Daisy in the Fringe

Dear Posca,

I sure am sorry that you got hurt like you did.  I came here to visit, but the doctors had you asleep.  It made me feel awfully bad to see you all beat up like that.

Dusty told me that it was that old Corporal Phoebus that did this to you.  That makes me awfully mad.  He was an awful fella.  Do you want me to beat him up for you?

Anyway, we’re going to be on the ship for a little while.  If you get better while we’re still here, you send a message to me and I’ll come on by.  It sure would be nice to see you again.

Your friend,

Daisy

Dear Diary,

Well, things are mighty confused now. It seems like the Prince Bishi and the old guy are real important people. The Prince even calls the Daughter of Heaven by her first name, which we never even learned. They both got grabbed and put in that bad building when they were meeting to talk over us having an embassy in Nihon. That’s the embassy where the Daughter of Heaven said Dusty and me could come join, so I sure do want to do whatever I can to make it happen. And oh – someone told us that Prince Bishi is the boss of Jugotai-sama. He seemed real amused when Dusty told him that Jugotai-sama was sweet on me.

Anyway, it looks like we’re going to get a reward for rescuing them. That’s nice, but I just want to get that embassy going. I sure do want to see Nihon, especially if all the guys there are as cute as the Bishi prince.

When we called up on the radio and told folks what was happening, the Minerva sent down two shuttles. We’re now flying back to the building where we rescued everyone, and the marines say they’re going to just wipe everything out. And oh, there’s a vampire involved somehow in all of this, though I don’t recollect how. Apparently, there are all kinds of vampires. About the only thing they have in common is that you can kill them with a wooden stake through the heart. Most of the time, anyways.

Later…

Those marines sure did some job of wiping out that place. They’re pretty scary when they get to blowing things up and stuff, even more scary than Hank when he gets his killing spirit up. I guess it’s a good thing that Dusty and me didn’t have to fight Phoebus and Fiero – I knew Dusty’s plan to get out of losing would have been difficult, so I guess it’s lucky I’m such a good shot.

But I guess there weren’t no reason for me to stop Hank from killing everyone in that building after all, because them marines didn’t leave anything alive down there at all. That seems awfully mean to me. I mean, I didn’t see any reason to go kill everyone like that. But maybe Hank is right, maybe you just got to kill all the people that need killing, and everybody knows that but me.

Some of the guards knew about Phoebus and Fiero and all. Dusty asked about them, and those guards seemed pretty amused. One of them gave me a wink, and I wondered what he had heard about my date with Phoebus.

They also said something about Posca being in the sickbay. Not to heal people, which is his job, but because he got hurt. They said something about him walking into a wall, but it sure sounded like he got beat up. I wonder who would do a thing like that, and if that’s maybe why he never called me again after our date.

But we’re headed back to the Minerva again, so maybe I’ll find out. I asked for a chance to fly the shuttle up there, but they won’t let me. I don’t know why – I flew Prince Bishi and that important guy out and never hurt any of them. I’m sure I could fly that old shuttle of theirs.

Anyway, I think I like flying things better than just about anything else I ever done. There ain’t no feeling like being in control over something flying through the sky, to feel it moving all around. I’m not really sure, but I may want to be a pilot when things are settled. Then I could fly back home and take momma for a spin. Wouldn’t that be a lark, and wouldn’t them Hawkins’s just spit if they knew their old serving girl was now flying the stars!

Dear Diary,

Well, we rescued them folks. It turned into a big fight, and I got hurt real bad. But let me tell it in order.

We took a van out to this base that had all these guys captured. I had to drive, cause I’m the only one who can. We snuck up on this big building that had guard towers on it and all. Dusty and me climbed up to the roof and used our guns that we got from them soldier boys to take down the guards in the towers. (Those guns are good for that because they’re awfully quiet.) We put on some of their armor, which turned out to be an awfully good thing. Then we all went inside and got the drop on a bunch of other guards in the entryway.

