Six

2 - The Prodigal

- FDN VESSEL "PRODIGAL", FOUR YEARS LATER, PRESENT DAY -

"I've heard about this happening on the frontier- but I never would have thought it'd happen to us."

"Nobody ever does. Just keep patrolling- if the rumors are true, then we probably have an unwanted guest aboard by now. I'm not too fond of the idea of meeting them."

As the security officers passed by him unknowingly, he couldn't help but smirk as he eavesdropped on their conversation. They were smart not to want to see him- missions like these called for no witnesses, and it wouldn't be the first time he'd had to tie up loose ends if someone managed to catch a glimpse of him.

"Tune them out. I know your ego is already big enough without some frightened guards inflating it further."

He rolled his eyes, and stepped out from the shadows of the wall he'd been hugging. "You're just envious that you don't have anyone talking about you like that."

"Yes, the one thing every girl desires is to be feared by literally everyone," she responded with no small amount of sarcasm over the comms.

"Could have fooled me," he muttered, now switching his focus to the mission and running in the opposite direction of the corridor the guards had gone.

"This ship's layout is the same as the Iridescence. You'll see the target on your right."

True to her word, it was another thirty seconds of light jogging before he saw what he was looking for- a door on the right side of the hall with a passcode panel next to it, and a sign above the door reading 'RESTRICTED ACCESS'. Checking his corners to make sure he was alone, he deactivated his cloak and watched as his hands became visible again. Reaching up to his shoulder, he drew his data-knife and pried the top of the panel open just enough to where he could see a small port. Sticking the knife in, he held it there and asked, "You got a connection?"

"Yeah, I'm in. Give me two seconds ..."

It only took her one and a half to crack the security, but he didn't need to tell her that- despite her chastisement of him for arrogance, she could be just as prideful when she wanted to be. The panel's screen seemed to be at war with itself, flashing quickly between 'ACCEPTED' and 'ERROR', but the door unlocked nonetheless.

Retrieving his knife and sliding the door open, he entered to find what he'd been looking for; the Frontier Defense Network's most recent trove of treasures.

Walking past a nanite capsule from Spyglass's Coalescence, several New Humanity spectres, and what looked to be a piece of a fold-weapon, he found his true objective- a single computer station near the back of the room.

Grabbing another object from his pouch, he placed it on the floor near his feet and pressed a button on the back of it. A faint whirr could be heard as heat began to emanate from it, and he redirected his attention to the monitor in front of him. It took him less than ten seconds to access its database and find a directory of important documents that the FDN would likely not be happy to have them seen.

"I've got the roster," he muttered, sticking his data-knife into the monitor and waiting for the connection to take hold. "Transferring data now."

A progress bar illuminated on the screen as all the information in the system was slowly copied over to the storage in his knife. He'd have to sort through it all later, of course, but he'd find what he needed eventually. All that mattered now was making sure they got everything the system had to offer, and making his way off of-