Chapter Ninety-Nine - Bigger Guns

"Oh, good, you're back," Ivil said as she greeted Aurora by the Sappho's airlock.

The noble blinked slowly, then nodded. "I have returned, yes. Were you waiting for me?"

Ivil nodded. "I was. Though I was also keeping an eye on you. I hope that you don't find that overbearing, I was just worried. This station is... unfamiliar territory, and while I doubt the Emperor here would want you to be harmed while on his station, I still feel like it was better to be safe than sorry."

"It's fine," Aurora said. She glanced back out of the airlock, then back to Ivil. "I just had a few things to take care of."

"That's good. Did it go well?" Ivil was, at the moment, riding the fine line between being honest and being too honest. Too much honesty could ruin a relationship, and she didn't want anyone to be aware of just how much energy she was spending spying on them.

Aurora nodded, then placed her hands on her hips and stretched her back out. "It went... well enough. I stopped by the League of Free Moons embassy on the station. It's not the largest embassy in the system, but it's definitely one of the bigger ones. There are too many political links too close to the Emperor for this station to be left ignored. In any case, I sent a package back to Phobos, with news of what's happening. I also managed to run into some delegates from the other moons."

"Oh? Did they have anything good to say?" Ivil asked.

"They're sensibly worried about all of the League's sudden movement. I think the League's attempts at subtlety have been so poor that their actions are coming across as more suspicious, not less."

"They don't have a high-quality intelligence agency the way Mars has MINT or the Earth Alliance has their own secret services," Ivil said. "And now the League is paying the price for that."

"It's... an issue, yes," Aurora said. "But try to keep in mind that the League is relatively young, and trust is still at a premium. The moons that make up the League don't all trust each other, and you can bet that any attempt to create a spy agency would be met with great scepticism."

Aurora took a deep breath, then slipped past Ivil and into the main corridor of the ship. "Well, I'm glad you're back," Ivil said.

"I'm... glad to be back," Aurora said. She almost sounded surprised at her own revelation. "In any case, I indicated that Phobos, and by extension the Sappho would be doing what it could to solve any issues that the League can't handle itself. I think the other diplomats believed me to be full of hot air, but I hope we can prove them wrong."

"I'm sure we can impress them, if we put our minds to it," Ivil said. "Shall we get moving? We were waiting on your return to take off."

"Oh? I'm sorry. I should have known that I was delaying things," Aurora said.

"It's fine," Ivil replied. "Come! We need our comms officer on the bridge. Twenty-Six looked the ship over and has declared it ready to go, and Pixie is in the pilot's seat already."

Ivil wasn't wrong, by the time they made it to the bridge, the others were all in position, waiting for the all-clear.

Aurora adjusted her suit--it was a rather pretty garment, at once functional, but also clearly designed with an eye towards aesthetics, skirts were rather cumbersome to wear in low gravity--then she sat down at the communications station and slipped on a pair of bulky headphones. "Have we filed an outgoing flight plan?" Aurora asked.

"No," Ivil said. "Just let station traffic control know that we're departing now."

"Just... like that?" Aurora asked. "We're going to be causing all sorts of issues."

"And if we allow traffic control to dictate things, someone might realize that there's some political benefit to jamming a stick in our wheels," Ivil said. "Even if they don't realize the scale of the problems they'd be causing for themselves. It's best to just head out and let the bureaucrats figure out their own issues on their own time."

Aurora blinked, then shrugged. "I don't think I'll ever get used to your irreverent way of doing things."

"You will," Pixie said from the pilot's seat. "It's actually kind of nice. I only get to bully my way past minor problems when I'm flying around fully-equipped for war. With Ivil here you have a much bigger middle finger to swing around."

"You seem enamoured with the abilities of my fingers, Pixie, is there anything you want to share?" Ivil asked.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

She enjoyed the way Pixie sputtered.

"Space Traffic Control, this is the independent ship Sappho," Aurora spoke into a mic. "We're requesting permission for immediate departure from... berth twelve, spoke twenty-two, outgoing vector heading... out-system."

Ivil smiled as she settled down into the captain's seat. Now was the part where some nobody who thought they were special because they had a tiny sliver of power would demand that they do things their way rather than just doing what they wanted.

"Yes... understood Space Traffic Control," Aurora said. She tapped the mute button and leaned back. "They want a detailed flight plan, and for us to send a copy of our manifest and certifications."

"Understandable," Ivil said. "Inform them that our weapons are hot and that if we don't get permission in the next thirty seconds, we're just going to blast our way out. Pixie, dear, warm up the guns?"

"On it," Pixie said with a giggle. There was a ker-chunk, and the wonderful hum of weapon systems coming online.

A moment later, Twenty-Six buzzed in from engineering. "Hey, uh, are we warming up the guns for any particular reason?"

"Someone's not giving us what we want even though we have bigger guns," Ivil replied. "Just giving them a friendly reminder."

"Oh... do you want me to shut off any shielding we have around the guns? It'll make it way more obvious. Oh! And I can set the targeting system to ping off everything in several klicks around us. That's usually considered pretty rude, but also kinda threatening."

"Don't do that," Aurora said. "Yes, hello? Yes, I'm aware that our weapons are primed... mhm... send the invoice to... uh, the residence of the Empress of Mars. Yes, that's right. I've been told by my captain that we require permission to leave within the next thirty seconds... ah." Aurora leaned back. "They're sending station security our way. Also, they're refusing to unclamp our locks now."

"Oh no, whatever shall we do?" Ivil asked. "Pixie, do we have a firing arc on all of the clamps holding us in place?"

"Ah... not quite," Pixie said. "I mean, I could probably take most of them out, but it would risk the Sappho."

"I don't wanna have to replace hull pieces, that's a lot of work," Twenty-Six said.

Ivil shrugged. "Fair enough." She wondered if it had been thirty seconds yet. "Pixie, prepare to manoeuvre us back and around, then hard burn out of here. I'll take care of the pesky momentum problems. And as for the clamps..."

It took a bit of focus and a twist of her will, but with a sudden tearing sound and a loud series of thumps the clamps holding the Sappho in place were carefully exploded apart.

"Oh, they did not like that," Aurora said. "Um... Space Traffic Control is saying that if we don't cease now, they will be taking over our ship's computer and shutting us down."

"Can they do that?" Ivil asked.

"Yeah, it's a normal procedure to link your ship's computer to a station's traffic control network. It lets them monitor your drive and fuel and such," Twenty-Six said. "It also lets them shut down a ship and even move it via fly-by-wire in case of an emergency."

"So they can take over the Sappho just like that?" Ivil asked.

"Yup!" Twenty-Six said. "Unless someone happens to be flying a ship built by pirates, who are notoriously not cool with leaving huge potential ECM vulnerabilities on their ships. And oops, did I accidentally pull some random cord out of this computer looking thing? Gosh, I hope that doesn't break anything important."

Ivil could kiss Twenty-Six. In fact, she decided to pencil just that in for later.

"Well then, Pixie, if you would."

The ship spun on its central axis, pointed away from the station, then lurched forwards with the kind of acceleration usually linked with medical reports about broken necks and cracked bones. They didn't really feel it, of course.

"Oh... um... we're all under arrest?" Aurora said. "And... wow, this man is very loud."

"You can cut them out," Ivil said. "I don't think we need them anymore."

"Of course," Aurora said. "Space Traffic Control, this is the Sappho. Thank you for your assistance. Have a nice day."

She clicked the comms off with a vindictive little click and a smug little smile.

Ivil penciled in kissing her too.

Pixie as well, for her nice flying skills.

My, what a busy flight this would be.

***

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