A knock at the door interrupted Heron and Byron’s gloomy thoughts.

  Chugalug looked up from his reading of the news feeds on his tablet and glanced at the door.

  “Who knocks at doors nowadays?” he asked.

  “I just press the door alert button,” said Byron.

  The knock was repeated.

  “Shall I?” asked Heron.

  Chugalug expressed with his arm and Heron arose and approached the door. With a silent whoosh the door slid open and a small shadow quickly moved inside. The door slammed shut and there was silence in the room.

  Heron looked around.

  “Did you see where he went?” he asked.

  “Who?” asked Byron.

  “Me,” said a voice from the lounge.

  Heron looked back to where he had been sitting and there was a short hairy person dressed in a dark cloak and floppy hat enjoying the very spot he had been in moments before.

  Chugalug smiled as Byron said, “Who are you? Where did you come from?”

  “I have been sent from Internal Affairs,” said the creature, “My friends call me X Bear.”

  “What do your enemies call you?” asked Byron.

  “It’s often too late for them to call me anything,” said X Bear with a sly wink.

  Heron groaned at the reply and said, “Are you from the Special Division?”

  X Bear looked up at Heron from under the brim of his hat and said, “I AM the Special Division.”

  “Hello, X Bear,” said Chugalug.

  “We meet again, my good friend,” replied X Bear pointing at the two explorers, “I gather this is Heron and Byron, our intrepid explorers who have discovered a new Hunter Planet?”

  Heron bristled at the accusation, “We did not recommend it be a Hunter Planet! We recommended it be Off Limits!”

  “I liked the Dirtlings,” added Byron.

  “Indeed?” said X Bear, “It sucks to be them now, doesn’t it?”

  Chugalug added his voice to the conversation, “I gather you have read the reports I sent you?”

  “I have indeed,” answered X Bear, “Very interesting.”

  “How so?” asked Heron.

  X Bear jumped up onto his feet and stood on the seat cushion with as much gravitas as his two feet of height allowed, “This may be the break we need to defeat Hunting Tours Incorporated!”

  “Yes!” said Chugalug happily.

  Byron and Heron just looked at X Bear inquiringly.

  X Bear sighed and sat back down on the chair, “Please understand. We know that HTI have been getting in at the ground level and obtaining inside information on new planets before anyone else. There have also been many reports of hunters on ‘safe’ hunts coming back injured or worse. Are you two sure that Dirt should be classified as Off Limits?”

  Heron and Byron nodded emphatically.

  “Good. This whole affair should blow up nicely. Hopefully we can catch them paying bribes this time,” said a satisfied X Bear.

  Heron and Byron both reached for their communicators and brought up the messages containing their small tokens of appreciation.

  X Bear read the messages and said, “That is a beautiful thing to see. Beautiful.”

  “But what do we do with the money?” asked Heron, “We can’t benefit from it as this is blood credits.”

  “Dirty money,” said Byron, remembering the phrase they had decided on earlier.

  “This is a completely Dirty affair,” said X Bear and sat down to contemplate the best use of the tokens of appreciation.

  “You can’t give it back,” he said after a few minute’s thought, “That would give you away. I would like you to spend it and appear to have accepted the credits.”

  “But …” said Heron as X Bear lifted his paw to stop Heron and continued.

  “But you don’t have to spend it on typical prize credits. Donate the funds to a worthwhile cause. Who do you know that is helping out the Hunter Planets?”

  “No one is,” said Heron, puzzled by the question, “Why would anyone help Non Compatible planets? There is no benefit for anyone as they will never join the Federation.”

  Chugalug spoke up, “That is not true. Did you know that one planet was changed from NC to Off Limits?”

  Byron and Heron looked at Chugalug in astonishment.

  “When was that?” asked Byron.

  “A long time ago, not long after hunting was made legal. A campaign was run by a collection of people for a planet which was NC and they were declared Off Limits by the Imperial investigators. This has not happened for centuries but the precedent is there, although it has been kept mostly hidden, “ explained Chugalug.

  X Bear added, “Hopefully Dirt will be another case we can get changed under Section 8.”

  “Section 8?” asked Heron.

  “Section 8 of the Imperial Exploration Code which created the IES and the planet classification system. It was overshadowed by the later Hunter Planet Legalisation Act which allowed this whole hunting thing to become such a cancer on our Federation,” answered X Bear.

  X Bear suddenly glanced at his communicator.

  “Gentle beings, I must go!” he announced as he stood up dramatically on the lounge, “Duty calls.”

  With that he leapt over the back of the lounge and exited through the door.

  Chugalug grinned at the explorers, “There, now we may see some action.”

  “How long will all this take?” asked Byron.

  “At least a year,” answered Chugalug, “Once a planet is claimed for hunting, there is lots of preparation and plans and paperwork to be done. Without some incidents occurring during hunting which will back our case, we will have little to go on. The bribes are just part of the bigger picture. We need to prove systemic corruption, not just one off eagerness.”

