Chapter Forty-One - Karma

"Do you believe in karma?"

Ivil glanced to the side. Next to her, Missy was squating down, boots clamped onto the metal railing of the floor. She had her arms crossed over her knees and was looking straight ahead, into the locker that Ivil had stuffed that dead pirate in.

"I don't think I do," Ivil said. "If it does exist, then I imagine that my own karma isn't so great. I'll have a great deal of comeuppance to deal with, won't I?"

Missy let out a breath. "I don't think we're talking about the same thing, then."

"Oh?" Ivil asked.

The pirate's corpse had been laying here for half a day now, so the cores held within had had plenty of time to slip out of the body. Cores that were taken in and properly integrated usually took between a few hours and a few days to become part of their host's body. The reverse was also true. The longer it took to assimilate a core the longer it took for it to notice that its host was dead and for the core to leave.

The more complex the core, the longer the process in either direction took. Cores that were spread across the body were also the cores most likely to be utterly destroyed.

On occasion, as the result of a violent death, two smaller, weaker versions of the same core would come from one dead body. It was a process not too dissimilar to splitting a core, though it was far less practical.

A body destroyed sufficiently could result in no cores at all, which was always such a waste.

At the moment, six cores floated loosely within the locker.

"There are different explanations for karma. Not just what it does but what it is," Missy said. She sniffed at the air, then grimaced. "This one's starting to rot."

"I'll clean it up," Ivil said. "Or... we can jettison the entire locker. It's not the most glorious casket, but it'll do, I think."

Missy nodded.

"So, what are these karmas?"

Missy sighed and stood up fully. "In Haumea we use karma to describe a couple of things. It's... your past feeding into your future. It's not mysticism. Well, it's mostly not that. Karma is... genetics and how you were raised and psychology all wrapped into one. Your past, meaning the circumstances of your birth, the genes passed on to you from your parents, and even the choices you made as you were young, all feeding into your present to make you who you are now. I think the idea is that it's a lesson."

"A lesson?" Ivil asked.

"Do good now, and maybe you'll reap the rewards of it later," Missy said. She looked to Ivil, meeting her eyes without fear or reproach. "Thanks. For what you did on that station, for keeping Two-Six safe. I can't imagine that you didn't have ulterior motives, but I appreciate it all the same."

Ivil allowed herself to smile. "You're very welcome. Though, you're right, I did have some ulterior motives. I'm not sure how wise it would be to admit to them. They're... rather petty, I think, in the greater scheme of things."

"Petty, huh?" Missy asked. She narrowed her eyes, scanning Ivil up and down. "Yeah, you seem the sort."

"Now, what does that mean?"

Missy just grinned in reply. "So, six more cores, huh?"

Ivil glanced over to the cores, then made a quick slashing gesture towards them, more for Missy's benefit than anything. "This one," she said as she arranged them in a line and pointed to the left-most. "Is the most powerful in the lot. A Blank-type core. They're rare."

"A blank-type?" Missy asked. "A stealth core?"

Ivil nodded. "Meant to counteract core-sensing abilities. It's an interesting core to have. As per Martian classifications it would be considered a meta-type core."

"Because it interferes with cores directly?" Missy asked. "We call those trumps on Haumea."

"That's the gist of it, yes," Ivil agreed. "This next one is a self-regulation core, for temperature. Very common. Useful, once you're around C or B ranked. A lot of cores generate waste heat, or use the body's heat to function, so you always run the risk of having hypo or hyper thermia."

"Seems useless otherwise," Missy said.

Ivil shook her head. "Don't underestimate even the simplest and most common of cores. There's a time and a place where they can be exceptionally useful. For example, with this one, you wouldn't have to buy nearly as many clothes since you can self-regulate your temperature, and you could wear nice outfits all the time."

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Missy's expression flattened. "Are you saying someone assimilated a core just so that they can wear skimpy clothes all the time?"

"Nonsense," Ivil disagreed. "Women are beautiful not just when wearing skimpy clothes, but no matter what they wear. You're very attractive in your jumpsuits and casual spacer wear, and Miss Sterlingworth is very attractive in her more formal outfits, but neither of those are the kinds of things you might want to wear in any location, not when some places would be too warm or too cold for it."

Missy stared at Ivil for a moment more before shaking her head. "Weirdo," she muttered. "What about the other four?"

Ivil pointed to the third. "Common glowing core. Affects the user's skin. Gives it a faint bioluminescence." She pointed to the fourth. "Weaker musculature improving core. It doesn't strengthen your muscles. This one acts more like a nutrient-efficiency system in your stomach. It modifies eaten materials so as to promote muscle growth. This fifth core is an electrical discharge core. It acts as a capacitor and lets you discharge it. And this last one is the only other non-common core."

"Oh?" Missy asked.

Ivil made the sixth spin about. It was round, as most were, but it also had two small protruding chevrons. "A shield core. A kinetic shield. It's likely very weak, a split core as well."

"I guess a weak shield's better than nothing," Missy said.

Ivil hummed. "With the capacitor core, it can be overcharged, but that would create a lot of heat in the user's body, which the temperature regulation core can handle. The three working in tandem actually make for a good combination. Two of those, the shield and regulation cores, are splits, so I suspect that Miss Herring here was planning her build, so to speak."

"Smart," Missy said. "So, can we expect you to start zapping people, maybe spring up a shield now and then?"

Ivil shook her head. "I don't need any of these." She plucked three of them from the line. "Here," she said.

Missy stared at Ivil's open hand, and more specifically at the three cores sitting on her palm. "Is this a joke?" she asked.

"No," Ivil said. "Consider it a gift."

"I don't do gifts. Life doesn't give gifts to me. You remember what I said about karma, right? Well, mine's not so good. It's not this good, at least."

"It's not life that's giving you a gift, it's me," Ivil said. "Your karma, as you call it, it's not something that I believe should dictate your entire future. I have very rarely allowed fate to sway my actions, only when it aligns with what I want. And what I want now, is to give you these."

Missy hesitated, her gaze flitting between Ivil and the cores she still held. "Okay, enough of this," she said as she crossed her arms. "Saving us all earlier, that tracked, you were saving yourself too. Aurora's important, and I've worked out that you have a deal with her. That much I get. Giving Twenty-Six that little core? Fine, you're generous, and it probably doesn't suit your build or whatever. But you don't have any reason to be this way with me. What gives?"

Ivil hesitated, then paused time. She needed a moment to think this one through.

Her motivations here were... transparently self-centred. She wanted Missy to like her, and giving Missy expensive gifts seemed like a good way to go about it.

On the other hand, it was also... shallow?

She'd done plenty of research (watching soaps) where such shallowness led to relationships that were equally shallow.

Missy was caught, frozen in time like a dragonfly in amber, glaring up at Ivil. It wasn't just suspicion, it was something else too.

Time snapped back into its normal flow. "I'm sorry," Ivil said. She lowered her hand, then gently tucked the cores away in a pocket. "Maybe I am being a little too forward with you."

"You're not being too forward, you're being too... sleazy," Missy said. "I've lived too long to dance around what I mean to say. What, do, you, want?" Missy punctuated that last by poking Ivil in the chest.

Ivil took a deep breath. She couldn't remember the last time someone tried to back her up against a wall and demand something from her. "F-fine then," she said. "If you want to know so much, Missy, then I'll tell you."

"Oh yeah?" Missy asked.

"Yes! Missy, would you go on a date with me?"

"... What the fuck?"

***