Koban Universe 2: Have Genes, Will Travel

by Stephen W Bennett

  “You must mean my barging into your office, and our rough treatment of Gregos’ men outside of the Water Hole bar last night. I imagine you have recordings of my movements in this building, just as we have the altercation outside the bar recorded. I can honestly swear that I was invited to meet with you, and that it was the sheriff who relayed that invitation to me in front of witnesses. Then later, those nine hired hands were the aggressors outside the bar, their actions caught on body cameras we carried.” He shrugged.

  “Nevertheless, I’ll grant that neither one of you are stupid men. Corrupt and evil, certainly, but not stupid. The evidence won’t matter. I suppose you’ll ask Sheriff McKinnon to arrest us, now that we’ve announced we’re not going to work for you. Of course, we do know he’s already here inside the Social Club. We could smell him the instant we walked in, and there were three scents from other people drifting in the air coming out of the bar at this early hour, one of which is probably the bartender. We didn’t need to see the sheriff, or either one of you for us to know that you were in the building. He probably has two deputies with him.

  “I know that you know that there aren’t enough men in this entire building to arrest us if we decide not to permit that. Therefore, successfully arresting us can’t possibly be your actual plan. You must expect the attempt to go badly for McKinnon and his deputies. Do you know what I think?” He asked them rhetorically. “I think you two are shitty bosses to work for.”

  Gregos challenged them. “Perhaps, but we can be very profitable to work for if you have the balls to do the work.”

  “Typical male testicle bias.” Kit snarled, smiling wider, looking more dangerous, if that were possible. The two cattle barons shifted uneasily in their seats.

  Ethan nodded once. “Well, we said what we came to say to you. You two finish your breakfast when it comes, there’s no need to get up. We’ll show ourselves out.”

  Instead of reversing and returning the way they entered, the two walked out the swinging door at the rear of the dining room, through the kitchen. Egerton quickly whipped out his phone and called McKinnon.

  “Greeves and that cat were here and they left through the kitchen, headed out through the rear loading dock. I want you and your deputies to intercept them and order them to surrender, and to accompany you to the jail.”

  The sheriff had his response ready, since he’d been thinking about why he was here. “The charges you described earlier are really what you want them arrested for? You know those are extremely weak, and they can’t be held for long. They’ll make bail from a judge before noon.”

  “Judge Grissom will be unavailable. They’ll have to spend the night in a cell if he doesn’t set bail. Get your ass in motion after them, or to a saloon to spend your final week of pay if you don’t. Use the two side doors to head them off.”

  As Ethan walked through the kitchen, he paused to pick up a fork and a plate of eggs, fruit, and ham, all set on a tray for delivery to one of the men they’d just left. Kit shook her massive head and said, “And you say that food always distracts me.”

  “How about I pull open that cooler door just ahead, as we go past? They must keep meat in there.”

  “Oh. OK. I’ll check it out. Thanks.” Ethan grinned, as he shoved a hunk of ham into his mouth.

  Kit quickly selected a nice sized piece of beef, which was probably to be used as a roast for the afternoon lunch crowd. The chef and his morning help had rushed to get out of the kitchen when they saw Kit, and they scrambled towards the dining room door.

  Ethan, swallowing a mouthful of eggs, walked up to the wide back doors and kicked them powerfully at the center. The two steel doors slammed outward, revealing the rear loading dock platform. Kit started to pass through when Ethan thought at her, “Not that way. Up the stairs on the right.”

  Her mouth, full of meat she was trying to wolf down, thought back, “Roof tops again?”

  “Yes. We don't want a confrontation with the sheriff or his deputies that they’ll lose, forcing us into the situation Egerton and Gregos wanted. They won’t expect us to go up this way, and the open back doors will keep them busy looking for us out there. We can manage to stay out of sight until the next train leaves in about an hour. I already paid the stable boy to take Beau and my gear to the railway station and have it loaded onto that horse car headed for Trail’s End. I tipped him nicely.”

