Hard Luck Hermit

“Little professional advice, kid, if you want to hunt people for living, you got to work on your draw,” Kamak said.

“I don’t need your lectures, degenerate,” the Structuralist hunter said.

“Oh, you’re real deep in it, aren’t you,” Kamak said. Unironically saying the word ‘degenerate’ was a clue on its own, but the glassy-eyed, unfocused rage was the real giveaway. Authoritarian indoctrination was all about sheer disdain for everything and everyone outside the fascist structure. “What’s your name, kid?”

“I am Vansis Korrid Kantam, agent of the Turitha-”

“I don’t really care what your goose-step goon clubhouse is called, I just needed your name,” Kamak said. “Farsus, run it.”

After a quick run through a database shared by the entire bounty hunting guild, Farsus came up empty-handed.

“He has no record in our systems,” Farsus said. Kamak grit his teeth. With no outstanding warrants or bounties, Kamak legally couldn’t even interrogate the guy, much less shoot him. At least not yet.

“Hey buddy, what exactly were you planning on doing in that hangar?”

“Executing rebel dissidents.”

“Cool, thanks for being so gung-ho about it,” Kamak said. “Sounds like intent to kill to me. Farsus, cuff him and let’s haul him down to the nearest cop stop.”

While they couldn’t take him into custody as Bounty Hunters, his stated intent to harm someone else meant they had free reign to make an arrest as “concerned citizens”. Farsus took his restraints out and got to work. As soon as Vansis’ hands were bound, Kamak let his arm drop and slid the pistol back into its holster. Holding someone at gunpoint for that long was hell on the shoulder.

“Come on, buddy, let’s get you in a cell and out of our hair,” Kamak said. He had no faith that the police would hold him for long, but it’d at least interrupt his ability to chase them. And he could ask a few questions in the meantime. Kamak grabbed Vansis by the chains and started walking. Doprel, who was still in the hangar talking to the refugees, got left behind for now. “So, Vansis, who do you-”

“I am Vansis Korrid Kantam, and you will refer to me as such,” the restrained hunter protested.

“Oh, yeah, for Sturit it’s considered super offensive to not use all three parts of the name,” Tooley said.

“We call you Tooley all the time, though,” Corey said.

“What about the past cycle makes you think I give a shit what those people like?” Tooley snapped. “If it weren’t on my pilot’s license, I’d change my fucking name.”

“You’re even more lost than I thought,” Vansis grunted back. “Keeber Obel Tassim is one of our people’s paragons. Bearing a fraction of his name should be an honor for you.”

“Oh shut the fuck up, Keebs was a psychopath and so are you,” Tooley said. “Kamak, ask some questions so he won’t talk to me.”

“Gladly. Who are you working for?”

“I serve the Ardeth and no one else.”

“You have a fucking Ardeth?” Tooley said. Kamak rolled his eyes. For someone who wanted Vansis to shut up, Tooley was sure doing a lot of provoking. “The Sturit haven’t had an Ardeth since before they invented electricity.”

“And that lack of respect for our traditions is what leads us to failures like you,” Vansis spat back.

“Cool, great, we both think Tooley’s a disaster, there’s some common ground,” Kamak said. “So, to commemorate our new friendship, answer the fucking question. Is the Ardeth the only one who wanted you to chase us? Did someone else give you information that lead you to us?”

“We were provided information on the whereabouts of your degenerate pilot by an ally of the Ardethry.”

“Does that ally have a name?”

“I don’t question my orders,” Vansis said.

“Cool, he’s useless, can we kill him, Kamak?” Tooley said.

“No,” Kamak said. “We’re on camera.”

“Fuck.”

“You know anything else you want to brag about, Vansis? There’s a lot of other guys hunting us, you met up with any of them?”

“I don’t collaborate with lesser races,” Vansis said. “You’re worse than violets, all of you.”

“Oh, you’ve never even met a violet, you dramatic bitch,” Tooley said.

“What is a violet, exactly?” Corey said. “I’ve kind of picked up that it’s offensive, but why?”

Tooley sighed and rolled her eyes. She really hated having to talk about the Sturit this much.

“You notice how most species have a lot of different skin colors but Sturit don’t?”

“I’ve only seen five so far, but apparently, yes, you’re all that same kind of blue.”

“Well they used to have the same variety as anyone else. Violet, greenish, I think I saw some teal-looking ones in a history book once.”

“I don’t like where this is going,” Corey said.

“Good instinct! Because it’s going to genocide.”

“Jesus fucking christ,” Corey gasped. “Genocide?”

“Yup,” Tooley said. The Sturit had always been a xenophobic people, even among themselves, and that absence of interbreeding had made it easy for the dominant blue group to entirely wipe out all the others. There wasn’t a single drop of non-blue DNA left in the entire Sturit species. “You starting to see why I left yet? This isn’t even some shameful incident buried in their history. The day the last violet got killed is a planetwide holiday. They have guys in purple face paint go to schools, the kids get to hit ‘em with plastic bats.”

“What the fuck?”

“I make an effort not to judge cultural differences,” Farsus said. “But I even I find that Sturit practices are reprehensible.”

While most known species had struggled, or were still struggling, with internal racial conflict, the Sturit were one of only three known species to have successfully completed a total ethnic cleansing. Of the three, they were unique in the fact that most Sturit regarded this fact as a point of pride rather than abject shame. Even moderates like Keevah still used terms like “violet” as a derisive insult.

“We have pride and purity,” Vansis hissed, repeating a mantra Tooley had heard too many times.

“Hate to break it to you, kid, but any race that produced Tooley can’t be all that superior,” Kamak said.

“She’s an aberration that will be excised,” Vansis said. “High Ones willing, the rest of you genetic mistakes will soon follow.”

“God I wish I could shoot you,” Kamak said. “Farsus, are we almost to the cops?”

“Almost.”

“Good. Check the roster and see if you can find an officer with a lot of excessive force citations, I want to hand him off to someone who’ll really kick his ass.”

Unfortunately for Kamak, there were no publicly available records on such things. He strolled into the police station and put his faith in the universal fact that most cops were abusers to some extent. After strolling past a dozen or so cops lazing idly, Kamak found someone who was actually paying attention and plopped Vansis down in front of his desk.

“This little blue bastard threatened to kill a nice couple just waiting around in their hangar,” Kamak said. “Thought we’d do you a favor and bring him in.”

The cop sighed and began to scroll through his tablet, likely looking for footage of the inciting incident. Knowing the cops usually took a while to do their job, Kamak briefly returned his attention to Vansis.

“If you live through this, do yourself a favor and take an early retirement,” Kamak said. “You’re clearly not cut out for manhunts.”

Vansis just nodded quietly. Kamak had been expecting some of his usual seething bitterness, some snide comment about Sturit superiority. He got stony silence instead.

That was when Kamak knew something was wrong. He didn’t move, but his eyes started to dart around the room, and saw all the lazing cops start to sit at attention -and keep their hands below their desks, out of sight.

“Farsus.”

“I see.”

“And you cops wonder why people like us better,” Kamak said. The first punch was already coming, but it hit a little harder because of that joke.