Gold's Assassins

[ 1 ]

The singer sounded nasally and unsure of herself, stumbling through the song meant for a soprano and not her alto voice. She made a lot of bad mistakes and I could even hear the shuffling sound of her music pages turning. She had the potential to be a star among the stars, but even I, a fifteen-year-old bounty hunter from the Earthen system, could tell that this isn't exactly the pinnacle of modern entertainment. It was all the hotel had, however, a battered red radio with one channel clouded with static. No webscreens, no pay-per-minute holocom booths, no tablet reception. Not even the most accomplished hacker in the galaxy could get very far in this godforsaken star system.

I've been a lot of places as captain of my own ship, proudly named The Seventh Sister, so I knew that this place was about as boring as it got. Being there meant money, though, and I'm willing to go where the money is when it comes to traveling. My crew and I take whatever jobs we can get, which is a surprising amount considering our overall age - none of us are older than fifteen. I'm the youngest bounty hunter captain ever to be registered with the Hunters' Guild. I'm also one of the most successful captains in the galaxy.

In spite of that, we're often on the run, since working for one person or another usually makes someone mad. We tend to make a lot of people mad, which was why we were in the Proxima Centauri system, lying low until things calmed down a little.

Someone knocked on the thin door. I shut off the radio and heaved myself from my reclined position, wincing as my muscles pop and crack. I walked across the cheap carpet and opened the door.

"Yeah?" I asked my brother Xander.

"There's a chap asking for you down in the lobby," he said, jerking his head toward the hall. "Was lookin' pretty nervous."

I raised my eyebrows. "Do we know him?"

"Oh, absolutely, we know him quite well," he said as he fiddled with the toothpick in his mouth.

"Jackson?"

"The one and only," Xander said. "Think he wants back in?"

"Knowing that kid, yeah. That Europa deal fell through about a month ago. All over the news," I replied. "I better go talk to him. You know how impatient he gets."

The shabby cafe downstairs was just as bad as the rest of the hotel, as I discovered upon walking in. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of grease and pipe smoke. It made me glad that I'd eaten my own food for breakfast.

"Oi! Verano!" a voice cut through the quiet chatter. Over in the corner, Isaias Jackson waved me over.

"So what brings you here, Jackson?" I asked, sliding into the booth across from my former first mate. "You can't possibly want to join the crew again, now that you're a multimillionaire from the Europa mining operation. Oh, wait, that's right. They cheated you."

Isaias turned red and switches his gaze to the table. "I do want to join again, Azalea, if you'll take me," he mumbled.

I knew I'd hit a nerve. Isaias had resigned from the crew a couple months ago when a fast-talking intergalactic con man convinced him that there were diamonds beneath the ice of Europa that could make him millions. Then the sharps had taken off, leaving Isaias Jackson the Idiot stranded on the frozen moon with nothing but a defunct tablet. Thanks to his supreme hacking skills, he managed to send out an emergency beacon and, frostbitten and starving, he'd been picked up by a Galactic Sentinel ship.

"Please, Aza?" he begged. I'd almost forgotten he was there. I looked up from my hands and read his expression intently.

"I honestly don't know, Isaias. Maybe I'd let you back on deck, but it's gonna take a while if you want to be first mate again."

His face fell. "You don't trust me?"

"Of course I trust you, you hoser. But if you're going to leave the crew for every so-called 'moneymaking deal', I can't have you in such an important position."

"Aza, I've learned my lesson. The Europa thing, that was public humiliation. You saw it. All over the news. No way would I ever do that again. But seriously, you have to let me on. I have nowhere else to go!"

"Well," I mused. "What do you think, mates? Shall we let him back on?" I asked the rest of the crew, who were eavesdropping in the booth behind us.

A chorus of assent came from the booth. Isaias Jackson and I shook hands and the deal was sealed: we were once again a crew of five.