by Jay Allan
“Something to remember me by.” Ella holstered her pistol, openly pleased. “Hasta luego.”
CRACK! A hard stomp to the Aesonite’s stony face knocked him out, thanks to her reinforced knee-high combat boots. Best purchase she ever made.
“I wouldn’t have let him live,” Jaelynn suggested as they scurried from the scene and growing crowd. The petite Tarkathian’s quick, muted footfall kept pace with Ella’s long strides over the wet, mucky terrain. “It’s smarter to kill him.”
Ella shook her head. Jaelynn was Tarkathian, trained since birth to hunt and kill her prey. Ella wasn’t a remorseless killer. She only dealt out death when necessary.
While trudging down more open streets in Zyra, one of Embrose’s many townships, the human shook oily muck off her boots in disgust. “Jesus, what a shithole.”
Embrose, the fourth moon orbiting the gas giant Zy Gant, was a dump in every sense. The skies were a perpetually dreary grey walling off the sun, with erratic rain showers. Older ramshackle structures betrayed Embrose’s brief tenure as a Galactic Union colony moon centuries ago.
Zyra’s newer buildings looked even more rundown despite a briefer existence. The inhabitants all gave Ella chills, and not the good kind. Embrose had never disguised itself as anything besides a haven for smugglers, killers, thieves, and space pirates. They called it “Smuggler’s Paradise” for a reason. Ella and Jaelynn’s first trip to Embrose would hopefully be their last.
“The sooner we leave this jetsam, the better,” Ella said with a dispassionate gaze around her.
“You mean smugglers, space pirates, and bounty hunters like us.”
Ella studied the cheeky Tarkathian sharply. “We’re not like them.”
The Tarkathian teen made a rude noise. “We’re here following up on a lead to snag the largest bounty of our careers. We are the scum.”
”We aren’t… I… Am not...” Ella was too angry to trust her own tongue. “You don’t get it.” She had bigger concerns than more snark from this Tarkathian brat.
Thankfully, their destination finally appeared. Rayaal, a two-story establishment, looked derelict like the rest of Zyra. The sign was a burned shadow Ella almost missed had she not turned from her irritating partner at the right time. “Here we are.”
Inside, the establishment filled Ella with more disquiet. Yes, this was a typical backwater hostellaris like many Ella and Jaelynn had encountered, with patrons drinking their faces off, a smoky haze fogging up her vision and stinking up the air, some yo-yoing melody from a far-off alien culture Ella had never heard, supplemented by laughter or arguments.
However, she spotted this hostellaris’s differences at a glance. And her insides nearly liquefied.
“Looks like we’re not the only ones searching for the fox,” Jaelynn remarked quietly. Her posture appeared relaxed, but Ella saw the severity in the Tarkathian’s expression. Ready for combat in an instance.
Understandable. The patrons occupying the Rayaal’s first floor could match any Union law-enforcement agency’s most-wanted list.
A smattering of humans filled the bar, some earthborn like Ella. Others were clearly crimsonborn by their gold, violet, or whitish irises. All looked hard-eyed and hard-bitten from life on the fringe, the weapons they carried saying as much.
Members of several other species lounged at other tables. An over-seven-foot ursine-like Suuruali with reptilian teeth sat across from his smaller and scrawnier multi-armed Xyobic mate. Both scanned the bar with great interest.
Our competition, Ella grimaced.
A Tarkathian hunter from Jaelynn’s own species sat in a far counter with his massive bulky pulse rifle keeping an eye on his surroundings like a hawk. His gaze fell on Jaelynn and he gaped. Made sense to Ella. Female Tarkathians were rarely seen off the Tarkathian homeworld. Jaelynn met his gaze defiantly until he looked away.
“Tattshi,” Ella swore quietly. “Think we’re too late?”
Jaelynn shook her bald head. “None of them would still be here.”
”True,” Ella agreed, hopeful. The pair moved into the bar, drawing stares. Most didn’t bother looking twice. Good. The twosome found one of the remaining open booths and sat down.
A quick glance upstairs revealed a human man, crimsonborn from Cercidale by his bright golden eyes, staggering from an out-of-view doorway. Following him out was a leggy red-skinned Nnaxan. The long tentacles rooted to her hairless head writhed like thick python snakes around her shoulders and neck. She gave her client a sexy hand wave as he departed.
