142: First Worst Dread – Three
They all ended up scrambling onto the bridge in their pyjamas, Elytra and Nevara looking like they been halfway to sleep, Rhea and Malakh flushed and dishevelled enough that they'd probably been in bed doing something else, while Pryseia looked damp and frazzled, a towel around her shoulders to stop her wet hair from dripping everywhere, clearly having been in the middle of a shower.
V'tala had to force herself to face the main view screen, because the sight of how Pryseia's tank top clung to her torso was almost too much to bear.
The woman in question threw herself into her seat as she asked, "What are the details of your find?"
The view screen switched to a map of the corner of Lacertus space they were in, with one purple blip on screen, and one red further off. Viatrix's avatar popped up in the corner of the screen as she explained, "We're the purple and the Omega device is red, so you can see how close we are. One subspace jump can have us there in minutes."
"That's great, but why do I have a feeling that there's some kind of complication?" Rhea asked from where she was leaning up against Pryseia's throne, as per usual. On the opposite side of the throne, V'tala turned to make some pithy comment, but she was distracted as a bead of water rolled down Pryseia's neck, past her collarbone, before being lost somewhere in her cleavage, and every thought fled V'tala's mind. She snapped her face forward again, reprimanding herself internally, because this was absolutely not the time.
Viatrix, thankfully, had already been speaking, and so all attention was on her as she said, "Because things so rarely go easy for us? Wherever this thing is being kept, it's moving. I caught it when it came into range of the scanner, but I've had to chase after it to keep it in range."
"How long will it take you to catch up with it?" Malakh asked.
"Long enough for you all to get dressed," Viatrix told her, "No idea what we're going to find. Might not be something we wanna broadcast, but we can get some footage to edit together later, potentially?"
"A sound idea," Pryseia said as she stood, eyes darting across everyone in the room, "Sleep will have to be postponed for the moment. Prepare yourselves and return at once."
V'tala gave her a curt nod and then left the bridge without looking back. She needed to tame her thoughts before they got away from her in whatever type of situation they were about to fly into. She couldn't afford to be distracted, because the odds were good it was going to be bad.
Thankfully her Kith armour was quick enough to get into, which left her with just enough time to deal with the state of seeing Pryseia like that had left her in. Hopefully that would be enough to keep her focused on the task at hand.
The Pelekys fell out of subspace into what looked like an empty expanse of the void. No nearby stellar system, no debris field, just a green and orange nebula smeared in the distance, and absolutely nothing around them at all.
"It's gotta be on some kind of stealth ship," Malakh said, eyes darting across the empty view screen as the ship moved forward at sublight speeds, "Vi, can you do a scan with every wavelength you have access to?"
"Already on it." She told her, the image before them flickering as Viatrix ran through what she had available, "There's definitely something here - our Omega scanner is for sure here! - but let me just see if I can-"
The view screen was suddenly filled with ships.
Every single one of them was larger than the Pelekys by a considerable amount, thickly armoured and heavily armed. The shape of them resembled a three pronged grasping claw with a low slung engine jutting out the back, the vibrantly violent paint job of neon oranges, pinks, and yellows shifting as gun ports slid open across the hulls of every vessel, and voice came over the comms that were being blasted out into the surrounding space.
"Your scanners may be powerful enough to find us in the dark, but they're also powerful enough that we can pick up their signal too. Where are you hiding, little mouse?"
That voice was low and raspy, a teasing lilt that carried an undercurrent of menace. None of them recognized it.
"What's the plan?" Malakh said, turning to Pryseia, "Stay and fight, tactical retreat?"
Pryseia sat up in her seat, turning to Elytra and saying, "I believe its time we put that empathic booster to use."
"Right!" Elytra replied, voice bright with shock, as she'd completely forgotten that they'd had that installed ages ago. This was the first time they'd had a chance to use it. Seated at her usual place at one of the gunner stations, she hit a toggle on the panel before her, and a section of it slid out of the way. Recessed into this was a dull silvery dome shaped object, not perfectly round, but instead marred by divots. When Elytra placed her hand upon it, her fingers fit into these divots perfectly.
