“Trotter!” yelled Patter into his intercom, “Get in here.”

  The office door swooshed open and Trotter raced in with a tablet in his paws.

  Patter pointed to his monitor and some displayed graphs, “What is happening on Dirt?”

  Trotter answered promptly, “Viewers on FedNet had the impression that hunts were boring but that was stopped once we cleaned up Dirt’s orbit. Hunts are definitely more exciting now. Unfortunately the boring impression remains, despite all our media efforts.”

  Patter stared at Trotter, “And?”

  “And it looks like Dirt is settling down to match the performance of other hunter planets,” said Trotter, “See, the trend line dropped but is now ticking along steadily. We will have recouped our investment in only a few months.”

  Patter frowned. “We have some additional costs with the use of Hortense and his clean up crew. That is another issue we will address later, now that Hortense has told us he will not doing any more cleanup work on Dirt.”

  Trotter said, “We think it is due to the death of his brother in the accident with the MSPC. Tragic.” There was no real concern in Trotter’s demeanour.

  “Yes, indeed,” said Potter, also with no concern about Hortense, before addressing his more important concerns, ”We need this line to go up! Up means better returns. How do we turn around the interest?”

  Trotter paused while both considered options. He said, “What about a VIP hunt? They always cause a spike in interest.”

  “We’ve had them already,” sighed Potter, then brightened up, “What about Sir Nitram? Hasn’t he been pestering us for his turn at a VIP hunt?”

  Trotter consulted his tablet and answered, “One hundred and forty three messages so far, plus others from his acquaintances advocating on his behalf. I believe he is very interested.”

  Patter hopped off his hover chair and paced around his desk. Sir Nitram certainly wanted to go, but would HTI want him there? On the positive side, he had quite a strong following in the media. On the negative, his strong following was due to his rash decisions. His followers were evenly split between admirers and detractors that enjoyed watching a shipwreck in motion as his rash decisions ended in calamity, although he always arose afterwards with more popularity.

  “We can’t have him go down on his own,” said Patter, “How do we protect him from his - how do we say this? - ‘brave’ decisions?”

  Trotter spoke while consulting his tablet, “We can’t use Harrick. His Hunter Safety Team has become pretty famous. There is even some unofficial channels promoting the line ‘Hunt safer with the HST’, complete with lots of footage of their retrieval efforts.”

  Patter shook his head in agreement, “Exactly. I also suspect Harrick may not let Sir Nitram act as Sir Nitram wants to act. If we want ratings, we need Sir Nitram in his finest ‘brave’ form.”

  Trotter stopped his study of his tablet and looked up, “Why not use Imperial Security?”

  Patter’s first response was not to get the Imperials involved, yet…

  Patter pondered aloud, “Sir Nitram is pretty well connected in the Imperial Court, being a distant relation of the Emperor and son of the High Chancellor. He would have access to his own Imperial Security team. We have seen them in action a number of times during Sir Nitram’s exploits.”

  Patter jumped back into his hover chair and said, “Yes! Trotter, answer Sir Nitram’s latest message and let’s make this happen. Co-ordinate a complete media campaign about the high demand for hunts on Dirt because it is so exciting! Let’s make it happen.”

  Trotter’s tablet pinged. “And here’s another request from Sir Nitram’s father. Perfect,” said Trotter as he left Patter’s office, composing his reply.

  ****

  Preparing for Sir Nitram’s hunt took two weeks. There were media presentations on Sir Nitram, his excitement at the upcoming hunt, the gear he would be using, documentaries on Dirt and possible dangers he would hunt and more.

  Harrick, Hendon and Clinton were sitting around the table in their quarters, relaxing after another efficient hunter retrieval when Clinton spoke up, “This is interesting.”

  Harrick looked up, while Hendon kept sipping his bottle of Fizzy. When Clinton said ‘interesting’ it normally meant dangerous or a problem.

  Clinton turned around his tablet to show the others, “Sir Nitram is going to hunt on Dirt. It will be another VIP hunt.”

