{"id":38,"date":"2007-12-16T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2007-12-16T05:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/?p=38"},"modified":"2022-12-05T17:21:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T22:21:28","slug":"a-few-sunsets-too-many","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/articles\/a-few-sunsets-too-many\/","title":{"rendered":"A Few Sunsets Too Many"},"content":{"rendered":"

S<\/strong><\/span>iker hated horses. They were organic, unreliable, and took too much time doing everything to really be worth the effort. Still, on this planet, they were the primary mode of transport, so she had to just stuff her opinions and deal with it. A skimmer bike would have turned too many heads; she\u2019d have been too conspicuous and so the black horse would have to do for a hired gun like her.<\/p>\n

Then, there was a fleeting memory when she saddled up, some far-away morning on old Earth; a child riding a horse.<\/p>\n

Now she rode hard over the sands, urging the horse forward and trying to beat the sunrise. At the trading-port they\u2019d sneered at her, told her all about bandits and rustlers, and tried to scare her with how there was very little law this far away from Galactic Standard Rule. Siker choked out a laugh when she remembered. As if each hadn\u2019t had an eye that\u2019d been rooted to her guns the whole time, those flat-footed bastards, and the other eye on the smooth curves of her chest.<\/p>\n

A woman, alone, carrying two plasma pistols instead of a lighter, cheaper blaster? She was sure they\u2019d be talking about her for at least the next few months. Farmers and small-time trappers always saw amazement in anything that came from off their own sullen rocks of planets. She spat and leaned forward in the saddle, watching the band of ruffians mustering ahead. Somehow, Siker knew she wouldn\u2019t reach the mining town without killing someone.<\/p>\n

Oh well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOff your horse! Surrender gold and credits if you want to live!\u201d<\/p>\n

There were four of them, all men so far as she could tell, two on horseback and two on foot. They all carried blaster rifles. Siker dismounted, smiling coldly, and tipped back her hat so her spiky black hair showed.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvenin\u2019 gentlemen.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few miles away, some creature howled and with the readying of four blaster rifles, it became a brief symphony. The tallest, who rode a tan horse, barely discernible in the dark, moved in.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo quick words now. Don\u2019t think you\u2019ll talk your way to freedom, even if you\u2019ve done it before,\u201d he growled, \u201clet this go smooth, and it\u2019ll only be me that enjoys you, and not all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Siker hesitated, weighing all her options and doing the calculations. Still, she had a ways to go and didn\u2019t aim to waste much time. The quickest way was the easiest way, even if it wasn\u2019t the right way.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you worship Diem, the Robot Saints, or one of the gods of the Xaxiferian Heresy?\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the standing men snorted. \u201cDon\u2019t try to lean on our morals. We don\u2019t have any.\u201d<\/p>\n

Siker only shrugged and hooked her thumbs in her belt. \u201cFine, have it your way, then. I won\u2019t say any prayers at all over your graves.\u201d<\/p>\n

She closed her eyes when the leader motioned for them to close in. Her body took over, muscles moving per their own memory and training, just like a favorite folk dance. When the army took her as a slave soldier all those years ago, they\u2019d never taught her anything about how to deal with petty bandit gangs. In the end though, it didn\u2019t much matter.<\/p>\n

T<\/strong><\/span>he two suns rose as she covered the last body. Now Siker had lost three hours and two plasma bullets, but it could have been worse. She reloaded and put her leather greatcoat back on, then, regardless of what god had ruled the destiny of each man\u2019s soul, she whispered a prayer to Diem. Out here, so far from the centralized Rule, men\u2019s lives weren\u2019t worth much, but she figured that a murderer at least owed her victim the courtesy of a prayer.<\/p>\n

She also figured her prayer might mean a little more, even if she was so wretched a sinner; she remembered Diem by His original name, what He was back on old Earth.<\/p>\n

By mid-day, Siker could see the town, a smudged line on the horizon. Her black horse was exhausted now, covered in sweat and dust, but it only had a few more leagues to take her. Sitting up straighter, her back and buttocks aching, she pulled the bandana away from her face and spat. Lousy, dung-sprayed, lawless excuse for a planet.<\/p>\n

Sticking to her plan, she approached from the southwest, avoiding the sprawling mines. It was just another jagged rent from which men scraped ionic chromium ore, to be sent to a Foundry planet, where it would become super-steel to build the hulls of spaceships and orbiting stations. Still, miners gossiped worse than harem girls, and if she could avoid it, Siker didn\u2019t want it known that a stranger was in town. At least, not yet.<\/p>\n