  Kit wolfed down the last of her meat, and started up the stairs. “Raw beef isn’t so bad if you warm it to body temperature. This was cold, and not enough.” She looked accusingly at her brother as he finished his warm scrambled eggs.

  Ethan had cheerful thoughts as he chewed. “Perhaps we can get more food on the train, and we certainly can eat at Trail’s End. Don’t always be so negative. Here, I’ll share with you. Want some fruit?” The pure carnivore snarled nastily at him.

  ****

  Because of surveillance of the small train station, Ethan and Kit left the city surreptitiously, using trees and a gully with heavy brush growth, before moving back towards the double line of the maglev monorail tracks a mile north of Cayuga. It was a trivial matter to leap onto the passenger car’s rear platform, placed ahead of a string of empty cattle cars, and they opened the back door.

  Passenger tickets were purchased from an automatic vendor terminal at each end of the sole passenger car, operated by a public service AI system. Ethan paid the small fare with actual Chisolm credits, to avoid possible tracking of use of their credit chits.

  The car had seating for one hundred, but held only twenty-four people. A dining car was next in line, and then came the horse car, connected behind a fusion bottle powered engine.

  Kit caused a bit of a stir with the other passengers, but she was with Ethan, and the whispered news of who she was traveled faster than the maglev train itself. The engine smoothly accelerated, after it left the populated area, the track supports gaining elevation to eliminate the need for avoiding stray Giant Longhorns, or drunken cowboys sleeping in the saddle, as their horses took them home from their latest saloon visit.

  An older man in uniform, who wasn’t exactly a conductor, more like a waiter, made his way down the car, taking orders for drinks and as it turned out, arranging for seating in the dining car for an early lunch, which would be served during the slightly over two and a half hours of the trip. He abruptly stopped as someone said something to him, and he looked towards the rear of the car. He appeared on the verge of turning back without approaching the last two passengers in the car. Ethan called out loudly.

  “Excuse me. We both want something to eat. We can eat it here if it’s more convenient for you, but we want to see the list of food items available on your computer tablet, which I see others using to make their selections.”

  “Ah…, today we are only bringing drinks back to the passenger car.” The man made no move to come closer.

  “Then I guess we’ll have to go to the dining car to order. I assume the largest beef-producing planet in Human Space offers steaks on its public trains.” He already knew they did, because he’d asked at the stable when he arranged for his horse to be placed aboard.

  The man shook his head. “I’m not permitted to let…,” Kit interrupted him, with her language fob volume turned up louder via a mental command.

  “Friend, you had better be about to say you are not permitted to let us eat here, in this car, that we need to go to the dining car for that. If you are about to say serving food to animals in the dining car isn’t allowed, I’ll ask you exactly which animals you mean. If you give me reason to believe that you include me in that list of animals, as a visiting representative of an alien species allied with humanity, I will be obligated to defend my honor and my rights. You will be granted a single opportunity to correct anything stupid you say to me, which could assure your survival beyond this brief journey.”

  She glanced down to his hip when his hand drifted that way. “The small caliber pistol you carry is clearly inadequate for a being of my size and
mass. You would need a weapon that gave you at least a glimmer of hope. Perhaps .50 caliber or greater, and at least semiautomatic, with armor piercing or explosive rounds?” Her intimidating expression revealed considerably more of her teeth than usual.

  His face blanched, and he stammered. “I didn’t…, I mean, no, no. You misunderstand. I…, I can’t let the first alien ever to ride my train pay for their meal. It’s on me. I can bring it to you here if you wish.”

  “Excellent. I apologize if I misunderstood you. I’ve had some discourteous treatment since arriving on Chisholm. Do you have steak on your menu? Perhaps five of them?”

  “Absolutely! One of our finest cuts is a porterhouse, and it is nearly two pounds.”

