Kurt groaned as he regained consciousness, something that was a pleasant surprise as he hadn’t expected to. He was surrounded on all sides by something… soft, fleshy. It was dark too, and he fumbled, trying not to fall deeper.

“Kurt?” Nea asked, her voice muffled.

“Over here,” he managed.

“Dude, where are we?” Joey’s voice called from somewhere below him.

He sighed, “Joey you’ve been small enough by now that you should recognize this…” We’re trapped in someone’s tits, he thought, fighting a laugh.

Light opened up overhead as Jolene pulled her tight fitting sports bra away from her chest, “wakey wakey bugs!” she called cheerfully, reaching in for them. Her fingers plucked them out one at a time, not caring as they cried in surprise at being dangled roughly. Kurt was the last to go slipping from between her sweaty globes with a wet slapping sound as she brough him down on coffee table in front of one of the lounge’s couches.

“Dude, we made it!” Joey shouted excitedly.

“Thank you, truly!” Telma said, beaming.

“What happened? Did we win the battle?” Nea asked, standing up shakily and trying to take a commanding air with the gigantic bounty hunter.

“Battle’s still going on,” Jolene said, gesturing to the lounge viewport as she opened a bottle of qet. “A bunch of alliance ships showed up and started trashing the squids right after you guys brought the spire down…”

“That’s wonderful!” Nea said excitedly, “put me through so I can-“

“Oooohh no,” Jolene chuckled, “we did our part princess, and they’re just mopping up now anyways.” She kicked her feet up on the table, rocking their worlds and causing them to stumble as she watched the last of the fight, “We’re just going to sit here and watch our tax dollars at work,” Jolene said with a smile.

“Miss Jolene,” Amra said nervously, “I usually handle your finances, and you don’t pay tax-“

“It’s just an expression,” Jolene laughed. She frowned suddenly, looking at the four tiny captives on her ‘table, “Hey, do you think we’ll have to pay taxes on the reward for these four?”

“You’re still going to turn us in?” Kurt asked incredulously, “after we fought together?”

“Well yeah,” Jolene laughed, “I mean, you four are cool guys and gals and all, but business is business.”

“The hyperlanes are cleared of Cephalo activity Miss Jolene!” Meana called from the ship’s cockpit.

Jolene shrugged, “anyone got anything else they want to do on Alrec before we go?” The group was silent, and Jolene nodded, “Okay Meana, Zeta Prime!” They watched as space began to stretch and contort outside the viewport.

Jolene started to stand up, “hope you four don’t mind being tiny, it was the easiest way to get you off the Blade before it took out that big squid’s ship. Some of the crew and the human volunteers made it off before the end, so that’s something I guess.” She shrugged, “What the hell happened on there, anyway?”

“It was a Cephalo,” Kurt muttered, “a big one, he said we knew each other…”

“He said?” Jolene asked, “look kid, they don’t talk, they just scream at most. Are you sure you weren’t getting a little delirious when the ship’s air was venting?”

“That thing fucking talked,” Joey agreed, “it was able to control Telma and Nea, all the Zetans, even when Kurt and I were right next to it.”

“Shit,” Jolene muttered, “some kind of super squid?”

“An old one,” Kurt said, “I think anyway, he said he fought humans before, a long time ago.”

“Well, if that’s the case I’m guessing they won,” Jolene said, looking at the lines and colors of hyperspace beyond the viewport. “How’d you kill it?”

“It… it tried to make me kill Kurt,” Nea said slowly, “but… I couldn’t do it.” She looked up at him and smiled, her blue eyes meeting his, “I guess, my grandfather’s blood is thick enough in me yet, whatever it is that lets you resist them… some of it was in me too.”

Telma leaned over and gave Joey a kiss, “thank you for saving me Joseph,” she said with a small smile.

“Hey, just a normal day’s work for a space cowboy,” Joey laughed.

