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  Unfortunately, there was a queue of bounty hunters out the door, each with a captured pirate in tow.

  Looking at the clock, she calculated how long each bounty would take to process, and multiplied that by how many of them stood in line, then subtracted that from the time she had left, adding in time to run and get to her ship and turn it on and…

  Her gaze landed on the man in front of the bounty window. Sage was talking animatedly with the man who processed and paid for bounties. Two of his crew members had a third man between them.

  Figures.

  She sighed and looked at her mini-computer again. As long as she could get to the front of the line in the next hour and a half, she’d be okay with Dissident.

  "Oh…wait…"

  She’d parked over four hours ago—and at fifteen hundred credits an hour…

  If she didn’t get back to her ship soon, she’d really be in trouble.

  She looked at the front of the line. Teon was nowhere to be found, and the line was shuffling up slowly.

  "Hey!"

  It was Ganon, Sage’s pilot. Dark-skinned with lively dark brown eyes and a voice that carried for miles, Razia wasn't sure if Ganon was always drunk, or if he was just naturally that obnoxious, but she rued the day Sage had hired him onto his crew.

  He came barreling over, his arms opened wide to toss her up into one of his usual over-the-shoulder hugs, but she was ready.

  "Don’t touch me."

  "Okay, okay, okay!" He laughed loudly, garnering the attention of two pirate in front of her who finally noticed she stood there. "Woo…you’ve got a bounty! Look at this, Sage!"

  "Yes, that’s what happens when you’re a bounty hunter," Razia snapped, hoping this conversation would end quickly. The last thing she wanted was to draw attention to herself with such a pathetic bounty in hand. But thanks to Ganon's barking, Sage and the other crew member, a quiet, tall man named Nalton, joined the impromptu and unwelcome party.

  "Razia, you will not believe what just happened!" Ganon said, slapping Razia on the back. "Sage, you have to tell her!"

  "I’d…rather…" Sage said, suddenly looking very much like he would've rather kept walking out the door. Ganon waved him off, and turned to Razia, excitedly.

  "Okay, so get this: After we did that museum thing, we noticed this guy would not leave us alone, right? And Sage was like, aw, he’ll get tired of us, just hold off. But I mean, this guy—right, Nalton? I mean, this guy!"

  "Very nice," Razia said, shifting uncomfortably, hating how more pirates had taken notice of her.

  For once, Sage seemed to share her eagerness to get away. "Ganon, I really don't think—"

  "So, finally, we’re all at Eamon’s…you know what Eamon’s is, right?"

  "Yes," Razia snapped. It was one of many clubs that catered to the top pirates—only. As Razia had found out three weeks ago when she'd been tossed out for sneaking in through a window.

  "Okay, so we’re at Eamon’s, and Sage gets fed up with him bothering us, and we do our bit." Ganon grinned. "And, guess who it is? Guess!"

  Razia sighed.

  "Dalton Freaking Burk."

  "What?" Razia screamed, whirling around to face Sage, who already had his hands up in surrender.

  "Look, I didn’t want to turn him in!" Sage said quickly. "I mean, he just wouldn’t leave us alone! What was I supposed to do?"

  "Sage, you knew I wanted him!" Razia cried. "What in Leveman’s—"

  "I don’t see how you could've possibly thought you'd be allowed to capture him, seeing as you’re only…six hundred? Seven hundred?"

  Sage and Razia shared a look of annoyance. Royden Relleck stood behind them, his hair buzzed shorter than in his photo, and his high cheekbones accentuated by his smug smile. He'd joined the pirate web only four or five years ago, but had quickly become Contestant's favorite for his brash cockiness. For the longest time, Dissident and Contestant boasted the best two webs, spending most of their time one-upping each other and ignoring the other two. But since Tauron's death, Dissident had struggled to reclaim his former glory, and Relleck had taken it on himself to claim the mantle. He never missed an opportunity to capture Dissident’s pirates or taunt his favorite ones.

  Or, in Razia’s case, his most embarrassing ones.

  "I know Dissident is desperate for good pirates, but I doubt he’d let a little girl hunt someone like Dalton Burk," he said, smugly folding his arms over his chest.