"Okay, I'm definitely able to sense them at range," Elytra said, her eyes going distant as she reached out empathically, "It's a little disorienting, this distance. But the general mood is confusion, a little bit of curiosity. Wary over top of it all, like they're waiting for the other shoe to drop. It feels like they're teetering between fight or flight, the same as we are, they're just waiting to see what we do first."
"They look like pirates," Rhea said, nodding at the screen, "Not Kith, but proper pirates. Those ships of theirs look like claws for a reason - they can snatch cargo ships right out of the void with those."
"And given the location of Vi's signal, they've snatched the cargo that we so desperately need," Pryseia surmised, "Nevara, be ready to get us out of here at the first sign of aggression. Until then, deactivate our stealth systems, and open a broadcast channel."
V'tala turned to her sharply, her question apparent in the look she shot the other woman, and Pryseia responded with, "They are pirates, so perhaps they will be open to parlay. I'd rather avoid a conflict that could potentially damage the device we seek. Hyttan though it may be, we know not how long its repairs would take should it be caught in the crossfire, and we need it as soon as possible, lest we be caught unawares by the Omega's early arrival."
"Dropping out of stealth." Viatrix announced, "And the open comm is on."
The moment the Pelekys became visible to the other ships, every one of their guns trained on them - no one opened fire, but the warning was clear.
"I apologize for our unannounced arrival," Pryseia spoke to all the ships in the vicinity, "We are in search of a particular Hyttan artifact, and our sensors show that it is in your possession. Outnumbered though we may be, I have all confidence that our single ship would be able to wrest it from your clutches, but I would prefer to acquire the item without bloodshed. We are more than willing to purchase or trade for the artifact, if you are amenable?"
When there was no immediate response, Elytra told them, "It feels like they're deliberating. Excitement, audacity, amusement, pretty sure some want to fight us just to put our bravado in its place."
"They haven't started charging weapons, so that's something?" Malakh added.
After a few more seconds of tense silence, Viatrix chirped, "We've got a hail incoming!"
"Please connect it." Pryseia told her, and an instant after that, their view screen was filled by a nightmare.
Elytra was thankful that she had her Augury helmet sealed up, because she knew her expression would have been one of horror. On screen was what could only be an arakhne, the most alien of the known races in the galaxy. Like some unholy combination of a person and a spider, their lower half was quadrupedal, each thick leg rising out of their thorax, while a torso with four arms rose from the abdomen of this being, one set of arms sprouting from their shoulders like they would on any other alien, while the smaller, second set seemed to be growing out from the front of their ribcage. Their face was strangely beautiful, perfectly symmetrical as it was - six eyes, each of them a glossy black so shiny that they reflected the bridge around them, two slit nostrils, and a mouth that had mandibles somewhat like an apiarian.
This particular arakhne was in a full suit of space armour, dark slate grey that had been painted with stripes of neon pink and green, over which they'd thrown a broad shouldered jacket patterned out in colour blocks of black, white, and teal, the sleeves shoved up to the elbows on their longer arms, while the jacket was left open so that their smaller set of arms were unimpeded. Their carapace was a deep, dusty tan colour, and they'd accented their features with bright eye shadow and lipstick. Despite being more insect-like in appearance, arakhne grew hair on their heads, and this particular one had their mass of golden blonde hair teased and crimped out into a cascade that fell past their shoulders, held away from their face by a hot pink headband.
They grinned as soon as the call connected, unlooping a beaded bracelet from around one of their smaller arms and rolling it between that second set of hands as they said, "Well well, our little mice are Kith. You aren't broadcasting to your audience right now, are you?"
"Given the unknowns in this situation, we thought it best to not tempt fate so." Pryseia replied.
A gentle clicking sound came over the line as the arakhne pulled their bracelet through their hands, bead by bead. Over the feed, hidden half in the shadows their bridge was being kept in, the only things Elytra could make out about the bracelet was that it seemed to have small charms on it, and each bead on it appeared to be a different colour. There was something almost ritualistic about the way the arakhne was handling it, but Elytra had no idea what the significance of such a thing could even be. Around her, she could feel the emotions of her crew, all of them wary and on alert, a far cry from the panic she'd felt on seeing this type of alien for the first time. Pushing her unease to the side, she focused on the empathic booster, relaying what she was getting to the others over their Longan.
