The frightened stowaway Looked down, momentarily breaking eye contact with John. "My name's AL."

“Well 'AL', my name's John. It's lovely to meet you." John snarled sarcastically. "Now we've made introductions, you still haven't answered my question. Why shouldn't I just take you straight back to Karron?"

“Maybe I could work for you as crew on the ship?" The grubby figure suggested hopefully.

“Sorry boy, I work alone. Besides, what skills could you have that would be useful on a starship? No, I'm going to have to take you back." John turned and made to walk out of the storage room.

“No wait!" his unwanted passenger pleaded.

John turned back to look at the urchin, as the kid drew a big sigh and seemed to make some kind of decision. AL reached up to the tatty cap and pulled it off, revealing dirty blonde hair that with a few quickly removed clips, tumbled down revealing shoulder Length tresses.

“I'm not a boy, I'm a girl and I'm not a minor, I'm 18. Maybe there's something else I could do to earn my passage?" Al asked cautiously, but with a clearly suggestive undertone.

Now in John's defence, in normal circumstances he would have turned her down flat, but his perpetual horniness over the last few days had rapidly eroded his will power. At least his morning surprises were now explained, as he had been reacting subconsciously to her pheromones. Without relief, it was going to be a trying 4 day trip back to Karron if he decided to take Al back.

John cast an appraising eye over his passenger, but with the worn, bulky gear and all the dirt it was impossible to tell what the newly revealed girl looked like. Against his better judgement, John slung the shotgun over his shoulder and beckoned his stowaway out from the storage room.

“Follow me, I want you to get cleaned up before I make my decision.” John said, as he led the girl to the passenger cabin.

“You can use the shower in there and leave all the dirty gear in the corridor, including your ID, I want to make some checks."

The girl warily handed him a dog-eared foldout ID, that revealed the mystery passenger's full name to be Alyssa Marant. John took the ID and then pointed out the shower tucked into the corner of the passenger cabin. "Thanks ‘Alyssa’, the shower is back there."

John left Alyssa to clean herself up and walked to the cockpit to scan in the ID. It took a few minutes to make the connection to Galactic-SEC, but the brief readout from the computer confirmed the name on the ID, that his new passenger was 18 and that she was not wanted for any felonies. That information calmed most of his worries; he would be doing nothing illegal in letting Alyssa stay on his ship and any agreements between them would be strictly between consenting adults. He felt himself getting hard again, and his excitement levels rose. Maybe the trip back home didn't have to be so boring after all?

John heard a small cough from the corridor behind him and saw Alyssa peeking around the door to the passenger cabin trying to get his attention. She pointed to the heap of filthy clothing piled in the corridor which made him shudder. "I've had a shower and that's all my gear. What do you want me to wear instead?" Alyssa asked cautiously.

John tilted his head to the same angle as Alyssa.

“If you were suggesting what I think you were, then you will be just fine as you are. Come on out so I can make my decision.“ John reached behind him and pushed a button on the console. This activated the internal security cameras and would record their verbal agreement. You can't be too cautious, he figured.

Alyssa blushed, but took another deep breath then stepped warily out of the cabin. Now that she was scrubbed clean, John could see that Alyssa actually had a very pretty face. She had piercing blue eyes, a cute nose and full lips that immediately made him think of one thing. The girl was obviously from a mining colony, her ghostly white skin never having had sun exposure. Her hair fell to just beyond shoulder length, but it looked thin and lifeless. She was about 5' 2" tall, about a 28A cup and painfully skinny due to what he could only assume had been borderline starvation on the desolate mining world. She had an unkempt sandy blonde bush that matched her hair colour. He figured a steady diet would do her wonders and there was no time like the present to get started.

“Ok I've made my decision. You can stay, I won't take you back to Karron".

Alyssa jumped with joy, full of the exuberance of youth. "Oh thank you John, thanks so much!*

John smiled at her unexpectedly cheery outburst. Had she forgotten their arrangement already?

"Ok now that's decided, let's just Lay out some ground rules about your duties on the ship." he said carefully.

Alyssa's face fell but she tried to hide it. Bless her, she had forgotten.