Road to El Dorado

Posted on Wed Nov 5th, 2025 @ 10:27pm by Lieutenant Commander Deanna Celes & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Chief Petty Officer Aaron Geiger

1,837 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Wild Wild West
Location: Planet - Durango City

The trial was interesting, though it was fairly quick. The D.A. Trotter called Jon and Deanna to the stand and had their testimony, gave a solid closing statement, and the jury offered a guilty verdict in less than five minutes, followed by Judge Haller sentencing Dewey Barton to death by hanging. Deanna found it all very interesting, even the death sentence, and she hoped that Aaron and Kate had learned things of interest the way that she and Jon had. Deanna and Jon had managed to find a quiet spot to contact the ship, get an update on things, and have the ship do a scan to narrow things down for them regarding Clint Barton. They had been told the information would be relayed to them and that the captain wanted to send down two more people, considering the situation.

The trial was done. Dewy Barton was found guilty and sentenced to hang. Clint Barton made no appearance and that made Jon wonder if he was planning something later to save Dewy. "I wouldn't put it past Clint Barton to try and save Dewy before he hangs." He remarked to Deanna. Good deal with scan of the area. I wonder who the captain wants to send down? Maybe Wyatt and his wife or possibly Callie or Ayana. Did he say when and where they were beaming down?" he paused. "Let's meet with Aaron and Kate, see what they found and then we can see who is joining this little party."

Deanna smiled, "Captain didn't say who he was sending down, only that he was sending a pair down. Whoever he sends, they'll have the scan results for us. And I agree, if things go as they did in history and the novels I've read, Clint Barton will definitely make an attempt to save his brother. I'd hate for this to turn into some sort of shooting war, something akin to the Lincoln County Wars or the fight between the Earps and the Cowboys."

"Okay, we'll find out when they get here and as far as Clint Barton, I'm willing to bet he'll make a play to spring Dewy and we may have no choice in if it degrades into a shooting war though I sincerely hope it doesn't" because if it does, it is going to be bloody and deadly." Jon looked around. "What location are the new team members beaming down at?"

"We are supposed to me them at the livery stables in about 20 minutes" Deanna replied.

"20 minutes alright, let's walk around the town and see if we can learn anything more and then head to the rail yard and meet up with Aaron and Kate before we go to the livery stables." Jon replied.

"Sounds good" Deanna replied as they started down the street.


*******
Kate yanked at a string hanging from the ceiling to get the train horn activated but her smile dropped when nothing happened. She squinted her eyes and smiled again as she tugged on the rope.

"Horn isn't being horney..." Kate said with a forlorn tone. "I guess the engine has to be turned on for that to work." She stepped out of the engineers seat.

Aaron laughed. "Indeed. How do you feel about snooping around some of the offices closer to the platform and seeing what kind of records we can dig through? I think if we could get some kind of shipping manifest that would tell us more."

Kate nodded. "Yes, Chief."

Kate may have been a lieutenant, but Aaron had been promoted a whole lot more than she had. It meant that on paper she was his boss, but in reality, he always knew best, and any good lieutenant knows to listen to the enlisted. Wolfie jumped from the engine to the roof overhang. She could hear the pitter pattering of his four legs on the roof while she went inside and looked around the office. She looked around for the computer but then stopped and rolled her eyes before walking into the first office and scanned through the documents in the cabinets next to the desk.

Aaron rifled through the desks, finding handwritten ledgers. "Hey LT, take a look at this. There's been a series of 'MISC Cargo' transfers out of here over the past couple of months. In fact, I don't see anything listing MISC Cargo shipping into town. This shouldn't pass muster." He handed the large green leatherbound tome over for her inspection. "The engineer in me says that is incredibly vague from a safety perspective but I figure on the intel side of the house it might be of interest?"

"The best way to narrow down the discrepancy would be to use whatever passes for this towns form of communications system with the railyard cargo supervisor from the last station in order to get a concurrent log of baggage and cargo compliment," Kate said while sifting through the logs. "This is a phenomenal find, Chief... Good idea getting in here. "Either we found something significant to our mission or at the very least, uncovered a smuggling operation of some sort involving significant mass cargo. The sheriff would want to know about this if it's just a local operation getting out of hand." Kate placed the paperwork down on the desk and leaned against it. "We should let the ExO know about this and have him decide what to do about your discovery," Kate said.


