Stalker's Bounty: Solitude Saga, #2

By Chris Strange

TO SOME, ARKAS IS A TERRORIST.

TO OTHERS, HE’S THEIR SAVIOUR.

TO THE CREW OF THE SOLITUDE, HE’S THEIR NEXT PAYDAY.

Following a devastating campaign of sabotage on a vital agricultural colony, the figure known only as Arkas makes his final threat: if the Federation fails to meet his demands within five days, he will permanently cripple the star system’s food supply.

Bounty hunters Dom Souza and Eddie Gould have the contract on Arkas’ head. But as they race to find Arkas before the deadline expires, Dom begins to doubt everything she was told about this so-called terrorist.

As the fires of rebellion spark across the colony, Dom will have to unravel the truth behind Arkas.

Because if she can’t, her bounty will turn to dust. And the colony with it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cheeky Minion
• Release date: Jun 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781513083513

Book preview

STALKER’S BOUNTY

THE SOLITUDE SAGA #2

Chris Strange

Cheeky Minion Books

www.Chris-Strange.com

Map of the Eleda System

Eleda System Map

Click image to enlarge.

View the high resolution version online: http://bit.ly/EledaMap2

1

The ground crunched beneath Dominique Souza’s boots as she stepped out of Bounty’s spaceport. She paused, looked down. Dry, reddish-brown soil spread around her in every direction, rising and falling along the craggy surface of the moon.

Dom dropped her duffel bag and crouched, letting her duster coat trail in the dirt as she ran her fingers through the soil. The ground was warm, but a few centimetres below the surface it grew cold.

She scooped up a handful of dirt. It crumbled and came apart in her fingers. After a moment’s hesitation, she brought the soil to her face. The earthy scent of it calmed something deep inside of her.

A whistled tune echoed out of the near-empty spaceport, moving closer. But Dom paid it no attention. She rubbed the soil against her fingers, examining the red stain it left behind on her dark skin. The tiny particles were forced into the folds of her fingerprints, highlighting them.

Footsteps crunched behind her. The whistling stopped.

Freckles, Eddie Gould said. What the hell are you doing?

She brushed the soil from her hands and stretched herself up to her full height. She glanced back at Eddie. He wasn’t short, but she had a good thirty centimetres on him. He looked up at her through half-lidded eyes, a small smirk on his gaunt face.

She turned away and examined the expanse of the moon’s surface spread out around them. The land rose into sharp crags and then fell into ditches and canyons. Harsh artificial light streamed down from above.

Far in the distance, outside the protective shell of Bounty’s transparent domes, she could see a huge mountain formation running east to west across the horizon. The wind outside hurled storms of red dust across the plains. Small twisters formed where the gales hit the dome’s surface. But here, inside one of the huge flattened domes that protected the colony, the air was still.

She looked down at the dirt once more. Dust had already coated her boots. She made no move to wipe them clean.

Three years, she said.

What?

It’s been three years since I’ve set foot on real soil.

Eddie sniffed and kicked at the dirt. This isn’t soil. It’s dust.

It’s soil, she insisted.

Eddie thrust his hands into his pockets. It smells here.

That’s the smell of the land. Real, solid land.

Like I said. Smells. He nodded to the west. Is that our transport?

She squinted against the glare from the lights far above. A trail of dust was being kicked far into the air by the motion of a wheeled vehicle. As it approached, she could just make out the glint of a motorcar bouncing across the terrain towards them.

Dom nodded and lifted her heavy duffel bag from the dirt. She’d only brought one change of clothes. But plenty of firepower. The town at the core of the colony was more than an hour’s drive from the spaceport. Too far for easy access to Dom’s ship, the Solitude, while they were here. So she was coming prepared.

She took her wide-brimmed leather hat from the top of her duffel bag and pulled it on. The heat from the artificial lights were already making her sweat, despite her coat keeping off the worst of it.

Eddie had his jacket tied around his waist and the sleeves of his shirt rolled up. His pistol was strapped to his thigh. He studied her carefully.

What? she said.

That hat looks ridiculous on you.

You’ll be begging for one in a few hours. This place will make you blind if you don’t do something about it.

He shrugged. I don’t plan on spending too much time outside.

Suit yourself.

Eddie cocked his head to the side. You hear that?

She listened. She could hear the far-away whine of the motorcar coming closer. And a low hum and the clink of machinery from back in the spaceport. A quiet buzzing, perhaps an insect somewhere nearby. But nothing else.

Hear what?

Exactly, he said. It’s too damn quiet here.

It’s peaceful, she said.

