Ouroboros Ch. 03

"I heard that." Bill said walking back into the room. "And she's right. I'll take a look at the base personnel after we've finished our transaction." he said smiling.

"I take it you got the go-ahead?" Boros asked.

"I didn't even need to explain. Which was odd." Bill shook his head. "Evidently your experiment isn't a secret. High command knows all about it and, at least who I talked to, is very optimistic." Bill returned to his seat and finished off his drink before pulling out an Ident reader and his holopad. "I've loaded up the bills of sale and the agreements we talked about. I'll also need to upgrade your authorization for weaponry before we can complete the deal. Just slide in your Ident card."

Boros pulled it out of his pocket, along with fourteen credit chits. "I haven't uploaded any credits to my profile yet." Boros apologized. "I'll take care of that after you update my authorization." Boros slipped hs Ident card into the reader.

Bill made the updates then passed the reader to Boros. One after the other he inserted the credit chits into the reader and emptied their balances into the account attached to his profile. It took some time for him to finish because of the security he had on the chits. Ordinarily a credit chit could be used by anyone who had possession of it. Boros had encrypted his, and each one required a different twenty digit alphanumeric key. When he had finished with the last one, Bill passed him the holopad for him to look over the agreement and sale contracts. The Admirals eyes grew very wide when he saw the sum Boros had loaded into his profile when they both had to authorize the transaction with a DNA reader.

"Good Lord, Man. I should have bargained harder!" Bill laughed. "I even rounded down the price to the closest hundred million. Just because you were spending so much."

"How much for everything?" Nancy asked Boros.

"Five hundred for the Star Cruiser, the Corvette, and both of their infrastructure upgrades. Four hundred each for the Aires Gunships, two hundred fifty each for the Aires Transports, and one hundred for all of the five support ships for the cruiser. Two point four billion total. But I'm estimating another five hundred million for parts, supplies, and equipment before we are ready to set out."

Sam and Shihuang's eyes were wide at the huge figures Boros was talking about with a smile. Nancy knew where that smile came from though. Boros was taking the first steps to being in charge of his own life. It seemed to be a heady thing. But she knew after talking to him the day before that the money he spent today was only a small portion of what he had. These first steps he was taking was more than buying a ship or establishing a colony, he was creating a territory for himself. The first preternatural leader to have ever done something like that. Unless the tales about Atlantis were true, then he'd be the second. But still, it was a very exclusive club.

"Bill." Boros asked. "Is there an area in the shipyard that can fit this beast, has it's own entrance, and where the crews can still work on it without pushing back the timeline?"

Bill thought about it. "No. There isn't. We're going to have to move... You're going to have to name it soon, you know that, right?"

"I'll think on it." Boros promised.

"But we're going to have to move her and the corvette you pick into the refit area. That's a closed site, so you won't be able to come and go as you please." Before Boros had a chance to say something Bill raised his hand to silence him. "Aside from giving the orders for the refit and to gather the manpower I did a couple more things after I called high command about the gunships. I have the Aires Transports on their way as soon as they finish provisioning, which I waived the cost of by the way, but I had one of them provisioned and outfitted with luxury goods and foods, in addition to standard rations. It'll be here in less than two hours."

"Why?" Boros asked.

"So you two can keep your date." Bill smiled answered simply. "But I do have an ulterior motive. I really want to be kept in the loop with your experiment and trying to make this as hassle free as I can is, I expect, going to help make that happen. I figured you can stay on the transport while the refit is taking place."

Boros really appreciated his honesty. "Alright Bill, I'll tell you what." he paused deliberately until the other man inquired. "I promise to keep you up to date and 'in the loop 'BUT'" he emphasized, "I'm short on trust, don't give me any reason to doubt you. And if I tell you something is between us, you keep it that way. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Bill answered without hesitation.

"So, where are the transports going to be landing?"

Bill smiled broadly. "In a hangar, with it's own private entrance." he said smugly. "And the two gunships will follow within a day. They are all fresh from assembly, but the gunships are made elsewhere at a classified location. I figured, since you paid full price for them you wouldn't be happy with second hand goods." he smiled.

