I summarised just about everything to the two, from the corpse in the desert to the... incident in the bar. First tried whitewashing bits of it hoping to get out of this whole bounty situation. But after all the questions and all the stammering, I just spilled everything else. All except the tattoo on my belly, the old guy's reaction in the bar wasn't something I wanted to repeat, even with a gun still held up in my face

"That has got to be the biggest pile of bullcrap I've ever heard," Ryan remarked.

I mean he did have a point, summarising the whole thing just sounded like someone half-arsed a space opera at two in the morning.

"That's what happened!" I said.

"You expect us to believe you don't remember anything at all?"

"Mate, even if I was still this whole 'Feral' thing, I wouldn't be cooped here in the jeep with you, would I?"

"You killed a guy in a bar."

"What, you think I'm proud of that?"

"And in the desert apparently."

"That was self-defence!"

"Okay then, maybe the whole nickname was just your style."

"It would've been my style because I was drunk the whole time, you muppet." Jesus Christ, he wasn't going to run out of money-hungry excuses any time soon.

"Can we not throw insults around in the car please?" Eyha said. "So, you can't remember anything? Like at all."

"Just bits. Everything else is... foggy."

"All right? What's the last thing you remember? Before you 'killed' that guy, I mean."

Hopefully she was able to believe me, unlike the little prick next to me. "It was a party... in London." Again, the word 'years' itched on the tip of my tongue. Party. Years. Oh for God's sake, how didn't I think of this earlier? "It was a New Years Party."

"Who still does New Years Parties?" I heard Ryan mutter.

"And how long ago was this?" Eyha said.

"I don't— what year is it?" I asked.

"Twenty-three-oh-two."

Christ, new century already?

"You're talking about the London on Talon IV, right?" Ryan questioned.

"No, I mean massive clock, overpriced apartments London."

"The one on Earth?" The Arvan questioned, clearly surprised.

"Yeah?" It seemed nobody could think of an original name for a place anymore, not Earth, not a thousand light-years away. I mean to be fair, even I couldn't think up a fake planet name. I was already beaten by Ryan's home... something, and a strip club.

"Hold up, you've been drunk for seven years?" Ryan said, still calling bullshit.

That didn't sound right. That didn't sound right at all. "Where'd you pull that number from?"

Before anyone could answer, the squeaky melody of a phone ringed from the front. Eyha picked out a mobile from her side, it was pretty old fashioned - didn't have a holo-screen or anything, just physical buttons and a really tiny screen, something that belonged in a museum.

She answered it, "AT-6."

It was probably their captain, Bryce I think his name was. I managed to overhear a bit of chatter, it was an English guy on the other end.

'AT-6, status report,' I could overhear.

Eyha rolled her eyes, deciding to respond casually, "Listen, Dave." Never mind, it wasn't their boss. "Some things have popped up. We don't have the shopping."

'Explain?.'

"So, uh, Ryan claims he got a bounty."

'How much?' He sighed.

"Ryan, how much did you say his bounty was again?"

"Five-hundred grand."

"Yeah, five-hundred grand according to him," she said to Dave.

All professionalism in his voice was suddenly tossed out the window. 'You serious? Ryan? Hold on, what's the bounty's name?'

The Arvan looked at me, holding her feathered hand over the speaker. "Sorry, we didn't really catch your name."

"It's Nolan," I said, ultimately accepting the fact I was fucked. "Kumar. Nolan Kumar."

"You don't look like a Nolan," Ryan said.

"Nor do I look like a fe-" I shut my mouth the second I glanced in the rear view mirror, noticing my mess of a face; gunk, a scar or two, they weren't even messing about the beard. "Never mind."

'Nothing's come up, I'm afraid.'

Eyha spoke again. "Okay? Try Feral. Feh-ral."

'I know how to spell feral, Eyha. I'm an AI.'

Really? He seemed a bit slow for an AI.

There was a quick silence. 'Are you sure this is the same person? The one I'm guessing's just sitting in your back seat?'

"What exactly does it say?"

There was more silence this time.

'Oh God, something's come up at the spaceport, I'm afraid. I'll notify the captain, we'll sort out what to do with him when you arrive.'

Bryce hung up. Eyha put the phone down.

"So..." I said. "Who exactly are you people?"

"We work on this ship called the Centauri. Officially, it's this shipping and scavenging company," Eyha stated. "We take up contracts all throughout the frontier."

"I'm guessing, what, you just do bounty hunting for your Sunday job?"

Eyha snorted. That was a snort, right? "Sunday job. I'm stealing that. But yeah, we do quite a lot of mercenary work."

"Everyone else does mercenary work," Ryan whined. "We just run their damn errands."

"Would you rather be cleaning the Centauri's toilets?"

Ryan went silent.

"I didn't think so."

"So... what's going to happen to me?" I asked, understandably worried.

"That's honestly up to Bryce. He'll either let you off or we get a higher pay check."

That wasn't helping anyone. "What do you think's going to happen to me?"

Eyha simply shrugged. "I didn't wake up this morning expecting some scruffy British amnesiac shoved into the back of my car. So really I don't know why you're asking me."

And then I went silent. Awaiting the fuckening ahead of me.