RavensDagger

  Chapter Sixty-Eight - Oppresorax Station

  Oppresorax Station appeared ahead of them and Ivil couldn't help but be unimpressed by it.

  Pepper had warhat it was a retively small station, and she hadn't been exaggerating. The station had a few small rings around a tral pilr, and a small dog array off to one side, and that was about it. It was a small station by modern standards. Pepper assured them that it would have all the luxuries one might expect for a meeting space. It would just ything past that.

  At the moment, several ships were h around the station. A few frigate-sized warships, several yachts, and a dozen or so fighter craft on patrol. ly a fleet, but enough trated firepower in one spot to make even a brave pirate think twice.

  Not that they should have been w about that kind of thing. This was near Callisto, a moon that should have, by all rights, been civilised. It was only ier fringes, where the smaller, further moons of Jupiter were, where pirates gathered and made trouble.

  Their shuttle slowed down drastically on its approatil it was moving at a crawl. The ship locked in on one of the dog bays, thely adjusted itself before sliding into pce. Cmps moved out of the dock to hook onto the ship and keep it steady on its final approach, and then they were locked into pce with a final heavy k.

  Air was exged and verified, and the airlock cycled. Finally, their lone hostess opehe shuttle doors for them. They had a bit of a shake in their hands, and Ivil noticed through the shuttle walls that the captain and co-pilot were slumping in their seats, stress leaving them all at once. She supposed that ercial shuttle pilots didn't often have to deal with space battles.

  A st gside of the station revealed Pixie slipping into a far orbit. She was about as distant to all of the other ships as could be.

  "A moment, please, before we disembark," Aurora said.

  "Of course," Ivil replied. She and Pepper were by the exit already, and Twenty-Six wasn't far behind, lugging her backpack with her.

  Aurora smiled slightly in thanks. "We're going to be meeting with some rather serious people, but that doesn't mean we expect... de and good manners from them. Worse, I'll be iating from an unfavourable position. Evelyn, I would ask that you refrain from being too violent, please."

  "I'll see what I do," Ivil said. "But if you're threateoo much, I might take a."

  Aurora winced, but nodded. "That seems fair. I'll just ask that you be reasonable."

  "I be reasonable," Ivil said. She pretended not to notice the look Pepper was givihe MINT operative had probably listeo all the things MINT said about Ivil. They ofte like she was unreasonable, which was ridiculous. She always had a reason to do whatever she wanted.

  "I'll keep an eye on her," Twenty-Six promised.

  Ivil bit the inside of her cheek to stop an inappropriate ugh from esg. "Yes. Twenty-Six will steer me in the right dire," she said.

  "No, stop it with the tug-boat stuff," Twenty-Six whined.

  Ivil might have sidered it if Twenty-Six's cheeks didn't go so red and puff out so much.

  "Alright, enough flirting, let's get going," Aurora said.

  She stepped out ahead of them and into the station's small dog corridor. It was little more than a long, narrow passageway with airlocks at every jun. Some effort had been taken to make it seem less industrial. Fake wooden panelling and good lighting helped, but the bones of a pre-made structure were still there.

  In lieu of a person waiting for them, there was a balloon of a droid floating at the entra had a set of cameras and several little rotor-bdes spinning to keep it h in pce. "Greetings, and wele to Oppressorax Station Miss... Aurora Sterlingworth and pany. Please, follow me to the main lobby. The uests are eagerly awaiting your arrival. Today's meeting is due to start in... four hours. Aodations have been provided for all guests in Ring B, courtesy of Oppressorax Station!"

  "Thank you," Aurora said.

  The balloon twisted around itself then started to hover forwards. "Follow me, please."

  They followed. The balloon drohem to the end of the airlock tunnel where a sealed door opened up into a lobby area. This was the main n of the station, the pilr onto which the rest was structed. It was fifty metres across at a guess, and maybe three huall, which really didn't afford the station all that mu.

  The lobby space was heless impressively rge. A high-ceilinged space with a bar in the tre and plenty of seating all around. Some three-dozen people were h in the zero-g enviro, most of them with a small droo them for them to grab onto when they wao move.

  A rack of those sat by the entrance, little devices which were essentially smarter quad-rotor drohat could reize their user.

  Aurrabbed one and lio it in a moment. Then she helped Twenty-Six do the same, though it did require smag Twenty-Six's hand when she reached for a screwdriver. It was, she said, rude to take apart a host's droo see how they worked.

  Judging by the not-very-chastised look iy-Six's eyes, Ivil suspected the station would be short at least one by the end of the day.

  "No thank you," she said when Aurora offered her one of her own. "I'm mobile on my own. Give it to Miss Mint here."

  Pepper lio the drone. By the time they were all ready, however, they'd already gained some attention. There were fas here already, small cliques holding together that could be told apart by their dress and fashion choices and probably based on who they were talking to. Ivil could sense a lot of cores in this room. Some fifty or so, split amongst a dozen attendees.

  And one person who had nearly three hundred cores all to themselves. A solid B-csser. Ivil sed the crowd looking for them. They weren't hard to find as they were in the group approag them right now.

  The B-csser was to the side, a rge man, but not in a good way. Rolls of fat were exposed by an open shirt. He had rge, meical arms and rger meical legs that might have belonged on a walking tank. They ended in huge hydraulic cmps. Sleek metal, stained by grease and grime. Worse was the man's smile. He had lips like sausages and crooked teeth that he had no shame in dispying for the world to see.

  Ivil found her patience beied before he and his group even arrived. Fortunately, the B-Csser wasn't the leader. That title went to a short man in a well-fitted suit. Two cores, both the sort that were more utilitarian veniehan the monster behind him, and a pretty-enough smile. "Aurora Sterlingworth," he said. "Wele! I wasn't sure you'd make it."

  "We almost didn't," Aurora said with a smile of her own. Ivil was happy to hat she could tell it was all fake. "You're Mister Aida, right? From the Calisto Trade Union?"

  "That's right, but call me Brandon! Mister Aida was my old man."

  "A pleasure, Brandon," Aurora said. "These are my panions, Pepper Mint, my secretary, Miss Twenty-Six, of Saturn, and Evelyn Ville."

  "Hello," Ivil said politely.

  She was happy to prove that she could be civil in front of Aurora and the others.

  "You girls look like a properly fuckable bunch," the B-Csser said.

  Ivil's polite smile remained in pce.

  "Ah, this is…the Slob, my bodyguard. Please, five me for anything he says," Mister Aida said. "You know how strong core-users be. There's nothing you do if they decide to act."

  His words were trite and apologetic. His smile was a threat.

  "Aurora, Twenty-Six, why don't you go check out the bar?" Ivil asked as she dismissed the sub-human filth for a moment. "Mister Slob and I are going to have a very short, very civil versation."

  And with that said, her polite smile still in pce, Ivil carried the man out of the room by telep him and herself some hundred and fifty kilometres away iy space. A nice private enviro in which they could have words.

  ***

  RavensDagger

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