Chapter Three: Leaving Cobalt Springs -Edited by John-

{2}Chapter Three: Leaving Cobalt Springs

{notice} {i}The Union Army Apache Gunship manufactured by Enroe was an excellent Orbital support craft. It had six SII Long Range Quon Plasma Cannons and could operate in almost any known environment. Originally designed as a fast aerial gun platform to support ground troops during orbital assaults, its QP Cannons could pour a lot of firepower very quickly into enemy ranks and fortifications. It was known as a superb battle walker and robot killer, but was not really designed to be a space fighter. {/i}

{i}To adapt it to that role, it was upgraded with four Sparrow ship to ship missiles, long range engines and bigger fuel-tanks; as well as beefed up ParaDim Shields. {/i}

{i}Until the last Y’All Invasion over 500 years before, the United Stars Army had only been used as a planetary defense force. After that war, the general public was eager to beef up military wherever possible and a clever Army General used that sentiment to get the Assembly to broaden the Army’s scope and mission. It got a bigger budget and was charged to provide security not only to planets but frontier regions. It was the dawn of Deep Space Forts and ‘Cavalry patrols’. {/i}

{i}By charter, the Army could not have Space ships as that would infringe on the fleet and no one could make a logical argument as to why “two” fleets were needed. It was hard enough for the traditionalists to redefine the role of the Army in the first place. {/i}

{i}So they got around that by designating their space units boats and barges. {/i}

{i}Translocator cannons, Loki torpedoes and similar weapons were deemed too big and too powerful for Planet surface fighting, and so the Army did have very limited faster than light weaponry but no Faster than light platforms with capital weapons. {/i}

{i}Their space forts and planetary defense units did have TL batteries of course but Space forts were stationary and needed to be towed by Fleet tugs or barges to change location.{/i} {/notice}

Captain Lody had always been a proud Union Army officer and considered the Army the elite of all military. This was especially the case just yesterday when he left Bumblebee with forty Apache Long Range Gunships, his own troop and those of the Bumblebee Garrison. A civilian craft had made it to Bumblebee and reported Shiss attacking Shallow.

They had reached Shallow and saw two Shiss ship flee the system as they arrived. Lody and everyone else believed the Shiss were fleeing because the Army had arrived. So he landed his troops and prepared for a possible Orbital Attack. Repelling landing troops was exactly what the Army was good at and trained for.

If the Shiss had taken the fight to the planet’s surface, things would have been different indeed, but Hazzzock came into the system with eighteen Kashir cruisers. The latest frigate sized Shiss warships. They bombarded the Army base and the colony from space and forced the surviving Army Gunships to take off and engage the Shiss in space.

The Sparrow Missiles were fast, and most of them did strike their intended targets, but it took six hitting simultaneously to weaken the shields so the Quon Cannons could be brought to bear. Four Apaches flown in precise unison could destroy a Kashir, but it also put the Apaches well inside the range of the Shiss PEPA (Pulse Energy package) batteries. The Army was hopelessly out gunned and he had to admit outclassed.

No one would have survived, if not for the six Nul fighters that showed up giving Lody and the last three out of ammunition and damaged Apaches; a chance to disengage and retreat. There was no one left alive on the surface of Shallow The glowing pieces of Army hardware floating now in their own orbit around the planet were testimony to the savage, merciless attack of the Shiss. They did not come to take prisoners or slaves. They came to destroy and kill.

He saw the last Nul fighter killed on his rear facing scanners. Their former enemies had fought like Banshees and destroyed four of the Kashir, giving hope that there was a chance, but then nine more Kashir dropped into the system.

To retreat and leave the field where his troops had died hurt him more than anything, but there was nothing he could do. The cursed GalNet network was still down and he could only reach his own men. He did get the chance to learn the names of the six Nul that died fighting with them and he would make sure their names would not be forgotten, along with the names of his troops and the settlers that perished.

He hoped his engines would hold out and he would make it to Benton’s Colony.

Captain Lody was no longer proud and he prayed to the Blue Virgin that she may speed up the repair of the GalNet network. The sooner it came back on, the sooner he would be able to call for back up and help, but not to Army Headquarters, his call would have been to the Fleet.”



Shallow was a beautiful world with one large shallow ocean, filled with fish-like serpents, no longer than a human's arm. These fish serpents, when grilled or cooked, tasted delicious and were sold, battered, deep frozen, fresh and deep fried as “Silver Curlers” at the local Xchange with increasing success.

