8 comments/  29233 views/  15 favorites

Galactic Bounty Hunter Ch. 01

By: kingkey



Desirée O'Toole's naked body was wrapped around me as I enjoyed the aftermath of our recent lovemaking. While basking in the afterglow, I thought back to the events that led to meeting Desirée, and her brother, Daniel.

My name is Tom O'Connor, and I am a licensed bounty hunter. You see the year is 2474 and mankind has spread to the stars. In fact, we've now settled on over a thousand worlds. Surprisingly, though, we met very few other races that were nearly as advanced as ours. We did find, out in the fringes, traces of older civilizations that were actually a lot more highly advanced than ours, but so far we hadn't run into any. Of course humans are very warlike outside of the human empires the border areas the planets were pretty much lawless.

Now don't get me wrong. Man, being what he is, still has a lot of paranoia, especially about the possibly an advanced race attacking us. So the Imperial Navy was huge. Unfortunately there was not enough budget left over for much of a peacekeeper force. That's where the bounty hunters came into effect. You see, it was a lot cheaper for them to post the bounty, than it was to maintain a large peacekeeping agency. Now most bounties were for outlaws, but a bounty could be placed on almost anything. A lot of bounties were on stolen or lost goods, or to gather information. 

Anyway, I hadn't always been a bounty hunter. Actually, I was orphaned at eight years old, and went to live on Proxima Centauri Four, with my grandfather. He was a retired Galactic Marine Master Sergeant who lived on a small farm outside of the township of Sweetwater. Being a retired military sergeant, he also doubled as a town constable. After taking me in, he proceeded to teach me the value of hard work in keeping up the farm. 

After I came home from school one day with a black eye and two bruised ribs given to me by the school bully and his three friends, my grandfather proceeded to teach me self-defense. As I grew he began instructing me in weapons. 

Life with my grandfather was great, until one day after I had come home from school. I found my grandfather, dead, sitting in his easy chair.

After the funeral, I figured that I would just continue to live on the farm. But in this, I soon found that I was mistaken. It seems that grandfather did not own the farm. It was actually part of his retirement, and was owned by the town. It was his place of residence, and was provided for him, as part of his pay for his work as a town constable. This meant I would have to move within the next thirty days. 

His best friend was the only lawyer in town. After the services, he gave me a letter addressed to me in my grandfather's handwriting. I found that my grandfather had left me 500,000 Galactic credits, and a letter urging me to consider joining the Galactic Marines. Grandfather further wrote that he had already been in contact with his old unit, and had secured me a place in it.

I know that with most 17-year-old boys, the first thing they would do after coming into that much money, would be to blow a big chunk of it on girls and fast vehicles. Very few would do as I had done. Firstly, I took the majority of the money and put it in a high interest money market account. Then, savings book in hand, I went to the bus depot. I caught a bus to the big city, where there was a Marine Recruiting Office. 

Once there I marched straight up to the Marine recruiter, a large sergeant missing his right leg below the knee, and showed him my grandfather's letter. This didn't seem to impress the sergeant much, until another recruiter, who seemed to be the sergeant's boss, came over and read the letter himself. After he was finished, he turned to me. 

He said, "Was your grandfather Master Sergeant Tom O'Connor?"

After I confirmed my grandfather's name, the first sergeant turned to the staff sergeant and asked if he knew my grandfather?

"I know that there have been a lot of Marines, who have won a Galactic Star. However, there are very few that have won it twice, and lived to collect it," the staff sergeant said.

The staff sergeant then turned to me and said, "I see you're planning on carrying on with the family tradition. I just hope that you're half as good as your grandfather was. Let's just get the paperwork filled out, then we can swear you in. We can't promise you what unit you will be in, but I'm sure you will make your grandfather proud."

I told him he needed to read the letter again, as my grandfather had secured a place for me in his old unit. That was the only unit I would accept. If he could not guarantee me that unit, he could just forget about my joining the Marines.

And after making a few calls, it was confirmed that there was a place reserved by my grandfather, in his old unit. That is, provided I could pass everything at boot camp, and come out in the top ten percent of my class. 

As they were filling out paperwork, they got to the portion about age. They found out that I was only seventeen years old. That started another problem, but I told them if they'd look at a little closer they'd see I'd be eighteen, the day after tomorrow. 

"If all else fails, we can just do the paperwork, and I'll get me a room. I'll come back, the day after tomorrow." 

This started another discussion, until it was pointed out that by the time I reached the planet where the boot camp training school was located, I would be eighteen. Since the standard procedure was to re-swear everyone in, there should be no problem. 

And so it was that I spent the next six years of my young life as a Galactic Marine commando. I actually enjoyed the time I spent with my unit, but I seemed to have a huge problem with the officers with which they kept sticking us. It's hard to put up with some butter bar shave-tail who, in his ignorance, is going to get you or your men killed. Finally, just before my six-year enlistment was up, we were on what turned out to be my last mission. 

