Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Negasi sat at the helm of a brand new Stratoskimmer shuttle, a real top-of-the-line model that proved that whatever had been in those biotubes had been worth a small fortune. The Stratoskimmer had the best speed and atmospheric maneuverability of any civilian model. It was a joy to handle as he entered the atmosphere over the ocean on Makayamawe Prime's night side. They came down near the middle of the ocean, well over the horizon from the planet's capital.

The computer encyclopedia had told him that Makayamawe Prime didn't have a spaceport but did have a basic monitoring system. The government would see them come in, and then lose sight of them once they got beneath the horizon. He had the feeling he wasn't the first guy to do this. The Awaari traded here, so they probably pulled this stunt all the time. Perpetual lawbreakers, those Awaari. It was shocking.

"So how are we going to break into this monument?" Negasi asked.

"It's in one of the main squares of the city. There's a primitive camera and alarm system that I can switch off easily. No guards. It's a commercial district, so there are no government buildings nearby. There are the occasional ground patrols by the police. Those won't be a problem if we time it right."

"Sounds like you've been here before."

"Derren has."

Ah yes, the dead husband and father no one seems to mourn.

The viewscreen, blackened by shielding as they burned through the atmosphere, suddenly lit up, showing the last heat glow as the shuttle's hull cooled and they descended into the lower atmosphere.

Negasi scanned the area, the ship's advanced infrared optics probing the night. Nothing but ocean below. No islands. A small surface vessel, probably a fishing boat, fifty kilometers away. The atmosphere showed high levels of carbon even this far out to sea. That capital city was going to stink.

Negasi got to a couple of hundred meters above the ocean's surface and skimmed along. The rather vague map the ship's encyclopedia had for this planet said the capital was also a seaport and stood a few hundred kilometers over the horizon to the east.

He spent some time going north before cutting east. That way he could come at the capital from a different angle. On the off-chance that what passed for the local air force spotted him, he didn't want them to know this was the same shuttle that came in for an unapproved landing on their planet.

"Keep low," Nova said. "The coastline has radar stations."

"Radar," Negasi snickered. "This trip is turning out to be a history lesson."

"Old tech can kill you just as dead as new tech. Stay alert."

"You're a chuckle a minute," Negasi grumbled. Then a sudden thought got him worried. "Wait, at this tech level there are usually competing nations fighting over resources. Are there any wars I should know about?"

"Those ended a generation ago. Three major nations and their smaller allies duked it out. The fighting got bad enough that it disrupted the interstellar trade in rare earths. An alliance of Awaari and Grish backed one of the larger nations and they took over."

"Next you're going to tell me that elevated radiation level I'm seeing on the readout is from a nuclear war and not natural."

"There were only limited strikes."

"Great," Negasi muttered. "That's just cacking dandy."

The shoreline appeared up ahead, visible as a string of lights illuminating a coastal highway. A cluster of lights to their right signaled a small town. Negasi edged away from that and flew over the highway, spotting some primitive ground vehicles. Curious, he zoomed in. Wheeled. Not even hovercars. Electric powered, no doubt charged by plugging into the national grid. So coal powered, really. A long-range scan brought up only two airplanes, both more than a hundred kilometers away.

They'd lucked out on the coordinates and had come in along a relatively unpopulated part of the coast. MIRI had told him Makayamawe Prime had more than three billion people, mostly concentrated on this continent where the best surface deposits of coal could be found.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

He headed inland, buzzing over the occasional house and illuminated road, then turned south for the capital.

"Find someplace to land in the countryside," Nova told him. "There's a stretch of farmland to the east of the city. You can find a quiet spot there. We got a couple of hovercycles in the hold we can use to go into town."

"Time's ticking. We need to get back to the Antikythera before those raiders make it into orbit."

"We got time. Rich people here have hovervehicles, so we won't stand out. If we land a shuttle in their main square, we'll attract the police."

"I was thinking of landing, busting into the monument, grabbing it quick, and getting out before they know what's going on."

"Sneaking in is the better option," Nova said.

"You're the boss," Negasi grumbled. He found himself grumbling a lot on this job.

Negasi steered a bit to the east, inland away from the port that served as this planet's capital city.

They looped around and, as they headed back toward the coast over darkened farmland, saw a glow over the horizon.

