The Way to Durango

Posted on Wed Oct 8th, 2025 @ 10:44am by Lieutenant Commander Deanna Celes & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Chief Petty Officer Aaron Geiger

3,147 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Wild Wild West
Location: Planet

The quartet materialized in a baggage car on the train, only half full of luggage for the various passengers. Once the transport was complete Deanna looked around quickly, and seeing no one, reached into her jacket and pulled out her tricorder. She scanned the area quickly before putting the tricorder away, "So far, so good. The train is only two miles from the Durango settlement. I suggest we indiscreetly make our way into one of the passenger cars and then exit the train as soon as it arrives at the station."

Kate, the youngest member of the away team, crouched beside a weathered leather trunk. Her indigo kimono-inspired silk shirt and pants, carefully chosen to blend with this era's fashion while concealing her Starfleet insignia and anti-projection mesh underneath, rustled softly against the rough-hewn floorboards. Sunlight filtered through the slats of the baggage car, illuminating dust motes that danced around her face as she traced her finger over a faded tag.

"These markings. They're different than most of the rest of them. They're from Vertiform City's transit authority," She whispered, adjusting the Winchester rifle that pressed against her shoulder blades. The metal barrel caught the light as she shifted, revealing intricate engravings along the length that looked specific to Japanese engravings that no other Winchester would have. "I guess they were lost from the last stop before the train set out for Durango."

Kate committed the purple stamps design to memory as they slipped into the main passenger car. Her nostrils flared involuntarily at the mingled scents of the unwashed bodies, tobacco smoke, and something distinctly animal. Perhaps it was a passenger's pet or the leather from their boots. She pressed her silk sleeve instinctively against her face while navigating the narrow aisle, steadying herself against a seat as the train curved around a bend. Through the smudged windows and glare of the evening sun, the first wooden structures of Durango emerged against the dusty horizon.

A large man, looking like a perfect example of the cowboy motif stood and made his way down the aisle towards Kate and the others. He walked slowly, deliberately, a hint of danger about him. As he approached closer, the clang from his spurs echoing throughout the car. His eyes shifted from one member of the away team to another, looking each of them over quickly. Unsurprisingly, his eyes lingered when he saw Deanna. He walked past Kate, ignoring her completely, doing much the same with the Chief, and stopping momentarily to give a tip of his hat to Deanna. As he did, she scanned him telepathically, getting whatever information she could. Unsurprisingly, his thoughts were less than reputable, but it didn't surprise or shock her.

The sound of the train wheels on the track began to slow, the sound of the engine whistling echoing loudly as the train pulled into the station. Deanna sensed the conductor in the next car moving this way and looked to Jon, "Time to exit, avoid any coming problems."

Kate locked her eyes onto the man and used herself as a wedge Between Deanna and the smelly bag of ass that took a liking to her in all the wrong ways. Kate kept her smile despite the foul odor and waved at him without saying anything. It was a special way of saying I'm going to be an annoying little problem that could prove to be too much effort for a fat guy like him to potentially wish to deal with if he wishes to court the good looking one .

It was a tried and true technique that worked with bodyguards since the early 20th century, but with Kate's size, she found that the I see you methods still work even if you aren't intimidating because it still tells someone that their pursuits might carry an additional annoying brat; especially since he wanted to walk past Kate to get to Deanna and the little girl repositioned herself like a fangirl at a Justin Bieber concert.

With any luck, her annoying persistence coupled with the disembarking would prove too much effort to make him want to engage past a girl that seemed to be infatuated with him.

Jon had been silently watching the scene before him. He knew both Deanna and Kate handle themselves without any problems, but he decided to involve himself. He moved over to where Deanna was standing and looping his arm around her waist, he said to her while his eyes were on the man. "Everything okay here darling?"

Kate smiled a toothy grin at Jon and Deanna and giggled playfully. She looked up to the man with overly pungent ass and nodded to them.

"Don't mind them I made them promise they wouldn't get too crazy until they got to the hotel," Kate just started talking to the huge guy and it seemed as if he instantly started to lose interest while Kate continued speaking in a long dramatically long-winded string of words that hypnotically moved from topic-to-topic. "... and then there was this one time when they wanted to get a hold of a photographic machine, have you seen those things? They can literally capture a moment in time on a picture, and they were thinking about filming the conception of their child! It's really kinda cute. I'm adopted by the way. My other family got rid of me because they said I talked too much, and the orphanage found me in a bin of trash." Kate followed the man a little as he walked away. "... not the normal trash either it was that industrial waste trash. It literally dyed my hair green. Had to shave it all off... and...," Kate looked on forlorn as the man not only changed where he was seating in the car, he changed entire cars. Spun around with a sad pout on her face that quickly turned into a sly grin and a wink.

"You filthy exhibitionists..." Kate growled the words playfully through her teeth as the words trailed with a giggle.

