{"id":1,"date":"2007-04-01T00:00:46","date_gmt":"2007-04-01T04:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/?p=1"},"modified":"2022-11-28T19:35:54","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T00:35:54","slug":"bat-durston-space-marshal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/bat-durston-space-marshal\/","title":{"rendered":"Bat Durston, Space Marshal"},"content":{"rendered":"

B<\/strong><\/span>at Durston pushed the coffee dispenser button with a long, brawny index finger. Behind a clear plastic door a biodegradable disposable mug of authentic 19th-Century American Western Territories design plopped down beneath a spout. A second later the dark, nearly black brew flowed steamingly into the mug.<\/p>\n

At completion of the filling cycle, the clear plastic door automatically slid up. Bat Durston hooked the previously described index finger into the mug\u2019s finger loop and tasted the brew. It was bitterly strong flavored to reproduce as accurately as possible what archaeologists had determined to be the flavor of the 19th Century American Western Territories coffee.<\/p>\n

If Bat Durston ever minded the emphasis on symbology that a space marshal had to put up with, it never showed on his steady, dedicated, ruggedly handsome face. The tall, broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped man had piercingly determined blue eyes and a steady, sober, thin-lipped mouth. Clearly, he was a man who could clean up his parsecs.<\/p>\n

Bat Durston walked with quiet, strong grace to his Sector monitor and sat down. He was surrounded by a winking, blinking, gleaming, glowing sophisticated array of electronic wonderments that continually reported the state of law and order in his Sector. He looked like a starship pilot on a starship bridge. If being nearly the sole foundation of law and order in his parsecs bothered Bat Durston, he did not show it as he sipped the bitter coffee and read the various video reports with unflinching eyes. Folks could be secure with a man like Bat Durston on the job. He would never say it out loud, but their confidence and trust sustained him in the performance of a hard, often dangerous job.<\/p>\n

A flashing red light over one screen claimed his attention. The video readout reported the Bad Bart Blackie Gang had just robbed the Transgalactic Conglomerate of its credit transfer authorizations on PhiBetaCrappa IV. Angrily, Bat Durston\u2019s eyes narrowed a nanometer as he fed in the reported trajectory of the gang\u2019s starship. The calculated projection of possible destinations made the corners of Bat Durston\u2019s somber eyes crinkle with mirth.<\/p>\n

Pushing a comm button with the same index finger he had already used twice before, he spoke in a low, serious monotone, \u201cAndy, you there, son?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRight here, Bat, cleanin\u2019 up ol\u2019 Igniter,\u201d came the bubblingly enthusiastic reply of Bat Durston\u2019s young sidekick, Andy, known as Andy the Kid.<\/p>\n

In calm monotones that betrayed his fury, Bat Durston explained what had happened, then said, \u201cI reckon by computer figgerin\u2019 we can head \u2019em off at the Horse-Head Nebula. Reckon you\u2019d best get Igniter ready for liftoff. I\u2019ll be over directly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat full moons, I shore will, Bat!\u201d<\/p>\n

The gleaming synthetic permapolish leather holster held a proton blaster. Bat Durston pulled out the deadly weapon and thumbed the power pack release.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The room lights glinted grimly off Bat Durston\u2019s quiet eyes as he opened a door and pulled out a belt and holster. The gleaming synthetic permapolish leather holster held a proton blaster. Bat Durston pulled out the deadly weapon and thumbed the power pack release. Into his palm plopped the rectangular cartridge. Its load indicator showed a full charge of six destructive shots of pure (yet environmentally safe) proton energy.<\/p>\n

Before reloading the blaster, Bat Durston checked the action of the weapon. Due to safety regulations, it required two hands to fire the gun. The gun hand gripping the butt depressed a safety which opened the interlocks that prevented accidental discharges. The trigger was a centimeter-long switch on the top near the rear. It was activated by slapping it with the palm of the trigger hand. This was called \u201cfanning\u201d by gunslingers and space marshals.<\/p>\n

Satisfied with the proton blaster, Bat Durston returned it to the holster and stood up with a lethal, yet moral, agility. He strapped the weapon onto his narrow hips, his thin lips in an even straighter line than usual. He did not like to carry a proton blaster, but he knew someone had to if these parsecs were ever to be safe for decent, respectable folks.<\/p>\n

Suddenly into the Law Enforcement Command Control Center (locally termed \u201cthe Marshal\u2019s office\u201d) burst Miss Mary. She was a comely young woman with wide, innocent, easily emotional blue eyes and straw-blonde hair. Her father, owner of a robot repair facility, was a hardworking, upright citizen well thought of in the community.<\/p>\n

