Boom Town

by Craig Martelle

  “I’m worried about your granddaughter,” Thaddeus said.

  “Don’t be worried. I value her life more than my own. If I doubted the ship in any way, I would’ve kept her away. She is stubborn and sneaky, but those are traits she inherited from me,” Cornelius said. “Her survival was never in doubt. Mine, on the other hand, would have been forfeit if not for your Glakridoz.”

  Thad looked at Maximus.

  “Is that what he is?”

  Cornelius nodded. “No one is sure where they’re from. I doubt they’re from Ungwilook. Well-suited to the planet, however. Lucky for us.”

  “Are you from Planet Glakridoz?” Thaddeus asked the animal.

  Maximus stared at him with a perfect poker face.

  “I will remain planet-side for a few days. If Ruby hasn’t contacted me by then, I will put the Red Can in orbit until she does,” Cornelius said.

  Thaddeus bid the man farewell.

  “We must be heading back to Darklanding, I think,” Mast said. “Do not worry about Ruby Miranda. I believe she is in good hands.”

  * * *

  “What the hell is going on down there,” Thaddeus Fry said as he circled the runway. His flight path took him over a large portion of Darklanding. “Why are there so many people on the streets? Has news of the mine collapse reached the public already?”

  “They must very muchly know. I have counted twenty-seven emergency response crews that passed us on their way to the mines,” Mast said. “These people seem to be happy. Why would they be happy about such a tragedy?”

  “They’re drunk. It’s like Mardi Gras down there.”

  “What is a Mardi Gras?”

  Maximus huffed and did a little dance, shaking his head in time with music only he could hear.

  “It’s a big party.” Thaddeus watched the pig-dog-thing, thoroughly confused at its behavior. “Are you trying to tell me you’re a party animal?”

  Maximus stopped bouncing and rolled his eyes. He went back to his corner and lay down to sleep, something he did often when annoyed with Thaddeus.

  Thaddeus landed the Calico and parked it in a hangar. Mast helped him rush through the post-flight checklist. “We need to check in. Assuming I still have a job.”

  Late-night revelers and roving bands of troublemakers crowded the streets of Darklanding. “The collapse doesn’t mean anything. There are still more exotics exposed to mining crews than there ever has been…” a man said as Thaddeus and his friends passed by.

  “Forget the Mother Lode. Meet us at the Cheap Easy,” a woman said to a group.

  Two streets away, someone fired a blaster. Thaddeus ran toward the sound with Mast and Maximus close behind him. All they found was an empty street. “I don’t see any discharged battery packs or damage. Probably someone firing in the air.”

  “Why would someone do that?” Mast asked.

  “It seems like a lot more fun when you’re drunk,” Thaddeus said.

  “I do not think intoxication and blasters go well together,” Mast said.

  “You already know more about blasters than most of these people.” Thaddeus hurried to the Mother Lode, increasingly worried about what he would find.

  * * *

  Thaddeus stepped off the trolley without waiting for it to stop and strode toward the front of the Mother Lode. A group of men and women had one of his tractor tires balanced vertically and were attempting to roll it up the stairs. What they thought they were going to use it for inside the saloon, he had no idea.

  “There is someone inside that tire,” Mast said.

  Maximus barked his agreement.

  The tractor tires Thaddeus used for exercise didn’t have rims. They were open in the middle. Decades ago, his grandparents had turned one into a sandbox for little Thaddeus. Flipping one of the two-meter tires would have been impossible with a metal rim.

  Two of the men rolled the tire as a woman went round and round inside, squealing in delight.

  “Hold on, Kelly. We’re going to hit the stairs again,” one of the men said.

  “No, I can’t. I’m going to puke!”

  The men howled with laughter and rolled the tire as fast as they could toward the stairs. It collided with the steps and fell sideways. Kelly tumbled out, covered in vomit.

  “Why is she still laughing? That smells horrible,” Mast said.

  Thaddeus walked up behind the first man and kicked him hard in his gluteus maximus. The man rocketed forward, landing on his face. The rest of the group turned. Thaddeus pointed at them. “You better pray this isn’t my tire you’re puking in.”

