With only Peppers unfamiliar with the procedures of the Mecha World despite all the knowledge in her head, Sebastia had changed her mind and forced her to change into a little girl instead. (Fortunately, she did prepare a fake kid passport not knowing who would be with her for the infiltration.) Peppers naturally was against the decision but Rei told her that she had to lie her way to get through the immigration passport which even a person not close to Peppers was able to discern she could not lie much.
Thus, Peppers resigned to the fate of being the ‘daughter’ of Sebastia and Rei for the time being. The only consolation she got was that she did not have to do anything and go through the spaceport.
However, things were not as smooth as they thought it would be when they reached the first checkpoint. The machines were beeping loudly for Sebastia the moment she tried to go through the scanner and the same goes for Rei. The Immigration Guards slowly walked up to them to do a routine check to see what’s the matter as those machines rarely beeped that loudly.
“Are we busted that quickly?” Rei nervously chats on the System Channel but Sebastia told him to keep quiet, as she tried to see if she could salvage the situation. However, the best way to handle the situation, for now, was to watch and see. The guard with the highest rank looked at them at the side of the room since that was where the command control for the immigration gates was and spoke through the hall’s intercom.
“Immigration Counter 45 & 47. Please step back and try scanning your passports again in a few seconds.” And thus, Rei and Sebastia did as they were told with Peppers hanging behind Sebastia, waiting for her turn beside ‘Mummy’ to clear the gates for her to go through. After all, Sebastia had to act as if Peppers was really her daughter by helping her to go through the immigration gates before Mummy could scan her passport. This time around, the gates blinked with green lights after they stood there for what seemed like an eternity before the gates opened and allowed them to pass through with almost every guard within the vicinity staring at them like vultures waiting for their right time to gobble them up,
Next, it was Sebastia’s turn and she too went through without any hitch thus allowing the guards to return back to their post as the family of three gathered again and made their way to the duty free area of the spaceport.
“Sheesh, what is all that about? I thought you had the passports covered?” Rei commented in the System Channel as he wiped the sweat off his forehead the moment they were far enough from the immigration counters.
“I have no idea as well. When I used those passports, they were fine. Not sure if it’s because I purchased them a long time ago and they were not activated. In any case, we should be glad that we are able to go through it without a hitch especially when security seems to be tighter than usual.” Sebastia said and that was when Peppers started chuckling.
“Heh Heh Heh. You two did not realise that there was some manipulation behind the scenes?” Peppers queried and Rei was the only one who entertained her in the System Channel while Sebastia continued to survey her surroundings.
“You mean, there was really something wrong with the passports?” Rei asked and Peppers nodded her head. “If not for Your Demonic Sage Queen here to clear the ruckus, you think you guys are able to go through without making too much of a scene? I was the one who magically reset the immigration counter status.” Peppers said it as if they had forgotten that Peppers was a mage of high regards in Jin’s army, not just a combat mage who could send explosions into the sky. Rei was astonished by her but Sebastia told Peppers not to lie.
“There is no way she could have manipulated the machines. She needs to understand the workings of the immigration counter before doing anything to do it. It’s not as if it was based on some physical trigger mechanism plus those guards had a database. The only thing I can think of is that she mind tricked the highest ranking guard within the command post to allow us to go through when our passports were flagged.” Sebastia answered and Peppers felt like the magic in her act had disappeared along with her explanation.
“Bleargh, but still you have to give me credit for-”
“Thank you, Peppers. Without you, it would not be an easy feat to go through the immigration counter. I am glad you are here with us.” Sebastia said through the System Channel and for once, Peppers kept quiet as she smiled away happily.
After a few minutes of walking, Sebastia finally told the two of them that she found her pilot. She quietly asked Peppers to follow Rei for a moment to look at some gifts at a nearby souvenir store while she sat opposite the pilot near a resting area pretending to play her phone. Though in reality, she was texting him through some near field communications app so that it was both encrypted and nearly undetectable.
“Three pax. Usual price per person.” Sebastia texted.
“No, the deal is off. The security here has suddenly gotten very strict. Even if I can take off from the spaceport, the only route I could go is the one they had designated. If I ever divert just by a few metres, the spaceport authorities would sound the alarm for the Mechas to swoop in..”
“Triple the price.” Sebastia did not care what the excuse of the pilot was but at least she know that at the very least, the prison ships must be here or else the security would not be this alarming.
“No. I value my life more than that. Even coming here to talk to you is a risk and you should be lucky that I am not going to snitch on you to the authorities for even talking about going near the prison ships.” The pilot immediately left the chat and walked away.
“Guess we will do this the illegal way.” Sebastia sighed as she told Peppers what was happening and in an instant, the pilot came back to the chat group once more stating that he decided to fuck it and go with the flow.
“I guess, you only live once.” The last sentence from the pilot made Sebastia nearly burst into laughter. “All those memes. Peppers, you are eating too much junk information from Jin’s world.” Sebastia said as she looked towards her daughter and quietly nodded her head with thanks.
