Arnarxx was continually surprised by the Human known as the Thief-Taker General. Every time they thought they understood the alien creature, he shattered their expectations again.

Arnarxx most recently was surprised by the Human’s uncanny calm in the face of danger. Especially in the face of a Vyrăin female who loomed nearly twice as tall as him and sported all the claws and teeth and armor that the Human naturally didn’t. Like the Human, she dressed with far more cloth than the general public: a set of beautiful robes that drew the eye to her horned ridges and sharp claws.

Perhaps it was because she came to him in his place of power, the well-appointed office behind the restaurant, that he felt no fear. That hadn’t helped Arnarxx, however, who was merely there by request of the Thief-Taker General to hand in their takings and make reports.

“You little animal,” the giant lizard hissed. The Vyrăis took a thunderous step toward the Human and loomed over him such that he nearly had to bend over backward to look her in the eye. But he did not flinch or back away. “You think you can get away with this? If it were not for me, you would still be rotting away in that prison!”

“And now I am not,” the Thief-Taker General said with an eerie calm. “Now it is you, Charlele Hisste, who is emerging from prison, and I who holds all the power.”

The Vyrăis woman froze wholly and suddenly. But this was not out of fear, Vyrăis were descended from ambush predators of their vicious homeworld, and to freeze was to prepare for a deadly strike.

“Tell me again what you told me this morning, Arnarxx,” the Human said without looking at where the gelatinous arachnid cowered in the darkened room.

“Block twelve, unit eight-B. She asked for room three at hour eighteen and forty-three minutes, Lady Bruhel marked that she asked for Star – her regular escort,” Arnarxx recited. They found some comfort in merely listing the information the Human had had them look for. Once Arnarxx had been pointed in the right direction, it was simple to break into the simplistic security of the brothel’s personal server. “She remained for three hours. Last week she visited on first-day and fifth-day at hour eighteen and-“

“Enough!” Charlele Hisste snarled. “It means nothing!”

“Not to me, of course not,” the Human said, his impassive expression showed only the barest hint of a smile. “But to the other Vyrăis on the council? What will they say when they hear that not only is the unwed Charlele Hisste spending her time with a female escort instead of courting a sire, but that the escort isn’t even Vyrăis herself?”

Charlele Hisste backed away as if she had been struck. “You wouldn’t dare!” she hissed.

The Human merely shook his head. “You Vyrăis breed slowly and rarely, and in this age of rapid expansion, most of your kind look sourly on such things. No other species would mind as much, but most other species have kept their birth rates up ...” the Human let his statement hang.

The implication, as Arnarxx took it, was that Charlele Hisste would be scorned for her promiscuous behavior. It was not so much that she saw an escort, it was the fact that no child would come of the relationship. The Human was correct that most Vyrăis were vocal about their opinions on those who did not contribute.

And in such matters of power in the Torus Terminal Councils, the council-members opinions meant everything.

“I’ll go public,” Charlele Hisste gasped. “I’ll- I’ll tell the media about what you’re doing! I’ll drag your name through the mud!” she threatened.

But the Human shrugged. “They won’t listen to what you have to say once I let this out,” he said with absolute calm. “Besides, you’re just as dirty as me, and you were caught and tried for it. Who would take a convicted extortionist’s word as truth?”

“And if I just kill you now?” Charlele snarled with a step forward.

The Thief-Taker General matched her, his much shorter leg crossing into her stance. “You may try,” he said, his voice lowered so that only she could hear.

The Human was no fool. He could not match Charlele Hisste in speed or cut and slash as she could. But despite his smaller stature, however, he was more massive and deceptively hardy. While the Vyrăis’ long limbs offered her superior reach, the Human had greater leverage and greater absolute strength – and with a single step, he had put himself in a position to take advantage of both.

And Charlele Hisste knew it. The only question was whether she could kill him in one strike – before the Human could establish a deadly grapple. Even a slash at his thick neck might not be enough, especially since he was too close to strike appropriately.

