Page 58 of The Last Hunt
“What’s weird?”
Maeve gestures between them. “This. Working together.”
Aethon nods. He knows what she means. He’s been on his own for fifteen years - just like Maeve. It’s not common for bounty hunters to work together for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that then the credits have to be split at the end of the hunt.
“I think it feels… good?” Maeve says. She turns and paces across the front of the ship, her hand trailing lightly on the dash. Aethon watches as she thinks. Maeve is one of the most internal people he’s ever known. At times she seems to find it difficult to express herself, but that doesn’t bother him. Aethon imagines her mind must be like an endless forest, or a constantly scrolling computer database. He’d love to get a peek inside her head to understand better how she thinks.
“I like it too,” Aethon replies. “I never thought I could trust another hunter the way I trust you.”
Maeve nods. “I know.” She turns back to him and gives him a smile that Aethon knows he is becoming addicted to. “I’m sure we’ll be fighting in no time though, artrenn.”
“Why - are you going to become ornery all of a sudden?” Aethon teases.
“Watch it, Trell,” Maeve replies, one eyebrow high.
“Yes, ma’am,” he says with a grin.
Maeve stalks back over to her chair, her lips twitching as she tries not to smile. “That’s more like it.”
Aethon’s stomach suddenly rumbles loudly and he winces when Maeve’s brows rise.
“I believe that noise is an indication that you should eat, Captain Trell,” CAL says.
Aethon rolls his eyes as Maeve bites her bottom lip. “I know, CAL,” he sighs. “I’ve been a human for thirty-whatever years now.”
“Thirty-five,” CAL says. “Are you forgetting your age? Should I scan you for signs of mental fatigue and decline?”
Aethon groans and Maeve laughs. “That won’t be necessary,” he says.
“I’m glad TAI isn’t the only overly involved AI,” Maeve says. “I’m hungry too. Let me just finish plotting the route to the next jump point and then let’s eat.”
She taps out a few calculations and then sets the auto-nav. Aethon checks the support strut one last time before pushing himself up from his chair and following Maeve over to the tiny kitchenette next to the brig.
They rip open a couple ration packs while discussing the best course of action to capture Daik. Unfortunately, they can’t plan much beyond talking about what they know of Daik himself, and discussing their weapons and ammo stores. Everything hinges on what will happen with Bell Sylar.
“So I’ve been thinking,” Maeve starts. She’s sitting on a tiny bench that runs along the wall on the opposite side of the kitchenette. Aethon sits across from her, leaning on the cabinet below the sink, a granola bar in one hand, a protein jerky stick in the other. The Archer’s engines thrum comfortingly beneath him.
“Always a good thing,” he says.
Maeve rolls her eyes. “I’ve been thinking about what kind of intel we actually want from Sylar. We don’t need Daik’s precise location - my tracker will give us that.”
Aethon watches as Maeve taps her own jerky stick on her lips as she thinks and then tears off a bite. She crosses one long leg over the other. “If we’re right about Daik bringing Dreadnought intel from Brimstone, then Dreadnought has probably scheduled a meetup between their representative and Daik to confirm the value of the intelligence.”
Aethon nods. “It will likely be on some planet or a starbase in the Tri-Centauri system,” he murmurs. “If we can’t get to Daik before this potential meetup, Dreadnought’s security will have him protected on one of their worlds. No one will be able to get to him.”
“Right,” Maeve says. “So if we could just get there first -” She raises her brows at him and Aethon nods.
“You want to ask Sylar for access to one of the hyper-jump points,” he says. “Smart, Bladesy.”
She grins as she takes another bite of her jerky. “If we could get access codes for the hyper-jump point closest to the Tri-Centauri system, we could get there before Daik does and set a trap for him.”
Hyper-jump points are for longer range travel than normal jump points. They’re capable of bringing a ship five times the distance of a jump point in less than an hour. While not useful for people just going from planet to starbase and back, they’re vital for corps that need to travel to the outer edges of colonized space quickly. The massive hyper-jump points were originally created by an exploratory corps before it went bankrupt, and were then snatched up at auction by various wealthy corps. Due to the location, Aethon is sure the one they would need to use is owned by Dreadnought. He doubts that Dreadnought would want two bounty hunters set on capturing Daik Montrose anywhere near their hyper-jump point, and he wonders if Sylar would be reluctant to give them access codes for it. She can’t risk her whole shadow operation just so that two hunters can capture a bounty. But they have to at least try.
They finish eating quickly and return to their seats, checking Daik’s position again, and scanning for other ships in the area. Aethon knows they’ll soon be entering space that is traveled by more people, and they might start to encounter other hunters looking for Daik. He hopes Maeve’s ability to track Daik’s ship will give them enough of an advantage over the others to catch the smuggler first.
Aethon sighs. He runs a hand over his head which is starting to pound. It’s been a long couple of weeks, and the lack of sleep is finally starting to catch up with him.
“I’m exhausted,” he says. “Would you mind if I take another nap?”