Ealnem leads Zenith to the sole restaurant on the ‘planet’. Practically everyone who lives here eats here as well, given there is no alternative. 

The restaurant is small and cozy, there are only a few other people there. The bounty hunter takes up Ealnem’s suggestion, creating a shopping list while they wait for their food. 

“The food here is good,” Ealnem says. “Granted, it’s the only food around here.”

“Well, I’m not fussy. I’ll eat anything, except mushrooms. I don’t care for ‘em.”

“I know, you told the waiter, Zerlpet, that you don’t want mushrooms with your food.”

“Oh, that’s right. I hope the food comes soon.” The bounty hunter starts fiddling with the salt shaker as she looks around the restaurant.

“You ‘fraid someone’s gonna attack you?”

Zenith snaps her attention back to Ealnem. 

“Hm? No, jus’ appreciatin’ the decor,” she says with a little chuckle. She then focuses on the salt shaker instead. 

“I havta say, you’re not like I thought you’d be,” Ealnem comments. She finds a bit of relief in the obvious nervousness of the human. At first, she thought Zenith was nervous talking to her because of her occupation. But it seems she’s just always like this. 

“You think about me a lot?” Zenith asks with a nervous chuckle.

“No, I just figured that bein’ a famous bounty hunter, you’d be a bit more…” Ealnem tries to think of a word that won’t inadvertently insult the bounty hunter. There is a noticeable pause before she says, “forceful. Rougher, to get other beings to do what you want.”

Zenith shrugs,

“I’m just a person, we all are, y’know? We all have good or bad days, so I try not to make anyone’s day worse if I can help it. Lotta folks don’t seem to share that sentiment but, what can you do?” The bounty hunter takes the salt shaker and spins it in place on the table. 

“That’s a rare way of thinking in this parts,” Ealnem comments. The waiter brings them their food. For Ealnem, a bunch of Sanal shells. They are similar to oysters from earth. For Zenith, a steak from a creature that’s not at all like a cow. It comes with something resembling mashed potatoes, a rich sauce…and sliced mushrooms. 

“Thought you asked for no mushrooms?” Ealnem comments. Zenith waves her extra digit hands,

“No, no, it’s fine. Maybe I’ll like these! You should always try new things!” She takes a bite of the fungi. 

Ealnem doesn’t claim to be an expert on human facial expressions, but she recognizes disgust when she sees it. 

“Zenith, you clearly don’t like it. Ask them to take it back.”

“No, it’s fine. I don’t wanna trouble them.”

“Fine, I’ll do it.” Ealnem raises one of her arms to get the attention of the waiter. “Hi, she-” when Ealnem gestures to Zenith, she sees the human hiding her face behind her hat. “She asked for no mushrooms with her food.” 

“My mistake, I’ll take it back immediately,” Zerlpet says.

Zenith, from behind her hat, says,

“Thank you.” 

Zerlpet takes the food back, and after a moment Zenith puts her hat back on her head. 

“I said I didn’t want to trouble ‘em,” she says in a low voice. Her face is warm with embarrassment. 

“And you said that you didn’t want mushrooms. You ain’t askin’ for a whole galaxy, just better service. It’s not trouble to get what you paid for.”

“We haven’t paid for it yet.”

“You know what I mean. If you brought the wrong person to a bounty office, would you expect to get paid?”

“I suppose not, but this ain’t bounty hunting.”

“No, it’s the food industry. It’s a service, so it should be done right.”

Zenith sighs, she takes her hat off once again. Ealnem examines the headwear, it’s not just weathered but old. A few holes in its wide brim, lovingly stitched. The color has faded to muted gray, no trace of the original color remains. It’s been battered and beaten, the fact that it maintains its shape is nothing of a miracle. The bounty hunter traces her fingers over the frayed brim. 

“Can I confess somethin’ to ya?”

“Sure.”

“The moon where I’m from, there’s a lot of mushrooms that grow naturally. They do nothin’ to humans, supposed to be a great source of fiber and all that, but…I never liked ‘em. Pretty much everybody had ‘em with every meal or just had the mushrooms themselves. But I still never liked the things. I used to get into arguments with my dad about eating ‘em all the time. So I was kinda hoping I’d like these but…guess not.”

