Flight of the Techne

[Kaghuros]

The Corsairs had definitely held up their end of the bargain, that much was certain. The white, tamper-proof shipping containers were still freshly marked with the Deep Space Engineering holographic quality seal. Each of the ten boxes contained hundreds of assembled Quantum Multiplexors and ship-board biocomputer boards, likely stolen from a trade lane construction site or an unlucky shipping pilot. But now they were here, and that meant that Ian was far from caring who had owned them before they made planetfall.

"One hundred thousand in secured credit cards, they're yours." He handed off the briefcase to a large man of obvious Hispanic descent, and stepped towards the first of the sealed crates.

"Not so fast, Senor."

A grimace played across Ian's face for a brief moment.

"Someone's offering more. Thanks for the cash, though."

The feeling of a capacitor discharging made Ian's hair stand on end. He turned, watching the tail end of the Corsair's light show dissipate in the air around him. "Do you think I'm some sort of imbecile? Is that it?" He began walking towards the Corsair, another pulse of plasma refracting and dissipating in the air near his head. "You wanted to cheat the most intelligent man on this ball of rock, and your plan was to shoot me with that?!"

The Corsair threw his gun to the ground, drawing a long knife and gesturing at Ian. "I'll gut you like a fish, gringo!" The Corsair's men moved to grab hold of him, but two loud reports stopped them in their tracks. Ian stepped to the side, and a third loud gunshot felled the captain of the small gang. He fished in his pocket for a moment, then clicked a button on his keychain. Outside the warehouse his shuttle powered down, the ship's right-side autogun retracting into the wing and the energy dissipation shield coming offline with a faint smell of ozone in the air.

We're right on schedule.