Never Enough (v2)

[Mitheral]

Kadarack - Alastor 872 (Alastor Interstellar catalogue ID) - a real backwater world, a class 9 high axial tilt, high orbital eccentricity planet with a 56% hydrospheric rating and 0.98 standard gravity field and two small moons. It had several claims to fame. It had once been the site of a minor precursor base - Betan. The term Betan was somewhat arbitrary. Alphans were a major Precursor Federation that occupied intergalactic space about 2 million years ago. The Betans were a smaller one from a somewhat later period. Betan finds were rare, but nowhere near as noteworthy. The most dangerous sites were Omegan. They were the nemesis of the Alphans and about as close to Evil as one could get. What made this particular sire to important was that an Omegan artifact had been discovered in the Betan base. It had long since been removed and the site cleared of any further hazards or the planet would still be interdicted.


The second claim to fame was that the planet had once been a famous pirate world. Even today the planet was a center of illegal activities. It was a sort of way station between the civilized Imperial Reaches and the Outworlds.


The third claim to fame were dancing girl festivals, not unlike belly dancers. It was supposed to bring in tourists. Instead it drew in the sex starved crews of ships like pirates, asteroid miners, and tramp freighters.


The fourth claim to fame was the planet’s reputation for nearly anything one could want being for sale. A lot of planets made such claims. Kaderack made good on them. For a price just about anything could be had. This last reason was precisely why Duncan was here. There was an auction of some art objects, specifically some sculptures. The one that had caught his eye was a Skythian dancer supposedly sculpted by D. Angyr Hastathi. If so, it was a rare find. Duncan was fairly certain is was a fake. Hastathi forgeries were pretty unusual. This one had looked like a near perfect replica.


(Female Character Name) might have expected the Hastathi to go for 150,000 CR on a good day. Her broker would take a 30% - to cover his usual fees and the risk. He had known it was a fake. But it was a damned good one - one of the best he had ever seen. The real surprise was when a rather handsome young man dressed ruggedly, but who seemed a little out of place among the smugglers and scoundrels of this planet made his offers. He soon drove the bidding up, his final bid a whopping 280,000 CR. He had even asked to inspect the sculpture, making a show like he thought he knew what he was doing. His inspection made the broker nervous. But the bid the man made after the inspection started a flurry of bids. And when the man walked up and paid in hard currency, the broker’s face beamed.


But Lord Duncan Moran was hardly finished. He pulled the broker aside. “Another 50,000 CR if you can put me in contact with the seller.”


“Good sir ….” the broker started to shake his head.


“220,000 … cash. And now. I know it is a fake. The forger is a man I have researched. It was a fake I was hoping to find. I want to know who the thief stole it from. I will pay the thief another 100,000 CR if they report to my ship - the Fire of Prometheus - and allow me to question them.”


That was when the firefight broke out. It was a group of aliens, Razorbacks was their common name. They looked a bit like pigs. They were well known as hired muscle. The object of their anger seemed to be a rather pretty young woman who was using the crowd to make good an escape. She seemed none too happy. She had yet to collect her 70%.) But it was hard to collect money of you were dead.


“What the hell?” Duncan asked as he slammed into the broker carrying the man to cover just in time.


The broker was stunned for a moment. He struggled to grab Duncan and speak. “Th-that ….” he wheezed. “That … her.”


“The thief …?”


“Collector of rare antiquities,” the broker managed to rasp.


Duncan decided to take a chance that the man was speaking the truth. He dropped the remainder of the half million credits in his possession in the broker’s hands and took off at an inhuman pace passing the bounty hunters on their right flank and overtaking the woman in several seconds, still flanking her. He suddenly veered left and slammed into her snatching her up and off the ground throwing up a force shield just in time to stop several blaster bolts. Then he spun around, the woman’s weight hardly even a hindrance, and took off like a shot toward an exterior access door. The only problem with his plan was that there was no ramp on the outside and it was a 3-4 story drop to the tarmack.


Duncan barely slowed down. As he approached he brought his foot up and kicked at the door. An instant before it connected a forced slammed him backwards and blew the door out. It felt like an explosion. The force shield again saved their lives as he shoved their bodies out into open air. The last thing the thief recalled was the ground rushing up at them and a sudden impact. Then everything went black.


