Chapter II: Of Rehashed Plots and Blatant Traps

Early woke to one of the nastiest headaches he’d had in a long time. The Alliance ship, big damn ship, had come alongside him, pulled him up, and the Alliance soldiers were on him before he’d had a chance to do anything. He’d thought about running, but to where? He’d been in the middle of open space with nary an asteroid nor a planetary body he could hide in. He’d gotten out of worse jams then being captured by some purplebellies though. He figured he’d find something out.

The floors on all sides save one were of a dull white metal. Besides a slit in the wall that indicated where the toilet and sink pulled out, there was just a metal frame that was evidently supposed to be a cot of some sort. “Very nicely furnished,” he said to himself as he looked around. Separating him from the rest of the ship was a blue energy field. The Alliance sure went to a lot of trouble to make sure they had the shiniest equipment in the Verse.

A guard was standing outside that cell too, staring in at him. “Get up,” he growled, as Early began to stir. Before the Bounty Hunter had fully come to his senses, the forcefield had been lowered and two guards were dragging him out of his cell. Down one of those sterilized hallways, looked like a hospital but didn’t smell like one. They hauled Jubal to a room, threw him inside and closed the door behind him.

It looked like sort of an interrogation room. A single table with a few chairs sat in the middle of the room. A large reflective mirror sat alongside one wall. There was also another door along the eastern wall across from Early. It was this door that opened after a moment and dashed any plans Early might have considered for making his break.

In walked two men, rather nondescript for the most part, save for the blue gloves they wore on both hands. “Good morning Mr. Early,” blue glove one said.

“Is it morning?” Early said blandly.

“It is,” Blue Glove One repeated. “Sit,” He gestured towards one of the c