by Ryk Brown
Jessica landed on both feet, her assistive bodysuit tensing to protect her joints from the kinetic energy of the impact. She rolled several times on the ground, avoiding multiple stunner shots from the trailing security officer as he too streaked overhead.
The officer she had collided with had not landed as gracefully and was lying dazed in a nearby flowerbed. As the other three security officers decelerated and began to turn around, Jessica leapt to her feet and sprinted to the downed officer.
The downed officer began to regain his senses and raised his weapon to fire at the approaching woman, but was too late. A stunner blast caught him in the head and chest, rendering him paralyzed. The officer lie there, staring helplessly as the perpetrator stripped both his weapon and his hover scooter.
“Sorry about that,” Jessica said sarcastically, “but you should’ve seen that move coming. I’m gonna need to borrow your flying thingy.” Jessica stuck his weapon in her belt, stepped over and picked up the officer’s hover scooter turning it upright. She glanced at the controls for a moment, pressing buttons to get it to start. Unfortunately, every attempt resulted in the same prompt on the tiny control screen. “Crap!” she cursed, trying to remember what the Palean words on the screen meant. She stepped off the scooter and moved back over to the downed officer, ripping his ID badge from his uniform. “I’m gonna need this, too.”
She stepped back onto the scooter as she affixed the downed officer’s ID badge to her shirt. The scooter’s control screen lit up and a green ‘ready’ indicator appeared. “Now, how the hell does this thing work?” she wondered.
Several stunner blasts whizzed past her. She glanced upward, realizing two of the three remaining security officers had turned around and were heading for her again. She instinctively grabbed the handle on the scooter and pushed the thumb-lever on the left grip all the way forward. A restraint ring came out from the scooter’s handlebars, encircling her, as two clamps came down over her feet. A split-second later, the scooter’s thrusters fired, sending her straight up in the air like a missile. “Holy shit!” she exclaimed, her stunner falling from her right hand as she grabbed for the other handlebar.
The scooter continued its rapid ascent, spiraling around as Jessica fought to keep her balance. A stunner beam glanced off the bottom of the scooter and one of the thrusters quit for a second, causing the scooter to lean to one side. The scooter accelerated in the direction of the lean, trading its rate of ascent for horizontal speed. The thruster kicked back on and Jessica finally got control of the scooter. She pulled back on the thumb-lever, decreasing the thrust and transitioning into a hover at least one hundred meters above the promenade below.
Two more stunner beams streaked past her, one from below and behind and the other from her left. She leaned, bringing the scooter into an accelerating left turn in the direction of the stunner fire. As she guided the scooter into the turn, she pulled the stunner she had taken from the paralyzed officer out of her belt and fired several times. Her second and third shots both found their target and the now paralyzed officer slumped forward, his body barely supported by his scooter’s restraint ring, as the scooter’s autopilot took over and started a smooth descent to land.
“Sweet!” Jessica exclaimed, leaning forward to increase her speed. Two more stunner beams streaked past above and on both sides of her. She glanced back as the other two officers fell in behind her to pursue.
And the chase is on, she thought as she leaned forward and increased her scooter’s thruster power.
“All public transit is locked down,” Nathan told them over Vlad’s comm-unit. “It’ll take us forever to reach the spaceport by foot and I doubt Jess can keep them away from us for that long. I need you to dust off now and pick us up at that park northwest of the financial district.”
“What park?” Vlad asked no one in particular.
“I know the one he’s talking about,” Loki assured him.
“If they locked down public transit, I doubt they’ll release our controls for liftoff,” Josh warned.
“Not a problem,” Marcus insisted.
Everyone in the Seiiki’s galley turned to look at him.
“When we had the ship’s transponder hacked to change her name to the Seiiki, I had them build in a manual override for her remote auto-flight systems,” Marcus explained.
“Wouldn’t they be able to tell?” Loki wondered.
“Did you copy?” Nathan asked over the comm-unit.
“Yes, I copied,” Vlad replied.
“If we engage the override, the status signal doesn’t change,” Marcus added. “So they’ll still think they have control of us.”
“We’ll dust off immediately,” Vlad promised Nathan over his comm-unit. “Right?” he questioned, casting an uncertain look toward Josh and Loki.
“They could move security ships in our way,” Loki warned, “blocking our exit.”
“Not if we liftoff quickly,” Josh said. “I can quick start the engines…get us off the deck in less than a minute.”
“Not with full power, you can’t,” Loki argued.
“We don’t need full power,” Josh countered. “Not for a few minutes at least. Not until we break atmo.” Josh and Loki both looked at Vladimir.
“What are looking at me for?” Vladimir asked. “Get us in the air.” Vladimir looked at Marcus and Dalen as Josh and Loki charged out of the galley toward the flight deck. “Get to the guns, but don’t spin them up until we’re airborne. We don’t want the power surge to tip off the port controllers.”
“You got it,” Dalen replied, rising from his seat.
