A little trip through hyperspace later and Travelin' Man II arrived at the desert planet of Cresta, giving a wide berth to its sun, which was unusually close.
"I've locked onto a landing pad near where we're goin'," Jimmy announced to his co-pilot, once the ship had entered the planet's atmosphere. Nork flipped some switches in response.
"Zeroing in," said Jimmy.
Travelin' Man II plummeted downward, like a giant radiator dropped from the sky, yet it came to a delicate stop, hovering for a few seconds before setting its landing legs down gently onto a designated spot in what amounted to a large, paved parking lot for starships, blowing up orange tinted sand all around as it did so.
"Now how 'bout that?" Jimmy said with a smile, proud of his own piloting skills.
"Ggggrrrnnnnooorgggg," said Nork, and he unfastened his seat straps and stood up. He had to hunch to walk around in the tight quarters of the cockpit.
Jimmy quickly disengaged the engine and his restraints as well, and followed after the big alien.
The two stepped out of the ship's main hatch and began down the metallic ramp that protruded from it.
As soon as he was able to, Jimmy Hapgood took a deep breath of desert air. He was glad to once again be on a planet with an oxygen rich atmosphere. He was less glad to get a mouth full of orange sand.
He spit out a wad of mud and then wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his metallic spacesuit.
When he got to the bottom of the ramp, and set boot on terra firma, he stood next to Nork, who was doing his usual stretches after a long trip. He looked all around them at the barren landscape they now found themselves in. The landing pad was next to some large boulders on the outskirts of a tiny, rustic town that consisted of only ten wooden buildings and a water tower. A weather beaten old sign not too far from the ship read, "Welcome To Zeta Mesa".
"Well, that's friendly, ain't it?" Jimmy said to Nork.
"Karraaannngggsggg," Nork responded.
The closest building to where they were standing was the town jail, so Jimmy decided it was time to set about doing what they had come there for.
"Let's go see if the local lawman can point us in the right direction," he said, nudging his friend on the arm.
"Rrrkk kkaaagggr," said Nork and the two began to trudge through the deep sand and blustering winds that separated the landing pad from the town proper. Once in sight of the jailhouse's porch, Jimmy could see the sheriff himself sitting there on a hovering rocking chair.
As they approached the little old yellow alien man in the ten gallon hat with a handlebar mustache and small platinum star pinned to his dark vest, he suddenly spit some red liquid into a glass spittoon next to him. For a moment, Jimmy thought it might have been blood, but something told him it wasn't.
"I help you, stranger?" said the sheriff in a nasally voice even though he had no nose.
"I was hopin' you could point us in the right direction," said Jimmy, taking off his cowboy hat and holding it in his hands, humbly. "You're the law 'round here, ain't ya?"
"I'm Sheriff Bexley Sehnd, and I don't want no trouble comin' here to Zeta Mesa," the sheriff said, simply.
"Old timer, I ain't no trouble. I'm called Jimmy Hapgood and this here's Nork. We just come to this here planet lookin' for work that's all."
"Ain't no work here," the sheriff shot back. "Everyone who lives here has a job and there ain't no job not bein' done."
Jimmy chuckled an annoyed chuckle, then reached into the pocket of his space suit and pulled out the ad he'd taken from the space station.
"Not even for ranch hands at Buckman Ranch?" he said, friendly as you please.
The sheriff eyeballed the paper and then grumbled.
"I can give ya'll a ride out there," said the cheerful voice of another old man who was coming out of the general store next to the jail. He was an alien too, but looked entirely human, with short gray hair, small, round spectacles and dirty overalls over a checkered shirt. He carried several sacks of feed over his shoulders which made him hunch, but he didn't seem to be struggling in the slightest.
Jimmy turned his attention from the sheriff to the man.
"You know this place?" asked Jimmy.
"I work there muhself," said the man, tossing the sacks onto the buckboard of an old buggy, which was hitched to an actual bug, a giant one. "I'm on my way back there now. Hop aboard."
"Well, that's mighty kind of you," said Jimmy, popping his hat back on his head, he turned to the sheriff and tipped it at him.
