“Uh…”
Before I can formulate an answer, he’s talking again.
“Oh, it doesn’t matter, you humans think everything is a good reason to kill people. You kill people because it’s Tuesday sometimes. Or because they smudged your shoes. I’ve just come from untangling a century long feud between two royal houses, one of whose members might have bitten his thumb at another a hundred years ago. Do you know what they were doing when I got there? Taking each other’s skin off. It was all fleshy and very unpleasant, and they were enjoying it entirely too much.”
I say nothing, letting him have his Imperial tantrum without pointing out he’s the one who sounds like the baby right now.
“Fine,” he says with a deep shining sigh. “By the law of combat, which is pretty much the only law humans ever acknowledge anyway, you shall be the next sheriff.”
“I…” I pause and look around. “You do know who I am?”
“Of course. An outlaw and a thief, but one who has been ordained already with our technology, and one who is strong enough to root out weakness and ineptitude where you find it. We received multiple reports Atticus was corrupt. You will not be.”
“I don’t know about that…”
Josie
Orion told me to be quiet already, but even if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t say anything. I’m stunned. I did not expect any of this to happen, a centurion descending on a ship made of knives. Then something even stranger happens. Something that in a single instant, redefines my expectations of reality.
“I cannot breathe in this thing,” the centurion declares impatiently, interrupting Orion to… lift his head off.
Not his helmet. His actual head. What emerges from beneath the centurion’s human visage is a face with fiery glowing eyes, horns laid back against a barbed head, sharp lines, razor brows and fiery eyes focused on Orion and me.
He’s not human. He’s not even close to human.
I should not be surprised. The Imperium’s technology has always been so much more advanced than anything people here have. The concept of aliens is an often referenced one, but some people don’t believe because they haven’t seen any evidence. I’m seeing the evidence now, and it’s impressive.
“You’re not a person,” I stammer.
“I’m not a lot of things,” he says. “I’m hardly ever anything I am, and the times that I am the thing I am, I hardly recognize myself anymore. Do you know what it’s like having to cram ten feet of pure rage into a fleshy human suit?”
“Can’t say as I do,” Orion says, taking the conversational reins from me.
“Well, it’s uncomfortable,” the creature says. “I’m Tyank, by the way. You’ll report to me.”
“I won’t report to anyone. Not my thing.”
“I think you will.”
“Is that right?”
“I know what your lady wants,” the beast from the stars says. “She wants to travel from this planet and see the universe. She wants to know what exists outside this little dustbowl. As sheriff, you can make that happen for her.” The alien looks at me and I try not to scream, because I think a scream is coming, it just got lost on the way between my brain and my mouth.
“You could have a jump ship at your disposal. You could leave whenever you please. Free pass across what you call Imperial space. We’ve got a whole lot of these colonies to visit. Dozens of the things. The timesplosion… you probably don’t know about that, but it’s the reason any of you are here, anyway, it sent human societies spinning across space. They landed all over the place. The paperwork is a nightmare.”
I have no idea what the creature is talking about, but I know I’m in the presence of something mighty strange. Something that isn’t as hostile as I expected, and something that is trying to cut a deal with Orion and me.
“What do you expect me to do with these people?” Orion asks.
“Do what you’ve been doing. Keep them in line. Give them something to fear and admire.”
“And if one of them kills me in the process, you’ll fly down here, rip yer head off and tell them they’re the new sheriff, will you?”
“Probably. But try not to die.”
Orion
Josie has hardly said a word during this process. I think she’s lost her ability to speak completely. She’s clinging to me, her eyes wide and still full of tears. She has lost much more than I ever did. I am worried about her. She’s been through too much recently, and this might be the final straw for her sanity.
“Mind putting yer head back on? Think yer scarin’ the lady.”
The alien puts his head back on, though with some reluctance. I have no idea how he got it on his head, because his human head is much smaller than whatever alien madness just emerged. It is like watching a watermelon pretend to be a walnut, and somehow pull it off.