Chapter 9: Get the Lead Out

Back to the Present Day...

There were currently a few off sounds as Darin’s eyes slowly shifted open. Pain reverberated around him, but it wasn’t that significant. If anything, he seemed more confused as to what was going on.

Everything was upside down for him. The pagoda-like ceiling of the Hebis’soka was in front of his vision. His back lay strewn on the hard floor, while his back legs lay sprawled to the top of a fallen chair pinned to the wall. His hat wasn’t that far from his head, his hands pressed to his forehead with the other on the broken table leg of destroyed furniture.

Things were slowly becoming back to reality for the cowboy. The commotion consisted of Itrean words spoken in the distance.

“Darin!...” Feri’nita’s voice called out.

“ ... Ugh...,” Darin grunted on the floor.

The man listened closely for a few seconds. He tried to remember what had happened just now. However, it didn’t take long before Natch’s face came into Darin’s point of view, the towering man standing and looking down upon him. The Native American and his red glowing eye seemed transfixed on the man slumbering on the floor.

“ ... You keep getting taller, Natch...,” Darin hazily remarked. “Wacha been eaten lately?”

“You alright?” Natch asked him.

“Is it me ... or am I looking up at the ceiling?”

“You are looking at the ceiling, Darin.”

“ ... Natch, ... why am I on the floor?”

“You were thrown by a Shal’rein across the entire room. The table caught your fall ... along with everything else...”

“Yep ... that explains it,” Darin commented, placing both hands to his chest.

“You’re lucky to be alive right now,” Natch continued. “I was pretty sure Go’denza was going to kill you or end in a shootout after you hit her with the bottle.”

“ ... Yeah, I was kinda counting on that ... maybe gone one on one with her, you reckon?”

Natch nodded. “Well, after she threw you, she took the Yutilian her gang killed, and left the Hebis’soka, along with her people.”

“Huh ... I guess nobody was ready to start shootin just yet ... Shal’rein need the Yutilians to give them water ... Yutilians are too yellow-bellied to start gunning down their attackers.”

“The Shal’rein are well equipped, even without their wrap armor. I doubt the Yutilians would have had much of a chance in an all-out shootout.”

“That too...”

Feri’nita’s face could be seen as she stepped into Darin’s point of view.

“Darin,” her voice showed a hint of concern, her clawed fingers pressed together. “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“Never been better, Feri’nita,...” Darin replied as he twiddled his thumbs over his chest. “Had a nice dream about you, first night together, with me being unconscious and all. Funny how life treats you when you’re thousands of light-years away from home and a giant shark woman decides to test out her throwin skills on me ... tends to make a man think now...”

She smiled at him, seemingly relieved to see that he might have been alright. The hint of further sounds could be heard all around them. At times, there were the sounds of what might have been crying. Other sounds were those of anger, resentment, chittering, and chirping as Itreans argued with one another over the recent events.

“So the question becomes what to do next,” Darin said.

Natch offered his hand to him. “Need a hand?” he asked him.

“Yeah, ... was getting too comfy sleepin on the floor.”

Darin raised his hand to Natch as the towering man helped lift the cowboy up. He quickly grabbed his hat as he was lifted to a standing position in an instant. Resituating his hat back onto his head, Darin let go of Natch and started grabbing the back of his neck, feeling the strain inflicted upon him by the hard throw. His teeth cringed for a moment before he shook off the pain.

The interior of the Hebis’soka was a mess. Besides the knocked-down and destroyed furniture from Darin’s impact and injuries, there was blood several feet away from him. More drops of blood could be seen as it led out the door.

There had to be at least ten Yutilians, all either dismayed or angry. A few were cursing to themselves, horrified and rattled by the recent events. A few entered, dressed in heavier clothing, carrying various small rifles or other small arms in an attempt to reinforce the building. It was far too late. The Shal’rein were gone. The sound of a roaring engine could be heard as it slowly decreased, then disappeared in the vast distance of Jiqua’nyu.

Darin saw Czarek step in, his Mosin Nagant at the ready. A look of subtle anger could be seen on his face, as he was disappointed by what he saw. For a second, he looked at the blood on the floor before looking at Darin. He didn’t appear to be angry at Darin, only disappointed at the death that he saw earlier.

“Cap,” Czarek addressed him.

