Chapter 1
Han
Han jumped out of the way of a flailing tentacle, but she wasn’t quite fast enough. The single claw at the end caught her on the calf, cutting a hole through her pants and wounding her leg.
Hissing in pain, she pulled the jolter out of her bag and thrust it into the fleshy center of the Hamlershin’s tube-shaped body. The criminal screeched in pain and stopped trying to escape the netting holding most of his tentacles securely against his trunk.
“You’re lucky the bounty requires me to turn you into the broker in one piece!” she snapped at the Hamlershin.
“Please, let me go,” the Hamlershin begged. “I promise, you have the wrong individual.”
Han scoffed. “I didn’t know there was more than one Hoomak Tordor III of Molnock.” She leaned over to look at the spreading blood stain on her leg. Damn it! These were her favorite pants!
“I’m Hoomak, but I didn’t steal anything,” he said.
She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “Steal? What did you steal? The bounty is for assault.”
Hoomak jerked and then talked rapidly. “Uh, no, I didn’t meansteal. I, um, I only meant that I’m innocent of all charges.”
Han shook her head. It was always the same with these criminals. They’d never done anything wrong ever in their entire lives! Never mind that she’d captured him by pretending to be innocent and in trouble. Accepting his “help” allowed her to get close to him even as he’d made arrangements to sell her at a slave auction. She’d drugged him with the same substance he’d tried to slip into her food.
It was hard to be a human in this universe, but Han was far tougher than her small stature would lead others to believe. Between her fast reflexes, quick mind, and dogged determination, she’d never failed to bring a bounty in.
Hoomak was simply another payday closer to her retirement. Someday, hopefully soon, she’d do nothing but raise and train jinjoos. It was a future she couldn’t wait for!
Ignoring the pain in her leg, she shoved the Hamlershin. “Move or get the jolter.” She waved the device in front of his face.
He made a grumbly noise but started walking again. They were almost to the broker when Hoomak tried to make a run for it. She was ready for that move.
One quick whistle and the net, which had been wrapped loosely around Hoomak, tightened and sent him tumbling to the ground. He managed to slap one tentacle free, as if he thought that would help him escape.
The worst part was the wailing!
She crouched down next to him. “Hoomak, stop being so dramatic. You’re not going to get incarcerated or anything. You know how this works. You’re going to have to negotiate with your victim until you both decide on restitution. That’s it.”
“But it's so much wealth!” he cried loud enough to make several Ugarians walking by jump with surprise. “I’d rather be incarcerated!”
She sighed. “Then don’t go around beating up your business competition.”
He kept blubbering, and she gave up on getting him to listen to her, let alone walking to the broker. Pulling out an information square, she sent a request to the station's inner transportation office. She hated spending the credits on a prisoner transport unit, but she wasn’t going to be able to drag Hoomak to the broker.
Hoomak never stopped making noise. Not even when the three Ugarians showed up or when they helped haul him into a caged cart.
“He’s a noisy one,” Tulma said as they all slowly walked behind the cart. This wasn’t the first time Tulma and her team had helped Han with a bounty, but Hoomak might be the loudest they’d ever dealt with.
“I might have to have my ears checked for damage,” Yama said with a chuckle, showing a lot of sharp teeth. Ugarians looked a lot like an Old Earth image of a werewolf Han had seen once. They were tall, muscled, covered in brown fur, with long snouts, and sharply pointed ears. If she hadn’t grown up alongside them on Inneeko, she might have been intimidated. Far from being scared of the large species, she had many friends among them, including on this station.
“The first round at Tanur’s Tavern is on me,” she offered. “As an apology for the noise. I’ll see you all at tenth bell.”
Tulma and Yama agreed readily, but Ikma didn’t say a word or even acknowledge the offer. Despite her lack of response, Han knew she’d show up later. Ikma rarely spoke and no one knew why. It was a station-wide mystery, and there was a large betting pool on the reason. Han hadn’t put any money in the pool, butshe guessed Ikma was simply shy and self-conscious. She was small for an Ugarian female and was probably sensitive about it.
Unfortunately, not communicating often had only made Ikma more interesting to everyone instead of letting her blend into the background.
Han heard a whirring and turned to see a flurry of cleaning bots deploying behind her.
“What the heck?” she muttered, then realized they were cleaning up the trail of blood she was dripping as she walked.
It wasn’t really that much, but Ugarians prided themselves on having clean stations and cities, so the bots were programmed to maximum levels of sanitation.
