The other eye, the camera eye, scanned the streets continuously. It didn’t take much imagination for us to figure out who the other eye was looking for.

  The four of us drew back out of sight around a corner building and held a short, angry conference.

  “Of course he’s there waiting for us,” Rose complained. “We could have spent the night in that nice place. He’s probably been watching for us here for hours.”

  “No,” I said. “This is a hard spot to make a collar, even if he’s bribed the local officials. He would have rather found us during the night in a private spot, believe me.”

  They all sulked.

  “What are we going to do now, boss?” Jort asked. “You want me to stomp him again? You should have let me kill him the first time.”

  “Maybe you’re right…” I admitted, “but we can’t kill him here in front of these guards. I’ll try something else. You guys stay here, and try not to get into trouble.”

  I took the various hidden weapons I had secreted in my clothing out and gave them to Jort. My crewmen seemed startled, but they obeyed and waited out of sight as I walked around the corner and stepped confidently toward the station checkpoint.

  Huan immediately perked up at my approach. He stopped flipping his coin and stared at me with both his strange eyes.

  “There you are,” I said loudly. “I’ve been looking for you all night.”

  “As have I…” Huan said.

  I pointed a stabbing finger at Huan and turned to the bored-looking guards. “This man—or thing, whatever he is, attempted to murder my crew and I. He’s obsessed with us. Maybe because we’re fully human.”

  The guard stood up and leaned on his rifle. “He’s told us a different story,” the guard said. “I’m thinking we should take you both down to the magistrate to straighten this out.”

  Huan rounded on the guard. “This isn’t a matter for discussion. I will take custody of this fugitive as we discussed.”

  The guard looked at him doubtfully. “I don’t know you. But I do know this other fellow. He’s a kind and good man.”

  I smiled, glad to see that my bribe the evening before hadn’t been forgotten. Often, a single coin placed early could buy more good will than a stack of them could later on. It didn’t work that way with everyone, but those who weren’t completely corrupt tended to stay loyal to the first hand that fed them.

  “But…” Huan said, baffled, “you took my coin.”

  “And you can have it back. Settle your own affairs.” So saying, the guard tossed a coin back at the bounty hunter. Huan caught it deftly out of the air with his mechanical hand.

  That’s when I threw my first punch. It came up under his chin, as I knew that part of him was built with flesh, not metal and plastic. His teeth clacked together, stunning him.

  His powerful mechanical hand was clutching a valuable coin, so he swung back with a human fist. I dodged that, and hit him again—in the belly this time.

  My second strike was less successful. His gut was as hard as a padded stone. I pulled my hand back, shaking it and hissing.

  Having gotten his coin into a pocket, Huan snaked out his mechanical arm. He grabbed me by the collar and lifted me half off the ground. Servos whined with the strain.

  “I hereby perform a citizen’s arrest,” he said.

  At that point, he made a critical error. The very mistake that I’d hoped he might make. He pulled out his pistol with his fleshly hand.

  “Hey! No guns!” I shouted. “I’m not armed. You can’t pull a gun on me now!”

  Huan laughed. “Of course I can, ridiculous smuggler. You—”

  A club-like object came whistling in from behind. It was the butt of the guard’s rifle. He cracked it into Huan’s skull. The bounty hunter collapsed immediately.

  “When I said you should settle it among yourselves,” the guard said, stooping over Huan. “I didn’t mean you could murder another citizen. I’m beginning to think you’re not the injured party here, robot.”

  Smiling, I leaned over Huan as well.

  “He’s trying to say something,” I observed.

  “Nah… he’s just drooling.”

  “No, no… look, he’s going for his gun again! He’s going to shoot us both!”

  Huan was, in fact, unconscious. As before, his mechanical parts were still writhing and scrabbling oddly. I had to wonder if they did that while he dreamed at night.

  Whatever the case, the guard was repulsed and alarmed. He repeatedly crashed the butt of his gun down on Huan until the pathetic bounty hunter only shivered. Then he sprinkled several coins over him.

