Chapter 84 Giving food to the best and most beautiful pet

Luke looked at the bracelet, touched it and entered the coordinates of where he wanted to go. It clicked and he was hovering in the air over Hawaii.

"Ha... The antigravity system was worth the money."

He looked around, floated down to the main island. Stopped above his family's houses. 

It was quiet, he floated closer and could hear his family. Floated to his grandfather's house, he could see into the house from the beach. They were arguing. 

The doors were closed. 

He floated down, stopped a meter above the ground. It was a while before anyone saw him. He had his hands behind him. Gitte came out, stared at him.

"Yes. Good morning, I hope you all had as adventurous an evening as I did. "

She looked at him.

"Why are you hovering?"

Luke grinned and lit a cigarette. 

" I was denied access to the corporate compound, the air is a neutral space."

"Huh?"

He blew out a cloud.

"I was kicked out, literally. Everything was taken from me. I spent the last 400 bucks on a phone call. Where's my mother, I still want to say goodbye." 

She looked at him, overwhelmed.

"She went to the clinic with your sister, what do you mean..."

Luke flew off in the direction of the clinic. He arrived just as his mother and sister were coming out of the building and heading for the car. Luke stopped in front of them, hovering. They looked at him with irritation. 

"Luke!" 

He smiled.

" I'm off again, mom, to the core system. There's always something to do."

" But..."

" I've been away too long, Mum."

He took on his original form. Her eyes widened.

" You look like this ..."

" Time passes differently in the core system, Mum. "

Kathy looked crestfallen. Luke patted her head.

"What else is wrong, little sister?"

"He's on the loose again, and at the latest when he's healthy. He'll have pounced on me and the others again."

He patted her head.

"Good. Then I can make good on my threat."

"Wait Luke ... " came from his mother.

He hugged her and then Kathy.

"They fired me, Mom, because of Johnny. I love you both. "

He let go of her and pulled away.

"What do you mean, fired? Luke ..." He reached for her cell phone, quickly clicked through the system. Found the addresses of the four from yesterday. Gave it back to her.

"You can check for yourself, Mom, so now I'm going to kill the four and not be interrupted."

He shot off, flying to the addresses of the four. He grabbed the first one and shot to where the sharks were. He thought about how he could attract the sharks. 

He saw a shark fin suddenly appear, a grin appeared on his face.

"Berta!" he threw the first one into the water. After a short scream, he was pulled down. 

He picked up the other three and threw them at Berta, coming closer to the water where Berta was doing her laps. 

"You've grown up, Berta." 

Berta swam around the floating hatch. As he approached the water, Berta stopped, crouched down and held out his hand.

Luke wasn't worried, Berta would rather knock his teeth out than bite him because of the crystals. 

She jumped out of the water with her mouth wide open. Luke dodged and reached for her. The antigravity unit was reaching its limits.  He grinned as Berta wriggled.

"Oh, you are and always will be the most beautiful. " 

He gave her a kiss on the nose, stroking her head. 

" I'll have to see if Teheen will let me take you with me."

Berta was calm, but she was starting to get short of breath. He let her back into the water. Where Berta stopped for a moment and then disappeared into the depths. 

"I say best pet I ever had" He hadn't had a pet, but that was beside the point.

He flew home to his mother, Kathy stood in the garden looking up at the sky as Luke approached. 

"Luke!" 

He smiled.

" Now they can't hurt you anymore. "

" But ... you ..."

He smiled and stroked her cheek. 

" You're worth it, sis, take care of mom, will you? " 

She nodded. Luke looked to the side. Gitte stared at him darkly.

" You can't just leave like that Luke," came from her.

He floated away from Kathy.

" Really? Hhmm Let me think. Oh yeah, I'm here illegally, ID and homeless in the council area, everything I've earned has been taken from me except a paltry 400. My possessions too, all gone."

She was still scowling at him.

"Alex can ..."

Luke raised his hand.

" No. I was taken away like a criminal and locked up, and then they let these idiots go free. Please."

"There were reasons to let them go, you can't just kill people Luke..."

He grinned.

"Well, I told Bettina that if they were released, I'd kill them. Which I did and no. No one noticed and they won't show up again. "

"Why Luke? Why don't you follow the rules?"

Luke spreads his arms.

"What rules? How many years was I your executioner? "

He stepped closer. 

"I killed for too long Grandma.  You hurt Kathy and the others, a taboo. Instead of being punished. No. Slapped on the fingers and dismissed laughing. "

" Luke ... "

" I'm done here. "

" Wait, that was a hacker attack Luke..."

He looked at her, pressed his emergency bracelet and was gone.  He saw only excuses, first he checked his account, it was intact, so was his status here. Then he got drunk, ate something. Then a few jobs, doing things for the empress. 

