Sa'id was sitting in his booth at the Lo Pan's noodle hut. His fingers dancing away on his datapad, checking emails opening streams and blocking adds as he sipped away at his noodles.

Vid mail popped up, it was from his old buddy Johnny, or 6g for short. 6g was normally calm and cool, even in the face of an angry antipod. This wasn't the same jonny six-gun Sa'id fought along side, this person had meek posture, beta body language, and a shaky voice.

.. Hey Sa'id, what's up? I uhh.. I just wanted to see how you were doing.. probably good. You are always doing good, man.
I uhh. I was hoping you could see me sometime. Probably not.. anyway, I'll talk to you later. ..

'What the hell? That's NOT 6g. Where's his balls?'

'I'll think about him later, got to put on my game face, my first 0-12 meeting is in 20 minutes and I want to make a good impression'

Sa'id tossed his empty noodle carton in the bin as he strolled out into the streets of concillium and headed towards 0-12 bureau noir..

Sonia sat restlessly in the shuttle craft as it departed from the spaceport, taking her up and away from the surface of Dawn and towards the stars. She remembered the last time she had tried to take this trip. It had not ended well. She was damned if she was going to let them catch her off guard again, she was convinced she had foiled at least 3 attempts on her life today simply by being vigilant.

“Would you calm down, nothing’s going to happen. They’re not going to be so stupid as to try the same thing twice”

That was Nathan, in his opinion only one of those recent attempts had been been her imagination and even then it wasn't a sure thing. She had first met him in her time in the Merovingian Rapid Response Force but unlike her he had spent most of the last 6 years there, before being transferred to the O-12. It was he who had taken interested in the lengthy bureaucratic nightmare and legal prossessions she had been involved with after hiking back to civilizations. As a part of that mess he had interviewed her on behalf of the O-12 as a result of her accusations directed towards The Druze Society. In the end she had gotten some of her possessions and inherited wealth back but they couldn’t make any of her accusations of assassination and thievery stick to The Druze Society.

During that time he had brought her file to the attention of his colleagues and somebody had apparently taken interest in her skills and record. So as a result they were currently both traveling to the O-12 Bureau Noir Headquarters, him for debriefing and her to meet the team she had been assigned too.

”I am calm. I’m the perfect picture of serenity. I’m just being cautious is all”

“That's all fair and good but they aren't going to mess with two O-12 agents, not this publicly anyway. So let it go before you start sprouting hairs”

”We’ll see.”

In the end Nathan was right, nobody tried anything and as they got further from Dawn she even managed to relax enough to actually get some reading done. There had been so many new releases while she had been gone, it was nice to have some time to catch up with her favorite authors’ new works.

The waiting room of the clinic was spartan, filled with simple, but well-made furniture. Despite the simplicity, Aishen felt cramped in the room, each piece of furnishing took up space that the room could not afford to spare. She across paced the small room impatiently, eager to leave this planet.

So much for being the best doctor in the region.

It would perhaps be more accurate to say that Doctor Fion was the only real doctor in the area, not that he was a bad doctor. The people living here, primarily farmers, did not have much need of a professional doctor, nor could they afford his services. Those living here either grew strong enough to survive, or they died early. Life was harsh here, and death was simply a fact to the inhabitants.

"That'll be 2000 credits."

The secretary spoke dispassionately, ignoring the grimace that flashed across Aishen's face as she wordlessly transferred the payment.
Her funds were running dangerously low, despite having just turned in a bounty.

"Thank you. Have a nice day," said the secretary, as Aishen walked out of the clinic.

Even though it was merely a formality, the secretary was one of the nicer people she had seen. Outsiders were an anomaly here, and other than the few men who did business with the occasional trader that passed though, contact with foreigners was non-existent. Aishen had no doubt that they'd be talking about her for months. She didn't care, for she didn't plan on coming back. In the first place, she had only landed here out of necessity.

"Fucking bastard," she muttered under her breath.

It wasn't entirely clear whether she was referring to the man who had shot her or to the doctor who charged an exorbitant amount for the procedure. Perhaps it was both.

If only the bullet had passed a bit more to the left...

Aishen sighed. She had long ago learned that it was useless to speculate on the past. There were thousands of things that could've gone better in her life, and speculating on the past would inevitably lead to a litany of complaints that was neither productive nor good for her disposition. Still, she couldn't help but worry about how little money she had, given her debt, as she walked towards her spacecraft.

Aishen stood in front her ship, the Thunderfish, taking a moment to admire it. It wasn't much to look at, but she had effectively rebuilt the entire ship, having repaired and replaced nearly every part at least once. She had bought the ship shortly after she fled from Shentang with what little of her parents' fortune that had not been confiscated by the Imperial Secret Service. Spaceships were not cheap, and even less so in shady dealerships where the ships were acquired through undisclosed means. Under such conditions, it had been a miracle that she found a ship, even if the ship was an obsolete model in bad shape from neglect.

Snapping out of her reverie, she entered the spacecraft, and set course for Concillium. She was initially suspicious of the offer from O-12. After all, her history was not exactly clean nor a secret. Still, everything seemed to be proper and the job paid more consistently than bounty hunting did. Perhaps she would finally be able to pay off her debt.