As usual I woke with a smile, cuddled up between my girlfriend and my big floofy tail. Me and Sarah didn't waste too much time in bed though, since we knew we had to be ready to leave Rolandan-2 soon.

We got properly dressed incase Mel came to see us off again, then emerged from our cabin to join Rebecca and Jenny.

I made breakfast while Sarah set the table, and the four of us talked about the day's plans as we ate.

"After breakfast we'll start getting ready to launch," the captain said. "We've got about ninety minutes before we're due to lift off, I'll let Mel know incase he wants to come over to see us off. Then we can expect another hour or two before we're clear of the system. Then it's a five hour jump to Ecclestone's World, and we can expect another hour or so before we're on the ground there."

Rebecca hadn't said anything further about her friend since their second meeting, but we knew he wouldn't be taking advantage of Jenny's services just yet. We'd probably be back on this world in thirty or forty days though, so perhaps he'd get the Re/Gen treatment next time.

My thoughts were already on our next stop, and needless to say I wasn't happy that we'd be back on Ecclestone's World again so soon.

"Do you think Mr. Lebeau will be waiting for us with another armed welcome party?" I asked with a grimace.

Rebecca shrugged and rolled her eyes, "Who knows. He's a bit excitable, but I'm not that worried about him. If he does show up you can stay up here Amanda, you don't need to deal with the guy. Same with you Sarah."

"Thanks boss," I said, while Sarah nodded in agreement.

We were mostly quiet as we finished eating. Me and Sarah both got ourselves a second cup of coffee, while Rebecca was probably already on her second.

Eventually the captain suggested, "I guess we should start getting ready to go? How about the three of you start prepping the ship while I let Mel know?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Jenny suddenly spoke up. "Amanda, we've just received a signal for you, from Vesfar Urox FTL Services. A new message has been received and added to your account, from Nyssa Voss of Kaitor-7."

My heart skipped a beat as I stared at the AI for a second. Then I turned towards the captain but she already knew what I was going to say.

"Go on," Rebecca said with a smile. "Sarah, help her get the grav-sled down."

I was already out of my seat as the captain added, "Amanda if you don't mind I'd like to keep Sarah here, we'll be preparing for launch. Don't worry we won't leave without you. And drive safe."

"Yes ma'am, thank you!" I said as I hurried to our cabin.

I grabbed my jacket and made sure I had my money token, along with that account card and my little datapad. Meanwhile Sarah had already gone down below. By the time I joined her in the main hold she had the hoist controls in her hand, and the grav-sled was being lowered into the middle of the deck.

As she did that I moved to the airlock controls and unsealed the ship. Sarah had the grav-sled ready to go on the deck before the main doors were fully opened.

She pulled me into a hug and gave me a kiss. "See you soon cutie."

I returned the hug and kiss then smiled, "Thanks Sarah. I'll try not to take too long."

"Be careful!" she added as I climbed into the grav-sled.

A moment later I had it started up. I waved, then carefully guided the small craft out of the Demeter's hold. As soon as I was clear of the ship I quickly gained altitude as I turned the nose in the direction of the city and pushed the throttle forward.

The grav-sled surged ahead, and in under five seconds I was streaking towards the city at over a hundred and fifty kilometres an hour.

I was grateful for the touring Sarah and I did earlier. Piloting the sled through the city at a more leisurely pace let me get more comfortable with the location and flying with other traffic in the air. Now as the terrain raced past below I was almost enjoying the experience.

In a way it sort of reminded me of the good parts of my youth, like those times I went on joyrides with one of the family's flat-bed grav-sleds. I'd push the thing to its limit just to see how fast I could get it moving. My best speed was one-fifty-five, when I was thirteen or fourteen. Then dad installed limiters on the family vehicles, and after that we were stuck with a boring top speed of one-ten.

Now here I was flying a brand-new military grav-sled above an alien planet, doing one-fifty and the throttle was barely at seventy-five percent. I couldn't help giggling slightly to myself at the experience.

When I reached the city I throttled back, then slowed down a little more when I spotted the FTL company. I brought the grav-sled down, and finally settled onto the ground in the parking area. I shut down the sled and entered the lock code to secure it, before finally climbing out.

There were butterflies in my stomach again as I hurried around to the building's entrance, and I had a hard time standing still as I waited in the short line.

It probably only took a few minutes but it felt like an hour or more before one of the clerks was available.

I already had my account card ready as I stood in front of his workstation, "Hi there. I understand there's a message here for me?"

He was a young guy, a year or two older than me. He stared at my ears for a second, then blinked and nodded "Card please."

It only took a second for him to scan the card, then he confirmed "There's one data-package, received this morning. You can rent a private -"

"No thanks," I interrupted as I pulled out my little tablet. "Can you just transfer it in here?"

There was of course a fee for that, but it was only twenty-five ecks. I tapped my coin token, the guy did the transfer, and that was that.

I thanked him, then hurried back out and climbed into the grav-sled.

On the one hand I knew I should head straight back to the ship, I could review the message after we were in jump. On the other hand all that would take at least two hours, and there was no way I could wait that long.