  “Oh, so small? Then I’d like to order ten of those. Raw of course, slightly above room temperature with no seasoning. I insist on paying for them, since I’ve recently acquired a comfortable credit balance.”

  “Right away.” He started towards the dining car, making multiple entries on his tablet.

  “Hey!” Ethan called to his receding back, realizing his own food order had not been taken.

  “Yes?” He turned around with an apprehensive expression.

  “Add another porterhouse steak please, and cook it medium rare, with whatever your typical local spices are. And I want a side vegetable or two if you have them. And a beer for me, and a large glass of cream for my friend here.”

  “You got it.” And he hustled out the other end of the passenger car.

  Ethan smirked at her. “I wonder if he has enough of those steaks to cover even your order. Any other big appetite aboard might have to settle for just a sandwich.”

  Kit laid her ears back. “I’m losing my patience with humans that refuse to consider me intelligent and rational. That tends to make me act irrational.”

  “So I’ve noticed. Living with humans at home your entire life has distorted your perception of how other people think about aliens. It will be a learning process for them. I think you should recall that your own biological mother thought of humans as prey, and killed and ate two of them. You and your brother are the first generation rippers raised with humans, and you changed our perception of you as animals. Of course, you have the advantage of being able to share thoughts. These people have never done that.”

  “My ripper mother died as a result of her mistaken perception of humans as mindless prey. Some of the humans I’ll have to fight here will think I’m mindless.”

  “I’m sure you’ll take advantage to teach them the difference. However, that poor slob you nearly made wet his pants isn’t one of them.”

  “Alright. I’ll pay him what I saw other humans here pay the people that provide them with a service. It’s called the small end of money.”

  “A tip.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  ****

  When the train was halfway to Trail’s End, an opposite direction train streaked past on the second monorail, with multiple cattle cars loaded with Giant Longhorns headed to market. Ethan had finished restocking his high metabolism, with his large steak as the main fuel, and Kit, who had finished her ten steaks even faster, was lapping at the cream Ethan had poured from a glass into a bowl for her.

  They had heard the wind sounds of the approaching train well before it reached them, and glanced out the windows as the sleek tube shape whisked past them. Their enhanced vision and high-speed perception picked out details of what the other train transported.

  “Not as many people headed for Cayuga.” Ethan observed, focused on passengers looking back at them as the trains passed.

  Kit had focused more on the edible cargo. “The cattle here are large. Almost the size of a rhinolo, and they have two wide horns, both of them longer than the nose horn of a rhinolo. I wonder if they would make for a fun hunt?”

  Ethan had done a bit of research on them. After all, they were the excuse for the range war here. “They might be tough prey for native predators, but I doubt they will be for you. I think a large one weighs over 2,600 pounds, or 1,200 kilos here. That’s a lot less weight than a rhinolo, which is a much stronger and denser animal, evolved in heavy gravity. Despite their genetic modifications, I don't think a Giant Longhorn could survive long term on Koban.”

  “I don’t understand. I thought any kind of genetic modifications were forbidden by the Planetary Union?”

  “It is now, but it wasn’t always. This breed of cattle was genetically modified back before the Gene War, several hundred years ago. These are larger and stronger than other Earth cattle. They were given long horns, size, and improved digestion for living on and defending themselves on various colony worlds from whatever predators they might encounter. They aren’t normally aggressive against people, unless a cow has a young calf, or a dominant bull is looking for cows or heifers ready for breeding. A steer, which has been castrated, will get larger as a result, but they seldom are as aggressive as a bull. These animals are designed to thrive on vegetation that many other browsers would find unpalatable. They’re half-wild and don’t need human attention, at least not after a calf has been inoculated for disease resistance. They’re well suited to the open range they inhabit here.”

  “Then why does the SGA want to change the open range policy, if cattle adapt to it so well?”

  “Humans are omnivores. We need other foods, like the bowl of beans I had with my steak.”