++++++++++++++


She found herself restrained and for a moment she might have thought the worst. Then she recognized the smells of a sick bay. Her side hurt - bad. She hadn’t even realized she had been shot. The restraints were there only to keep her from rolling out of the medical bed. Her shirt was gone. But a man’s shirt several sizes too big was neatly folded on a chair. Her body armor was likewise there - though not her weapons.


That was when she heard the approach of someone large. The man who entered might as well have been Hercules. There was no mistaking who he was. He was the man who had taken her off her feet and … kidnapped her?


Duncan arrived in the doorway. His eyes popped open and he backed out, the door closing once more. Over the PA he spoke. “My apologies. I thought you’d be dressed already. I’m sorry about your shirt. It had to be cut off. I left one in there for you. It’s clean. I wanted to speak with you … about the forgery. Like where you got it.”

 

[Lenaara]

280,000 CR. It was nearly a double than what was expected. It was enough to buy a small cruiser. Enough to pay off some people and shut the others up.


The bid made Lena stare at the buyer, thinking him a moron for raising the bid so high on a fake. A good fake but still, a fake nonetheless.


So, in her mind, she dubbed the man Fool, and called him like that ever since in her mind as he went to speak to the broker. What they were talking about she did not know, did not care even, as she brushed past the people before her on the way towards the broker to collect her promised share before suddenly stopped and turning towards a completely different direction.


Fucking amazing


She began moving before the mercenaries arrived to the auction, their presence rippling through the crowd before the blasters at their sides were unsheathed. A few glances from some people, a strange phrase or some such thing, a movement of an arm, a body, a scoff; the people reacted differently to the pig-looking aliens at the back, their actions like ripples in the water reaching Lena who stood on the other edge of the crowd. By the time the firefight broke out the woman melted into the crowd, moving amongst them, matching their pace and the way they looked around, cautious, in fear.


Training paid off, if only for a moment.


Lena hid between a larger man and a woman, older than her by at least half a century, their gigantic clothes of faux fur hiding the thief well enough for her to move one of the sides of her coat open to expose a belt with different round devices strapped to it. The coat was stolen on the way out of the auction, from the back of a chair nearby, whose she did not know but it was big enough to hide her upper body clad in body armour. Ruffling through the pockets she found something small and elastic, a hair tie perhaps, and pulled her hair up and tied it into a low tail at the back of her neck, then hiding the long dusty brown locks underneath the leather of the coat.


Looking back over her shoulders Lena tried to locate the number of mercenaries, their grotesque appearance so vivid amongst the people around her, when someone slammed into her.


Automatically the woman moved, slamming her elbow into the midriff of the larger figure who held her. It was a hard jab, she knew that with enough force he would double over and let go, but before Lena could free herself of his hold an explosion blinded her senses, shutting her body and mind down.


The day could not get worse.


The money was gone, the promised lump sum from the sale of the statue would have been more than enough to take care of her current situation. Now, it was impossible unless some other equal opportunity arose.


Lena woke up suddenly, as if realizing where she was and her situation, and sat up. The restraints pulled on her but were easy to remove once she fumbled around with them. Looking around her gaze slid over the corners of the room, the walls, and the monitors, anything that could pose itself as a listening or video device. At that moment someone walked into the room – a large man, fairly handsome and well kept, surely someone of high status. His reaction was that as if she had been fully naked, causing him to leave the room and talk on the other side of the door.


“What?” Lena asked, her tone emitting a genuine surprise and confusion, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Was I shot? It hurts. Could you come in? Help me? Ah, I’m so confused.” The voice was a practiced one from years before, feminine and helpless. Men, as she found, were easy to fool once a woman acted so.


The room where she was resembled that of a medical bay, or some such room where wounded were admitted. No obvious video surveillance was visible, but even so, just in case, Lena’s body language matched that of a confused woman – her hand would shoot up to her head, covering her forehead, then sliding down to her mouth, eyebrows furrowed and eyes soft. She slowly got off the bed, covering her side with her hand for support and to feel the bullet wound. It hurt, really did, and she hated this familiar feeling.


On top of the chair was her body suit and a folded shirt. She yanked the shirt off, pulling it over her head, the fabric flapping around her thin and toned frame. The body suit lacked the weapons hidden in it, the belt bare of its contents, but it could still be used as a weapon if the need arose. So, she took it, moving it in her fingers as she walked towards the door of the room where the man stood just moments ago. The metal belt lay in her hands resembling a noose – that was its future purpose, after all.