Vladimir grabbed Marcus by the arm as he too rose to exit. “Are you sure the override will work?”
“It’ll work,” he assured him.
“What about me?” Neli asked.
“Cargo hold,” Vladimir told her. “I suspect we’ll be picking them up on the run, so we’ll be flying with the ramp down. Be sure you stay hooked up.”
“What about the door gun?” she asked as Vladimir headed for the exit.
“As soon as we dust off, fire it up. I suspect you’ll need it.”
Jessica leaned forward as far as she could, pushing her scooter’s thrusters to full power, enabling it to achieve maximum forward speed without losing altitude. It was a delicate balancing act, since the scooter’s thrusters were designed to point straight down the unit’s vertical axis. Leaning too far forward traded altitude for forward speed, while not enough lean resulted in the opposite unless you throttled back… And there was no way Jessica was doing that. Her pursuers were already too close for comfort. Were it not for the buildings she kept weaving between, she would be an easy target for their stunners and the chase would be over.
It had taken her a few minutes to get the hang of it, but she was already piloting the hover scooter like a pro. It reminded Jessica of the time she had tried skyboarding at the behest of her brothers, only a few years before enlisting in the Earth Defense Force. The big difference was that, although this required similar balance and body movements, the scooter had power.
Jessica leaned to her right, pulling the scooter’s handlebars in the same direction and pushing them slightly forward to shave off a few meters of altitude as she picked up speed in the turn. As she rounded the corner, two blue stunner bolts streaked past her left shoulder. She ducked, squatting as she shifted her weight hard left and pulled back on the handlebars. The scooter responded by coming around to the left, slowing, and quickly ascending. She pulled back even harder, bringing the scooter’s forward speed down to almost nothing and causing it to shoot skyward like a rocket; barely avoiding a collision with the much taller building that had appeared in front of her after her last turn.
Only one of her pursuers was able to pull off the same maneuver. The other had tried to steer around the building instead
of climbing up over it and failed to make the turn in time. He glanced off the side of the building, taking a chunk out of its masonry exterior. His scooter spun out of control, flipping over twice before its autopilot systems kicked in and brought the dazed officer to a clumsy but survivable landing.
“Attention, attention. This is a security directive,” the public address system blared across the promenade. “All citizens are directed to evacuate the area. Please report to the nearest transit platform checkpoints and be prepared to show identification before boarding.”
“Great,” Nathan said as the message repeated. “We have to find a way off the main boulevard.”
“Someone will notice,” Deliza warned as they followed the mass of people slowly making their way toward the nearest transit platform.
“Probably,” Nathan agreed, “but they’ll definitely be on to us when we show our IDs.” Nathan looked around as he started making his way to the left toward the edge of the crowd. “That park can’t be more than two clicks away. If we make a break for it, we might make it.” He looked at Deliza, noting her dress and shoes. “Can you run in that?”
Deliza kicked off her dress shoes, leaving them where they fell. “Not in those.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?” Nathan wondered, coming to a stop. “Not all the pathways are going to be as smooth as this one, you know.”
“I grew up on Haven, remember?” Deliza replied as she reached down and grabbed the hem of her business skirt and ripped the right side of it open at the seam, all the way up to her hips.
Nathan watched as Deliza tore open the left side of her skirt as well, then continued toward the side of the moving mass of people. “There’s a service path coming up on the left,” he told her. “Be ready.”
Josh bounded up the ladder into the Seiiki’s cockpit with Loki hot on his heels. “Port control will start hailing us as soon as we start spinning up our reactors,” Josh warned as he climbed into his seat on the left, “so be ready to bluff.”
“What about the ground power umbilical?” Loki asked as he slid into the right seat.
“If we unlock it remotely, it’ll fall off when we liftoff,” Josh replied.
“It’ll damage their umbilical connector,” Loki stressed.
“They can bill us,” Josh said as he started activating systems.
“Primaries are set, power is on internal batteries.”
“How are we lookin’ outside?” Josh called over his comm-set as he put it on.
“Clear to port!” Dalen reported over comms.
“Clear to starboard!” Marcus added.
“Everyone get in position for takeoff,” Vladimir ordered as he topped the ladder and took up his position standing behind Josh and Loki.
“We’re ready for quick start,” Josh announced.
“Spin us up,” Vladimir confirmed.
“Spinning up port reactor,” Loki announced.
“Spin them both up at the same time,” Josh insisted.
“Batteries aren’t powerful enough to start both reactors simultaneously,” Loki warned.
“Then switch back to shore power,” Josh instructed.
“That’s not in the procedures, Josh,” Loki objected.
“Neither is dusting off before the reactors are at full power, Loki.”
“If there’s a limiter on the umbilical…”
“The extra power will fry it,” Josh said, cutting Loki off mid-sentence. “I know. They can bill us for that, too.”
Loki looked back over his shoulder at Vladimir. “There might be phase problems, as well.”
“I can compensate from here if there is,” Vladimir assured him, moving to take a seat at the auxiliary console. “Start them both.”