  “I know that. I was raised with you, you twit. Why does that matter here compared to other worlds?”

  “You have to fence off farmland from the open range, or the Longhorns will trample and eat the crops. The Chisholm president is encouraging local farming with land grants, to avoid high priced agricultural imports. That’s the part of the reason for the range war with cattlemen. If you don't know that, why did you agree to come here to fight for one side or the other?”

  “It sounded like fun, an adventure I could share with you, a chance to earn credits while I had that fun, and it was probably dangerous. Why wasn’t very important to me.”

  “I guess we aren’t that far apart in motive, although I did do some research first.”

  The train was slowing. “Unless you want to gnaw more on that stack of bones, let’s move to the horse car so I can saddle Beau, and tie my gear bag behind the saddle.”

  Ethan left a generous tip with the man who had served them as they passed through the dining car. That was where most of the other passengers had moved, when Kit had started making growls of contented pleasure as she tore raw meat off the T shaped steak bones, while she lay in the aisle at the rear of the passenger car. Now they leaned away from the center aisle as her large muscled bulk passed them, becoming quiet and offering no friendly words as they had been sharing with one another when the pair first entered. With a puckish, crude sense of humor learned from her brother, she released a silent and odorous gift when she was midway through the car.

  In the lead, Ethan’s wolfbat hearing detected the ultrasonic whistle, higher pitched than a normal human’s range, and he asked by Comtap, “Why the Hell did you do that? I thought you wanted to be accepted by people here.”

  “They should have said hello,” she complained, as her justification. “Besides, why would they think it was me? You had the large bowl of beans, cowboy.” She chuffed.

  ****

  Ethan led Beau off the horse car as a woman was leading off her own horse, so Kit kept her distance downwind, to avoid frightening the animal again. It had whinnied nervously and tried to rear on its hind legs in its stall when Kit first entered the car, but it was secured by straps from doing that. Ethan had been stroking the dappled gray mare’s neck and muzzle to calm her with soothing thoughts and sounds, when her attractive female owner arrived, in riding pants.

  “Thank you, Mr…?” The good-looking blonde woman inquired, as she touched his shoulder, hesitating a moment for him to furnish a name.

  “Say your name dummy.” Kit told him, close enough to have heard her.

  “Ju
st call me Ethan.” He smiled, slightly flustered at her touch and lovely smile.

  “Ask her name, twit. Have you ever met a woman?”

  “May I ask your name?”

  “Madigan. Madigan Brethard. I heard Smokey’s call of fear all the way from the passenger car, and I realized then that you and your friend must have passed all the way through the dining car. I rushed here to calm her. I would have already been here to sooth her had I known you also had a horse aboard. Smokey had a bad experience as a colt with a marauding panther on my Dad’s ranch. I’m sure Kit’s appearance brought back that fear. I’m surprised she responded to you so well. She doesn’t normally accept the touch of a stranger.”

  “She knew my name!” Kit exclaimed enthusiastically on Comtap.

  Ethan nodded. “I have a natural rapport with animals. Even with my sister, at times. How did you know her name?”

  “I saw her giving rides to children on a Tri-Vid news report yesterday, and she told a reporter her name. You were interviewed by a different reporter, so I didn’t hear your name. Are you both from Koban?”

  “Yes. I presume you were born here. You have the accent.”

  “Yes. I was raised on my father’s ranch, just outside of Trail’s End. I handle some of my Dad’s business for him when I go to Cayuga for my own business. I’ve never shared my Dad’s passion for the cattle industry. I manage a successful business here in town, despite my father’s disapproval of anything that’s not related to cattle.”

  “Is it a business that a visiting off worlder could make use of?”

  She gave him a mysterious half smile. “Brethard House has considerable appeal locally, so I think you might be interested. Ask around, it’s on Main Street. If you drop by I’ll see that you receive a very nice complementary gift from the proprietor.” She smiled sweetly.