Nelson hurried off down the corridor leaving his crew-mates behind in the exploration ship. The message he had received on his communicator instructed him to report immediately to HTI headquarters in The Capital! A digital ticket for the journey via the GET was attached to the message and Nelson didn’t want to wait. He had never been to the capital city of the Federation before. It was said that the city had a name of its own but everyone in the Federation of Planets just called it “The Capital”.

  The transit station was constructed from majestic bright pink stone, metal and glass with the busy Galaxy Express Tunnel in the centre. The actual GET looked just like a short tunnel - or a long pipe - about twenty feet in diameter and one hundred feet long. At the gate was a special booth whereby each traveller placed a limb or tentacle or longer part of their body and then passed their ticket or communicator across the data reader. An encoded strap was placed around the limb and the traveller then moved onwards into the GET.

  Nelson joined the crowd of travellers in line for their GET bracelet and looked around like a tourist. The first and last time he had been on the GET was when he, Heron and Byron had travelled here from their home planet and then they were stuck exploring for the next five years in the wildernesses beyond the Federation. Luckily they had discovered Dirt and through his good work Nelson would now be getting an appropriate reward for all his work.

  “Put your arm in!” a voice said loudly at him.

  Nelson awoke from his day dreaming and saw a large ten foot tall reptile creature with the special GET Assistant’s cap on his small head looking at him unhappily.

  “Sorry?” Nelson said slowly.

  “Put your arm in the hole and wave your ticket over there,” said the assistant, pointing at the hole in the reader and the flashing red square placed directly in front of Nelson.

  Nelson put one of his arms in the hole and fumbled with his communicator, finally displaying his ticket and passing it in front of the reader. The red square changed to green, he heard a click and a small amount of pressure on his arm.

  “Now pull your arm out and make your way forward,” said the bored assistant.

  Nelson pulled out his arm and followed the crowd moving towards the GET.

  ‘Tourists!” said the assistant under his breath and glared at the next person in line who might dare to betray his ignorance.

  The line moved efficiently and Nelson was soon only a few people away from the entrance. This end he was approaching was the entrance and the other was the exit where travellers from all over the Federation had arrived. All he could see in front of him was a black hole of the entrance. As the creature in front of him walked forward into the GET, a blue light enveloped him and he disappeared.

  Nelson blinked and then moved forward as a friendly assistant pushed him gently on the shoulders, “Move along, Lad.”

  Nelson stepped into the dark entrance, the GET analysed the destination on his arm band and within moments he felt a slight twinge in his belly and tingling in the extremities of his feet and hands. Then there was light in front of him and a conveyor belt moved him onwards. He stepped off the conveyor belt and looked around him.

  This was a completely different transit station, grander and larger than the one he had left. While it had been cloudy and grey at the station he had just left, here the sun was shining brightly through the stained glass dome above him. He tapped his communicator and the mapping software flashed an arrow in the direction he was to proceed. Nelson followed the flashing arrows on his wrist to his meeting with destiny.

  ****

  “Sir,” Patter’s secretary’s voice announced through his desk communicator, “Your appointment is here.”

  Patter pressed the button below the communicator, “Which one?”

  “Nelson, the explorer guy,” answered his secretary.

  “Then bring him in!” he announced in a loud positive voice he knew his visitor would hear in the foyer.

  A moment later Nelson nervously followed the secretary into Patter’s office.

  “Greetings!” said Patter in a loud friendly voice as he moved his hover chair around the desk and towards Nelson. Nelson stopped and nodded his head in greeting.

  “Sit down. Sit down,” said Patter indicating the multi-form friendly stool in front of the desk and waving at his secretary that she could leave.

  As the secretary left, Nelson rested on the stool and looked at Patter.

  “Was the trip long, boy?” asked Patter condescendingly.

  “No, Sir,” answered Nelson, “It all went well.”

  “Good. Good,” said Patter ignoring Nelson’s answer.

  Patter reached to his his arm and pressed his wrist communicator. A display of the recent headlines appeared in the air between them displaying the news of the new Hunter Planet.

  “Did you see the news, lad?” Patter asked, “It’s great news indeed!”

  “That’s great, Sir,” said Nelson.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Patter steered his hover chair beside Nelson and spoke confidentially to him, “Nelson, you have been of great service to us. We need bright young people like you doing their best for the Federation. Why, without you, so many planets would be declared Off Limits and there would be a dearth of Hunter Planets! And you know what that means, don’t you?”

  “Ummm, less hunts?” suggested Nelson.

  “Exactly!” boomed Patter, “Less Hunts. That then leads to less people able to have a legal outlet for their aggression and before you know it civilisation would collapse. So it is people like you that are saving the Federation!”

  “Yes, Sir,” said Nelson.

  “But all good work deserves its reward, don’t you agree?” said Patter.

  Nelson nodded slowly.

  “Have you looked at your credit balance lately, my boy?” Patter asked.

  “No, Sir,” said Nelson, glancing at his communicator.

  “Go on,” encouraged Patter, “Have a look. I’ll wait.”

  Nelson quickly navigated his communicator to the area which displayed his credit balance, then his fingers froze. That was a lot of zeroes in his credit balance.

  “I told you we reward success, Lad,” Patter said.

  The credit balance Nelson saw was enough to buy not only a house on his home planet, but a mansion. Admittedly it wouldn’t buy a home on The Capital, but it would leave him very well off at home.

  Patter continued, “That is all well and good, but what will you do now?”

  Nelson stopped and thought quickly. He hadn’t actually considered his next step.

