Tarl’s main body, his kurtaran, sat in his room. One of his butar awoke, hunger gnawed at this body. Tarl walked it into the shower. While the body that was in the cockpit took in the sights of the cosmos, the other body enjoyed the sensation of the warm water. The third body was inspecting the power core, making sure to stay well clear of the bomb that Eli had left attached to it. The thing was located just out of sight. The metal canister could have been mistaken for a food container, if it didn’t have all the antenna sticking out of it.

  The new body slept soundly. Soon, it would wake up and need food. The kurtaran was starting to get hungry as well. So, he had the butar dry itself off, get dressed, and head to the ship’s galley.

  The body in the cockpit checked the scanner, saw nothing of note. Then he checked the coms, also nothing of note. The navigation computer showed that they were still several days out.

  The patrols were thin. The few convoys that he had seen were heavily escorted. Coms traffic was rare, and often encrypted. The ship reached the ne and switched to hyperspace.

  The hungry body settled down at the table, facing inwards, as there was no reason to get a second view of the stars. It sat there munching, enjoying a meal that was not unlike one he had frequently eaten while growing up.

  The body that had been checking the power core headed into the cargo hold. A loud bang startled it. He quickly figured out that Eli had set up a firing range using sandbags as a backstop. He was plinking at used cans with a long-barreled target pistol. Tarl let him be.

  Gami entered the dining room, dressed in a long, soft-looking robe. She moved stiffly. Her right eye was almost swollen shut. With only a brief, polite greeting, she went about the task of fixing herself some food. After several minutes, she settled down in front of him at the table.

  Tarl kept his eyes on his own pte, not because he disliked looking at her or felt awkward, but because he was revolted by what she was eating. Gami watched the mesmerizing pattern of hyperspace while she ate. The pilot knew the horrors that lurked in those strange storms. Some part of him always feared that the devices that kept the tunnel intact would somehow fail to keep them at bay.

  Gami gnced up at him from her meal, “I’m starting to feel the call of the hunt. We should ask Eli to take on a bounty after this delivery.”

  “Sounds like an opportunity to chase someone, I’m in.”

  She managed a little smile, “Your people evolved from hunters, didn’t they?”

  “Yes, the butar were mainly gatherers and workers. The hakan did most of the hunting, for obvious reasons. But they would also act as scouts for hunting teams of butar.”

  “Hunting something from several directions at once, interesting.”

  “I have to admit, now that you mention it, I do enjoy the occasional hunt.”

  “It’s in your blood, just as it is in my blood to wander.”

  “I feel like it’s in my soul to wander,” Tarl observed.

  “Could be. I’ve learned that things have a way of getting into your heart.

  “I think so too,” he hesitated for a second, “I hope that you don’t take this the wrong way, but is that why you pushed yourself so hard in that match back on the trade station?”

  “Maybe. Maybe I’m just driven. I don’t think I was born like that. It was something that grew in me over time,” she took a bite of her repulsive food and chewed it up, “I have loved the martial arts for a long time. I got my first taste of them when I served in the ISS. They taught us a basic melee system. When my time was up, I went around learning some of the martial arts systems that interested me.”

  “Is that where you learned to love the hunt too?”

  “Yes, I’m certain of it.”

  “Tell me about it. Who did you hunt?”

  “Raiders, terrorists, the agents of hostile governments.”

  “Interesting,” Tarl said, “What was the first mission that you would consider to be a hunt?”

  “The gunship is an apogee css. It dives toward the ground at a nearly straight angle. My whole body struggles to adjust as it fttens out at the st second. The gunship doesn’t touch down, it can’t in a swamp. It hovers in pce as we jump out into the waist deep water. The bodysuit under the armor keeps the water out, but the sensation of its warmth still makes me feel uncomfortable.”

  Tarl listened in silence. He chewed his food softly. She wasn’t in a trance, and yet, it was as if she was reliving the memory.

  Gami continued, “I feel things swim past my legs, things that I can’t see through the murky water. The trees are thick enough that someone could be hiding in them. The sunlight has difficulty getting through. I catch glimpses of flying creatures.”

  Real fear had crept into her voice. Tarl wondered if he should ask her to stop.

  “They’re somewhere in here. They must be desperate to hide out in a pce like this. How can we hope to track them in such a pce? There, a spent battery floating on the surface of the water. It’s a common model used in military gear. We’re heading in the right direction.”

  At this point Tarl had stopped eating. She might not have been in a trance, but he was.

  “A corpse floating in the water. I inspect the body, exactly how I’ve been taught to do. The cause of death is blood loss from deep cerations. We follow the stream and find the camp. They are all dead. The thing that killed them stalks us all the way back to the extraction zone. It picks us off one or two at a time.”

  “How the hell did you survive?” Tarl asked.

  “I covered myself in mud and climbed up a tree. Didn’t have to wait long for it to come. My friend was wounded, insisted that he be used as bait. It took everything we had to kill it. What about you? Do you have any memorable hunts?”

  Tarl gnced to one side, “It was te in the war. I have spent most of the conflict piloting cargo ships. But when we mounted a final offensive into enemy territory. I was sent to an ad hoc fighter school. I passed and went to the front. The enemy was desperate, outnumbered five to one.”

  “That meant that they were especially dangerous,” Gami observed.

  “Exactly. There was one that was taking out our recon units. I was tasked with putting a stop to it.”

  “How did you go about it?”

  “I did the same thing as you, I left out some bait. My butar flying a wing of recon ships. My primary body operated an interceptor, our most advanced model.”

  “And the enemy ace took the bait?”

  “Yep. The ace took his time, stalked the fake recon flight for hours. When he finally attacked, he went in full bore, zero hesitation, no mercy. I lost two of the ships, one was badly mauled. I made my move when he was about to finish his attack run. I fired every missile I had. He survived, counterattacked by ying into his thrusters and getting up close. The two of us gave it everything that we had. I performed every maneuver that I knew. My shields were gone, my hull condition was critical.”

  Gami stared, fascinated, “How did you survive?”

  “I still had one recon ship left. I rammed his fighter with it, completely destroyed it in an instant.”

  “That wasn’t very sporting,” she said, her tone neutral, like she wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

  “No, it wasn’t, but it got the job done.”

  “In war that’s really all that matters.”

  “Unfortunately, that’s the truth.”

  The butar gathered up some food for the primary body and the growing body. Then it headed back to Tarl’s quarters.

  ***

  They were two cycles into their journey. It was what they had decided would be the ship’s version of night. Most of the lights had been dimmed.

  Eli entered the cargo hold, carrying a bundle. He approached a pallet that had a brand-new blue tarp draped over it. Removing the tarp, he confirmed that the pallet was what the shipper had told him it was. Taking the occasional gnce at the doorways, he went about the task of implementing his special precaution.