The Murderous and the Meek

[Toaster]

Olivia eyed the entrance to the bar from her booth in the far corner, hidden mostly in shadows. She tried to give off a relaxed impression to the few people who noticed her, but her clenched jaw gave away her uneasiness to anyone who cared to look closely enough. Luckily, few did. Most of the establishment’s patrons were busy drowning their weariness in alcohol and what passed for trendy music in a place like this. Some slouched in their bar stools, passed out from heavy drinking. Others shouted and laughed, knocking over glasses and spilling beverages with not a care in the world. A few sat apart, like Olivia, quietly minding their own business.

It was the usual scene at Ames’ main bar. A hodgepodge of merchants, pilots, and crewmen from all over Sirius, seeking respite from their long, arduous journeys and the massive, violent dark matter storm that raged outside the station. The cosmic weather did little to abate the constant flow of traffic through the sector of space and, thus, the station. The warnings given by both Kusari’s and Liberty’s government authorities seemed only to encourage travelers to risk the tempest. Of course – despite the danger the storm posed to any ship passing through it – the route through Kepler was still ever so slightly shorter than the alternative through Galileo. And if there was one thing Olivia knew, it was that the people that frequented this freeport were keen on moving as quickly as possible from one point to another.

So the mercenary mused, her eyes still firmly locked on the doors leading in and out of the establishment, when she noticed a newcomer enter. Shoulders hunched forward and head kept low, the figure’s eyes darted around the bar, searching. They landed on Olivia. She raised her eyebrows at him but figured that the gesture was lost in the shadows enveloping her booth. The newcomer approached skittishly, glancing around with a nervous gaze, as if at any moment someone from amongst the drunken crowd would leap at him, and wrung his hands.

Olivia sighed internally. This was her contact?

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Olivia Sable