Chapter 6 - Drinking Buddies
"I tell you all, I saw the harpie last night. Saw her standing on the other side of my homestead's fence."
Ralph Ricket's declaration silenced the half dozen men seated at Fat Bonnie's bar. They had been enjoying cold drinks of the stale beer just delivered by the most recent starliner to enter an orbit above Sutherland. The men turned their eyes away from their reflection in the long mirror that ran behind the bar, lest they recognize how fear, for a moment, made their lips tremble. The men instead stared at their mugs of lukewarm, flat beer, suddenly wishing for spirits distilled with a higher proof, for harder stuff that would better warm their blood.
Colt Beeman raised a finger and ordered a new round for everyone gathered at the bar. "Are you certain of what you saw, Ralph? We know you work yourself real hard when you tend to your farmstead, and that's nothing to be ashamed about. But working hard like that can exhaust a man, and a man can see strange things when he's so tired."
"I saw what I saw," Ralph answered. "You make a good point, Colt, but I was wearing those enhancement lenses on my eyes. Wearing those lenses helps me see so well in the dark, and I get so much more done when I can extend the day. The lenses make everything real clear. There's no doubt I saw that harpie. She was glaring at me from the other side of my fence."
"What does the harpie look like?" asked Eldon Young.
Ralph growled. "You know damn well what she looks like."
Eldon rapped his knuckles onto the bar. "Tell us all the same, Ralph. We need hear it, so we all know what's hiding somewhere in the hills. We need to hear you describe it so we can know if we're facing just one of these harpies, or if there's a whole army of the things out there in all the rocks."
Ralph took a swallow of his tepid beer before proceeding. "She kinda shimmered, all greens and blues. Shimmered like a ghost out of some creepy story from the home world. She, or it, or whatever you want to call her, just floated off the top of the ground, and her hands scraped at the ground on account that her arms being so unnaturally long. The harpie's face didn't have any eyes, not even a nose. But the thing's giant mouth opened real wide, smiled to show all those teeth brimming inside. The harpie didn't make any noise, not any my ears could hear. But I know that harpie was screaming at me all the same on account of that smile filled with so many teeth."
Bob Ridings nodded from the furthest end of the bar. "That sounds like the monster everyone's been talking about."
Gavin Beeman felt the hair stand upon the back of his neck. "Did her hair wave and cackle like everyone says? Did her hair throw sparks on the ground?"
"Sure did," Ralph's eyes widened. "I was afraid my homestead would catch fire for all those sparks bouncing off the ground, until I remembered that the only thing Sutherland seems to grow is all the rocks."
The men remained silent for several minutes as they considered Ralph's description. Fat Bonnie's wide shoulders and muscular arms replenished mugs the moment they clinked empty upon her bar's varnished counter. The harpie was first sighted less than a week following the parade the United Systems threw to honor the settlers for their completion of their construction contract. Nothing strange, nothing alien, had been seen during all those months those settlers of Zeb had toiled to build the colony. It felt cruel that the harpie, which rumor quickly claimed to be the very creature responsible for the creation of the water baskets, would wait until the completion of the construction contract to show itself. If such a creature had any liberty to contest humankind's presence upon its rocky home world, it had no right to wait until after the settlers had given so much time, sweat and blood in building the colony before voicing any protest. The settlers had built by the time the harpie's face was first sighted in the county, and the settlers would now fight to defend the homesteads they had planted.
Settlers often found livestock mutilated in the morning after a harpie was spotted the previous night in the area. Rumors claimed a young girl had awoken in the middle of the night to see a harpie hissing at her from her bedroom window. Rumors said that terrified child hadn't spoken a word since. Stories claimed that many a settler of Zeb had taken shots at the harpie, but no one had yet managed to harm of kill a trespassing monster. The worst rumors suggested that fear of the harpie shattered the courage of many a man who settled in the loneliest areas of Sutherland, suggested that such men had even written to Emissary Stevens' office to seek assistance from the United Systems. The harpie may have been a terrible monster, but a harpie was surely, thought those men seated before the bar at Fat Bonnie's, no reason to request help from the many-headed leviathan that was the United Systems. Old Zeb would expect his children to behave in a much more courageous manner.
Colt paused before he started a new beer. "The harpies are getting closer to the spaceport if one showed up at Ralph's homestead. Seems they're coming out of the country."
"William Word told me he heard that a harpie butchered an entire pack of pure-bred shepherds a few hours from here," Bob started. "Those are real strong dogs. Brave dogs. But William said he heard that the harpie just toyed and tortured those poor animals. I'm afraid those harpies are nurturing one hell of an appetite. I'm afraid it won't be long until those harpies start craving some people flesh."
Gavin looked up from his mug. "Maybe we should all draw together. We could gather several families on a homestead for added protection."
"That's going more than a little too far, son," Colt shook his head. "Old Zeb would be disappointed if our self-reliance was the first thing we sacrificed in the face of trouble. Besides, the harpie's still hardly anything more than a boogie-man. Everything's rumor and speculation, and I need far more than that before I sacrifice any of independence."
