The door to the elevator opened and Alyssa was waiting to meet her at the door.


    “That was good timing!” Sparks said to the blonde.


    “Nice coincidence!” Alyssa said, smiling back at her warmly.


    They chatted animatedly as they walked along the corridor to the Officer’s lounge to meet up with John and Cra. Tantalising smells wafted out of the kitchen when they approached and John appeared carrying a big tray of Tacos. They all tucked in, feeling famished and enjoying the spicy Tex-Mex food.Material ? N?velDrama.Org.


    “That was amazing!” Alyssa sighed happily, as she finished off herst Taco.


    “I’ve never tasted anything so spicy before!” Sparks grinned, “Top marks for the chef!”


    “I had a good assistant” John said, smiling at Cra who beamed back at him happily, her bright white teeth sparkling in the light.


    “Can I leave youdies to tidy up?” John asked. “I’d like to catch up with Charles”


    “Charles?” Sparks asked, “Who’s that?”


    “Vice Admiral Charles Harris.” Alyssa interjected helpfully. “He’s the one who sold John the ship and also set up themander’s room with the huge bathroom and walk-in-wardrobe”.


    “I like him already!” Sparks said, smiling warmly.


    John left the girls to clean up and headed up to the bridge. He climbed up the illuminated steps to his Commander’s chair and contacted the vice admiral on the powerfulmunications ry built into the Invictus. After several minutes wait, the stern faced man appeared on the view screen, his face immediately rxing when he saw who was contacting him.


    “John! It’s great to see you!” he eximed. “Everything going ok?”


    “Yes, thanks to you.” John grinned wryly. “Thanks for sending the Indomitable, they arrived just in the nick of time!”


    “Yes, I got the report from Captain Flintlock a few hours ago.” Charles replied soberly.


    “Kirrix!” he eximed, “I didn’t think we’d be seeing them any time soon. Not after thest purge” he said vehemently.


    “Maybe the Terran Federation needs to think about another?” John suggested bleakly.


    “We’re a bit tied up with the Kintark at the moment.” Charles smiled. “Speaking of which, we could do with a bit of good news. Would you be up for doing a fluff piece on the fight for the media? I’d really appreciate it.”


    “Sure, I’d be happy to help out.” John agreed amodatingly. “I was mainly calling about Commander Rupert Grant though. Have you executed him for treason yet?”


    “I’m afraid not John. I ordered his arrest immediately after you gave me the information, but he had already fled.” Charles said in annoyance.


    “I’ve had data teams analysing all his privatemunications out of Port Heracles. Did you know he was selling civilian flight paths and military patrol routes to the pirates?” he said, still shocked at the depths of the man’s betrayal.


    “No wonder the pirates were able to remain undetected for so long.” John said, shaking his head.


    “You must have a hell of a team to have sniffed out that base.” Charles said appreciatively.


    “The best I’ve ever served with!” John said honestly.


    Charles raised his eyebrows in amusement at that.


    “Except for my time under yourmand. That goes without saying of course.” John said, grinning.


    Charlesughed good naturedly.


    “Oh before I forget, I’m hauling more Tyrenium.” John said nonchntly.


    “Oh really?” Charles said, his eyes suddenly sharp. “How much this time?”


    “20 tons.” John said.


    Charles’ face spread into a big lop sided grin. “Drop by Olympus as soon as you can John, I’ll throw you a warm wee!” he said eagerly.


    “We’ll be there in approximately four days.” John said, smiling at his old friend.


    “Excellent!” Charles replied. “I’ll see you then.”


    “I’ll put you through to the Federation media if you can stay on the call.” he offered expectantly.


    “Sure. Any spin you want on the story?” John inquired.


    “Its friendly media John. You can say what you like.” Charles said, with a wave goodbye.


    John waited for a short while until the image of an attractive young woman appeared on the view screen.


    “Hello Commander! I’ve heard a lot about you.” The reporter said with a warm smile.


    Cra, Sparks and Alyssa had finished cleaning up the officer’s lounge quickly, working well as a team to get it spotless in short order. They served themselves some coffee and sat on thefortable sofa’s in the lounge. It was a nice novelty for them to have a bit of girl time without John around, or one of them dashing off for an important errand, or training, or any of the things that had kept them constantly busy thesest few weeks. They just sat and chattedfortably, enjoying each other’spany and being able to spend some time really getting to know one another.


    Cra was still in an introspective mood after her conversation with John.


    “I don’t normally get on this well with girls.” she admitted self consciously.


    “Really? Why’s that?” Sparks said.


    “I was always considered to be a ‘pretty’ girl and some women get jealous I guess. I also grew up around three brothers, so I suppose I just got used to malepany.” Cra admitted honestly.


    “It’s strange. I just went to see our passengers and I think I freaked them out a bit.” Sparks said.


    “Freaked them out? What do you mean?” Alyssa asked curiously.


    “Well now I look like this.” Sparks said, waving her hand at her face “It started making people ufortable.” she said.


    “When I was horribly scarred, people would ignore me because it made them ufortable to look at me. Now I’m the other end of the spectrum and I have the same reaction.” she said wistfully.


    “I spent most of my life wishing I looked beautiful. Now I do, but people act practically the same way. It’s kind of ironic I guess” the redhead said sadly.


    “Well we have each other.” Alyssa said, smiling at them both warmly.


    “That’s true!” Sparks said, smiling at her friends affectionately.