The Way Out is Through

[Clint Cross]

"Just annoyed us both." Clint rolled his eyes. "You've seen Kassie, his girlfriend, mother of his soon to be child. Freak on a literal leash."

[Liara]

“Wife.” Selene corrected. “It’s harmless and he does it because he knows it bothers you. I’m not your wife so don’t worry.”

[Clint Cross]

"Y'know it's funny they've been married for a while now, but they still act like they're dating. She wears collars to the office. Different collars mean different things. Even pregnant." Clint rolled his eyes. "Jack even gave them a small Nova class starship. But yeah... don't corrupt the young one."

[Liara]

Selene laughed, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

[Aimee Sandoval]

- Terra Alpha

"This one might a be a little bigger than you were looking at, but it will give your company room to grow," the real estate agent said as she lead Aimee off the elevator. It is 22,458 square feet. The reception area is wired for AlphaNet links, and there's a transporter bay and child care available on the first floor."

Aimee smiled, and looked around. The twins were asleep in the anti-grav stroller.

The realtor lead her into the office. "There's four private offices, a conference room, and a kitchen suite."

Aimee glanced around and nodded, "I'll take it."

* * *

Aimee sat outside her favorite coffee shop, with Olivia and Xander in each arm with a bottle propped up against her shoulder.

[Olivia Ryder]

"I had a feeling I'd find you here." Olivia said as she walked in with Lana and fixed a 'Mata Hari's poster on the door that was sliding off. "You addicted Lana to this place."

"They have the best coffee." Lana said with a laugh."Seriously!"

"Don't let Mrs. Ackers hear you say that. And I thought you liked MY coffee." Olivia said with a pout.

"You don't draw flowers in the foam." Lana countered. "And you can't bake for shit mom."

"That IS true. Although you don't need the carbs. None of us do." Olivia said and took a seat. "So... you look like you found what you were looking for. I hope you tried to get the PGD. Pretty girl discount. Or were you trying to be 'sneaky'?"

[Aimee Sandoval]

Aimee shrugged, "Nope to both. I paid the list price for the office. It's on the 56th floor literally across the street from the AlphaTech building. With the help of mom, Dougal, and my life savings I bought Galaxy Freight out of Cestus III. Malkos is retiring and his sons want nothing to do with it. So, ARS has gone from one ship to one-hundred and fifty-four ships. It's not something I can do on the kitchen table anymore." With the ijulna her coffee cup lifted off the table allowing her to drink without putting one of the twins down.

[Olivia Ryder]

"Told you those concerts and that album deal we did was worth it. Not a bad investment really, Galaxy was what I always used when I was shipping gear." Olivia said as she sipped her coffee. "Natalia thinks I should put some of my Mata Hari money into a business, something that'll keep me going when I've got writer's block or just don't feel like doing two shows a day for three weeks straight." she tucked a stray strand of blue hair under her hat. "So are you changing the name are keeping it ARS?" reaching into her purse she pulled out a cred chip and handed it to Lana who went off to get a refill of her coffee and to buy a new insulated mug. "Kirby actually might be using you soon, apparently Riddic and Jena were keeping secrets from us. Ethan's got about twenty five tons of prime redwood lumber and Jena has the structural hull and plating from about 3 starships in a storage unit near Markovia 3, that little barely a system of planets. Ethan was going to use the redwood for a house here and Jena was going to build a starship with my father. I got a bill for 398,000 credits for their storage units. Way way way the fuck overdue. Paid it of course, but we need it brought here so we can do something with it. Altogether worth a couple hundred million credits. Jena I don't blame. Ethan I'm pissed at. He's lucky we're not together because I would have left his ass over this. And he had that in storage since we got married. Never told me. He even has... well, HAD one of my cars and a shuttle in there too, I wrote them off as stolen. Beautiful custom shuttle, one of the only nice things my mother actually got for me. Wanted me to actually survive in between missions."

[Aimee Sandoval]

"I'm keeping my name. It's my company after all. I don't really have to pay Dougal back, but mom wants three-percent interest on her contribution. Isn't family awesome?" Aimee said with a smirk. "I'll dispatch the Idun to pick your stuff up tonight. They are delivering colonists to a the Casius System in the morning.

"There's an import fee for the non-native redwood. It requires a declaration of biohazard inspection too, but the inspection can be done in orbit when the Idun arrives. The hull plating requires an import form and declaration of ownership. I'll get them drawn up and Jena and Ethan will just need to sign them. I'll give Ethan the import fee once I calculate it, but the inspection is 100 credits."

[Olivia Ryder]

"Charge them double." Olivia said with a smirk. "They're both good for it. Jena wrote four of the songs on that last album, so she got almost more than I did." she cleared her throat. "Need an intern?" she glanced at Lana. "Kirby and I decided that we want to spend the rest of the year planet side, at least until this Dominus threat is over. I'm not putting anyone at risk. Course that doesn't seem to sink in with my mother's ghost. Oh yeah... she's appeared to me, given me intel and said I needed to lose weight." she rolled her eyes. "At least your's never said 'you could stand to lose a few more pounds, you're starting to get a butt.' The literal Ghost of Julie Lei tells me I'm getting a butt. My wife likes my butt as it is. I like not being so bony. I was way too skinny before. Jackson did me a favor, literal reset." she sighed heavily. "So... I think Clint and Selene found my half brother. He's cute, I'd hook the two of you up if you weren't married."