Ealnem mulls over what Zenith shared for a moment. 

“Look, you’re a grown woman. If you don’t like something, you don’t have to like it, you don’t have to try it again, okay? It’s your life, so you gotta live it the way you want to. Mushrooms be damned.”

“Thank ya, ma- Ealnem,” Zenith says. The food is returned, mushroom free. 

The duo finishes their meal in peace and then head to the bounty hunter’s ship. 

“This is your ship?” Ealnem asks, a little ruder than she meant it to sound. 

“Yes ma’am, Orion’s Dancer. Bought ‘im after my third bounty. Been riding between stars ever since,” Zenith replies. If she detected any rudeness, she makes nothing of it. 

The supplies she bought from the general store wait by the loading ramp in a large crate. The credits she spent for them will tide this ‘planet’ over for a long time. 

The ship is shaped like an arrowhead, a design for crafts that spend more time in a planet’s atmosphere rather than the vacuum of space where aerodynamics don’t matter. 

“Lower the ramp,” Zenith says. The ship complies, the ramp creakily permits them to come aboard. “I have got to fix this ramp,” the bounty hunter says to herself. 

Ealnem is about to offer to help with her crate but the human picks it up with relative ease. Though granted, there isn’t much gravity here. 

Before she walks up the ramp, Ealnem hesitates. It’s been so long since she set foot on a ship. The last one she was one dropped her off here. 

She can’t help but wonder if she’s ready to leave just like this. One last look at this sleepy place should do. 

“You okay?” Zenith asks. 

“Yeah, just…fine.” With that, she walks up the ramp, into a different life. 

As they board the ship, Ealnem notices a holster hanging on a hook stuck to the wall. The leather garment holds the twin revolver pistols of the bounty hunter, just as famous as her. They aren’t particularly remarkable weapons, quite standard in fact. The only thing that sets them apart are the custom grips. They’re longer to accommodate her extra fingers. 

Higher quality, better performing weapons exist; but the skill with which she uses them is a distinct reminder that the weapon doesn’t matter, just the person using it. 

The holster also houses various types of ammunition for the guns. Plasma rounds, incendiary, depleted uranium, hollow point diamond-tipped shells. Some of which would guarantee death but for only the sturdiest of beings. She hardly ever touches them, but better safe than sorry. 

“So these are the guns of Zenith, huh?” Ealnem comments. 

“Mhmm,” Zenith says. She puts down the crate and walks over. “That’s Vapor and Bone.” She points to them alternatingly. Despite their lethal sounding epithets, they’ve never taken a single life. They’re also identical so the different names serve little purpose. 

“Grim,” Ealnem notes. 

“They’re just the first names that came to me,” Zenith replies. “Orion!” 

The lights on the ship turn on and a digital voice answers,

“Yes, Zenith?”

“Ealnem, this is Orion, the ship’s A.I. Orion, this is Ealnem, a guest. Let her have full access to the ship.”

“Understood, Zenith. Registering new guest.”

“Your ship is…quaint,” Ealnem says. 

“It’s old. But it’s what I got.”

“I just figured you’d fly something a bit sleeker.”

Zenith shrugs. She supposes if it works for her then it works for her. Not like Ealnem has a better ship. 

“Orion: recycle the oxygen, purge any debris in the intakes, and plot me a course to the planet Ratst. We have a livin’ to make.”

“Understood.”

Zenith starts unpacking the crate. 

“Follow me, I’ll give ya the grand tour.”

The bounty hunter shows Ealnem the kitchen, the pilot's nook, storage room, the engine room, and the brig. It’s not much of a grand tour. 

Finally, they get to the sleeping quarters. The ship was designed with a minimum crew in mind, and Zenith has been traveling alone all this time; so there is only one bed. 

“This is where you’ll be sleeping,” Zenith says. 

“And where will you sleep?”

“In the brig.”

“What? No, you won’t!”

“The bed there is just as good as this one, better even since it’s not used as much.”

“Don’t be absurd, this is your ship! What if an emergency happens and you need to get to the controls?”

“I can exit the brig, Orion will let me out, it’s fine.”

“I’m a guest, I wouldn’t be comfortable with the idea of you sleeping in the brig. I’ll stay there.”

