Chapter 1

  Oh frak!

  “Oh frak!” Matt yelled

  Dan was laying back in the pilots chair, bare feet up on the dash, old floppy leather hat over his eyes. In one fluid motion he shot upright. Waving his hand through the air he brought up the ships controls and scanned for enemy signatures. The Floating screen was blank, no ships nearby, with a flick of his hand the screen changed to ship wide damage detection, all clear.

  “Computer asses threats and ship wide diagnosis.” Dan said

  “no enemies detected within 6 astronomical units . Ship diagnosis reports all clear.” The ships robotic Ai voice announced

  Dan looked over at his long time friend and business partner.

  “what the frak Matt?”

  Matt was leaning back in his copilot seat, mumbling curses, the N.I visor a glowing ring around his eyes.

  “Frak, frak, frak!” He hissed

  “What is it matt?” Dan pivoted his chair and leaned over the center divider towards the co pilot section.

  “Dude what!!? he demanded, growing more anxious by the look on Matts face.

  Dan stood and stepped up and out of the pilots section and around the divider . Holding the back of Matt’s chair he leaned in and snapped his fingers in front of the younger man’s face. “Matt!”. He said louder.

  With a single motion Matt dismissed the glowing visor and slowly turned his head, the white light from the streaking stars reflected in his large dark eyes.

  “Im sorry dude.” He said

  ……….

  “But why the frak would you confirm?” The two men were in the small lounge of their space craft, the hum of the engines, usually soothing to the two bounty hunters, did nothing to break the tension now.

  Matt lifted his head from his hands, elbows propped on the low metallic coffee table in front of him, the small, offending idac disk that contained the information display he had been using was turned off and lay on the table in front of him.

  “you know why!” Matt spit back looking at his partner incredulously. “60,000 Sots, that’s why!” Matt continued.

  Silence filled the small room, the low vibrations surrounding them as their ship slipped through the hyper lane. Matt stared at the disk on the table before looking up at his partner. With a sigh he continued;

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “I mean I was bored checking out that porn site I found with the teleride girls.”

  “the ones with four tits?” Dan asked, standing across from Matt, arms crossed and leaning against the galley wall.

  “ exactly” Matt said, “then the notification popped out of no where, 60k man, posted on the general bounty boards! I mean damn! We could pay off the ship, buy the stealth plates have them installed, get the weapon upgrades and have plenty left over to bank. We would be unstoppable, I just wanted to be the first to read-confirm, you know, get a leg up on the competition, I mean frak! ” Matt pounded the table with his fist causing the Idac disk to jump in front of him.

  “60,000 is too much. Slag! didn’t that makes you think about it? I mean I have never seen that big a bounty, never even heard of that big a bounty. You didn’t accept it did you?”

  Matt looked up at him again, rolling his eyes, his face a mask of incredulity.

  “are you fraking joking?? As soon as I read the very fine print and I mean very fine, I froze. It was a complete set up Dan, I mean the terms and conditions were on separate fraking tab! Fraking Fregly man! He frakin knew what he was doing. Frakin toad. That Indi is human waste core!"

  Matt reached under the soft cushion, felt around before pulling out a bottle of red liquid. He grabbed a dirty glass off the small cluttered stand beside the couch, sat it on the table in front of him and poured in a liberal amount. The shaking in his hands causing some of the liquid to splash on the table. Matt drank half of the drink in one gulp gasped and thumped his chest with his fist, face reddening from the burn as the alcohol slid down his throat.

  Dan continue to stare at his red faced partner. 10 years younger he was barely more than a kid, 21 impulsive, invincible. They’d grown up in the slums, quickly fought there way up from poverty, out of the slums and eventually getting off the crappy planet all together. Matt’s eyes were closed and sweat began to bead on his forehead. Slowly Dan shook his head and began pacing.

  “Yea well frak him then! I mean slag, we are under no obligations, I’m sure plenty of other hunters confirmed as well. You know the whole frakin guild may have read-confirmed ”. Dan’s voice was anything but confident. His arms were crossed and he stroked his scarred, shaggy, bearded chin.

  “ I mean someone probably already accepted with that payout. I mean you could buy a ship with that payout” Dan muttered trying to convince himself of his own bullshit

  Matt began to laugh, the kind of hysterical laughter that only comes under stress, the kind that could slowly descend into mad cackling if a man didn’t have a strong drink to beat back the crazy.

  “Aint no frakin spacer here, there, or anywhere taking that frakin job! The frakin navy and marines wouldn’t take that fraking job.”Matt said between laughs.

  Matt finished his drink in one more deep gulp before leaning forward from the worn out synth leather sofa to pour himself another. His hands were steadier now. He looked to the side table and grabbed a large dirty mug, pouring the rest of the contents of the bottle into it he pushed it towards Dan.

  “Face it brother, we are frak’d.” Matt said sighing as he leaned back into the deep cushions drinking deeply from his glass.

  Dan sighed as he sank into the plush fabric of a faded patchey arm chair. He put his dirty bare feet up on the scratched up metal table next to the little idac disk. He held his Mug out to Matt in toast.

  “Here’s to being frak’d”

  Matt mimicked the motion, toasting his friend before leaning further back into the cushions. Bringing the glass with the bright red liquid to his mouth he muttered,

  “ Yea frak’d and with no reach around.”