Mustang Gemini: Episode II

II. Collecting Debts

“I’m through playin’ games with you, Freestar! Your credit is up! Now you either pay your debt with me or I’ll stop your heart cold right now!”

Gunt Skinner, miner turned trader turned brothel proprietor, stood on his porch pointing a deadly weapon at the target of his ire – Katherine Freestar, string rider and now well-known drifter. Kat stood looking very relaxed in the middle of the Polluxtown street.

“Aw, come of it, Skinner. You know I’ll have the cash for you as soon as I get back from my next ride. It’s the way I do business, is all. Besides, is this how you treat your best customer? I’d thought you’d want some repeat patronage,” Kat finally said.

“You’re a fine thing to be tellin’ me how to run my place. Done ruin my best lad, you have! Not to mention all the busted furniture, void bitch. I ain’t askin’ you nicely, and I ain’t askin’ again – I want my money!” Gunt’s anger rattled down from his teeth to his clawed hands and translated into an ugly shake of the gun barrel. Kat stared back at him coolly.

The closest thing to a tumbleweed on Polluxtown was a self-replicating automated garbage snare, but those had clearly defined duties elsewhere and so the scene remained hopelessly unhighlighted by anything pointedly drifting by.

“All right, Gunt, you’ve made your point,” came the clear voice of authority from beyond the crowd. The gatherers parted and Sheriff Wytt strode into view. Kat suppressed a groan. This was not getting any better.

A tall man of middling years, Sheriff Warden Wytt was of the standard law enforcement breed in this sector – classical strong jaw and short black hair, upright build befitting a Space-fearing man of moral character. He wore the standard Starcorps uniform, crisp and clean blues, but left the tunic partly open to his white high collar shirt. That was also partly undone as a nod to some pretense of roguishness. Kat never saw the appeal, but Wytt had never been less than fair with her. Unfortunately in all fairness she hadn’t given him much room to look the other way at her transgressions during her short stay on Polluxtown.

“She’s running out on the tab, Warden! Just like I said she would!” cried Skinner.

“And I told you, I’ll handle it. You can’t go blasting the aorta out of every customer that’s short changed you, Gunt. You’ll run out of clients.” Sheriff Wytt ambled down to the saloon front. He looked Kat up and down. She gave him a wan expression of innocence.

He turned to Skinner and said calmy, “Let’s pack it away now – I’ll take her down to the office. My responsibility, after all.”

“Ain’t nothing doin’, Warden, I’m through being walked on. I want to be paid what I’m owed. Right now.” Skinner lifted his weapon up to take a fresh bead on Kat, forcing Sheriff Wytt to step in front of him.

Unfortunately for him, that meant putting his back to Kat, and she wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass. She dropped to one knee and pulled her concealed laser from her boot. Gunt’s eyes widened in the split second before she blasted the gun from his hands, sending him flying backwards into the saloon. Wytt spun around, stun stick drawn, but Kat was already moving. With the first kick he was unarmed. With the second he was on the ground.

The crowd gasped in appreciation of Kat’s maneuver, but awe quickly turned to panic as Gunt regained possession of his nanocannon. The spectators scattered. Kat sprang away down the street, almost expecting to take a slug in the back for her trouble. But instead of feeling the sharp pain of a cardio inhibitor driving home, she heard the weapon discharge with a muffled cry. Kat looked back and saw Joe putting those impressive arms of his to good use grappling with his employer.

Good boy.

Kat powered down the street as fast as she could go in her pilot’s harness. She ducked into an alley and spotted a maintenance port caked in garbage. Holstering her laser, she flipped the switch on her helmet ring and the hood of her life suit wrapped her safely inside. She slammed the evacuation button on the port’s terminal and dove headfirst into the tube.

Spinning and sliding through layers of muck and trash, darkness and wind gripped her before flinging her bodily into space. Pollux greeted her with a bright flare while the glorious universe welcomed her into the void. She quickly tapped out commands on her wrist terminal. Somewhere nearby a docking ring closed and an ion drive hummed to life.

With a few moments to spare now, she looked back at Polluxtown beneath her. The habitat ring dominated the view, its arcing bay windows affording a sight back onto the street corner she had just left. Sheriff Wytt was visible and hopping mad, while Joe was helping Skinner back to his feet. The old codger wasn’t exactly thrilled either. Two doors down, Kat spotted Suzie Capricorn waving happily from the balcony of the First Reformed Church of Space. Kat tipped her helmet and waved back.

She frowned, though, when a large airlock hatch opened on the station surface and three armed deputies stepped out onto the metal roof of Polluxtown. They attached tethers to the safety latches there and jumped off directly toward the runaway drifter. One of them held a powered lasso designed to capture her. The other two unlimbered light laser pistols and looked ready for a fight. But before they could set up for a shot, white light spilled around them.

Kat opened a comm channel. “You might want to watch your backs, fellas. Stagecoach coming through.”

She smirked and pointed. The deputies turned to see a great silver beast clear the habitat ring. Caught in the light of Pollux, huge muscular engines mounted on a graceful spine gleamed in the void. The ship turned and brought itself parallel with Kat and her pursuers.

A most impressive display of laser fire erupted from the flanks of the ship and a deputy found himself floating free of his tether. His partner grabbed on tight and hauled him back towards the station, when suddenly another hail of gunfire severed that man’s link. The third, thinking much faster than Kat would have given him credit for, lassoed the other two with the snare meant for the drifter and signaled a retraction on his own tether.

Kat gave a wink and a wave to the three deputies as they scrambled back to the airlock, flailing and bumping into each other in wild panic. She then turned to her ship rising from the docking pylon, pulled her graviton hook from her belt, and aimed it at the long elegant nose of the craft. For a split second space pulled at her with the force of one half gee, and she plummeted toward the Mustang Gemini.

Magnetic boots anchored to the skin of the ship as Kat touched down next to the forward hatch. She stroked the nosecone with an affectionate hand and the hatchway hissed open. With one last look at Polluxtown the rider slipped deftly inside.


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