RavensDagger

  Chapter Sixty - It's Art

  Spycraft was an art.

  At the moment, Ivil was staring at the artistic equivalent of a mai painting done by a particurly unskilled child.

  "Hello, Pepper Mint," Ivil said. She smiled aended a hand to shake. The young woman smiled guilelessly and shook.

  Which was when Ivil spread her awareness into Pepper Mint's body. Not sly that the woman would feel it as anything but an... impression of Ivil being somewhat intimidating, but enough for Ivil to suss out all of Pepper's potential, and also all of the cores she had within herself.

  It was a det number. Six active cores wasn't anything to s, and these seemed to all be w in cert, reinf each other in one way or another, or they were at least reted.

  One core to mask core signatures--probably her most valuable--two cores interwoven with Pepper's nervous system, oo allow her greater trol over bodily funs and miovements, the other...

  Ivil frowned as she read the core, but no, she wasn't incorrect. It ecifically desigo make someone sickly. It would be temporary oivated, and likely not have any real side-effects.

  Iing, that. It didn't seem like a pletely natural core. A split of a hybrid? None of Pepper Mint's cores were inals. They all had the mark of being splits of splits.

  The other three were simple ones. One in her brain to assist with neural interfaces, one core spread through her spine, and a st lodged deep in her brain. These three were trol cores, usually somewhat useless, but in this case they enabled Pepper better trol of her siess-indug core.

  This wasn't the work of ce. Most people who went around pig up cores through fights and wars did so somewhat haphazardly. One didn't often have a choibsp;for which core they'd have access to.

  These worked together too well for that level of chaos and randomness. So they were a tailored choice.

  "Pepper Mint es with a det referral and a good amount of experience," Aurora said with a kind smile. "You have worked as a guide before, for this kind of event?"

  "Yes!" Pepper said as she jumped. Was the woman startled? She tore her eyes away from Ivil and her expression was schooled into professional detat. "I've worked for several panies around Jupiter. I know the system and its moons well. I've made aeudy of the culture of the many moons in this area as well."

  "You study that?" Twenty-Six asked.

  "It's anthropology," Pepper Mint said. "A subject I was always fond of."

  "But you're not Jovian," Ivil Antagonist pointed out.

  The young woman blinked. "You're... right, yes. I'm not Jovian."

  It was hard to guess at a person's ins. Well, it was sometimes hard to guess at a person's ins. Not to say that there was some cultural homogey across the stars, but it was frequently difficult to point to someone and guess at their ins with any accuracy.

  The exceptions were usually gring, like the space s of Haumea. Or people born in the poorer ies who couldn't afford the medical care to ehat their children weren't deformed by a plete ck of gravity.

  Pepper Mint was Martian, however, and Ivil khis because there was every sign that the woman was a MINT operative.

  It was so unsubtle that it was almost ical, whi a way was its own sort of genius. Ivil couldn't berate MINT for putting this operative here... well, she could, but it was so obvious that it wasn't possible to sider this any form of treachery.

  "Oh! You're Martian too?" Twenty-Six asked. "How did you know, Evelyn? Wait! Don't tell me. Is it because of the posture?"

  "The posture?" Ivil asked.

  Twenty-Six hen stood taller. She was a bit of a natural slumper, and Ivil was surprised to realise that Twenty-Six was almost as tall as she was. If she put any effort into standing properly Twenty-Six's gangliness might actually turn into some imposi.

  Well, maybe just height. Twenty-Six was as imposing as aed puppy.

  "All of you Martians stand like this," Twenty-Six said.

  "You mean, properly?" Aurora asked.

  "I guess? You're one of them, so you'd know!"

  "I'll have you know that I'm Phobosian. Not Martian," Aurora said.

  "Oh, sorry." Twenty-Six ged back a little, and Ivil couldn't resist reag out to pat her on the head. "You'll have to tell me more about Phobos! I know basically nothing about the pce. You doly make a lot of ships, you know?"

  "We do make some," Aurora defended. "Mostly pleasure barges and yachts, but they're quite stunning to look at. In any case! Miss Mint, I was hoping you could guide us?"

  Pepper bowed slightly. "Please, Miss Sterlingworth, call me Pepper. And yes, it would be my pleasure to guide you today."

