Chapter Six — Part 2

Kotian looked relieved, and Tiffany stared at Fluff in disbelief. Tiffany would doubt anybody our ages could be virgins. Knowing Tiffany’s past, I understood her disbelief. I looked nervously at Kotian, who seemed to tell me with his eyes that I had his permission. I wondered at this, because even with his permission, I still had to get Fluff to like me enough to make love to me.

With the ship ready for battle, we left Earth for deep space. We would then link into GWIN, the galaxy wide information net, and would try to find information on data crystals. I looked back over my shoulder, through the rear portal. The cornfield had some mild damage. Burned in its surface was a series of symmetrical patterns: Patterns that the farmers might eventually find. With any luck they wouldn’t place any religious significance to them. Perhaps they would blame insect damage for the circles burned into the field. More likely they’d be baffled completely.

“Where to now?” I adjusted my new pirate’s garb.

Fluff looked at me, “Well, the governor of the Forever Children is dead, perhaps we can find this precious memory crystal and claim it for its rightful owner.” I hadn’t told Tiffany my plans yet, I didn’t want to worry her.

“How current is the database on this ship?” Fluff wondered, trying to find an update record.

“It was sitting dormant for nearly five years before you two stole it.” Lim said.

“We could drop our grid maker into the ship’s computer, and update the historical records.” Tiffany suggested.

“I hadn’t thought of that.” Kotian ran back to his ship, still sitting in the cargo bay. “Here you go, Captain Bit, our data files.”

I took the small mechanical device from Kotian and plugged it into the computer port. Within seconds, our ship’s memory banks were completely updated. I ordered the computer to scan for any recent thefts of neurocrystal technology. “Tiffany, we’re looking for a memory crystal, one so old it might even be considered a museum relic, if it wasn’t still capable of storing about five times the data of all the data crystals in existence today.”

I wondered how Tiffany, with her rose pale complexion could have had such a dark skinned girl like me as a daughter, even with Kotian’s help.

“No thefts, but a discovery. Lysatoma Enterprises has acquired the crystal, and has it stored in a safe zone.”

“Does it say where?” Tiffany asked. “Does the data tell us which company is in charge of security.”

“Manapou Industrial Security. Manapou is owned by Lysatoma.”

“We need to sneak into Manapou.” She said.

Fluff looked at me as if I’d left my brain in another room. He didn’t have a chance to say anything insulting.

“We can’t.” Kotian said. “Manapou uses an entire solar system for its headquarters and storage facilities. The entire system is heavily secured. There simply is no getting to the core.”

I smiled. “The data files say that the crystal is stored in a pocket of Otherspace, and if that’s the case, we can probably go right to it, as soon as we know its coordinates in Otherspace.”

“You mean they would keep it in an Otherspace well?” Kotian liked the idea, “Of course, Otherspace is the safest place to keep anything. Weapons don’t kill in Otherspace.”

“I bet once we get to that crystal it’ll pop to its original coordinates in Realspace, and an entire task force will be waiting for us.” Fluff said.

I looked at Fluff, delighted at the prospect. “This’ll be our first pirate raid. Let’s go get ‘em.”

“With that crystal.” Kotian said, “We could buy ten of these ships.” He always had a mind for money.

“It’d be suicide to attack.” Lim said.

Fluff quick to point out complexity of the feat. “It’s going to be tricky. Maybe we should try the direct approach. If we ask for contact with the crystal, they might grant it to us. After all, just looking at something isn’t a crime — is it?”

I reluctantly agreed. “We’ll do it, but you people sure know how to take the fun out of being a pirate.”

The Persimmon entered Otherspace with a click and a pop, its Otherspace engines wining. The complaint ended with a sharp ping. Tiffany and Kotian seemed ignorant of our angelic metamorphosis, and again Lim was baffled by it. I knew better — Tiffany may have mothered me, but she was no idiot. She probably knew I was an angel all along, and was waiting for the most prudent time to point it out.

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