The Wild Wild West (Part I of VI)

Posted on 23 Feb 2018 @ 4:46pm by Ensign Miraj Derani & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin

2,549 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: USS Hathaway Holodeck
Timeline: MD97 2030

[ON]

Amaranai pressed the door chime on her friend's door and waited for her to open the door. She needed something to get her mind off of being rejected by the Galileo. There was no need for the rejection, especially one that didn't even offer an explanation, and Amaranai was bitter and offended. Miraj had gotten a similar response to her own application and the security officer felt it was time for the two to commiserate and do whatever they want.


"♪ Leave her, Johnny, leave her! Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her,♪" Miraj was lying on her bed, singing along to sea-shanties at the top of her voice, and reviewing the cadets performances from that day,. She couldn't find serious faults with any of them, and was still not satisfied. "♪ Oh the voyage is done and the winds don’t blow, And it’s time for us to leave her!♪ "

The computer cut the sound that blasted through Miraj's tiny cabin so she could hear the doorbell, and she scrambled out of her bunk (an actual literal bunk! These ancient ships were so cool. If it got any older, there'd be hammocks) and answered the door.

When the door opened, Amaranai smiled.

"Okay, you," she said. "I've got some holodeck time and we need to go on an adventure."

Miraj didn't feel like much of an adventure. "What sort of adventure? More vampires?"

"Nope," Amaranai said. "The wild west!"

She paused a moment to smile and looked at the girl.

"What do you think?"

Miraj thought about it. "Like, Cowboys and Indians?"

"Kind of," Amaranai started. "Cowboys, Indians, farming, whoring and everything in between."

Amaranai reached out her hand and grabbed Miraj and began to pull her along through the corridors until she reached the holodeck. She stepped to the control panel and entered information and allowed the door to open. Letting go of Miraj, Amaranai moved behind a changing screen and started to change.

Miraj stared at the rack of options. "Should I be a cowboy or an indian? she called out, picking up a fringed tunic made of some sort of animal skin, and comparing with a pink gingham shirt. "I don't know anything about either. They didn't exactly go on account."

"I don't think it will matter," the brunette said. "What I have in mind will have no bearing on what you decide."

Amaranai looked at the options.

"Of course," she continued. "If you feel like wearing very little as an Indian, I wouldn't mind."

Miraj giggled. "You're incorrigble. And all of this looks very practical." A moment later, her starfleet uniform was flung over her screen. "At least there's no corsets."

"Ugh. I hated wearing those," Amaranai offered as she finished dressing.

The security officer stepped out from her screen and waited for Miraj to finish. As she did, she pulled her hair into a ponytail and tied it back to keep it out of her eyes.

A few minutes later, Miraj came around her own screen, half way through plaiting her bunches into braids. She'd tried to oblige Amaranai, and had kept to a pair of moccasins and a pale hide tunic that was definitely on the short side, with thick fringing at the hem maintaining modesty as well as on the sleeves, decorated with a woven band of turquoise white and red beads. "How do I look?"

Amaranai glanced at her friend when she asked the question.

"Very nice," she said with a smile. "And it could fit into my plan even more now."

Once the two were ready, Amaranai opened the door to the holodeck and they were transported to the American frontier. And not just anywhere, but into an empty car on a moving train.

"Perfect," Amaranai said. "I think we're ready."

"Its a train." Miraj was surprised. "I thought the wild west was all horses and covered wagons?"

"A lot of the wild west was horses and covered wagons. We'll see those soon as this train is almost to its destination."

Amaranai moved closer to a small box in the car and opened it with a key from her pocket. Reaching inside, Amaranai grabbed a gun belt and began to strap it around her waist. She pulled a rifle and handed it to Miraj.

"You won't need to use it," she said. "It's mostly just for show right now."

Miraj held the rifle carefully. The closest she'd got to something like this was a musket or a blunderbus on one of her Bloodbeard adventures. "Good, becuase unless you've put the difficulty onto dyspraxic four year old, I'm not going to be hitting anything."