  “Sir Nitwit will be a problem,” said Hendon slowly, using Sir Nitram’s unofficial nick name, “He doesn’t listen to instructions.”

  “We haven’t been set as his escort,” said Harrick, “I’m not rostered as the HuntMaster. Who will be going down with him?”

  “His Imperial Security team,” said Clinton, “The news and FedNet have non stop specials and features about the whole hunt.”

  “Imperials,” sighed Hendon, “Just what we need.”

  “What’s wrong with Imperial Security?” asked Clinton, putting down his tablet.

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  Hendon said, “Imperial Security are very well armed and, in the right situation, are very dangerous. But they are not good at showing initiative or finesse. When was the last time they were in any sort of action where their enemy fought back?”

  Clinton answered, “We’ve been at peace for five hundred years. I have never seen them in action.”

  Hendon sighed, “Do you believe everything you read on FedNet?”

  Harrick spoke up, “There have been many occasions when the Imperial forces have been in action over the years. In fact the action has increased over the last few decades. Too many citizens see hunters being idolized and the rationale for hunting is embedded in society. If someone is declared ‘Non Compatible’ they are free game. Some groups decide that a government official or company executive is non compatible and suddenly a small insurrection starts. Imperials are called in, and…”

  Hendon added, “They create a desert and call it peace.”

  “That’s very poetic, Hendon,” said Clinton, “Isn’t that from one of our classics?”

  “I read,” said Hendon, “I don’t show off.”

  Harrick interrupted the sidetracked discussion, “With Imperials providing security, we will have to be ready to do a retrieval. Hendon, brief the troopers. The Hunter Safety Team is now a premier security team with unparalleled experience in a hostile battle space.”

  Hendon added, “But this will be different. The Dirtlings know who we are and we have developed a bit of unofficial professional courtesy. We let them defend against hunters and they stay back when we retrieve the dead and lost. When any of the Dirtlings forget, we remind them. Forcefully.” Hendon grinned in memory.

  Clinton looked between Harrick and Hendon, waiting for more information. Impatiently he asked, “How will this be different?”

  Harrick answered, “The Imperials will follow Sir Nitram wherever he wants to go and will respond with overwhelming force to any interference from the Dirtlings. The Dirtlings will respond in kind. Understand?”

  Clinton remembered their various firefights when a situation got out of hand. His eyes opened wider and he said, “Oh.”

  “Oh, indeed,” said Hendon, “Oh.”

  ****

  Scree had scheduled the day of Sir Nitram’s arrival and the following day as ‘Hunt Free Days’. Any hunters at the HTI moon base had the two days accomodation free of charge and could partake in the specially discounted activities. That allowed everyone to see and experience Sir Nitram’s entourage. And, of course, send back all the unofficial footage to their friends and family via the daily HTI communication drop pod sent back to Federation space.

  A lot was riding on this special VIP hunt to restart interest in hunting on Dirt. After all, her performance bonus depended on this!

  Scree was in the very full landing bay as Sir Nitram’s shuttle landed. A special media contingent had arrived the day before and were set up to record everything. Even the famous reporter Sugen was there.

  Toff and Nelson stood with Scree at the end of the specially placed red carpet and they could hear Sugen as he commenced his recorded broadcast.

  “Here we are at the luxurious HTI resort, specially built on the moon of the newest and most exciting hunter planet, Dirt! Hunting Tours Incorporated, the friendly hunting company, has made sure everyone, hunters and their friends and family, have an enjoyable trip.

  “Today we have an extra special treat. Sir Nitram, the infamous Imperial philanderer and adventurer, has been permitted to participate in a VIP hunt. As you all know, only non military hunters are allowed on new NC planets, but a VIP hunt is special. Sir Nitram will be accompanied by his Imperial Security team and the glorious Lady Natalia, Sir Nitram’s equally infamous friend.”

