Aye... or probably a combination of all 3. And God knows what's in her lab....
Note.... Ford's telling a strongly bullshit story to get in with Sato through the traditional 'common interests' method.
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Note.... Ford's telling a strongly bullshit story to get in with Sato through the traditional 'common interests' method.
Quote:Cally and Teela were lost. They’d been trying to find their quarters from the bar, and figured they’d take a wrong turn somewhere. Compounded by another, then another.________________________________
“I’m sure it was a left,” Cally said, scratching her head.
Teela looked up at her, rolling her eyes.
“Up the main stairwell 2 levels, door 4, take a left... then a third right.” Cally recited from memory.
But they weren’t anywhere near AE-85. Wrong directions? Cally’s skin began to crawl...
“Directions were never your strong point,” Teela giggled.
Cally rolled her eyes. It was being mapped by the collar, that was the main thing. It was just a matter of wandering around lost in a very realistic manner.
“Maybe we should ask someone” suggested Teela carefully. Not really what they wanted to do now, but it sounded good.
“Then we look like idiots,” Cally replied and shook her head.
“We look like idiots wandering around.”
“Lets try this corridor... I think it should go back to the bar... maybe.” Teela said and pointed into a larger corridor. She had no clue where it was going. This asteroid station was definitely a large one and had most likely been in place for years.
Just when they decided to enter the corridor a voice sounded behind them.
“What you two are doing here? This is a restricted area.”
Cally and Teela turned around to see Sato standing in a different corridor, looking at them. Teela smiled happily and sighed relieved.
Cally looked angrily at Teela and slapped her.
“YOU said you knew the way to our room... keep your mouth shut next time if you are not sure” Cally said, then she turned to Sato with a slightly embarrassed look.
She exhaled a long sigh. “Teela said she remembered the way to our rooms....we’re new here.”
The catgirl scratched herself where Cally had hit her and stayed silent. It refused to stop stinging.
Sato wore a stern expression for a few moments, but then she nodded. “Follow me... and stay in the public areas next time...”
Cally looked annoyed at Teela. “Bloody cat..”
Teela put on an innocent ‘who me?’ face and nodded obediently.
Sato sighed mentally and began to lead them back to the living areas and to their room. She would have to check their story later by looking through all the camera recordings. Somehow though, she doubted any spy would make themselves look like an idiot by getting lost...
She decided not to tell Quattro.... it would just make her even more paranoid. She might even have sent the pair off into this area just to frame them.
“What is with that Quattro anyway?” Cally asked.
“She’s our madgirl.” Sato answered, “Try to stay away from her.”
“I mean, what could she want with Teela? She tried to buy her off us in the bar”
Sato shrugged, “Research.” Who knows? “She’s a madgirl. Try to keep it from straying if you don’t want to lose it,”
Teela bared her fangs, but her flicking tail showed she was not really feeling her bravest at the moment.
“Right so.” Cally cringed.. She’d picked that irritating phrase from Jet.
“So tell me Cally,” Sato continued, making conversation, “What was your last stop before you were attacked. What’s your normal route?”
“Stellvia was my last stop,” Cally answered. Sato’s expression blackened.
“That’s unusual,” she remarked.
Cally gave a dismissive shrug, “Best place. The rooms are private and there’s so much traffic through the station that they don’t have a chance to check everyone coming and going.”
Teela smiled. “And they like having catgirls around” she added with a cheery grin.
Sato looked dubious. “Most couriers I know run through Genaros,”
“How many of them get caught? Space Patrol and Bounty Hunters all over the place,” Cally began to strut.
“You nearly got caught,” Sato groused.
Cally saw her her opening. Time to spear the fish. The fastest way to make friends was to share an enemy.
“It was that 4-eyed stellvian bitch,” she spat. “I’m certain of it,”
“Oh?” Naoko raised an interested eyebrow. “Do tell,”
Cally snorted. “We did the deal in the bedroom... two duffle bags with 20 kilos apiece in them. Empty the bags of money, fill them with purple, the usual deal. So we do it, and everything’s sweet... I just have to check the purity of it,”
She popped open that small compartment on her arm, showing her the leatherman, and that leaflet of papers, one single one stained a deep purple. The papers were common, intended to detect thionite in a sample, or if a sample of thionite had been cut, and with what.