"That's the city," Nova said. "Land somewhere around here."

Negasi scanned the area and found an unused field in a patch of forest, the trees tall and spindly in the lower gravity. He set down.

"Right. Let's get this done," Nova said.

Negasi and Nova went to the shuttle's small cargo hold, which had a pair of hovercycles crammed into it. They backed out and looked around to find they stood in a quiet meadow, a dark line of trees all around blocking the view of what lay beyond. The chirp of some insect life was the only sound they heard.

Nova locked up the shuttle, her steps springy in the lower gravity, and they took off on the hovercycles, gaining enough altitude to skim just over the trees.

Negasi didn't see too many lights in the immediate area. The sky was hazy, the stars dim. This planet had a large moon but that was on the other side of the planet at the moment, leaving this area in relative darkness.

A few breaths of the local air told him what that haze was. His nose crinkled at the nasty, sharp smell of pollution.

"Damn, why don't they buy some fusion plants or something?"

"Yeah, it's pretty foul," Nova said. "But why bother when they have more coal than they know what to do with?"

"But they have rare earths! They could cover the planet in photovoltaics."

"They sell the rare earths. Nobody wants to buy coal."

Negasi chuckled, imagining an interstellar freighter weighed down with a heavy, unsaleable substance.

"With all that coal they probably have plenty of diamonds too," Negasi said.

"Yeah, this planet is going to progress."

Negasi wasn't so sure of that evaluation. The countryside gradually gave way to suburbs. They found a highway leading toward the glow of the city and followed it.

Standing next to that highway was an enormous gold statue of a man with one hand upraised, fully a hundred meters tall.

"Who's that?" Negasi asked. While the sculptor had idealized the image in the Classical style, Negasi could tell it showed a Sino-African man in his older years.

"The dictator. Don't bother learning his name. By law you have to refer to him as The Powerful And Just Father Of All His Loving Peoples."

"That's a mouthful. What if I call him Bob?"

"Five years hard labor."

"Nice place you brought us to."

At this hour, few ground vehicles drove on the highway, although they did see one hovercar well ahead of them. In the distance stood a huge industrial plant with ten smokestacks belching thick black clouds, red lights illuminating the whole installation to make it look like some demonic vision. The few trees growing along the highway were stunted and almost bare of leaves.

Nova signaled for them to follow an exit off the highway and they entered what looked like a business district. Most of the buildings were shut, with only their advertisements and display windows lit up. Negasi spotted a strip of nightclubs, recognizable throughout the galaxy by their strobe lighting, fancy neon signs, and lines of people waiting to get inside.

"Want to get a drink?" Negasi asked.

"I thought you were in a rush to get back to the Antikythera."

"Oh, right. The raiders. Jeridan sucks as a gunner. If there was a firefight all he'd manage to do is take out a couple of weather satellites. You really shouldn't leave him alone with your children. He's irresponsible and dumb."

"Aurora says he beat the crap out of you in the last chessboxing match."

"Beat me up? The girl is insane! Jeridan couldn't beat me up if I had both hands tied behind my back."

"She said he laid you flat on the mat."

"Lucky shot. It shouldn't have counted. Besides, I beat him the last four times."

"The last two times, and only on points."

"Since when did your daughter become your sports broadcaster?"

"She loves watching you guys beat each other up. Especially the knockouts. She says you get such a funny look on your face when you get knocked out. It makes her giggle."

They passed two more gold statues of The Powerful And Just Father Of All His Loving Peoples, both at least twenty meters tall.

Good thing Aurora isn't here, Negasi thought. Giggling at that guy probably gets you hanged.

"The square is right ahead," Nova said.

She didn't need to tell him. A broad plaza was brilliantly illuminated with floodlights. Shops lined the sides, closed but with their displays all lit up. Yet another statue of The Powerful And Just Father Of All His Loving Peoples stood in the center. Instead of having its right hand in the air in what was supposed to be a grandiose gesture, it held up a small, Imperium-era science vessel a good fifty meters above the surface of the square.

At its base lounged several locals, passing a bottle.

"Great," Negasi grumbled. "Just great. We're supposed to break into the most brightly lit spot in the entire city?"

"You want to save the galaxy or not?"

The people drinking at the base of the statue looked up.

Negasi cursed. They'd just been spotted.