  Sugen gestured to his video operators and the scene zoomed in on the opening shuttle doors, “Here he is! Those impressive blue tentacles and dangerous metallic hair spikes impress the whole court. Lady Natalia is travelling beside him, floating on her specially designed hover belt, so her mini statuesque body can be eye to eye with Sir Nitram. Her elegant fur has been dyed the very popular iridescent emerald green, offsetting Sir Nitram’s natural regal blue skin.”

  Sugen stepped forward as Sir Nitram walked down the red carpet, “Sir Nitram! I see you have finally earned a special VIP hunt.”

  “Yes,” drawled Sir Nitram slowly, “It took some time, but HTI realised they needed my experience to show everyone the wonders of hunting on Dirt.”

  “Where do you plan to go?” asked Sugen.

  “That will be revealed at the appropriate time,” said Sir Nitram, “One thing I can assure you of, it will be exciting!”

  “I see your Imperial Security detail are with you. Will that impact your activities?” asked Sugen, glancing quickly at the armed and menacing Imperial troopers carefully watching for trouble.

  “Not at all,” reassured Sir Nitram, “They are there in case any Dirtlings interfere with my little hunt. Lady Natalia and I are treating this as an important bonding moment.” Sir Nitram looked at Lady Natalie floating beside him with affection.

  Turning his attention to Toff, he dismissed Sugen with a wave of his tentacle.

  Toff stood tall and said, ‘Sir Nitram. Lady Natalia. Welcome, welcome, welcome!”

  “Yes, Yes,” said Sir Nitram, “Lead us to our rooms.”

  Nelson gestured to Sir Nitram and his entourage to follow him to their recently renovated ‘Imperial Suite’ which was a combination of six rooms into one suite.

  As the entourage left the landing area, Sugen spoke into the video, “And there you have it. Sir Nitram and Lady Natalia are here to go on a little hunt on Dirt. They will rest for today. Tomorrow they will beam down somewhere on Dirt. We will bring you more news as the excitement happens!”

  He turned off his equipment and the operators downed their cameras. Sugen looked over to Scree who shook her head slightly in acknowledgement of a job well done.

  All the onlookers drifted back to the entertainment areas or their rooms and the media team was left alone in the landing area. Sugen sent the extra crew back to their rooms and sat on some cargo containers with his main video operator, Lurch.

  “What do you think?” he asked Lurch, “Will we get anything worthwhile?”

  Lurch answered in a rough voice, “Yeah, Boss. The visuals are good. We had some great shots of the Imperials looking menacing. One even gave me a great glare right into the camera. As I turned away he winked at me.”

  Sugen smiled, “I wonder how they’ll go on Dirt? Have you seen the footage of the Hunter Safety Team? Harrick and his team look like the real deal.”

  Lurch answered, “It would be great if we could do a story on them.”

  “Yeah,” said Sugen, “The HST is getting pretty strong interest. But I was thinking more about the fights they have had on Dirt. Some of those creatures and the Dirtlings look pretty dangerous.”

  “Do we have any cameras down there? During Sir Nitram’s hunt, I mean?” asked Lurch.

  “Well,” said Sugen cautiously, “Didn’t I tell you WE were going down? Just you and me to get some on the spot footage.”

  “No,” said Lurch nervously, “No, you did not.”

  Sugen looked up at Lurch. Sugen was only four foot tall and looked a lot like a Dirtling monkey. Lurch was seven foot tall, a green humanoid with large tusks and pointy ears.

  “I spoke with the network, “ said Sugen, not quite meeting Lurch’s eyes, “They said if we are on the spot, the footage could prove to be a marvellous credit creation factory!”

  “You can’t spend it if you’re dead,” Lurch said seriously.

  “We have heavily armed Imperial Security,” said Sugen, “And we are getting an off site bonus, as well as danger pay, and if the footage is good, HTI promised us a special performance bonus.”

  “Maybe,” said Lurch, accepting his fate, “But I’m visiting the Trader’s Market. If I’m going on a hunt, I want to be armed.”