“We can’t possibly get a warrant in four minutes!” The other proctor objected.
“That is not my problem, proctor. Be advised that I also have orders to protect my captain’s property with all the means at my disposal, and any further attempt to gain illegal entry to this vessel may be taken as an attack.”
She gestured, and the call was cut.
“Stupid naturalist bigots,” Naoko grumbled. “Who does she think she is, ordering me around like that?”
“I’m sorry, Naoko,” I said miserably. “I didn’t mean to cause you so much trouble. I didn’t think they’d even be looking for me.”
She waved off my concern. “Oh, it’s probably my fault anyway. I shouldn’t have run that search on your name last night. Totalitarian governments are always snoopy about monitoring the datanet.”
Outside, the two proctors were arguing with each other. A squad of security bots had joined them now.
“Are we in trouble?” I said. “Can they cancel our launch, or something?”
“Launch windows are a courtesy, Alice. We’re perfectly capable of leaving without any help from local traffic control. Besides, getting permission to ground an independent trader is even harder than getting a search warrant. Everyone knows we won’t surrender quietly, and routine criminal matters simply aren’t important enough to risk getting a spaceport nuked. Unless you assassinated the local dictator?”
“Felicity doesn’t have a dictator, Naoko. It’s administered by a council of delegates from the sixteen planetary districts. And no, I didn’t kill anyone. I didn’t even hurt anyone, really. I just escaped before they could take me apart to figure out why their brainwashing doesn’t work on me.”
“Well, escape from a mind control regime is not a criminal offense under the rules of the Association, and I doubt that a backwater world such as Felicity will risk making waves about - oh, you must be joking.”
A bigger bot had come floating across the field. This one was almost the size of a groundcar, with a big laser cutter mounted on the front.
“Naoko? I don’t think they understand that your ship has real weapons.”
She frowned. “I’m severely tempted to give them a demonstration. Autopilot, has the control tower assigned us a launch pad yet?”
“Negative, Naoko. Launch control is not responding to my inquiries.”
Her frown deepened. “Idiots. This is what happens when a society starts using mass mind control, Alice. They get so wrapped up in their own propaganda that they lose touch with reality. The Association is not going to be pleased with this incident.”
“What do we do?” I asked. “Do you need to call someone?”
“No, Alice. Here’s your first lesson on spacer culture. Disputes with local authorities are best settled with action, not words. A cargo shuttle would need to cross the field to one of the launch pads in order to avoid damaging the port with its drive, and I suppose they think they can interfere with our movements. But as you pointed out, the Speedy Exit is a drop ship. Autopilot, I’m declaring a cold launch from our current position in two minutes. Relay our flight path to all other ships in the area, and hit the warning claxons.”
The outside of the ship was suddenly lit up by flashing orange and purple lights. The sound of the sirens was mostly muffled by the hull, but I could just make out an amplified voice.
“Warning, this ship will lift in one hundred and twenty seconds. Lethal overpressure imminent. Minimum safe distance is thirty meters. Warning, this ship will lift in one hundred and ten seconds…”
The proctors scrambled back with shocked expressions on their faces. Proctor Lena backed into a security bot and fell on her butt. Her partner fumbled her datapad, and dropped it. The bots all froze in place for a moment, and then started backing away.
My smile was back. Naoko wasn’t afraid of them. They weren’t going to stop us. For the first time in my life, I didn’t have to be afraid of those sanctimonious bitches.
Naoko’s fingers danced across the control panel in front of her, and I could feel the ship coming to life around us. Monstrously powerful momentum exchange fields were forming in the thruster tubes behind us, flickering across the hull as the deflector shields spun up, tickling my emitters with artificial gravity and inertial dampening fields. There was something else, too. A massive potential field building up under the hull, like a bot’s lift field but hundreds of times stronger.
“Forty seconds to launch,” the AI said. “Ready for hover.”
Naoko nodded. “Engage hover mode, and retract landing gear. I don’t see any obstacles, autopilot.”
“Agreed, pilot. Our ascent track is clear. The port’s weapons appear to be offline, and planetary defense forces in orbit have not reacted to our launch warning.”
“Lovely. You see, Alice? This was just some local bigot attempting to throw her weight around. Alas, she seems less weighty than she had believed.”
There was a subtle flutter in my inner ears as the ship’s lift field engaged, and the ground outside drifted down a few meters.
“Hover mode active,” the autopilot said. “Landing gear retracted. We are clear for launch, pilot.”
The bots had already gotten clear, moving with their usual fast precision. But the proctors had wasted a lot of time fumbling around, and they were still climbing into their car. Oh, and Proctor Lena just dropped her keys. I watched her grope around on the floor of the car for a moment, and eyeballed the distance. Hmm.
“Are you really going to squish them if they don’t get out from under us in time?” I asked.
“Of course not. Someone would surely complain, and then my captain would have a great deal of paperwork to contend with. But I doubt we will need to delay our lift by more than a few seconds. Hold on tight, now. This is going to be a wild ride.”
“Sounds like fun,” I shot back. Just to be safe I found the control for the chair’s safety harness, and triggered it. A moment later I was held securely in place by a network of broad straps across my legs and torso. I looked back up just as the proctors got their car started, and backed frantically away from the ship.
“Five seconds till launch,” the autopilot said.
The proctors were still too close, but the groundcar was moving pretty fast now. It wobbled a little as the driver tried to keep it under control while driving backwards, and didn’t quite manage. Why the heck was she driving the car manually, anyway?
Oh, well, it didn’t matter now. They shot across the thirty meter line with nearly a second to spare.
Naoko grinned from ear to ear. “Ready, Alice? Here we go!”
She touched a control, and suddenly we were flying. An immense burst of power from the lift field threw us straight up so hard I could feel a hint of acceleration even through the inertial dampeners. The ground fell away below us in a blur of motion. We were already a hundred meters up, and moving faster than anything I’d ever ridden in my life.