Chapter 8: Bounty Hunters

"Well it would seem we are officially classed as pirates." Four young women sat round a table in a dark corner of a seedy bar located in a rundown city on a lawless rim planet. Theasa looked round the table at her comrades and captain. "I hacked into the planetary security network and we are on the list, a bounty on our heads." She shook her head. "It's not fair we are lumped together with that murdering bitch Sisanna." A tear trailed down her cheek. "I only just failed the mating ritual." She sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "My parents had already selected my partner, they showed me a photograph, he looked so nice. All I did was wobble a bit during one of the tests and they told me I was not suitable, flawed, not good enough to produce a child and be a good wife." She took a shuddering breath. "And now this!"

Petara leant forward and patted one of Theasa's fisted hands. "Hey, come on now, you've got us, you're not alone."

Theasa sniffed and smiled a weak smile. "I know, thank you." She took a deep breath. "Anyway, it was easy to get in as the system security has not been updated for years. It is a wonder the system still functions at all, and the fact it is linked and gets data from the central worlds is astounding." She sat quiet for a moment then, just, as Varna sighed and took a breath to speak an idea struck Theasa.

"You know ... sorry Varna ... I might be able to fix things if I had enough time and some help. The security net would once have been impossible to hack, and in the old days someone would have noticed a vulnerable planetary security system, locked it out or ensured it remained up to date. A sign of the times I suppose, everything is in decline these days."

With a smile, Varna interrupted. "Theasa stick to the point."

"Oh yeah, sorry. Anyway, with enough time I could hack into the central world's security net via this planet or one in the same situation and clear our names."

Three sets of eyes went wide, Varna was the first to speak. "Theasa, you really think you can do that?"

She nodded. "Yes ... yes, given enough time I could." She paused for a moment a frown crossing her face. "Of course the bounty might be a problem."

Varna lifted her drink and watched the bubbles rise in the amber liquid. "Yes, once the news reaches the rim worlds we will not be safe anywhere, especially out here where most everyone would sell their grandmother for a few platinum coins, and life is cheap. She sighed, one of my trusted contacts told me the woman's family has underwritten the reward and it is a vast fortune. She must have been well thought off and her family are well pissed at her death. There is a rumor she was pregnant as well." The others round the table gasped.

"Ancestors!" They said in unison.

Varna took a gulp of her drink. "Yes I know, we will be vilified, even the most hardened criminals would string us up for that."

"What are we going to do, Varna? Can't we hand her over to the authorities or something?" a note of desperation crept into Catana's voice.

"No Catana, it won't be enough, we are tarnished with the same brush now."

"Yet she struts around as if nothing has happened, lording it over us. She even orders you about at times, Varna. Can't we just dump her somewhere and fuck what happens to the casket."

With a frown Varna glared at each of them in turn. "Nothing happens to that casket, understand. If any of you touch it or give Sisanna any reason to set off her device I will kill that person myself, and their death would be slow and painful, understand?"

"All right, all right, sorry." Catana held up he hands. "But I don't understand your attachment to the fucking thing, Varna."

"Honestly? I don't either, but until we can find a way of getting that detonator off of Sisanna we are stuck with her I'm afraid. But either way her presence no longer has any bearing on our being hunted by every fucking bounty hunter, lowlife, and law keeper in the Grojan Empire, or what is left of it.

"So we have to find somewhere we can hide for a while until the initial hunt for us dies down and things become forgotten. Then there might be time for you, Theasa," she nodded at her, "to break into the security systems and remove our names from the data base. For now we have to get away. I suspect it will be a week or two before news of the reward gets out as far as this, but we cannot take a chance, we have to hide." She took another mouthful of her beer. "Right ladies, I think it is time we left, the sooner we are back in space and away from here the better."

They rose together, Catana and Petara knocking back the last of their beers. Theasa left half of hers, and when Petara raised an eyebrow Theasa waved her hand at the unfinished drink. "I don't want any more thank you."

Varna smiled, patted her on the shoulder but made no comment. Theasa did not fit the usual profile of sharp toothed women who had their teeth filed to mark them out as rejects from the Grojan mating ritual. All the ones she knew were hard and violent and could take care of themselves, they had to be that way to survive after being cast out by their families. Theasa had not deserved to be rejected and because of it the others, except for Sisanna, mothered and protected her. She was too young to have been involved in the human war so had not been drafted ... it showed.