Daughters of Demeter

"Good luck you two," Sarah said. "We'll be monitoring you on the comms."

Jenna clarified, "Sarah and my sister will be monitoring things. Cammie and I will remain out of sight and well away from any potentially open comm mics, since it wouldn't do for anyone to get the idea there's two blonde catgirls on board."

"Thanks," I responded as I climbed into my e-suit.

It took me a few moments to get my tail sorted out, while my temporary catgirl girlfriend watched carefully. Then she did the same, carefully directing her tail into the right spot as she donned Cammie's e-suit.

And for once Sarah didn't share a quip or humorous comment, which only helped reinforce how serious the situation really was. Neither Cambecca or I put on our gloves or helmets yet, they wouldn't be needed until it was time to emerge from the shuttle.

In addition to our suits we also had a few other things with us. I had my portable med-kit, and Cammie brought her toolkit for Cambecca to take with her. Finally we also had two of those smart guns stowed in the shuttle, mounted on a rack just inside the hatch for easy access.

"See you all in about twelve hours," my petite feline girlfriend said once we were both ready. "Sarah, you and Jenna can have the Demeter's fuel tanks topped up but apart from that keep the ship sealed. Wear your side-arms though. And remember, this is not a safe port so I don't want any of you leaving the ship."

Our engineer nodded, "Understood."

At that point Sarah and I exchanged a hug, then Cambecca did the same. And the rest of our friends wished us luck too, before everyone else cleared out of the airlock. We sealed the inner hatch then stepped through into the shuttle, and a few seconds later the outer airlock and shuttle were both sealed as well.

"You're still the pilot," my girlfriend said as she gestured to the right-hand seat. "I'm just the shy anxious mechanic you've talked into tagging along."

I grimaced as I stowed my helmet and gloves, then took my chair. "Even as a petite blonde catgirl I can't picture you as shy or anxious."

"I'll have to work on my acting skills," she replied as she took the seat next to mine.

Then she glanced over her shoulder and added, "Looks like the cargo is secure. Time to fire up the engines and get us moving."

I looked back as well, then grimaced quietly. There was something very unsettling about seeing someone who looked a lot like our captain sitting there silent and motionless, restrained, and ostensibly drugged. She already had her gloves and helmet on, which went a long way to help sell the illusion that it really was Rebecca in there.

"Ok," I sighed after slight hesitation. "Let's do this."

It was only about two minutes later I had the shuttle fully powered up and its engines active. That led to the next challenge, which was to get it away from the ship in the tight confines of the hangar, then actually navigate it out of the hangar without hitting anything.

Once again my girlfriend was ready to help out, or even take over if it looked like we were going to crash. Just like with the landing I gripped the controls tight enough that my knuckles were white, while my eyes flicked around between the view out the forward and side windows and the small navigation display on the console in front of me.

It felt like it took ages but was probably only a few minutes as we disconnected from the Demeter then slipped sideways to get some clearance between us and the ship. I slowly backed us all the way out alongside the ship, and finally when we were behind her I was able to swing the shuttle's bow around then nose out of the open landing bay doors.

A few moments later we were fully clear of the landing bay and out over the kilometres-deep chasm. As I angled the shuttle upwards the big bay doors started to slide closed behind us, so the hangar could finally be pressurized.

It took less than a minute for the shuttle to clear The Crack, and only another minute later we were flying a kilometre or two above the planet's surface. I set course for the rendezvous coordinates and accelerated the shuttle to its optimal cruising speed. At that point I engaged the autopilot, then I sagged back into my seat with a loud sigh as I let my hands drop from the controls.

"Good job Amanda," Cambecca commented. "I knew you could do it."

I grimaced and shook my head, "I didn't. Or at least, I had my doubts."

"It looks like it's going to take us just over five hours," I added, after checking our speed and progress. "That should get us to the destination about forty-five minutes before the deadline."

My girlfriend looked thoughtful as she responded, "I hope this guy doesn't mind that we cut it close. Then again, he's the one who gave us forty-eight hours."

"Yeah," I frowned.

Unfortunately there wasn't much to do for the duration of the flight, and I could feel my anxiety growing as I ran through various possible outcomes in my mind. Even the positive ones still had some scary aspects. One way or another I was going to be reunited with my little sister, which meant she was finally going to see my new vulpine body in person. She'd be meeting both my girlfriends, and the rest of my new family and the ship I now called home.

And I really hadn't had a chance to mentally prepare for any of that.

I knew she'd probably have a thousand questions for me, and she'd want to know all about our adventures. She'd want to know where I'd been hiding for the last two-thirds of a year, and why we had to go into hiding in the first place. Which in turn meant she'd find out about the Fuminja Epsilon business, and what we did to the place under my orders. As much as I hoped she'd understand, I also couldn't help worrying that she'd judge me for that.

