Shanoa’s contempt and condescension rolled off Mary without leaving a mark; smiling, she moved into the compartment. “I didn’t see the need to bother; it’s not like [i]you’ve[/i] even put much effort into being civil to [i]me[/i] before.” She added, before waving away any reply.

Walking over to the data spike in question, she picked it up and looked it over for a moment; there were a few minor details to its housing that anyone who didn’t know what to look for would’ve missed, and upon [i]seeing[/i] those details, Mary smiled some more and shook her head. [i]Ah, [b]here[/b] we go.[/i] She thought finally. “I know why you [i]really[/i] want my…assistance…” Data spike in hand, she used it to gesture to Shanoa’s avatar. “This isn’t ‘just’ an older data spike, this is a ‘Black Box’ data spike; the sort of thing one would store information from things like black-site or spec-ops projects on. Used to see them from time to time when I’d sneak into my mother’s office as a kid.” She said the word ‘mother’ with the same contempt that most ‘civilized’ beings would say the word ‘pirate’.

“You want me to try and open it because you’re worried that if your decryption buggers up, the data will get wiped and there’s something important to you one here…and you’re betting that I, in my long and nefarious career as a heinous pirate, may have acquired a ‘key’ or two to try unlock it. After all, if it’s a legitimate key, even if it’s the wrong one, only the workstation gets locked out and the data persists.”

Mary walked around the space for a moment, admiring Shanoa’s new artillery, poking at a few odds-and-ends before returning her attention to the AI. “As it so happens, I[i]do[/i] have a couple of decryption keys that may work. Tell you what, since you’re crew, I’ll give you a discount rate, one hundred thousand credits. Fifty thousand, non-refundable, up front for my time and the other fifty upon successful completion.” Propping herself against Shanoa’s platform, she held the data spike up. “That’s at least fifty percent cheaper than any third party you’ll find on the black market and minimal risk to the data.”