When Seraph opened the hatch, she stared for a few seconds... it looked as if she'd entered an entirely different ship. Instead of a long hallway all of the rooms at her level and along the hallway... it was a far smaller one running across the ship. As she stepped outside, the carrier silently stepping behind her, she could see that the floor was made of sections that rotated with the change of direction... and spot handheld cranks that could be used to rotate it back, exposed by the movement.
It was... crazy, as if the ship had gone from a three-hundred meter long structure that was half a dozen stories tall, now it was a... several dozen story tall structure? Perspective had a tendency to mess with your head. Her comm gave her directions to the cafeteria that would be serving her section... which was apparently the people of the first several floors.
It wasn't far; perhaps fifteen, twenty meters; to the chamber, and she could see long rows of seating against tables; with each section of chairs bolted to the floor, which itself had rotated, going from one wide open space into three floors, each containing a few tables... one of which shared space with the kitchen.
Whatever was cooking... it smelled delicious. Like bacon, perhaps. As she stepped towards the line, she could see a few dozen people... all fairly normal, from dark-skinned like herself to pale, wearing all manner of clothes... and in line was that same enormously tall, thin woman she'd met in the hallway. Some of the passengers were keeping their distance from her as she received a tray from behind the counter... and headed to a table with another two in red suits, with one of them covered with the outer layer of black armor.
One of the three crew looked normal, if a bit pale... while the third, in armor, was four feet tall, at most. Maybe even less. Most of the passengers were splitting up into groups; possibly families, or businesses, people making a trip like this alone were uncommon; one man seemed to be trying to get her attention with a bit of smalltalk.
"First time out of the Alliance?" He leaned in close, smiling at her... as she ignored him for the moment, and accepted a tray... it looked to be simple fare; earth vegetables, green beans among the mix, a starchy substance that was likely fake mashed potatoes, and some sort of meat and grey mixed in. She acknowledged him after taking it.
"Yup." And then just kept walking... stopping at the table with the three crew. "Hello there! Mind if I sit down?" She focused on the tall one who'd helped her earlier... who blinked, and nodded at one of the seats.
"Go ahead. .... Miss Glass. You know, most of you Alliance types tend to stick together when they leave. Lots of places out there less than friendly with them." How did she know her name? Did it matter.
Seraph shrugged, glancing at the other tables, then back at the woman. "If I'm going to be around quite a few people who aren't... baseline? I should get used to it as fast as possible. Mind if I ask your names, and if the... 'Karth Imperium'.... is one of those places?" She glanced at the other two.
The woman chuckled. "Well, miss Glass. I'm Photino. This is my boyfriend, Charles.." She nodded at the extremely short man in armor. "And Tommy, who is both broke and useless." The pale, normal, man, who rolled his eyes at the response.
Seraph nodded at each of them. "Charles, Tommy. Names Seraph." She took a bite of the meat, and blinked... surprised at the flavor, before taking another bite, chewing slowly.
"And for that other question.... I'm assuming you don't know the history?"
"Ehhh. The basics. The Imperium is the split from when the Alliance was first founded... the people who thought augments were soulless abominations stuck with the Alliance, the rest fled to the Imperium during the year of founding. Mostly the same sorts of people... pirates and religious nuts... just that one particular schism."
Charles laughed. "Well! That's one way to put it. Good old Dante Karth, Pirate King, worked with your illustrious founder, Jebediah Tarley. They were enemies first... then friends... and finally they founded the Dantari Alliance. And like most pirates... his crew were, mostly, augmented folk, like everywhere. If he'd tried to purge them from his fleet, his whole Alliance would've died on the spot. So... he picked one of his sons, Jason, who had an augmented lady for a wife... and gave him command of half the fleet. Split it, augmented and non. And..... Jason founded Karthage, while his dad founded Dantari. Almost a biblical story."
She looked around at the ship. "So.... here we are. Part of one of the biggest navies in all of space, and making tons of credits by being the main gatekeeper between the Alliance and the sane, rational, nations. Some of our augmented people are actually the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, of the guy who founded your Alliance... so they can't just seize our people willy-nilly like they do elsewhere or their own..... is he the president now, or..."
Seraph chuckled. "Dante Karth died at about a hundred and seventy. He didn't believe in implants, and he wasn't augmented, so.... yeah. His grandson is the Grand Admiral of the navy, and his niece is the Chairman of the council. So.... same family runs things on both sides, then."
Photino nodded. "Pretty much. There's all sorts of arguments and infighting, but Imperium ships can't attack Alliance, or vice versa, or they'll get executed when they get home, we're officially 'Allies'. Karthage is the closest world that an Alliance ship can dock where all its augmented people won't be freed immediately... and if they step off the ship, they're considered free the moment they set foot on Karth, even if they get hauled back aboard. Last time a slave escaped an Alliance transport on Karth, and they killed him with an explosive collar... the ship was impounded and the owner was executed on the spot for murder."
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She blinked. "Wow. That's... crazy. I bet they stopped bringing slaves on trips into your space after that. Same rules for when they step onto the ship? The moment they board, considered free?"
Charles nodded. "Yup. The KIA Malice had a slave-girl the captain had visited at a brothel sneak onboard last year while it was docked. The owner tried to get her back.... captain told them to fuck off, and powered up the railgun. I think they're married now. Obviously he did something to help her sneak on, but nobody could prove anything."
