Volt would have been at home in Krotaz, perhaps, Sascha realized with the muted slowness of a pleasant buzz. The biological entity--electronic construct, really--would not have had to fight for his freedom, for all of his brethren's freedom, were he elsewhere in the galaxy. The whole horrible week could have been avoided had they just performed some complicated rescues and jetted off into space. She'd have been saved from the weight of dozens of lasers perpetually honed on her backside. There'd certainly be less action in the Hunter community.
Shards of inhuman emerald and copper were less in evidence as she focused them on the Krotazi once more, her pupils dilated and cheeks flushed. "I like that," she said inanely. "Owning people is bad."
But then, she considered, he wouldn't have beaten the corporations at their own game, won the right to linger in the part of the galaxy that he called home. Wouldn't have truly been "human", in the sense that mattered, if they'd simply run.
She wouldn't have been able to do it, either. Because the grass was never greener.
Ever.
On that sobering thought (that didn't really do much to actually sober her up)--cards, did I drink the whole thing? she asked herself as she held up the bottle on that reminder and then shook it, empty save a droplet that swished around the bottom--Sascha rubbed the back of one gloved hand over gritty eyes. No time limits. It seemed reasonable, because the loan hounds who hired actual shark-things to take out kneecaps definitely had time limits, and yet...
"And what if that karma doesn't come back?" she asked, a barely audible musing, "What if a favor can't be repaid because someone went and got shot in the head by a double-barreled synthbeamer? Seems like that would be expensive."
She reclined further, sinking into the Krotazi as the rum sank into her bones, her brows furrowed as she tried to consider the consequence. "But of course you must have some method to address that." Relatives or something. Someone else to befriend. Her lips pursed, but she shook the sardonic thought free. Everything was fine. "The corporations would, at any rate."
Law-abiding--She made a sound between a chuckle and a cough, rubbing her throat with her fingertips. And she wouldn't have mentioned how very not law-abiding SHE was, but then came the question about her recent activity and...well. The alien HAD just gotten between her and certain death. For the moment. It was worth a small measure of gratitude, at the very least. She tapped her temples languidly, as if those were the very spots where the cypher remained in her brain. The keys to the smattering of code on the chip tucked into the palm of one glove. Code they'd only have been able to unlock if they'd cut her open, plugged into her brain, and known how to think like a human--more, like her--because Fate had done his job well. "You would not BELIEVE how mad people get when you prove you're smarter than they are."
Or when they decided simply you weren't worth the trouble anymore.
---
Visiting? Fate's eyes widened. Well. That was a much better proposal than the alternative, fearing Grilka would hunt him down xyrself.
Except that Kreska Ido would certainly be followed, and tentacles would chase him in his sleep.
>>Will it get xyr attention off Sascha?
>>If you come here?
It didn't really matter. If the outcome meant she'd no longer be in harm's way...
"For fuck's sake," Fate muttered, his instinct to smash his head on the desk in front of him only overruled by the need to not take his eyes off the image of curly brown hair that kept cutting in and out with the sway of the tablet.
If his weakness was getting lost to the route of the Net, hers was booze. And though she handled it well on a normal day, she also didn't normally consume an entire bottle of rum so potent grown men were known to go under the table after a couple of shots. No, that was normally done after a job, tucked away in his hideyhole or one he'd secured for her. When it was safe. When everything was over and she could afford to forget, not to worry, not to be haunted, just to relax in being safe...
Safe was the exact opposite of what was happening here and he couldn't even fucking tell her.
"Oh gods. Idiot!" He snapped his fingers. White teeth flashed back at him from the rows of monitors and he tapped on several keys. "Maybe I can't, but this bad boy's got a modulator."
He'd planned to just have him knock, to be a distraction. But this was much better. Surely. If he was, as Kreska so eloquently put it, "literal fucked", than annoying the Krotazi further couldn't make this any worse. It just might buzz some sense into Sascha though, and that would get her moving, rather than lounging like an actual princess. The android knocked at the door, its voice piping loudly, "Top o' the mornin', pips! What ken I get yer today?"
Which hadn't been what he coded, but rather some damned fool's default "pub" setting that he'd missed because panic and code did not play nicely, and Fate groaned loudly into the emptiness of his workspace.
>>Come here.
>>Bring Sascha.
>>Before I do something REALLY stupid.
Dreams come in a size too big so we can grow into them.
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