Blue Heaven Airlocks and Checkpoint

Haruka had just finished her call when somebody came up beside her, almost startling her. She placed her phone back into her bag and looked over to him... and a little down. Despite everything, for all intents and purposes this man seemed trustworthy. A stark contrast to the woman that she had had the displeasure of accidentally connecting to. He actually seemed concerned... was she that obvious? Damn, Jouji was always the cool-headed one.

There was something... off about his story, about being with the Colonial Union, but sort of true as well? It wasn't her place to pry, it was just that bit of comfort that somebody was offering. But can she just dump something like this on a stranger, that she had some... psychic connection with a possible murderer? Nah, leave that out. And if so, dragging somebody in would be... what if something happens? She'd be responsible. But he would be trained, she thinks. She takes in a deep breath and tries to say it as calmly as possible.

"WellyouseeIwasherefo-," she coughs and collects herself, not like that.[i] "That lady in the blue hood, I think- no I [i]know, she mentioned something about having somebody done in at Hotel Zafiro, and that is where I was to meet with my brother, and... the way she- she said it, was so... cold, and satisfied, and I'm just- I hope he isn't mixed in, or hurt."

The first thing Mueller thinks is, Damn. Law enforcement may have to get involved. He nods politely, and then calmly states, "Alright. Did you catch a name, any notable features? We can report this to... uh... actually, wait a second."
He reaches down, into a hip pouch, and pulls out two radio-looking devices. "These are VTC's, they're basically just radios. You know what a radio is? Do those show up outside of Klendath? Nevermind. Basically, we can split up, I'll go after whoever. Probably the, uh, the hooded lady. I don't know if I could identify your brother. You get in through the lines, you can look for him. I was supposed to meet a dude here, you can find him in the Starwind Plaza. Look for Jack Donovan. Big guy, leather jacket, goatee-looking beard. Glasses. You can't miss him. What does that lady look like? Was she the one I saw heading into the docks?"
Please, just don't get too loud about it. Last thing I need is cops, he thinks.

"Yes, that was her, she had... dark hair, um, Carmen Dellevon I think is her name, blue hood, big um, blue... sapphire? Earrings, um... hair is done up in some kind of," Haruka says quietly motioning around the sides of her head before she hesitantly she takes one of the radios. She takes a brief moment to familiarize herself with it before continuing on. "Sure, I think I- huh? Well, just be careful, I think she may have been armed? And... um, okay, what should I say to him when I see him?"

"I don't think it'll be a problem if she's armed, I'm decent enough to hold my own. Uh, I'll get security or something if it's really a problem."
He looks behind him, back toward the lines, and then turns back to Haruka. "Oh, yeah. Just tell him Specialist Mueller sent you, try and ask him for help, tell him the story. If he doesn't buy it, just hand him the VTC and I'll talk to him. Sorry if this is all rushed, I just have a feeling something is... off. I'm trying to figure it out. Oh, yeah, Donovan may get a bit... er... Well, just try and bear with him. He's kind of a serious dude."
He removes a magazine and inserts it into his rifle, then chambers the round. He grins awkwardly, then says, "Uh, just in case. I'll see you soon."
He turns and begins jogging towards the docks. "Jesus, I really hope so. What did I just get into?"

Connor Mueller has left the area, heading out towards Blue Heaven Docks and Maintenance.

Sometimes one always seemed to be a step behind.

This was the unfortunate case as Confessor Mashad disembarked from a sleek imperial Corvette that flew under a false registration, and forged papers that disguised it as a privateer vessel. He didn't appear to be much except for his short cropped brown hair, and lush dark indigo suit that was adorned with a simple lapel pin, a spiral emblem of interlocking plates that denoted the office of the Imperial Confessors, an elite secret police that many within the empire feared.

He looked around and frowned, it was a big station and he had to figure out where to search first.

"Okay, got it, and be safe all the same," Haruka said, nodding her head.

She owed him this much for sticking his neck out like this, and just like that they parted ways. Hoping she hadn't lead him down a dangerous path, and putting faith in his capabilities, she headed to meet with his contact. She wondered for a moment how he may react having something like her be the one to bring this news, but she'll cross that bridge when she comes to it.

Haruka Mayumi has left the area, heading north towards Blue Heaven: Main Promenade.

Bartholemew Kerrigan has arrived, coming from Blue Heaven Docks and Maintenance.

Bartholemew Kerrigan dropped a coin in Tinker's bucket before passing on with a determined shuffle.

