Hard Luck Hermit

The prisoner transport was much shorter than Corey had expected. Apparently their bounty hadn’t fled far from the system he’d committed the offense in. Their prisoner kept fairly calm and quiet the entire ride, only showing signs of nervousness when they made port and stepped onto the planet.

The starport was lined with short, purple bushes, and the architecture was ornamented with murals of various historical moments of the native species -most of them military focused. The officers who came to greet them were adorned in ornate militaristic uniforms, complete with badges of rank and office. They managed to look surprisingly tough despite the tallest of them being about four feet tall. Corey figured they were probably impressively large by this planet’s standards.

“Officers,” Kamak said, with a deferential nod. He didn’t respect beat cops, but he liked anyone who was about to pay him. “Captain Kamak of the Hard Luck Hermit, here to turn in Bounty 37-3B.”

“Noted. Lieutenant, DNA test the subject.”

A less-decorated officer stepped up and latched a small, thimble-like device onto the bounty’s finger. After a second of analysis and a quiet beep, the lieutenant nodded towards his superior.

“Excellent. Lieutenant, you may proceed.”

The lieutenant stepped back, cleaned off his testing device, placed it in his pocket, and then withdrew a pistol and blew a hole in the bounty’s chest.

“Whoa!”

Corey, caught off guard by the sudden execution, took a few steps back, prompting the lieutenant to warily turn the pistol in his direction. A few of the officers put their hands near their firearm, but Kamak quickly stepped between the two and held his hands up.

“Hey, hey, easy, he’s just a bit new,” Kamak said. Corey regained his composure and held up his hands to show he was no threat. “Guy got spooked.”

“Apologies,” the lieutenant said, before holstering his pistol once again. He signaled another officer and they started to haul away the bounty’s body, not even waiting for the hole in his chest to stop smoking first.

“And, admittedly, the bounty didn’t say anything about the death penalty,” Kamak said. “Caught us a little off guard, is all.”

Kamak was surprised too, but he’d seen enough people got shot that it didn’t faze him as much anymore. Especially not when there was a chance the next gun would be pointed at you if you panicked.

“Even simple smugglers must be held accountable for the consequences of their actions,” the officer in charge said. “We apologize for the confusion. The case updated while you were in transit. Please accept your payment.”

The officer wired the money into Kamak’s account, and he nodded in acceptance. It was a meager sum, not the kind of job he’d usually go for unless he was desperate, but it’d keep them fed for a while as they dealt with the purple ship and assassination situation. Kamak bid a not-too-polite goodbye to the officer, as money had already changed hands, and then collected his crew to head back to the ship.

“That seems like a bit much,” Corey mumbled..

“I’m sure he did something to deserve it,” Kamak said. “Doprel, you know how to give a shit about things, search the case so Corey will feel better.”

“Been doing that for a while now, actually,” Doprel said. The planetary court records were a bit of a maze to navigate, but Doprel wanted to assuage his own guilt on top of Corey’s. He took a seat in the common room of the ship and continued searching as Tooley wandered out of the cockpit.

“So, payday, what am I looking at?” Tooley said. “Make this shitty road trip worth my while, Kamak.”

“Keep your shit leashed, pilot, I’m running numbers,” Kamak said. “Factoring in the cost of business we still have a half-decent surplus, give everyone a decent share. Minus whatever I end up spending on Devann, all this shit is making me crave a few hits.”

“We just watched a guy die over that stuff, Kamak.”

“So? I’m not going to buy it where it’s illegal to buy like that moron did,” Kamak scoffed. “My species can handle it. Farsus too.”

“The varied biochemistries of the universe’s many species means controlled substances in one system are often commonplace in another,” Farsus explained. “In many cases even common foodstuffs can induce hallucinogenic or even toxic effects in species not native to their world of origin.”

“Devann doesn’t even do anything for me,” Tooley sighed. Her metabolism processed the chemicals too quickly to experience any of the pleasant effects of the drug. “Just gives me a nasty headache.”

Kamak had a quick chuckle at her inability to get high on Devann before Doprel interrupted with some bad news.

“Apparently this species is particularly sensitive to it,” he moped. “There are twenty-three fatal overdoses linked to the Devann our late friend smuggled into the system. So far.”

“Oh,” Kamak said. “Well fuck, now I feel bad about wanting some.”

“There is no shortage of narcotics in the universe, captain,” Farsus assured him.

“I’d like to see Corey high on a chunk of Red Brick,” Tooley noted. “Your species seems like the twitchy type.”

Corey had no idea how to interpret that, so he chose to ignore it. He found himself wondering if their recently-deceased bounty target had known the product he was selling would be so deadly, or if he’d simply spotted what he thought was an opportunity to make a quick buck. The effects of the drugs were relative, but the morality surrounding them was apparently far more complex.