Chapter Fifty-Nine - Notes Under the Door

Communication through text was still the cheapest, most effective way to communicate over long distances.

Relatively easy to encrypt, low package size, wide bandwidth for long-distance communications, and very easy to transmit at near light-speed.

So, the art of texting never really disappeared. But just because an artform never faded did not mean that the average practitioner was... good.

Ivil held The Note reverently pinched between forefinger and thumb. It was written in a chicken-scratch scrawl, as if the writer was in a great rush to put everything down on paper. Ivil was actually somewhat impressed that it was written on paper at all, but the scratchiness of said paper suggested that it might have been freshly printed, perhaps in exactly the kind of matter-printing machine that the Sappho had in its engineering bay.

Dear Aurora,

I think you're very cute. Please go on a date with me!

-26

Ivil reread the note for the seventh time, then carefully looked up. Twenty-Six was standing in the end of the room. No, standing implied... well, it implied something more dignified. Twenty-Six was squirming at the end of the room, as if her pants were filled with biting ants.

"This is..." Ivil started before hesitating for a moment. "Incredibly endearing. Aurora, if I had received this letter I would be contemplating marriage."

Twenty-Six choked on nothing--Ivil instantly checked her airways for obstructions--and Aurora tittered prettily into her hand. "It is rather endearing, isn't it?" Aurora said. "Twenty-Six slipped it in under my door, which I thought was supposed to be airtight."

"It is," Twenty-Six said. "But the rubber seals on the bottom are meant to move a little to accommodate the door's sliding, so if you just push something against them with like, a screwdriver, you can create a gap and I'm talking too much, aren't I?"

"No, no, it's fine," Aurora said. She sat, hands on her lap and lips turned up in the corners in a faint smile. "It is genuinely very endearing. I have received... a lot of propositions over the years. Offers for dates and even marriage. This is by far the sweetest."

"I sense a but?" Twenty-Six said.

Aurora blinked, glanced at Ivil from the corner of her eye, then returned her focus on Twenty-Six. "No buts. I'd love to go on a date with you," she said.

"Huh?" Twenty-Six said, then she gasped. "Really? Evelyn, did you tell her?"

"Tell me what?" Aurora asked.

"I did not," Ivil replied.

Aurora looked between the two of them and seemed unimpressed. "Can I be informed about whatever this is that's going on between the two of you?"

"No?" Twenty-Six tried.

It was a little late to backtrack, in Ivil's opinion. "Twenty-Six here had an interesting analogy about ships to tell me just the other day. Something about how each of us is a different sort of ship, with a different appearance and different capabilities."

"Don't start with that!" Twenty-Six squeaked.

"I believe she compared me to a Martian Superdreadnought and yourself to a sleek diplomatic vessel," Ivil continued.

Aurora blinked slowly. "I'll admit that I'm not sure I fully understand the analogy, though I'll take that as a compliment. Some diplomatic vessels are quite beautiful."

"Oh, the analogy was more about how Twenty-Six would rather see us all as a fleet rather than just two ships floating along in the void of space. Is that right?"

Twenty-Six very much looked like she wanted to die. "I just want us all to get along?"

"I believe you also wanted to 'service' the ships and 'get to know them so well you could identify them in your sleep' or am I misremembering?"

"I see now," Aurora said. "So Twenty-Six is into polyamory, then?"

"It's not that!" Twenty-Six said. "I'm the tug boat in that analogy is all! I just want to... wait, no, can we ditch the analogy completely?"

"No," Ivil said.

It was too cute to ditch.

"We're late!" Twenty-Six said suddenly. "I've packed up all of my things, so I'm ready to go, but if we don't start moving soon, we're going to be late."

Aurora glanced at her wrist. "She's right. We have three hours to get to a terminal on another part of the station."

"Three hours seems like a relatively long time," Ivil said. Driftwood station wasn't all that large, was it? She'd crossed a decent amount of it with Twenty-Six and Missy already and it never took more than an hour to cross it. For all of its unusual shape, the station had decent public transportation avenues.