Lena’s actions were a ruse to lure the larger man within the room, and she hoped that he had not seen her body in detail. Not because she was ashamed, no, but because he would guess that her words and actions were fake. The large shirt hid her toned body, not overly muscular but rather lean, an athletic build with a few scars here and there that healed up quite nicely over the years. Some from blasters, some from electric batons, some from thin blades.


The current plan was simple – let the man walk into the room and put the metal belt over his neck like a noose, choking him. So, she stood, fumbling around with the metal in her hands like a child, waiting.

 

[Mitheral]

Duncan heard the damsel in distress tone drip from the woman’s voice. A part of him had a gut response to help, but his military training - and the recognition of just how many injuries she had sustained in her less than legal past - stopped him. He’d ultrascanned her - SOP on his vessel. An ultrascan literally scanned someone down to the molecular level. He had his own problems with Imperial Intelligence. But he had also wanted to make sure he hadn’t missed any injuries.


From the other side of the door he waited until Athena informed him that the woman had changed clothing. Athena started to issue a warning, but Duncan smiled. “I know.” He scanned the room and noted the woman posture - and the fact that she wasn’t putting her belt on - metal, he knew - and her position, ready for an ambush.


He had to suppress a laugh. He debated asking Athena to raise gravity to 6 G’s, but decided that wouldn’t be very chivalrous. He waved his hand and the door slid open. He made it a point to face the woman as he entered this time. As he did so he looked down at the belt. “Not quite done getting dressed? Or perhaps you like me to make it easy for you by turning my back to you. Anyone who could steal an artifact like that, and carries weapons like you do, has a certain skill set. Please do not take me for a fool.”

 

[Lenaara]

The belt had a mat gloss to it, made out of smaller metal plates resembling scales of some lizard or other. Indeed, the belt would have looked like it was maze of leather, akin to snake’s skin. The scales could be moved at the part where the belt clicked closed, especially if one of the clips at the end of the belt would be removed.


It wasn’t special by any means, indeed it was a basic model that could be bought almost anywhere, but it was modified in more ways than one. The belt had clips here and there, hinges to hold some item or other, all of which were now empty as the man before her had, most likely, removed the items.


As she waited for the door to open Lena removed one of the clasps, moving it to the side on the belt as it was connected by wires and such. The clasp moved, unhinging from the wires, staying only on one which allowed it to be reattached later on. Her fingers then pulled one of the wires out, and straightened it, now it resembled more like a metal needle, thin and sharp at the end, strong enough to attack if needed.


“Then you must know,” Lena said, her hand holding the belt in such a way as to allow her easy access to the needle as a weapon, “that I can kill you with this before you alert any of your crew.”


The man before her was the Fool, as she dubbed him during the auction, and it seemed that it was him who had slammed into her as she tried to run away. At this memory her side began to hurt in a dull ache.


“The forgery? You know as well as I from whom it was stolen and a part of which collection it is. How about you tell me, instead, what do you need me for? Going to drag me back to Cestus?”


She stepped back, putting some distance between herself and the man. The belt was a good weapon, and she would have attacked if it was not for the man’s height and physique. Indeed, he would over power her within an issue, and by the time she would turn the fight in her favour his crew would be alerted.


“Or to someone else whom I pissed off? The list’s so long I can’t even guess who sent you.”

 

[Mitheral]

“The forgery? You know as well as I from whom it was stolen and a part of which collection it is. How about you tell me, instead, what do you need me for? Going to drag me back to Cestus?”


Lena stepped back, putting some distance between them. The belt wasn’t much of a weapon, useless really. he was damned near immune to the poisons she had in her arsenal and his height, physique and heavy worlder toned muscles would have left her dangling behind him like a child had she tried to choke him. Even if the toxins did have any effect, his crew would have got to him long before it could kill him.


But she was paranoid and afraid. Oh, not afraid to the point of being wise to underestimate. And fear probably didn’t affect her like some helpless female from the upper echelons of society - those useless ones he detested.


“Or to someone else whom I pissed off? The list’s so long I can’t even guess who sent you.”


Duncan sighed, “I know about your belt. If you had any weapons that presented a viable threat, you wouldn’t have them. I ultrascanned you and your gear. You get you blasters back later. And, if I die, you die. You wouldn’t be able to fly this ship or command my crew. And I have enemies of my own. If you DID manage to fly this ship, it would probably get you killed.