A new lieutenant gave the platoon the most asinine order I'd ever heard. He surely would have killed everyone in the platoon. I changed his orders for my squad, and we got the mission done, with no casualties. 

The lieutenant was very upset. 

Instead of taking credit for a job well done, he had me put up for a court-martial for disobeying a direct order. The court-martial turned out in my favor, sort of... They determined that I had done the right thing, but they still found that I was guilty of disobeying a direct order, no matter how stupid it was. So that was the end of my time in the Galactic Marines.

After my discharge, I kind of wandered around some. I was doing odd jobs when I stumbled across this 'Town Bulletin Board', while searching for my next bit of work. One section was titled: "Wanted". It had a list of people, what they were wanted for, and the bounty that was on them. 

Naturally, I started reading through the list. I discovered two that I recognized. Using a small amount my savings, I went to a pawnshop and bought a small needle gun, hoping that I could keep it from blowing up in my hand (the previous owner had not kept the gun in very good condition). 

As needle guns were legal on almost all planets (because you could set the power for different conditions) it would be great, as all I wanted, was to capture someone. I would set the power on low, with tranquilizer darts as secondary munitions. Lethal force with the power set up high, and explosive darts, were available with the flip of a lever. 

Considering the condition of this gun, I was hoping I would never have to use it. I made up my mind that unlike most bounty hunters, if I could, I'd bring them in alive. Most thought it was easier and less trouble just to bring them in dead. However, I wasn't that cold blooded. Plus, it seemed that the bounty hunters that operated that way, soon had bounties on their own heads.

Going after the first wanted man turned out to be a piece of cake, after I got the drop on him. He came along very peacefully. He was wanted on this planet, and that made it so much easier. All I had to do was drop him off with the planetary authorities, and collect my reward. 

I found out that it was not that simple. It seems that only a licensed bounty hunter could collect on the bounties. Since I wasn't licensed, I was just a private citizen doing his civic duty. 

This really pissed me off, and I told them that if they weren't paying the bounty, I might as well just turn him loose. They laughed at me and said if I turned him loose, and I would be guilty of aiding and abetting, and would be going to jail myself. So I asked them how much it was for a Galactic license, and they told me that it would cost me 100,000 Galactic credits. 

Hearing this, I almost went into shock. Then I got to thinking that if I went into the bounty hunting business, there was at least a chance to make some real money. Even with all these odd jobs, I was just barely keeping my head above water, with a place to sleep and food in my belly. So I handed him my credit chip. I told him to go ahead and grant me a license. 

100,000 credits poorer I said okay now you can pay me the 20,000 credits that were offered for the guy. They laughed at me and said they were very sorry, but this guy was brought in by a non-licensed bounty hunter.

Seeing that I could not win this one, I thought I had at least I learned something. As I turned to leave, one of them stopped me and handed me a small booklet that read: "Guidebook and Rules for Galactic Bounty Hunters". He then told me that it would be a good idea to read it, to help keep from getting a bounty put on myself, if for no other reason. Looking through it, I discovered quite a few things I did not know.

1. Only a licensed bounty hunter or law officer may collect rewards (This explains the reluctance of those law officers to pay the bounty on the first man I brought in.)

2. A prisoner, upon being turned over to the proper authorities, may post bail of at least double the posted reward. 

3. Planetary bounties are payable only on the planet of posting.

4. Most bounties are payable only if the subject of the bounty is alive, unless otherwise specified.

There were quite a few other rules but most of them were minor, in comparison to those four.

After going through the booklet, I headed toward where I knew the second wanted man normally hung out. I had seen him several times in one particular bar, down by the spacedocks. However, I wasn't sure how I could get to him in the bar, as I would be outnumbered by so many. From the many times that I had seen him in there before, I knew he was very popular. It would be hard to arrest him while he was drinking, as he was always with his friends. Heading over to the bar I came up with a plan. Since I had observed this man usually drank beer, all I needed to do was wait until he had to head for the Men's Room, and capture him there.

As soon as I got there, I scanned the room, looking for my target. I noticed him being led upstairs by one of the whores that worked in this bar. 

I made a quick change of plans. I thought if I'd give him a few minutes upstairs, I could literally 'catch him with his pants down.' 

Since the wanted poster had listed him as normally armed and dangerous, this might be the ideal way to nabbing him, without a shot being fired.

After about five minutes, I burst into the room, seeing his hairy ass pumping his whore as hard as he could. I really didn't have the heart to stop him right then, so I waited for him to finish. As soon as he was done and rolled off of her, I arrested him. I secured him with a pair of old handcuffs that I had also bought at the same pawnshop where I had bought the needle gun. Looking over at the whore he'd just finished with, to see if she was going to give me any trouble, I found that she was the ugliest woman I had ever seen... one whom I would not fuck, even to win a bet.

