The three women were no longer at each other’s throats, so I invited Morwyn below to our tiny lounge. There I asked her how her voyage was going.

  “Those women might have killed me. You gave them the right to execute me if they wished—why?”

  I shrugged. “I didn’t think they would do it.”

  “But… that’s an unacceptable risk! What would you have done if Rose had agreed to throw me out of the airlock?”

  Leaning toward her, I gave her a piece of sage advice. “If you don’t want to find out, I suggest you stop stealing things and otherwise antagonizing people. This isn’t a luxury liner.”

  Morwyn played with her cracked makeup device thoughtfully. “You would have stopped them. I know you would have.”

  “Try stealing again, and you’ll find out.”

  I left her there, sipping her drink. She looked troubled.

  Dernel approached me in the passageway, coming out of a dark sub-module that was full of nothing but equipment lockers. Was the father like the daughter? My first thought was to do an inventory, but he looked so upset I dropped the idea.

  “Captain Williams!” he said, his hands urgently washing one another like a raccoon’s. He seemed even more nervous than usual. “I’m so, so sorry for my daughter’s behavior! It’s a plague upon my house, it truly is!”

  “Oh… well, don’t worry about it. She’s just young and rebellious.”

  Dernel’s eyes bulged. “There’s no need for such horrible insults… but I understand your righteous rage.”

  “No… I didn’t mean… look, it’s okay. We’ve sorted it out. Remember, this ship isn’t full of nuns. Morwyn will probably fit right in with the rest of the crew over time.”

  “That’s another fresh fear you’ve instilled in my mind… but if you’re not upset, I must take that as a reassurance. I promise my family will not bother you in the future.”

  He wandered off, making odd gestures toward each doorway and bulkhead as he passed them. It was like he was blessing the walls or something.

  I shook my head and moved toward the bridge. Somehow, I doubted his promises. These Vindari were so culturally divergent from the rest of us that they were bound to cause more trouble. Every day they were aboard our ship was another roll of the dice.

  Chapter Five

  Eight long days passed while we repaired our ship at New Heaven. There weren’t many amenities on the planet’s only space station, so after many complaints, I allowed everyone some shore leave.

  We left Sosa behind as she rarely wanted to exit the ship. The rest of us then traveled together down the umbilical elevator from orbit to the planet’s surface.

  After a brief period of harassment with customs agents, we paid a small bribe and exited the place. Outside, a squalid city hugged the spaceport like a shanty-town surrounding a mining camp. It wasn’t much to look at, but it had the basics of human entertainment.

  Jort made a beeline for the red light district, as usual. Rose curled her lips in disgust as she watched him march away eagerly. “Is he always like that? As eager to mate as a stray dog?”

  “Pretty much, yeah. Maybe if you or Sosa were to show a little interest—”

  “Are you crazy? I’m not going to bed with him!”

  I shrugged. Jort’s troubles were plain to see for me. Neither Sosa nor Rose seemed to have any empathy for him, however.

  Morwyn appeared at my side. She watched Jort disappearing into the seedy side of a seedy town with interest. “Do I understand this correctly? He plans to pay for sexual services?”

  “Uh… I think that’s his intent, yes.”

  “Is this normal behavior for Conclave males?”

  “Not entirely—but then Jort is from the Fringe. He’s not really an over-civilized man from the finest planet. His homeworld, Scorpii… well, it’s kind of a rough place.”

  “I see… what about you? Do you prefer to purchase your women?”

  Rose had overheard the conversation and seemed to be listening in with interest. Her arms were crossed tightly.

  “No! Never!” I half-lied.

  As I was a clone, I had never personally indulged myself in that fashion. However, I did possess some rather lurid memories from the sordid past of the original William Gorman.

  Morwyn studied me for a moment, as did Rose. Neither seemed completely satisfied with my response.

  I lost interest and began walking toward the largest bar and grill I could find. The rest of the group followed in my wake.

