Cross, by virtue of knowing the highways and byways of the city somewhat better than Jin, is already waiting at the hovercraft and leaning against his bike. The helmeted driver still did not trust Ayda and her lackey to deal with him on the level so he did not bother going aboard just yet.
Ayda is there to pick up whomever is getting on the ship. As Jin and the others arrive in their stolen car, she quickly beckons them over. "Alright, c'mon, get on board!"
Leading the way, Maldor crosses the gangplank and hops onto the ship alongside Korvan, who was waiting for him.
Amaryst watches the boarding begin. Halfway through she says, "Rollo, Cross and I aren't enough to secure the ship. There's too much to do. We're going to be facing at least four guards hired by the former owner's family to keep me off my ship, and we'll need someone with better tech skills than me to jigger the transponder so that we don't have fighters chasing us to the rendezvous."
Emily slipped out of the cramped car and stretched. She knew this was where they'd be splitting up, but still felt a pang of guilt that the others were going to be risking their lives for her while she sat and waited. "Are you sure there's nothing we can do to help you guys up there?" she asked, but already knew the answer. Without ID's they'd be caught; and if they could afford ID's the plan would be different than it was.
Emily fished her grenade and needler pistol, with her two doses of sedatives, and held them out to Amarys and Cross. "Do you guys want these? I have my share of credits from the race, too."
Cross paused in loading his motorcycle onto the hovercraft. "I'm decent with computers." He rapped a knuckle on his helmet, "Kind of have to be but I'd prefer to have a specialist on hand for that bit."
Emily slipped out of the cramped car and stretched. She knew this was where they'd be splitting up, but still felt a pang of guilt that the others were going to be risking their lives for her while she sat and waited. "Are you sure there's nothing we can do to help you guys up there?" she asked, but already knew the answer. Without ID's they'd be caught; and if they could afford ID's the plan would be different than it was.
Amaryst looks at Emily. "Just make sure you get safely to the rendezvous. "
Emily fished her grenade and needler pistol, with her two doses of sedatives, and held them out to Amarys and Cross. "Do you guys want these? I have my share of credits from the race, too."
"I'll take that grenade. Keep the cash. We shouldn't need it until after we pick you up. "
Keeping back only 100 credits, Amaryst lets Jin hang onto her winnings.
While making the transfer, she is silent.
Then she addresses the group, making sure to include Ayda.
"We're at the station tomorrow. We'll need a day to investigate our options, and another to spring the ship and an earth-transit transponder. We'll let you know if the timetable changes. IF you don't hear from us in three days, we've been caught."
Looking at them all her gaze falls on K-van. The barest frown tugs her cheeks downward. Cross, without Smyrna, what do we do with K-van? He's her nephew. Can we just take him offworld?"
"Getting him off world is the most important thing. Smyrna has not contacted us, so she's either dead or in a holding cell and we can't do much either way. She would understand." There was something approaching bitterness or sadness in his voice at this, it was hard to tell with Cross. Taking care of K-Van had been her crusade and it had thrown his life into disarray by simple association. Now, however, she was gone and he could not simply risk this entire crew by doing something selfish.
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Jin coughs slightly and looks towards Emily nervously, then back to Amaryst "I think you'll need my help if you want to get that transponder properly installed. Korvan can handle taking care of the psychics on the ship I should think." he says as he takes a step away from the gangplank "And I don't think I could stomach just sending you up there into whatever dangers are lurking."
"What about you Zen? Are you coming with us or staying here?" Jin asks as he turns to the Shirren "I wouldn't fault you if you wanted to just pretend you never saw this and go home. But this is also a chance for you to get off this rock with us, and I would appreciate your company." he ends in a somewhat awkward display of sentimentality.
Shifting in the seat slightly, Zenvisk replies to Jin aloud. "I wish to leave this planet more than anything. SAM and I shall accompany you and Amaryst to go and retrieve her ship."
Amaryst still looks worried. "I guess this is it. Korvan, Emily, K-van, good luck. Maldor pray for us all. Ayda keep a low profile. Once the ship is good to go, we'll set final coordinates. For now can we just assume we'll meet somewhere in the mid-Atlantic?"
