Station security officer Becker was about to end his night shift and return to his quarters, when a woman's voice came on over the station's com systems. A fleeting glance at his screen, just as he was about to sign over his duties to the next person in the shift rotation, told him that it was an unannounced, unscheduled global broadcast. Everybody in the city down on the planet's surface would be roused from their sleep because of it.
"Attention, all residents of Aenara. This is not a drill. There has been a security breach. Life support systems have been compromised in the central city. There has been a contamination with a hostile off-world organism that is spreading through the systems. City-wide decontamination is imminent and will be distributed via central ventilation systems. Civilians and all ground personnel, proceed to the nearest emergency cabinet and equip yourself with an oxygen mask. Assist children and the elderly. Make your way to the nearest emergency evacuation shuttle pads and evacuate to orbital stations two, three and six. Station personnel, prepare to receive emergency evacuation shuttles. Oxygen levels will fall below critical threshold in fifteen minutes. Decontamination is imminent. I repeat..."
"What the fuck," Officer Conner voiced what they were all thinking. "What is this, a prank? I don't see anything about a security breach..."
With a furrow on his brow, Becker returned to his station to do a system sweep, but he couldn't come up with anything out of the ordinary. But what was odd was the source of that broadcast. He could not triangulate it back to any of the satellites in orbit. In fact, he could not seem to detect where it was coming from at all.
Around him, chaos broke loose while everyone frantically tried to understand just what the hell was going on. Meanwhile, the broadcast continued to run in a loop that would be received by everyone and anyone in the city. On the planet's surface below, they could soon see the engines of the first shuttles light up, as they accelerated toward orbit.
"This is a catastrophe, we don't even have enough space to accommodate so many people!"
"Where is that broadcast coming from? Which station is sending it?" Commanding Officer Lear yelled.
"This... this is no emergency broadcast," Becker noted, finally making sense of his readings. "The emission pattern doesn't match our signatures. This is not an internal message, Sir."
"Then what the hell is it?" he yelled. "A fucking hailing signal?"
Becker scowled, but his superior's comment gave him an idea. He opened a general comm channel. It was like shouting into a dark forest - he had no idea who he was talking to or where they were, but he just hoped they would answer.
"This is Orbital Station Three, who is sending this broadcast? Identify yourself!"
There was a moment of silence, and they realized that the broadcast had stopped entirely. Then, the voice of the woman resounded through the station again.
"This is Captain Amy Larsson of the Blackstar."
"Who?" somebody asked.
"Larsson? Like the raider?" Conner asked.
"You mean the hacker?" somebody asked.
"Is that the same person?"
"I thought Larsson was a guy," somebody else said.
"I heard she somehow smuggled fifteen tons of aryllian crystal cores out of the Loran belt with nothing but a class AV transit shuttle!"
"I heard she can hack into any computer and break out of any prison with just a bobby pin and a rubber band!"
"Seriously? She's an augment, dipshit! That's how she does it!"
"I heard she's responsible for what happened on Symoa station!"
"The casino?"
"SILENCE!" Commanding Officer Lear bellowed, his face turning crimson with rage, and the chatter died immediately.
"So you're Amy Larsson, the raider?" he asked.
The woman at the other end of the line cleared her throat. "I prefer the term pirate," she said.
"I don't give a fuck-"
"Sir, status reports are in from the ground," Conner interrupted, "Oxygen levels aren't dropping."
"Hah, so she's a fraud? Thought so," Lear scoffed.
Becker found some of the tension in his shoulders to relax again. The stories they had heard about that woman – if even just half of the deeds attributed to her were true, it would have been outrageous. But if she was just a fraud, then-
"They're rising, sir," Conner said.
"They're what?"
"That's what happened on Symoa, I believe," Larsson's voice chirped innocently over the comm system. "Before they blew up."
On the crimson face of his commanding officer, Becker could see a violent turmoil of emotions, and a little vein on his temple began to bulge.
"You're a goddamn terrorist, that's what you are," he growled.
"That's true," Larsson said, sounding cheerful. "Thank you for noticing."
"We don't negotiate with terrorists!" Lear yelled and slammed his palms down on the panel in front of him.
There was silence at the other end of the channel for a few seconds, and they could hear her stir.
"Good for you," she said. "Now if I were you, I'd run another emergency broadcast to make sure everyone gets out, and perhaps prepare for the arrival of those emergency evac shuttles. The first ones should arrive at your station in, hm... nine minutes, I suppose. Clock's ticking. Tick-tock."
"You crazy bitch, your little prank has gone too far! I'll bring you down, just wait!" Lear threatened. Then he turned to Becker.
"Becker! Where is she?" he snapped.
"I... I don't know, sir, I can't track her," Becker replied, frantically moving his hands over the controls of the surveillance system.
"We have lost control over life support systems on the ground," Conner stated, but at that point, it didn't come as a surprise any longer. "I have no idea how she did it, but we're shut out from all systems..."