Eventually my girlfriend noticed how I was getting myself stressed so she struck up a conversation, and any time the topic veered too close to the impending confrontation she steered it off in a different direction. Over the duration of the flight we ended up covering all kinds of inane subjects, from what her homeworld was like when she was growing up to what I thought of the Imperium medical academy. We both talked about our first deployments in the service, and how neither of us ever dreamed we'd end up where we did.

As a small foxgirl and a petite catgirl riding in a shuttle over an airless world in some frontier sector hundreds of systems away from home, our lives had taken some odd turns. And I had to admit hers went a lot further off-course than mine did. Still, she wasn't unhappy or upset with how things turned out. She was even starting to get used to the whole princess thing.

Then at long last we began to descend towards the crater where we'd be meeting Jamison, and just like that both of us were all business. I took over from the auto-pilot and brought us down, while my girlfriend used the shuttle's limited sensors to check the crater and the space around us.

There was no sign of Jamison's ship, but neither of us were surprised by that. I figured he'd be hiding someplace, and we already knew his ship had excellent sensors. So he could be well out of our range while still being able to easily monitor and track us.

There was a gentle bump as I set us down on the barren grey floor of the crater. It was daytime on this side of the world, but the local star was already approaching the horizon so I figured we'd be in darkness in another hour or two. Hopefully we'd already be heading back to the spaceport and the ship by then, with Nyssa safely aboard the shuttle.

"I guess we just wait?" I commented quietly. "He said he'd be watching, he's probably scanning us."

Cambecca nodded, "I expect so. Maybe we should put on our helmets and gloves, so we're ready?"

"Good idea," I agreed.

That didn't take any time, and once we were both safely sealed inside our suits I unbuckled my safety harness then got up and went to inspect the Beckybot. I confirmed her suit was sealed as well, and once I was sure everything looked good I depressurized the shuttle then opened up the hatch. I didn't go out though, I just stood in the doorway and looked out over the desolate area around us.

The crater was about two kilometres across, with a more or less flat area in the middle that was about one kilometre in diameter. Then the sides began sloping gently upwards, getting steeper as they neared the lip. That was some hundred to one-fifty meters above where we were at the lowest point.

I was still looking around a minute or two later when I spotted movement in the distance. Something appeared over the lip of the crater, and quickly resolved into the outline of a small ship. She was about the same length as the Demeter, but much narrower with a sleek streamlined profile.

The Eris-Nine swept in silently before slowing to a halt some fifty meters above the ground. From what I could see she looked to be in pretty good condition. She even seemed to be sporting a fresh coat of silver-grey paint, which was a huge contrast to the mismatched assortment of hull plates on the Demeter.

A moment later four small landing gear extended from the hull, two forward and two aft, and the sleek scout courier ship settled onto the dusty grey ground about twenty-five meters away from our shuttle.

I continued watching for another minute or two, but there was no sign of the Eris-Nine opening up. I was almost getting impatient when we finally received a signal over the shuttle's comm. Cambecca could have answered it but she left it for me so I had to hurry back to the pilot seat to operate the comm gear.

"Demeter shuttlecraft," Jamison's voice came through my suit's built-in speakers, "This is the Eris-Nine. I'm glad to see you've followed my instructions Amanda, keep that up and you'll have your sister back in no time."

He continued, "I want you and the catgirl to escort your captain outside where I can see all three of you. I want you all to stand by the nose of your shuttle, and I want you to turn your captain around - slowly - so I can confirm you've got her fully restrained."

I took a couple deep breaths then hit the transmit control and replied, "Understood. We're coming out now."

The bounty hunter sounded completely confident and sure of himself again as he responded, "Good girl. Once I'm satisfied I'll be opening up my cargo hatch, then we'll bring your sister out to make the trade."

I didn't bother responding to that. Instead I looked to my girlfriend and on our private suit-to-suit comms I said, "This is it. I hope everything goes ok."

"Me too," Cambecca replied. "We're going to be awfully exposed out there."

Unfortunately there wasn't anything we could do about that, I just had to hope our plans were better than Jamison's. At that point we both switched our suit comms over to the common frequency, then I moved aft to the android.

"Come on," I told it. "It's time to go."

It stood up, then shuffled forwards as I took hold of its arm. Jenny did a great job with her programming, the android moved sluggishly and almost seemed a little clumsy as if it was drugged. Between that and the restraints I actually had to help it exit the shuttle, then I guided it around to stand near the front of our small craft. My girlfriend followed behind, then stood on the other side of our artificial captain.

That left the temporary catgirl nearest the open hatch of the shuttle, and with her enhanced speed she was only a second away from grabbing the smart weapons we had stowed just inside. Then I had the Beckybot slowly turn around on the spot, so the bounty hunter would be able to see the restraints we'd improvised.