  Dernel soon became distracted, however. When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw the odd man was busy performing some kind of ritual over an automated fire hydrant. Passersby and the semi-sentient hydrant itself all examined him quizzically.

  “Father, please stop that,” Morwyn said. “No one appreciates it, and it’s becoming embarrassing.”

  “Embarrassing? This is a life-saving device. I doubt it’s ever been blessed for functionality. Not once in its entire existence!”

  Morwyn sighed and walked away. A few of the local citizens stopped to watch and laugh. They seemed to think Dernel was either intoxicated or addled. I couldn’t blame them.

  “My father doesn’t seem to grasp the fact that he’s not on Vindar,” Morwyn complained to me. “How can I convince him to stop doing this kind of thing?”

  “You probably can’t,” I admitted. “But I wouldn’t worry about it. We’ll only be here a few days. Try to enjoy the sights.”

  We reached the restaurant I’d been targeting a few minutes later. The bioluminescent screens inside my eyelids told me it was four pm local time. That was good enough for me.

  “We’re having dinner, right here. The good news is… your captain is buying!”

  Dernel hurried closer at this announcement. “Captain, you don’t need to do that. I’ve offered to pay all your expenses, remember?”

  “I do remember, and you’ve been keeping that promise. If I buy you this meal, would that be an insult to a Vindari?”

  Dernel cocked his head for a moment. “An insult? No. It would be an unexpected kindness.”

  “Well then, I’ll do it.”

  Dernel smiled and so did everyone else. We walked into the restaurant and were escorted to a large table by a flutter-fingered waiter.

  Taking our seats, Rose insisted that we keep an empty chair for Jort—just in case he showed up.

  I knew Jort would most likely spend the night in various unsavory establishments, drinking and carousing until dawn. But I didn’t bother to burst her bubble.

  We ordered our food and my crewmen didn’t stint themselves. I put no limits on the cost of their chosen items, but the prices had me gritting my teeth. I decided to order a few drinks to enliven the occasion. Soon, we all began to relax and enjoy ourselves. Even Dernel seemed to be happy.

  But then a shadow fell across our table. It was the unusual shadow of a big man with one misshapen arm.

  Looking up quizzically, I studied the stranger. In the place of his missing arm, he’d installed an artificial limb made of metal and polymers. This was strange on the face of it. Most people who had cybernetic limbs chose to coat them in a lifelike plastic, or even an organically grown sheath of real flesh.

  But not this fellow. His biomechanical arm was exposed to everyone. He hadn’t even bothered to put a shirtsleeve over it.

  The stranger raised this odd limb toward us, flat metal palm outward, in a show of greeting.

  “Hello travelers,” he said. “I’m visiting here from Tranquility, just as you are.”

  We were immediately on our guard. After all, we hadn’t left Tranquility under the best of circumstances.

  Only I, of all my crewmen, managed to fake a smile. “You’re mistaken, traveler. We’re from Prospero, not Tranquility. But don’t be embarrassed. I offer you a free drink as compensation for your error.”

  The stranger stared at me blankly for a moment. “A drink? Ah, yes! Intoxication. Muscle relaxants… I’ll accept.”

  Without another word, he used his mechanical arm to pull the extra chair we’d left for Jort away from the table. Then he sat in it and scooted close.

  He examined each of us in turn. At that point, I noted that one of his eyes didn’t resemble the other. It was, in fact, an artificial camera in the shape of an eyeball. The camera’s iris was a metallic color, a pale golden shade. It gleamed and moved in a liquid fashion, and it didn’t track with his other natural, organic orb.

  No one spoke for a moment, and I’d already begun to regret my decision to invite him to sit with us. The situation was awkward.

  The flutter-fingered waiter returned and took his order. The stranger requested something expensive and unknown to me. When it was served, it bubbled in the glass.

  The man’s organic eye studied the drink, while his mechanical one scanned each of our faces in turn. It was disturbing to see he had full control of both and could study two things at once with equal attention.

  “My employers from Tranquility had assumed,” he began, “that you and your crew had given false names while docking there. Imagine our surprise when we checked them out and calculated that there was a ninety percent probability you’d provided us with real information!”

