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Cass awoke with a start. She had been dreaming about... something, but it was
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already gone. Her arms felt heavy. Groaning, she opened her eyes and rolled
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sideways to find a man watching her. Salt and pepper hair, and a face like
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leather. He must have been in his 50s, at least.
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"Your arms were starting to necrose. I had to amputate." The man looked down.
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"I'm sorry."
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"What?" Cass lifted an arm to rub the sleep from her eyes, and felt something
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hit her forehead. She looked up, and realised with growing horror what the man
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had meant. "My arms- you-"
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The man spoke again. "We caught your distress call and pulled you in. You were
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nearly dead, and your arms were beyond saving. Judging by the damage on your
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suit, someone was trying to kill you."
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Cass blinked, and suddenly the memories came flooding back. Jack had come to
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finish the job. Luckily for her, he'd failed a second time, but now she was
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stuck with a pair of prosthetic arms a few inches too long.
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"Your spine made it easier. I have to say, it's very high quality." The man
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rubbed his patchy stubble, and Cass realised that he, too, had replacement arms.
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His looked a lot more homemade than her own matte black carbon limbs, with
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hydraulic pistons visible under exposed steel structure. "My name's Flynn.
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You're currently on board Accipiter, my - our ship. You'll meet Alyx and
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Flathead at some point."
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================================================================================
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"How's she taking it?" Alyx span round in their chair as Bonesaw entered the
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bridge.
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"Not great. She's got my old pair of KTEK six-tens on, and fuck, they do not
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fit." He sighed. "I'll buy her a pair that fit at Kepler Delta. Tau owes me a
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favour."
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"And then what? Just leave her?"
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"Her spacesuit was hand-modded. She'll find someone to hire her."
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Alyx sighed, turning back to the controls. "I think she can stay. She's clearly
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got a good head on her shoulders and it would be... unkind, to say the least, to
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just dump her at a station with prosthetics she's not used to." They hit a few
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buttons and the ship's impulse engines ignited. "Now, I have to dock a
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spaceship. I would appreciate it if you didn't distract me."
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================================================================================
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Kepler Delta was busy. Kepler Delta was always busy, but today it was extra
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busy. Hundreds of people thronged around the station's spaceport, taking
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god-knows-what to god-knows-where. Cass was but one small body in a torrent of
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low-G traffic. Above her, the ring station stretched up and around, eventually
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meeting itself 60km above her.
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"Busiest I've seen this place in months," said Alyx, walking up behind her.
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"Flynn and Leon are haggling over scrap, so I've been told to take care of you."
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Startled, Cass turned to look at her new acquaintance. "Are you Alyx? I think I
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heard Flynn mention you."
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"The one and only." They were tall, even for a spacer. Their hair was cut short
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and might have been dyed red at some point in the past, it was hard to tell.
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"Ace pilot, quasi-dyke, good kisser. Or so I've been told," they said, grinning.
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The phrase "disarming personality" came to mind. Cass didn't quite trust them
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yet, but she could tell it wouldn't be long.
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================================================================================
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The neon sign read "TAU CYBERNETICS", all in capitals. Well, it did once. At
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present it read "TAU YBE NETICS". Alyx had assured Cass that the quality of the
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mechandise did not match that of the sign.
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"Are you sure this isn't a kidney harvesting scam?" Cass asked.
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"If we were gonna steal your kidneys we would have done it when you were blacked
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out on the ship." Alyx pushed open the door to the shop. "You'll be fine. Tau is
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a master of his craft."
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Cass followed cautiously, and was greeted by rows upon rows of arms, legs,
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spines, and other cybernetic components, as well as the faint sound of an angle
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grinder from another room. The shop was tiny, with more footprint dedicated to
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cluttered shelves and half-open crates than there was for people.
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"Tau!" Alyx yelled. "I got a friend here who needs arms fitting!"
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The grinding stopped, and after a few seconds a short, balding man appeared.
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This must be the eponymous Tau, Cass thought. He wore overalls, stained with
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grease and coolant that had accrued over many years of building and rebuilding
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people's limbs. Atop his forehead perched a pair of welding goggles. He took one
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look at Cass and -
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"Oh man, you look like an orangutan!" Tau burst out laughing.
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Cass blinked. "What's an orangutan?"
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"Sorry, I shouldn't laugh. An orangutan is a type of monkey. From Earth. They
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have really long arms." Tau cleared his throat. "Did you get measurements of,
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yknow... the old set?"
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Alyx pulled a flash drive from their pocket. "Here."
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"This shouldn't take long. Six-tens are pretty easy to fit." Tau took the drive
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and disappeared back into his workshop. The grinding began again.
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@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
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0Accipiter - Augmentation /Accipiter/005_augmentation.txt
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0Accipiter - TRANSMISSION RELAY 2517-04-22 /Accipiter/004_transmission_relay_0.txt
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0Pizo - Emphatically happy! /Pizo/05.txt
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0Celestian - CONN. ESTABLISHED /Celestian/CONN-ESTABLISHED.txt
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@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
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{"name": "cosmic.voyage", "url": "https://cosmic.voyage", "signup_url": "https://cosmic.voyage/join.html", "user_count": 256, "want_users": true, "admin_email": "james@tomasino.org", "description": "Cosmic Voyage is a public-access unix system and tilde community based around a collaborative science-fiction universe. Users write stories as the people aboard ships, colonies, and outposts, using the only remaining free, interconnected network that unites the dispersed peoples of the stars.", "users": [{"username":"tomasino"},
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{"name": "cosmic.voyage", "url": "https://cosmic.voyage", "signup_url": "https://cosmic.voyage/join.html", "user_count": 257, "want_users": true, "admin_email": "james@tomasino.org", "description": "Cosmic Voyage is a public-access unix system and tilde community based around a collaborative science-fiction universe. Users write stories as the people aboard ships, colonies, and outposts, using the only remaining free, interconnected network that unites the dispersed peoples of the stars.", "users": [{"username":"tomasino"},
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{"username":"demosthenes"},
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{"username":"chiaroscuro"},
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{"username":"tildebeast"},
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@ -253,4 +253,5 @@
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{"username":"hellholesys"},
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{"username":"dwarfduck10"},
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{"username":"wagnarok"},
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{"username":"thrig"}]}
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{"username":"thrig"},
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{"username":"cybrefox"}]}
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