After that we were left waiting for another couple minutes, before we saw movement on the side of the scout ship. A panel on the lower half of its hull retracted and slid clear, then a loading ramp folded out.

A few moments later Leon Jamison emerged from his ship and moved a half dozen meters out from the ramp before stopping. His e-suit was clearly something rated for combat, even from twenty meters away I could tell it had armoured plates protecting his vital organs. The softer parts were probably lined with ballistic material too, keeping him safe from any HDLI ammunition. He was carrying a large heavy-looking assault rifle at the ready, and held it pointed in our direction.

His voice came over our local suit comms, "Just hold right there girls. Nobody moves without my say-so."

"Where's my sister?!" I demanded. "I've done everything you said, now where is she?!"

Jamison stated calmly, "Ok Alina, bring her out."

A few seconds later a self-contained cryo pod seemed to float out of the open hatch by itself, but then I realized it was equipped with grav-assisters. Leon's accomplice Alina Fontaine was holding the two-meter long metallic cylinder by the back end as she emerged from the Eris. Like her boss, she was also wearing a combat-rated e-suit, and she had a submachine gun hanging by a strap from her right shoulder.

Alina brought the cryo pod to about halfway between their ship and our shuttle while Leon kept Cambecca and the Beckybot and I covered. Then the woman lowered the pod down and placed it on the barren grey dusty ground. Finally she slipped her weapon off her shoulder and held it ready as she backed away a couple meters.

"Thanks babe," Leon told her. "Keep the three of them covered for me."

Then he moved forward until he was standing next to the cylinder that contained my little sister. He kept his rifle ready as he beckoned me forward, "Ok Amanda. Bring your captain over here, and we'll make the trade. The catgirl stays put for now."

My girlfriend remained near the front of the shuttle, only a quick dash away from the hatch and the weapons, while I put a hand on Beckybot's shoulder and started guiding her forwards. We moved slowly due to the restraints on her ankles, and she continued to act drugged thanks to Jenny's programming.

We finally stopped when we were standing across from Leon, with the cryo tube on the ground between us. And at that point I couldn't help myself, I let go of the android and crouched down to check on my sister.

Nyssa's face was visible through the small window, but my blood ran cold when I checked the status panel. I glared up at Leon and demanded, "You said this thing's battery was good for twenty-four hours! Why the hell does it show it's only got thirty minutes of charge left?!"

"Sorry," he shrugged, and I could see his smug grin through his suit faceplate. "I guess you shouldn't have kept me waiting the full forty-eight hours."

Then he added, "Tell you what? You can always come with me and your captain. We'll plug your sister's cryo tube back into the support system on my ship, and you can thaw her out while we're on our way to Ecclestone's World."

I clenched my teeth as I straightened up, and continued glaring at him as I ran through the options in my mind. We had Cam's toolkit in the shuttle, so we could try and hook the cryo tube up to the shuttle's onboard power. That would keep my sister alive until we got back to the Demeter. But if that didn't work, I also had my med-kit in the shuttle, so if I had to I could revive her in the shuttle before heading back to the ship.

"Not a chance," I finally stated. "The deal was my captain for my sister, that's it."

Leon still had that smug grin on his face as he replied, "Right, the deal. See, the thing about that is the Kelsonians really seem to want to get themselves a pet fox and a pet cat. They're offering another million ecks apeice for you two."

I clenched my fists as I glared at him, "I thought you were supposed to be a professional."

"What can I say?" he shrugged. Then he levelled his rifle at my chest and stated, "You're coming with me, same with the catgirl. You can bring your sister if you want, or leave her behind, I really don't care. She's the only one of you who's not worth anything."

He continued, "If you're thinking about trying something, think again. We're armed with HVP rounds, they'll punch clean through your shuttle and that cryo tube just as easily as those unarmored suits of yours. Now let's go, all three of you."

I slowly raised my hands up to either side as I continued glaring at the bounty hunter. My heart was racing though, and it seemed like we were out of options. Then the Beckybot turned to face me.

"We'll be ok Amanda," the android told me. Her words came out a bit slurred, but apart from that she really did sound exactly like our captain. She added, "Please don't blame yourself, it's not your fault. Everything's going to be alright. I promise."

It actually came across as kind of moving, which was exactly why Jenny suggested using that phrase as her signal. It meant she was ready to activate the last part of our plan, as soon as I gave the order. The situation wasn't ideal though, with both myself and Nyssa so close to Jamison while his accomplice was further away.

Leon kept his rifle pointed at me as he ordered, "Very touching, but let's go ladies."

I glared at him once more, but I trusted Jenny. Odds were this was our best chance, so I focused on the Beckybot again and replied with my own pre-arranged response.

"Farewell Rebecca."

That was the coded order our AI was waiting for, and a split second later Jenny detonated the half dozen smart mines that Sarah attached to the android's body underneath its e-suit.