The sheriff spit out some more red liquid, but this time onto the wooden planks of the porch in the direction of Jimmy. Nork walked up and put his hand on Jimmy's shoulder, guiding him away from the lawman and towards the buggy. Jimmy eyeballed the sheriff along the way, but then hopped up onto the box seat next to the kind old driver. Nork climbed in back with the sacks and the old man yelled, "Rah!" and gave the reins a pull. The giant bug took off on all ten legs and the sheriff was left in the dust.
Out on the open desert range beyond the town, Jimmy and the driver began to talk.
"I hope my ship will be okay there!" Jimmy called over the sound of the rushing wind.
"Oh, yeah, it's all free public parking here in Zeta Mesa. Probably the only thing that's free in fact. As you can see, we got plenty of wide open space around here, but you'd be surprised how much of it is worthless!" the driver called back. "The parts that ain't are worth a pretty penny, though, I tell ya what."
"What kind of ranch is this Buckman place!?" Jimmy called.
"Space ostriches!" yelled the driver.
Jimmy processed this for a moment.
"I'm Jimmy by the way! Jimmy Hapgood! This here's Nork!" he finally yelled, thumbing towards his friend.
"Name's Ol' Dirgle!" said the driver. "I'm the foreman at Buckman Ranch. If all goes well, I'll be your new boss!"
Jimmy processed this information silently too.
A short while later the buggy was in slightly more lush terrain, a few bushes and small spindly trees could be seen along a dirt road that was lined with metal fence posts holding up glowing space wire. At the end of the road, a large Victorian farmhouse suddenly came into view on the horizon. It was painted a variety of garish colors that had all faded to pastels in the harsh desert conditions.
The buggy passed through some metal gates that opened automatically upon its approach and underneath a sign that read, BUCKMAN RANCH, in glowing neon letters.
"And here we are," said Ol' Dirgle, pulling up right in front of the house's sprawling front porch.
Sitting by the front doors, in a rocking chair similar to the sheriff's, was a sight much more inviting than that crotchety old lawman. It was a young woman with pale lavender skin, short white hair in a bob cut, and black almond eyes framed by large glittering lashes. She wore a calico house dress and sat in the chair on her bare feet while clumsily strumming on a strange looking acoustic guitar.
"Just knock on them doors there and the boss will interview you," said Ol' Dirgle, letting his passengers off. "Between you and me, though, it's a done deal. You're the only applicants we've had since those ads were sent out."
"Thank ya, kindly," said Jimmy, and he and Nork waved at the driver as he steered the vehicle away towards a large barn several yards from the house.
Jimmy and Nork headed up the stairs to the house, all the while Jimmy walked backwards, taking in the grand scenery around him. In the middle of this orange, arid desert, here he was now on a fifty acre patch of fertile land. Grassy fields far as the eye could see were dotted with large, long legged birds that had dark blue feathers and fuschia tongues roaming to and fro, flapping their flightless wings.
"How 'bout that," said Jimmy as he turned around to face the doors that Nork was knocking on with his mighty paw.
There was no response for a moment, so Jimmy looked over at the young woman in the rocking chair a few feet from him, who seemed to be paying attention to nothing but her guitar. She strummed out a few folksy cords and began to hum.
Jimmy smiled.
Then one of the double doors flew open and a tiny man who looked just like the girl, only bald, stood there wearing a black western shirt with green stitching on it in the shapes of various things like laser pistols, cowboy boots, horseshoes and flying saucers.
"Whadda you want?" he demanded in a scratchy voice. "You come from Kobb's place? Or are ya from the SDA here to tell me muh meats no good again?"
Jimmy was taken aback.
"I… we're here about the ranch hand positions, sir" he said in what he thought was a right friendly way.
The old man looked them both up and down with his shiny black eyes and then grumbled.
"Alright, come on in," he said and he turned on his little cowboy boots and walked back into the shadowy innards of the house.
"And close the door behind ya!" he yelled, causing Jimmy and Nork to hurry along after him inside. Nork gently slammed the door shut.
The pale girl on the porch just hummed to herself and continued to strum her guitar, oblivious to the recent commotion. She began to sing, in a soft, lilting voice.
"To the town of Zeta Mesa, came a stranger one fine day.
