"I understand your concern captain but it would be quite pointless for me to carry a side-arm," Jenny replied in a calm matter-of-fact tone. "I am unable to use any weapons, including firearms, I couldn't even bluff or threaten someone with it. In fact I might not even be able to touch it."

Sarah asked, "That's because you're basically part of the medical corps? Your programming or your primary design is to heal people, not hurt them."

"Actually no," the AI replied as she shook her head slightly. "While I'm personally opposed to the idea of violence and lethal force, I'm pragmatic enough to recognize there are times where it's necessary. Our recent dealings with Mr. Lebeau being a prime example."

"So why can't you take a gun when we go off-ship?" Rebecca asked.

Jenny explained, "That is a restriction of my android body. It's part of the same failsafe software that insists Sarah is my owner and master."

Our cute engineer grimaced, "I guess it makes sense right? The manufacturer wouldn't want unscrupulous owners using their sexbots as soldiers or bodyguards or anything along those lines."

"All right," the boss nodded. "Thanks for explaining it Jenny. It shouldn't be an issue as long as you're with us anyways, and we're not going into the rough parts of town. So do you want to come along?"

The AI took a few moments to think it over, then she nodded "Very well. I suppose I need to do this sooner or later, and now is as good a time as any."

The purple fringe on her hair shifted to pink, signifying that the android was now operating in autonomous mode. She climbed into the front of the grav-sled and settled into the passenger seat next to Rebecca, while me and Sarah were already together in the back seat.

As the boss gently lifted the sled up off the deck then manoeuvred out of the Demeter's hold Jenny commented, "My other half will seal up the ship for us. She'll be monitoring the usual frequencies as well, to alert us if anything comes up and welcome us back when we return."

"Thanks Jenny," Rebecca replied. "Are you still in touch with uh, yourself?"

The ship's main airlock and ramp started to seal up behind us as we gained altitude and accelerated away from the spaceport and into the city proper.

The AI nodded, "I am. My built-in communications hardware can function as a standard commlink and has similar range. Bandwidth is limited, but I can keep her updated on our location and status, and she can offer me suggestions and provide information."

"Taking advantage of our recent advances in education, all data transmitted between my other half and I is heavily encrypted and digitally signed," she added, "So the chances of anyone listening in is incredibly low. And the chance of anyone interfering or injecting their own messages is pretty much nil."

"I don't remember that being part of the specs or anything we talked about while we were working on the project," Sarah commented. "Is that something new?"

The android smiled, "Relatively new, yes. The idea came to us yesterday, and didn't require any hardware modifications so we implemented the software updates last night."

Rebecca asked, "What about the ownership issue? Any more progress on that? And I guess if you can solve that it'll also let you carry a side-arm? Not just for this world, but I'm thinking any time you might need to defend yourself. Events like yesterday don't happen that often, but they do happen."

Jenny sighed, "Unfortunately we haven't made any progress there. It might have to wait till our next visit to Rolandan-2? My other half thinks if we can order a back-up of the hardened module, then we can work on that without risking destroying or deactivating my body."

"I still say our best bet is to replace it completely," Sarah stated. "Get rid of the locked-down proprietary module, even if it means going with something completely re-engineered from scratch. At least you don't have to worry about some other hidden gotcha coming up later on."

Rebecca angled the grav-sled downwards, we were already fast approaching Gilly's restaurant. And as she brought the vehicle down to park it next to another sled in front of the building I finally spoke up.

"This wouldn't solve the no-guns issue, but couldn't we fix the ownership issue by just having Sarah officially sell the android to Jenny?" I asked. I looked at the android in question as I continued, "Surely there's some way to transfer ownership right? Then you'll be the official owner of your own body, so it won't obey anyone else's orders but yours."

From the blank looks on Sarah's and Jenny's faces I could tell neither of them had even thought of that. Meanwhile the boss started to giggle as she shut down the grav-sled and set the lock code.

"Unbelievable," Rebecca laughed as she shook her head. "Of course, the engineer's looking for an engineering solution and the software expert's looking for a software solution. Meanwhile the easiest answer's right there under our noses the whole time."

The boss was still giggling softly as the four of us climbed out of the vehicle, while Sarah and Jenny were both blushing slightly. And I had a bit of a grin on my face too, which was only partially because of the way my companions were acting. The other reason was the delicious aromas coming from the restaurant next to us, as the smell of grilled meat filled the air.

"Transferring ownership should work," Jenny finally responded, in a quiet embarrassed voice. "I believe it has to happen while we're at Rolandan-2 though. It's part of the security, updates to that module have to come from their servers."

"We'll talk about that back at the ship," Rebecca said as she led the way to the restaurant door. "For now let's enjoy some shore leave."

As we all entered the restaurant together I saw there were already some folks inside. There was a group of four people sitting at a table off to the left, while two more people stood near the counter like they were waiting for their orders.

I was pretty sure the group at the table were offworlders like us. They weren't in uniform or anything, but I got the feeling they were a ship's crew. There were three men and one woman, all were dressed casual and all of them wore side-arms.

The two standing by the counter were harder to guess. They were a couple men, and they didn't appear to be together. One had a shotgun slung over his shoulder, the other had something strapped to his leg that was either a long handgun or a cut-down rifle.

Gilly was there too, behind the counter. And as soon as we all came in she greeted us with smiles, "Miss Piper, Amanda and Sarah, nice to see you all again! And another new face too!"

