"What are you doing over there?" Amber asked while looking over my shoulder.

I looked up from my screen where I had just typed in my latest entry into my Captain's Log, "Oh, nothing much. I just thought that it might be a good idea to keep some notes for myself."

"Notes? What kind of notes?"

I tapped on my Codex to show the logs that I had been writing to her, "Nothing serious, just small snippets about things that happened that day so that I can remember them for memory's sake."

She took a look at what I had written and a smile appeared on her face, "This is actually a good idea~ I think I'll do it too on my side~"

I chuckled, "Sure~ Maybe we can even compare notes at the end of the day or something. It'll be interesting."

"Anyway, I see you intend to call Mara about those weird chips?" She asked, referencing my last log where I wondered how she was doing and my desire to call her.

I nodded, "I thought that maybe she might have seen something like this before. Even if she hadn't, perhaps she might point us to someone who might help us with it since she's an information broker after all."

"Mmm… I have to warn you though, she's not going to give out information for free."

Oh yeah… She's been giving us all the previous information for free because of the favours we had done for her… It would be quite presumptuous of me to get more information for free again when everyone else is being charged for it.

Well, I do have Credits that I can spend now so I guess it should be fine.

"No problem, as long as the price is reasonable, I'll pay for it."

I then tapped on my Codex and started the call, ringing the information broker cum doctor.

Amber leaned on me as the call rang for a few moments and I had a feeling she intentionally positioned herself so that her boobs were pressing against the back of my head. Not that I mind of course.

It took a few more rings before the call connected and the screen in front of me changed to show Mara seated in her clinic.

"Tera, Amber. It's been awhile," She greeted us.

"Not that long really, how you doing?" Amber greeted back with a casual wave.

"I've been well. As well as I can be after you sent me those pictures. Hope you know that I'm doubling your fees from now on."

Amber gasped, "What?! You can't do this to me! That's not fair!! Come on! You're overreacting from this!! Take that back!"

I raised an eyebrow, "What pictures did she send?"

Mara shifted her gaze to me and her features visibly softened, "Tera, my dear. What else could the little minx send me that would piss me off?"

I thought back on the past few days and wondered what we could have done that Amber could have sent.

Oh.

"She sent you my cooking, didn't she?" I asked.

"And she was so proud of it too like she was the one who made them. What did you type in the message again? Something along the lines of 'stupid doc who gave up all this delicacy to stay behind instead of following us'?"

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Amber pointed at the screen, "Hey! You know I speak truth! So don't you dare deny it!"

Mara ignored her and turned to me, "Anyway, it is so good to see you, Tera. Leaving aside the little bitch's attempt at pissing me off, I must say that your cooking certainly is top class and would put even professional chefs to shame. Although I suspect that there's another reason that you've called me today?"

I nodded and reached for the memory card and picked it up to show it to her.

"I was wondering if you've seen something like this before or even know what it is?"

She narrowed her eyes at the screen, "That is… Could you slowly rotate it around for me, please?"

I did as she asked and turned the memory card in my hands slowly a few times.

Mara watched it silently and only spoke up after I turned it five times for her.

"That is interesting… I can't really say for sure through the call but it looks like some kind of data chip to me. But of what kind, I'm not too sure. I'm guessing that it's either really old tech dating back before the AI Rebellion period or someone created a new type of data chip that can only be used or read using specific machines."

Woah, she got all that just by looking at it through the screen?

She then shifted her gaze from the chip to me, "I assume you wish to find out what exactly it contains? Where did you get this?"

"Well… It's more out of curiosity than anything, really. And this was found in a pirate lord's stash."

Mara frowned, "You two went up against a pirate lord? No, hold on… You two barely left the Theeve system for a week and you already got involved with a pirate lord? What the hell did you do, Amber?"

Amber raised her hands, "Hey! I did nothing! We came here and the pirate lord was going to attack the station so we joined the defence force!"

"Please tell me you did not rush head in and fought a pirate fleet on your own…"

"Nah, Tera came up with a badass plan and we helped the military stationed here wipe out the pirate fleet. Then we went ahead to loot the pirate lord's flagship and we found those in his personal stash."

"I see… At least Tera is there to keep you in one piece I suppose."

"Hey!! I can take care of myself, ok?!"

Mara went back to ignoring her and addressed me instead, "Since this came from the pirate lord's stash, I'll assume that it has some value to it. Although I can't say for sure if it's the contents that are valuable or it is the object itself that is valuable… Hmm… The two of you are still in the Cietai System, correct?"

Both Amber and I nodded.

Mara tapped on her personal terminal which caused a small window to open at the corner of the screen, showing a picture of some balding old man that had a cybernetic left eye implanted on his face.

"Look for this person in the black market district of the station. When you find him, tell him that you are there to decrypt some locked memory chips, he should let you into a back room where there's a machine that lets you slot memory chips in. See if this one fits that machine. Be armed when you go there and have some Credits on hand to pay him for it."

Oh wow, she even knows about someone in a station that she's not even staying at?

"Who's the old fuck?" Amber asked.

"Just an old associate. He's trustworthy so no need to worry about him stabbing you in the back."

"Oh yeah? Then why do we need to bring guns?"

"Because the place he set up shop at is not a friendly place. Just be prepared for a shootout there if you really want to find him."

"That bad?"

Mara nodded solemnly.

I sucked in a breath, "Alright… I guess we can go find him tomorrow or something. Thanks for the information, Mara. How much do I owe you?"

The woman smiled at me, "For you, Tera. It's free."

Amber immediately cried out at her, "What the heck?! Why are you so nice to her and not to me?!"

Mara rolled her eyes, "Because it's Tera. Do I need to say more?"

"Grr… Fair enough."

I grimaced, "Just out of curiosity… How much would you charge for information like this?"

Amber was the one who answered in her stead, "Well, if it wasn't you, Tera, she'd be charging the poor sap at least a million to fifty million Credits for just that."

A million Credits just for the location of the old guy? Damn…

Then again, I suppose it's because she's giving you the location of one of her contacts and I already know that the thing I'm holding could be sold for a hundred million Credits if it was really pre-AI rebellion tech.

So by that logic, it's practically a steal to pay a million Credits for this.

I looked at Mara, "I can pay you for it though."

She shook her head, "It's fine. Knowing that you are there to keep that little minx safe is payment enough. Although… If you do want to pay me for the info, I will take something other than Credits."

I know exactly what she wanted so I chuckled, "Yes, yes. The next time we visit you, I'll make sure to cook up something nice using organic ingredients. Deal?"

"I could not have asked for more. Anyway, I'm still working right now, talk to you girls later. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to call, alright?"

Amber and I waved before we ended the call.

Seems like we have an unexpected gain from this call.