“A hundred percent pure, uncut stuff. Fresh off Venus.” Cally bragged. She hid the paper and closed the compartment. “Everything was done and dusted, just had to get out to my truck, when there’s a knock at the door,”
Cally took a breath.
“We both looked at the door, then each other, collectively shitting bricks. Kiko answered it, and it was herself in her uniform, smiling from behind her glasses. Fujisawa with some sort of scanner. Citing some safety clause about a bad pressure seal, she asks us to leave the room”
Probably bullshit. Cally knew as much about Stellvian operations as she did about memetic handwavium theory, but then again she was betting Sato knew even less.
“5 minutes later, she’s smiling as she lets us back in. Nothing looked disturbed at the time, so we finished up and hurried off.” Cally feigned a sigh. “Probably should’ve checked the bags for tracers, but we were both spooked and we forgot.”
Sato nodded. “And they were bugged?”
“Oh yeah,” Cally carried on. “I get out past Mars, I get a frantic message from Kiko in her van warning me. I hear the seals on the door go, followed by Fujisawa’s damn cheerful...” she loaded those words with as much hate as she could muster, “...voice telling Kiko she was under arrest and acting so damned proud of herself.”
Callys voice rang off the stone walls.
“I’ve known Kiko since before I came up here....”
“You weren’t tracked here were you?” Sato snapped her down, stunning her for a moment.
“Uh...”Cally held up her hand for a moment, “Well... when we lost the cargo we lost the tracker.... it’s how we got away. They went after the beacon while we hid on an asteroid.”
Naoko stopped for a few seconds, mulling it over in her mind. Paranoia could be a healthy thing in the right amounts.
“Are you sure?” she demanded. She stared into Cally’s eyes, her expression firm.
“Of course. Damn sure.”
Cally tried to act insulted. Hadn’t she been the one who planned the whole thing?
Sato stepped back a little. “We will still have check the truck for trackers,”
Teela smiled happily. “Can I help you looking for them... hunting for hidden stuff is always fun!”
The station commander glared down at her for a moment. “It would be best if both of you were nowhere near the vehicle,”
Teela shrunk down like a scolded child.
“So how did you escape, Cally?” Sato enquired, her tone flat. Cally wasn’t sure whether she was just curious to hear the end of the story, or starting to get suspicious. The senshi gave no indication.
Cally exhaled a sigh. “We got shot up, buncha trigger happy lunatics. The bags were blown out when the cargobay decompressed. The tracker must’ve been in one of them... they went after that while we cut power and hid on an asteroid. Once we were sure they were gone, we fired up the engine and crawled here.”
Cally forced the anger, calling up some of her most hated memories to fuel it.
“But they got Kiko. The bitch got her. Kiko’s my friend since I came up in ‘08... back before any of this SMoF politics got going, all these assholes making themselves kings in their own personal fantasy while screwing it up for the rest of us.”
Cally stopped with a bitter snarl. Sato mulled it over for far longer that Cally was comfortable with. After a few tense heartbeats, the zwilnik Senshi’s expression softened into an easy smile.
“I think we might get along just fine,” she said amiably. “Your quarters are just around this corner, try to remember where they are this time.” She chuckled, covering her mouth in that uniquely Japanese manner.
It creeped Cally out no-end for reasons she couldn’t quit put her thumb on.
“Thanks,” she said.
----
Naoko showed them through the door, before leaving on ‘station business’. If Cally hadn’t known better, she might’ve pegged her as just an ordinary Senshi. Villains had a disturbing tendency to be surprisingly banal.
There were very few Quattros in the world.
“So, do we do it know?” Teela asked, fidgeting with her collar.
Cally checked the her watch. “Another hour or so,”
Have to wait for both themselves and the Nova to be in position. Cally dropped herself onto the bed.... little more than a simple cot. She half expected the thing to collapse.
It was a small room, even for Fenspace, and decorated in the local manner.... which was subtly creepy. There was a small table, and a place that’d been set aside for Teela, and literally not much else aside from a small porthole, with the black cloak of space clinging to the other side of the glass.
Either Naoko was supremely good, and trying to string her along into a trap, or she’d made a connection with her.... she decided to hope for the latter and begin to wonder what she’d do if it was the former.
----
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?