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Authors: Joel Kreissman
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hoped. The
blade hit something seemingly impenetrable and the spring sent my
arm flying back off his. As I swung back for another hit, he caught
my blade arm and forced the knife out of my hand. He flung me to
the ground and attempted to wrestle me into submission. As I
struggled, I heard a loud whirring sound, and a quadrotor drone
with a pair of automatic gauss rifles on its undercarriage
descended upon the open café. The few customers that had stayed
behind to gawk hurriedly ran or bounded away. A loud voice erupted
from the drone's speakers: "Unidentified parahuman! You will cease
assaulting this paying customer of the Marquez Guild and explain
yourself!"
Walker scowled at the drone, then hit a space
on his right breast before returning his arm to pinning me down.
The image of the suggestively dressed cross-fox disappeared,
revealing a bloodhound wearing an armored bodysuit. What looked
like spider silk with plates of thick composite or metal spaced was
strategically all over the suit. I spotted a nick over one of the
plates on his cuffed arm where my knife had tried to penetrate.
"I'm Walker, a bounty hunter for the Ceres
Directorate. Ze has committed a crime against the executives of the
Directorate, and I am here to bring zir to justice."
"He was launching missiles at us!" I objected
loudly. But before I could say anything further Walker covered my
mouth with my own arm.
The drone spoke again. "You will allow zir to
stand up and this drone will accompany you two to the nearest
Marquez guard station." A pair of red lights on the barrels of each
coilgun lit up, presumably the capacitors to the electromagnets.
"You have five seconds to comply."
Grudgingly, Walker did comply, yanking me up
as he stood so that I stumbled onto my feet. He dragged me along as
the drone led us, flying backwards to keep its guns on us, to the
station. There we were passed on to a group of mostly feline
parahumans in riot gear with large gauss pistols slung on their
hips, next to a shock baton and a pair of smart cuffs similar to
the ones binding me to the bounty hunter.
We were taken before a massive jaguar whose
name tag read "Marquez, Derrick." Was this one of the Guildmaster's
clones that Olga Wolf had mentioned? He glowered at us before
demanding, "Now what is this all about?"
Walker was the first to speak. "Twenty-six
days ago, a freighter piloted by a parahuman known as Kurt went
dark near Ceres. Three days later, his ship was found floating
derelict; the cockpit was shattered and the body of the pilot was
in several hundred frozen pieces. There was just barely enough
intact genetic material in a severed hand still attached to the
steering column to identify the remains as belonging to Kurt." I
could feel myself cringing a bit at the description of the carnage.
"The Directorate decided to investigate all ships that had been in
the area of the incident at roughly the same time. The only ship
that was unavailable for inspection was the one that zir Argentum
here was serving aboard. When the Directorate received a request
for references from one of the mining organizations here concerning
Argentum and zir companions Denal, Aniya, and Cole, we surmised
that they were somehow responsible and a bounty was posted."
Derrick glanced first at myself, then at
Walker, then back at me. "When the drone intervened you said
something about him 'launching missiles at you.' Would you care to
elaborate?"
I suppose I'd already blown my chance to
insist that I knew nothing of Kurt's death. I took a deep breath
and started to explain. "Twenty-five days ago, we were headed back
for Ceres after discovering a significant quantity of gold in one
of the lesser asteroids. All of a sudden, our aft sensor pod
suffered damage inflicted by a military-grade laser beam. Our
pilot, Cole, took us behind another asteroid, and we attempted to
hide there. That was when the missiles came. Our automated defense
turrets detonated the missiles at a safe distance. A few
blade hit something seemingly impenetrable and the spring sent my
arm flying back off his. As I swung back for another hit, he caught
my blade arm and forced the knife out of my hand. He flung me to
the ground and attempted to wrestle me into submission. As I
struggled, I heard a loud whirring sound, and a quadrotor drone
with a pair of automatic gauss rifles on its undercarriage
descended upon the open café. The few customers that had stayed
behind to gawk hurriedly ran or bounded away. A loud voice erupted
from the drone's speakers: "Unidentified parahuman! You will cease
assaulting this paying customer of the Marquez Guild and explain
yourself!"
Walker scowled at the drone, then hit a space
on his right breast before returning his arm to pinning me down.
The image of the suggestively dressed cross-fox disappeared,
revealing a bloodhound wearing an armored bodysuit. What looked
like spider silk with plates of thick composite or metal spaced was
strategically all over the suit. I spotted a nick over one of the
plates on his cuffed arm where my knife had tried to penetrate.
"I'm Walker, a bounty hunter for the Ceres
Directorate. Ze has committed a crime against the executives of the
Directorate, and I am here to bring zir to justice."
"He was launching missiles at us!" I objected
loudly. But before I could say anything further Walker covered my
mouth with my own arm.
The drone spoke again. "You will allow zir to
stand up and this drone will accompany you two to the nearest
Marquez guard station." A pair of red lights on the barrels of each
coilgun lit up, presumably the capacitors to the electromagnets.
"You have five seconds to comply."
Grudgingly, Walker did comply, yanking me up
as he stood so that I stumbled onto my feet. He dragged me along as
the drone led us, flying backwards to keep its guns on us, to the
station. There we were passed on to a group of mostly feline
parahumans in riot gear with large gauss pistols slung on their
hips, next to a shock baton and a pair of smart cuffs similar to
the ones binding me to the bounty hunter.
We were taken before a massive jaguar whose
name tag read "Marquez, Derrick." Was this one of the Guildmaster's
clones that Olga Wolf had mentioned? He glowered at us before
demanding, "Now what is this all about?"
Walker was the first to speak. "Twenty-six
days ago, a freighter piloted by a parahuman known as Kurt went
dark near Ceres. Three days later, his ship was found floating
derelict; the cockpit was shattered and the body of the pilot was
in several hundred frozen pieces. There was just barely enough
intact genetic material in a severed hand still attached to the
steering column to identify the remains as belonging to Kurt." I
could feel myself cringing a bit at the description of the carnage.
"The Directorate decided to investigate all ships that had been in
the area of the incident at roughly the same time. The only ship
that was unavailable for inspection was the one that zir Argentum
here was serving aboard. When the Directorate received a request
for references from one of the mining organizations here concerning
Argentum and zir companions Denal, Aniya, and Cole, we surmised
that they were somehow responsible and a bounty was posted."
Derrick glanced first at myself, then at
Walker, then back at me. "When the drone intervened you said
something about him 'launching missiles at you.' Would you care to
elaborate?"
I suppose I'd already blown my chance to
insist that I knew nothing of Kurt's death. I took a deep breath
and started to explain. "Twenty-five days ago, we were headed back
for Ceres after discovering a significant quantity of gold in one
of the lesser asteroids. All of a sudden, our aft sensor pod
suffered damage inflicted by a military-grade laser beam. Our
pilot, Cole, took us behind another asteroid, and we attempted to
hide there. That was when the missiles came. Our automated defense
turrets detonated the missiles at a safe distance. A few
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