It was in the very early hours of the morning when he received the coded signal; the mission had been effectuated with almost 90% success rate. That was way and above what had been hoped for when the plan had been first suggested, and it was mostly due to him. Without the information he had collected in the last months it would have been very different, but it was only a question of time before they found out now. He entered the database and checked once more that he had left no traces. He entered the mission planner and ordered himself to Sol II for the next two months upon Surbius's order, sent it to his own mailbox and left the command room. The odds were pretty good that he would never come back here again. Not looking like this at least. He checked his Warthog II out and launched, setting a course for Latos and Remley Orbital.
Buzz walked warily down to Surbius's office, to the eternally vigilant Naoko that was looking as fresh as ever. He had dressed in the largest flight suit he had, and it still felt tight across the chest. For the first time in his life he understood why women used braziers, and he wished to the Almighty God in the bottom of the bottle that he had purchased one too. His nipples were chafed raw, and his shoulders were sore. Especially the right one, but that was also pin from the tattoo.
"Naoko, need to have the day off."
She looked up at him and frowned. Something was not right.
"Are you sick Buzz? Then I'll need a 392a-3 form, Request for Sick Leave with the details please."
"Ehm, I'd rather not ma'am, I just need the day off. I need to do some stuff of a medical nature of sorts."
"Not sure I can do that Buzz unless I get the 3922a-3." Naoko found the form and almost printed it.
"Ah, no. How about I show you what the problem is, and then we don't file papers?"
Naoko looked closely at Buzz. He was almost always very loud and in control, but today he looked like he would crawl into just about any hole he could find to avoid attention.
"I can't promise you anything Buzz, but ok, show me."
Buzz opened his jump suit and displayed a very shapely but also distinctly hairy cleavage. Naoko had to hide her face behind her hands not to laugh, but she managed to control herself.
"I really need to get this fixed, and you can probably imagine what would happen if the rest of the crew found out. So I would appreciate it very much if this was kept kinda secret."
"I'll have to tell Lieutenant Surbius, but I think we can work around the form. Just report back when the, well procedure I guess it would be called, is completed."
"Thank you Ms Naoko, I owe you one."
Buzz turned and walked away. Naoko managed to control herself until she couldn't hear his footsteps before submitting to the laughter that was forcing itself up into her throat.
Hortan woke with a start. Something was wrong, the smell, the sounds, the fact that he was wearing his jump suit, the other person breathing inside the room. He opened one eye slowly and was startled again. He sat up on the bed with the blanket in front of him, covering his lower torso and legs. He was in Azumi's cubicle, and sleeping on Azumi's bed. She was sleeping in her recliner, breathing heavily. Hortan looked around bewildered, how on Eo had he fallen asleep here? He looked for his boots, found them and put his bare feet into, lacing them lightly, but fast. He looked for his socks, found them and put them in his pocket. He spied the TGFT cred stick on the table and sneaked over to grab it. When he reached across Azumi, she stirred in her sleep, and he stood absolutely still for a minute until she had resumed her deep sleep. He grabbed the stick and turned for the door. When he was just abut to leave the room, he looked back at Azumi once more. He tiptoed over to the bed and grabbed his blanket and covered Azumi with it. He then exited silently to the corridor and turned in the direction he assumed was the docks. He looked directly at two persons, one in a black coverall with a CLM logo on his left chest and twin silver distinctions on his collar, tall, slender and with light blonde hair; the other was shorter and more muscular, dark haired in a double Elvis mohawk, dressed in a pair of very colourful long shorts, a pair of sandals, an open shirt and several heavy gold chains around his neck. Wittman and Sharingan, and they had just seen him exit from Azumi's cubicle. With nowhere to go, and not knowing how to handle this, he froze completely.
"Hi Horzan, wat are...."
"What the fuck are you....."
The two pirates started talking at the same time and moved in Hortan's direction, with the predictable result that Hortan turned his gaze to the floor and waited for the inevitable. Sharingan grabbed Hortan's arm.
"What did you do in there? Is Azumi inside? Did you hurt her?" His concern was enough to shake Hortan out of his defensive passivity.
"No, I mean, she is fine, I never touched her, I don't know what happened, I just woke up."
Wittman put a hand on Sharingans shoulder to calm him.
"Maybe we should knock on ze door and find out. But if Horzan says zat she is ok, zen I believe him. We are talking about Azumi here Shar. Wat could he do to her?"
Sharingan looked from Hortan to Wittman and nodded.
"Yeah, let us knock and find out, I mean, he could have been stealing her stuff like he did with Leber"
Sharingan pressed the call button, and after some seconds and a lot of noise from inside, the door opened and Azumi peeked out holding the blanket up in front of her. Her hair was caught in a rough ponytail and she had very obviously just awoken.
"What do you want Shar? It better be good." She spied Hortan behind Sharingan and covered her face with one hand. "Shit, ehm, Shar he is with me. Just let me get dressed, I'll come out and take care of him." She closed the door.
Sharingan and Wittman looked at each other, and then at Hortan. And then back at the closed door. Sharingan stared straight into Hortan's eyes.
"I have no idea how you pulled this one off. But you have just made an enemy today."
"Relax Shar, Horzan ist one of ze good traders. He always pays, is zat not true?"
Hortan nodded and looked back to the floor. Sharingan grabbed his chin and tried lifting his face up, but Hortan was saved by the click of the door lock disengaging. A tired looking Azumi came out of the door and grabbed Hortan by the arm.
"Let's go." She started dragging him, but was stopped by Shar that held on to the other arm. "What Shar? Let him go."
"Did he, like do anything Az?"
"Aw, what are you, some kind of chaperone? What is it to you anyway? Let him go I say, I need to get him to the dock."
Shar let Hortan go, and Azumi dragged him along, away from the two confused pirates.
"Verdammt Shar, let us go and drink some beers, and maybe play ze pool, wat do you say?"
"Yeah, let's get plastered. Maybe we can get some of that stuff that was left from the party yesterday."
The two pirates walked off towards the main bar, the beer and the pool table. Important business to do, plans to discuss or friends to talk about. And that would be best resorted intoxicated beyond sane levels.