“Yes, sir,” Loki replied, turning back to his console. “Starting port and starboard reactors.”
A distant whine began to emanate from the Seiiki’s port engine nacelle, followed a few seconds later by a similar whine from starboard.
“Seiiki, Port Control. We show your reactors are cycling for startup. You are not cleared for startup. Confirm your reactors are cold and safed.”
“Well, that didn’t take long,” Josh mumbled as he continued to prep for takeoff.
“What do I say?” Loki wondered.
“Just make something up,” Josh told him.
“Like what?”
“Jesus, Loki!” Josh patched his comm-set into the control channel. “Port Control, Seiiki. We’re showing both reactors cold and safed here. Maybe you have a malfunction on your end?”
“Josh, they can hear our reactors spinning up, you know,” Loki reminded him.
“Ground crews can, but the controllers can’t.”
“But the ground crews will tell them.”
“The controllers will call the ground crew foreman, and the foreman will check with the crew for our bay, who will report back to him, and then back up to port control. By that time, we’ll have nearly enough power to dust off!”
“Jesus, what kind of mind works that way?”
“Works what way?” Josh demanded.
“Comes up with lies so easily,” Loki replied, “and well thought out ones at that.”
“One that gets us in the air,” Josh replied.
“Seiiki, Seiiki. This is Port Control. Your reactors are spinning up. Shut them down immediately or we will be forced to lock down and impound your vessel.”
“Marcus, are you sure the override will work?” Vladimir called over his comm-set.
“It’ll work!”
“Port Control, Seiiki. We have a malfunction in our reactor control systems,” Josh lied over comms. “Our reactors are starting up all by themselves.”
“Seiiki! Port Control! You are ordered to initiate a full reactor scram or your ship will be subjected to a directed EMP blast to force your reactors to go cold! You have ten seconds to comply!”
“Can they do that?” Vladimir wondered.
“Uh, yes, they can,” Josh admitted.
“Why didn’t you say that before?” Vladimir wondered.
“I forgot.”
“You forgot?” Loki exclaimed in disbelief. “Do you know what an EMP will do to our systems?”
“Where are the EMP emitters?” Vladimir barked.
“In the edges of the bays!” Josh replied. “All along the rim!”
“Marcus! Dalen!” Vladimir called over his comm-set. “Do you have weapons power?”
“About ten percent,” Marcus replied.
“Take out the EMP emitters along the top edges of the bay! Start with the ones nearest the nacelles! Quickly!”
“Gladly,” Marcus replied, powering up his turret and swinging it aft. He quickly opened fire, blasting away indiscriminately at the top edge of the bay roof that encircled the Seiiki. Chunks of permacrete flew in all directions as red-orange streaks of plasma energy leapt from both barrels in rapid succession.
“Seiiki! Have you lost your mind?” the controller’s voice declared over comms.
“That’s for all the times these fuckers overcharged us to land here!”
“I said to shoot out the emitters, Marcus!” Vladimir objected over his comm-set. “Not the whole damned building!”
“I wanted to be sure I didn’t miss any of them!” Marcus laughed.
“I’ve got four security shuttles launching from the far side of the port!” Loki warned.
“How long until we have enough power to lift off?” Vladimir asked.
“At least thirty seconds,” Josh insisted.
“They’ll be here in twenty,” Loki warned.
“Guess we can’t wait, then,” Josh replied, pushing the lift throttles forward.
“Josh! We won’t even
clear the bay!” Loki warned.
“We’ll clear it,” Josh argued confidently.
“Not with twenty percent power, we won’t!”
“We’re light, we’ll clear it!” Josh insisted, pushing the throttles all the way forward.
“The book says she won’t produce enough thrust at that…”
“Fuck the book!” Josh insisted as the Seiiki’s engines began to scream.
“Josh!”
“Four shuttles coming fast from starboard!” Dalen warned over comms.
“I’ve been flying this bucket for five years now!” Josh exclaimed as the ship struggled to get off the ground. “She’ll make it!”
“They’re coming right at us!” Loki declared. “They’re going to block our takeoff!”
“Fire between the shuttles!” Marcus instructed Dalen. “Make’em spread apart!”
“Vlad?” Dalen called, unsure of what to do.
The ship began to rise slightly, the scream of her engines intensifying.
“Do it!” Vladimir ordered.
“Oh fuck!” Dalen replied as he opened fire.
The Seiiki began to rise more quickly.
“They’re still coming!” Loki warned as the walls of the bay outside slid downward.
“Fire again!” Vladimir ordered.
More red-orange bolts of plasma leapt from behind the cockpit to their right as Dalen opened fire again.
“We’re rising!” Josh declared. “Come on, baby!”
“Again! Fire again!” Loki declared.
Dalen didn’t wait for Vladimir to confirm the order, firing three more blasts toward the incoming security shuttles.
“It’s going to be close!” Loki declared as the Seiiki continued to rise.