Stellar Dust 1 - Cargo Run by Isaac Orr

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"Boffing voids, I need telecontrol now!" he yelled at the hopper's computer. A fixture on the headrest of the chair extended towards his skull, and everything went dark.

Engulfed in total calm, Stryler had no sense at all, feeling as if perhaps he were spinning, totally deprived of any means of knowing his position or motion. Then a view of the hangar expanded before him in total detail, down to the very thickness of its polyfiber walls. He swung himself around and saw the enforcers running towards him, his motion now that of the hopper. Physically he felt the force beams striking the hopper as if someone were elbowing him hard. He concentrated on both of the enforcers as they came to a crouching position, dialing their force rifles up to full. With a mental reach similar to stabbing at them with his fingers, he sent two flashes of light directly at each one. The hopper's weaponry was intended for ship to ship combat, and the heat of the energy beams made a real mess out of both the enforcers. Spinning, Stryler willed himself through the opening at the far end of the hanger and the hopper responded with a whine from its gravgens as it accelerated out and then curved upwards into the sky.

Twenty minutes later the hopper was in orbit and Stryker disconnected himself from the telepathic connect, his normal senses and body returning to him. He gasped deeply for air and the hopper's computer system automatically adjusted the atmosphere to provide a richer mix of oxygen. Checking the holographic three dimensional display before him, he searched for any sign of pursuing enforcer craft. Nothing showed up yet, but that probably wouldn't be the case for much longer. Right now, he had to leave this system as quickly as possible, find out how far and fast the heat from this one would spread and act appropriately. Then he'd worry about who had sold him out and why. Before this, he'd had no serious rap sheet in the region and there had been no reason for enforcement to pay any attention to him beyond that which folks of his type usually received. Now he had four counts of assault upon enforcement personnel with at least two of those followed up by unlawful death of same on his record. That would lead to a lot of attention real fast.

He reached out into the display and with a flick of his finger instructed the hopper to execute the pre-programmed flight plan back to his ship. Reaching down he pulled open a velcro tab on his right calf to reveal a small round metallic port set into the flesh. A line lay on the floor by his seat and he picked it up and plugged it in, sitting up to watch the foremost section of the display change as the status of his augments was read out.

They were new and expensive, but after today's little unplanned test, he decided they were well worth it. Recovering from the operation had been pretty far from the most fun he'd ever had but you had to accept the limitations of black market doctors. If they were good, they'd be operating legally. Stryler scanned the readout for any signs of problems and was relieved to find that everything was finally within expected limits.