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Deal Hunter lands from the jump at the outer area of the Vince trade system.
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1
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The distance from Blaze’s star to Vince is twenty-seven light-years.
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2
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The average distance between stars in this spiral arm of the galaxy is twelve light-years.
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3
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With her new long-range jump drive, the ship could have made one jump to be here.
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4
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Instead, she went searching for salvage and picked up more things to trade.
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The Vince system is a highly used trading system.
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The planet Vince-4 has a large city that is focused on trade.
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With its moderate climate and flat areas, it is perfect for ship landing areas and allows pilots and...
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This has turned Vince-4 into a destination for ships.
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The city has several sectors.
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Built around the landing areas is the entertainment sector.
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People access the industrial sectors, located further from the city, by train.
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Thousands of ships are moving around.
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The system handles millions of tons of cargo and passengers every day.
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It is well-traveled, easy to get into, and extremely dangerous if you are naive or careless.
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Deal Hunter jumped millions of kilometers away to avoid issues with other traffic.
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While traveling in the system to Vince-4, Captain Weston negotiates a trade for the materials they s...
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He is also purchasing supplies here because the prices are usually better than elsewhere.
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Deal Hunter provides all the standard requirements and protocols to ensure a smooth landing.
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The stated business provided is the delivery of salvage parts, obtaining repair parts for the ship, ...
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To prevent identification, the transponder shows a freighter named Bergungsverkäufer or
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“Salvage Seller.”
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Suspecting the reward to be a trap, changing a ship’s transponder designation is extremely hard, so ...
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Deal Hunter does not want to show up in the system where anyone can find them.
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As a smaller cargo freighter, the ship can land at the edge of the trade zone, a location where smal...
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Paying passenger transport has the highest priority, followed by large luxury goods transport freigh...
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Deal Hunter is familiar with the pattern and the landing area.
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It is near one of the industrial areas where a fugitive could be hiding.
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The front cargo door splits in two, with the upper half folding up and the lower half extending to f...
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Waiting in the hold as the door opens are six robots, each with a container of salvage parts.
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They have parts on hover sleds.
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Behind them are three taller and stronger robots.
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The port agent looks at the assembly of robots and starts checking the information on her tablet.
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Each robot with salvage parts walks to her to confirm the contents, then moves off to start delivery...
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The final three hunter robots descend the ramp.
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They stop several feet from the agent, and her tablet shows the two bounties they are after.
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Checking the forms, she nods, and the robots move.
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“Wait, where is your captain?”
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The three robots stop, one turns, and says,
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“The captain is on the bridge using your city communication network to locate the bounty targets. We...
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40
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“I usually talk to the captain of ships that arrive.”
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“We are expecting to be here for a few hours, then free your landing area for another ship. Our capt...
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With that, the robots turn and start moving towards the exit.
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The agent watches as they exit the landing area; they split in three different directions.
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A few minutes later, a hover skid enters the area with six containers heading to the ship.
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The agent immediately walks over, asking,
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“What is this?”
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“We have a scheduled delivery of repair materials for this ship. There are also, following standard ...
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The agent is agitated.
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This ship is super-efficient.
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No chatting, no casual banter.
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Simply in, work done.
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She follows the hover skids up the ramp.
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The delivery robot unloads all six containers and moves to the one container that is sitting on the ...
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The agent says,
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“Stop. I am going to do a random inspection of that container.”
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The container is the standard size of one meter long, half a meter across, and half a meter deep.
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Just the size one robot can lift.
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Opening the container, the agent sees multiple emergency items.
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All are old and should have been replaced years before—emergency food packets and first-aid kits tha...
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The agent shifts things around to look for what might be hidden.
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Some materials are crumbling as she moves them.
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“This is disgusting. This should have been replaced long before now.”
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As she is speaking, a service robot approaches and waits.
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“What is your designation, robot?”
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“I am Support Robot 74532, but I have been named ‘Nanny.’”
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“Nanny, what the crap are you doing? Some of this shit is dangerous if you had an actual emergency.”
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“Yes, ma’am. The captain recently conducted a salvage operation on a yacht and discovered emergency ...
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“When was the last time you had a passenger on this ship? They could have died in an emergency.”