“A space cowboy?” Kurt asked, eyebrow raised, “is that what you’re calling yourself now?”

“I feel like I’ve earned it,” Joey said defiantly.

“No, you’re more like space buckaroo, space ranch hand,” Jolene said, tipping her black hat, “something like that… but you’re on your way kid.”

…

Empress Tetra Brightstar sat upon her throne, the aches and pains in her body dulling as she let herself sit. Tayla and Kavrala stood before her, both of their bodyguards behind them. Smith was at Tayla’s side, holding her hand as they waited for the Empress to speak.

“I have been appraised of all that happened while I was incapacitated,” the empress said coolly, “I am pleased with some of what you have done…” She glanced at Kavrala and frowned, the eldest princess seemed to wither under her gaze, “and there were decisions made that I was upset to learn about.” She steepled her fingers, “I… have many things to consider.”

“Mother,” Kavrala said defensively, stepping forward, “I made the decision with the human leaders, we had all agreed-“

“I am glad to see you have learned to cooperate with humanity,” Tetra said in exasperation, “but humans are just as capable of foolhardy and monstrous decisions as any Zetan. This folly nearly cost the lives of a billion citizens of our empire!”

She turned to Tayla, “I must admit, I am impressed with the responsibility you took Tayla,” she smiled, “perhaps you will join me when I meet with the human diplomats later?”

Tayla gulped, looking to Smith, “I uh… I don’t know mother, it’s not really my-“

“Send us a time,” Smith said, smirking at her reaction.

“I will,” Tetra said with a smile, “you are dismissed…” she waved her hand, watching them go. Her heart sank, she was planting the seeds of resentment and future conflict in her own family, as empresses before had… it was the nature of things it seemed… But much as she wanted to be a mother, she was also an Empress.

“Your majesty,” a Zetan guard said, approaching the side of the throne, “The bounty hunter Jolene Masterson has entered the system, she wishes to speak directly to the Empress.”

“Tell her I will meet her on her vessel as soon as I can,” she said.

The guard started, “we are… going to her?”

“Yes,” Tetra said bitterly, “some things need to be dealt with in person.”

…

The Empress’s own yacht was slightly bigger than Jolene’s, with an escort of military ships that circled them ominously as the boarding tube stretched between the two vessels. Tetra stopped, halfway through it, and turned to her guards.

“Wait for me on our ship,” she said firmly.

The mix of humans and Zetans looked at each other, “Ma’am,” a human began uneasily. “We don’t think it wise to leave you alone so soon after-“

“That is an order,” she growled. Without waiting to see if they obeyed, she turned back towards Jolene’s ship, marching forward alone.

…

Jolene had been kind enough to return the four of them to their normal heights, though she’d forced Nea and Telma to their knees, hands cuffed behind their backs.

“The Empress is coming up to get you guys herself!” Jolene practically squealed, “she’s probably going to offer me a bonus…”

“M-Miss Jolene?” Zenya asked nervously, “do you want us to… hide?”

Jolene blinked, “no, fuck that, you four get out here and stand at attention!” The Zetans quickly obeyed, saluting Jolene. She quickly grabbed her shrink ray, sending them back up to the usual Zetan heights from their four-foot statures. They looked at her, slightly disappointed, “I’ll make you guys little again when she’s gone.”

The door hissed open, and the Empress stepped through, alone. Jolene craned her neck, looking for additional bodyguards, but there were none. The empress spotted Nea and Telma, and walked over to them, wincing slightly as her injuries flared.

“Please release them,” she said quietly.

“Sure thing your majesty,” Jolene said, hitting a button on her wrist computer. The cuffs fell off Nea and Telma, and they stood up, rubbing their wrists and shifting over to Kurt and Joey, who watched silently.

The Empress walked towards Nea, and she winced, as if about to be struck, but instead Tetra embraced her daughter, hugging her tightly as they looked on.

