The police cruiser fired its nose guns at us.
Things happened very quickly after that.
I hit overdrive and pulled back hard into an inside loop. The police missed:
I didn't. I blew the cruiser's tail off. Then I banked hard to avoid the
hosing slugs from his wingman. As the police vehicle swooped by I saw that
it had no windows. Therefore no occupants.
"Robot policemen!" I chortled. "Therefore we don't have to hold back and
spare their lives. Because they have no lives! To the junkyard with the
lot!"
After that it was Old Home Week in the diGriz partnership. I climbed-then
did a 5G dive to get away from the flock of police cruisers that had
appeared all too suddenly. Hit the reverse drive when they were all on my
tail. Angelina worked the armament and defenses as they zipped by and
managed to get three of them. Even on the most peaceful planet I go not
unarmed into the sky; our peaceful hoverfloat was a lot more deadly than it
looked.
But this chase was beginning to turn nasty. We were vastly outnumbered and
outgunned. "And running out of ammo," Angelina said, echoing my own
thoughts.
"Change of venue!" I shouted, dropping towards the green forest below. "Grab
the survival kit and get ready for a bumpy landing."
I screeched low over a rock-tipped ridge, dived into the valley beyond-and
braked to a hover under the trees below. Angelina had the door open as we
juddered to a stop, the kit thrown out, and was diving right out behind it
when I hit the twosecond-delay button. I was cutting it a little too close:
the doorframe hit my bootheel as I went out. I changed the dive into a roll,
hit the ground hard on my shoulders and thudded to a stop, all of the air
knocked out of me.
"My hero," my dear wife said, patting my cheek and kissing my forehead. "Now
let's move it."
We did. Grabbing up the kit, she gracefully, and I haltingly, dived into the
protection of the shrubbery.
Meanwhile above the trees the battle roared as our faithful hoverfloat
defended itself with all the robotic skill at its command. Alas, the fracas
ended suddenly with a tremendous explosion.
"End of champagne and caviar," Angelina said, her voice so cold I felt my
body temperature drop.
