13. Workout

The exotic radiation that preceded an incoming ship looked like an expanding heat ring on the face of reality followed by a spike of equally exotic materials that slowly expanded and left an opening for a ship to exit. In this case a Corvus Vulturius bearing the colours and marks of the Phoenix Alliance and the name tag NP. Azumi smiled, she loved killing his ships, especially in her newest favourite ship, an Orion Centurion, Revision C. Basically a rocket with twin light weapons mounts and a small external cargo space, it was only just rated as a fighter instead of a torpedo with a human guide. It fit her fighting style perfectly, light and agile with the same punch as a CorVult, the only drawback for her was the lack of real armour. Sure, they had welded some xith plates on here and there to protect the most fragile of the systems, but the designers had tried to minimise weight and succeeded. The weapons were just under half the total weight of the ship, but she was used to the performance of the Axia positron beams and so had retained them instead of lighter weapons. She pushed the throttle to maximum and pointed the nose towards NP.


->NP: Thanks for coming, I need a favour.


NP: ehm, ok. I thought I would be shot to bits.


->NP: I can do that later if you feel like it, but this is important so pay attention.


NP grinned. Sometimes he was not sure if it was healthy for her to be as self confident, but she had a point in this particular case. He opened his pda, ready for notes. 


Chi flew without incidents to the docking bay of Dau K-10, and walked to her TGFT provided cubicle. She logged onto the station net and punched in her search. The result chimed in on her screen and she smiled a loop sided smile. Looks like she got a chance to use her training suit after all. She changed into her combat fatigues and exited the room, turning for the training area. The music from the inside was loud enough to be heard several corridors away, loud deep booming goth metal. Looks like her search programme had been right. She slowly opened the door and saw John Eldritch move around and attack a full action combat bot. And from the amount of sweat on his body and face, he must have had it on maximum difficulty for quite a while. She slid slowly into the room and left her bag by the door. John attacked the bot again, fist, fist, block, fist, block, kick and retreat, his focus fixed on the combat bot. She slid slowly over towards his rear and extended a single finger to point at his shoulder. As she touched his shoulder he whirled and parried with one hand, slid close and blocked her other arm while hooking her left leg. She lost her footing instantly and her reflexes took over. She let herself drop to the ground while she twisted her right leg around his knee and pulled, dropping him on top of her his lock broken. He realised what he had done and looked down upon his opponent into the most fascinating pair of brown eyes he had ever....


"Do you mind?"


John realised that he was pinning her very efficiently with his bulk, and had done so for some time. He rolled off and helped her get up.


"Sorry Ms Chi, I really am. But I was in the middle of the combat programme, and ..."


She smiled coyly at him and lifted her hands in a defensive posture.


"I was not prepared, the first lesson of Krav Maga, so it is my bad John."


He stepped one step back in preparation for her attack, but instead she smiled broadly and winked at him. He relaxed one iota, but that was too much. Chi lifted one leg forward while tipping her body back, hitting John right in solar plexus with her toe. He bent like a piece of plastic under a ten giga-watt laser, and Chi used the inattention to move in under his reach and hook his legs while punching with all her might at his chest. He lost his balance, but managed to grab the much lighter Chi in the forearms, thus dragging her down on top of him. Once more he looked into those bottomless brown set perfectly in her face, the face that came closer and clo....


"Bdrrriiing bdrrriiiing," something was ringing from the laundry bag. 


"Shit Chi, I gotta see what that is." They disentangled and John crawled over to the laundry and found the guilty machine, Hortan's PDA. A priority message, the screen was blinking on and off. He turned the PDA on to see what the message was. He read it and slowly shook his head.


"Oh fuck, what have you done little buddy. Chi, I am sorry, I would love to stay and, well, I would love to stay, but it will have to be another time."


He dropped the PDA into the laundry, grabbed the bag and ran out of the room. He went by Hortan's room and left the PDA inside before running down to the launch bay. He needed to go to Daltas hold, and get there fast.


Chi was a bit confused. She had been tasked with getting information for NP, but ended up with more and less than she had anticipated. It seemed like Hortan was in quite some trouble, but that would not be the first time. She decided that she would have to find out what it was all about. She ran down to her room and switched to a flight suit while letting her implants order up her white Orion version Hornet so it would be ready for launch when she arrived in the dock. She was thrilled, this was fieldwork, real information gathering where she had to think on her feet. She grabbed a thin needlegun and secured it in the low of her back before bolting for the dock.


Pasquel and Hortan had searched the area thoroughly, but no cred stick. Pas had used his connections to make ensure that the stick had not been used, but in the end they had to give up. Hortan wasn't concerned, his stuff had a nasty habit of disappearing and then appearing again. Pasquel walked Hortan down to his room before leaving him for the command room. Hortan entered his room and went over to his bed. The PDA was vibrating and the screen was blinking on and off. Hortan grabbed it and looked at the message. A message from NP, about a meeting in Daltas hold, the corridor where he had....he blushed. How did NP know about that corridor, and why did he want to meet with him right now? And why did he want to meet him on CLM business? Ah well, all would be revealed, and besides NP was good company. Maybe they could go to that new pancake place in the main plaza and get lunch. He grabbed his pills and walked down to the Certain Death IX, mentally preparing for a trip into grey space. 


The 107 exited into normal space with a stream of high energy tachyons  announcing the fact. Asteroth punched up the radar, searching for the telltale reflection of his commander's ship. There, a 107 like his own, colours violet and yellow. He opened a local channel.


"Mission accomplished boss. Tufan is no more."


He smiled at his accomplishment and anticipated the praise. He would be disappointed.


"You will cease your informal mewling and refer to me as Master Inquisitor as always. Use the one time pad in your ship for secure channel. All is Dust."


Asteroth cursed at himself for forgetting the correct procedure. He should have known better, but it was hard to shake the last twelve months in the trader guild. He engaged the one time pad and opened a direct link.


"Master Inquisitor, I have accomplished the tasks set for me. I request to be released from this assignment and be given a new."


"Well done Asteroth. However, you are not finished. I need you to do one more thing for me, after that I shall find a new use for your skills. The tasks are adhered to the message and should appear on your screen now. Report."


"Yes Master Inquisitor. I shall do your bidding. Asteroth out."