Adventure of Delia 1

The vessel docks at Space Station 13 beneath rotating hazard lights. Corin’s sealed suit remains secured in the recovery compartment, while duplicated expedition archives transmit into protected station storage.

Jack Slay waits at the intake gantry in station security gray, directing Delia and Ampli away from the crowded claims queue toward a quiet memorial processing room.

Ampli carries the recipe cases and stays beside Delia. Spaz Diego remains with his own ship and crew, keeping his distance while the station accepts the expedition records.

A red notice interrupts the gantry display: an unfamiliar external identity requests access to Corin’s raw telemetry. Station security freezes that portion of the archive pending authorization.

Jack places his security key against the memorial room console. The station system authenticates Elfhart’s license, timestamps Corin’s recovery, and copies the full telemetry into the protected protocol record.

A certified receipt appears on the console, naming Corin Vale, Elfhart, Space Station 13, and the expedition’s licensed research designation. The record is sealed against alteration.

Jack steps away from the console and crosses the memorial room. His palm strikes Delia’s cheek, sharp beneath the station’s sterile lights.

Delia turns on him and shouts the words. Tears break across her face, falling onto the sealed protocol console as the certified receipt continues to glow.

The shuttle descends through Anita’s monochrome cloud layer and settles at Elfhart’s landing pad. Delia steps onto the platform, cigarette trembling between her fingers.

She lights it with a small spark from her wand’s amplifier. The ember steadies, and smoke drifts across the landing lights toward the ventilation towers.

Ampli descends behind her with the recipe cases secured against his chest. Below, Elfhart’s service displays reactivate one by one, displaying the Floor 300 operating schedule.

The cigarette burns down between Delia’s fingers as the landing pad doors open. Warm kitchen air reaches them, carrying fermented pepper, sterilized metal, and the first signs of service preparation.

Inside Elfhart’s kitchen, Chief Amidala Aveni sits at the service counter, eating directly from a sealed storage container while the reactivated displays cycle through Floor 300 schedules.

Amidala sets the container aside and turns fully toward Delia. A civic enrollment panel opens above the counter, listing restaurateur cases, culinary inspections, and protected station credentials.

The enrollment panel verifies Elfhart’s Floor 300 approval and expands its operating permissions. A protected RSPD liaison designation appears beside the restaurant’s license.

Delia places her hand against the enrollment panel. The system recognizes her authorization, binds the liaison designation to Elfhart’s license, and marks the assignment active.

The panel expands into a live operations dashboard. It lists available inspectors, protected supply corridors, and a pending invitation from the tower’s culinary review board.

Delia rides the tower’s secured lift to Floor 350 in her shielded Elizabethan suit. The doors open onto a rival restaurant concealed behind polarized glass and silent service drones.

Inside, she examines the dining hall, kitchen vents, payment nodes, and supply lockers. The layout reveals an illegal energy draw rerouted through the restaurant’s refrigeration spine.

A young adult woman with close-cropped silver hair, dark skin, and a severe white service jacket steps from the maître d’ station. Her left eye displays a live corporate credential scan.

Delia completes the investigation and copies the rerouted power records, hidden debt transfers, and falsified Floor 350 sanitation reports into the RSPD case file. The scan triggers a security surcharge, draining 240 protected credits.

The rival’s challenge is built on concealed infrastructure, not culinary performance.

Delia raises her RSPD badge. Its verification lattice projects across the maître d’s credential scan, binding her authority to the active investigation and the copied infrastructure records.

The maître d’ touches her station. Polarized glass clears along the western wall, revealing a sealed corridor leading toward a private office and a second layer of concealed power conduits.

A security door unlocks with a muted pressure seal. The RSPD case file marks Veyra Sorn’s location as confirmed and attaches the maître d’s authorization log to Delia’s inspection.

Delia enters the executive office with her wand holstered and her standard issue psionic pistol secured at her other hip. The door seals behind her, recording the visit.

The office is narrow and immaculate, with black glass walls, a suspended financial display, and a woman waiting behind a silver desk. Veyra Sorn is a middle-aged woman with bronze skin, swept-back white hair, and a severe charcoal suit threaded with corporate circuitry.

Delia’s badge synchronizes with the office ledger and confirms the restaurant’s identity, ownership, and tampering records. The authentication consumes 80 protected credits in emergency verification fees.

The office ledger pauses as the comparison enters the recorded inspection transcript. Veyra’s corporate display dims, reflecting her narrowed eyes across the silver desk.

Veyra gestures toward the suspended financial display. Her twenty-year operating history appears beside Delia’s verified expansion record, with the concealed rerouting highlighted in red.

Delia links the RSPD case file to The Palisade’s financial display and follows the unauthorized access trail through emergency credentials, refrigeration controls, and payment relays.

The audit resolves the breach: a facilities administrator used Veyra’s dormant authorization token, routing power through a contractor account to conceal an unapproved infrastructure loan.

The RSPD system seals the finding, flags the administrator for investigation, and restores The Palisade’s emergency account authority to Veyra. The tampering claim is substantiated.

