"Think they have any idea what's about to happen to them?" I said, looking down at the livisk moving across the platform waving their arms frantically.

"They have no idea," Varis said, grinning as she turned to look at me.

Which brought to mind the kind of grins she'd hit me with on other occasions. Occasions when it was just the two of us in this fighter and we'd had a good time with each other. Occasions I remembered fondly. Occasions I wouldn't mind repeating right about now. But I didn't think it was going to happen.

Not when we had business to get to.

Those assholes out there waving their arms would get really annoyed if we took the time for a little bit of hanky-panky before we got out there and totally fucked over their entire business model.

More than that, though, Arvie and Selii would get annoyed. And I'd have to deal with their bullshit when we went back to the tower.

"Well, let's go," I said.

"There is one anti-aircraft turret that is tracking us," Arvie said.

I looked up to the display that represented the Combat Intelligence, and then out across the landing platform. Though to call it a landing platform was putting lipstick on a pig. It mostly looked like a giant hunk of metal that'd been sticking out from a building once upon a time, and somebody had painted a crude X on it and some glowing lights at the tips of the X to let us know where to go in for a landing.

"Is it that big museum piece over there?" I asked, nodding at something that suddenly glowed on the canopy as Arvie let me know what I was looking at.

"That is the turret, yes," Arvie said.

"I don't know," I said, turning to Varis. "The shielding on this thing is more than enough to stand up to that old thing."

"It looks like something they found while they were down here," she said, tapping a finger against her lips.

Which was distracting in its own way. I was getting all sorts of distractions thinking about fun things I could be doing with my smokin' hot alien girlfriend that didn't involve flying around in a fighter.

But I knew that was the trade-off here. I'd made myself the promise that I was going to make an impact on the galaxy instead of sitting around inside her tower and letting everything pass us by while we lived a life of luxury.

Which meant getting distracted by some of the things I'd like to be doing with Varis right about now.

"Well, we're down here sending a message. Might as well start with this," I said.

I pivoted the fighter. The anti-aircraft battery started to turn towards us as soon as I turned toward it. Not that it helped. It was moving slowly, and it kept getting stuck. Slow and stuck wasn't the kind of behavior you wanted to see in an anti-air turret, but the idiots down there probably thought just having the thing was enough to make anyone think twice about attacking.

We had a word for that kind of defense back when I was in the Terran Navy, and even when I was in the Combined Robert Fleets. It was a feel good emplacement. The kind of thing that was supposed to make somebody feel better about the idea of being on some remote planet where they might get hit by raiders at any moment. See, Mom, the outpost has a big old gun that's totally not compensating for anything in the base commander's pants. If anybody tries to attack us we'll be able to use that thing to make them think twice.

And the dirty little secret was that most of those were utterly useless in a fleet engagement, just like this thing was utterly useless as I depressed the trigger on the fighter and the whole thing went up in a massive and impressive purple explosion.

"Well, shit. That was one hell of an explosion," I said, whooping with joy as I clapped my hands together. But I quickly brought those hands back down to the controls and pivoted the fighter around so we were facing the assholes who'd been waving their arms at us.

They weren't waving their arms at us any longer, though. No. Before, they'd clearly been upset about us coming down and landing on their platform. Now they were looking up at us in obvious terror.

"That's what I thought," I muttered.

"I think you made your point," Varis said as I brought the ship in for a landing.

I patted all up and down my body. There was a lump just over my heart that felt slightly warm to the touch. It also made me feel all warm and fuzzy all over because I knew it would save my ass in a pinch.

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"Personal shielding unit is ready to go," I said.

"Are you sure you want to go out there without your armor on?" she asked.

"Am I sure I want to go out there without my armor on?" I asked. "No, I'd love nothing more than to go out there with my power armor on. But I think I need to go out there without it. Really makes a point to a bunch of jerks waving their guns around if you don't care about them. Makes them wonder what cards you're holding that they don't have."

"I suppose so," she said. "I'll be right behind you."

"Fine, you still want me to do the talking here?"

"You do have something of a reputation as an unhinged Terran who's willing to do anything and everything to get your way. I think that's going to work to our advantage in this situation. Especially considering this reclamation mine is where you started to get that reputation."

I grinned, and then leaned in to kiss her. It was a kiss I intended to be a quick one. Hi, honey. How you doing? How was work today? That sort of thing.

Only this quickly turned to something far less chaste than any of that. Not that I was complaining.

When I finally came up for air, I stared at Varis.

"What brought that on?"