He shook his head slowly. Freckles, if this place was peaceful, we wouldn’t be here.

* * *

The motorcar pulled up in front of them. The shell was battered and scratched, only a few streaks of the original paint remaining. Red dust coated the windscreen, smeared by struggling wipers. The wide tyres left gouges in the landscape behind.

The car shuddered as the engine spooled down. Dom and Eddie waited as the driver’s side door clunked open.

A tall, slim man unfolded himself and stepped out. He was dressed head to toe in black, a smart but well-worn synthetic suit that was just a fraction too wide for his skinny frame. He pulled on a black hat as he rounded the car. His face was narrow and angular, the skin leathery and creased with deep wrinkles. A thin black moustache clung to his upper lip.

As he stepped around the side of the car, Dom caught sight of the pistol holster on the left side of his belt, the butt facing forwards. Easier to draw sitting down, but could cost him time when he was standing. She tried to decide what that told her about him. On his belt next to the gun was a small circular badge.

The man stopped a few metres away from them, thumbs tucked into his belt.

Elmore Fairfax, he said. His voice was quiet and steady. Chief of Police here on Bounty. You two the stalkers?

Yes, sir, Dom said. I’m Dominique Souza, and this is my partner, Eddie Gould.

Eddie gave a two-fingered salute. Howdy, Jack.

Hell of a thing, Fairfax said. Needing stalkers on Bounty. Never thought I’d see it. Spent thirty years in the police, most of it with my feet up on a desk, bored as hell. Now this. He shook his head. Hell of a thing.

Nice of you to come all this way yourself, Eddie said. The Chief himself. Figured you’d send someone else from the department to pick us up.

Fairfax’s lips twisted into a tight smile.

Son, he said. "I am the police department."

* * *

Fairfax shook each of their hands in turn and directed them into the waiting car. He offered to put Dom’s bag in the rear storage, but she declined. He seemed to understand.

Eddie took the shotgun seat. Dom sat in the back seat with her duffel bag across her lap. Her legs were so long that her knees were pressed against the back of Eddie’s seat. He probably could’ve adjusted it, but she didn’t ask and he didn’t offer. Fairfax started the engine and they began the journey into town.

The car bounced along the uneven landscape, kicking up a cloud of dust alongside the car as they moved. The electric engine whined as it spun, coughing every time the car dropped into a ditch and the suspension had to take the weight.

The atmosphere regulator struggled valiantly to keep cool air circulating, but the heat still seeped through the windows. Even inside the car she could taste the dust in her mouth.

She stared out the window as they drove, catching glimpses of the colony through the cloud of dust. In the adjacent dome, a massive field of grain stretched along the craggy side of a hill, disappearing over the horizon.

Five huge machines, each the width of a small starship like the Solitude, crouched over the field on short legs, rolling along the rows of grain. The hungry maw of each machine was fitted with rotating blades, consuming the grain as it rolled along on dozens of wheels.

One of the harvesting machines was struggling to make it up the rocky side of one hill. Sparks flew off some connector high on the machine’s flank. Crews of technicians scurried like ants across the machine’s body, suspended high above the grain field.

The machines were all sleek and curved, but the years and the terrain had been hard on them. Their hulls were stained with the telltale signs of oil leaks and scorch marks from overworked engines that were too advanced for repair here on Bounty. Or anywhere in the Eleda system, for that matter. They were all Pre-Fall tech, hundreds of years old, still struggling on all these centuries later. Like the Solitude, like Bounty itself, like every colony and space station and ship in the system.

Ever since the Gypsy Gates collapsed, the Eleda system had been alone, cut off from the rest of humanity. Cut off from those it relied on to keep its technology running. Time was running out. The system was dying, one station, one colony at a time.

Engineers and technicians kept the ancient machines running as well as they could, but it was a losing battle. In a few decades, maybe a century, there would be no one left alive in the system. Nothing but a collection of cold relics orbiting an orange star, a testament to man’s folly.

But today, the system was still alive. And there was still work to be done.

As the car rolled on, the expanse of red dirt began to give way to a rusted industrial district. Warehouse after warehouse, factory after factory, granary after granary all stood humming and rumbling among the makeshift dirt tracks.

A truck nearly as big as one of the harvesters rumbled slowly along a larger service road behind the buildings. The cloud of dust in its wake blew across Fairfax’s car. He muttered something and set the windscreen wipers to a higher speed, fighting for visibility.

