Alliances

by S. Usher Evans

  Still, no one had seen Hardrict on D-882 in over a month, and with no hijackings or bounty captures to speak of in the pirate intraweb, his number had slipped out of the top five. Razia had discovered four secret aliases, but in the past month, he had been using only one of them:

  The three planets he had been frequenting were located in a system not too far from S-864. The system itself was the location for one of the few inter-system transport hubs, a central meeting place for transporters of people and materials. Pirates didn't often hijack from transport hubs. They were too populated and pirates preferred the flair of boarding a ship in space. So Razia couldn't quite figure out why Hardrict had spent the better part of the past month out here.

  Besides the transport hub, he seemed to be flitting back and forth between A-539, an all-water planet owned by the military, and a newly settled planet, B-725425. The latter planet was discovered and categorized decades before, but thanks to the advent of atmosphere-producing machines, it had been re-sold in the last few years and was slowly becoming a thriving processing planet for the nearby ore-mining planet of G-279.

  Although A-539 was owned by the military, she was sure it was barely used. The military was basically a jobs program in the Universal Being Union (or UBU). It was a large force that quelled any skirmishes between cultures before they got out of hand. Since there were rarely any issues, the military spent most of its time in training and exercises. The Universal Police was an arm of the military, and all branches reported to the commander of the Universal Forces. As with the U-POL, the military cared not for pirates—as long as the leadership continued to receive their payments.

  And speaking of, Razia noted with a growl, she needed to send Dissident a couple thousand credits for her monthly dues.

  Turning back to Hardrict, she analyzed his transaction history again. He was going back and forth between the military planet and the processing planet, with only sporadic stops on the ore planet. As well, he was frequenting different cities at every stop, almost as if he was being hunted by someone and had to move to a new location.

  Moving around was one way to avoid capture—a pretty boring way, in Razia's opinion—but in this case, it was effective. There weren't many cities on either planet from what she could tell. B-725425 had only six processing plants on the entire planet, and Hardrict didn't seem to be visiting them in any particular pattern. If she were going to capture him, she'd have to be waiting for him on the right one.

  The military planet was, as expected, limited access, meaning once a ship broached the atmosphere, it would be detected and would have to provide reason and identification, or else it would probably be shot out of the sky. She had no idea how Hardrict was able to get onto that planet, but decided against attempting to enter a heavily guarded military planet. The only other stop, an infrequent re-fuel at the transport hub, was a non-starter as well. He'd filled up the day before and he wouldn't be needing to stop again anytime soon.

  Her only option was to capture him on B-725425, which left her wondering how she was going to read the mind of a pirate jumping between six different cities.

  She suddenly wanted to talk to Vel.

  Collapsing all of her bounty hunting notes on the screen in front of her, she dialed Vel's number and waited.

  No answer.

  She called again, her nose scrunched in a pout.

  No answer.

  "Son of a—" Razia blew air out of her mouth. Maybe he was still mad at her for yelling at him, or maybe he was in the middle of class and unable to talk.

  "But…I'm not going to be a pirate, Lyss. It's not something…I mean, my dream is to become a Deep Space Explorer…"

  He said he was happy at the Academy, and maybe he was. It was clear that whatever ire Dorst had towards him for calling out their mother last year had dissipated. She supposed they were best friends now, two normal Peate siblings having a good time learning how to be Deep Space Explorers just like the rest of the stupid family.

  How boring.

  She didn't need him anyways, she told herself. She was fine without him before and she'd be fine without him now. She had Razia and she had Lyssa, the two halves of herself and that was enough for her. Who needed a third wheel anyway?

  She glanced down at B-725425—the dull gray planet beneath with dots of bright lights in one of the cities as she orbited above. It was night down below, but the processing plants seemed to run non-stop.

  That was one of the problems with planet excavations, she mused as she lazily slipped into her DSE mindset, always bound by the light of the local star to provide enough daylight to complete an excavation (or a long run)…

  She bolted upright as a thought came to her.