“What’s the report?” Darin asked him.

“ ... I was ready to go, sir,” he replied. “Ready to take them all on...” He paused as he bit his lip.

“I stopped him...,” Natch told Darin. “It was close ... Go’denza was ready to fight all of us, but the moment you were knocked out, she told her gang to leave and get out.”

“Not without taking Hui’kima ... I mean ... one of the Ko’min, Cap.”

“That was her name?” Darin asked Czarek.

“ ... Yeah ... I was looking forward to that good night with her..., sir. Fuckers killed her.”

“I see ... I respect your resilience in not trying to engage all of them with our limited strength. I might have...”

Smack ... a glass cup slammed onto the table where Darin had been briefly knocked out. No ... it impacted the broken table. The cup shattered on impact. It interrupted what Darin was about to say.

The cowboy turned to see that Swi’ya was standing, her scaly hands trembling, held hard to her sides.

The look of anger on her face was obvious. Her reptilian eyes remained glued to the blood on the floor. None of the other Itreans in the room even wanted to comfort her, nor did she want it. Her teeth were displayed before she briefly raised her closed fists to her horned, feathery head.

“Xa, wae, xa click,” Swi’ya said. “Hui’kima, raya, la’pess...” A tear ran down her eye. “Do not talk down Hui’kima...”

“ ... I hear that, partner,” Darin replied.

“No ... she die ... because of you...”

“You agreed to this,” Feri’nita told her. “Don’t blame him...” Natch put her hand on her shoulder to gesture to Feri’nita to hold back on arguing.

“Maybe she’s still alive,” Czarek said. “Cap, we go bust her out. We...”

“I’m afraid that she’s long gone, Czarek,” Darin remarked. “I know what she meant to you ... or everyone.”

“But why?” the jump trooper lifted his hands up in confusion. “I don’t get it. If the Shal’rein wanted to send a threat to us, why take the body?”

“Waste not what you kill,” Natch told him. “Even out here, the food is scarce or limited to what they can eat. The Itreans have learned that for ages past.”

“ ... Well, fuck...”

Darin stepped toward Swi’ya, looking down upon her. “We knew what we were getting into when we confronted the Shal’rein,” the cowboy explained. “It’s as Natch said. We’re lucky that most of us are still standing. You inherited a problem, and now the town needs to do something about it before it keeps getting worse.”

She seemed a little confused, trying to translate the English in her head. Feri’nita tried to translate to her, but she waved her off. Finally, she looked up at Darin in defiance.

“How?” she asked him.

“You got choices to make,” Darin said. “You either give the Shal’rein what they want, knowing they’ll be back again and again, terrorizing your folk, killing to make a point. Or you get ready for an all-out shootout...”

“What we should have done,” Czarek said.

“Same here, but we’re fighting Shal’rein, a lot of them. I’m beginning to see why they’re so devastatin in the ground department, but getting a chance to see Go’denza, I can see a little bit of her plight as well...”

Feri’nita began to translate for Swi’ya. Darin turned to look at Natch and Czarek.

“They had us,” Natch said.

“We got plenty of mysteries here, I reckon,” Darin replied. “Natch, you aren’t just right; you’re darn tootin on the dot to the point that something was amiss with what he had just now. The Shal’rein definitely had us ... they could have easily killed all of us right at the spot ... but they didn’t. We need to figure this all out before we continue.”

“They could have easily shot into the Hebis’soka,” Natch remarked. “They could have raided the town, taken the water here and now, and left.”

“But they didn’t...”

“Cautious warriors ... the weakness of the enemy makes our strength, but the bird who has eaten cannot fly with the bird that is hungry.”

“There he goes again,” Czarek remarked, rolling his eyes.

“It’s respectable what they are, Darin. In desperation, they came here. They took what they needed and left. They left us alive for many reasons...”

“They want the town to live, Natch,” Darin explained. “Whatever they had is gone, forced them out of hiding. The fact is that we were part of the whole change in their actions just now.”

“Yeah...,” Czarek commented. “We know that already with us shutting down their vaporators.”

“Yep ... Go’denza was scared of us as much as she was trying to lead her cohorts. She knows she’s in enemy territory ... and her people aren’t coming to get them. She was expecting the local townsfolk for sure, but she was taken off guard by our presence.”