The room lights reflected warmly off Bat Durston\u2019s sober eyes as he saw Mary. She was the kind of decent, clean-living sort of girl a man would\u2014well, would want to settle down with after his job was done.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowdy, Miss Mary,\u201d Bat Durston monotoned romantically.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Bat!\u201d Mary gasped, the tears springing to her eyes. \u201cI saw Andy getting Igniter ready for liftoff. Oh, Bat! He\u2014he told me!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, now, Miss Mary,\u201d Bat Durston monotoned nonchalantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Bat! Don\u2019t go! Bad Bart Blackie and his gang are\u2014are\u2014 they\u2019re so bad\u2014they\u2019re\u2014oh, Bat!\u201d<\/p>\n

With a burst of affection, Bat Durston took her by the shoulders and looked steadily into her wetly frightened eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, now, Miss Mary,\u201d he said in his quiet, rugged, unvarying voice. \u201cYuh know I gotta. It\u2019s mah duty. But\u2014well, thar\u2019s a mite more to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMore, Bat? Oh, Bat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bat Durston\u2019s nostrils flared a millimeter in embarrassment as he said evenly, \u201cWell, yeah, ya see, I figger this here Bad Bart Blackie Gang is \u2019bout the last of the bad ones in these here parsecs. Well, I ain\u2019t getting\u2019 much younger, so I\u2019ma guessin\u2019 maybe when I got \u2019em locked up, I oughta\u2014well, hang up my proton blaster and get me a fine, young\u2014\u201d But here words failed Bat Durston.<\/p>\n

In a rare burst of passion, Bat Durston pressed his thin lips briefly against Mary\u2019s willingly responsive forehead and said, \u201cNow, now, Miss Mary.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cOh, Bat!\u201d Mary cried, impulsively hugging the hard-muscled space marshal. She knew what he could not say and he knew she knew and she knew he knew she knew the unspoken words were the ones she had been longing for him to finally not be able to say.<\/p>\n

In a rare burst of passion, Bat Durston pressed his thin lips briefly against Mary\u2019s willingly responsive forehead and said, \u201cNow, now, Miss Mary.\u201d Avoiding an even more extreme display of emotion, Bat Durston chivalrously tipped his hat, then quickly stepped into a matter transmitter and transferred instantly to his trusty starship, Igniter.<\/p>\n

The space marshal was greeted enthusiastically by Andy the Kid, called usually Andy by his friends and sometimes \u2019son\u2019, but only by Bat Durston. Being as Andy was a super-genius cloned in a recombinant DNA laboratory, he wasn\u2019t really anyone\u2019s son. However, Bat Durston had a fatherly affection for his living supergenius sidekick (standard government issue to all space marshals) and called him son. Bat Durston was not the sort of man to coldly think of Andy as simply another recomb clone; just another Ralph 124C41+ model.<\/p>\n

Andy was a tall, slim drink of liquid nutrient with a clean, fresh-face, quick, genius eyes, and sloppy blond hair. As soon as he saw Bat Durston, he said, \u201cReady for liftoff, Bat! I redesigned the quark accelerator this morning, so we can travel even faster than the speed of light than before. I also changed the sheets on our bunks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood, son,\u201d Bat Durston said. \u201cWell, thar\u2019s a job t\u2019get done an\u2019 the Horse-Head Nebula is a fur piece down th\u2019 starlanes. Let\u2019s lift off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlrighty, Bat!\u201d Andy cried.<\/p>\n

No starship was now faster than trusty Igniter, thanks to Andy\u2019s redesigned quark accelerator. They arrived at the Horse-Head Nebula well in advance of the Bad Bart Blackie Gang. Cleverly; they concealed themselves behind a black hole; a feat made possible by another of Andy\u2019s inventions, the Blackhole Nullification Concealatron.<\/p>\n

Bat Durston easily waited stoically for the precomputed arrival of the Bad Bart Blackie Gang, but the tense pressure eventually got to the much younger Andy. Cracking under the strain, the recomb clone said, \u201cSay, Bat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYep, son?\u201d replied Bat Durston quietly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wuz thinkin\u2019, Bat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYep, son?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, this here Bad Bart is \u2019bout the meanest of \u2019em all, ain\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYep, son?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAn\u2019 his gang is purty mean, too, ain\u2019t they?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYep, son.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, can ya take \u2019em okay, Bat?\u201d<\/p>\n

