“Oh yeah, I remember you from our old modelling days!” Sparks scoffed sarcastically. “Now why are you bothering me?!” she blurted out, annoyed at the interruption to her work.


    “It’s me…” The stunningly beautiful blonde continued “Alyssa…”


    Sparks snorted withughter “Haha! Good one, who put you up to it? Fat Tony? Choppy Bob?” she grinned good naturedly.


    “It’s not a joke, it’s really me.” the blonde said calmly.


    Sparks rolled her eyes andughed derisively.


    “Four years ago we got caught in a street-fight and one of the Fletcher brothers stuck me with a knife, right here.” Alyssa said pointing to just above her right hip.


    Sparksughter died as she looked at Alyssa a bit more closely for a moment. She then shook her head and grinned “Nice try Blondie, but plenty of people were there at that fight.”


    “Yes, but it was only us there when you helped stitch me up and you told me that holding on to your lucky penny would make it hurt less.” Alyssa said, her melodic voice catching.


    “How in the hell did you know that?” Sparks blurted out, before throwing the welding gear aside and striding right up to Alyssa.


    Now that she was this close, the ghostly pale teenager did a double take as she stared at the beautiful blonde’s lovely face. She recognised the piercing blue eyes, her mouth, her ears; she could see parts of her old friends face, but this stunningly attractive woman was over 6 inches taller than her friend, just to start with!


    “What are you?” Sparks said, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. “Some kind of a robot?” she poked Alyssa’s arm. “What did you do to my friend?” she said growing angry.


    “It’s me Sparks!” Alyssa said, growing exasperated. “We met four years ago. I used to gopher for you in exchange for food. I used to sleep over there.” she said, pointing to a tucked away corner of the workshop. “I left here 6 weeks ago, because Georgio tried to rape me and I stuck him with a knife!”


    The ghostly pale teenager stood there opened mouthed at Alyssa’s outburst. “It really is you…” she whispered in a stunned voice, her eyes wide. “But you’re tall and so beautiful now! What happened? Was it some kind of luxury bodysculpt job or something?” She asked, while walking around Alyssa, her face showing her shock as she studied the blonde’s incredible body.


    “My body changed, but it’s still me.” Alyssa said, smiling warmly.


    “You don’t even sound the same any more!” Sparks blurted out. “Your voice used to be more scratchy. Now you sound like… liquid honey.” the confused girl said, struggling to find an appropriate description.


    Alyssa’s musicalughter filled the workshop.


    “See! That’s what I mean! No-one should sound that happy, it makes me want to smile just hearing yourugh!” Sparks said, desperately trying to reconcile the new Alyssa with the old.


    “I know it’s a lot to take in Sparks.” Alyssa said. “I stowed away on that freighter, like you suggested I should and it turned out it was owned by this guy.” the lovely blonde girl said, smiling towards John.N?velDrama.Org: owner of this content.


    “John, this is Sparks.” she said. “Sparks this is John.”


    “Nice to meet you.” John said, offering his hand. Sparks shook it warily.


    “So then my body went through some changes and I’ve been on a load of adventures. We decided toe back here to Karron and I wanted toe and see you and get you toe with us and leave this ce!” Alyssa said in an excited rush.


    “Leave?” Sparks said, sitting down on a nearby stool in a daze.


    The spiky haired red-head sat quietly for a moment, thinking things through. “If what you’re saying is true, then I’d love toe with you, but the Diablo’s aren’t going to just let me walk, they make too much money from my custom work.” she said cautiously.


    “Just say you’re going scavenging and then meet up with us on the ship. By the time they realise you’re noting back, we’ll be out of here!” Alyssa said enthusiastically.


    “But what about all my gear?” Sparks said. “I can’t just leave all that behind, it’s taken me years to collect all these tools and equipment.”


    “Don’t worry about that, I’ll rece anything you leave behind.” John interjected.


