Nelson was on duty at the Matter Transmission Station or MTS for the first of the public hunts. Decorations were spread throughout the area and Toff himself was present to greet the first public hunting party. This group had all purchased their gear from the resort stalls and Uncle Bob was there in person to wish them well.

  Uncle Bob was from a cat like feline race that stood upright and had a wide variety of fur colours, patterns and shades. Uncle Bob was a larger example, standing almost six foot tall and quite wide as he was very proud of his success. He preened his whiskers, smiled and purred enthusiastically to the new hunters, who were gathered nervously around the MTS Room.

  “Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!” boomed Toff to the party of new hunters, but more precisely aimed towards the large crowd of onlookers. ‘Today is to be the first public hunt on this new planet. And you are the lucky ones, no?”

  The hunters nodded, excited to be getting started on their chance at this much celebrated experience. They had seen all the Tri-D adventure stories and documentaries all extolling the excitement and fun of these hunts. And to be the first ones on a new planet meant they should be pretty famous as they regaled their tales to the broader world afterwards. Two of them nodded at each other and bumped fist and claw in agreement.

  “And here is Scree, the HTI representative to provide some important background for your hunt,” continued Toff, stepping aside to reveal a rat like creature from the HTI Customer Relations Team, New Hunter Division.

  Scree cleared her throat and in a bored whiny voice read from the tablet in front of her, just loud enough to be heard by the hunters and the first row of spectators. Those further back could see the speaker on a Video Screen above them with subtitles in the standard Federation script, “You are the first hunters to go on the planet Dirt. Congratulations. Remember to retain your communicators at all times. Whether you have the Classic or Universe 7, either is required to get recalled back to this shuttle. Every revolution this shuttle makes of the planet you will be in range and receive a notification asking if you are ready to return. You may decide to remain for up to a week. At that point you will be returned automatically.”

  She looked up from her tablet to make sure everyone was listening. She noticed one hunter looking distracted and clicked her fingers with a loud SNAP. All the hunters and many in the crowd stood straighter and paid attention.

  “Ahem. Now you are back with us, you will need to know the following. The planet you are to be hunting on is called by the locals ‘Dirt’.” Some in the crowd sniggered until her stare quietened them, “And they have been declared Non Compatible. That means anything on the planet is able to be used as a trophy. Do you confirm that the features of all your equipment and weapons have been explained to you?”

  The hunters all nodded with varying degrees of confidence. Uncle Bob nodded and said, “We have provided a little manual to all hunters. It was sent to every hunter’s Global Identity mailbox.”

  “Excellent,” replied the HTI representative, ticking a little box on her tablet, “So without further ado, I wish you well.”

  She looked back up at the hunters without any emotion, nodded, and stepped back.

  Toff stepped up beaming, “Well! Well! Well! Let us go! Now you, you and you, come come come onto to the Transmission Pad,” he said as he encouraged, pushed or pulled the confused hunters onto the rings in the centre of the Transmission area. There were nine rings of various sizes arranged in a rough square and each ring glowed a faint yellow indicating they were in standby mode.

  Nelson was monitoring the MTS control panel, waiting for each hunter to take their places. As each hunter placed the majority of their body and gear inside the ring, it changed colour to green.

  Toff examined the hunters and looked at the quiet, interested crowd.

  “I see you are all ready?” he asked the hunters, who nodded and noticed their rings were green.

  Toff nodded to Nelson, “Good luck. Enjoy your little hunt!”

  Nelson pressed the blue button and the hunters are dematerialized in a blue shimmer until the transmission pads were empty.

  Toff smiled at Nelson and turned to go when he was stopped by one of the spectators, “Can we see what they are doing on the ground?”

  “No, no, no,” answered Toff nodding his head in the universal sign of negation, “They appear on the ground, and we fly over them and around the planet.” Toff explained by moving his hands as if around a large ball. “Then when we come back to this place, our equipment can detect them and bring them back. Easy!”

