RavensDagger

  Chapter Fourteen - Quiet Reading

  The Held Together was seventy-two years old, pg its stru date as twenty-odd years after the first Inter-system war and long before the sed. It was inally issioned as a bulk freighter for a pany called EM-Works Transportation Ltd, ah-based hauling pany.

  The pany folded six years ter and the Held Together ged hands, first being bought by a ship reseller on Mars, then by a small pany in the Jovian system that did cargo transportatioween the system's moons.

  At that time, it was refitted and very slightly moderhe ship's puter was repced to allow for more automation and to cut down on crew numbers. The Held Together, which at the time still had a hat was little more than an alphanumeric string, kept w around Jupiter for two decades.

  It was eventually purchased by an employee of the same pany, and the ship took on the far riskier job of transp goods from Jupiter to Saturn.

  Six years in, it was stolen by pirates.

  Two years after that, it was recovered, with several critical pos missing. The owner let it nguish for a few more years, but eventually his son repaired it, just in time for the sed inter-system war.

  The newly named Held Together was then used as a transport around Jupiter again. It narrowly avoided being taken out by a torpedo strike he end of the war. Two years after, it was repaired and flying once more. The repairs came with an elongated spio allow for more cargo pods to be attached, and an upgraded engine suite taken from a warship.

  There were plenty of destroyed vessels to salvage from at that time.

  The Held Together went on to have a simple, unassuming career for several years until the daughter of its then-captain took the helm. Sihen, rising fuel costs, the ship's poor maintenance record, some minor acts, and a dozen fines meant that the current holder of the ship's deeds, Held Together Transportation Limited, was hanging on about as well as the ship was.

  There were some notes in the files suggesting that the captain ended some jobs being paid far better than she should have been. MINT suspected smuggling activities, all well outside of Martian jurisdi.

  Ivil lowered the tablet. She'd tried to make herself fortable while she read, but the small couch was stiff and the room was far too warm, something that she imagined was only going to worsen ohe ship was underway.

  The reading was iing, and ih. MINT had not skimped on information, likely because there was so little that mattered here. Iing didn't mean important.

  Ivil imagihat some poor overworked MINT operative onboard the Purgatorial Oblivion had received her demand at an ungodly hour and had scrambled to get everything together in time.

  Of course, the intelligence agency had a bureau onboard the Star Dreadnought, because doing otherwise would be foolish, but that didn't mean that they were fully-equipped. She was happy with the work they'd done sidering their limited capacity.

  Her cover was actually improving as she read more about astro-archeology. It was an iing subject: the study of battlefields and flicts long past, some of which she'd caused, had participated in, or had been able to put ao. The tablet she had was ected to a subtle work on Ceres, and her cover was being updated by the hour as MINT solidified it.

  It was more than enough. Ahat looked into Evelyn Ville's history would discover more and more about her. Testimony from past students, photographs, public records and citations. Even some slight youthful indiscretions, to better sell the story.

  It would do for now.

  Ivil knew from her extensive researatters of romance--mostly via soap operas--that unication was of paramount importan matters of love. It was to love what logistics were to war.

  The night passed retively quickly as she read up on the history of the ship and of her cover story. Then she indulged herself in catg up to her favourite soaps with a small tub of ice cream she had... acquired from the mess.

  The Held Together was surprisingly eerie at this time, when everyone was asleep. Of course, Ivil only made passing note of that eeriness. She did not give in to fear. She gave fear to others. And also, on occasion, stole their ice cream.

  The ship came alive around seven in the m, ship-time. Ivil felt someone moving through the ship. Not Aurora. That woman's cores would make her movement far too easy to read. Someone else.

  She ged from her jumpsuit into another, simir one, dohe same jacket, then adjusted her hair to give the illusion that she'd showered and redressed. She also made a mental o waste a small amount of water, otherwise her ck of use of the plumbing might raise suspis.

  Slipping out of her room, Ivil turowards the only person awake on the ship besides herself and discovered Missy walking along the spine.

  The aused, staring right at Ivil for a moment. Her makeup was freshened up, and she looked exactly as unamused as Ivil remembered.

  "Good m," Ivil said.

  "Hey," Missy replied. "You're up early."

  "I sleep little," Ivil said. "And I think I'm travel-gged still."

  Missy nodded along, then slipped past Ivil. "There's coffee," she said.

  "Actual coffee?" Ivil asked.

  "No. But it's brown and warm and has caffeine," Missy said.

  Coffee, real coffee, was one of the system's greatest luxury items. There were some that were very adamant that coffee was the cause of the first intra-system war. Though Ivil wasn't so sure if that was erue.

  "Are you an early riser as well?" Ivil asked.

  Missy made a dismissive gesture. "I get first shift," she said.

  Ivil supposed that made as much sense as anything. Someone o man the ship around the clock, and the captain couldn't be awake at all hours. As first mate that naturally fell upon Missy's shoulders. "So, anythiing pnned for today? Other than our unch?"

  "Not too much," Missy said. "I'm hoping this'll be a regur run, though it already feels... off."

  Ivil followed the former warmime into the mess where Missy beelined for the kit where a coffee dispenser sat. She started to fill a zero-gravity 'sippy' cup with something which was, in fact, brown and warm, and smelled like caffeine.

  "Off how?" Ivil asked.

  "Two ts outside of our usual... budget for that kind of thing. Plus a third this m. We do passeuff sometimes, but it's usually a dozen ts at a time. Workers or civilians moving from one pce to another. Rarely some middle-csser that doesn't want to pay for an experip. Now?" Missy looked at Ivil. "You and the princess."

  Ivil leaned back a little, then nodded. "I suppose that it is unusual. Though I am flying with something of a budget. It's just not my moo burn. If it helps, I don't have any ill-will towards the Held Together or anyone on its crew... well, perhaps Donny."

  Missy cracked a smile. "He's a bit of a dick. Spent--and I kid you not--six months trying to flirt with me before he caught on."

  "Is he like that with everyone?" Ivil asked.

  "Only women," she said.

  "Ah."

  Ivil wondered if an act could be arranged.

  "Not with Twenty-Six, though," Missy said thoughtfully. "I think he has a sister about her age. So he teases her a lot instead, but no flirting. Which is good, because Hawk would beat his ass if he did, then I'd space him."

  Ivil nodded along. That was entirely reasonable. "So, you think I'm strarange in a good way?"

  Missy chuckled. "I guess it 't hurt. You know, where I was raised, being strange was sidered attractive."

  Ivil perked up at that. "Really?"

  "Yeah. One of the reasons I moved out."

  "You wound me," Ivil said.

  Missy grinned. "e on. You 't be all that strange, miss Professor from Hels." Missy pushed a warm sippy cup into Ivil's hands as she moved past. "Gonna go to the hangar. The guest should be arriving any minute now."

  "Are they strange as well?" Ivil asked as she looked at the cup.

  "'t get stranger," Missy said. "They're aus Ancil."

  Ivil watched Missy go, then took a small sip from the cup. It was vile. She grimaced a aside, then started after Missy. She had nothier to do, and besides, maybe this passenger would be the one?

  She wasn't so sure about that. Aus Ancil would be... trouble. Actually, it might be enough to blow her cover, so being there to greet them would be eveer. She might be able to plug a gap right away.

  There were few people, after all, as annoying as fanatics. And there were few fanatics as fanatical as the tech-maids of Mars.

  ***

  RavensDagger

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