Trying at anonymity was what had her on the horse in the first place, and she was damned if all the discomfort was for nothing. Hundreds of planets submitted willingly to Galactic Standard Rule, and there were about a hundred further out; the remnants of the fallen Rhenon Empire. This little rock, however, poor barren vassal of two suns, had always stuck out in her mind like a brand\u2019s scar; she never forgot who she knew had made the place their home. So, when the chance of business here finally came, she jumped on it. Luck? No, luck had served Siker too well.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, she was only several yards away from the town\u2019s outlying buildings. They came up fast while she was lost in thought and she almost brought the horse to a halt. As it was, the great beast shook its head and tramped impatiently. Siker urged it on, not entirely concerned for its welfare. After all, if all went as planned, she\u2019d have no further use for a horse and could sell it. There was bound to be a buyer somewhere in this backwater town.<\/p>\n

\u201cBusiness before pleasure,\u201d echoed a wry smuggler from her memory.<\/p>\n

Grinning without humor, she nodded in agreement to the man long-dead. \u201cAnd if they\u2019re the same thing, then mores the better,\u201d she muttered back.<\/p>\n

Now the suns were too bright and time seemed to slow. Every motion her quick eyes caught, every simple sound and smell, even the dull hues of this dusty, white-washed town; for Siker, they suddenly became mysteriously significant and wholesome. She licked her cracked lips, feeling her stomach wrench and a tightness grip her, a fear she hadn\u2019t felt in so very long. Her plan hadn\u2019t seemed real when she took the job back on that sterile, cold space station, nor during the trip, nor even as she raced across the desert.<\/p>\n

There was no denying it now. She had arrived at the center of town, at the two-story saloon she\u2019d seen so often with only her mind\u2019s eye. Almost as an afterthought, she tied up her horse at the trough where it drank greedily, stomping with pleasure. Siker ripped off her bandana and shoved it in a pocket. Then, she walked through the swinging doors with a prayer on her lips.<\/p>\n

That prayer was never answered.<\/p>\n

Two men, heavily armed, stepped out on each side even before her eyes adjusted to the sweet dimness of the saloon. Three more were standing behind the bar, blaster rifles levied at her chest, and another two stood on the upper landing. Harding Penger laughed heartily, the same way a boy would when he knew he\u2019d caught a frog bigger than all the other boys could catch. In person, he looked just like his holoflash, if a bit more sunburned, and Siker couldn\u2019t help smiling. Now she didn\u2019t have to go back out into the heat again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is it? I can\u2019t believe it, all they could get was a scrawny woman?\u201d the muscled man with feathery white hair laughed again, clapping his shot glass on the table, flushed with his apparent good fortune.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you expected an attempt on your life?\u201d It wasn\u2019t playing for time, Siker was honestly curious.<\/p>\n

Harding grinned, bemused. \u201cOf course. Vernon and the foundry boys always did want my mining works. I didn\u2019t think they had it in \u2019em to hire a gun, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the nine men with beads drawn on her, Siker shrugged, and it was her turn to grin coldly. \u201cThey didn\u2019t. You have enemies, Harding Penger. The stories of your cruelties have reached higher ears than those who would covet your business.\u201d<\/p>\n

She meant to continue but movement flashed in the corner of her eye and she looked. A woman, the bartender, her long blonde hair framing a face that Siker had not seen in so many decades, moved away from one of the gunmen. Their eyes locked for an instant but the bartender looked down, a strong man with dark skin coming up behind her and laying a hand on her shoulder. His gaze did not wither under Siker\u2019s own. All three of them knew what was going to happen and the bartender didn\u2019t want to look. This wasn\u2019t how she had wanted this to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, is that so?\u201d he smirked, \u201cwho then, the mayor of Tronts?\u201d<\/p>\n

Siker shook her head. \u201cNo.\u201d She took a measured step forward and instantly, four rifle muzzles tapped her coat, with five more ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t really matter, you know. The flecks at the port saw a stranger come in and gave me the word. Anyone else Vernon tries to send will end the same way as you,\u201d Harding told her, and he lifted his hand, just like the bandit had done the night before.<\/p>\n

The bartender turned her back to the room and Siker sighed; this was all wrong.<\/p>\n