Boros looked at him and began to laugh. "Okay." he acceded. "So how do we move forward from here?"

"I'll have an engineer meet you at your hangar tomorrow morning. He'll go over the rough changes you want made to the Star Cruiser and the Corvette. After you finish with him, give me a call and we can go over the weapons you want delivered to the orbital shipyard. By then, I'll probably have a few names for you to look over for your crew. I'll also call Gabrielle and let her know where to send anyone she has for you." Bill thought about something else. "You might want to pick up some personal items too. It's going to be a week or two before the Star Cruiser is ready to leave for it's weapons refit. But that won't take too long, maybe two or three days. Those people are used to swapping out hardpoints quickly. Anything you're going to need, you'll have to pick it up here."

Until Bill had said it, Boros really hadn't thought about it. But it went further than the Admiral had implied. They weren't about to embark on a short term voyage, the ship would, for the most part be their home. Well at least for himself and the crew. It hadn't really struck home before, but there wouldn't be any short term shopping trips or excursions. Not without permission from the Consuls in whatever territory they wanted to visit. And he couldn't count on Gabrielle to let them roam her territory all willy nilly, they would have to be able to provide for themselves for the most part. Boros groaned. They really would have to go shopping, just not for what Bill had meant. But for tonight they could just pick up personal items.

"You're right Bill. Thank you for reminding me." Boros said. "When are you planning on moving the Star Cruiser to the refit area?"

"As soon as we are off and the team I called get's here. Then we can go pick out the Corvette you want to have outfitted."

"I thought they were all made with the same layout?" Boros stated.

"They were. But as shield technology improved their hulls began to be less armored. It gained them a very slight advantage in maneuverability but once their shields were out they were at a huge disadvantage."

"Which one has the heaviest armoring?" Boros asked. He was planning on using it as a support ship anyway, so the tougher it was, the better it suited his purposes.

"Most of the older ones." Bill answered honestly. "They're all in pretty bad disrepair though."

"Why don't you pick the worst one of all. We're going to strip it, gut it, and reinforce the superstructure just like the Star Cruiser anyway. This way you come out just a little bit ahead."

"Wait," Bill said. "I thought we were just doing systems and the like."

"You said, and the contract I just signed also states it, infrastructure. On a ship that includes everything beneath the hull. Including the superstructure." Boros smiled at him. "I thought we were clear on that?"

Bill muttered under his breath, "I'm going to need more men." Then out loud, "Alright, so, you'll trust me to choose?"

Boros noddedd. "You said it yourself, you're invested. You want me to trust you, If that is true, and I know it is, you'll do your absolute best in this endeavor." Boros grinned at him. "So yeah, I'll trust you to choose and make it happen."

Boros leaned into Shihong, "Just so you know, before we go shopping I need to talk to Sam and Nancy, but after that, we'll spend the rest of the evening together." She smiled at him and nodded.

"Alright, so, tomorrow morning, have your engineer call me before he comes by. Then we'll meet. I'll call you after we're done and you and I will take it from there. Sound good Bill?" Boros asked.

"That sounds like a plan. When I come by tomorrow I'll have a list of some of the base personnel, if they're interested." Bill let him know.

After that, they all followed Bill down to the hangar bay they had entered in and found two transports waiting for them and a group of personnel that Bill informed them were taking the Star Cruiser to the drydocks. One transport was for Bill and the other was for Boros' party. Bill waved goodbye, and after the men and women who would be taking off in the Star Cruiser disembarked the transport, he took off.

"When we land, I want to have a word." Boros told Nancy and Sam as they moved to board the other transport. "Privately." They agreed. It was only a matter of minutes until they were back on the ground in front of the building where they had first met and Nancy led them to an open area where they wouldn't be overheard.

"Okay, Boros, What's up?" Nancy asked quietly.

"You've kept my being a dragon out of your reports, right?"

"Of course I have. That was something that was in confidence. I wouldn't betray that." Nancy said, offended.