Dom twisted in her seat to watch the truck as it rolled away. It slowed and stopped behind a large cylindrical granary attached to an automated sorting facility. More technicians poured from the building and began setting up the tube that would transfer the truck’s contents to the granary. The truck puffed black smoke from a dozen exhausts, grumbling and groaning as the men worked.

That doesn’t sound so good, Dom said.

Fairfax nodded. It’s the same all across the colony. Every year we lose a few more machines. So the farmers have to push the surviving ones harder. And we end up losing even more. Feds used to send engineers to try to fix them up. They don’t do that anymore. Never helped much. Truth is they probably broke more than they fixed. He paused. Not that that garnered us any sympathy from the Feds.

He glanced sideways at Eddie, then in the rearview mirror at Dom.

’Course, I’m just being bitter. I don’t mean nothing by it. I don’t hold any grudges against the Feds. I’m not taking anyone’s side in all this mess. I’m just trying to keep the peace.

Relax, Jack, Eddie said. You don’t have to worry about insulting us. We don’t love the Feds any more than you. My partner especially. He stuck his thumb in Dom’s direction.

Fairfax glanced at her in the mirror again. She looked away so he couldn’t study her eyes.

That so? he said. The Feds pay your bounties. Hard to take money from someone and not like them. He paused. But then again, that’s a New Calypsan accent you’ve got, isn’t it?

Yes, sir, she said.

She could tell Fairfax wanted to probe further. But he didn’t push her. He changed the subject.

Well, in any case, what I said was the truth. He switched off the window wipers as the dust cloud finally cleared. I don’t much like the way the Feds are handling this, but that doesn’t mean I agree with the uh…opposing measures being taken either. I’m just trying to keep things under control. I’ve got a couple of part-timers who help me out down at the department. Like deputies, I guess. One’s a firefighter, the other’s a mother of a couple of young girls. And there’s a couple of admin people. They help me out with the paperwork. Sometimes liaise with the municipal government and the Feds. But for the most part, it’s just me.

Pretty big colony for one cop, Eddie said. How many people you got down here?

Thirty-nine thousand, give or take. Lot of new folks from off-world in the last few years. But most here are locals. Families that’ve been here forever. Since before the Fall, some of them.

A lot for one cop to handle.

Fairfax nodded. Didn’t used to be. A few years ago, before all this started, it was simple. People around here used to be pretty easy-going. Lot of work to be done, no time to get caught up in anything untoward. But since the Feds started embargoing us…. He shook his head. I’m too old to deal with all this by myself. People are getting scared, and when they get scared they get angry, and when they get angry, well, you know, I suppose. How much have the Feds told you about our situation?

Identify and apprehend the terrorist known as Arkas, Dom said. Disperse or eliminate his or her associates. Prevent further damage to essential equipment and supplies. That’s the gist of it.

Fairfax took one hand off the wheel to rub his earlobe. Yeah, I guess that about covers the essentials. Terrorist, huh? That’s what they’re calling him? Well, I suppose that’s right. I got to warn you, though, before we go into town. There’s plenty of people here that see what he’s doing as a good thing. They say the Feds haven’t given us a choice. They say it’s either this or roll over and let the Feds walk all over us. Plenty of people like that are itching to get involved. From what we can tell, Arkas’ group is small. But there’s plenty who won’t stand idly by and let a couple of stalkers take out their hero.

And you, sir? she said. What do you think about Arkas?

He took his time thinking about it. They left the industrial district behind, passing into another dome linked by massive transparent conduits. Off to the left were the grain fields and the other farming domes beyond.

But the car veered right, on towards a collection of flattened buildings standing in the distance. As they drove, they passed a trio of abandoned farming machines looming near the dome’s edge. They were parked haphazardly, hulls long rusted, tyres removed, innards stripped. An old tech graveyard.

This colony provides a fifth of the system’s foodstuffs, Fairfax said. Some say as much as a quarter. This moon’s got the best soil in the system. That’s not saying much, but there it is. Every year it becomes harder to deliver what the Feds demand. The machines just can’t work like they used to anymore. And neither can the people. We just can’t keep up.

But the system still needs to eat, Eddie said.

That it does. But what about us? We’re doing what we can. But it’s not enough. So the Feds are trying to strong-arm us. I can’t see it any other way. They’re holding back trade goods. Equipment, clothing, luxuries, medicine. The embargo is killing this colony.

His voice remained quiet and calm. But as she studied his face in the mirror, she saw the strain hidden behind his eyes.

But this Arkas business, it’s only going to kill us faster, he said. Arkas thinks he can strong-arm the Feds right back. Force them to back off. But the way I see it, that’s not going to happen. Is it?