"I know we agreed we were going to try and change the galaxy and all that good stuff," she said with a grin. She was also breathing heavily, and that was its own sort of distraction. She wasn't wearing her armor either, and the uniform she did wear was very tight on her body. "And I know it's probably a good thing we're going out and fighting the good fight, but I also want to have a little bit of fun. I got used to our post-sparring exercise."

A shiver ran through me at that. Post-sparring exercise. One of the reasons why I hadn't complained too much back when she was constantly sparring with me and trying to figure out the whole battle pair thing developing between us was that the sparring matches inevitably led to wrestling matches. Usually with fewer and fewer clothes on as the night wore on.

"Anyway, we should probably get to work," I said.

"Yeah, we should probably get to work," she said. Now her lip was jutting out in a sexy pout.

"And I suppose I'll be here in the fighter monitoring your frequencies," Arvie said, and there was definitely a pout to his tone as well. For all that he didn't have a lip to jut out at us.

"I'm sorry, Arvie," I said. "I know you got a taste for the action walking around in your mech, but we can't very well have you walking around in a mech right now. It would be too conspicuous."

"I still debate as to whether or not it would be too conspicuous, but I'm willing to go along with your assessment for the moment," he said. And he actually sniffed at the end.

I exchanged a look with Varis.

"I can see when the two of you look at each other like that," he said.

"Come on," I said, grinning at her and reaching out to give her hand a squeeze.

Only a squeeze. There really were livisk out there waiting. I could see them through the canopy, staring up at us in obvious annoyance that we were still in the fighter rather than coming out to say hi as was proper.

So I stepped out and walked towards the livisk. They had guarded expressions, and those expressions got even more guarded when they saw a Terran walking at them out of an unmarked fighter.

Word had started to spread about the crazy Terran. My reputation preceded me. Which was a good thing and a bad thing, but right now I was going to go with it.

"What in the sequel trilogy took you so long to get out here?" I said, waving my hands. "And what was the big idea pointing that anti-aircraft gun at us? That's no way to welcome the new owner."

"Selii reports that the troop ship has landed. They are beginning their infiltration," Arvie said.

I didn't say anything. I knew he was probably frustrated that once again I'd refused to take the brain implant that would allow him to have these conversations in my head. Already we could talk far faster than any regular sapient intelligence that wasn't based on silicon had any business communicating, but I wasn't going to do that in front of these guys.

"You turned your fighter on the weapon," one of them said, though he seemed confused.

"Bullshit. I clearly saw it turning towards my fighter!"

They exchanged glances like they were unsure of themselves. One looked down to the plasma sword at my side. Not exactly a lightsaber. There wasn't a way to have pure plasma blade contained like how George Lucas imagined it long ago, but both the livisk and humanity had come up with the novel solution of having a bit of very rigid wire that shot up and around to make a connection that allowed plasma to stream along the length of said rigid wire. Which meant that it was basically a lightsaber, even if there was a little bit of engineering trickery that went into making the damn thing.

Not that anybody used the term lightsaber. At least not in human space. It was always a plasma sword. Even a thousand years later. If anything, the legal prowess of the Mouse a thousand years after its founding was more formidable.

There were some who joked that it might've ended the war quicker if we just started painting pictures of Mickey Mouse on the side of livisk cruisers and letting the lawyers for the Mouse take care of things instead of relying on traditional munitions.

I shook my head and cleared my throat.

"Enough small talk and complaining about who tried to kill who first. We need to do an inspection of the reclamation mine now that it's under new ownership."

"What are you talking about?" a tall and rather heavy-set livisk gentleman said.

I didn't recognize him from the last time we were here. I'd killed the overseer on that visit to make a point. Also because Varis kinda/sorta told me to do it. They expected humans to do crazy things, and I was more than happy to use their propaganda against them.

"This reclamation mine," I said. "It's under new ownership, and I want to talk to my crew first. I really hope they're in good condition. Surely you all got my message the last time I was here with my lady love."

Again, they exchanged nervous glances with one another. I wondered if that was because they were nervous because they hadn't been treating my crew properly, or if they were nervous because of the way I'd handled things the last time around.

The big one glared at me. "We know your routine, human. And we've been treating your crew well, but you don't own this reclamation mine."

There was a sudden ominous hum and glow that came out of the darkness all around us. Little purple laser lights came to rest on the livisk's chest and forehead. He looked down and then back up to me, and Selii came out of the darkness in her armor with her pulse rifle at her side. She grinned at me and nodded, and I turned back to the livisk.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked, unable to hide my grin.

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