"...Mind if I ask... why they name the ships KIA? That has... a very different meaning in the Alliance fleet."
"Ohhh. Its a joke, from the Emperor. Officially, its to confuse our enemies if they get our naval data, make them think they only have the list of lost vessels. The truth..... he was planning on founding a constitutional monarchy sort of thing, and one of his crew suggested that if they named it an 'Imperium', his ships could be 'Karth Imperium Assault ships. And he could make the designation KIA. He thought it was funny. So... KIS for civilian ships. KIA for military."
She glanced around... checking how close the other passengers were, and nodded. "Huh. I bet thats how it is with most acronyms like that. They have some deep meaning that people claim, and then the truth is just that it sounded good, or funny. Anyways. Glad to hear that. I actually thought it worked something like that, but I wasn't sure." She considered telling them she was an Augment; but there were probably other Alliance personnel here. One might decide to kill her en route.
"If I wanted to move out of the Alliance, go live somewhere a good distance away... any recommendations?"
Photino chuckled, taking a drink from a squeeze bottle. "Not to talk about it in front of other Alliance people, for one. You're Alliance Intelligence. One of the other people is probably keeping an eye on you, and I wouldn't doubt if you were trying to keep an eye on somebody else."
"Oh, no, no. I work for them, sure. But I'm a programmer, not a... spook. Where's the best place for programmers to find work out there?"
"...Do you have a problem working with people like us?"
The carrier made a beeping sound. Seraph glanced back at it, then at Photino. "Not in the slightest. It'll take some getting used to... you're the tallest woman I've ever seen by at least half a meter... but I'm not the religious sort. If there is a soul, which I doubt, then I sincerely doubt it can be destroyed by re-writing someone's genetics. Did you know some people in the Alliance consider cyborgs to be inhuman, too? They're considering leaving the alliance, fleeing out into the void and founding their own colony to avoid being oppressed by their machine overlords."
Tommy, silent until now, started laughing, shaking his head. "Oh good god, that's terrible. The religious nutjob country now, itself, has religious nutjobs. Whats gonna be next, they think only men are human, or only people of a certain height, or skin tone?"
Seraph grinned. "First, the anti-Cyborg colony. Then a new cult flees, which has a nobody over six feet policy, to avoid being oppressed by tall people. Then a no pale people colony, because obviously the soul content is based on how much melanin is in your skin, and if you don't have any... or even worse, have red hair... monsters."
Tommy nodded. "Oooh, and then finally they reach the end, because a new one that is a men-only colony that only reproduces by cloning, because women are evil."
Photino interjected. "Wait, after that, the gay clones and the ones who are attracted to women but think they're evil split off. So we have a new colony, of just asexual male clones with a specific skin tone and a height under six feet."
Seraph pointed at her. "And finally, the logical conclusion, the true ending... only clones of the same guy."
Tommy rubbed his chin for a moment. "Ehhh.... I'm sure that they'd start sorting by the age of the clone, percent of defects... you know what..... I don't think there's a limit."
"Still. I'm considering moving out of the Alliance after this convention, its kinda a... scouting trip to see what its like out there. You got any recommendations?"
***
Perry tried to pretend he hadn't heard anything. That this was all normal, that he was just eating lunch alongside a few business associates from the Alliance. But... no. He was here to do an intel drop; he and some of his fellows would periodically update headquarters on things on Karthage, and take decade-long shifts outside of the Alliance, until their aging would make them suspicious. He'd given his report already, and was heading back to his post.
He didn't look like a spook. That was pretty much mandatory for his job, working among the Imperium. The tattoos that showed he was a former pirate, the lean build, the hair that looked more like spikes than actual follicles... he had deliberately undergone surgery to look like one of the various combat augments... without actually changing his genetics. He looked, like most augments, in perfect health, and so long as he was careful, would keep looking like one for another decade or two.
Nobody who looked at him, in is dull orange vacuum suit with its various utility patches, his inhuman hair, just the whole look, would even begin to suspect he was a normal human. He even had patch samples of an augment he could feed into a scanner if they wanted to check him for some reason under his thumbnail and tongue.
They'd updated him on this Glass woman. Her mission, that she probably wasn't in danger, but he should keep an eye on her anyway until they parted ways; pass along the message to his fellow spooks to help her if need be. But.... this.... was she looking to defect?
He'd taken too long between bites, and faked a cough, before putting down another mouthful, chewing as he considered his options.
She had a security clearance. Permanently moving out of the Alliance wasn't an option, she knew too much; and when she returned, would be interrogated and scanned in-depth, just in case. There were two possibilities here.
Either she was trying to gather intelligence herself, in her own awkward way, perhaps looking for data for her programming....
Or she genuinely wanted to leave the Alliance after that attack, possibly afraid of an ASU hit-squad. She might even have gone rogue, and be carrying intel out with her. He couldn't be completely certain.... but he could check her room for anything suspicious, anything she brought with her that might show she didn't plan on coming back.
And if so.... try to figure out a way to kill her, without getting caught. He had options. Drones. Toxins. He might not be an augment, but neither was she; sheer brute force would work, he had over fifty pounds and extensive combat training on her.
He blinked five times in a row; his HUD popping up, ignoring the conversation as he ate... and started issuing commands to his drones. He'd been on this ship before, dozens of times. He knew which room was hers. This.... should be trivial.