The growing 170,000 colonist town, directly on the shore, with Fish processing plants and warehouses, no longer existed. The valley and shore area now looked like the cratered waste land of a lifeless moon. Only a few still smoldering ruins remained of Silver Curls, as the town once was called, and every outlying farm and ranch had been bombed and razed.

After the Army fled they did land and Shiss warriors stormed in the few remaining structures, used scanners to locate survivors and dragged them out, ripping them apart with their claws. Torturing women and children in the cruelest fashion and hissing and chanting in delight over the screams of pain and sorrow.

On a shallow hill outside of town, overlooking the destruction, stood an especially tall and muscular Shiss, flanked by three similar looking specimen, clearly subservient to the one in the middle. His spine comb was fully erected, showing agitation and pride. Four of the nine sharp spines in his comb had been missing for a long time, lost in the many fights and battles this Shiss had fought. His throat folds were shaded in subtle shades of gray. His left two arms held Terran rocket launchers, his lower right clasped a Union Marine Chain-sword. Only his upper right hand was free.

He gestured over the burning valley, “Yazzathir is cleansed of that Union filth. This world, sacred to the All Eating Snake and her children in the oceans, is Shiss once more!

Two of his warriors dragged a wounded, strong looking, human between them up the hill and threw the bleeding and charred man at the feet of Hazzzock the Gray and one of them said, “There are still a few survivors. This one dared to fight and killed three of us!”

Hazzzock placed his clawed foot on the man’s head and slowly increased pressure, “Scream my name, beg for mercy Union filth and I will kill you quickly. Do it not and you shall die slowly watching as I string your entrails around your own neck.”

The human made a laughing sound and then said with a labored voice, “Bask in your moment, scumbag you can't do more than kill me. Yet you killed your race!”

“I have seen your defenses little human. We have been afraid for too long for nothing. We wiped your soldiers out of the sky and made the feeble rest run like Wulmizzzz.”

The man coughed and then said, suppressing the pain as much as he could, “You have seen nothing then, The Eternal Warrior will come and he will not stop until the last Shiss world is turned to atomic ashes.”

“You pin your hopes on a myth that doesn't exist?”

“No Shiss, I die with the satisfaction that Admiral Stahl will avenge our deaths!”

Hazzzock growled in anger and crushed the man's skull with a savage stomp, “Why can't you humans die like the rest? Humble, begging for your lives, instead of repeating this tiresome litany of a mythical warrior and fantasy ship. It is nothing but clever propaganda that kept the Shiss from attacking you.”

There was a sharp crack and one of the Shiss warrior’s heads exploded in a shower of brains and blood, followed by another crack splitting the head of the second like an overripe Kulzzz.

Hazzzock's armor activated his shields not a heartbeat too soon as a third projectile impacted right before his eyes. The shields held but the kinetic energy ripped him off his feet.

He screamed in anger, “Triangulate on that Energy signature and kill these Benglozz!”

One of his entourage said, “There is no energy signature. The weapon appears to be of a chemical mechanical nature.”

“Then drop a Thnhzz by the All Eating Snake! I want them all dead!”

Before an orbital bomb obliterated the other hillside, the unseen Sniper had killed four more Shiss.

Juzzzahk the oldest Nestling of the nest of Hazzzock, stood not far from his glorious father and they all were almost drunk from Power and success.

He only knew of the Purple Throat revolt and the resulting war with the Union from whispered stories. It was forbidden to talk about it, so all facts had been lost and all that remained were insubstantial tales of a human warrior that was supposed to be immortal and command a ship so big and so mighty all the galaxy could not fight it. Except for a few Shiss raiders no war or battle had been fought for over 1900 years. The Shiss had not taken part in the 4th Intergalactic War as they were already committed to fighting the Nul.

Juzzzahk and the other younger warriors fanatically followed the Old Gray throat. It was against the orders of the First Nestling, but the Lord of all had not sent any envoy or message he was aware of. Just as he was thinking that, a small fast one-Shiss courier craft landed. The Seal of the First nestling was emblazoned on the hull.

A lowly Red Throat, wearing the Armor of the Pale Dune Guard, rushed as fast as he could up to them and threw himself before the feet of Hazzzock, “I bear message from the All White!”

Hazzzock did not turn to face the messenger but growled, “So reveal it then and pray to the Invisible Lizard that I will like it.”

