No More Auction Block

LOCATION: Upper Venus Atmosphere (Docked with Warlord Vessel)

The bridge of the Mighty Sparrow was crowded.

Sky-King P stood in the center, his kinetic rifle resting on his hip. His two guards stood by the airlock, twitchy and sweating.

On the main screen, the face of Captain Doremus loomed. Behind him, on the bridge of the Forager, officers worked in silence.

-This is a simple transaction, Doremus started.

-I am offering you a bounty, Sky-King. Fifty thousand corporate chits. In exchange, you will transfer the prisoner, Himalaya Market, and the pilot, whatever he is calling himself now, to my custody.

Sky-King P clicked his mechanical jaw. He looked at the screen, then at Phoenix.

-need hard currency, he clicked. Fuel. Water. Non-perishables. Tea bricks even.

-We can arrange a transfer of fuel cells, Doremus cut him off, bored.

-And the fleet? P asked, gesturing to the viewport where the Marley hung in the darkness. Two thousand tons of refined iron hull.

-Keep it, Doremus said. We want Market and the device connected to him. And the pilot.

Phoenix stepped forward.

-He’s selling you out, King.

Sky-King P turned, his metal jaw grinding.

-Shut up.

-Think about it, Phoenix said. He’s MTC. They doen't leave loose ends. As soon as you hand us over, he’s going to vaporize your ship and claim he killed a pirate. Who’s going ot say he didn’t?

-We are businessmen, Doremus interjected smoothly. We honor our contracts.

-Do you remember signing one, Phoenix whispered to the Sky-King.

Sky-King P hesitated. He looked at the massive silhouette of the Able Judge on the radar scope. It was bristling with railguns, all of them, he knew, were pointed at the Sparrow.

-The pilot makes a point, P muttered. If I hand them over, I have no leverage.

-Your leverage is that I don't turn your little base on Sky City 7 into a crater, Doremus said, getting irritated..

-I am losing patience, Sky-King. Accept the deal. Or don’t. We can open fire on the Marley.

Doremus tapped a console.

On the scope, a single railgun turret on the Able Judge rotated. It fired.

A round slammed into the rear engine block of the Marley. A plume of atmosphere vented into space.

-That was a warning, Doremus said. The next one hits the life support module. You have ten seconds.

Sky-King P flinched. He didn’t like being cornered. He liked cornering people.

-Fine, P shouted at the screen. Stop shooting the scrap, we don’t need the debris fall.

Sky-King P grabbed Market by the collar of his flight suit.

-Get up, glowie. You’ve got a new handler.

Market didn't move. He was staring at the dashboard, at the blinking green light of the security key Phoenix had used on the planetary defense system.

-No, Market whispered.

-Move! P shouted, racking the slide of his rifle.

-The door is open, Market said. The Key is in the lock.

-What is he talking about? P asked, looking at Phoenix.

-Beats me, Phoenix said. That device plugged into him is messing with his head.

Market closed his eyes. The geometric scars on his chest flared blindingly bright, turning from blue to red as Market started screaming.

Through the open channel of the Diplomatic Key, Market poured raw, unencrypted data into the planetary defense grid, labeling every ship in and above the atmosphere, from the Able Judge to the Sparrow, as a hostile threat.

Every alarm in the cockpit went off at once.

Outside, the perimeter buoys turned from green to flashing red.

-Targeting alert! Hap buzzed. MULTIPLE LOCKS DETECTED.

The automated defense batteries on Sky City 7, dormant for decades, woke up. They targeted anything with an engine. Many of the guns had been stripped, but enough worked to send ordinance into the sky.

-What did you do? Sky-King P screamed, backing away from Market.

-I woke up the house, Market gasped, slumping back into his seat.

On the screen, Doremus looked up, startled, his own bridge bathed in red emergency light.

-Incoming fire, an officer shouted on the Forager. Planetary defenses active!

The space around them erupted into chaos. Doremus’s ship even fired its lasers. The Warlord ships scattered like roaches.

-Now! Phoenix yelled.

He pulled the laser cutter from his belt. He aimed at the airlock ceiling.

ZZZT.

He severed the hydraulic lines of the docking tube.

-Seal the hatch! Phoenix screamed at Hap.

The docking tube blew apart with a violent decompression. Sky-King P and his guards were sucked backward, tumbling into the vacuum of the severed tunnel.

Hap slammed the emergency seal button. The blast door slammed shut, cutting off the rush of escaping air.

The Sparrow lurched free, spinning wildly.

-We’re loose! Bit yelled, holding onto his seat.

-And we’re targets, Phoenix said as he wrestled the stick.

The sky was on fire. Flak bursts, railgun rounds, and debris. The Able Judge was taking hits, but it was massive. It was turning its main cannons toward the Sparrow.

-We can't fight that, Market whispered.

-We don’t have to, Phoenix said. He looked at the swirling yellow clouds of Venus below them, then at Bit.

-We can always run, the kid said, smiling.

-That’s right.

Phoenix pushed the throttle to the stops.

-Hang tight, Phoenix yelled, and the Mighty Sparrow tipped its nose down and dove straight into the burning, crushing atmosphere of Venus.