Chương 86: Chapter Seventy-Six - In the Pocket

Ivil imagined that something was up the moment she noticed the Tech Maid ship hovering next to Driftwood station. The ship... likely some sort of cruiser, or a large destroyer judging by the size of it, was hard to miss. It was moored in a station next to the one that housed the Sappho and was half as tall as some of the larger stations that made up Driftwood. There were a few cargo vessels that were about as large or larger, but none of those bristled with guns or were as sleek as the modified Martian warship.

There were few reasons for the Tech Maids to be this far from home. Her presence was one of them. They'd always done their utmost to hound her wherever she went, believing that their religious superstitions about cores and machines gave them the right to stick their nose in her business. Usually it was relatively harmless. She suspected she could make the entire order weep with joy if she just accepted one invitation for tea with their leadership, but Ivil wasn't truly tempted to waste her own time like that.

"Whoa!" Twenty-Six said. She had her nose pressed up to the viewport of their shuttle as they hovered past the Tech Maid ship.

"That's a beauty! Did you see her, Evelyn?"

"I did," she replied.

"Some old Martian Cruiser, I imagine?"

"A pocket-cruiser," Twenty-Six corrected.

"It's a post second Inter-System War ship, back when the Earth Alliance and the Empire of Mars had just signed the Luna accords."

"The accords limiting the size of warships?" Aurora asked. She was lounging back in one of the shuttle's comfortable seats, a small pad balanced on a knee where she was reading a report or another. Their trip back from Oppressorax Station had been as unexciting as their trip there had been exciting. So far, no one had tried to kill or ambush them. It was almost like whomever had tried gave up, at least for the moment.

It made Ivil's hackles rise, knowing that the first attempt might have been nothing more than blind opportunism. Someone was playing a game out here, and she didn't know what it was.

"That's the one!" Twenty-Six said.

"That one was great."

"It was a political farce," Aurora said.

"The ink wasn't dry before both sides were violating it."

"Huh? Oh, sure, but it meant that both Mars and Earth created a whole new fleet of warships. Mini ones, to get around the limits of the accord, I guess. It's always cool to see ships that are designed to squeak past some hard, arbitrary limit. Like that pocket cruiser. It's only a little longer than a frigate, and tonnage wise it's barely in the cruiser range, but it's definitely got a cruiser's complement of weapons.

They had to sacrifice a whole heap of things to fit that much bang in that small a package, which makes it super neat. I bet the engineering under those hull plates is something else."

"I don't believe Mars continued making pocket-cruisers, did they?" Ivil asked.

"Huh? Oh no, it's a stupid idea. There's a reason ships are the size that they are. Sure you might be able to cram things into such a small package, but just because you can doesn't mean it's a good idea. I mean, look at that ship. See the space between the first and second hardpoint? There was definitely another turret emplacement there, but it got removed, and you can see from the way the thruster pack juts out that the hull was modified and made a little fatter. Probably to give better access from the interior."

"I see," Ivil said.

"Maybe one day I'm going to sit you in on the board of engineers for the Martian Navy and have you tell them how to do their jobs." Twenty-Six giggled.

"Oh, I'd have a few ideas," she said.

"But no, they do a good enough job. It's the politicians and such, giving them silly limitations that really get in the way."

"On behalf of my fellow politicians... stab away," Aurora said. Twenty-Six shook her head.

"If you wanna see what happens when the limits are all off, take a look at one of those Super-Dreadnoughts. A ship that has carrying capacity for an entire squadron of frigates. That's nuts!" Ivil patted Twenty-Six on the head. Soon enough, they were coming in to dock at a shuttle bay, and everything seemed to be in order. That was, until Aurora perked up.

"Our escort wants to meet with us," she said. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"You mean Pixie?" Twenty-Six asked.

"Yes, Miss Starling," Aurora confirmed.

"She sent me a private message asking to meet before we continue. She suggested a... spacer bar that's quite close to the docking facility."

"It's reasonable to expect an escort to want a debrief after a mission where unexpected combat was seen," Pepper said. Ivil had almost forgotten that that woman was there. Pepper really had a gift for blending in when she wanted to.

"I wouldn't mind stopping by to see her again," Ivil said.

"And I'm sure she has a professional opinion to give about what happened on our way to Opressorax." Someone had tried to kill Ivil, which was... common enough. But trying to kill Twenty-Six and Aurora? Now that was far less forgivable, and unfortunately far easier to accomplish. Maybe she'd have to do something about that, actually. The shuttle's stewards asked them to return to their seats soon after, and they started through docking procedures to link up to the station.

Ivil extended her senses past the exterior of the ship, which gave her a good view of Pixie's Nightshade slipping into a smaller docking bay nearby. Pepper assured them that their luggage would be taken care of and shipped back to the Sappho, so with nothing to truly worry about, and with no customs to deal with, they left the shuttle and slipped into the larger station without issue.

"What was the name of that bar?" Twenty-Six asked.

"The Dead Swan," Aurora said.

"Which isn't an auspicious name."

"Do you believe that she's sending a message with that choice?" Pepper asked.

"No, probably not. It's the nearest spacer bar to this part of the docks," Aurora said.

"I wouldn't read too much into it." Pepper nodded slowly. She was probably, Ivil imagined, going to read into it anyway. MINT loved their subtle hints and not so subtle symbolism. They worked those into a lot of their codes and passphrases and their internal memes. It made the organisation that much more obtuse to understand.

Ivil followed after the others, but quickly noticed that while Pepper was preoccupied trying not to grab any attention, and Twenty-Six was idly scanning any ships visible through the viewports to the outside, Aurora was looking at the people.

"You're intent," Ivil said as she walked up next to her.

"Hmm? Oh? I'm people watching."

"Anything interesting to see?" Ivil asked. The people here mostly seemed like normal civilians. Some dock workers, a few business-people on the move, even a few small families, groups of friends, and what looked like one larger group of tourists. Aurora shrugged.

"It's what you don't see, sometimes, as much as it is what you do. Driftwood is peaceful at the moment. Did you see any security?"

"Now that you mention it, no," Ivil said. She scanned further, and did find one guard half-asleep in a station two floors up.

"Is that a bad sign?"

"It can either mean that the security situation is really poor, lacking funds or the like, or there's just no need for heightened security. That can be a great sign. It means that people aren't as nervous or worried, and that violent crime is low."

"We've encountered some strange people here," Ivil said.

"This place isn't free of crime by any means. Though maybe this part of the station in particular is safe enough? Like a good neighbourhood?"

"Maybe," Aurora said.

"I feel like maybe there should be more security. And it's not like there's a visible lack of dock workers at the moment." They happened to cross a security station at that moment, one that was clearly just empty.

"You believe the security is missing, then?"

"Or relocated," Aurora said.

"Jupiter doesn't have a formal army. Not really. But it does have a large security and policing apparatus. With the big conference coming up, it's possible that security was innocently relocated to keep delegates safe or to keep an eye on things."

"Or there might be a more sinister motive to everything?" Ivil asked. Aurora hummed.

"I think it behoves us to assume the worst, sometimes." Ivil grinned. If things went wrong, then maybe she'd have more chances to impress the girls. On the other hand, disasters didn't make for good dating opportunities, did they?