“Nea,” she whispered. “I… I thought I’d lost you, that you had become this dark and terrible person…” She parted from her daughter, tears in her eyes, “I was angry,” she said quietly, “at you, at myself… but then? I was worried. I worried what these people would do to you, would make you do to others, things that would consume you…” She smiled, “I… it makes me happier than you can ever know to see that you have come through this whole, and not just in body…”

“Mother,” Nea sobbed, and the two embraced again. “I’m so sorry,” she wept, “I… I didn’t think it would happen like this; I didn’t think people would try to kill you for things I did…”

“I am alive,” Tetra said with a sigh, separating from her daughter, “I had hoped to keep my birth organs for a few more decades, but alas it was not to be.” She gave a small smile, “Zeta Forever would have tried to kill me eventually regardless of what you did Nea… you are not blameless, but you cannot hold yourself entirely to blame.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her,” Kurt muttered.

Tetra’s gaze fell upon the two humans, and she frowned, “You’re that Earth boy who kissed my daughter in front of the entire galaxy?”

“The one and only,” Kurt said with a nod.

“Dude, Kurt, that’s the Empress, maybe be cool?” Joey hissed.

“Is it true that you received this scar saving my daughter from an army of one hundred Cephalo?” The empress asked curiously, running a finger up Kurt’s cheek.

“From the sound of things, everyone who tells the story adds an extra squid,” Kurt laughed with a shrug.

“There was one mother,” Nea said with an embarrassed smile, “but he was very brave…”

Nea looked down a moment, “Mother… I would like to discuss Telma and I’s punishment…”

“Indeed,” Tetra sighed, “your whereabouts are currently unknown Nea… and while your actions were heroic, you also caused much of what has transpired. Many are still calling for your execution and imprisonment, and I do not think I can protect you from them…”

Nea’s eyes fell, “I… I understand, might I say goodbye to Kurt?”

“Unnecessary,” the Empress said, “though you should help him prepare a eulogy for your funeral.”

Nea’s heart skipped a beat, “M-My what!?”

“It’s my final gift to you,” Tetra said with a sigh, “I’m… allowing myself to be your mother, and not your empress, something I should have perhaps done more often.” She glanced at Telma, “Princess Nea Brightstar and her bodyguard Telma died on the bridge of the Blade, defending it to their last breath as they rammed it into the Cephalo flagship.”

“Mother?” Nea whispered, “are you… sure?”

“Alive? You are a criminal,” Tetra explained, “a princess who at best fixed her own messes is what they will say… Your trial alone could take a decade, to say nothing of the human response… kissing that young man over there and broadcasting it all over the universe gave you a surprising boost of popularity, but not all are forgiving.” Tetra smiled sadly, “Dead? You are a martyr, a brave princess who realized her mistakes and unified humans and Zetans to save a planet.”

“I understand,” Nea said softly, “Mother… thank you.” She smiled and turned to Telma, “will you come with me? Wherever it is I might be going?”

“I’ve nowhere else to go but where you’re going,” Telma beamed.

“And I’m with her!” Joey shouted eagerly.

The three of them looked at Kurt expectantly, and he gave a small smile, “Well hell, I guess I’ll tag along…”

“Touching,” Jolene said, glancing at the Empress, “now let’s talk about payment? I’ve got places I want to go too, and none of them are cheap!”

“One billion credits was your agreed upon reward,” the Empress said, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ve also got Governor Lenais, and about a hundred other high ranking Zeta Forever members, I feel like that’s worth a bonus.”

The Empress raised an eyebrow, “Agreed,” she said, clearly impressed, “you really are the best Miss Masterson…” She paused a moment, “what do you say to one million credits for each of them?”

“I feel like two is fair,” Jolene said, crossing her arms, “I got in a battle with an army of Cephalo on this job you know.”

“Should I expect a bill for each plasma bolt fired?” the Empress asked, starting to grow annoyed, “you will take one million credits each for them, or we will start to discuss whether this ship counts as part of your reward.”

