Bounty

Bounty
by Chris Nance

I’d tracked that machine across five star systems, the damn robot I was contracted to apprehend. I never thought it would lead me back to the one place I’d rather avoid…my home, Earth. The android was in the market now and I couldn’t risk a confrontation with all these people. Sometimes being a bounty hunter can be messy and I’m one of those trackers that’s burdened by a conscience. So, I decided to just wait in my hover-car, ready for the thing to move.

For a machine, it was clever, too clever and it’d spotted me before. Fortunately, it was a dark night, the rain scattering the bright neon signs pitching every sort of food and useless trinket. Finally, there it was, emerging from the thickness of the throng and into the less dense street. I powered up my engine and pulled away from the docking port, still floating high and behind it. Hopefully I’d get an open opportunity before I was spotted or it moved into another crowd.

I probably could have tracked the thing on foot but it was cold and I was pissed…and I wasn’t about to take chances. At last, an opportunity presented itself and I cut the engines. In an instant, my hover-car dropped from the sky like a brick, landing squarely on my quarry with a satisfying crunch. They only needed the memory core, after all, and any leftover spare parts were that much more of a bonus for me.

I was able to get the car’s levitators working well enough to move my vehicle but the impulse controls were shot. It was just as well, with the bounty on that thing I could afford my own fleet. So, I dragged its sparking carapace back to my ship, satisfied in a job well done.


300 words