Wild Wild West (Part II of VI)

Posted on 23 Feb 2018 @ 4:48pm by Ensign Miraj Derani & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin

2,549 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: USS Hathaway Holodeck
Timeline: MD 97 22:00

Previously On Wild Wild West

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

Miraj hesitated. 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.

And now the continuation


"Don't move, stranger," he said. "You must have killed a Marshall to get this, so I'm going to have you arrested."

Looking past the girl, he yelled to another patron.

"Go get the Marshall!"

The man jumped from his seat and ran out the door.

Miraj put her hands up in the universal sign for 'Don't Shoot!'. "I didn't kill anyone. The marshal gave it to me." She hoped. She wasn't sure exactly what role Amaranai was playing in this novel, but she hoped that the security officer was the Marshall. "I swear it's the truth!"

A few moments later, the man that had gone to fetch the Marshall entered the bar again, out of breath.

"Marshall's coming," he said between breaths.

The swinging doors of the bar were pushed open. A figure in dark clothes and wearing a black hat entered. Everyone looked to the doorway and were blinded by the sunlight behind the Marshall.

Stalking forward, the Marshall moved slowly to the bar, stopping behind the Indian girl.

"I believe my friend asked for a drink," Amaranai said and tossed some coins onto the bar.

The bartender looked at the Marshall and saw the money on the countertop. He quickly put the gun away and rushed to get a drink for the Indian woman.

Amaranai stepped forward completely and pulled Miraj's hands down.

"I can't leave you anywhere," she said.

The bartender returned with two shot glasses and placed them in front of the two women.

"I have a job for us when we're done here," she said and took the drink and downed it.

"Oooh. what are we doing?" Miraj downed her rum. "more train robbery?"

"Hush," Amaranai said quickly and looked around. "We don't rob trains. We're Marshall's. We protect people and keep the law."

Amaranai moved away from the bar and pulled Miraj with her until they were outside. She walked to the side of the bar and made sure that no one was around.

"The money we stole is from this town," Amaranai said. "Plus, as Marshalls, we don't talk about robbing trains."

The pilot looked hopelessly confused, and fiddled with the end of a braid. "But we just did. What are we supposed to be doing? Is the scenario going to spank us for going off half cocked?" Not literally, of course but it was entirely possible there'd be some other sort of reprisal, some novels did not appreciate you perverting or dodging the narrative.

"Yes," Amaranai said. "We did just rob a train, but not one that is coming here, so the townsfolk here won't know about it for a few days, or weeks, depending on how much they care."

Amaranai knew the girl didn't have knowledge of the old west and therefore was unsure of their clear path, so the brunette calmed down.

"Here's the thing," Amaranai said. "We uphold the law in this part of the territory. And in order to get money, we go into neighboring territories with Marshalls that are further away, in order to rob them of their hard earned money." She paused. "All the while keeping the guise up that we are trying to protect everyone."

Miraj blinked. "Is that normal? I thought those old marshalls were supposed to be law abiding."


Amaranai chuckled.

"Usually they are," she said. "But I've been playing this scenario for a while and I have learned that I can live like a queen if I'm just careful."

She paused.

"And I have an idea for one more score and I need your help."

Miraj nodded, a conspiratorial grin spreading slowly over her face. The sea may have been hundreds of miles from this wild west town but she knew going on account when she heard it. "Arr, we be land pirates!" she giggled. "So what do you need me to do? Smoke signals? Rain dance? I don't want to scalp anyone. That sounds way too icky."

Amaranai shook her head.

"You know how you got people staring at you just a minute ago?" she started. "Do that. Except you'll be mute. No matter what people say, ignore them as long as possible. That's part of the plan."

She paused and smiled.

"You'll be the distraction."

"Say nothing, right. Easy. I can do that. Not a word." Miraj looked around. "So where do I do this saying nothing? If this is our home territory, are we going somewhere else?"

"Yes," Amaranai said. "We'll leave tonight, after dark and get to our target area tomorrow. We strike tomorrow night."