“What I need is the name of the mobster you stole the antique from. Well, I don’t NEED it. But the name will cut down on how many mobsters I have to go through. Names would be good actually. Duncan.” Duncan started to say gesturing to himself. “They beat just saying ‘Hey You.” He seemed to study Lena for a moment. “How about …. Cheesecake?” He gave a slow, wolfish smile. “Lady Cheesecake if you prefer.” He gave her a graceful bow, careful not to take his eyes off her. His reflexes might have been superhuman by most accounts - a virtue of growing up on a hell world - but she was no pushover. His smile teased her a little as he chuckled. “You’re welcome.” He didn’t say for what. “And I was already planning to fix your armor. But I thought you would prefer that waited until after we had put a little distance between us and those bounty hunters. You do realize that on Cestus III those bounty hunters have powers equivalent to cops?


“I already know what planet you stole the forgery from. Cestus III - my next stop. I want to know where THEY got it from. I doubt you would or could know that. But you WERE smart enough to know a fake when you saw it. That’s pretty impressive considering who the forger was. You didn’t know about him. The forger made a number of fakes - 13 to be precise. I’ve collected some of them already. One is uncollectable due to size and I haven’t located it yet. I need the other 12 to do that. You should know I used your share of the profit off the sculpture to pay gratis to the patrols back on Kadarack - to have them slow down those Razorbacks.” He held up a hand. “No need to thank me.”


Used her 70% of … 280,000 CR? Was he crazy? That was 196,000 CR!


“You need a couple days to heal. I can drop you off in another system. While aboard, do NOT try to enter any area with an access panel that is Purple. Those are very high gravity zones. Fall in there and you can break a limb. If you want to get in somewhere, try asking. I’ll get to working on your armor quickly enough. You didn’t steal it. You paid someone very well to make it. Good choice. But it could stand a few improvements - like a force shield - that you probably couldn’t afford at the time. I happen to know a few things about force technology. But that is an imperial military secret sort of thing.


“And your blasters? You get them back when I let you off the ship. Sorry, but I just don’t think I should trust you that far just yet. Besides, they aren’t legally a civilian weapon. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for letting you get yourself into trouble. That would be remiss. Now then, perhaps I could get you something to eat? It’s been longer than you might realize. I can introduce you to my crew.


“If you are interested, I am looking for one human crewmember with skills right up your alley - I hope. I need someone with a working knowledge of the Inner Worlds and how to get around … Imperials. I have my reasons. The jobs may require a little bending of the law. That isn’t exactly my forte. It goes very much against my grain.”

 

[Lenaara]

“I wasn’t planning on flying your ship. I was planning on tipping off some pirates nearby where your ship is located and work from there,” Lena moved her shoulders in a shrug, and then winced. The motion pulled on her side and it flared up in a burning pain.


Cheesecake? Is he high?


“I prefer ‘Hey you’, otherwise I’m going to call you Fool. The name’s fitting, considering you paid for the forgery three times more than you should have. And you blew my cover, so I thank you for that, Fool.”


She listened to him, half paying attention to him really as the man could not stop talking. It seemed odd, as she was standing before him wearing an oversize T-shirt and a broken on purpose belt. So, Lena walked back towards the bed on which she woke up, set the belt down beside her, and sat down, arms crossed over her chest.


The man assumed a lot about her, especially about her armour and the lack of the force field. It was better that he did, really, otherwise he would ask questions that she was not going to answer or lie through her teeth.


“You what?” she snapped at the man before her after he made a comment regarding her share, “196,000 CR? Do you not know how bribes work?”


Lena pinched the bridge of her nose, showing for the first time thus far a real emotion and not a well-acted one. “Look, Fool, you blow my cover, slam into me, get me shot, drag you onto your ship and assume an awful lot about me. The only way I would agree to such an arrangement is if you pay the entire sum of 280,000 CR which I am owed, repair my equipment, return my equipment, and pay for every single item that I am tasked to find. No sharing, no deals or some other such thing. Also, no digging into my background.”


She ran her hand through her hair and looked up at Duncan, “if not, I’m sure my contacts would work out well to allow me to find the rest of the fakes and sell them at a high prince myself. Or steal them from you. My work is discreet and smooth, the Razorbacks was a setback.”

