Grudge Braker - Androids and hard-boiled eggs -

Prologue

"This is the Solar System Space Forces! Stop the ship! Or we'll use force."

A synthetic-voiced warning tone rang out from the corvette. Kent switched off the radio with a slamming motion to the repeated stop orders with forced interruptions to the common frequency.

We were going to smuggle 400 cases of emerald green Martian whiskey, give them 4 million credits, and get out of debt...

"We could have faked it when we left the solar system, but the Centauri border inspection is just too bad!”

Pressing the limiter release button on the throttle lever, Kent pushed the throttle up roughly. Overboost mode is activated and ice particles are thrown into the exhaust flame.With the impact, the transport ship "Flamberge" creaks up and accelerates like a comet.

"Warning 4G."

The red letters jumped on the main display. The acceleration G, which was not neutralized by the inertial control system, pushed Kent's body against the seat.

‘Flamberge’ is a smuggling ship converted from a former Centauri independent military fast transport ship.

Designed as a blockade runner during the war of independence, she has a rigidly constructed hull for a warship and an illegally modified, high-powered engine for a cruiser.　Kent gives her one of the whips and with a bullshit acceleration she starts to pull the Corvette away.

"Heat source reaction approaching from the rear. Enemy missile launch confirmed. 45 seconds to impact."

Central Computer's 'Noel' reports the missile alert.

"CIWIS activated! CQ defense!"

Even though it's a transport ship, it's a warship that served as a blockade runner to a space fortress in the last war, and it's loaded with weapons for self-defense.

"The chamber burned out last month and has not been repaired, Master."

Noel responds in a strangely human tone for an AI synth voice.

"Oh, shit, it's hard to be poor."

Kent muttered in a throwing mood.

"I don't know, it's the Master's fault for drawing the poor lottery, thirty-two seconds until the missile hits."

At Noel's calm reply, Kent snarled as he placed a hand on his forehead.

"I was supposed to be able to pay off my debt when I was done with this job."

At the request of the Centauri military police, he had been gifted a reactive bullet disguised as a food container to a pirate stronghold in the asteroid belt, and on his way back he was hit by a particle cannon from a chasing pirate.

Six million credits for repairing the auxiliary vernier, a very poor lottery.

"Twenty-two seconds to missile impact, collision course, on my mark."

Acceleration is better with the lower mass missile, I tried to accelerate it to run out of fuel, but apparently it only stretched it out.

"What the hell, hit the bottle."

400 cases of Martian whiskey. The angry face of the client, Grandma Scarlett, flashed through my mind, but it's for my life, isn't it...

No. Do you think the old lady's going to kill me?　Something like that. Kent says to himself as he passes control to Noel.

“Eye, Master, I Have Control.”

Closing the front half of the cargo bay airlock, electromagnetic ejection of half the load through the cargo hatch, countdown.

"Assuming twelve seconds to hit, four seconds to ejection. The container will blow up in a comma seven seconds after ejection."

All Kent can do is pray. While reporting to him, Noel releases the container into space.

The rear camera follows the six containers as they rotate and get smaller and smaller.

In front of the missile, an explosive bolt popped, spreading its contents in a radiant fashion.

An orange cloud spreads behind ‘Flamberge’ and a missile explodes as it plunges into the cloud with frightening speed.

"Target completely destroyed, Corvette turns around, appears to have given up."

Oh, I see. You give up. The rest is just an excuse for a load that turned into an orange cloud…

Holding his head in relief, Kent sighs and begins to think of an excuse for the old lady.

"What, an orange?　Noel, that shipment... what did it look like to you?"

Kent asked Noel, with a gut feeling that he was being used as a decoy on another smuggling ship.

"It looked like a Daucus carota."

Noel replied.

"I beg your pardon?"

The unfamiliar word caused Kent to ask again.

"It's a carrot, do you want to analyze the footage?"

"No...no...good."

That old lady is using me as a refrigerated truck... Convinced that he was being used as a decoy, Kent clapped his tongue.

"Inertial navigation, we're on course for Centaur Ⅲ, You Have Control, Master."

Control hands it back to Kent.

"Please, Noel,"

"Yes, Master.　I Have Control."

From my next job, I'll have Noel report the load...she should be able to spot the lie easily with mass calculations.

I guess I'll just have to take a nap and think about it. Kent unbuckled his belt and reclined the seat, resting his legs on the console and closing his eyes.

“Cut off this console.”

Small letters jumped on the main display.

§

"This is Centaurus III. Hey Kent, you got a hell of a face."

A little over two centuries after mankind discovered the way to cheat Einstein, Centaurus Ⅲ is a huge space base built for the terraforming project of a rocky planet in the Centauri system.

It was converted into an orbital fortress during the Centauri War of Independence, and after its defeat, it had become the bed of the remnants of the colonial government - the locusts like Kent and the others.

