Free Range: Back to Freecloud

Posted on Sun Mar 6th, 2022 @ 6:47am by Indigo (*) & Madison Indri

Mission: Elsewhere
Location: Freecloud
Timeline: 2397
1704 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

She'd dressed warmly before arrival. After all, Stardust City was still cold, even if Calliope couldn't feel it this time. It had been several months, but Winter was the season that held "The Dusters" in it's thrall for most of each 700 day year. Human visitors to the metropolis said it felt like Christmas year 'round. Some of the travel ads had really leaned into the theme to entice more tourism. While she found the festive trappings fun, Calliope still hadn't wrapped her mind around the whole Christmas concept, as it wasn't practiced consistently in her colony growing up, but it certainly remained a very important Earther tradition, at least in her observations. And seeing as it always was underlined by some notion of goodwill to all, she had participated whole heartedly in any festivities that had invited her into the holiday over the years. The holiday seemed bound to frosty weather, in spite of half of the planet Earth experiencing their Summer on their Christmas holiday. She just accepted that it didn't make sense. It didn't have to.

Presently, standing in the alleyway between two apartment buildings, she watched the air escaping her lungs form a frosty puff and let it dissipate before she replaced it with another.

"Pretty realistic, right?" said a short man with the slick looking augmented reality shades.

"The interaction is incredible." She touched the duratex-cast wall and could feel the authentic hardy grit of it. "Very convincing."

"Your first time, generative subcasting?"

"Is it that obvious?"

He smirked and crossed his arms a little pompously. "Kinda."

"Scan mitigation is in place?"

"Yeah, your bio signs won't trip any passive or standard scans as long as you're in reach of a subcast-signal. Not gonna hold up on a heavy medical read or a high intensity security biosensor, obviously. I also got you the priority encryption you asked for. Pretty pricey premium on the net here."

Calliope took out a small reader from her pocket and accessed her accounts. "I'm good for it." She said as she swiped to cover the charges.

Tiny lines of confirmation code seemed to trace themselves along the mirror of the coder's lenses and he nodded with approval. "Your cypto spends." In spite neither of them knowing one another by anything apart from digital monikers and temporary exchange keys, everything was clearly mutual in this arrangement. They shook hands. "I'll wait for the signal and return the deposit when I recover my hardware," he said.

They both parted ways in the alley, heading in opposite directions.

It was amazing that there were still so many places in the galaxy where privacy and anonymity were so well enjoyed and fiercely maintained. Calliope had grown up used to everyone's bio scans and authentic given names being expected publicly without question. But with modern security measures, you could be both authenticated and entirely unknown, even in high tech society like Stardust City.

There was a thin coating of fresh snow over the city roof tops. Down on the street, they hadn't plowed at all. There were none of the piles of dirty snow that would indicate having to make paths for the treading of any ground vehicles. In fact, the glaze of ice in the primary roadway was well maintained. A glider bus skated past at a fair clip and Calliope sensed the breeze, if not the chill. She huffed into her hands to practice the theater.

As she made her way across the city, she admitted to herself that winter was a hell of a lot prettier without the shivering. "Maybe this is the better way to tour the galaxy." But even as she said it to herself, she didn't buy it. It was almost like being there. Almost.

She watched as a sweeper bot hummed by, clearing litter and de-icing the walking path. "Greetings. Have a nice day." The squat device said from a digital display of a pixelated smile that rotated around the cylinder to direct it's programmed mimicry of politeness at her.

"Thanks" She told it reflexively. That was a good sign. At least the maintainers sensed her presence. She put her hands in her pockets and slowed down as she came to a city square. The landscaping was all ever green and trimmed in neon. The architecture was somehow diverse and yet tastefully melded as it folded into one busy center. Covered gazebos dotted the central space and people moved between them with street food or business partners or sweethearts or friends. Somewhere a street performing group was playing some kind of melodic pan and flute arrangement by ear. She doubted it ever was performed the same way twice and these particular series of sounds would never be repeated again. The atmosphere was certainly warmer than the thermometer on the holocast over the nearby Bank of Bolius branch was reading in Celsius.

