We are getting closer...
Quote:Teela woke up feeling like she’d fought a battle against a herd of elephants and lost. Everything ached.The air reeked of ozone and scorched fur.
“What happened?” she mumbled to herself.
She yelped when she discovered she was inside some sort of glass tube. It startled her when the door just swung open as soon as she pressed against it. A small pin had been jimmied into the lock.
It looked like it’d been shorted out.
It didn’t take her long to realise where she was. The singing turret was a dead giveaway. It’d been moved to cover the front door and the ventilation grille simultaneously.
Shit.
The last thing she could remember was that cutesy bitch zapping her. That explained the hangover. Teela stepped out into the lab, allowing the door to the pod to close behind her.On a metal plate bolted to it were the words ‘Cat’s Cradle’.
Odd.
Conduits ran from the top of the device, across the ceiling, feeding into the server racks and a second sleeping-dinosaur of a machine hooked up to some sort of examination table. It was hard for her to make sense of, but something about that helmet seemed fiendishly familiar.
She scratched her head.
If Quattro’d caught her, the the mission was likely already blown. There was nothing for it but to call Ford, get the alert out and get herself rescued before the madgirl went truly Mengele on her.
She grabbed at her collar. She found only soft fur.
Shit!. Quattro took it. A flash of panic shot through her. This was failing in a big way. They might already have Ford. She swallowed that thought, sending it to join an ever growing lump deep in the pit of her stomach.
The only other way out would be to take down the turret.
Sure they could be just kicked over, but if it was anything like its counterparts in the game, it’d fire randomly spraying the lab with bullets. And unlike Chell she had no infinite respawns.
She needed another option. Quickly. Maybe there was some stuff here to improvise a weapon?
Looking through the parts of the lab she could reach she tried to think of something. She could not get out without being shot. She could not even get to Quattro’s computer rack; no using the QED to contact Cortana directly.
It didn’t seem like Quattro was the sort of mad who’d have a spare death ray or three lying around. Aside from some spare cyber parts on the workbench, the lab appeared clean.
Some seemed familiar, a few chips she could recognise. There were parts of a antennae, something that might’ve been an SDR and one piece of hardware she just couldn’t recognise. It looked custom.
I can work with this.
Teela began to smile grimly as a plan began to form in her mind.
----
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Naoko, was tapping the end of her pen on her desk.
“U-nye Nah Bah?” The furby enquired. It’s expression was a permanent plastic curiosity.
Sato didn’t answer. She just stared at her pen. A spy planted hardware in Quattro’s computer. That meant somebody on the station was a spy. That meant somebody knew what they were looking for.
That meant Great Justice were watching.
They probably knew everything by now. Shit. Shit. Shit. She was so screwed.
No. Not until she knows for sure. Check twice. Act once. How many others would love to know what was going on inside Quattro’s lab? It depends entirely on what the spy had been looking into.
That catgirl, Teela, had been caught by Quattro down in the restricted area. Could she have been inside the lab? But how did she get through the checkpoints without an alert?
Cally didn’t seem like the Great Justice type. She didn’t seem like a self-righteous arrogant asshole. She felt like she was who she was. She felt like someone just up for the freedom, and didn’t like her freedom being trampled by a bunch of wannabee superheros with an agenda. Cally hated the Stellvians. Cally had good reason for it. Cally’s had been shot-up by an OGJ cannon. Nobody would be stupid enough to deliberately let someone shoot their truck up like that.
It didn’t seem right. It didn’t feel right. Cally didn’t feel like a troubleshooter.
But the break into the lab told her that she had a major security problem. It’d be the prudent thing to at least run a check on her, on her description. Not many people had a cyber’d right arm and leg.
The thought occurred to her that maybe Quattro was right. It occurred to her that maybe she should just quietly take care of the pair. Quattro did want more catgirls. It wouldn’t really be killing them....
Her stomach went tight.
She hadn’t murdered anyone yet. She’d given orders to kill. But then she’d only been following orders herself. She was planning to kill. But that was different.
Cally was right there.
There was a knock on the door.
“Kah da boh-bay,” the Furby whimpered. it closed its eyes and pretended to be off. Good idea.