  “Such a disgusting hybrid,” the guard said. “I don’t want his money.”

  I nodded enthusiastically. “It’s probably fake—or even radioactive.”

  “You think so?”

  “It’s at least a possibility.”

  The guard’s lip curled in revulsion. He continued to prod Huan warily.

  Glancing back over my shoulder, I signaled my crewmen. They’d been watching from a distance. They came out of hiding to join me.

  “Five tickets up to the spaceport, please,” I said to the guard.

  He took our money and allowed us to travel up the umbilical to the docking area. From there, we quickly made our way to Royal Fortune and cast off.

  “The repairs aren’t entirely finished yet, sir,” Sosa informed me.

  “Is there anything that we can’t do ourselves over the next week or two?”

  “Well… no, but we already paid—”

  “We’re in a hurry. Disconnect from the docking tubes—that’s an order.”

  Sosa grumbled, but she did as I commanded. A few minutes later, we were gliding away from New Heaven.

  “How was your shore leave?” Sosa asked Rose.

  “It wasn’t heavenly, I’ll tell you that much.”

  * * *

  Several days and several ports of call came and went after that. With each jump, we left civilization farther behind. The Conclave was the most advanced region in the galaxy that humanity knew of. It always felt both daunting and exhilarating to leave it behind and head out into the wilder regions.

  Soon, the ship passed through the outskirts of the star cluster and entered the frontier zone known as the Fringe. In this zone, events were far less predictable.

  “I still don’t know why you left that bounty-hunter freak alive,” Jort complained. He’d been grumbling about my decision for days.

  “Jort, we can’t go around committing murder and mayhem on every neutral world we encounter. There are already many planets that won’t accept us. If we use the lowest level of force that’s effective, we’ll end up with more friendly ports in the long run.”

  “Maybe so, but that Huan… he’s not the kind that gives up.”

  “Probably not,” I admitted.

  “Also, he knows you plan to head this way. He will follow. He will pester us—”

  “Jort, the matter is finished. Let’s talk about something else.”

  “All right… Have you decided which female will receive your loyal attention? Maybe this new blue-skinned one is to your liking?”

  I sighed. Jort was very single-minded and persistent—he was as bad as Huan in his way. He was convinced that if I chose a permanent mate among the women aboard, the others would look upon him more favorably. This may or may not be true, but he’d never grown tired of the subject.

  “No Jort, I’m not chasing Morwyn. I’m not chasing any of them at this moment.”

  “Very disappointing.”

  Another week passed. Ship life went on as usual until we drew close to the Sword Worlds. This whorl of star systems in close proximity contained nine planets in total. Each of the worlds had been named after a type of sword. The one I knew best was known as “Gladius”.

  “Traffic control is signaling,” Sosa told me. “We’ve been cleared to approach.”

  Using gentle acceleration, I nudge our ship toward the planet. We watched every sensor closely, in case it was a trap.

  Unfortunately, the various barons and knight-captains that ran the Sword Worlds could not be trusted. They operated as mercenaries when they could—but they also transformed into pirates when business was slow.

  Gladius was a large planet, but its surface area was mostly land. There was one brackish sea, with a few green forests and plains surrounding it. The rest of the planet was a stark desert. Despite its barren brown mountains and gray-green sea, it wasn’t too bad of a place.

  “Hailing Lord Trask,” I said, calling over an open channel. “This is Captain William Gorman. I’ve come back with a new offer, old friend.”

  There was no answer. After several long minutes, I began to frown. Was Trask playing games again like last time? Or was he actually dead, replaced by one of his jealous knight-captains? I had no way of knowing, but I didn’t increase my speed. In fact, I braked a little.

  Sosa spotted the first traffic we’d seen since we arrived. “Six small contacts sir—fighters. They’re inbound and moving fast.”

  “All engines stop.”

