It turned out that everything in the Empire ran on credits. Credits were a form of digital currency that Imperial citizens used to exchange for goods and services. Unfortunately for Kronos, he didn’t have any. Apparently, credits were issued to their agents bi-monthly and the amount depended largely upon an individuals status within the Empire. Trainees like Kronos got paid a pittance while planetary governors and the like got to live extravagant lives of wealth and plenty. Since Kronos’ only contribution to the Empire thus far had been a staggering imperial body count, he didn’t think he would be getting a raise anytime soon.

Not only that, but he had only been officially a part of the IID for a number of days. He hadn’t received his first distribution yet.

“I can’t believe you don’t have any credits,” Zhang grumbled as he nursed his drink.

Kronos took a sip of his own drink. “At least it makes our purpose here believable.”

The other man chuckled. “It does at that. Still, even if you were a farmer on an agro-world you should’ve at least earned something.”

Kronos shrugged, “We got by mostly through bartering. The whole idea of giving something to someone for what is effectively nothing is strange to me.” He studied Zhang. “Seriously, what about a credit is inherently valuable. You can’t eat it, you can’t use it in your daily life, you can’t do anything with it except spend it and hope the person wants it.”

“Yeah, but everyone wants it. So that isn’t a problem.”

“I guess,” Kronos hedged. “Still seems stupid to me. How do people get by if they want to make more credits than they earn from the Empire?”

“They don’t,” Zhang said flatly. “My old crew used bartering to trade the different resources we needed but that only work on a planetary level. Once you get to space, the Empire owns everything and it all relies on credits.”

Kronos decided not to argue anymore. He took another drink and thought about how he felt about the alcohol. On Hod, they drank beer and watered wine most of the time. According to Zhang, the two men couldn’t afford how much those drinks cost. Instead, Zhang had ordered them the local brew. Kronos wasn’t completely convinced that it wasn’t poison. It smelled like a medbay and tasted like varnish. After each drink, Kronos felt like he could breathe fire.

He leaned back from his seat at the bar and took a look around. The small room was even more dirty than the docks. Most of the furniture consisted of beige plasteel bar stools and steel tables. There wasn’t an ounce of warmth to the place except for the heat caused by putting too many bodies in a confined space. The entire bar smelled like grease cut with the rotgut most people were drinking.

Kronos took a look at the inhabitants themselves. Some of the miners were playing a game where they threw miniature arrows at a target on the wall. Others were grouped around durasteel tables where they laughed or shouted while throwing dice or flipping cards. The ones seated at the bar like Zhang and himself looked deep into their cups. They talked to no one and nodded along to the alien music piping through hidden speakers. Kronos thought it strangely comforting that a bar on a station in another system would feel like a tavern on Hod.

The majority of the barflies were men, but he spotted a few women making their way around the room. They weren’t wearing the same atmospheric suits as the miners. Instead, they stalked the bar wearing tight-fitting and revealing clothing with their faces painted in cheap cosmetics. Every now and then he observed them engaging in conversation with a miner and then the pair would slip off to a dark corner of the bar. A short time later, she would be weaving her way through the patrons and looking for more customers.

One of the women caught Kronos glance and sashayed her way toward him. Kronos had just seen her returning from a previous client and it ruined any appeal the encounter could have for him. When she came close, she lay a hand on his arm.

“Hey, baby.” She greeted. “Do you like what you see?” She did a small twirl to show off her wares and Kronos nose twitched at the heavy perfume that emanated from her. It was a spicy scent that failed to hide the smell of sickness underneath.

Instead of feeling incensed all Kronos felt was sadness. Her black hair was dull and lank, and she was painfully skinny with her ribs poking through her thin, exposed skin. It was her eyes that saddened him the most. They were dead and dull like a forgotten doll.

“What’s your name?” He gently asked.

She flinched like he had stuck her. He didn’t know if it was his tone, or the question itself that had caused the reaction.

“My name is Maia and I don’t need your pity,” she hissed. The hand on his arm gripped him tightly, but Kronos barely noticed it.

“No offense intended, Maia.” He assured her. “I just wanted to ask you for some information.”

The anger in her voice vanished so quickly that Kronos wondered if he had imagine it.

“Sure baby, but that’s going to cost you,” she said playfully.

Kronos looked over at Zhang and his partner nodded once, so he returned his attention to Maia.

“I’ll give you one-hundred credits if you can tell me where I can get some work on the side.” He offered.

She frowned as if considering the price. Clearly, she thought it was sufficient because she didn’t try to haggle. That was good for Kronos because he was spending Zhang’s money. A hundred credits were enough to buy five of the local drinks. He hadn’t been sure how much the information would cost, so he had guessed.

