Disclaimer: '
The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers' is copyrighted by Hearst Entertainment, Inc.
This is a work of fanfiction and I make no profit of it.
Author's note:
Many thanks to R. E. Lyngard for beta-reading this.
All feedback welcome.
Planet New Chennai, March 2088
They say that pride comes before the fall. So I guess I was not wearing my head low enough.
Will we have to run again, I wonder as I watch the pair of Galaxy Rangers riding up the road toward Rani Town. I do not think that they are after us because then they would not send less than a platoon. Forty soldiers might indeed give us some trouble, but then I hope that we are not that high on their list of outlaws to catch, at least not while we are lying low and the threat posed by the Crown Empire is prominent.
Or they might send a hunter who is and is not of our own kind. The notion chills me, and I try not to think what would happen if they sent Gooseman again.
If these rangers recognize me, we will have to run anyway. Because even if I kill them, this place would no longer be safe to hide.
It is about half an hour until they will be up here. So I am watching them while I am waiting. And I remember…
# Frontier, half a year ago.
Beaten, Ray is lying in the dust. I am waiting for Goose to bring out the handcuffs or whatever equivalent of handcuffs that can hold a Supertrooper. I swore to myself I would go with Ray wherever life takes us, and I know that the only road left for us is the one back to Earth, into the cyrocrypt. The only other way would be if I attacked Shane, and even now, I cannot bring myself to do that – even though Goose is far from helpless.
In that one moment, when he shot back the energy beams at Ray, I finally realized that Goose had grown up. He is not the boy whom I used to protect from the older Troopers anymore, far from it.
Suddenly I realize how he must be seeing us, must be seeing me: From elite soldiers down to mediocre criminals. Even if Walsh and Goose and whoever else betrayed us, I betrayed myself.
Thus I am awaiting judgment.
I am feeling for Ray's carotid pulse. It is erratic, but he will live. I wonder if he planned to grant the same courtesy to Goose if he had won. Probably not.
My eyes are stinging from the dust and the glaring sunlight.
It was a fair fight, and we lost. We will pay.
And then Goose just walks away. He lets us go, and my questions of 'why' die away in the wind.
Someone who is about to be hanged must feel like that when the rope tears. I do not understand it.
All I know as I am kneeling in the dust and Goose's silhouette is fading from sight is that we must flee.
I am not scrupulous when it comes to survival, and I decide to steal one of Laramie's ships. Laramie's goons never saw me as a threat, so they do not even have time to blink before I take them out.
It is almost easier to drag Ray while he is unconscious than to convince him while he is awake. I hope he does not mind me deciding for him that we must leave, and if he does, I will deal with it later.
We must run now.
That is how we came to New Chennai.
I blink away the memories.
The two rangers stop several times to talk to shopkeepers and citizens on the street.
Their hats are drawn deeply onto their faces to shade them from the afternoon sun. They have camping gear on their horses, and I assume they have not come just to visit me. Both carry rifles.
If there is a shoot-out, the sun is against them, which will give me an advantage, even if I would not need it. I remind myself again that I want to avoid a hostile confrontation.
I wonder how the people here will remember me if I leave now. There is not much that happens in Rani Town, therefore I suspect they will tell stories for a long time of the mysterious woman who appeared out of nowhere, became their sheriff and disappeared as suddenly as she had come.
I have to smile despite myself at how unlikely it seems that I should wind up as a sheriff here.
Ray had wanted to go to Tortuna, but I had had enough of living among criminals so I set a course for a border planet where we could recuperate and plan.
We posed as bounty hunters to avoid suspicion. Little did I know that the ruse would become truth. When we made a stop in Rani Town to replenish supplies, bandits attacked, cattle thieves for whom theft apparently no longer paid enough. The inhabitants offered us a bounty to take them out. We hesitated, said the reward was not sufficient since we had no interest in taking either side.
Then the bandits charged the town. Whatever my grudge against humanity, when I saw that one of the bandits was about to hurt a little girl, I shot him. Ray thought I was stupid for interfering, but he had dragged me into enough of his stupid fights that this time I could drag him into one of mine.
Long story short, we beat the bandits, and it felt good.
After that, they offered to make us their sheriffs. I could have declined, yet I was tired of running. In tactics class, they taught us that sometimes hiding in plain sight is the best strategy. Who would search for two renegade Supertroopers in the sheriff's office in a small town on a remote border planet? So we stayed, and I became their sheriff.
I wonder how much longer we will be able to stay.
