by Ken McConnell
The Ranger stood alone on the dusty street a big iron on her hip and a breeze across her blond hair. Her figure was slim but sturdy enough to carry a weapon twice the legal size for a side arm.
The outlaw stood forty paces away from her, tall and lean like a mighty tree. He was wanted on ten worlds for killing, raping and robbery. His name preceded him wherever he wandered in the outer rim. Dead Eye Drey was a cold as space outlaw with notches on his blaster holster, one and nineteen more for every person he had killed.
His lean face was dark and obtuse. A black goatee hung from his chin like the one bad eye that hung lower than the other. His lazy eye was not natural born. It was the result of his anger at the universe, the badge of honor for having survived a duel over his long since dead brother. The good eye focused on the Ranger, the dead eye focused on the ground where she would be buried.
It was mid-day and the twin suns fought each other for supremacy in the cloudless sky.
The Ranger’s blue eyes squinted as she stood stone-like before the outlaw. There was a small crowd gathered along the dusty street to witness the duel. They knew the deeds of Dead Eye Drey and they came to see him fell another hapless ranger. You don’t put twenty people in the dirt without gaining the rueful admiration of townsfolk. Some people just liked to see a killing. Others held dim hopes that someone would take down old Dead Eye Drey. None gave the little Ranger with the big gun good odds against a known killer.
The outlaw’s gun hung from his hip like a sledgehammer. His gloved hand fingered the ivory handle with slow steady strokes. He was quick on the draw and his aim was deadly. He always waited for the other person to draw first. It was the only sporting thing to do. Otherwise the fight was over before anyone could blink. Drey was not known for his sportsmanship, he was known for his ruthless aim and his dead eye.
The Ranger shifted her stance slightly. She wondered who would be the first to move. She also wondered if there was another man hidden in the crowd who would take her down if she managed to fell the outlaw. Her partner was still ten minutes out and would not make it in time to watch her back. It was now or never.
She flexed her trigger finger and felt a stiff breeze lift her up on her toes. The outlaw did not budge in the wind, a silent executioner ready to burn a hole in her heart and kick dust over her face on the ground. She was not afraid to die. The ten shots of hard liqueur she downed in the cantina before heading out to the street numbed her good enough to do anything. Standing up to evil was in her blood, she hailed from a long line of lawfolk.
The two combatants stood alone in the street for what seemed like an eternity to all those in attendance. A dust devil twisted around them and continued down the street. The howling wind blew through the metal and wood buildings and continued on its way across the barren moon.
When she drew, she did it without thinking. Her side canon fired before she had time to aim it.
Dead Eye Drey fell back hard, his chest exploded in a spray of blood and bone. He was dead before he hit the dirt, his side arm drawn and hanging limp from his stiff fingers.
The crowd was stunned. They stared at the Ranger as she holstered her big gun and turned to walk away. Her job done, she walked back to her silver steed. A second tarnished Scrambler lowered from the sky and parked beside the ranger. The sleek gull shaped wings of the single seat fighters were like those of a graceful bird.
The canopy popped open and another female Ranger climbed out. She nodded towards the dead man in the street. “Damn it Devon, I told you I wanted to watch this time.”
“Nothing to see, Hap. Another killer laid to rest.”
Hap slapped her friend on the back causing a plume of dust to spew off the leather jacket. They headed towards the cantina arm in arm. The crowd was already picking over the dead body, taking his boots, his gun, his wallet and his pants. His shirt and long coat were worthless both bearing a large hole. The under taker brought his aircab around and parked it near the body. It took him and two other citizens to pick up the body and toss it into the back of the rusted cab.
* * *
Inside the cantina, the two Rangers were seated with their backs to the farthest wall. They surveyed everyone in the room, sizing them up as either a threat or not. Nobody bothered them and nobody knew their names.
A barkeep approached their table and set two drinks down. “Nice shooting Ranger. You always carry that canon?”
Devon cracked a dirty-faced smile. “Only to a gun fight.”
