Ⓞbsidian Ⓢkies Ⓢpace Ⓢtation // OPEN

[Erasmos]

__________________________________________________________________________

The interior of the space station was a frightening place. No lights penetrated where the wiring took place, and without the small robot hovering next to her emitting light, Beatrix would have been in a dark abyss of wires and space. The electricity in the bar was completely out, and without little explanation other than that the wiring within the space station was very old, and even though it had been top of the line in its day, it was outdated and performing poorly. Everyone in the bar and restaurant were dining by candle light if they were feeling romantic, or by the light of a small robot hovering nearby.

As Beatrix brought the last wire closer to herself that she suspected had been the cause of all of the electrical damage, she breathed out and grabbed her wire cutters and cut the last wire where it appeared to to be burned. She trimmed it before soldering another piece to it, and then reconnected it so the circuit was complete. “Main systems, on. Bar and restaurant electricity, on.” The noise was deafening as the generators began to turn, and the lights within the bar and restaurant would flicker.

Bea’s face lit up in surprise as the wires shot off sparks, causing her to flinch. The lights in the restaurant finally came on, and she commanded the robot to pull up the screen of the restaurant and bar. Relieved to see that the lights were working, she began her descent up, using a gravity belt that could intensify gravity for her or lessen it. Crawling out of the crawlspace, she came out covered in ancient dust. “Ugh. Call Valerie.”

The robot displayed a video screen before her, and Valerie’s face popped up, connecting instantly. On Valerie’s end, Bea’s face would pop up, covered in dirt and grime. Her hair was a mess and she was still wearing her bulky goggles. “We should have gotten the new shipment in. Is everything there that we ordered?” Beatrix asked, taking a rag from her tool belt and wiping her face. She wasn’t being specific for a reason—anyone passing by her might overhear the wrong word and all hell could break loose.

__________________________________________________________________________

[strawberry sapphic]

▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄


wearing xxxxx mood: reluctant xxxxx with: herself xxxxx location: inventory


Early mornings were not her thing.

After she'd gotten herself stranded here with no money and in the servitude of the space station's owner to pay off the debt she had wracked up just by 'parking' her own little spaceship in one of the many ports, Valerie had found it a bit hard to sleep. And what sleep she had gotten was short- she'd been roused at what she could only imagine was the crack of dawn by the little personal robot Bea had assigned to her. It flashed bright lights over her face intermittently, something she'd programmed it to do before she had tried to sleep. An alarm with noise wouldn't work on her, anyways.

Once she was awake and dressed for the day, Valerie was relegated to inventory. Or, more specifically, to wait for a special shipment- one she knew was of the wine that was incredibly rare these days. It had come, and Valerie had shown the deliverers where to store it... But as she walked between the huge boxes, opening them up to look inside and count the individual cases, she found a problem.

It wasn't all there.

One of the cases inside the larger boxes was missing- just one. Any other time, she knew that this wouldn't be such a big deal... Inventory got misplaced all the time. But this was the wine. Wine, which was one of the most rare things in the universe nowadays and it didn't come cheap. And there was a whole case missing. Valerie was not looking forward to breaking the news to her... Especially not when she was already exhausted from lack of sleep and bored over something as dull as taking inventory.

She was just about to call for Bea when the other woman beat her to it, the screen on Valerie's robot expanded to show her boss's face. Valerie turned the volume on the mini robot so that the tiny microphone in her glasses could pick up Bea's speech. Of course she was asking about the inventory... Of course. The redhead pressed her lips together nervously and a few seconds of silence passed before she finally answered. "Well... There's actually a case missing... I triple checked, and it is not there. Maybe you should come down here..."

[Erasmos]

Location: Warehouse xxxxxxxx Company: Valerie xxxxxxxx Mood: Pissed


__________________________________________________________________________


Beatrix lifted up her goggles, noticing Valerie was a darker color through them as the light was filtered. When she lifted them up, she seemed happy enough as she set to fixing the panel that fitted over the entrance to the internal parts of the space station, until she heard that there was a case missing.

Not a bottle. Not a few bottles. AN ENTIRE CASE. Beatrix, having been laying down, sat up quickly, her face flying through the screen. The robot seemed to scramble to follow her moves, and she blurred out of the camera’s view momentarily until the robot could follow her moves. “What?!” She screamed, her scream echoing through the corridor and causing the sound to distort. Valerie wouldn’t hear anything of the glitch, but her voice was enough to make the screen pixelate in a rare occurrence. [********] She exclaimed, running her hands through her hair and messing it up.

“I’ll be right there. Don’t move.” She said, attempting to scramble to her feet. In the process, she got mixed up and accidentally activated her gravity belt, which quickly flipped her and started to lift her up. When she realized what was happening and that she was still on the screen with Valerie, she looked towards it as she tried to get a handle on her belt, “End call!”

The screen faded to black, and just in time as she got the damn belt to function properly. She fell to the floor with a thud before standing up, rubbing her sore arm and elbow as she ran off towards the nearest portal. When she stepped through to the other side, she was in the warehouse area of the newest inventory. This was a sealed area only meant for trusted workers, and anything and everything in here was illegal and completely sealed off from anyone else. As she approached Valerie, she patted her on the shoulder. “Alright, we have to think about this. You know how much this is worth, don’t you?” Beatrix asked her, patting her one more time on the shoulder before she retrieved her hand. “This is terrible.” She put her hand to her flat chest and over her heart, closing her eyes momentarily as she tried to calm her rapid heartbeat.

“It was probably those new assholes of the people I trust to import it. Godammit. I knew I shouldn’t have gone with a “trusted friend” of some yahoo I don’t even know. Ugh!” Beatrix was ready to rip out her hair as she paced back and forth, trying to calm down but failing quite obviously. “Oh, they’re going to pay. They’re going to pay big time.” Beatrix sat down. She was ready to go to her ship and leave to chase those bastards, but she couldn’t exactly do that legally. Not that anything else here was legal anyway, but she didn’t want to end up in a cryo-prison again if she was caught in non-neutral territory.

There was no way Valerie could have taken the case; she’d be long gone already, so Beatrix wouldn’t try to blame her. “We’re going to have to go after them. I have all of the wine here sold already, including what was taken. If the people I’m dealing with do not get what they paid for, a simple refund isn’t going to do it for them. I can delay them for now. Go pack your things and be ready to go by tomorrow morning. When you’re done, meet me in the bar. I’m going to make a few phone calls and then head there. I’m going to need you to tell me everything about your local contacts in the pirating business, and I’m going to need you to tell me a little more about how a pirate thinks. I’ll see you at the bar.”



__________________________________________________________________________



bohemian shutterbug