  The spectators shook his head sadly agreeing with Toff. Toff then quickly added, “But that means while they are away experiencing their little hunt, you get to enjoy the resort! Look. It is happy hour! Be happy. Go, go!”

  Soon the transmission room was empty save for Toff and Nelson.

  Toff turned to Nelson and said, “Nelson. You arrange your shifts so that you are here every third rotation. We navigate around Dirt every ninety minutes or so depending on whether we move either side to send down other hunting parties in different locations. We must be ready when they return.”

  Nelson nodded, set the transmission station to standby mode and left to arrange with his team who would man the MTS each rotation.

  ****

  Curious, Nelson was next to Janus, one of his team manning the MTS, for the first check in on a hunting party. He nodded at Janus who touched the transit button, “Greetings. It’s Matt here. Are you ready to return?”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Nah, we’re fine,” came the answer back from one of the hunters.

  “Good. We’ll call you next rotation,”

  Nelson nodded, “That was straight forward. Can you see them on the MTS scope?”

  Janus brought up the scope and looked down on the planet to see the hunting party was in a field, filled with lots of creatures. Nelson said, “Those are cows. One of those were the subject of the failed tests.”

  “Oh,” said Janus as he looked closer. Just before he was out of range, he saw one of the hunters approaching a larger ‘Cow’ that had large horns. The hunter looked back at his team mates and held up his universe 7 phone. Looked like he was going to take a self photo.

  “They seem to be having fun,” he said and Nelson nodded.

  The MTS was set back to standby and they left for the next circuit.

  ****

  Nelson was with another of the MTS Technicians at the next rotation. Jillian was confident, but betrayed some of her nervousness when her tentacles quivered every time Nelson spoke.

  “Now, this is all pretty straight forward, just like you were trained at our courses,” Nelson said reassuringly. Jillian shocked her head in agreement and a toothy smile. Nelson gave an inward shiver at the exposure of sharp teeth, but he had worked with Jillian for the last month so knew she was very friendly.

  Jillian took a deep breath and pressed the communicator button, “Greetings, it’s Matt here. Are you ready to return?”

  Nelson nodded and whispered, “Perfect” to her.

  “Help! Get us back. Now!” the hunters cried in a babbling unison.

  Jillian froze at the panicked reply and Nelson stepped beside her and pressed the communication button, “Come again, hunters. Are you ready?”

  “YESS!” cried the hunters, so Nelson quickly pressed the blue transmit button.

  The Transmit pads glowed re as they were in use and the hunters reappeared in a blue shimmer. Six hunters went down and six returned. That was always a great start.

  The hunters all burst into cheers and they let out a shout of exultation.

  “What a hunt!” they cried, “Better than the Tri-D adventures.”

  Nelson looked at the hunters. They were all battered and their gear was all battered or missing altogether. And one hunter had gained a new set of wings.

  Nelson flipped the clear lid covering a small red button and pressed the button quickly. This notified Toff to come immediately.

  “Are you all OK?” Nelson asked as Jillian started thawing out next to him.

  One of the hunters laughed and said, Yes. We are. We are just very happy your called us when you did.”

  “We last saw you in a field of cows. That looked pretty safe to me,” said Nelson.

  “Cows? Ah right, like the one from the initial interviews. I can see why they failed. They’re pretty stupid. Anyway, Kingston here,” he said pointing to the creature dressed in red with his new wings, “He wanted to get a selfie with the large cow and we weren’t too sure he should approach it. It looked pretty big to us.”

  Kingston piped up, while flexing his new wings, “Yeah, I had the Universe 7 and wanted to take a photo with the largest cow in the field. It was a little different as it didn’t have the bag and four teats underneath his rear legs, but hey, it’s big and we’re big hunters!”

  Nelson said, “I think that’s the male cow. Locals call it a bull.”

  “Really,” said Kingston, not really interested, “Anyway, I told the others I would be perfectly safe. After all I was wearing my red safety gear and we were all loaded with powerful weapons. I even had my cape I could use to scare it off!”