Jolene smirked, “I guess I’ll just shut my big fat mouth.”

“Good,” the empress said, “now, where are they?”

Jolene just laughed.

…

The mansion had been shrouded in darkness at the bottom of Jolene’s hamper for days, Lenais huddled against the wall of her bedroom, the ever present musky odor of the human’s feet permeating everything. Somehow she never got used to it, and it made the knowledge of where they’d been forced to get their water from even more unbearable… She shuddered.

Light suddenly broke overhead, and she looked up as the world opened. Jolene casually untied the top of the sock, gently setting it on the countertop of the lounge’s kitchenette. She beckoned the Empress over, and the Zetan monarch looked down at the tiny mansion in shock.

“Oh thank the stars,” Lenais almost wept. Like many in the mansion she’d been terrified that the human had simply forgotten them, or deliberately left them to their fate. The prospect of spending life at a near microscopic size, trapped forever within a pile of the human woman’s soiled clothes… it had been close to driving her mad. “I’ll confess!” she shouted, though the giants overhead would never hear her. “PLEASE! I’LL SAY ANYTHING, JUST PUT ME IN A NORMAL PRISON!”

Tetra squinted at the specks moving around the tiny mansion, “quite a creative use of our technology,” she muttered.

“You can have all of them, but I think I’m going to keep the governor’s mansion,” Jolene said, eyeing it.

“Ah, you intend to regrow it?” The empress asked, leaning back up.

Jolene snorted, “after where it’s been? The smell of my sock is never coming out of it, I’m keeping it as a little memento of this whole thing. It’ll make a fine desk ornament.”

…

Adam sighed, cleaning out his desk and filling a cardboard box with his possessions. He and Kira had made it three blocks before being apprehended by police, and while he knew he wasn’t a hardened criminal by any stretch, he’d still been somewhat embarrassed at how quickly their flight from the law had ended.

“Need a hand?” Kira asked, leaning against his doorframe and smiling. She dangled a shrink ray from a keychain.

“Good to see they finally released you,” Adam said with a smile, “I wonder, did you get the same speech I got?”

“The human fleet always intended to save Alrec,” Kira said with a smirk as she parroted the talking points they’d been given, “the delay was merely a tactical maneuver to make sure all of the Cephalo were in the system.”

“And we’re both resigning from our positions to spend more time with our families,” Adam laughed. “When he told me, Manford’s face was so red I thought he was going to have a heart attack!”

“It seems a poor reward for two people who saved a planet,” Kira said bitterly, “fired in all but name, and blacklisted from government and military work for life.”

“They aren’t giving us criminal charges,” Adam said with a shrug, “they mostly just want to sweep us under the rug and forget about us I think… which is fine by me.” He sighed and looked out the window, “I spent so much time here, putting everything into this job, into promoting friendship between our peoples…” He turned to her and smiled, “but now that I’ve lost it all… I just don’t feel anything!”

She frowned, “really? You’re not even a little upset? I’ll admit, this isn’t how I saw my career ending.”

“I’ve realized that the only thing I ever got from this job that made me happy, was you,” Adam said with a smirk, “and as far as I know? I’ve still got you.”

“You do,” Kira agreed, a war flutter in her chest as she returned his smile.

She aimed her shrink ray at his box of possessions, tapping it once and reducing it to the size of a rubiks cube. She brought it up to him next, and he didn’t flinch or even act surprised when the beam arced out, whiting out his vision as she reduced him to a few inches tall. Casually grabbed his box of possessions, dropping it into her purse. She bent down to pick him up next, her fingers curling around him as she stood back up.

“Can I at least have a choice of where I’m going this time?” he asked as she regarded him playfully.

“You always choose breasts,” Kira said, sighing in exasperation.

“It’s the best place to ride around in!” Adam insisted, “anywhere else and I need to get my suit dry cleaned!”