  Everyone fell dead silent. They looked from me, to our guest, and back again. For my own part, I stared at the stranger with intensity.

  “I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but I hope you’re not suggesting anything rude. After all, you’ve accepted our invitation to join us at our table.”

  The man snorted. “I’m not one of your mercenary friends from the Sword Worlds, Gorman. I don’t follow their code of honor.”

  “Who are you then?”

  There it was, I’d finally asked him. If Jort had been present, he’d have barked the question out in the first minute. Perhaps his unsubtle approach was better than mine.

  “I’m a bounty hunter,” he said. “My name is Huan. I find things, I collect them, and I bring them home to my masters.”

  “And exactly who is your master today?”

  “The Tranquility Board of Directors. They have reason to believe you left their docks without paying their charges.”

  “Ah, is that all?” I said, laughing. “I’m glad, because you had me worried. Now, why don’t you hand me the bill? I’ll take care of it as soon as it is convenient.”

  I stood up and made ready to leave. Both Huan’s eyes, one flesh and the other glass and metal, tracked my movements.

  Huan began to stand and reach for a weapon at his hip. “This is no matter of convenience. There is no bill to deliver. You are to accompany me, as a sanctioned bounty hunter licensed by the free planet known as Tranquility, to the original place of the crime. There, you will be tried and convicted by—”

  But at this point, a shadow loomed behind Huan. The man behind Huan was Jort. He’d actually come to join our party. His closed fist whistled downward. It connected with Huan’s skull and the resulting thud was quite satisfying.

  Huan collapsed onto the floor. His organic body seemed to be senseless, but his mechanical eye was still rolling around, trying to spot us and focus on us. His arm, too, was still moving. It shivered and tried to reach up to grab the tablecloth. It failed when Jort stomped down and pinned the roving arm to the floor.

  “Who is this stranger?” Jort asked us. “He is rude. I don’t like him.”

  “Did you kill him?” Morwyn asked.

  “What? Are you a dummy? If I’ve killed him, I did a bad job of it. Look! He’s still struggling.”

  The prosthetic arm and eye were indeed in motion, but the man’s organic components were limp. It was strange to watch the mechanical portion of the body move and shiver while the rest of him lay unconscious. His mouth was made of flesh and bone, so he could not speak.

  Morwyn knelt and examined him.

  “He should live,” she said. “Did you really have to hit him so hard?”

  “You would prefer that I shot him?” Jort asked. “I could have shot him, but I wasn’t sure…”

  I paid the waiter who was no longer wearing a happy face. I gave him a large tip and explained that the man on the floor had drawn a gun and attempted to rob us. The waiter nodded and gritted his teeth in a fearful imitation of a smile.

  “We’re leaving,” I told my crew.

  “Why leave now?” Jort asked. “I’m hungry.”

  “Because where there’s one bounty hunter, there are likely to be others. Besides, the waiter is going to call the cops if he hasn’t already.”

  We marched out of the place with the remainder of our meals in folding containers. We headed for the spaceport umbilical, but we found the ground station had shut down.

  “There’s no more service tonight,” a guard told me. “Come back at dawn.”

  “Is that right?” I asked, and I tipped him with a large, gleaming coin.

  He eyed the credit piece, but he reluctantly gave it back to me. “I can’t take it. The machinery is all shut down. It saves power during the night, you see.”

  “Ah, a pity. But you can keep the coin. Consider it a bonus for your excellent service and honesty.”

  Surprised, the man brightened and held his rifle higher. “Thank you, good citizen. Thank you!”

  I left the spaceport and muttered curses as I walked the streets. The skies overhead were darkening in preparation for a long night. New Heaven had only one small moon which left the evenings here dimly lit, but not as black as on some worlds. The star system was close enough to the Conclave that neighboring stars lit up the skies with icy points of light.

  “We’re trapped in this town,” Jort said. “Maybe the bounty hunter paid the guards at the umbilical station to keep us down here.”