Eldon tapped the bar in agreement. "And we all have the enhancement lenses now, Gavin. Those lenses will make it really hard for any harpie to creep up on us. We also all have our guns."
Eldon's courage proved contagious, and the men seated at Fat Bonnie's bar grunted as they renewed their furious attacks upon their drinks. Proper custom returned to the drinking establishment. The drinkers again lifted their eyes upon their reflections in the long mirror running behind the bar. Once more, the drinkers kept their sentiments and thoughts to themselves. Once more, each drinker retreated into himself, as old Zeb Griffin had always taught to be a polite and respectful course of action.
Gavin thought Fat Bonnie might have changed the tap while he and his friends had been discussing the harpie. The beer tasted both fresher and cooler than it had before. Gavin felt the weight of his gun upon his hip, and he was thankful for the weapon. He felt proud that through his toil he had earned a foothold upon a new world, and that he had earned a gun with which to protect it. He would defend his freedom as it was his duty as a follower of Zeb Griffin to do. And on that night, Gavin joined the other men seated at Fat Bonnie's and bonded with his neighbors by staring at his reflection in that long mirror behind the bar. It was as good of a team moment for which any proper follower of Zeb might hope.
The reflection of his face didn't disappoint Gavin. The work of building a colony had traced new wrinkles into the corners of his eyes. His skin had taken a strange tan beneath Sutherland's alien sunlight. His hair looked several shades lighter in color. But that reflection made Gavin proud, for it told him that he was strong, that he was capable of transforming a world of rocks into a home.
Gavin's attention in that reflection shifted to a strange, dull glow of electric, blue light his eyes discerned pulsating from the shadows over his reflected shoulder. Gavin held a breath and clutched at his mug. Something lurked beneath the tables gathered throughout the rest of Fat Bonnie's. Something prepared to slither out from the vending machine filled with ancient, black-market cigarettes. Gavin peeked at the reflected faces of his drinking companions, and he knew that they too saw that which lurked in the bar. Somehow, it had moved so quietly as to enter unnoticed. Every story spoke that it always moved like a ghost.
Someone's face f
linched in the mirror, and those seated at the bar unholstered the guns upon their hips and twirled upon their stools to face the creature who dared approach their backs. Those settlers' guns hummed as beams of blinding and lethal light flashed from the barrels. The vending machine crumbled to glowing, molten pieces upon the floor, and Fat Bonnie shuffled out from behind her bar with a roaring fire extinguisher to snuff the flames before they could expand upon the walls.
"I saw it bolt out of the door!" Eldon shouted as adrenaline surged through his blood.
Colt leveled his gun upon the main entrance. "It was the harpie! It darted out of the door a second before we could sizzle it with our guns!"
The men hurried out of the bar in pursuit of the harpie, leaving Fat Bonnie alone to combat the flames their guns left behind.
"There it is!" Ralph shouted.
Gavin lifted his gun's barrel. "It's behind Fat Bonnie's lift truck!"
A second salvo erupted from the men's guns. Fat Bonnie's truck exploded off of the ground, pieces of its engine and body whistling within inches of the brave setters' heads before striking against the tavern, shattering Fat Bonnie's large, front window.
Bob shook his gun. "I think we buzzed it this time! I saw a bunch of blue sparks fly off of it!"
"There it goes again!" Eldon't gun unleashed another beam of light that tore through the letters of Fat Bonnie's neon sign. The sign sparked and turned dark. "It's standing up there on the other side of the sign's letters!"
The weakening guns hummed a third time. The men's fingers didn't budge from their guns' triggers until the weapons' batteries turned dry. Several seconds passed while the settlers' eyes readjusted to the night's dark, Fat Bonnie's parking lot now softly illuminated by the burning roadside side.
"We hurt it real good that time," Gavin smiled. "I saw it limping away after we unloaded our guns with that last blast."
Eldon holstered the gun back upon his hip and cringed as the barrel burned him. "What did I tell you all? It's no match for us, whatever it is, not as long we have our guns. It might be real quiet and smooth, but it's not going to be able to creep up on us as long as we're wearing the enhancement lenses on our eyes."
Fat Bonnie stomped out of the tavern with the fire extinguisher slumped over her shoulder. She never flinched as she regarded the surrounding damage.
"Did you all get it?" Fat Bonnie asked.
"We didn't kill it," Colt sighed.
Ralph winked at Fat Bonnie. "We hurt it real bad, though. It's gonna think twice before it tries sneaking back towards your tavern."
Fat Bonnie grinned. "Well, I'm glad you boys brought your guns to town. My attorney will make sure the United Systems reimburses me for the mess."
The men nodded at Fat Bonnie's wisdom. The United Systems would be obliged to replace what their guns had destroyed. The United Systems was bound to cover the cost those men had accrued in their patriotic defense against the harpie. Those men with their guns could return home pleased to know that they had chased away that monster. They could sleep well knowing they had done their duty. Sutherland belonged to them now. They needed to fear no native, alien creature. Their conviction and courage granted Sutherland to them.
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Harpies of Planet Sutherland Page 6