“That works for me baby,” she said as she climbed onto his lap. She couldn’t have weighed more than forty eight kilos. She was so small that Kronos felt awkward handling her. It felt like on wrong move and he would break her. She shimmied to get comfortable and Kronos had keep his mind from turning to things other than information.

As he wondered what she was playing at, Maia leaned in close to his body and traced his jaw with her fingers while pressing her lips to the side of his neck. He felt her breath heat his skin as she whispered.

“You’re looking for Spurius,” she breathed before slowly kissing his neck. “He’s in the far corner near the dart boards. You’ll find a small raven painted on his atmo suit.” Her hand slipped from his jaw and traced its way across his collarbone. “Just here,” she guided.

“Be careful, Imperial. I hear ravens are out for the eagle these days and I wouldn’t want a pretty face like yours getting thrown out of an airlock.”

Kronos turned his gaze toward Zhang and gave him a small nod. His partner transferred a hundred credits to Maia with a swipe on his HUD.

“We do what we have to do to get by,” he murmured back to her. He left the meaning ambiguous, but she seemed to catch his meaning. She leaned away from him and looked him in the eyes for the first time.

“Yeah, we do. Spurius said he needed some muscle so maybe you’ll do.” She looked over his bulk appreciatively and her meaning was clear. She slid off of his lap and continued, “but our business is concluded. Good luck, Imp.”

As she disappeared in the crowd, Kronos relayed her words to his partner.

“Sounds promising,” he said brightly. “Do you want to do the honors, or should I?”

Kronos thought it over. Zhang had the experience, but Kronos looked like the brute. He probably outweighed everyone in the bar by at least twenty kilos.

“I’ll do it,” he decided. “You watch my back.”

“You got it,” Zhang said with a sly grin. He turned his chair so that he had a better look at the bar and tilted his head toward the corner.

Kronos got the hint and got up from his stool with his drink in hand. He weaved his way through the bar and had to dodge two men shoving each other and shouting. When he reached the table in the corner, he observed four men sitting and speaking quietly to one another. He scanned their atmospheric suits carefully and found Spurius. He was a spindly man on the far right of the group. He hadn’t noticed Kronos approach and was still talking to his companions.

Kronos got within speaking distance but opted for a more subtle approach. He slid into the seat next to Spurius and put his drink on the table. The other men stiffened and glared at him but they didn’t speak. Kronos ignored them except for Spurius. He took a sip of his drink and then spoke as if he were talking about something as benign as the weather.

“I heard you were looking for some muscle,” he said to Spurius.

The man’s rodent-like eyes thinned but he didn’t say anything right away. His eyes darted to another man at the table and Kronos noted the look. The man was just as dark haired and dark eyed as everyone else on the station. He looked like he could be anyone and nobody at the same time. He slightly inclined his head and then Spurius spoke.

“We’re always looking for muscle.” He gave Kronos a once-over. “Imps don’t usually want to work with us.”

Kronos shrugged in response. “This is a shit detail, and I’ll be here for a while. I figured I could get some extra credits instead of wasting my time on the Cloud Jumper.”

Spurius gave him a knowing look. “Pissed someone off then? You’d have to if you’re being put on the Jumper.”

“Why’s that?” Kronos asked, genuinely curious. “I just got in and haven’t seen the ship.”

The rest of the men laughed and Spurius chortled along. “Damn, son. That ship is one flight away from tearing apart at the seams. It’s a damn deathtrap. We’ve been asking the Imps to retrofit her for months now and if they don’t, people are going to die.”

Kronos groaned. “This just keeps getting better. One fuck-up and they’ve got me doing this shit.”

The other men laughed at his comment, and just as Kronos felt like he was building some goodwill, shouting interrupted him. He looked over and Maia was weaving her way through the throng. She caught his eyes and rushed right over to him.

“Hey baby,” she greeted as she clung to his arm. “Was just wondering where you went.”

Kronos gave her a confused look before a man pushed through the crowd behind her.

“Hey whore! I told you I wasn’t finished with you yet!” The man was clearly deep into his cups and didn’t care about the scene he made.

Kronos looked into her eyes and he saw her pleading. When he looked up the man was reaching out to grab her. He spotted Zhang just behind the man, ready to put him down. Kronos gave him a firm shake of his head and his partner melted back into the patrons.

Time to show my worth, he decided.

Before the man could grab Maia, Kronos had already pulled her into his seat and put himself between her and the angry drunk. The drunk stopped stupidly as he had to look up to glare at Kronos.

“I think you’ve had enough, friend.” Kronos warned politely. “The lady doesn’t seem interested.”

The man started laughing, “the lady?” He wheezed. “Ya mean the whore? She doesn’t get to say no. Now, get the fuck outta my way you big ass lunk.”

