Varyna didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to her family. By the time they were informed of her ‘transfer’ across the galaxy, she was already an entire sector away from them.

Quoppi didn’t seem to mind the sudden upheaval in his life. He accepted the transfer calmly and remained that way during their voyage. The two of them had been stuck together on a nondescript transport ship alongside a small crew of workers. When the ship dropped them off at the Helios-Aura check station, members of their respective squads were waiting to take them away. Even when they were being whisked in different directions, with no idea when or if they would see each other again, the Nemarian said a polite farewell and went on his way.

“You don’t seem very pleased, Officer Rhine.”

A male Kremel, named Hxlt, glanced over at Varyna from the driver’s seat of the COPS-labeled pod they were riding in.

“It’s really not all that bad out here,” he continued when he received no response from her. “You’ll like the officers on the squad. It’ll be nice having a woman around.”

“I’m sure everyone is great,” Varyna mumbled. “Can’t wait to meet them.”

“.. yeah.”

After that, their conversation died down, and nothing could be heard inside the pod except for the whirring of engines and occasional click of a button for the remainder of the flight.

Settling in wasn’t difficult. The twelve (now thirteen) person squad was divided into small ‘teams’ that worked together. Unlike the system on Quosh, where an officer could expect to be paired up with any member of the squad depending on the assignment, the teams on Squad 3 were more or less permanent. It made sense logistically. Out here, officers didn’t all clock in for a shift and go home once it was over. Calls came in from planets all over the sector, so teams were rarely all at headquarters at the same time.

Varyna had been teamed up with Hxlt and a Human officer named Opun. They were both easy going and kind. They responded to her hot headedness with a chuckle or sigh and moved on. Well, if you have to be stuck with the same individuals all day every day for who knows how long, you’re bound to become good at adapting to less-than-ideal personality traits.

All in all, Varyna had no reason to hate her new position. Her correspondence with her family was limited but not prohibited. She even received occasional updates and ‘care packages’ from her old squadmates. She had a holoscreen, plenty of books, and a comfy bed in her new quarters. Much like communication with the people back home, the extent of programming on the holoscreen was limited. The CinderX network didn’t quite reach this far out anyway.

Still, circumstances weren’t terrible. And they were bounds better than the crowded and strict living conditions on Outer Jurisdiction patrols.

Yet Varyna still found herself spending most of every day trying her hardest not to be absolutely miserable.

Her single [Quest] occasionally flashed in front of her mockingly.

[Retrieve Leviathan from the hands of the Runners]

She had somehow gotten even further from being able to complete the quest. Further from the [500 XP]. Further from leveling up. Further from the Demon Division.

“This blasted system is worthless,” she grumbled aloud one time.

“No way! You have a system?!” Officer Opun had exclaimed excitedly upon hearing her. “Hxlt here has one too! We’ve gotta be the most powerful team in the squad!”

Varyna quickly scanned Hxlt’s [Level] and [Stats] just like he was, no doubt, doing to her as well. Then they both made a similar expression and changed the conversation.

Evidently, Varyna wasn’t the only one saddled with a worthless system. At least she was one [Level] higher than her teammate—which said a lot about their team’s strength.

So, her days of monotonous missions to places on the outskirts of the Helios Sector went on unremarkably. On one such monotonous mission, however, Varyna discovered that completing her [Quest] wasn’t as far out of her reach as she had thought.

They were on the planet for a missing person case. Due to the delays in reporting, receiving, and responding without a proper network or manpower, the trail for the case had mostly gone cold by the time they got there. They did their best, but a long day had yielded nothing worthwhile. Just as they were about to give up, they heard someone shouting about a robbery nearby.

“Should we go check it out?” Opun perked up.

“If we don’t do it now, we’ll have to come back in two weeks when the official report reaches headquarters,” Varyna sighed. “And then we’ll have another day like this one.”

Hxlt agreed. “Alright, we might as well.”

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

The three dashed to the shop where the robbery was taking place. They were able to subdue the culprit quickly before any real damage was done. While Hxlt handled the robber, Opun moved to speak to the shopkeeper. Varyna already knew she’d be tasked with interviewing the witnesses.

“I never get to do the fun stuff,” she murmured to herself. “Let’s get this over wi-”

She paused as she saw the customer who had been wrestling with the robber when they busted in. She hadn’t gotten a good look when he was trapped under the Human woman robbing the place, but now she could tell it was definitely him.

Mr. Adventurer/Chef/Idiot.

The Runner who stole Leviathan.

Her frown quickly turned into a smirk.

“Officer Rhine!” Opun called her attention from where he stood at the register. “Get his statement."