  Men and women ran in all directions. Kelly staggered to the steps, leaned on her knees, and dry-heaved until tears came. “I’m sorry, Sheriff. It’s just a tire and we weren’t hurting no one.”

  “Go home. Right now,” Thad said, then took the steps to the Mother Lode two at a time. He looked at the fire damage and knew he had made a mistake by not listening to Shaunte. All he had done was hike up and down mine shafts and nearly get his friends killed. He hoped what he had learned about the mysterious ship and Cornelius Vandersun was worth it. He also hoped Ruby escaped the system before SagCon realized what was happening.

  “Mast, come look at this. Fire damage. Looks intentional, which makes it arson,” Thaddeus said.

  His deputy studied the front of the Mother Lode carefully but said nothing. Maximus sniffed the charred surface.

  Thaddeus pushed through the front doors and stared at a dozen patrons engaged in a drinking game at a table normally reserved for Pierre. A few of them glanced at him, then went back to what they were doing. The piano wasn’t playing. There was a trashed drum set on the stage and the place stank of sour liquor and ash.

  “Pierre, these jokers are at your table,” Thaddeus said.

  “It’s good to see you, Sheriff. I’ll need you to pay up your tab if you have a chance.”

  Thaddeus strode to the bar. “Since when do you let people sit at your table? And I thought you didn’t like drinking games.”

  “I’ll take any customer I can get right now. Those guys aren’t afraid of Dregg’s bully-boys because they are Dregg’s bully-boys. I’m not sure if they’re here waiting for you or just to prove they can go wherever they want,” Pierre said.

  “Where’s Sledge and Penelope? Shaunte told me they were in town,” Thaddeus asked.

  Pierre cleaned a glass with a towel. “They don’t work here. I don’t know where they’re at right now. If that big fella came in here, I’d let him run a tab. A lot less shenanigans when he’s hanging around. Assuming he hasn’t passed out.”

  “Slide your account reader over here so I can pay out. Then give me a whiskey, and another in ninety-three seconds.”

  Pierre smiled. Thaddeus couldn’t be sure, but he thought the man had tried to hold it in without success.

  He walked across the saloon floor and faced Pierre’s table. “No drinking games before five.”

  “Says who?” The man was big and heavily muscled, but also extremely drunk. He looked like he hadn’t slept much for the last couple of days. His friends didn’t seem to be in better condition.

  Thaddeus grabbed the man’s wrist. With his other hand, he lifted the man’s right elbow higher than his shoulder. This brought the man up out of his chair and onto his toes. Thaddeus slid his right foot back in an aikido move. The combination of his footwork and joint manipulation swung the drunk tough guy around in a circle and off his feet. Thaddeus gave him a little bump with his hip to make sure he lost his balance.

  The man crashed to the ground with a curse that died when the air exploded from his lungs.

  The rest of the men at the table stood, shoving their chairs away.

  Thaddeus released his victim and faced the others. He got the first man with a left jab and the second with a right cross, dropping them both to the floor. He retreated and side-stepped to improve his position. The others came at him without proper consideration for Mast or the pig-dog from Glakridoz.

/>   Maximus leapt to the air, slamming his forefeet and snout into the biggest man’s chest, who went down screaming.

  Mast drew his blaster and aimed it at the ceiling. “Party’s over! Last call for alcohol! You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here! Hit the road jack. Muchly hit the road!”

  Thaddeus stepped into his next opponent, hooked him under the arm, and threw him over his shoulder. He spun away just in time to avoid a flying chair. This was what he was good at. He’d had lots of practice since arriving in Darklanding. Any moment now, Pierre would fire his shotgun and the brawl would be over.

  Mast slammed his blaster down on a man’s head. Another man shoved him back. Maximus latched onto the man who’d pushed Mast, shaking the man’s leg side to side and snarling.

  Thaddeus fought two more opponents. Pierre remained behind his bar, slowly cleaning out the inside of a beer mug. The once-fierce saloon proprietor kept his eyes down, almost as though pretending the fight wasn’t happening.

