Chapter 97 Office duty for Luke 

They got out of the ship. Ned came over, looked at his watch and gave Luke a questioning look.

"It's quicker in a group."

"Sure. Especially if there's someone there who knows how to do the hunt, so everyone go the changing room, get fogged in and then a scan. Then you'll be taken down."

Smithie looked from the spaceship to Ned.

"How's the mission graded?"

Ned grinned.

"He's authorized to do it," she pointed at Luke. 

"Since he works for the Alliance, it's his job to write a report and evaluate the performance. Money reward will be transferred to your account."

"Money reward..." came from Liz.

"Sure, because you were chosen by him and it wasn't a direct request from the company. You get the money, not the company. "

"And how are we supposed to know that He can judge that?" came from ner hydra. 

Ned looked at the spokeswoman.

" Because I've read his service record, both his Army time and his corporate time and his core time. He's qualified. "

 They were taken to contamination, Luke then to Ned's office where he wrote the report and evaluation.

Ned looked at him. 

"Why did you take so many with you?"

" To build something up Liz and see how good the others are."

" I see, and what's come of it?"

Luke looked up.

"The operators haven't had any trouble. It's more because they're trained for this kind of thing. With the hydras..." 

He lit a cigarette.

"What, huh?"

" All but one had problems. Be it with the equipment, the weapons, the enemy's aim, working with the members and so on. "

" Of everything in your file, what else can you do?"

" Believe Shortly after, most of it. Now, after so many years, not much. Some things I remember roughly, other things I've always done better." 

He finished writing his report and sent it off. His cell phone buzzed a few minutes later. It was Gitte.

"Here."

"What kind of report?"

" Performance report? It's standard at Allianz to justify the payout."

He heard a sigh.

"How accurate is your report?"

" True, I've also written entire reports for Kia and you've praised it."

Another sigh.

"Can you also send me an assessment of the other hydrate teams?"

"When I get some material?"

" Is video enough for you or do you need to see it live?"

" Video is enough."

" Thank you" She hung up. After 10 minutes, he received an email with a link. 

He spent a good 6 hours watching everything, writing a report and sending it off. Then he zapped himself down to earth. He bought some cigarettes and a six-pack of beer and zapped himself into a house. It was eerily quiet there. He put the six-pack on the commando table, grabbed a beer and went outside, sat on the terrace steps to the beach and looked out to sea. Sipped his beer.

His cell phone buzzed again, Gitte again.

"Here."

" Um a question, why did you rate more than just the hydras?"

He sipped his beer.

"I noticed too many. "

He heard a silence.

"Alex, no. This is just for the hydras. Give me back the tablet."

"But honey, there's some of the special commandos and the regular units and oha ... ""

Luke sipped his beer. 

"Luke, how long would it take to complete the task force?"

"A week? Depends on the videos."

" Ah okay, I'll send you some."

The phone was hung up. Luke looked at his cell phone. 

" Then I'm looking forward to the payment ." 

He sat there for a while, his cell phone buzzed again, a new message with Link. Luke sighed, drained the beer, went inside, zapped back to the moon with the rest of the beer, looked for an empty terminal bay. Sat down, logged in and called up the link. It was a huge mountain of videos. 

He sighed, he'd gotten himself into it and started watching and rating. It took him over a week, interrupted by eating, drinking, peeing and sleep breaks. It took time because new things kept popping up. He sent off the evaluation, stretched with cracking bones.

 He went to the ship he had captured, thundered into an outlying sector and had a massage and haircut in a spa, ate lunch and flew back. Landed, got off, freshly washed.

Nad intercepted him.

"What have you been doing? "

" had a hackyet for lunch...?"

She looked at him askance.

" No, I mean, what were you doing down there?"

" I was writing assessments."

She sniffed.

" You smell like peppermint Luke. "

Luke grinned. 

"Yup yup, let's see what you mean."

He zapped downstairs to Alex's living room, who winced as he suddenly stood there. John ruffled his hair as he read and gave Luke a cursing look.

"By your reckoning, half of them are cannon fodder..."

Luke lit a cigarette and grinned. 

Jannet came in panting, her eyes narrowing when she saw him.

"You... "

"Me?" He looked at her questioningly.

She pointed to the tablet.

" Because of you, ¾ of the staff is annoyed at how she gets better ratings and the rest don't give a shit."

Luke looked at her questioningly.

"And what's the problem? To get better, they need feedback and superficial feedback is not enough."

"We have experts to humanize the assessments Luke!"

"You don't have to use that."

A vein formed on her forehead. 

"Tell that to the operators! Them!" She continued to get upset. " The assholes take it at face value, sit together, go over every point and discuss it!" 

Luke took a drag on his cigarette.

"They never really get any feedback from you guys and squatting together is a tradition. We've always done it that way. "

" Yeah? I can hardly imagine you sitting in a group like that."

"I've been there a few times, yes, I have my shortcomings too."

