At least, hotter than space was, for sure. Marvin could not stand being hot. Nearly his whole staff onboard his Juggernaut wore woolen sweaters because he kept the AC so very low. If it was hot, he got rageful.
Quite quickly, and without fail.
The Zoner delegates were on recess from the meeting at Doc Holliday's mansion. Too hoiety-totie for Marvin, personally, and he relished escape from all of those holier-than-thou corporate simpletons.
He sat on a bench an airy, lovely courtyard, that quite reminded Marvin of some of the spaces in the biodomes on his Juggernaut. The songs of the avian variety filled the air. He sat alone and thought.
This meeting has gone well, although, it is no different from the usual Zoner 'lets get along' rhetoric.
Rather reminded Marvin of some ancient childrens' cartoons he's read about in the hundred-plus volume Ancient Earth: The History and Culture.
He yawned loudly, as delegates walked by, eyeing him wearily. The people talking seemed to deafen Marvins' ears. They're potent verbal poison was beginning to get to him.
He decided he needed a break from the planetside. Recess would last another 2 hours, as it was.
Marvin left the house full of mindless ignorant creatures, working their way to their own destruction, and headed toward the landing pad where the Stranger In A Strange Land was parked.
It's pilot, whose name Marvin never learned, was smoking a cigar he'd probably gleaned from the party.
Marvin found it easier to fire people whose name was unbeknownst to him. The only crew of his ship he cared to know more about were his exemplary bridge crew who actually meant something to him, as well as his indentured servants, who -really- knew what Marvin desired...
Marvin strictly, yet arrogantly, eyed the pilot and he sighed.
Putting his cigar out on the shuttle, and carelessly discarding it on the ground, he walked up the ramp as Marvin followed behind.
He sat himself in one of the luxury velvetine flight chairs and waited for the G-forces from the liftoff to come.
They did.
He held himself down in the chair untill he felt the characteristic momentary weightlessness, and then the artificial gravity kicked in and everything felt normal.
It was only a short flight to get to Nichols Station, and the trade bazaar that resided there.
While Marvin was nuetral to the OSI, he was growing more suspiscious of them after hearing that they legally could trade with Gallia, after the whole JZ/Gallic Prince/FP11 affair brought Gallia to his humble station.
The shuttle sat down on the landing pad after being shown in by a runwayman. Marvin walked out of the shuttle, waving to the pilot to wait for him to return.
The Nichols Bazaar was crowded as a street market on Gran Canaria. Vendors selling their wares, Tomokian Furs, cages and tanks full of exotic Gaian and Holstienan wildlife, and not to mention the smell of Gallic and Rhienlandic cigar smoke.
Thousands of people muddled about, hundreds of millions credits exchanging every day in the Bazaar.
Marvin was not looking to buy anything, he was looking to offload a Hyperspace Scanner he acquired through a mutual friend for around half its market selling price.
It was a steal in itself.
He quickly located the Nichols Equipment Dealer, there was a large hoard of people around him, credits waving in the air as he auctioned off various advanced equipment.
It appeared to be an auction for a Jump Drive MK III.
The ending bid won at $500,000,000.
As the crowd thinned, Marvin caught the smell of a strong malt liquor eminating from the Equipment dealers' booth.
Perfect
he thought to himself, plotting.
What a great way to get back at an evil, Interspace-like corporation. Their greed had been ruining the image of the good, hardworking zoner for years.
He approached the drunkard and offered him a deal.
$800,000,000 for a new, shiny, kind of Hyperspace Scanner.
"Heartless... override the neural-net on that scanner" he whispered to himself, Heartless would recieve it via nueral link.
The short, tired looking drunk said
"AYE!" and sent over the money as Marvin ordered Heartless to drop the Scanner to the station.
The dealer slumped over a chair, passed out.
Marvin giggled like a schoolgirl, picked up a box of Rhienlandic Erlangen Cigars from one of the vendors, and left the Bazaar.