  They had e out to meet Pepper in a public pza right o a shuttle terminal. It wasn't so different to a spaceport, though the security here was far more rexed. After all, the people taking a shuttle from here were, at best, heading to aation in Callisto's orbit. There were a few likely on route to rendez-vous with some nearby spaceships, but that wasn't the problem of the Driftwood port authority.

  g about immigration was only important on the receiving end for a pce like Driftwood. People leaving? The station couldn't care any less. So outgoing security was nothing to be ed about.

  "Our shuttle is waiting for us in dog bay Four C," Pepper said. "You'll hat it's not the same shuttle that yinally chartered. I took the liberty of booking another craft on its way to a different station with a yover at the station you were aiming to reach."

  "Smart," Aurora said.

  "You trust this ge?" Ivil asked.

  "It's not so unusual as far as security measures go. In fact, it's how I ended up on the Held Together in the first pce. As long as Miss Mint was discreet about the ge...."

  "I was, ma'am," Pepper said. "I uand that it's difficult to trust me so soon in our retionship, but please have fiden me. It won't go amiss."

  "Very well," Aurora said. "The ship we were meant to board is in bay Four F, right?"

  "Indeed. Unless aargeting you has observers very close by, we should be safe during transit. But the ship will be departing in..." Pepper g a wat her wrist. "Twe minutes."

  "That's barely any time at all," Twenty-Six said.

  "The fourth bay is just there," Aurora said as she gestured to a passenger loading bay. There were indeed rge numbers printed over the doors.

  "Yeah, but I wao check the ship out first, just in case. These little shuttles always have the worst maintenance. Even the cheapest space-faring ship had better upkeep."

  They slipped into the bay, then had to wait their turn in a retively short line where a bored young man looked over their eleic tickets before letting them through. There was an automated baggage check as well, but it all went by retively quickly.

  Then they headed towards their ship. Being a more civilian dock, there were several rge windows overlooking the actual dog locations where the shuttles were being ferried in.

  "Oh, that's a verted Super-E!" Twenty-Six said as she poio their shuttle. It was a long, tubur kind of ship, with a stubby trol room at the bottom front and the loading airlht above that. The ship was covered in several man thrusters. The rear bulged out a little around a rge engine, and a sed, less impressively rge thruster, sat at the very front for slowing the ship down.

  A ship's airlock opened, a service drone pushed a cart with all of their baggage in, and then the passengers were finally allowed into the ship.

  Ivil was... not impressed. The tre of the ship was a long corridor with small booths on the sides. Within these were the cheapest acceleration chairs imaginable, all desigo unfold into incredibly unfortable seating spots for the remainder of their trip.

  There was an automated drinks and food service, as well as washrooms so small that Ivil doubted her ability to fit into any one of them.

  "Wow, this is incredible!" Twenty-Six said.

  "It's... passable," Aurora replied. "That you think it's incredible is incredible."

  "Really? Why? I've never been a passenger on the shuttle like this before. Back around Saturn, if you wao get from oation to another, you hitched a ride on a service ship. There were even some people that would grab on with their EVA suits and hope that the accel wouldn't knock them loose!"

  "Every time I talk to you I feel like we had very different upbringings," Aurora said.

  Twenty-Six smiled. "Yeah, of course! Like I said, you're like a pretty yacht, all beautiful and sleek and pretty. I'm just an old beaten up tug."

  "Does that analogy imply that you still want to shove her around and put her in her pce?" Ivil asked.

  At least she'd have Twenty-Six's stuttering denials for eai, so things weren't looking to.

  ***

  RavensDagger

  Lil Tug boat <3 Some of my stories are on TopWebFi!-amon Bun-Stray Cat Strut-Lever A-Dead Tired-Heart of Dorkness-SpeddonVoting makes Broccoli smile!

  The following books are avaible as paperbacks (and as Ebooks) on Amazon. Oh, and there’s like, a billion audiobooks of my stuff now!

  (The images are links!)

  All proceeds go to funding my addi to buying art paying for food, rent, and other ies!

  Thank you so much for all your support everyone! And thank you extra hard for allowio do this for a living; I’ll do my best to keep you eained!