"You too?" Cam asked our captain, surprise evident on the cat-kin's face.

Rebecca nodded, "My homeworld was a bit better-off than where Amanda came from, and no offence Cam but it was a lot better than Deveron-8. It's been in the Imperium for a long while though, since the Second Cycle if I remember my history lessons right. Not quite as glorified as a core world or a founding world, but long enough not even the history teachers talked about what things were like pre-Imperium."

"Wow," our guest seemed impressed.

They had a thoughtful look on their face as they had another bite of their dinner. The cat-kin had been fairly quiet and occasionally emotional for most of the past three days, ever since we took off from Ganvis Station in fact. Both Jenny and Sarah took turns keeping them company and talking with them, but it felt like they were finally starting to adjust or adapt to their current circumstances.

Same with Rebecca, in fact. We hadn't seen much of her in the past couple days either, apart from meals. She'd spent most of her time alone in her cabin since we got under way. Now that Cam was starting to open up and talk more with the rest of us, that seemed to have inspired our tall amazonian girlfriend to do the same.

Now we were enjoying another nice dinner, I was making the most of all the fresh ingredients, and both our guest and captain seemed to be more talkative again.

"What's it called?" Cam asked Rebecca. "Your homeworld I mean?"

"Pertos-2. Though I don't expect any of you to have heard of it," the boss replied.

I shook my head, but glanced at Sarah. She seemed to know a fair bit about Imperium worlds, I figured if any of us would know it it'd be her. She didn't though, like me the cute blonde was shaking her head.

Then Cam looked to me and asked, "What about your world? What's it called?"

I washed some food down with a gulp of water then answered, "Kaitor-7. And it's even more obscure than Rebecca's homeworld."

"Huh," our guest looked thoughtful again. They munched on another bite of beef and noodles, then commented, "So you're both from the Imperium, you both grew up on agricultural worlds, you were both raised as farmers."

Their attention shifted to Sarah as they asked, "I don't suppose you're from an agri world too?"

Our engineer shook her head, "Nope, sorry Cam. I'm another Imperium refugee though. I was born and raised on Nonaka-3, which is one of those core worlds Rebecca mentioned. It's a tech world, similar to Rolandan-2 here in the Gorath Sector."

The cat-kin nodded slowly, then turned towards Jenny. "Are you from the Imperium too? Did you all leave together? How come?"

"I'm not from the Imperium, no. I was created here in the Gorath Sector," Jenny replied.

Sarah added, "Rebecca left the Imperium first. Then me and Amanda came out this way together, and met the boss after we got here."

"Huh," Cam said as they looked thoughtful again.

After a moment it looked like they were going to ask something else before they suddenly went quiet again. Then they frowned slightly, "I was going to ask how come such young ladies had their own ship and travelled all the way out here from the Imperium. But it's like what Jenny's Re/Gen pod did for me right? You're really older, but look young?"

Rebecca smiled slightly but admitted, "That's right Cam. Believe it or not, I'm actually eighty-two. I first met the mayor of Ganvis back when she was twenty. Mrs. Wheeler and I used to be close. We both served together on this ship three decades ago."

Our guest looked very surprised to hear that. They seemed hesitant as they responded, "From some of the things I've heard Mrs. Wheeler say over the years, I got the impression she didn't approve of that sort of thing? I mean, two women being close. Or two men either."

"Ah," the boss blushed slightly. "That's another thing you and I have in common Cam. Our original bodies were both masc. I looked a whole lot different back when Ella and I were friends."

Cam's eyes widened as they stared at our captain for a few moments, till Sarah spoke up.

Our engineer steered the topic back to age as she commented, "Rebecca isn't the only one on board old enough to have grandkids. I'm really fifty-seven, and I've spent the last thirty-seven years serving in the engine rooms of various ships. I've even got a granddaughter, back in the Imperium."

I blushed slightly as I shared my age as well, "I'm the youngest on board. And the least experienced. I'm only twenty-five, and I've only been serving on ships for about two years now. My first year I was an intern on a hospital ship, then I spent about two-thirds of a year as the sole medic on a frigate, and since then I've been here on the Demeter."