  We watched quietly as the fighters approached. They were small, deadly ships. Each was armed with a single torpedo. Agile and hard to hit, they could make quick work of a merchant vessel.

  Generally, however, that wasn’t their goal. What they wanted to do was threaten destruction, then board and steal whatever they could find.

  “Captain!” Jort shouted. “We have to run!”

  “Not yet, Jort,” I said, staying calm. I opened the hailing channel and spoke confidently, broadcasting in the clear. “Gladius defense, we represent no threat to your planet. Please break off your attack. I’m here on business to meet Baron Trask.”

  Sosa spoke after a moment. “Another ship—a big one—is coming up over the horizon.”

  We all watched as a much larger vessel began rising up from the far side of Gladius. Had it been parked in orbit on the other side of the world? That was the impression that struck me.

  The ship was an impressive light cruiser. Her big guns could pummel a planet. She had dark open chutes on either side—fighter bays.

  “That’s the mother-ship!” Jort exclaimed, pointing at the image. “She sicced her fighters on us without reason!”

  “There’s always a reason, Jort,” I told him.

  The screen finally shimmered, and an ugly face appeared. It wasn’t Trask, it was another pirate leader. I knew him as Count Harkaman.

  Harkaman wore a shaggy pelt of hair on his head that finished in a ragged beard that hung from his chin. A short black jacket, heavily decorated with gold braids, rode his hulking shoulders.

  “William Gorman…?” he said. “I’m surprised you would have the gall to come back here.”

  “Uh… what seems to be the trouble, Count Harkaman? I’m sure I can make it up to you and your master.”

  “No. No you can’t—because my master is dead. Trask killed him and fled to Flamberge. It took our entire combined might to chase him from this planet.”

  “I see… how did this unfortunate falling-out get started?”

  “We’re involved in a civil war, not a falling-out. And it all started when you gave Trask thousands of Sardez rifles!” During this speech, Harkaman’s voice rose in volume with every word. He was furious, and he seemed to be directing that fury toward me.

  “Listen, Harkaman!” I implored. “We’re just traders like you. I sell weapons—I could sell you weapons as well.”

  “No. You’ve done enough harm here. My fighters will destroy you. Bleat and whine as much as you like. That will make my revenge all the sweeter!”

  The shaggy face vanished from my screen, and the six sleek fighters glowed into life. Each of them was trailed by a long cone of blue fire. They had ignited their afterburners.

  “They’re coming right at us!” Jort shouted. “Captain, we must flee!”

  For once, I agreed with Jort. I spun my ship around and accelerated harshly.

  Everyone was thrown back in their seats. Our harnesses cut into our skin painfully. For perhaps twenty seconds, we experienced fantastic acceleration and began to pull away gently from our pursuers.

  But suddenly, the engines cut out.

  “Have we been hit?” Jort demanded. He jumped up and rushed down to the aft gun turret without waiting for an answer.

  “I don’t think we’ve been hit, sir,” Sosa said, “but that repair job… we have warning lights all over the containment field.”

  I gritted my teeth. The repairs had been rushed and done on a remote planet. “Fire the engines up again. I’ll apply thrust more evenly.”

  Sosa looked worried, but she did as I ordered. The engine flared back into life, and I eased the power up. This time, I applied thrust much more gently and evenly.

  “Torpedoes fired…” Rose said in a surprisingly calm voice, “three… four… six of them are in our wake. They’re homing in on us.”

  It took all my willpower not to put the hammer down again to race away. But I didn’t do it. If my engines cut out again, we would most likely be destroyed.

  “Jort, try to take out the lead torpedo,” I suggested.

  “I’m trying!”

  I glanced at the aft sensors. It was true, Jort was taking careful shots at the approaching torpedoes. But with this kind of speed and distance a direct hit on something so small was unlikely.

  Confident Jort was doing his job, I did mine with equal focus. I watched every gauge and reading closely. If the engines looked like they were becoming unstable, I eased off a little. Otherwise, I gave them as much power as I dared.

