Space Criminal and Chillboi

Nova sat cross legged with a look of intense focus on her face as she rigged together a tiny bomb. Jett had taught her how to do it, since he liked making things and enjoyed blowing things up just as much. It was almost time to take it to the warehouse and execute their plan. She appraised her handiwork and finally nodded.

“Let’s go find the warehouse,” she said. “I can plant this and hit the detonator; it has a timed delay so we have time to get out of the blast zone. This thing is tiny but it will pack a punch for anyone too close to it. A very lethal punch.”

She stood up and tucked the device into a small pocket she’d torn into her skirt. She would ditch the dress entirely and change into the normal pants she ordinarily wore once they’d left the warehouse. She’d only kept three of the dresses she’d had while on the Utopia. The rest she’d left back in her own room; people didn’t need to find her clothes in Jay’s stateroom and at best lambast him for being scandalous and at worst, spark suspicion about their sudden and shocking deaths.

She looked at Jay and tried to ignore the painful tug in her chest when she thought about them going separate ways. At least he wouldn’t have to marry that awful poodle girl. She stepped forward and hugged him tightly.

“I just wanted to say thank you,” she mumbled into his chest. “For everything.”

He hugged her back. “You can thank me when this is over and when my plan doesn’t wind up killing us for real.”

“It’ll work.” She forced herself to pull away even though she didn’t want to. They set off for the address the bounty hunter had given Jay. She had hoped they’d be lucky enough to sneak up on the place while no one was there, or at least go unnoticed. But they’d probably been on alert and watching for Jay to show up. A man strolled out of the building to meet them. Nova made sure to stumble to a halt and look at him in confusion; if he caught on that she’d known they were here he’d go on the alert. He seized her arm and began tugging her into the warehouse.

“Well, well. You really brought her to us,” the man said to Jay, who slowly followed them. “You’re a smart man. Guess you could use some extra money after all, huh?”

“Jay, what is he talking about?” Nova’s voice was uncertain but as she turned to Jay she gave him a look that said to play along. He gave a tiny nod and slipped into a mask of expressionlessness and remained quiet as Nova whirled back to the bounty hunter.

“Oh, I see,” she said. “You couldn’t catch me on your own so you asked him to trick me.”

The bounty hunter tightened his grip as he marched her inside. There was another man and a woman inside waiting for them.

“We could’ve caught you fine,” he said. “But your little boyfriend was quick to give you up. I guess he was done slumming it,” he added, smirking. The remark actually stung a little, since she was already expecting to lose Jay. But she quickly brushed it off. She sneered and then punched the man in the face. He should’ve been expecting it, but he didn’t block in time so her fist collided solidly with his nose. He cursed loudly but didn’t let go of her arm, not until he backhanded her across the face and knocked her to the ground. Which is where she had hoped to end up; she needed enough distraction to slip the explosive out of her hidden pocket.

“That hardly seems necessary,” Jay said and despite his tone still seeming very businessy, she knew him well enough to sense his tension. The bounty hunter snorted.

“What, are you worried about her now?” he scoffed. “She’s no longer your concern and I will deal with her however I see fit.”

Nova had the device in her fist now as she tried to scoot away from the bounty hunter. He reached down to grab her again and
Nova brought her foot up, kicking him in the face. Hard. His nose definitely broke this time and he flailed back with blood soaking his face. The other man and the woman came hurrying forward, looking annoyed that this wasn’t going smoothly. The woman drew her laser gun and leveled it at Nova.

“You better come quietly,” she snapped. “Tarvis’s notice says he’ll take you dead or alive, but we get paid more if you’re alive.”

“Well that’s a shame,” Nova replied. She clicked the detonator on her tiny bomb, which meant there was very little time to escape and there was no undoing it. “I have something for you myself. Catch.”

She threw the device at the woman, who fumbled her gun. The bomb hit the floor and began to roll away.

“What the fuck was that?” the other male bounty hunter demanded. They were now all three distracted, and Jay snatched the laser gun out of the belt of the man who was still cursing a blue streak about his nose. He smacked the man across the head with it, knocking him out. Nova leaped at the woman, knocking the gun from her hand and punching her in the throat. The woman staggered back then fell to her knees, wheezing. Nova rounded on the third bounty hunter, who was so caught off guard by the sudden turn of events that he was barely able to block her fist as it flew at his face, but she used her other hand to take his gun and shoot him in the foot with it. He howled in pain and fell back. Nova tossed the gun out of his reach and tore a sleeve off her dress to drop on the floor. If they scanned for traces of DNA remnants, they’d find some of hers here. She practically yanked Jay’s jacket off for the same reason.