Well, we heard that the prisoners that we were there to rescue were in the basement, but that there were around 80 guards all over the place. Hank wanted to just kill all them all in their sleep, but I figured that was a pretty rotten thing to do. (That Hank sure does like killing people. He says he only kills people who need killing, but it sure does seem that an awful lot of people need killing when Hank’s around. I don’t think he’s a nice feller at all.) And besides, Mr Dutch said it would be awfully difficult for the four of us to kill so many people, even if they did start out alseep and all. So Dusty and me snuck down into the basement to get the prisoners while Hank and Mr Dutch stayed in the main hall keeping an eye on things.

We didn’t have no trouble getting the prisoners. There was a whole mess of them, including this really cute Nihonese prince and all his servants. (Looking at him made me think of this Nihonese word I learned from the sleep teacher – bishonen. If that prince ain’t a bishonen, I don’t know who is!) There was also this older Roman guy, and some scroll-headed girl. We got them all up back to the hall level without any trouble, when suddenly these statues standing all around came alive and started attacking us.

Well, that was a big to-do, because our guns didn’t hardly do any damage to them at all. But I managed to knock one over, and everyone else kept fighting until we managed to hurt them some, and because they moved pretty slow, we was able to get past them to the door.

At one point, I grabbed a spear and used it to try to keep one of the statues from stopping escaping prisoners. I thrust at it, but instead it stuck me with its spear. The spear went pretty deep in my belly, and I was bleeding like something stuck bad, which I guess I was. And boy, did it hurt – I ain’t never felt nothing that hurt so much. If I could’ve, I’d have screamed louder then a big brass band.

Anyway, we finally got outside and found one of them flying ships out there. The prisoner who could fly it was dead, killed by them statues, but I reckoned I could figure it out. So I flew everyone out of there, even though I was still bleeding and stuff.

We stopped back near our van, where we had left Doc. I was starting to feel a little dizzy, and Doc said something about shock and loss of blood. But he did something to me that made it all feel better, and before I knew what’s what, that big gash in my belly just closed right up, leaving only a hole in my armor and a whole lot of blood to show where I got hurt. When I got a chance to clean up and change later, I saw there weren’t even a scar. Boy, Doc sure does good work! I figure I owe him. Maybe I’ll make him something nice to wear or a scarf or his favorite cake or something, cause he sure did me a good turn there.

We’re now heading back to the hotel to get our stuff, and everyone’s talking with the bishonen prince and the old guy. They’re going to call someone to let them know what’s happening. I’ll write more when I know what’s going on.

Dear Diary,

It sounds like we’re getting a new job. I don’t know all the details, but it sounds like we’re going to be rescuing some people. That sounds nice.

Meanwhile, Hank got himself a girl. Not a real girlfriend, but one of them girls who’ll let you do stuff to them if you pay them enough. Momma always said that going to them girls was a sign of low breeding and stupid besides: half of them got some horrible creepy crawlies that they’re gonna give you. And Momma didn’t even know about the vampire girls that’re lurking out there, ready to be paid in coin and blood both. It sure don’t seem smart to me.

I wonder if Hank’s got any weird diseases now. I’m gonna make sure I wash my hands good if I touch any of his stuff, just to be safe. I’ll have to keep an eye on him in case he’s been turned into a vampire. It don’t seem likely, but I suppose it’s bound to happen sometime if he keeps going with girls like that.

But vampire or no, I know one thing about Hank: he ain’t no gentleman, and that’s for darn sure.

Dear Diary,

A wonderful thing has happened!  The Creep has gone away!

Soon after we hit the planet, the Creep just took his bag of coins and skedaddled.  I don’t know where he went, and I don’t care.  All I know is that he ain’t around me no more.

Beyond that, we’ve done a whole mess of shopping for new guns and stuff.  Dusty got a new shotgun, and I got some bullets for my machine gun.  The rest of the guys got a whole mess of stuff.  I ain’t too excited – how can you get all that excited shopping for guns?  But maybe we’ll get to go shopping for some good stuff later.  And Mr Dutch says as soon as we get out on the edge of the wild, we’ll get some new horses.  I’m looking forward to that – I ain’t been on a horse in way too long!