Hard Luck Hermit

“So now that you’ve had the interview and humiliated a grown woman, what’s your next move?”

“Technically the grown woman humiliated herself,” Tooley said. “I was merely the canvas on which she painted her own humiliation.”

“I don’t care,” Kamak said. “I mean what are we doing next?”

“I don’t know, you’re the jobs guy,” Tooley said. “You want something to do, find us something to do.”

“That’s kind of hard, for reasons previously discussed,” Kamak said.

“Then we’re sitting around until we have reason not to sit around,” Tooley said. “I get prime docking fees on Centerpoint, this is the cheapest place for us to park our asses.”

While Tooley would rather be doing something, if she was going to be doing nothing, she wanted to do it cheaply. She got a steep discount on services at Centerpoint because of her “saved the universe” credit, reducing the normally high cost to almost nothing.

“I need to get one of you other bastards signed up with the Guild,” Kamak said. “Somebody else needs to do the job hunting.”

“Nope, that’s a you problem,” Doprel said.

“Maybe instead of waiting for a job to come to us, we could try asking someone?” Corey suggested.

“You want us to go around begging for work?”

“Not begging, just asking,” Corey said. “It’s been a while since we called Thoth and To Vo. Maybe they’ve got something.”

“If Thoth had something, it’d give us something,” Kamak said. “Also, we lack a lot of the subtlety he usually looks for.”

Paga For’s resident information broker had never shied away from asking for their help, but what he needed and what they could give were two very different things. He was lord of a planet of pirates and criminals, and the crew were at least nominally aligned with law and order thanks to their newfound celebrity. That same celebrity also made it hard for them to engage in any kind of subtlety, another roadblock to employment from a crime lord.

“Well, what about To Vo?”

“What about her?”

“Maybe she’s on to something,” Corey said. “You never know.”

“I know exactly what she’s up to,” Kamak said. “Not much.”

After joining internal affairs, To Vo had been very effective at rooting out corruption, and even sent them leads on rogue cops to bounty hunt, but that effectiveness had dried up fast. To Vo liked to think she had successfully rooted out corruption, while everyone else realized that the corruption had just gotten better at hiding from her.

“We could at least try and ask,” Corey said. “Especially with all that shit that Ghost asshole said. Good time to have friends in high and low places.”

“I don’t consider a mid-level internal affairs office a high place, but...fine, you’ve got a point,” Kamak said. “I’ll get in touch with Thoth.”

“And To Vo?”

“You can call To Vo,” Kamak said. “She likes you better anyway.”

Kamak had gradually acquired something approaching respect for To Vo, but it was threadbare on a good day, and he hadn’t had many good days lately. He left Corey to make that call while he sent a message to Thoth. Actually calling Thoth was pointless, as the massive worm didn’t have ears or a mouth, so Kamak typed up a quick message and sent it to Thoth. As expected, he got a response back in seconds. It simply read “No Interaction Required” -Thoth’s way of saying he had nothing to say. Kamak set the tablet aside and sat down as To Vo finally answered Corey’s call.

“Corey, are you in trouble?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Oh. Well, that’s nice.”

“Did you expect me to be in trouble?”

“A little.”

“That’s- fair,” Corey admitted. “No, everything’s mostly fine, I just wanted to check in. Catch any corrupt cops lately?”

“Oh, no, I’ve actually stepped away from work for a while,” To Vo said.

“You? Not working? Are you in trouble?”

To Vo was one of the most work-addicted people Corey had ever met. Even when she’d been a guest aboard their ship, completely removed from her office, she had taken notes on everything that happened and kept the ship clean just to keep herself busy. To Vo La Su not working was as unthinkable as gravity not working.

“No, everything’s fine. Good, great even,” To Vo said. “I’m just-”

She paused for a second before continuing.

“Do you want to come over for dinner? We should catch up in person.”

“Right, catch up in person,” Corey said. “Should I bring a...gift?”

“Are you trying to ask if you should bring a gun?”

“Uh, maybe?”

“I’m genuinely not in any danger, Corey, I just want to talk to you in person,” To Vo said. “Could you make it next swap, twenty-three-ten Centerpoint time?”

“Yeah, probably,” Corey said. He still felt like he was missing something, but To Vo genuinely didn’t seem to be in any kind of distress. Now he had to accept the invitation, because he needed to know what she wanted to talk to him face-to-face about.

“Okay, I’ll see you then,” To Vo said. “Bring the rest of the crew too, of course. If they want to come, that is. I imagine Kamak won’t.”

“You’d be surprised,” Corey said.

“No I wouldn’t,” To Vo said. She said goodbye, and Corey hung up.

“So, apparently she wants to talk to us in person,” Corey said. “You interested in going?”

“She in trouble?”

“No.”

“Then no,” Kamak said. He got up and returned to his quarters, slamming the door shut behind him. Apparently To Vo knew him pretty well.