"I see, and then you had coffee and cake."

"Yes, we did team building, cooking workshops and so on. "

Her eyes narrowed and she came closer. 

"So tell me why you deemed me and the others unfit for combat."

Luke grinned.

"Because the last time you got your asses in combat missions was decades ago and you were even further before that and it doesn't count that you're hustling in the gym every week to keep the same figure on camera."

Jannet reached through Luke, passing through her. She looked at him, irritated. 

"Jannet, tell them it's a voluntary assessment. "

"Too late, they'll know it's from you through the operators."

John groaned and leaned back. Alex looked at him.

" What is it John?" 

" Too much information."

"Hmm." 

Alex looked from John to Luke.

" I don't know how to pay you Luke."

Jannet tried to grab Luke again, Luke let her through, he gave her a nudge and she landed next to Alex on the couch. 

"Oh I know what, cancel Liz damage fines. With the moon thing, her bank account is finally in the black. "

" Hhmm, but she's still 20k short of paying it off. " 

" Send me where money needs to go."

Jannet was about to say something, Luke raised his finger.

" She's broke, more than broke, they've put so much money into the house and Tyreen's education and then all the fines because of her. So Link, please."

Alex clicked on the tablet, his phone buzzed, he pulled it out of his pocket and clicked on the link, confirmed and pocketed it. Jannet stared at him, Luke looked at her as he pocketed the phone.

"One thing I want to know, Luke, where did you get the money?" came from her.

Luke grinned.

"I have a bank account in the core system," he squatted down and took a drag on his cigarette, tilting his head to the side and continuing to look at her.

"Jannet, my first years out there in space were very chaotic. I scraped together most of my money in the blood arenas. "

"Blood arenas ...? "

" Imagine the Colosseum only in alien. "

" But..." 

" Oh, you're playing with money laundering, no. I have an ID from the core systems. Theoretically, you can also pay with your account here, but I've never tried it. I've paid my taxes to the core system. "

" And why?"

" I didn't know that the account here is also valid there. " He stood up. 

" I see, but let me ask you this. Who gave you the idea to put all the money you made there into a separate account?"

Luke grinned. 

"A loan shark, I hear he's been around for a while. Specializes in the rich and corporate. "

"Uh-huh."

Luke nodded. 

" So I'm off again."

He zapped himself into a house, Liz staring at her cell phone.

"Why ... I didn't have anything ..."

Luke went to the fridge and pulled out canned coffee. 

"Liz, you better tell me why they forced so much on you?"

Liz sighed.

"Destroyed equipment, a communications room, vehicles and so on. I had to sell a couple of motorcycles to make ends meet. George tried to help out, but things never looked better for him either. Tyreen Uni cost a lot and we just wanted her to be there without any worries." 

Luke opened the can, sipped it, walked over to Liz and patted her head. 

"Relax Liz!"

"But they'll always take my money if something breaks."

"Since when?"

" Since Uther left, that's when it started. With the excuse that it's not covered by insurance and all that. "

Luke thought about it, reached for the crystal and dialed a number. Liz stared at him.

" Uh..." 

" Yeah. I thought you said I should only call if it's really important."

A laugh could be heard on the other side.

" Right, what's so important and congratulations on your status woman being gone."

Luke sighed.

" Thanks, well she's trying the lawyer."

Another laugh.

" If she goes to court let me know. I'll send one."

" Okay... but it's about something else."

" And that would be? "

Luke looked at Liz.

"What did the corporation do that Liz always has to pay for everything she breaks? "

A silence came from the other side.

"Are you still there?" 

" Yes, it's like this. They want to break her and they've almost done it."

" I see..."

"Liz was always in Uther's care. He didn't give a damn about what went to scrap. So it was paid for out of someone's coffers."

"And you know that because?" 

A sigh from the other side.

"I was trying to capitalize a bit when you guys went round, guess who intercepted me first. He mopped the floor with me and made me his employee. "

" But ... I don't want to say but you're ..."

Another laugh.

" Yeah, so what do you want and what do you give?"

Luke rolled his eyes. 

" Give, I can give you good coffee."

" Hhmm hhm okay. So?"

" Well, I want Liz to be insured..."

Silence again. 

"Tell her to accept and confirm the email from Chopper Inc."

"And then?"

" The company receives a notification that she is insured there. That they can send me the claims payments, receipts etc. Oh yes. I still want your knocked-out teeth as an extra payment."

Luke sighed. 

"Okay."

"Always a pleasure doing business with you."

The other side hung up and Luke pocketed the crystal. Liz was still looking at him questioningly.

"Uh..." came from her.

"Don't worry about it."

Her cell phone buzzed and she looked at it, confused.

"Chopper Inc? "

" Your new insurance company."

" But I ... "

Luke tapped his nose.

" Let's just say it cost me four bags of Leo's coffee and my broken teeth, which together are worth a few billion."

She stared at him in horror.