  She opened an application that she rarely used. It was a Deep Space Exploration application that calculated the day and night time on a planet, so a DSE could decide where to land to maximize daylight. She plugged in B-725425 and dropped markers on the different coordinates of the six processing plants. The application calculated the rotation speed of the planet, showing her what side would be facing the local star and where it would be night.

  She quickly swiped backwards on the touchpad, and the planet and universal time sped backwards as well. She stopped when she reached the time when Hardrict had been on the planet last, noting the angle of the star and the angle of A-539.

  She performed the same action on the planet A-539, placing a pin on the planet and noting the angles to the star and to B-725425.

  With A-539 rotated to the time that he left, and B-725425 rotated to the time that he arrived, it was almost a perfect straight line between the two planets.

  Which meant, based on his last transaction dated only half an hour ago, she could most likely calculate where he was going to be based on where he left.

  She cackled and rubbed her hands together.

  ***

  Razia was extremely pleased with herself as she waltzed down towards the only bar in this small town near the ore processing plant. The air was filled with rust and odor and that particular ozone smell from the atmosphere-producing machines that hummed nearby. Smells aside, nothing was going to bring her down. A few moments after she arrived on B-725425, Hardrict made a purchase in a small cafe in this city—just as she'd predicted, using both her Razia bounty hunting instincts, as well as Lyssa Peate's knowledge of planetary movement calculations.

  Take that, Vel.

  Although she couldn't really call this place a town; most of the "buildings" were giant shipping containers stacked one on top of the other. In fact—she paused to look around—there were only four or five actual buildings, including the diner.

  She shrugged it off; it seemed a bit strange to her to see all of these boxes just waiting here, but she had no idea how ore processing companies worked, so perhaps it was normal. She also didn't understand why Hardrict would be transporting cargo from the military planet to this processing planet and not from the ore planet itself, but that was a mystery that she was not interested in solving. She came here for one thing: capturing Cree Hardrict.

  She popped into the cafe and sat down, scanning the bar for any sign of her quarry. His purchase was very recent; from the cost, probably a sandwich. She spied such a sandwich in front of an empty chair, but no sign of Hardrict. She caught eyes with the bartender, who motioned over to the bathroom.

  She tipped her head to him and flashed him a smile before sitting down at the bar and waiting. This was her favorite part, waiting for the pirate to realize that he was trapped in the bar, laughing at his futile attempt to escape, and then confidently entrapping him while tossing out a few choice lines. Perhaps she'd taunt him for his lack of goons now, or maybe she'd just make fun of Contestant, or maybe—

  All of Razia's thoughts came to a screeching halt. A taller woman in a dark suit with a mane of curly light brown hair walked through the door, sat down at the bar, and ordered a drink. She pulled out a small and stylish mini-computer and began playing with it, scrolling through what
was obviously the pirate intraweb.

  Razia stared, open-mouthed.

  Who did this woman think she was?

  Razia was the only female bounty hunter!

  Feeling a need to stake her claim, Razia sauntered over to the woman and folded her arms over her chest.

  "And just who in Leveman's Great Vortex do you think you are?"

  "None of your business," the woman replied back, without looking up.

  Razia gaped at her. "I’m sorry, but I don’t think you know who I am."

  "Should I?" the woman said, tossing back her quite lovely hair. Up close, Razia could see the underlying strands of deep brown that clumped together in perfectly curling tendrils, the smooth skin that adorned her cheeks. Leveman's, she looked like she worked for that uppity planet-selling company!

  "Yes!" Razia said, trying to not be envious of her hair and complexion. "And what makes you think that any runner would allow you into his web—"

  "What are you talking about?" the woman replied. "I’m not a pirate."

  "Then what are you doing here?" Razia asked, spying a pirate's face peering back up at her from the woman's mini-computer.

  "Just leave me alone. You’re bringing too much attention to me," she whispered, hunching over her shoulders.

  "You’re bringing the attention to yourself," Razia pointed out, not bothering to lower her voice whatsoever.