Amaryst stands with her comrades watching the hovercraft pull away from the decrepit quay. She tosses Emily's grenade up a foot and catches it. As she clips it to her belt she says, "Let's get some sleep. I'll try the first shuttle in the morning. If I get stopped it's probably best if you know about it while you're still on world. Also probably best if Rollo and I don't travel together. Two lashuntas will be doubly suspicious. We can meet on the station."
Then she turns to their newest companion. "Zenvisk, is Zen ok? If you're Jin's friend, that's enough for me. You're in, but what can you do? No offense, but you didn't seem like much of a fighter in the alley."
Ayda nods. "Yeah, we're planning to set out early morning, before daybreak. We want to make it clear away from most scanner ranges and sightlines before we even need you. Try to hurry, though, if you would. We all know that we're in danger as long as we stay on this planet."
Turning to Amaryst, Zenvisk nods in reply to her initial question. "Yes, it is. I know that my full name can be difficult to pronounce. As for what I can do, you are correct in that I am not much of a combatant. Most of my skills involve fixing and repairing machines, whether they be com units or cars. However, I am a decent shot with my pulsecaster, but SAM here is the better shot. She is also particularly good at staying unseen, especially when she stays still."
Emily bid her farewells to the others and boarded the hovercraft. "Take care, all of you," she said.
Turning to Amaryst, Zenvisk nods in reply to her initial question. "Yes, it is. I know that my full name can be difficult to pronounce. As for what I can do, you are correct in that I am not much of a combatant. Most of my skills involve fixing and repairing machines, whether they be com units or cars. However, I am a decent shot with my pulsecaster, but SAM here is the better shot. She is also particularly good at staying unseen, especially when she stays still."
....
"We can use tech expertise. Somehow we have to borrow, steal, or mimic a transponder for a ship that's allowed sub-orbital trajectories. We have to get it installed in my ship before we can drop to earth's surface. If we don't the military will track and intercept us."
"Oh. And before you sign on for certain, you should know there's going to be a fight. Eastern Roth was the last owner of my ship. He left it to me, but his family didn't think I should have it. Even after I won the court case, they posted guards on the ship's dock. Last time I tried to board her, they beat me senseless, and dumped me on a return shuttle to earth."
"We going lethal or non? One of our friends from the black bag team was nice enough to donate a pulsecaster to me," Cross said this with the voice of someone entirely comfortable with either decision. The featureless faceplate of his helmet turned to regard Zenvisk, an unknown in this equation. Another alien to go along with what was essentially a squad of them, the three science experiments, and himself. He had worked with some motley crews before but this was beyond the pale.
"I'd rather not kill anyone, but I'm not sure how they'll react when I return. I thought maye I would draw their attention and you could hit them from behind. "
** spoiler omitted **
Emily bid her farewells to the others and boarded the hovercraft. "Take care, all of you," she said.
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"There is only four of them you said? They can't be watching the place all the time. With luck we can probably just sneak to the ship while they are sleeping somewhere. It's not like they can sleep inside the ship after all." Jin points out to the others "You said the biometric locks on the ship were keyed to you."
"I would also prefer to not kill anyone. However, if it is necessary, then so be it." Zenvisk will then noticeably twitch their antennae. "What is everyone's attitude towards telepathic communication?"
"Not happening," Cross said flatly, or more flatly than usual at least. On the average day he could just about tolerate being touched. Having a complete stranger speaking inside his mind was not a distraction he needed when violence was on the schedule. Of course, he was not about to explain any of this. His calm from the race was just about spent.
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”I agree, let’s avoid taking more lives if we can. If discreet communication is all that is needed I can relay information to Cross. Internal communications bioware really does wonders.” Jin replies, trying to ease what he views as rising tensions ”I apologize if that little trick at the racetrack bothered you though. I was in a bit of a panic.” he says to the Core. A belated apology but the quickest he could give with the circumstances.
"I will join in mental communion, Zenvisk. Although we may be out of my range much of the time."
The group takes their hotwired car to a spot a few blocks away from Zenvisk's small apartment and then walks the rest of the way. It won't do to park a stolen car right outside the complex, after all. The five of them pile into the bug's tech-and-game-filled studio, passing out from exhaustion. Zenvisk even has a compatible charging cable for Cross' body, and a nearby 24-hour mart sells a quick dinner, including cyborg meals.