He forgot the time, he didn't even care about it, then he was ordered to the moon by the trade alliance.  

So he got into a newly acquired junk spaceship and flew there. It was scrap because it was old, outdated and no longer worth anything. But he loved it, his first own spaceship, which even had a living unit. 

He landed on the marked area of the moon base. Switched off the engine and got out. Wiped his dirty hands on his overalls. He was constantly repairing, so his hands were only dirty because of the combat suit, short hair, but he had finally managed to grow a handsome beard, a lion's mane. 

Which he didn't want to shave off. Because company policy and palace politics. He went through scanners that reacted positively to Alliance insignia. Nothing had really changed here. The same technician, the same staff. They ignored him. 

Luke entered Ned's office, she was sitting behind her desk.

"I'm here, what's up? 

Ned looked at him, raised an eyebrow and croaked. Luke looked at himself.

"What? I had some damage to the cooling system on the flight here, it's working again. But I'll have to go to a recycling planet to get replacement parts."

She croaked for a long time.

He grinned, fished a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it.

"I told you I had an airplane."

Ned made a contemptuous sound.

"Well, a new thing like that makes itself felt. Well?"

He took a drag on the fag.

Ned looked at him in silence. Tapped something on the table and a holo window appeared. It emitted a squawk. Luke came closer and looked at the windows. 

Were news articles that were pure drama. 

"Uh-huh, hacker attack and?"

She looked at him, gurgled. He looked at the date, a few months had passed since then. Ned pulled up an article that showed his photo. Luke read it.

"So, I'm a war criminal and an undesirable person. " He looked at Ned. 

She tapped her fingers on the table.

"Way to break your fingernails. "

She sighed and qaurked. A buzzing sounded, she looked down at the table, annoyed, tapped a button and grumbled.

"Eh boss, eh, video call from Earth ..."

She mumbled, hung up. Tapped and a new holo window opened. She pressed a button on her collar. The communications center in Hawaii appeared on the screen. Luke was sitting on a sofa at the edge of the room, fuming to himself.

"What's going on?" asked a synthesized voice from Ned.

Alex came into the picture. Luke looked the wrong way. 

"I should call about the delivery Ned."

Ned tapped his finger on the table.

 " Right, you said you were bringing new products too."

" Yes, different beers and coffee."

Ned looked at Alex.

" Good. Now that you're here. I'd like to know what to make of all the items on your planet."

" Several competing corporations have ..."

" Yes yes yes Alex, you were up and running the next morning. But you're still exploiting the issue in the media. "

Alex remained silent. 

"Is he there?"

"Of course he's here. "

"Can he come down?"

" No."

" No?"

Ned leaned back and interlaced his fingers.

"Alex, before your engineered turd down there. Luke was given a decontamination facility here on the moon before he even got to the base. So he wouldn't bring any alien stuff with him. "

She tapped her fingers.

"And since, from what I've read, he's been through at least eight war zones, irradiated planets, and planets still inhabited by parasites, and he's only done standard scans. No he's not going down."

Alex seemed to ponder these words.

"And from what you can read in the media. What's he doing down there? According to your system, he's still a civilian without a system. That means he's only allowed to be in areas that don't belong to a group or the Council."

She looked at him.

"Tell him what you want Alex."

"Luke, the system said first..."

"Yes, I know, the system. That didn't say anything, but it's weird that you were there when I was beating the idiots. I was put in the security van by Bettina and ended up in the holding cell. "

Luke took a drag on the fag.

"And I know that everything that was taken went into your accounts."

" Luke..."

" Yeah? Grandpa down there, I've got nothing left. Really nothing left. Your so-called settlement for my services to the corporation was 400 points. "

"We can undo that."

Luke stood up and walked over to the table where Ned was sitting. Alex looked at him, confused.

"Don't beat about the bush, why should I go down there? "

Alex looked at him.

" If I go down there I have conditions. "

" And what are they?"

Luke took a drag on his cigarette.

"Access to my genetic material is off limits. It's already been scanned and registered by higher-ups. "

Alex wanted to say something.

"I'm officially employed by the Trade Alliance. So John can forget about it. I want the debt in my bank account to disappear. Kia has her own bank account, she doesn't even have the right to use mine." 

Alex seemed to ponder.

"If I realize you're screwing with me, I'm out of here. "

" Okay..."

" Fine. In two hours. I'll be standing in front of the immigration office I was kicked out of. " 

He pressed the hang-up button. Ned looked at him. Let out a grumbling croak.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. I'm going to sanitize myself."

He went out, turned to the disinfection chamber and typed in the cleaning program.  Fetched a spare set of clothes from his boat and went to disinfect himself. 

Came out clean after 1 ½ hours. Stowed his things, put on the wristband. Pressed the teleport button and stood in front of the immigration center. The place was deserted.