 

[Mitheral]

“Your cover was already blown. I didn’t get you shot; I took 7 shots for you using my own body as the shield. Money? I’ll come back to that. Equipment repair - if you choose to work with me will be essential and considered a perk. Returning your equipment - yet to be decided. I’ll come back to that. Pay … we’ll talk about that later. Discreet … let’s just say I am thus far unimpressed. And as to your background … too late and out of my hands. My crew has already done so I have no doubt. Considering all the bounties on your head, I could pay you and make up my losses by turning you in for the bounty. Relax, I never cared much about money.


Duncan looked through Lena as though she was no longer of importance. “Mouse, set sail for Cestus III. Looks like the crime lord Magog Anoken is the next man we need to speak to. He focused his gaze on Lena again. “Don’t worry, you’ll be paid. Only 280,000?” He made no corrections to her figure. “As you wish.”


“Lena, my quest is a great deal more important than the paltry sum you were hoping for for the Hastathi. A million would have made your decade. My quest … it is a great deal more valuable. And that takes research and planning which is clearly on a scope far beyond what you are capable of. Those credits that I am going to pay you? They will soon become worthless - assuming you are even alive to spend them. My quest … is pretty damned near impossible. And if I succeed, I will tear the Empire apart. If I succeed, I may save whatever lives remain. War is coming - a war unlike any the Empire has faced. You won’t have anywhere to spend money.


“BUT … if all you want is money, I can pay you in advance - for the collection of the rest of the pieces. Operational costs would be my concern. one percent in advance, one percent per month, the balance upon completion. 20 MCR … in dureum. That works out to nearly 2 million credits apiece.”


Dureum was an allotropic form of compressed silver, created by intense gravities. Thus far noone knew any way to produce the material artificially. And working the material took considerable skills. The stuff was valued at 5000 CR per gram or 5 MCR per kg. Here he was telling her he had 4 kg and talking about it like it was common currency.


“Why don’t you mull that over while I introduce you to my crew.

Candace Kane


His crew turned out to be some Synthetics. The first was a little on the amusing side. He name was Candace Kane. She was a companion model, with a body of perfection designed to please. In essence she was the future’s equivalent to a blow up sex doll. However she was armed with a rather nasty looking energy pistol that dwarfed a blaster.


Duncan grinned painfully as Candace introduced herself as Candy Kane. He actually blushed a little. But he noticed Lena spotting the pistol. “Uhm, she was your medic. She’s a little funny when she goes into ‘combat mode.’ She doesn’t really have one. She just tries to sound ominous. And her pistol is really just an over glorified flashlight. I sort of rescued her from her last owner. But let’s introduce you to the rest.”

Athena


Next was Athena. This one was a combat model and a damned expensive one. Duncan had little to say about her. And she wasn’t exactly talkative. The synthetic simply placed a watchful eye on Lena that was a little disconcerting. It seemed almost impossible that Duncan couldn’t know exactly who Lena was with a synthetic like Athena serving him.

Mouse


Mouse was his lab tech. She normally wore glasses designed to make her look mousey, hence his name for her.

The last Synthetic was Grunt. The name was self explanatory. He was the other security synthetic. Apparently Grunt was the one responsible for actually stopping the Razorbacks in their tracks. Grunt had simply shown up and the Pigs had backpedaled fast.


As it turned out Duncan had rescued all of his synthetics from the scrap heaps and restored them … ‘making a few modest improvements.” That seemed to be a theme with him. He liked not only fixing things but making small improvements. He was a scientist - engineer at heart.

 

[Lenaara]

There was nothing to “mull over” as the man had put it. It was an easy deal that would make easy money. The contacts at Lena’s disposal would be more than willing to cooperate, she hoped, and she was already setting her sights on the next fake while working on acquiring this one. Now, she would get paid without an issue of cutting deals with the brokers and other smugglers to get the best price, and she would have a ship. Not her ship, of course, that one blew up less than a year ago in some system which name she forgot, but someone else’s ship that already had a full crew.


Lena followed Duncan as he introduced her to the crew but not before pulling on the pant part of her body suit. The suit was a combination of several items of clothing made of thick material with padding over several vital parts of her body. The padding could be taken off the suit, and it was, and she chose not to reattach it at that moment. Made of thick material it was a custom model that shared several similarities to that of the Imperial technology, especially the design of the padding. The boots, which she also pulled on, were of much thicker material and pulled up just over the knee cap where the padding was supposed to be attacked as well.