I took him down the back stairs after taking all of the back routes. We arrived back at the planet authority office. Taking him in I confronted the same two officers as before. 

Going up to them, I said, "I have another one for you. This one's worth 50,000. And just to make sure that you remember..." I produced my license.

"Damn, that was fast! If you got this one for 50,000 credits we should get a discount because it was so easy." 

As he started counting out the credits I noticed it was in local money.

Stopping him, I said. "The poster says 50,000 Galactic credits, not local credits.

"What difference does that make 50,000 credits is 50,000 credits!" the first one said.

"50,000 local credits are the equivalent of 10,000 Galactic credits! You two already cheated me out of 20,000 Galactic credits, and you're not going to do it again. I read your little booklet. I know that the 20,000 Galactic credits I had coming you two have probably split between you by now.

"That's slander! How'd you like to spend a little time in our jail? The first one said.

"Maybe we should take this up with your commander, or better yet, the planetary governor?" 

It seemed quiet that pair down that I would have the balls to go over their heads, to a higher authority. 

So to try to make amends they said, "How would you really like to make some big money? We got a tip on where another wanted man is hiding out. This man has a bounty on him of 750,000 Galactic credits. He is wanted dead or alive, since he is extremely dangerous. He normally has four or five others with him. They also have large rewards posted on them. We would go for them ourselves, but our commander refuses to let us, being as dangerous as these guys are supposed to be. He thinks that we don't have near enough men, and that he would lose over half of us in attempting to bring them in.

I thought to myself that this was probably too much for one man to do, but it wouldn't hurt to go scout out the situation. I had been in some long odds before, while in the Marines. There might be some way to do this. I'd have to just go and look over the situation, myself. 

After getting the information from the two officers on where these guys were holed up, I went to scout the situation. Upon arriving and looking through the dirty window, I saw my target, along with three others, eating at a small kitchen table. I watched them for a few minutes, and determined that they were the only ones there. 

I took out the small needle gun. After switching it to tranquilize, I kicked the door open and began firing. I hit the first three with the tranquilizer darts. 

Then my piece of shit needle gun misfired, sending an explosive dart into the side of the fourth man. It blew out a small chunk of his side. Seeing this, the man promptly surrendered, knowing that I had to drop on him. 

I quickly secured the prisoners, and checked on the fourth man he was not as seriously injured his what he thought. The dart just blew a big chunk out of his side missing his vital organs and that if I could stop the bleeding more than likely he would live.

I put a pressure bandage on him. With him thinking that he was dying, he started confessing to all kinds of sins and crimes. One of the crimes to which he was confessing, was a robbery that he pulled on Cyrus Three. He had framed another young man for the crime. 

When he started all of this confessing, I had pulled out my communicator, and set it for video recording. From what he was telling me there were probably several other bounties on him besides the original 500,000 Galactic credits. 

After securing the men, I transported them back to the planetary authority's office. Walking in, I confronted the same two officers and showed them my prisoners.

"Damn, I can't believe you got them all, and only one of them is wounded!"

"Yup, I caught them off guard while they were eating so they didn't even have their weapons with them. I still need to check on the rewards posted on them but I know that you owe me of least 1,500,000 Galactic credits, if not more."

They laughed at me a little and said, "You need to read at the booklet again the rewards are posted payable on the planet that the reward originated from. And that's Cyrus Three, not here."

"What is the big difference? They did the crime and their wanted. Why do I need to haul their asses all the way over to Cyrus Three to collect?" 

"They wrote it that way because of the crimes that they did. If it was against the Imperial Government, then it could've been paid by any planetary authority, because then the Imperial Government would reimburse for the rewards. However, since these crimes were against a Planetary Government, then the rewards are to be paid by that same government. We used to try to pay the other planetary government's rewards, but it took forever to be reimbursed, so most planets have just quit doing it. About all you can do, is find some way to get their asses over to Cyrus Three, and collect."

I was really starting to get upset. Here I thought that this was going to be a way to make some good money. So far, all its done is cost me a lot of my savings! Now, it looked as if it would cost a lot more. 

Checking with the two officers, I asked if there was any way they could lock them up while arranging for transportation to Cyrus Three. They said that they could, although they would have to charge me a hundred credits a day, each, for feeding and housing them. 

I then asked what about the clause where they can bail themselves out. They told me that the way the clause works, the perps have to be able to come up with double what the rewards were. Then what the planetary authority would do, was pay me the price of the rewards, so I wasn't out anything. They would keep the balance. 

