Chromium

14.5

First draft

Dia stared at the man lying beside her, listening to the sound of his breathing, and made sure he was still sleeping. Then she sneaked out of bed, the sheets slipping off her skin as she stood up, relieved that the room was still immersed in darkness. The metal floor was cold under her feet, the temperature comfortable enough considering she was completely naked.

A bottle of wine and two glasses were still on the desk together with what remained of her lingerie. The rest of the clothes were scattered across the floor. She picked them up and slipped her pants on. Then she eyed Reyes and squeezed the top of the uniform in her hands, feeling a wave of self-disgust.

Don't think about it, Dia. It had to be done.

There was no time to wallow in self-pity. She had a job to do. She glanced at the datapad on the desk and sighed. This better be worth it.

She put on the rest of the uniform but left it unbuttoned, unpinned the imperial insignia from her lapel, and retrieved one of the spy gadgets Omen had handed her. Then she went to the desk, ignoring the bottle of wine, the glasses, and her lingerie to focus on Reyes' datapad. She pressed the power button, turning it on.

Predictably, the device was password-protected, but she'd come prepared. The insignia seemed to have a life of its own and escaped her grasp, sticking to the datapad like metal attracted to a magnet. The screen flickered when the automatic hacking software Omen had provided her became operational, bypassing the password. Unfortunately, neither Dia nor Omen had expected that was just the first layer of protection.

You've got to be kidding me...Retinal scan entry? Fingerprint recognition system? For God's sake, this is not the ship's central data banks! She glanced at Reyes, pondering whether she should call everything off or not. She didn't want to admit it, but she was sure she could bypass the control systems quite easily if she used her abilities.

But it's risky. She reasoned. That kind of kind requires concentration. If Reyes wakes up while I'm doing it... She shook her head. She didn't even want to think about it. 

On the other hand, this probably means that whatever is stored inside is important. She admitted, her shoulders dropping as she resigned herself to the fact she had to use that weird ability. Again.

This time she tried doing something new and attempted to form a mental image, picturing the datapad's protection software as a lock. Just like last time, she could hear a robotic voice blathering in the background. She tried to ignore that endless string of numbers and imagined herself putting a key in the lock. Then she turned it and felt that familiar pain. It was almost bearable this time, but she had no time to think about that. She was in. Omen's gadget immediately started copying the datapad's drive, but there were hundreds of petabytes of data.

The data transfer isn't fast enough. She sighed. I suppose I'll have to do it the old-fashioned way.

With that in mind, Dia searched through the files, feverishly looking for something useful. Most of the information was about Daxum. It looked like a highly technical analysis of the planet's infrastructure, industry, and military. Interesting but completely useless at the moment. Dia dwelled a little longer on the so-called "List of potential threats". There were hundreds of names - mostly local gang leaders - on that list, though all the major players were included.

Dia quirked a brow when a 3d strategic map of the galaxy appeared on the screen. She zoomed in, focusing her attention on the systems under the Empire's rule. Then she stiffened. Military fleets and installations, strategical resources, supply lines - the Umbra seemed to know everything. Unfortunately, Dia was just a grunt - she had no way of knowing if the intel was correct. She zoomed out to take a look at the rest of the galaxy. Most of the imperial star systems and the areas under the rule of rival Spice lords were marked in red, unaffiliated planets in yellow, and allies in green. There was a lot of green, especially in the Fringe worlds' sector.