Even so, Centaurus Ⅲ consolidates its status as a free trade city because of its extraordinary defensive power, strong life support system, and the reactor that operates the only transition gate in the Centauri system that is equipped with it.

Of course, it was no secret that a lot of bray was distributed here and there.

"Yeah, I've been through a lot."

"The radio was making a lot of noise, but was that your fault?"

"I'm being chased by a bunch of frontier army clunkers."

Kent says that to Rick the controller and laughs.

"If you don't do your pranks in moderation, you're going to get stabbed in the back, aren't you?"

"Then you'll have to clear your card game debt."

"Shit,"

While the two are talking in vain, Noel comes in from the stern. Not being able to get in from the bow is a habit from Kent's time in the military.

Noel, the clever AI, is doing exactly what Kent told him to do.

"Okay, manupulator ejection. All right, I got you. Secure the wire."

After taking control from Noel, Kent blew his thrusters short.

"Suddenly it's dangerous, Master."

"You've never been to Pier Three before, have you?　The fixture on the left here is a little loose, fix the data."

Kent said that to the protesting Noel and laughed.

"This is Centaur III Control, 'Flamberge', welcome."

"Thank you, Rick, this is Noel, I appreciate it."

It's an exchange that's been going on and on for more than a hundred years. It's not the captain, Kent, now, but the central computer, 'Noel', who responds.

"Noel, take good care of Kent, he still owes me a card game."

"I'll take care of it, Rick."

"You're a dependable AI, Kent, and you'll make a great wife."

"It's a spaceship, unfortunately. It's too big to be a wife."

"........."

As Noel fell silent, the side-thrusters on the bow of the ship blew up a fraction of a second.

"Hey!　Kent "

Rick exclaims.With a dull thud, the drifted hull was pulled back to the fixed wire.

"Look out!　I got it!　I'm sorry.by Noel "

"Good to know,"

Noel said grimly, aiming the rudder and adjusting the central axis.

"Rick!　Please don't piss her off."

"I'm glad to see you're okay, Centaur Control, over and out."

§

"It was absolutely, positively awful."

With a blur, Kent jumped off the back of the sluggishly running trailer, his weight leaning on him as he stepped through the airlock into the normal gravity area.

In the meantime, it would be better to apologize to the shipper, since he had replaced half the carrots in the package with stardust. Especially when the client is the boss of the Transportation Guild, Old Lady Scarlett.

"Hello, Mr. Matsuoka, you look tired."

"Oh, thanks, by the way, for the love of God, call me Kent."

As soon as Kent entered the office of the Transport Guild, he said to the old-fashioned android "Liddy" who called out to him, bowing his head, and put out a cigarette.

"Would you like me to massage your shoulders, too?"

"No, thanks. So 'Liddy', where's Grandma Scarlett?"

"If you're Lady Scarlett, she's in the back office."

Raising one hand to Liddy, who gestured to the back, palm up like a high-class department store greeter, Kent opened another heavy door made of high class solid wood.

"Well, look who it is, the feckless captain who has ruined the precious cargo of the straw."

The girl with a cheeky cane on the mahogany desk looked at Kent and said so with a mischievous grin.

"I'm sorry, I messed up the carrots for your snack."

"Not at all. You're a bad captain who can't run an errand."

A girl in a scarlet dress matching her name pulled out a carrot stick from a glass of crushed ice and took a bite.

"So, Grandma, I'm supposed to have been asked to transport four hundred cases of Martian whiskey."

"It's rude to catch a pretty girl like me and call Grandma, don't you think?"

How dare you..... Thinking about it, Kent shrugged his shoulders. For as long as Kent can remember, she's been this way for fifteen years.

"Okay, Lady Scarlett. Whiskey turned into carrots, and there's a solar system frontier army inspecting this side of the Transference Gate, what the hell?"

"I guess that's a coincidence,"

"Bullshit."

Picking up a carrot stick from the desk, Kent tosses it into his mouth. Filled with a deep sweetness and aroma that was neither synthetic nor hydroponic, as if it were a luxury product.

"That's good,"

"Isn't that right?"

Smiling, Scarlett must be quite a pretty girl if she did that.

"In the meantime, how much are you willing to pay me?"

"A million credits for losing half the shipment."

"That's a quarter, dude."

Scarlett shoved the remaining carrots into her mouth and laughed at the protesting Kent.

"Then I'll give one container of carrots to the no-good captain."

"Oh, all right, I don't need that one, I need an energy chamber for the CIWS."

"Then let's give Captain Noam one a container of carrots."

"Oh, okay, I don't need that one, I need the energy chamber from CIWS."

"I'll get you a recycled product, I'll fill you up with propellant for a big service."

"You're haggling."

"Of course."

Scarlett laughed and waved her hand to indicate that she was done with her business. Shrugging once more, Kent left the guild's office.