The Jedi looked at the girl like she was insane. "Mistress Synyss." Kirk said smiling. "My sister is the very tall redhead in the back row. Look standing next to her." Several of them gasped at what they saw. Kinna, though, laughed. "You traveled pretty far in your exile, didn't you?" "Who is she?" Mulk asked, grinning, looking at the furred woman who wore Metla's former face, standing next to Joshua's sister. Joshua Kirk held up his hand to the monitor. "Meet Shion Atalanta Charzide. Exiled Princess of Masar, my best friend, and future captain of USS Enterprise." Metla spun to face Joshua. "That's why you had that reaction to me when we first met! You thought I was Shion." "Yes. I thought you were there to arrest me." "I was shocked at how betrayed you felt." "Of course." Joshua said strongly. "My parents would come after me before Shion would." "You were that close to her?" Kinna asked. "It's like I said Kinna, she was the first person at the Academy to treat me like a person instead of as the exeriment I was. Plus, Melani are immune to the pheromones!" He said, tapping the side of his nose. "we could sit up all night playing poker, studying, or just talking, and I didn't have to wear a protective suit. It wasn't my dream, but it was close enough." "What was your dream?" Ano asked curiously. Joshua put his arms around Peenk's waist. "To hold a woman for no other reason than to hold her, and to not have her want to jump me, like Peenk's ready to do now." Peenk smiled at them all. "That's why this conversation is ending. I am going to drag him back to my cabin and have my way with him." Joshua looked at Biss and shrugged. "Such is my life." The Duros shook his head and grinned. Peenk and Joshua got up to leave. When they got to Peenk's cabin, Monou Biss called out to Kirk. "Joshua Kirk. Can I ask you a question?" The Runner's captain flashed the Rodian an angry look. "It will take but a moment Peenk." "One question!" She said, "And keep it short." She then entered her room, tugging at her top. "If you could meet the person who kept trying to hold you back all those years, what would you do?" Kirk didn't even think about his response. "If it was a man, I would take him out drinking and have a hell of a time. If it was a woman, I would give her the time of her life." "You would do what?" Peenk's voice could be heard coming from her cabin. Joshua turned to her. "If that person hadn't done what they'd done, I would be in one of two places right now. Either in the Captain's chair of the Big Prize, with Shion sitting next to me. Or the other way around." He then turned to the others. "But I would not be here. And there is nowhere else I'd rather be than here." He said, pointing at the deck. But then his left eyebrow jumped up. "Except in here." He pointed into Peenk's cabin with both hands. "I'll see you guys when we get to Sora." "Just shut up and strip down cabin boy." Peenk could be heard to say as he walked into her stateroom. Magenta and Tek'Mahl walked up the passage as Joshua shut the hatch behind him. "What did we miss?" Mama asked. End chapter four.