  I altered course and accelerated steadily, but we didn’t lose the torpedoes. They were smart-weapons, designed to track and predict our flight path. They constantly shifted to a new course, cutting the angle on any twists and turns I attempted. I soon stopped messing around and jetted away on a perfectly linear course. Dodging around would only result in the weapons reaching us all the sooner.

  Jort sent a blast of sound into my ear, causing me to jump. “I got one! I got one, Captain!” He laughed with glee. “Only five more to go!”

  I checked my instruments then glanced at Sosa, but she just shrugged. “I see six torpedoes still on our tail, sir.”

  “So do I. Jort, you’re mistaken. You haven’t knocked out any of the torpedoes. We’re watching them all closely.”

  “No, no, no,” Jort complained. “I’m not talking about those tiny things. Too hard to hit, and they fly with random twists.”

  “Well then, what did you…?” I trailed off, checking the fighters. Sure enough, there were only five of them left. One of them had been transformed into a cloud of debris.

  I heaved a sigh. If my chances of returning to Gladius to do business in the future had seemed bleak before, they were now completely grim. Jort had managed to make them hate us even more than they already did.

  Over the next thirty hours, we finally left the torpedoes behind. Essentially, they ran out of fuel. I’d never dared to accelerate more powerfully than was needed to stay out of reach due to our damaged engine.

  Content in the conviction that we’d escaped Harkaman’s men, I changed course several times and glided silently. We were far from any star, and with a cold exterior and no radiation releases, we became just like any of a billion other junk piles of drifting debris. The galaxy was full of them.

  Groaning, I climbed out of my seat and staggered for my bunk. I didn’t even bother to shower, I just threw myself onto it.

  Some hours later, I heard a scratching at my cabin door. That was odd. Pretty much everyone aboard knew enough to knock—but this was definitely a scratch. It was as if I smuggled a dog aboard.

  Rolling over on my side, I dared to hope that the scratching would cease—but it didn’t.

  “Did someone smuggle a pet aboard my ship? Come in, pet.”

  The door swung open. Morwyn’s lithe shape was silhouetted in the oval doorway.

  “Captain? Are you sleeping?”

  “Not anymore I’m not. What is it, Morwyn?”

  “You did an excellent job avoiding destruction today. We’re all in your debt.”

  “It’s just a flick of the wrist. The trick is to know how much pressure your firing chambers can take and not pushing for more.”

  “I’m sure.”

  The conversation lagged, but she still stood there, lingering.

  Suddenly, I began to suspect she wanted more than to praise me. Maybe this was her form of awkward advance. She was like her father in that she didn’t always know how to interact with other humans socially. Maybe she was waiting for me to ask her about her visit—I wasn’t sure.

  I rolled out of my bunk and stretched. I slapped the walls until they lit up and groped for my auto-filling coffee mug.

  Morwyn watched all this quietly. She was dressed as usual, and I let my eyes travel over her form appreciatively.

  “So, what brings you to my cabin tonight?” I asked her. “Just to thank me for saving your bacon, or…?”

  Smiling at her, I hoped for the best, but she didn’t respond as I expected.

  “I’m here to dissolve our relationship.”

  “Our what?”

  “Our arrangement—our deal. You seem unable to gain the attention of these mercenaries in a positive way. Therefore, my father and I must request that you allow us to disembark at the nearest convenient port. We’ll find our way from there.”

  “Huh… really? Oh, I get it. You think that one rejection from one planet indicates abject failure?” I laughed, and she frowned at me. “Listen, Morwyn, there’s no problem! Didn’t you hear what Harkaman said? My contact, Trask, left this planet for another. We’ll simply go there to find him.”

  “He’s a traitor. That’s what Harkaman said, isn’t it? Do we really want to deal with a traitor?”

  “They’re all traitors out here. They kill each other to advance their positions, if they dare.”

  “How awful…”

  “Yes, well… don’t worry about it. We’ll change course again in the morning.”

  “To where?”