Deanna shook her head. "You two...we can discuss this later. I wasn't concerned about that guy. He was just walking past us to get to the exit. My warning was regarding the conductor. He'll be here in a moment, and if he catches us, it will cause unnecessary complications. Time for us to disembark."

Aaron made his way over to the officers after slowly moving about the car, unnoticed blending in like any other train worker. "Commanders, Lieutenant." He reached into his pocket producing several perforated slips of paper. "I took the liberty of... acquiring some tickets." The Chief handed them over with a smirk. "I told some folks up the next car that the conductor was overwhelmed and I had been assigned to help him out."

Jon smiled at Kate, "That's us. Filthy exhibitionists to the core." He grinned at Deanna, "Oh, I know you and Kate can handle yourselves but you have to admit this was fun." He then looked at Aaron. "Chief, you are in the right crowd, we're all thieves." He smiled brightly at his announcement.

Deanna looked to the Chief, "It was certainly a sneaky move on your part Chief. Dirty pool, I like it" she said with a grin. "We are pulling into the Durango station. Time to get off and start working on this mystery."

"Ben's not here so I can't get off but I shall disembark this train without the carnal thrill of the Mile-of-Track club. Kate stepped off the train and was immediately hit with the stench of horse shit. Her dark almond eyes widened as much as they watered.

"Oh my freaking goodness, these streets are paved with excrement," she practically whimpered while breathing through her silk shirt. Kate had literally pushed her nose into the black turtleneck. "It's like the holodeck novel only it's the Not-O.K.-Corral

She pointed to the boardwalk where there was even a pile of shit on the wood. "They even went off-roading with their vehicles! I bet these frackers take their horses to the hotel room just like the song Old Town Road what's wrong with these people?!"

Deanna glanced at Kate, marveling at her near naiveté. "They are in a state of arrested development, but in general, nothing is wrong with them. If given enough time, they would eventually evolve as humans on Earth did. But barring that, we have to find out why they are here and then make a few other evaluations." She looked around, seeing the various buildings and facilities that one would expect to see. Across the road from the train station was a huge coral filled with horses and cattle that was being offloaded from some of the train cars and another group was being driven in by some cowboys. She could see a bank, a general store, a saloon, and even what looked to be a house of ill repute. "These people have an interesting life. I am looking forward to seeing how everything compares to Earth history."

Jon listened to first Kate and then Deanna give their views and assessments of the area they were in. "This is the Old West in all its glory, warts and all." He looked up and down the street. "We need to find a hotel or boarding house to serve as a base of operations while we do our investigation." he paused as he saw two dogs running up the street. "There is your answer Kate, they do indeed have dogs."

Kate watched as the two dogs ran up the street together. Another dog, a thin, lean, and super-cute black and white dog that looked very much like a Siberian Huskey walked up to the group and sat down. It looked at them and tilted its head slightly.

"Must be the Durango greeter," Kate giggled as she reached into her backpack and fed the dog a field ration. As they walked, the dog followed as if it were a part of the group. "hehe... Yep they got dogs!" Kate said happily as the Huskey walked next to her. "Poor thing must be hot as heck. I think he belongs in a cooler climate."

Kate took in the sights and unfortunately, the smells of the tow. She watched as a horse rider stepped off of his horse and wrapped the reigns around a pole without tying it. The horse dutifully stood by when the rider walked away without tying the reigns.

"That horse can get away any time it wants," Kate mused. She then realized that all the horses were tied like this. "What the hell? They just assume they're tied down and stand there?"

Kate shook her head at the weirdness as they walked closer to the hotel, with a Huskey in tow.

Deanna looked at the animal. "It looks like a dog, but I believe it is a wolf. Possibly domesticated, to a degree. I wouldn't recommend feeding it further. We have no idea how anything will react to our food."

As they walked, the Wolf, or approximation of a wolf anyway, continued walking with Kate in a friendly manner.

"Any of you ever saw that movie 'The Thing'? It's ancient and crusty but I keep thinking about that." Despite the mention of the creepy movie, Kate scratched the wolf behind its ears and it smiled. "Should have worn a little red hood on this mission right?" Kate giggled as the wolf obviously took a liking to her. "I wonder if he has a name..."

Jon looked at the dog or wolf as it walked with the group, especially next to Kate. "Yes it has a name. Lobo, or Wolfie."

Kate leaned down and scratched the wolf behind its ears. It opened it's mouth and wagged it's tail happily as Kate kept scratching it.

"Wolfie is a cute name! Doesn't matter how much you stink you're still stinking cute! Gonna have to get a tricorder to make sure you can eat some treats without exploding since you're an Alien Wolfdog, yep!"

The wolf had no idea what Kate was saying, it just wagged at the tone of her words and looked happily clueless into her eyes. Kate stood up and smiled at the creature before continuing to walk. The Wolf kept with them as if it were a part of the team. Kate looked around to see there was a man sitting in front of the Sheriff's office with his boots propped up stereotypically on the guard-rail to crap-avenue-main-street. Kate felt a nudge as the Wolf pushed her to the side suddenly. Kate looked down to see that the dog had just protected her from stepping into a huge pile of horse-crap. Kate smiled back at the dog and then re-averted her gaze to the overall tone of the town.

