John Petrucci walked into the bar lounge of the Metropolis, which was still berthed on Valetta shipyard for final inspections. Petrucci was exhausted physically and mentally; he had just returned from a smuggling expedition, where air-drops of Cardamine were made to Planet Los Angeles. He ordered a Maltese ale and sat on one of the comfortable couches in the lounge.
Meiri crossed from the bar with a pitcher and a tray full of glasses, spying the exhausted form of Petrucci, she nodded in acknowledgement and hastened to meet the leader of the infamous raiders. The clink of the glasses incited a musical musing, she noted the sound for her next recording session.
"Nice to meet you in the flesh Petrucci-sama. That certainly was something: that last run. I've never seen anyone make deliveries quite like that before. I wish someone had thought of that back in Tokyo." She poured out two glasses out of habit.
Once settled, she slid a digital pink-slip across the couch, its flickering display showing a pirate transport. "I brought this down with me from kusari. It's yours. Rudess tells me you can help me find my sister."
Petrucci glanced at the display. He nodded slowly as he took in the details of the ship. 'Minor carbon scorring on the hull... hull looks intact, engines appear to be functional.. This is great. Thank you, Ms. Meiri.'
Petrucci took a long, thoughtful drought from his drink before continuing. 'Rudess briefly informed me of your... situation. But, he did not tell me all of the details. Tell me everything, and we'll start from there."
"We had both gone following different leads for a record deal, she told me she had some big fish on the line, on junyo i think, and that she could handle it. She hasn't touched base with me since."
Meiri dug around in the many folds of her outfit, before producing a picture of her sister.
"That's her: only in real life; she's taller, less flat...and probably not pointing a gun at you. Can't miss her really, she coughs blood a lot. I need to find her to check she has her medicine. If she's on one of those planets in your net, then I'm pretty sure she'll be able to get some: which is some re-assurance.
Oh! And she flies one of the pretty sisterhood ships, and isn't fluent in bretonian like me, 'sport off tee wot wot owld been' see? So: level with me; do you think there's a song in all of this?"
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