  "Well Contestant lets you hunt, what’s your excuse?" Razia retorted, before Sage could say anything. "Where’s all your boyfriends? I’m surprised you let them out of your sight. Hope you don’t run into any pirate who can hit."

  "It’s a good thing I ran into you and Teon, then," Relleck shot back, sneering at her bounty. "Leveman’s Vortex, I haven’t even heard of that guy—is he a real pirate? Looks like he was already drunk when you got to him. Hope you didn’t break a nail."

  Before Razia could respond, Sage chimed in with an unhelpful, "Leave her alone, Relleck. She’s still on probation."

  "God in Leveman's Vortex, Teon," Razia swore through clenched teeth.

  "Probation?" Relleck laughed. "You’ve been on probation for what…two years now? Why don’t you quit embarrassing yourself already?"

  Razia watched him turn and walk away, and smiled knowingly. "Hey, at least I didn’t lose a couple hundred credits in five minutes at the casino last night."

  Relleck stopped dead in his tracks. "What’d you say?" he whispered, turning around.

  "I said," Razia repeated, slowly, "I may be in the six hundreds, but you obviously need to work on your poker skills. And your lady skills—three times you've visited a cat house in the past week? Can’t get a woman to sleep with you unless you pay them, hm?"

  "How…how do you know that?"

  "Oh, you mean, how I know all your aliases?" Razia said, feigning innocence. "How I’ve been tracking you for the past six weeks?"

  Relleck’s eyes narrowed.

  "Because I’m a damned good bounty hunter, that’s how," she said. "Now why don’t you quit embarrassing yourself and get lost." She paused and chuckled. "And next time, try to make it a challenge, will ya? Leveman’s, you’re worse at hiding than Teon here."

  Relleck glared at her wordlessly then hotly turned and slunk away.

  "You sure shut him up." Sage grinned. "And I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m good at hiding—"

  Razia turned her deadly gaze on him. "Get out of my sight."

  "Wait—what did I do?"

  "Take your pick," Razia growled. "First you get me in trouble with Dissident by blabbing about me hunting guys I'm not supposed to then you capture my bounty then you go and tell Relleck I'm on probation—"

  "Hey, I was just trying to get Dissident off your back by telling him how good you are—"

  "We’re fighting, Teon," she said, looking forward and doing her best to ignore him.

  "Oh, come on!"

  She glared daggers at him. He took a hesitant step back before motioning to Ganon and Nalton and leaving.

  Razia stood in the line, ignoring the curious looks of the pirates around her. Relleck was awfully cocky, and he had every right to be. Unlike her.

  She looked down at her bounty, who let out a loud, whiskey-soaked belch.

  After an eternity, she reached the window. The man at the window had never been pleased to see her, and he blew purple smoke out of his mouth when their eyes met. He asked her to repeat the pirate's name four times, even though she knew he'd heard her, then took his sweet time looking up the information.

  "I’ll give you fifty for him."

  "Fifty?" Razia sputtered. "He’s worth two hundred!"

  "I could give you none."

  "Fine, just give it to me," she snapped, yanking the card out of his hand. She had to get back to her ship. If she ran, and got lucky with a shuttle, she might make it just in time…

  ***

  "N-no! Oh...damn it!" she yelled, throwing her C-card
down to the ground. She'd exceeded the hour by four minutes and twenty-eight seconds, so, of course, they charged her for an entire extra hour.

  She now had less than six hundred credits in her account.

  She would have to do another planet.

  Now.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  It could never be said of Razia, or rather, Dr. Lyssa Peate, that she didn't learn from her mistakes. So, angry that she was back on the Odysseus station again, she wouldn’t budge under fifty thousand credits for the planet she'd so hastily excavated in just two days.

  That would be enough to last her for a few weeks—at least. And maybe then she could finally get some traction with Dissident.

  Speaking of, she needed to call him and get her next bounty assignment from him. She was walking down the hall in the presentation wing, keeping an eye out for anyone who would bother her. She hadn’t seen Pymus at all since she'd arrived yesterday—he'd placed her in the queue for today without as much as a response to her email.

