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“Wake up, Jalen Mando!“
Jalen opened his eyes to a familiar face looking down on him. He still felt half asleep.
„The UGC has updated their bounties. Come take a look.”
“Goddamn Lx, haven’t I programmed you to not wake me up in the middle of the night?” Jalen grumbled.
“You certainly did, but first of all, there’s no day and night in space, and more importantly, I have decided you should see this. Now.” LX replied.
“Fucking androids, man.” Jalen grumbled while rolling out of bed.
“Fuck you too, Jalen Mando.” LX replied.
Jalen got up and followed him into the cockpit.
“Pull up the map and tell me how far we’ve come, will ya?” Jalen sat down and a hologram appeared in front of him.
“We’ve entered the Colony Ring while you’ve been sleeping, and we’re about 400 clicks from the deep core now. But we’re running low on fuel and have to make a stop soon.“
Jalen sighed: “ Well at least we should’ve lost those goddamn filibusters now. I doubt they’d follow us that deep into UGC-territory … I swear the next time one of those Pirates asks me for anything – ANYTHING – well just blast them out of the sky, this was the last fucking time , LX, the last fucking time ..”
“I can remember you saying something like that not too long ago, but whatever, Jalen Mando. Please, would you shut up now and look at what I was about to show you.” said LX, while pulling up another hologram.
An array of 3-D modeled faces appeared over the holo-table.
LX zoomed in and a ranking ranging from one to thirty appeared on the left side. Next to the faces, on the right, the subject’s names, a short bio, and the bounty were displayed.
“Now look at this., Jalen Mando” Lx zoomed in: “Number 49, Anshu Deliquian. Bounty: 3.4 million creds, 4.4 million if you bring him alive. And here comes the good part. Last known location: Gemma B. The report has been updated 20 minutes ago, so chances are he’s still there. If we use the rest of our fuel, we could make the jump from here.” LX looked straight at Jalen. “ See now why I woke you up? Your kind might call an opportunity like this „heaven-sent.“ ”
“What does a robot know about heaven?” Jalen asked.
“No less than a human.”
Jalen just rolled his eyes in response.
“3.4 million … enough to fix the damage and buy fuel?”
“Yes. 3.4 should get us quite far on Gemma. Not a particularly rich system. 4 would get us out the hole for now.” Lx explained.
“But if Mr. Deliquian already left, we’re stuck there without money and a damaged ship.” Jalen muttered while looking at the map again.
“Yes.”
“Have you done the calculations? Is that our best option?” Jalen asked.
“You’ve told me to not do the calculations on those kind of things, remember?“
„Please do so anyway.“
„Well, the number of viable alternatives, right now, is limited … to say the least. Our hull has taken significant damage and isn’t going to hold up for too long ….Then, there’s some leak in the life support system apparently. It’s minor, but I can’t fix it while in space. Maybe it‘s nothing, but with our luck it‘s probably only a matter of time until it turns into major problem.
Besides that, we’re out out of ammunition and using the lasers will limit our reach even more.
If we do nothing we basically just wait for trouble. Admittedly, it might never come. We could get lucky and encounter some UGC-Galleon-Patrol or a friendly non-registered space station that is willing to help. But if we don’t, well … I would say it‘s a 50/50.”
“What about the damage to the reactor? Will we even make the jump?”
“It should hold up. It’s not a big jump to Gemma, the load is limited. It might be a rough ride, tho.”
“Great … “ Jalen sighed:” So what you’re saying is either we jump straight into trouble or we’ll wait for trouble to come find us.”
“Isn’t that always the case in life?” LX replied.
“What the hell are those antics today, LX? Did u download some fucking philosophy classes overnight, what do you know about life you goddamn tin drum?”
“I know that it won’t go on for much longer, if things don#t turn around for us, Jalen Mando. Aren’t you the one that always makes a pledge for choosing the more entertaining option? If you wanna do so now, you should do it soon. I have a feeling Mr. Delinquian isn’t going to wait for us.”