More than likely, that would not happen, since the rewards were so high. They didn't think that the prisoners could come up with the bail money. Then I asked what about if they escaped? I was told that an escape would be covered by insurance, so I still would not be out anything. 

Checking around with the liners and freight outfits, I found that booking passage for these men would cost me almost as much as the rewards! This was really starting to get me discouraged. 

Then one outfit told me of this other man, who had an old space tug for sale. 

After checking it out, I found although it was old, it was still space worthy. After investigating further, I found that although it had the range to make it to Cyrus Three, its environmental system was rated for only four people, not six. There was no way to make it there, as we would run out of oxygen and would have CO2 poisoning, long before we got there. 

After telling the owner this, he thought for a minute. Then said that he had a half dozen cold sleep chambers that he could throw in on the deal. 

This sent a shudder up my spine. Although cold sleep was widely used with the military, and some opted for it during long space voyages, there was still some risk to it. About one in ten thousand died during the trip, and there was almost a one in a hundred chance of brain damage, due to the cryogenic process. 

However, seeing as this was about my only choice, and remembering the nature of my prisoner's crimes, I decided to go for it. So, three hours later (and with about three quarters of my savings gone) I was the proud owner of a fifty-year-old space tug. 

Next, the one thing I still dreaded, was hiring a pilot for it. Turning to the owner, I asked him for recommendations. 

He said, "Hell, son, there ain't nothing to it. It's mostly automated. Do you have any experience at all as a pilot?"

I told him that about all the experience I had, which was while I was still in the Galactic Marines Special Forces. I said that mostly I had handled landing craft, which did not really require much navigation. 

"That's more than I expected. She might not look it, but this little tug has still got one hell of an AI computer aboard her. With just a couple of hours of sleep training, and a good check out flight, we can have you certified as a pilot."


Galactic Bounty Hunter Ch. 01



Still skeptical, I asked, "How much will all that I cost? I just spent three quarters of my savings, and I still have to buy fuel and provisions for the trip."

He laughed and said, "Hell, I ain't near the thief most of these yahoos around here are. I won't charge you for the sleep study. It says you're going to be doing that on your own ship anyway. I'll only charge you for the checkout ride, and the licensing fee. How does 500 credits sound to you?"

"That's the best deal I've had, since I landed on this rock." 

Handing him my credit chip, I noticed that had charged me 500 local credits, not Galactic credits. Finally, I had met up with an honest man. 

We spent the rest of the day installing the cold sleep chambers, and testing everything out. I was pleased to see that all six units were military grade. 

As soon as we lifted off, he introduced me to Sarah, the ships AI. I had expected that the interface with the ships AI via keyboard. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that she was a very recent model, and could be interfaced by voice commands. 

I knew it wasn't true, but it seemed as though Sarah had her own personality... not that of just a machine.

I was amazed at the way the ship handled during my checkout ride. The previous owner had kept the ship in excellent condition. 

I knew that I would want a better ship as soon as possible. Hopefully, I would be able to get one that was armed, and faster than the old tug was. However, until things changed a lot, and I could save up for a better ship, this little tug would have to do.









Galactic Bounty Hunter Ch. 02



The next morning, on my way to pick up my prisoners, I got to thinking about the piece of shit needle gun I had bought. I was mad at the way it had misfired, the first time I had used it. Since I was spending so much to get into this bounty hunting business anyway, I thought I might as well do it right, rather than use a weapon that might misfire or jam. That could cost me my life. 

The first thing I needed to do was replace it. Then maybe I should pick up a few others, also. Stopping at the first gun shop I came to, I went inside to see what they had.

Walking in, I was surprised to see that the clerk was a very pretty young lady. That was very unusual for selling weapons. I asked her if there was another clerk available. This seemed to annoy her. 

"I can assure you, Sir, that I can help you just as well as any man could. Just what were you looking for, Sir?" 

"Let's start with a pair of quality needle guns, I also need a riot gun, hopefully a twelve gauge that will fire from a drum magazine, and be capable of firing fragmentation rounds. I would also like to look at either a laser rifle, or even better yet, a plasma rifle. Military weapons are preferable but if they are used, it will depend on the condition they are in."

"We have all those guns in stock. The needle guns and the plasma rifle are both military surplus, but are in excellent condition. Unfortunately, the only riot guns we have are new civilian models; but they are of high quality, and are virtually identical to what the military uses." 

She set the weapons on the counter, along with ammunition for each. 

"We have a firing range out back if you would like to try your weapons."

After taking the weapons out back and loading them all with practice rounds. I was surprised when she picked up one of the needle guns and began rapidly firing. She put all fifty needles dead in the center of the target. That impressed me. 

I asked, "Where did you learn to shoot like that? Obviously I was mistaken in thinking that a pretty young lady like you would know nothing about weapons!" 

