Some Time Ago pt.6: A Brief Encounter
26 Oct 2019Maul Montresor
Maul was standing at an open panel that is normally hidden in the wall. This panel housed all the components that made his A.I. work in the apartment. He was cleaning and doing maintenance on all of chips and circuit boards that were meticulously placed inside."Well, I reckon that's it Ashley. You're all cleaned up." He says as he pushes the panel shut.
"Feeling any better?" He asks, knowing good and well that Ashley couldn't "feel" anything but he liked to humor himself.
"Yes, actually! Thank you so much, Ghoulie." Ashley responds cheerfully.
Maul smiles as he gathers his tools into the toolbox and moves them back across the apartment. He positions the toolbox precariously on top of the random boxes lining the wall next to his computer desk. As he walks away, the mountain of boxes briefly wobble side to side and then stops. As he passes the front door on his way to the kitchen there is a knock. He stops and stares at the door. "Who the hell?.." He mumbles to himself as he grabs a knife off the counter and opens the door, being sure to conceal the knife behind his back. The door slides open and reveals a girl smiling back at him. She had dark brown hair that flowed down past her shoulders and was dressed in what appeared to be her work clothes. The logo on her shirt indicated she worked at a local restaurant on the station. She couldn't have been older than 23 or 24.
"Hey, I'm sorry to bug you. I just moved in down the hall a few weeks ago. Umm...My holo display is on the fritz again and I heard from some of neighbors that you are pretty tech savvy. Normally, I'd just pay to have a technician come out and fix it but I really can't afford that again. He didn't even fix the thing last time and....well I was wondering if you'd take a look at it? I'll pay you back just as soon as I get paid next week."
Maul stood silently staring at her. He wasn't sure what to say or who the hell this person even was. What if she was just trying to lure him out so she could--
"Oh, I'm Cate by the way." The girl says reaching her hand out.
Maul carefully sneaks the knife back onto the counter and steps out to shake her hand.
"I'm...Eli."
Cate gives him a strange look. "Sven from down the hall said your name was Maul."
"Fucking Sven." Maul thought to himself.
"Yeah yeah, Eli is my middle name. I'm Maul." He trips over his words with that terrible recovery. "But yeah sure, I'll just grab my tools and we'll see what I can do."
He steps away leaving Cate at his doorstep as he goes to grab his toolbox. She looks around his apartment with a mixed look of confusion and disgust.
"Nice place." She was lying. Even Maul knew his apartment could use a little organizing.
"Thanks for being nice, I know It's a shithole, but it's my shithole though, you know?" He says with a smirk, walking back towards her with toolbox in hand.
Cate smiles back and leads him down the hall to her apartment. Her place was lived in but clean, a near direct contrast from Maul's apartment. Cate tried to turn on the holo display to no avail.
"See? It won't even come on. I haven't been able to watch anything for a few days and I feel like I'm starting to go crazy just sitting around here."
Maul walks over to the display's control box, kneeling down to open it.
"Let's see here." He says to himself as he looks over all the components inside. There it was. One of the display cables wasn't plugged in all the way. He pushes it in the rest of the way and suddenly the display comes to life.
"Yes! Oh my god, thank you so much." Cate says nearly jumping with excitement.
Maul closes the control box and stands back up. "Whoever you hired to work on this last time was a fucking moron. One of the cables wasn't plugged in."
"Uh huh, thanks again." Cate's attention was already too invested in whatever she was watching to really notice what Maul had said.
He grabs his toolbox and heads for the door.
"Oh, wait!" Cate exclaimed. "i know we don't really know each other but I just ordered a pizza and considering I can't pay you right now and also considering that I don't know anybody on this side of the station, would you maybe want to hang out eat some pizza or something? Oh, we could also watch some movies or whatever."
Maul thinks for a moment.
"I'll just take a slice and head back home. I got some work I need to do and..." He says, walking over to the pizza box on the counter to pick up a slice.
"Oh c'mon!" She says as she positions her self between him and the pizza box. "Look, I've got some Onion Head." She says in a sing song voice as she dangles a baggy in front of him. "Besides, it's the weekend. Don't you want to relax and take a break from work? I know I do."
He sighs after a moment of contemplation and sits his toolbox back down.
"Alright, but I get to pick what we watch."
Cate smiles at him and extends her hand.
"Deal."
***The Next Morning.***
Maul wakes up on Cate's couch. He groggily sits up and looks around the apartment but she was no where to be found. His pad began buzzing with notifications, he pulls it out of his pocket to see that Cate had sent him a message.
"Hey, you looked pretty peaceful and I didn't have the heart to wake you. I just stepped out for some breakfast so, don't freak out if you wake up and I'm gone lol. Anyway, thanks for hanging out and talking with me last night. You're a pretty rad guy, even if your taste in movies is a little bland :p. See you when I get back....Omg I was just thinking, how awkward would it be if I get back before you read this? lol!"
He couldn't recall anything happening between the two of them last night. Just pizza, talking and horror movies. At least, he hoped that was all. There was no need to have her mixed up in his chaotic life.
His other messages were from TerraBites, Xero and Al Capwned. Apparently, something interesting had come through the node he hacked. He grabs his boots and toolbox as he leaves Cate's apartment and runs back down the hall to his apartment. He enters his apartment and drops his boots and toolbox on the floor on his way to his computer. Opening a the secure chatroom he finally sees what everyone was talking about.
TerraBites: Gentlefellows, I believe I found something pretty effing cool passing through that node Gh0uli3 hacked. There are a lot of shipments of something valuable being moved outta the Sugana system every week. I'm not 100% sure what it is but judging by these transmissions, they're trying to hide the fact that the shipments even exist.
Xero: How valuable are we talking? Is it "enough to make my monthly payment" kind of valuable? Because you guys know I really need the credits. I've got to get those pricks off my back.
TerraBites: Yeah, I'd say so. It looks like they are getting paid BIG for these shipments. If we can get our hands on whatever it is, we could probably find a buyer. After that we could all take a nice long vacation. Oh gosh, I can already feel the sand between my toes!
Al Capwned: Yo, this sounds awesome. Count me in. You guys think we'll need any firepower? I have contacts that can hook us up.
Xero: Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Let's see if Gh0uli3 is on board. I'd like all of us present when we make a plan.
Maul felt slightly torn. Doing this kind of work has lead him to do some morally questionable things but somehow the idea of stealing this cargo seemed wrong. This felt too much like straight piracy but he knew he needed the credits if he was ever going to pay off "The Big One". He hesitates as he types out his reply.
Gh0uli3: Yeah, I'm game. Terra, go ahead and upload everything you've got so far to the SFTP server so we can start digging through it.