"Cool. So do we need to do anything before the fast forward? Go get more guns? Has dynamite been invented yet? That's supposed to give an even bigger bang than gunpowder."

"We are just going to enjoy the day. Maybe rest a bit. If you'd like another drink, we can do that. If you'd rather just wander the town and see what sort of trouble you can get into, that's fine too."

Miraj thought about it, and then looked back at the bar. "Why don't we get a drink, and then you can tell me more about this big score, and how long you've been playing this game."

Amaranai patted Miraj on the shoulder and started to pull the girl back toward the bar. They enter the bar, still having people look at them, and Amaranai moves to a corner table and sits down. She waves at the bartender and wordlessly orders more rum. While waiting, Amaranai smiles and looks at the other girl.

"I've been running this holodeck adventure for almost a year," she started. "So I've been making a good name for myself. It's always just been me, but I finally was willing to share it with you, since you had shared one of your adventures with me."

Miraj beamed, then looked wary. "Is there anyone in the next town who has, uh, special tastes?" Given their last outing had resulted in Amaranai getting caned becuase Miraj had forgotten to adjust the safeties for two players.

"I'm not going to lie," she started. "Depending on the algorithm the computer chooses, a couple of idiots might be around when you enter the town. It could be more of a distraction than necessary but depending on your own likes and dislikes, you might want to handle them on your own."

The younger woman nodded thoughtfully. depending on settings she would either manage or shed get her arse handed to her. "This is revenge for the spanking thing isnt it?"

"Only if you let it," Amaranai said. "If it gets too rough, you can always stop the simulation." Amaranai paused. "Besides, it's only something to worry about if the computer decides to add those idiots to the room."

The bartender arrived with the drinks and was about to walk away when Amaranai grabbed his arm.

"Leave the bottle," she said and watched the bottle being placed on the table.

Miraj reached for the rum and poured a generous tot for each of them. So, what are we..." she fished for a word that would imply stealing without saying it in the saloon full of people, "auditing?" she finished.

Amaranai downed the drink in front of her and then filled her glass again. When she heard the question, the brunette smiled.

"Nice," she said. "We'll be visiting a saloon and a whore house," Amaranai said. "The thing is, the whore house is a front for other bandits." She chuckled. "Thinking about it now, I might be able to score three different ways and two of those won't include money."

Miraj furrowed her brow, "Jewels? And...." What valubles would bandits have beyond cash and jewels in this era? "Grog?"

"No," Amaranai shook her head. "The whores cater to higher profile individuals. Individuals that would prefer not to be discovered as patrons of such an establishment. Knowing who goes and them knowing that we know, means that they have to pay for our silence."

She paused.

"And the grog will be on the house anyway."

"Blackmail?" Miraj giggled and tapped her glass to Amaranai's "Can't wait."

***

A few hours - and a couple of bottles later, the pair headed out of the bar and to the train station. They needed to take the train in order to get to the next town, about sixty miles away. It was just on the other side of the territory border of Amaranai's jurisdiction, so she knew it wasn't going to be a problem. Plus, with the amount of money that she had accumulated during her time as Marshall, Amaranai could afford a private room for the two of them.

Amaranai lay in bed, still unable to really sleep, even in the holodeck, and contemplated her life. She had applied for three ships and two of them had rejected her outright. She didn't have any real answers to why the new captain of the Galileo wouldn't want her but she had to get the thoughts out of her head if she were going to function properly.

A jolt of the engine snapped her thoughts to the hyper reality she was in. Something was wrong. She could hear voices in the hallway and shouts. A scuffle. Then gunfire. A scream. Amaranai jumped up and grabbed her pistol from under her pillow.

Above her, Miraj jerked awake, with a "hnuh?" still rum-soaked and slightly hungover. "What happened?" she clutched her head. "Ooh, headrush."

She watched as shadows crossed the window but they didn't stop for her. She heard a woman scream from the next cabin and Amaranai opened the door and fired into the hallway. When a man holding a pistol appeared, Amaranai smiled.

