The people of Ivten were peaceful, for the most part. Crime was fairly low and the streets were largely safe. Everyone got along, mostly.

This was no small feat seeing as the trade hub was home to more species of sentients than were actually cataloged in the astral archives. Scientists were always finding new species and publishing their findings only to later realize that one of their "newly discovered" species already had a very successful restaurant back on Ivten.

That was why the more savvy researchers had taken to exploring not deep space, which was dark and full of terrors, but the Ivten food scene, which was delicious and reasonably priced.

But there were always those who had to do things the hard way, and that was how the specimen had come to Ivten. They had discovered it clinging to an asteroid orbiting a dying sun.

It was technically a plant, not particularly smart, but it did grow incredibly fast. They had thought that it might make a good food source.

Within a few days of the specimen's escape half the planet of Ivten had been overrun. Vines as thick as trains choked streets and pulled down skyscrapers. The alien mega flora they had foolishly brought back with them was proving impossible to contain.

They couldn't burn it out. Defoliants did nothing. Even laser weapons seemed to only make it grow faster as it hungrily drank the light. Things were getting desperate.

That was why Himry had come to the last place on Ivten he wanted to be. That was why he had gone to the one place where nobody dared visit without a full containment suit and armed guards. That was why he had gone to visit the humans.

Himry was a drekan, which as he frequently had to remind other beings should not be held against him. Originally feared as great hunters and warmongering expansionists, the drekan had picked one fight too many and found themselves destitute and scattered.

Once upon a time they had said "Don't talk to the drekan, they'll eat you." Now they said "Don't talk to the drekan, they'll try and borrow money." And they were right.

His people's fall from grace was frankly their own fault. The drekan were apex predators back on their home world, descendants of great six toed tiger-like monsters. They had expanded their empire viciously and without mercy. Then they picked a fight with a species of peaceful herbivores and discovered that peaceful wasn't the same as harmless. The kinter had shown a fierceness and resilience that had shocked the drekan.

It didn't help that they had inadvertently kicked off a war with the humans as well by destroying one of their remote outposts on their way to attack the kinter. Then the hunds had gotten involved, because where you had humans you found hunds. Those vicious borderline immortal canine uplifts had literally consumed the drekan forces to expand their ranks.

But it was another feline species that had landed the killing blow. The katzen had used the drekan's own greed and desperation to convince their entire military industrial complex to switch sides. They had sold everything to the katzen, who had then resold it to the kinter with loans backed by the hunds.

Now his people were nothing but wanderers, mercenaries and in his case, fixers. But how could he hope to fix a fuck up this big? The whole planet was being consumed by a rapidly growing mega-plant. But Himry had heard a rumor of a human with a particular set of skills, and he was just desperate enough to seek them out. The fixer was up to his eyeballs in debt and the bounty on this alien plant was his only way of ever hoping to pay it off.

Himry was deep into human territory now. He had passed the wall of pulsing blue holographic warning glyphs that listed the horrors to expect as he made his way further in. But he was a deathworlder, and he wasn't afraid of a few spices or the delirium of human music. He would not be ensnared by human mimetic advertising. What he sought was a human that could kill anything, and he wasn't leaving until he found them.

Unfortunately he didn't have a name, just a nickname, a nom de guerre. But he did know where to look. Because when you're trying to find a predator, you always start with their prey.

The drekan stalked his way past a row of potted ferns as he approached the front desk of the Happy Home Garden Center and Plant Nursery. His orange striped fur clashed with the greenery like a Hawaiian shirt in church.

"I'm looking for a killer." He said. "Something to help me with a little plant problem."

The clerk eyed the two meter tall carnivore nervously. Her green apron was covered in pins proclaiming her love of all things chlorophyll. There was even an "Algae you later" patch, because she believed that single celled plants needed love too. She was young, scrawny, and frightened, but not of him. "Um… are you looking for herbicides?"

"No ma'am." Himry purred, "Poison won't cut it, I need a professional. I need someone who can kill the unkillable. I'm sure you've been watching the news so you know why I'm here."

Stolen novel; please report.

The clerk smiled weakly. "I'm sure you have the wrong place."

"Are you now?" Himry looked around, his trained eye looking for signs of death and murder. He sniffed the air, inhaled the decay, found the corpse. "Because I smell a cactus that isn't doing so well in your back room. How did it die? Because if it died of natural causes it would be mulch or compost. The fact that you hid it means you're either scared or embarrassed."

The clerk began to glance backwards then caught herself. "I've got no idea what you mean and I think it's time for you to go."

Himry leaned forward onto the counter, his nails digging into the wood. "I think you know perfectly well who I'm looking for, all I want is an address where I can find them. You can tell me what I want now or…" He casually reached over and plucked a gift card off the display rack. It had a smiling cartoon aloe vera on the front. "When I find them I'll give them this."