With another step, all the weapons readied, another warning from men used to getting their way with only the implication of force. She kept walking and now she was the one to hold up her hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop. I am the Candriodale<\/em>, the Silent Gun, and you will not fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like clockwork, like so many times before, the henchmen froze at her low, thick voice. There was something about the name, which she always said first in old Rhenon and then in Galactic Standard, that pressed against their chests and made cowards of them all. Good.<\/p>\n

Harding\u2019s eyes went wide but Siker\u2019s indescribable glare held them. \u201cHarding Penger, for your rape of slave girls and murder of untold hundreds of slaves, Sordrish Kenn, governor of the Heng and McClarner systems and 5th Undersecretary to the Chancellor of Galactic Standard Rule, has paid for your death. Do you worship Diem, the Robot Saints, or one of the gods of the Xaxiferian Heresy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI…I worship Wotsil,\u201d he murmured, still shocked.<\/p>\n

Siker sneered. \u201cHeretic.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one in the room moved except her. Harding, as her prey, had the basics of motion, his face, his breath, but little else. Her eyes flicked up and caught the bartender\u2019s back, and her man\u2019s disgust frozen on his face. Unfortunate, but little that she could do about it now.<\/p>\n

Delicately, Siker drew both plasma pistols and laid the barrel of one against the bridge of Harding\u2019s nose. He went cross-eyed looking at it, lips moving in a feeble attempt to bargain, but no sound came out. There was an acrid smell that wafted up, his fresh urine, but she saw no reason to shame him further. One heavy plasma bullet went right through Harding Penger\u2019s head, taking most of his face with it. He slumped, bloody, in his chair and the rest of the room moved again.<\/p>\n

The men on the floor dropped their rifles, staring at their boss in abject shock, but one of the men on the landing fired anyway. As the shot hit her dead in the chest, she looked up at the man, boy really, who clutched his gun and stumbled back, skewered by her eyes on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaven\u2019t you back-water thugs ever heard of body armor?\u201d Siker said, almost stating it, and drew back the flap of her greatcoat to display military-caliber armor.<\/p>\n

Trembling, the boy who shot at her stepped up to the rail. \u201cY-you killed Boss Penger!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYep, I did. In a few weeks your system governor\u2019s sending a new man to head your mines. I recommend that if you forget all about Harding Penger and his ways, then everyone might forget that you-all were his strong-arms, got that clear?\u201d and then for pure emphasis, she holstered both guns at once.<\/p>\n

I<\/strong><\/span>t only took another few minutes for the men to take the corpse and be gone, leaving just Siker, the bartender, and her man standing there in the saloon in awful, uncomfortable silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou haven\u2019t changed,\u201d the bartender said softly, putting aside all pretense of cleaning glasses.<\/p>\n

Siker\u2019s mouth went dry. She\u2019d run pretty much every potential scenario through her head in the past month, but none of them had gone like this. \u201cI\u201d\u00a6I guess not. Nice, ah, nice place you guys got here, Lily.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man moved in next to her protectively, glaring at Siker. \u201cWhy are you here? Finally come to kill us too?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShawn, it\u2019s not like that,\u201d she protested, hands out with palms up in a futile plead to be believed, \u201cI would never, never <\/em>want to harm either of you. You just never understood that, was all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lily threw down her cloth, her face a sudden mask of rage. \u201cDon\u2019t give me that bullshit! What the hell did you think you were doing when you followed us across seven systems?!?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u201d\u00a6\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBullshit<\/em>! You knew what you were doing! You knew we loved each other and wanted a life away from the Rhenon, away from the war, and away from you!\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though, in the last day, she\u2019d killed five men with little more than a scratch done to her, rode leagues upon leagues over the searing desert, and intimidated nine armed men into leaving without a fight, Siker cringed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no,\u201d Lily continued, \u201cyou had to follow! He had to nearly kill you before you\u2019d back off, but I knew you\u2019d be back. I knew it\u2019d only be a matter of years before you drug your sorry ass through those doors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou talk like everything in our lives has been normal,\u201d Siker said, staring at the wall behind the bar, not trusting her emotions enough to look either Lily or Shawn in the eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be, if not for you,\u201d Shawn growled.<\/p>\n