Didn't speak to folks around him, didn't have too much to say…"
She stopped suddenly, holding the strings still with her palm.
"No, that ain't right," she said to herself.
Inside the Buckman home, the little purple man led the boys into a parlor decorated with old damask wallpaper and vases full of blue feathers.
"I'm Castor Buckman, he said, stomping over to an armchair and hopping up into it. He faced them with a stoney expression.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
Nork and Jimmy looked at each other, each one daring the other to get their head bitten off.
"Well, sir, I'm James Hapgood," Jimmy began.
"Hapgood?" Mr. Buckman said in contempt. He squinted his eyes at Jimmy as if to see him better. "Jimmy Hapgood?"
"Yes… sir," Jimmy said, uncertainly.
"I heard o' you. You have quite a reputation, my boy. They say you're pretty handy with a laser pistol."
Small universe, thought Jimmy, but out loud he said, "All exaggerations and rumors, I don't mind tellin' ya."
He chuckled to himself in a way that he hoped was disarming. "In fact if I'm bein' honest I mighta started most of those rumors muh own self."
"Well, I don't need braggarts and storytellers 'round here anymore than I need big oafs or brutes," said Mr. Buckman, he now turned his squinty eyes to Nork.
"Sir, I can assure you me and my companion are none of those things, just real hard workers, that's all," said Jimmy.
"Ever worked on a ranch before?" demanded Buckman.
"Yessir, several," said Jimmy. "I myself got started young, workin' on my grandpa's horse ranch back in Big Springs, Texas."
"Texas, eh? Never heard of that Planet," grumbled Buckman. "What do you know about raisin' space ostriches?"
"Well, I've only been around them once or twice, but I imagine they're not too different from space emus, am I right?"
"You gettin' smart with me, boy?" growled Buckman.
Jimmy wasn't quite sure what he'd said wrong, but he said, "No, sir," just the same.
"Hmm," Buckman grumbled a bit and squinted his eyes more.
"And you ain't workin' for Kobb, huh?" he asked, becoming slightly more civil.
"I don't even know who Kobb is," said Jimmy.
"A no good, land stealin', low down, dirty cuss, is who," said Buckman. "But don't you make no nevermind about that for now."
He began to rub his fingers together in deep thought for a moment, then said, "If I take you two on, I can only pay you six space bucks a week, each."
"That's what we're accustomed to," said Jimmy, which was almost true.
"The work is hard and the planet gets mighty hot around this time of year," said Buckman.
"I'm from Texas," Jimmy reiterated.
"What about the big guy, don't he talk?" asked Buckman.
"Blllaaarrwwwaaaakkkkkk gggrrr. Gggg," said Nork.
"Nevermind," said Buckman, waving Nork's words away with his tiny purple hand, then he hopped down off the chair and clomped over to the two men.
"I'll take you on a trial basis," he said. "Now head out to the barn and Ol' Dirgle will give you further details, that's also where you'll sleep. Got a problem with that?" he squinted at them.
Nork looked at Jimmy and Jimmy looked at him, then they both looked at their new boss and shook their heads, no.
"I feel at home already," said Jimmy with a smile.
Buckman grumbled and dismissed them with a swish of his hand.
On the way out of the house, Jimmy stopped on the porch to introduce himself to the young lady, but she was gone, just an empty chair and warm guitar were left there. Jimmy looked out at the open prairie and he saw her silhouette against the enormous setting sun, running through the fields alongside the space ostriches, skipping and twirling as she went. Jimmy couldn't help but laugh. Then he saw her run up to one ostrich that had the silhouette of a small child sitting on its back. She reached up and pulled the child down and took their hand, leading them back towards the house.
Jimmy stepped off the porch and joined his cycloptic friend in heading towards the barn. After a few feet he and Nork crossed paths with the girl and a young boy that had the same features as her and Mr. Buckman, but had short white hair parted on one side and wore black faded black overalls with no shirt underneath and one strap unfascined.
"Welcome to the team," she said to Jimmy, making eye contact with him as they passed.
Jimmy smiled and nodded.
Nork made a half-hearted grunt to let Jimmy know he was about to run smack into a totem pole, but Jimmy was so focused on the mysterious girl walking by that he did just that.
