The hivemind is conquering for me?

Kathrine gasped as she heard what was just said. "HANK!" She yelled mortified before turning beet red. Hank saw this and smiled as he turned to me and spoke. "Hahaha. You must be more of a catch than I thought if I can turn this one quiet with embarrassment. Now then, since you are the last two people we were waiting for, lets not waste any more time and make our way inside hmm?"

A smirk emerged on my lips as Hank said that, I was going to tease Kathrine a little bit more, but I could tell she was already incredibly embarrassed by what Hank said so I let it go. "Ok, sounds good. Come on Kat, I could do with a drink that did not come from you." I said as I took her hand into my own before waving goodbye to Hank as Kathrine was still silent.

As we left, Hank stayed behind a moment to take down his portable lamp. As he did so, his communicator started chiming in his pocket. As he took 10 years to reach in and grab it, he took another 10 checking who was calling before slowly placing it to his ear as he answered.

"Hello dearest, how are you doing today? Have you been eating your vegetables? You know that paste is not the same thing. You need actual plants inside your body. Also, have you-"

"Hank!" He was cut off by a female voice before he could go into one of his legendary rambles. "Sorry dear, go on." He said understanding the woman on the other end like no other.

"Has Kathrine made it to the ship yet? Although the ceremony starts tomorrow, it is still good to be here early." The voice asked. "One second dear." Hank said as he took his thermos out of his pocket. He was particularly parched from moving the lamp back inside while also talking on the communicator. Multitasking is a tough thing to do after all."

After chugging for a few seconds, he began clearing his throat and noticed something got stuck. "Hmm, what is that?" Hank cleared his throat again and when then did not work, he kept on going for two minutes before the feeling went away. "Ah good, for a second there I thought that thing would never go away. Now I should get this lamp back to my room." He thought aloud, but was interrupted by someone screaming from his communicator.

"HANK!" Hank looked around for the source of the voice. He was confused for a second before he remembered what he had in his hand still. "Oh hello dear, sorry I forgot you were there. What were we talking about again?" He asked to jog his memory.

"Kathrine! We were talking about Kathrine, has she arrived yet?!" Hank frowned at being yelled at. "Hey, what have I told you about yelling? Say it with me." The woman on the other side sighed before speaking with Hank.

"Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder." Hank nodded his head as he heard the words repeated. The woman on the other end sighed before apologising. "Sorry Hank, you are right. Now could you tell me if Kathrine has made it onto my ship yet?"

Hank nodded his head despite it not being a video communication before he replied. "Yes she did and with her new husband as well. He looked very handsome and I could tell Kathrine was deeply in love, unlike with that scrotum she used to be with. I made a comment about how they should have lots of babies and the man did not seem to mind. He is a keeper that is for sure."

Hank waited for a reply for a moment, but none came. "Hello? Valerica? Stupid machine." Hank then muttered as he began inspecting his communicator for the reason why he could no longer hear one of the women he helped raise.

"Hank stop banging your communicator, the noise is going through me." Valerica said causing Hank to sigh in relief. "Oh good, I got it working again. Valerica sighed. "It was not broke- Never mind. Hank, I need you to tell me everything about this new 'husband' you saw. I need to make sure my baby is not getting tricked. Can you do that for me?

"Of course dear, I will start from the beginning." Hank said. Valerica should have known better and did not realise the trap she just set for herself as Hank began at the beginning of his day, not the beginning of his first meeting with the one she eventually found out was called Apollo.

…

"Two hundred and twelve guests aboard and we have yet to see a single one?" I said in surprise. "Well they have been traveling all day, they are most likely in their rooms or at the bar" Kathrine replied.

Considering that I did still want I drink, Kathrine and I went to the bar. I was expecting it to be packed, but only a dozen or so people were currently inside and it was made up of mostly couples in their forties.

One such couple noticed Kathrine enter the bar and waved her over. She looked at me as though seeking permission to go over. "I will go and get us some drinks, I'll meet you in a moment."

"Thank you handsome." She said with a smile before walking over to the couple. At the bar, I perused the menu for a moment as I began looking for something Kathrine would like. We were on a ship that literally meant wealth so I thought it best to get a fancy drink.

As I was looking though the menu I saw something that caught my eye. "Excuse me, bartender." I said to the man passing by. "My goodness, manners on this flight? I must have won the lottery." The bartender said with a smile. "I am just kidding around sir, what can I do for you?" He followed up, just in case someone else heard him say that.

"Yes hi, could I get a bottle of this?" The man nodded as he turned around to pick up the bottle of the shelf behind him. "Now this usually costs 80,000 credits, but since you came in with Lady Hyllus, It is on the house."

I nodded and thanked the bartender as he passed me two glasses alongside the bottle. As I began walking towards the table, I could not help to think. '80,000 for a bottle of brown liquid? Honestly luxury goods are just stupid.'

As I made my way to the table, I realised that Kathrine was not sitting with a man and a woman, but two women as one of them just had their hair cut short and I could not tell from the back earlier.

The women were both in their forties and unlike Kathrine, it was apparent due to their lack of Psionic energy. That did not diminish their attractiveness however, as the two of them were clearly without makeup right now and could give models a run for their money.

Once I was in front of the table, the one that did not call Kathrine over earlier, as they had their back towards us looked at me with a frown as she said. "Sorry, I think you have the wrong table, we did not order that." There was no malice in her words, she simply thought I was someone else until Kathrine corrected her.

"It is ok Alannah, this is Arcon Apollo Lambdason, my companion. He is my plus one to Elaine's party." Alannah turned a shade pink upon realising she made a mistake and became anxious. Luckily for her, her partner stepped in. "Forgive my baby Arcon Apollo, she did not to cause offence. I am Evie, would you care to join us?" Evie asked.

"I would be glad to." I said with a smile as I sat down. "And you can stop with the title, just Apollo will do." As I said that, I instinctually wrapped my arm around Kathrine and she nestled up happily next to me causing raised eyebrows from both the women present.

It was Evie who spoke up, curious about the situation. "Well Kathrine, when I saw you walk in with this tall glass of handsome I was curious, now I am intrigued. What exactly is going on between the two of you?"

In tandem, the couple placed their elbows on the table and rested their chins on their interlocking hands. Their was gossip on the dish and they were hungry. Kathrine looked at Apollo, unaware how exactly to describe their current relationship. They were lovers, but were not actually together. He is engaged to her business partner and she is married to a tub of lard and to top it all off she felt totally submissive to his every want and desire and it filled her with warmth when she made him smile.

Apollo however went with the more simple answer and dumbed down all the feelings into a single sentence.

"We are intimate friends. We have deep feelings of affection for one another and express them in a multitude of ways, but we are not officially together."