“The All White has called for ZUHM!”

Juzzzahk felt pride and rage swell in him, “The All War was called! Every Shiss from this day on would do nothing else but fight or support the war until the Shiss alone were masters in the Galaxy!”



The air felt pregnant and heavy with moisture and strong scents, fruity, musky and flowery sweet. Not all of the smells peculating from the jungle swamps below were pleasant. Two robots used high pressure hoses to wash down the landing platform.

It was almost 05H00, the light conditions had not changed much since the space bus had landed, it was still very dark outside the glowing halo spheres of the flood lights.

The bus had looked dull and dirty when it landed on Rico's and now it looked wet and gleamed like a moist creature that had just climbed out of the water.

Baldy had slept only a little and was up early to check on the repair progress. The Archa engineer Frabbel was a genius in Baldy's opinion. That friendly Spider, being from the distant planet Archa, could have worked for SII Gray Lines as a Chief Engineer, yet the spider worked for Coreward Bus and stayed at Cobalt Springs. Of course Archa's were known to be utterly dedicated to their friends and no amount of money could ever entice them to abandon friends to advance their own careers.

In the case of Frabbel he was friends with many locals. Frappel also was a friend of Emerson and Baldy. He sighed and said, “I did the best I could but I can't make a net without silk. The unit needs to be replaced plain and simple.”

Baldy looked at the quite beautiful looking maze of stainless steel lines, field projector heads and platinum tipped line holders that Frappel and Emerson had exposed by removing panels and secondary insulation segments, “So will it hold to Benton?”

The Spider said, “If you keep your engines below red line you could make it to Archa and back, if you need to run. Don't run for long or those who pursue you will be treated to a pretty fire cloud.”

Baldy sighed, “I can't shake the feeling we will need to get everything out of these engines before I can sit down and tell all this to my grand children.”

Frappel said, “That is why I’ll go along for this run.”

Baldy could not have heard much better news this morning and said, “When will we be ready?”

“Emerson and I are done with the repairs. All we need to do is put the panels back on.”



Wilcox shoved the cuffed Hawk before him onto the Slide belt and said, “Time to get you back to the Pen.”

A mellow voice behind him said, “I have great respect for the Union Ranger Service, but in your case it is diminishing every moment.” The Shaill Sheriff was right behind the two and guided its hover sled onto the slide belt as well, “I decided to accompany you all to Benton. Since we still have no GalNet, I think I too need to see the Judge.”

Wilcox shrugged, “Suit yourself, it ain't none of my business what a blind Mollusk does.”

“Not being able to perceive reflected photons as you do indeed does not allow me to see, but I am far from blind.”

Wilcox turned and stabbed his finger at the slug, “I don't know what you keep trying to say with all that innuendo, I do know that there is much more to the story between that boy and the Carpenters, but I am not the Judge. I enforce the law just like you. He was convicted and sentenced. He jumped the pen and he makes no secret out of what he's going to do. It is my job to prevent that.”

The Mollusk rose ever so slightly on his sled, “Enforcing the law is only part of the job. Making sure it is the same for everyone so justice can prevail is the other part. There is a wonderful Human saying. “All it takes for Evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing about it.”



Baldy was standing by the ramp and overseeing the boarding of the passengers.

Daphne looked a little disheveled as she came up the ramp. The strong moisture glued her tight dress even tighter, despite the transparent pink plastic coat and hood she was now wearing. Right behind her were Hawk and Wilcox. She looked worried and said to Baldy, “Will we make it?”

Baldy shrugged, “I can't say Ms Storm, you're welcome to stay if you like.”

Hawk behind her said, “I think we can get through all right. Once we are out of the system space is mighty big and chances for us to slip past the Shiss are not so bad.”

Wilcox grunted, “Get in the bus, one more moment longer in this hell hole and I’ll start growing molds behind my ears.”

Baldy let them in and sold the Shaill a ticket. The Sheriff said, “The molds of this world are particularly tasty and I can't wait to get back.”

Sprewell was also soaked and complained, “We should not be forced to share this ride with a convicted felon!”

Baldy pointed back at the settlement, “No one is forced Mr. Sprewell.”

The DeNoir manager clutched his briefcase and walked past Baldy into the Airlock.

Mr. Peacock arrived with a satisfied face pulling his sample case, “Oh I wish I could call in that order. This Mr. Boone turned out to be an asset after all.”