“I’ll pay for it,” Kira said with a smirk, bringing him down to the waist of her pants. She pulled the fabric away, letting him see in where she was wearing earth style cloth panties. The elastic was pulled away, and the smell of her arousal hit him like a gust out of a furnace as she released him, letting him tumble in. The world went dark, and he was quickly pushed against her warm opening. Kira hissed with pleasure once, then collected herself.

She took one last look around at Adam’s empty office, then smiled, walking down the hall and out of the Cultural Department office for the final time.

…

Nea’s funeral was held on Zeta Prime, in the massive public square in front of the imperial palace. The entire royal family was in attendance, though from their expressions Kurt wondered exactly who was in on the secret of Nea’s survival, and who wasn’t. The rest of the crowd was a mix of various dignitaries, earth officials, human and Zetan captains of industry… celebrities… He was seated next to Joey, who was doing his best to remain stoic. Both of them were in customary black suits and ties, and a traditional Zetan funeral dirge played slow and mournfully over the proceedings.

“Why don’t you have to give a eulogy?” he hissed at Joey.

“They made me do one at Telma’s yesterday,” he replied, “and I didn’t kiss a princess on an intergalactic broadcast,” Joey replied with a quick smirk, “act sad, you’re supposed to be mourning the Zetan princess you fell in love with, star crossed lovers and all that shit.”

“You say goodbye to your family yet?” Kurt asked quietly.

“Yep,” Joey said with a shrug, “I need time to process everything that happened, so I’m going to go explore the colonies for a while. Mom understood, dad thinks I’m going to be back in a few days… well, I guess I’ll write, you?”

“I’m heartbroken after the death of my one true love,” Kurt said, forcing himself not to smirk, “mom and dad understand, I need time to heal.” He rolled his eyes, “you know what’s fucked up? Hardly any girls in Clearwater would give me the time of day before all this, but I woke up this morning to a dozen girls asking me if I needed someone to talk to.”

A pair of Zetan palace guards approached him and Joey, motioning for Kurt to follow them. With a sigh he sat up, walking down the central aisle to a large podium that had been prepared overlooking the crowd.

He hadn’t wanted to speak, but everyone had insisted he had to. The fact that he knew Nea was actually alive had tempered some of his… emotion, on the topic. The whole thing felt somewhat farcical, and as he looked at the speech the Earth cultural department had prepared for him on the teleprompter, it took all of his self-control not to laugh as he recognized the line they’d started it with. It was one he’d heard numerous times; from an old film his father had always liked to watch with him in his youth.

“Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels,” he began to the crowd, “Nea’s was the most human…”

…

Kurt loosened his tie, sighing as the small shuttle lifted off the ground, bringing him back up to Jolene’s ship in orbit. He wasn’t sure how to feel about the bounty hunter, but she was letting them all stay on her luxury starship for free, and had apparently worked out some deal with the Empress to take the four of them somewhere far away from Zeta Prime.

“Docking,” one of Jolene’s Zetan crew, Kurt hadn’t quite gotten all their names yet, said neutrally as the shuttle connected with the main yacht.

“Thanks for the ride,” he muttered, stretching and standing up.

“No problem!” the Zetan said eagerly, “all of us who serve Miss Jolene love serving humans! Even if she’s our favorite!”

Frickin weirdos, he thought not for the first time. I guess if they’re happy then whatever…

“If I may ask, when is Mr. Joey going to return to the ship?” The Zetan inquired.

“He’s got some stuff he wants to do on the surface,” Kurt said.

“Is Jolene around?” he asked the Zetan as they stepped into the ship’s lounge.

“No Mr. Kurt,” the Zetan said, “she’s visiting the Earth colonization department offices on Zeta Prime.”