“Then we’re safely assuming that they aren’t T’rintar Shal’rein, then?”

“After what they’ve conveyed, after what we’ve seen ... No fellow T’rintar Shal’rein would be doing this to their own allies, nor would a lot of them prefer living on this world. They’re here, and they aren’t liking it too much.”

“But they know about the cure to the disease.”

“I reckon it took them by surprise when they eventually discovered that ... they don’t believe it though ... They’ve been on this world long enough to see the propaganda videos being broadcast on Denji’Kei, but, like anything, they chose not to believe them. But it still led to some form of benefit along with the reason why we’re all still yammering to each other.”

“They’re afraid of us...,” Natch commented, thinking about it. “The only thing they know about humanity is through the videos.”

“Yeah,” Czarek added. “Of humans fucking Itreans.”

“But nothing else ... We’re a mystery to them.” Natch’s eye narrowed some. “The few contacts that humanity had with the Shal’rein were their attempted attacks on New Olympia, Aphadus, and Oshun. Oshun and New Olympia were both defeats for the Shal’rein clan. If their current information is correct, then their clan would have given them misinformation about us.”

“Yet, I could see it in Go’denza’s eyes...,” Darin said. “She didn’t know how to work with us. Sure, she can put a strong face and act all tough. That’s all she can do. She was hoping to scare the local townsfolk..., try to scare us,” he turned to look at Swi’ya. “Surely we did play a part in them killin one of Jinqu’nyu’s finest, but we also probably saved countless more from the slaughter...”

Feri’nita began to translate to Swi’ya, informing her of what Darin was commenting about.

“But how?” Natch asked. “It was us three against their entire band of marauders. They would have known they could still kill us.”

“ ... I can’t fully explain it either, Natch,” Darin explained. “One of those Shal’rein should have had some concept of English, but they didn’t. I reckon most of those propaganda videos about humans are all in their own language.” He pointed to Natch. “They know about us, but they don’t know our resources. They’re afraid that we have other things in store for them that we can toss at them at a moment’s notice ... Think about it. If you lost all your fleets, all your crew from two major battles, wouldn’t you be a little cautious in how you treat the visiting humans?”

“Hmmm ... we don’t have enough information to conclude that was what happened.”

“But it is something, though. Go’denza is a tough one ... stranded on this world, while she and her band know of an alien race that might be able to beat them in a fair fight. She saw my shootin-iron, knew that I was in her league ... that I might just be able to win against her. All she can do is test us ... test our resolve, that is. At the same time, she might have a hunch that if she killed us, more of the same humans might just come barreling down her doorstep.”

“But we are vulnerable to them, if not more than they are.”

“But they don’t know that. That fear is putting us on a much higher pedestal. We can take that to our advantage ... get the drop on this bad scrape we have here.”

“Now we just need to figure out what to do next,” Natch said.

Darin turned back to Swi’ya and walked up to her, putting his hands to his hips. The other two men stepped back to assess the rest of the room. The cowboy could see that the owner of the Hebis’soka was distressed, aggravated, and disappointed by everything that had taken place.

“What do you have for reinforcements, Swi’ya?” Darin asked her. “You got marauders. They attacked your town. What are you going to do about it?”

There was a pause as she looked at everyone. It was a simple choice for her. Instead of letting sadness take over, she let anger fill her soul. For a moment, she looked over to the blood on the floor before she looked up at the man and scowled.

“I kill them...,” Swi’ya replied, before saying it in Itrean for the others in the town to hear it. “I kill them ... or kill you...”

“Mighty interesting to hear that from the person who decided to take advantage of a man passed out drunk last night ... but what do I expect from the soiled doves that hadn’t seen a man in ten years? You better put that anger where it suits you best ... bite your tongue and fight for your town.”

“We understand your anger,” Natch added, speaking to Swi’ya. “You have lived the peaceful life. You wish to be left alone, but life does not work that way. Eventually, the people, the warriors and villagers must work together ... fight back against those that wish to bring harm to you. We are your only hope.”

Feri’nita translated to Swi’ya for a little while. The more she listened, the more her anger and snappish resentment subsided. If anything, she seemed to regret threatening Darin just now.

Swi’ya paused and took a deep breath, cooling her head for a moment before she continued. She could see that the other Itreans were looking at her for guidance.