It was not shame that made her pull on her suit, waltzing around naked on someone else’s ship was not that uncommon for her whatever reason it could be, but rather comfort.


At the sight of the Fool’s crew Lena realized that the man was, surely, high on some drug or the other.


It was a mostly female crew, everyone a synthetic. And, one of them being a sex doll, whether former or current Lena did not know but judging from the blush that coloured Duncan’s cheeks she figured he was not that unfamiliar with Candace’s ‘combat mode’, whatever it was.


“Look,” Lena began, running her hands through her hair to untangle it, “whatever strange fetishes you may have I don’t want to be a part of it. You can’t be serious, no one has that kind of money. How about you show me the cash and then we’ll talk? Otherwise you talk a lot, and all you have to show is a synthetic crew full of females. A glorified space pirate.”

 

[Mitheral]

First month and the one percent in advance made two percent. Of 20 MCR … 400,000 CR or a mere 80 grams of dureum. He smiled. “Of course. And I have no fetishes. I didn’t design these Synthetics. I had to search for them - most of them anyways. I got lucky with one. Anyways, let me get your initial payment.” He frowned. “I hope you don’t mind, but I am going to have to pay you a little extra in advance - unless you want to wait awhile while I slice off a small enough piece of dureum. 100 grams is the smallest piece I have unless you want tiny granules. That’s about like panning for gold and collecting gold dust.”


He led her to the boat bay. It was a pretty tiny bay with little more than an asteroid mining scooter, a grav cycle, and a small ATV for harsh environments. From there he took her to his cargo hold. It was half filled with crates. His eyes twinkled as he looked at her. “Collapsium, industrial grade diamonds, and other sparklies.” He laughed. “I probably shouldn’t be tempting you. But really it is all just a means to an end.” He stepped to the side wall and placed his hand on a work bench. The bench slid aside as the floor glowed purple.


“Wait here. Remember what I said about purple zones?” He dropped her a rag and it slammed to the ground. “6 g’s. Rough even for me. But I grew up in a heavy gravity.” But he stepped inside anyways … and walked in, the entry closing behind him. He did take long, returning with with a small plastic bag with a tiny slab of silvery metal. Truth was, Dureum was so rare that Lena had never actually seen the stuff. It wasn’t even available to steal in most circles and so hard to work not used in the sorts of items one would normally steal. He also carried a brilliantly carved green gem that seemed to have its own internal glow: (similar to the one in the piece below.)

He handed the bag over and stepped out of the purple zone, sliding the bench back for safety. He seemed to study the gem for a moment, then started flipping it in the air - out of reach. “This isn’t emerald. It is damned near indestructible and uncuttable. Stelt. Only examples of the stuff has been found in Precursor finds. The theory is that the stuff is produced in extreme gravities not possible on planets. Thus far the closest successes to produce it artificially have been ugly failures. If more sources were known they would become the new diamonds. It is really just glass. But it is many times harder than diamond.” He tucked the gem away in a pocket. “Pity you aren’t a better haggler. So … do we have a deal?”

 

[Lenaara]

The man seemed more like a fool the longer Lena knew him. Once she mentions payment, any kind of it, really, he leads a kleptomaniac to a vault full of little items to steal. Either it was a test or he trusted her enough not to take a few gems while he was off getting her pay.


Lena stood where Duncan left her, arms crossed over her chest, unmovable. Her eyes, however, darted from one crate to the other, to the walls and the ceiling to check any kind of surveillance. The synthetics were surely watching her, or at least Athena, as that member of Duncan’s crew gave her a stare that meant anything from ‘I don’t like you’ to ‘Touch him and you’re out the airlock’.


Once Duncan has returned Lena looked back at him and accepted the bag. She opened it, and removed the slab of metal from it. Turning it this way and that Lena watched it reflect the light, and put it back into the bag.


Finding a buyer for this would take a while.


“Is this a test?” Lena asked and nodded in the direction of the green gem, “I go for highly secured items, not ones held up by a man who’s a walking mountain. Or should I jump on you and take it out of your pocket?”


Lena placed the bag with Dureum in one of the pockets attacked to the lower part of her body suit. Then, she held out her hand for Duncan, “We have a deal. Should I reach my contacts to get the next statue, or whatever it is that you’re after?”