"I wasn't trying to insult you, I was just asking." Boros pacified her. "It's just that what Gabrielle told us, I'm worried that someone might take the initiative, or advantage, and try to get rid of any competition. I'm just worried about more people trying to kill me than before. Now that I'm out in the open, there could be assassins or, I don't know what. The point is, I don't want anyone to know what I am. Are you okay with that?"

"I am. Are you Sam?" He agreed "Shihong?"

Shihong had been becoming increasingly more compliant the longer she spent time with Boros. It was like he had some unknown effect on her.

"I won't say anything he doesn't want me to." she agreed.

"Will you come visit me tomorrow evening? I promise good food in exchange for advice." Boros asked Nancy and Sam.

Nancy laughed. "Of course we'll come by. If for no other reason than Sam getting a look into an Aries class ship. Even if it is a transport."

"Come by tomorrow for sure. I would like to ask your advice on a few things. But come by the day after, too, for Sam. The Aires class gunships will be here by then, we'll take him out and have some fun."

Sam's eyes came alive but he didn't say anything.

They both said their goodbye's and then Nancy and Sam left through the front gates. Boros was surprised to see that the same two guards from this morning were still on duty. So much had happened in such a short period of time that Boros felt a small jolt of surprise that it was still the same day. His whole life was changing, and glancing at the woman at his side, he couldn't help but feel that it was changing for the better.

"What now?" Shihong asked.

Boros realized he really had no way of getting around. Walking was out, they had far too many things they needed to do for that. Boros had a moment of feeling a little silly. He had no idea where the hangar the transport ships were going to be docked at was. That was a huge oversight. The euphoria of having taken the first steps of the plan, and everything going so well, had blurred out everything else.

He admitted this to Shihong in embarrassment, but she had a simple solution. "Call him and find out. Maybe there's a car or something they'll let you use. You did just spend over two billion credits. I'm sure that counts for a little latitude."

She was right. When he called he found out that not only had Admiral Hampton had the same thought, but he had already dispatched a car and driver with the information of his temporary home here in Canaveral Shipyard. Boris thanked him again and ended the call.

All they had to do now was wait until the car arrived. He was alone with Shihong for the first time and was at a loss for what to say. He'd spent most of his time alive by himself and suddenly he realized that Shihong was here to stay. She was the first volunteer for not only his crew, but what would be his newly forged territory. The fact that she was not going to be leaving anytime soon terrified him. It wasn't so much that she was probably going to be a fixture in his life from this point forward. It was that, no matter how short a time he'd known her, she was important to him.

That feeling more than anything else was shat scared him. Where did these feelings come from? He had been interacting with women for the last several weeks and hadn't felt anything like this, so it couldn't be that she was just the first woman he had met in such a long time that wasn't trying to kill him. What if he did something wrong? Would she just pack up and leave? With these feelings still burning inside of him? How would he move on from that?

"We should probably talk." Shihong said, breaking Boros out of the downward spiral of his thoughts.

"Okay," Boros said, noncommittally. "What would you like to talk about?"

"I think we have a great many things to talk about." she answered. "But the important stuff, the stuff between us can wait until later," she said seriously. "More immediately, what are we going shopping for?" she said lightheartedly.

The fact that she wanted to discuss, he hoped, some of the things he was thinking of later. It helped him focus on the here and now. "This afternoon I was thinking we should concentrate on the things we'd need or want immediately. Clothes, food, personal hygiene products, things like that."

"What about bedding?" Shihong asked. "I had the opportunity to be on an SSA ship and the sheets and blankets were a nightmare. Not to mention the mattresses. It was like nothing was between you and the metal frame." she shivered. "It was very uncomfortable."

Boros thought about what she had just said before he replied. "Admiral Hampton said that he had outfitted the transport with luxury goods. I'm guessing he went a step farther, just from the feeling I got about him. Why don't we pick up what we need for sure tonight and then after we see what's lacking we pick up the rest."

She smiled at him. "That sounds reasonable. What did you have in mind?"

They spent the rest of the time waiting for the car talking about the definite things they would need and left the unknowns until they became knowns. Without them noticing, a car pulled up at the front gate.

"Commodore Boros! Your car is here!" one of the guards shouted.