"Six brothers, three uncles, and both parents were all Galactic Marines. I was working with weapons as soon as I was big enough to lift one." 

After I had fired all the weapons, I then handed her my credit chip. 

"These are all excellent weapons. I'll need holsters for each of the handguns, and carrying cases for the rifles and the riot gun. I will also need half a dozen extra clips and charges for the rifles and pistols. I'd like to get three extra fifty round drums for the riot gun, if you have them in stock?"

"We have all that in stock, except that we only have one extra drum for the riot gun. We do have ten round clips for it, though. They will fit, but we only have four of them. Also, we just started carrying body armor, in case you're interested."

"I hadn't even thought about body armor; but, since I am spending so much as it is, why don't you set me up with two sets?"

And she was ringing me up and taking another big chunk out of my credit chip. She asked. "I saw you bringing some men into the planetary authority yesterday. Are you joining the peacekeepers?"

I laughed and said, "I wouldn't join that bunch of thieves on a bet. No, I'm a licensed bounty hunter." 

Suddenly, before my eyes she seemed to change as she looked at me. It was as if I was something that she wanted to scrape off the bottom of her shoe. As she handed me my credit chip back she said. 

"I'm surprised. When you first walked in here, I didn't picture you as one of those cold-blooded killers!"

"What the hell do you mean, 'cold-blooded killer'? Yesterday, I brought in seven men. Only one of them was even bleeding, and that was just a flesh wound. Five of them were listed as wanted 'dead or alive'! If I can, I prefer to bring them in alive. The so-called peacekeepers ripped me off of my first reward for the first man, because I had not gotten my license yet. So they just kept the reward to split among themselves. 

"After charging me 100,000 Galactic credits for my license, they still refused to pay me the bounty that I had coming to me. Then, after bringing in the second man, they tried to rip me off again, by paying me in local credits and instead of in Galactic credits, which was the posted bounty! The last five that I brought in, were all listed as 'dead or alive'. I went after them by myself, because these guys were too dangerous for your 'peacekeepers' to try to capture themselves, yet you have the gall to call me a cold-blooded killer?"

Looking a little sheepish she said, "I'm sorry. I guess I misjudged you, and put you into the same category as all the rest of the bounty hunter scum that passes through here." 

Still mad, I looked at her and said, "You know, in the last three weeks (since I've mustered out of the Galactic Marines) most of the people on this planet have either treated me like scum, or have tried to rip me off. Now, you're a very beautiful woman. Normally, I would have asked you out to dinner, and then... depending on how that went... I would have tried to take you back to my hotel, and fuck your brains out. But I can see, by the way you lump me in with everyone else, that your beauty is just on the outside. 

"One last thing... you told me most of the men in your family were Galactic Marines. I was just court-martialed for saving my men, instead of following some asinine shavetail's order that would have got them all killed. What do you think the men in your family would think if they found out how you treated a fellow Marine?"

After saying that, I left the store and headed over to the planetary authority building, to pick up my prisoners. Actually, I was hoping that somehow they had come up with enough to bail themselves out, so I wouldn't have the headache of having to take them to Cyrus Three. Walking in, one of the wise asses from yesterday saw me and said. 

"Come to pay another day to rent or are you ready to just turn them over to us. I don't think we'd have too much trouble getting them to Cyrus Three, since we have a government boat heading that way in three days!"

"Nope, I'm here to collect them. I've already got transportation. So I will just turn them in for the reward myself." 

"Just how the hell did you arrange that? I happen to know that there are no liners or freighters headed that way! And I don't think your pockets are deep enough to hire a ship?"

"Nope, I didn't hire a ship. I bought one! As soon as I get the prisoners aboard and settled, I'm lifting off." 

"Bought a ship? Just how the hell did you buy a ship? I didn't know that there were any for sale!"

"It seems that you were mistaken. Old man Simmons had a tug for sale. I bought it."

"A tug! I know that ship. It doesn't have a big enough life support system for six people to go all the way to Cyrus Three! How do you plan to get there? If you kill them, then that would be murder. Even though they are wanted dead or alive, since right now they are helpless prisoners. It would still be considered murder?" 

"Nope, I am not planning on killing them. However, they'll be much easier to handle if I ship them in cold sleep. And now, that ship has six cold sleep pods."

"Cold sleep! But that's dangerous. They could still die in it, or come out of it damaged." 

"Yes, it can be dangerous. But face it, these men are all very dangerous, also. Otherwise, why are they listed as 'dead or alive' on the posters? 

As we were installing the cold sleep pods, I checked them. They were all of military grade. The military had been using them for years, so the risk should be minimal. 

