Chapter 3

Room service had brought me breakfast. Local planet time was maybe somewhere around late afternoon. Thick fog rolled over the lake surface and didn’t allow for much visual distraction. While holding a strip of bacon in one hand I had the GalNet terminal open and checked the Union-wide Runner list, published by the Justice providers association, mine and perhaps your future professional organization. You can do this independent. Any citizen can arrest or detain a Runner and thus earn the bounty, if the warrant says dead or alive, you can terminate a runner. Or you go for the Walking Dead. The ones sentenced to death by the Union court and wanted dead only. After a while, you will find that there are quite a few benefits from belonging to an association. There are a few and I am a member of the biggest two. The just mentioned Justice Providers Association and the Head Hunters League. There are a few others as well.

The biggest benefit is getting jobs. No needless browsing through many sites or going to the huge list of the Justice Department. The JPA not only lists government bounties but also corporate jobs. I always looked for jobs that were listed in the region I happened to be in first.

There were always jobs, small ones mostly of course.

Someone once asked me if there would even be enough work for me. The Union is a very lawful society with good working police and court system.

Yeah, the Union was lawful, alright, but it was also very big and spread out over a vast region of space and had considerable footholds in two other galaxies. While some conditions for crime had been eliminated, there still was envy, greed, passion, love, and hate. As long as there were these basic, yet very strong motivations crime would remain with society for a long time to come. Motivations that seemed universally present in almost all living, thinking beings. True a Pelongi would never steal or do anything to enrich himself beyond what was freely given but had no problem to kill someone who used the wrong words of respect addressing his mate. A Vantax would not kill another being if his life depended on it, but had no qualms stealing the last credit from his dying father.

Union laws kept everything in check most of the time, Union police was very effective and good, but there was always plenty of work of the likes of me.

However, checking the lists of both associations there wasn’t anything really big within five hundred light-years, lots of small bounties as always.

Well, let’s see what Blisterbahl Green had to offer in terms of carnal entertainment. I never claimed to be a saint, right? And Angels came in the bad variety too.

This time the taxi ride was provided by a robotic flyer. The vista while I flew back to the city was, due to a wall of solid fog, quite unspectacular. A message from Yellow Ribbon told me that I was now the owner of an SII-ACUR-45 and that it had been installed.

Another job or two and I would get rid of the Auto Chef as well.

There wasn’t any fog inside the cities dome and of course, there wasn’t any underground in the Glitter and Glamour district.

I gambled a little, surprisingly won seven hundred credits betting on a professional Tabil Tosser match, watched a game of Vacu-Ball with other fans at a sports bar and then spend a large portion of the seven hundred on a very nice looking Chuckian with a heart-shaped face painting that showed me that there still was a difference between Robo sex and the real kind.

Completely content, all human needs taken care of, I was about to go back to the hotel and most likely getting ready to leave Blisterbahl II behind after another nights rest.

I almost heard it too late, and I only was able to react because my field of vision was twenty percent wider than that of a standard human. Told you, I did have a few cyber enhancements. Someone approached me fast holding something ready to strike.

More out of reflex than conscious thought I stepped to the right and something very painful smashed onto my left shoulder. The sudden wave of blinding pain drove me to my knees. Even though this attack came out of the blue and my shoulder feeling like it had been shattered to a thousand pieces and I went down to my knees, I should have not been as careless as I was.

Before I could reach for my gun, a second blow hit me. I heard an angry voice through the fireworks of stars. “Go down already, you piece of shit!”

My cranium was protected by a skull-shaped thin plate of ultronit underneath a subdermal layer wafer siliconite and this was the only reason I was still alive and conscious. The blow to my head was still painful as hell, I rolled forward over my uninjured shoulder drew my weapon the old fashioned way, as I didn’t wear the gloves necessary to make the auto draw function and received a blow against my wrist, making me drop the TKU. Those weren’t simple street thugs, they had training.

But I got a good look at my attacker, or actually two of them. Both of them appeared human and both were armed with clubs.

I was not out on a hunt and did not have all my weapons on me, my TKU was somewhere near and out of reach, but I was not out of options and this wasn’t my first mugging. The razor-sharp ultronit steel combat knife in my left boot was the fastest option and I slashed it across the wrist of the left man, as he swung again, while I tried to kick the shinbone of the other. The kick went nowhere, the guy was fast, and the knife did not reach the wrist, but sliced across the club wielders fingers. He screamed while I heard the loud barked shouts of someone further distant.”That man is getting mugged, Police! Help!”

