Higgs & Soap: Galaxy Delivery

Chapter 18

The door to the office of the Head of Customs beeped and slid open as a junior official in his red and grey uniform walked in.

"Sir, those two smugglers are ready for interrogation in room four. "

"Thank you Bevans," said the young woman sat behind the desk. She didn't look up from her data tablet.

"Oh and, I was going to leave this to the surface workers, but..."

The head of jet black hair still didn't look up.

"...CLARA has informed us that, about ten minutes ago, an escape pod crashed on the surface, four kilometres from the edge of the tube."

Tara Brissoles finally looked up from her holoscreen.

"An escape pod? Which ship?"

"Not a ship, Sir. It appears to be from Morley Station."

Tara stood up slowly and leant her knuckles on the edge of her desk.

"Morley? That's impossible!" Her face changed from confusion to resignation. "Well, it's maximum solar activity this month, so if there was anyone on board they will be fried by radiation by now. Fried like a pair of hot, horny lovers in a sauna. How many were on board?"

"That's the other thing, CLARA couldn't access its systems to get any flight data, she was firewalled out. Then it just went dead when it hit."

Tara rubbed her chin. "Very suspicious if you ask me. OK, get in touch with Morley, find out what the hell is going on with that chudhole and send a robot up to the surface to inspect. I'm not risking any men on another one of their tech failures. I remember the last time that happened: they programmed a refuse ship with the wrong coordinates and it ended up crashing into landing pad six. That place needs a good boot up the tont if you ask me."

"Right away Sir."

The officer left and Tara did some stretches in the middle of the office before flicking her long black hair over her shoulders and leaving the room. As she walked down the corridor to the interrogation room there was a chiming noise.

*bing dong*

"WELCOME TO VARDA CITY ONE CUSTOMS HOLDING FACILITY. IF YOU ARE HERE, YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE DONE THAT."

Tara nodded in agreement with the announcement as she reached the door. The CLARA AI scanned her face as she approached and unlocked it for her.

Inside sat a man with tall hair and a feline woman, both strapped securely to holding chairs on the opposite side of a table. Already in the room was a senior officer, reading their details from a central holoscreen. As Tara came in, he stood up and saluted.

"Sir!"

"Kim." She nodded and he sat down again. Tara sat in the other chair and looked at her suspects.

She said, "Recording on," and there was a quiet beep. "I hope you are finding the accommodation to your liking?"

Soap strained forwards. "You munting think...?"

"No we're both fine, aren't we Soap? Yes?"

Soap gave him a look of horror.

"Yeah, really comfortable facility you have here Miss...?"

"Brissoles. Head of Customs, Varda City One."

"Ah, perfect. Just the person I wanted to talk to."

"Except you will be doing no talking here. CLARA?"

"WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SHUT YOU UP BECAUSE WE CARE ABOUT YOUR SAFETY," boomed a sharp voice from somewhere in the room. Higgs and Soap twisted their heads around, but couldn't find the source.