A RANGER'S DEBT
By: Bob Blacketer aka ^Writer
Page 2:
The crowd surged toward us and then stopped dead in their tracks as my needler flashed into my hand. "the first person who takes one step closer gets shot," I said into the calm. "I know you're thinking he won't shoot, or he can't get all of us, but you are wrong!" Catching a movement out of the corner of my eye I swung the needle and shot the man with the rope, bringing it back to bear on the crowd before anyone could react. The would-be hangman screamed, and collapsed in a motionless heap on the ground. There was a collective gasp from the crowd as they surged back, those in front seeming to suddenly recall urgent business elsewhere.
As the crowd dispersed, Marshall Dobbs came sauntering up. "I'll just take that gun," he said, extending his hand. I guess he had watched too many old westerns or something. I casually slid the needler back into my holster and watched his face turn red.
"You can't go around killing innocent citizens!" he blustered.
"He was far from innocent and I didn't kill him," I snarled. I had taken the precaution of loading my needler with anesthetic darts when I saw what I was facing here, but I sure wasn't going to tell him that. Besides, an anesthetic dart in the heart or brain, is just as deadly as a bullet. "Now get out of my way," I snapped, not bothering to lower my voice.
He licked his lips and, just for a moment, I thought he was going to make a fight of it, but he backed down. I was really puzzled by this Marshall and stood looking after him for a moment as he walked away. He had a record as a good lawman, but he had the air about him of a man fighting off desperation.
The doctor had some preliminary information for me when we returned to his office. "This girl was sexually assaulted and strangled," he said matter of factly. "The limbs were hacked off with something sharp, although someone went to a lot of effort to make the cuts ragged enough that it looked like they had been torn off. Also, I found this in the abdominal cut," and he held out a piece of gauze with a sliver of metal on it. "My best guess is that it's titanium. That would be consistent with the idea that a spacer's hook was used to rip her up."
A spacer's hook was indeed made out of titanium, a metal that held its strength in the varying conditions under which a spacer might find himself handling cargo. The spacer's were a rough lot and it was not uncommon for the hook to be used as a weapon in settling differences.
Thanking the doctor for his help, I told him to send me a copy of his report when he finished. Still accompanied by the Lupine, I headed once again for the Marshall's office.
I found Marshall Dobbs sitting dejectedly behind his desk. He looked up as I stopped before his desk, a haggard, careworn expression on his face. "What now?" he asked quietly.
"I think its time you and I had a little talk!" I said firmly.
"I wondered when you would get round to that," he sighed resignedly, shoulders slumping.
"How about telling me what is really going on around here?" I suggested.
"I'm getting to be an old man," he said sadly, "and a Marshall's salary really isn't that good. When the Prince's representative came in and offered me a reward for finding the Woolly...." he stopped in midsentence and looked at Rrrash Jrrrkkkan. "Sir I apologize," he said feelingly, looking the Lupine eye to eye. "Sometimes an old man can get foolish ideas," he sighed.
"Anyway," he picked up the story, his voice taking on strength and the tones of an official report, "when the Prince, that's Merchant Prince Hamlyn, his ship put in about a week before this happened, offered a 100,000 credits for the capture of the fugitive Lupine, I saw it as the light at the end of the tunnel. All my instincts said there was something wrong, but I convinced myself that the Lupine did it and wouldn't look at any other evidence."
"Such as," I prompted.
"Prince Hamlyn is a known womanizer. He was seen with the girl several times, including the night she was killed. Since then he has stayed locked away in his ship."
"Seems like you built a pretty good case against him!" I said. "At least for questioning him anyway."
"In my younger days I would have gone into that ship and dragged him out if I had to," he sighed, running his had through his graying hair.
"Its not too late," I suggested.
He looked at me for a moment, and giving a deep sigh he squared his shoulders and pulled off the sling, flexing his bad arm. He picked up a shotgun, still as fearsome an antipersonnel weapon as they ever made, and dumped extra shells into his pocket. He had the air of a man setting out on a hopeless mission.
Dobbs looked a question at me when I followed him out of the office. "I thought I might just tag along, if you don't mind," I told him.
"Thanks Ranger," was his only comment. Rrrash Jrrrkkkan showed his fearsome teeth in what passed for a smile among his kind as he walked beside me. "She was my friend," he said simply.
We marched across the port and headed for the space-yacht parked over to the side. The sentry saw us coming and hastily called inside for help. Two more big spacers came out to his aid. I noted that all three wore the big spacer's hook at their belts.
Marshall Dobbs walked right up to them. "I want to see Prince Hamlyn," he said firmly.
One of them stepped insolently into his path and snarled, Marshall," somehow turning the last word into an epithet.
"Right here," Marshall Dobbs said, swinging the butt of the shotgun into the burly spacer's belly. Stepping past the retching man on the ground he asked, "Anyone else?" Staring into the eyes of death, the two backed down and let us pass.
We met no further opposition as we made our way forward, quickly checking each stateroom as we went. We found the errant Prince in the forward lounge, sipping on a fruit drink as though he had no care in the world.
"Ah, Marshall Dobbs, come on in. A drink for you and your friends?" I noted that the skillfully applied makeup on the left side of his face did not quite hide the scratches there.
"Prince Hamlyn, I arrest you for the murder of Connie Springer," Marshall Dobbs said flatly. This was the first time anyone had mentioned the girl's name and I was ashamed that I had not thought to ask earlier.
Prince Hamlyn just laughed. "My dear Marshall, you cannot be serious. Surely you know that I have diplomatic immunity here on your backwater little planet?"
