Dana woke surprisingly sprite considering all that had been going on around her. Her head felt clearer than it had possibly ever before and all the fears she had harbored about loosing herself fell away. The frustration of relying on Xacks to translate every detail to, along with assurances of the products safety, had swayed her into letting them upgrade her, or so they called it. Personally she didn't feel that different, apart from the clarity of her thoughts, there wasn't anything else noticeable about it. Nutmeg had said it would take some time to work as it slowly figured out her physiology and gathered information, made correlations and so forth.

It had been nearly a full twenty four hours, the pain from the rather large injection was almost faded and besides the slight lump in her neck, there was nothing to show. Somewhere in the hold she could hear the familiar sounds of the mammal like creature scurrying as she worked and Xacks cursing her. With a spring in her step Dana made her way down to them.

The boxes that had been delivered before her nap were now unpacked and a mess of fresh wires ran about the place. The hold doors were closed, which was a start but there was a lot of extra equipment laying about, some of it was so alien to Dana that she didn't have any hope of identifying.

"So what is all this then?" She asked Xacks as he finished pulling wall paneling open.

"Good to see you up." He smiled in greeting. "How do you feel?"

"Good, I guess." She replied with a quick glance at Nutmeg who was supposed to be recovering from her own upgrade.

"Good to see that it's working already." Nutmeg kind of growled at her.

Normally when the fur covered alien spoke it sounded to Dana like a whole lot of guttural growls and hisses. This time she could make out individual words and even more surprising she understood their meaning. It was then she realized that Xacks had spoken to her in the same language. She had become so accustomed to his clicks and creaky accent that her brain had simply filtered out the delivery in galactic common.

"No pain?" Nutmeg asked her.

"No it's good." Dana replied hesitantly in English.

"Okay" Nutmeg grinned like a Cheshire. "It will take me some time to get a good grasp on her language."

"Well at least it's an improvement." Xacks laughed adding a pleasant clicking to the atmosphere that had been lacking as of late. "So fill us in, what is all this stuff? That one is obviously a turret and that's a new jump drive, but I've been out of the loop awhile and I got no fucking clue about some of this stuff."

"You noticed the Jumper huh." Nutmeg chuckled. "Your one is a little dated now, the ones floating around even places like this, are all multi dimensional. I would love to see what the Thoracian military is packing with this on the free market."

"So where did we get the money for this?" Dana asked, looking at Xacks for the answer.

"My savings." Nutmeg stepped it. "That little fight ring we visited, that was mine, it's how I threw the match in your favour."

"I was wondering about that." Xacks clicked. "So why give that up to join us, assuming that's what you're doing with this investment?"

"If Zero's data is as good as I think it is, well I am hoping I might yet see that military grade jumper." She finished with another grin

Dana had to admit it was a good move for all involved, despite Xacks early reaction to the mammalian, she was definitely an asset. It had been a lot harder to predict possible outcomes since leaving the familiar territory of the solar system. Still it felt a lot more secure now that she could understand the conversations.

"So what is the next move?" Dana's question reflected her innocence, not having been privy to much of the goings on.

"First we have to get this stuff installed, no point in having it if we can't use it." Nutmeg spoke slowly allowing Dana to wrap her head around the words. "Then we pick up my stuff, Zero and find somewhere safe to work out a game plan."

"Where is Zero anyway?" Dana asked.

"I transferred him to a mech body inside the manufacturing district." Nutmeg explained. "It's all automated and I've limited his capacity to network so he should be safe at least for a while."

"No rush." Xacks spat. "We have the data."

"Actually..." Nutmeg ventured. "The data is at my server, it's part of the stuff I was planning to pick up."

"So you still hold a trump card huh." Xacks seemed less than bothered. "You need us to muscle your way in don't you?"

Nutmeg didn't answer, she didn't have to, even Dana could see that Xacks was spot on. She didn't know anything about the companies they were up against but if recent events were anything to go on, she was nervous for good reason. The others might be comfortable rolling with the punches but for Dana it induced a feeling of unease she just couldn't shake. Ignoring the company they were in, she made a move to Xacks, taking his hand gently and pulled his attention from his work.

"Thank you for taking me out and well, looking out for me." It was a calculated move but not in any way insincere. "So tell me something I can do to repay you sometime."

"You're alright." He grinned at her before busying himself with more work.

"So you are more than just a pet?" Nutmeg asked curiously as soon as Xacks was out of sight.

"Pet." Dana asked, not sure if she had heard right. "No we are... Different. Like friends... Friends." She repeated the word slowly.

"So I see." Said Nutmeg. "I thought he was your man, but he is just another man. Is that right? I got the feeling he was not like other men to you."

"Oh, he's just like any other man, only more so." Dana smiled at the bad translation and somehow Nutmeg got the idea.

"Well that is good, because I need to ask to borrow your man." The mammalian hissed at her quietly while holding a coat style garment that looked to be too large for anyone on board.