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"I want to be there early," Aurora said.

"Ah," Ivil replied. Aurora was that kind of woman. She saw tardiness as a great sin. She wasn't keen on arriving somewhere several hours in advance only to be made to wait. Waiting was something lesser people did. "I suppose there's no harm in heading out early. Let me fetch my things. Did you really pack everything you needed, Twenty-Six?"

"I did," Twenty-Six said with a nod.

Ivil smiled as she walked past the young woman on the way to the ladder at the back of the ship. "Then I'll see you in a moment, my little tug boat."

Twenty-Six made a high-pitched keening noise as Ivil started up to the upper floor of the Sappho.

Ivil didn't have much to pack. A few changes of clothes, some essentials, and then items that completed her disguise. She had no use for hygiene items, she hadn't brushed her teeth in several years or needed soaps or pads or anything of the sort, but it might look suspicious if she didn't have that sort of thing in her bags anyway.

She made sure to leave some things behind. It wouldn't do for anyone remaining to think that she hadn't marked her space.

And then she was done and exiting the room with her things. Twenty-Six and Aurora were cycling through the airlock already, so Ivil had to wait a little before joining them. When she did, she discovered Twenty-Six standing at what felt like an awkward distance from Aurora, her cheeks matching the tone of her hair.

"Is everyone ready?" Ivil asked. Twenty-Six had a ratty old backpack slung on. It jangled with every motion, and Ivil had a sinking suspicion that Twenty-Six had more tools than spare clothes on her.

Aurora, in the meantime, had three bags. More than she'd started the trip on the Held Together with. "I'm ready to go," Aurora said. "Twenty-Six?"

"Hmm? Oh, yup!"

"Fantastic, let's head out, then. Aurora, I imagine you've charted the route over already?"

"Of course I have," Aurora said. "It would be irresponsible of me not to. We're taking a tram one deck above to the station with the terminal, crossing it on foot, then waiting until... 1800 local time. Follow me, if you would."

Ivil scooped up the heaviest of Aurora's bags the moment she realized that Aurora wasn't sure how to handle all of them on her own. She appreciated the way Aurora's eyes widened when she lifted the entire bag with ease. The bag weighed as much as Aurora, and she enjoyed the implication that she could handle Aurora with just as much ease.

As they walked, Ivil considered the two women she was with, and the very different ways they needed to be handled.

Aurora was... smart, poised, and very dignified. She came from a background where things were done just so and she seemed to enjoy that kind of attitude without being unable to adapt to reality.

Ivil was quite certain that if she wanted to seduce Aurora, all she would need to do was pin the woman to a bulkhead and have her way with her.

But that was merely... sexual in nature. To seduce Aurora's mind and heart would require a more delicate touch than merely ravishing her until she saw stars. It would require that Ivil prove that she was a capable consort, somewhat politically savvy, intelligent, and maybe opinionated and capable of defending those opinions in more ways than with mere violence.

Twenty-Six... Ivil's little tug boat, was a whole other woman. She was incredibly brave, even if that bravery sometimes came out as fumbling. Ivil was afraid that if she pinned her to a bulkhead, Twenty-Six would hate every moment of it.

A much softer, slower, delicate touch would be required there. Ivil was actually tempted to just let Twenty-Six do most of the work in approaching her there, because that would mean that Twenty-Six was moving at her own pace, growing as a person even as she grew closer to Ivil.

She was also impossibly cute and Ivil was entirely uncertain that she'd be able to resist the temptation to just gobble her up.

She'd manage, as painful as it would be.

Ivil snapped back to paying attention to more than just the idle chit-chat they'd been having as they moved when they finally arrived at the terminal. There was a woman waiting for them there, dressed in a suit and tight pants, hands folded demurely before her. The demureness didn't suit the large handgun strapped to her hip, or the sense that she had several stealth cores on her.

"Ah, there you are," Aurora said as she greeted the woman. "Twenty-Six, Evelyn, this is Pepper Mint, our guide for the next few days."

***