Cath

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“I would take the safety and quiet of Orostro over Korit any day. Isn’t it funny how we all seem to be looking for cleaner water in the next cave?” Light replied, using an old QV saying. He detected movement above; looked up he saw a train with four carriages dangling from a rail come to a stop.

“Ah, of course! Let's take the monorail, we can get past this lot. The station door is there.”

Taking the lead as he was more familiar with the Fourteen Factories fast transit system, Light pushed to a door that opened into a large cargo lift. It elevated them onto a shelf platform about two thirds of the way up the corridor wall. The monorail had just left, but it would only be a few minutes before another arrived.

“So what is your impression of our melange of species in this galactic zone? We have been integrated for so long, everyone seems so jaded. But you, you have a fresh perspective.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light sighed. It seemed to him like the gravity of his situation hadn’t properly landed with his assistant. After being bugged to elaborate on his ailment, It was vaguely irritating to be fobbed off with directions to hospitals light years away. The QV supposed it must be difficult for a synthetic to truly understand, even if they did look like an organic lifeform in armour.

“It is hard to say for sure - different doctors say different things. But on average I’d say about 1.5 billion more GCs to give me a good shot. I could probably sell my ship for that, but then I’d have bigger problems. Shuttling is my livelihood - without it I’ve got nothing left.” Light grunted eventually.

The gangways either side of the main road where the parade marched were getting packed out with people. The last few cargo bays they had passed seemed to have waiting passenger liners, and people were pressing together trying to secure passage. The parade ground to a halt.

“We don’t have time for this…” Light remarked, but did nothing about it. The thrumming mass of bodies made him anxious. He asked Senjen the first thing that came to his head, mainly to soothe his jangling nerves.

“Was that your homeworld you just mentioned? What made you leave?”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light undulated sagely at Senjen’s first question.

“A lot. I must admit, I was briefly tempted to agree on your behalf. That money could do a lot for both of us. But you’re right, it was much too risky. Even surgery aside, we are on a special mission to transport…you know what.” The QV looked around but couldn’t see anyone eavesdropping in the crowd as they flowed down the corridor together.

Then Senjen asked about his health. Light flashed signs of fear, anger, anxiety and embarrassment. “I, uh, have to eat.” The QV left the parade for a stall on the sidelines, and bought a tube of crustacean paste. It was still expensive, but not as bad as the cargo bay, which made him feel slightly better. Light eagerly engulfed the tube in his gel suit. The suit helpfully squeezed the contents out then directed it all into his maw. For a moment, he felt euphoria at having sated some of his hunger. Then he realised Senjen was still waiting expectantly. He sighed and studied the floor.

“I have this…condition. Some of the cells in my body grow and spread uncontrollably. It started off here.” He raised one of his tentacles up - it had an unsightly growth about ten centimetres across on one side.

“Now it has spread to my respiratory system. It makes it hard to breathe sometimes, even with the suit. I’ve been trying to save enough for treatment, but doctors aren’t cheap. That's why I've started taking on more risk; it pays better. But I'm not in good enough shape for all this activity, normally I just pilot my ship from place to place. Thats why I’ve hired you.” Light flashed embarrassment again.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Séverine’s face fell. For a split second, she looked…sad? Angry? Light couldn’t tell. His assistant was shaking though, and he knew that meant Senjen was uneasy. The QV had recovered from his coughing fit now, so reached a manipulator out to gingerly pat the Utaysi’s frame. It was a gesture he had seen other land-based creatures complete, and he couldn’t think what else to do at this moment.

The Human looked around quickly, then when she looked back at them she was smiling again.

“Okie dokie! Please, don’t let me make you late.”

Seeing the soldiers checking the line were occupied, two Tekeri turned and ran from their place in it towards the exit. Spotting them immediately, Séverine slipped a stun gun with a yellow barrel from her hip and held it at arm's length. After a pregnant pause, she fired twice. Both aliens collapsed and slid limp across the hangar bay floor. She looked at Light and grinned.

“I’ll catch you later.” The Human winked, spun the weapon around her finger then holstered it again. She walked off, towards her quarry, and Light breathed a shuddering sigh of relief.

“I need food, and a nice lay down. Let's get out of here!” He exclaimed.

They exited the cargo bay into the vast corridor which spanned the entire ring. It gently curved upwards at either end, with other cargo bay doors set into the walls at regular intervals. As Light had seen earlier, a parade was passing by at this moment. Lots of brightly festooned people with lit paper lanterns were walking by and others watched. Stalls sold paraphernalia, food and drink.

“We need to get to a spoke corridor then enter the Grand Concourse.” Light explained as they joined the parade. He checked behind them, looking for any signs of being followed. There didn’t appear to be any. He leaned in close to his assistant.