Bartholemew Kerrigan has left the area, heading north towards Blue Heaven: Main Promenade.

A uniformed Blue Heaven official muttered something into a radio and wiped his brow. A moment later, he received confirmation. He sighed and moved to a nondescript section of the cavern wall. He opened a door in the rock face, which was invisible until he touched it, and disappeared inside. Inside the door was a very small control room. On the wall was a big red button behind a glass case. He said a quick prayer before slamming the button. It wasn't used much as it was a pretty inconvenience causing button. Ah, well.

The lights of the Blue Heaven Airlocks and Checkpoint flickered, then began to blare red and then blue, red and then blue, red and then blue. A voice calmly blared through the sound system for all to hear above the din.

Klinkoro received new information while in the little room. It seemed a suspect had been named, footage had been swept, and the lockdown had done absolutely nothing to stop them. They were still determining correlation between the murder in Starwind Plaza and the murder in Hotel Zafiro. Maybe there was some, maybe there wasn't.

Who was Carmen Dellevon and how did she make such quick work of Blue Heaven?

With a few lines of code, a few screens in the state sanctioned public areas of Blue Heaven added a suspect to their reel of wanted posters. Klinkoro crossed to the big button and hit it again.

Delfye
(From: The Bazaar)
“Shit!!” The cargo passage was open, as he’d hoped, but there was a container in transit. “Bad luck.” He reflected to himself. “Well, we might fit…” He throttled up, leaned on the horn (it made a sickly hoot, then a sizzle) and aimed for the largest gap.
KA-RASH!!
The pod, itself, didn’t do too bad. It made it through the checkpoint, with a tremendous squeal of tortured metal, sans all of the external hardware on the starboard side and about a foot of canopy. Those got left behind in a sort of mangled mess decorating the cargo container.

The cargo checkpoint controller stood, mouth agape for long enough that the security AI determined he was incapacitated, and confirmed its own request to seal the cargo passage. The physical gate came crashing down and the field barriers energized a split-second later.

(To: The Docks)

Miiya Aether
(From: The Bazaar)
This dude was definitely bad news. That junk pod he was using to abduct Aishe clearly had illegal modifications. The little intra-station transports were supposed to be speed limited below thirty kph, but this one was outpacing Miiya. She could do better than sixty in steady level flight, and a lot faster in a dive, or when Storm Dancing--like she was now. Her blood was roaring in her ears as she gouged the air, streaking after Aishe and her kidnapper, but even flying flat-out, she was losing ground on them.

Bouncing off the huge cargo container slowed her quarry a bit, and Miiya did not hesitate to run the checkpoint, at full sprint, right behind the pod. The descending gate, however, was a bit of a problem. “Yfrett… Frett! FRETT!!!” She panted as she dove for the debris-strewn floor, yanked her arms and wings in tight, and made a champion baseballer’s slide just under the gate, an instant before the force fields energized. “GAH!!” Miiya cried out as a bit of loose plasteel, broken from the hoverpod, clipped her thigh before she could get her wings back out and pull up. The pain was intense, but her adrenaline carried her through and she continued pursuing the now-tumbling pod as it careered down the docking corridor.
(To: The Docks)

Belle LeTroix has arrived, coming from Blue Heaven Docks and Maintenance.

Belle LeTroix has left the area, heading out towards Blue Heaven Docks and Maintenance.

Volare Stardust has arrived, coming from Blue Heaven Docks and Maintenance.

Volare Stardust has left the area, heading north towards Blue Heaven: Main Promenade.

Miiya Aether
(From: The Docks)

Miiya and Aishe--likely in the company of Bella--were ushered around the que and through the checkpoint by security. Normally Miiya would have talked nonstop on the walk from the docks to GeneCorp, but the pain of her injury suppressed her natural chattiness. She still made an effort to get to know Bella on the way, however. Its not like I can show up at the branch office and be all like “here’s a giant space floof I found. Ok, lunch time! Byeeee!” That thought made her grin. “So… I’m Miiya, this is Aishe, what’s your name?” She asked. She would follow up--whether Belle answered or not--with: “I’m an Aeros--a flying m--human, that’s why I’ve got these.” She tilted her head back toward her shoulders and louvered her feathers a little. She had stopped herself from the usual joke about being a flying monkey. Xenos rarely got the reference, and she didn’t want to confuse Belle. “Aishe, here, is an unmodified human, from Terra!” She said with emphasis, as if her statement ought to mean something to the neoprimordial. “So…. what about you?” She asked. “What are you? Where do you come from? I’m from New Warsaw, originally.”
(To: The Interior Cavern and GeneCorp)

Belle LeTroix has arrived, coming from Blue Heaven Docks and Maintenance.

