Civic Obligations Part 2

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"OK, that's it," said Harper to the crowd of people sitting in the bar listening to him talk. "If you're interested in joining the umwa, see one of the girls after last call," he waved a hand to indicate Jeri, Trance, and Doyle, who were busy working the tables, picking up empties, and taking orders, "and let them know. They'll take your name and later you'll be contacted by a recruiter who'll give you more details on the organization. That's when you can decide if you want to join up and that way the company won't know if you joined up or not."

It had been roughly two months since Rhade had brought Jeri and Elaine back from the Andromeda. During those months, Rhade had spent the majority of his time attempting to suppress Association activities and wheedling equipment for his deputies from the vendors in the market area. Elaine, for her part, had become the voice of the umwa. Many of the miners and their spouses remembered her from her days as a teacher, and her house, somewhat to Rhade's consternation, had become an umwa meeting site. Fortunately for Rhade's mental health, the house soon became too small for the number of attendees and Elaine decided it was time to move the meetings to a larger location. Harper, after some prodding by Rhade, had volunteered not only the use of his bar but to also be the one to pitch the union.

"I see what's in it for the guys working the mines," said Juarez, "but what's in it for folks like me who don't work the mines?" He, O'Keeffe, and Cho Hee were working the night shift, and Rhade had told them to keep an eye on things at the Oasis while Harper was giving his talk. Somewhere in the midst of Harper's presentation, Juarez had started paying attention to Harper instead of the bar's patrons.

"How does a pay raise sound?" responded Harper. "If the miners get more pay, they have more to spend. The merchants who pay you get more customers, so they can afford give you a raise. And once they start getting paid in sols instead of script, the merchants can start buying goods directly instead of through the company. That means they won't have to exchange script for sols at company exchange rates. They won't have to pay as much for their goods, so they can afford to sell them to you for less."

"That's a lot of assumptions," said Juarez, looking doubtful.

"You will also get a chance to strike a blow at the corporate oppressors," added Orlund, who had become an enthusiastic supporter of, as he called it, 'the new movement.'

"I'll be able to do what?" asked Juarez.

"I think he said you'll get a chance to kick some Tan butt," said Cho Hee.

"Why didn't you just say that?" asked Juarez, giving Orlund an irritated look. He turned back to Harper. "Is the sheriff in on this?"

"He's the one who talked me into it," said Harper. "In fact, he and Jeri's mother—"

"Yevi crap," came a man's voice from one of the tables, interrupting Harper's explanation. "You've been feeding us nothing but mother loving yevi crap."

All eyes turned to the individual, who was now standing up, still with drink in hand, and had taken a position in the center of the barroom floor. Harper didn't recognize him, but there was a set of heavy miner's gloves on the table where he had been sitting. There was also a suspicious bulge under the man's serape. Harper reached below the counter to make sure his fléchette gun was within easy reach.

"This umwa talk is nothing but a bunch of yevi crap!" repeated the miner. "The Association knows what's what. The only thing the company understands is force."

"Like the plaza massacre?" asked Orlund from his seat. "One of my princesses nearly died there thanks to the Association."

"Your princess is nothing but a whore," said the miner. "And not a good one at that. I've done her myself."

Orlund didn't have a reputation as a fighter, but this was mostly because when Doyle asked him to leave the premises, he left quietly. The miner, however, wasn't Doyle, and he had just insulted someone Orlund considered his duty to protect. "Outside. Now." He practically snarled the words as he got up from his seat.

The miner's response to Orlund's challenge was to throw his drink in Orlund's face. Then, as Orlund was partially blinded, he grasped his shirt and pulled him forward. He smashed his forehead into Orlunds face while at the same time bringing his knee several times up into his groin. Orlund collapsed to the floor, writhing in pain.

Doyle began to move toward the miner only to stop as he reached under his serape, pulled out a handgun, and aimed it at her. An instant later, Cho Hee, O'Keeffe, and Juarez had drawn their weapons, and Harper had retrieved his fléchette gun from under the counter. The entire bar turned silent, stunned by the explosion of violence.

The silence was broken by the sound of a click as Harper thumbed the fléchette gun's safety to the fire position. "I've loaded this baby with scmitr rounds," he said. "At this range, the blades will be a nice tight grouping when they hit you. They'll slice your insides up like sausage. So unless you want to be converted into enyet food, drop your weapon."

"You might get me, but not before I get your woman," said the miner, still pointing his weapon at Doyle's midsection.

The standoff came to an end from an unexpected source. The miner had been so focused on Harper and the others that he had forgotten about Jeri and Trance. There was a sound of breaking glass followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. Jeri and Trance, still holding the remains of the beer bottles they had broken over the miner's head, gave each other a high-five, then went back to picking up empties.

Doyle looked down at the unconscious miner, then back to Harper, who was putting his fléchette gun back under the counter. "I told you someone would start trouble once you started talking. It looks like you owe me a foot massage after we close down."

"What do we do with him now?" asked Juarez, giving the unconscious miner a prod with his boot.

"Remove his pants," said Orlund, who was now sitting up but grimacing in pain, blood dribbling from his nose.

Juarez gave him a blank look. "Huh? Why?"

"Take his pants off, then carry him outside," repeated Orlund. "For his type, being laughed at is intolerable. To be defeated by the woman he insulted and then cast outside pants-less will be worse than if you killed him."

A number of patrons rushed up to follow Orlund's suggestion, while others stuffed Jeri and Trance's tip jars with company script.

"I like your style," said Cho Hee as she helped Orlund to his feet. "Why don't we go back to your table an' you can let me buy you a drink." When Doyle came by to take their orders, she told her, "Give him whatever he was drinking earlier. An' give me one, too."

Doyle nodded an affirmative. "Just don't let him get started on his secret tunnels." She closed her eyes and grimaced as she realized she had just opened up the subject.

At Cho Hee's quizzical look, Doyle gave a quick explanation of Orlund's history, deliberately cutting him off before he could start what she knew from experience would be a long and rambling explanation. Somewhat to both her and Orlund's surprise, Cho Hee listened attentively to Doyle's explanation.

As soon as Doyle left to fill their orders, Cho Hee moved her chair a bit closer to Orlund's. "When you were in the tunnels, did you see any writing?" she asked in a near whisper, obviously not wanting the conversation to be overheard.

"Writing?" asked Orlund. Not only was he confused by the question, he was astonished that Cho Hee was taking him seriously.

Cho Hee reached up and removed a strip of leather that had been looped around her neck. Dangling from the loop was a disc about the diameter of a child's fist. "Like this," she said, handing Orlund the object.

Orlund took the proffered object. It was made of a blue-green material that had a metallic sheen to it. It was surprisingly heavy. On one side of the disk was the worn image of what was possibly a man's face. On the other side were some symbols that could have been writing or simply decoration. There was a loop of the same blue-green material on the edge of the item, through which Cho Hee had threaded the leather thong. The disk was apparently some type of medallion.

"I found it about a year ago in the fields when I was helping Da—my stepdad—on his farm. He has some metal plates he found with this same funny writing on 'em. I asked about 'em, an' he didn't know anything about 'em 'cept to tell me it would be best if I didn't tell too many people what I found. I had it with me when the sheriff hired me, so I've been wearing it as a good luck charm."

Orlund handed the medallion back to Cho Hee, who slipped it back around her neck and under her shirt. "Have you thought about showing it to the company?" he asked. "Maybe they could tell you about it."

"More 'an likely they'd just keep if for themselves and never give me any script for it. Eff the company."

Doyle arrived with the drinks at just that moment. "Eff the company," she agreed.