A Justice Provider's Tale 06

Chapter 6

Leeza squeezed my hand.”It was nice meeting you, Angel. Take care out there and if you are in the neighborhood, why not stop by. I might not have my face painted or know how to cook, but I think we had fun last night.”

“We certainly had, Leeza. You got me thinking about quitting and get settled, honest to Mickey .”

I waved her, passed the CITI control barrier and boarded the people mover to get to Angel’s Wings.

I can see you roll whatever you have for eyes, citizen, but she did make me think that way. Not all that soon though. First I had to get some vacuum under my keel and then I needed to decide if I went after that piece of Lorkni dung and his friend, who took something that belonged to me, even if I had no need for it, or if I was professional about it and forgot the thing. There was a lucrative bounty on a Vantax of all beings, 100,000 credits. Suspected to have fled all the way across the Bridge to the Andromeda Galaxy. Always wanted to go there anyhow...

I had myself convinced that this was the smart thing to do. Leave it alone, you got paid. You are still alive and whatever was going on was law enforcement stuff.

Hell no!

That isn’t how I operate. Mistake or not professional or not, that Shiss poop shoveling arsewipe and his cowardly friend needed to find out what it meant to be hunted by Angel T. Marifou. I would not take a contract for a billion credits until ... well yeah maybe for a billion I would. But not a credit lower.

I was just about to turn around when I saw Lun climbing of the port pod of a nice looking Starfang Viper, parked at the next bay. “Hey Lun!”

“Oh hey, Mr. Marifou. Everything should be fine with your Auto Chef for a while at least. Our specialist cleaned the printer head and replaced the divider-selector of the dry freeze material retriever. That thing was stuck and must have caused some very unusual re-consti meals .” He handed me back the manual access fob, I had given him.

“Oh it did, trust me. What do I owe you?”

“Nothing, Chamber of Commerce took care of your bill, Sir.”

“Don’t sir me, Lun. Say if one would have to get off the planet in a hurry and not necessarily with a good CITI how would I do that?”

“Sir, I am a Union citizen .”

“I know and I am too, I am a bounty hunter. Guys like you usually know more than anyone official.”

“Well, it would be pretty easy actually. They do check incoming freight for Stows ’ but not outgoing. I imagine you could be comfortable in a large container. If you have your own ship, just touch down and take off anywhere near the new spaceport construction site, mostly robots. Lots of material shuttles going back and forth from orbit. No real controls at all. No landing or parking fees, folks do that all the time.”

I swiped a hundred credits tip in his receiver. “Thank you, Lun.”

The Pertharian captain was probably a good Marine and got the civilian job by recommendation. Maybe he went to police school but never learned to think out of the box. The two culprits were long gone!

“If you after someone,” The Plato said.”I would imagine he time it with the departure of one of the big Gulliver freighters. It is one thing trying to dodge landing fees and stay local, perhaps to slip past Union police then doing the same while there is a fleet battleship in the system deploying Wolfcraft fighter patrols.”

“Ever considered a career as a Justice provider, Lun? You wouldn’t know when one of those freighters going to leave?”

“Not that such a career might be attractive, Citizen but I am very happy at Yellow Ribbon.” His maw almost split the lower half of his rough-cut head in half and had no visible lips, but I was certain he was amused when he said.”Yellow ribbon has access to the traffic sensor grid of the system and we are always informed when those big ships arrive or leave. There are only one of these monsters here at the moment. The Robinson Freight Services, RFS-Brummer, an open deck, type four Gulliver. This one made landfall. They are still unloading a big pre-fab piece of terminal or something, then stack it with crates, wood excavated dirt and whatnot. Perfect for a smaller craft to hitch a ride, I would imagine. Not bound to leave until eight hours tomorrow.”

“That other spaceport, is it far?”

“Fifteen hundred klicks at the other end of the continent. The town and the future port is right at the shore of Algae Swamp, more a vegetation soup than an ocean really.”

“I can imagine. How would I get there?”

“There are plans for a monorail and a vac-tube connection. The Monorail reaches the park already if I am not mistaken, but not operational. I don’t think you could take a Taxi flyer. Oh, and there is a Community connector doing the trip twice a day.”

I wasn’t keen on using a Taxi. For one I didn’t know if any other Taxis were working for them. While I knew that one of the goons was the Gullster sheriff, the other was still an unknown to me but appeared to be someone who knew the local conditions well and had obvious connections.

“There is the old freight road, automated truck trains and the locals that live out there still use it.

“Is there a way out of here for a small Speeder?”