It wasn’t the first time Nix had felt the muzzle of an E-11 Blastek pressed against her back. It wasn’t a common occurrence for her either but after the first dozen or so times it had become less unnerving and more irritating. The rent-a-goon with delusions of adequacy who was on the Calerpris Dock Security payroll wasn’t going to shoot her. He more fearful than aggressive. Also, he still had the safety on given the lack of a subtle rumble where the barrel made contact with her spine. 

“So, how bad did you say your breakup with Sali was again?” Ayli asked, her hands behind her head the same as Nix’s were.

Unlike Nix however, Ayli had a pair of clever little hold out blaster at the top of her jacket. Fortunately, Ayli wasn’t in a murderous mood, at least not as far as Nix could tell, so no one was likely to have their vital fluids staining the dock’s floor in the Calerpris arrivals area any time soon.

“I mean breakups are never good, but it wasn’t ‘hold me at gun point’ bad.” Nix said. “I’m sure she’s forgotten about the money I lost her by now.”

“As though I’d ever forget about you,” Saliandris A’Prezzo, the Tyrant Queen of the Dashfin Run, Breaker of the Siege of Bokrund, and Scourge of the 5th Begani Legion said as a pair of blast doors whooshed open to admit her to the docking bay. “Or even a single credit I’m owed.”

Saliandris’ entrance didn’t drop everyone to their knees, but the the guards around Nix lost their attention for anyone but their boss. As though they drilled it a thousand times, each made sure that their weapons were pointing as far from her direction as possible. Nix understood the reaction. Sali had an imposing presence even beyond her two meter height and muscular build. Mirialans didn’t tend to grow that tall, but that was far from the only measure by which Sali was exceptional for her species. 

“It worked out for you in the end though, didn’t it?” Nix asked, unsure exactly how their last disagreement had benefited Saliandris but certain that it had. Which was good since it hadn’t worked out terribly well for Nix.

“Surprisingly enough, it did,” Sali said. “And see, you didn’t get shot at all when you came back here.”

“We appreciate that,” Ayli said. “But why did we even get stopped? I’ve got a real transponder in the Goldrunner and everything for a change!”

“Oh, my dear Ayli, haven’t I told you that playing by the rules brings nothing but trouble?” Sali said, gesturing for the dock guards to find somewhere else to be. Her personal retinue was made up of only two droids for a change. Two droids with the firepower of a small army unless Nix missed her guess. Given their generally human stature and proportions most of the weapons would be built inside their black metal chassis but for good measure they were both carrying the kind of blaster rifles one usually targeted hostile starships with. Always easier to be intimidating when everyone around you knew at least one thing to definitely be afraid of.

“They’re your rules though!” Ayli said, relaxing as the guards departed, though not so much that she tried to close the gap between herself and Sali.

That was the ‘nice’ thing about droid body guards – there was really no telling what might set them off and they had no body language to read to help provide a clue in that regards. Best to let the planetary regent (for all intents and purposes) lead the dance, unless one felt like dancing with the fishes in Calerpris’ planet-wide oceans.

“They are, and I should thank you for respecting them, but I think I prefer the money from your bounties,” Sali said.

“There’s no bounty on me?” Nix said. She wasn’t sure of that but the only one who might have put a bounty on her head was her previous captain and he was stranded on a planet in the Galarus system where no ship docks were available to fix his exploded hyper drive or the sublight engines the hyper drive had slagged when it blew up.

“You’re included in the ‘and the crew of’ section beautiful,” Sali said.

“Wait, who put a bounty on us? We just got here,” Ayli said, she started pacing in a small circle and chewing her bottom lip. Nix fought back a smile at how adorable it looked, not wanting to test Saliandris’s patience, or reveal yet that there was something between Ayli and herself.

“It’s on the Holonet, couldn’t believe it myself when I saw it. Did you really kill one of the Klex Cartel?” Sali looked as amused as she sounded, which Nix did not take to be a good sign. Sali’s idea of amusements have been one of the, as it turned out, many things, they’d disagreed about during their sadly brief time together as…as whatever they’d been to each other.

“No! Of we didn’t. Wait, which one?” Ayli asked, not making them sound as completely guilty as she might have.

“Show her,” Sali said to the droid to her left.

The droid opened it’s palm and projected the holographic image of a bounty notice. Nix was too fixated on the holoprojector, which she recognized as a rather clever rework of a Sendyne Systems Burst Laser Array, to read the Bounty notice at first. That the hologram emitter could have been refocused in under a tenth of a second to emit a laser change capable of melting an inch of durasteel should have frightened her, but curiosity left her itching to take it apart and see how they’d managed to get the holographic refractors to play nicely with the Blaster Array. Usually one would fry the other, but Calerpris had some excellent techs.

Also, Sali wasn’t going to have them shot. That wasn’t why any of them were here. 

“Ten thousand? That’s it?” Ayli took a step forward, and the droids did react, but only to take a half step in front of Sali. 

“A bit insulting I know, but it’s your first bounty,” Sali said. “You need to give these things time. Work on them every chance you get. Maybe kill Ulno Klex next time?”

