Leading the group back towards the command deck where she had last seen a holopad, Priya had to fight to keep her nerves in check. Her feigned emotional outburst may have bought her a precious ounce of sympathy from Cameron-which was in truth her main objective-but now, she had to win over the rest of them, and there was only one way she could think of to do that.

  “Just bear with me one moment,” She said, flashing as genuine a smile as she could muster at Logan, Aurora, and Marcus, with only the latter of whom being courteous enough to return one of his own. The other two, Logan and Aurora, merely settled for crossing their arms, looking pointedly at her, silently demanding for her to change their minds.

  Priya cast her eyes down, paying no mind to the many sets of eyes gazing on her. Instead she focused her attention on a brilliant white screen, where a single search bar like prompt stood prominent in the center. With a blinding motion, accompanied by the rhythmic tapping of her manicured nails on the surface of the holopad, Priya quickly typed in a website address, pausing for the briefest of moments before hitting the enter key. The machine took its time to consider the path she’d laid out for it, and for the briefest of moments, Priya had feared she’d entered something incorrectly. Her worries were for naught however, as the screen flashed brighter for a moment, before darkening to a near black background, accompanied with white writing at the top that simply read “Address Book”, and another, smaller entry box underneath it.

  “This is my personal recording keeping site,” Priya said to no one in particular as she furiously typed a password into the text box, each of the many characters obscured by a simple dot. After about the fiftieth character had been typed, she hit the enter key again. This time, there was no change in the background, with the black screen remaining, as a wall of text began to cascade up the screen as hundreds, if not thousands of entries of names, titles, businesses, addresses, captains codes, and other various contact information were loaded all at once. When all was said and done, and the page no longer moved to accommodate another block of text, Priya nodded, took a step back, and then turned to face the group.

  “This is what I can offer you all,” She said, without a hint of playfulness or sarcasm as she motioned to the holopad, “Connections.”

  “Connections to who, exactly?” Logan asked, crossing his arms and inclining his head back slightly.

  This time, a smile did in fact flash across her face, and she shrugged, “To anyone who matters.”

  There was slight murmuring from the group as they all looked from each other and then back to her. Priya could feel a sensation thrumming in the pit of her stomach, and she knew that they were impressed. She could see it in the way they spoke, or hastily eyed the screen when they thought she wasn’t looking. She knew that she was winning this war of persuasion. All she needed to do now was go in for the kill. And on this type of battlefield, she was devastatingly efficient.

  “There’s certainly a long list of benefits that comes to the men and women of my chosen… profession,” She said, pacing back and forth in front of the screen, making sure to draw everyone's eye, as she spoke with the cadence, volume, and false confidence of a practiced politician.

  “For one,” She began, “People always seem to be nice to a pretty face, even one that they know is paid to sleep with them,” She avoided looking at their faces as she expounded on this fact. The last thing she needed was for any smirk or look of disgust to throw her off her game, settling instead to study the designs on the wall as she continued.

  “For another, most people seem to be more than willing to talk about themselves. I’m not sure if it’s a pretty face, or the fact that silence seems to go hand in hand with the job. Either way, most people are fairly forthcoming as it pertains to who they are and what they do. And for most in this line of work, it doesn’t really matter. But for me personally, I like to think of myself as a business. And a business loves returning customers. As such, I’ve endeavored to learn more about my clients. Their likes, dislikes, their backstories, and histories. Everything you can think of, of anyone on this list, I know. I’ve also spent enough time with each of these men and women that I’ve built up a certain… rapport with them. Or at the very least a favor of some sort that I felt was worth putting in here. Originally, I was saving these entries as some form of last resort, in case anything went wrong in my life, but I believe that it can be better served here.”

  “Better served how?” Cameron asked, and Priya inwardly smiled, grateful that the big oaf’s ignorance in playing the long game of politics was going to allow her to cement her reason for being here. Priya turned, and scrolled through her seemingly unending list of names, before finding the one she was looking for. Without asking permission, she began to punch the code into the holotable, stepping back when she was finished, watching as a series of light sensors powered on, and waited for an answer.

  She didn’t have to wait too long, however, as after a few moments, the lights began to shift and coalesce as the visage of a woman was displayed for all to see. She was older, perhaps in her mid fifties, with a pair of square framed glasses perched atop a sharp, angular nose. Her gray hair was done up in a hastily made bun, with wisps splaying out in all manner of directions, as if she’d spent the day in a lightning storm. She wore a black pantsuit with salmon trim, though it was hard to see while she was hunched over a massive wooden desk, scribbling away at a series of old world paper documents. So engrossed was she in her work, that she didn’t even bother to look up as she spoke, merely letting her harsh, gravelly voice-likely the product of bad smoking habit-tell the group watching, that she was aware of their presence.

  “Whoever is calling,” She said, “Let it be known that you are currently bothering a very busy woman. I should hope you have a good reason for doing so.”

  “Oh come now, Olivia,” Priya said, stepping into the frame of the holocaster as she slipped back into the easy going, breathy voice that came natural when talking to clients, “You gave me your number for a reason right? Don’t tell me you thought I wouldn’t call.”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The woman known as Olivia looked up, then quickly did a double take, her jaw going slightly slack in surprise.

  “Ms. Patel!” She exclaimed, as a smile flashed on her face. She quickly set her papers to the side, endeavoring to give Priya her full attention.

  “Wh- I mean… to what do I owe the pleasure?” Olivia asked, as she fussed with her suit and hair, before focusing on Priya.

