Alice What's The Matter: Peace in The Chamber
05 Mar 2023Willow Thorn
Bio-Scans collected 121Distance from Guardian site 11.574 ly
Power Plant Integrity 93%
Date, today. Time, right now. Isn't that what matters? Like, the books all say, live in the moment right? So as I crossed in to the Elysium shore, I decided to give those self-help books, and Improve Your Wellbeing guides a go. I mean, I could do with a place to rest and find some inner peace, and the shore of Elysium should be just the place, you know? Like, I also got some guests that deserve their eternal rest, and I just arrived in Paradise, apparently, so two birds, you know?
Yeah so, I think I said I'd had enough of sniffing for Bio's in my last log, and I haven't changed my mind on that, so I got playing with my jump settings. Like, I don't want to hit any more red stars, coz they can have real funky gravity wells that you hit almost the moment you come out of your jump, and I didn't bring an Auto Mechanic, so I have to do the repair work after hitting a gravity wall.
Like, it's not a bad thing, you know? I like doing it, but there are only so many spars I can synthesize, and sometimes I have to pow-down to get into sub-systems without killing my self, and I got sensitive equipment in the hold that can do without being reset by a shut-down. So what ever, red stars are off the menu, and I also trimmed a few of the more common yellow and orange stars too, coz there's like, only soman ice worlds a girl can be bothered to log. But I also started to figure out the numbers and letters at the end of a system's designation, you know? Like Celsius Sector or what ever, then, ABC12 EFG5, well that all means something you know?
Yeah so, it's not like a guarantee or anything, it's more like the heat map for Bio and Geo's you get after dumping probes on a planet, but you can kind of figgier out what sort of stars and planets you're gonna find in a system just by the codes at the end. So by the time I was into Kepler's Crest, I'd got pretty good and reading the codes, and left a trail of Earth-Like discovers behind me. Like, they got so common, I forgot to take images and log their location on my personal map.
Like, I mentioned I got to Kepler's Crest, right? So I guess it's been a while since my last log. So I'm blaming the bunch of crap these book have been spooing at me, you know? Like, those self-improvement guides all use a thousand words to say "sort your shit out" and the author is definitely humblebragging about how together they think hey are. And don't get me started on the self-help books. I mean give me a brake lady! It doesn't matter what you're doing, you can do it better. Yeah, ok, like, I think that Imperial with the silver Mamba I was gathering parts for said it best, and she didn't waist words, and paid for my drink on top of the advice.
So I'm close to the rim I guess, well ok, close by galactic standards. I still got like, a week or so till I get there, but I found reason to stop right here. I got a High Grade USS appear on my contacts after I honked this system, and when I turned my nose to face it, I found this. What ever it is, it's big coz I'm light seconds from it, and I can already see its lights. So it's been a while since I did any repairs, and most my systems are sitting in the low 90s for their integrity, and I don't want to go looking at real big USS's until I got my ship up to standard, so I'm going to land and get some repairs done before I investigate. It's like that Imp woman said :-
"You have to live with your actions, everyone else has to live with the consequences of your actions"
So I'm not going in until I'm ready, because I don't want consequences, it's best to be the cause of consequences in other people.
Late last month.
Willows ship, la Cosa Terminal dock. Yamatji system
Her neck ached, there was only the ghost of gravity on the landing pad, but for someone that spent most of her time in space, it was enough. Once Willow realized she had fallen asleep, she jerked out of the chair pressing her back into the workbench, grabbed the pistol from her hip and pointed it at the door, and then each corner of the diamondback's workroom. Her breath came in short sharp breaths while she checked she was still alone. She held her breath to listen and then relaxed for a second until the trembling set in closely followed by tears.
Being the bait for the woman that tormented Willows every waking hour had seemed like a good idea when she was planning it out, but the waiting was fraying her last nerve. The worry had festered, turning into a paranoia that was making Willow slide ever closer to the edge. She had cried so many times over the last three days, she didn’t think there were any more tears left to fall. However, this situation plumbed as yet undiscovered depths of that well. She checked all the displays that were linked to the cameras she had places, pleased to see no one on her pad or on board her ship.
Willow retrieved the tempered-glass knife she had been working on that was knocked to the floor when she jumped up. She took the engraver out of its holster and turned it on; its buzzing went hand in hand with the white noise in her head. She got back to finishing off the vine pattern she was putting on the blade. The work turned her mental inferno into a flame at the back of her head, and the tempestuous blood storm into a pool that sat under it.