She sighed, swearing inside that she wouldn\u2019t break down. \u201cReally? Then that part where the Rhenon sacked old Earth just to defy the Rule, the part where we were soldiers together, the part where all three of us have lived centuries outside our mortal lifetimes, that was normal?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the drugs! All those drugs they gave us then, it must have done something to us,\u201d said Shawn, \u201cand now you won\u2019t leave us alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re friends, damn it!\u201d Siker yelled, finally giving in, \u201cwe fought together for twelve years! You like to pretend that it never happened, but you were part of a Trifecta! Soldier, medic, and tech, all three of us! You just want to forget all that, and forget those years we all spent after the war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lily pounded the bar. \u201cIt was the drugs! Don\u2019t you remember, all those loyalty drugs we took for years? Be loyal to the Rhenon, be loyal to your general, be loyal to your Trifecta! I might not know why we\u2019ve lived this long, but\u201d\u00a6\u201d and she trailed off, exasperated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know either, and I don\u2019t want to know.\u201d Siker slumped down into a chair beside the one left bloody.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood for you,\u201d Shawn spat, \u201cnow you\u2019ve done your murder, I suppose there\u2019s no reason why you shouldn\u2019t be moving on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not murder, you know. They pay me more credits than you could imagine to take care of who they want gone. I ignore the petty vendettas and crap like that. I only take jobs when the target\u2019s a low bastard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPoor little rich assassin,\u201d Lily sneered.<\/p>\n

Siker shook her head, eyes on the floor. \u201cNo. I keep what I need to do each job, keep enough that my base is clean and safe, the rest goes to Diem\u2019s Order \u2019cause I sure as hell don\u2019t need it, but there are folks that do.\u201d<\/p>\n

She got the idea that one or both of them had some retort, but neither said anything, so she went on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could sit here and bellyache about how my life on old Earth got wrecked, how those Rhenon bastards enslaved me and how all I\u2019ve got out of the war is how to kill and how to kill well. But, the thing is, I\u2019m tired. I\u2019ve seen so many sunsets and even though I like to think that I only kill bad men, I still kill. Truth is, I\u2019m weary for the dirt of old Earth under my feet, but that ol\u2019 rock\u2019s a radioactive mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo\u201d\u00a6?\u201d Lily asked, but at least most of the anger looked to have left her face.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I took this job because I\u2019ve known for decades you two settled here, and I was hoping that even as mad as you still are, you\u2019d still be willing to do one last favor for a friend. Maybe it was<\/em> the drugs, but I was ready to die for you two then, and I still am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shawn nodded. \u201cWhat sort of favor?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve lived too long and been too lucky. It\u2019s not natural, and it\u2019s high time for that all to end. Do you remember Balimusti, that planet with the forests where we lived just after the war?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

They both nodded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping that if I left you credits for the trip and even more for your trouble, maybe you two would take my body there, bury it under some trees near a stream and say a little prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re asking us to kill you?\u201d Lily whispered.<\/p>\n

Siker looked up. \u201cNot at all. I\u2019ve killed enough to know how, so I\u2019ll do the killing. Think of it as a last respect to the dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the longest time, it was quiet. Grimacing, Siker realized that once she said it out loud, her plan sounded stupid and a burden on those who hated the very sight of her. Still, it had been a good gamble, and she couldn\u2019t have thought of anyone she\u2019d more want to pray over her grave than Lily and Shawn. If they said no, she\u2019d just keep on keeping on, hoping that the next target would be her better.<\/p>\n

Lily broke the terrible silence. \u201cIt\u2019s\u201d\u00a6it\u2019s been a long time since we were on old Earth. A lot\u2019s happened that was unfortunate, and a lot\u2019s passed between us that we can\u2019t take back. Things change and people change. If I\u2019ve become so bitter that I won\u2019t even help a dead friend home, then I\u2019ve changed for the worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tears sprang unbidden down Siker\u2019s cheeks and she slumped in relief. \u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

H<\/strong><\/span>ours later, she sat on a boulder at the edge of town, watching two suns sink towards the horizon. They\u2019d given her a bottle of spirits, something from off-world that was sweet and spicy and went down smooth. Siker thought back to her childhood, to the films and stories already old long before she was born. The hero always rode off into the sunset, and as the twin suns went down, she stood up on the top of the boulder and pulled out one of her plasma pistols. The suns set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amanda Spikol brings us this story of a world-weary hired gun just out to finish a job, and ask some old friends for one last favor before she retires. — ed, N.E. Lilly<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,5],"tags":[58],"media":[299],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38"}],"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\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1520,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/1520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"media","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacewesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}