On the way into the city, Izairis scanned fugitive encryptions floating out from the docks in the upper longitudes of Fungi and was able to parse them for analysis. She discovered that the city’s security protocols were based on the same encryption language as the outer docks – she just couldn’t break it. We were going to need free rein of the city if we were going to ransack both its public and private areas for the Chime. She volunteered to go into the dredge in order to try and learn a few tricks that would enable her to crack the ciphers. This turned out to be fruitful because her first prior was a forger in every sense, including code and cipher smashing techniques.

The rest of us had also been working away – well, mainly Naecia and Aptat – to modify the coms on the Vortu helmets stolen from the Terror’s Glaive, in order to allow us to talk when we finally dispersed into the city.

After working silently away on a dedicated terminal for a day, Izairis stood and stretched. “We’re in,” she said, grinning from ear nub to ear nub. “I was able to capture the entry codes and reproduce them.”

“Brilliant work,” said Aptat. “I have a whole closet full of raw media devices we can fashion into transmitters for whenever we come to a secured area–” Izairis stepped into our Vortu sewing circle and handed out small rectangular cards, “–Oh. You’ve already... Okay,” said Aptat, taking one. “And these are?”

“Security cards,” Izairis answered, handing the last two to myself and Patton. “Once you are in proximity to a sealed passage, you simply hold the card up to the receiver, and it should open!”

I shared a questioning glance with Patton, and then Naecia.

“What?” Izairis said.

“It’s just that... these are tangible media,” said Naecia diplomatically. “Can’t we just throw the signal through the helmet coms so we don’t have to stop at every door and swipe a card?”

Izairis tightened her lips, then calmly said, “We’d have to broadcast that signal from here and through the helmets, which could be unreliable or dangerous. Not only are there all sorts of interferences between the ship and wherever we end up, but we’d be advertising ourselves.”

I shrugged, still bewildered by the shockingly prehistoric tech. “I mean, it’s a hotel key,” I said. “We have these on Earth.”

Izairis made an emphatic gesture toward her crotch that I don’t think she learned at the convent.