The young Kirk was slow to respond as Bones dug around in the man's front pocket.

"Uhhhh..."

"Jim, he's dead. We can't stand around and contemplate his life. You saw what happened. Damn it"!

A pile of circuitry and smashed plastic. The tricorder had been crushed when the man hit the ground. There was no way the man's death could be replayed without its data, but there was also no way to fake his identity to buy a ticket. Bones looked back at Kirk's stunned face.

"For chrissake, you pulled the trigger yourself. Grab the wallet."

Kirk obeyed. They needed the money, after all. How else could they afford a shuttle back to Earth? Starfleet was his only option. The bitcoin market had crashed three years earlier in 2243 when duotronic computers provided a trivial method of computing private keys, giving criminal elements the upper hand. The network quickly changed the algorithm but the damage was done. A total of twelve bitcoins were drained from billions of accounts. The loss of entire fortunes overnight prompted riots and martial law at Starfleet colonies across the galaxy. Tarsus IV was no exception, with the food crisis still ongoing due to a lack of funding for the Federation supply ships.

The two men dragged the body into a nearby alley and took off towards the spaceport.

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