Re-Coil - J.T. Nicholas Page 0,17
ten percent of my current net worth. Still, I knew from the diagnostics that the suit really was in good condition, and I didn’t have the time to stand around and haggle.
“Sold,” I said.
I caught a brief glimpse of surprise in the vendor’s eyes, and his smile widened just a bit more. I’d clearly paid more than he expected me to. “If I can duck behind your booth to put it on,” I hastily amended. He arched an eyebrow at me and I shrugged. “I don’t feel right being unsuited.”
That was mostly true… I’d salvaged a lot of wrecks over the years and had a more intimate knowledge of just how many things could go wrong in space than your average hab-dweller. I got itchy in unfamiliar habitats if I didn’t have a suit handy. But, more importantly, I needed to get out of the clothing that marked me as a fresh coil and made it that much easier for hab security to find me whenever they got around to looking.
“Ah, yes. I understand,” the vendor said with a knowing smile. My implant pinged with the arrival of the invoice. I opened it and gave it a quick scan. Standard boiler plate, caveat emptor, liability waiver and so forth. I mentally “clicked” the pay button and was five hundred credits poorer. A ping from Sarah indicated that she was aware of the purchase and was adjusting ticket purchase constraints accordingly. “You may change behind the stall.”
I grabbed the suit and ducked behind the plastic and metal scrapheap. I pulled off the hospital clothes and slid the vacc suit on. There was an uncomfortable moment as the suit adjusted, nanitic fibers shifting and crawling over my skin, and a much more uncomfortable moment as the plumbing connections were made.
Sarah, please do a full scan and link with the suit and register it on your system.
Of course, Langston. I also have flight information available for you, when you are ready for it.
“Helmet,” I said aloud.
I felt the slither and slide of the vacc suit as it shifted, forming a tight hood that framed my face. A transparent shield wrapped around my face, and a pair of indicators appeared in the top left of my vision indicating that suit integrity and internal suit oxygen were both at one hundred percent. “Helmet off,” I said. The procedure reversed itself, the face-shield and hood peeling away and de-forming back into the suit itself. Good enough.
I wanted to review the flight information from my agent, but I’d been standing around behind the vendor stall for too long. I scooped up the discarded hospital clothes and stuffed them into a reformulator before heading back out into the press of people. I let the crowds carry me back and forth at random, though always flowing rimward. The shuttles would be on the outer most ring of the habitat… along with the most intense security.
The flow of people brought me close to a corridor bracketed by stalls—one a hydroponics stand stacked tall with fresh fruits and vegetables that set my mouth to watering and the other bearing a selection of knives of all makes and designs. That one reminded me uncomfortably of the blade the assassin had carried, but it also afforded me the opportunity to duck into a quiet corner. Display flight information, Sarah.
A grid sprang to life in my vision, showing a list of ships, departure and arrival times, and prices. Sarah had included all the possible flights, even those outside of my current free credit balance. Those were grayed out. I couldn’t think of any way to get more credits fast enough to matter—well, none that I was willing to pursue—so I deleted those with a thought. That took out half the flights. I needed something leaving soon, today if possible, but certainly no more than a day or two from now. Another twenty percent of the available options vanished. Of the flights that remained, only two were headed directly to Daedalus, and one of those left in—I pulled up a chronograph—four hours. The Bannon.
The ship was listed as a mid-sized cargo freighter, not a passenger shuttle, but it wasn’t uncommon for such vessels to have passenger berths. It would be slower than a shuttle but getting off Prospect fast was more important than getting to Daedalus fast, since once it was disconnected from a hab, a ship was essentially the sovereign territory of wherever it was registered. And traveling by freighter would be cheaper. I