“Come,” she said.
The door opened and Quattro stepped in riding a draft of cute malevolence.
“Cally and Teela are still alive,” she said.
“And they’re to stay that way until you get me better evidence.”
“Well, I have the results of my interrogations of the catgirl,” said Quattro. “She’s obviously lying about who she is.”
Sato pursed her lips. Wait a minutes. “Interrogation, how?”
“Well,” Quattro smirked. “You know how.”
Sato sighed to herself. “Damn.”
Quattro edged up to her desk. “I know. But it’s great because each time around, she doesn’t know what the last one said. It makes it so much easier to catch them in a lie.”
It made Quattro seem almost giddy. It made Naoko’s skin crawl.
“What have you found out?”
“That she’s lying about her name. And that she doesn’t really know Cally at all. Not as well as she would if she’d been with her for years. And she winced when I found the device in my server.”
Sato scowled at her. “That’s all?”
“Well, she breaks very quickly.” Quattro answered. “So it’s hard to get much before she starts sobbing uncontrollably, or just sits down and gives up.” Quattro giggled just a little, covering her mouth. It was almost a parody of cuteness. A malignant, cancerous cuteness. A saccharine evil. “But it should be enough.”
Naoko swallowed. Something felt...wrong
“But...” she paused. “You don’t tell people about who made you, do you? And I know how much you hide behind that facade of yours.”
“Don’t be silly.” Quattro said “That’s different.”
Sato folded her arms. “I do not see how. People in our line of work have good reasons to keep their secrets. We do not pry.”
“Don’t be...”
Sato stood up, staring the madgirl down. “I’m in charge on this station! We do business my way.”
“And because of that we have two spies in the Station. And most likely a Great Justice task force on the way. I’ll give you three guesses what they’ll send!”
Sato sat down again. Take a deep breath.
“Maybe with a little more subtlety. I’ll talk to Cally myself.....”
Quattro scowled at her. “But playing with them and abusing them, throwing them in a cage and watching them suffer... It's so much fun!"
“I...”
The Furby woke up. Eyes bright. It’d found something good. “Dah signal.” It announced. “Dah signal secret!”
They both looked at the little furball. Naoko keyed open her intercom.
“Control, this is Sato. Did you pick up a radio signal just now?”
“Yes ma’am,” a voice answered. “A short high-powered burst in the 2.4GHz band.”
“Where did it come from? Where’d it go?”
“Somewhere in the restricted section, probably the labs. We don’t think it had the power to leave the station. Probably just something that nutbar is working on ma’am.”
Quattro shot a glare at the speaker for a few moments. “Send the raw data over” she shouted towards the intercom.
“I... Oh... did not...” the voice stumbled. “Yes, at once!”
Quattro concentrated for a moment. The hardware she’d put together for the attack, it had to be. “That was coming out of my lab. It’s the catgirl!”
“Get down there.” Sato ordered. “And find out where she sent the transmission to.”
Quattro grinned at her. Oh yes, she’d find out alright, and she’d have fun doing it too. The door slammed shut, leaving Naoko alone again with her Furby.
The catgirl was sending a distress call to her owner, that had to be it. Poor thing was in for a nasty little surprise.
If the catgirl was a spy. That meant Cally was either a spy too, or just someone who was fooled and betrayed as well.
Cally couldn’t be a spy.
And if she was?
The thought just sort of died in her mind. It made her body go cold.
They’d have to get off Nehallenia in a flash. She sent a message to the hanger to have her car made ready.
Just in case.
----
Cally was trying to sleep.
Her body ached like all hell, cramps in her arms and back reminding her of a hard days work. Another two days and the truck would be ready. Teela could help now. She doubted how much the furball could help, but she could help.
At least Teela could sleep.
Fucking thing scared the crap out of her getting caught down in the restricted area. The madgirl zapped her with a taser, then she was dumped in the apartment.
Cally just wanted to get the hell up off Nehallenia.
Maybe she could find someone who’d sell them their shuttle. it wasn’t like she’d actually have to pay for it with the owner going to Azkhaban. Jack it, and call it a prize.
A buzzing, screeching noise erupted inside the apartment. She sleepily swatted at the alarm clock a few times, but the sound didn’t stop.