ELYTRA: They feel protective, aggression held in check. I'm betting that's the one in charge of this outfit.
The arakhne on screen made a chittering sound that may have been a laugh, their hands momentarily stopping with a single bead held between them - blue - before the movement was continued again. "Good. My crew and I aren't here to perform. Captain Slake of the Empty Echo."
"Captain Pryseia of the Pelekys."
Slake paused on another bead, this one pale purple, before saying, "Then as one daughter of the void to another, I'd be happy to enter into negotiations with you. Your arrival is timely, as we've got a problem that violence won't be the solution of."
Crossing one leg over the other, Pryseia asked, "A task completed in exchange for the artifact we seek?"
"Just so," Slake said, "There's a Lacertus entrepreneur not far from here, one who makes jis fortune dealing arms. Je's got a private mansion on a private moon, so that should tell you how wealthy je is. We want something that je's got tucked away in a vault, but the security on jis compound is top of the line, and not something my ships would be able to get past. Turrets, you see, and they'd shoot us out of the sky before we can get close enough to deal with them. We need someone to go in and shut jis security system down from the inside so our ships can swoop in unhindered."
"And you haven't sent an agent of your own?" Pryseia had to ask, and that got another chittering laugh out of Slake, her hands stopping on a red bead this time.
"Given that lacertus are shorter than your kind, there's no way any of my people would be able to fit into where the security system for this place is located. Besides, my kind aren't exactly welcomed in polite society."
"Pirates?"
"Arakhne. Some find us to be... monstrous."
Pryseia let out a dark laugh at that. "I can sympathize."
Slake grinned at that, a sharp and knowing thing, her hands coming to a stop on a golden brown bead next. "Thankfully, the Lacertus are more welcoming to your kind than mine, which will be vital to you getting into the mansion of this arms dealer."
"I gather, then, you've already a plan to infiltrate this place?"
Tapping her head twice, her second set of hands stopping on a cyan bead this time, Slake said, "We do indeed. Je likes to throw... charity fundraisers. The money is supposed to be going to the war effort against the Thalatte, but je pockets it instead, uses it to buy up more plants to build more arms to sell at far above market price. Je's got one planned for later this week, one of several je's throwing over the course of this month, where guests will be wined and dined in service to the greater good. That being jis bottom dollar. You Kith tend to have steady revenue streams, so I'm sure you lot would be able to afford tickets to one of these events. Barring that, given how stealthy your ship is, I'm willing to bet that you're sneaky enough to break in to get the job done. Either way, that is our offer - shut down the security on this arms dealer's mansion so we can steal from jis vault, and we'll hand over the artifact you're after. Given that we've got only the one Hyttan artifact in our possession at the moment, I know exactly what you want."
PRYSEIA: Can you tell if she's the sort to go back on her word?
ELYTRA: It doesn't feel like she's lying, unless she's really good at masking her emotions.
PRYSEIA: Any objections in regards to agreeing to this deal?
RHEA: Seems like our quickest way forward, aside from starting a fight.
MALAKH: It's not like we've got experience with covert ops like this or anything.
ELYTRA: I've got no objections.
NEVARA: Nor I.
V'TALA: Agreed.
VIATRIX: I'd love an excuse to use my stealthy little drones again!
Thankfully, their private exchange didn't take more than a few seconds to complete, just long enough for Slake to stop on a white bead before Pryseia told her, "We agree to your terms. I assume you have a proper dossier on this arms dealer?"
"Indeed we do," Slake said, their grin widening as they stopped on a small golden charm, "We can have that sent over momentarily, now that we know you're all aboard. We look forward to working with you, Pelekys. Call on us when you're ready to launch."
And with that, Slake cut the call, and soon after that the gun ports on all the ships surrounding them slid shut, the vessels jumping to FTL the moment they were closed. In seconds, the Pelekys was alone.
"Got the dossier," Viatrix announced, her avatar appearing on the view screen, "And the transponder signal for these pirates. Guess we're doing another stealth break in?"
"So it would seem," Pryseia said with a quiet laugh, "This time, at least, we won't need to pretend that you don't exist."
Her avatar spinning once, Viatrix said, "Good, because that got real boring, real fast! I'll get this info all organized for you in the rec room."
