Chapter 12: A Demonstration

The weapon in Paulie’s hands roared like thunder even through the protective ear coverings he was wearing, this was followed by two sharp cracks in quick succession and the sound of something striking one of the range targets like a meteor. The recoil bucked the heavy pistol in his grip, but not so much that he was unable to manage it. A fireball and smoke obscured his vision for a heartbeat, and when it cleared he smiled as he saw the huge hole he had blown clean through the composite target.

“By the grace of Zalc..” Mack breathed behind him. “It gets more terrifying every time. And you say this is the way war is waged back on your planet? How do your soldiers survive such wounds?”

Paulie shrugged. “Most of the time they use smaller bullets. I think?”

Jakiikii looked from the target to the gun in his hand. “Why?”

Paulie frowned, his eyebrows crinkling as he tried to recall all the military know-how he could remember. “I think it has something to do with wounding enemies instead of killing them outright. But you would still see people like police and private military using large calibre weapons..” he hesitated, “And terrorists.”

Mack’s large grey eyes seemed to widen slightly. “Oh, we know all about terrorists. You met two the other day if you remember right?”

Paulie lowered the gun as he turned. “Those cultists?” He felt a stir in his mind as he recalled the two bultesian criminals. His jargon worm recoiling in remembered horror at the hollowness that had seed to exude from them.

Jakiikii nodded as Mack responded. “Yes. They represent a subsect of violent religious extremists. Our society is not without violence or flaw, as I am certain you have already noticed.” Paulie frowned and nodded. Mack’s sensory spines moved with a mild clatter as he leaned forward and whispered in an almost conspiratorial manner, “There are probably about seven rebellions and civil wars going on across the Intercession right now as we speak.”

Paulie was a little taken aback. “So much for peace and enlightenment then I suppose.”

Mack scrunched his face and shook his head with a sad look. “I guess not.” Paulie remained silent at that. He looked inwards, these people may be from a society without want. But clearly they were not as all powerful as he had been led to think.

Jakiikii broke their troubled silence as she hopped from foot to foot. Her hands reaching towards Paulie almost imploringly as she asked with barely contained excitement, “Oh, Paulie! Can I try it now? Please?!”

He was forced to chuckle at the termaxxi’s antics, she seemed too sincere to be trying to simply change the subject. And so he relented, handing her the weapon with a muttered warning, “It has four shots left. You remember how to use it right?” She nodded enthusiastically, her eyes having a hard time staying focused on one thing in her excitement. He reached around her second shoulder, placing a hand on one of hers to ease it back from the chamber-gap. “Remember, keep your hands and fingers clear of the gap. It has a much better seal than old school western revolvers, but it still puts out enough hot gas to potentially scald your skin.”

She turned her head slightly towards him, her face now only inches from his as he stopped. Her eyes glowed so bright in the well-lit room, the orange of her iris’s shimmering like gemstones as she looked into his again. In that moment he felt another small push, like a mental caress and was forced to blink as he shook his head slightly.

He saw her smile as he took a step back quickly. He knew she was doing it, but what it was he still didn’t know. He cleared his throat, the strangely sticky feeling in his mind making him lose focus as he gestured towards the distant targets. He blinked rapidly as for the briefest of seconds he thought he saw an image of himself in the corner of his mind as if from another’s perspective.

“You uh, shoot them.. Be careful of the recoil though, Jakiikii. It is very strong.” He was a bit flustered still, even as he managed to shore up the walls around his mind and the strange feeling vanished. He nodded to himself slightly, he had felt tipsy, almost as if he had drunk a large glass of alcohol.

Jakiikii seemed to either not notice, or maybe she just didn’t want to alert Mack who was still standing nearby. The miriam hadn’t reacted to Paulie’s momentary lapse of composure, though the man was staring out at the distant targets and not at them directly so it was possible he had just not noticed.

Jakiikii seemed to mutter something to herself that sounded a lot like the word ‘compatible’ to him before she raised the gun in three of her hands and slapped the target button with a fourth while her two longest arms gripped the edge of the counter for stability. He watched in fascination as she smiled again, the twin breathing vents on her upper back flaring as she took a deep breath and then fired.

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Once again there was a tremendous blast, the sound almost immediately followed by twin cracks as the bullet broke the sound barrier and then its rocket motor kicked in and accelerated it past Mach three. In the second it took to hit the distant target the bullet was traveling at a truly tremendous velocity well in excess of a kilometer per second.

With his vantage to the side he was actually able to see the impact without his vision obscured. The target shuddered and seemed to fold inwards slightly as the flash of the still accelerating bullet smashed a huge hole through the very center of the bullseye. Once more Jakiikii’s aim was inhumanly accurate, her stability and additional eyes seemingly designed for maximum accuracy with any kind of firearm.

Not only was her aim true, but she handled the recoil exceptionally well too, likely even better than he himself had. With both of her secondary and one of her third arms bracing Nemesis, it took her only a moment to get the powerful hand cannon back on target. Her next shot following while the target was still reeling from the aftermath of the first.

Once more the target was rocked, a large hole appearing less than a centimeter from the first. This was followed by two more shots in quick succession, each nearly as on point as the first. Paulie watched the termaxxi woman as she hopped a little in glee and turned to him.

