Chapter 15: Another Triumphant Return

I heard the alarm ring as I was jolted awake from my sleep.

I groaned, reaching up to tap the screen to shut it off as I slowly climbed out of bed.

Yawning, I took a moment to get my bearings as I needed to remember what I was doing before I went to sleep.

Oh right, I was on the way back to the Mining Station and I slept after setting up the autopilot to fly there.

The bed isn't really the best but at least this ship had one for long hauls like these. I'll be looking to travel to the next system once I get my things settled here anyway so that's a necessity.

Of course, I wasn't planning to stay here forever. No offence to Marten but this place has literally nothing for me since I'm not trying to become a miner after all.

I picked up the clothes that I left aside the night before and made a mental reminder that I should get myself new clothes.

Truth be told, I had some rough times the first day as I had to figure out my new body on my own. At least normal day to day activities were fine but then when I had to dress myself and stuff… Things got a bit complicated I guess.

In case you were wondering, I did take some time to explore myself in the shower and… Let's just say the experience was very different from what I was used to.

I never knew girls could… Ah… I guess I shouldn't say anything more than that.

Anyway, I doubt I could act girly or whatever so I guess I'll just behave like I normally do. Though I would still say that my experience as a head of sales also prepared me to put on different 'masks' if need be, so there's that.

Whatever…

I went ahead to tie up my hair in a ponytail. Something else I quickly realised is that long hair really just gets in the way of doing things and it gets annoying that I have to flip the hair away from my face every few seconds.

With myself properly dressed, I went to sit in my cockpit and saw that the station was coming into view.

The console in front of me told me that we would be reaching the station in another few minutes so I went ahead to open a comms channel with the station.

"This is Tera, requesting docking permissions."

A few seconds passed before I got a return answer, "Ah, hello. Boss said you're free to make use of the same dock as before since we reserved that spot for you. So go on ahead to use that one."

"Got it, thanks."

I shut off the comms wondering if they really needed to reserve a spot specially for me?

Oh well, I probably wouldn't make use of it much anyway so let's just accept it as it is for now.

I turned my ship towards the mentioned docking bay and flew through the hangar doors, landing right beside the pirate ship that I had left behind when I went out for my pirate hunting.

I could already see Marten and the miners waiting there for me, most likely the station master already told them about what happened with the pirate base and got everyone else to welcome me back.

With my things gathered, I went down the ramp to enter the station and once again I was greeted with applause from the miners.

I'm definitely getting a sense of deja vu from this… Except that the cheers were even louder than the first time.

Marten came up to me, "Goddamn it, Tera! You're seriously amazing, you know that right?"

"Err… Thanks?" I answered lamely, not really sure how I should react to the praise despite this being the second time.

"Hey, boss! You sure you didn't just hire a Platinum ranked Merc and then trick the rest of us into thinking she's a newbie?" One of the miners asked.

The other miners also started laughing.

"Yeah! Ain't no way our luck is that good!"

"Otherwise, boss must have used his entire lifetime's worth of luck huh?!"

"Alright! We're partying hard today!"

Marten turned back to growl at the others, "Shut your trap! When I told all of you about the pirate base, all of you were pretty much shitting your pants! Now you're all just acting as though you weren't scared shitless just now!"

"Aww boss! We agreed not to bring that up didn't we?!"

"Not fair boss! You don't get to be the only one acting cool in front of her!"

"Yeah! You should also tell her how you were pretty much panicking in your office the entire time!"

"Shut up! All of you!"

I couldn't help but laugh alongside them.

Marten grinned at me, "Well, we all prepared a welcome party for you. It's not much, but well… It's just a small token of our gratitude."

He gestured to the back where a table had been laid out and several food and drinks had been prepared as a spread on the table.

I could see that it was definitely different from the gruel I had back in the mess hall that time, which meant that they really went out of their way to specially prepare this for me.

He clapped me on the back, "Go on! You're our guest of honour, Tera. So you get the first pick!"

Ushered by the station master, I went towards the table and picked up one of the mugs that held what I assume to be alcohol.

I then turned back to see all the miners staring at me expectantly, as though they were waiting for a speech of some kind.

Really? I mean… What can I say here? Err…

I raised my mug into the air, "Fuck those pirates!"

What?! You can't just put me on the spot like that and expect me to come up with a good speech without at least some kind of preparation! Even I need some time to come up with something!

I was still wondering what else I should say when the other miners raised their cups and cheered.

"Fuck those pirates!"

"Yeah!!"

"Fuck 'em!!"

Oh well, good enough for me.

The party started officially then and everyone got their own food and drinks. Some of the miners came to talk to me and quite a number of them wanted to know how I managed to beat the pirates, asking me to recount my fight with them.

I gave them the watered down version and simply told them how I managed to ambush both the patrolling fighters and the guards before I blew up the base by overloading the generators.

For some reason, they were really impressed by what I did despite it being so simple. I mean… It's not like this was a full scale raid that I soloed and I managed to get the drop on the pirates as well, so I had all the advantages in this fight.

Still, I just accepted their praises with a nod and a smile.

The party carried on for a while and I finally managed to excuse myself after receiving the thanks from every other miner on the station.

They were nice guys I would say and I found out most of them had families they were supporting back in one of the orbital habitats in another system.

I managed to learn that they work in a rotation and after a few months here, they would return back home and let another shift take over them.

Sounds like hard work but they seem content at least and it's not my place to judge anyway.

I moved away from the party to take a break in another corner of the hangar when I noticed Jerry beckoning to me from the other side, away from everyone else.

He had been clearly avoiding me the entire party so I was a little bit confused on why he would be calling out to me right now.

Curious, I went towards him anyway and he waited until I was within arms length before he spoke, "I… Wanted to apologise. I realised I was being a bit of an ass earlier…"

I waved at him, "All water under the bridge now. I don't really mind."

"Well… I still feel bad so I prepared something I want to give you, would you mind following me? It'll just be a while."

I shrugged and motioned for him to lead the way.

He turned and led me out of the hangar and through the corridors until we reached a part of the station that I realised was their personal rooms, since each door had a plaque with names written on them.

He continued until we reached a room with the word "Jerry" written on it and he stepped aside to let me in first.

Going in, I found the room to be rather small but cosy and it was quite neat too.

Then I heard the door shut behind me and I turned just in time to see Jerry lunge towards me.

What the fuck?