Boone too arrived, but not alone. He was accompanied by at least thirty kids of several races and all ages and several women. The black haired wife of the Saloon owner came up the ramp with Boone right behind her.

Baldy was alarmed, “Ma'am I … we are making a dangerous trip and I don't want to take kids along.”

“We know,” she said, “but staying here could be even more dangerous. The soldiers are only one stop away. The parents here feel it is safer for the children to go to Benton than to remain here.”

Baldy grudgingly admitted the children.

Valthim and the Thauran Lady were the last and Baldy prepared for lift off.



Emerson helped the passengers get accommodated, “We have the kids bedded down on the passenger deck. So they can sleep and their mothers can care for them. So I am asking you to remain here in the lounge. We’ve only got two bathroom facilities so be kind to each other and make the best you can out of the situation.”



Baldy gunned the main engines while still in the upper atmosphere and turned off the ArtiGrav lifters. It was against company policy but he simply wanted to get this trip over with.

Wilcox took the same seat he had occupied during the first leg of the trip. It was technically Emerson's seat but the Quadi-ped was with the Archa down in the small engineering section, just in case.

Baldy checked his scanners and didn't see anything artificial within range and programmed the Acceleration phase. Only after he’d committed the engines and he could see all indicators climbing exactly as they should, did he relax a little and say to the Ranger, “Leaving your prisoner down there all by himself?”

Wilcox said, “He isn't armed and his wrists are tied, besides there is a Sheriff down there. Not that I think he will do anything before we reach Benton's.”

Baldy relaxed even more as the Bus finally slipped into Quasi Space and left the star system behind, “Hawk is a good man, though maybe a little rough around the edges.”



Sprewell stared at the cuffed man, who sat down on the floor as the seats of the lounge were taken, “So you're the notorious Hudson Boy.”

Hawk looked straight at Sprewell, his voice casual, My friends just call me Hawk, nickname my grandpa gave me. My name's Henry.”

Doc Boone scratched his beard stubble, “Seems to me I knew your family, Henry.” He rummaged through the pockets of his coat and found a flat bottle filled with a greenish liquid. Still talking to Hawk he continued, “Didn't I mend your broken arm when you were, oh ...” Boone held his hand about knee high above the floor, “...that big?”

Hawk looked at him, sizing him up with keen eyes. Then he grinned, “You're Doc Boone?”

“I certainly am.”

Boone took a long drink from the bottle and then offered it to Peacock, “That's liquor they make from a fermented moss type back at Cobalt Springs.”

Peacock sniffed at the bottle, produced a tiny little plastic cup from his sample case and then transferred no more than a few drops into it, “Thank you, Mr. Boone.”

Peacock tries it and coughed, “No wonder I was able to sell them such a quantity of our wares. This is quite strong and perhaps a tad too aromatic.” Then he took another little sip, “but I could imagine the Golden and the Blue would like this taste. It is a potential sales avenue worthy of further consideration.”

Boone smiled and took another draw and then focused back on Hawk, “Let's see, I'd just been honorably discharged from the Union Fleet after serving 45 years and it was after the war against the Bisok, nasty little conflict that was.”

Valthim turned to Boone, “Are you spinning tails of things you dreamt about? I never heard of such a war.”

Surprisingly it was Sprewell who came to the Doc’s defense, “The Union fought the Bisok in the Andromeda Galaxy. It was a society able to stand against the Blue, as advanced as the Union. It lasted only five years, as I understand, but it was quite intense, according to the Company memos I read.”

It was clear to anyone seeing Valthim's face that he didn't like to be corrected so he simply added to the insults, “I still don't think that our fleet would allow such a tramp among its hallowed ranks.”

Sprewell agreed with a nod and a smile, “I do agree with my wife on that, Doc Boone is nothing but a shameful human wreck.” He looked at the smudgy looking Boone, “Maybe there is some sort of clinic at Benton's.”

Hawk abruptly turned his head, “It is easy to insult a man when he's down.”

Boone ignored Sprewell and continued, “After I was discharged and returned to Rico, one of my first patients was a small boy with a broken arm out from the Hudson farm.”

Hawk, still looked at Doc Boone with sharp interest, “That was my kid brother, he broke his arm. You did a good job on that, as I recall he was laughing and playing the same afternoon.”

“Thank you, son. Professional compliments are always pleasing.”

Peacock, sitting right next to Boone, nodded. “Yes, they are.”

