And to Dust We Shall Return.

not that good an actor

Nim drummed her fingers impatiently. The tapping of her claws on the plastic timed to the beat of the comm systems dial tone. After ten rings the screen lit up and the image of a human man, balding and slightly disheveled, squinted blearily at Nim. He fumbled for his glasses.

'Commander Nim.' He said, with an air of perfectly insincere sincerity.  'If you're calling about that shipment of Tamlek wine I can assure you it was obtained by entirely illegal…'

'I don't care about the dang wine Morten.' Said Nim impatiently. 'I need a favor.'

 'Oh really?' Said Morten. His demeanor sliding effortlessly from used car salesmen to fixer in a budget crime novel. 'Well, I might have a few of those in stock. For a price.'

Nim rolled her eyes. Morten fancied himself as a black-market dealer of sorts. In both information and bulk lots of cheap wine, among other things. Unfortunately, in an age where most information was freely available and capitalism was more or less defunct for most union worlds, his services as a wheeler dealer were seldom required. That didn’t stop him from trying though. And he saw it as a great personal insult that Nim always refused to arrest him for any of his petty crimes. 

'For the last time I’m not going to put you in the brig Morten.' She sighed.

'But the wine! I properly pinched it’. Stole it’ off some freighter on Tamlek 6…'

'Then why does it say union standard rations on the bottles?' 

 'Ugghhh! You’re no fun at all you know that.' Said Morten, pouting. 'I put a lot of effort into that job y'know.'

Nim glared at him.

‘Fine.' said Morten, without enthusiasm.  'Waddya want?'

'You lived on Kepplar 4 for a while didn't you?'

‘I didn't live there.' Morten huffed 'I was temporarily relocated.’

 'To your brother's couch.'

'Well it's not my fault my ex-wife got the house.' He frowned in a sullen sort of way.  'Piece of advice for you commander. Never marry a Lawyer.'

 'Morten!'

'Fine so I lived there for a bit. What’s it to you?'

Nim leaned forward in her chair. Maybe now they could get somewhere. 'Did you ever come into contact with a shapeshifter while you were there?'

'A shapeshifter?' Said Morten, taking off his glasses and chewing one of the arms. 'Hmmm nope. Don't think I ever saw one. Heheh But how could you tell??'

 'There was nothing in the records? No newsfeed articles?' Nim paused. 'No underground gossip?'

Mortens face lit up for a moment, then clouded over.  'Trust me commander, if word had got around there was a shifter on Kepplar 4 I'd be the first to know.' He flashed a grin that Nim guessed was meant to be sly. An effect that was rather negated by the fact that he wore thick braces.  'Do you know how big the bounties are on those things?'

'Perhaps you could remind me?' Said Nim.

 'depends..'Morten waved a hand dismissively. 'Why you want to know.'

Nim smirked. 'That’s classified. But thanks anyway. Maybe I’ll send you a cease and desist or something.'

'Could you send one to my brother too? He lost his penthouse when the colony was attacked and now he's sleeping on my couch.'

 'Goodbye Morten' said Nim. And the screen went black. 

She leaned back in her chair and sighed. As a general swindler, Morten was hopelessly inept. But he did have one thing going for him. He was a people person, if only because where ever people were, there was usually at least one juicy scandal. But If not even someone as nosey as Morten knew about the shapeshifter then she must have kept herself pretty well hidden.
If she had been there at all.