RavensDagger

  Interlude Six - Herrings

  This was... illogical.

  Bleue sat in her offid stared at a bnk monitor. Upon it was a faded refle of her own visage. Retly, that same monitor had been pying a video, not for the first time.

  That too, was illogical.

  Bleue was cursed with a perfect memory, a logical mind. She was capable in a way that few people were. Her skills, what others might call her intelligence, had propelled her forwards in life. She was the Governeneral of Thede, one of Jupiter's many moons. Not the greatest or the most iial, but an important moon heless.

  The position was one part political and three parts ercial.

  Thebe beloo the Thebe Corporation. The Thebe Corporation produced a signifit amount of the water, hydrogen, and oxygen used by the other moons of Jupiter and the many stations in orbit around the p and its many moons.

  That had been their cim to retive riches early on. Now the corporation had diversified. Mining was still its mainstay, though retly they had taken to capturing ets and other sources of ice through the system and bringing them back to Thebe itself for processing.

  The moon was a small one, with a limited amount of resources. More importantly, it was close enough to Jupiter to make certain manoeuvres more costly. Thebe would never be a rge or powerful moon. It cked the geographical advantage for that.

  What it could be was an eic powerhouse far rger than its size would suggest.

  At the moment, Thebe was the sixth richest of Jupiter's moons, despite being on the smaller side. Soon, they'd be the fifth.

  This growth was logical.

  With Bleue at the helm, the Thebe Corporation had poured billions into development, buying ships, hiring talented individuals, buying nd on other more hospitable moons, and growing their influehis had quickly paid itself out.

  Raw resources like water and air had to be kept retively cheap. The price was artificially lowered for the sake of the citizens of Jupiter. That meant that the Thebe Corporation, major provider of these resources, was often paid in favours and with resources that werely moary.

  This too, was logical.

  Bleue had leveraged things to the hilt, pushing as hard as she could. She had gained a certaiation in the Jovian unity. Someohat was dangerous. Someone ithout scruples and fears.

  Adversaries would sometimes disappear. petition would sometimes have their cargo attacked. Someoh the willio trace deep into the Thebe Corporation's ats might notice certain amounts of money being used for projects that never amouo anything.

  Bleue had family, and while she and her family had had... differences over their own illogical demeanour and as, she still found herself relying on that family to give her an edge.

  Iurn, she made sure that her family found itself flourishing in her shadow.

  This was logical.

  It was also dangerous. It required a level of pnning and sophistication that was well-within Bleue's ability, but which had grown signifitly as of te.

  The Allianoons was ing together soon. There would be riches untold, and opportunities of incredible value that would appear very soon.

  The Thebe Corporation had not paid it too much mind. Yes, there portunity frowth, but also there was petition. Too many moons, too many eyes.

  Instead, she would take the logical path and would ighis opportunity, because in the shadow of ohere was always another. While the moons of the Allianoons fought over alien cores and spent their wealth trying to impress each other, the Thebe Corporation would scheme in the background.

  They would grow their influence by not participating. Instead, they'd sabotage the efforts of others. Remove some petition, make fools of smaller moons, then when all was said and dohebe would appear like a strong, noble tender. A moon untouched by the drama and infighting the others were openly participating in.

  It was a sound and logical pn.

  And as always, Bleue found that she could rely on her family to help.

  Until now.

  She felt her arm sh out, then pain rag up her arm. Her closed fist was buried in her monitor.

  "Miss Herring!" a secretary said as she bustled into the room and skimmed over the floor to Bleue's side. Blood out of the cuts across her knuckles, slowly pooling down in Thebe's negligible gravity. "Oh no, what happened?" the secretary said as she pulled some tissues out and ed Bleue's hand in them.

  Bleue leaned bato her seat, not reag to the pain. That had been... illogical. Lashing out was a dispy of emotion she didn't need.

  Her sister was dead.

  That too, was illogical.

  Rouge owerful person. She had a few det cores, afforded to her through Bleue's power and influehey had been a costly iment.

  Moreover, Rouge owerful leader in a group of powerful pirates. They were certainly at odds with several groups, but they were the sorts of groups that took time to move. When the Earth Alliance decided to sweep through pirates, the news got out weeks before they started to move. Their anisation was a sieve when it came to information.

  The Martians were better, but their attacks teo be small and precise aating, but only ever to one group and only ever in direct retaliation. The Martiaoo servative and careful. Their intelligence agency was stronger, ofteing false rumours of motion spread, which always caused some degree of panic but...

  Bleue dismissed all of that. It was illogical to dwell on what hadn't happened.

  What had happened was that someone killed her sister. It had happened within hours e finding and capturing the ship that Aurora Sterlingworth had been using to escape Ceres.

  The noble of Phobos might have thought herself clever, sneaking across the system on some ordinary cargo ship instead of moving to the Jovian system onboard a properly luxurious ship as other partits did. That had been her downfall.

  It was supposed to be her downfall.

  The Phobian noble was moving on her own, without escort or defenders, but with some degree of subtlety. Most others wouldn't have the resources to notice her moving, but the Thebe Corporation had eyes on Ceres.

  The logical thing, now, was to have Aurora removed to cause some additional sternation at the summit. One less pyer at the Allianoons, and one of the only nobles representing Phobos, a moon intrinsically lio Mars.

  Bleue didn't want Mars or Earth involved with the Allianoons. Superpowers plicated things. Jupiter's Emperor kept them somewhat safe from that influence, but cutting ahobos helped.

  Logical moves across a logical board.

  Until Rouge was killed.

  "Ma'am?" the secretary asked. "Ma'am, are y?"

  Bleue blinked, disc tears in her eyes. That wasn't right. If her sister was dead, then so be it, there was nothing gained fr over it.

  She reached into a drawer, removed a small, silent handgun, and fired thrito the chest of the secretary. Theouched a button on her desk. "Security, e remove a body from my office," she said.

  The head of security would know what to do.

  Bleue plucked a tissue from the still-falling corpse of the secretary and used it to dab at her eyes. No, there was nothing to be gained fr. Instead, she would simply have to find the ones who had dared murder her sister and remove them.

  Aurora had to have some sort of bodyguard, someohat her tacts on Ceres had missed.

  Bleue looked at her monitors, then squinted and touched the button on her desk again. "Send IT up to my office. One of my monitors needs repg."

  Using the other monitor, she brought up everything she knew about the ship that Aurora Sterlingworth had taken, and the people onboard.

  The crew ma wasn't difficult to find. A captain, whom Bleue dismissed. A man called Donny, with a small unimportant record, a cook called Hawke, or Hawk? His record was smudged and insistent. Iing.

  Then a member called Missy, a former Warmime of Haumea. Could she be the ohere was a meic as well, a Saturnian girl with a number for a name. her seemed like the oo kill her sister.

  Which left the other passengers. Someone had noticed a woman called Evelyn Ville embarking on the ship, an Astro-Archeologist. Bleue had someoart digging into her while she looked at the st passenger. A tech-maid of Mars. One who did.

  Bleue his was, logically, her target.

  But she couldn't be certain.

  So, of course, she would do the logical thing and kill them all.

  So simple. So very logical.

  ***

  RavensDagger

  3/3 Interludes! 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!