Boone placed the bottle back into his coat pocket and said, ”What became of the boy whose arm I fixed? He should be a grown man by now as well, right?”

There was pause and the smile vanished from Hawk’s face and his voice grew quiet as he looked straight ahead of him, “He had no chance to grow up, He was murdered.”

Peacock and Doc Boone looked down, obviously moved, and Peacock offered Hawk a small bottle, “Why don’t you try this Mr Hudson. It is our finest Kentucky bourbon.”

Hawk stared at the floor for a while longer, then sighed and took the bottle with his cuffed hands and put it in his shirt pocket, “Very kind of you Mr Peashooter. I’ll drink it after I am done at Benton’s.”

Almost giving up Peacock sighs, “It’s Peacock, my name is Peacock.”



Lady Luna, who was once again as removed as possible from the other passengers, leant against her padded headrest and stared out into the endless night of deep space. Valthim, sitting across from her, was certain she now really looked sick and even paler than before.

Even though the Environmental systems was working at full capacity, the slowly drying clothing of the passengers make the air smell unpleasant.

Daphne didn’t really help as she used a small atomizer to create a cloud of strong smelling perfume around her.

The Shaill, who appeared to be asleep on his hover sled, moved his feeler stalks, “Ah the desire of the female humans to increase their attractiveness with scents has made many Shaill very wealthy.”

Daphne waved her hand before her nose, “It didn’t smell very pleasant in here.”

Valthim glared at her, “ and now it stinks even worse, not all of us need to smell like the cheap trick you are. There is a real lady among you and you all should act accordingly!”

Daphne was worn down already, not knowing what her future held after the sudden eviction and the less than perfect conditions. She buried her face in her hands and said with a suffocating voice, ”I am sorry.”

Doc Boone leant forward and put his beefy hand on her knee, “Everything will turn out just fine. There are those who act so high and mighty and yet just three weeks ago I repaired the shredded back of a man who was closer to death than life when he got on my table. He was shot in the back with a rocket coming from the {i}Gewehr{/i} of just such a Noble person.”

Valthim's eyes blazed as he stared at Boone, half-rising in anger, “Do you mean to insinuate...”

Hawk got up and turned to Valthim. His voice was calm but full of clearly discernable authority and thinly veiled warning,”Sit down, mister!”

Valthim sat down. His face showed he was rather put out.

Hawk cocked a one sided grin at the pale Thauran, “Doc Boon didn't mean no harm but I personally despise cowards shooting others in the back. So let this be a warning.”

The Shaill Sheriff interrupted, “I suggest you all reduce production of your Epinephrine neuro transmitter hormones and relax.”

Hawk sat back down as well.

Peacock patted his wide forehead with a napkin, “What is it he wants us to reduce?”

Doc Boone smiled and said, “Adrenaline, my dear friend. A Hormone of the human body. Our Shaill friend wants us all to cool down and relax.”

The Shaill slowly inclined his head and said, “You may call me He, Mr Woodcock but we Hail are hermaphrodite and have no distinctive cultural distinction of sexes so the proper word would be 'It'”

Hawk, also trying to calm the situation, asked, “Don't be offended none Sheriff, but I always wondered how a species without arms or eyes could even develop a civilization let alone a star faring one.”

“I am not offended by your curiosity and you voiced the perhaps most commonly asked question about us Shaill.”

The Mollusk turned his hover sled a little to face the group and said, “Our home world is very much like Cobalt Springs, to humans dark, brooding hot and moist. To us Shaill about as perfect as it could be. We have no hands, no body weapons, no eyes and without these hover sleds we are slow as … well as slow as snails.”

That actually made a few of the passengers smile. The monstrosity of a man-sized naked wet shimmering slug slowly dissipated by the being’s melodic voice and its sense of humor. “You asked how we can have a civilization? Much like the Nublus of Thenta 8 or the Non Corps of Bright Star. In our heads alone. Unlike the living clouds of Nublus who are able to see and have the ability to speak and hear and unlike the Non Corps who can manipulate any form of energy and thus find conversation very easy; we can talk to each other only by actually touching our feelers. The voice you hear is generated via an implant and a small computronic. It is sadly not my real voice, as I don't have one. The same technology allows me to hear and extend the range of our feelers so we can feel our surroundings in an approximation of sight. Evolution, or whatever power decides those things, made us grow and become big, bigger than most of our natural predators and with larger neural centers we made the step to sentience and that is all we were. Very aware that we had no real way to manipulate our surroundings and thus become a real civilization. We could not share our ideas with larger groups at once, everything had to be transmitted Hail by Hail This prevented any form of centralized leadership, of course it also prevented us from ever developing anything like wars.”