    “Gee thanks, Daddy Warbucks!” Sparks said sarcastically. “Do you have any idea how much it would cost to rece all this stuff?” she said, waving her arms around epassing the workshop.


    John shrugged nonchntly “Alyssa wants you to join us, so the cost isn’t a problem.”


    “Come see the ship.” Alyssa urged, “You’ll see we’re genuine once you’re on board.” she said encouragingly.


    “Ok I’lle see, for old time’s sake.” Sparks said, not daring to build up her hopes.


    “Thanks Sparks!” Alyssa grinned happily and wrapped the smaller girl in a tight hug.


    They broke apart and Alyssa saw Sparks eyeing her chest suspiciously. “Go ahead,” she invited warmly “they’re real.” she grinned.


    Sparks reached out tentatively and gently cupped Alyssa’s big firm breasts in her small pale hands. “Wow, they’re amazing!” she gasped in awe.


    “I know, right?” Alyssa beamed happily at her friend. “Don’t worry, I’ll exin everything properly back at the ship.” she told her old friend reassuringly.


    John and Alyssa exited the workshop, leaving a very confused and bewildered girl behind them. They left the Diablo’s base without any trouble and wound their way back through the ustrophobic tunnels to return to Karron’s central caves.


    “Do you want to go to the mine now?” Alyssa asked John inquisitively.


    “No, I don’t think so, not yet. Let’s go back to the ship and gear up. If there’s any chance of getting into a gunfight with a street gang, I want you in body armour.” he replied, his voice tinged with worry.


    Alyssa smiled at him and nodded, touched by his overprotective nature. John contacted Cra using themunicator built into his watch and let her know they were headed back. She met them at the airlock and beamed happily at them as they came back onboard.


    “It’s just a fleeting visit honey, we wanted to get ourbat gear. We might have trouble with a street gang on the horizon.” John exined. Cra nodded her understanding and came up with them to their quarters to help them get suited up in their body armour.


    John picked up his deadly looking assault rifle and loaded the bullpup magazine with a satisfying click. He followed his normal weapons check and held the high tech weapon to his shoulder to look through the integrated scope and made sure everything was fully operational. He turned to look at Alyssa and was surprised to see her holding his backup rifle, the sister to his one. She pped in a magazine and performed an identical check with the scope. Alyssa saw him watching her and she winked at him impishly.


    They said farewell to Cra a second time and asked her to watch out for their recently invited guest. They left the docking bay again, receiving startled looks from passersby as they strode through the spaceport terminal at a determined pace. They hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take them to the Mortimer Mine.


    The journey to the mine seemed to sh by, and in no time John and Alyssa were in Seb Mortimer’s office. The mine owner seemed delighted to see John again and sped his hand in a warm handshake. Alyssa watched the interaction half-heartedly. Being back on Karron had been tough going for the young woman, everywhere she looked seemed to be dredging up bad memories from her past.


    “Hey Seb, it’s great to see you again. How’s the mine been running?” John asked the mine owner politely.


    “Great thanks John, it’s really good to see you again too.” Seb replied cheerily.


    *You fucker, you have the balls toe back here after ripping me off?!* someone snarled furiously.


    The incandescent rage of the second speaker had Alyssa whirling around, her eyes darting about trying to find who had just spoken.


    “Are you ok there Alyssa?” John asked, wondering what his young lover was doing.


    “Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry about me.” She replied distractedly.


    “Sorry Seb, I’m being rude. This is Alyssa, my Executive Officer.” John introduced them courteously.


    “Nice to meet you miss.” Seb replied with a smile on his face.


    *So you spent my money on whores, and unt this slut in front of my face?!* the enraged voice barked.


    Alyssa looked around bug eyed. Where was this other person? Why was no-one else reacting to the crazy stuff he was saying?!


    “Err, nice to meet you.” She stammered.


    John wondered what had gotten into Alyssa, he had never seen her behave like this before.