As I skimmed, I saw something else on the page, which made my heart drop.
‘It says here this is a “no win, no fee” kinda case? How do you expect to turn a profit with that clause in our contracts?’
Saotchun laughed. ‘Well, Ms Raynor, I expect us to turn a profit by having employees skilled enough to solve these cases. And that’s precisely why some of your colleagues had to go.’
He shot Hutch a damning look, and my old boss suddenly became very interested in his shoes.
‘Look, it’s not just me, or my colleagues - nobody solves these kinds of cases. Nobody! Usually, by the time we even receive these cases, the target is long gone, off-planet, maybe even dead. You’re really gonna give me this as the only chance to save my job?’
‘I am, yes.’ He leant in close. ‘Look, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in your position before. I didn’t inherit my managerial title; I worked for it, and, at the very start of my career, I, too, was the latest recruit in some crappy agency which barely turned a profit.’
Hutch opened his mouth as if to argue this point, but then thought better of it.
‘But you know what I did?’ he asked me.
‘What?’
‘I worked. Hard.’ Saotchun sat back in his seat, no longer pretending to be sharing some big, dark, secret with me. ‘And I solved cases like this. And then I got promotions, and I learned to manage people, to delegate. And, after a great many years of hard work, I now own a chain of detective agencies throughout the sector. I am living my dream. So, if I were you, I would work hard, solve this case, and think about where you want to be in five cycles.’
Saotchun stood up from his desk and opened the door for me to leave.
‘Solve this, or you’re out, understand?’
I nodded.
‘Good. I’ll be keeping three of my eyes on you.’
Z’H’AR
THE LONELY WORLD
Boron Sector
27f-11-2337
4
A Cold, Quiet, and Lonely Type of Folk
The capital of Z’h’ar and surrounding area - circa 2337
The planet Z’h’ar turned out to be halfway across the galaxy from Station 34-Alpha. Of course it was; this was the sort of luck I was having nowadays. While I had heard of Z’h’ar, I didn’t know much about it - because it didn’t exactly impact much on my day-to-day life. Being the responsible employee that I was, I spent the journey reading up on my destination.
Z’h’ar was populated by two intelligent species, but to group both into that same category was kinda disingenuous.
One species, the Iyr, were an advanced people, key members of the GMU, and known particularly for their head-to-toe mechsuits. These suits were installed with a number of programmes giving the user incredible new abilities. They might provide extra strength, night vision, in-built virtual assistants - you name it, they had it. Of course, not every Iyr would have every function included in their suit - such abilities were expensive - and typically only owned programmes relevant to their employment. Most notably of all - or so the guidepage would have had you believe - nobody outside of their race had ever seen the face of an Iyr.
The other supposedly intelligent species, the Arellians, were little more than barbarians - the equivalent of Terrans over two thousand years ago. They were a rural civilization - as such, they tended to keep to themselves, farm the land, and were barely even aware of the existence of people from other planets. As a result, little was known about their species.
I stared at the planet as we approached, wondering to myself how on Terra I was going to solve this likely unsolvable case, on this planet I had never before visited. It was, if nothing else, a long shot.
I suppose I could go work in a bar somewhere. I’ve always fancied doing something like that. Maybe I’d be happier there, anyway. No travelling involved, of course, but at least I could count on regular tips.
We touched down and I was greeted by a rather cold customs official. There were none of the smiles of home, only a long stare up and down, and a look that seemed to say “what on Z’h’ar are you doing here?” …but it was hard to tell exactly what expression they were pulling from under that helmet.
‘I see you left this part of the form blank,’ the border guard said, pointing at the visa application. ‘Referring to where you will be staying on your visit?’
‘Ah, yes,’ I replied. ‘It was kinda a last-minute thing, so I don’t have anywhere yet, but I’ll be staying at a hotel in town, I guess.’
‘I can’t let you through until you have somewhere to stay.’
‘But I-’
‘I can’t let you through until you have somewhere to stay,’ the guard repeated, their tone exactly the same as the first time around.
I shook my head in exasperation, tapped in ‘Z’h’ar hotels’ on my console and booked the first one that came up. It took a whole five seconds to do. Maybe I could have found a better price if I had browsed for a little while, but I was too petty to pass up on an opportunity to be passive-aggressive.
‘There,’ I replied, showing the guard the confirmation page, ‘Ut’r’a hostel, Central Stronghold.’
The guard nodded, waved me through, and shouted, ‘Next!’ to the queue behind me.
I passed through security and summoned a shuttle from my console. Before I could jump in it, a larger Iyr pushed in front of me, chucking their luggage into the back.
‘Hey, that one’s mine!’ I called out to the Iyr.
The only response I was given was a mildly-irritated grunt. They closed the door and I was forced to summon another. That was a whole thirty seconds of my time wasted already. Not that half a minute was going to make the difference between me finding this girl and not.
After checking in to the hotel (and,
