Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

There was nothing left of Bastion to recover after his ship exploded.
The Dauntless’ sensors had recorded a sudden volatile reaction within the craft’s generator. A typical means of innating a self-destruct to prevent a vessel from being captured by an enemy.
Still, with how quickly the explosion had occurred after the ship was disabled, it was unlikely that Bastion had killed himself.
Most likely he had been caught in a trap set up by Rowan Listig from the very start.
The senior senator had offered to help Bastion escape Azade, but it was merely a means to get rid of him and waste resources chasing after him.
"Do you think you’ll be able to recover anything from the vessel’s computers?" Avery sked Grito once they had finished collecting the wreckage.
"I don’t know. Everything has been pretty badly damaged by the explosion. I might be able to put a few things back together with enough time, but it won’t be easy. Also, there’s no telling how much data will still be intact even if I do somehow get something working."
Grito’s assessment was less than encouraging. Nevertheless, Avery still asked him to prioritize restoring the destroyed vessel’s systems over anything else.
Now that Bastion was dead, the link they were hoping to connect to Rowan Listig was severed. If they wanted the crafty old man to pay for his involvement in what happened to Jasmine, they needed something concrete.
"How are you holding up?" Avery asked Jasmine.
She had been staring at the view screen with a blank look for a while now. Something Avery found to be a bit disconcerting.
"I’m fine. I don’t really feel bad for Bastion. He made his choices and suffered the consequences for them. Just after we went through so much, having it end this way has left me feeling empty. Like it was all for nothing."
Avery bit his lower lip and exhaled deeply from his nose after Jasmine said this.
He could understand where she was coming from.
What should have been one of the happiest days of their lives had been ruined by the machinations of one of Regina’s political enemies and a man who was obsessed with Jasmine.
Instead of relaxing and enjoying their married life, they had been dragged into the investigation and then spent nearly a week chasing after Bastion through space once he had fled.
For them to have ultimately gained almost nothing after all of that was disheartening to say the least.
While chasing and cornering Bastion had not been too intensive, there had been an ever-present mental burden on all of them.
This had not been just another mission. They had been going after someone that had targeted one of their own.
"Come on, let’s get something to eat and drink. We can sync up the Dauntless with Kasandra’s ship and let the autopilot take care of things. We’ll both feel better after some good food and a bit of alcohol." Avery said, as he stood up and pulled Jasmine out of her seat.
...
It took Avery team a little more than four days to return to Azade after failing to capture Bastion.
Unfortunately, upon their return, there was no good news waiting for them.
Apparently, the avenues of investigation that Regina had been following had all reached dead ends.
There were only minor bits of circumstantial evidence to even suggest the possibly that Rowan Listig had been involved in the series of events leading up to and following Jasmine being drugged.
While Avery felt certain that the man had orchestrated the events, that was not enough to have him convicted in a court of law.
And regrettably, enacting vigilante justice on him was hardly an option. Then Avery would be the one labeled as a criminal and having a bounty placed on his head even if he was able to get away.
"I’m afraid that there’s nothing that can really be done at this moment." Regina said, shaking her head.
"Rowan didn’t get involved directly in any crimes. He acted through others. The investigators I assigned managed to dig up some names and were following a series of leads, but a few key individuals they were looking into have disappeared. No doubt Rowan dealt with them to make sure that that the trail went cold and could not lead back to him."
Regina’s explanation did not make it any easier to accept.
Yet, there was not much that Avery or Jasmine could do.
It was not as if they could dedicate all of their time to proving that Rowan was involved in the multitude of crimes that had recently occurred. And even if they could, there was no guarantee that it would amount to anything.
"This may not serve as much solace, but I’ll be watching him far more carefully now. If he commits a single crime, I’ll be there ready to make sure that he gets the harshest punishment possible. I really wish I could do more. Considering his and my positions though, that’s the best I can do."
Avery felt unsatisfied with how things had turned out, but when he glanced over at Jasmine, he knew that dragging the issue out would only cause her more discomfort.
"That’s fine. We’ll leave it in your capable hands. Our lives aren’t here, so we’ll need to move on soon anyway. We did recover the wreckage of Bastion’s ship. Our engineering specialist had been trying to salvage what he can, but it’s been slow going. I was hoping to hand that off to you. I’m sure as Chancellor of Azade, you have more resources at your disposal for such a thing anyway."
Regina nodded and agreed to put Azade’s best minds to work on restoring the destroyed ship’s system. If they were lucky, it might eventually lead to knew evidence that could implicate Rowan Listig.
With that out of the way, Avery was ready to wipe his hands of this mess and move on.
However, when he suggested to Jasmine that they get ready to go on their honeymoon and relax, she reminded him that there was something else he needed to take care of first.
"Before that, you need to officially get married to Kasandra and have a ceremony with her. We’ll get to the honeymoon after that."