In the morning, the group gets ready while Amaryst heads to the New York Spaceport to book an orbital shuttle. It's free, but there is a wait of about an hour. The guy behind the counter looks bored as hell, and barely looks at Amaryst as she gets her ticket and moves to the waiting room.
She's able to get a call off to the rest of the group before she boards her shuttle - a twenty-seater old-fashioned model with separate take-off boosters from its maneuvering thrusters. Amaryst even has to climb in and up a ladder to her seat, which faces upwards.
The flight up to one of Earth's three exit stations is about twenty minutes, characterized by heavy gee forces assisted only by low-power grav-adjusters and a hard, uncomfortable seat, and then sodas and peanuts served in the 0.2g cruise to the station.
The station itself is basic, and resembles an airport from previous centuries, only much more claustrophobic. Hallways are narrow due to the cost of putting heavy materials in space and windows are limited to a few "observation decks" due to the relative danger. The area between the concourse and the airlocks are filled with cheap consumer goods from Earth (real beef burgers! proclaims one advertisement, with a short, repeating video of a shirren delightfully enjoying a burger with a picture of a cow in the background). Amaryst is able to quickly find the port where her own ship is located by using the helpful readouts about which ships are using which docks.
The rest of the group is able to follow after fairly quickly, although to avoid too much notice they split into several groups that take separate shuttles. Shuttles leave every 90 minutes, so it only takes until the middle of the afternoon for the group to be together again, in a Starbucks on the station. Gravity here is 0.6 Earth standard because of the power demands of keeping it at a full 1g.
When he arrives, Rollo pulls a dark, curved bottle out of a rucksack that he carries with a grin. "I couldn't resist," he says, handing it to Amaryst. "It said it's real champagne that comes from the real region of Champagne! I remember you said it doesn't have a name, so I figure we could name it. This is what humans do, right? Pour champagne on an unnamed ship?"
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"Getting the bottle there unharmed is going to be the real trick. I'm thinking it's probably best if we go for the ship first. That way we have it secured before we deal with our second problem" Jin says intermittently between leisurely sips of a large frappe and occasional bites of a cinnamon bagel "Make sure you save enough to drink. That stuff is supposedly pretty good if the earth movies are to be believed."
Amaryst barks a short laugh of delight that's half derisive snort. "Rollo, that's -- that's -- that just is." She's smiling at the end of the stammering. She draws a long shallow sip from her warm chai latte.
"Getting the bottle there unharmed is going to be the real trick. I'm thinking it's probably best if we go for the ship first. That way we have it secured before we deal with our second problem" Jin says intermittently between leisurely sips of a large frappe and occasional bites of a cinnamon bagel "Make sure you save enough to drink. That stuff is supposedly pretty good if the earth movies are to be believed."
"I thought they smashed the bottle against the ship. That seems a waste."
"I'm happy to try for the ship first. It will give us a base of operations. If we don't kill anyone, the law should be on our side."
Cross looked up from where he was 'eating' when the others started talking about champagne and ships. "They only did that for new ships," he said, the disposable container of his meal crumpling as the last bits of nutrient slurry were drained. Now empty, he removed the container from the port just below where his ribs would have been and tossed it into a waste bin before pulling his shirt back down.
"We should get to work."
Antenna wiggling in faint amusement at the discussion around the champagne bottle, Zenvisk finishes off his white chocolate mocha. Picking at his spiced dry oatmeal, he almost comments telepathically to the group before remembering Cross's opinion. Resigning himself to speaking aloud, he pipes up "So, what is the group of guards like as far as you know, Amaryst? Do you think that we could sneak one or two people aboard the ship? Also, earlier someone mentioned that there were biometric locks on the ship. Do those only let you board?"
Amaryst, who has been on the station for several hours now, has got some time to go by her ship's private dock to check out the guards.
The ship is docked at its own airlock. The airlock is connected to an interior room that's filled with space suits, maintenance equipment, and another airlock door. Of course, with a ship docked, all of these rooms are typically pressurized, and opening the two station airlock doors just leads to the ship's airlock door. Outside that room is a waiting room with a handful of chairs, meant for people waiting for their ship to finish docking procedures. A quartet of uniformed security goons (Roth Enterprises) sit in this waiting area. Every few hours, one of them leaves, and another comes to take his place. Because they're seated pretty much directly outside of the door, it would be very difficult to sneak past them without some kind of extenuating circumstance.