  “Go back to the IES and see if I can find another planet?” he suggested.

  “I don’t think you can,” said Potter sadly.

  “Why not?” asked Nelson.

  “Do your fellow explorers know about the report you sent to us?” Patter replied.

  “No,” said Nelson cagily.

  “That’s what we thought,” said Patter, “When they do realise that we received the report first and had the best chance to buy the planet and that you have received a reward they haven’t shared …”

  Nelson thought about the new situation. What Patter didn’t know was that the report HTI and the IES received wasn’t the full report. Perhaps it would be better if he just moved on and was forgotten and started a new line of work.

  “How about we give you a new job? When Dirt opens up as a new Hunter Planet, we have a great range of jobs starting to run the operations. We could offer you a generous package to be the Transmission Officer on the HTI orbiting station. How about that, eh?” said Patter.

  “Generous package?” asked Nelson.

  Patter pointed at Nelson’s wrist and it pinged with the new message sound. Nelson looked at his messages and read the new job proposal. That was double what he had been earning as an explorer, it included an away from home allowance and as it was based on the HTI Orbiting Station it was a very comfortable situation indeed.

  “And don’t forget the tips from successful hunters,” added Patter.

  The offer was excellent. This truly was an appropriate reward for someone of talent like Nelson. His only fleeting concern was how to let Heron and Byron know.

  Patter knew what Nelson was thinking and said, “Just send your friends a message that you been given a great opportunity. We will send you to a special training course for the next six months right here in The Capital, all expenses paid of course, so you won’t have time to see them before they are off on their next exploring mission.”

  An all paid training course in The Capital for six months! Wow!

  “And we will even send the boys a special small bonus as a thank you from all your friends at HTI,” added Patter graciously.

  Nelson was stunned. So much good news at once.

  He looked at Patter and said, “Thank you, Sir. I won’t let you down.”

  “That’s just what I expected,” said Patter, “Now go on out and my secretary will give you the details you need for your training course and your stay in The Capital.”

  Slightly dazed, Nelson stood up, nodded respectfully at Patter and left the room.

  Patter pressed his communicator, “Honey. Give Nelson the information packet and help him on his way will you?”

  Patter manoeuvred his hover chair over to the window and looked over The Capital. Now that was the way to control loose ends. If a carrot is big enough it becomes a stick. That Nelson won’t do anything now to ruin his new career at HTI.

  ****

  Byron and Heron had been lazing around at Chugalug’s home for a few hours after their initial debriefing and Heron had dozed off into a deep sleep.

  “Ding!” announced Byron’s communicator in the middle of his game, killing his character right at the dangerous part of the game.

  “Bah!” said Byron as he looked at the message, “CONGRATULATIONS FROM HTI”

  Surprised, Byron paused his game and went into the message.

  “Congratulations from Hunting Tours Incorporated. As the tireless and brave explorers who have discovered a new planet that can now provide immense benefits to the people of the Federation of Planets, we feel you deserve a reward.

  We know that the knowledge of a job well done and the eternal thanks of a grateful Federation are reward enough, but we have added a small token of our appreciation to your Federation credit balance.

  Once again, thank you from all of us here at Hunting Tours Incorporated and the people of the Federation of Planets.

  Yours sincerely

  Patter, Director, HTI”

  Byron opened the attachment which displayed the size of the “small token of appreciation” and his mouth fell open. Numbly he tapped Heron on the head. Heron rolled over and ignored him.

  Byron tapped him on the head harder and said, “Heron, wake up.”

  “What is it, Byron?” asked Heron groggily.

  “Read your messages,” said Byron and refused to say anything further.

  Heron sat up and tapped his communicator and looked at his messages. His body tensed as he read the same message Byron had already seen. He looked across at Byron who nodded back at him with a huge grin.

  “We can’t accept this,” said Heron sadly.

  Byron’s smile collapsed into a frown.

  “Why not?” he asked.

  Heron sighed, “It’s a bribe.”

  “But it’s so many credits!” replied Byron.

  “That’s why it’s a very effective bribe,” said Heron, “If we did accept it, how would this affect our future explorations?”

  “It wouldn’t affect me,” said Byron bravely.

  “What if we found another planet like Dirt? How diligent would we be in conducting the tests knowing that if it was declared Off Limits we would just get the standard IES bonus. But if the planet failed, we would get a ‘small token of appreciation’ of ten or twenty times that.”

  Byron looked up at the ceiling and considered the problem and thought how he would have treated Dirt if he knew about the ‘token of appreciation’. His honesty won the battle.

  He sighed, “You’re right again, Heron. We can’t accept it.”

  Then he brightened, “Do we have to send it back?”

  “We can’t,” replied Heron, “We don’t have their details, but more importantly it may cause all sorts of problems. Leave it there for now until we speak to the Internal Affairs people. Hopefully they will have some suggestions.”

  Heron’s communicator pinged again.

  “It’s a message from Nelson,” he said.

  “Good. I wondered what he was doing,” said Byron.

  Heron ignored Byron while he read Nelson’s message and then he leaned back into the lounge and sighed.

  “How is he going?” prompted Byron.

  Nelson sat up and looked at Byron, “Nelson is leaving us. He has taken up a new job working for HTI and is starting a training course in The Capital straight away.”

  “That’s great news for Nelson!” said Byron cheerfully.

  “I think it means he took the bribe, Byron,” said Heron sadly.

  “Oh,” said Byron understanding what Heron was saying, “So we won’t see him again?”

  “Probably not, Byron. Probably not,” said Heron sadly.