Every time she spotted someone with blue hair among the ebb and flow of "Dusters" in the square, she honed in to see if she could make out her contact. Anywhere else, blue hair was something of a unique feature. And while it still was clearly less than half of the population of Stardust City sporting vibrant hyper colored locks, it seemed like a disproportionately large minority liked being creative with their look. Catching her own reflection in a window, Calliope put a hand up to her own hair. It was coming back in nicely and she wondered if it would take color. But she was colorful enough as it was. And besides, it would probably make her look like one of those Earther circus clowns if she didn't get it relaxed too...

Indigo had been surprised by the contact on the communication chip let alone that the woman in question had wanted to meet up. She had always maintained checks on contacts, mostly to make sure that they were nowhere near her and thought that the woman was far across the universe, far from her home but obviously not. She had arrived early and was standing under a canopy watching the crowds, it was a habit from all her roles.

She had spotted Calliope early and spent a few moments watching her and was surprised by the changes in her appearance but who was she to judge she looked like hell covered in bruises. “You look like hell,” Indigo said by way of hello as she appeared next to the woman in the reflection.

"Was hoping it might add to my gravitas," Calliope smirked into the reflection before looking directly at Indigo. "Thanks for meeting me."

"Well, you are less bloody that than last time but I would not say it adds to it." The younger-looking woman smiled warmly putting her hands in her long black jacket. It was not as cold as it had been but it was enough to make Indigo want to go back to bed after a night shift for the watchdog. She really was going to have to talk about the night shift duty soon. "I gave you the chip for a reason."

"How did everything go with our mutual friend, 'Curly'? I heard there were some arrests after I gave the Commodore your contact."

"Some." The woman choked back a snort as she thought about the sheer amount of paperwork that had come out of that one chance encounter. "I was doing paperwork for a month. I suspect your commodore was doing paperwork for a longer length." Everyone had been happy about the outcome even if he left a foul late in the woman's mouth sometimes on how she had left things.

"Sounds like I got the easy end of the bargain. All I had was the after action report."

Indigo let out a small sigh as the silence descended. "So this does not feel like a social call." Indigo finally ventured turning from the glass window to the woman.

Calliope looked thoughtful. "We should, you know, meet up some time just for a walk in the park." She started strolling leisurely and waited for Indigo to match pace. "But your intuition is right. I need some help with a mission. One outside of Starfleet's operating purview."

Indigo followed with a shake of her head stuffing her hands into her pockets."My intuition is never wrong." She explained and nodded. "My speciality." She mused wondering just what it would drive the woman to her of all people after how they had left things.

"I need to liberate some information and funds from some pretty shady people. Some of their trade is in slaving. The target is in the strip and I have what amounts to a letter of marque and reprisal. Big risk, big payoff. But it'll take a team. I know you have connections— would you have anyone in mind for a vault haul?"

A letter of marque and reprisal? Indigo raised an eyebrow but did not comment about it. It was amusing that it was required where slavers were concerned but that was her opinion. "If slavers are involved for sure my connections will practically bite my hands off." The woman was sure that every single Fenris Ranger that she knew would want to be involved.

"I knew you were the one to talk to. How soon do you think you can raise them?"

Indigo smirked to herself as she thought Kaylin and whether the woman would be up or not. It was not unusual for her to be asleep at odd hours much like herself. "As long as she is awake within an hour unless you want to go for that walk to my place and get off the streets?"

Calliope pursed her lips and considered for a moment, naturally curious about where Indigo called home. "I could stand to get in from the cold. Lead the way..."

Indigo nodded with a smirk at the cold comment. It did make her wonder where the woman was in the universe to get that clear of a signal but they had other issues to think on now like a a bank robbery. “Of course.” She laughed and indicated the direction that they would be going.

Well this was going to be an interesting day….