Antenna wiggling in faint amusement at the discussion around the champagne bottle, Zenvisk finishes off his white chocolate mocha. Picking at his spiced dry oatmeal, he almost comments telepathically to the group before remembering Cross's opinion. Resigning himself to speaking aloud, he pipes up "So, what is the group of guards like as far as you know, Amaryst? Do you think that we could sneak one or two people aboard the ship? Also, earlier someone mentioned that there were biometric locks on the ship. Do those only let you board?"
" The Roth's are rich, so they can afford to hire good help. I've always seen four on duty, and they rotate shifts, so there's at least four more somewhere on station. They're stationed right by the airlock, so there's no way to slip past. The locks are keyed to me and Eastern."
Her tone turns musing, "Those locks are good. Eastern was always very worried about theft. I guess it's a good thing or the Roth's might have just flown off with her by now."
"All of you should do a walk by to size them up. You might notice something that I've missed. Just don't be too obvious about looking at them."
" I was thinking, if I lured them out into the corridor, you could hit them from behind."
"I can operate just fine in vacuum, is there another airlock I can access from the outside?" Cross asked as a surprisingly non-violent solution occurred to him.
Gesturing at SAM, Zenvisk speaks "If you wanted, I could send SAM with you. She is also capable of operating in a vacuum, and I can give her directions from just under half a mile away. However, I cannot see through her eyes, so I am limited in what I could tell her to do. If nothing else, I could have her scout around the outside of the ship for more information."
"Cross, you are a genius!"
"Leaving aside that this is what I was cored for, I should be fine. This is a commercial spacedock, not the deeps. They'll have infrastructure in place. Plenty of handholds, safety lines, that sort of thing." Cross did not mention that the last time he operated in hard vacuum, he had more in common with the spaceship he would be boarding than any of the assembled party.
"I'll take the bot too, if you're fine with that. I'll relay instructions through you if anything complex comes up."
Rollo nods. "Seems like a good idea to me. Getting into a fight in the middle of a spaceport seems like a good way to get arrested. Let's go." He leads the group over to another vacant port, on the other side of the station. "Here, we've all got armor, right?" he says. "We need to hack the airlock so that it doesn't set off an alarm - they all do that when opened to hard space without notice."
He looks around, and then goes to an informational terminal, looking through it for a few moments. "Yeah, that's what I thought... We'd have to pay to use the dock... but if I'm right, we can just all go out there, right? Even if you don't have armor, there are emergency suits in every airlock."
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”So here’s a crazy thought. Do you think if we grabbed a security guard from around the corner and asked they would care?” Jin wonders aloud to the assembled group ”I mean, in their eyes it would certainly beat the alternative of dealing with a shootout on the concourse right? We could probably just explain about the goons and ask them to let us make a quick spacewalk to our ship.”
"Possible, especially if we back it up with cash. Witchwyrds are traders. I vote you make the pitch, hon."
There is conveniently a station security kiosk quite nearby.
"Ye gods, it's almost like having a bit of spending money lets us avoid potentially disastrous situations. Nobody tell Ayda, we wouldn't want to harm her ego," Cross said as he moved to join Rollo at the terminal, "Talk to the rent-a-cop if you want, I'll find us a short-term berth."
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”Indeed” Jin says, chuckling at Cross’s jab before walking up to the counter and speaking up to get the guard’s attention ”Uh, excuse me, pardon the interruption but we have a small problem. You see there is an unsavory group of goons blocking the entrance to our ship and they assaulted my friend last time she tried to board. Is there any chance we could perhaps make a quick spacewalk to the other airlock?” Jin explains to the Security guard, adding on ”We’d rather avoid that they cause trouble for you by starting a fight, you know?”
The goon gives Jin a smile as he reveals the credstick. He glances at its readout to see the amount, and then he just says, "Well, this all sounds very suspicious. Taking a spacewalk to a legitimately acquired ship? Maybe I should just go tell the rightful owners that you're trying to steal from them..." he mutters, while at the same time sliding a finger along his nose and winking.
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"Well, if you'd like to speak with the rightful owner, she's just a few yards behind me." Jin says, nodding towards Amaryst "But really, this isn't too big a deal. We are just trying to avoid those ruffians disturbing the peace after all." he says, tapping the chit and transferring another 50 credits into the already hefty bribe, bringing the display to a nice round 100.
