight." Hortan had been slowly moving back while yoda had been moving forwards, but he was just about to run out of space.
"So I guess you have your problem solved for you right there. You and your kind is KOS until further notice, that is Kill On Sight if you are too dim witted to figure it out yourself."
Azumi looked closely at Hortan, who was so stricken with fear of yoda that he was hyperventilating and completely white in the face.
"Sensei, might I lead the ambassador out to his ship?" She grabbed his arm and started to push him towards the door. She moved between yoda and Hortan, and waited for a response from yoda. He looked at her and then at Hortan. The hard glare in his eyes that was best suited for arc welding dimmed in intensity. This young man was scared to death, and he had in reality done nothing apart from being very very gullible.
"Get him safely out of here 'zumi. Make sure the boys know he has my protection until he jumps away. And Hortan, don't come back unless I summon you, it is not safe even for you anymore." With that, yoda opened the door and allowed Azumi to drag the semi-catatonic Hortan out of the room.
Once outside, she turned him around and looked directly into his eyes. No response, he had withdrawn into his happy place. He was in no condition to fly right now, and for lack of other options she dragged him along to her cubicle, fortunately not meeting anyone along the way. Once safely inside she placed him on the bed and frisked him quickly. Two bottles of pills, some papers, an official TGFT cred stick, two no-trace sticks and a memory crystal. She placed the items on the table and read the labels on the pill glasses. Deciding that it could only become better, she shook out a pair and stuffed them into Hortan's mouth. She looked around and found some stale green tea that she had left from earlier today. She poured a cup and made him drink, taking the pills along. He closed his eyes and after a minute or so lay himself on his side. She took his boots and socks off and tucked him on her bed, he was asleep before noticing.
"Shit, where am I going to sleep?” she thought, "and even worse, what the hell am I supposed to do with him?" She shook her head slowly and walked over to grab a jump suit and put it on instead of the dress. She had no idea when he would wake up, she could just as well make herself comfortable. She sat in her reclining chair and put her feet up, opened the pieces of paper from Hortan's pockets and started leafing through them. Haiku poetry, and apparently to roids or girls, she wasn't sure. She once more shook her head and put on her headphones. "Equally destructive that we aaaaree" rang into her very soul. She opened her pda and sent a message to the guards that they were to provide Hortan free passage away from the station as per yoda’s orders, and then leant back and closed her eyes.
Buzz awoke to the hangover from Hell. Something was applying pressure directly to his brain from all directions at once, and the combined drums of the universe were playing from somewhere near his door. He took a pillow and tried to drown the sound by putting it over his head, but he almost gagged with the bad small emanating from his own mouth and had to take it off again. Admitting defeat, he got up and slowly crawled to the door where he pulled himself to standing position before opening it. A flash as intense as one from a nuclear detonation, or at least so it felt to Buzz, filled the room as soon as he opened the door, and Buzz staggered back blinded and hurting. Another flash and what sounded like someone hitting a large piece of sheet metal with an ice pick. He fell on his back and hammered his head into something metallic and cold. His .45 revolver, he would recognise that shape anywhere. He grabbed the revolver and aimed at the location of the first flash when he heard the
"Whoa whoa Buzz, are you all right mate?"
"Do I look all right to you?"
Fluffy grinned, "well, apart from having the largest boosoom in TGFT, I must admit that yoo look immensely like crap. I have pills, Nyrius Dew and chips. And the entire collection of "The Adventures of Hathor the Librarian".
Buzz grunted, "hand me the pills, the chips and the dew and get the fuck out of here. Let me die in peace."
Fluffy grinned even wider and put the package on the floor, took another picture of the prone man and left the cubicle to Buzz and his misery. Now he had picture proof of Buzz's nightly mishap, and that more than made them even for the tattoo on Fluffy's shoulder. He started walking over to his own cubicle when he heard the "Aw CRAP" shout from the room he just left. Apparently Buzz had re-discovered his new boobs.
The TGFT HQ was slowly recovering after the stag party, with most of the members meeting in for the late shift. Trade routes were allocated and co-ordinated, mining missions were delivered, and deals were struck. Tomorrow would be business as usual, immense profits and resource collection.
