RavensDagger

  Chapter Thirty-Nine - Profitable Arra

  Before Cores, a person's power was measured by their wealth, their es, their political position, their fame, and in a distant st, the strength of their arms.

  Cores, obviously, ged this. Wealth and fame and political position alone was no longer enough to judge a person's worth or power.

  Instead, everyone had to do a careful dance of rumours and observation, at least, that's how it was around the table dedicated to the bigger pyers.

  "You've told me a lot," Ivil said. "But I'm not sure how you io turn this into a profitable arra for me."

  "Are you certain that you wouldn't be pleased ag as my bodyguard?" Aurora asked. "You seem suited to it."

  Ivil sniffed. "Don't presume so much, Miss Sterlingworth. I keep you safe? Undoubtedly. But I have no iion of being your babysitter. Nor am I ied in money, and while the goings on around the League are iing, I don't know if that's enough to vince me to suborn myself to you."

  Aurora nodded slowly. "Very well. Then how about... a share?"

  "A share?"

  "Of Phobos. Not a rge one, but a share heless."

  Ivil's eyebrows rose. Phobos' ownership was one of the more iing cases in the sor system. The moon was 'owned' in whole, by its gover, whiitially acted as a corporation before turning into a fully-fledged monarchy of sorts.

  Now, the noble families of Phobos were posed of people who owned 'shares' of the moon. It was a strange cross between a pany and a proper monarchic gover, but on a moon where nobility could only be determined by the ownership of nd, it made some sense.

  Plenty of citizens of the moon owned a share or two, it's what gave them the right to vote, but the vast majority of shares were held in the iron grip of the nobility.

  "Iing, but no thank you." Ivil leaned forwards, elbows nding oable. She stared across, at Aurora, and really looked at the woman.

  She leasant enough to look at. Aurora looked like someone who retty now, and who would age in a spectacur fashion. She had that severe, serious look about her that really did it for Ivil.

  "A date," Ivil said with a nod.

  "Pardon?" Aurora asked.

  "I'll help you around Jupiter for a date."

  Aurora blinked a few times, flushed, then regained her posure, all iime it would take someone else to process a thought. "You mean a romantie?"

  "Yes! Usually I'd say that I'd pay for the meal, but seeing as how this is literally a payment already, I think that would be silly. In fact... why don't ye it?"

  "You... you wae it? A date? Uh. I don't..." Aurora shook her head, but it wasn't a denial, just the womaring herself. "You'll act as a body--business parto assist me in exge for me arranging a date."

  "Yes," Ivil replied. "And to be clear, there shouldn't be anything sexual about it. Well, I suppose we're both senting adults so if it es to it, fine, but I'm not aiming for that. Certainly not on the first date."

  Aurora shifted in her seat. "Are you so attracted to me?"

  "Should I not be?"

  "Y-you, you, uh. Ahem!" Aurora cleared her throat and put her noble's impassive mask ba, ag as if nothing was amiss. "Yes, I suppose I could agree to a date. But nothing more! I'm not some... some woman who just sleeps with anyone. No matter the reputation Phobos has, I'm not that kind of person."

  "I would never imply it," Ivil said truthfully. She was having a hard time keeping a grin off her face. The way Aurora acted was... cute.

  She had seey of soaps with exactly this kind of behaviour.

  Ivil restrained a ugh. It was a rather silly thought to have, but it seemed to fit, more or less. She'd enjoyed her share of shows that relied on the archetype, though she knew better than to expect reality to be quite so dramatic.

  Ivil stood up then. "It'll still be some time before we make it to Jupiter," she said. "I'm sure we get to know each other some more in that time, and pn for our arrival as well. Ah, and there's our e with the Held Together to look forward to as well."

  "Yes, of course," Aurora said.

  "Brilliant. I'm going to go che the others. Twenty-Six seems to be in the engineeriion, she might know more about the dition of this ship. It'd be best to know about any potential problems early. We figure out whi belongs to whom ter, I think."