  She paused at a custodial closet—probably the safest place for her to make a quick video call—and slipped inside. She pulled down her hair and took off her glasses, dialing Dissident’s number.

  "What do you want?" he grumbled.

  "I got whatshisface," she said. "So who’s next?"

  Dissident grunted as if the mere act of lifting his finger to scroll through the bounty roster was causing immeasurable pain. Razia waited, hoping maybe he would forget the number he'd given her last time and maybe give her someone in the four hundreds—he’d done that before.

  "Seven-thirty?" Dissident said, after a few minutes of overly dramatic sighing.

  Damn, she thought. "That’s pathetic."

  "If you have a problem with the bounties I choose, then you are free to try another runner."

  Razia was about to respond when the door to the custodial closet flew open, and she found herself face to face with Dr. Pymus.

  "Dr. Peate!" he said, almost too happy for his own good. "What in Leveman’s Great Vortex are you doing in here?"

  "I-I—" she said, quickly turning off her phone and sticking it in her lab coat pocket. She slid her thick glasses back on and tried to look unhurried as she pulled her hair back up into a bun. "I was looking for—"

  Pymus latched onto her arm and yanked her from the closet, pinning her to his side as he marched down the hall. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

  "We?" Lyssa said, looking over her shoulder. A teenage boy, about sixteen, with neatly combed sandy blond hair walked behind them with an excited grin on his face. Lyssa had never seen the kid before, but he looked slightly familiar.

  Pymus was smiling at her in his odd, fake way that he did. "May we walk over to your laboratory for a chat?"

  "I’m actually on my way out," Lyssa said, hoping to make a quick escape and avoid any associated annoying conversations about her father.

  Unfortunately, Pymus was quicker than she was, and wrapped his arm tight around her shoulder, marching her down the opposite way. "Dr. Peate, I have excellent news!" he said, squeezing her for emphasis.

  "Does it involve you removing your arm?" she grumbled, trying, unsuccessfully, to get away from him.

  "I have been able to grant you an opportunity most DSEs aren't able to have until they've at least ten years' experience. But I pulled a few strings, made a few calls, and cashed in favors from the highest levels in the Academy! This experience—"

  Enough was enough. "Get on with it."

  "Fine." Pymus placed his now free hand onto the boy’s shoulder. "This is your new intern, Dr. Peate."

  Lyssa blinked. She'd expected a lot of things to come out of his mouth, but that was not one of them. "Intern?"

  "Intern!" Dr. Pymus repeated. "As you’ll recall, the DSE internship semester is one of the most important periods in a young DSE's education. Learning side by side with an actual DSE as well," he sighed dramatically, "you just can't get that kind of education in a classroom."

  "Uh-huh," Lyssa said, catching sight of the boy. He was wide-eyed and innocent and kept looking up at Pymus adoringly. "So what, I take him for a few days a week?"

  "Oh, please, Dr. Peate!" Pymus laughed obnoxiously. "He'll be with you constantly. How else is he supposed to learn?"

  "Say what now?" Lyssa said, anxiety bubbling in her chest. "When you say constantly, do you mean—"

  "Go on every excavation, assist on every analysis, support you on every presentation. I daresay you two will become quite close."

  "I'm sorry," Lyssa said, shaking her head. "I can't take on an intern right now."

  "You don't have a choice," Pymus said, handing her a stack of papers in a file folder. "The Academy notified you several times of the impending internship."

  She snatched it from him quickly. Maybe she should check her mail more often.

  "We spoke about it last week, remember?"

  Lyssa surely wasn't expected to remember every conversation she had with him, but she was damned sure she never heard anything about an intern. She hastily flipped through the papers, praying she'd stumble upon a loophole that could get her out of this. Pymus' odious signature was all over the forms, mocking her. "I mean you can't…you can't just sign for me on this sort of thing—"

  "In the event that a DSE cannot be located, his superior may sign in his absence," Pymus quoted. "You’ll find it all in the paperwork."

  "This is unbelievable," she grumbled, flipping through the notes. "What in Leveman's Vortex am I supposed to do with him?"

  "What you normally do," Pymus replied, a conniving smile curling on his face.