“With pleasure,” Varyna grinned.

She led the guy outside and into the alley next to the store. He looked like he would bolt at any moment, so she pinned him against the wall.

“Where is Leviathan?” She demanded.

She could already taste the sweet [500 XP].

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he shrugged.

Varyna scoffed. Who was this guy trying to fool?

“I know you have him,” she explained. “Why else would you be in that warehouse after pursuing the Demonology section at the Erengil Library?” The boy looked like he wanted to protest again, so she tightened her arm across his throat. “But I’m taking him for myself.”

“You’re crazy, Officer. I don’t know a thing about Demonology!” the boy gasped.

He really was trying to lie straight to her face. The same person he asked for help when he was at the library.

“You don’t remember me, do you, Chef?” Varyna spat. “You got away at the warehouse, but you won’t be so lucky this time.”

Opun’s voice suddenly sounded behind her. “You ok, Varyna? What’s taking so long?”

She glanced over her shoulder. Her teammate was already leading the cuffed criminal out of the shop and toward their crawler. But she needed more time.

“It’s been a long day, so Hxlt wants to wrap this up and get this woman processed,” Opun continued.

Varyna put on her best attempt at a smile. “I’m fine, just making sure I get all the details from the altercation.”

Opun looked doubtful but shrugged and continued escorting the robber.

“Why don’t we get back to the whole statement thing?” the boy smirked.

She frowned and shoved him harder into the wall. If she was confident he had the USB on his person, she would have knocked him out and taken it already. But there was no way this Adventurer/Chef/Idiot was that much of an idiot.

“Where’s the Demon, Runner? Give him to me and I’ll let you go.”

The boy continued playing dumb until Varyna thought she would lose her mind. She might have actually killed him if Hxlt hadn’t interrupted.

“Rhine? What are you doing? We need to process this and move on.”

Varyna didn’t even bother turning around. “You know what? This is taking longer than I expected. Why don’t you and Opun head back to the precinct and I’ll meet you there in a little bit?”

“Yeah ok, if you insist. It’s been way too long of a day for this nonsense,” Hxlt cursed under his breath as he turned to leave.

Varyna almost laughed. It was the first time he’d given her more than an eyeroll for her antics. Looks like his patience was nearing its limit, after all. Her patience, on the other hand, had already long surpassed its limit.

“Look, I tried to give you an easy way out. All you had to do was hand over the USB and return to your merry little life of crime.” Varyna jerked the boy’s wrist up and pulled out her scanner. “But since you want to do this the hard way, I’m going to just take you in.”

She had just witnessed him in an altercation. Plus, he was a Runner, he probably had all sorts of warrants out for his arrest. All she had to do was scan his chip and the red alert would start going off on her scanner immediately.

Except it didn’t.

Instead of flashing signs and warnings, a picture of a friendly elderly Kremel woman popped up. A woman who had never gotten so much as a parking ticket, apparently.

“Tampering with id chips is illegal across the whole galaxy,” she huffed, pulling her cuffs from her belt. “I can still arrest you for this.”

Except she couldn’t.

Because she had just scanned the most innocent being in the entire galaxy, the cuffs refused to budge. And Hxlt was already gone, so he couldn’t provide an override code. She honestly considered ending the impudent little Runner then and there, but the [500 XP] flashed in the back of her mind, and she couldn’t bring herself to risk losing Leviathan forever.

For now, at least she had found the Runner again and knew how he was. Well, who he was pretending to be.

“I may not know exactly who you are yet, but I promise I will find out.” She threatened, releasing her grip. “Once I do, you’re going to beg the Holy Core itself that you were never born unless you hand over that Demon, got it?”

After another snide remark from the Runner, she turned and stalked away. It was going to be a long walk back to the precinct. Luckily Opun and Hxlt would be busy enough processing the robbery that they wouldn’t be able to leave her behind on the planet altogether.

She already knew what she had to do the moment they all got back to headquarters. First, she’d have to find something, anything connected to CinderX. She’d also have to send a message chip to Faren Cleus, and maybe Quoppi-Shaden, about the Runner boy pretending to be a Kremel grandma. He’d been in the Erengil Library, so he had to have left a footprint behind somewhere. It was only a matter of time before she found out where and used it to track him down.

“I’m so glad I got transferred here,” Varyna beamed as she stared out the pod window later while the team headed back to headquarters.

Opun gave Hxlt a weird look, but the Kremel simply shook his head and rolled his eyes. After the delay Officer Rhine had caused in the streets and then again in processing because she didn’t have the witness statement, he was having the completely opposite thought.