“A brothel,” Ella chuckled. Of course. Maybe the fox they needed to follow was up in one of the Rayaal’s private rooms.
Not the worst scenario. Ella smiled. It’d been some weeks since she’d had a good, hard fuck. But she’d rather refrain from celebrating the Ronen job.
“Okay.” She got comfortable in her seat. “What do we know about Ronen’s crew?”
Jaelynn brought up her silvery wrist gauntlet, tapping on its mini-console. Immediately, smaller holographic images floated up, big enough for them to see but not enough to draw external attention. Better to know who this Omaegus character surrounded himself with.
The first image was of Ronen himself. By the ashy brown bark that was his skin and the stiff shrubby green beard falling down to his chest, Ella knew he was a member of the Vorn, a flora-based humanoid race. His dark eyes were cold but not dead, filled with stories that would no doubt keep Ella awake for days.
“Ronen runs a small crew,” Jaelynn stated. “Four including him. Have been together for about five years from my understanding. “
“Names and threat level,” Ella insisted, scanning the crowds. “And keep your voice low.” They hadn’t drawn too much attention since entering, and she’d rather keep it that way.
The first image appeared: a colossal Kedri female taller than Ella by far and carved of solid muscle. She had the usual Kedri overarched brow with deeply ridged forehead, and strong-jawed features furrowed in perpetual hostility like most Kedri. The female’s reptilian skin was thick, scaly, and deep blue, her pale orange curtains of hair tied up in braids.
“Sovaat Kul. Definitely the crew’s muscle. She and Ronen have been smuggling partners for years. Known to rip heads off, no questions asked.”
“How surprising for a Kedri,” Ella remarked dryly. “Next.”
Jaelynn shifted to the next image, a lanky human man to Ella’s pleasant surprise. The short, knotted fro of black hair framed his features well. He smiled as if in on a joke no one else knew.
“Merick Oyelowo,” Jaelynn said. “Recent addition to Ronen’s crew. Earthborn human for sure.”
Ella studied him and his flawless bone structure. The last name sounded West African from Old Earth. “What else?”
She felt Jaelynn’s eye roll before the Tarkathian replied, “Data slicer and forger. Got in some trouble in Juunthra Accord Space before he joined Ronen’s crew.”
“I suppose joining Ronen got him out of trouble.” Ella gave him one last admiring look. “Next?”
This image was the furthest from Merick’s good looks: a long, thin, nonhuman face with a bulging white eye on either side. The jutting mouth and protruding chin gave this creature a relentlessly sad face.
“Vgl’r Z’k’llh.”
Ella jerked away from the Tarkathian’s sharp expulsion. “Bless you.”
“Wasn’t a sneeze,” Jaelynn sniped. “That is Ronen’s getaway pilot. A Xyobic. Not much is known other than he’s considered one of the best pilots in the Lawless Regions.”
Ella scowled at the undue praise for this Xyobic space pirate. “Pretty sure I’m better,” she remarked, and reclined back leisurely in her seat.
Jaelynn’s rasping bark noise sounded like laughter. “Debatable.”
Ella’s mouth fell open. This girl was in rare form today. “How many times has my top-tier piloting saved our hides?”
The Tarkathian was ready for her. “And how many of those times has your ‘top-tier’ f
lying tacked on additional repair costs?”
Ella glowered at this insolent child. The human wondered sometimes why she put up with her mouth. “Landings don’t have to be pretty, but it’s better than no landing at all.”
Jaelynn snorted. “Flying is like singing. Anyone can do it.”
“Cállate,” Ella snapped, annoyed by this conversation. Her piloting prowess was beyond. Period. She did a quick scan of the bar. “Not seeing any of his crew.” She didn’t bother keeping the anger out of her tone.
Jaelynn did her own sweep. “Me neither.”
“And no foxes.” The human rose from her seat and rolled her neck around to stretch out a kink. “I’m headed to the bar to get a drink.”
“Meaning one or several?” Jaelynn inquired unkindly.