"Aww," he said, grabbing his nose.
Nork laughed a roaring laugh, as Jimmy checked to make sure there was no blood on his hand, then he looked up at the weatherbeaten old pole that had once been painted a dark green. Carved into the dry wood were the ghastly faces of some alien gods that were completely foreign to him.
"Let's head on in," Jimmy said, moving past his own embarrassment and toward the open entrance of the barn.
Inside were the normal tools and equipment used for running a space ostrich ranch, as well as a few of the ostriches themselves,mingling around eating seed on the ground. One of them was eating out of the hand of a porky, silver robot man with a long beard as a skinny green man with dark purple spots on his forehead, who wore a floppy old brown hat, watched on and gently stroked the creature's feathers.
"This is Galoo and Jit," Ol' Dirgle said, as he stepped out of a small office in the corner of the barn, which was his.
"Boys, this is Jimmy here and the big boy is Nork," he then said to the two men. They stopped what they were doing and scrutinized Jimmy and his friend.
"I ain't never worked with a cyclops before," drawled Galoo, the green guy.
"Oh, he's a real good worker, boys, always keeps his eye on his work," Jimmy said with a smile.
Ol' Dirgle squealed with laughter, but Jit and Galoo just looked at each other as the ostrich they were feeding wandered off.
"Anyway, I'll be posting the new work assignments on the board in the morning. Now that there's five of us things should run a mite more smoothly," Dirgle said, becoming very businesslike.
"But for how long?" asked the robot, Jit.
"Now, now, you erase that kind of talk from your memory tapes," scolded Dirgle.
Jimmy and Nork looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
"Don't you two mind him, he's gotten a little funny ever since we had to reassemble him after the last flare up. You two can head up that ladder and find where you'll be sleeping," Dirgle said, pointing to a rusty ladder that led up to a rather large loft.
When Jimmy and Nork headed up there they found two cots with no personal items on the tables next to thema and assumed they were theirs. Nork lay down on one of them and his feet hung a full foot over the end. He looked up at Jimmy and they both laughed.
"This place ain't so bad," said Jimmy. "It could feel kinda like home, right?"
Nork nodded and said, "Grrra nnn rr aakkkk."
"For how long though?" Jimmy said, taking off his hat and letting his arm fall down by his side, wearily.
The next morning Ol' Dirgle took Nork into town with him so that he could get he and Jimmy's personal effects from Travelin' Man II as well as help with some rather large barrels that needed to be hauled back to the ranch, meanwhile Jimmy and his two new coworkers, Galoo and Jit, got to work on the daily chores assigned to them on the board Ol' Dirgle had mentioned.
By the time Dirgle and Nork got back, the planet's large sun was already beginning to set. Jimmy and his coworkers were putting away their equipment when the foreman approached. Jimmy wiped some sweat from his brow.
"Days are kinda short here," he said to Dirgle, conversationally.
"The longer you're here, the longer they'll feel," said Galoo as he walked by holding a large metal doohickey with a hook on it.
Jimmy chuckled.
Ol' Dirgle didn't look like he was in a laughing mood though.
"Everything okay?" asked Jimmy, noticing the old man's expression. "Did something happen in town?"
"Nothin' too serious, just some locals talkin' trash about the big guy," he said, pointing his thumb over at Nork, who was busy unloading the metal barrels from the buckboard.
"Half of 'em are scared of him and half of 'em wanna fight him to prove somethin'," he continued. "But to his credit he kept his cool and didn't retaliate. Still, maybe it would be a good idea if he stayed here on the ranch from now on."
"Yeah, you might be right," said Jimmy looking over at his hard working friend. "We're new in town, we don't want no trouble."
"Anyway, we gotcher bags," said Ol' Dirgle, changing the subject.
"It'll be nice to work in my coveralls instead of my spacesuit tomorrow," said Jimmy with a smile.
"I'm sure it will," laughed Dirgle.
"Don't really breathe too much," said Jimmy, chuckling.
"It do get hot here," said Dirgle, and he giggled a bit as he headed towards his small office.
Jimmy walked past Jit, who was bringing in a hose, and over to Nork as he stacked the last barrel next to the barn door.