  Lyssa stopped her frantic searching of the paperwork and narrowed her eyes. How convenient that Pymus should be saddling her with an intern—especially after the trouble he would've had to go through to get it approved. She was only two years out of the Academy. That wasn't near enough experience to even have anything of value to teach a student.

  That asshole was spying on her to get information on her father.

  Pymus seemed to have sensed that his plan was discovered, as he quickly turned to the boy. "Well, take copious notes, son. They will be considered part of your grade at the end of the semester."

  "I’m sure they’ll also be part of your upcoming published works on Sostas Peate," Lyssa muttered, loud enough for Pymus to hear.

  He cleared his throat and nodded at Lyssa, before turning and scurrying down the hall.

  Lyssa angrily watched him go and contemplated the unfairness that was her life right now. As if things couldn't get any worse for her, she now had a permanent set of prying eyes on her that was going to report every little movement she made straight back to Pymus.

  For the next six months.

  "So...?"

  "What do you want?" She growled, baring her teeth.

  He closed his mouth and followed after her, keeping two or three steps behind.

  "Whatever deal you struck with Pymus, you aren’t going to get it," she snapped, not bothering to look back at him. "So don’t get any funny ideas."

  "I’m..." His voice was high and squeaky. He cleared his throat, and it came out a little deeper. "I don't have any deal with him?"

  "Oh, I’m sure Pymus is getting something out of this," Lyssa grumbled.

  "I am very indebted to him for arranging this internship, but—"

  "So this was your idea?" she asked, whirling on him, finally. "And why did you decide on me?"

  "You mean you don’t recognize me?" he said, his voice going high again and very timid.

  "Am I supposed to?" she snapped.

  "Well, yeah," he said, shrugging. "I’m your brother."

  "...excuse me?"

  "Your brother?" he repeated. "Vel?"

  "Brother?" It was no wonder she halfway recognized him—all twenty-four of the Peate siblings looked similar, except for her. "Which one are you again?"

  "Vel?" he said. "I was born eighteenth?"

  "Oh, little brother!" Lyssa smiled, dangerously.
r />   "Yes!" He grinned, but before he could say another word, she exploded in the middle of the hall.

  "You have six older brothers, you idiot! Six to choose from! What in Leveman's are you thinking?"

  Vel cowered, and even though he was taller than she was, he seemed to be a lot smaller. Two DSEs walking by gave them an odd look but kept walking, "S-seven…"

  "What?"

  "Beas got his degree six months ago." He swallowed. "But technically, only two, because a DSE must have ten years of experience...only Dr. Pymus made an exception for..." He trailed off, skin slowly paling with every heaving breath Lyssa took.

  Lyssa stepped back from him, licking her lips angrily and trying not to explode.

  "Look, I don’t know if you know this, but the rest of the family don't like me very much. So if this is some kind of teenage rebellion—"

  "Dr. Peate." Vel laughed, much more maturely than a sixteen year old should have. "You are seriously overreacting. Mother was fine with allowing the internship to proceed."

  "Was she really?" Lyssa said. "Because Dorst sure seemed pissed off about it last week."

  Vel smiled, and Lyssa saw something behind his eyes. "I know there is some...bad blood in the family. But I hardly think that's an excuse to overlook your stunning qualifications as a DSE."

  "Uh-huh," Lyssa said, seeing right through his sycophantic behavior. First of all, she was hardly the most upstanding DSE in the family—extracurricular activities or not. More importantly, there was something in her gut telling her he wasn't to be trusted. The sooner she could lose him, the better.

  "So, shall we get started on our first excavation?" Vel asked, happily.

  Lyssa smiled devilishly. She was going to make him wish he had never even heard the name Dr. Lyssandra Peate.

  ***

  "And Jinjina had her fifth child last month, I think?" Vel prattled on, as he had since they'd left the Academy some three hours earlier.

  Lyssa, utilizing the skill she'd developed in school to drown out obnoxious noises, was focused on searching for a really terrible planet for them to excavate. Something that was filled with big creatures or massive storms—anything that would permanently scar her obnoxious little intern and make him beg anyone who would listen to get him out of the internship.