  “What will we do in the meantime?” asked Byron, surprised at how long the situation would take to be sorted out.

  “Why not stay here at IES Headquarters?” suggested Chugalug, “I could use some assistants and you could do some investigating for me while you are here.”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Byron looked to Heron who answered, “Sure. We can stay on here. I would rather be here to help in whatever way we can rather than be away from it all exploring the frontiers again.”

  “Welcome aboard!” said Chugalug cheerfully, “It will be great to have some friendly help.”

  ****

  Denton was once more standing next to his three dimensional Federation of Planets display with the area around the new planet Dirt highlighted when the door chimed and X bear walked in.

  “You called, Sir?” said X Bear without any preliminary pleasantries.

  “Yes,” said Denton slowly, “I hear you know all about this new Dirt discovery?”

  “Yes, Sir,” replied X Bear, “This could help us have an impact on the hunting trade.”

  “Indeed,” said Denton, reaching out a tentacle and pointing at Dirt, “I need you to pop over there for a visit.”

  “Understood,” answered X Bear. He had already prepared his personal interstellar stealth ship for this mission.

  “You expected this?” asked Denton.

  “I am ready to go once I leave here, Sir,” said X Bear, “There is no point preparing our case without first hand information. I have gathered enough initial reports which I am sure you have seen …”

  Denton nodded and waved his tentacles for X Bear to continue.

  “… So I knew that visiting Dirt was next. It should take about a year or so for HTI to get their hunt program ready considering preparations, repayments for influential people and marketing. I should be on site and integrated into society by then to see the impact and assess the results.”

  “Good,” said Denton with a slight nod, “Off you go then. I expect to hear from you in due course.”

  X Bear waved and let the room quickly.

  Denton slithered over to his desk and examined his desk communicator and begun to collate the data all his various agents had been collecting. He folded two of his tentacles and smiled grimly as he contemplated the case he had started to compile. Finally, he had a chance to do something about this abominable hunting trade.

  ****

  A few weeks later X Bear was in his tiny stealth ship orbiting Dirt. His trip had been uneventful and now he had to decide the best way to approach his integration into the Dirtling society for at least the next year or so. His ship was a special design which could land and take off from the surface of the planet. The modifications to do so were ridiculously expensive and increased exponentially as the size of the ship increased, but as he was only small and was willing to compromise on luxuries such as living space, his little ship was seventy percent engine and thirty percent storage and little room for him. He spent a few days in orbit listening in on the transmissions from the planet as well as direct observation via his long range detection equipment.

  X Bear’s impressions of the Dirtlings was quite positive. Even though there was a certain level of foolishness in what the Dirtlings did, he knew the rest of the Federation had their own stupidities as seemed to be standard for all intelligent races. He smiled as he remembered a familiar saying of his great aunt Loosie: “With great intelligence comes great foolishness.” This was normally repeated just before she clipped him behind the ears after one of his own foolish moments.

  He was certain Dirt was incorrectly classified Non Compatible, but he had to let events take their course with some loss of life before he could change the classification. Hopefully the damage would not be too great and the Dirtlings would understand the necessity in the years to come.

  After his lengthy examination, X Bear decided he would land in the centre of one of the busiest cities on the planet as the sheer chaos of the place should provide cover for his activities. Surprisingly he found that his appearance was very similar to a toy beloved by Dirtlings across the planet know as a “Teddy Bear” and especially one famous in their literature that wore a hat and jacket similar to his own. Of course, the story book creature’s clothes had no special features, whilst his jacket and hat provided protection against projectiles similar to much heavier armour. His modified his Security Agent’s case to look similar to a battered brown “suitcase” as seen in many places on Dirt. Although some of the transmissions showed teddy bears freely mingling within Dirtling society with little comment, X Bear felt he may stand out so he planned on starting his integration on a stealthy basis.

  He guided his ship down quickly and directly onto a train station in the middle of the Dirtling city of London. The speed of his descent matched that of the infrequent re-entry into atmosphere of small pieces of space junk or tiny meteors and he was not detected during his landing. The ship settled smoothly beside an exhaust vent on top of the train station and he manoeuvred it to a remote corner of the roof. Looking around he was satisfied that this area was rarely if ever visited so he pressed his ship remote control and the security protocols were engaged and a hologram of packing boxes covered the ship. If anyone did discover the ship and approached within ten feet X Bear would get a warning on his communicator and anyone coming closer would be in for a small surprise from his on board lasers.

  A line of small feathered creatures - “birds” or more precisely, “pigeons” according to his rapidly growing database - watched X Bear as he set up his ship and prepared to leave. He stared at them intently and said, “Now don’t go too close. I’ll be back.”

  As he turned away he heard a fluttering of wings, then a crack of laser fire. Turning quickly he saw a rapidly expanding cloud of feathers and the burned body of a pigeon fell to the ground at the edge of the ship.

  “Stupid birds,” he said as he went back to his ship and adjusted the settings, “If you fly too close you will get killed. I have updated the settings so you won’t get killed in future.”

