Hunting for the Holidays (Human Pets of Talin: Origins #5)

Chapter 1

Han

Han jumped out of the way of a flailing tentacle, but she wasn’t quite fast enough. The single claw at the end caught her on the calf, cutting a hole through her pants and wounding her leg.

Hissing in pain, she pulled the jolter out of her bag and thrust it into the fleshy center of the Hamlershin’s tube-shaped body. The criminal screeched in pain and stopped trying to escape the netting holding most of his tentacles securely against his trunk.

“You’re lucky the bounty requires me to turn you into the broker in one piece!” she snapped at the Hamlershin.

“Please, let me go,” the Hamlershin begged. “I promise, you have the wrong individual.”

Han scoffed. “I didn’t know there was more than one Hoomak Tordor III of Molnock.” She leaned over to look at the spreading blood stain on her leg. Damn it! These were her favorite pants!

“I’m Hoomak, but I didn’t steal anything,” he said.

She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “Steal? What did you steal? The bounty is for assault.”

Hoomak jerked and then talked rapidly. “Uh, no, I didn’t mean steal. I, um, I only meant that I’m innocent of all charges.”

Han shook her head. It was always the same with these criminals.

They’d never done anything wrong ever in their entire lives!

Never mind that she’d captured him by pretending to be innocent and in trouble.

Accepting his “help” allowed her to get close to him even as he’d made arrangements to sell her at a slave auction.

She’d drugged him with the same substance he’d tried to slip into her food.

It was hard to be a human in this universe, but Han was far tougher than her small stature would lead others to believe. Between her fast reflexes, quick mind, and dogged determination, she’d never failed to bring a bounty in.

Hoomak was simply another payday closer to her retirement. Someday, hopefully soon, she’d do nothing but raise and train jinjoos. It was a future she couldn’t wait for!

Ignoring the pain in her leg, she shoved the Hamlershin. “Move or get the jolter.” She waved the device in front of his face.

He made a grumbly noise but started walking again. They were almost to the broker when Hoomak tried to make a run for it. She was ready for that move.

One quick whistle and the net, which had been wrapped loosely around Hoomak, tightened and sent him tumbling to the ground. He managed to slap one tentacle free, as if he thought that would help him escape.

The worst part was the wailing!

She crouched down next to him. “Hoomak, stop being so dramatic. You’re not going to get incarcerated or anything. You know how this works. You’re going to have to negotiate with your victim until you both decide on restitution. That’s it.”

“But it's so much wealth!” he cried loud enough to make several Ugarians walking by jump with surprise. “I’d rather be incarcerated!”

She sighed. “Then don’t go around beating up your business competition.”

He kept blubbering, and she gave up on getting him to listen to her, let alone walking to the broker.

Pulling out an information square, she sent a request to the station's inner transportation office. She hated spending the credits on a prisoner transport unit, but she wasn’t going to be able to drag Hoomak to the broker.

Hoomak never stopped making noise. Not even when the three Ugarians showed up or when they helped haul him into a caged cart.

“He’s a noisy one,” Tulma said as they all slowly walked behind the cart. This wasn’t the first time Tulma and her team had helped Han with a bounty, but Hoomak might be the loudest they’d ever dealt with.

“I might have to have my ears checked for damage,” Yama said with a chuckle, showing a lot of sharp teeth.

Ugarians looked a lot like an Old Earth image of a werewolf Han had seen once.

They were tall, muscled, covered in brown fur, with long snouts, and sharply pointed ears.

If she hadn’t grown up alongside them on Inneeko, she might have been intimidated.

Far from being scared of the large species, she had many friends among them, including on this station.

“The first round at Tanur’s Tavern is on me,” she offered. “As an apology for the noise. I’ll see you all at tenth bell.”

Tulma and Yama agreed readily, but Ikma didn’t say a word or even acknowledge the offer.

Despite her lack of response, Han knew she’d show up later.

Ikma rarely spoke and no one knew why. It was a station-wide mystery, and there was a large betting pool on the reason.

Han hadn’t put any money in the pool, but she guessed Ikma was simply shy and self-conscious.

She was small for an Ugarian female and was probably sensitive about it.

Unfortunately, not communicating often had only made Ikma more interesting to everyone instead of letting her blend into the background.

Han heard a whirring and turned to see a flurry of cleaning bots deploying behind her.

