Sol System Chapter 9

“I’m just saying you have the body for it.” Amber’s voices easily carried through the small motel room from the bed she was sitting on into the bathroom where Vanessa was finishing putting on a modest amount of make-up while still attempting to look give-me-more-tips attractive. “In fact you have more of a body for it then most the dancers there; you’d make enough to at least get a better room.”

“My rooms just fine.” Vanessa finished her makeup and switched out her comfortable bra for the bikini top that was her uniform. Amber shrugged and began flipping through the channels on the screen on the wall in front of her.

“I’m surprised you’re here at all, you plan everything out ten steps ahead I figured you’d have a place to stay worked out a month or two ago.” Amber was unimpressed with current channel choices and returned to the news Vanessa had left on.

“I uh, just kind of needed to get out in a hurry.” Vanessa tried to pick her phrasing delicately while she put on the two layers of fishnets she had convinced her manager to let her wear, and then piled on some wristbands at shoulder elbow and wrist levels.

“Yeah had to blow the scene, I’ve been there.” Amber checked through her phone while she waited for Vanessa to finish getting ready. Vanessa looked in the mirror at her more then she wished to be exposed self. She felt slightly relieved that the lack of money she had to spend on food was keeping her thin. Relief was short lived however.

“..According to sources inside the mayor’s office, a new initiative has been started to hunt down criminals throughout the sol system…”Vanessa walked out of the bathroom and turned to the screen as her heart rate rose. “...the new guide lines that have been tentatively approved by the interplanetary committee state that specially sanctioned agents of law enforcement from megacities will be allowed to travel to other planets in the system and bring wanted individuals back to be tried for their crimes.” Vanessa began sweating, she tried to calm herself down, plan her next move. Did she need to leave? Could she? Where else could she go? Did she have the money? How would she get-

“You aight ‘nessa?” Amber had stopped bouncing her foot and leaned forward to make eye contact with Vanessa.

“Fine.” She forced a smile and dived back into the bathroom, covered a washcloth with cold water and plastered it on her face. She held it until her heart slowed and her breathing steadied. She looked at herself in the mirror and tried to hold back tears.

“…’nessa?” Amber spoke softly.

“I just need to redo my make up.” Vanessa had screwed up; Amber had been looking out for her since she got here, but being a stripper didn’t make her stupid.

“Here let me help.” Amber and Vanessa sat against the counter on the sink, in a relieving silence as Amber re-applied makeup and calmed the slow of tearing eyes.