Her mind finally caught up with what the noise was.
“Shit!” She yelped, jumping upright. She scrambled for a light, knocking something heavy off the nightstand.
“Was ist das für ein Krach?” Teela slurred, slowly coming out from under the cloak of sleep. “Was soll die Aufregung?” Her hand went to her collar, which was still tightly locked around her neck.
The lights came up, painfully bright. Cally cursed under her breath. She looked down at the floor. The emergency alarm on the collar controller was active, little red lights flashing out along with the beat of the alarm.
Cally looked at Teela, pawing at the collar. There was no corresponding light. She grabbed the reader. Malfunction?
“I think it broke,” she said.
“Show me,” said Teela.
Cally tossed it to the catgirl, who caught it easily between her hands. Teela cancelled the alarm, before switching the machine into debug mode.
“Give me a second,” Teela said as she dived down into logfiles. “It was not my collar.”
Minutes passed. Cally was rubbing her hands together, staring at Teela as she worked.
“That is strange.” said the catgirl.
“What?”
“According to the logs the device received a single burst of data from an unknown wireless device.” Teela explained. “First a short message. “Trap 4 lab”. It had the correct transmission keys, which are hardware generated, and sent the alarm trigger code once without any failed attempt. The chance to do this is one in a trillion.”
Trap 4 lab. Sender was trapped in Quattro’s lab.
Teela directly looked at Cally. “It would be impossible to do. Not even an alpha could do it. Not with no knowledge of the receiving system. Not without any knowledge of the broadcasting system.The only person who otherwise knows the correct code is myself and Cortana. The collar logs show it as being constantly powered on and never opened. I can even see the glitch caused by Quattro zapping me.”
Cally thought. “Are you sure you just woke up here after Quattro zapped you? According to the tracker you spent an hour in the lab.”
“Yes!” said Teela, glaring at Cally. “I was unconscious. I cannot believe you’d suspect me. The only way anyone could get this code would be to spend days testing the chip, by asking me, or by getting it off Cortana, and I’m sure I didn’t tell anyone. And an hour wouldn’t be enough to rip it apart and test it. so that leaves....” she stopped. Dead. “Cortana...” she murmured. This was something that gave good Jedi bad feelings.
The hairs on Teelas body stood on end.”Then they’d get the codes, but have “But then why send the alert code?”
“To see if there’s a response,” Cally said. “To see who moves quickly. Them’s the spies.”
Teela was fidgeting uncomfortably. The catgirl stared out the window at the starfield. She frowned. “I do not know....”
“Worried about Cortana?”
“Ja.”
Teela went quiet.
“I’m sure she’s alright,” Cally said, trying her best to sound reassuring.
“Not if she was hacked bad enough to give up this data,” Teela muttered. “I came up with her five years ago. And she made it through the whole thing just to get caught like this.”
A few tears moistened the fur on her cheeks.
Cally placed a soft hand on her shoulder. “We can’t afford to think about this now.” she said, keeping her voice gentle. “We have to focus on getting ourselves out of here in one piece.”
Teela could only nod.
“They know they’re being watched by Great Justice now. It won’t take ‘em long to figure out who we really are.”
“What do we do?” Teela asked her.
Ford thought for a second.
“They’re looking for a signal. We’re going to give them one. Plant the controller and collar in someone else’s quarters. By the time they figure out they’re not the spies, the strike force will be on it’s way in - it’s probably already on the way in of Cortana was hacked - and we’ll be on our way down to that lab to find the truth about that message."
“Maybe Cortana wasn’t hacked?” There was a hopeful gleam in Teela’s eyes. “I mean, if they have Cortana, they know we are the spies.”
“Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but if she hasn’t... then things just got a hell of a lot more complicated in ways that make my head hurt.”
Ford checked her own Berretta pistol, before handing Teela the Smith and Wesson-made PPK she kept concealed.
“Know how to use this?”
Teela nodded. “I’ve had Senshi training.”
“Good.” she smirked “That’s James Bond’s gun, just so you know.”
Teela was unamused. “As long as it shoots. Here is no place to fool around.”
“Sure. Let’s get going.”