  Thaddeus wrapped his fire coat over the head of an opponent, then punched the man in the face. He kicked another person, unsure if it was a man or a woman. Two men tackled him. He leaned on his back, twisting and scrambling to get free of their combined weight. Eventually, he came out on top, standing quickly and walking away.

  His opponents lined up to face him with their bloodied knuckles and broken noses. He strode behind the bar and snatched up the shotgun. He didn’t know why it was more effective than his blaster, but that didn’t matter right then. He racked a round into the chamber and fired one shot at the ceiling.

  The crowd of tough guys backed toward the front door. “This ain’t gonna stand. Dregg is gonna be pissed.”

  “That sounds too bad for Dregg,” Thaddeus said. He waited until the men were gone, then faced Pierre.

  “What the hell is going on with you?”

  Pierre pointed at a bloodstain on the floor behind the bar. “They killed the kid. I just don’t feel up to fighting anymore.”

  The sheriff hesitated, pinching his eyes shut at the loss. He liked the kid. There was no reason for him to die.

  Thaddeus unloaded the shotgun, checked the barrel for obstructions, then reloaded it until it was cruiser ready. That meant there wasn’t a round in the chamber and it had to be racked to be used. It was a safer way to store the weapon, and also allowed for the dramatic effect of racking a round when needed.

  He looked around the saloon. Without the piano and the crowds, it felt like there had just been a funeral. He didn’t see any of the girls or hear any squealing or laughing from upstairs. It felt like the Mother Lode was closed.

  “Not many people are brave enough to come here, not since Dregg and his crew busted it up the second time,” Pierre said. “I never liked the kid, especially since he refused to change his name. Now I miss him. And his stupid paintings.”

  “So why don’t you close the doors? Why not give up?” Thad asked. “You haven’t even tried to clean up the place. Who comes to a pathetic dump like this?”

  “Well, it’s strange you ask. I never really liked having the Gloks in my establishment. Thing is, they really got attached to the Tigi Miss Dixie provided. So when her greenhouse got burnt down and the supply of peaches for the Tigi went up in smoke…” He fought down strained laughter. “I thought they’d be gone for good. Now they’re the only people who come here. They pay me a small fee to sit at their own tables. I’m not really sure what they’re doing, except maybe telling sad stories about how they miss their Tigi.”

  Thaddeus watched them enter the room. They gathered around several tables and sat down very quietly. Each one of them spoke while the others listened. Occasionally they laughed or cried or made other gestures he didn’t understand.

  “What are they saying?” he asked.

  Mast did the hand movement and body lunge that was roughly equivalent to a human shrug. “They are telling stories. All of them are sad that there is no more Tigi.”

  “That’s not what humans would have done in the same circumstance,” Thad said.

  “We are different in that way,” Mast said. “I am very sad about the young Pierre. And it seems not good that the Mother Lode has no customers.”

  “I need to talk to Shaunte. Can you look for Sledge and Penelope? We are going to need their help.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Posse

  Thaddeus took off his hat and held it as he waited for Shaunte to look up from her desk. It seemed like it had been years since he set foot in her office. Everything about Darklanding had changed. He couldn’t imagine the spaceport without the Mother Lode.

  “Nice of you to check in,” Shaunte said. She avoided looking directly at him.

  “I heard about Pierre the younger.”

  Silence held the room like judgment.

  He shifted his weight and heard a board creek underneath him.

  Shaunte brushed a strand of hair to cover one side of her face, a strange movement that set off warning bells for Thaddeus. “He’s not the first person to be murdered in Darklanding. He might’ve been the first that was unavoidable. I really don’t have the energy to fight with you right now.”

  “I’m back and I’ll see justice is done,” Thaddeus said, cringing at how weak the words sounded. Pierre the younger had been a kid, an artist who didn’t belong there. “I was told the heavy for the new beer hall did it. He brought his goons in here to break the place up. I’ll need some help, but I can handle him.”

