Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

mother’s handwriting.He pinged Ava. She was still unlocated. He was going tohave to speak to her about that. She could almost always get alocation on any member of the crew, but when she was offduty, it was often hard to get a location on her. Instead ofanswering a channel and giving a location, she stepped intohis office, wearing a very stylish shimmering black suitcoatwith a generously padded white fur collar that continueddown the front. It was buttoned from her breast to her waist.She had snug shimmering suitpants under it with matchingfur around the ankles. But her hair was a mess. As soon as shesaw his eyes go there, it magically became the gleaming fall italways was, but she had arrived in his universe with hair thathad been on the bottom of an encounter or two.“I really didn’t need to bother you with this, but I wascurious how it was done?”He handed her the letter. She took it in her long fingerswith the long but natural nails of perfect streamlined shape. "Ithink it was physical paper once along the way. Thedigitization is faithful enough to show the impression theballpoint made in this paper when the note was written."“But it came from the depths of space?”“We do not know that.” She brought up some screens,“You got this in an email from Thom?”“Yes,” he answered.“Mind if I see it?” she asked.“Go right ahead.” He knew if it interested her she would302