The rangers are almost here now. The woman is riding up to the sheriff's office, and the man is staying at the side of the road, probably to give her cover. It is a stupid plan, but then they are humans. I take my own blaster and step outside.
The woman looks surprised to see me, like she expected someone else.
Then she smiles and puts away her sidearm.
Belatedly, I realize that a sheriff would not draw a blaster unprovoked against two Galaxy Rangers. I put it away.
"Sheriff Daisy Miller?" the female ranger asks. Her companion is approaching now too.
I give a curt nod.
"I am Ranger Niko, and this is Captain Zachary Fox. We're Galaxy Rangers and we're here to investigate some of the disappearances that have taken place on New Chennai."
Where do you go when your world shatters, I wonder as I show them around town. This is not home. The only home I have ever known was Wolf Den, and it is not home anymore.
The two rangers do not recognize me. My unrest does not settle completely yet I assume I am safe for the moment. They are not even likely to recognize me, I remind myself. When I first saw the wanted posters for Supertroopers, I had to suppress a manic laugh. There is just enough likeness in those portraits to make the connection if we should be captured but not before. We only run a risk of detection if we use our special abilities and someone reports it to BETA.
I guess it is to protect people. After all, they would not want a village sheriff to go after us.
Captain Fox is asking me questions like how often I patrol the surrounding woods and making suggestions how to improve the security of the two prison holding cells. I have to remind myself that a village sheriff probably would be grateful for the advice.
I wonder whether he takes his own advice about caution. From the way he subtly adjusts his posture and how there is a very slight imbalance between the left and right side of his body, I can tell that his left arm and leg are bionic replacements, probably after some serious battle wounds forced amputation.
Ranger Niko is making some comments about how prosperous Rani Town seems. It is true; while New Chennai is not one of the main agrarian colonies such as Granna, Floko or Frontier, people make good business by growing and selling luxury goods such as tea or spices. I do not comment on it, though; I am not a tourist guide.
I watch Ranger Niko covertly.
The woman has some stripes on her uniform that mark her as a specialist, though I cannot infer which kind. Maybe her specialty is tracing or chemical analysis, since the rangers are looking into disappearances.
She is smiling way too much for my liking.
I hope they will leave town before Ray returns. He has taken to roaming the woods quite frequently. I thought coming here, settling down for a while would calm him, but we are arguing even more than before. He seems to be burning with a fury I cannot understand. I hate the BWL and every senator who betrayed us, and I would not hesitate to exact revenge if I could, but the humans around me are just a small irritation at the back of my mind. With Ray, it is like everyone is his mortal enemy. One moment he pushes me away; the other he pulls me into a crushing embrace. I can hardly reach him anymore, and our lovemaking and our fights blur into one.
Captain Fox asks me whether I get the bulletins about wanted criminals and Crown activity. I have to suppress a snort.
I designed my exercise around what fighting off a Crown contingent by myself would take. After all, I need to do something while I wait for – I do not know what – maybe for the sky to fall.
It is better than hanging around with the scum of Jacob Laramie's type but not much.
If someone registers with me before going out for trapping or whatever, I search for them when the time allotted for their return is up, but I do not urge registration. It is a free world, or in other words, if they did much registering and identity checking here, Ray and I would be in trouble. I am not saying I am a good sheriff, just that I am the only sheriff this town and a 50-mile radius around it has.
I take their drunk into custody, but I refuse to go after truants. I do not allow any brawls, and if the town judge gives me a warrant for cattle thieves, Ray and I go after them.
I make an appearance at town festivities, but I avoid funerals. They are the one occasion where the rage inside me threatens to boil over and I feel I might lash out blindly.
There were over 200 of us and I have been able to identify 22 warrants – 19 current and three withdrawn. Nineteen out of 200 that escaped.
Life out here is chaotic, but the order of Wolf Den has turned into the cyrocrypt.
I followed orders until they turned on us. Walsh and Negata betrayed us.
Now I look out only for Ray and myself.
I used to look out for the younger troopers, but Goose is the only one who survived, and I do not know what will happen if we meet again.
Ranger Niko shows me pictures of a missing person, the one to disappear most recently. I recognize the man. He came through five weeks ago, did not register, quickly replenished his supplies and was on his way. I do remember him but would a human? I decide to let them talk to the shopkeeper where he bought his supplies. Why get involved when I can help it?
