By Jeff Gard
“In the tales of them that came before, there’s talk of the Santa Maria buried in the vast Noachis Desert, where yucca and sage cling to its thirsty soil. Nobody knows how the starship got stranded there, only that it crossed a great distance in search of treasure.”
As a galaxy of stars spiraled overhead, Pop fixed his cybernetic eye on me. “Untold riches wait in its hull. Many a fool has gone searching for glory and riches only to add their bleached bones as markers along the Hesperia Trail.”
Wide-eyed, I asked him where it was.
“They say you don’t find the ship, Son.” Cheek bulging with snuff, he spat on the fire. “It finds you when you lose your way.”
Lawman chased me down the Hesperia Trail. My electro-steed had taken a slug in its hindquarters. One piston blown, it galloped on its remaining cybernetic legs, a lopsided gait that threatened to flick me off its haunches like a pesky fly.
More worryingly, steam hissed from the mechanical horse, leaving a vapor trail Lawman could surely track. But I had no choice. I couldn’t cross the Noachis on foot.
After cresting a butte, I leaned back in my saddle as my mount twisted down switchbacks toward the heart of the Noachis. The sun hung low on the horizon. Squinting against it, I lowered the brim of my hat.
Maybe it was the low light or how I was forced to avert my eyes, but I caught sight of glinting metal in a dune a short ride from the trail. Dusk descended quicker than flies on a dead mule, but my curiosity was aroused nonetheless.
Abandoning the trail, I guided my limping steed toward the object. The shape, curved like a tusk breaching the sand, grew as we neared it.
Sand piled up against the windward side of a ship’s bow painted with the letters A R I and a faded mural of an old Spanish galleon. It was one of them ancient starships that brought our ancestors to this world. A full three-quarters of it lay buried beneath me.
I dismounted, ran my fingers across its smooth surface, and was shocked to find it cold. What’s more, the hull vibrated as if the engines hadn’t been properly shut down. Finding a hand-shaped indentation, I pressed my fingers into it. Air hissed like a sidewinder, and a door slid open. Gape-mouthed, I reached into the darkness. My fingers groped around just inside the door until they found something round and long—a weapon perhaps?
“Hands where I can see ‘em!” a voice called out.
I hazarded a glance over my shoulder. A few paces behind me, Lawman aimed his gun at the back of my head. His cybernetic eye surveyed both me and the ship.
“Whatever quarrel you and I might have—it’s in the wind now.” I tugged at what I thought was a shotgun barrel just inside the door, but I couldn’t dislodge it. It twisted and something clicked into place.
“Beg to differ.” Lawman pinged a slug off the door.
I withdrew my hands.
“This here’s the discovery of a lifetime, Lawman. Don’t tell me you ain’t itching to investigate. They don’t pay you enough to ignore this.”
“They don’t pay me to ignore you either, Reginald.”
“Don’t call me that. Around here, I’m the Yucca Kid.”
“You’ll always be Reginald to me, Son.”
I turned around real slow like, so he didn’t get any ideas. I couldn’t draw quick enough to disarm him. The smile kicking the corners of his mouth told me he knew it too.
“You think you can just knock over a bank and ride off into the sunset?” The words slid around the snuff in his cheek. “You think I couldn’t track you down?”
“If you didn’t want me to become an outlaw, you shouldn’t have raised me on the trail and bent my ears with all them tales. What’d you think would happen, Pop?”
“I hoped you’d become a lawman.”
I snorted.
“You mean you hoped I’d spend my days curling up around a fire, cold nights nipping at my back, hunger coiled in my belly like a rattler, just for a few paltry coins? Bet you expected me to surrender an eye like you too, huh? No wonder Ma left you.”
My venomous words struck his pride repeatedly. He stared at the ground between us where my shadow yawned and swallowed him.
Something wasn’t right about that.
The ship glowed behind me. Sand rumbled at our feet. The air itself seemed to howl.
Pop lowered his gun. “Time to go, Son.”
I turned back to the ship, pregnant with untold treasures. A couple armloads would be enough for me to hang my spurs up for good. I could buy my own land. Maybe settle down. Maybe marry. Maybe raise my own son.
Something heavy fell across the back of my head. The world rolled on waves until I lost my balance and fell to the ground. The last thing I saw was Pop, hovering over me, gun ready for another strike.
I awoke later, cuffed wrists dangling around an electro-steed’s neck. Pop led the horse by its reins. The horizon had dissolved into an orange blossom of fire.
“What happened to the ship?”
“The Santa Maria spoke her last tale.”
A coyote’s lonely cry reminded me of days spent on the trail, just me and my steed. No friends. No one I could trust. I missed the days Pop and I would stretch out under a limitless sky. We might not have seen eye to eye, but he always had my back.
“I meant no disrespect to your profession.”
“You weren’t wrong, Son.”
“I ain’t right, neither. I never really gave law-keeping a try.”
A smile kicked at Pop’s lips as he unlocked my cuffs. “I really could use a deputy.”
I rubbed my wrists. “Got any more tales to share?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I like the combination of time frames: old West, Columbus, and future. Very creative!
Thanks, Alan.
A fun mix of genres! And I love father/son angle.
Thanks. It was fun to write.