Interlude 5: Flowerchild

Interlude 5: Flowerchild

The head waiter, most likely was a Stellaris, judging by his chrome metallic shimmering skin underneath the perfectly tailored tuxedo.

Hafez Safar slightest gesture was noticed and the waiter came over to his table. “I hope you enjoyed your pan seared Ilasian goat filet .”

“Very much so!” Havez agreed and wanted to order desert. The waiter snipped his metallic fingers and a Garbini flowed to the table on its walking tentacles and clearing the table and preparing it for desert in a spectacular ballet of tentacles, with speed and accuracy. Havez wondered how long it took for the auto dresser to figure out how to alter a Tuxedo to fit a Garbini. He ordered the Tiramisu and leaned back. From his table and across the candle and brass lamp lit, old Terra decor restaurant he had a spectacular view into deep space and the famous incredibly beautiful horsehead nebula in the Orion constellation. The restaurant was inside a deep space way station between the Orion and the Sagittarius arm and still 79 light years away from that nebula, just at a perfect spot to see it in its entire size with the naked eye. No one, so it was said could look at the nebula and not have a religious experience. Hafez agreed it was beautiful but to him the fine meal and the bottle of wine were much more important. The best part of it he would be on Para-Para in a few days, relaxing on the white beaches and under the double sun, with his new name and eat fine meals for the rest of his life. Thanks to the 5 million Credits now on a Cash equivalent Credit strip he carried in his pocket.

Only six weeks ago he would not have been able to afford such a. Well perhaps once a month and back then he was slaving for the Megabix Corporation in a close to the ground fourth floor office with thousand other GalNet Network Engineers supporting an enormous popular Virtu Emotion Game Series. A Game series that was so successful, it catapulted Megabix only five years ago into the top twenty list of the Ultra Corporation. It was pure chance that the security system was down and he could slip in the otherwise off limits test lab, snatch the latest, not yet released version and sell it to Bootleg-It, a company on Sin 4 where Union Law had no meaning. That his theft had cost Megabix many hundred billions of credits in revenue and caused more than twenty thousand employees lose their jobs, was unfortunate but it didn’t concern him much, he was rich now and that was the only thing important. He had purchased a new ID and CITI after getting such services via a Connector.

Havez paid for the meal and strolled with no particular hurry down the main concourse of the station. The luxury clipper that would take him to Para-Para was not due till late tomorrow. He planned his escape well and crisscrossed around Union space now for the last five weeks and no one would be able to find him.

He purchased a High Res Holo Print and a T shirt from a souvenir shop and watched a human female struggle with a broken heel of her stiletto shoes and since he was human as well he found the blonde hourglass shaped girl with the dangerously short tube dress quite alluring and walked over.” Nice shoes!”

She smiled at him and had gorgeous blue eyes. She was exactly his type! She almost looked like Annie the girl he dated in VirtuEmotio . Anna was a simulation. That girl looking even better was flesh and blood and even smelled good.” But only with the heels intact, Could help me hobble to my room. I think I strained my ankle a little that would be great.”

He offered his arm and her skin and touch felt warm and soft and while Anna was all these things, to know the girl was real was enticing. He followed her instructions down a short side corridor and then she suddenly pushed him, across a yellow and black striped section on the floor. She was much stronger than she looked and he stumbled three steps, a hissing sound behind him as an Ultronit partition shot up, He saw the blonde through a transparent panel and he heard her voice through a field speaker.” Do you really think you can get away after what you did?”

“Well so arrest me! I know my rights.”

“I am a Solution provider and not the police. Bye, bye Mr. Safar formerly known as Jim Hollwarth. I wonder how long that brandy you had after dinner will keep you warm out there!”

Now he realized where he was, this was an emergency Air lock. “You can’t do that! That is murder!”

“Exactly Mr. Hollwarth, I am glad we agree on that, since this is what I got paid for to do!”

The wall before him disappeared and there was nothing he could hold onto. The coldness was so instant it felt like burning him! His lungs expanded, the water in his eyes froze and so did the salvia and moisture in his mouth and throat. Hollwarth saw the blonde waving with a cold smile before his vision blurred out.

The blonde watched the bloated body carried by the initial momentum float towards the horsehead nebula. She found it funny he still held the Holo and wore his new T shirt. It was quite conceivable Jim would make it there by the time some of the new stars forming in that celestial dust and energy cauldron became real suns.

Satisfied she returned to her own rooms at the stations Hotel, she had no trouble now walking in her heels and the stiletto extension was once more firmly attached. In her rooms however she tossed the uncomfortable shoes onto the bed, along with the long blond wig and the bio-flex mask, shook the long black hair open then after a shower she slipped into a fluffy robe and sat before the GalNet Terminal. Her genetic data and her menta-print accepted she was now connected to the highly secure Comm XChange of her guild. She used to be a freelancer but for six years now, she was an active Solution provider for the Violent Mothers Association. Sure she was not as independent anymore but the VMA made up for it with steady work contracts, guaranteed pay and no hassle with customers. You got your mission, completed it and cashed in. In addition to good travel arrangements, access to a weapon delivery network and nice costumes and fun entertainment at the annual company picnic.

She uploaded the recording of the last execution and moments later the visual of VMA One appeared. The beautiful large eyed creature with almost impossible long flowing hair and delicate facial features and the flimsy dress was of course a virtual generated avatar and the First Mother looked completely different in real live, but then her Image displayed at the other end was equally misleading, she had chosen the Avatar body of a talking Flower as it fit her handle Flowerchild well.

The delicate Elfin creature spoke.” Well done Flowerchild. I have transferred your bonus.”

“It was simple this time. The fool left a trail so wide a blind Shail could follow.”

“Are you ready for a break or do you care for a new mission?”

“The last one was not very exhausting and I am saving up for a Red Ferrari Rosso Speciale. So what do you have?”

“Your client is a a patriarch of a family business on a Union world called Nilfeheim. It is an open end service contract and might include a few neutralizations. It’s a Type 191 P, so I thought of you that should be right up your alley.”

“Standard pay?”

“Standard plus 5 percent.”

“Make it Standard plus 12 and we got a deal”

“That leaves me no profit at all. Take eight or I send it on to someone else.”

“You are the shrewdest pixy this side of Disney Planet. Alright send the details. I take it.”

Brunar already had a female scientist working for him, so he didn’t mind dealing with another one. This one came prepared, he had to admit, she wore the dress of a Freewoman and had her hair done the local way. He was even more impressed as she talked in the distinctive Nilfeheim dialect, Union Standard heavily laced with ancient Nordish and pronouncing the “r’s” and “s’es” much heavier than most Off-Worlders did. At first he thought she was indeed a local but he did not only pick her up at the XChange where she had arrived inside a shipping crate but she came along with two Anti Tech projectors and a few other Off world things he decided to order to protect his business. Any doubt that she was a local vanished as she installed the projectors in no time in two of his subs. Despite her local appearance she had the flair of someone who got things done and without scruples.

She had listened to his troubles and then suggested a course of action he also agreed upon. She was expensive and charged by the day, but she was worth it, he could tell already.