In Silent Dreams

CHAPTER 11 - Guns, Guns, Guns

Eva: Six. Seven.

Elizabeth: "What are you doing?"

Eva: I am counting the traffic of ships passing this avenue. I started the tracking since six hours ago using the traffic feed computers. It appears that during the afternoon the traffic dies down by a huge margin. In the morning, however, the traffic is bustling. The sounds of the ships passing on the busy channel seem to operate at a very high level, masking the noise of entire area below the canopy.

E: "Are you afraid that the contact will try to murder us?"

Eva: No. But I believe in taking precautions should we need to engage in a gun fight.

E: "Our guns are not with us."

Eva: I have intercepted and sent an illegal arms delivery ship to our location.

E: "How do you even..."

Eva: I modified the settings on the internal atmos conditioner on the ship. The pilot has been sleeping for an hour now.

E: "Fear the wrath of a computer scorned."

"Faith is the best instrument against the evils of the universe."

-Maryanna Waltzs

The doors slid open, revealing a small homely cafeteria. There were only a few people inside, leaving most of the tables empty. Elizabeth sat at a corner table overlooking the channel outside.

Eva: I feel that I have lost something back at the stripping bay. It doesn't seem to be the movies or artefacts. Neither was it the components and ship parts that were taken from me.

Elizabeth: "I think I know what it is."

Eva: Care to enlighten me?

E: "Your dignity."

Eva: Dignity is a lie. The contact is approaching. Trench coat. Funny hat. The description matches. Remember the proper initiation.

A tall man approached Elizabeth's table and sat down. He was carrying a black suitcase, which he promptly placed on the table.

Elizabeth: "The winter birds call-"

Man: "And the sun responds-"

E: "Take me to your lair-"

Man: "And I shall burn the seas."

E: "What do you have?"

Man: "Hold up, beautiful lady. I don't think I trust you yet."

E: "You don't."

All the customers in the cafeteria stood up from their tables, drawing out guns. The customers all aimed their weapons at Elizabeth. Elizabeth smiled.

Man: "You see, where I come from, you have to be very, very, careful. Capiche? "

Elizabeth: "From where I come from, it pays to be prepared."

Elizabeth lifted her arms, revealing a highly potent explosive grenade.

Man: "If that thing blows, you're going to die as well."

Elizabeth: "This grenade isn't my primary plan."

Elizabeth winked at the man. Looking outside, the man saw that all the turrets on his ship were automatically aiming, aiming their sights on him and the other gunmen. His ship was hacked.

Man: "Interesting. I see someone is fit for the job. Stand down everyone."

The gunmen lowered their weapons.

Man: "This suitcase here contains all the information we have and leads up to this point on the location of the Planetcracker. Payment occurs after delivery of weapon at location indicated on the drive. Six hundred thousand credits. No negotiations. You get caught, we kill you."

Elizabeth smiled, taking the suitcase and leaving the table. Before exiting the cafeteria, Elizabeth turned back.

Elizabeth: "I get caught, we are all going down. The triple Latte here is wonderful. You should give it a try."

Elizabeth: "Eva, run a diagnostics on the case."

Eva: Scanning. No hidden tracers or devices. Case seems to be secure. I assume we have to do a little bit of Private Investigation first on our end?

E: "You are correct. The case states that the last person to have apparently saw the Planetcracker was a scientist working under EtaCorp, a Mrs Rosetta Lynneway. She lives across Hylus City in an apartment by the river."

Eva: A lone widow living by herself in a relaxing part of town. Interesting.

E: "We're going to go on a ride through the city. After brunch, of course."

Eva: C'est la Vie.

"Reports from the Flight Authority Command have stated that earlier today, a breakout incident occurred at the Interspace Flight Customs Facility in the city-state of Hylus. Bretona Space Authorities stormed the facility and caught the suspect, ending the breakout in a shootout. The suspect has been killed. Captain Melissa Springs has assured that the situation has been contained, and further breakouts will not happen again. The Council will begin planning a new phase for the facility infrastructure in lieu of the incident. This is Clarise Hayes, signing out.

-News Channel 782, Bretona Stations

Eva: So I was running some analysis programs on this police ship back when we acquired it.

Elizabeth: "What did you find?"

Eva: The ship is a forty-forty four Arcus Class Orca. It is built on an aerodynamic frame with four weapon mounting points. The chassis is also retrofitted with several police tech, such as advanced scanners and interceptor modules. However, the ship lacks the ISIC frame network and hyper drives of our previous ship, which allowed us to perform long range hyper-jumps into far-reaching systems. This ship was designed for short range patrol missions.

E: "This ship doesn't have a cozy living quarter module as well."

Eva: We could still get our gear and tech back. If we were to acquire the old vessel, I could merge the two ships into one, and we will gain the advantages of both. Furthermore, since I disabled and killed the tracker implant on this ship, the ship is essentially ours for the taking.

E: "We stole it."

Eva: There were no other options.

E: "Any chance the gear and our old vessel ended up in the same location?"

Eva: According to the police computers the gear have been sent to a separate impound facility. I have wiped our data off the manhunts, so we are on a clean slate. The gear we lost were only provisional supplies, books and weapons.

E: "That fancy spider mine as well. I never got around to using it yet. Infiltrating and retrieving a few material items from a highly guarded impound facility may not be worth the risk."

Eva: Funny.

E: "What is?"

Eva: I would think a human like you would be more susceptible to wanting to take those items back. They are your belongings which stayed with you throughout your recent journeys. I believe it's something to do with human sentimentalism.

E: "We are moving on."