The greedy security officer's smile widens as he takes the chit, putting it into a jacket pocket. "Oh, of course, you're right. Let me help you." He slides out from the kiosk and approaches the indicated airlock. He pulls out a little key-card on a stretchy rope from his belt, and tags it to a little scanner. That opens up the inner airlock area. "Be quick," he says. "The suits in there are good for a few hours. They have readouts and everything. Good luck." With a final slimy smile, he slinks away.
All that leaves is for the group to pull their helmets on and activate their suits' environmental protections. A sharp hiss accompanies the pressure seal's activation, and after a short airlock cycle, the group is out in hard vacuum. Cross was right - there is infrastructure in place for people traversing the outside of the station. Handholds and safety lines are frequent on the outside, and it only takes about an hour for the group to traverse the outside of the station and make it to Amaryst's ship. Built as a luxury leisure vessel by Nikolai Heavy Industries, the late Eastern Roth's ship is mostly served by an overpowered core and oversized engines. It takes a few airlock cycles of the ship's small secondary airlock to get inside, but once everyone is inside, the crew is able to admire the interior.
The ship is on three levels, served by a single thin spiral staircase near the ship's aft.
The top level is residential, and contains the ship's four small suites. Each suite is about sixty square feet and contains a kitchenette, a small private bathroom, and a bedroom with a reading nook containing a window that looks out to space.
The middle level is for the functioning of the ship. The ship's bridge at the front has three seats: one for a pilot, one for a co-pilot and gunner, and one for the ship's tech officer, and hosts a front-facing window. Behind that is a communal living area with a table, a larger kitchenette, and a trivid den for watching entertainment. Behind that is the ship's typical airlock and docking apparatus.
The lower level contains the engine room (with a small office for an engineer), the lifeboats (nestled in the bottom of the ship for easy release) another, smaller airlock in the bottom of the ship, facing down, and a few different hidden compartments for storing cargo.
Lighting is good and soft, seats seem to be real leather, there is wood inlay in the decorations. The common room has an Old Earth painting in one wall, backlit all around. The painting is oil on canvas of a French beach.
Rollo whistles as he wanders around. "Wow, Amaryst. Didn't know you were a high-roller," he says.
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Upon finding the suites Jin's eyes light up as he lets himself just sink into the plush fabric of one of the beds "Sweet gods above, it's been so long since I've seen a proper bed" he says aloud, just letting himself bask in it for a few moments before inevitably yet reluctantly tearing himself away.
Eventually after a good 10 to 15 minutes exploring the upper and bottom floors of the ship he arrives on the Bridge, where he begins to set up shop at the Science Officer's terminal "Amaryst, can you please come to the bridge and help me get some credentials in the system?" he texts to her commlink.
... Rollo whistles as he wanders around. "Wow, Amaryst. Didn't know you were a high-roller," he says.
A faint smile teases at Amaryst's lips. "I was just the hired help. This was Eastern's ship. You can see why his family wants to keep it."
She goes immediately to her cabin to shed her armor and gear. Then she descends the spiral staircase to engineering ....
...
Eventually after a good 10 to 15 minutes exploring the upper and bottom floors of the ship he arrives on the Bridge, where he begins to set up shop at the Science Officer's terminal "Amaryst, can you please come to the bridge and help me get some credentials in the system?" he texts to her commlink.
"Be right up," the lashunta replies by voice.
Amaryst flips a few more switches and notes the corresponding indicator's responses. Satisfied, she pushes back from the console. She spirals up the staircase and moves forward to the bridge.
"Let's get you set up, Jin. The computer's name is Evy." "Evy, this is Amaryst. I'd like to give my friend, Jin, here command access to all ship functions." Amaryst types a short code into the keyboard, at about a second per stroke.
"You can type a passcode here, Jin. There's a scanner there for retinal and dermaglyphic samples. Then we'll record a voice sample."
The ship hums to life as Amaryst attends to it, a high-pitched whine from the Drift engine charging up getting tuned out by sonic dampeners after a few seconds.
"Understood," says the electronically-neutral female voice of Evy, the ship VI. "Jin has access to the ship's systems. Anything else, Amaryst?"