A hideous curse
The next day they landed on a nearby planet which according to Bonny Anne was called Dodge 6. They landed at a spaceport, the first the G&Sers had seen. Their ship was surrounded by many others of different sizes, shapes and styles. Will started describing the good and bad points of them to some of the guys, while Zoe went off to arrange for repairs to the damage caused in their battles with the Pirate Queen.
Reassured that the atmosphere was ok for them, some of the G&Sers left the ship, and went for a walk with the happy couple.
"We're walking on an alien planet!" Agnes said to Ruth as they walked down the town's main street. "This is so weird!"
Dodge was a settlement planet, Bonny Anne explained. Previously uninhabited, it was in the process of being colonised by settlers from many different planets, a real melting pot of culture and people. It was apparently the perfect place for raising a strange type of cattle that were exported all over the galaxy for food. There was also the rumour of precious metals in the rocks deep underground, and many of the cattle farmers moonlighted as prospectors, and dreamed of becoming rich by finding a gold seam on their land-claim.
Over to one side as they walked through the newly-constructed town, a group of humanoids were standing in front of a fenced enclosure containing the cattle on which the town's economy had been built. They appeared to be arguing about prices. Ruth noticed that several of them were carrying weapons. Nearby, another building had not been completed yet, and builders were still at work- builders with six limbs rather than the usual four.
Anne and Jimdrick had decided to settle here. "We take a claim on a piece of land, start to farm it, raise some cattle and after a few years it becomes our own," Jimdrick said. "Some of the people round here are pretty tough, you have to be to make a living out here. There's not much in the way of law. They won't care about our past."
"There's just one thing," Anne said. "To take a claim together, we have to be married." The G&Sers looked at each other.
"Will you marry me?" Jimdrick asked Anne shyly.
"Of course!" she replied. The others found it hard not to laugh.
They walked out of the half-built town and into the deserted lands around. Before long the settlements had become sparse, and the cattle ranches were spread far apart. The landscape was wide and open, with gently sloping valleys. Areas of it were sandy and arid, while other areas closer to the valley bottoms were covered in a thick carpet of a green grass-like plant. This was where the cattle grazed.
They climbed up a gently slope to a ridge overlooking the town. "It looks like something out of a Wild West film," Agnes said. "I know what you mean," Patrick agreed. "Except for the spaceport, of course." Out to the side of the town they could see their ship. Jimdrick and Anne stood together, holding hands and gazing about the landscape, looking for a likely place to build their homestead.
As they stood there looking, they heard the thunder of hooves in the valley behind them. Turning, they saw a large herd of cattle being driven up the valley. A couple of rough-lookinghumanoids rode horse-like four-footed creatures behind them. But the cattle were not happy. One broke out of the herd and began to charge towards the group at the top of the hill.
"Uh oh," Ruth said.
"What do we do now?" asked Tom.
Bonny Anne and Jimdrick looked at each other. "I...I don't know," Jimdrick said.
"It's heading straight for us," Agnes said. Unconsciously they all took a step back. But behind them the edge of the ridge was sheer rock. There was no way down. In the valley below one of the cowboys had changed direction and was riding up the hill towards them, but he was far behind the terrifying creature that would soon have them pinned to the edge of the cliff.
"Can't we just run downhill? If we all spread out we might confuse it," Patrick said.
"It'll just get angrier," said Anne.
"And I can't run very well," Agnes said.
The enraged animal was now a few hundred metres away. It had slowed down, but was still headed inexorably towards them. The cowboy was still far behind. But there was something about the situation that was nagging at Ruth. Somehow it seemed...familiar...
"There's no way down the cliff," said Jimdrick, who had been examining it.
"Never thought I'd miss zero gravity," Patrick said.
Absentmindedly Tom had unwrapped and rewrapped his scarf from his neck. Agnes was watching him.
"Couldn't we use the scarf as a rope?" she asked excitedly.
"I don't know if it's strong enough," said Tom. "Besides there isn't enough time-"
The snorting creature was only a couple of hundred metres away now. Still something was trying to get Ruth's attention- but she couldn't think what...
"There's nothing we can do!" Tom shouted in despair as the beast advanced. Anne grasped Jimdrick's hand, and he put an arm around her. The others huddled together, watching as inevitable death came towards them.
The story continues...
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