The click of the hammers on the shotgun were loud in the silence. "Either get up and start walking or I'll shoot you where you sit," Marshall Dobbs said, cold fury in his eyes.
Prince Hamlyn turned white under his makeup as he slowly rose to his feet. "You cannot lock him in jail," Rrrash Jrrrkkkan burst out suddenly. "I claim the right of Kkknarrrge!" Kkknarrrge is the Lupine equivalent of a duel of honor. It is fought with strictly nature's weapons. The Lupine's teeth and claws make them singularly equipped for this.
If possible the Prince turned even whiter. He shrank back away from the Lupine, looking to the Marshall for protection. "You can't let him do that," he pleaded. "I never meant to kill her," he said as Rrrash Jrrrkkkan began to sidle around Marshall Dobbs. "Please! You have to protect me."
I stood by quietly, letting Marshall Dobbs handle this situation. "I have to lock him up," he said almost apologetically to Rrrash Jrrrkkkan. "But if he tries to escape, he's all yours."
"This one will be waiting!" the Lupine said, grinning in anticipation in the frightful manner of his kind.
"You can't be serious!" Prince Hamlyn protested in astonishment. "You can't let them get away with this," he said, turning to me.
"Are you saying you want the Ranger's to get involved, officially?" I asked politely.
"That's exactly what I mean," he snorted arrogantly. "I am an ambassador of my people and this ship and environs are my embassy. I officially demand that you intervene in this situation."
"That puts things in a different light," I said. Accessing regulations regarding embassies, I began working out a solution to this problem. "There is the matter of the reward you promised the good Marshall here. After all he, in good faith, captured the fugitive."
"Of course I haven't forgotten the Marshall's, ah, payment," he said insultingly, sure of himself once more.
Marshall Dobbs gave me a strange look but said nothing as Prince Hamlyn went to a concealed wall safe. Quickly working the combination he took out a stack of bills and tossed them contemptuously to Marshall Dobbs.
"And double that amount for my friend here," I said gesturing to Rrrash Jrrrkkkan.
Prince Hamlyn turned red with fury. "This is extortion!" he blustered.
"No, this is justice!" I corrected him. "And that is my official ruling in the matter of the false charges you brought.
Rrrash Jrrrkkkan accepted the money without comment, tucking it into his belt pouch with a savage smile that made the Prince cringe away.
"Now as to the matter of the charges brought by Marshall Dobbs, it is true that the Prince has diplomatic immunity from prosecution," I said apologetically to the Marshall. Prince Hamlyn smirked at this, reclining in his leather chair and sipping his drink as though he hadn't a care in the world. "He has further contested that this ship is his embassy, and that is his right. However, for a ship to qualify as an embassy, it's engines must be permanently disabled, thus rendering it stationary."
"You can't do that!" Prince Hamlyn yelled petulantly as he jumped to his feet. "I won't allow it!"
"Interfering with a Ranger while in the course of his duties now are we?" I asked softly.
"No! Of course not," he said hastily.
A quick search of the 'Embassy' turned up several termite bombs, the sort that are used in destroying important files to prevent their capture. Taking these to the engine room, I attached them to the engines' cores in such a fashion that it would require a complete yard refit before this ship would fly again.
That accomplished, I went back to the lounge where Marshall Dobbs and the Lupine were keeping the 'Ambassador' company. they all looked at me expectantly when I walked in.
"This is my ruling," I said officially. "This ship is now and henceforth to be grounded and is officially designated an Embassy of Zirconia III to Kaylum's World. Prince Hamlyn, as said ambassador, has diplomatic immunity, as he claimed, and cannot be brought up on civil charges. You may however have him petitioned for recall." Prince Hamlyn smirked at the Marshall when he heard this.
"However," I continued, "this said diplomatic immunity does not apply where personal insult and challenge are in effect. According to the treaty of Delcon II, of which Zircon III is a signatory, the matter of personal challenge is not abrogated by said diplomatic immunity. Although said diplomat can take refuge in the embassy, he is fair game for challenge once he leaves its grounds. Therefore should Prince Hamlyn leave the confines of his ship, he must satisfy the challenge of kkknarrrge as presented by one Rrrash Jrrrkkkal, a Lupine.
We left the Prince sputtering in protest and loudly proclaiming the dire consequences of my actions. As we left the ramp and headed across the port the Marshall said, "You know that you just condemned him to either life imprisonment or to being torn apart by your friend here?"
When I said nothing he asked, "What about me Ranger?"
I looked at the Marshall appraisingly for a moment. Like many another young Ranger I had thought that good and evil were clearly defined and as different as night and day. I was learning though that there were many shades of gray. Marshall Dobbs had made a mistake at the end of a long and distinguished career. I could not bring myself to condemn him for that one lapse in judgment. It would seem that justice too must come in matching shades of gray.
"Everyone makes a mistake now and then," I told him. "It's called being human. It's not the mistake so much as what we do about it that counts. As a great man once said, 'Go, and sin no more'."
He stared at me in disbelief for a moment before saying simply, "Thanks Ranger!"
Rrrash Jrrrkkkan insisted on treating me to a dinner before walking me back to my ship. These Lupines are real connoisseurs, and I highly enjoyed the meal.
At the foot of the ramp he shook hands with me, human style, and growled, "Thankkks Packkk brrrotherrr!"
"My pleasure brrrother," I said. "Give my regards to Jarrrkkkal." Then I strode briskly up the ramp, signaling the AI to make preparations to raise ship.