The giant lizard snorted and stepped back. Charlele Hisste scoffed and straightened her robes before she spun around and stooped to exit the Human’s office. After a moment, the string of hissing and clicking that was Vyrăis cursing was cut off as she left the restaurant. A moment later, the usual murmur of business as usual continued.

Once she was gone, the Human pursed his lips and produced a piercing whistle. In response, a Ventusi waiter trotted into the office. The Human whispered into their ear, and the Ventusi made a quick exit to summon a pair of T’nann.

“Tin-Tin, I want you to head to ...” the Human lowered his voice so only the two of them could hear. “And I want them here, unharmed,” he finished. With a wave of his hand, the T’nann pair hopped out of the room and were gone.

Finally, the Human turned back to Arnarxx. “You know who that woman was?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Charlele Hisste, former Block Eleven Under Marshal. She bought the position from the council two years ago, but was suspended and imprisoned when it came to light she was extorting bribes from people: demanding protection money, selectively arresting criminals, taking bribes to release criminals – the list is quite long,” Arnarxx recited. “With her imprisoned for the last few months, her Mathematicians have been slowly disbanding.”

“Not disbanding,” the Thief-Taker General said as he took a seat on one of his couches. He motioned for Arnarxx to emerge from their protective corner and take a position across from him. Once they had, he continued. “My gang has been hunting them down and turning them in as thieves. That is, of course, why she was so upset with me. And also why I had you look into her favorite molly house once I realized you could.”

“Simple enough, especially since you have given me such vulnerable targets,” Arnarxx admitted as humbly as they could. “The more I can add to my server array, the easier it is to infiltrate other systems.”

The Thief-Taker General nodded. “This is an escalation I was hoping to put off, but with it coming, it might be time to secure my assets. What would it take to move you somewhere new?”

Arnarxx resisted grimacing in dread. Move their computers? There were many reasons why that would be difficult. For one, the machines were bulky. And moving too many at once was bound to bring unwanted attention. There was also the fact that it was not ... systematically constructed.

Arnarxx had spent the better part of five years slowly acquiring and constructing a composite supercomputer out of sixteen-bit processors. It took up an entire room in their two-room apartment and kept that room at a blistering fifty degrees.

The factors limiting technology on Torus Terminal were varied. For one, silicon chips were not produced on Torus Terminal; all such electronics were shipped in. There was also the cosmic radiation to consider, radiation could play havoc on electronics that were not hardened against it – this typically left only older, larger, less efficient and less powerful chips.

And on top of all of this, Torus Terminal was a relatively new frontier station. At the farthest reaches of the Empire’s reach, the economy hadn’t caught up with the expansion. So, it was only products which could be produced relatively nearby, or at incredibly massive scales that made it out to Torus Station.

As a result, there were roughly three models of a processor on the entire station, and Arnarxx knew how to infiltrate just about anything that relied on them. This lack of variety and security did not stop the station from using them, however, as modern life required such speed and convenience that only digitized systems could provide. So simple terminal systems were networked across the station, and so was Arnarxx.

“It would take me a long time to deconstruct my current system, and longer still to construct a new one,” Arnarxx admitted.

“And if I were to assist you in constructing a new one, could you continue operating with your current set up?” he asked as he reached for his vapor machine.

“Yes, but I should warn you of the cost-“

“Bring me a memo listing the finances in question and a preliminary layout,” the Human said dismissively, and he puffed on the machine. “Plan for something workable to begin with, that you can expand with parts salvaged from your old system. Once you can start working at the new location, you can shut down the old one and take it apart.” He spoke without hesitation, and Arnarxx realized that the Human had likely planned to move Arnarxx’s operation long before he had called Arnarxx to meet him.

Arnarxx was surprised at their own interest. Moving their operation to somewhere new was going to take a lot of work, and it would be stressful. But they found themselves eager to begin planning for a new supercomputer: there were plenty of ways they could make maintenance and repairs more accessible, they could even possibly improve the cooling. How ambitious!

“I will need to know more about the space I’ll be moving to,” Arnarxx said, hesitant to make demands but eager to begin.