The work took hours, but Willow held the clear glass up to the light to inspect her work. It was perfect; if she did any more, she’d risk spoiling the artistry instead of improving it. Taking off her work gloves, she rubbed her eyes. A yawning hollow in her stomach reminded Willow she hadn’t eaten for a while. She’d been sucking on the extract she made in her still, but that savoury tar made her thirsty enough to drink the ship's vat dry, but a citrus tea would do for now.
Breathing in the steam from the cup was almost good enough, but a sip of the tea was even better. The zest washed Willows mouth, reminding her she had neglected personal hygiene along with eating and drinking. When she stripped off her Maverick suit, she'd do it in the shower cubical with the water running. Right now, she didn't want to be caught without a shield generator in case something went wrong with the plan. A sound like crystal chimes drifted up from the workroom. Her brother Birch would call it hippy music, but for a moment, it helped Willow relax and she gave serious thought to getting into her hammock.
The slightest notion of relaxing was insanely erased, replaced by cold panic when Willow remembered that the innocuous chill-out tune was what she had set as an alarm. It meant that the cameras and other sensors she had set up around her ship and the landing pad had detected someone. Dock control had not contacted the ship asking her permeation for anyone to come on board, let alone access the pad. Who ever was here had by passed statin security, so they probably not here to offer a cleaning service.
Now it probably was happening, Willow lost any hint of courage. Although there was only a whiff of gravity this close to the stations centre, she was rooted to the spot. She wanted to run to the cockpit, pop the canopy and hide from the intruders, but she couldn't move. She felt like she was shaking so much, she was vibrating, but she still couldn't leave the spot.
"Move Willow, fuckin move" she grimaced clenching her fists so tightly, the armour hurt her hands.
Her hand opened so it stopped hurting, but the hit of pain had given her something else to focus on. She clenched her other fist, the one that was healed by the nano-surgeons, and felt gears and cogs moving against her bones. As her fingers flexed, she managed to take a few steps. Remembering that all this was happening, so Willow could face the woman that had beaten her face black and blue, then shot her through the hand and dropped her in a cell.
Her steps turned into running that took her back to the workroom where she intended to be if something happened. The display showed four people walking purposely to the boarding ramp of Dinah, the name Willows ship was currently using. Three of them walked up the boarding ramp before Willow could even think about that to do, and one man hid himself, standing guard. She wrung her hands, pulling on her fingers as soft footsteps approached. She wouldn't have heard them if she was working, but knowing people were there, gave away the soft noises.
Willow was shaking so much, her armour knocking against its self drowned out the sound of the people she had hired to come for Alice Liddell. She forced her teeth together and held her breath to stifle the sobs that she couldn't hold back, then there was a sudden electric bang just beyond the doorway to her workroom. Willow knew the sound well, she'd been electrocuted a few times in her job, but this one was deliberate, and followed by three people's grunt, forced out by massive muscle spasm as many thousands of volts, and a handful of amps passed through them.
There was no thud of bodies falling to the floor, the station didn't offer enough gravity for that.
"Guys? What was that, you got her already?" inquired a male voice from the ship's boarding ramp.
Willow stopped breathing and became still. She watched a man on her monitor walk up, approaching his slowly descending friends. He had a stubby automatic held across his chest as he quietly moved in. The trap was sprung, and no one had come to take Willow, they must have been incapacitated, there was only one left. She drew her plasma pistol and, stepping to the door, took a deep breath.
"Guys?" questioned the man's voice not 5 meters away.
Willow steped out and slowly, as if remembering what was about to happen at a later time, she watched the barrel of her weapon glide up until she saw the man’s face at the end of her iron-sights and squeezed the trigger. A smoking hole replaced the man’s suspired expression, and the universe went silent. It was as if hundreds of tiny noise became conspicuous by their absence, and every joint in her body relaxed for the first time in weeks. She raised her hand that had been bothering her with impossible machinery for week, and it felt normal as she flexed her fingers.
"Curiouser and curiouser" said Alice flexing her fingers.
Last time she shot a man with her plasma pistol, Willow had stayed on station for weeks as she came to terms with what she had done, but Alice just looked at the burnt hole where the man’s face should have been with indiffrance. One of the people in the pile on the floor at her feet was definetly female. Alice picked her up thanks to the low gravity, and took off the woman’s mask. It was Emmeline, the one Willow needed to beat so she could feel safe again.
"One can't dilly-dally when there is work to do" said Alice "It looks like I have more guests for tea" she remarked surveying the rest of the victims Willows trap had captured.
They were all out cold, but that wouldn't last long. After getting the guests seated, Alice requested a take-off. This station may have a very loose connection to the law, but the people now enjoying her cryogenic hospitality had to have bribed someone, and those people may show the sort of interest Willow really didn't need right now.