  Nelson could see where this was going. He had seen many of these situations on the Dirtling broadcasts.

  “And so I approached and took out my Universe 7. It was bit dull so I turn on the light enhancer and picked the image button. My Universe 7 flashed and I got a great photo,” Kingston said proudly, but then his friend piped in.

  “And the flash triggered the ‘Bull’ who charged Kingston and ran him over. The bull then faced Kingston, snorting a frosty breath through its nostrils.”

  Kingston piped in, “So I waved my red cape to calm him down and it drove the bull even crazier. It charged me and I was flattened. The Bull then stood over me so I lay very still. I wasn’t feeling the best.”

  Kingston’s friend pointed at another hunter and beckoned him to join in. The other friend sheepishly replied, “Well, that bull was pretty dangerous so I shot it with my laser pistol. I only set it at 2 EU and killed it straight away.”

  Kingston’s friend then added, “Which caused the bull to fall down. On top of Kingston. Who died.”

  “Lucky we have these great pills!” said Kingston excitedly, “While the others were pulling me out from under the dead bull,”

  “Which was very hard as that bull was heavy,” the others interrupted and Kingston waved away their interruption.

  “So I took the red pill, you know, the one with external effects,” said Kingston and stood tall, flexing his new wings out to their full extent, pushing a couple of his fellow hunters back.

  With his tentacles on his hips, and his shiny head pointed upwards, he announced, “and now I have these magnificent wings!”

  His friend stepped forward to shake Nelsons limb, “Hey. Thanks for getting us out. Once we killed that bull the whole herd of cows panicked and was charging towards us. We beamed out just in time!”

  The other hunters all shared their appreciation with Nelson and Jillian while Kingston was absorbed in admiring his new wings.

  Toff had heard most the discussion and now stepped up to Nelson and Jillian, gently setting the MTS to standby.

  “Very good, very good,” he said to the hunters, “Over there is your HTI representative to discuss your little hunt. You will find some media people too, looking for a good story. Please make your way carefully through the exit.”

  Kingston grinned and flapped his wings up and down, showing off to his friends. One of his friends said to him as he left the MTS room, “Hey man, that Red Bull gave you wings!”

  Toff beckoned to Nelson and Jillian to the chairs, suggesting they all sit for a chat.

  Jillian sat dejectedly and said softly, “I panicked. I could have caused all their deaths.”

  Toff patted her on her back and said, “No, no, no. You did not send them there. You did not do stupid thing with Dirtling creatures. You will do better next time, yes?”

  Jillian agreed and shook her head with determination.

  “Good,” Toff said, getting up from his seat, “All good for next hunt, eh?”

  Nelson stopped Toff rising and said, “Sir, what are the pills Kingston was talking about?”

  “Did you not read of these?” he asked, “They were in your briefings.”

  Nelson look embarrassed.

  “Ha. You missed something. Good. Make you pay attention next time,” Toff said.

  “Pills. They are an amazing nano technology to bring people back from the brink of death. By brink I mean dead very recently and in the second before their spirit leave them they can take this little pill. The pills may not always work, but when they do they unfortunately have different side effects.”

  “Side effects?” asked Nelson, “Why side effects?”

  “You see how we are very diverse in our Federation of Planets, No? All so different. The Nano technology is one pill for everyone! Very fair. Red pills give external side effect, Blue, internal and white mental effect. Have you not seen the popular Tri-D shows, demonstrating how many lives are saved by these pills?”

  Nelson knew about those shows and avoided them. Basically they were popular for those who point at others wth differences. The appeal of getting new features, despite the near death experience, was somehow attractive to many who were leading otherwise uninspiring lives.

  “No wonder Kingston was so excited,” he said.

  Toff nodded, “He would have been less excited if the pills failed or the side effect was less exciting. HTI will be happy with the publicity!”

  With that, Toff stood up with Nelson and Jillian following and left the MTS room, ready for the next hunters.