"I don't remember this stop on the journey," she said. "Can I see your ticket?"

The man fired his pistol and Amaranai jumped back into her cabin.

"Guess that didn't work," she said and turned to Miraj.

"How good are you at climbing?"

Miraj thought of her misadventures with Dr Wells and the weird robot-cyborg monster. "Terrible. Why?"

"Guess you'll just have to try," Amaranai said.

She shoved a cabinet in front of the door and moved to the window to open it as there was shouting from the other side of the door.

"Basically, I've just interrupted a train heist in progress to the point that they are probably going to start trying to break through the door and we need to get out of here."

Amaranai fully opened the window and looked outside. The one thing they had going for them was that the train was stopped. It was going to be a drop but at least it wouldn't kill them.

"Grab your rifle and let's go!"

Miraj rolled off the bunk and picked up the rifle propped up by the window. "Right behind you." She said cheerfully, and she slung the rifle onto her back.

The door was smacked into again, and the travel cabinet jumped forward an inch. "Time to leave," she squeaked.

Amaranai noticed that Miraj was ready to leave. She motioned for the girl to exit.

The younger girl looked out the window. It was a good three meters to the ground. She took a moment to squeeze through the small window, hanging on by her fingers to the top of the frame. "I hope the safeties are on!"

She dropped, hit the ground in an ungraceful jumble but didn't manage to get hurt.

Amaranai fired three shots at the door and heard a groan as she figured she had hit someone. Taking advantage of the break in action, Amaranai climbed out the window and fell - not so gracefully - to the ground. She felt a twinge in her ankle, but jumped up quickly. There was a loud bang above them as the door was broken through.

"Quick," she whispered to Miraj. "Under the train."

The pilot didn't have to be asked twice and rolled under the train, and stared up at the underside of the carriage. She could hear the thumping and shuffling of feet above her head, "shall I?" she asked, gesturing with the rifle.

Amaranai smiled at her friend.

"Of course," she said but held up a hand. "Take three shots and then be ready to run. We'll need to get to the engine as quickly as possible to get rid of the guys keeping us from moving."

Miraj pulled the trigger. The noise was deafening in the confied space, worse than any musket she had fired, the rifle bucked in her hands but so close she couldn't miss, and shot through the floor, blowing off a handful of splinters that pricked her hard "Ow!"

Amaranai rolled out of the way of the wood shrapnel and to the other side of the train. There were screams from the train car but Amaranai didn't have time to deal with that.

"Come on!" she yelled to her friend, in hopes of her hearing, and stood up. She didn't even wait for Miraj as she headed toward the engine. This unplanned stop was not good for everything that she had planned in the next town over, but at least she was having fun. Hopefully Miraj was having fun as well.

Miraj scrambled out with a whoop of exhileration. It might not be swinging off a yard arm or dagger riding down a mainsail, but it definitely had its appeal. She chased after MIraj, and even though her legs were a little bit longer, she wasn't any where near as fit as the other woman, and Amaranai's lead stretched.

Shot zipped past her, hitting dirt and blowing stones out of the track bed, with a yelp she turned and fired wildly, and was rewarded with the sound of shattering glass. She skidded up to the Engine and scrambled up to take cover behind the coal tender. "Take this, scurey dogs!" she shouted and sent another wild, never-going-to-hit shot down the length of the carriages, sending the men pursuing them ducking into gaps between the cars.

Amranai had jumped into the engine, pistols ready for a fight, but found no one. She didn't see the engineers, which was odd, because she would have expected them to be held hostage. She heard the gunshots from outside and toward the back of the train and knew that Miraj was taking fire. She moved toward the doorway and was shoved out the door and onto the ground. A man pulled his own pistol and pointed it at her head and then turned toward Miraj.

"Put the rifle down, Injun or your friend gets it!"

To Be Continued...


Ensign Miraj Derani

Lieutenant jg Amaranai Franklin

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