The case display changes from active investigation to resolved finding. Veyra’s credentials regain unrestricted control of The Palisade’s emergency accounts, while the administrator and contractor remain flagged for formal review.

A signed certification transfers into Elfhart’s RSPD partner file, carrying Veyra’s ownership seal and the board’s access credentials. The document strengthens Elfhart’s elevation record without requiring another hearing.

The office door unlocks and the financial display closes its restricted layers. Outside, The Palisade’s maître d’ waits with the service records preserved, while the board invitation remains active.

Delia follows the case map through The Palisade’s west service corridor to the administrator’s office. The door recognizes her RSPD authority and opens onto a compact records suite.

A concealed weapon cracks from behind the reception partition. Stationary defense rounds strike the doorframe and floor plating, while the office security system seals the corridor behind her.

The administrator, a middle-aged man with a narrow build, shaved scalp, and gray utility jacket, visibly human with a narrow face and medium-brown skin, crouches behind a console with a compact security pistol raised.

The administrator’s weapon remains trained toward the entrance, but the office door is fully open and Delia has reached the records suite. Its ledger core begins copying the access history into the active RSPD file.

Delia brings her psionic pistol level with the administrator’s chest. The ledger core keeps copying beneath the console, while the sealed corridor amplifies every breath.

His pistol touches the floor, and he kicks it toward the open doorway. At the same moment, Delia’s targeting system discharges a warning pulse, draining one shield charge and broadcasting her threat across the RSPD channel.

The copied records finalize, linking the administrator’s access to the contractor’s payment relay. The office remains secured, but the evidence now identifies both participants for formal RSPD action.

Delia opens the secured RSPD channel and calls Mara Quell for backup. The request transmits with the administrator’s confession, weapon surrender, and live location attached.

She crosses the records suite, retrieves the discarded restraints from her belt, and locks the administrator’s wrists behind his back. The cuffs authenticate to the active case.

The restraint lock emits a sharp confirmation tone, consuming one disposable security seal. The administrator’s confession and warning are preserved in the RSPD incident file.

The rival maître d’ opens the service-wing barrier under Mara’s remote authorization. The administrator remains cuffed beside the ledger core as the contractor’s payment trail continues copying.

The secured RSPD channel chimes with an incoming call. The display identifies Ampli Darthik from Elfhart’s Floor 300 kitchen, while the administrator remains cuffed beside the copying ledger core.

Ampli’s camera shows the restored salon beyond him: service lights bright, tables aligned, and hand-operated stations ready beneath the tower’s monochrome glow.

The call remains open, carrying the muted sounds of preparation from Elfhart. Nearby, Mara’s response team is still en route, while the administrator’s confession continues sealing into evidence.

Delia leaves The Palisade, administrator's records suite behind and arrives at RSPD station on Floor 200.

RSPD Station on Floor 200 surrounds Delia with white corridors, brisk foot traffic, and transparent evidence rails carrying sealed case files between departments. The administrator remains cuffed under her escort.

A young adult elf woman with a neat bob of red hair, round glasses, and a sharply fitted dark officer suit approaches through the moving crowd. Her badge identifies her as Embira.

Embira scans Delia’s RSPD designation and the administrator’s restraints. A small advantage appears in the file: the station’s intake system has matched his confession to three additional contractor accounts.

Delia enters Interview Room Seven, lights a cigarette, and faces the cuffed administrator across the recording table. Embira remains behind the observation glass, monitoring her first interrogation on Floor 200.

The administrator leans toward the table, restraints clicking softly. His refusal is firm, but his eyes keep returning to the copied contractor accounts displayed on the wall.

The room records his statement and links the named broker to the quarantined accounts. Embira’s station interface opens a new investigation branch, giving Delia a concrete trail despite the administrator’s continued refusal.

Delia authorizes a restricted custody transfer through the Floor 200 system. The administrator is moved from Interview Room Seven into a monitored solitary cell, separated from the general jail population.

The administrator is escorted through transparent security corridors, still cuffed and watched by two station officers. His cell seals with a biometric lock and continuous audio recording.

The transfer succeeds, but the station charges Elfhart 120 protected credits for emergency solitary monitoring. The deduction appears beside the active case balance.

Embira, in her sharply fitted officer suit, adjusts her round glasses and opens the Gray Meridian branch. Red markers populate maintenance ledgers from Floors 180, 240, and 350, keeping the investigation alive.

Delia opens Elfhart’s protected operations channel from Floor 200. The grand-opening dashboard synchronizes with Floor 300, listing salon staffing, supply reserves, power status, and service timing.

Delia confirms the salon roster, checks the Venusian fish inventory, and validates the hand-prepared Martian opening dish against Ampli Darthik’s recipe archive. Every required station reports operational.

The administrator’s cell remains sealed behind Embira, his refusal preserved in the case record. Delia leaves the investigation branch active and transfers her attention fully to Elfhart.

Elfhart’s grand-opening authorization turns green. Service lights ignite across Floor 300, reservation gates unlock, and the salon begins accepting its first guests under Delia’s protected license.