Cat turned right outside the "Arms of Kali" and stopped about ten metres further along the corridor. She leaned against the bulkhead, closed her eyes and leaned her head further back. The re-discovery of how much trouble she was in, forced itself upon her again with massive force. She had no place to go, no place to sleep and no one to ask for help. Deciding to postpone the decision until tomorrow she accessed the station dataweb and found the nearest coffin motel. She hoped they had a toothbrush for sale and maybe some clean underwear.
The lack of human attendants was a sure sign of the complete lack of any kinds of niceties and Cat's mood sank to a new low. She accessed the dataweb booker and paid the measly 25 UIT credits for a night. This secured a rather stained but clean smelling bed and a palm lock. Sighing she collapsed on the bed and curled up into a ball, wallowing in her misery and loneliness. She must have dozed off somehow because her brainpal awoke her gently with a cocktail of uppers, an incoming call was waiting for her. She scanned the incoming package and found no malware.
"M'yeah?"
"Catherine. I am Silia and you don't know me. However you know Asteroth and he asked me to contact you."
"Ast? I thought he was dead?"
"No, he is very much alive. However he is not available right now and left it to me to ensure that you are offered what he was offered."
Cat was supposed to answer the statement with an inquisitive and sound interested but she was too tired to bother. Instead she just waited until this Silia person went on.
"Ehm, right. Before I go on I must warn you that a Serco hit team has your number and is looking for you. I am rather certain that you will not survive an encounter with them. However, I am offering you a position in a newly formed mercenary outfit called Kinetic Action Order Systems or KAOS for short. We will secure your safety, ensure that you have a job and a place to stay."
"Who is in command?"
"Nominally it is Asteroth but the overall commander in his absence is a Serco named Ahriman."
"I need to talk to Ast first about this. I don't know this Ahriman."
"Asteroth is not available right now but I have a coded message to you from him. Indicate when ready for data-squirt."
Cat created a virtual self and uploaded the data into the partition to check it for war-ware. Detecting none, she opened the data in her own virtuality. Apparently Asteroth had anticipated something like this and his usual avatar had been replaced with a golden disc. Since this was a one-way message, Cat had not bothered with her own avatar and was represented by vision only.
"Cat, the Lady Serco be praised that we found you in time. Seems that our enemies have quite a vengeful streak, unfortunately coupled with the resources of GESTEBO. They will eventually kill you unless you get some protection Cat, just as they killed Beria. I am not telling you what to do but merely offering what I was offered as well. A place where you can feel at home. I bet you miss your creche mates already just as I missed mine when I was taken away. I cannot offer a new creche but I can offer a unit of like-minded soldiers in KAOS. I hope you will accept Cat, I would like to work with you again."
The avatar blinked out and a small icon informed her that she could replay the message, delete it or save it. She exited the virtuality and once more engaged the connection to Silia. It was not as if she had much of a choice in the matter, nor anything better waiting for her.
"When do I start?"
She could almost hear the smile on the other end as Silia informed her of the practicalities. She didn't care about that, she just wanted somewhere to belong.
###
"C'mon boys, D. A. L. T. A. S Cooooooooooooooooowbooooys."
Retractile facepalmed as the six dockhands shouted back to Azumi while imitating her letter dance. She had to have snorted something very potent on the way to Daltas. Ever since she jumped out of the cockpit of her pink Rev C she had been shouting, dancing and.... well cheering. She finished the dance with a split before looking up at the by now sweating dockhands and clapping at them. She ran over to Retractile, past him and without waiting to see if he was joining her or not, bounced on into the station proper. Retractile shook his head and followed her while grinning at the mayhem she left in her wake as people walked into each other, dropped things or just followed her with their eyes. She stopped outside the "Pirate's Nest", looked at the sign and moved through the bouncers as if they had consisted of pure vacuum. Retractile hurried over to the entrance but was stopped by the meat duo outside. Retractile sighed deeply and theatrically before producing his CLM ID. The meat puppets scanned it with a handheld device, a sign of decadence or poverty since finger scanners had been the norm in normal space for years by now. Realising that they were interfering with a high-ranking member of the most powerful independent pirate organisation, they excused profoundly which Retractile dismissed with a wave before entering the chaos behind the kitsch mauve doors.
