Candace Backstory

“Getting the tires rotated again, Ms. Parine, are we interested in talking upgrades again?”

Candace sighed. Some people liked a surgeon who tried to lighten things up, but she hadn't gotten pre-surgery jitters in quite a while. This was just lame.

“Reading up on those old Earth books again? Who'd you get this time?”

“Delillo. You've probably never heard of him.”

“No one has ever heard of any of your favorite authors. Those books are like 15000 Zenn each, and that's for something so yellowed the ink isn't even part of the page any more. If you'd transcribe them, you could probably make some friends to talk about your favorite planes and trains and automobiles with.”

“You lose the magic, looking at them on a screen.”

“More like you don't want your library to hemorrhage value.”

“So true. I hate that anything in my care would ever hemorrhage.”

She groaned as he stuck the needle through her inguinal canal, making a show of the eight centimeter long barb coming back pristine.

“The shielding is still performing very well. Transfer radius coming back at 2.1 centimeters. Unless your lover were to put a high-frequency scanner on your thigh for a bit of foreplay, no one would ever know it was there.”

“No worries there then.”

“I'd think not. How's the eye?”

“A millimeter of jitter at a quarter kilo, and I'll thank you for sparing me the needle there. I'd guess that makes the resonance stabilizer on my brachioradialis pass too?”

“I'll consider them both functioning at 100% Steady hands, and a growing knowledge of the muscular structure? I'd say you're after my job if I didn't think you'd be too bored by it.”

“I may have to learn if it's still a no one those plantar boosters.”

He frowned, his answer coming back in a lower pitch than usual. “I've told you time and time again. Even if it wouldn't degrade from dynamic impact, the power source I'd have to put in, that close to your vitals? I'd be killing you. Even if you wanted to go magitec, you're looking at something artifact level. Anything not exceptionally well shielded would turn off your bridged processor at the very least.”

"I've been looking.  You know how hard it is to get salvage permits nowadays?  You basically have to have an in already or have pockets deep enough that you can buy one."

He clucked his tongue a couple times in response, running my payment for the checkup.  It was a nice-ish way to imply he had other patients to see, so I bounced up at the pleasant bing that told me the transfer was successful.  "Thanks doc, I'll have some new toys to play with next time we meet up."

"Always a pleasure, Candace."

Outside, the characteristic blue-tinged light of Kentar lit up the quaint little doctor's office on the corner.  Dr. Milo wasn't doing anything illegal, but better to keep those who weren't really interested in what he was doing away.  Nothing says buyer's remorse like having your arm sawn off and replaced with a solid gold dildo on a drunken bender.  Speaking of though, it was a surprisingly good day to hop by one of the nicer pubs in the Terrace, sit out on a balcony, and watch some shift-racing.

Really, it was always a good day to be outside, inside, or wherever on Kentar. The planet was close to a paradise, caught directly at the crossed apogee of the synchronous orbits of two neighboring suns.  The official story was that the inhabitants had come across the planet as it was, but from the blip in the dark energy signature before the founding of the colony, it was generally understood that they had found some way to teleport the planet to that precise location, or that they had towed one of the sun's into place to correct the orbital intersection, or that they were just plain trying to blow up the quadrant and accidentally created a new sun.  They'd specifically aimed for something outside of the signal-mapped sectors in which the Alliance and Commonwealth planets could be found, so records from its star system were found to be decidedly poor, especially with the vast change in energy signature throwing previous assumptions to the winds.

The results, though, were hard to argue with: perfect temperature year-round, light rains only at scheduled times in the more inhabited areas, planet-wide eternal sunset at all times, due to the Dyson sphere around the world filtering out 99.9995% of the suns' energy output.  As the planet was fully occupied by transplants, it found itself a wonderful melting pot of the best foods and festivals in the galaxy.  The only problem was that it was a utopia from the start: everything cost out the nose, and no one was holding on to an inheritance.  The average Kentarian was tolerable, but rich assholes playing keep-up with a planet-full of other rich assholes made them unbearable in groups for an offworlder.

A couple of Cerulean Coolers in her system though? She could deal with it.  Plus, the corner bar she chose had helmet cam switchers for each pilot in the ExtraGalactic Titan Run, which wasn't something you saw everywhere, and definitely wasn't something she could have afforded growing up.  She set the inset display to Caina Zai, her favorite by a mile: he was from her home planet, skilled, cheerful, and cute.  A natural face for shifting, racing for Praesidium Warp Technologies, who made most of the shift-drives in the first place.

An hour later, she barely felt her communicator vibrating in her own wrist.  Apparently, most people wanted better drug tolerance when they were augmented.  She'd gone just the opposite, trading the macho street cred for saving on drinks.  After all, no puzzle box had offered to open up for a drinking contest, so it was more or less purely beneficial.  She extended her middle finger to the base of her palm to pop the contact into her augmented visual field.

"Identity Not Resolved - Location: Magelan Cloud"

Now that was interesting; someone who was going to great lengths to send a communication a couple hundred light years, with enough encryption that it couldn't easily be cracked open by her looted decoder, and beamed with enough respect for data integrity that they had faith it would come through with the conversation and shifting encryption keys intact enough to unpack.

She placed her far finger against her grip to answer the call.  She had elected against the integrated retinal heads-up - live processing of foreign data was a vulnerability she wasn't willing to suffer for, so if they were choosing to broadcast video, she wouldn't know.  The voice on the other end was cold, efficient in its diction.  She'd even go as far to say it was rude.

"We are attempting to reach Candace Parine about a job opportunity.  If you have intercepted this communication, please disconnect now."

"Nope, you got me.  Candace here.  What kind of job are you looking at?  Gotta warn you, my rates are high to go out-of-galaxy."

"We can pay it.  Tell us, have you any experience with the Labyrinth?  Our interest lies in an object therewithin, and our first group has lost communications."

"I've cracked a couple chambers in the past.  Been a while, but I think I can figure it out.  Can you tell me exactly what I'm after so I can properly prepare?"

Their response came after a slight pause, where the bit of background static from the long-range broadcast was extremely apparent.  They were discussing how much they could give her.

"It's a ancient-worlder's magitec device; we are as of yet unaware of its function, though we do know the general area in which it is stored, and have an inscribed image of it.  Sending offer now."

Bullshit, she thought, as the offer flashed into her field of view.  No one is paying that for something that they don't understand.  Still, though, this was just too convenient to pass up.  A lead on some old world magitec that might be the perfect thing to push her over the top?  Who could pass that up? She accepted the contract, transaction pending retrial of the artifact.

"Well, I guess that's worth a look.  Send me the location and when you'll be there, and I'll see you then."

"We look forward to your services, Madam Parine."

With their disconnection, Candance immediately began gathering data on the location.  The next part was a risk, and probably a stupid one, but grabbing the device and splitting on these guys was not something she was interested in, and she'd need some way to figure out what she actually had in the first place.  She opened a communications line, which was connected immediately, though only to the sound of a dim whine.

Candance spoke, doing her best to keep her voice from wavering.  Maybe she'd finally lose her self-respect and make some cosmetic modifications next time.

"I have information on the future position of an Alukite ship venturing into the Magelan Cloud."

A robotic voice responded.

"Proceed."