Higgs & Soap: Galaxy Delivery

Chapter 17

"And we're finally here!" grinned Soap as The Lucky Duck finished its descent through the atmosphere and followed a gentle arc until it was travelling parallel to the surface of the planet.

Scylla was exceptionally barren; a small, radiation scoured ball of rock. But it had two things going for it. Firstly, it was perfectly positioned in the middle of major transport and trade routes through the sector. Secondly, it was highly geothermically active, with tens of thousands of huge natural lava tubes that disappeared miles into the crust. It was inside one of these tubes that Varda City One was built.

Soap had stopped the ship and was hovering between two rows of guiding lights that led to the edge of the hole. The lights were currently all red as they waited for landing confirmation.

Higgs had been rooting under the cockpit dashboard for something, but was now straining up out of his seat.

"Can't see..."

Soap pressed a button on the dashboard and a screen near Higgs flicked from technical data to a camera view of the surface beneath them.

"We have an under camera? Neat!"

Moments later, the control tower gave Soap the landing instructions and the lights turned amber. She gently brought the ship over the edge of the tube and started to descend along the flight path on her navigation screen, while Higgs stared, goggle-eyed, at the view of the city below.

While the surface baked in the nearby sun's radiation, the tube was protected by miles of rock. Light collectors fixed around the lip of the tube allowed the city to control its climate and have an artificial day/night cycle, while power lines that went deep down into the tube below the city provided far more energy than it could ever need. It was also naturally nice and warm down there which, to the city engineers' dismay, contributed more to the house prices than all their work combined. The residential property was dug into the rock around the outer rim of the tube, safe from any direct radiation bursts, meaning the main bulk of the city inside the tube itself were commercial and farming areas.

The city was a massive spider's web of walkways and bridges spanning a chasm so deep, that all the Health & Safety inspectors must have thrown themselves into it in defeat the moment they arrived. Huge districts of skyscrapers hung over empty space, subsequent generations of architects enjoying making each new building's design seem ever more terrifyingly perilous. Large parks and plazas hovered in thin air with the thinnest of supports connecting them to the outer edge and the central Spire, the mile high building containing all the city's administration and services. At the top of the Spire was the Spaceport, sat on it like a giant flower that stretched to the outer edges of the tube. Each petal was a terminal and all the ships slowly dropping and rising from it were tiny worker bees, coming and going with the city's nectar. As they dropped, two huge Tosen Transport ships, dark blue with rims of blinking yellow lights, rose up past them. Higgs eyed them enviously.

"One day we'll have a fleet of ships that big Soap. One day."

Then he went back to rummaging in the drawers and shelves around his feet.

"Whatcha after?"

"I bought a nanotracker a while ago. Was going to test it out on our shipments in case they went missing or got stolen. Then we never got any shipments. Thought I would pop it in the data card. Just in case we lose it again."

"Why don'tcha use the Grabiculator? It'll find it in no time."

Higgs face lit up. "Oh yeah." He unbuckled himself and disappeared into Soap's quarters.

Varda City One was the first city built in the tubes of Scylla and now there were eight others. There had been a tenth city, but a somewhat hasty geological survey, before the Federation claimed control and changed the regulations, meant that the city builders hadn't fully certified that the tube they were building in was inactive. It wasn't, and Varda City Ten gained the unenviable reputation of being the first city in orbit, before it quickly left orbit and disappeared into extrasolar space.

Higgs returned with the Grabiculator, flicked it on and swept over the shelves and corners of the cockpit. While he did this, Soap followed the flight path to the Economy landing area and parked in the marked bay. It meant a walk to the terminal, but saved them a few credits. As she powered down the engines and waited for the control tower to lock their flight systems, a small fleet of service robots and a large van approached them.

"Got it!" shouted Higgs, and pulled the Grabiculator out of a small drawer next to the emergency medical kit on the wall. He picked a tiny black dot off it and sat down next to her as he took the data card from his pocket.

"You know, we've been here before, but we've never been down into the city itself," said Higgs. "Apparently they've these gardens so large they have their own micro climate. They get tiny clouds down there!"

"The place is pretty tightly regulated though, so we'd best try and stay out of trouble. No more jumping off trains or hacking auto-drives OK?"

Higgs saluted, "Yessir! Oop..." and flung the tiny dot somewhere over his shoulder.

"Seriously, they have a really strict AI that controls everything, keeps order. One of the guys on my engineering course was born here and he told me it's a really nice place to live, provided you just agree with everything,"

"Sounds like a truly modern Utopia. In any case, I can agree with things," nodded Higgs, sweeping the Grabiculator across the floor, "I'm pretty good at agreeing with things. In fact, I'm doing it now. Dead easy."

The van turned sideways on and stopped in front of their ship as the robots disappeared from their view underneath them.

"Got it! Again. Right. Priority one, above anything else: get the data card to the customer. As soon as we're outside the restricted areas of the Spire, we'll get in contact and ask for delivery coordinates. Then we'll drop it off, get some food and hopefully people will stop trying to kill us!"

"Just what is it about the data on that thing that makes it so valuable anyway?"

Higgs shook his head. "I really don't know. I've been over it dozens of times and it's just a load of old family photos, scans of letters and a video of some kids playing. I don't get why it's so important. But, I guess I don't have to. I just have to deliver it and get paid before I die."

"Who needs payment when you've got your life, right?"

Higgs made a face. "From a strictly business perspective, that doesn't really work, but I see your point. Don't worry Soap, I've got a feeling things are going to pick up for us."

The side of the van rolled up and a dozen helmeted soldiers in grey and red armour jumped out, formed a line and pointed their weapons towards the cockpit window. Their internal speakers crackled into life as the tower took control of their ship.

"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP! WE APOLOGISE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE YOU HAVE CAUSED YOURSELF. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE."

Higgs sighed. "I'll never get to see those clouds."