After Boreas left, I rose to my feet and entered a nearby hallway. While this building was decent enough, the true majesty was downstairs in the basement of our house. It was the same steel-gray color as the rest of our base, but that little detail hardly mattered.

Rather than using it as a storage area, I re-purposed the basement into a workout area. While there were sparring robots for me to fight against, everything else was fairly-old fashioned: weights, a punching bag, and several other devices sat at the ready for me to use. A sparring arena dominated the center of the room, and a rack of various weapons sat off to the side. I descended the staircase that led to my personal heaven, and I couldn't halt the sigh of relief from escaping me.

Approaching the rack, I drew two long knives from it before entering the arena.

"How many combatants do you wish to  fight?" An overhead automated voice prompted me.

"Five"

"Very well."

And with that, my training exercise began. A panel opened in the wall, and five sleek, silver-skinned human-like robots walked into the arena. They each wielded different weapons, and I allowed a sly grin to spread across my face as the arena AI asked me another question: "what do you wish the difficulty level to be?"

"Ten."

My opponents threw themselves at me. Unfortunately for them, I was faster. One of my combatants, who was armed with a sword, attempted to overwhelm me with a pressing attack. However, I used my knives to my advantage and snuck in attacks while blocking the strikes thrown my way. A stab to the neck ended my first foe, and I turned to face my remaining targets.

A second robot, armed with a halberd, swung at me in wide sweeping arcs. It was as simple as getting past the wide berth of the weapon and offing my opponent with a well-placed stab to the chest.

Bullets screaming past me alerted me to the fact that my opponents were armed with more than melee weapons. Leaving one of my knives in the chest of a fallen opponent, I drew my hand gun from its holster in one fluid motion and dove off to the side. A rapid succession of bullets eliminated my target, and a headshot took out my fourth enemy.

I heard a dramatic sigh as I ducked under an axe that was swung toward me.

"So much for relaxing." Boreas remarked. "I left to make you tea, and you up and disappear to kick robot ass. I hope you know you'll be helping me repair these damn scrap heaps. I'm tired of buying spare parts, only for them to go to waste."

"What kind of tea?" I inquired, ignoring his previous remark.

"Earl Grey. It cost me an arm and a leg to buy this shit from the core worlds."

"Ah," I breathed, "You know me well."

"Course I do. We're the only people on this planet who even know what Earl grey is."

"It's my favorite for a reason."

"Why, cause it's as bitter as you?"

I rolled my eyes and flipped my enemy onto the arena mat. By this time in the match, I only had one combatant left. With a quick slash, I slit its throat and stood up straight.

"Exercise finished in: three minutes." The arena AI droned. "A new record."

I wiped the sweat from my brow and glanced at Boreas as he stood before me with a small tray of tea in his hands. I accepted one of the cups and chuckled to myself.

"Y'know, sometimes I forget you know how to laugh–or convey emotion for that matter." My partner mused while I sipped at my tea. " You hear the stories about Mortifer the death-bringer and how he makes the hardest mobster wet their pants. Who woulda thought the same guy would like Earl fucking grey tea."

"Drop it," I warned him.

"There's the Cylus I know and love." Boreas replied, holding up a flat rectangular object between two fingers. "Guess what I have?"

I stared at it and realized it was my next bounty. Alas, I didn't have my helm with me...

"It's my next bounty." I answered, finishing my tea in one gulp and setting it back onto the tray.

"Rightio. You can review this later, but your next target will be a cult leader simply known as the All-Father."

I cocked an eyebrow. "The All-Father. Getting into old Terran myths, aren't we?"

"Yeah, I know. It's cheesy as fuck, but this cult is bad news." Boreas continued as he leaned back against a wall. "They're called the Blind Ones, and they're located on a secluded planet by the name of Rykos."

"Planet's one big mountain range, last I checked." I pointed out, returning my weapons to their rightful place.

"Indeed it is. For your information, your client actually disclosed their identity."

I grunted in response and motioned for him to continue.

"His name's Jorrick Brinshiir." Boreas continued, tossing me the info shiv. "The guy's a chieftain of a big settlement on Rykos. Apparently, the Blind Ones have been abducting some of his people as of late."

"And so they want me to solve their little problem." I pointed out, disdain dripping from my voice as Boreas slammed his tea back. "Why don't they move their settlement elsewhere."

"Using that logic, you should get a new cybernetic arm or replace your bum right eye." Boreas countered, shooting me a glare that screamed "I'm not amused". "Cylus, people can't abandon ship simply because someone's antagonizing them."

I sighed. Damn...of course he had to go there.

"Just...fly over to Rykos tomorrow and do what you do best." He continued. "And seriously, at least consider getting a new eye. Leaps and bounds have been made in cybernetic technology in the past decade alone, so you shouldn't force yourself to tackle bounties half-blind."

I shrugged. "I'll look into it."

"Sure you will."

I returned his glare with my own. "You're playing with fire right now, Boreas."

He chuckled and spun the tray of now-empty tea cups on his index finger. "I know. You won't kill the funny guy though, so I'll take my chances."

I sighed when the tray listed to the side and fell.

"Shit!" my friend exclaimed, only to laugh when I caught both cups before they met their doom. "How do you do it, man? You're like a...Space ninja or something."

"Space ninjas don't exist."

"Like hell they do! Remember that one fucker dressed in the traditional garb of the shinobi that tried to kill me?"

"Yes...I remember."

"Boom! Space ninja!" Boreas countered, throwing his arms up in the air. "I should redesign your costume!"

"Practicality over flashiness." I replied, rolling my eyes in response as we started walking back upstairs.

He pouted and crossed his arms. "You're no fun..."

Why do I even bother with you? I asked myself. I answered my question a few moments later: Because he's the only person who gives a shit about me.