Dom shook her head. No, sir. It’s not. Like my partner says, the system needs to eat.

That’s what I thought. I don’t want to scare anyone, start a panic. But the way I see it is this. You two, you’re the beginning. Arkas is making the Feds nervous. So they put a bounty on his head and send you stalkers in to find him. But if you don’t, then what? The people here, I don’t think they’ve looked that far ahead. But I have. If the Feds truly believe that Arkas is jeopardising Bounty’s ability to generate the food the system needs, they can’t afford to back off. They have to act. Accord or no Accord.

Yes, sir.

She’d already come to the same conclusion. The Lyon Accord meant that the Feds had no right to set foot on any colonies besides Babel, the capital colony. That was why they sent stalkers in their place, freelance bounty hunters who could do the Feds’ dirty work, slipping through that little loophole.

The Lyon Accord hadn’t been broken since New Calypso fought free of Fed rule. But it was still just a piece of paper.

When the system’s people were going hungry, when even the Babelites began to riot in the streets, the Accord wouldn’t be worth shit. The Feds would come to Bounty. They would come with warships and battalions of marines. And they would seize control of the colony.

So what do I think of Arkas? Fairfax said. I think he’s got a point. But I also think he’s a threat to this colony. And this colony is damn near the only thing I care about. My wife comes above Bounty, and that’s about it. So I’ll help you, stalkers, as much as I can. And as long as I think you’re working in this colony’s best interests. If that ceases to be the case, well, then we may have to reassess our relationship.

Eddie twisted in his seat to address Dom. He jerked his head at Fairfax. Spirited for an old guy, isn’t he?

She sighed. Eddie, for the love of Man.

It’s all right, Fairfax said. I hope the two of you live to be my age one day. A stalker’s life is a dangerous one, so I’m told.

But sometimes, it’s better than the alternative, Dom thought. Better than prison. Better than execution.

Dom had requested this contract specifically. It wasn’t often that bounties came up on the heads of terrorists. There weren’t that many left in the system.

But even though she knew nothing about this Arkas, not what he looked like or even whether he was a he at all, she felt a connection. Because she too had fought the Feds using any means at her disposal. She’d spent her youth planting bombs and slitting Fed throats, forcing them out of her home colony.

And when it was all over, when she stood victorious alongside her comrades, she’d seen exactly what she’d done. Exactly what she’d been fighting for. And it had disgusted her.

She wondered if Arkas would feel the same if he achieved his goals. She wondered if it wasn’t more merciful to catch him before he could see just what he’d done. Before the Feds could catch up with him and decide he was more useful to them as a hired dog than a prisoner.

When they apprehended Arkas, a significant chunk of her share of the bounty would go towards her debt. The debt the Feds had tallied up once they calculated the monetary cost of all the lives she’d taken and supplies she’d destroyed. She may have won her war, but the Feds had long memories. And until she paid them enough to forget, she would never be free.

The terrain became less bumpy as they neared the town. The dirt was hard-packed here by centuries of vehicle traffic and maintenance. They began to pass other motorcars coming the other way, heading out of town, off to the farming domes or the sorting facilities.

They slipped into the town so quietly she almost didn’t notice. Rows of squat buildings sprawled out in every direction. The walls were worn and degraded, the paint faded by the constant blast of the dome lamps. The air shimmered above the flat roofs, expelling as much heat as possible from the buildings. Boxy atmosphere regulator systems were bolted to the tops and sides of the homes they passed, most of them sporting jury-rigged repairs and modifications to keep them working.

The town’s buildings were mostly simple, modular affairs, buildings that’d been there since the colony was first established. They were never meant to be lived in this long. Just temporary accommodation for the colony’s first few years while they waited for materials to build a true city.

But that day had never come. The collapse of the Gypsy Gates had seen to that.

Small knots of locals sheltered under verandas, sitting at small tables and sipping water to escape the worst of the midday heat. Others hurried around, climbing into motorcars or hauling their shopping home by foot. A small, skinny dog trotted along behind a middle-aged couple, panting in the heat.

The streets wound and twisted like a maze through newer sections of the residential areas. Some homes were built from what looked like materials scavenged from the old-tech farming machinery.

As Fairfax drove them into the town’s central district, the streets widened and straightened. Buildings were higher and more closely packed here, with walkways built along the building fronts so the residents didn’t have to stomp through the dust. Around the buildings’ edges, green weeds sprouted from the soil, using the shadow of the buildings to shelter from the heat lamps.