“What the heck?” she muttered, then realized they were cleaning up the trail of blood she was dripping as she walked.

It wasn’t really that much, but Ugarians prided themselves on having clean stations and cities, so the bots were programmed to maximum levels of sanitation.

“I’ve heard that human females bleed each month, but that seems excessive,” Tulma commented when Han caught back up with them.

Han snorted. “That’s not menstrual blood. Hoomak got me in the leg. I’ll deal with it after I get him turned over to the broker.”

“I think Gilmo is the broker of record today,” Yama commented. “He should be quick. You should have enough time to see the med tech before meeting us at the tavern.”

That was good news; Gilmo was Han’s favorite Ugarian working in this station's broker office. “I don’t need a med tech. Some skin patch and it’ll be fine.”

Tulma made a grumbly sound that indicated she didn’t approve of Han waiting, but she tended to be overprotective of her friends. It was one of the many things Han liked about her.

They got to the broker office without any further incident, although they got plenty of looks because Hoomak was wailing the entire way.

Gilmo was quick to shove him into one of the cells he had in the back of the shop.

It was soundproof, so the moment the door slid shut, it cut off Hoomak’s crying and complaining. They all breathed a sigh of relief.

“You can bill me for the transport instead of Han,” Gilmo told Tulma. “It’s probably less than the station fine for disturbing the peace I’d receive if Han had to walk him here!”

Han chuckled and the Ugarians made the snorting sound that was their laugh. Tulma’s bill wouldn’t have been that bad, but Han was still thankful for Gilmo’s generosity. Every bit of wealth she saved was a step closer to her dream career.

“We’ll see you later,” Tulma said as she and the others left.

“Later,” Han agreed, then turned to Gilmo.

He was quick to go over the details of the bounty and present his information square to press her hand against to get a biosignature.

“The funds will transfer later today,” he declared.

“Any new assignments?" she asked. There were always new bounties. Gilmo’s office was the busiest of all the stations in the sector. It was the reason Han picked this station as her homebase.

“I have several,” he answered and tapped on his information square before handing it over to Han so she could look at the list.

There were small images of the bounties with their crime and vital statistics. Most weren’t worth much because they were government bounties, but one stood out.

“This guy is worth a lot,” she said, tapping on one of the bounties to fill the screen with his data. “Is he a mass murderer or something? The crime listed is treason.”

Gilmo took the information square back. “I don’t think he killed anyone, although he was in his empire’s military. Honestly, I wouldn’t take this assignment if I were you.”

Han frowned. “Why not? I know he’s big, but I’ve brought in bigger.”

“It’s not his size; it’s his empire,” Gilmo said, his ears flattening out in worry. “They’ve recently started acquiring slaves, but only humans.”

“That makes no sense at all,” Han objected.

Humans were rare in the universe. Most of them had died on Old Earth when it became uninhabitable. The estimate was that there were less than 200,000 humans left alive in the universe, all of them living in small communities scattered among other species.

Han was one of the lucky ones. Her grandmother had decided Earth wasn’t doing well and started a human community on the Ugarian planet Inneeko, deep within the Ilgorian Federation.

Although it was unusual for humans to be treated well, Han’s grandmother was quick to make friends among the Ugarians.

Unlike some other groups of humans, Han’s ancestors thrived to the point that there was a village of 300 humans now!

Their story was unique, and most species saw humans as worthless and untrustworthy. After all, what kind of species destroys their own homeworld?

To specifically seek out humans as slaves was pointless. As a rare species, they were scattered around and hard to find.

“I’ll make sure to tell my community,” Han said.

“The Talin Empire doesn’t trade much or have many dealings with the Ilgorian Federation,” Gilmo said. “Your family is safe on Inneeko, but I’d warn anyone who travels outside the federation to be careful.”

“I will,” she agreed. “I still think I’ll take that bounty though. That’s a lot of wealth for one capture. If he’s on the run, he’ll be avoiding his empire. There, problem solved!”

Gilmo’s ears didn’t move from their flat position. He wasn’t happy with Han’s choice.

“Other Talins will probably be looking for him, and that means they might try to capture you. Han, this is seriously dangerous."

She waved off his concern. “I’ll be careful.”

“I doubt that,” Gilmo grumbled. “I’ll send you the details.”