 

[Mitheral]

Duncan merely smiled at Lena’s question about the green gem. “If you stole the cargo wealth, you’d just have to help me steal more to replace it - and I am not paying extra for that. In other words, it comes out of your salary. The gem, on the other hand? But good luck with getting your hands on it without my blessing.”


He was taunting her, practically daring her.


“Only, if I catch you in the act, you have to give it back. And you owe me one month’s work … free … and you’ll have to be charming and nice … for the whole month. And answer to the name Cheesecake. I think that should be your codename.” He nodded ‘thoughtfully.’ “This will be the best deal ever.”


He smiled and squared off to look down at Lena. “You might also be interested to know that I know where there is more of that … a whole lot more. And more dureum. They are practically never found together. That would be like finding coal and pitchblend in the same strata.


“As to our next mission, I’ll have to work out where the next piece is on the path suggested by the Hsstathi. For now I already have the location of another piece. It is just a matter of breaking in and replacing it with a better forgery. This one I procured myself. Easy job.”


He gestured to a wall. A holographic projection of a figurine of a Sirean female appeared, a wolfish biped. The figurine was about a foot tall - like the Hsstathi - and posed and dressed as if on a tribal hunt from the primitive pre-industrial era. Lena recognized the piece instantly. Anyone with her background would have. It had been stolen - if you could call it theft - by total amateur. nearly every alarm had been triggered. The compound of the mobster that it had been stolen from was left a smoking ruin. Interstellar patrols had been stepped up - barely. And a highly inflated price based on wounded pride had been put out for the figurine - and the thief (alive). In truth the theft resembled a military assault.


(Fool is sounding better all the time?)


“I might have tripped an alarm or too. This time requires the efforts of a professional. They can’t suspect the forgeries have been swapped. You see, the forgery in question is in a legitimate museum … on an Inner Core world. Get caught there and you will never see the light of day again.”

 

[Lenaara]

Lena pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a deep breath and then letting out a sigh.


“An alarm or two? You can’t just drop a bomb on the compound and waltz out with the item. Let me take care of this one. Better yet, don’t do anything, don’t talk to anyone, don’t look at anything, and don’t touch my equipment. Then I’ll get you the piece. Give me the location, I have to research the place and the alarm system,” she said and finally looked up at Duncan.


“And the gem…” Lena nodded in the direction of the pocket where Duncan hid the gem, “not a fan. How about this. If I do steal it, you’re going to answer to the name Fool, it suits you so, and pay me triple of what I am owed a month. I can get it from you by the end of the solar day.


“Now then. Where’s the rest of my gear? Or should I steal it myself from you?”

 

[Mitheral]

“By the end of a standard day?” He shook his head. “I need to give you at least a chance of success. Should you succeed, triple pay for the first month. I’ll answer to Fool.” He smiled. “And - when not working - I will be nice and charming as I can manage. I do not expect you to behave out of character while working either. Remember, if I catch you, I win the bet.” He reached into his pocket and withdrew emerald temptation, performing a crude slight of hand. He actually dropped it, but caught it with a blinding speed. Heavy gravities had made his reflexes superhuman.


“I’ll just go and put this back where it belongs. My standard security in that hold is more than sufficient. I am truly wondering how you will circumvent 6 g’s. A fall to your knees will shatter your kneecaps or wrists. Wrists are worse, actually.


“I’ll get your pistols. You armor still needs to be repaired. I’ll have that done by the time we get to the museum. Remember, this is a job of subtlety. I got us the replacement figurine. Noone can know they’ve been swapped. I can tell the difference. A serious expert will as well, but they won’t be able to report it publicly unless they want to admit it has been stolen. But it will fool most experts. And no, don’t go and sell it on the side. The bottom of this figurine has been plated to account for a subtle variation in mass so you won’t trigger an alarm when you swap them. The forgery they have on display is slightly different. I had to compensate. But it won’t be visible once on display. Of course, later on, when they do a periodic inspection, they will be in shock.”

 

[Lenaara]

Lena moved her shoulders in a shrug. “I’d get it done by the end of this hour, but I’d rather focus on fixing my gear.”


She lifted the fabric of the shirt up until it reached just above her waistline. The bottom part of her body suit rose to her waist, hugging close to the wiry muscles of her abdomen, and the thick fabroc shone in a matte gleam under the lights of the cargo hold. Akin to the belt which Lena left in what appeared to be the med-bay, the fabric resembled scales.


