The Hard Luck Hermit’s cockpit had an emergency button that sent a low, droning siren through the entire ship. Kamak didn’t use it often, but it was a good way to get the attention of everyone on board at once, which was why he was currently leaning on it.

“We fucking get it!” Tooley snapped, as she stormed towards the cockpit. Something about the drone’s frequency aggravated her more than most members of the crew, especially Farsus, who could barely hear it. He took a while to realize the siren was even going off, and Kamak kept leaning on the button until he showed up. Doprel grabbed Tooley by the shoulders and gave her a quick massage to keep her from killing Kamak in the meantime.

“Alright, now that everyone’s here,” Kamak said, finally releasing the button. Doprel felt a lethal amount of tension drop out of Tooley’s shoulders. “We’ve been sitting around in the sun long enough. Time to figure out what the hell our next move is.”

The ship had been idling in orbit around a distant sun for several swaps now, hopefully clearing their trail. They had enough fuel and supplies to idle even longer, if the crew deemed it necessary, but they had to at least start thinking about their next move.

“So, just for my sake, where do we not want to go?” Corey asked.

“Anywhere in the entire Galactic Council space,” Kamak said. “Corrupt cops love to talk with other corrupt cops. Half the galactic PD probably knows we’re worth something by now.”

The people chasing them at least had to chase, but cops could be waiting for them wherever they went. To Corey, it sounded like the police were their biggest problem at the moment, which was food for thought.

“There’s still some independent galaxies out there,” Doprel suggested. “What was the one you mentioned when Corey first showed up, Katoomas? They’re not friends with the Council.”

“Yeah, but they’re violent barbarians,” Kamak said. “They’ll try to rip our heads off.”

“Oh, Farsus will fit right in, then,” Tooley said.

“Decapitation is among my least preferred methods of execution, but I will do what is necessary,” Farsus said. “That said, there are galaxies within the Council itself more concerned with law and order, where corruption is minimal. We may seek refuge on one of those myriad planets.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Yeah, but they’re no fucking fun,” Tooley said. “You want to live the rest of your life on a planet of teetotalers and do-gooders?”

“It will not be the remainder of our lives,” Farsus said. “But in some situations it is necessary to focus on living before living well.”

“Fuck that. But speaking of living, I say we get some cryopods, turn on the solar collectors, and put ourselves on ice for a solar year or two,” Tooley said. “Wake up after everyone’s stopped giving a fuck about us.”

“They don’t make cryopods in Doprel’s size,” Kamak said. Apparently that was objection enough, and the topic of cryopods was dropped. The ideas ended and the silence began as Corey tapped away on his datapad.

“Call me crazy, but maybe we should swing by Centerpoint real quick,” Corey said.

“Alright, you’re crazy,” Kamak said. “We want to get away from cops, why would we go to the place with the most cops in the known universe?”

“Well, I got this,” Corey said. He turned his datapad around. In his haste to make a call to Doprel during their clash with Vansis and the corrupt police, Corey had made a video call -a video call that had automatically been recorded. Even from its vantage point on the floor, the datapad had captured several very clear shots of faces, as well as audio of the police tacitly admitting their cooperation with Vansis.

“Okay, okay, we got that,” Kamak said. “But that could only be any use if we get it to the right person.”

“I know exactly who to give it to,” Corey said. “To Vo La Su.”

“Who?”

“That police officer who hassled me about registering, and then got suspicious about that dead body.”

“The hairy little pest?”

“Yeah. Can you think of any cop in the galaxy less likely to be on the take?”

Kamak thought about it for a second, and could not name even one. To Vo fell very squarely on the other end of the insufferable cop spectrum. While normally annoying, she might be useful, under the circumstances.

“She knows every page of the rulebook, and she can get these guys and anyone else thinking of harassing us tied up in a bureaucratic nightmare,” Corey said. “Won’t solve our problem, but it’ll ease some pressure, at least.”

“Setting one’s adversaries against themselves is a time-honored tactic,” Farsus said. “Bringing this video to the attention of To Vo La Su and others could create pressure on the corrupt institution from within.”

None of them were dumb enough to think they could bring the corrupt police state to its knees with a single video, but they could at least take some pressure off of themselves.

“Alright, I’m a fan of any plan that doesn’t involve us sitting on our asses forever,” Kamak said. “We’re going to Centerpoint first, hopefully we can beat the corrupt cop gossip train and buy some good shit before anything catches up to us.”

Tooley cracked her knuckles -worryingly loudly- and headed for the pilot’s seat to plot a course.