32 The Hole She Crawled Out Of

I docked my ship back on the freighter after finishing looting around the space outside said freighter.

Aside from some precious metals that I found on Voidshade's half destroyed ship, I didn't really find anything else that was valuable both outside and inside the freighter.

I did gather up the gang members' weapons at least, thinking that they should at least sell for something.

Interestingly… They didn't have any Credit Chips on them. I'm guessing Voidshade's was on his person since I didn't find any on his ship either. Or maybe they all floated out into space from the hole I left in his ship.

Speaking of… I wonder if I could sell his ship for scrap or something? I'm kind of curious how it still managed to fly with a hole through its hull for several more moments before finally losing control.

As my ship started the docking procedures on the freighter, I walked out of my ship's store room where I had dumped the weapons I took from the gang members. I intend to split the profits of selling these away with Amber since she was the one who defeated most of them anyway.

I stepped back into the freighter, wondering if this ship had a mess hall or cooking facilities that I could make use of to make some food for Amber and myself. Otherwise I might need to bring her back to my ship to eat instead.

I was walking back to the infirmary to check on Amber when I heard a groan and sounds of sobbing when I got closer to my destination.

Fearing that something might have happened to Amber, I started running until I found her in the corridor leaning against the wall for support.

What was she doing out here? Wasn't she supposed to be sleeping inside?

"Amber?!" I called out as I rushed to her side, wondering just what made her get out of the infirmary and had her sobbing like that.

She looked up when she heard me and that seemed to make her start crying even more for some reason.

"Tera… Tera… Sob…"

"What's wrong? What happened? Why are you outside here?"

"I thought… I woke up… And I thought… I didn't see you… Sniff…"

I pieced two and two together, "You thought I abandoned you and ran off?"

She nodded before hugging me tightly to her.

Wow… For her to have such a big reaction to this… I'm guessing that something like this must have happened in the past before where she actually got abandoned or something.

I patted her and made soothing noises as she calmed down, "It's ok, I'm here. I just went out to gather the loot for us."

That got her attention somewhat as she looked up at me, "Our… Sniff… Our loot?"

"Yeah. You killed those gang members right? I went to see if they had any loot on them, though I would say the most valuable thing they had was their weapons. I took those and stored them on my ship to sell later and split the profits after that. I hope you don't mind?"

She blinked a few times before giggling softly, "Ehehe… You were… Ehehehe… Doing it for me?"

I patted her head, "You were the one who fought your way through an entire freighter of enemies after all and even got hurt for it. I think this was the least I could do after that."

"Ehehehe… Tera… Ehehehe…"

Well, at least she wasn't crying anymore so that's good.

"Let's get you back to bed, shall we? You're still recovering right now," I suggested.

Instead of agreeing, she tightened her grip on me and shook her head, "Could we… Stay together for a while? I… I want to stay near you."

Oh dear, why is she so cute?

"Alright, but let's get you into bed first. I'll stay with you there ok?"

She nodded.

I picked up the blonde haired Merc in my arms and brought her back to the infirmary before laying her back down on the bed. I then pulled up a chair beside her and settled down within arm's reach of her.

When I did so, she was blushing up to her ears, probably feeling embarrassed from how she had been acting so far.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked, intentionally keeping the subject vague.

She hesitated so I quickly added, "It's fine if you don't want to, I just thought that maybe you wanted to talk about it so I asked."

Amber shook her head, "No… It's fine… You deserve to know… I just… Don't know where to start…"

I waited patiently as she took a few deep breaths before looking at me while she shifted to sit up with her back against the headboard.

"I… I had a mentor when I first started out. She taught me how to survive out here on my own… I thought she cared for me and… Well I suppose she did for a time but more as a… Nevermind, that's not important. But well, I thought she actually really saw me as one of her own… Until she stabbed me in the back and left me to die."

She hugged her legs to her chest, "We were pinned down at a station, almost like what happened with Voidshade… She made a plan where we would split up to have a better chance to survive and meet back on the ship… I trusted her and… And… When I got there, the ship was already flying off… She used me as bait to escape on her own."

Ouch…

Amber then leaned her chin on her knees and her hair tumbled around her face, hiding a part of it from view.

"At first, I thought she had no choice but to escape and would come back for me later… So I hid myself and waited… I waited and waited… Nine days passed before she came back and I really thought she came back for me. I had nothing to eat or drink all that time when she found me and do you know what was the first thing she said when she saw me in that state?"

I shook my head.

"She said 'What a waste, should have sold her to slavers when I still had the chance'... Then she took my Credit Chips and left without even checking if I was still alive."

Double ouch… 

She chuckled mirthlessly, "Ehehe… I think I got so angry that I refused to die that day and crawled out of the hole I was hiding out of pure spite. I remember surviving on garbage in that stupid station before I managed to stow myself away on a ship to escape from there and sign myself up as a Merc."

Geez… I didn't think that the blonde haired Merc I met casually tossing guys away back in the Mercenary Guild had a past like this…

I couldn't help but reach out and pulled her into a hug, "It's ok, I'm not going to leave you here like she did ok? We're partners, remember? I'll watch your back from now on, you don't need to worry about that anymore."

I'm going to be honest, having her as my partner would also be very beneficial to me since she has shown herself to be trustworthy so far. I'm honestly at a big disadvantage here since there's a lot of things about this universe that I don't know about and having a guide is better than not having one.

At least I have someone to depend on that could help me navigate through the social norms and even teach me the common sense here or I might be seen as some kind of retard.

But I'll also be lying if I say that I didn't at least feel a little bit attracted to her.

She is quite an attractive woman and all the skinship we have been having is… Ahem… Quite nice.

Now all I need to know is how I could get myself a dick or something so that I can play around with it.

Hey, I want what I want, I'm not going to be shy about it.

She already said that she wouldn't mind doing it with me so why would I be rejecting her advances? I was just being cautious since I wasn't sure how things worked in this universe yet and whether she was trying to honeytrap me or something.

Not gonna lie, I speak from experience for the last one. Still pissed about that to this day.

Amber hugged me back and sniffled into my chest, "Really? You… Won't leave me? You won't abandon me?"

"Really."

"Really, really?"

"Really, really."

"... I love you, Tera…"

"I think that's a little bit too fast for now so how about we start off as partners first?"

She giggled, "Ehehe~ Does that mean I'll have to do my best to seduce you? Or can I already get you into the same bed?"

"I don't have a dick though."

She peeked at me, "Oh… You want one?"

"Kind of?"

"That's easy to solve. There's even a Gene Splice Clinic back at Theeve station, we could probably go and get one for you when we return."

Woah, wait… That easily? You mean I could just walk in and walk out with a dick just like that?

You know what, I'm not going to question it. Let's do it.