"Welcome back." Cain told them as Jace pulled into the hangar where he had originally repaired and modified the fighter craft ship. The ship they had taken to calling Hounds’ Teeth. Mostly because it was a bunch of ’bite’ wrapped up into a single form.

"Hey Cain, we got to test most of the ship systems. We also finished with what we needed to do with Prima Terra. We might drop by again to test more weapons but I think for now we are okay." He assured him.

"Understood." Cain answered. "Colvert and Jamal are immobile and in the infirmary. Should I send Victor, Valkyrie, and Shinobi as well?"

Jace grunted as he lowered the landing gears. "No, just send Shinobi." Jace told him. "Victor, Valkyrie, and myself will be the last three once they wake up. We should hold off on overdoing it." Jace told him as he began powering off the ship.

"Understood." Cain then cut off as the canopy opened and Shilla vaulted out of the cockpit and onto the hangar floor.

Jace finished powering it off before climbing out as well. Shilla was already opening the storage compartment. "Head to the infirmary to complete the stabilization of the others. Make sure you prepare what we need for us and Catherine Hex." He informed her as he moved to the door and opened it before pulling a cart of tools that was outside into the hangar.

"I will." She answered. "Then I will set up a green house that is contained aboard the cruiser. We should be able to manufacture the stuff eventually." Shilla pulled out a few things out of some stasis containers before walking out and grabbing several empty carts. Bringing them into the hangar room to store the things that they put in the ship storage.

Jace was peeling off the melted equipment from the underwater NeoYakuza facility. There was a clank as a melted metal hammer fell to the ground. He went to remove another piece of armor when the door slid open. West pushed in a cart of tools.

"You need my help?" West asked as she approached him. "I have been keeping an eye on the closest mining settlement."

"How?" Jace asked. "None of the scanning equipment reaches far enough." He pointed out with a chuckle as another melted piece of metal fell off.

"No, but there was a telescope. I moved it to a view station with windows that had a view of the colony. I have been using that to watch them." West explained and chuckled when he looked at her in confusion. "Yeah I know. It is very old school. But I figured it was better than nothing."

"I agree. As long as they do not get too close they are fine." Jace explained. "I want to sort ourselves before I trample into whatever is going on over there."

"That makes sense. Are you going to stabilize Catherine’s mutation as well?" West asked as she started to work on tearing off another melted piece of metal.

"Maybe." Jace answered honestly. Mostly because there was no point in lying. The only reason they were keeping her in the dark before was because of Catherine. But she was off the table for at least the next few days. "We need to run some tests to see what it would do to her before fully administering the stabilization. Am I right Shilla?"

"Yeah," Shilla nodded as she pushed the cart full of things out of the room. "There is not a single record of the stabilization being added so late. In fact after a year most subjects had died if they were not stabilized, none lived more than a few years." Shilla walked back in the room with a different empty cart. Not even halfway done with getting everything out of the storage. It was incredibly deep and spacious for such a small ship. "I am guessing she got something partially complete but not complete. There is no telling what the stabilization will do. But I can already tell you the benefits will not be nearly as if they freshly passed through a portal."

"If there are any." Jace scoffed. "Besides I am far more worried about whatever her split personality had planned. It would have been easy to merge the two at the start like we did with K. But now..." He waved his hand nonchalantly as he tore off another piece of melted metal.

"Now there is likely to be complications. We could see the split becoming worse or even becoming complete." Shilla finished for him. "Which is why we want to do it only after everything else is complete."

"I suppose that makes sense." West nodded. "But I am going to get bored quickly. So I hope you do not mind me helping out." West requested as she moved to his back and removed the last pieces of melted metal he could not physically get to. "What should I do with all this melted metal?"

"Take it to the cruiser construction hangar. We will melt them to turn them into something else." Jace explained. "Do you have any technical, engineering, or mechanical skills?" He asked as he thought of a few things he could set her up to do.

"Yeah... a few things." West mumbled. "But I figured you wanted me to do something more tedious."

"There is nothing tedious you can do." Jace determined. "Besides, if you are coming with us you might as well start learning." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Learning what?" West walked back around him and dumped a bunch of the metal onto the cart. She then began picking up the other pieces that were discarded and fell to the ground.

"Learnign various skills. Most people in our galaxy know more than just the basic combat and other skills." Shilla explained. "For example, I know how to fight, fly a ship, how to hunt and track, I also know basic medical skills, and finally I know chemistry."

"So you know a variety of things." West chuckled and crossed her arms glaring at the other woman. Clearly starting to feel competitive. "We have schools for stuff like that. I went to school for psychology. I have a doctorate."

"Heh... I am mostly self taught." Jace pointed out. "The only thing I did not learn on my own was tactics, strategy, fighting, and most combat skills." He explained. "But everything from archeology to torture. I am self taught."

"Is that... normal?" West asked, clearly impressed since she had already seen what type of work he did.

"For humans? No, but for the nanohumans in our galaxy it is a mark of not being lax in their training." Shilla began explaining. "The reason he suggested it is because not only are all of the people we brought with us being well... the best. It is also because his unit: Cerberus is the literal peak when it comes to all citizens and species under the Victorium."

"Are you a part of this Cerberus Unit?" West asked.

Shilla chuckled, "no I am not. I am from a race and grouped nation called the Centuria." Shilla closed the now empty storage about the Hounds’ Tooth. "Cain and Ja- I mean Gladiator are the only members from Cerberus and the Victorium." She flinched when Jace snapped his gaze toward her when she almost said his name.

West frowned and clearly could no longer hold back her curiosity. "Why do you keep doing that?" She asked openly as she looked between them. Jace had moved on to running a diagnostic on the Hounds’ Tooth while Shilla was about to roll out the second cart. "Why do you keep avoiding saying Gladiator’s real name?"

"That is on a need to know basis. And for the moment you do not need to know." Jace answered. "Think about what skills you want to learn while you are with us." He informed her. "For now why don’t you take one of those carts and help Shilla. Once you know what you want to do, Shilla can point you to the right person to learn from."

West pouted at being shut down. "Fine. Shilla, you clearly had sex with Gladiator or whatever his name is. How was it?" Jace was almost glad they walked out of the hangar at that moment. Especially since he could hear Shilla cackle.

Jace looked at the result of the diagnostic. "A few overheated conduits. I need to strengthen them. Some charring that just needs to be scrubbed off. Then the scanners eed to be completely reworked so they actually function. I suppose the best way to do this would be... yes that will work." He nodded to himself as he began making modifications to the streamline design he had in mind.

Instead of having a co-pilot there would be more console space and space for an AI powered robot. He sent the idea to Cain and received a confused response. He would have to be careful how he did this. Creating AI from scratch would just get him in trouble. Which was why he would get Cain’s permission first.