Chad hurried to the cockpit, more for the company he'd find there then for any interest in piloting the ship or examining
its controls. Dusty soon followed to find Chad had taken the co-pilot's seat next to Zeera and was being instructed on the
ship's controls. Dusty watched disapprovingly for a moment before taking his own seat.
"You're not too bad at this." Zeera said supportively.
"I guess it dosn't take much to get the hang of, not all that different from a space car..." Chad said. He was trying to
act as though it weren't a big deal to him, but he was secretly overjoyed at having impressed his new partner.
Dusty was anything but impressed and just watched the two of them with a knowing smirk. Years of depending on his abilities
to read people had taught him how to notice the little signs and his skills hadn't faded over time. He was the only one in
the ship that saw the looks going back and forth and knew what they meant, and it only made him feel worse about the whole
situation.
"You two want to stop making puppy eyes? We have things to do." He said in a somewhat aggravated tone.
Chad feigned ignorance and Zeera simply shrugged, use to such treatment and not paying terribly much attention to Dusty's
intonations. She turned to him to listen to what he had to tell them.
"We're heading out after Ignacius Lux. I imagine you've both heard of him. He was the best bounty hunter we had before
he went rogue. I knew him, I guess as well as anyone else..."
Dusty's dislike of having to tell a lengthy story showed easily, but his audience was silent and attentive as he revealed
that he knew their quary, and so he continued in his softspoken light western drawl.
"The corporation wasn't always like it is today. They used to be just another market place for goods. The bounty hunters
were only called out to punish horrific fraud or constant failure to pay. They were more of a marketing gimmick than a functional
force. It wasn't long before they evolved though. They started to settle other kinds of debts. Things that had nothing to
do with dissatisfied bidders.
They built special schools as a so-called public service, but they were really recruiting centers. They identified those
who showed great promise and then made them offers of positions in various departments of the corporation. As I recall that's
how they got that spook in the lab coat."
Zeera glared at him for this, but he continued as if it didn't matter. "Ignacius joined the bounty hunters around the same
time I did. But he quickly became disenfranchised. Hardly anyone can figure out what set him off, but one day he simply left,
and he took some of the best with him. There's been a shadow war between the two sides for years while they exist in a state
of constant stalemate.
At first I went out every time we found them, but they were craftier than the guys who were in command of our group. More
often that not it was either a false lead or a trap. I watched my friends, kids I'd trained, die in pointless battles or go
over to the other side. I saw more death than a fellow aught to live through until finally I gave it all up and started out
as a teacher and a lab rat for Winters."
"There are worse jobs one could have." Zeera added in pointedly.
"Like being a fancy looking computer program." Dusty said dryly.
Chad stared out into the blackness ahead, wanting to stay out of this and dreading having to be caught between the two
much longer. Dusty, seeing there was no retort, found a chair and began toying with the chambers of his revolver. Inwardly
he was considering that he might have gone too far, but hid demeanor remained unchanged. There was no place for regrets in
his profession.
Both of them were drawn out of their reveries by the light breeze kicked up by Zeera's movement out of the pilot's chair
and a soft request for Chad to take the controls. He could easily guess why she'd started and then left the control deck,
but he didn't intend to say anything to Dusty. In fact it was the elder man who spoke up first.
"That thing's nothing but trouble kid. You'd be better off with one of those murderers from the base watching your back..."
"I saw them. They kind of gave me the creeps. Were they involved in the corporations ascent?" Chad asked curiously, though
his eyes were on the door that Zeera had traveled out of and not Dusty.
"They're way too young for that. I trained em. The ones that dont get killed either get tired of it and quit or turn out
to be like them. You spotted them though, that's good reflexes. In a fight you always have to look in the eyes of the man
you're facing to see if he's really going to kill you, or if he knows he'll miss, or if he's just going to fire until he hits
something. All that fancy ray gun horse shit dosn't mean anything compared to a good look at someone's eyes. Like yours for
instance... Get on out of here. I can tell this thing where to go."
Chad tried to act as though he didn't know what Dusty meant. He wanted to say something, perhaps find out if his friend
had been saying what he thought he'd said. But nothing came out and in a moment he was on his feet and heading off to find
Zeera.
Dusty stepped up to the controls and looked at the auto pilot switch. It was going to be a long flight and he might need
to rest, he thought. But his natural instinct was to distrust anything that might kill him due to a one or a zero being misplaced.
For the next several hours he sat at the controls. The last sound in the cockpit was his own voice as he looked back to where
his partners had exited and mumbled with a mix of disapproval and affection.
"Kids."
Onward, to CH 15