I got you a couple of rooms at the local travellers’ house, Fairfax said. Just down the road here. Not much, but it’s something. You want me to drop you there first, let you get settled in?

Christ, no, Eddie said. Let’s just get this over with. You got some stuff for us to look at down at the station?

I sure do, son. I sure do. That all right with you, Miss Souza? That bag looks pretty heavy.

She didn’t quite share Eddie’s enthusiasm to be done with Bounty and back on the Solitude. It’d been a long time since she’d been somewhere without walls. In the last few years she’d spent plenty of time on seedy little space stations, places like Temperance where everything was grease and sleaze.

She was tired of all that. There was a quaintness to Bounty. A quiet strength. She watched the people as they passed, their heat-scarred skin and their simple, practical clothing.

Something was beginning to unwind in her shoulders, tension she didn’t know she had. In some ways, this place reminded her of New Calypso, of home, in those few years she still remembered before she’d taken up a gun in the name of a man she’d come to hate.

But Eddie was right, even if his own reasons for getting the job done quickly were different than hers. Bounty was being threatened. If they wanted to find Arkas, they had to get working. Not sitting around in a hotel room making themselves comfortable.

Take us to the station, sir, she said. We should get started right away.

He nodded and drove on. Yes, ma’am.

2

The police station was a small, box-shaped building in the middle of the city. Dom climbed out of the car and lugged her bag inside, removing her hat as she followed Fairfax and Eddie. Fairfax held the door for her.

Despite the weather-worn exterior, the inside of the station was clean and well-kept. The floor was slick and shiny, a grey checkerboard pattern stretching across its surface. One barred hallway led off to the left. The cells, Dom guessed. She couldn’t hear any noise from down there.

A few benches were set up in the main lobby, next to a reception desk. Behind the reception desk sat an attractive middle-aged woman with pink skin and straw-coloured hair. She was dressed in a plain white dress with no makeup or jewellery. She smiled up at Fairfax as he removed his hat and approached. A friendly, open smile.

This is my wife, Thelma, Fairfax said, coming around the back of the desk and resting a hand on her shoulder. She’s been doing some of the administration work for me since my receptionist took ill. Thelma, these are the stalkers. Dominique Souza and Eddie Gould.

A pleasure to meet you, Thelma said. She was still smiling, but a certain wariness had crept into her face as she studied them. It was a look Dom was used to by now.

Hold my calls unless it’s an emergency, Ma, Fairfax said, passing her his tab. I’m going to brief the stalkers. He gestured to them. My office is this way.

He turned his back and led them through a door into a short corridor behind the desk. Dom nodded to Thelma as she passed.

Ma’am.

The woman smiled and nodded back.

Fairfax conducted them to a small office at the back of the building. Next to an off-station comm terminal, a barred window looked out onto the narrow street running behind the station. A synth-wood desk was set up in the centre of the room. A few papers sat in ordered piles beside a pitcher of water and a few glasses. Something silver and rectangular peeked out from under a small synth-paper booklet. Fairfax went behind the desk, picked up the device, and opened a drawer to deposit it into.

What’ve you got there, Jack? Eddie said.

Fairfax cleared his throat, as if embarrassed. He held up the silver rectangle. Harmonica. Got given it years ago and never touched it. He turned the synth-paper booklet towards them. It was a basic lesson book. Found it a couple weeks back and thought I’d give it a try. Stupid, really. I can’t even play the first song.

He dropped the harmonica and the booklet into the desk drawer and closed it. Behind him, a clunky computer console was humming, its monochrome green screen flickering slightly. Fairfax directed them to a pair of chairs beside a vid screen set into the wall.

I’ll just be a moment. I need to retrieve the latest vid from the evidence locker. Please help yourselves to the water.

He left the room. Eddie quirked an eyebrow at her as the door clicked closed.

What? Dom said.

It can’t be just me.

What can’t?

This place is weird, Freckles. You don’t feel that? He gave a fake shiver. I mean, what’s that out there all about? He’s got his wife working for him. That’s not normal.

How would you know what normal is? Families stick together in places like this.

Oh, Christ, he said. You really like this place, don’t you?

We’ve only just got here.

And you’re already falling in love. I can see it in your eyes. You’re going soft on me, Freckles.

You just don’t understand, she said. You’re so used to the sleaze and the darkness you’ve forgotten that places like this exist. These people aren’t weird. They’re the normal ones. They’re just different from the kind of people you’re used to.

Eddie shrugged. Yeah, maybe. And it’s going to get them all killed.

The door opened and Fairfax came back into the room. He was holding the black plastic of a vid file in his hands.

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