“You can’t! The bed in there is horrible, folks keep stowing dangerous weapons in it; trying to surprise attack me!”

“You just said the bed was better.”

“I was fibbing so you wouldn’t feel bad,” Zenith says, rubbing the back of her neck. “Sorry.” 

“You’re not sleeping on a horrible bed for my well-being. So compromise: we share it.”

Zenith audibly gulps.

“S-share it?” She meekly asks. “That wouldn’t be awkward for you?”

“Do you know how many people I’ve shared a bed with? Is it awkward for you?”

Blush returns to the cheeks of the bounty hunter. 

“I’ve never shared a bed with anyone before,” she responds. Her hands look for something and settle on the hem of her shirt. “I wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable, so I guess we can share it.” 

“You don’t have to say it like it’s a death sentence.”

“I’m not! Or I’m trying not to, I’m just nervous is all.”

“Don’t worry,” Ealnem says “I won’t do anything untowards.”

“I’m not nervous about that!”

“I’m just joking, hon.”

“Oh.”

“Zenith,” the voice of the ship says. “I’ve purged the intakes, recycled the oxygen, and plotted a course for our next destination.”

“Then take us up, Orion! We have a livin’ to make!” She repeats her phrase from before. 

The ramp closes and with several groans, the ship takes off. 

Ealnem watches from the rear window as they leave. In no time at all the ‘planet’ becomes an indistinguishable dot in the vastness of space. 

Zenith pilots the ship out of the massive asteroid belt they find themselves in. Ealnem unpacks her stuff in the meantime. 

Once they’re clear of the belt, Zenith activates the UltraDrive, a device that allows ships to go several thousand times faster than the speed of light. Useful for crossing empty regions of space, extremely dangerous anywhere else. 

The lights start to dim on the ship. 

“The UV lights on the ship operate on a clock to match my home moon, so I hope it doesn’t mess up your circadian rhythm,” Zenith explains. 

Ealnem shrugs,

“Era is tiny, folks there slept whenever they felt like it. I’ll get used to it.”

“Good,” Zenith says while rubbing her eye. Ealnem thinks it’s cute. “We’re a ways out from Ratst. Imma get some shuteye.” The bounty hunter yawns. 

“Sounds good,” Ealnem says. Zenith visibly jumps when she realizes that Ealnem is following her to her quarters. “Forgot already?”

“N-no. Just need to mentally prepare is all.”

“Hon, we’re just sleeping next to each other. It’s just lying down and closing our eyes.”

Zenith nods her head quickly in agreement. 

Ealnem changes into a nightgown, though she’d prefer to be naked, she’d rather not give Zenith a heart attack. 

The bounty hunter only took off her coat and boots. If she’s too nervous to undress further or she just prefers to sleep this way, Ealnem can’t say. 

They lie side by side on the gel bed. An awkward silence thick enough to cut hangs over them. Zenith tries to lie as straight as possible, staring at the ceiling. 

“I wanna thank ya again, Ealnem. I’ve been doing this by myself for a long time,” Zenith speaks up. “And even though I’m very nervous right now,” she admits. “It’s nice having someone here, ‘sides ol’ Orion. So thanks for coming with me.” 

“You really haven’t had anyone else with you all this time?”

Zenith slowly shakes her head. 

“Just me and the bounties I bring in.”

A myriad of questions come to Ealnem’s mind, but she sees Zenith take a deep breath and close her eyes. 

Best to let her have peace when she can. 

Not soon after, the Nogailma drifts off to sleep. 

However much time passes, and a bump rattles the ship. Likely a gravitational flux from a larger ship passing by. The bump wakes Ealnem up, to discover she’s alone in the bed. 

She gets up to look for the bounty hunter, only to find her in the pilot’s seat. Her leather duster covers her like a blanket. Her old hat is tilted to cover her sleeping face. 

She had her holo-viewer open to study Ardenlev biology, she even highlighted non-vital parts that’ll incapacitate Lex.

The thought of carrying her to bed briefly comes to mind but Ealnem decides to let Zenith stay there. 

Instead, she pulls her coat up to better cover her shoulders. She then puts one of her hands on her cheek and says,

“Silly sweet girl.”

Ch.1 End