Free On The Imperium’s Secret Service (Imperium Cicernus) by Christopher Nuttall

make sure that you stow all of the hunting rifles onto the shuttle.  And plenty of ammunition.”
     
    ***
    Tuff hadn't contented himself with fiddling with the planet’s plant and animal life, Mariko realised an hour later.  He’d also messed around with the planet’s weather – and done so in a way that was almost impossible to fix, even several thousand years later.  The weather could change with alarming speed, moving from brilliant sunshine to rainstorms and even snow crashing out of the sky.  Strong winds blew up out of nowhere and threatened to slam the shuttle into the mountains or down into the ground.  There were even a handful of volcanoes belching smoke as the shuttle flew overhead, preparing for another eruption.  Tuff had to have been out of his mind...
     
    ...Unless, of course, he’d actually intended to create an unstable world.  There were theorists who believed that an unstable world had been the key to humanity’s development and expansion into space.  Mariko had no idea if that was actually true, if only because there was very little information on what had happened to humanity before the Imperium, but it certainly sounded plausible.  Tuff might have hoped that one of his creations would eventually grow into true intelligence, breaking the laws on uplifting unintelligent life forms or creating new forms of intelligent life. 
     
    Or maybe he’d just been completely insane.
     
    The jungle below seemed impassable, until they finally sighted Lady Mary’s lodge and the spaceport beside it.  It was a massive complex, walled and heavily guarded, almost as if they expected someone to try to break into the complex at any time.  Mariko checked the beacon from the spaceport, overrode the automatic systems that tried to take control of the descent and handled the landing herself.  The sudden and violent changes in the local environment were just too unpredictable to trust an automated system to handle.
     
    Not all of the buildings were behind the walls, she noted as they came in to land.  A number of small houses were outside the walls, guarded by their own handpicked guards and presumably invisible force fields to keep out unwanted guests.  The documents she'd downloaded from OTC suggested that the worst nightmare on the planet was the insects, including some that seemed to be little more than flying piranhas.  They had been advised to wear repelling bracelets at all times, even if they were genetically modified to be unattractive to hunting insects.  Some of the insects on Tuff were supposed to be worse than the flying nightmares on Beowulf.
     
    The shuttle touched down neatly on the hard surface.  Immediately, a team of workers came forward to unload the bags.  Fitz met them at the hatch, handed out a generous tip and ordered them to carry the bags to one of the outside cabins.  The workers set off at once, while Fitz checked a pair of handheld pistols and passed them to the girls.  Mariko blinked in surprise at how casually he was arming them, before spotting the sign at the edge of the tiny spaceport.  WARNING!  DANGEROUS CRITTERS!  REMAIN ARMED AT ALL TIMES.
     
    Mai looked over at Fitz and frowned.  “Do the animals sometimes get inside?”
     
    “They’ve been known to,” Fitz said. “Better to have the gun and not need than to not have it and need it.”
     
    They scrambled out of the shuttle and closed the hatch behind them.  Fitz had given them both the combination to unlock the shuttle if necessary, after paying what seemed an exorbitant price to keep the shuttle on the ground.  Apparently, most of the passenger liners left their shuttles in orbit and waited for a call before returning to pick up the tourists. 
     
    The heat struck them as soon as they emerged from under the force field protecting the spaceport.  Tuff was hot , hotter than any other world she’d experienced, hot enough to leave sweat trickling down her back.  The workers, who seemed to be