Chapter 8: Bounty Hunters

The queue for drinks at the bar melted away as soon as Minara bared her teeth. Filed teeth marked her out as a failure, but she had learnt that generally, people both male and female, regarded her and others like her with fear. For some it was justified, and the woman she had come to meet had a reputation as a ruthless bounty hunter and pirate. Some of the things she was reported to have done were justified, some, Minara suspected, were meant to enhance her fearsome reputation.

Minara ordered a beer then looked round the bar. Varna and a member of her crew, Sisanna, if she remembered correctly, sat in a corner watching. Customers avoided them, and if one came too close Varna would just have to show her teeth. She noticed Minara looking in her direction. She nodded so Minara picked up her drink and walked over. Customers parted like wheat in the wind as she crossed the floor.

Varna indicated the seat opposite her. Minara regarded her for a moment, and then pointedly adjusted her blaster strapped to her hip and sat down. She glanced at Sisanna, who had an even worse reputation than her captain did, if that were possible. Her eyes were watchful, missing nothing, an aura of pure evil pervaded her.

Minara bit back hard on a feeling of injustice that she should have been marked in the same way as females such as these. Varna smiled, her sharpened teeth complementing her predator-like expression. "Minara, how are you, doing - alright I hope?"

"I've caught a few humans, enough to make ends meet, if that is what you are asking?"

Varna laughed. "I have a proposition for you, Minara."

"You know I prefer to work alone, and I'm not comfortable with some of your methods, Varna."

"Would several hundred humans tempt you? Think how much they would be worth in bounty."

Minara narrowed her eyes. "Go on, I'm listening."

"I have received reports from a reliable resource that a group of human ships was recently spotted heading into the Scorpious Sector."

"Scorpious is a vast area, Varna, that has been deserted for centuries."

"Exactly, that's why I have this proposition for you. Two ships working together can cover a far greater area than one working alone."

"Why me, Varna?"

"Because you have a reputation for being fair and trustworthy, unlike others I won't mention."

Minara snorted. "You for instance?"

"How could you think such a thing? You cut me, Minara."

"All right, say I'm interested, what do you propose?"

Three weeks had passed since agreeing to team up with Varna and her crew. Minara was bored - she leant back in her command chair with her booted feet on the navigation console, her ship's sensors set at maximum. She would plot a jump, sweep the area, then plot another jump, and then sweep. She found she could complete five sweeps a day without too much trouble. At the end of each day she would talk to Varna via the quantum communication system so they kept their search coordinated.

She had time to reflect on her life; she had been lucky, her father had acquired a position for her in the Grojan military. Many females who failed the assessment were abandoned by their families and had to find their own way. At least she had an outlet for her supposed violent streak. She trained in special operations and had fought in many battles during the war with the humans. But when the war ended she had been cast adrift, even though she had been awarded for valor several times.

She had soon found that a young, violent, unmated female trained to kill was not welcome in polite society. At least she had her honor and would never do anything illegal or gratuitously violent, unlike some of the others marked like her.

She was just about ready to start the plot for her next jump when the sensor alarm went off, something at extreme range. She sat up. "At last!" She tapped in the coordinates and plotted a short jump to the contact. When the computations were ready she hit the button.

It took a few moments for her sensors to come online after exiting the jump. Her proximity and weapons lock alarms went off simultaneously. Minara swore. It was not possible, she found herself in front of a huge human battle fleet. After the destruction of their planet ended the war around two years ago there was nothing left of the human species but a few isolated refugees. As soon as she appeared they launched fighters, they were on her in seconds, and Minara fought the controls of her bucking ship. The human ships were intent on her destruction. Their first shots had disabled her communications so she could not report their position to Varna, and she knew full well the humans could not afford or allow her to escape.

As she fought with the controls, trying to present a difficult target for the human fighters, she studied the navigation computer screen. Even in this deserted quadrant of the galaxy there had to be a habitable planet somewhere. Her fingers danced over the controls. Suddenly a speck on the screen blinked green.

Her ship shook from another hit, making her grunt with pain as her straps dug into her shoulders. She blinked back the pain and zeroed in on the planet. The database informed her it was an old, long forgotten Grojan colony world. Good, if there were still anyone alive then I can fit in without too much problem. The destruction of her ship was too imminent for her to have time altering her appearance.

She punched in the coordinates, and the planet was close enough to reach even with the damage to her jump engines. She hit the button, well aware the humans would track and follow her. The jump jolted her, slamming her against the seat and she swore again; the ships inertial damper systems must be damaged as well.

The planet loomed large in front of her, and as she suspected the human fighters appeared seconds later. Her mind raced. She needed a way to convince them she had been destroyed or they would follow her to the surface and finish her off. A desperate plan formed in her mind; if she hit the atmosphere hard with her ship spinning, then timed the ejection of her escape pod to perfection, she could make it look as though her ship broke up and was destroyed in the upper atmosphere in a flaming trail of destruction.