Chapter 34: Chapter 34 Patrol Duty
From out of the autochef, Avery took two bowls of a mostly brown stew that had a hint of red in it.
From all appearances, it looked like it was filled with chunks of meat and vegetables, but in reality, these were composed of cultivated algae and mushrooms.
They had been genetically modified for nutrition, and thanks to the autochef adding certain spices and cooking it all to have a similar texture to the real thing, it was not half bad.
Kasandra happily shoveled the food into her mouth, since she had been living off of only slightly better 'food' than Avery had during his time as a salvager.
"How is it?" Avery asked in between bites.
"Bland, but delicious. Compared to what I've been having recently, it's pretty much fine dining. Just, when I was younger, my family had an autochef from the silver series from Koken Industries. Now that thing could turn even the cheapest food capsules into something amazing." Kasandra replied.
Avery was a bit surprised to hear that at one time she had such a high end autochef. From what he knew, Koken Industries made luxury devices for the rich. And those from their silver series typically ran at about fifty thousand Krenin. Not something the average person could casually buy.
Still, while he might have wanted to ask more about her, Avery refrained from doing so. It was taboo to ask a mercenary about their past. If she wanted to divulge more, that was one thing. But Kasandra seemed to have turned her attention back to her food and said nothing more on the matter.
Eventually, as they were nearly finished eating, Avery received a notification on his terminal. The Alliance Police had finally decided on their next move.
"Looks like we're going to be sticking around here for a bit longer. They want us to continue to patrol the moons for the next five days to make sure that all the pirates are gone and catch any that might try to come back." Avery said, reading out the gist of the transmission to Kasandra.
Of course, this was being treated as a separate request from the raid, and any mercenary that stayed on would be paid double the usual rate for their rank.
For Avery, this was twelve thousand a day since the set price to hire a two star mercenary with their own ship was typically six thousand Krenin.
"Why don't you go ahead and register me as part of your crew. Since I'm a rank above you, my daily rate is higher. You'll make a lot more that way." Kasandra suggested.
"Are you sure? You'll be expected to work then. Right now, you're just my guest. If you want, you can just lounge about, or maybe even get passage back to Yuson II on one of the ships too damaged to continue."
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"No, it's fine. I'd be bored out of my mind if I had nothing to do. And since I just lost my ship, I'll take any money I can. I'm expecting my three percent."
Seeing Kasandra exaggeratively rub her hands together like a greedy merchant while she said this caused Avery to unconsciously laugh.
"You know, I had you pegged completely wrong the first time we met. I thought you were pretty cold and unfeeling, but I can say that's definitely not the case now." Avery said, a jovial grin on his face.
"Well, that's how I usually am, actually. But seeing as how you're my savoir, I felt that I should open up a bit, like how I normally act around my brother. Plus, I can tell from the sound of your heartbeat that you're a genuinely good person. You didn't rescue me for any ulterior motives. It was simply what you thought was right."
Avery was taken in for a moment by Kasandra's intense gaze, and only when a new message notification sounded, did he realize he had been staring at her as if in a trance.
"We've been given our assignment. If you want, you can take a shower and rest for a bit. I'll be in the cockpit." Avery said, before quickly tossing his dish into the dishwasher and fleeing the room.
When he sat back down into the pilot's seat, he input the information of his patrol route into the navigational computer.
Only a few seconds later, he watched several ships entering lightspeed and seeming to vanish out into space. All but seven of the Alliance Police vessels were leaving to either get repaired or return to the trade routes and stations they usually protected. They could not stay in one location for long without compromising the security of the entire Yuson System.
A number of mercenaries also left, either needing repairs, or having run too low on supplies to stay any longer.
What had once been a vast army, had dwindled down to only around a fourth of what their forces had been.
"Guess I might as well collect some loot while on patrol."
The path Avery had been assigned passed by some of the pirates he had taken down, so whenever he was near them, he slowed down a bit and released his collection drones to grab the most valuable items.
While he was doing this, he heard the cockpit doors whoosh open.
"The shower was a bit small, but the water pressure and temperature were perfect. Your ship's really something else." Kasandra said as she walked in, a towel in her hands as she dried off her still slightly moist hair.
As Avery turned around to greet her, he suddenly stopped, and his eyes went wide.
Before she had been wearing normal mercenary clothes. A thick faux leather jacket that was laser resistant and could stop most blades, along with a sturdy shirt and pair of pants.
But after getting out of the shower, all she had on was a long shirt that did not quite reach down to her knees/
Avery quickly turned back around when he saw her in this state. Mostly to hide how he was blushing.
"Oh, I guess I got a bit too comfortable here. I suppose this isn't my ship, so I should have a bit more modesty." Kasandra said playfully.
She then left to put on more suitable clothes before returning, but the image of her with so little on was already lingering in Avery's mind.