There, at the spot where the woman pointed on, was a hole in the fabric. The blaster had ripped through the bodysuit, rupturing it and leaving a hole the size of a bullet in it, with the fabric burnt around the edges.


“I can fix it myself. Just need my shit back, if you don’t mind,” she began and then let the fabric of the shirt fall back over her hips, “I may need to contact my supplier, as this suit’s not on the market. It doesn’t matter, the rupture will be barely noticeable on the cams. Now let’s talk business. There are three options.”


Lena rose her hand, pointing her index finger up to indicate one. “I hack into museum’s records, write myself in and go undercover. We send the figurine ahead under the guise of some other item. Once there, I go through the security measures through hacking my way into the system, and then swap the figurine under the pretence that it must be inspected by the experts or some such thing.


This is the longest route, but it is effective and there will be no problems involved. All I have to do is lie through my teeth.”


Pointing her middle finger up, Lena indicated two. “Second way is I fix my gear and simply walk into the museum. Hack a few systems along the way, swap the figurine, and walk out. Easy, simple, and quick. The problem is my broken suit.”


Then, she indicated three. “I swap the figurines while hacking the security along the way. The issue, however, is that I will be all over the security surveillance unless some planning is done. I need the inner layout of the building, the security systems used, the positioning of the surveillance equipment and the model of the tech. This will require a lot of planning, and I may trip an alarm if I step somewhere where I wasn’t supposed to step.”


Lena then crossed her arms, looking up at Duncan. “So, which will it be? Also, I had a sniper rifle, was attached to the back of my suit. If it got lost when you slammed into me then I’d like to add that to our wager, that model was hard to steal.”

 

[Mitheral]

Duncan sighed. “We are not turning back to find your supplier. I’ll fix your equipment. It is badly outdated anyways. Your supplier is a hack who is robbing you blind. I’ll fix it, and upgrade it for free. To be honest, we should just toss it out the airlock and start from scratch. For that matter, if you are going to visit an Imperial Museum you are going to need better clothing than that. You can’t just walk in there in rags. They may tout the line “for the people,” but what they really mean is “to show off for the wealthy elite.” If you walk in there in rags, your every move will be watched. They’ll scan you head to toe. Walk in their rich and they’ll hardly bat an eye.”


A dangerous grin flashed across his face as he studied Lena’s form, immediately vanishing with a faint shake of his head. He’d had an idea and decided in an instant it was far too dangerous. “Uhm, the less you speak, the better. Time is of the essence so a long game is out of the question. An inside job would be rough. The odds of discovery are far too high. And it takes too long to be vetted into artifact security. The only other people who would get a chance of close up inspection of the artifact out of its case - hacking or not - would be an Imperial Archaeologist. And I doubt you could pull that off. I might; not you. Or royalty or high nobility … or an Imperial Knight. And I do not think you could manage those either. Besides, that would be treason. One of us accused of treason is enough.


“Here’s a question. Do you think you could pull off swapping the artifacts in plain sight - with people standing all around? What I mean is, if you could get them to open up the case can you figure out a way to - I don’t know - sleight of hand it?” (The figurine is a little larger than a GI Joe, maybe a foot tall.)

 

[Lenaara]

Lena listened to Duncan, standing before him with her arms crossed over her chest, and didn’t react at all to what he was saying. Be it about her armour, or about her inability to pull off a cover, she didn’t flinch at all, and instead waited for Duncan to finish.


“Look,” she finally said, “you want to hire me for a job. You either let me do my work, while you watch silently, or the deal’s off. My gear is a part of my work, so you don’t touch it, and don’t toss is out the airlock. It is an older model, but I don’t care for its functions apart from one – the cloaking mechanism. I stole the blueprints from it from some lab, Imperial tech from what I was told, and my supplier is a young engineer who owed me a favour. The gear hides both visual and heat signatures, so no up to date surveillance is able to detect me even if I am jumped in front of it.”


Lena then waved her hand dismissively at Duncan. “It doesn’t matter. If I manage to fix my gear then working in a crowd will not work, the mechanism would not be able to cope with so many moving objects. Why do you think I did not use it during the auction?


“Yes, I can swap the figurine. It’s boring and there’s no challenge, as I’d rather hack the security measures during off work hours and do it at my own pace. But fine. Now where’s the rest of my stuff, or did you toss those out the airlock for not being up to date?”