He tried going around, but Kronos smacked him in the chest with an open palm. It was strong enough to throw the man back a couple paces. The man rubbed his chest. “Is that how you want it to be, then?” He said spitefully. He took a swing at Kronos that was so heavily telegraphed that Kronos didn’t even try to dodge it. He used a hand to swat the mans forearm and the punch rebounded like rubber.

The maneuver only pissed off the drunk because he came swinging with both arms. Kronos decided that it was better to show his potential employer just how much muscle he could provide. The drunk’s blows started raining down on Kronos and he let them for a couple hits. When he decided he had enough he grabbed a wrist out of the air and torqued it but turning his fist inward. The movement cause the man to lean over as pressure was applied to his elbow and shoulder. He started cursing as Kronos continued to crank on the wrist until the mans face was on the deck and his arm was extended painfully behind him.

“I told you that the lady wasn’t interested,”he said cheerfully.

He looked over at the Spurius and the other men around the table. They were carefully studying him while Maia looked on in fear. This was his interview and Kronos decided he’d make it an impressive one. He looked back at his victim and shifted his grip on the man from his left hand to his right. After that he slapped his left hand against the outside of the mans elbow. He applied enough force that a terrible cracking sound was heard and the drunk screamed as the bones in his forearm burst through the lining of his atmospheric suit. Blood started to stain the suit, but Kronos wasn’t done. He used his left foot to stomp down on the mans shoulder and he heard it separate with a sucking sound. The man’s screams cut off as he went into shock. By now, everyone in the vicinity had created a circle around the scene. Some watched the show in stony silence while others looked like they were going to be nauseas.

Kronos didn’t care what the observers thought of his actions. He released the mans arm and it dropped to the ground in a pulped mess. As turned to the group at the table and noticed two Imperial Guards rushing into the entrance.

“Stop right there,” they shouted.

They were extending shock batons as they closed in on him. Kronos didn’t bother resisting. This had been part of the plan. He needed Spurius and the other to see this happen. This was the only way they would trust him enough to cut him in on something important. Kronos held his hands up in surrender when they were close enough to strike him.

“Get on the ground,” one of them ordered. Kronos dropped to his knees with his hands still in the air. Once he had done so they shouted, “Now put your hands behind your back.”

Kronos did as they said and one of them moved behind him and placed a pair of cuffs over his wrists. They maglocked together. As soon as they did so, he felt his intranet link go dead.

Hello, my old friends, he thought with amusement.

The two Guards hauled him to his feet and escorted him from the bar. They were gentle with him as they escorted him to the brig.

“You intel guys always want to cause us trouble.” One of the guards complained. “We’re going to contact your BC. He’ll decide if he wants to get your ass out of the brig or let you rot.”

Kronos remained silent. He knew Zhang would reach Pictor first. With the lead on the raven, he expected to be out in no time. It would be a bonus if they didn’t have to be on the Cloud Jumper the next day. He knew he wasn’t quite that lucky, but a man could hope.

He only had to wait an hour in his cell when a grinning Zhang arrived outside. He hit a switch on his PCD and the forcefield separating them deactivated.

“Well partner, looks like you stepped in it this time.”

Kronos got up from his cot. “Was it bad?” He wondered.

“Ah, not that tough. Pictor was livid and complained about a bunch of reckless trainees.” He gave Kronos a sly look. “That was until I told him about your lead with the raven. He was so overjoyed that we had found proof of a group that he authorized your release right away.”

Zhang looked like he was holding something back and Kronos felt the little flame of his heart grow stronger.

“What about the Cloud Jumper?” he asked.

Zhang grinned broadly. “We’re being reassigned. Pictor said he couldn’t trust us on a gas freighter by ourselves, so he wants us close at hand. We’re to be liaisons between the Guard and Intel.”

Kronos sighed in relief. “Thank the gods. Did he come up with that himself? It’s a good cover.”

“No, and that’s the best part. He really thinks he’s punishing us,” Zhang cackled. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Kronos exited the cell and both men made their way out of the brig. “So, you know these kind of guys. What’s our next step?”

Zhang mused for a minute. “If I were them, I’d be looking for a trap. You did a good job, but if we go back to the same bar it’ll be too obvious.”

Kronos nodded. “So we’ll just go to a different one tomorrow night. Plus, with us acting as liaisons, that means we can move all over the station without being supervised.” He paused. “Well, mostly unsupervised. I’m sure we’ll have to come up with something that’ll placate Pictor.”

“Don’t worry about that part,” Zhang reassured. “I’ll mock up some kind of collection plan tonight and send it over to him in the morning. It’ll look full enough that he’ll leave us alone. He doesn’t seem the type to actually do any supervision.”

They both laughed trying to imagine the overweight bureau chief doing anything but sitting behind his desk and yelling at his staff.

When they got to their assigned berthings, they had already laid out their plans for the next day. They were giddy to get started. The hunt was on and even though they were working for the Empire, it felt great to be useful once more.