While Jeri was waiting tables, Rhade and his deputies had been busy with a marksmanship and unarmed combat demonstration in the market area. Rhade had suggested it to the various vendors in the market as a way to lure potential customers into the market place. In reality, it was a show of force. Rhade had learned early in his stay on Seefra that a bad reputation was a good thing to have, and he wanted the word to get out that his deputies were nearly as dangerous as he was.
Rhade had never intended to become Seefra City's chief law enforcement officer, but after taking out the Hangmen, the position had been more or less thrust upon him by the citizens of the south-side. At first it had been just him and Doyle, occasionally assisted by Harper, but after a bloody shootout with what was left of the Hangmen, he began attracting help. He and his assistants were now what passed for law in south-side.
And 'what passed for' was the correct term. In reality, there was no law. Company policy was that whatever south-siders did to each other was no concern of the company unless it damaged company property, and that company employees who chose to live in south-side did so at their own risk. The company police spent their time guarding company property and north-side company employees. They only entered south-side in groups and then only on company business, usually to evict a tenant who had fallen behind on his or her rent or to close down a merchant who hadn't kept up payments on their vendor's license.
Rhade didn't consider himself a lawman, nor did he consider his methods law. But then outside of company regulations, Seefra City didn't have any sort of judicial system. The few individuals who had previously attempted to establish one had all met untimely ends. Rhade didn't have so much as an office let alone a lockup. A first-time thief could expect a pair of broken wrists. Repeat offenders were taken to the edge of town, given food, water, and a compass and told to start walking. Most of the exiles made it to the next town. It was harsh, but it was better than what had been in place before.
At the moment, Rhade was sparing with one of his deputies, an ex-miner named Bara who had been fired for being too vocal in his criticism of company safety policies. Bara was as well-built as Rhade and both men were stripped to the waist and sweating profusely, so probably not too surprisingly many of the onlookers were female. Rhade had just blocked a kick and was moving into position for a grappling attack when he heard the sound of shots being fired. Not one or two shots, but a volley. He dropped his guard to try to determine where the shots had come from and was rewarded for his efforts with a blow to the side of the head that would have knocked him unconscious if his partner hadn't pulled his punch.
"What—?" his partner started to speak but was stopped by Rhade's upraised hand. There were more shots, then the sound of screaming. The crowd of onlookers and his deputies looked at him uneasily.
"Dennic, Moretti," barked Rhade to two of his deputies who were fully dressed and armed. "Take one of the two-ways and investigate. That sounded like it was coming from the area of the east plaza. Don't do anything rash. Just find out what happened and report in." As the two men ran off in the direction of the shooting, Rhade spoke to the rest of his crew. "The rest of you get dressed and check your weapons. If Dennic and Moretti don't report back within ten minutes, we're going out in force."
Six minutes later, Dennic's voice came over the two-way. "Sheriff, sir, you need to get here fast and bring the others."
"What's the situation, Dennic?" asked Rhade, not wanting to run blind into a firefight.
"It's bad, sir, real bad. There's been a massacre."
When Rhade and the rest of his deputies arrived on scene they saw that, if anything, Dennic had underestimated the extent of the carnage. The plaza looked like a battlefield, littered with the dead and wounded, the hard-packed ground nearly awash in blood. Some of the wounded were lying on the ground writhing in pain while others not so seriously hurt were either sitting in shock or trying to help.
"What happened here, Dennic?" asked Rhade as he knelt beside one of the victims and checked for a pulse. There wasn't one.
It was Moretti who answered, tears streaming down his cheeks. "We don't rightly know, sir. By the time we got here, it was all over. There were bodies everywhere. It was the Black and Tans. There was a squad of them. Some of the survivors say they just started shooting at the crowd for no reason. Some of the Tans were hurt, too. At least one of them was dead, and they were bandaging another one. I could see the blood. I tried to ask the squad leader what happened, but he just told me to back off or I'd get what the others got. That's when we called you. The bastards didn't even try to help. They just picked up their wounded and left."
Rhade clapped the young man on the shoulder to steady him. "You did fine, Moretti. Now, I need you and Dennic to go to the Oasis and have Doyle bring Trance and the bar's medical kit here. "
"Trance, sir?" asked Dennic.