It had become very quiet in the little lounge. Everyone, even the pale Thauran lady, was listening to what the Shaill was telling them.

The Shaill had made only a minute break in its tale and continued, “It took us millennia to finally develop a way of communication, our sense of smell developed far beyond that of any other known species. Our olfactory senses are millions of times more sensitive than the famous noses of Terran Bloodhounds. You can differentiate millions of color shades. We can distinguish billions of scents, different to another by a single molecule. We learned to identify each other by smell.”

Daphne burst out, “That must be fantastic and this is how you got a civilization?”

“No, sadly not. Scents travel not very far and how can you gather a crowd when it takes them weeks to cross a distance of a mere mile? Besides smelling is not producing. In order to use scent as a language you must be able to produce certain smells that mean the same to everyone on command. But eventually our bodies developed glands that could produce any scent we wanted. Scents are biochemical compounds and some were very poisonous and had many more effects than mere communication meanings. Millions of years passed and we became living Bio Chemical laboratories.”

“Our home world is not all that far from here but it is at the outer gap of what the Humans call the Orion Spur. It is the outer Arm in the Upward Sector, far removed from any other space-faring civilization. Our sun’s next solar neighbor is over 120 light years away.”

“Then about 8,000 standard years ago the Shiss discovered us and loved the taste and they did not care about our obvious sentience and intelligence. The Shiss enslaved us and bred us for food.”

“It was a Yellow throat Shiss, a scientist, who began to experiment. He introduced a new gene sequence allowing some of us to see and improve our eyesight.”

Peabody said, “I have friends who are Purple Throats so I can't say I hate all Shiss, but the more I hear about them the harder it gets not to get very strong feelings against these scaled menaces.”

Hawk said, “I don’t care about how someone looks or what they are, but I don't like it none when freedom and liberty is denied to one group for the benefits of another.”

Daphne said, “Please Sheriff Glombh finish your story, it doesn't end there does it?” She was the first who actually used the Shaill's name indicating that she knew it from somewhere.

The Shaill said, “No it does not, because as impossible as it seems one of these enhanced Shaill managed to escape and due to the fact that we are hermaphrodite it was able to spread the genetic improvement over a large group. We then built our civilization with every bit of information we could steal from the Shiss. We even managed to steal a few of their robots and use them for hands.”

“The Hail that could see developed a sign language and we revolted by poisoning every Shiss on our world. A Union explorer entered our system only a few months after the poison attack. We did not trust the newcomers and used Shiss weapons to severely damage the Explorer ship and kill many members of its crew. Captain Dirk Percy had to emergency land an escape pod with the survivors of his ship on our world.”

“First hunted by us Shaill, the Union crew fought and prevented the returning Shiss from retaliating and punishing us. His name was Captain Dirk Percy and then he was able to contact Fleet command to get help.”

“We Shaill received much aide from the Union, including hover-sled boards and mechanical arm attachments allowing us to move faster and manipulate our environment.”



Up on the flight deck, Baldy usually had the Computronic take over and caught a little sleep when he was between Cobalt Springs and Bumblebee. This time he was wide awake and divided his attention between the Engineering controls and the Scanners. They had barely spoken a word since they had left the wet Jungle planet behind.

Baldy cleared his throat, inviting conversation, but Wilcox paid him no heed. Finally Baldy couldn't stand the silence and turned as if Wilcox had spoken, “What'd you say?”

Wilcox looked at Baldy as if he was crazy, ”Nothin'.”

“Oh, excuse me. Well, why don't you say somethin'? A man gets nervous settin' here like a stuffed Ult and thinking about the Shiss!”

Wilcox responded in a grumpy tone, “You say somethin'. You been talkin' all day without makin' any sense.”

Belligerently Baldy responded, “All right, here's somethin' that makes sense! If I was you I'd let 'em shoot it out!”

Wilcox returned the seat to a more upright position and asked, ”Let who do what?”

“Hawk and Luke Plummer of course.”

Instead of answering Wilcox simply stared at the Scanner screen.

Baldy, determined to get an answer, said, “There be a lot more peace in this Fringe Space of ours if that Luke Plummer be blasted to atomic ashes. He thinks he can bully anyone with his money.”

