My heart was racing and I wasn’t sure where I was headed but at least it was away from there.

I was lucky- the coordinates I used were in the Ironian system, close to nothing and far away from the station. My heart rate returned to normal and the realization hit me like fifty bars of Oranium.

‘Fuck!’ I screamed out loud to no one. ‘God damn it!’

So much for one last hit. Turning in the bounty was not a great idea at this point, I had stolen from an intergalactic kingpen and getting credits for the kill would link me to Daden. My limited options ran through my head. ‘Fucking Colleen.’

She was human too, one who had managed to escape the camps as well, but rather than fixating on Earth, she embraced who she was and gained control of a large swathe of territory.

Colleen maintained contacts in most of the places I frequented and if she was looking for me specifically, I wouldn’t last long.

Her ship probably didn’t have the chance to ID me, but if her people started asking around, they would know that I had also been looking for Daden and that simple fact could be enough to get me killed. I ran through the list of the people I knew that were also aware of my most recent bounty. I trusted Rem to keep his mouth shut and no one could find Cloe but Ammet would squeal the moment he had the opportunity.

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I had to get back to him. I punched in coordinates for the Horsehead Nebula and cursed myself for my stupidity. If only I had killed Daden and left the Oranium, I could have easily turned in the bounty and been on my way but my first instinct was always to take whatever I could get and this time, I had gone too far. Once I got closer to the nebula, I called Ammet, hoping I wasn’t too late.

‘Aia, you’re back.’

‘Yeah, Ammet, your information isn’t as good as it used to be. Nothing there but some old station. No Nollers anywhere.’ I laughed, but knew I sounded stiff. Normally I was an excellent liar but now wasn’t normal.

‘Really?’ He paused. ‘I gave the same information to someone else and they seemed to have more luck than you.’ My blood ran cold. ‘Why don’t you come for a visit and we can talk about it.’

‘I don’t know, Ammet.’ I was trying to stall, to see what he knew. ‘I really need to find this guy.’

‘Aia, I’ll be honest, but only because we’ve known each other so long.’ He paused and let that ominous forward sink in before continuing. ‘I have an old friend of yours on the other line. She wants to know if anyone else was searching for Daden.’ I knew it. ‘If you come back here and make amends for what you did to my son, I’ll tell her nothing. Otherwise...’ He didn’t need to fill in the blanks. Colleen would find me and she didn’t need advice from some decrepit Fistul to shoot first.

‘Fine. I’ll be there soon.’ I turned off the monitor and hoped that he would keep his word. Using an old blanket, I covered up the Oranium and slowly made my way towards his station, hoping I would have an epiphany before I was trapped.

An hour later, and with no clear alternatives, I pulled into his docking bay. As the door lifted, I saw Ammet’s smug face gloating.