The Commodore part, because it was so new, wouldn't have caught his attention. But his name did and he looked past the gate at the large hovercar. It was large, bigger than a van. It made him smile, Admiral Hampton had anticipated their needs once again. A driver got out from the cockpit and opened the sliding door for them.

"Where to, Sir?" The driver asked after he had re-latched his harness.

"We'll need to pick up a variety of items from clothes and linens to toiletries." Boris replied.

"How about the Officers Exchange?" The driver offered. "You'll be able to find a wider variety of higher quality goods there than the Post Exchange, and the prices will be better than the civilian stores."

Boros thought the idea had merit and asked the driver to take Shihung and him there. Afterall, if the Officers Exchange didn't meet their needs, they could at least pick up the bare necessities and have an extended shopping trip later. In all reality, Boros really needed time to outline all of the changes and modifications he wanted to make before he met with the engineer Bill was going to send out tomorrow. He also wanted to research what was available in the way of fabricators. That was a huge interest for him. As a civilian he'd had access to very little information about them, and most of it was conjecture. Now, he was sure he would be able to learn much more about them and possibly be able to purchase the technology.

Another thing Boros needed time to think about was Shihong. In his mind, Boros had a certain flexible template for how women acted and what they wanted. Everything he'd read, seen, and experienced went into the construction of that template. But Shihong didn't fit into it. She created feelings in him that he had never had before and made him want to do things he knew about but had never had any desire to act on. And she didn't act the way he expected her to. She scared him and made him feel whole and he had no logical basis for the fact that he wanted to keep her. Boros also knew in the front of his head that thinking of her like that was misogynistic and wrong, but that didn't change the fact that he thought of her as his.

It wasn't long before the van pulled into a gated off complex of different buildings after briefly having to stop at the gate for boros to provide his identification. The driver gave Boros a card with his Comm ID and told them that he would wait in the parking structure for his call. The driver had dropped them off in front of a kiosk that had the word 'INFORMATION' vertically printed on all four of it's sides.

Boros quickly recovered from the startle of Shihong slipping her hand into his as they approached the kiosk. In fact is was a very nice sensation, he could almost feel the thrum of her energy coursing through her hand and into his. Oddly, it was a very familiar energy, but one he was unable to place.

The information kiosk had a surprisingly easy to use interface. Boros was able to sync his holopad with the complex and they made their way to their first stop, the store that sold linens.

Shihong was looking around with an odd expression on her face. "Is there anything wrong?" Boros asked her.

She shook her head. "No." she responded softly in an odd tone. "It's just that this is very similar to the trade square at home."

Boros pulled her to a stop. "Are you feeling homesick?" he asked.

"I think it just hit me that I'm not going back there." she said with emotion.

That statement confused him. Why wouldn't she think that she couldn't go back? In his duties as a Liaison she would definitely return. Though Gabrielle intended it as a farce to expedite to help him achieve acceptance into the preternatural community he had no intention to half-ass his role. If anything, his experiences over the last two days encouraged him to embrace them.

He looked around and saw an unoccupied bench that he led them to. "Okay," he told her. "I want you to be happy." the next thing he said rent his heart. "If you want to just help me out with the people who Gabrielle sends and then go home, I can deal with that." Offering her an alternative he continued. "But just because you join with me doesn't mean that you can't go back. The Star Cruiser has multiple hangars and they were meant to be used. We can add a couple of shuttles so that not only you, but others can go home to see their family and friends. Providing they can qualify as pilots. Between my duties and being able to visit your home whenever you want, baring needs of the missions we will have, does that make it seem better?"

She stared at him for a long moment, then threw her arms around his neck. "It's not that." she sobbed. "Well maybe just a little." She shuddered against his chest a few more times before continuing. "Lastnight and today have been the longest I've been out of Gabrielle's preternatural enclave." she started, "I had a routine there. Something I did every day at a certain time that until now I didn't understand what it meant for me. It made me feel safe. Sometimes other things came up, but I could always return to my routine the day after or at worst the day after that. But looking forward, I don't have that anymore." she cried into his shoulder.