“Fuck off.” Ella didn’t bother with looking back. The Tarkathian was doing her job, grabbing all the details on Ronen from various contacts. But the sour attitude was her way of letting Ella know how little she cared for this mission. Ella shrugged off the surliness as she found an empty seat at the bar’s far right end. She signaled the barkeep, another earthborn by the look of her. Tall and slender-bodied, cinnamon in complexion, inky black hair spilling down her shoulders and tucked behind her ears. The beady almond-shaped eyes ID’d her subspecies from one of Old Earth’s Asian countries. She wasn’t quite beautiful per se, but something about her welcoming smile and the surgical grace in her movements had a magnetic pull.
“Why, hello,” she greeted Ella like an old friend. “Don’t see many Earthers on Embrose.”
“Just passing through,” Ella replied, returning the smile without effort. “In the middle of a job.”
“Bounty hunter or something?”
Ella shrugged. “Something,” she intoned without further explanation.
The barkeep took the hint. “Ah. What’s your poison for the evening?”
Ella ordered a starshine special, stirred.
The barkeep was quick, returning in less than five macroms of time. “You really from Old Earth?” she asked, leaning in close so she didn’t have to shout over the din. “Or one of its lesser imitation colonies?”
That made Ella laugh. “The latter, I’m afraid. But the way they teach us in Terra Sollus, you’d think we were on Earth still.” She tossed back her drink in three gulps.
The barkeeper looked impressed. “What’s your favorite Earth fauna?”
Ella jerked back at the odd question. If not for the sensitive nature of the bounty, she would have done a happy dance around the bar shouting for joy. Instead, she chose a more demure whisper. “I’m partial to foxes.”
The barkeep studied her a long moment, and then grinned. “Good to know. Want another?”
Ella felt as if she’d been kicked in the chest. Dammit. Another dead end. “Yeah, why not?”’ She turned to see Jaelynn’s pointed look from across the room. Ella pursed her lips to one side, the sign she gave when a lead went nowhere. The Tarkathian’s hostile reaction was frightening. Ella could not deal with her judgement right now. She turned in her seat right as the barkeep returned with a second drink.
“How much do I owe you?” Ella asked after downing her second drink.
The barkeep still wore that stupid-ass grin, which was no longer cute. She leaned in again, closer this time. “Head up to the second floor, Room 2.1-6, indulge in one last treat. Then they’ll be on the house,” the barkeep’s voice was whisper-soft. “And I want thirty percent.”
One last treat? Ella felt as if cold water had been poured down the back of her neck.
Ronen Omaegus was here, in this hostellaris. And Ella was the only one who knew. “Thank you.” She rose, fighting to walk as casually as she could up the stairs.
A beep sounded on her wristcom. Jaelynn’s fury laced every word. “Are you seriously ordering a companion now—?”
“Upstairs in five macroms,” Ella stated calmly and quietly, even though her insides quaked. “Too soon and we draw unwanted attention. Understand?”
A moment of quiet passed before Jaelynn replied. “Understood. Be careful.”
“Always am,” Ella quipped, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Now on the top floor, she took swift, dainty strides down the hallway. Various grunts, screams, moans and non-intelligible noises of pleasure flooded the corridor from behind its many doorways.
Ella finally found the room 2.1-6. She pulled out her pulse pistol and waited.
Within a few macroms of time, Jaelynn appeared at the other end of the hallway. She flitted down to Ella’s side. The Tarkathian, for once looking her age, was about to burst with anticipation. “Are you sure he’s there?” she hissed, her eyes gleaming.
Ella exhaled heavily to calm her racing heartbeat. “Let’s find out.” She opened the door and slid inside with Jaelynn at her heels.
The room’s dim lighting revealed Omaegus in bed, naked with plant-like roots branching out of his lower abdomen all around some random human prostitute’s midsection. She was riding him quite fiercely, her back arched, her eyes closed in clear rapture.
Ronen looked amused, yet...bored. Until light from outside spilled in and he saw his guests.
Ella drew quickly, hitting the prostitute from behind with two stun rounds, splashing the room briefly in bright red.
The prostitute’s curly head lolled forward as she slumped off the side of the bed in a boneless heap.
Ronen dove for the pulse pistol on the nightstand. Ella squeezed off another round, splashing the room again in ephemeral red light.
He rolled away with ease, snatching his pulse pistol to return fire.
