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Tales from the Stellar Universe #2
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Hale-Bopp
Through a haze of tobacco smoke, a man stepped into the saloon, and took a seat at the bar.
“Whatta’ya havin’, hun?” the bartender asked, while she wiped a glass with a stained rag.
“Whiskey,” he replied. “Neat.”
The bartender poured the drink and raised her eyebrow.
“Say hun, you look awfully familiar. Like you stepped off a poster.”
The man glared at her with milky eyes. He sighed, lowered his hat, and took a sip. In the glass’s reflection, he saw a table of three men staring him down.
The burly one stood. His golden bionetic knuckles caught the light. He flexed his augmented fists as he spoke,
“Oy’, Graza… He looks like that ol’ bounty hunter. The deserter of Nimbus Mundo.” He snapped his mechanical fingers. “What’s his name?”
A greasy man snorted from behind.
“I thinks yous right, Tuco. Gideon Hale, I thinks.”
“The Comet,” Tuco drawled the name slowly, savoring it. “Whatcha doin’ alive? We outta gut ya!”
“We should do him a bit of charity.” Graza smeared a rusted axe across his grease-stained pants. “Looks like he’s been longin’ for an end to it all!” He hacked up a wet laugh.
“I heard he can’t die.” The words rumbled like digital gravel from a bionetic jaw of the lanky man at the table. “Took down a firing squad with a stick.” He pulled a small metallic rod out of his pocket. It snapped open through the air and extended into a staff. He slammed its base into the ground, holding it like a scepter. “Must’ve been a special stick.”
“Sounds like you’ve been had by a right ol’ fabrication ,Jaw-Jaw.” Graza sneered and stood.
Tuco knocked back a drink. Jaw-Jaw stuffed tobacco into a cavity in his mechanical jaw. Smoke hissed out of the metallic seams. Their weapons caught the light seeping through the haze of smoke.
“Let’s reunite the deserter with his mates,” Jaw-Jaw grated. “Then collect the pay for his corpse.”
“What?” the bartender cried out.
Gideon sipped his whiskey.
“No, not here, please!”
They stepped forward.
“Just leave.”
“What’re yous, a mute?” Tuco barked at Gideon.
“Take this drama outside.”
“That drink’s nice, bounty-man.”
“I don’t need any of this.”
“Last call. This here’s yer only warnin’.”
“Get out!”
“Yeah, ya heard the lady. Git out, or die where ya sit.”
Gideon sat his drink on the bar and removed his hat. A dragon tattoo coiled up his neck. He peered through his black, messy hair with his pale eyes.
“Fellas.” He scanned the lot of them. “I’m here to drink while my ship is under repair. Go back and drink yours, or I will end this. That is your warning.”
The men roared.
“Yous old, out of touch, and blind! Three of us brothers, and yous just a measly one,”
Gideon shook his head. “This is why I never go out. A man can’t drown his liver in peace.”
Tuco charged. His golden knuckles flashed as he telegraphed his punch.
Gideon ducked and sprang up. He seized Tuco by his head and slammed him face-first into the barstool.
Steam vented from slits in Gideon’s jacket sleeves. He stood over Tuco’s convulsing body.
Jaw-Jaw thrust his staff forward, but Gideon sidestepped. The staff nicked his ear and smashed a bottle behind the bar.
“Close,” Gideon crowed. He leapt forward and kneed the man in the gut.
He doubled over. Gideon kicked at his head, but Jaw-Jaw leaned back and ripped his staff up, cracking him under his chin. Gideon arched backwards and fell into a chair. His vision blurred and refocused. Then the staff cut down above his head. He dropped to the ground, the chair taking the impact. Gideon seized the chair by its leg and jabbed the backrest into Jaw-Jaw’s wrist. The staff clattered free. Gideon slammed the chair into his head. Jaw-Jaw crashed through a table behind him, spilling bottles and glass across the floor.
“You thugs’re destroyin’ my bar!” the bartender shouted.
He gasped. The chrome jawed thug pushed up from the floor, his arms trembling beneath his small frame. The bounty hunter pounced on him, driving an elbow into the back of his head. His jaw sparked, shocking him with his own current.
Graza barreled into the bounty hunter and drove him over the bar. Glass and liquor exploded, drenching Gideon. The bartender screamed and ran into the kitchen.
“Not so tough now? I ain’t like my brothers, you see.” He snickered.
Graza vaulted over the bar after Gideon, clawing for his neck. The bounty hunter fended off his greasy hands and kicked off his chest. He slid across the floor, glass shards scraping beneath him, tearing into his side. He scrambled back to his feet.
“Impressive.” Gideon wiped blood off his lip.
Hexagons dappled his eyes until they blackened; his hair frosted white. He blurred past the greasy man, appearing directly behind him. The bounty hunter whispered in his ear,
“But that won’t do.”
A barrage of precise blows hammered Graza’s arm, leaving it limp.
Graza chopped his rusted axe. Gideon slapped it out of his hand and it slid across.
“Have you ever heard of Ki?” He clasped his hands together. “It’s breath magic from earth.”
Graza stared blankly then laughed from his belly. His greasy hand started melting.
“Their breath gave them power.”
Graza’s hand formed into a spike.
“With one shout —”
Graza lunged forward with a dripping spike for an arm.
Gideon side stepped and drove his palms into the thug’s grease-stained shirt, and shouted,
“Cannon!”
A gleaming beam of blue light tore through Graza. The air filled with a sulfuric stench. He stumbled backwards, covering the hole in his chest. Black sludge oozed from his mouth as his greasy hand reached out. He dropped to his knees and melted into an inky pool.
“Nano augmentation?” He tapped the puddle with his boot. “Where did you get the funds for that?”
The bartender stepped out of the kitchen and gasped.
“You killed ‘em!”
“I should’ve, but no,” he said and approached Tuco’s unconscious body. “The puddle over there will reconfigure.” He prodded at Tuco’s golden knuckles. “You don’t deserve these.” Gideon pried the knuckles out of his augmented hands as chalky bionetic fluids spurted out. He tucked the knuckles into his jacket and faced the bartender, “Unless you favor pyromania. Then by all means.”
“Was that really, ya know… earth magic?”
Gideon picked up his hat, dusted it off, and blow of the smoke trailing out of an open hole in hand. “Earth’s best magic, is deception.”
The bartender turned away with a puzzled frown, only to see her bar in ruins.
“My bar…”
Gideon paused in the doorway. A light swayed overhead, creaking in the smoke-filled ruin behind him. He tipped his brim. “Put it on their tab. They can afford it.”
Hale-Bopp was a collaborative project
Written by
&Narrator
Gideon Hale
Bartender
Graza
Tuco
Jaw-Jaw
Table of Contents [Start Here]
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Take a guided tour through the aisles of the Dreamsmith Library.
All works can be found here!
Impulse
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A collector lands in on a strange planet in search of a good deal.
Stellar Rein: Episode One
Ibra and his mount Quetzle race against the clock in a race tournament on a remote world.
What a blast! How cool would it be to see a behind-the-scenes look at how the audio comes together for these too.
This is great glad to be a part of it 😀