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Which is what you were doing right now, crawling on your stomach through a narrow, twisting, poorly lit maintenance tunnel: looking for the idiot due for a meeting with some footwear.
The problem with node 252 is that it's the perfect encapsulation of everything that's wrong with Barter's power grid: a mishmash of cables crammed into too little space that somehow became a major power junction - and, consequently, too important to the station's continued operation to ever properly declutter and fix.
It is perfectly plausible that someone could get lost in the haphazard tangle of old cables of all shapes and sizes. And finding a single rogue connection within the unruly jungle of haphazardly strewn cables could take many cycles for an ordinary person. Even you with your "knack" that earned you this commission are looking at many hours spent crawling through these ducts, collecting vast quantities of dust and grime along the way.
You pause at an intersection, suppressing your energy vision and closing your eyes to let them rest for a bit. Then, as you open them, you freeze. Because, staring at you from around the next bend, is a hull rat.
They're vermin, commonly found on voidcraft and inevitable in a place as large and chaotic as Barter. About the size of your head, coated in oily, black fur, and armed with a set of long teeth capable of chewing through insulation, copper, flesh, and bone with equal ease. The buggers are absolutely fearless to boot, perfectly willing and able to attack anyone or anything that wanders into their territory. You've seen more than a few techs come back from a job with deep gouges, or missing fingers, ears, eyes...
Keeping your breath calm, you slowly shift sideways, taking weight off your right arm and sliding it out from under you so that it's free to act. The entire time, you maintain eye contact with the hull rat, watching for the slightest sign of aggression or movement that would indicate a lunge.
The creature twitches its thick, greasy whiskers and shifts its weight forward, it's hindquarters rising into the air...
...only to squeal in surprise and anger as, with a loud "paff!" neon green foam explodes around it, tossing it against the tunnel's wall, where it begins to trash violently - and uselessly, as the quick-setting adhesive agent binds it in place.
"Ha-HA! Finally got ya, ya <span class="mu-i">yitti skritti!</span>" a shout echoes triumphantly off the walls. And, moments later, another, much larger rodent-like face appears around the same bend, this one scoured with countless old scars. Its owner descends on the trapped hull rat, grabs it by the snout, forcing its jaw shut and bending its head down and, with a smooth, practiced motion, drives a thin, solid spike into the back of its neck, where the skull meets the spine.
The hull rat shudders once and goes limp - at which point its killer's attention shifts to you and he blinks several times in surprise.
"Elne, is that you? Darn, girl, long time no see."
(cont)