Belle had followed along, looking around at the civilization within this hollowed-out asteroid around her. She had not been blind to Miiya's injury, her attempt to hide it may fool the guards, but Belle was more observant. She watched her attempt not to show her limp. Her attention was broken, however, when Miiya introduced herself and her friend, then asked Belle for her name. What was it that the white coats called her? There was a number, a classifications, but there was also a name.

"B- Belle, Belle LeTroix," she said slowly, taking time to enunciate each syllable. Aishe was a pure human then, does that mean that Miiya is some form of alteration? Humans had the ability to alter their physical state too? From what she observed of the white coats, they only varied slightly physically, but Miiya so clearly had wings. How peculiar. As Miiya presented her wings, Belle tilted her head and responded by producing flaps under her arms, but these came off as more like a flying squirrel.

The inevitable question came: what are you? Not even this form she wore now was what she was, just an imitation of another creature. The white coats spent their remaining life trying to answer that question. She knew she had a heart that beat at the same rhythm, she knew she breathed, she knew she thought and felt, she knew she had warm blood, but these were details, not a full fact. Fact is, she didn't know what she was, or what she was supposed to be. The closest thing she was to was not the wild beasts guided by instinct, but a creature of curiosity, and thought, and feeling. As far as she knew, there was no other creature like her in species, but she felt kinship all the same with creatures also guided by the complexities of thought and emotion.

"I am Belle Letroix," she said again, but this time it held a different meaning, in a somewhat confused and melancholy tone. She looked at her hands and narrowed her eyes, listening to Miiya tell of what she was and where she was from. Such certainty, Belle did not have. A flood of thoughts rushed to her head and suddenly the quiet and slow spoken creature articulated something more complex and concise, "I came... from a land of beasts, but I didn't belong there. They had no thoughts that I could connect with, based on... feeding... survival alone, I was always... apart. The first connection... was the white coats... humans, but they thought me... a beast too. I obliged their curiosity, in turn for... my own. I knew they'd never have... returned it... but... lovingly observing... I remember their faces, and grieve their loss. They never found the answer, to what I am. And this... shape causes fear?"

There was a brief pause, and in her eyes was this sudden glint of inspiration. "Suggestion?" she asked curiously.

Delfye
(From: Docks and Maintenance)

Delfye sat in the detention block of Blue Heaven’s checkpoint wondering what to do next. Security had dumped him in a locked cell and removed his restraints. He did not have to stay here. They had not even tried removing his cybernetic arm, and it carried everything he needed to free himself. But do I want to hassle with that? The cyborg wondered. If he broke out, station security--and likely GeneCorp--would be after him in short order. Things were relaxed here in BH, but they were not that relaxed.

The sammaran did not really have another objective besides verifying that Aishe was safe and cared-for. She was a willing ward of GeneCorp now, and there was not really anything Delfye could or should do about that. He could pressure GeneCorp to file a dated terminator to their conservatorship, he supposed. That would free Aishe once she reached the age of majority. Delfye did not have any standing--either familial or monetary--in Aishe’s case, so “pressuring” GeneCorp would mean doing something illegal, and that could backfire on his former assistant. So I guess I’ll just sit tight for now and see what happens.

It was a long wait, but eventually a GeneCorp Internal Security representative showed up at Delfye’s cell. The first thing he wanted to do was to collect biometrics. This should be interesting. Delfye thought to himself. Delfye: “Knock yourself out.” He said, in response to the demand for fingerprints, retinal scans, and a DNA sample.

The sammaran was not surprised when the GCIS rep stepped out to hold a conference with headquarters--Delfye presumed. GeneCorp and Intercorp had been rivals during the era of DE. No doubt GCIS had records on people like him. He wondered if his cell vented to space. Not that it would matter. If Delfye could be gotten rid of that way, he would have been made into a meat popsicle long before this. Even so, he hooked a leg under the hard bench on which he sat, just in case.

Nobody came back inside his cell for a while after that, though he did catch glimpses of faces at the cell door’s window, and he noticed the internal security camera zooming and refocusing on his face.

Delfye wondered if GCIS--or any of their security contractors--had laser weapons. He imagined that similar conversations were going on in the halls of GeneCorp at the moment.