  “Oh, don’t you bother with such trivial things as your appearance ‘Liv,” Priya said, waving a hand dismissively, “You know that you’re always a vision in my eyes. And I told you… Call me Priya.”

  Olivia flushed at the familiar moniker, “Always the flatterer, aren’t you?”

  “I’ve been told it’s one of my many talents,” Priya said, giggling softly. She could feel everyone’s eyes switching from her to the person on the screen, and back again as they exchanged small talk, and inside, she felt something akin to satisfaction and excitement. It was strange, but a part of her enjoyed having them watch her work. Nevertheless, she had a point to prove.

  “How’s Paul? The kids?” Priya asked, taking a more relaxed stance.

  Olivia on the other hand seemed to tense up the mention of the first name, and she shook her head, looking down as she sighed heavily, “I don’t know. The kids are fine, you know. Asha is nearly ready to head off to university, and Tira just started high school, but Paul is another story. I’m fairly certain he’s going through some sort of mid-life crisis. He ran off with his secretary about three months ago.”

  “Oh my gosh, ‘Liv I’m so sorry,” Priya said, a look of genuine concern forming on her lips.

  Olivia shrugged again, “Oh don’t worry. It’ll be okay once she figures out that he’s not the one that’s actually in charge of the bank accounts. I’m sure he’ll come crawling back once he’s ran out of the allowance he’s saved up, and we’ll work it out.”

  “Well…” Priya said, offering the woman a wink, “You always know how to reach me if you get a bit… lonely.”

  The woman blushed again, but genuinely chuckled, “Oh stop it! That was a one ti-… a ten time thing and you know it!”

  “Haven’t you heard the old saying ‘Eleven times the charm?’” Priya asked with a smirk as both of the women shared a laugh.

  “Ah… maybe if I was a little younger. At any rate, what can I do for you Priya?”

  Priya chewed her lip thinking about how she wanted to approach this, “I was wondering if you still had interests over in the Bralania sector?”

  Olivia blinked, taking a moment for the question to answer, “Oh… Uh. Let me see.”

  She reached into one of the many drawers, pulling out a datapad before proceeding to scroll through it. It took her a few minutes, which she spent either tapping away on the tablet, or looking at Priya quizzically, before finally finding what she was looking for, “Yeah… We have a few outposts set up, but-”

  “Are there any that need some work done? Wetwork?”

  Olivia narrowed her eyes, “I mean, there’s one that's under threat from a rival corp but- what’s going on here Priya?”

  “Wellll,” Priya said, dragging out the word, “I’ve got a few friends who just recently started up their own GAC and are in need of work. I figured I’d try to help them out by asking around and you were the first person that came to mind.”

  Olivia raised an eyebrow, looking at her skeptically, “You really expect me to believe that?”

  “Of course I do ‘Liv!” Priya said, feigning offense, “Have I ever once asked you for anything but your time and care? Have I come to you with hair-brained schemes or asked for money?”

  Olivia winced, “No… I can’t say you have.”

  “I’m not even asking you to give them the job now! Just to take a look is all!” Priya crossed her arms, staring pointedly back at the women on the holo, “I believe that’s fair after all we’ve done together… don’t you?”

  Olivia blushed again, and looked down, considering for a moment. Finally she nodded and looked back at Priya, and smiled, “That’s more than fair actually. What’s the GAC name?”

  “Hold on one moment.” Priya said, holding up a finger before pressing the mute button and stepping out of frame. Once she was sure that Olivia could no longer see her, she turned to the group.

  “So? Can I get a job?” She asked, shrugging as she did so, “Contract coordinator or something?”

  Logan stared at her wide-eyed, “How the fuck do you know Oliva Quindell?!” He exclaimed.

  “Who is Olivia Quindell?” The other three said in unison.

  “No one of major importance,” Priya said with a smirking shrug, “She just owns the biggest lithium mining consortium in the western galactic arm.”

  Cameron’s, Aurora’s, and Marcus’ mouths may as well have plummeted to the floor with how wide they fell open, while Logan merely crossed his arms and shook his head, “You still didn’t answer my question,” He said, “How do you know her?”

  “Well I believe Aurora put it best earlier,” Priya said, waving a hand over to the young mechanic, “I’m the Slutty Gym Trainer.”

  Aurora grimaced slightly, and Logan snorted, giving Priya a long hard glare.

  “Five percent finder's fee,” He said after a moment, “And you stay on the ship where I can keep an eye on you… in your own room.”

  Priya crossed her arms, and narrowed her eyes, “Fifteen percent Finder’s fee,”

  “Ten,”

  “Deal.”

  The two of them approached each other and exchanged a handshake, before Priya whirled back into view, unmuting her end of the receiver, her smile and flirtatious demeanor quickly returning.

  “Sorry about that,” She said with a soft giggle, “Had to go look it up. The GACs name is Hounds of Orion.”

  Olivia nodded, typing something away in her data pad, “Alright,” She said looking up at her again, “Send four of them my way tomorrow around noon and I’ll see what I can do… No promises of course but… I’ll give them a good once over.”

  Priya blinked, “D-Did you say four.”

  Olivia nodded, “Yep. Noon tomorrow at DaraLit HQ. Sound good?”

  At that moment, if the scream of frustration going on in Priya’s mind was audible, she knew it’d be loud enough to shatter every window on the Fenris.

  “Sounds great!”