“I’m glad you didn’t go along with that. I didn’t like the look of that Human at all! Sorry I lost my composure. What do you think they were going to do to you?”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Séverine listened attentively to Senjen’s counteroffer then smiled and shook her head.

“That is very kind of you, but I’m afraid I need to activate your personality matrix at the same time as your memory. As your mind has more in common with us organics, we’re using the same device we use on Humans. It is very fun in that it uses your unconscious mind to locate and unlock information.”

This all struck Light as highly irregular. The Utaysi were quite new to the area, and their makeup was still relatively unknown. This Human spoke like she knew it well, and for some reason it made him angry.

“Ok, I think t-this has gone far enough. We’re really very late for an appointment and I need to re-oxidise my gel urgently after that, so we should just-”

“Fifty billion credits for five minutes of your time. Though unfortunately I must trouble you for a quick answer. I am needed back on the line.” Séverine said simply, looking between the two of them.

Light blanched, turning a milky white. Fifty billion credits might be enough for him to escape the Vermillion Consortium’s clutches! He could get medical attention for his condition, retire somewhere the QV didn’t know about his past. Maybe even raise some offspring…

He couldn’t breathe. Light turned politely and collapsed into a coughing fit. As he doubled over, he happened to see what looked like some parade shuffling past the exit on the main concourse. All different species, holding up different paper lanterns with a light inside. It must be a religious festival or something, Light thought distractedly.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light didn’t reply straight away. This naive Utaysi didn’t realise just how much you didn’t want to talk to these Humans about anything at all. Especially when you were carrying secret cargo for an employer who had no qualms about killing people just for discussing business to strangers. To make matters worse, Light knew they were probably capable of listening to private conversations and so couldn’t warn his assistant any further. So he remained silent, bathed in green, and looked for an opportunity to get them away.

Séverine nodded and smiled again at Senjen’s answer, as if he’d done the right thing. “You have good instincts. You should come join us in Naval Intelligence! We could use the help, in this day and age.”

Light tried to discreetly examine the metadata for this Human’s armour; there was nothing to suggest they had anything to do with a planetary government. The woman looked right at him.

“Hi there, we don’t mark our armour anymore for security reasons. Is that your ship? I admire your bravery, piloting something outside of the QV’s ken. Where did you buy it?”

Light tried to remain calm, feigning a cough so that he could obfuscate his body with the gelsuit a bit more.

“I-I bought it here. Lots of Tindrel trade ships were going cheap after they got infected with that rock fungus a few decades ago.”

Séverine nodded, pursing her lips.

“I heard about that. Awful business…Listen, you guys seem trustworthy so I'm going to tell you a little secret. We believe that Utaysi is carrying half a master key for one of our ship Minds. With that level of access, you could convince the ship to turncoat. Or destroy a planet. The trouble is, our technology isn’t optimised for your species. If we try to find and extract this ‘file’ from our friend over there and they resist, we could destroy it by mistake. That's no good, as Minds do not like to distribute more. Worse than that, we could hurt him, and we don’t want that. So…I was wondering if I could do a test scan on you? Properly calibrate my device on someone who won’t resist, so we have the best chance of success on our friend.”

“That is very thoughtful of you, b-but we really must be going.” Light ventured.

“I promise it won’t hurt, and will take just a moment. I’ll pay you handsomely for your time, of course.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Senjen got no response from the bound Utaysi. They were eerily motionless, looking at the hangar floor.

“What!? Why did you talk to them?!” Light spluttered incredulously, flashing black with dark green spots. “There is no ‘above board’ here, and there’s hardly an embassy. Oh no, what have you done…Don’t mention our cargo!”

Light then also went silent, and Senjen would learn the reason for that when he turned back to the ship and found the holopad woman standing neatly before them. Her helmet visor had unclouded, revealing a broad and chiselled face with full, blue-pink lips and piercing blue eyes. A strand of yellow hair framed either side, just at the edge of the viewing area. She was smiling warmly, revealing perfect white teeth.

“Hi, I’m Séverine, pleased to meet you! I’m here with my friends Eugene and Constance.” She gestured back towards the line, where the two soldiers worked.

“I couldn’t help but notice that one of our detainees spoke to you about some files while his comms were being monitored. I wanted to thank you for confirming our suspicions, we’ll be sure to follow this up with him. I am curious though - why do you think he spoke to you of all people? Is it because you look alike? Or is it because Utaysi are known for their proficiency at keeping files secure? I’m genuinely interested; I haven’t met many of your kind before.” She bored holes into Senjen with her eyes while Light quivered silently by his side.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light floated around to study Senjen for a moment. “Are you giving me an attitude right now? A simple ‘No’ will suffice.” Without stopping, the QV completed the 360 degree turn and then drifted over to the food truck.