By that point everybody else was staring at the four of us, and Jenny was obviously feeling self-conscious from the way folks were looking at our group.

I was pretty much used to people staring, I'd come to terms with the fact that my huge floofy tail and fuzzy pointed ears were always going to attract extra attention. I realized this would be a very new experience for Jenny, considering up till now she'd only ever been known by the crew of her first ship, then the crew of the Demeter. She'd literally never had to deal with strangers before.

It probably didn't help that whether folks knew she was an android or not, her body was obviously designed for sex appeal. Even in her simple outfit of slacks and a blouse her curves were obvious. For that matter all four of us were attractive young women, and that was going to bring us attention wherever we went.

Rebecca had the tall strong amazonian look, Sarah was our beautiful bubbly blonde, I was the cute foxgirl mascot, and now Jenny was our busty sexy bombshell.

"Hi Gilly," the boss greeted the middle-aged blonde woman, "Meet Jenny, she's another of my crew. Jenny, this is Gilly, she runs this fine establishment."

As usual the restauranteur was friendly and outgoing as she greeted our android crewmate. Jenny was obviously feeling shy and awkward, and Gilly picked up on that and didn't make too big a fuss over meeting someone new. She just gave Jenny a smile and welcomed her to the restaurant, then asked all four of us "So what can I get you lovely girls to eat today?"

The rest of us all ordered meals and drinks, while Jenny remained quiet.

Gilly took note of what we wanted, then looked at the AI and asked "How about you hon? If you don't see anything on the menu that appeals, just ask and I'll get Krick to fix you up something else if you like?"

"I appreciate the offer ma'am," the android replied quietly, "But I don't... I'm not hungry. Sorry."

"That's quite alright hon," Gilly smiled. "You girls sit yourselves down, Krick will get started on the food and I'll bring your drinks in a moment."

I noticed we still had all the other sets of eyes on us as the four of us took a table on the right side of the restaurant, in the corner near the counter.

Jenny was blushing as she sat next to the boss, she sighed quietly "Why did I think this was a good idea? I don't eat, why did I come to a restaurant for my first off-ship experience?"

"Are you going to be ok Jenny?" I asked softly. "If you'd rather head back to the ship I'm sure the others won't mind. Or we could leave them here while I fly you back on the grav-sled and drop you off, then I can come back and pick them up when they're done."

She smiled, "Thanks Amanda. I'll keep that in mind just in case, but I don't think I need to head back yet. As long as Gilly doesn't mind that I'm taking up space without buying a meal."

"Don't worry about that," Rebecca stated. "I'm sure that won't be a problem, Gilly and Krick are both good people. And we're going to be buying extras anyways to take back to the ship after, so it's not like we aren't going to be paying for four meals."

Jenny was about to respond but held back as Gilly appeared next to our table. She set out the drinks we'd ordered, plus an extra can of soda for the android 'just in case she got thirsty'. Then she headed over to the other table to check on that group.

"So what else are we doing today?" Sarah asked. "Are we still planning to do some shopping after we've eaten?"

Rebecca rolled her eyes, "Yeah, we'll go pick up some folding chairs. There's a few places I need to visit, to put out the word that we're looking for cargo. You three don't need to tag along for that if you'd rather take it easy at the ship. And I still need to get us refuelled and take care of the port fees. I'll worry about getting us resupplied tomorrow."

I was about to ask where she was going to look for work when one of the two guys who'd been standing by the counter approached our table.

"Excuse me ladies," he said as he looked to Rebecca, "I couldn't help overhearing you're looking for cargo. Are you the crew of a freighter?"

He looked to be in his mid twenties. He seemed to be in good shape, slim but with a bit of muscle visible under his clothes. He was about average height, maybe around five-ten, clean-shaved with short dark hair. He was wearing some rugged-looking work boots and cargo pants, a tight-fitting shirt and a loose open jacket. And he had that strange cut-down rifle strapped to his right thigh.

Rebecca looked him up and down then replied, "I'm captain of a light freighter. And yeah we're looking for cargo, but I'm not one to mix business with pleasure. If you want to talk shop maybe we can do that after my crew and I have finished up here."

The young man nodded, "Understood. My name's Jace Wheeler by the way. I can meet you back here in an hour if you like? Or would you rather we met someplace else?"

The boss responded, "Nice to meet you Jace, I'm Rebecca. Why don't you drop by the ship in two or three hours, we can talk there. She's at pad two-fifteen."

"All right then," the young man replied. "I'll see you young ladies in a few hours."

By that point Gilly was at our table as well, carrying a big tray loaded down with our food. As she started setting the plates down on the table she looked to Jace and told him "Your order's up too, there on the counter."

"Thank you ma'am," he responded. He bid the rest of us a good day, then picked up the box Gilly had left waiting for him before heading out the door.

"You girls enjoy," Gilly smiled once all the delicious-smelling meat was off her tray and onto our table. "And if you need anything else, just shout."

We all thanked her, then three of us got started on the food while Jenny sat quietly and tried not to look too awkward. In a way it wasn't that different from any of the countless meals we've had on the ship, Jenny almost always sat and talked with us while we all ate. The only difference was this time we were away from the ship, out in public where strangers could and were watching us.

Fortunately nobody made a fuss and we were able to enjoy the meal and some more conversation without any other interruptions or distractions.

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