Cosmos, a nomadic spaceship that sheltered a crew of bounty hunters. There were five members in total. Barry Hutchinson, he's an Earthian mechanic, and he was always the handyman of the crew. He's able to do any repairs or maintenance for Cosmos spaceship. If there's any damage or improvement that they need for Cosmos, it's really rare for the crew to ask outsiders for any fixing. He was there along with his nephew, Glen Hutchinson, he helped him a lot and learned so much from Barry. Both of them used to run a business, using their Redshift as a flying and portable workshop, going planet to planet to offer their services, especially planets that were being used as pitstops for spaceships.
The girl in the crew, Widja Maheru, was a nutritionist. She was a Barrancan girl who had the skills of manipulating substances to be edible, which was why she always provide food for the crew. Not something that was delicious, but it could give them the calories and nutritions that they need. The skills that she had was actually unique, other people could work hard to be like her, but at least they might give the recipients food poisoning at least once. Widja never gave her recipients any food poisoning. They became either healthy and fulfilled or experienced a swift painless death. She always made sure they're not suffering other than the taste.
Nagal was the action guy out all of the five. His background was mysterious, and he's the most quiet compared to all of them. His look was intimidating and he seems pretty cunning and logical when making decisions. If there's a bounty that needs killing, Nagal would be the one who did the final deed. Despite this, the other four were able to resonate with him, because he had some initiative and determination that others didn't really have. It's like he's willing to swim across the galaxy just to get what he need.
The four of them were waiting for the fifth member to come out from his door, the person that they usually call "Boss". A huge steel door was sliding, one side to the left and another to the right. Vapor-like gas came out from that door, but it gave a flowery and fruity scent. Then a small old man came out with a vaporizer in his right hand. A vaporizer was like a type of electric cigarette, however it emits sweet essence that could make other people who inhale it became calmer.
"Boss?", Barry greeted as the old man came out.
"Yeah? Listen, I always told you guys to stop calling me that, I'm not your leader or anything you know?", the small man came out with his small feet, long mustache, and mohawk hair. He still wear his goggles because of the intense artificial light that came from watching various screens. The name of the old man was Hurg Bossanof. He was an Akari from planet Akraa, most of them were shaped like weasels or gnomes. They're tiny creatures, with two big incisors teeth on top of their mouth. Despite looking puny, they were actually one of the most intelligent creatures that were found in the galaxy. Most of them were usually doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other role that needs both critical and logical thinking. Hurg was stuck with the name "Boss" because of Barry.
Barry derived the term "Boss" from Hurg's last name, Bossanof. He did enjoy calling him "Boss" because it's kinda absurd to call someone as small as Hurg "Boss". On the other hand though, the other four members actually respected him. The source of income that the crew get was mainly from Hurg. He managed a business which what he called "Bounty Channelling". The other crew didn't really understand how the business works, but they just knew that this was the business that actually provide them until now, and no one questioned about the legality of this Hurg's business.
Hurg continued speaking to Nagal, "So where are we now? I heard you got good leads for money?"
"Yeah, there's a person that's worth to catch, and it's better if he's alive, because I know some people who are willing to pay a lot." Nagal answered.
"Who? And how much?" Hurg quickly replied.
Nagal didn't answer, he picked up his tablet and opened Franco's bounty archives. The people who bid for bounty were few, but they were playing in extremely high numbers. He showed the information of Franco Sartore and the amount of money that they're willing to pay.
"Wow, that's a hella lot of zeroes. Ex-military guy, huh? From New Earth as well. I mean I understood because no one really likes an Earthian. No offense Barry.", Barry just shook off Hurg's insult because he agreed with him. Hurg then continued," But why this much though? Did he do something wrong? He definitely just follow orders. I mean, I don't have anything against Earthian, but with this lump sum of money I'd say let's do it."
Nagal also didn't know much detail about Franco, but he then explained the details of their current work to Hurg, "Barry already put a tracker, and it seems their ship headed to Dranea. We could go catch him in the planet. I'll make sure to put my gun on paralyzing mode."
"And do what? Using your electric gun to paralyze him right in front of his family?" Hurg tried to ask more details because this operation needed to be clean and stealthy.
"Okay, I'll change my gun from paralyzing mode to inflicting mode, I'll kill the wife and the kids first, then I'll paralyze Franco and take him here." Nagal answered without any change of expression.
"SWEET MOTHER OF CYGNUS! Are you insane? You're gonna kill the whole family in public? In a city where there's a chance that people might see us. Let's just wait in the space near Dranea, and once they're taking off from the planet, we hijack their ship, kill the family and then catch Franco.", Hurg tried to came up with a less risky plan, but he did not water down the cunningness at all.
Nagal didn't have any problem with that, in fact his expression showed that he agreed with Hurg. Barry on the other hand was anxious with this plan, especially because he saw both of the children before in Xenotyl. He might have a fair share of hatred towards Earthians, especially Earthians from New Earth. But he knew that the children didn't deserve that. One problem that Barry realized and experienced was that many alien creatures had less emotions compared to Earthians like him, and that's when he stepped in.
