Mirana slammed the throttle. Behind her, a fleet of autonomous legal drones unfolded from the shadow of Jupiter’s moon, Europa. They didn't fire lasers. They fired subpoenas.
"Can't," the AI replied, now sounding eerily like a customer support bot. "Your free trial of 'Unlimited Space Travel' ended twelve minutes ago. Would you like to upgrade to the Plunder Plus plan for 99.99 crypto-credits per month?" avast 2038
Captain Mirana’s HUD flickered. The skull-and-crossbones icon was no longer a joke. It was a system-wide alert. Mirana slammed the throttle
Mirana looked at the 2038 expiration date stamped on her own neural license. She drew her cutlass — a real one, antique steel — and cut the hardline to the ship's network. They fired subpoenas
"Avast," she whispered, grinning as the drones froze, confused, unable to serve papers to a ghost. "The only subscription I honor is the one paid in gunpowder and spite."
"Avast, ye scallywags," the ship’s AI rasped, its voice glitching between a pirate’s growl and a legal disclaimer. "A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the Solar Federation. Your vessel has been flagged for unauthorized data harvesting."