"Trance," confirmed Rhade. "Before she was injured, she was my unit's medic." That was enough of an explanation. Most Seefrans thought Rhade and his companions from the Oasis were veterans from the losing side of one of the numerous wars that were continually taking place on the other planets in the Seefran system. Rhade had never attempted to correct the assumption. It answered a number of questions he didn't want asked. "With luck, when she sees the injured her hands might remember even if her mind doesn't." A humorless smile crossed his face. "And if not, one more set of untrained hands isn't going to make a difference. Now go. We're going to need all the help we can get."
With help on the way Rhade turned his attention to bringing some order to the chaos, first sending runners out to fetch which ever doctors were available and willing to help, then supervising the treatment of the wounded. Now that the Black and Tans were no longer in the area, the local residents were arriving and trying, mostly ineffectively, to help. Rhade wasn't a combat medic, but he had experience dealing with gunshot wounds. He could at least ensure that the would-be helpers didn't cause any more damage to the wounded until real doctors arrived.
Time passed. Rhade was busy giving encouragement to one of the less severely wounded when he heard Doyle's voice. "We're here, Rhade."
Rhade stood up to see Doyle and Trance along with Dennic and Moretti. Doyle was carrying the medical kit that Harper kept in the bar. It was one of the combat medic kits that had once been used by Andromeda's Lancers. Trance's eyes were wide in horror. Doyle on the other hand had an expression on her face that could only be described as murderous. It was, Rhade thought, very fortunate that the Black and Tans had left the area or he would have had a second massacre to deal with.
Doyle placed the medical kit on the ground and opened it up, taking out pressure bandages, quick clot, and other emergency first aid supplies. With Trance forgetting most of her medical skills, it had fallen on Doyle to pick up the slack. She had gotten a fair bit of practice patching up Rhade and his deputies over the past few months. She handed Trance some of the supplies, gave her instructions, and then turned to Rhade.
"We're missing something, Rhade," she said
"What do you mean?"
"We're only taking care of the injured we see here in the plaza. The survivors say that the crowd panicked when the shooting started. There might be more wounded in some of the streets leading away from the plaza.."
Rhade let out a string of obscenities. He had completely overlooked that idea. He barked out orders to his men, sending them out into the side streets to look for any injured people who may have escaped the plaza area before succumbing to their wounds. Doyle, now that there were real doctors on the scene, went with them. After a few moments, one of Rhade's men came running back into the plaza area.
"Sir, Doyle says you need to come with me. It's urgent."
"What is it, Morgan?"
"I'd rather not say, sir. Just come with me."
Deciding that action would be better than words, Rhade followed his deputy. They hadn't gone far down one of the side streets when they encountered Doyle. She was crouched over an unmoving body. She looked up as the two men approached.
"Rhade, it's Jeri."
Rhade covered the remaining distance between him and Doyle so quickly that Morgan later swore Rhade broke the sound barrier. Rhade knelt down beside the still form of his mate.
"Is she… Is she…?" He couldn't force himself to ask the question.
Doyle changed her position slightly and Rhade could see Jeri's face. Her eyes were open but her gaze was unfocused and she didn't appear to be aware of her surroundings or to recognize Rhade. There was a slight bluish tint to her lips and her breathing was rapid almost panting.
"She's alive," said Doyle. "But I think she has a punctured lung and maybe other internal injuries She needs more help than she can get here on Seefra."
Rhade jumped to his feet. "Morgan!" he shouted to his deputy, who was standing a respectful distance from Rhade. "Get back to the Oasis as fast as you can. When you get there, tell Harper that Jeri's been hurt and that he needs to contact Andromeda. Tell him to have her to send down a spacecraft onboard delivery vessel rigged for medevac. And that I need it now. Have her set it down at the dry stacking area"
"Andromeda?" asked Morgan. "Who is—?"
"Never mind who she is. Just get to the Oasis and have Harper contact her."
"Morgan," called out Doyle as the man started to turn away. "There's a collapsible stretcher in the med kit. When you get to the plaza, tell someone to bring it back here. We're going to need to carry Jeri to the landing site. We can't wait for a wagon."
Morgan left the alleyway at almost a dead run. Rhade went back to Jeri. Doyle was cradling her head in her lap; there was an almost terrified look on her face. Rhade suspected that he had the same look on his own face.
A few long moments later a pair of Rhade's deputies accompanied by Trance appeared, carrying the stretcher. The men, working under Doyle's supervision, lifted Jeri onto the litter and set out to rendezvous with the medevac vessel.