********

As Jon and Deanna approached the railyard, the sound of livestock being loaded caught Deanna's attention. She tapped Jon on the shoulder and gestured for him to take a look. It was a strange sight, seeing cattle and horses loaded into railcars while men load large boxes into another railcar. Deanna leaned over to Jon, "Do you think that is a normal occurrence?"

Jon took a moment to look the scene over before replying. It was a strange sight watching horses and cattle being loaded onto boxcars with little observation while packages were loaded into another railcar with great care. After a few moments he replied, "Yes, the cattle and horses are going to markets like the capital same for the packages."

"These people, they were brought here, left here, they started new lives, but they didn't return to the way things were, they did certain things better, but they have arrested development, living a simple life in a lot of ways the way the Neotranscendentalists on Earth attempted to live. Amazing to see this" Deanna noted.

Jon nodded in agreement. "I agree that they have done certain things better, but it appears they have reached a plateau or significantly stalled."

"The history of your people makes it clear that most of your technological advancements are a result of conflict, be it during the fights or in the preparation of the next. Overall, it doesn't appear that conflict seems to be an issue here, so they are advancing slowly" Deanna noted.

"Well said Deanna and true. These people have avoided that, so their advancement is slower. Now, if the Indians attack them that could change and advancements come fast and furious. I just wouldn't want them all to be in the field of weapons." Jon replied.

Deanna smiled and then narrowed her eyes as she seemingly saw or sensed something. "It would appear that Kate and Aaron have decided to rummage through desks. We need to grab them up before some of these actual workers around here take notice of them. I'm sensing that many of these rail workers are shoot first ask questions later types."

"Say no more, let's go and stop them. All we need is for agents to be involved in shooting it out with rail workers. Not a good look for us or anyone." Jon answered as he began moving toward the rail office.

The carefully made their way over to the office area, doing well not to be seen. Deanna kept tabs on those around telepathically, keeping an eye out so to speak. "You grab them and we'll go find our backup and get out of town quick to find Clint Barton."

Jon nodded, "Be back in a flash.": As he slipped into the rail office. "Hey, you two." He urgently whispered to Aaron and Kate, "Get out of there and come with me before someone sees you and starts shooting. Move now!" The last said in a savage whisper.

Deanna drew her weapon and slowly walked backwards to Jon and tapped him on the shoulder. "We leave now, or violence ensues." Loud frustrated voices and heavy footfalls could be heard.

"Right." Jon answered decisively. "You heard Deanna, move it!" he told Aaron and Kate.

Aaron quickly scanned two of the pages with the suspicious cargo with his tricorder and dropped the logbook without question. He silently followed the Commanders out of the building, glancing back at Kate who he felt confident was armed unlike himself. As they stepped out into the still crisp morning air and made some distance away from the railyard Aaron reached into his pocket, discreetly sending a copy of his scans to the officers. "Shipping logs from the office back there, for the mission records and your reference."

Wolfie jumped from the roof of the building to the train car, and from the cars to the mail swing. The swing pivoted around in a half-arc where the dog's feet landed onto the dirt next to where Kate was walking with the group. The dog looked up at the group of officers with a happy smile, tongue hanging out and panting. Kate scratched Wolfie behind the ears as they walked together.

Deanna was at point. She wanted to make sure they got to where they needed without incident. She was still trying to consider who the captain was sending down. They had to be human or at least appear human. That didn't narrow things down much, considering most of the crew was either human, Betazoid, or another race easily disguised. She put the thought out of her head. It would be made evident in a few minutes time.

The sun was creeping its way up the sky, nearly over the horizon now and seemingly hovering over the mountains that were to the east. Deanna had to admit; there was beauty here. She wondered if those peaks in the distance were where they would be headed to find Clint Barton. That too would be something else answered soon. The livery stable was in sight. She looked back, seeing Jon moving in a somewhat tactical means while trying to hide it, Aaron looking like the grizzled seasoned engineer that he was, and then you had Kate, who looked like a child in many ways, and currently playing with her newfound pet. The four them made quite the motley crew, and that that put a slight smile on her face. As they caught up with her, she knew it was time to locate the added away team members and head out of town.


TBC

 

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