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Data In, Data Out Part 2 - CP Kodiak
“Oy, Harona, you’re sleeping on my console” echoed through Harona’s subconscious. Then a sharp pain in her side woke her up with a start, knocking the voice’s Caff flying to the sound of “SITHSPIT!”, and the clanking of the plastic mug clattering off the durasteel floor in the communications centre. Glancing around the modestly sized room and blinking to clear the sleep from her eyes, Harona mumbled an apology and sat back in her chair.
“Sorry chief, I just can’t crack these communication algorithms so I thought a mad night on the job might work, but I must have dozed off” Technician Harona Stinton said, whilst running her hands through her ruffled red hair, and shaking her head from side to side to clear it up, as she watched the Chief engineer collect his mug from the floor and press one of the communication buttons to send a cleaning droid down to the centre.
Sighing, the Chief retorted “Yeah, well, if you’re gonna sleep here, don’t sleep on my console. Even though it does make a change to have a looker lying near my workplace compared to my wife!” And broke into a chuckle, because well, the chief was a greying character, working with electronics equipment all his life, and was always a bit of a cankerous old lecher – but Harona loved his little quirks that seemed to brighten up her day. In the past month, the trail for locating the copied data from DEMI’s information vault had grown colder, with no trace of the Darkstar Syndicate, the main suspects in this case. However, the Intelligence Division had also recorded no sales of the information – so whoever held the data was keeping it under lock and key. It was good for business, but not so good for trails – as no new data had been delivered to the communications centre where Harona and the Chief worked to find out who stole it.
“At least we know HOW they did it boss” shouted Harona over the console to the far side of the room where the chief stood refilling his mug of caff from the dispenser on the wall. “And it was so simple it was shocking” she continued whilst stretching and readjusting her uniform to accommodate her rather large bosom, and picking up her data pad and sucking on the corner whilst staring at the readout on the monitor. It only took Harona three days of work to figure out that the Darkstar Syndicate trademark was to do things obviously but well, and transmitting the data through many of the Emperor’s Hammer’s own satellites but sending it in differing directions caused the trail to be lost immediately. Grunting something from the other side of the room, the chief began to sip his caff and look at the daily intelligence reports that had just been delivered through one of the rooms many communications terminals.
“Bah, bah, bah, no, they haven’t got anything new. Nothing’s the same over at Intel anymore since Harlequin and Iceman left” he grumbled; yet let a slight chuckle slip out of his mouth as he muttered “Harlequin” again under his breath. Harona breathed out loudly, as the new batch of telemetry came through, and vaguely noticed the chief looking at her heaving bosom, which made her smirk. Just another day at the office!
* * *
“Almost” he panted whilst lying on top of the warm body beneath him. The softness beneath his body seemed to shimmer with each muscle that relaxed on his back, and coursed down through his legs. The warm soft body beneath him moulded into a position that was just far too comfortable for Tarn, and letting out a soft moan as the hands on his back tightened, and then released, Tarn Maven, leader of the Darkstar Syndicate gasped as the massage program was done. The new gelatinous massage bed remoulded beneath him as he slowly raised himself up of the heated bed and proceeded to sit up, whilst staring at his also new massage droid. Grunting a sigh of approval, Tarn looked around the brightly lit room onboard his flagship, the Modified Nebulon-B Frigate, Jester. The new medical ward had been built specifically just like everything else in the past month or so – NEW. Everything glistened with generally richness, and whilst Tarn had often been safe with the organisations money, in this case the reward was so gigantic that he couldn’t help himself. The job in the Phare system came to him by way of one who would only call himself “Anor”, and who hid himself behind a cloak of what Tarn could only describe as ‘deception’. It was a simple enough task – get the information from the Data Equity Management Inc. facilities in the Phare System, and transfer the data cores to Anor. Stretching out, Tarn slipped his white shirt back on, and buttoned it whilst staring out the view port on the far side of the room. Stars, stars, blackness and stars. Beautiful.
Heading to the bridge of the Jester, Tarn quickly consulted his cranial implant on duties for today. No one knew that the secret to Tarn Maven’s organisation and skill was partly due to his memory implant installed just behind the left lobe of his brain, which held all his organisational data and was linked directly into his bioelectric energy – so that if Tarn ever met an untimely end, no one could find the rest of the Darkstar Syndicate. The dull corridors of the Jester quickly passed Tarn by as he suddenly zoned out of his cranial trance and entered the turbolift. The turbolift was quite typical of Kuat Drive Yards design, with the added implantation of gas vents in the ceiling to subdue boarders, or even a disgruntled employee. Upon arriving on the bridge, the crew that had noticed him arriving quickly turned back to their stations. It wasn’t that Tarn was cruel and likely to punish them; it was that Tarn liked efficiency. Taking his chair in the centre of the command deck, Tarn looked around at the crew members working on their stations, co-ordinating his small but vastly profitable crime syndicate, by working on ship manifests, pirating of low risk convoys, black market rumours and best of all – legal business. Stretching softly in his chair and resting his left arm against the chairs rest, he watched as his first officer walked over with a data pad in his hand and a slight smirk of his face…
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