  “I doubt that. You haven’t seen this guy. They call him Dregg. He’s probably as big as Sledge, but all muscle and meanness. Most of his crew is just as bad. Even if you can get Sledge sober, you’re outnumbered fifteen-to-one,” Shaunte said.

  “Let me worry about that.”

  “Fine. Go take care of it. Try not to get yourself killed. Don’t come back to my office unless I send for you,” she said.

  Stunned by her tone, Thaddeus started to leave when he saw something about the way she moved. He waited until she had walked to the edge of her desk, which was her normal cue that the conversation was over. She wasn’t standing straight and she moved slower than usual. Suddenly the way she covered one side of her face with her hair made sense.

  He stopped. “What happened to you? Were you here when they attacked?”

  “Well, Thaddeus Fry, when I didn’t have a sheriff, I had to go take care of things myself. I went over to the Cheap and Easy. It wasn’t pretty. I spent the last day and a half reviewing the contracts they signed in the city zoning laws. There is no legal way to put them out of business until their leases are up, which is in five years.”

  Thaddeus calmed himself. He’d been in battle many times. He’d been furious often. The sight of Shaunte’s injuries and his sudden realization that she was hiding them from him threatened to undo him. Someone was going to pay, and he thought it would be a tattooed bodybuilder named Dregg.

  Thad pinched his eyes closed, but not before a tear escaped and trailed down his cheek.

  * * *

  Thaddeus slammed the door behind him and stalked down to the Mother Lode saloon. There were a few patrons drinking. He didn’t recognize any of them. What he wanted was a few of Dregg’s men to beat up and send home with the message to get out of town.

  Mast moved to intercept him, holding both hands up in a calming motion. “You are muchly angry.”

  “You’re damn right!” He strode straight towards three men drinking near the broken piano. “You three work for Dregg?”

  The men jumped to their feet and backed away, hands raised submissively. “No, Sheriff. We don’t work for him. Haven’t been over there all week. Probably never go back. It’s not right what they did.”

  “They have half-credit pitchers twice a week,” one of them said. The other two shoved him away.

  Thaddeus grabbed the closest man by the front of his jumpsuit and hauled him onto his toes. “You know where the Cheap and Easy beer hall is?”

  “Well, yeah, but I’l
l never go there again. There are a bunch of assholes over there. I don’t care how cheap their beer is. I think one of the girls there gave me herpes!” the man said.

  “I’m not telling you to go over there and get hammered. Just tell Dregg that I’m coming for him. Tell him he’s gonna wish he was never born,” Thaddeus said.

  The men fell over themselves in their haste to leave.

  “I will muchly be going to get Mister Sledge and your ex-wife,” Mast said.

  “Don’t call her that.”

  Mast and Maximus hurried through the front door. Two other patrons paid their tabs and left. When Pierre went to the backroom to check his stock, Thaddeus was left alone.

  He stomped up the stairs and banged on the door of Leslie Stargazer. “Are you in there, Leslie?”

  “I’m here if you’re going to war. If you’re just looking for a piece of ass, then go away,” she said.

  “It’s going to be a war. Is Chelsie up for it?”

  The door opened. Leslie looked angry and a bit intoxicated. She tried to pull on a stolen fire coat like the one Thaddeus had requisitioned when he first arrived in Darklanding. She had one arm in and the other kept missing the hole. Thaddeus tried to help her, but she pulled away angrily. “I don’t know where Chelsie is. She couldn’t take what happened to the young Pierre. Left the day after it happened and hasn’t been back.”

  “What about the other girls?”

  Leslie narrowed her gaze on him. “You disgust me. Why drag them into this? None of them were prior military like Chelsie and I.”

  “That’s not what I was asking. I just need to know where they are so I can keep them from being targets. If they’re out of harm’s way, that’s one less thing for me to worry about.”

  Leslie nodded. “Smart.” She cursed, jabbed her arm at the sleeve several times, and finally forced it through. “Hold on, let me get my blaster.”

  Thaddeus shook his head. “Why am I not surprised you have a blaster.”

  She produced a shortened rifle with a sling.

  “Holy hell! That’s a bit more of a blaster than I expected.”