  "And how am I doing that?" The woman rolled her eyes.

  "As I said before, I’m the only woman pirate."

  "And as I said before, I’m not a pirate," the woman snapped back with equal vigor.

  "Yes, but you’re looking at the pirate intraweb," Razia drawled, waving her arms around for effect.

  "Really?" The woman put her mini-computer down and twirled around in her seat to face Razia. "I’m looking at the pirate intraweb? I couldn’t tell. I thought that I was looking at the universe's ugliest sons of bitches."

  "Good, then you can leave," Razia folded her arms over her chest.

  "I was being sarcastic."

  "I couldn’t tell."

  The woman made a face. "If I pay you, will you leave me alone?"

  "The only way I’ll leave you alone is if you leave this bar and don’t set foot in any pirate bars ever again," Razia said with a menacing glare, "because you are definitely not going to capture the guy that I'm here to get today."

  The woman was about to retort when the bathroom door opened and Cree Hardrict walked out. Satisfaction rushed over Razia and she forgot all about the horrible woman she was arguing with. She’d outsmarted another bounty and now it was time to—

  "Cree Hardrict," the woman said, standing up and brandishing a badge. "I am Lizbeth Carter with the Universal Beings Union Intelligence Agency, Major Crimes Directorate, Insurance Fraud Division, Piracy Branch, and I need you to answer a few questions."

  "God in Leveman's Vortex, lady," Hardrict said, rolling his eyes. "Leave me alone! I ain't answering any of your questions no more!"

  "Hold up," Razia blinked. "First of all—government?" She snorted. The government was about as big of a joke as the U-POL. "And second of all, you can arrest Hardrict after I’ve turned him into the bounty office."

  "You ain't turning me in nowhere, stupid bitch," Hardrict spat at Razia.

  "I'll show you stupid bitch," Razia snarled, advancing towards Hardrict. Before she got two steps, a small hand had latched onto her jacket arm.

  "Lady, you are interfering with government business, and if you continue to do so, I’m going to have to arrest you," the other woman said, fire in her eyes. "I suggest that you—"

  "And I suggest that you let me get my bounty before I pin you to the wall with that shiny badge of yours." Razia ripped her arm out of the woman's grasp. "I can drop your ass so fast, it'll make those pretty curls of yours go straight."

  "I would love to see you try," the woman taunted, getting up in Razia's face.

  "I feel so wrong hitting a girl though," Razia replied, her voice low and dangerous. "Especially one that can't hit back."

  "Do you think you're the first bitch I've had to put back in her place?"

  "Make your move," Razia snapped, ready to to rip this woman's hair out.

  She saw Cree Hardrict sneaking out the door.

  "And where do you think you're going?" Razia said, not taking her eyes away from the other woman's.

  With that, Hardrict sprinted out the door. Razia pushed the woman back and dashed out after him. Unlucky for the bounty and for the other woman, Razia was the better runner, and training with Vel on planets had even increased her speed. It was really only a matter of seconds before she was able to grab Hardrict by the back of the shirt and yank him to the ground.

  With one good punch to the face, he was out.

  "By the order of the Universal Beings Union and President Llendo, I order you to hand over that pirate!" The woman came running up behind her. Razia was shocked at how fast the woman could run in those velvet pumps.

  "So who's ordering me?" Razia said, smirking and tying up her bounty on top of her trusty floating canvas. "You, the government, or the President, who, by the way, I think is a big fat idiot..."

  "I...am," the woman panted, bending over.

  "When you can fight me for him, I’ll think about it," Razia laughed, grabbing the ropes attached to her floating canvas. "Until then, go get some water and take a breather."

  Out of the corner of her eye, Razia saw the woman stand upright and then charge.

  Naturally, Razia side-stepped her and the woman teetered to the ground. Razia rolled the bounty on the canvas and stood back up just as the woman was coming around to punch her. Razia rolled her eyes and caught the woman's fist, twisting it around her back.