  He pointed at the pigeons and warned them, “Stay away, you hear.”

  “Coo,” they said, bending their heads and staring back at him.

  X Bear pulled down the corners of his hat to shade his face from the night lights and looked over the edge of the wall surrounding the roof. Seeing the alleyway below was clear he leaped off the building and engaged his Anti Gravity belt. Anti Gravity belts had the ability to transport the user vertically up or down and any lateral movement had to be imparted before applying the belt. X Bear was very experienced and engaged the anti gravity belt just before he hit the ground, landed gracefully and moved off into the shadows.

  Behind him all the birds quickly flapped across the short distance from the wall and landed on this new nesting position.

  X Bear paused and carefully examined his surroundings. He hadn’t been seen.

  At the end of the alley was a busy street. Looking both ways before proceeding he stepped out into what was clear space and was immediately struck by a small object.

  “Oof!” X Bear cried as he was knocked head over heels and ended up in a pile underneath another creature.

  “Golly!” said the creature, “Where did you come from?”

  The creature stood up revealing himself to be a small Dirtling with a pale beige colour skin and black scruffy hair. He was grinning as he held out an hand to help X Bear up.

  “That’s a spiffy costume,” he said cheerily, “You look just like Paddington.”

  X Bear stood up and rearranged his hat which had remained firmly placed on his head. He looked up at the boy - as X Bear had correctly deduced - and gave him a glare.

  The boy looked embarrassed and immediately apologised, “Oh, I am so sorry. I didn’t see you. I was just running along and then you popped in the way and then, well, here we are.”

  X Bear used his official voice and asked, “Why were you running?”

  “Why?” asked the boy, “That’s what I do. All boys run. It’s fun.”

  “Even if you knock people over?” asked X Bear.

  “That’s part of the fun. It’s amazing how many new friends you bump into!” replied the boy, holding out his hand to X Bear, “Oh, I forgot. I’m Jonathan. Hello!”

  X Bear stared at the outstretched hand in front of him and glared back at Jonathan.

  “Oh, you are silly,” said Jonathan and grabbed X Bear’s paw and shook it heartily.

  X Bear quickly placed his free paw on his hat so it wouldn’t get shaken loose and retrieved his ensnared paw carefully.

  “Greetings,” said X Bear cautiously.

  “So,” said Jonathan looking admiringly at X Bear, “You have a great costume. Are you going to a show or something?”

  “This is not a costume,” said X Bear straightening out his coat and hat, “These are my work clothes.”

  Jonathan looked at X Bear and laughed, “No. Not the clothes. Your fur and stuff. It looks so real.”

  X Bear lifted his paw and beckoned to Jonathan to come down a closer. As Jonathan bent over and brought his face down to X Bear’s level, X Bear grabbed Jonathan’s ear with his paw and said, “Jonathan, this is NOT a costume. Have a closer look.”

  Jonathan’s eyes widened as he looked at X Bear from his much closer position. The bear’s eyes were real and matched the surrounding face and snout and the hairs on the face were individual hairs, and …

  “Phew,” said Jonathan, abruptly standing upright, “You are real. Your breath certainly is.”

  X Bear placed both paws on his hips and was temporarily silenced in wonder.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked X Bear.

  X Bear pondered and realising he was hungry, nodded his head.

  “Well come with me and we’ll get something to eat,” said Jonathan as he began walking back the way he had come. Realising that X Bear wasn’t with him, he turned around and came back.

  “Aren’t you hungry,” he asked.

  “Yes, I am,” replied X Bear, “But aren’t you at all curious about me being a real bear and not in a costume?”

  Jonathan looked around and knelt down next to X Bear, “Actually, I am VERY curious, but I am not allowed to ask those type of questions. That would be very rude. At school they tell us we shouldn’t say anything about other people’s skin colour, looks or anything. I figured it would be the same for you. Come on, I’m hungry too. Let’s go.”

  With that, Jonathan started running along the street away from X Bear. Looking around at all the people pretending not to see him, a pleasantly surprised X Bear ran after the boy, catching up once Jonathan had stopped in front of an open door to what looked like an eating establishment.

  Jonathan grinned as, puffing slightly, X Bear stopped next to him, “This is the Cafe. Don’t you love running?” and without waiting for a reply walked into the Cafe and went straight to a booth alongside the outer wall so they could watch the traffic moving by.

  X Bear sat opposite Jonathan with his suitcase between him and the window.

  “I know what you want,” said Jonathan before X Bear could say anything, “A marmalade sandwich.”

  What X Bear was sure he wanted was a nice cold beer that was a speciality on his home planet, but he was also pretty sure that his preferred brand wouldn’t be on the menu here. He let Jonathan order for him and he watched the people hurry about inside and outside the Cafe. Many of the passers-by saw him and had curious glances but when he met their gaze they quickly looked away. “What a strange place,” he thought as he sat down to enjoy this new treat of a ‘Marmalade Sandwich’.

  His mission to investigate the planet Dirt had begun.