disappeared. I almost had Heart take control, but instead told him to watch my back in case I did anything stupid or was leaning towards unrecoverable.
After what seemed entirely too long, with Heart pretending to be me on the comm-link so I could focus entirely on landing him, we secured a place on a mid-sized pad. Since we hadn't actually arranged for the sale of our merchandise, we hadn't lined up a hanger or any kind of storage. We figured we would be here for a week tops, so used our imaginary company to pay for the pad. Comms were actually simple, since the new dampers I had picked on Luna could link directly with Ganymede, and Heart could tap into their communications system.
Shortly after he had swapped into standby, I strode down the gangplank, not sure what to expect. I ended up meeting a customs officer with a bored look on his face, so I tried to counter his apathy as best I could with a smile and played stupid. Told him it was my first solo run and saw if he wouldn't educate me a bit.
One of the best parts of bureaucracies, especially known corrupt ones is nepotism. Everyone has a cousin or a brother-in-law. By playing dumb, and leveraging his self-interest, getting him to help himself, he could end up helping us at the same time. While I was doing this, Heart was using my damper's earpiece, and one of its lenses to give me a little more information on our new friend. Nothing distracting, but enough to allow me to nudge and tweak the conversation in the right direction. Not much later, he had us processed with minimum graft and pointed towards the sector where he planned to rob us blind for our cargo.
Chapter 11
I hopped onto the nearest tram and followed the directions my new customs buddy had given. I normally shut down when traveling, but Heart was tapped into my dampers and this was a completely new experience for him. Since he could see through the lens display, and hear through the mic, he was rattling off questions as fast as he could compose them. Luckily, my tramcar was empty so I was able to answer freely, and swivel to look at everything Heart wanted to see.
“Ari, can we get you higher resolution aud-vid equipment?” I wasn’t tracking, so I asked him to explain. “Our communication equipment is adequate” a distinct note of disdain, “but it could be better. I researched some commercially available alternatives of a similar style to the ones you currently wear, which are far more robust.”
It hit me. To me, my dampers were merely a pair of glasses to adjust the incoming light and sound to the correct level, with minor communication capability. To him, the glasses were a lifeline to the outside world. His normal connections were through satellites, security cameras, or whatever other feed he could find. On Luna, those were extremely limited and locked down. He was unintentionally blinded. While I traveled, my wearing even an inexpensive set was giving him an expanded view he didn’t have access to before.
I had him tell me where the best nondescript pair could be found, and detoured immediately to purchase a couple. I also told him we would figure out how to expand his visibility at our earliest change. “Thank you, Ari!” I told him not to worry about it, but to let me know if there was anything else I was missing. I wasn't able to process as much or as fast as him, and I was bound to miss things.
After grabbing and syncing up the new dampers at one of the fancier casino gift shops, I grabbed a quick bite to eat while Heart played with the settings. My initial thoughts of them being only for him were completely wrong. Previously, I always leaned towards the inexpensive sets, because I tended to break them. Wear and tear was intense.
But a gig's worth of new tech added a lot of features I hadn't even considered. The new set was better than the heads up in my combat kit. On top of that, the dampers added a 270-degree visual sweep, and its audio pickup was clean enough to monitor my
After what seemed entirely too long, with Heart pretending to be me on the comm-link so I could focus entirely on landing him, we secured a place on a mid-sized pad. Since we hadn't actually arranged for the sale of our merchandise, we hadn't lined up a hanger or any kind of storage. We figured we would be here for a week tops, so used our imaginary company to pay for the pad. Comms were actually simple, since the new dampers I had picked on Luna could link directly with Ganymede, and Heart could tap into their communications system.
Shortly after he had swapped into standby, I strode down the gangplank, not sure what to expect. I ended up meeting a customs officer with a bored look on his face, so I tried to counter his apathy as best I could with a smile and played stupid. Told him it was my first solo run and saw if he wouldn't educate me a bit.
One of the best parts of bureaucracies, especially known corrupt ones is nepotism. Everyone has a cousin or a brother-in-law. By playing dumb, and leveraging his self-interest, getting him to help himself, he could end up helping us at the same time. While I was doing this, Heart was using my damper's earpiece, and one of its lenses to give me a little more information on our new friend. Nothing distracting, but enough to allow me to nudge and tweak the conversation in the right direction. Not much later, he had us processed with minimum graft and pointed towards the sector where he planned to rob us blind for our cargo.
Chapter 11
I hopped onto the nearest tram and followed the directions my new customs buddy had given. I normally shut down when traveling, but Heart was tapped into my dampers and this was a completely new experience for him. Since he could see through the lens display, and hear through the mic, he was rattling off questions as fast as he could compose them. Luckily, my tramcar was empty so I was able to answer freely, and swivel to look at everything Heart wanted to see.
“Ari, can we get you higher resolution aud-vid equipment?” I wasn’t tracking, so I asked him to explain. “Our communication equipment is adequate” a distinct note of disdain, “but it could be better. I researched some commercially available alternatives of a similar style to the ones you currently wear, which are far more robust.”
It hit me. To me, my dampers were merely a pair of glasses to adjust the incoming light and sound to the correct level, with minor communication capability. To him, the glasses were a lifeline to the outside world. His normal connections were through satellites, security cameras, or whatever other feed he could find. On Luna, those were extremely limited and locked down. He was unintentionally blinded. While I traveled, my wearing even an inexpensive set was giving him an expanded view he didn’t have access to before.
I had him tell me where the best nondescript pair could be found, and detoured immediately to purchase a couple. I also told him we would figure out how to expand his visibility at our earliest change. “Thank you, Ari!” I told him not to worry about it, but to let me know if there was anything else I was missing. I wasn't able to process as much or as fast as him, and I was bound to miss things.
After grabbing and syncing up the new dampers at one of the fancier casino gift shops, I grabbed a quick bite to eat while Heart played with the settings. My initial thoughts of them being only for him were completely wrong. Previously, I always leaned towards the inexpensive sets, because I tended to break them. Wear and tear was intense.
But a gig's worth of new tech added a lot of features I hadn't even considered. The new set was better than the heads up in my combat kit. On top of that, the dampers added a 270-degree visual sweep, and its audio pickup was clean enough to monitor my
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