We stepped past the doors to enter the room behind the overturned table, guided by this Bimic guy whom Mara had sent me to meet.

The room behind the door was… Err… It was basically a hacker's den I would say…

There were multiple monitors and holographic screens set up all around the room with multiple keyboards for each group of screens set up.

Holograms floated all around and there were markings and drawings all around the wall like I was looking at some conspiracy theorist trying to link different things together to make the most elaborate theory they could create.

There was some kind of generator humming in the corner of the room and on the other end was some kind of workshop set aside for tinkering.

Then, in the centre of the room, was a machine that I recognised as a Decoder, almost similar in design as the other one I used.

I looked around and nodded appreciatively, "This is quite a set up you've got here… So what are you doing?"

"The short answer would be I'm syphoning funds from the station servers and attempting to get rich through that," He answered without turning back.

"And the long answer?" I asked.

"Ugh… Do I really have to?"

"Do you want that thing back?"

"Argh! Fine, fine! I'm trying to uncover the source of a bunch of illicit dealings being held on this station which the station administration is also part of. I'm trying to trace the server logs, message exchanges, money transfers, ship manifests and everything else that goes into these servers to look for something I can use."

"While also syphoning money from them?"

"Hey, I need funds to live as well, don't I? Plus, I'm not going to say no to some extra cash on the side."

"I didn't think you would be of the righteous type to do something like this."

He shook his head, "Oh make no mistake, I was hired to do this. No way in hell I would willingly subject myself to such a shitty job with no appreciation for your work and nothing but all my holograms and games to keep me company."

"Sounds like this was a shit job, so why did you even take it in the first place?"

"Because I thought it would be easy, ok? How would I know that the gangs were also involved and they were helping cover up all of this as well? I now not only have to worry about being able to find anything substantial but also avoid threading on the toes of those gangs and tipping them off about my position. I'm not a fighter, ok?"

I decided not to comment on the fact that he tried to hold us off using nothing but an overturned table alongside with a pistol.

He stopped in the centre of the room and stretched out his hand towards me, "Now, will you give me back the Security Tuner? I need it for doing that."

So that's a security tuner? I'm guessing he uses it to mess with the servers physically so that he could maintain connection to the servers or maybe even just outright steal the information on them.

I didn't need it so I just handed it back to him which he quickly slotted back into his chest pocket carefully.

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"Alright… I will just preface this and tell you that I'm not going to do this for free, even if Whisper Tale was the one who told you about me. What I'll do is enable your personal terminal to be capable of hacking and decoding anything it might come across, so you need to know this is not something I do lightly. I'm only doing this because she told you to find me for this which meant that you could be trusted with it."

"Trusted with it? What can I even do with this?"

He turned to narrow his eyes at me, "Seriously? You're the one asking for this and you don't even know what this is capable of? I'm seriously questioning if I should even help you with it now."

"The Decoder was pretty much a means to an end for me actually, not my ultimate goal."

"What? Do you even know what you're saying? What can you even be planning that the Decoder isn't even the final objective for you?"

Amber was faster than I was in answering that question, "It's not for you to know."

Bimic gave her an odd look but decided not to say anything.

If I had to guess, he was probably wondering why the Merc I hired as a bodyguard would speak on my behalf.

I decided to just add, "We're on the trail of discovering some data chips that I need to read but my personal terminal isn't able to read them."

He frowned, "That kind of sounds like a hardware incompatibility rather than a matter of the data chip needing decoding?"

I shrugged, "I guess that's one of the problems. The data chip needs a specialised input socket I guess?"

"Can I see it?"

I turned to Amber and Lea whom both gave me a nod.

I guess it's fine to show it to him since in his eyes, it might just be seen as a pre AI Rebellion tech and I'm just a curious collector who wanted to see what was in the chip.

Pulling out said chip from my pockets, I handed it over to him and he received it with both hands, inspecting it carefully like he would a precious jewel.

"This… Is pre AI Rebellion tech, isn't it?" He asked, figuring it out almost immediately.

I nodded, "I'm trying to see what is in it."

"And you want to turn your personal terminal into a Decoder just for this? I could just let you use my Decoder over there for a small fee, you know?"

"I feel like I might as well have one on hand in the event that I come across more of them in the future, you know?"

He raised an eyebrow at me, "How much did Whisper Tale say that you need to pay me to do this? Assuming she actually did tell you to do that and wasn't expecting me to do it for free…"

"One million Credits," I told him without hesitation.

He nodded, "Sounds about right. I assume you're even ok with forking over that amount of money?"

"Yes."

"Do you even know what a Decoder can be used for?"

"To… I dunno, decode stuff?"

He shook his head, "The best ones are able to hack into anything. And when I say anything, I really mean ANYTHING."

I blinked at him, "Like… Anything?"

"Yes! Why do you think I have one dragged all the way down here? Just so that I can decode all the server files that's locked behind layers upon layers of security!"

"But you claim that you can turn my personal terminal into a Decoder as well? So why not turn your own into one so you don't need one that is that big?"

"For the processing power. Do you even know computers? Sure, I could have one that's the size of a personal terminal, but in order for me to use that to hack into the servers would take weeks or even months. Heck, even hacking open the door would have taken several hours. Which was why you guys broke it down, right?"

Lea, Amber and I all shared a look before I turned back to him.

"I… Actually hacked it open though."

He stared at me, "You… What?"

"I hacked it open. We didn't break down your door."

He suddenly ran towards his console and started tapping on the keys, bringing up a screen that seemed to show the status of his security.

Displayed on it was a status screen for the hidden door and it showed that there was no anomaly with it.

"You… Said you hacked it? You managed to bypass all the security measures, didn't trip up any of my countermeasures… And opened it up? How?"

"With… My personal terminal."

He stepped towards me and stretched out his arm, "Can I take a look at it?"

I shrugged and slipped my personal terminal off my arm and placed it on his open palm.

Before anyone starts saying anything about me handing it over, I already took some precautions like transferring over my personal files into another data chip so my Codex was practically empty at the moment.

Plus, I intend to isolate whatever he installs in my Codex and do a check to make sure there were no malicious codes involved that might land me in trouble or even help him syphon my information to him.

He took my Codex towards the work bench and started inspecting it with various tools, even using some kind of scanner that displayed a three dimensional model of it as a hologram that was projected above the workbench.

It took him maybe about five minutes of looking at it before he turned around and gave me a serious look.

"You… What kind of alien are you?"

What?