Amaranai chuckled at the comment and started walking to the door at the opposite end of the train car.

"Don't worry," she said as she opened the door and stepped between the cars. "Like I said, it's for show."

With her statement, Amaranai pulled the bandana over her face, pulled her gun and shoved the door open.

"This is a robbery!" she yelled and pointed her gun at several people to keep them quiet.

Ahh, Piracy in all but name. Miraj knew how this worked. "Aye, be givin us your booty, of you'll be walkin-" She realised that walking the plank wasn't going to work here. "Walking off the train long before it stops" she finished a bit lamely, hoping it wouldn't sound to bad. She swivelled round so the muzzle of the rifle was pointing at random faces.

Amaranai rolled her eyes slowly at Miraj's attempt to say something to the people in the train car. She was glad, though, that Miraj started to point her rifle at the passengers.

"Alright," Amaranai spoke up again, her voice slightly altered to keep her victims from knowing she was female. "I want all the jewelry and money in this bag in two minutes. If it's not, I start shooting!"

She was only mildly bluffing and did plan to kill anyone that wasn't going to cooperate. Amaranai fired a shot into the roof of the train car to show them that she wasn't joking.

The women made short screams and gasps before settling whilst the men bristled, but didn't do anything rash. Miraj watched the crowd on either side of the narrow walkway through the carriage. Most of them, robust, respectable middle class types were putting bill folds and watches and jewelery into the coarse sack that Amaranai was holding out.

But one, a fancy looking gent in a black morning coat and a silver waistcoat was slipping his hand under his jacket in a way that made her think of weapon, rather than wallet. "What are you doing?" she said sharply, swinging her rifle in his direction,"

Without thinking, when Amaranai heard the commotion, she turned and fired her pistol, close to where she felt the crazy person was. She noticed a man slumped over the top of the seat in front of him. Women screamed around them and Amaranai knew that her time was up.

"Forget this," she said and turned to Miraj. "Come on!"

"Alright." Miraj wasn't going to argue, she knew the old west was just as armed and dangerous as the Age of Sail. Who knew who else was going to try something heroic.

Amaranai pushed through the crowd back to the car they came from.

Without looking for Miraj, Amaranai pulled her bandana from her neck and reached toward another box and opened it. She pulled a body from the box and dumped it onto the floor and then fired three more shots away from her and blowing out a couple of windows. She placed the bag in the box where the body was and locked it again.

Looking at Miraj, she smiled and pulled a jacket from somewhere else and put it on.

"Hide in the box, quick."

Amaranai pointed to the box where the weapons had been held.

The young pilot looked doubtful, but climbed in, "This thing is duis disturbingly coffin shaped. This is going to be interesting." She squeezed herself into the narrow space, tring to hold the lid up with one hand and keep the hem of the tunic riding all the way up her legs with the other. It made for some awkward wiggling.

Amaranai moved closer to the box and before closing it over her, glanced at the long legs of its occupant. She smiled and closed the box just as the door started to rattle.

Amaranai pulled her gun and aimed at the door. Three men rushed in and held their weapons out.

"Hold!" Amaranai yelled and then placed her gun down.

The other men stepped forward and looked at the body on the ground.

"What's going on?" one of them asked.

"I heard shots and came in. That's when I found him and an Indian fellow. I took some shots and got this one. The Indian jumped out the window holding a bag."

"And who do you think you are?" another man asked.

"I'm a US Marshall," she said and flashed her badge toward them. "Stop this train and get after that Indian. I hereby deputize you as Marshalls. Go get 'em."

The men hesitated a moment and then left the room. When they did, Amaranai moved toward the box with Miraj in it and opened it to let her out.

"Come on," she said. "We don't have a lot of time before they come back."

Inside the box, Miraj had listened to the exchange with a big grin, it was a brilliant scheme. Now she climbed out eagerly. "That was clever."

Amaranai opened the other box and grabbed the bag of loot from inside. She moved to the back door and opened it and looked out to the horizon. She could tell the train was slowing down.

"Time to go," she said and jumped off the back deck of the train and hit the ground rolling.

