We would like to hear about your opinion about using the "cover names" directly in the story... sounded less confusing than switching between two sets of names constantly.
Quote:Sato had been right. Soon after Fords truck was being slowly towed towards Nehallennia. Ford could give her that at least, it seemed she hadn’t lost any of her famous experience.
Seeing the open hangar Cathy had the terrifying realisation that this was all very, very real. Suddenly, she wanted to be anywhere else.
“Don’t worry,” Ford said softly, “It’ll just be a couple of days. Keep our heads, it’ll be no problemo.” she smiled, before reaching for the collar’s monitor. “Just remember, once we’re in that hangar... you’re Teela, and I’m Cally.” she took a deep breath, “And I own you. Just like we practiced,”
Cathy... Teela, she reminded herself, scratched at her collar. She looked almost forlornly up at Cally.
“I’ve done this before,” Cally said.
The change in gravities as they crossed the threshold to the landing bay sent Cally’s inner ear spinning. Stupid quirk. She braced herself against the steering wheel, letting it fade as she felt the wheels hit solid ground.
“It’ll take about a minute to pressurise the bay,” Sato warned. “Sit tight. You’re among friends here.”
It wasn’t that big of a bay... barely big enough for her truck and whatever was loading beside it. Cally looked out the window, watching a group of Senshi unload what looked like a very fast ship. Well... they were Senshi, but not Senshi in a way. It was hard to put her finger on exactly... but somehow it reminded her of mirror-universe Star Trek, with Spocks beard.
Just that little thing... a little darkening of the colours here and there... a tendency towards torn fishnets or the odd piercing and they suddenly appeared far more evil than their clean-cut counterparts. More ‘Goffick’, she snickered privately. They were trying too hard... an aura of deliberate and intentional gloom hanging over them.
If it wasn’t for the fact that they were unloading obvious bales of thionite off that ship, she wouldn’t even have pegged them as criminals. She started to wonder if maybe perhaps, they weren’t doing it from the money like everyone else, but because somehow crime seemed all edgy and cool and anti-Senshi.
They weren’t real zwilniks, not the actively malicious kind anyway. They were just playing at it.
Cathy herself took one look at them out the window and hoped they were.
In a way, it made the job a little less risky. It also complicated things a lot. They didn’t seem like the sort to develop ‘ghost hacking’, or whatever Jet called it. Which meant either someone was coming to the station to give Roland his orders, or there was someone else here working behind the scenes. An unknown factor...
Those were always fun. Cally sighed to herself, and took the collar’s remote from her pocket. She keyed in her code, and smiled lightly as it came up green. It was picking up Teela’s biometrics quite happily...
“Calm down, Teela,” Cally said. “If they wanted to hurt us, there’d be more of a welcoming committee.”
She hoped.
Teela took a deep breath. “I hope so... but we have clearly missed something during the planning. And I hope we did not missed too much. But lets get out of here, I cannot wait to stretch a little bit...”
“There’re always unknowns going in. Just go with them.” Cally said, before her expression darkened. “Now get out of my damn truck! It’s your fault this happened,” she yelled.
Teela put on a surprised ‘who me?’ face, opened the side door and jumped out of the truck, looking around curiously. Cally damn near slammed the door off its hinges as she got out, projecting fury.
“And see if there’s anything left of our load will ya!” Cally held up the remote.
Teela eyes widened and she hurried around the truck, graping a handle and pulling herself onto the trucks cargo area and looking through the holes of the hatch on the trucks side. She tried to open the tailgate, but it just fell off, clattering onto the steel floor of the bay. Teela stuck her head through the open ‘hatch’ to look at the cargo.
“That doesn’t look good Cally” she shouted back, finally vanishing inside the remains of the trailer.
“This sucks,” Cally spat, scuffing her boot off the ground. She pressed one hand against the cold metal. “My poor baby” she sighed, “what have they done with you?” Deep breath. “Great... truck nearly wrecked, cargo destroyed or gone... this is really my lucky day...”
Naoko Sato appeared beside her, still half dressed in her pressure gear. She took one look at the truck and whistled.
“Solid work... multiple coil gun bursts... one grazing shot over the engine, the others wrecked the wheels and the trailer. It is astonishing that it was still airtight.”
Cally nodded to her and smiled. “Duct tape, and God’s luck,” she said. “But explaining this lot to Vercetti’s going to be a pain,”
Sato raised an eyebrown “Vercetti? I can not say I have heard of him,”
“My boss,” Cally answered. She feigned a sigh. “And if I don’t find 40 kilo’s of thionite for him I got paid to deliver, I’ll be coughing up my own furballs.”
Naoko nodded, pondering for a moment. A business opportunity perhaps?
Teela reappeared from the remains of the trucks bay with something purple in her waving hand. “One survived Cally!”
“39 Kilo’s,” Cally corrected. “Good cat.”
“I think we might be able to come to an arrangement,” Sato said, still working the maths in her head. “It might not be cheap,” she warned.
“Better that than spending the rest of my life washing myself with my own tongue...” Cally replied, with a wry smirk. Judging by the look on Teela’s face she obviously disagreed. “I guess I’ll just have to take the hit this time.”
Naoko stroked her chin with satisfaction, “Then, I think we might be able to do a deal. Naoko Sato, Station Commander.”
“Cally Auron,” Cally offered a handshake.
Sato eyed her hand almost distastefully for a moment. She didn’t grip very tight at all.
“This way, Cally, we will talk more in my office.”