Both attackers wore bio seal suits with rain hoods drawn around their heads. Their faces concealed behind flesh colored masks.

The uninjured one grabbed the still howling man by the shoulder and dragged him away. Everything had happened very fast.

Still somewhat stunned by the blow against my head, I saw them disappear into the entrance of a bar.

My wrist felt as if it was broken, my right hand did not want to move and if I tried fiery pain shot up my arm. I saw my TKU and fished it with the left from the curbside as beings came running. A Klack bent into my field of view.”Police and first responders are on their way, Citizen. Are you hurt?”

“I believe I am.”

A Steel and Flesh team arrived just then. The Attikan police officer climbed off the back of his robot. The Attikan that somewhat resembled a Terran Hyena listened to the Klack. “This citizen was attacked by two masked men, just moments ago. They fled into the Golden Raindrop over there.”

The robot had scanned my CITI and attached an AutoDoc to my chest. This little marvel of Union engineering made a faint humming sound and I was almost instantly pain-free.

I swung my legs off the treatment table and thanked the attending med-tech, yet another Chuckian. She wore the eight-pointed blue medical services logo painted on her face and had her hair dyed in the same blue shade. “Thanks, doc. I feel as good as new.”

“Your shoulder was shattered, I had to replace it as well as the bones in your wrist and printed you new ones. That cranium implant saved your life no doubt, you still had an open wound and a concussion. You also had the onset of Tilian’s disease. Very, very uncommon with standard humans, you haven’t been to an Andorian world lately or had intimate contact with one?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it intimate. What is Tilian’s disease?”

“A blood infection transmitted by the Andorian Skin Diggers. You had several of them.”

I shuddered. “Dead man’s revenge. Teaches me, handling the body without any protection.”

She blinked. “You contracted those from a dead Andorian with questionable hygienic habits?”

“Never mind that. Say, there must be a Chuckian convention somewhere.”

“Naturally there are many Chuckians here, our holy planet is only sixty light-years from here. We have one of our largest temples right here on Blisterbahl II.”

“You are the prettiest of them all. Ever considered showing me what you got under that face paint or maybe under that tight white dress?”

“Mr. Marifou, considering the company you keep. Dead Andorians and Andorian Skin Diggers I see no chances of that happening.”

“That hurts. That really hurts, and there you are withholding the treatment that would soothe the pain.”

“Speaking of pain, you are not completely healed yet. I recommend you stay at least three more days and take it very easy. The wound I had to make to pull out that bone puzzle from your wrist, was very big and the tissue is still regenerating and the nanites aren’t done yet. So come back in two days, let me check my work and evacuate the tissue weavers. Maybe by then, I could be coaxed to have lunch with you and tell you more about the Chuckian culture and why we paint our bodies.”

I closed my shirt.”I wanted to leave this place tomorrow, but now I will take your advice and be back the day after tomorrow.”

Outside the med clinic, I almost ran into a Pertharian. These brutes, native to the Andromeda galaxy were among the strongest and most powerful beings. Rumors that they were the base organism the Y’All were built after, never really died. Even though they were most likely the most loyal and dedicated Union species of them. This four-armed eight feet tall giant with eight yellow glowing eyes, a maw full of cone-shaped needle-sharp teeth wore a dark blue Union police uniform. The uniform covered most of his crystalline armored gray and red body. Very few species could match the raw power, their fighting skills, and their almost impenetrable armor skin. This one had the rank of a captain and he addressed me with his Pertharian gravel chewing voice.” Mr. Marifou, I am Captain Pulzier of the 988th precinct. I would like to ask you more questions regarding the attack.”

“I already gave a statement to the Flesh and Steel team. It was Poly analyzed if I recall correctly. It was just a mugging attempt or something like that. I did flash a BICS around which was a stupid thing to do.

“Indeed, using a Bank independent credit strip in a Glamour and Glitter district is not the smartest thing to do, but this is Blisterbahl -Green and I want anyone to be able to use a million credit BICS, show it to everyone and not be mugged or in your case jumped with the attempt to kill.”

“I am working hard on the ‘do-not-make-mistakes’ problem I have, with little success so it appears, but why the investigation by a police captain no less, don’t you guys have a few detectives that can do that sort of thing?”