  Aurora nodded. "I'll see if there's food stocked here as well. I'm no professional, but I think I manage heating something up."

  "I think we'd all appreciate that," Ivil said. She gave Aurora a final nod, then stepped back. She needed a little distance. Sure, she had perfect trol over her ow, but it still wao beat far faster than usual.

  Finding Twenty-Six wasn't difficult. Now that the meic had a core of her own it gave her a certai in Ivil's sight. Not that she wasn't worthy of notice before, but her core's presence made her stand out, a tiny matchstick of light in a sea of darkness, weak, but noticeable all the same.

  She discovered Twenty-Six in the ship's engineering bay, a small room on the lower deck at the very rear. The entire ceiling was taken up by access panels c the inner meism of the ship's primary drive and in front of that, the ship's main fuel buhe walls were split across a few maes. She didn't immediately reize them, but she supposed that Twenty-Six would know better.

  Especially seeing as how the meic was currently rubbing her cheek against one of them.

  Ivil decided not to be envious of the mae. For now.

  "I'm curious, what are you doing?" Ivil asked.

  Twenty-Six's eyes flew open, and she froze on the spot for a moment. "Uh," she said.

  "Yes?"

  Twenty-Six pulled back. "I ractising with my core," she said with a nod that was hard to take seriously when her face was so red.

  "Were you, now?" Ivil asked.

  "I feel the metal!" she said. "Uh, I mean, in my head. Look, this is very strange, and I uand that what you walked in on looked like me having a moment with this Crytotech 2649 Automated self-adjustiworked part-printing mae, but I assure that that's not what's happening."

  Ivil held back a smile. "If you say so. So I take it that you like the engineering bay?"

  "It's... well, it's a whole league better than the Held Together. Almost too good."

  "Too good?" Ivil asked.

  "There are maes here that print new parts. You rehings down into base materials. There's... look at that, in the er? That's a nuclear power pnt. It's pumping out a stant 320 megawatts. The Held Together has nothing like that. We run off of batteries and a hydrogen engine. I know that this isn't the most modern ship out there, but it's... well, it's forty years ahead of the Held Together."

  Ivil nodded along. "You're a little overwhelmed?"

  "Under," Twenty-Six said. She looked around the room, which was so that it made for a stark difference from what Ivil had seen on the Held Together. "There's nothing for me to do here. This baby, she's fit. Not a hiccup on her."

  "I see," Ivil said. "I... don't think that you should put that much value iate of the ship right now. Trust me, we're definitely going to see some trouble. She's going to pick up some issues. And when those e, it'll be o have the best mei the sor system waiting to jump on them."

  Twenty-Six smiled shyly. "I'm not that good," she said. "But... yeah. I guess I wouldn't mind that. It'll be a bit of a break. Maybe I'll have to pick up a hobby."

  "I'm sure we think of something," Ivil replied. "Say, do you want help practising with your new core?. I'm sure you'd figure out how to use it given some time, but having someone who teach you all the tricks will make it faster."

  Twenty-Six smiled, big and eager. "I think I'd like that! I even print some things to help! I was thinking maybe some puzzles made of metal?"

  "Clever," Ivil said. "You know, a lot of people think that power, when it es to having Cores, es from having a lot of them."

  "That's not true?" Twenty-Six said.

  "Hmm, well, it's n. But I'd be a lot more afraid of someone who has mastered the use of a hundred cores than someone who had a thousand and no clue how to use them," Ivil said.

  Twenty-Six ughed. "A thousand's a bit muo?"

  "Hmm, I suppose."

  ***

  RavensDagger

  Are You Eained? Hi! Neter <3 Also, for amon Bun fans... I uh... might've gotten stabbed by the idea bug and started to write a amon Bun/Pokemon crossover fanfic called PokeBun... I'm sorry? On the up-side, it is ridiculously cute. I'mma wait until I have 30-ish chapters before posting though! Some of my stories are on TopWebFi!-amon Bun-Stray Cat Strut-Lever A-Dead Tired-Heart of Dorkness-SpeddonVoting makes Broccoli smile!

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