After taking a few moments to think about it, Jalen replied: “Alright, prepare the jump while I get ready.”
Jalen got up and walked towards the backrooms of the ship, until he arrived back at his personal quarter. As he looked into the mirror in the bathroom stall, an emaciated face starred back at him. Their last endeavor had taken a toll on him. His cheeks were even hollower than usual and his gray- blue eyes seemed to have sunken even deeper into his skull. Some strains of hear fell into his eye; he needed a haircut too. After splashing his face with cold water, he activated his com-link.
“LX, give me some background info on Mr. 49, would ya?”
“Mr. Anshu Deliquian: the UGC provides very little information about him. That’s probably because he’s practically come out of nowhere. Registered as Number 49 as of 6 a.m. today, but that’s his very first appearance on the list, as it seems. Not everyday that someone makes his debut at 49. He is wanted for the assassination of an unnamed state official.“
“A hitman going after state officials. Haven’t heard about something like that in a long time. Must’ve been someone important if that alone got him this high up on the list. Any clue who it might’ve been?”
“It doesn’t say anything concrete. I’ve also checked the news in various systems. Nothing to be found at all.” LX replied.
“Odd. Show me his face again.”
The 3-D Model of Mr. Deliquian’s head appeared on the holo-table in the middle of Jalen‘s cabin. Jalen inspected it closely. In a way, it resembled a hawk. Big nose with a harsh bump, small and triangular eyes underneath big bushy brows. His face was unusually long and seemingly without an ounce of fat to it. His skin had a bronze taint and his hair was black and short. Bold features overall, but not in an particularly attractive way. Very conspicuous and recognizable. Not quite what one would expect of a professional hitman.
“Is that his real face? And can we be sure he hasn’t changed it in the meantime?” Jalen asked.
“We can’t be sure of anything, Jalen Mando, but the UGC models are usually quite reliable. And I doubt he had time to visit a ripper-doc this morning. The local police would’ve caught him. One would hope at least.”
Jalen kept studying the face while pulling out his gear. First, he put on his custom made, metallic combat tabis, long back trouser and a black tank top. On top of that’s he put on a thin, tightly fitted armored verst, two gun holsters and his utility belt. At last he put on a big, black coat, disguising his weaponry and covered his face with a thin, black masked.
“He seems quite young. What else did you find out?” Jalen asked.
“I sifted through all the information I could find, which was quite easy, as there is very little. Apparently he’s from the colonies. Born on a planet no one’s ever heard of. Parents dead. Went to Uni, tho, and worked at some local communications-tech company. Ordinary life. Not previously known to police. Always paid his taxes. He’s a nobody, literally. Or rather he was. Official records pretty much stopped about 15 years ago. Nothing ever since.”
“Political affiliations? Any kind of relationship we should know about?”
“Nope, nothing.”
Jalen sighed: “I don’t like it.”
“You don’t like free money?”
“You know damn right what I mean. Jobs that sound like free money never are. I’d prefer some fucking lunatic terrorist going on a rampage, right now. Some textbook stuff you can prepare for. Why can’t we get one of those for once?”
“Because those types don’t escape the UGC’s fangs for too long.”
“Probably, yeah” Jalen sighed“Alright. Anything I gotta know about Gemma?”
“Honestly, not that much. It’s a rather unimportant trading hub in the colony ring, but somewhat close to the Core Worlds. Lots of spaceports and galactic traffic. Home to some moderately powerful conglomerates. Nothing too special.”
“Police?”
“Local forces, but no federal ID bureau. We should be on our own.”
“Alright then. Prepare for launch, LX. I guess we’ll go for it.” said Jalen while taking his seat in the cockpit, as LX started the system and got ready for the hyper-jump.
When the reactor started roaring, Jalen held his breath and slowly started counting to ten. With every number he felt the very essence of the space around him bending more and more. He got pressed in his seat to the point he couldn’t even move a finger and gradually his vision blurred.
As he reached 10, he finally heard the loud bang he was waiting for and ,in the blink of an eye, they were gone.