“We do, but the case is important. Your attack made the local news you see. The Klack calling the authorities is Y’Thjkit, the president of our Chamber of Commerce. He was just showing a group of investors and reporters around the Glitter and Glamour district when they saw you being clubbed.

Lordstar Accommodations Corporations has just invested one billion credits in the Super Tree Hotel and resort. Construction of a second Spaceport has begun a month ago and we believe the ‘Shaill Trail Park’ will open on schedule in two weeks. Planet management has asked me to make sure no stone is unturned in investigating that crime.”

I sighed. “I get the picture and I will do my best to help you out here. I wouldn’t mind seeing those Club swinging bastards before a Union judge or even better on the wanted list of fugitives.”

I picked up my weapon from the receptionist and asked.”Out of mild curiosity but who in the world wants to spend their vacation on Blisterbahl II?

While I could not read Pertharian emotions, I was certain he was scolding me right now. “Do you know how many Shaill and Shail there are? The Shaill Trail amusement park is almost exclusively tailored to their needs. With olfactory attractions, Shaill style mold restaurants and so forth. We already have almost two million Shaill visiting every year and we hope to increase that number considerably. Besides the Shaill there are the Chuckians. It’s a relatively small religious-based human society, but there are about three Billion Chuckians in the M-0 galaxy and they just dedicated their second most important temple right here and that means millions of pilgrims. That we have about half a million non-business visitors of other species might surprise you.”

“It does, but it explains the investments and the planet manager breathing down your non-existing neck. So ask your questions then. I intend to recuperate over a nice dinner and a few cold beers as soon as you’re done.”

“I get right to it then. The weapons used in the attack were Morgan-Slayer gravo-assist clubs. These things are expensive and while they are not illegal, they are not sold on Blisterbahl II.”

“Then someone bought them on GalNet and had them shipped.” I wrinkled my forehead, but you are right. Morgan slayers aren’t cheap. Some local law enforcement agencies and security companies equip their guys with those.”

“Indeed and no mugging or crime has been committed on this planet using these ever before. Mr. Marifou have you ever been on Blisterbahl II before?”

“Yeah I have been here before, twice I think the first time in ‘22, then in ‘25 on or about. I get around and don’t always keep exact dates. This is the first time I am ending a hunt here though.”

“That seems too long for anyone waiting for your return, but your business will make you enemies, I am certain. You would not think it possible that someone followed you and tried to get even for something?”

“That possibility has crossed my mind the second the club hit me, Captain. You’re right I am certain I have my share of enemies, but unless they are clairvoyant they would not have known that I went to Gullster’s Paradise or decided to come here. I have no associates or maintain an office that informs someone about my whereabouts. My home is parked underneath your spaceport. I haven’t been to my home port of Gore II and place of registry in eighteen years.” But I had to admit the police captain’s questions started to make me think.”Say, the severed fingers. I hurt one of the guys real good, any visits to the clinic?”

“We put out a report request to all clinics and doctors of the planet and the system, right away but so far no one reported anyone with two missing fingers.”

“And the fingers?”

“Sorry, Mr. Marifou. It is me who needs to ask the questions and I can’t share any lab results with you.”

“Why not? I am the victim here and I cut them off. I like to know who they belong to. I am sure a virtual DNA model will give the world of origin and there might be clues on the fingers or in the blood where the fellow has been recent.”

“This is an ongoing and active police investigation and for precisely the reason you are the victim, we can not share our investigation results with you. But for the time being, I hope you recuperate well and please don’t leave the planet just yet. Mr. Y’Thjkit insists you being a guest of the Chamber in the meantime.”

My tone became hostile.”You have no right to hold me here, I am a free citizen and have not committed any crimes.”

“Under the Crime investigation Assistance act of 4553, I can ask you to keep yourself available to further assist us with answering any questions we may have, for up to five days.”

“Just great! This is just great. I am the victim here. You do not share the results of your investigation with me but you treat me like the perpetrator!”

“No Sir, but you are a citizen and as you know with citizenship comes not only a great number of privileges but a few responsibilities. Assisting police in investigating and solving crime is one such responsibility, as recognized in the CIAA. Five days aren’t too much of an inconvenience, especially since you are a guest of the Chamber of Commerce during that time.”