Earthbound: Science Fiction in the Old West (Chronicles of the Maca Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

stopped at the machine and turned. “This, Friend Rolfe, tis the vessel that brought me to this world…” He realized that Rolfe had not followed him into the chamber and he hurried back to him.
    “The gold tis inside. Do ye wish to go in with me or do ye prefer to remain here?”
    Rolfe could not take his eyes off the golden machine, but MacDonald was in front of him, blocking his view.
    “Mein Gott! It's…it's…inside? How the hell do you go inside, Mac? There isn't a door. Are you going to tell me that you walk through metal or whatever that thing is made of?”
    “I canna walk through metal, and, yes, tis made from metal. The metal twas manufactured on another world perhaps three hundred years or more ago by another race of beings called the Justines.”
    “Your people didn't make that? What did you do? Take it from them?”
    “Nay exactly, Herman. My people do not have the ability to build this
Golden One
. I twas aboard this ship when it came here looking for another Justine. A mob in Ireland killed the navigator. He twas a relative of the missing Justine named Toma. I twas left with the ship. I canna fly it back to their land or mine. I dinna have the training or kenning to pilot through the stars.”
    Rolfe closed his eyes and shook his head as though trying to clear it. “You know what, Mac, I think I'll wait right here.”
    MacDonald started to ask him if he would be all right, but decided against it. That would be an insult and right now his friend did not need an insult to his bravery.
    “It twill take a few minutes.”
    He returned to the
Golden One
and laid his hand on the correct panel. It slid back into the frame and a ramp extended downward. MacDonald left the panel open, although in normal circumstances he would have closed it. He hurried to the lift and ascended to the third level to access Ricca's quarters.
    The bluish glow from the walls and floors were a familiar, comforting emanation. His biggest regret was the fact that he would need to hurry and there would nay be time to take a shower. How he longed to enter the cleansing room and feel the flow of warm, soapy water. It was impossible to take proper cleansings in this land, but Herman twas too upset for him to linger. He entered Ricca's room and pulled the gold from the storage unit beneath the bed. Ricca had placed the gold in a box purchased in Denmark while they were there. The key remained in the lock. No Kreppie would have dared remove the gold while Ricca lived.
    In Denmark, it had been fascinating to hear how rapidly Ricca could assimilate an alien language. A few words and he would grasp it. Llewellyn found it took him several days to master an alien tongue and he could nay erase his Thalian speech. His German was still heavily accented.
    The box was heavy and he hoisted it to his shoulder as he began the trip back. Once outside the
Golden One
, he paused to close the panel before striding back to Rolfe. The box was beginning to bite into his shoulder and he hefted it to the other side.
    Rolfe was leaning against the tunnel opening looking at the
Golden One
and him as he approached.
    “Isn't there anybody in there?”
    “All are dead.”
    “All? You said a mob in Ireland killed the man who navigated this thing and he owned the gold. Who else was there?”
    MacDonald swallowed. He had made a verbal slip. The years with Rolfe had eroded the caution he used when speaking to most beings on this world.
    “There twas a crew—six in all.”
    “And what happened to them?”
    “I twisted their heads off and buried them in space.”
    Rolfe looked at him, his eyes still hard, but puzzled.
    “Mac, I never knew you to be a violent man. You protect yourself and others, but you don't kill for the fun of it. Why did you kill them?”
    “We twere enemies. There had been a war between our worlds and there tis much bitterness. They would have killed me rather than take me back to their world. They twere a bit hampered as they could nay