The man didn’t grin back, just nodded and turned to head back to the bar. The other patrons were looking at the Rangers with disapproval on their dirty faces. Some whispered to themselves about the fight and how it seemed to have been unfair.
“The locals don’t seem too happy to have Dead Eye Drey off their streets,” Hap said, looking around.
Devon picked up the drink and took a long sip. She pointed to the pictures that hung from one side of the cantina.
“This is Drey’s hometown. His brother was killed over a dispute in a card game here about ten years ago.”
Hap looked over the paintings then she cast a skeptical eye at her friend. “Maybe we best move on Dev.”
Devon looked around the smoky cantina and noticed several people coming in from the bright street. She reached down to her blaster with her right hand and unsnapped the leather cover strap. Hap noticed the commotion and slid to the left, so she could get up in the clear.
“Here it comes,” Hap commented.
Three men came over to their table and stood before the Rangers. They were thin as rails and dirty as animals.
“You killed our local boy Ranger, we’re not going to let you leave here alive. You so much as step a foot out of this hole and one of us will shoot you dead as Drey.” He looked at Hap and nodded.
“Get your dirty mugs out of my sight. Threatening a peace officer is grounds for arresting the lot of you. We’ll leave when we feel like it or they’ll be planting more than one sorry sack of shit today.” She took a swig of her drink and caressed the trigger of her hip canon.
Hap stood up and leaned into the trio. “Move along gents, this town don’t need any more bloodshed.”
They looked hard at the brunette with dark weary eyes. Her hand rested on her piece and they could feel the laser sharp stare from Devon. The one who spoke shook his head, snorted a few choice words under his breath and turned to leave. Hap followed them for a few steps, until she noticed the fourth person who had been standing behind the others. It was an elderly woman in a shawl who moved past her quicker than she could reach out to stop her.
Her partner blocked Devon’s vision, she didn’t see the old woman until she spun around behind Hap and leveled a mini-pistol at the Ranger. The gun fired, its barrels spun and spat six rounds into Devon’s chest faster than the eye could blink. By the time Hap had turned around to knock her down, it was too late. The Spinning cylinder was smoking as it wound to a stop. Devon slumped back against the bench and fell over to her gun side.
The three men heard the gunfire and turned, their weapons drawn. Hap was on top of the old woman, as she pushed her to the floor. She knocked the empty pistol from her hands wrapped her left arm around the woman’s neck bringing her blaster to the woman’s temple before the men could get off a shot at the second Ranger.
“Put your guns on the floor and back out of here, or I put a hole through granny’s head!”
The men complied, set their guns down and backed out into the street. The cantina had cleared out save for the bartender, who had pulled a short barreled riffle from under the bar. Hap put her gloved hand to the throat of the old woman and hollered at the bar tender, “Get out or she’s dead as her son.”
The bartender raised his rifle up and set it on the bar. He slowly came out from around the bar and headed for the door.
Hap pulled the woman’s arms back and slapped composite cuffs on her wrists.
“How did you know who I was?” the woman asked, when her windpipe was freed.
Hap pushed over the wooden table and shoved the woman to the ground without respect. “Shut up, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of a Stellar Ranger. You have the right to remain silent, I suggest you exercise that right. Lest I get twitchy and blow your fool head off.”
The woman looked over at the still form of the Ranger she had shot.
“I had to do it. Shoot me if you must. My life means nothing anymore.”
Hap pulled Devon’s legs up onto the bench and checked her pulse. She was alive. Hap took a glass of water from another table and emptied it onto Devon’s face. Devon woke up, tried to sit up, felt the pain in her chest and decided to stay put.
“What the hell happened?”
“We were tricked. You took six shots, you ok?”
Devon felt the tan shirt at her chest and could feel the torn fabric and the irregular pieces of lead impacted in the breastplate. The other piece of hardware she only wore to a gunfight was body armor. Hap ripped open Devon’s shirt and removed the shaped piece of armor. The six bullets made a perfect circle around where her heart would have been. The skin under the plate was bruised and already turning black and blue.
