My name is Charlie Cole and I have no idea how I
got into this miss.
I’d
been forced to make planet fall a few days earlier, a bad power transfer coil
caused by a hastily made FTL jump due to an unusual interest in my cargo by a
pair of Confederate Corvettes. I was
able to drop jump but only barely and I think I lost a filling on the ride
in-system. The only system available was
sector 62549 by Confederate terms, the ass end of nowhere by my terms. Luckily, or maybe not, there were two
settlements on the smallest planet of the system. They were the prototypical Rim worlds;
backwards and decidedly low tech. It was
one of the charms of the Rim, at least to folks like me. It was, however, in my current state of
disrepair, a significant inconvenience.
That
had been two days ago. My cargo, hot as
it was, still sat in the hold waiting for delivery to, a by now, very upset man
by the name of Clarice Star. Mr. Star
was not a man you wanted upset with you.
It just wasn’t good for business, or your continued existence. Of course neither were the three guns I had pointed at my back.
“Now
gentlemen, I believe what we have here is a little disagreement. Are guns really necessary?”
“They
are when you cheat us of our money and our women”
So
there it was, a pickle of a situation contrived of boredom, my skill at cards
and the desire of the local women to try something different. It wasn’t my fault. Honestly.
I finished my shot of what the locals liked to call Scotch and raised my
hands in the air. I turned slowly, very
slowly.
The
three men facing me were the local country bumpkins. One’s shotgun still had its safety on and the
other two were so nervous the barrels of their guns were bobbing in time with
their rapid pulse. They wore what every
man seemed to wear in this backwater town; brown and lots of it. Brown homespun pants, or coveralls in the instance
of two of these fine upstanding young men, and brown button down shirts. Two wore hats, I knew to cover their bald
spots, and the other wore his hair long and stringy. They were not the finest representatives of
the male species or of proper hygiene.
I
leaned back a little on the bar and propped my elbows there. “Now boys how have I cheated you out of your
money?”
“You’s
gots to have cards up your sleeves. No
ones that lucky” their leader said.
“Now
Porkins,” he bristled at that and tightened his grip on the shotgun but I
continued, “It seems to me that I might not be as lucky as you are just plain
bad at cards.”
Probably
not the right thing to say, the safety on the shotgun clicked off.
“Boy,
I have a mind to put a hole in you right here and now” he said.
I
nodded. “I reckon you might but I’m
curious, which girls have I taken from you?”
The
boy, well I suppose out here he was a man but he’d seen all of probably fifteen
winters, known as Tommy grimaced. I
waited and noticed the bar patrons had moved back and created a semi-circle
around us, I caught the eye of a particularly stunning young woman. She smiled
demurely and I winked. Tommy noticed and
nearly growled.
“Ella
and she’s mine” Tommy said as he looked at the woman I had just winked at. He stepped forward and brought the barrel of
his gun to my forehead. A little spittle
appeared at the corner of his thin lips when he said, “You stay away from her.”
“Doesn’t
Ella get any say in this?”
In
response he pushed the barrel of the gun harder into my skull. We were so close I could count the stands of
peach fuzz beginning to stand out on his chin.
How cute, this boy was turning into a man in front of my very eyes.
The
revolver had only two shots in it and he’d have to pull the trigger three times
before the first one fired. I
smiled. He growled. I’ll give the boy credit, what he lacked in
brain speed he more than made up for in physical speed. He whipped the barrel of the pistol around to
cold cock me and he nearly got me with all that young energy of his. I stepped
forward and closed the little distance between us and rammed an open hand up
into his jaw just above his throat. It
actually lifted him up on his toes a moment before he came crashing down to his
knees with a squeal of pain. On his way
down I grabbed his wrist and twisted it wickedly to the side. He screamed as a tendon popped and dropped
the gun. I released him and caught the
pistol by the barrel before it hit the ground.
I
looked up as Porkins raised the shotgun to his shoulder. I unlocked the revolvers cylinder and let the
bullets fall to the wooden floor. I raised
my hands in mock surrender, the pistol now hanging on a finger by the trigger
guard.
“Whoa
now gentleman, I’m not trying to start trouble.
Just came in here to enjoy a drink before I check to see if my shipment
arrived on that last transport. No need
for trouble.”
Tommy
cradled his injured wrist and scrambled back towards Porkins and the other boy.
At
that moment the doors to the saloon swung open.
Stark sunlight lit up the dark wooden interior for a moment,
illuminating the stains on the floor and the overall ragged condition of all
the furniture. A tall rangy man wearing
a black wide brimmed hat strolled in. He
was not what you called a dangerous looking fellow but more than made up for it
with narrow eyes that would’ve looked far more suitable on some bird-of-prey
than on a man built like him. The crowd
parted for him.
He
glanced at me and frowned like I was the boy always getting into trouble. He looked at Porkins.
“Son,
put down that scatter-gun. If you shoot
him with that it’ll take Winslow a week to clean up the mess.”
“We
wouldn’t wanna be causing Winslow trouble” I agreed.
The
Sheriff fixed me with that stare and I closed my mouth. He held out a hand and I tossed him the gun.
“What’s
this all about Sam?”
The
third man, who had been almost hiding behind the bulk of Porkins, stepped
forward. He puffed himself up and hooked
thumbs into the suspenders of his coveralls.
I stifled a laugh but couldn’t keep the smile off my face. I noticed Ella in her slim form fitting dress
smiling as well and winked at her.
Probably shouldn’t have done that.
Porkins
stepped forward, ignoring the Sheriff, and cocked back the hammers on the
double barrel gut buster. “You stop that
cowboy, you aint beddin any of these here girls ‘specially Ella-May. You just leave them alone.”
I
glanced at the Sheriff who grimaced and then stepped between me and the barrel
of the gun. With one finger he reached
up and pointed the gun away from us. I
sighed a bit. There was a hushed silence
in the room, everyone waiting for the Sheriff to declare his judgment.
“Porkins
put the gun away” he said.
“But
he tried to rape poor Ella” Porkins said.
The
Sheriff glanced at me and I shook my head.
He looked over at Ella who looked away, a red cast to her cheeks, blonde
bangs slipping down to cover her eyes.
The Sheriff sighed, grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and twisted. Porkins released it and let the Sheriff have
it.
“Porkins,”
the Sheriff said with a sigh, “go home son.”
Porkins
looked at Tommy and then at Winslow and then at the floor. He shuffled his bulk towards the door and
then stopped, looked at me and said, “Don’t let me catch you with any of these
here girls Cole or the Sheriff won’t be able to help you next time.”
I
decided it was best to keep my mouth shut.
The Sheriff seemed relieved at my newly found discretion. He turned back to Tommy and Sam. “I’ll need your guns for the night boys. You can pick them up from my office in the
morning.”
Sullenly
they handed over their weapons and then they too shuffled towards the
door. Luckily for us all they had no
parting words. Keeping my mouth shut
once had been pure will power, a second time would’ve been impossible. The Sheriff turned towards the crowd and with
a glance broke them up, he turned back to me.
“Too
much to hope you might be leaving tonight?”
“What’s
on that transport?
“Not
what you need,” he glanced at my pistol hung low on my left hip, “Any chance
you’d be giving that up.”
I
shook my head. “Buy you a drink?”
He
nodded wearily and stepped up to the bar.
The bartender served us a mug of beer.
“You
always this much of a pain in the ass Cole?”
“Sheriff,
I’m actually trying to behave myself.”
The
Sheriff chuckled and downed his beer.
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