RavensDagger

  Chapter Four - The Paradoxical

  The Paradoxibsp;had enough room to house ten thousand people. Not well. They'd be crammed into boxes like wage sves in a e oh, only without the fort of gravity.

  The ship had started its life as the Paradise. A cruise ship the likes of which the sor system had never seen. It was meant to have a crew of two thousand, and room enough for five thousand passengers.

  That was before it was stolen.

  The ship had been takehe start of the third intersystem war. It was being used as a non-batant hospital ship. At least, that's what it cimed. Iy it had bee a hidey-hole for some of the system's ultra-rich, a pce where they could sit bad watch the explosions from afar.

  The same ultra-rich failed to pay the Lunatics for some of their merary work.

  Most of them were tossed out of an airlock before the cruise ship was flown out to the edge of the system.

  The renamed Paradoxibsp;had turned from a pleasure barge into the home of the a s in the sor system. The .

  The suspended infinity pools had beerofitted into water purification systems. The multiple decks had been modified to hold dozens of turrets ripped out of derelict warships. Some of the rger ballrooms had been verted into missile silos, and the exterior was now covered in abtive armour and several huons of garish paint.

  The Paradoxibsp;had enough guns on it to take on a full Mars patrol fleet and enough Wars to give a ptoon of marines pause. Unlike a proper warship, the Paradoxibsp;unloaded its power though stolen, misuood, and poorly installed tech. There was no predig what it would fling at you .

  Fortunately, every fight the Paradoxibsp;had been in had been against pirates and thugs that bit off more than they could chew.

  It had still gained a rep.

  Across the system, there were little people with poor posture and poor eyesight who spent too much time ora- arguing about which ship could win in a fight. Massive warships like the Imperial Star Dreadnoughts were usually banned from those discussions. They weren't fair. The Paradoxibsp;was a fan favourite of people who would be lucky to never see the warship.

  Ivil found herself growing somewhat tense as she followed Shough increasingly mundane passages. They'd left the more open spaces some time ago and were now navigating through the maze of corridors deep within the ship.

  She wasn't worried about being double-crossed. The Lunatics would have to do some truly monstrous things for her to start w about them.

  She was, oher hand, worried about being refused.

  It wasn't something that happened often. But this was one of those rare moments where it was entirely possible.

  "It's here," Snickers said as she grabbed onto a padded handle-bar on a er and used it to flip around the interse.

  Ivil walked after her, the squad the brass had sent floating a few paces behind. As she turhe er, she took in what was very clearly some sort of defeation. Two Wars stood oher side of a heavily armoured bulkhead door. C-Cssers, both.

  Salked to them with great big gestures, then poiowards Ivil who was ing up behind her. "Yes, and she's literally right there, have you been huffing pigment?"

  "The captain said she didn't want to be bothered," one of them said.

  "The captain lick my ass for all I care," Snickers snapped. "She blew off Laughcroft's head! I think she could take the two of you without blinking and I won't stand in her way when that happens."

  "Is there a problem?" Ivil asked.

  The bulkhead door behind the guard smmed open and both Wars jumped. A woman stood iranceway, lookiirely unamused. Her eyes locked onto Ivil's. "So, you're the reason I had to call general quarters. Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused for me?"

  "I imagine," Ivil said. "Are you the captain?"

  "I am. e in. Leave ys behind."

  Ivil half-turowards Sonic Spectre and the other Imperial Valkyries. "Stay," she ordered simply before following the captain into what was clearly some sort of stateroom. There was a table up on the ceiling with chairs all around, but the lower part of the room was more of an offid bar.

  The captain walked up to her desk and pressed a button. The door shut. She turned, arms crossing as she floated slightly above the ground, anchored by something invisible.

  Another C-csser, Ivil sensed. Probably one of the st onboard the ship, actually. She couldn't feel any B-cssers nearby. It made some sehe Lunatics were insistent on sharing the cores they had, rather than trating them into a few powerful people.

  "So, you're here to see our oracle," the captain said.

  "I am," Ivil replied. She walked over to the bar, then started looking through the bottles. She picked one off of a rack. Titanian bourbon, aged in imported French oak. She gnced over the cups and tumblers avaible. They were all soft pstic, desigo be squeezed and with tight openings. The sorts meant to be pressed against the neck of a bottle, filled with a lurch, then squeezed out into the drinker's mouth.

  Ivil pushed them aside, then smiled as she found an old crystal tumbler in the back.

  She popped the top off the bottle, then tipped it over the tumbler. The bourbon started to float away before she gave it a look and the alcohol experienced gravity for the first time as it spshed into her cup.

  "Want a cup?" she asked.

  "I'm good," the captain said. "That bottle is worth more than what I make in a year."

  "You're paid?" Ivil asked.

  "Not nearly enough. Why do you want to see the oracle?"

  "That's between me and the oracle," Ivil said.

  "She's a gossip."

  Ivil sidered it. "She won't be. Not about this."

  The captain hummed. "Are you going to kill her?" she asked.

  "If that's what I wao do, there would be easier ways to go about it," Ivil said. She swirled her cup around, then took a sip. It was det.

  "Alright. I'll have Cire e here. She's probably on her way already. Or hiding in an escape pod. Or she mao sneak away a week ago, and no one found out about it until now."

  Ivil shrugged. That would tell her a lot, if it was the case. And it was just one of the risks when dealing with people able to see into the future. "That's fine," She said.

  There was a knock at the door.

  The captain sighed. "Of course," she said before she reached bad pressed on the same button to open the door.

  A woman floated into the room, flipped around on herself, then crashed into the drinks et with a rattle of gss on gss. She reached out and grabbed onto something to steady herself, but that something was the bottle Ivil had put down.

  The bottle, uo stop her from flying away, was instead flung against the far wall where it shattered explosively, creating a cloud of bourbon and gss.

  "Cire. I swear on all that honks, I will tan your ass," the captain snapped.

  "I'm sorry!" Cire said. She mao flip herself around enough so that one booted foot was able to touch the deck. Something ked, and the young woman found herself rooted on the spot enough that she was able tht herself.

  Cire the cirvoyant was youhan Ivil had expected. She had a mess of brown hair, far lohan was fashionable, and her full-face mask was a transparent oval, with only a few tabs on the side. It was Martian tech, Ivil reized.

  "I've been waiting for you to show up forever!" Cire said as she poiraight at Ivil. "And now you're here! Did y it?"

  "Bring what?" the captain asked.

  "I did," Ivil said. She reached up and undid the front of her uniform, then fished out something small from an inner pocket. A core. It was no bigger than a marble, a in Ivil's vision it practically thrummed with power.

  "Gimme!" Cire demanded. Her hands made grabbiures, though she didn't actually e closer.

  "You know what I want already," Ivil said.

  The cirvoyant sighed, then looked to the captain. "You should give us a minute," she said. "Or five, actually. And turn off the cameras and mics. Yes, even the ones no one knows about. Ivil will find them otherwise and then you'll o repce them and a wall."

  The captain crossed her arms. "I'm not sure I want to just leave," she said.

  Cire rolled her eyes. "e on! Trust me! This'll be great. I promise."

  ***

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