Gauntlet

Transplants

Round of 8 - Smackdown: The Second Coming by  
( Prompt: super-human story feat. a non-earth civilization; approx. 2,900 words)

Klaxons blared across the crumbling structures of the Jetstadt arcology.

"Peacekeepers to base! This is PK-VII Aura Rocketsdottir, in hot pursuit of rogue dropship Biota Epsilon!" she said into the commlink. "Repeat: unauthorized offworlding attempt in progress. Send out an Omni-Points Alert now!"

The dropship made a sharp, desperate turn in the narrow space between the crystal spires that marked the outer edge of the arcology. It was a chancy maneuver but most of the Peacekeepers didn't seem to expect it. That gave the crew just enough time to gather the velocity needed to escape the territorial limits of the world-ship Gaea Prime.

Inside the Biota's over-crowded cabin, many unrestrained passengers were flung about, their bodies hurtling into each other. Most of them just accepted the pain. They understood grave injury to be part of the risks.

"Mea culpa," said Captain Lana Alphard over the ship's public address system. "But that move was our only real chance."

Just a little higher and the air would be too thin for the Peeks to catch up without auto-respirators.

Alphard put on her dark-tinted pilot's visor and checked the heads-up display – seems like she'd ditched them. "Damn, I'm good!" she said proudly, as she took a drag from a celebratory stick of Escrivain's Specials. The coolium released by the burning spices granted her instant awesomeness. [ vis. prompt #9]

Suddenly, a warning blast passed in front of the cockpit. It was Rocketsdottir, shooting from just below the dropship. She appeared to be nearly out of breath but she kept her balance atop her tricked-out hover-platform.

"Stand down," she ordered, launching another volley of suppressive laser beams from her ray-gun. [ vis. prompt #6] "I've got enough juice to keep you here until reinforcements show up."

"Oh, Aura... Always trying to hold me down!" said Alphard, over the dropship's hailing frequency. "Feels just like old times, huh?"

"Captain Alphard, this is not the place for this conversation," said Rocketsdottir. "I know this is probably just another quick score for you but the Administration has a system in place to bring those folks planetside. I acknowledge it's not perfect right now, but everyone is doing what they can to keep things in order."

"Aww... Look at you role-playing the law enforcer. It would actually be quite cute if it weren't so obviously fake," said Alphard. "Now, listen... I know you're going to let me go for two reasons. One: you know that what I'm doing is right – even if, yes, it means quite a hefty payday for me."

Then she paused for a moment.

"So what's number two?" asked Rocketsdottir.

"Because you're in wireless range."

The Peek didn't need Alphard in her line of sight to imagine her usual trickster's smirk.

She let out a heavy sigh. "Okaaay... What do you mean by that?"

"You used your go-to password for the admin controls on your platform."

The micro-nuke propulsion on the hover-platform shut down, as grav-stasis mode kicked in, stranding her in mid-air. She mouthed a curse aloud but it was muffled by the thrusters of the dropship as it blasted off towards the surface of Nu-Gaea.

* * *

The spherical world-ship Gaea Prime had loomed over the planetoid Nu-Gaea for almost octo lunar cycles now, blocking out the sun to a portion of the surface. The outer edges of its shadow fell on parts of the Utopolis metro area. The darkest region of the shade fell several deca-leagues beyond city limits, which had now been termed 'Shadowlands' on the feed updates.