“We really need to run,” she said. The entire altercation had only taken a few moments, but they didn’t have a lot of those before the bomb would go off.

“Really, I thought we’d take a leisurely stroll,” Jay said as they hightailed it out of the building.

“No time for jokes, Jay,” Nova said breathlessly as she ran full tilt away from the warehouse. They weren’t near any other buildings but there was a stand of trees and she tugged Jay toward them, scrunching down and clapping her hands over her ears. The explosion shattered the windows and created a brilliant flash of fire that burned extremely hot but also quick. Like she had said, it was small but packed a close range wallop. She blew out a breath and pulled her hands away from her ears.

“We should probably get the hell out of here,” Jay remarked.

“Really, I thought we’d hang out for a while, maybe talk to the authorities when they arrive,” she retorted. Jay lightly flicked her forehead and they skulked away, back to where they’d stashed their bags and Otis. Nova shimmied out of her ripped dress and into pants and a blouse. It felt nice to be in her regular clothes again. She bundled up the dress and stuffed it into her bag; she’d ditch it later. For good measure she also wound her hair up into a bun and stuffed it under a hat for now; it was unlikely that anyone would see them heading to the smaller transport bay instead of back to the Utopia, but her hair was recognizable and she wasn’t taking the chance. Jay now just had a casual shirt on since his jacket was left behind. Nova reached up to tousle his hair a little and then she stuffed a hat on his head too.

“We can take a small transport to Zurn C-6,” Nova said. “It’s a small planet right at the edge of this quadrant. It’s the last stop before you pass from Delta Quadrant into Beta Quadrant. And it’s…kind of seedy. But as a result, it’s a good place to hire a good hacker to create you a new identity. After that, it has transports going to a bunch of different planets in Beta Quadrant. So you’ll have a lot of places to choose from to start over. Tazar has a big city whose primary industry is hover cars, they even have a huge racing event every year. Beau always wanted to go someday. I’m sure it’d be easy for you to find work there.”

She realized she was starting to ramble again, to distract herself from the tightness in her throat. The end of the line was in sight now and she was dangerously close to getting weepy and emotional. She and Jay had teamed up because they both wanted to disappear, and they’d had fun while they were together. But now they’d done what they said they were going to, and Jay was leaving his old life behind. Nova had come in at the end of it, but she still belonged in the Before. And she reminded herself that she had no right to unload her feelings on him before he’d even had a chance to process all this. When they got to Zurn C-6, they’d get their new identities and she’d get a coded, self-destructing message to Dooley to let her family know about Tarvis and her “death,” and that she was okay. Then she’d brace herself for Jay’s goodbye and figure out where to go from there.

They didn’t even need ID’s to get passage on a small transporter shuttle off of Sion. They caught a faint glimpse of the Utopia out the window as they launched. Nova was actually a little sad to see it disappear below them as they slipped into a little compartment and shut the door. Jay set Otis and his bags on one of the seats, then gently touched Nova’s cheek.

“I’m sorry, Nova,” he said. “I didn’t think they’d actually hurt you.”

“Oh. What, this?” Nova had almost forgotten that the bounty hunter had struck her. She realized she probably had a bruise on her face. “It’s nothing, Jay. Really. I’m fine.”

She dug around in her bag and pulled out a little spray bottle. She winced slightly as she sprayed some of the stuff on her cheek; it stung and felt ice cold for a moment.

“The bruise will be gone in an hour or two,” she assured him. She sat down and Jay sat next to her.

“So, it’s really done,” she said quietly. “People will think you’re dead, and you no longer have to be James Whitley. You’re sure you don’t regret it?”

“Nah,” Jay chuckled. “It feels surreal but kind of right, too. I’ll miss my friends at the factory, but I wasn’t going to get to see them again anyway if I married Adelia.”

Nova nodded, taking off her cap and letting her hair fall back down so that it could hide her face. She had trained for years to keep up her poker face but she’d never been prepared for a situation quite like this one and she worried her expression would give her away. She probably should’ve felt victorious about their escape, but mostly she just felt a dull ache in her chest.

“How long till we reach this Zurn C-6?” Jay asked, leaning his head against the back of his seat.

“Maybe two hours, at most,” Nova replied. “I guess you better start thinking up a new last name.”