Sol System Chapter 8

“I really appreciate this, Danica.” Rheed’s voice had a sincerity he gave very few people, but he tried to convey it as best he could. Asking someone to be on cramped ship running support while you chase criminals around the solar system for a time period, that was actually on paper as “the foreseeable future,” is a big question. ”I know you don’t like to be away from Tabitha for long”
“Its alright, I think I’ve been a little too overbearing recently, teenagers do need some space I guess, I’m just worried she’s gonna throw a big party the second I’m gone that’ll last till I get back.” Rheed looked confused at the statement. Danica smiled at the non-parent who she remembered was raised by an award winning man hunter. She imagined he had trained government agents checking in on him while his mother was gone working. “She just turned 16 you know.”
“What?” Rheed looked baffled as he opened the door to the police station for his colleague, and she laughed as they entered the building. “I went to her 7th grade spelling bee.”
“We’ve been working together that long,” Danica said before downing the rest of her coffee and throwing away the disposable cup. “I try to keep her in line by reminding her that all the people who will be looking in on her are cops, and that I have access to all the data in all the police stations in all of New York.” Danica made larger and larger circles with her finger to emphasis the scale of her reach. “So we’ll talk later about logistics and what exactly my duties are as your support, which better be fun cause if I get bored, you know what happens.”
“I know what happens.” Rheed answered his phone’s ring while Danica went to the elevator to take her to the cybercrimes level. The caller informed him that Vanessa Channel’s personal effects had come into evidence and could now be examined. Rheed headed over immediately, and was met there by Greg.
“It was more difficult to find all this than I thought. The ship she was on had her listed heading to Titan, but as we suspected she jumped ship early somewhere, and when she wasn’t there to check in her luggage just got kind of, well thrown around.” Greg pulled out his tablet and had Rheed place his hand on it, signing that the evidence was now in his custody. Rheed began walking towards the ten-by-fifteen-foot storage container that would have housed everything Vanessa Channel was taking with her on her move to Titan, which had been planned far before the murder had taken place. The abandonment of her cargo re-enforced the theory that the murder of John States was in fact a crime of passion, that Vanessa had simply taken advantage of her already planned trip to get off world, then come up with a plan to leave the ship early and get lost somewhere in the solar system. “The system says she checked on her cargo once before disappearing.” The container opened to reveal packed boxes, a mattress, and some pieces of furniture, including two dressers whose contents had been plundered.
“She probably took some jewelry and valuables to pawn for cash, grabbed some clothes, jackets it looks like, too, most other planets are pretty cold so that doesn’t really narrow it down.” Rheed spoke his conclusions out loud as he found the evidence for them while inspecting the cargo container.
“No two planets are entirely the same but many aren’t that different, if she was already planning on moving to Titan, she may have gone to a planet that’s similar.” Greg looked through his tablet while he spoke.” Any of the Galean moons could have looked pretty good; the ship did pass by Jupiter.”
“The ship should have sent over their security footage, too, we need to cross-reference the last time she was seen on board with the ship’s stops to be sure and to narrow it down.”
“Your ship’s ready to go as soon as you have a destination. Has Ms. Hill agreed to be your support?” Rheed stopped what he doing and stared at Greg while shaking his head.
“I JUST asked her how could you know—“
“It wasn’t unexpected, you like to work with the same people and you’ve worked with her a long time, plus she is kind of perfect for the role you need. The only reason I wasn’t sure she’d say yes is if she wanted to leave her 15-year-old daughter alone while she tracks criminals across the system.”
“She’s 16.”
“Oh, my mistake.” Rheed shook his head further. “Something you should think about Marcus: you’re now working on a larger scale, time is a bigger issue, it can take minutes for a beam of light to get between planets. It’s useful to plan steps ahead.” Rheed took off his gloves as he exited the container, trying not to let Greg notice his point was getting through.
“I doubt we’ll find anything in here. Anything of significance she probably took with her.”
“One other thing.” Greg walked with Rheed. “Interplanetary has set up an information network specifically for tracking this Driftwave person. Now if he’s smart enough to pull off what he did then he’s also smart enough to change his handle. However, a hacker like him is going to be using a custom rig; it’s unlikely he’ll want to get rid of it. We’ve set up a network across the whole system to try and detect custom hardware like what we think he’ll be using. Now all information on his whereabouts is mandated to be given to all law enforcement agencies, but since you’re our new rising star, I’m setting you up with a direct link to the network. The first word we get of his hardware being used somewhere, you’ll know.”
“You’re saying if I get word I’m supposed to drop everything and go after him?”
“This man created a tsunami that killed thousands of innocent people, eternally re-defining ECOterrosism. Between him and a redhead accountant accused of killing a criminal informant— emphasis on the criminal—yes, drop what you’re doing and get him.”
“I see your point.” Twice in one day, Rheed was annoyed when Greg was so right.

Sol System Chapter 7

This Room was dirty, very very dirty. Sure it kind of looked clean, clean like it had been vacuumed, sheets had been changed, but you could just feel how it was dirty. Even the air smelled filtered, and clean air doesn’t smell like it’s been filtered, it just smelled like air. Driftwave had hacked his way into a prestigious sweet on the ship, thinking like most ships, it would be cleaner, and sure it LOOKED clean, but he could tell it wasn’t. He had only two bags with him; one had mostly a computer, and the other had mostly cleaning supplies. A box of disposable gloves was opened, a whole container of a universal sanitizer was used, and one custom made device Driftwave referred to as a “Bathroom Buster”: a can sized device he activated in the bathroom that would soak the room in sanitizer as well as glow brightly with ultraviolet, germ killing light. It would be safe to breathe the air in the bathroom in about thirty minutes, which Driftwave regretted now realizing he had to pee.

After the cleaning was done, he sat back in the chair next to the desk sideways from the bed and across from a large screen, a window was above the headrest of the bed and across the room from the door. Driftwave noticed that the nice room on board this ship was a bit like the average room at a motel. He thought back to the last place he stayed, the executive suite on the Avalon platform. He thought about the view of the ocean, the breeze he let in by leaving the balcony doors open, the salt air smelling so clean. He thought about how nice the bandwidth was on a platform with a direct satellite link. Then his smile dropped a little as he thought about the sound the wave generator made when it powered up. The flashing alarms on his screens as all his firewalls screamed at him. The way he ducked out of the room before guards stormed in.

The clean room didn’t make him feel comfortable anymore. He pulled up his computer bag and set it on the desk, clearing off the lamp and complementary data pad. He untied the rags covering the bag, but hesitated, getting up and closing the blinds to the window that showed stars before pulling out the pieces of his computer. The entire rig was custom, a series of modules he connected with large cords. A few small solid screens and a large projected screen, thrice as long as it was tall and curving slightly around Driftwave.

