Void and Voices

Chapter 8: Canes Venatici

Cosmos, a nomadic spaceship that sheltered a crew of bounty hunters. There were five members in total. Barry Hutchinson, he's an Earthian mechanic, and he was always the handyman of the crew. He's able to do any repairs or maintenance for Cosmos spaceship. If there's any damage or improvement that they need for Cosmos, it's really rare for the crew to ask outsiders for any fixing. He was there along with his nephew, Glen Hutchinson, he helped him a lot and learned so much from Barry. Both of them used to run a business, using their Redshift as a flying and portable workshop, going planet to planet to offer their services, especially planets that were being used as pitstops for spaceships. 

The girl in the crew, Widja Maheru, was a nutritionist. She was a Barrancan girl who had the skills of manipulating substances to be edible, which was why she always provide food for the crew. Not something that was delicious, but it could give them the calories and nutritions that they need. The skills that she had was actually unique, other people could work hard to be like her, but at least they might give the recipients food poisoning at least once. Widja never gave her recipients any food poisoning. They became either healthy and fulfilled or experienced a swift painless death. She always made sure they're not suffering other than the taste.

Nagal was the action guy out all of the five. His background was mysterious, and he's the most quiet compared to all of them. His look was intimidating and he seems pretty cunning and logical when making decisions. If there's a bounty that needs killing, Nagal would be the one who did the final deed. Despite this, the other four were able to resonate with him, because he had some initiative and determination that others didn't really have. It's like he's willing to swim across the galaxy just to get what he need.

The four of them were waiting for the fifth member to come out from his door, the person that they usually call "Boss". A huge steel door was sliding, one side to the left and another to the right. Vapor-like gas came out from that door, but it gave a flowery and fruity scent. Then a small old man came out with a vaporizer in his right hand. A vaporizer was like a type of electric cigarette, however it emits sweet essence that could make other people who inhale it became calmer. 

"Boss?", Barry greeted as the old man came out.

"Yeah? Listen, I always told you guys to stop calling me that, I'm not your leader or anything you know?", the small man came out with his small feet, long mustache, and mohawk hair. He still wear his goggles because of the intense artificial light that came from watching various screens. The name of the old man was Hurg Bossanof. He was an Akari from planet Akraa, most of them were shaped like weasels or gnomes. They're tiny creatures, with two big incisors teeth on top of their mouth. Despite looking puny, they were actually one of the most intelligent creatures that were found in the galaxy. Most of them were usually doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other role that needs both critical and logical thinking. Hurg was stuck with the name "Boss" because of Barry. 

Barry derived the term "Boss" from Hurg's last name, Bossanof. He did enjoy calling him "Boss" because it's kinda absurd to call someone as small as Hurg "Boss". On the other hand though, the other four members actually respected him. The source of income that the crew get was mainly from Hurg. He managed a business which what he called "Bounty Channelling". The other crew didn't really understand how the business works, but they just knew that this was the business that actually provide them until now, and no one questioned about the legality of this Hurg's business.

Hurg continued speaking to Nagal, "So where are we now? I heard you got good leads for money?" 

"Yeah, there's a person that's worth to catch, and it's better if he's alive, because I know some people who are willing to pay a lot." Nagal answered.

"Who? And how much?" Hurg quickly replied.

Nagal didn't answer, he picked up his tablet and opened Franco's bounty archives. The people who bid for bounty were few, but they were playing in extremely high numbers. He showed the information of Franco Sartore and the amount of money that they're willing to pay.