The entrance was long and narrow, opening into a fairly big circular room in two levels with broad stairs leading up to the upper level. Naturally the upper level would be reserved for very important people that wanted to be left alone and the entrance to the stairs was duly blocked by yet another set of meat puppets. To the left was a platform on top of a very long bar, opposite it was a stage that was right now inhabited by a synth-metal band complete with go-go girls and even an Eo Rawlasaurus. Retractile didn't have to look around for long. The blue and white burst of colour was standing, or rather dancing in a group of green and blue uniformed persons. Apparently Azumi had found the TGFT members along with what looked to be some members of PA. A young girl clad in what resembled someone's lost keychain but was in reality probably a chain mail bikini tried to get Retractile's attention, finally getting it by showing the drinks card in front of his face. Settling for a strawberry daiquiri, strong liquor had never been Retractile's strong side, he settled where he could watch the spectacle around Azumi.
Azumi had entered the room like a ball-lightning on steroids. The band had not started yet which made it possible for her to catch everyone's attention with a particular loud Daltas Cowboys cheer. Ending the cheer in with her hands over her heads in a Y she flashed the entire club a perfect smile. The band decided to start at that precise moment with an explosion of noise and light that framed her further entry into the club. The entrance was a choreographer's wet dream. She strode directly over to the bar where a group of green and blue uniformed men were standing, drinks in hand and enjoying the show. She scanned them and went for the kill. Her target was about average height, a loose fitting jump suit, light brown hair and an uneasy smile that betrayed that it had not been his idea to go clubbing. She ignored him completely and rudely, worming her way in between him and the TGFT member standing next to him.
"So,"
she made a show of reading the nametag on the chest of the flight suit before looking up at the owner,
"councillor Eldritch, what does a girl have to do to get a drink around here?"
John smiled broadly and turned to the barkeep accompanied by the hoots and cheers of the remaining TGFT and PA members. A handsign, a nod and a finger that pointed to Pasquel secured a tray full of Teh Killa shots. He picked up two and presented one to Azumi.
"'Ere you go miss."
He waited with his own drink with a slight grin on his face. Azumi took it the shot, placed it in her mouth and tossed it back before handing John the empty glass upside down.
"Yummy."
She grabbed another one while John tossed his shot and waited for him to put the empty glass down and grab his own second shot. She winked one eye at him before tossing the second shot. This was going according to her plan so far.
###
The feeling was impossible to resist. Like he could no less stop his heart beating no matter how much he might have wished for it to happen, he really did not have a choice in the matter. He needed to shed blood, he needed to kill the daemons inside his head, still the voices of the innocents especially the voice of Janice. And the unborn child. That voice was the worst as it wasn't a voice as such but more of a gloomy feeling of failure, of betrayal; of impotence. He grasped the bottle of clear liquid and gulped it in large swallows to allow him to tune them out. The fiery liquid was followed by an unholy collection of different pills that was not intended to be used with alcohol, and definitely not in those amounts. He sat on the edge of the filthy bed and stared at the wall waiting for the medicine and alcohol to work its magic. The left eye started running and his eyes seemed to lose their glimmer of compassion and sentience. William Cutting was no longer. The thing that had replaced him had a slight loopsided smile. His hand followed the side of the bed until the filthy rags that was instead of a pillow, searched under it and found the straight razor beneath.
"I'll cut 'em Janice, I'll cut 'em good"
Moving with a grace that didn't fit his appearance he exited the door and with no doubt went left into the service corridors to search for prey. Any prey would be sufficient as long as it could bleed. As long as it could drown out the noises, the voices, the ghosts. The tear streamed from his left eye, the only remnant of his sanity.