On the back of the slowing railway car, Miraj crossed her fingers that the safeties would grant her a safe landing, and hopped down onto the track bed. She hit feet first and then rolled, ending up with gravel scratching at her bare legs. When she stopped rolling she sat up, watching the train gradually drawing to a stop. "They're going to realise its a trick. they're going to chase us." She scrambled up. There was a lot of land in every direction they could run anywhere. "What next?"

"They won't chase us just yet," Amaranai said. They have to stop the train, find horses and then head in the direction I pointed them, which is North."

She paused as she heard the next question from her friend.

"We head south," Amaranai said as she pointed. "There's a small town about ten miles that way."

Amaranai looked around a moment.

"And there should be a pair of horses on the other side of that hill.

Amaranai started to walk toward the hill she had motioned to and, sure enough, there were two horses. Amaranai moved close to a black horse and climbed on.

"Besides, they don't have any real descriptions of either of us. And I am a US Marshall, so, they can't really do anything to me."

"If there aren't any horses, they won't need to," Miraj muttered brushing the dust off her bum. "I hope there be rum in that town." She looked up at the sky, "It looks like its going to be a hot day,"

Amaranai looked up to the sky. It was close to noon. It would take a little while to get to the town, but not too long. Amaranai waited for Miraj to be ready and then motioned the horse forward.

After a little while, they arrived in town. Angling toward the mayor's office, Amaranai jumped off the horse and tied it to a rail.

"You wait out here while I talk to the mayor. Feel free to wander and check out the town."

Amaranai reached into her pocket and handed a badge to Miraj.

"In case you have any issues, show this and they'll leave you alone."

Miraj looked at the little tin badge, with its five pointed star and circle. "Okay, I'll see you in a bit." She looked up and down the town, the main street was broad, but dusty dry, the clapboard buildings lining it worn by wind and sun, all with a porch that you could walk along to keep out of the mud or dust if you had to.

The people of the town were staring at her. The women in their skirts and blouses, the men, the children. A mix of suspicion and curiosity. She wandered over to the general store where there was a display of fabric and buttons and beads. As she moved to the door, but the storeowner shut the door quickly, flipping the sign to closed.

Surprised she stepped back, and looked around. On the other side of the street was a hotel and a saloon. Rum. She hopped off the porch, and crossed the road, hearing jaunty, slightly flat, piano music coming from the bar. She pushed her way through the batwing doors and into the saloon.

Most of the people in here were men, though there were some women, her age and older, even more scantily dressed that she was, wearing little more than their corsets and bustles, though in the heat, they were properly better off than the men. The man at the upright piano, toothpick hanging from his lower lip stopped playing when he caught sight of her, the music shut off suddenly.

The place smelt of stale tobacco, and greasy food. It wasn't busy, not this early in the day, but there were several small groups, hunched over their tables. Men playing cards watched her silently as she passed their tables. She kept walking towards the bar, a long stretch of dark polished wood, a mirror and a shelf of bottles behind. She went up to the bar. "Rum!" she said with a large smile. "Please."

The bartender stared at the woman as she entered and sauntered toward the bar. He was ready with a pistol under the counter - just in case. She walked with purpose, though slowly, and eventually arrived at the bar proper. When she spoke, the bartender was surprised that she even knew a proper word for alcohol. To him, Indians were savages and only came into town to cause trouble.

"Pay first," the bartender said as he tapped the counter. "Real money. Not some fake Indian junk."

Miraj hesitated. She'd played and read enough pirate novels to have a rudimentary knowledge of currency. But she didn't have anything with her. Not a doubloon, not a solitary piece of eight. She opened her hand and stared at the little round disc Amaranai had given her. That would do. She put it on the bar. "Rum! Please."

The bartender saw the silver badge drop onto the bar. He picked it up. A Marshall's badge wouldn't be something that an Indian would have unless she had taken it from him. His eyes widened and he pulled the gun from under the counter.

To Be Continued...

Ensign Miraj Derani

Lieutenant jg Amaranai Franklin

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