On the High Frontier

1. A Simple In-and-Out (part 1/3)

At the end of the twenty-first century the space colony at L5 with its institutes and foundations represents the pinnacle of human achievement. Its sister colony at L4 with its industrial and processing concerns represents much less edifying aspects of humankind. What does it take to thrive and survive there?

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The night is quiet in the research offices of Cyrellian Dynamics. Everyone has gone home, and the corridors are a playground for the housekeeping systems, security, and the occasional unwanted intruder. Kimiko has made it this far on luck, experience, and an array of untraceable override codes. A short crawl through a utility ducts, and she is looking down through a ventilation grill at her objective.

The small metallic cylinder lying on a bench, wired into a testing rig, is not originally Cyrellian's. Jefftar Energy Industries wants it back, and they are willing to pay well. They have also given Kimiko an identical cylinder to leave instead to derail Cyrellian's research.

A test mode on the pipe sensors hides her from the monitors. This would be easier with her stealth technology, but it is a rush job and there was not time to pick Chloe up. What she does have with her will set off flux detectors common in this type of energy lab, so she's doing this the old fashioned way.

System override codes prevent the opening of the access panel from setting off the alarms. It will close in about two minutes, but that should be long enough for what she has to do. She is down on the floor and walking to the bench in moments. She sees that the cylinder is being held in place by a single clip and is wired into a bank of monitors, testers, and controllers at one end. She places the false cylinder down on the bench and notes the exact orientation and position of the orignal before she picks it up. As she starts to pull the connections off there is an the audible alarm suggesting that one is not what it seems.

Kimiko is just wondering who doesn't trust the security of their own labs, when she catches a sudden movement out of the corner of her eye and drops down behind the bench. People who feel the need to install concealed auto-sentries by the doors, that's who. She had checked the lab's waivers and if she were here in a more official capacity she would be having a word with them about this unlicensed deployment. As it is she has more pressing issues to deal with.

Well there was one bright spot in all this. They know she's here so she doesn't need to worry about them picking up the emissions from Sayoko. She reaches up and touches the silver bird earing suspended from her left ear, a slight tingle tells her that the system is active. She hears the clattering footsteps of the guards arriving in the lab, so no time like the present.

"Deploy Full Sheath" A reassuring tingle extends over her skin as the costume suit performs its field survey. James had tried to explain it to her once, but basically it amounted to dividing things between Kimiko and not-Kimiko. Skin-tight clothing and jewelry is generally safe and her hair will be swept back and down her back if necessary (that was uncomfortable and she had kept a short bob since starting to use the suits). Anything not-Kimiko too close to her skin is liable to be shredded and possibly flash incinerated by the discharge bloom of the deployment. Not much she can do about that now though. She winces slightly as she is suddenly surrounded by a corona of burning cloth, those had been really comfortable slacks. At least it also sterilises the immediate area and renders any genetic evidence useless.

Where Kimiko had crouched there is now a completely different figure. Green skin with a violet slash crossing the right eye and dark blue hair with gold highlights drawn back into a pony tail are just the most obvious changes. The casual work clothes are replaced by a very different costume: A blue sports top and cycle-style shorts under a sleeveless martial arts style top with a pink belt tied at the right hip, the ends almost to the floor. Padded blue fingerless gloves with grey running shoes completes the look.

Sayoko is not just a pretty face. The resonance field sheath that envelopes her, also protects her, enhances her physical abilities, and provides a complete set of scaping tools more powerful than most full decks. It is the latter that she wants right now. She pulls up the interface and moves into the local cyberscape extent.

Her system synchronises directly into the lab's access point as though the security didn't exist and spins a complex network of nodes and interconnects out on the in-eye HUD. Their physical security may be scary, but their scape locks need work. They must depend upon the external firewalls to give them time to bring people on-line, but she is inside their perimeter and there are no scapecaptains here now. With deft glances and slight finger movements she traverses the scape, turning systems as she goes. Kimiko has barely scratched the surface and already holds maps, deployment spacials, and security overrides. The internal controls are almost non-existent. Typical engineering types, hate having security interfering with their work. The auto guns are history, she puts the monitoring system into full diagnostic mode, and spins out an infiltration mesh which will deal with any surveillance footage or other sensor data which may exist of her. Not her subtlest work but she's working under a deadline here. The quickest way out seems to be a module seal hatch at the far end of the lab. She can control it, all she has to do is get there.

Whispercomms is up, but James doesn't seem to be at his desk. She buzzes him and hopes he isn't busy. Those guard telltales are moving in quickly, and she has to move before they get too close. The walls and ceilings are bare metal without any decoration, just the way she likes them.

She starts to run towards the hatch and a familiar voice comes over the comm. "How nice of you to call." Pointed even for James. "It's not like I was sleeping or anything." Kimiko winces. Hearing a guard shout from behind her she crouches into a slide as bullets traverse the space where she had just been. "What was that? What have you got yourself into?" He's not got his monitoring systems running yet. "Do I want to know if this line is secure?"

Does he think she's a complete idiot? "No! I decided to use the public scape." Sayoko is muted so her growl is not audible in the lab, it looks like she is talking to herself, so much better.

Another guard comes round behind her and fires at her. The bullet hits her full in the back. The suit sheath has a degree of resistance to physical impact. It becomes rigid with the force spread over the entire suit, and she is knocked sideways as she jumps towards the metal ceiling. "Can we concentrate on important things." The suit enhances and corrects her leap and she twists in mid-air so that the shoes touch the ceiling. The magnetic attach holds her there and she starts to run towards the hatch at the far end. "Like keeping me alive." The ceiling may give a much more direct route to the hatch, but unfortunately it also makes her a much clearer target for the guards.

The external surveillance telltales on the Whispercomms leaf light up showing that James' systems are coming on-line. "That's better. Now how badly are you doing?" He'll be giving her marks out of ten next. She continues to run toward the hatch with bullets hitting around her and bouncing off the sanctuary of Sayoko's resonance sheath. Kimiko sends the command to open the hatch as she runs, ignoring his commentary. "What are you complaining about, they only have light weapons at the moment. Less than ten percent of sheath capacity."

Approaching the end of the room Kimiko cancels the magnetic hold and with a flip drops down on her feet to the floor in front of the door. "You have no idea how reassuring that isn't." As she drops she instructs the door to close and scrambles the command routing so that it can't be opened again. There is a slight stumble as she lands awkwardly and she only just makes it through the shutting hatch.

There is the sound of bullets bouncing harmlessly behind her, as she stops for a moment. At the end of a short platform a ladder leads down an access tube. No other access from the laboratory module so the guards will have to work their way round the long way to reach her. However as she starts to move something seems to grab her right side and she staggers and falls. The readouts confirm that something has hold of the belt. The sound of James' laughter does nothing for her mood.