"And I'll take us into subspace," Nevara said, "We don't need anyone dropping in as unexpectedly on us as we did to these pirates, after all."
"Alright, this is our target," Viatrix said from the screen in the low table of the rec room, "Labhi Bray Tekhuniz."
From the spread of documentation surrounding her, Viatrix brought up a picture of the arms dealer in question. Je was a light purpley blue colour with teal markings on jis face, and the topmost edge of jis sea blue chest plate was peaking out from the collar of jis burnt orange business suit. Jis head was a smooth dome, wide set yellow eyes, a wide mouth, and only the faintest of pinpricks where jis ears and nostrils were located. Despite this, je wore the smug, self satisfied smirk of someone used to getting jis way.
"Like Slake said, je's running a bunch of charity events this month, all of them taking place on jis private moon. From the research I've been able to do in between you all walking from the bridge to here, it looks like it's one of nearly a hundred moons circling a gas giant in a system on the fringes of Lacertus space - the fringe furthest from the Thalatte, I should point out - and that most of the moons are private property owned by some trillionaire or other."
"Owning a whole fucking moon," Rhea scoffed, "Arms dealing pays good, I guess."
"And some of that money's going back into these charity events - here's some past examples." Viatrix brought up a series of pictures, each of them showing the elegant interior of a mansion, gold and crimson decorations set against rich, dark brown wood, warm golden light falling on crowds of people seated at elaborate dining tables, mingling in expensive looking sitting rooms, and dancing across a resplendent ballroom floor. It wasn't just lacertus in the crowd, but members from nearly every other race as well. Only the Thalatte were conspicuously absent, but given that these events were thrown specifically to thwart them, that wasn't surprising.
Rotating one of the pictures around to see it better, V'tala asked, "Did the pirates give us any information on this mansion's defences?"
A series of blueprints filled the screen then, Viatrix saying, "They sure did. Looks like they've been trying to crack this nut for a while, because there's a lot we can work with here. Like Slake told us, racism aside, there's no way her or her people would be able to get in to where the security shutoff is located, see this here?" She enlarged a section on one of the blueprints, this one showing a narrow corridor leading to a small room, "Lacertus are on average half Rhea's height, so this corridor is so short and narrow that she'd have to inchworm her way through! Unless they happen to have brought any kids with them, an arakhne simply would not be able to fit down this hall."
Rhea shuddered at the thought of having to traverse down such a cramped space. "Good thing I'm not our resident tech expert, then. What about getting into the building itself? And weaknesses we can exploit to go in stealth mode?"
"That might be trickier," Viatrix highlighted more points on the blueprint as she explained, "Labhi seems to be more on the ball with security than either the Zymeth or the Necupole were. Guards and scanners je's got in spades, but on top of that there's booby traps, physical locks on top of digital locks, blockers in place to prevent dematting, psychic dampeners to prevent anyone from doing anything mentally - zymeth guests have to use a text to speech device, because it completely shuts down their telepathy - and a whole bunch of other stuff that would take me like an hour to explain! We'd have to get through all of that in order to actually get inside. We could get through it all, of that I've no doubt, but it would take a lot longer than any of us would like. There's a lot of moving parts in this security system."
"The pirates seemed convinced it could be done." Nevara pointed out.
Spinning in place, Viatrix let out a dark laugh. "Oh, their notes on that matter are extensive. The majority of defensive measures on this place are designed to keep people from getting in, but once you're actually in? Things will be a lot easier to surmount. Labhi and jis three partners live here full time with their children, after all, so they wouldn't want to accidentally trip a laser grid while getting up for water in the middle of the night. There's going to be an increase in security guards for when the charity event is going on, wings of the mansion locked and barred, but like I said, those types of security measures we would be able to get through a lot easier. The pirates had a route all planned out, and after taking a look at what security measures will be in place throughout, I think this will be our best shot at making a quick and quiet trip to the security room we need to shut this whole place down."
"Be that the case," Pryseia said, dragging up one of the pictures from a previous event, "Then I do believe we shall be attending a charity event in the near future. Tell me, did the pirates provide information in regards to a dress code? Covert as we shall need to be, I would hate for us to not look the part."