Kurt rolled his eyes, she’d been talking endlessly about buying a colonization charter for a planet, but even with a billion credits in her pocket, Kurt was skeptical. Most colonies were started by corporations, groups of investors, a single individual having one was unheard of. He’d never spent a great deal of time thinking about the way Human colonies were structured, supposedly four planets were “full members” of United Earth, with populations of five hundred million or more, but there were dozens of smaller worlds that were being settled by private individuals, corporations, or even a handful of nation states. Most colonies didn’t have enough people to matter.

“I’ll be in my room,” he said, waving dismissively at the four-foot tall Zetan. He walked through the carpeted luxury ship, sighing and unbuttoning his shirt, hefting his black jacket over his shoulder. He entered the suite to the hiss of the door.

“I loved the eulogy,” Nea said with a smile, laying on the bed in nothing but that webbed Zetan underwear. “I had to watch the whole thing of course, it’s not every day a girl gets to watch her sisters all talk about how great she was.”

Kurt smirked, “I didn’t write the eulogy, and I’m pretty sure your sisters are in on your ah… death.”

Nea frowned, “are you sure? Kavrala hasn’t said anything nice to me in years, and she called me a brave warrior.”

“From what I understand, she’s in deep shit,” Kurt laughed, “she tried to hang us out to dry I guess, she was really sucking up to me in front of your mom, even called me the next Leonard the Great, your granddad I guess?”

“They don’t usually call him The Great,” Nea mused, “but…” she thought a moment, “he had that same yellow hair as you do.”

“I don’t need to ask what color eyes he had,” Kurt said, meeting Nea’s blues with a smile.

“It’s strange,” Nea said, a small smile on her face as she regarded him, “I’m… I’m no one now, Princess Nea is dead. I’m just some Zetan named Nea now…” She reached for her shrink ray, enjoying the brief look of suspicion on Kurt’s face as she adjusted it. “Are you still so eager to be my pet, now that I’m not royalty?”

“Being totally honest?” Kurt said with a smile, “I wasn’t even one hundred percent sure you were a princess that first time you pinned me under your feet, I was pretty sure you were just some nutjob Zetan, I mean what kind of Zetan princess attacks Clearwater?” he chuckled, “Like, New York, hell even Des Moines, that’s where a princess would land to subjugate humanity.”

“Clearwater was as good a city as any to begin my subjugation of humanity!” Nea mockingly protested, “it had the best human in the galaxy!”

“The best?” he laughed.

“Only the very best humans are worthy to serve as pets and toys beneath a Zetan princess’s feet!” Nea said, a wicked grin tracing across her face as she leveled her shrink ray at him, “and you Kurt Miller of Clearwater, are the best!”

Kurt blinked as the familiar beam arced out at him, and a moment later he was staring up at their bed, a rising monolith above him. The massive smug green face appeared, peeking over the mattress with a giggle.

“The very best human in the galaxy,” Nea repeated, “and he’s mine!” She heaved herself over the bed, standing up over him like a green colossus.

“Nea,” Kurt said hesitantly, “maybe let me get out of this suit and-“

He grunted as her soft toes pinned him, and he felt an erection rising in his pants as she scrunched those bare digits around him. The slight grime of Nea’s toes was coating him quickly, bathing him in the slightly vinegary smell of her feet as she pressed him into the carpet. Nea’s toes gently worked him into a very familiar position, his head pinned between her big and long toes.

“Fuck,” he grunted as she began grinding her soft heel against him.

“Just accept it Kurt,” Nea giggled, “you’re not just a perfect human for your bravery, but also because you instinctively know your place!” She gave a smug giggle, leaning over him slightly, “just let your seed spray, ruin those pants and I’ll strip them off you like the doll you are!”

“N-No!” he shouted, gripping her toes as he tried to fight her commands.

“This feeble attempt at rebellion is another reason why I love you Kurt,” Nea said softly, “but we both know you’re going to give in.” She ground her soft sole against him, a rhythmic pattern against his pants that caused him to go cross eyed as he tried to fight his own body.