I took a deep breath then opened up the file my little sister sent me.

It contained a text message, two images, and Nyssa's direct contact info. I left the images for later, I needed to know what she had to say. With my heart racing slightly I tapped the text message and started reading.

Dear Amanda,
Thank you for sending your vid message. It was a real shock, but a happy one!
I know you meant it for me, but you should know the whole family saw it too. Not that any of them actually understood it though. Well, to be honest I think maybe mom figured it out? However she hasn't said anything, and I'm not going to ask because I don't really know how she feels about it yet.
Dad definitely didn't get it. He thinks your vid is a scam of some kind, he thinks you're going to ask us for money or something. So he forbid any of us from contacting you. Dad said we don't have any family outside the Imperium, and he was pretty loud about saying there definitely weren't any fox-people in our family either.
Needless to say none of them know I'm writing you back. I'll include my direct contact info incase you're planning to stay in touch. That way we can correspond without worrying about the rest of the family getting involved.
So I'm sure you can guess, but I have a million questions for you! I'm not going to ask though (not yet at least), since I assume there's a reason you were so vague in your vid message. Maybe if we talk more in the future you'll be able to fill me in on all those details? Who knows, if you can't come visit us here, maybe someday I'll be able to visit you out there!
You look really good Amanda, and I'm so glad you're happy. Seriously. You look so much happier than the sibling who left us and joined the Navy five years ago. You and your girlfriend make such a cute couple too!
By the way I noticed you still have that old datapad, it's nice to see you kept it! I'd have thought by now you'd have replaced it with something more up-to-date.
Finally, you should know that we did receive the bad news you mentioned, it arrived four days before we got your vid. It was upsetting, but something tells me the message we received may not be quite what you expected?
According to the Navy, my sibling's ship suffered a tragic accident while on a goodwill mission outside Imperium space. They said that most of the crew were lost, but my sibling and one other crew member are listed as missing rather than deceased. The Navy promised they are searching for my sibling and the other officer, and they haven't given up hope yet that both will be found alive and well. And it's a funny coincidence but I found out the other missing crew member was an officer named Holloway.
I just thought I'd mention that, incase the news might be important to you?
That's all for now Amanda. Thanks again for sending the vid. Stay safe, and I wish you and your girlfriend all the best!
Love, Nyssa.

By the time I got to the end of the message my heart was racing even faster, and my emotions were all over the place. I'd started out feeling a lot of joy and relief that Nyssa understood my message, that she knew who I was and she accepted me and was happy to hear from me.

It was also a bit of a surprise, though a nice one, that maybe my mom figured it out as well. Though if she did, I couldn't blame her for keeping quiet about it, just like I couldn't fault Nyssa for not trying to talk to mom about it either. Especially with how dad reacted, mom probably figured it was safest to just keep quiet.

The last part of the message though, that left a cold heavy feeling in my gut. Somehow the Navy knew both me and Sarah survived the wreck. They knew we were alive, and they were searching for us. I had no idea what would happen if they found us, but I could guess it would involve trying to haul us back to the Imperium. And like Sarah said, they'd probably want to study us at best, dissect us at worst.

Then there was Jenny's situation, if they caught us they might find out about her too, and they wouldn't be kind to her. Or Rebecca either for that matter, if they somehow figured out who she was before.

I stuffed my datapad back into my jacket pocket then quickly unlocked the grav-sled's controls. I started it up, and took it up into the air, turning it around as it rose so I was pointing back in the direction of the Freeborn Shipyard.

As soon as I reached the correct altitude I shoved the throttle all the way forward, and the sled took off like it was launched out of a linear accelerator. The force pushed me back in the seat, and a few seconds later I broke my childhood grav-sled speed record.

Most of my attention was on actually driving the thing, but I glanced at the readout long enough to note the one-ninety-six kilometers per hour on the status display. And despite the stress and seriousness of the situation, I giggled again.

I couldn't help picturing the sad confused dysphoric thirteen-year-old egg that was once me, and the look she'd have on her face if I could have told her someday she'd be an adorable sexy foxgirl tearing up the sky doing one-ninety-eight over an alien world five hundred systems away, heading back to the ship she called home, where her beautiful sexy girlfriend was waiting for her.

In fact the grav-sled's speed just reached two-oh-three when I had to start slowing down again, as the shipyard was quickly coming up in front of me.

I pulled the throttle back as I headed down towards the Demeter. The ramp was still down and the main airlock open, so I was able to drive straight in before setting the grav-sled down on the deck.

Sarah was already coming down the ladderway, I knew either Piper or Jenny would have spotted my approach on the ship's sensors.

My girlfriend confirmed that a moment later as she commented with a grin, "Jenny says you were the fastest thing in the air, apart from actual starships."

"The Imperium know we're alive," I exclaimed as I jumped out of the grav-sled. "I don't know how, but the Navy know we survived the Hammersmith, and they're looking for us!"

She gave me a shocked look, then gestured to the ladder "Get up top and tell the boss. I'll button up the ship and stow the sled."

"Yeah," I nodded in agreement as I hurried to the ladder.

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