"Be careful with that, little man, " said the burly, tattooed lizard, slouching over the filthy counter housing a glass cased selection of plastic exposives. "I don't know what you're planning with all that tetra, but I hope to hell you're not using it all by your lonesome." He raised a hairless eyebrow.
"It's metal, Reg, " Jesse tossed back, "there's more to do with this than funnel it into my brain through my eyes." He gingerly hefted the canvas sack onto his shoulder, feeling the mercurial liquid fluid heavily inside the temperature controlled canisters.
"I guess I probably won't be seeing you back for a while, then."
"I hope not." Jesse flashed a grin. "This should cover our debts." He tossed a small, rattling tupperware container onto the wooden counter. Reg's scaly forehead crinkled as he pried off the top. "The hell..."
"Take care of those," Jesse said, turning and opening the door, leaving the lizard, tail twitching, gazing at the handful of white, pastel-tinted Carrotian gems.
As the door closed behind the teenager's slim white back, the lizard narrowed his yellow eyes.
"Hmmph," he grunted, and heaved his beer belly off the counter to reach for the grubby telephone on the wall behind him.

It was late that night when the four creatures assembled in the now-familiar corner of the pub they'd frequented for the past week. A rain was beginning to fall over the swaying sign -Marinated Pearl- as Jesse, the last to arrive, slithered inside. The grainy jukebox drowned their voices from outsiders.
"It's all there," Jesse confirmed, nodding at the canvas satchel he'd dropped at their feet.
"It's going to work, " Icarus announced tiredly. "The anti-magnetic coating painted on the shuttle's hull, antennae and controls will prevent the artificial gravitational pull that's holding us in orbit, allowing a supercession of the 80-kilometer force field that's placed to spray the false imagery into our monitors-
"At least, we think it's 80 kilometers. that's all the airspace outside of a given land mass that a government can hold," Naomi uttered a little bitterly into her cider.
"When we hit the estimated 80 kay barrier, we'll see the planet behind us, and we'll be out of mesospheric control of the Diamondian government.
There's just one problem."
"Security?" Naomi queried. 'They're not going to just let us fly off the planet when they see we're not in the Orbit, right?"
"But even so you're flying an f-wing ST-9063, "Jesse said, "even the built in weaponry is adequate, with shields and all. My father flew an f-wing when I was young and if we've got a good pilot-"
Verity narrowed her eyes at Jesse, but said nothing.
"Naomi's as good as they come when we're talking about flying," Icarus said idly, and Naomi smiled at him.
"I believe it," Jesse said, "But I'm just saying that we shouldn't have a problem, with a gunner and a pilot, getting out of their- legal - range in enough time."
"Well, that is sort of the issue," said Verity, stirring a vodka and lime.
"Using the tetra to demagnetize the ship prevents all outside impulsion to affect the ship. Unfortunately, it also prevents any similar impulses to escape. In essence it will de-locate the ship, make it near to impossible to pinpoint, and thus when painted, the ship will be like a dead thing, no pull, no weight, no heat.
It'll disable the shields, " she said. "I've tried to figure out a way to technologically delete that side effect, but where computers and guns don't figure, I'm afraid I don't do much good, and if there is an answer out there- I know Icarus has looked too- we can't find it. Even if we place an externally located force field generator on the outer surface of the ship, the shielding will just bounce around because the anti-magnetism makes the ship undetectable. The force will just slide off and deflect into space. "

"Anything else?" said Naomi.
"Nope, everything else is cool." Icarus rolled his eyes.
"Lets do it then. " Jesse leaned forward over the table. "We've only got one shot at this and I don't know about you all but I'd rather die trying."

"No one's going to die, " Verity said forcefully, exhaustedly, "We're all going to Carrotus."


To be continued.