RTRN-NULL

[Calyx]

She stepped out of the shower, drying her hair with a towel.

"Data Breach" she said aloud. "What's the status on the fabrication bench?"

"Current progress is at 89%. Estimated 2 hours to completion."

"For real? Identify what's taking so long."

There was a pause as the AI she'd installed ran the numbers.

"Current materials are insufficient for quick fabricating. Materials need to have impurities removed before they can be applied to project."

She groaned out loud as she pulled a shirt over her head.

"Scan data files obtained over the past year. Find a location where we can get higher purity Iridium."

Once again there was a brief pause before the AI spoke.

"Unknown. Analysis indicates that there is a 63% chance that higher quality Iridium can be found somewhere in the Omicron systems."

"Screw that. I don't wanna get a colonoscopy during an encounter of the fifth kind." she said referencing the ancient movie she'd watched with her dad. "Will lower quality materials damage the project at all?" she asked.

"Negative. Time to completion will be longer, however materials are sufficient enough to complete project with no defects."

"Great, keep working on it. Inform me when it's done."

"Please be advised, user NULL, this will be the last of the Iridium ore stores. Cargo will need to be replenished before another attempt is made at a new Prototype."

Damnit. Another kink in the plan. It was made worse when she didn't know where to get Iridium from the source. She'd look through some databases and see if she could find any hints to another location that wasn't in the Omicrons. Those systems made her uncomfortable.

She'd been working on this project over the past year but wasn't certain if it would bear any fruit. She had the idea far earlier when she was learning from the Lane Hackers on Rochester when they taught her about Trade Lanes and Jump Gates. Her couriers would need it if they would be able to pass undetected throughout the house systems delivering their ill-gotten goods to their clients. She'd gone through two dozen prototypes already. Each one more dangerous than the last. She had a power problem, the amount of power the device required wasn't practical to equip on any ship much less a freighter. The last one had nearly thrown her across the room when electricity arced across the room and necessitated a two day stay in a hospital on Planet New Tokyo along with a stern visit from her father on the merits of safety when doing experiments.

"Safety just slows things down, dad." she said out loud to no one in particular. She'd said the same thing to him at the hospital which resulted in her getting a head slap from the old man.

Speaking of, she hadn't talked to him in a while. She went to her console and pulled up her communication node and sent a request off to Rochester. A few moments later a grizzled old man sat down in front of his terminal.

"There's my girl. I was wondering if you forgot about the old man."

"Never. You'd come find me if I did and make me never forget it again."

He laughed a jolly laugh.

"How are things going on your front?"

"Things are good. Made about 380 million credits today."

Her dad had a coughing fit at the number and looked to the screen in shock.

"Hacking is profitable I see. I should've got into it."

"You'd hate it. I have to deal with the scum of the universe some days...although sometimes I get cute clients." she said thinking of Leo.

"You're probably right. I'm glad you checked in though. Remember Robbie? That young Junker fellow that fancied you back when you were younger?"

Ugh. "What about him?"

"Turns out the idiot tried to pirate the wrong convoy. Hit up a Zoner passing through Bering. Got his ass fried by a Zoner Cruiser that was just behind them escorting them. Never saw it coming."

"What? A Zoner? Aren't they like, pacifists?"

"For a girl that's got her hands in all kinds of databases, you still don't know a lot about the world." he said using an old adage. "They're far from pacifists. They're more defensive than anything. Rumor has it they're ramping up their defensive stance in the past few months. I just wanted to let you know to keep your nose clean and not piss any of them off. Knowing you, I'm sure you've got your hands in a lot pies rooting around looking for things. Just...be careful, okay?"

"I will dad. How are other things?"

The two talked for about an hour before her dad said he was getting off to go to bed. They wished each other well, said their good-byes and ended the call.

So...Zoners attacking people. It wasn't unheard of. When she was younger she'd heard of then protecting their stations with a ferocity but never anything like escorting their vessels through space. With her couriers passing through a lot of Zoners systems, she'd need to make sure that they were aware of this development and ensure that they kept their weapons on hold when passing near Zoners or their stations. Silently thanking her father for the information, she passed on the word to those she had out in the field. All acknowledged her instructions as well as a few stating they'd already seen some of the heavily armed Zoner ships passing through certain systems to their stations. Whatever had kicked the Zoner hornets nest seemed like something she needed to get her head wrapped around. Plus, she had some time to kill while the fabricator spat out her newest prototype.

She sat down at her terminal and started typing away, jumping from database to database searching for any clue as to the sudden change in the political climate where the Zoners were concerned. She found a lot of references to a "Zane McAllister" but when she searched for his info she found nothing on the man himself, not even in their Defensive Fleet databases. Seems a lot of his personal information had been scrubbed from the net. A wise precaution for someone leading a powerful fleet. She searched for anything on his background and found some breadcrumbs that he may have been Bretonian Navy at some point, a Zoner news story about a Nephilim being found in the outer reaches of Sirius space, and that was pretty much it. Nothing that would indicate a reason for the sudden buildup of Zoner forces.

"You'll give up your secrets." she said typing faster, determined to find the information she sought.