Jaelynn intercepted faster than he could shoot. Her flying roundhouse kick met Ronen’s mouth with a loud clack. The blow knocked the space pirate back onto the bed, sending his pulse pistol flying from his grasp.
Before he could recover, Ella pumped five more pulse rounds into his torso.
Omaegus’s bark-skinned body juddered from each shot, and then stilled.
Ella stared down at this bounty. She had to suck in slower breaths because the adrenaline winded her.
Ronen Omaegus, captured by her and Jaelynn. “We got him.”
“We did.” The Tarkathian was smiling.
Ella looked at the space pirate’s body, another concern dominating her thoughts. “How do we get him out of here without getting caught?”
That curdled Jaelynn’s smile. “Good question.”
“That’s where I come in.”
The bounty hunters whirled around, finding the barkeep silhouetted against the entrance. “Lucky for you, these rooms are soundproofed from outside noises, but not from us hearing what’s happening inside.” The latter part gave her clear amusement.
Ella lowered her pulse pistol and gestured for Jaelynn, who grabbed Ronen’s weapon, to do the same. “And why would you help us?”
“Earther unity?” the Asian human shrugged and entered the room. “For starters, my shift just ended. Secondly, I need the money. And third, beings like Ronen are the living equivalent of rotten cow milk.”
She glared at the Vorn’s motionless form. Disgust marred her oval-shaped face. “The less space pirates there are pillaging and ravishing, the better.”
Ella angled a questioning look at Jaelynn. “Didn’t know Embrose had resources.”
The Tarkathian looked wary but nodded consent. “What do you have in mind?” the teen asked.
The barkeep smiled deviously. “We’ll get him out the same way he came in. A back entrance for VIP guests, tunneling underground and emerging out through an abandoned warehouse two blocks away.”
***
Half an orv later, Ella and Jaelynn sat in a roofless hover transport zipping through Zyra’s drizzling streets. The barkeep was driving. In the rear sat a tubular container, dinged up and covered in red rust, carrying an unconscious and bound Ronen Omaegus.
As light rain splattered in Ella’s face, she couldn’t stop smiling. We got Ronen Omaegus, she kept repeating to herself.
Aside from this contract’s massive reward, the influx of jobs would be overwhelming. No one believed Ella would last a week when she travelled to the Lawless Regions after getting booted from AeroFleet Academy. Four years later, the human just made bank.
They reached their ship shortly, with the barkeep unloading their container and sliding it into their cargo hold.
Ella offered a hand to their unexpected ally. “Thank you.”
The barkeep accepted the handshake with a hearty grip. “Thank me with that thirty percent once the bounty’s delivered. That container includes my contact information.”
An orv later they were on the Aurora, their small Kyrior-class stealth cruiser, hurtling through hyperspace’s endless tunnel of light streaks.
Ella had replied to the original contract widecast with a holoimage of Ronen’s unconscious body and DNA sample for verification. She and Jaelynn waited with bated breath before finally getting pinged back with a location.
Rimaw Asteroid Belt, in the Braxxa Sector, two days away via hyperspace.
With that, the two females jumped up and squealed in delight, a grown human acting like a child and a Tarkathian teen acting her age in a rare moment. This is actually happening, Ella gushed to herself.
“TOLD YA I had a feeling about this job,” Ella crowed, shimmying her shoulders and shaking her hips.
Jaelynn shook her head and smiled, showing dark jagged teeth. “Silly human. You were more than right. This time.”
Ella was feeling herself quite a bit, drunk off success instead of liquor.
“How cute.”
The voice sounded like the rumble of a falling sequoia, drawing attention with ease. The two bounty hunters turned to the end of the cargo hold.
Ronen was awake, both arms shackled behind his back with reinforced magnecuffs, feet also magnecuffed. Jaelynn didn’t take any chances.
“Let me guess. You two fleshlings got lucky and are cashing me in for your reward?” The Vorn let out a full-throated, rumbling laugh. “Whose bounty was it?” he asked between guffaws. “There have been so many I lost count.”
“Guanag,” Ella stated, annoyed by Ronen’s total nonchalance. “Apparently, you kept raiding his supply runs. Probably a regular workday for you,” she remarked snidely.