“I’m Lelund, techsmith, at your service. These Tekeri tricked me! Said all I needed to do was transport some files to Outremer and they’d pay me handsomely. No danger, just needed somewhere secure to store it. Now we’re all in cuffs! Please, if you won’t free me, just let me transfer whatever it is to you. I’ll pay you the advance they gave me for your trouble.”

At this point, the woman looked up from her holo-pad at the captive Utaysi. The prisoner didn’t meet her gaze, instead looking back down at the floor. After a pregnant pause, she looked around at the crowd. It wasn’t hard to spot the other Utaysi standing some two dozen metres away.

“Forget it. I’m not paying those prices just for some simple crustacean paste!” Light blustered as he returned to wobble by Senjen’s side.

“I’ll find somewhere else. Ready to go?” His sonar picked the QV ship back up again. The two standing near it were still arguing. Light wondered where they’d come from and what group they belonged to. He resisted the urge to go find out; It would only complicate their mission further. Maybe he’d send Senjen once they’d made the drop.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light coughed and flashed red as they surveyed the hangar bay.

He had seen a lot of disturbing things in his life, and was jaded to some extent. But there was something so distressing and overstimulating about this scene that he struggled to focus on any one aspect. QV eyesight was designed for deep water, so was best for tracking lights and colours in the dark. He relied on a type of echolocation to understand the shapes and movement within his environment. It was rare for any ocean to have this many large objects all at once, so his gelsuit tried to sculpt the scene to draw Light’s attention to things it thought were important.

“I don’t know. Did they try to scam their way on board, as they did with my ship? Imprisonment isn’t common on Korit; perhaps they were violent towards the crew and will be released when they calm down. Do you need to eat?” The ruckus on the cargo ramp had shaken Light, and that made him hungry. They had food back on the ship, but going back would prolong the amount of time they needed to spend here. The QV eyed the food truck’s wares.

“Hey…psst.” A message came through just to Senjen.

“Over here. On the floor.” The Utaysi bound in a row with the other prisoners raised their head and looked at Senjen.

“Please. You have to free me. I haven’t done anything. They’re going to torture us or something. I don’t want to die!”

The woman standing next to the prisoners didn’t look up from her holo-pad.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Some of the refugees took an involuntary step back when Senjen rose to his fullest stature. Combined with Light’s determined look and heavy armament, they made for quite a formidable sight to someone unacquainted with their actual personalities. The people they confronted were desperate, but not that desperate.

The lead Human shared another look with his compatriots, then raised his hands. “Ok, ok. Easy, big fella. We were just having a conversation. We’ll be on our way, find some other way off this station. You have a great day, now.” With that, they turned around and drifted away, back round the front of their ship towards the exit. The loader Tindrel followed them, more comfortable now the situation had been defused.

Light slowly lowered the Bang Stick and leaned on it like it was a walking staff.

“Nicely done. Now grab your gear - we have a drop to make.” There was a note of reluctant admiration in his light show. Perhaps his new assistant wouldn’t be a total disaster after all.

The QV stowed his weapon back in its locker then closed up the cargo bay door. He activated the locks, alarms and countermeasures. There was always a chance the rabble would return and try to break into his ship while they were gone. But these would hopefully deter any intruders long enough for them to get back.

Together, Light and Senjen followed the same route most everyone else had taken. Round the front of their ship and to the right. Two sets of dotted lines on the floor about four metres apart denoted the safe walking area for visitors - all other floor space was set aside for machines and cargo. Once they’d rounded the ship, the rest of the hangar bay opened up to them.

It was a cavernous rectangular space in total chaos. Their craft was on the left hand side of the bay and shared it with two others. They were both of a similar size but totally different designs.

The middle ship was a sleek, modern cutter with stealthy black camouflage. A large, disorderly queue of people, mostly Humans, wended their way round the piles of crates which dotted the surrounding area. They were in no way sticking within the dotted lines. Light could see two Humans in full combat gear scanning people and checking documents at different points in the line. Light then noticed a Utaysi and two Tekeri kneeling uncomfortably in a row. Their limbs were bound together by energy cuffs. A woman in a high-tech, lightweight suit consulted a holo-pad nearby.

On the other side of the Human ship from them, a QV gelship of pristine white jiggled sedately. Light could just about detect streams of gelcrates being carted out - sperm packets and eggs, or food from the homeworld perhaps? His understanding of QV body language was far superior than for the other species. It seemed like two of them were arguing about something.

Close to the exit, which was level with the middle cutter, a Tekeri hawked a variety of in-suit food pouches from the back of a small four wheeled buggy. Four mercs hung around next to it. Upon seeing them, one called “Protect your ship, sirs? Or are you looking for protection around the station? Experienced and licensed security teams with a 100% satisfaction rate!”