The Union Ranger said, “I ain't sayin' I don't share your sentiments, Baldy, but you're a born fool. First place Luke would kill Hawk in a fight, because Hawk fights fair and Luke doesn't. Second place if Luke did get killed he's got two brothers jest as ornery and rich as he is, and if Ike Plummer didn't kill the Kid then Hank Plummer would or they’d hire someone who could. It all escalates into a lot of violence. Nope, safest place for Hawk is in the pen and I aim to get him there all in one piece. Time he gets out Luke Plummer will of picked a fight with the wrong man and it'll all blow over.”

Baldy was looking at Wilcox with a puzzled look, ”Well, I'll be doggoned! I done you an injury, Wilcox. I thought you were bought by the Carpenters.”

The Ranger snorted and snarled with a reproachful tone in his voice, “The darn Shaill seems to think that too. Why, Hawk’s old man and me were friends. I can't worry about Hawk who has a temper to shoot things up in Benton's when I try to find evidence Luke killed Hawk's brother and was responsible for that mine accident that killed Peter Hudson, the Kid’s old man.”

“But you let him be arrested!” He didn't do nothing and everyone knows the story of Luke was poppycock.”

“Hawk is no angel. He is as rough and tumble as they get and he is awful quick with his double TKU's. It would only be a matter of time he killed someone for real and then neither you or me could save that stubborn fool from the Hangman’s rope, No, I figured he cools off in the Pen, gives us a chance to get Luke. Why do you think we had two Federal Deputies in town, they aren't after Hawk.”



The story of the Shaill had managed to keep them silent and content only for a little while. Sprewell, while getting him another drink, was addressing everyone and no one in particular, “I can't get over the impertinence of that young lieutenant! I'll make it warm for that shave-tail!”

Doc Boone, who appeared to be the only one really listening, drained the last of his green liquor. Sprewell, not even noticing that he didn't really have much of an audience, continued in his blustering fashion, ”I'll report him to the Assembly! We pay taxes to the government and what do we get? Not even protection from the Army! I don't know what the government's coming to! Instead of protecting businessmen, it's poking its nose into business. Claims they want filed, mine workers conditions checked. Why, they're talking now about having safety inspectors even out here in the fringes and what does our Corporate HQ do? Send out memos to comply!” He snorted, “...as if I didn't know how to run our mining business.”

In all his self important bluster he noticed that no one really paid attention to him so he huffed and stared at the main view screen.

Peacock, while resting comfortably, however noticed Doc Boone’s longing stare at the sample case. Using his foot he pushed the Arti Grav assisted case around and nodded, “Go ahead Mr. Boone. Select 56 and it should please you.”

Boone was all smiles as he rubbed his hands, “Fifty Six, don't mind if I do.”

The smudgy unshaven Boone made a sound of joy as a full size bottle of the Rye he had tasted first dropped into his hands.

Peacock watched as Boone took a sizable drink, “You claim to be a physician, and a Union Fleet Medical officer on top of that, and yet you are obviously an alcoholic, a mental chemical addiction that is so rare. Should you not be able to see those symptoms and take steps to cure yourself?”

It is Daphne not Boone who answers “He really was a Union Fleet MD, Mr Peacock. While he was serving the fleet in another Galaxy, his young wife and four kids on their way to Rico's Colony fell victim to a Pirate attack, all hands lost.”

Peacock suddenly looked quite guilty and whispered, but why Rico?”

Boone said, “It might be a fringe world to you, Mr Peabody but I was born there and I wanted to have my practice there after I was discharged.” Boone looked at the Bottle, “To bear life and not commit suicide, I chose alcohol as my numbing agent. The alternative is Psycho surgery and I do not want to erase the last thing that is left of my family, my memories of them.”



Wilcox leaned over and looked at the Navigation read-out, “Say baldy this isn't the regular course to Bumblebee.”

Baldy grinned, “Everyone knows the Bus comes down the same course at the same time. I am using my head. I made a little detour over 56454, that is a planet less white star. No planets means no one cares and no one's there. I’ll be coming into Tangerine System from the Z plane and not the out most orbit of the Y plane.”

Wilcox nodde, “Good thinking but 56454 is a Main Sequence star and one of the real big ones. The stellar matter will tax our shields.”

“I can reset shields after a solar flare, I can't reset shields in a Shiss attack. If they are waiting for us along the way, they’ll wait forever.”