At that point Jenny joined the conversation, she looked a little embarrassed too as she admitted "I believe I have all four of you beat in the age department. I first came on-line four hundred and forty-seven years ago. Though to be fair I spent four hundred and fourteen of those years off-line."

Cam looked surprised and impressed at those figures. In fact I was pretty sure all four of us were. Then Sarah frowned as something occurred to her.

"You know exactly when you came on-line?" our engineer asked. "I thought you weren't sure about that before. Or was it your homeworld that was a mystery?"

The AI cringed slightly, "I was unclear on both of those details when we first met, but I've subsequently learned quite a bit about where I'm from. You recall I took some education courses, including one in history?"

"With a focus on the war that took place here a few centuries back," Rebecca responded.

I looked at Jenny with an excited smile, "So if you know where you're from, there's a chance we could get more body files? Or get the equipment and software for you to do intake scans?"

"Sorry Amanda. I'm afraid that's not going to be possible," she replied as she slowly shook her head. "My homeworld was on the losing side of that war. It's unlikely any technology like myself survived, but even if it did we would be unable to access it. The planet has been under a tech embargo since the war ended, all imports and exports of advanced technology have been prohibited."

She added, "Tamsin was right to suggest keeping quiet about my existence. If authorities from any of the advanced worlds in this sector knew where I was from or who made me, they'd almost certainly seek my immediate destruction."

"So it's best that none of us know where you're from," our captain stated. "And we should all probably forget what you've already told us. About your old ship, when you came on-line, and anything else that might identify you."

The boss glanced around the table at me and Sarah, and Cam too. In a firm tone she told us, "We salvaged Jenny off an unknown wreck. None of us know where she's from, or anything else about her. And nobody outside this ship needs to know she's an AI. Cam, I have to ask you to keep all this to yourself. Ok?"

"Yes ma'am," the cat-kin nodded. "I get it, and I won't blab. I owe Jenny for saving my life, I sure wouldn't do anything to put her in danger. Or any of you folks."

"Thank you. We're glad to hear it," Rebecca smiled.

By then we'd all pretty much finished eating, so I gathered up the dishes and started cleaning up the galley. Meanwhile the others all had some more drinks and continued the conversation. The topic shifted from Jenny's origins to our current destination, as Cam asked some questions about where we were heading.

Rebecca spent the next few minutes describing the Fuminja Cluster, and how we were going to Fuminja Beta, which was one of the larger asteroids. Alpha contained the main residential 'city', while Beta was home to the spaceport.

The boss continued, "For the past few years the Demeter has been calling at Fuminja Beta every thirty to thirty-five days for fuel, so we're regular customers. This will be our first visit in a while where we're going to stay longer than the time it takes to fill the ship's tanks."

"How long do you figure we'll be there?" Sarah asked. A moment later she added in a quieter tone, "Though I guess it won't matter to me, since I'm still confined to the ship."

It took a half minute or so for Rebecca to think about that. Then she responded, "We'll see about shore leave when we get there. To be honest I'm not sure how long we'll be staying anyways? I want to check around for any work, if someone's got cargo they need shipped anywhere. Or if anyone knows of any potential salvage around."

"What kind of salvage do y'all do?" Cam asked with interest. "Back home any time I heard talk of some broken down machinery or gear that someone'd given up on, I'd go check it out. See if it was fixable, or if not, see what parts I could scrap off it."

They continued, "Sometimes I could fix stuff up for whoever owned it, then they'd pay me for my services. Or if they really weren't interested I'd haul it back to my garage then sell it on to whoever wanted it. Otherwise, well there's always need for spare parts right? Especially since the drought started a few years back, but even before that it was costly having replacements shipped in. If you was lucky you could get what you needed in Port Bayview, otherwise you had to go all the way to the capital."

At that point I had all the tidying up finished so I got myself another glass of water then joined the others at the table.

Meanwhile the boss replied, "In and around the Fuminja Cluster there's always the risk of smaller craft getting wrecked, but they've got some local salvars who take care of that. It's not far off from the Gorath Field though, and every so often you come across a bigger ship that's found itself some grief. We can make some good money off that kind of wreck, but it's a pretty rare find. Odds are if we pick up some work there it'll be hauling freight someplace."

