Chapter Sixty-Eight - Oppresorax Station

Oppresorax Station appeared ahead of them and Ivil couldn't help but be unimpressed by it.

Pepper had warned that it was a relatively small station, and she hadn't been exaggerating. The station had a few small rings around a central pillar, and a small docking array off to one side, and that was about it. It was a small station by modern standards. Pepper assured them that it would have all the luxuries one might expect for a meeting space. It would just lack anything past that.

At the moment, several ships were hovering around the station. A few frigate-sized warships, several yachts, and a dozen or so fighter craft on patrol. Not exactly a fleet, but enough concentrated firepower in one spot to make even a brave pirate think twice.

Not that they should have been worrying about that kind of thing. This was near Callisto, a moon that should have, by all rights, been civilised. It was only in the outer fringes, where the smaller, further moons of Jupiter were, where pirates gathered and made trouble.

Their shuttle slowed down drastically on its approach until it was moving at a crawl. The ship locked in on one of the docking bays, then gently adjusted itself before sliding into place. Clamps moved out of the dock to hook onto the ship and keep it steady on its final approach, and then they were locked into place with a final heavy clunk.

Air was exchanged and verified, and the airlock cycled. Finally, their lone hostess opened the shuttle doors for them. They had a bit of a shake in their hands, and Ivil noticed through the shuttle walls that the captain and co-pilot were slumping in their seats, stress leaving them all at once. She supposed that commercial shuttle pilots didn't often have to deal with space battles.

A last glance outside of the station revealed Pixie slipping into a far orbit. She was about as distant to all of the other ships as could be.

"A moment, please, before we disembark," Aurora said.

"Of course," Ivil replied. She and Pepper were by the exit already, and Twenty-Six wasn't far behind, lugging her backpack with her.

Aurora smiled slightly in thanks. "We're going to be meeting with some rather serious people, but that doesn't mean we can expect... decorum and good manners from them. Worse, I'll be negotiating from an unfavourable position. Evelyn, I would ask that you refrain from being too violent, please."

"I'll see what I can do," Ivil said. "But if you're threatened too much, I might take action."

Aurora winced, but nodded. "That seems fair. I'll just ask that you be reasonable."

"I can be reasonable," Ivil said. She pretended not to notice the look Pepper was giving her. The MINT operative had probably listened to all the things MINT said about Ivil. They often felt like she was unreasonable, which was ridiculous. She always had a reason to do whatever she wanted.

"I'll keep an eye on her," Twenty-Six promised.

Ivil bit the inside of her cheek to stop an inappropriate laugh from escaping. "Yes. Twenty-Six will steer me in the right direction," she said.

"No, stop it with the tug-boat stuff," Twenty-Six whined.

Ivil might have considered it if Twenty-Six's cheeks didn't go so red and puff out so much.

"Alright, enough flirting, let's get going," Aurora said.

She stepped out ahead of them and into the station's small docking corridor. It was little more than a long, narrow passageway with airlocks at every junction. Some effort had been taken to make it seem less industrial. Fake wooden panelling and good lighting helped, but the bones of a pre-made structure were still there.

In lieu of a person waiting for them, there was a balloon of a droid floating at the entrance. It had a set of cameras and several little rotor-blades spinning to keep it hovering in place. "Greetings, and welcome to Oppressorax Station Miss... Aurora Sterlingworth and company. Please, follow me to the main lobby. The other guests are eagerly awaiting your arrival. Today's meeting is due to start in... four hours. Accommodations have been provided for all guests in Ring B, courtesy of Oppressorax Station!"

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"Thank you," Aurora said.

The balloon twisted around itself then started to hover forwards. "Follow me, please."

They followed. The balloon drone led them to the end of the airlock tunnel where a sealed door opened up into a lobby area. This was the main column of the station, the pillar onto which the rest was constructed. It was fifty metres across at a guess, and maybe three hundred tall, which really didn't afford the station all that much room.

The lobby space was nonetheless impressively large. A high-ceilinged space with a bar in the centre and plenty of seating all around. Some three-dozen people were hovering in the zero-g environment, most of them with a small drone next to them for them to grab onto when they wanted to move.

A rack of those sat by the entrance, little devices which were essentially smarter quad-rotor drones that could recognize their user.

Aurora grabbed one and linked to it in a moment. Then she helped Twenty-Six do the same, though it did require smacking Twenty-Six's hand when she reached for a screwdriver. It was, she said, rude to take apart a host's drones to see how they worked.

Judging by the not-very-chastised look in Twenty-Six's eyes, Ivil suspected the station would be short at least one by the end of the day.

"No thank you," she said when Aurora offered her one of her own. "I'm mobile on my own. Give it to Miss Mint here."

Pepper linked to the drone. By the time they were all ready, however, they'd already gained some attention. There were factions here already, small cliques holding together that could be told apart by their dress and fashion choices and probably based on who they were talking to. Ivil could sense a lot of cores in this room. Some fifty or so, split amongst a dozen attendees.

And one person who had nearly three hundred cores all to themselves. A solid B-classer. Ivil scanned the crowd looking for them. They weren't hard to find as they were in the group approaching them right now.

The B-classer was to the side, a large man, but not in a good way. Rolls of fat were exposed by an open shirt. He had large, mechanical arms and larger mechanical legs that might have belonged on a walking tank. They ended in huge hydraulic clamps. Sleek metal, stained by grease and grime. Worse was the man's smile. He had lips like sausages and crooked teeth that he had no shame in displaying for the world to see.

Ivil found her patience being tested before he and his group even arrived. Fortunately, the B-Classer wasn't the leader. That title went to a short man in a well-fitted suit. Two cores, both the sort that were more utilitarian conveniences than the monster behind him, and a pretty-enough smile. "Aurora Sterlingworth," he said. "Welcome! I wasn't sure you'd make it."

"We almost didn't," Aurora said with a smile of her own. Ivil was happy to note that she could tell it was all fake. "You're Mister Aida, right? From the Calisto Trade Union?"

"That's right, but call me Brandon! Mister Aida was my old man."

"A pleasure, Brandon," Aurora said. "These are my companions, Pepper Mint, my secretary, Miss Twenty-Six, of Saturn, and Evelyn Ville."

"Hello," Ivil said politely.

She was happy to prove that she could be civil in front of Aurora and the others.

"You girls look like a properly fuckable bunch," the B-Classer said.

Ivil's polite smile remained in place.

"Ah, this is…the Slob, my bodyguard. Please, forgive me for anything he says," Mister Aida said. "You know how strong core-users can be. There's nothing you can do if they decide to act."

His words were contrite and apologetic. His smile was a threat.

"Aurora, Twenty-Six, why don't you go check out the bar?" Ivil asked as she dismissed the sub-human filth for a moment. "Mister Slob and I are going to have a very short, very civil conversation."

And with that said, her polite smile still in place, Ivil carried the man out of the room by teleporting him and herself some hundred and fifty kilometres away into empty space. A nice private environment in which they could have words.

***