“That’s going to hurt for a while,” Hap said. She tossed the plate down before the woman on the floor.
The woman started weeping, her gray hair cut in a bob, fell in front of her eyes.
Devon still could not get up without help. Hap propped her up and fastened her shirt to cover her bruised and bare chest. They had to get out of the tavern and into their ships before the town rushed them. It was not going to be easy.
“How many people are waiting to take a shot at us?” Devon asked.
“I reckon they think you are dead, so maybe not so many. They’d like to have Mrs. Drey here though.”
Devon looked down at the old woman still bawling. “Now I know where Dead Eye got his killing instinct.”
She looked up at Devon with tear stained cheeks. “You killed my son, If I had a gun in my hand I would shoot you again.”
Hap back slapped her hard, “Shut the hell up!”
Devon slid down to the ceramic tiled floor on her knees and stuck her blaster in the woman’s face. The large cold barrel pushed up against her wet cheeks.
“You’re going to call off your people before we go outside. If they try anything, I’m killing my second Drey family member today.”
The woman stared at Devon with hot, angry eyes. But she said nothing.
* * *
Hap stepped out into the bright light of the dusty street. She had the Drey woman in front of her, hands tied. Hap had her blaster to the woman’s head. Mid-day heat was blurring her vision, causing puddles of wavering water to appear where there was only ruddy dirt. She wished she had brought her star glasses on this fateful day.
“Gilbert, Sonny, don’t shoot!” Mrs. Drey called out.
Hap looked around in every direction for someone with a rifle. She saw several townspeople loitering across the street but they did not appear to be armed. The two Scramblers were still parked about ten paces away. Shiny metal skin reflected the yellow sand and the twin stars in the clear sky.
Dead Eye Drey’s body had been removed from where he was felled by Devon’s single shot. The under taker’s aircab was parked nearby, ready for more customers. Hap pulled the Drey woman with her as she backpedaled to the Scramblers.
She made it to her Scrambler with no sign of the three men from the cantina. Unlatching the canopy, she helped the old Drey woman into the back seat of the tiny starfighter. The street was still largely deserted but Hap knew there was scheming under the surface. She strapped her prisoner down and turned to face the street.
A small group of dirty ranchers began moving towards her. Hap stepped off the starfighter and stood square before the group. They were carrying various hunting riffles loosely by their sides. This was it. They would attempt to prevent her from lifting off and returning the fugitive’s mother to the Ranger station.
“Stand back citizens, official Ranger business.”
The group stopped and slowly raised their riffles.
“Ranger, you can’t get us all. Let that woman go or we’ll take her by force,” the leader demanded. He was the same man from the cantina. He looked much more imposing outside, with three other mates to back him up.
“This town has killed one Ranger on this day, do you really want a second death on your heads?”
The men looked at each other briefly before the leader spoke again, “So be it. Let the woman go.”
Hap saw a thin shadow slip behind the men. She looked away as if in thought and then drew her blaster and fired true and deadly at the lead man. His riffle dropped to the ground as he clutched his chest. The next man got off a shot and winged Hap’s left arm before she put a smoking hole in his head. The third and fourth men fell from shots to their backs. In a moment there were four dead ranchers and two wounded Rangers on the dirt street.
Devon let her gun fall loose to her side as she swaggered past the bodies. Her chest still ached and she was becoming weary of this place.
“Let’s get out of here before we wind up killing everyone in town.”
Hap held onto her arm to stop the bleeding. She holstered her weapon and let Devon wrap a scarf around the wound and cinch it down. Hap winced in pain and then drew a thin smile like a joker card.
“Come now Dev, you know you love a good gunfight.”
“Another day my friend, another day. Let’s get back home. I need a drink in a place they won’t try and shoot me.”
They mounted their steel steeds and fired up the powerful engines. Slowly the silver winged ships moved back from the cantina’s rough adobe walls and rose into the late afternoon sky. The undertaker tended to the dead and the town moved on with its business as the Rangers thundered away into the cloudless red sky.