“We didn’t even kill Barto though!” Ayli said. “I mean really, for ten thousand credits? Who would think I would work that cheap?”

“Would Darsus have a bigger price tag?” Nix asked, again curiosity override her better judgment.

“Not for this one, seeing as how it was Darsus Klex who posted it,” Sali said. “I mean some people arrange for posthumous bounties, never really saw the point myself, but I don’t think Darsus has that much foresight.”

A private cab arrived at the dock and parked beside the Goldrunner. From the armor plating, and the wonderful purr of its repulsorlift engine, Nix knew it belonged to Sali, and better Sali had kept it in good repair since Nix had last been able to work on it.

At Sali’s gesture, they all climbed into the cabs spacious interior. Nix opted not to take her usual seat beside Sali. It had the best view out the right side of the cab but she wasn’t sure if she’d be welcome there and sitting beside Ayli sent a better message anyways.

“When did Darsus post the bounty?” Ayli asked as the cab lifted off and joined the traffic stream over the capital city. Nix knew the route it was taking and found herself wishing they’d been able to tow the Goldrunner along with them. Sali’s repair bays were top notch, as was pretty much everything else in her fortress compound.

“Went out on the Holonet about a day ago. Why’s that?” Sali asked.

“That means we didn’t kill him either,” Ayli said, a note of frustration in her voice.

“Sorry,” Nix said. She knew Ayli wasn’t angry at her, but anger in general felt like loose plasma currents arcing around her.

“Not your fault,” Ayli said. “I put off the refit on the Goldrunner’s weapon systems at the last dock. We could have earned the bounty proper if I had.”

“Well if you’re not opposed to that kind of work, maybe you can be a bit more valuable than the bounty on you suggests,” Sali said.

“We could…” Nix started to say before Ayli cut her off.

“No.” She shook her head and put her hand out as though to protect Nix. “Even if I felt like stirring up that kind of trouble, that’s not the work we do.”

“We could do something else though,” Nix said.

Sali gave her a long look up and down, though they both knew Nix wasn’t offering herself as part of any deal.

“I bet you haven’t had the Silver Star tuned up since I left,” Nix said, reasonably sure she’d win that bet, but knowing that it wouldn’t be enough of an offer for Sali to jump on.

“Haven’t had a chance for a proper sightseeing tour since then,” Sali said, as though deflecting an accusation.

“We might be able to give you the chance for one,” Ayli said. “It’s what we came here for in the first place after all.”

“You flew out here to give me a vacation? I don’t think you know what would happen if I took a vacation. This whole place would tear itself apart inside a week,” Sali said.

“A working vacation then,” Ayli said. “You travel for business right?”

“Less and less these days,” Sali said. “Easier to project the right image when you make them come to you.”

“The last thing you have a problem with is image,” Nix said which drew a wicked smile from Sali. Ayli gave her a suspicious look but followed it with a small shrug. It was too hard a compliment to deny.

“You’d be surprised,” Sali said, looking out towards the recollection of some troublesome memory Nix could only imagine. “You do have me intrigued though. What would this ‘working vacation’ entail?”

“Finding buyers for priceless treasures and taking a five percent cut of the profits, while getting to mingle with the sort of people who buy treasures where price is of no consequence,” Ayli said.

“Seems to me if you’ve got priceless treasures on hand, you could just hand those over and pay off your bounty without any fuss,” Sali said.

“That’s the other thing we came here for,” Nix said.

Sali sighed and then chuckled.

“Of course. You don’t have any treasures at the moment but you’ve got a great lead on them and with just a small investment, you’re sure to be rolling in a pile of credits as deep as the Sargras Sea. Does that about cover it?”

“No. We don’t need an investment,” Ayli said. “I’ve got that covered. Well, except for some ship repairs. We could use those, if you’ve got some spare parts you’re not doing anything with?”

“So, free ship parts? Probably a free dock rental? Free repair bay access too? Maybe a hyperdrive recharge? Permits and inspections waved? Food and water stores replenished? Oh and let me guess, expedition gear for whatever backwater hellhole you think has a bunch of culturally relevant hunks of carved rock?”

“Yeah. All of that, and some information too,” Ayli said.

“For five percent?” Sali said.

“Of the profit, yes,” Ayli said.

Sali started chuckling and it turned into honest laughter a moment later.

“Oh Ayli’whensha, I have missed you.”

“Your aim was pretty close last time though,” Ayli said.

“You know I was shooting at the Scurthan pirate scum behind you,” Sali said.

“I still say that was a lucky shot,” Ayli said.

“Luck never enters into it,” Sali said. “I always hit my mark.”

“So does that mean you’re in?” Nix asked.

Sali laughed again.

“I wouldn’t want to be within a thousand parsecs of a deal like that.” She gestured to the two droids who raised their arms, deploying one of the dozen of built-in weapon systems they had. Nix thought that the laser targeting dots which appeared on Ayli and her own chests were a nice touch. Not too flashy, but still able to convey a definite message.

“No, I think I’ll be taking you in and seeing if we can’t get that bounty raised a little higher.”