Luke clicked on the link, a window opened and displayed a confirmation.

She looked at him in panic. 

"There, now it doesn't matter if you accidentally break something."

"But..."

Her phone buzzed, it was Gitte. Luke picked up the receiver and answered.

"Liz? Alex said you're suddenly with an insurance company, why? You're insured with the group."

"First step to staying out of debt."

"Luke... what are you doing with her phone?"

" I wanted to see how you reacted, that's all. "

" Then tell me what's going on Luke and where the hell is Akbar 7?"

Luke grinned.

" Like I said, so Liz can reboot and Akbar 7 is a moon in the core system. Lots of holofilm studios there and betting shops."

"Uh-huh, wait a minute. She's insured with aliens? That can't be right! "

"Why wouldn't that be possible? I'm insured there too, the owner doesn't care that it's so far away."

" Luke..."

"Oh come on, isn't it enough that you gutted her? She just has new insurance, when she goes to the doctor they go over it, when around the car etc etc etc.... "

"Her health insurance..."

" True, and still you have to pay extra for a lot of things. "

Sarge came in and looked at Liz confused from his cell phone.

"Honey ... I got this weird email ..."

Luke grinned.

"Click on it, it's harmless," came from Luke in Liz's voice. Liz wanted to say something, but he covered her mouth. Sarge was engrossed in his cell phone, clicked on it, looked at the display in horror, looked up.

"Luke WTF!" came from Gitte

He hung up with a grin. 

Sarge looked at him questioningly, saw him holding Liz's mouth.

"Will you at least tell me what this is about? "

Luke handed the phone back to Liz.

" Well, to make a long story short. I've given you better insurance."

" The corporation insured us Luke."

He sat down on the couch.

" George, you don't have to work extra shifts anymore."

He continued to look at him questioningly, then at Liz.

" What does he mean by that?"

" He made sure my debt was gone."

He looked at her, his eyes lit up and he hugged her. 

" And what about the insurance? "

" So Liz doesn't get any new stuff, that's all."

He lit a cigarette.

"But Luke ... Can't they just cancel us?"

Luke grinned.

"No. The company's busy sending out all the stuff at the moment."

The Ai appeared on Sarge's watch and looked at Luke, grumbling.

He grinned.

"Yeah?"

Piles of files appeared beside her.

"Thank the two in the house, not me. They wanted an evaluation. "

She was still looking at him grimly. 

Luke reached for the handheld.

"Hey Luke..." came from Liz.

He looked up.

"You still haven't told me why you're doing all this for us... me."

"You're my family Liz. Without family, you have nothing. "

" There are enough people who have made it without..." 

Luke clicked through the game.

" It's about when you're all alone, have nothing and no one. "

Tyreen came in with a bundle of letters in her hand and Bonny in tow.

"Luke, Bonny wants to upgrade your security system for her Master's exam."

Luke didn't look up.

" Why?" 

Bonny stormed up to him.

" Luke, because it's out of date." 

" I have a gun."

" See, he's like an old man, worse than Dad."

Sarge looked at him questioningly.

"Right, Dad, according to Nad, Luke's an old man anyway, older than you or Grandpa."

Luke grinned.

"Bonny, if I say yes. What can I expect then?" 

Bonny beamed, took her tablet out of her bag and hastily sat down next to him.

Tyreen handed him the letters.

"Here's the mail, why did I get an email like this?"

Luke took the letters.

" Did you click on it?" Liz asked.

" Yes. I thought it was something about motorcycles."

Luke grinned. He flipped through the mail, only advertisements except for a subpoena.

" So I would change the system to Kikamura security system, install the sensors, cameras from Hakate.... " 

Luke looked at her.

"Are best in the respective areas."

" I see, and why not Miles'?"

" Well, because they are used by my father for spying and are so-so. "

" Well, get my permission then, what's the catch in all this?" 

Bonny looked at him from the table and smiled innocently.

" Uh... the price? "

"The price?"

Liz took Tablet from Bonny, looking at him.

" 700k just for the materials?"

Sarge looked at the tablet too.

" The software will cost the same." 

Luke opened the letter with the subpoena. Let him have a look.

" Hmmm."

It really was a summons to court for money in the divorce. Closed the letter.

" You have my permission Bonny."

" Really?" She looked at him, beaming.

" Luke, that costs a fortune..." came from Sarge. 

"You only have money once, so" he took out the crystal, took a photo of the letter and sent it off.

"And what about the letter?"

"Kia is going to court and I've sent a photo of the letter to my lawyer."

He clicked through the game again.

"Last I heard, she got a couple of star lawyers to go with her. " That came from Sarge.

"Would have been surprised if she hadn't. "

"But yours is the smear lawyer?" 

Luke looked up, thinking.

"No, it's one from my insurance company."

They looked at him in amazement.

"It'll be fine. "

" But ..."

" They've already emptied the bank accounts of tougher nuts."