Realizing his young sidekick was nearly in a panic, Bat Durston took immediate corrective action. He stood up, squarely planting his feet shoulder width apart. He hooked his brawny thumbs on his gun belt and looked piercingly into some higher moral value somewhere beyond infinity. His square cut chin thrust forward in a ruggedly reassuring way. Andy forgot his previous terror as he quivered with scarcely suppressed excitement, for he knew Bat Durston was about to deliver one of his rare insights into the true depths of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I reckon, son,\u201d Bat Durston monotoned as the compartment lights glowed wisely off his clear blue eyes, \u201cfolks in these here parsecs sorta hanker fer a bit o\u2019 respite from th\u2019 frustrations of everyday life. I mean t\u2019say, th\u2019 meaningless tragedies of everyday life sorta make decent folks want t\u2019see happy endin\u2019s an\u2019 not more of th\u2019 same maddenin\u2019, frustratin\u2019 failures. So, figgerin\u2019 this inta things, I reckon I can take \u2019em okay. It\u2019s mah duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Totally awed, Andy sighed, \u201cThat there wuz profound, Bat! Why can\u2019t I ever thinka stuff like that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Managing to smile with fatherly affection without bending the sober, dedicated straight line of his thin lips, Bat Durston said, \u201cYo\u2019re young, son, an\u2019 figgerin\u2019 out human bein\u2019s is a mite harder than understandin\u2019 quark accelerators.\u201d<\/p>\n

This wisdom allowed Andy to get hold of himself and wait out the ambush very nearly as calmly as Bat Durston. It was not much longer, though, before the Bad Bart Blackie Gang showed up. Instantly, from behind the black hole the two defenders of law and order in Igniter sprang upon their quarry.<\/p>\n

Well, criminals are notoriously foolish, so it was not surprising the Bad etc. tried to get away. They actually might have, had not Andy redesigned Igniter\u2019s quark accelerator. After a long chase, Bat Durston and Andy aboard trusty Igniter had cornered the Bad Bart Blackie Gang against a single-lined spectroscopic binary.<\/p>\n

\u201cYo\u2019re under arrest, Bad Bart,\u201d Bat Durston monotoned over the radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me go with ya, Bat!\u201d Andy begged as Bat Durston got into his spacesuit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cYer gonna hafta draw down ta bring us in,\u201d came Bad Bart\u2019s sneering reply.<\/p>\n

A lock of blond hair fell over Bat Durston\u2019s forehead with disgust at this necessary violence as he returned evenly, \u201cI\u2019ma comin\u2019 out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me go with ya, Bat!\u201d Andy begged as Bat Durston got into his spacesuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot this time, son,\u201d Bat Durston replied. \u201cIf\u2019n\u2014well, somebody has t\u2019tell Miss Mary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBat!\u201d cried Andy.<\/p>\n

\u201cA man\u2019s got t\u2019plan ahead, son. I guess anyone c\u2019n figger wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBat!\u201d cried Andy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s mah duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside Igniter, floating in the weightless void and vacuum of space, Bat Durston, Space Marshal, faced the six evil men of the Bad Bart Blackie Gang alone, unafraid, asking only that if this should be his time, another would pick up his fallen star.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ma givin\u2019 yuh one last chance, Bad Bart,\u201d Bat Durston said in his most persuasive yet unrelentingly brave monotone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ma givin\u2019 you one last chance, Bat Dummy,\u201d Bad Bart sneered. \u201cThere\u2019s just one of you and I count six of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI figger we gotta draw down, then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seven hands flashed for seven proton blasters. Incredibly fast were the Bad etc., but faster still was Bat Durston. In a blur of fanning, six ruby-red proton energy bolts disintegrated the six blasters of the bad guys before they fanned off a single bolt. In Bat Durston\u2019s opinion, it was a poor space marshal who couldn\u2019t bring his men in alive.<\/p>\n

Bat Durston thumbed the powerpack ejector as he pulled a full-charged pack from a belt loop. As the empty pack cleared the pack well, he slammed in the new pack. Realizing their hopeless plight, the Bad Bart Blackie Gang reached for the overhead portion of interstellar space.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, sizzlin\u2019 comets!\u201d one criminal cursed disgustedly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is ridiculous!\u201d cried Bad Bart as he felt maddening, frustrating failure. \u201cNobody is gonna believe this! This ain\u2019t real life! Everything with you, Bat Durston, is nuthin\u2019 but space opera! How do ya do it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bat Durston replied in his sober, dedicated monotone, \u201cI don\u2019t reckon I know \u2019bout that. All I know is if\u2019n this ain\u2019t real life, it oughta be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What better way to launch SpaceWesterns.com<\/a> than with the return of that venerable folk hero of the Old Space West,<\/em> Bat Durston<\/strong>? This story previously appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine<\/em> [Sep\/Oct 1978] and two years later in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Anthology,<\/em> [Volume 4, Fall-Winter 1980]. Now, after nearly thirty years this classic has found its way here, online, to SpaceWesterns.com — ed. N.E. Lilly<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,5],"tags":[189],"media":[299],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1227,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/1227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"media","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}