“Just accept that these clothes are ruined,” Nea said dismissively, “you won’t need them again, it’s a worthy sacrifice to be ground beneath my heel as we both know you desire.”

“Fuck me,” Kurt muttered, feeling himself spasm beneath her and cum in his pants as she gently rocked her massive foot over him.

“Good human,” Nea said with a victorious grin, “I’m no princess, so I suppose you aren’t a consort but… I will claim you, by whatever means are common among you humans.” She pinched his head between her toes again, “you are mine!”

Kurt gasped in the post orgasm bliss, his suit ruined by the mix of her sweaty foot and his own cum. He looked up at the Zetan princess who held his heart, and he smiled.

“I’m yours,” he agreed.

…

Jolene waited impatiently in the colonization department office. The Zeta Prime branch was mostly used for resolving disputes between Humans and Zetans regarding the settlement of recently discovered planets. It was unusual to see someone here interviewing for a colonization grant, and an individual no less.

Brandon Calder had gotten the job as a political favor, his father had married a Zetan woman, and while he had a human skin tone, his pointed ears and yellow eyes betrayed a Zetan heritage. Zeta Prime had been an odd transition after growing up on Earth, but whatever prejudice against his human heritage there might be, he found it overwhelmed by the Zetan female interest in his male genitalia.

“So,” he began, “you want to start a colony and… you’re willing to pay the entire licensing cost yourself?”

“Damn straight,” Jolene said with a grin, tilting her hat and kicking her leather boots up on his desk.

“Hmm…” Brandon muttered, his pointed ears twitching, “well, the department has several worlds within your budget available… most have fairly extreme climates.”

“A desert world,” Jolene said eagerly.

“Here’s one,” Brandon said, “the pre-settlement probe seeded it with standard Earth desert wildlife roughly twenty years ago, do you like saguaro cactuses, scorpions, and rattlesnakes?”

“Fucking love ‘em,” Jolene said excitedly, “what’s it going to set me back?”

“Eight hundred million credits,” Brandon said, expecting her to balk.

“Done,” Jolene said, “name it New Tombstone.”

Brandon blinked, “Uh… okay, it will take a few days, but… I’d like to congratulate you, colonial governor of New Tombstone…”

…

“We’ll need to plot a hyperlane to it,” Jolene said, explaining her purchase to her own crew, and Telma, Nea, Kurt, and Joey. “It’ll be a good two years at least, we’ll need to place beacons, set up landing spots on planets with breathable atmospheres…” She grinned, “and who knows? There’s all kinds of strange lifeforms out there, space pirates fleeing civilized space, maybe a squid or two.”

“So where do we fit in?” Kurt asked, leaning against a couch in the Tony Montana’s lounge.

Jolene shrugged, “you four are pretty hardcore, I saw that myself over Alrec, and I can give you your own plots when we get to my new planet.”

They all looked at each other, “Anyone else coming?” Joey asked, “no offense, but nine of us trying to settle an entire planet seems… well, ridiculous.”

“I’m sure that in a few years, once we’ve got the hyperlane set, we’ll be flooded with settlers,” Jolene said with a grin, “for the hyperlane planning I’ve got a few other applicants, there’s a human-zetan couple who apparently used to be pretty important in the Cultural Department who want in. If they’re serious, that’s the beginning of our own hyperspace convoy!”

“I’m in,” Joey said, “I could use a couple years away from it all.”

“Agreed,” Telma said, draping an arm around him.

“Nea?” Kurt asked, looking at her with a smile.

“I’m not afraid to face any frontier,” Nea said eagerly, “so long as you’re with me!”

Jolene grinned, “it’s settled then, the universe is ours… full of danger and wonder and riches…”

Kurt and Nea shared a glance, smiling at one another. Joey and Telma echoed the gesture, and Kurt couldn’t help but notice the look that passed between Jolene and her Zetan crew.

“To boldly go,” Kurt muttered under his breath.

THE END