"You're just upset because you thought of another way to try to rip me off. That makes it strike three for you! I'll treat you just like any other criminal. I don't think all these little deals you've got going would sit too well with the higher planetary authorities. So... one more little thing from you... and you'll find what it's like to be taken prisoner. I'll be turning you over to your bosses. So you'd better just take the twenty thousand Galactic credits that you ripped off of me, and try to be happy with that. Because if you try to anymore shit with me, you're going to be in a world of hurt."

I left there, and went back to the spaceport. The first thing I did was to put my prisoners in cold sleep. Understandably, this made them a lot easier to handle. After arranging for fuel and supplies, we lifted off for Cyrus Three.

After the first week in space, I discovered that I did not plan all that well. There just wasn't a lot to do, by yourself, on a three-week voyage. I had read the booklet, and every other thing on board, at least twice. And there were only so many games you could play. With an artificial intelligence beating you all the time, even that soon gets old. I figured that by the time we reached our destination, I would be close to pulling out my hair and going crazy with boredom. 

I had listened to my prisoner's confessions several times, planning to turn the confessions over with the prisoners, when I got an idea. I remembered him telling about framing this other guy with a robbery he had done. I saw that there was still a wanted poster on this guy. It wasn't much, just five thousand Galactic credits; but the way I was spending, every little credit helped. My prisoners could stay in cold sleep a little longer without any harm being done. 

Once we got to the planet, I would check what information I could find on this guy, and see about capturing him. I would turn him in first, collect the bounty, then turn in the others. I would also submit the confession that I had taped. That would clear this guy, and probably up the reward to me, when I turned in all them. That was the plan, although I doubted that it would work. However, first I had to find this guy, and at the very least clear his name.

After landing on Cyrus Three, at first, all I did was have my ship serviced. While they were doing this, I interfaced with the planetary computers, to find out all the information I could. I found only one man of the name the prisoner had given in his confession. I found that he owned and operated a junkyard, along with his sister, in the very same town where the spaceport was located. He had never been accused of a crime, before. 

Thinking about it, and remembering that he was only twenty, I didn't think he'd have enough street smarts to go very far from the places that he knew. I found that most minor criminals would return to places that they knew. So the next step, was to try to stake out the junkyard that he ran with his sister.

On the first day of staking out the junkyard, I was watching Desiree O'Toole. Talk about a walking wet dream! This girl was beautiful, yet also had a 'girl next door' quality about her. Just watching her was an instant hard on. She was tall, about five foot seven, with a perfect hourglass figure. 

Just by watching her in the wrecking yard, removing parts and testing equipment, you could tell that she knew what she was doing. I thought she'd look better in the bedroom than she ever would working with machinery, though. However, somehow, I knew that she must be a natural mechanic. 

While watching her, I decided she was acting very peculiarly. She kept returning to the house every half hour or so. At first, I thought that she had something cooking, and had to keep going back to checking on it. However, she seemed to be doing it, all day long. I was pretty sure that her brother was hiding in the house. I sat there and watched her throughout the day... mostly, with a hard on. 

I hid in an old drop tank, as she let the dogs out for the night. I was ready for this. I had scattered drugged meat for the dogs. I could tell almost as soon as they let them out, that they had picked up my trail. But they also found the meat I had set out. I had laced it with a powerful sleeping drug. Within fifteen minutes, all of the dogs were in dreamland, and I was free to move around. 

I waited 'till almost an hour after it was fully dark, and then crept up to peer through the window. The first thing I saw, was Desiree in her bedroom. It looked as though she had just gotten out of the shower, after cleaning up from working in the junkyard.

I knew I shouldn't be watching her, but what straight man could tear his eyes off such beauty. Face it, I'm only human, and it had been a long dry spell. The minute I saw her, I knew I wanted her. 

I also knew that as much as I wanted her, business had to come first. I knew that as soon as I grabbed her brother, the last thing she would want, was anything to do with me.

As soon as she was dressed and left the room, I moved to the front of the house, and peered through the window. I saw her with a young man. I could tell from their facial resemblance, that he was probably her brother. He stood about six foot three, and I figured he weighed probably up around two hundred thirty-five pounds. This might be a little harder than I expected. Watching this giant of a man for a few minutes, I tried to decide how to do this, when they both get up and moved to the dining room table. 

Remembering how easy it was to catch the others while they were eating, I decided to wait for these two to start their meal. Then I would dart the brother. That should render him unconscious for about an hour, giving me ample time to secure him. 

The only trouble I could think of, was how I would handle his beautiful sister. I didn't really want to shoot her. I have been debating with myself on how to do it. I found myself running out of time. They were already eating their supper, and would soon be finished. 

Rather than miss my chance, I thought to myself, 'Here goes nothing!' 

I shoved the door open with one hand, while shooting him with the other as I came through the door. He immediately slumped in his chair, while his sister came at me like a wildcat. It was all I could do to subdue her. It didn't leave me much choice. I had to handcuff them both, which I did. 