“Whoa, did you see that?!” She asked, her skin flashing back and forth between a pale white and dusty tan as her excitement caused her chromatophores to go a little crazy.

Paulie glanced at a thoroughly impressed looking Mack and nodded. “Yeah.. I saw that. That shooting was awesome, look at that.” He spoke, gesturing towards the target. The entire center was blown out, the four shots having been placed close enough together to practically be touching.

Mack stepped forwards as Jakiikii placed the gun back down on the bench with a thunk. “Yes, impressive as always. If not more so due to the nature of the weapon you were using.”

She flushed that pale white again, clearly a little embarrassed but also pleased by the praise. She spoke, her raspy voice emanating from deep in her chest even as her dainty mouth opened in a wide smile that slightly exposed her bubblegum pink tongue. “You really think so? Oh gosh, I think I liked this version even more than the last one. The idea of yours to make them rocket assisted to help manage the recoil was pure genius, Paulie!”

Paulie nodded slowly, truth be told he had only asked Ticcik if the idea was possible as he had been thinking of one of his favorite science fiction universes. And well, he was living in an advanced alien society, if anyone could make rocket bullets work then he had figured it would be them.

He nodded, a little wary the overstimulated alien woman was going to try and hug him again. Not that he was against the idea per-se, but he still found the personal contact to be a little awkward in front of others. Her concepts of personal space didn’t seem to quite match up with his own. He adjusted his armour and smiled, “Yes. Though I will fully admit that it was less a suggestion and more a question of possibility.”

Jakiikii glanced towards Mack with at least three of her eyes, the light pink of her sclera catching the light as she muttered and punched Paulie in the shoulder in what he took for a playful manner, “He is always so humble isn’t he? Humble Paulie.” She teased.

Paulie wanted to roll his eyes. His Aunt Margret had used to call him that, he frowned slightly and Jakiikii stopped. “Oh, I’m sorry Paulie, are you alright? I didn’t mean to hit you that hard.”

He jerked slightly, giving her a quick look. He rubbed his arm where she had punched him and murmured, “No, it’s not that. It just reminded me of somebody who I lost a few years ago.”

Jakiikii’s mouth cracked slightly and her lower gill slits flared as if she were about to speak, but Mack interrupted. “Well, now we know it works at least. Though I trust you will be taking an electron pistol too? Can’t ever have too much firepower, huh?”

Paulie didn’t respond, he was a little distracted by the small but gathering crowd of alien peace officers that were showing up on the edges of the periphery. He felt an arm on his forearm almost immediately as Jakiikii shrank behind him slightly. Again, that same rage bubbled up in his mind, fueled by the everpresent prodding of his parasite. He once more determined to get to the bottom of her fear, it must involve officers of the precinct. Maybe Mack knew?

He shoved it down with some difficulty and glanced to Mack, “What are they doing here, Mack?”

Mack glanced around at the gathering officers. Shrugging, he pointed at Paulie, “They could not have failed to hear that quillsplitter of yours. So I would hazard a guess that they are interested in seeing it in action.” It made sense, Paulie supposed.

He glanced back towards Jakiikii, the termaxxi was staring all around. Her six flexible petal-like eyestalks tried to take in everything at once as she hid behind him. He placed a hand over hers and asked, “I am going to show them what’s up. Are you okay, Jakiikii?”

He saw the alien woman nod slightly, “Yes. I-I.. I am just not a fan of crowds.”

Paulie grabbed her hand a bit more forcefully, giving it a hard squeeze that drew her attention to him and him only. He smiled, “Don’t worry. I will give them plenty to look at, they won't notice you at all. You don't have to be afraid when I am here, Jakiikii.” She swallowed heavily and nodded. “Here, want to see how I reload it?”

As she nodded Paulie took out one of the speed reloaders from the case that Nemesis had arrived in. He placed three of them on the counter before him as he grabbed a fourth, with a slight grunt of effort he found and then flicked the tilt lever of the weapon. The gun seemed to break in half as the cylinder and barrel tilted forwards, exposing the five chambers all at once. He clicked a plunger which ejected the spent cartridges while the used the speed loader to insert in a full five rounds and then clicked it back together all in about three seconds.

He was a little impressed with himself, all truth be told, he heard some mutterings from behind him. At least one of the assembled officers muttered something about primitive technology being inferior to their own. He smirked at that and glanced down slightly at Jakiikii who was still standing next to him.

“Watch, and learn. This is how you silence the haters.” He chuckled aloud as he pressed the ‘call targets’ button and raised the pistol.

Each shot roared like some ancient beast, the hammer blows of force from the weapons mighty recoil were like unto fists beating upon his body. The crowd all at once learned what the term ‘firefight’ truly meant as the double cracks of the bullets joined the orchestra of battle he was composing for them. He could see through the smoke and the flames as the target was shredded like confetti. His smile only deepened as he saw Jakiikii out of the corner of his eye, she no longer looked afraid. No, being there beside him as he stood tall with his weapon in hand, she looked more at peace than he could remember seeing her in a long time.

Paulie smiled. Today was not a good day to be on his bad side, and he knew just where to go to take out his growing anger and frustration. Ooounoo would rue the day she had sent Jual and his cronies to pick her up a ‘specimen’ from Earth. And he would be the instrument of her destruction, her Nemesis.