Melina, the shopkeeper of the grocery store, is very pleased to have visitors and immediately draws us into a conversation. After the two rangers have assured her that there is no impending threat, she starts questioning them about their families. When Ranger Niko admits to being unmarried, Melina gives her advice on how to find a husband. Niko smiles, but I can see she is slightly uncomfortable.
Captain Fox tells proudly of his two children but mentions no wife. Maybe he is widowed. Melina pities him for having only two children, but Earth overpopulation rules are strict in that regard.
I quickly taught people that asking when I am going to have children is not a good idea.
The scientists at Wolf Den may have made numerous errors, but they certainly would not run that risk. There would be no place for children in my life anyway. Not as a soldier. Not as an outlaw on the run.
The parents of Dalia, the girl whom I saved from the bandits, invite me to their house for dinner every couple of weeks, and sometimes I cannot decline. Dalia looks up to me as though I am some kind of hero, but I will not allow myself to care. Caring just means trouble and pain.
Captain Fox by now has the shopkeeper talking about passing customers. He is gathering information and rather sly about it. Melina will just remember she had a pleasant chat with the rangers, but the rangers now know there is about one miner or fur trapper passing through every week and that I do not register them unless they insist.
I realize I will have to act incompetent, or else my neglect of duty will seem downright malicious and suspicious.
Melina recognizes the picture Niko shows her. She says the man went up to the peaks, probably a prospector. The rangers confer quietly among themselves about hiding spots and criminal activity.
Melina complements me on my make-up and asks me where I buy a kohl that is resistant to the heat and the dust. I am suddenly grateful that the town's Indian population with their love of extravagant facial make-up provides the perfect cover for my face markings. I have adapted my clothing to plain sturdy pants and non-descript blouses, have even dyed my hair all black, but I have been too proud to cover the markings on my face despite their being a telltale sign for identifying me.
Captain Fox clears his throat. "Sheriff Miller, would you have maps of the area?"
He is trying to sound polite but hiding rather badly that he thinks I am careless in my duties, and he is stupid for thinking I do not notice.
"Captain," Ranger Niko speaks up, "I think we should concentrate on areas where a ship could go down. Much of the area is too steep for that. There's much less landing space than ambush space."
Captain Fox nods.
I hate the idea of going with them, but I do not want them to run into Ray or worse – find the ship we used to come here.
"I know the area," I interject. I do not mention that it is because I mapped escape routes and wanted to train where no one could see me.
"I've brought in some lost hunters and gem seekers." I searched at least for those who were intelligent enough to take a distress beacon connected to the satellite system.
"I can show you some good hiding spots." Except the one where our ship is.
Fox nods. "Good. We need supplies. I guess we can get them here?" He gives Melina a dazzling smile, and she nods proudly.
"And what are we looking for?" I ask defiantly. I no longer take orders. Even at Wolf, Den they taught you to ask enough questions to make sure you knew what to do, to fulfill the meaning of the mission and not just the wording.
Niko answers, "There are more people missing from this region than fights among miners and casualties through wild animals would explain. We fear that someone is abducting or killing people."
Fox is already ordering supplies. My town has been taken out of my hands, and I worry whether my cover will hold.
"It's probably too late to ride out today," Melina says. "It's a rather steep climb up from here, and you probably won't reach a good camping site before nightfall."
Fox looks impatient like he cannot wait to start the hunt.
"It would give us a good opportunity to go over the maps and identify possible hiding spots," Niko suggests.
Fox agrees reluctantly. "Is there any guesthouse here where we can stay?"
"The Singhs have a boarding house. I am sure they will give you a room as you defend the law," Melina says. "Now for dinner, please consider yourself invited to my home."
"We can't accept that, ma'am," Fox refuses. "We don't' want to impose."
"Oh, it would be my pleasure, Captain Fox. I haven't had guests from outside in a long time," Melina says with a sideways glance to me.
"We really don't want to bother you," Ranger Niko protests.
"The honor would be all mine, Captain Fox, Ranger Niko – Sheriff Miller."
She puts a little emphasis on my name, and I fear I will not get out of this.
"All right, it will be our pleasure," Captain Fox concedes.
"Very well." Melina smiles. "Dinner is at 8 pm." Fox gives a slight nod of his head to acknowledge the invitation.
I have to admit, they have the diplomacy down perfectly, up to refusing two times before they accept anything.
I cannot help the impression that this is exactly how Melina and everyone else would want their sheriff to be: impeccably polite, caring, and commanding. Unfortunately, they only got me, and I wonder whether I should stay or leave.