  I didn’t say anything. What Jort was suggesting was possible—or it could have been a coincidence.

  “Let’s move to the waterfront. There are public areas down there. We’ll turn our dinner into a picnic.”

  The night was mild in temperature. Every night and day was mild on New Heaven, as there was virtually no tilt to the planet’s axis. Without such a tilt, there was a lack of seasons.

  When we found the waterfront, we sat in the dark at a picnic table and ate our meals out of boxes. Morwyn seemed thoughtful.

  “You and your crew are chased everywhere you go, aren’t you?” she asked. “What have you done in your past to cause so many people to hunt for you and your tiny ship?”

  I shrugged. “Famous and infamous people share this problem. It’s a combination of celebrity and bad luck, I figure.”

  “Celebrity!” Jort repeated, laughing.

  When we’d finished our meal we walked along the quiet ocean shore. There were lapping waves, but they were less than a half meter in height. Earth’s oceans were brewing cauldrons in comparison.

  “This is pleasant, but I don’t think I want to spend the night out here…” Rose said suggestively.

  I sighed. “All right. We’ll find accommodations.”

  “Why?” Jort asked. “I like the open air. I would rather sleep on this beach with the crawling things… It would be a pleasant change.”

  Glancing at him then the two sour women, I shook my head. “Follow me.”

  They did so dutifully, and we found the best hotel in the city. The women brightened, and even Jort looked appreciative.

  “I bet they have gambling and excellent whores here,” Jort said. “I can tell these things. It is a gift of mine.”

  “I’m sure you’re right, Jort.”

  Leading them inside, I made a show of renting not one, but two rooms. We then took the elevator to the top floor. Once I was in the room I was to share with Jort, I tore up the beds. I threw pillows on the floor and made sure every thin blanket was wadded up.

  “Um…” Dernel said. “Why are you disturbing the beds?”

  “It’s a habit of mine.”

  I moved on to the girls’ room next, and they complained a bit when I opened the door and barged in.

  “William, I’m freshening up,” Rose scolded.

  I paid no attention to her. I tore up their beds as well and then beckoned for everyone to follow me. Out in the hallway again, I carefully locked the doors and led them to the backstairs.

  “Oh no!” Jort shouted suddenly. “I know this trick! You did this to me and my men back on Scorpii!”

  “Did I? I’d forgotten.”

  “What’s going on?” Rose demanded.

  Jort jumped in to explain. “He’s a tricky bastard, our captain. He’s like a rat that is so smart he doesn’t just avoid your traps, he sets up traps of his own!”

  “I don’t understand,” Dernel whined. “I’m tired. Why don’t we take showers and—?”

  I whirled around on the group in irritation. “You guys haven’t been hunted before. You’re soft. When you have a bounty hunter on your trail, the best move is to run from the planet. If that isn’t possible, you must hide. What we’re doing now is hiding.”

  Glumly, they followed me down the stairway and out into an alley. We slunk away from the fine hotel toward the darkest, dirtiest streets we could find. Offering credits to various unsavory people, we finally found a house that would take us in.

  “This is a thionite house!” Jort complained. “These people are violent addicts!”

  “Yeah? So, keep your weapon handy.”

  We spent the night in a windowless room in a noisy shack. People screamed, clawed the neighboring walls and generally made nuisances of themselves. We bought a tiny amount of the purplish drug known as thionite, and I immediately flushed it away in the provided toilet.

  None of us got much sleep, but it was better than nothing, and I felt confident no one would find us until morning.

  Chapter Six

  In the dawn light we staggered out of the flophouse. After sleeping poorly, we honestly resembled the other patrons who’d indulged themselves in a night of debauchery.

  Heading back toward the spaceport umbilical station, I was unsurprised to spot an odd figure standing at the entrance.

  Huan was dressed as before, but he had a short cape on his back today. He flipped a golden thousand-credit coin using his mechanical arm. His organic eye watched this, and he never missed grabbing it out of the air.