The cat-kin looked thoughtful again, and maybe a little disappointed. I got the impression they liked the idea of salvaging wrecks, probably because it was similar to the sort of thing they did back home.

"If we don't find anything what's our next move?" Sarah asked. "Back to Ecclestone's World?"

Rebecca sighed, "Yeah I guess. If we haven't heard from Gwen by the time we get to Fuminja I'll send her an FTL. Maybe send one to Tamsin too, just to check up on her? And maybe ask if she or Helen know about any jobs we could pick up. Otherwise, Port Ecclestone is our best bet."

"We'll avoid any questionable jobs next time though," she added with a grimace. "I think I'd like one or two nice safe boring cargo deliveries, before we get involved in any new complications or conflicts."

I found myself nodding in agreement. I definitely wasn't in any hurry to get involved in more fighting, or deal with more obnoxious mayors who happened to be our customer's mother and our captain's ex.

"So given what we were talking about a few minutes ago maybe this isn't the best suggestion," Sarah said with a sly smile, "But if I'm not mistaken it's not too far from Fuminja to where Jenny's old ship was wrecked. Maybe we could revisit that after all?"

Before anyone could protest she explained, "I'm just thinking, if that kind of tech is completely lost now then it must be worth a fortune. Or alternatively, if we don't sell it maybe we could keep it and use it ourselves? Jenny survived intact, there must be more on that ship that's in a serviceable condition."

"I don't know Sarah," Rebecca grimaced slightly. "It's another six days or so beyond Fuminja, at jump-0. Then we're looking at maybe a day or two to find the wreck, however long we're there working on it, then six days back to Fuminja to refuel again."

She continued, "Then we could do a level-one jump to Rolandan-2 if we were looking to sell some of it? Or if we're keeping it then we'd just head straight back to Port Ecclestone again I guess. Either way we're looking at twelve days transit, plus maybe another six days on site? So eighteen days, bookmarked by visits to Fuminja."

I asked, "Considering this trip hasn't exactly been profitable so far, are we willing to commit another eighteen days to a job that might leave us with nothing to show for it?"

"I am," Sarah replied without hesitation. "I'm just speaking for myself obviously, but we had a run of good luck for a while and my opinion is we can afford to take a few non-paying or speculative jobs."

The boss gave our blonde girlfriend a look, then smiled "You just want to see Jenny's old ship. You're curious about the technology."

Sarah didn't bother trying to lie about that. She nodded enthusiastically, "Absolutely. I definitely want to see it. And whether we find salvage we can sell or gear we keep and use ourselves, I'm confident that the trip will be worthwhile."

"Jenny, how do you feel about Sarah's suggestion?" I asked our AI.

She'd been quiet for a while, just observing and listening as the rest of us talked. After a brief pause she replied, "Revisiting the Kára will probably be an emotional experience for me, but I'm not opposed to it. I might require some personal time, or some downtime, but apart from that I'm willing to go back there if it's what our captain decides."

"Thanks Jenny," Rebecca responded. "And for the record, I'm not making any decisions just yet. Right now my first choice is we find some safe boring work at Fuminja. If that doesn't pan out, then I'll consider visiting your old ship."

Sarah smiled, "Thanks boss, for considering it. And thanks Jenny, I'm sorry if this is a painful subject for you."

"It's fine Sarah," the AI replied. "I know both you and Amanda have already been through similar situations while working on the Hammersmith."

That seemed to be the end of that topic, and the five of us were quiet again for a few minutes.

It was Jenny who finally broke the silence. She looked to the boss and announced, "We've just received a direct FTL for you captain, from Lady Magniveen."

Sarah grinned and teased, "I bet she didn't address it to Captain Piper though, right Jenny? She'd have addressed it to Princess Rebecca."

The android rolled her eyes while the boss groaned, and Cam's eyebrows shot up. The cat-kin stared at our captain in surprise as they asked, "Are you really a princess?"

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