"Guys, listen, what the hell is wrong with you guys, are we really turning this low? They're kids." Barry kept calm while saying this, but a hint of disgust could be seen from his face. He then faced Widja and ask," Widja, do you still have that drug, the one that usually helped us sleep?"
Widja went to the apothecary cabinets near the her station. She picked up a small brown transparent glass bottle where there's a few condensed liquid inside. It looked like a cough syrup from outside. "We only have a small dose, probably only works for let's say, two adults."
"How long does it take to produce more of that drug?" Hurg asked while began to understand Barry's plan.
"I need a lot of time, because the distillation process can take a couple of days." Widja explained that it's nearly impossible to produce another batch in a short time.
"Okay, we can only use that maybe for Franco and his wife only, and we can paralyze the kids in the process so there won't be any problem." Hurg promoted an option.
"Yeah, I don't think it's okay, Isn't it better to drug the kids instead, so they don't have to know what's going on with their dad and mom?" Barry was still weighing the damage that could be done to the kids.
"Actually, the kids need less dose than the adults, we can actually use this to drug the mom and the children." Widja added a really crucial thought.
"Okay perfect, you could do that to them then, while I try to contain Franco." Nagal said that confidently.
"Are you sure though, he was an ex-military, and he actually could handle you better than you've thought." Hurg was concerned about Nagal underestimating Franco.
"Look, I got what you mean, but that's also something that I was curious. He had a high amount of bounty on his head, why do people not chasing him? Is it because he's too strong? We won't know before we try. At least that's why I want to try him. If it's the succession that you concerned, I still have my paralyzing gun as a back up." Nagal tried to explain his reasoning to Hurg.
Hurg was still concerned of course, because Franco might also have a gun, and the fight could be more violent than he expected. However, he was also curious about this and he was confident enough that Nagal could win. He knew that Nagal was growing up in a harsh condition, which molded him to be the person like he is right now. It's just that no one will know the outcome of from this. Hurg then continued to find any other gap.
"How could we make sure that they're sleeping at the timing that we want though?" Hurg was skeptical about this, good thing he asked the right question before they moved on.
Everyone was in silence, they were either thinking hard or not able to answer.
Then Widja started asking Barry, "By the way, let's say if I can split the drugs to around five microscopic capsules per person. Could you also make something that is microscopic as well, which could trigger the breakage of the capsules inside their body based on our demand."
"I don't follow, what do you mean?" Barry replied because he was confused with Widja's questions.
"Okay, I know you're good at producing microscopic things, like the drills that Nagal just planted on Franco's ship fuel tank. Now, could you also make something really really small that is consumable and able to break these capsules once a person consumed it? But of course, we need to control this device, so it will only break the capsule on the right timing." Widja tried to explain in more detail for Barry.
Barry understood, and he knew why Widja asked this. This was actually Barry's previous work before he decided to open his own workshop. He was actually an engineer who studied bioengineering and nanotechnology. He used to work in a company where they produce artificial cells that could help cure disease or alter genetics. So this was actually something that was within his knowledge. Barry answered," I could try, but I couldn't say whether it would be effective or 100% guaranteed."
******
The five of them kept discussing the minor details of their plan, making sure there were no blindspots or plot holes that could endanger them. After a long thought, Hurg decided that the crew will advance with the plan. But now he realize that they need to move fast, because Franco's ship was already nearing Dranea, based on the tracker that was planted before by Barry. Hurg commanded Barry to put the spaceship into boost mode. The plane will search for the fastest straight line from the current point to Dranea. However if there were too many obstacles like other planets or asteroid chunks that could block their journey, the system will direct them to the most optimum starting point.
"Boss, if we use our booster, we definitely need to refuel on Dranea. Otherwise, we might not have any fuel to catch our target once they're leaving. This boost can be done only once at least before the next refuel. Are you sure we're doing this?" Barry asked Hurg for confirmation.
Hurg was already sure, the amount of the bounty already in his head, and he was quick to decide when there's high reward in front of him, regardless the risk. Hurg gave a firm nod to Barry and then command, "Once we arrive, you and Glen could take the ship to the nearest station for refuel. Me and Widja will devise a plan on how to carry on with the operation. Nagal, you can rest, because we need you to execute it perfectly on D-Day, but keep stand by to receive from our comms. "
The spaceship was slowly moving toward the starting point of the boost mode. Nagal drove it there, and use the navigator once more to make sure there was nothing that can block their trajectory. It would be dangerous if they're already put into boost mode but turns out that there was something on their way, they couldn't just press brake in a situation like this, and this might lead them to instant death.
Once Nagal confirmed, he told everyone to make sure that they were already seated and tighten their seatbelt. "Prepare for launching.
3....
2....
1...."
There was a light surrounding Cosmos. Then these lights starting to create a straight line from Cosmos to a spot near Dranea. Cosmos were advancing in a speed of light, there was not even a sound heard from there. Probably seconds or minutes after this, they will arrive at their destination. Franco and the family might have just arrived in Dranea, taking rest somewhere in a hotel for their first night, and planning to enjoy the city of Hollis the next day. The family was unaware of the hunting dogs that were creeping and crawling, closer and faster, than they could imagine.