"That's not activated, there's no money on it." The clerk stammered. "It's useless."

"Oh yes." Himry said wickedly. "You know that, and I know that… but they won't. They'll come in here eager to select their next victim. They'll browse the aisles for hours, touching things, moving them around, watering things..." He waited until the clerk was about ready to cry then he dropped the bombshell. "... and when they go to check out they'll realize that there's no money on the card and have to put everything back. Imagine it, plants that they handled going back into your inventory. Going to unsuspecting homes… like ticking time bombs."

The clerk eyed the card as if it were a death warrant. "No… nobody could be that evil."

"My people drove entire species to extinction. You think I'm above a little herbicide?" Himry looked deep into the clerk's eyes. "An alien plant is consuming this planet as we speak. Within days it will be here, and it will choke out all life as we know it if we don't stop it. So tell me what I want to know or I will show you just how desperate I am." He let his hand wander towards a small potted mint placed precariously close to the edge of the counter.

"Fine." The clerk handed him a scrap of paper with a name and address hand written on it along with a drawing of a skull and crossbones. "You win."

"Thank you." Himry said, using the distraction to pocket one of the smaller plants when the clerk wasn't looking. "I'll be on my way."

*--------

As soon as Himry was out of the building his phone rang. To his relief it wasn't another debt collector threatening to turn him into a rug, it was his government contact.

"What's shaking?" Himry asked as he inspected his stolen plant. It didn't seem to have a name or care instructions, just a few spiky green and white leaves jutting out from the soil. "How's our killer kudzu doing?"

"It's fine. The planet is fucked though." Lamented Rimma. Himry had never met her in person, he wasn't even sure exactly what kind of creature she was, but she sent a lot of work his way and wasn't picky about details like legality as long as it got done. She also paid on time and in full, which in Himry's book practically made her marriage material. If he found our that she could cook it was all over, he would buy the ring tomorrow. Not that he could afford it.

"So… what are you making for dinner?" He asked, trying to sus out that essential piece of information.

"Escape plans, if this damn thing isn't under control soon. How's the hunt for your notorious plant killer?"

"It goes. I've got a name for you to look up, Sophia Danika Lee. She lives in Holbrooke." Himry walked as he talked, avoiding the worst of the street thugs. They knew he had nothing worth stealing.

"Nice part of town." Rimma said as she typed the name in. "It's an up and coming part of the city. They've got a nice park, some great restaurants, even a few art galleries. Good shopping-" Then there was a pause and a sharp inhalation of breath followed by swearing.

"What is it?" Himry asked.

"She's human OSR."

Himry froze in place, his feet deciding to preserve the rest of his body by not moving even one toe closer. His hackles raised of their own accord and his heart was pounding with shock. "OSR?" He asked, needing confirmation.

"Yeah, she's Order of Saint Rachel. You know, the planet killers."

"I know what OSR means." Himry growled. "I'm wondering what in the name of Gaffin's tail they're doing here."

"Something in the entertainment industry, apparently." Rimma said. "I pulled her visa application, it lists her as independently employed, no place of business on file. I'll do some digging and see what else I can find."

"Don't worry about it, I'll figure something else out." Himry was already walking back towards home. "It's not worth it. I can't spend the reward money if I'm dead."

OSR were about the worst possible thing to run into on a planet, except for maybe PETA, which was another human terrorist organization. They kept trying to tell him that wearing fur was murder, which was problematic because he was covered in the stuff. To this day he was still finding bits of red paint stuck to his hair.

"So that's it. You're giving up on the contract?" Rimma asked.

"No, I'm just finding a method that doesn't include messing with the OSR." Himry wasn't sure what that other method was, but it would probably be safer both for him and the planet as a whole.

The Order of Saint Rachel weren't just planet killers. They were known to take out whole species if the mood struck them, and the punishment was almost always disproportionate to the original crime.

The drekan had entered into all out war with the humans and while they had lost, at least they were still alive and their homeworld was intact. The kress hadn't been so lucky, and all they had done was kill one human.

Of course that human happened to be married to an engineer with anger issues and access to a warp drive. But still, they hadn't deserved to have their entire solar system destroyed.

"So what's your Plan B?" Asked Rimma.

"It's a good plan." Himry promised. "But I can't tell you the details. You'll get mad."

"So long as the job gets done I don't care about the how."

"That's what I respect about you. I'll call when I have an update." Himry said as he hung up. Of course he had neglected to mention the reason why she would be mad. Rimma would have nailed him to the wall by his tail if she knew that Plan B was to go to a bar, get drunk, and wait for the world to end.

Still, it was safer than messing with the OSR. Himry shuddered as he thought about how close he had come to disaster. Way safer.