"Drosden warship, please respond, this is Eye in the Sky calling for one Kat Kheylana and requesting docking permissions."  The comm broadcast bounced off the hull of a ship massive cruiser.  Her own ship sat outside the bridge window, an occasional puff coming from one of the maneuvering thrusters as she kept station.

"Permission granted.  The Queen has been expecting you, Thorn."

"Roger that."  A stronger jet of gas and the five meter brick of a craft slowly rolled over, pushing itself down towards one of the hangars before slipping inside.

Stepping onto the deck gave Thorn a view of the hustle and bustle of a cavernous hangar, and she stepped around her ship, checking it over once.  The roughened hull was lit from the inside by the angry blue of her reactor core, and she resolved to get that repaired at some point.  For now, one of the mercenaries aboard appeared at her elbow.  "Anything we can do for your ship, miss?"

Big dude.  seems fairly bright, if a bit overly professional. Thorn remarked to herself, looking the man over. "Nothing I'm not paying for.  Five liters of liquid deuterium and a fresh batch of drive coolant, plus a spot welding of any stress fractures you find.  Go ahead and bill my insurance."

"Of course.  If you'll come with me, I'll show you to Kat's quarters."  The smaller one naturally followed, slim form highlighted in the skin tight EVA suit lining as she padded barefoot behind the mercenary, and she found that she barely rose to his hip.  It wasn't something she was unaccustomed to, but having to shop in children's sizes made her less than pleased with her height.  Perhaps she'd get a booster in human growth hormone at some point.

The halls were heavily decorated, and very comfortable, for a pseudo military destroyer, with art and shining metal.  The doors seemed to all work, and Thorn continually found herself pleasantly surprised.  She had thought that a pirate fleet would be cobbled together out of salvage parts like her own ship, rather than well built, elegant, and clean.  But then, she supposed that the Drosden fleet wasn't exactly the average broke pirate fleet, either.  Kat's quarters were marked by an ornate wooden door, trimmed in gold leaf and glass jewels that almost had Thorn fooled.  However, logic dictated that such things would not be somewhere so easily stolen or destroyed in combat, as they would represent considerable loss, even if the ship itself weren't terribly damaged.

The furnishings of the room were another gilded and ornate display, almost gaudy in how lavish the suite was laid out, with a gold plated wooden throne in the back center, and a small, ornately tiled pool before that.  But no matter the gilding or the actual intrinsic value of the goods hanging from the walls and ceiling, the real jewel occupied the water, and the first thing that struck Thorn's attention were the half lidded purple eyes and the thin cloth covering a moderate portion of her skin.  A large bow knot hung in the Center of Kat's chest, laced about with what appeared to be gold chain to contrast the eye-matching color.

"Oh, honey, you wear that just for me?"

"Well, I've been kinda hurting for credits recently, as stellar prospecting is only so good for the pay check, so I figured I'd come chase a bounty.  Guess who I found?"

Thorn slipped out of the suit's armor and into the pool, letting the water soak through her base layer.  "Wanna misbehave?"

Hurting for credits was an understatement.  She hadn't worked in two months and barely had the money to fuel her ship, let alone purchase the nutrient slurry that she used in lieu of food while on mission.  The fact was that she was trapped by the Eye, with the ship consuming so much of her resources on repairs and basic operating costs that she couldn't afford to do anything else.  It was time to get creative.

So she had an idea to go visit her very wanted friend and propose the idea to clear the bounty on Kat's head.  Her plan was simple.  Get Kat to wear an EVA suit, stuff her in a cargo pod, and jump out to GSU space, broadcast that she'd caught Kat and wouldn't be docking until she got paid.  She'd then take the live capture and sale bonus, call in a Drosden battlecruiser, and cause enough chaos for Kat to escape.

Thorn would follow, all for a romantic weekend somewhere deep in Rift Space where Thorn had found a habitable planet with a gorgeous view, right about at 67.75K light years and 319.915 degrees true to Earth.  One where there was nothing sapient, and no indications that anyone had ever found it.  Their own little world.

"Well, the bounty offers a bonus for you alive, so I'm gonna need to borrow you for a few days and one of your dreadnoughts on standby.  I'm gonna need some false Drosden news leaked to say you've been captured, and just to make it convincing, how would you like to be tied up?"  The last question was asked with a flirtatious smirk.

"Afterwards, a little getaway and we split the reward money."

Thorn rolled her eyes as Kat got up.  "Must you break my heart?"  At the predictable response, she got out of the pool as well, towelling off her EVA suit and following after about ten minutes.

There, she did in deed find Kat's lower half hanging out of an access panel, and couldn't resist the urge that sprang up in her mischeif.  She slammed her hands together, rubbing them furiously to heat.  She drew one back, past her shoulder, stepped forward, and rolled her hip as the hand came screaming down from the heavans flaming like a holy sword.  The impact resonated across the hangar and set several heads turned as Thorn grinned.