After waiting for Daniel to come to, I escorted them both to the peacekeeper's office at the spaceport.

Just as we walked through the front door, the officer on duty looked up and saw my prisoner. 

"Oh, no, Danny! You went and got yourself caught to by a bounty hunter. We're sure that you are innocent of the robbery, but since the store's owner insisted on pressing charges, we had to do something. By setting the reward so low, we thought that it was too low to be of interest to any bounty hunters. However, I see we were wrong."

Looking at me in disgust the desk sergeant said. "Give me just a minute and I'll transfer your reward. But I want you to know that you've just arrested one of the nicest people on this planet. You must be proud of yourself!"

As he called for another officer to come lock Danny up, I asked him to wait a minute. I played the recording I'd made of the other guy confessing about framing Danny for the crime that he had committed. 

Looking at me, puzzled, the officer asked, "If you knew all the time that Danny did not commit this crime. Why did you go through all the trouble of bringing him in?"

I then explained. "I hate to see such a great miscarriage of justice. If I had not brought him in, Danny would've probably been hiding for the rest of his life. This way, once the evidence has been seen by the judge, he will have a clear name, and a fresh start." 

"I can see your point, now. However, it would be a lot easier to clear Danny if we had the real culprit in custody."

"Why don't you get Danny in front of a judge with the new evidence I just gave you. I'll go and collect the true guilty party, along with a few of his friends. I'll be back here in about two hours."

"Just how do you plan to do that?"

"Well, I've already got him and his friends in custody. They are currently resting in cold sleep while I'm trying to get everything lined up to clear an innocent man. At the same time, I want to bring the real criminals to justice." 

About an hour later I had explained to Desiree and Daniel just what I had done. They were amazed when we left the peacekeeper station with me 1,750,000 Galactic credits richer, and Daniel a free man without a bounty warrant hanging over his head.

That was five years ago. Now, I was the best of friends with Daniel, and Desiree was now my girl. 

Lying, naked, in the arms of an equally naked Desiree, I reminisced about the past. 

Desiree looked up at me and asked, "It's been over five years, now. When are you finally going to make an honest woman of me?"

"Make an honest woman of you? Has something happened while I was gone? Do I need to recheck my wanted posters?" 

She laughed, and hit me on the shoulder. 

"You know what I mean. You need someone to take care of you, not just shack up with you every time you get the urge." 

"Take care of me? Did you learn to cook or something while I was away?" 

I could see that she was really starting to get pissed, so I started laughing and said, "I'm just teasing you, honey. You know that you're the main reason I picked Cyrus Three as my home base. I'd ask you to marry me in a minute, but later you'd know that I'm trying to save up for a better ship. 

"The old tug has done a great job for these five years, but you know that to really bring in the larger bounties, I need a lot better ship... and preferably one that is well armed. So I just can't afford to be married yet."

Giggling to herself, she said, "After you make love to me again, and give me several more orgasms, we'll go out and let you take a look at my dowry." 

She rolled over, mounted me, and then proceeded to fuck me until I was too weak even to sit up. 

Finally, after about an hour of rest, she led me around behind the house. She showed me six Mitsubishi interceptors sitting in a long a row, with a small Corvette destroyer at the end of the line. 

Gesturing to the ships, she said, "Well, Tom, what do you think of my dowry, now?"

After gawking at the ships for a minute I said, "They're pretty nice, but what are you going do with them? The interceptors are designed for a crew of ten. I know that most of the crew can be automated, but you'd still need someone in the engine room, and someone on the bridge to be able to fight and maneuver it properly! And as for the destroyer, it needs a minimum crew of a hundred and fifty. How did you and Dan afford them, anyway?" 

"It seems they were having a big government surplus auction. Dan and I went, and it seemed that somehow the notices of the auction didn't get distributed correctly. We were the only ones there. We ended up with all these ships, plus a lot of other surplus items, for their price as scrap."

"That's a great deal, but how the hell did you and Dan come up with the credits it had to take, to buy all of this, even as scrap? It would have had to take up to several million Galactic credits? I know that if you sold the whole junkyard, there is no way that you could come up with that much, so just how did you do it?"

While staring at the ground she said. "Tom, I kind of used the money that you are saving to pay for them. However, look, Tom! One of these interceptors would make you a hell lot better ship than what you can afford with what you had saved. Plus, if you'll look at the end one you'll see that I have been making a couple of improvements to it."

Looking at it closer I saw that the engine nozzles were larger than the other interceptors, and that it seemed to have to aft facing missile tubes along with four forward missile tubes. I couldn't tell any more from the outside just what other changes had been made. 