The sound of a piano leaked into the air through a doorway that had doors way too small for the actual saloon and they seemed to hinge both inwards and outwards. She took note that anyone that stepped into the bar had to, for some unknown reason, open both doors wide, stop at the doorway dramatically, and then look around before walking through. Nobody ever just walked through the doors.

"Must be some sort of cultural thing. I think we have to stop at the doors and wait a moment before walking the rest of the way inside. Maybe it's like, when you're at church and you have to swing your arm around in a bunch of random directions and kneel before proceeding." Kate mused.

"It could be a cultural practice Lieutenant." Aaron replied, "This colony could have any number of unique significant historical events that would make their mannerisms and habits just slightly different from what we would expect." He looked around at the different buildings lining the street. "Plenty of opportunities for information gathering. The saloon would be a good place for news, people will tell you just about anything if you listen. The general store would probably tell us about the local economy and currency too. The building with the steeple is likely of religious significance. What's the play?"

"Good points Chief and all good places to gather information. We can check them out in pairs. No one goes anywhere alone." Jon answered crisply. "Let's try the church and the general store as well as finding us a place to sleep." He paused as he looked at the others. "No ranks from here on. We use each other's first names."

Deanna nodded. She looked to Jon, "I think we should avoid the saloons until we can go together. Safety in numbers for that sort of location. Should be safe for us to check out the store and the chapel in pairs though. I'll volunteer to check out the chapel with Aaron. Not to offend, but Kate has a tendency to not see offense when talking about certain cultural practices, and at least from my knowledge of history, humans used to be very temperamental regarding religion. That would leave you and Kate to check out the store. I took the liberty of bringing some replicated gold and silver nuggets if you want to have something to trade. They are purer than anything they would be able to find on the planet, and they'll never know the difference."

"Why I didn't mention the saloon in places to get information from." Jon replied. "Let me have some of the gold and silver nuggets please Deanna." Before Deanna handed over some of the nuggets he spoke to Kate. "I'm going to give you some of nuggets. Do not, I repeat do not go flashing these around. We don't want to draw any interest or attention from the less reputable crowd."

"Aye Comma-" Aaron answered automatically, quickly stopping himself. "Deanna." He took his allotment of metals and deposited them into one of the interior pockets of the duster. Aaron pulled out one of the ancient appearing timepieces that was replicated along with his garb. "When shall we reconvene?"

Kate bounced on her tiptoes like an eager puppy, which got the attention of the real puppy that was with her as it wagged its tail, her cheeks flushed pink as she brushed off being called out for her religious cluelessness. Her eyes widened at the quaint general store nestled at the far end of the 18th Century Style Town, its wooden sign creaking in the breeze.

"Ooh, shiny things!" she squealed, already imagining the vintage trinkets she'd arrange in her cramped quarters on the Starship. Her gaze fell to the gleaming nuggets passing between hands.

"Wait—they trade in gold? Like, actual gold-gold?" Kate wrinkled her nose adorably. "Isn't that kind of... useless?"

She paused, tapping her finger against her chin as the memory clicked. "Right! Even back in my day, people still had a weird thing for gold, even though it was basically just pretty metal by the 21st century." She giggled. "And by our time? Total dinosaur currency!"

Kate skipped over to Jon. She unceremoniously dumped some of the coins and nuggets into her satchel with a theatrical jingle, then waved enthusiastically at Deanna and Aaron, nearly hitting a passing local in her excitement.

"So, um, gold logistics question!" she called after them, "Do we, like, go to ye olde bank first? Or can I just slap these objects down at the counter? Is there a gold... appraiser guy? With one of those little eyeglass thingies?" She pantomimed putting a monocle to her eye, wobbling slightly as she tried to maintain her balance in the street. Wolifie spun around her as if attempting to catch her if she actually fell despite having no arms. She looked between Deanna, Aaron, and Jon with apt curiosity.

To Aaron, Jon replied, "We'll meet back in an hour at the diner." He pointed to the diner. To Kate, "No, going to the bank. It would just add to questions we don't need. Your thinking of an assay office. I'm sure they have one but again going there raises questions." He looked down at Wolfie, "You have your protector Kate, I just hope none of us need his protection."

Deanna looked at the direction of the diner. "Looks like potential lodging there as well. It should be a good place to reconvene." She looked at Kate, "While your enthusiasm is admirable, we need to practice some restraint. This isn't a trip to the holodeck. We are in a real potentially life and death situation. One wrong word, a wrong look can get you killed amongst these people. I trust you'll take this into account." She looked to Jon, "Stay safe Jon. Callie would kill us both if you get hurt." She looked over at the Chief, "Alright Aaron, let's go seek out some divine revelation."

TBC

 

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