Murdersphere Mosaic [ManXMan] [BoyXBoy]

Chapter 8 Part 3 Out Of My League

The airlock is familiar, so is the glow tape on the floor. The ship accelerates transitions to interstitial space, and I "watch" the planet recede.

"Follow the green line to the cockpit." Orai says telepathically.

The cockpit of Orai's ship is less like a bridge or organized control center and more of a cluttered workroom studded with holographic screens with all sorts of information bits streaming by.

"I figured I should come get you." She replies. "Lotus was having difficulty with Imagineering Consolidated retrieving all of their people. I need you so I can create a less murderous way of creating more of you for The Authority, so I included pick-up and drop-off service in your contract."

"My... contract?" I say. "What about 'Marooned?'"

"Imagineering Consolidated is being investigated for treason." Orai says. "All of their productions are about to be halted."

She chuckles. "I've sent The Authority all of your data and everything that I did to you. I am coming clean and going legitimate... while it suits me."

"You threw Poplar under the bus?" I ask.

"I threw him into the sun." She says. "Although it explains his obsession with killing you. Adding my work to his larder would give him a particularly juicy black market bartering chip."

"He... I can't believe... he's selling them?" I ask.

"Has been selling them." She says. "I wondered how he got them out of the system, now we know. The same tech we use to Cull."

"So, why did you contract with Lotus for me?" I ask.

"The Authority is going to want more of your design." She says. "Well not exactly more, but they will be curious about the astronavigational aspects of your load out."

"Heralds can astronavigate." I say. "That's kind of the point in the comic books."

"Well, not here." She says.

"The IC pilot who took me to IC-CG1 could navigate interstitial space. He did not think he was unique."

Orai cackles. "You are resolutely against my 'chosen one' efforts aren't you?"

"I was chosen to die." I say. "And that statement explains why Poplar was trying to reprogram and kill me." I shrug. "So I am chosen, by you. You could have just lied to me back then."

"As opposed to now?" She asks.

"Audience who acts like Talent is treated like Talent." I say. "I do not know why you just said what you did. Maybe... you can tell me?"

"We are not supposed to be part of a story." She temporizes, avoiding my question. "I did what I did to you not out of a story but out of a sense of challenge. And then Poplar started goading me and I went to another tier, and another, and another, and another and as long as it was private it was fine, but now..."

I am not reading her mind so I make a guess. "You'd be in less trouble if I thought this was some sort of divine scheme with me in the middle?"

She nods.

I dismiss the carapace. "You did too good a job."

She looks at me, squints and sighs. "I did. I did not expect that Medusa Mask to fully take, of course it is sheerest luck that it was gear stripped off of that last Formless invading Legion and that ship was one of their scows."

"I'm made of fourth-hand parts aren't I?" I chuckle, finding an uncluttered place near a wall and sitting down.

"Few organizations have access to Medusa tech, fewer still have the resources to waste new tech on throw away Talent." She smiles. "I have a very large junk pile. I figured I could recoup something from Lotus."