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“The last biological passenger was a fugitive who was on the ship for less than twenty-four hours. W...
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The agent glares at the robot and gives a small grunt.
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“Fine, get that shit out of my docking pad area.”
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<<<>>>
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Bounty hunter robots’ construction makes them tough.
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They will take abuse and need to keep functioning.
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They are like guardian robots, standing at a height of two meters.
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The biggest difference is their programming.
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Hunter robots must locate the fugitives, so they require more complex programming.
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A fugitive could have a guardian robot protecting them.
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After leaving the landing area, the three hunters split up and then converged back together in an in...
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There are three areas to find a fugitive: where they sleep, where they eat, and where they work so t...
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Today, the robots are heading to a factory that produces simple items.
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The fugitive’s work history led them to pick the factory.
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What experience does he have that will get him a job?
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The robots are not polite as they enter the docking area.
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Several robots approach, demanding clearance.
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86
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The hunters transmit the fugitive information and the warrant information.
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The factory robots, following lawful programming, immediately transmit the location of the fugitive.
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Factory robots immediately move out of the way, instructing the dockworkers to resume their regular ...
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The hunter robots have already mapped every robot, person, security camera, and exit point.
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They move toward the factory floor door quickly.
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The robot’s programming anticipates the arrival message, causing the fugitive to panic and flee.
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The capture is fast and would be a textbook view of apprehending a fugitive at work.
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Robots move quickly to get a visual of the fugitive’s location and block the paths to exits, then co...
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When the other workers see the robots, they realize something is happening, but falling behind could...
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They say nothing; focus on the production line.
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When the fugitive looks up and sees the first robot, it is too late.
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Turning to run, he sees the other two.
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Everyone on the production line is familiar with what it means.
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Interfering with the apprehension of a fugitive will get them fired.
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When the robots converge on the fugitive, they all hit the line stop button and wait.
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The robots put restraints on the fugitive and lead him to the closest exit.
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One robot turns toward the only biological being that is speaking, yelling at everyone.
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The robot walks up and states clearly that it is apprehending a fugitive, citing the relevant legal ...
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The supervisor has never had hunter robots in her production area and has a bright red face.
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She is going to be reprimanded by her boss for this disruption, and she can’t do anything about it.
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Yelling at or hitting the robot has no effect.
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Her boss will reprimand her for this disruption, and she is powerless to stop it.
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The robot finishes and walks away.
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The frustrated supervisor yells,
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“I’m going to be screwed by this! You could do something to help us here.”
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The robots stop.
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The one talking to the supervisor is now several meters away from the other robots with the fugitive...
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Now concerned because it had stopped, the supervisor bits her lower lip.
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Did she piss them off?
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Are they going to destroy something?
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The robot walks toward a production line computer.
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It looks at the supervisor and says,
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“Your production system is out of date and inefficient.”
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Extending its arm toward a data port, the robot connects to the computer; the screen flashes.
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120
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“What are you doing?”
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yells the supervisor.
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122
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Disconnecting, saying nothing, the robot walks out of the building.
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123
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The supervisor’s face changes from a scowling, intent look to a red one, then to white.
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124
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“What did the robot do? It will get her fired.”
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Suddenly, the production line’s safety system alarms.
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A second later, it stops, and she turns to see each of her three production lines go through the sta...
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127
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Now she is sweating.
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128
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The only thing that can make that happen is a full power failure and reboot.
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129
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You don’t reboot the line controllers during a production shift without someone getting fired.
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She walks to the closest production line, looking at the monitor system.
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Everything looks normal.
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Like the reboot didn’t happen, she looks down the line at the workers who are all talking.
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133
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“What the hell just happened to my production lines?”
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A worker yells,
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“This is awesome! Thanks, boss. I don’t know what you did, but my system isn’t glitching.”
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136
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Slowly, she hears more and more voices.
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It’s working.
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This is what we have been requesting.
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139
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They fixed the problems.
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140
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By the end of her shift, the supervisor is looking at the numbers.
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141
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Not only did they catch up from the robot disruption, but they are also ahead of the production sche...
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142
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If they can do this tomorrow, they could meet the ridiculous quota for the week.
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