"Everything alright?" he asked the cyclops.
"Iii errrrkkk nnn dddorrr," said Nork.
"Yeah, don't even worry about it, pardner, just try and get a good night's sleep," said Jimmy.
"Yrrrriiggg dddssk?" asked Nork.
"Oh, I'm just gonna go outside and get some air," said Jimmy, fanning himself with his hat. "I'll be upstairs shortly.
He headed outside into the hot, humid night. A slight breeze was blowing, but all it did was blow dust onto him where it stuck to his sweaty face. He took a handkerchief out of his space suit and wiped his forehead. Then he looked around and out to the front gate where he saw the silhouette of a woman near the fence facing west. He sauntered across the field in that direction, making an effort to have it seem like he was checking the cattle along the way. Finally, he walked up to the fence and stood next to the humming electric light of the spacewire which illuminated the purple skin of the woman next to him, the same one from the previous day.
"Ma'am, I'm-"
"I'm Bolinda Buckman," said the woman. "I'm Mr. Buckman's niece, but I'm sure the boys already told you that."
"Er, no, actually we-"
"You're from Earth aren't you?" she asked, in an almost dreamy, far off way.
That took Jimmy aback for a second, but then he said, "Yeah, how you know about that?"
"I studied astronomy back home," she said, turning her back to the fence and then leaning up against it with the wire clutched in her hands.
Jimmy looked at the wire near him and reached out one of his gloved hands, curiously. Inches before touching it he got a small shock that made him pull back quickly.
"And then you and your son moved out here?" he asked, rubbing his hand, nonchalantly.
"My brother," said Bolinda. "Blorbo is my little brother, and yes, we moved here with my uncle after our parents drowned in a flood."
"I'm sorry," Jimmy said, Genuinely.
"It was a long time ago. I was eleven, Blorbo was a baby. Seems like ancient history now," Bolinda said, looking up at the stars.
"I lost my parents young too," said Jimmy. "Lived with my grandpa from the time I was seven all the way up until I joined the air force."
"What's that?" asked Bolinda.
"It's… a military organization," said Jimmy.
"No, that," she said, pointing at something Jimmy was holding in his hand.
"Oh, that," he said, holding up his pipe. "Must have pulled it outta my pocket outta habit."
"That's a pipe?" she asked, with real interest in her voice.
"It's made from a corn cob. That's a vegetable we have on Earth," said Jimmy. "Ain't had no luck in finding anything decent to smoke outta it since I left Earth, though."
"Well, tomorrow's a new day," she said, going right back to being vague and dreamy again.
"A short day," said Jimmy. "Like I was telling Ol' Dirgle, ya'll's days are shorter here than I'm used to."
"Cresta has an unusual orbit. I'm sure Ol' Dirgle or my uncle or someone told you about the heat, right?"
"They did," said Jimmy.
"I don't think they told you just how extreme it gets, though," said Bolinda.
Jimmy arched an eyebrow.
"At certain times of the day during certain times of the year the planet gets so close to the sun that the solar winds from it become almost unbearable. It can get so hot that the sand that the winds kick up can glassify and slice through even space suits,"
Jimmy rubbed his chin in thought.
"Is that a fact?" he said.
"It can reach temperatures as high as six hundred kwaylars, the melting point when sand becomes glass," said Bolinda, very seriously. "And that time of year is right around the corner, so I'm guessing now that you know all that you and your friend will probably wanna hit the old dusty trail."
Jimmy could tell she spoke from experience, like someone who had seen a lot of leaving. There was a bitterness in her voice that he knew all too well, but he wasn't the type to run away when things got difficult.
"Nah, like I told your uncle, I'm from Texas. I can handle a little sand meltin' heat," he said.
Bolinda looked at him and smiled an incredulous smile.
"Okay, cowboy, well then, I guess I'll be seein' you around," she said, pushing herself off the wire of the fence. She began to walk away, barefoot, through the tall grass.
"I'm Jimmy Hapgood, by the way," he called after her.
"I know," she said, without even turning around. "Goodnight, Jimmy Hapgood," she said and began to skip back towards the big house, leaving Jimmy to think things over while fiddling with his pipe.