  The other woman cried out and sank to her knees, while Razia leaned in to whisper in her ear. "I’ve been playing with the big boys for too long for that to work. Try again when you’ve had a little more experience."

  And with that, Razia pushed the other woman to the ground and took her bounty back to her ship.

  CHAPTER THREE

  "And then some government woman tried to take my bounty!" Lyssa said, lounging on her bed. She had delivered Cree Hardrict to the bounty office about an hour ago, proudly standing in line with her accomplishment as other pirates leered nearby. She even made sure to waltz by Linro Lee, one of Hardrict's fellow pirates in Contestant's web, who was also turning in a bounty. To her chagrin, he said nothing about the sixth most wanted pirate at her feet, preferring to comment on how she would be prettier if she smiled more.

  That, coupled with maintenance on the notoriously defunct shuttle on D-882, which caused her to sit for over an hour in a stifling station with the universe's most awful-smelling men, put her in a foul mood indeed. By the time she finally reached her ship parked in the only docking station that would take Lyssa Peate's credits, she was tired and hungry, and wanted someone else to know it.

  To her annoyance, it had taken nearly four tries for the stupid kid to answer, and even now he was barely paying attention to her!

  "Mm-hmm," he murmured. "Nice bounty catch, then?"

  Lyssa peered through her mini-computer, hoping that he could feel her anger from all the way at the Academy. He was switching back and forth between a thick textbook, and scribbling down notes every so often, oblivious to the steely gaze traveling through the universe's interconnected network of communication satellites.

  "And then I grew a second head. Then Jukin and I made up."

  "That's nice."

  "God in Leveman's Vortex, Vel," Lyssa whined. "Pay attention to me!"

  "Oh what?" Vel smiled and again, she was struck with how much older he looked with those glasses. "You don't have anyone else to talk to?"

  She glared at him.

  "Why don't you call Sage? He's always up for listening to you complain…"

  "I would rather make up with Jukin!" Lyssa huffed, folding her arms over her chest.

  "Speaking of making up with brother
s, I really think you should give Dorst a chance. He's trying to make friends with you."

  "Oh, right, sure. Then we'll go reminisce about how much fun he had locking me in the closet for three days when I was eight," Lyssa snapped, recalling the only vivid memory of her second oldest brother. "Sostas was pissed. At me."

  Vel made no notice of the memory, nor the mention of their father. "Why don't you just hear him out?" he asked, pulling off his glasses and using that calming voice she hated. "What could it hurt?"

  "I'm sorry, but did you forget what happened the last time I tried to make amends with someone in the family?" Lyssa wouldn't forget it as long as she lived. Standing in the Great Hall, and the words her mother said. She tried to shake them off, but they still swum around in her brain.

  "That's partially why Dorst is so keen on making things right with you. Everyone was pretty shocked at what Mother said to you. I wouldn't be surprised if Sera—"

  "I'm not talking about that anymore," Lyssa snapped, unwilling to relive one of the worst memories in that house. And that was saying a lot. "And I don't think Dorst wants to make up. He just wants to spy on me like Pymus did."

  "Has he asked you anything about Father?"

  "…No," Lyssa responded after a few minutes. "Not in the past few weeks, I mean. But he has in the past."

  "People change, Lyss. You've even changed…a little."

  She rolled her eyes and knew the question that was coming next.

  "So, are you ready to tell me what you saw in Leveman's Vortex?"

  "I told you already," Lyssa mumbled. "Bunch of stuff. Sera at Harms' bar. Sage at the Academy. Telling me things I should know."

  "Then there's that bit you won't tell me about."

  She couldn't look at him, but scowled. How in Leveman's did he expect her to explain something like that? The way it felt to see herself in the river—that sad, defeated abandoned person. Knowing that she, Lyssa, had been the worst offender, the way she thought of herself, the way she let others treat her. And how she came to realize that Lyssa was her strength. The pain she felt drove her to become the person she was today. The peace in her soul, understanding that she could be Lyssa and Razia, and the two halves of her could live in harmony.