"Sir, ground personnel reports are coming in on the status of their evacuation," a lower ranked officer, who was manning the direct ground communication lines reported. "There are some... rather persistent denizen that seem to refuse to follow the evacuation order. They... according the ground personnel they... they're literally throwing money at them and yelling at them to go away and stop disturbing their sleep."
Lear grit his teeth together audibly and gripped the panel under his hands so hard that it creaked.
"How many people are we talking about here?"
"About... a quarter of the population, it seems."
"Tick-tock," Amy Larsson's voice resounded through the room and startled everyone.
"You... you little....argh! Okay! Alright!" Lear yelled. "What do you want?"
"What do I want? Hm, let me think..."
"Sir...," Conner whispered to Lear, "According to the initial broadcast, we have six minutes left... if the remaining population doesn't get on the way to the emergency shuttles soon..."
"Tick-tock," she whispered, imitating Conner.
"There's some calls from the ground now, sir," the lower ranked officer added. "They demand to speak with you personally... something about... breach of contract... discretion... your immediate superior, and... oh my, lots of swear words."
"You can have anything," Lear cried, facing the console that housed the comm system through which they heard Larsson. "Anything! Name your price! I will personally ensure that it will be transferred, nobody will track you... Just tell us what it would take for you to stop this!"
There was a brief moment of silence on her end.
"Sorry," Larsson said, "I just made up my mind, and I decided I don't negotiate with assholes."
Lear stared at the console, dumbfounded. For a few seconds, everyone had fallen silent.
And then, chaos erupted again. Somebody had begun to play another broadcast, now mentioning the imminent danger of an explosion, in the hope that the last remaining people would decide to evacuate after all. People tried to coordinate the evacuation and prevent the hundreds of shuttles that were now ascending into the atmosphere from crashing into each other. Next to him, his colleague performed frantic scanner sweeps in an attempt to find Larsson's ship, which they expected to be close by, based on the broadcast frequency range, but it seemed practically invisible.
Becker thought that vein on his commanding officer's temple could not possibly grow any thicker, but it did. Meanwhile, Becker himself felt oddly calm about the whole situation. So what if this Larsson blew up the station down below. Perhaps that would level real estate prices a bit. She had given them a fair warning and enough time to escape. If somebody was stupid enough to think they could throw their money at an explosion and hope to survive it, that was not his problem. But it was his commanding officer's, because whoever survived would certainly turn his life into hell, considering he was responsible for safety and security on Aenara.
Then, something strange happened. On his terminal, a message appeared. It was a private message, sent to him from an unknown location and anonymous sender. It was just one line.
Ignore your asshole boss, the message read, and get your people out before it gets ugly.
Becker looked up and cast his glance around the station command center. Around him, everything was still in turmoil. He thought about the people on the surface, the ground personnel that was currently still trying to get those obstinate rich bastards to evacuate. It really wasn't their fault. They shouldn't have to risk their lives for them. He had friends down there.
Becker made a choice. He took the message and forwarded it to the ground personnel. He edited it only slightly.
Ignore the assholes ordering you to die, he sent them, and get out before it gets ugly.
"Tick-tock," Larsson's irritating voice resounded through the room again.
"If you don't want to make any demands, then what do you want?" Lear now cried in frustration. "Why are you still here?"
"Oh, me?" Larsson said. "I'm just here to enjoy the view."
On the ground below, an explosion erupted at one of the mansions at the highest level of the terrace that overlooked the city. A fiery cloud ascended and hit the artificial atmosphere covering the lot, setting it ablaze. The fire spread across the intangible canopies spanning across all mansions, and began to cascade down the terrace until the whole quarter was engulfed in flames.
The planet had a low oxygen atmosphere, so a constant stream was supplied through underground pipe systems. The network covered the entire city. Another explosion hit in the city center, where the oxygen supply lines criss-crossed underneath the streets. Seconds later, nodes all over the city stood in flames, and then the city as a whole.
Most people had escaped safely, but about six hundred members of Neo-Tokyo's upper class, trading company owners, self-made stock exchange millionaires and other cantankerous idiots had learned the hard way that their money could not stop a blazing inferno rolling across the city. Miraculously, no members of Aenara ground personnel died that day.
About two thousand people that had escaped from the flames in time watched from their shuttles as the city was devoured by the raging flames. From up high, due to the domed artificial atmosphere that spanned over the whole city to trap the oxygen, it looked like a ball of fire. As if a sun had fallen down on the planet's surface.
Nobody noticed the black shuttle as it ascended among them. Once they reached the upper atmosphere, it broke off from the group and made towards the darkness of outer space and disappeared.
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Author's note:
Thank you for reading!
If you like the adventures of Lars and Null, I'd be very happy if you would consider leaving me a little star, or even some feedback :)
But I appreciate also your silent clicks and reads, and I sincerely hope you enjoy reading this at least half as much as I enjoy writing!