He checked and double checked his firewalls, ran some diagnostics, and checked for any virus. He didn’t find anything. He had no proof that the only crime he had committed was fraud to get a free suite, that he hadn’t caused a natural disaster and killed thousands of people. So it wasn’t his rig that had gotten hacked, it was the station’s computers, and whoever did it altered the system to point the breach at him. But how did they know he was there? Why would someone commit an act of global terrorism then blame him? He knew well a hacker’s vanity, when they accomplished something like hacking full control of an entire floating city they’d want the bragging rights. Why blame someone else?

He felt the shift of the entire room as the ship accelerated. He needed to figure out what to do next, and he needed to disappear till he could prove his innocence, somehow. He ran is hands through his hair, what was the next move? Where could he go? It took Driftwave a moment to realize he had only one real option. He directed his attentions to the ship’s computers, into navigation, then looked at the ship’s flight plan. He was in luck; in a week the ship was making a pass by the Mars station. That put it in Shuttle range of the floating oasis of the tech geek. Driftwave was going to the Toshi Station.

Sol system Chapter 6

The laser hurt more than the needle did. It had to make the Tattoos look old though, at least the gel being applied by the attractive yet probably a prostitute assistant cooled the burning down while accelerating the healing. Oliver tried to remember what each tattoo meant as it burned deeper into his skin. The Chinese on his forearm meant he was an accountant for the Triads, he was allowed to handle money. The dragons around his bicep clutched its own tail, meaning he reported to someone higher up. If he moved up the ranks it would be covered up by something else.
“We need more.” The tattoo artist looked up Oliver as if he was waiting for him to answer a question. Oliver stayed looking confused to avoid thinking about the pain. “You need more to look natural, or else people know all these new.” The tattoo artist’s accent was so thick Oliver had to process all the words twice and the sentence three times.
“Start with where he grew up.” The voice came from behind the reclined chair Oliver sat in, but he instantly rolled his eyes in recognition of its owner.
“Ooohhh, Xiao Ling, I honored you come in person.” The Tattooist did a small bow from his seat behind the small consol that linked to the mechanical arms controlling the lasers and needles. Xiao waved at the old man low as if to motion him away, but really he was just ignoring him.
“You grew up on the east side right? Alota tea shops that way, you seem like the kind of guy who would drink alota tea.” Xiao turned a chair around and sat in it facing Oliver, his smug grin floating above his arms crossed on the chair’s back.
“Ooohhhh I have good art for just the thing.” The tattooist began motioning at his consoles, looking through stored art.
“” Xiao mocked the elder tattoo artist in Mandarin, knowing full well he only spoke Cantonese. Oliver spoke enough mandarin to get by; but simply stared at Xiao Ling as he pulled a strange object from his jacket. This would be only the third time Oliver and Xiao had spoken, but Oliver already knew he would hate this man forever. “What about something for his mother? She died recently you know.” Oliver’s blank stare became dire as Xiao put on a strange piece of jewelry, a three inch wide ruby plate, backed with gold and two rings attached to it that he slid his fingers through before making a fist. “What was her name again?”
“Mae.” Oliver felt her name soiled by uttering it in front of him. Xiao simply returned his grin and scooted closer to Oliver’s chair, thoroughly inspecting the assistant applying regenerative gel on Oliver’s arm.
“I make something new just for her, how do you like this for tea?” The tattoo artist swung his screen around to display the logged artwork. Oliver turned his gaze to inspect the piece, not really caring what it was but agreeing to it anyway. He didn’t notice Xiao place the ruby plate in the path of one of the lasers until Xiao had grabbed his right arm and pushed the plate against it.
Oliver screamed with anger and pain, bearing his teeth at the almost laughing Xiao, the needles and lasers stopping and pulled back as movement sensors sounded. Oliver stared at the Ruby plate, now a bright red, having been heated. Xiao pulled back after a full 10 seconds. Oliver continued to writhe as he stared at the brand, the burnt flesh distorting most of what it said. The startled assistant moved towards Oliver and began applying the gel to the burn, who twitched at every touch.
“Oh don’t be such a baby.” Xiao took his jacked half off, revealing over a dozen burns of the same type covering his arm. The healed brands showing an intricate design of dragon wrapped around Chinese symbols.
“Mister Xiao, I did not know.” The tattooist stood astonished and worried.
“Its alright old man, nobody did.” Xiao pulled back on his jacket and grabbed Oliver’s shoulder like they were brothers. “But now everyone will.” He laughed as he left the room. Silence prevailed in his absence. The Tattooist not making a noise, the assistant applying gel, but keeping her gaze averted.
“What does it mean?” Oliver got more worried as the Assistant’s face showed astonishment at the question, making eye contact just long enough to be polite and answer the question.
“They are awarded for each kill in service to the Triad.”