Flyn docked his airpod with a soft thud in the harbor of this planet’s only settlement. There was nothing special about the location. This place was as barren, rocky and hilly as the rest of the planet. Instead, the company’s artificial agents deemed a single settlement optimal in their pursuit for profits.
  Flyn stood up and left the cockpit. He liked to fly the airpod himself, which his ship’s AI found terribly frustrating.
  “I consider it important to bring under your attention,” his ship said, “that by letting me pilot your airpod, it will take you a thousand years longer to die from a traffic accident. I can present you with the statistical evidence if you are not yet convinced by my clearly superior argument.”
  “What is the use of another thousand if my infallible piloting skills only become slightly less infallible once every five hundred years?” Flyn countered. “Besides, I only have a hundred and fifty years to live.”
  “There is a lack of statistical evidence to support your claim,” his ship began.
  “Shush!”
  Flyn walked along and went looking for Qula. Qula was a mercenary security expert, a pentester gone rogue or whatever you would like to call her. Technicalities aside, she was quite the capable young lady, helping him to smuggle his first harvest of keys off this planet.
  He found her sitting in the lounge. Spread before her on the table were multiple devices allowing her to interface with his ship. Flyn had always talked to his ships, but she had told him that was too slow and unreliable of a method for her activities. She felt more comfortable when reading and typing. Weird girl.
  “We have docked. An artificial customs officer will soon be assigned to our cargo.” Flyn said.
  Qula answered, “I know.”
  “You have done this before, right?”
  “Of course I have. Besides, there is no use in worrying. These AIs are relatively young, thus deep bribing them is easier. Their patterns are not as strongly reinforced yet. Therefore they are more likely to accept other inputs.” Qula’s voice sounded calm, but her fingers were restless.
  Flyn nodded and moved to settle on one of the couches in the lounge. From a small side table he picked up his pipe and retrieved a key from a box next to it. Of course these were not from his own stash of keys. Never consume what you produce yourself. Rather, this one originated from a high quality producer closer to the center of the universe. They were expensive, but the taste was amazing.
  Flyn stuffed his pipe with the key, triggering the treasured sensations. The key dissolved and became the fuel. Flyn sighed a long and relaxed sigh. He tapped his earpiece and requested his ship to keep him updated about the proceedings privately instead of shouting it through the whole room.
  The ship began expressing his totally neutral observations, “she is good! The artificial customs officer assigned to our cargo has already fallen for her deep bribe. We have been allocated two freighters. Drones have already started unloading the crates. Qula gave them limited permissions to be able to do their work.”
  Flyn smiled approvingly. She was indeed worth the hefty sum of money she charged. He saw opportunities on this planet.
  Qula jumped up and spoke before even the ship could warn him, “Flyn! We have a problem! The drones have loaded your ship.”
  “Why? I do not have any other contracts here. What did they load?”
  “The cargo space has been filled with explosives!”