I then said, "That's quite some ship. I can see it is nice, but that isn't going to change the fact that even with almost full automation, it still takes at least two people to operate it: one on the bridge, and one in engineering. I'm only one person, so that leaves out my using one of the interceptors."




Galactic Bounty Hunter Ch. 02



She looked at me and said. "After we are married, we will operate the ship together. You as the pilot, and me as the engineer. You don't think that after we're married, I'm going to let you run around all over the place without me, do you?"

"Oh, no you don't! Bounty hunting is too dangerous for you to be along with me! I'd spend so much time worrying about you getting hurt, that I would probably end up getting killed, myself!" 

"Now quit talking nonsense. I don't plan on becoming a bounty hunter, myself. I just plan on staying with the ship, and taking care of my man and our children. Now you're wasting time. Are you going to marry me or do you plan on our first child being a bastard?" 

This just kind of caught me off guard, and I stared at her, open-mouthed. 

She said, "Yup! You're going to be a daddy in about seven months. Now close your mouth, and come on. Let me show you our new ship and home."

After that I got the grand tour. She had changed both engines of the interceptor, for two of the engines out of the destroyer. At this I just looked at her, shocked.

"Trust me, all the frames and bulkheads have been reinforced to handle the stress. It also has two extra missile tubes on the nose. I also changed all four gravity pulse lasers for the heavier plasma cannons from the destroyer and two extra pulse lasers on each broadside. After mounting the two larger engines, I found that we had plenty of extra power for the weapons. And notice that hump behind the bridge? That's the larger shield from the destroyer." 

After we went inside, I discovered a lot more of the work she had done. For one thing, she had mounted the command and firing computer from the destroyer but I noticed that the slot for the massive artificial intelligence hard drive was empty. I looked at her with an eyebrow raised in question. 

She said, "I kind of thought you'd like to have Sarah along."

"You're right about that. The ship wouldn't be the same without Sarah... but can she handle all of this ship by herself?" 

"She won't have to. Since this was a military ship, it has two back up AI's!" 

I nodded my head as we continued the tour. Coming to the Captain's Cabin I opened the door. I discovered that the bulkhead between it and the next cabin had been removed, making for one massive living area. That was very surprising, considering the size of the ship. 

Desiree just looked at me and smiled as she crossed the corridor to the other side. I discovered a large cabin that had been converted to a recreation room, suitable for tots, as well as adults. The next cabin had been converted into a small gymnasium. 

The next three cabins were set up as guest cabins. Back next to the Captain's Cabin was a large galley and dining area. Finally, the cabins next to the galley were set up to be used as cells for any prisoners we might have. On the lower decks, we had (in both the front and the aft sections) missile and weapons rooms, with two large storage holds, between. 

Most of the farthest aft section was taken up by a very crowded engine room. It's a good thing that most of the ship was automated, since there really wasn't much space in the engine room, for anything besides the machinery. I looked once more to Desiree, and she said that about the only time in engine room really needed to be manned, was while in combat or during maneuvers. Other than that, most of the controls could be operated from the bridge.

"Pretty fancy, there, Desiree, awful fancy to be used as a paddy wagon. Looks more like a traveling brothel!"

Elbowing me in the ribs she said, "Paddy wagon, your ass. This is no damned Paddy wagon! This is our home. And get that 'brothel' idea out of your head. The only pussy you're going to be getting, is mine!"

"You know I'm just teasing you, honey. However, if you're planning to travel with me all the time, what's going to happen with your brother, Dan?"

"Now I know you haven't been paying much attention to anything other than getting your dick wet, every time you're on the planet. If you'd paid more attention, you'd know that Dan has it bad for the widow down the road. She has six children ranging from the ages of 5 to 15. He's wanted to ask her to marry him, but knows that the junkyard is not big enough to support more than one family. So, when we leave, it will all be left to him, to carry on. 

"He has some big ideas about taking the other interceptors, and turning them into yacht's, to sell to some of the rich people on the planet. After showing a lot of pictures that he took of the interior of our ship (and the designs of the automations to allow a small crew to operate it), he already has orders for the next three interceptors, and wants to acquire more. Plus I hope you don't get mad, but I told him that after we move out of Sarah... your old ship... and into this one, and installed one of the other AI's here, that you would probably give the Sarah to him to make another yacht, since you won't be needing it anymore."

"Oh, you do you seem to have this all worked out, Miss Genius. So just what is the next step that you have planned?"

"We do what triggered this thing in the first place. We need to head over to the planetary authority's office, where you will finally make an honest woman of me. Then I'll come back here and move the ship over to the port, and get it supplied with both supplies and new reward posters... because, Buster, you've got a family to support, now, and you are almost broke!"

Laughing at her, I gave her a big hug and thought, 'I may be almost broke, here; but right now, I feel like the richest man in the galaxy!'