Cra rose from her chair, and John enfolded her in his arms protectively. They stood for a long while and he held her reassuringly as she leaned against him, stroking her lustrous brown hairfortingly.


    “I’m sorry,” the lovely brte apologised, as she wiped a few rogue tears from her eyes, feeling embarrassed.


    “You have nothing to apologise for, honey. Let’s talk about something less painful instead,” he suggested caringly.


    “No, I’m ok,” Cra insisted. “Besides, this is important. I think I might have found where the pirate attacks areing from.”


    John released her from his embrace, and the beautiful Latina walked back to her console and hit a few more buttons. “If you look here, here, and here,” she said, circling the areas that had been attacked on her map in a bright green, “the pirates seem to be hitting three main shippingnes.”


    “I’ve been studying the dates and times of each attack, andpared the ships’ logs from the victims and it looks like the pirates are operating several fleets, and are using this system as a base,” Cra said, and then pressed a couple more buttons so that the system map moved to focus on a star called Chendar.


    “This is excellent work Lieutenant!” John said genuinely impressed, as he fell naturally back into military pance with the girl.


    “Thank you, Sir!” Cra said, proud to have pleased hermanding officer.


    John studied the system map closely, noting that there were two Gas giants, several smalleroids, and an asteroid belt orbiting Chendar. He noticed amongst the instations listed in the system, that one of the Gas giants was host to an abandoned Gas mining facility. This wasn’t umon, as mining bases weremonly stripped and deserted when the resources they were mining were fully tapped out.


    “If I was a pirate, that abandoned facility would make a hell of a good base,” John mused.


    Cra looked up at him with newfound respect. “Very impressive Commander! I came to the same conclusion, but it’s taken me a few days to put it all together.”


    “Perhaps I missed my vocation as a pirate?” he asked, as he smiled at her graciously.


    “Or found it as a Pirate hunter,” she replied firmly.


    John nodded his agreement. This had been a surprising conversation in a few different ways, but mainly he was concerned that Cra seemed to be obsessed with the pirate attacks that had had such a dramatic impact on her life. It was perfectly understandable for her to react this way, but she seemed so happy and content when she was with him over thest few weeks, that he had hoped she had managed to put it all behind her. Clearly she had not, but perhaps some payback might help her, he wondered.


    “I think it might be time to stamp out these cockroaches once and for all. What do you say Lieutenant? Time for some summary justice?” he asked her grimly.


    “Yes Commander…” Cra said. “Well past time.”


    They stood for a moment studying the map, and thinking about all the implications finding this base might have.


    The elevator swished open quietly and as if on cue, Alyssa and Sparks entered the bridge.


    “Wow! You two look very heroic!” Alyssa grinned yfully. “I feel like there should be dramatic music ying in the background. What did we miss?”


    “Cra found the pirate base. I think we should take a little detour and see if we can do something about it,” he said ominously.


    “I’lly in a new course immediately!” Alyssa stated, as she bounded up the illuminated steps to the Executive Officer’s chair. Her hands glided over her console and she began to adjust their current course to divert towards the Chendar System.


    “We’ll be there in just over three days, John,” she stated, as the hologram in the centre of the bridge showed her new course plotted in green with an ETA of three days five hours.


    “Nice work, Alyssa,” John said simply, before turning back to Cra.


    “I promised Sparks I’d finish her tour of the ship, do you want toe along too?” he asked, concerned about leaving the troubled Latina for too much time on her own.


    “No, I’m ok here, I want to prepare for our assault,” Cra said, with a steely look of determination in her eyes.


    John was about to try to persuade her toe with them, but Alyssa interjected. “You two go ahead, I want to stay and discuss our tactics with Cra anyway,” she said, waving them away. Being permanently tuned into John’s mind meant that Alyssa had overheard his thoughts, and was aware of his concerns for their troubled young lover.


    Picking up the look the beautiful blonde gave him, John felt reassured, as he knew Alyssa would take excellent care of Cra.


    “Ready to go for another wander, Sparks?” he asked the redhead, who sensed that something else was going on, but wasn’t sure what.


    She nodded agreeably and followed him into the elevator and the two of them headed downwards. John could see that Sparks was dying to ask about the conversation on the bridge, so he filled her in on how they had rescued Cra and the trauma that she had experienced at the hands of the pirates.


    Sparks nodded her head shrewdly. “This whole assault on the pirates is purely for her benefit isn’t it?” she asked John pointedly.


    “Yes,” he replied simply. “I don’t like pirates and something needs to be done about them, but with everything Cra has put together, we could just report back to Terran Federation Command. They would send out a fleet to mop up the whole pirate operation.”


    “You think she needs the closure that a personal intervention will bring though, right?” Sparks persisted.


    “Yes, I’m hoping it will help Cra put this behind her,” John said, narrowing his eyes as he nced over at Sparks. “You are a smart one, aren’t you?”


    The redhead smiled up at him, blushing slightly.


    “It could be dangerous,” John warned her. “The Invictus is bound to be much more powerful than any individual ship they have, but they have multiple fleets, and we could end up being heavily outnumbered.”


    He looked at her closely. “If you’re worried about safety, we don’t have tomit to this attack.”


    Sparks shook her head vehemently. “No, I’m all for it. I’ve dealt with enough scum to know that some people just don’t deserve to live.”N?velDrama.Org: owner of this content.


    She paused and studied his face closely, and said, “You’re a good man John. You really care about those girls, don’t you?”


    “I love them both very much,” he answered honestly, “and I’m getting quite fond of you too!” he said, whisking her up in a hug.


    Sparksughed happily and wrapped her arms around him. “Look at me, I’m acting like some giddy schoolgirl!” she said, grinning in disbelief at him.


    “A very naughty schoolgirl” John smiled at her, gently patting her still rounded tummy.


    Sparksughed aloud at that, her unscarred cheek blushing prettily.


    “Come on,” John said. “If we keep talking like this, I’ll never be able to show you the rest of the ship!”


    “Yes, going on our past experiences, you’d probably have to roll me back to our quarters,” Sparks grinned as John snorted withughter.


    They eventually managed to keep a lid on the banter enough so that he could continue their tour of the Invictus. He showed her around the dozens of rooms that housed all the vital machinery that kept the ship running; Life support, environmental systems, sensors, fuel control, he found all of them fairly dull, but for Sparks these were the highlight of the tour so far. She was fascinated by the automation of all the ships systems, and kept asking him detailed technical questions that were quite beyond him.


    In the end he promised Sparks the Holo-reader that Vice Admiral Charles Harris had given them back at Olympus shipyard. It would helpfully provide detailed documentation on the ship’s functions, so it would be invaluable to her in learning about the Invictus. Sparks was literally jumping up and down with excitement at the thought of getting her hands on the Holo-reader.