Space Cowboys & Indians (Cosmic Cowboys Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  About the Author

  Bibliography

  Space Cowboys & Indians (Cosmic Cowboys Series, Episode 1) ©2015 Lisa Medley

  .

  ISBN: 978-0-9908856-8-9

  Cover and formatting by Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Published in the United States of America

  Lisa Medley

  http://www.lisa-medley.com

  SPACE COWBOYS & INDIANS

  Cosmic Cowboys Series, Episode 1

  Lisa Medley

  How can the chance of a lifetime go so horribly wrong?

  Mining Engineer Cole Hudson signed up for NASA astronaut training, but after washing out short of getting his gold wings, he retreats to Alaska where he stakes out a gold claim. When billionaire entrepreneur Duncan Janson offers him an opportunity to join a mining team on an asteroid, Cole jumps at the chance.

  But nothing is as it seems. Former NASA reject and rival classmate, Tessa Hernandez, is also a member of the team, and from the beginning of the mission test flight, things go wrong. They soon discover they’re not the only ones on the asteroid. As they try to escape, they are pulled through a wormhole and back to the early 1800s New Mexico desert where aliens and Apaches may be the least of their problems.

  To all my browncoat friends. Shine on.

  Chapter One

  Alaskan gold mine, the Hudson Claim - the near future.

  “Goddamn it, Hudson. The washplant is down again.”

  Cole ground his molars together before he could unleash the torrent of swears coursing through his brain in reply. Of course the washplant was down. Again.

  This claim would be the end of him.

  “Show me,” Cole said.

  His foreman, Todd Cargill, held up four shredded washplant screens with holes the size of bowling balls, useless now for the first step in screening for gold.

  Cole squeezed his eyes shut and wondered for the eleven-millionth time this summer why the hell he’d come to Alaska.

  Redemption, he reminded himself.

  Wasn’t worth it.

  “That was my last replacement screen. Be a week before the supply plane can bring us more,” Todd said. “No use running dirt until it’s fixed. This way, we’re only making mud.”

  Most expensive mud he’d ever not made. A week in the bush with no work? He’d have to pay the crew, regardless, or he’d lose the whole lot of them. Hell, he still owed them from last month. They were running out of summer to mine, and they’d barely collected any gold so far.

  “Shut it down. I’ll call in the order.”

  “What do you want me to tell the guys?” Todd asked.

  “Tell them—”

  The chop, chop, chop of helicopter blades slowly pounded across the sky until the beast came into sight on the horizon. What the hell was a chopper doing out this far?

  The copter landed on the flat several hundred feet from their dredge, stirring the dust up from the broken ground and tailings. Covering his face with his arm, Cole coughed into his elbow and waited for the cloud to settle. The copter blades whirled to a stop, and his small crew left their work detail to gather around him and see what was going on.

  A white-haired man, maybe fifty, maybe older, emerged from the helicopter cabin, quickly followed by two men wearing sleek black suits, wrinkled from the tactical firearm harnesses strapped snugly across their chests. They were loaded for bear.

  That wasn’t what concerned Cole. He knew he was in for trouble the second the guy’s thousand dollar cowboy boots hit the turf. The man swatted at the swirling dust on his white shirt and designer jeans then brushed his hands through his shoulder-length hair three or four times, shaking it out like the mane of a horse. He cranked up a smile as he made a beeline for Cole.

  “Mr. Hudson?” the man asked.

  “I’m Hudson.”

  “You look exactly like your NASA application photo, Mr. Hudson. Haven’t changed a bit in the past five months. It was five months you were detained. Yes?”

  Todd coughed loudly beside him. “Okay, I think we have things to do. Let’s go, boys.” Todd urged the crew back toward their office trailer.

  Cole was going to have to give his foreman a raise. Right after he beat the dandy in front of him into a bloody pulp.

  “Who exactly are you, and what the hell are you doing here? Surely you didn’t fly that deathtrap all the way out here just to insult me in front of my crew. Or did you? You with Montoya?”

  The man appeared bewildered for a moment. “Oh my. Let me start over. I…this wasn’t the impression I intended to make. I’m afraid I started off badly. I’m simply so excited to find you. Out here.” He motioned toward the distant tundra. “It’s a very, very long way out here.” He flashed another smile at Cole and offered his hand. “Duncan Janson. You might know me from the airline ads?”

  Cole stared at the man’s smooth, tanned hand. The guy had never worked a day of hard labor in his life if those hands told the right story—that much was obvious. He knew exactly who he was, now. Billionaire airline owner and profiteer. What he didn’t know was what he was doing on his little piece of Alaska.

  “You answered the first question. Now answer the second,” Cole said, purposely not taking the offered hand.

  Janson pulled his hand back then clapped them together, clearly proud of himself. “I’m here to offer you a job.”

  “I have a job.”

  “This would be quite a different job. Well, maybe not all that different. You’d still be mining, but you would also have a chance to partake in some of your other passions.”

  Clouds slid past the sun, and a gust of wind stirred up a dirt devil near the copter, cooling the air noticeably.

  “What is it you think you know about my passions, exactly?” Cole asked.

  Janson twisted his expensive Rolex around his wrist nervously. “Was it not your passion for space that led to your gambling problem? Trying to raise enough money to continue in the program? Which led to your legal issues, which led to your detainment and now self-exile here in this godforsaken place? Isn’t your work here an effort to earn enough money to finance your first two passions? It’s a bit of a vicious circle, it seems.”

  Cole could feel his blood pressure rising. This asshole
was on his last nerve five minutes after meeting him and about one more sentence away from a shallow Alaskan grave.

  “What if all of your skills could be utilized to fulfill each of those…passions? You’d be paid well. Very well.”

  “Is this prospect legal?”

  “Yes, but it’s not without risks. I want to hire you to do some mining for me.”

  “Where? You have a claim in Alaska?”

  “I’m afraid my claim is quite a bit farther away from here. Your gambling problem and detention might have gotten you booted out of NASA’s space program, but your personal problems are not a deterrent to me. Your other skills and expertise are exactly what are needed for my project.”

  Skepticism scratched at the back of his mind, but Cole couldn’t deny he was intrigued. He hated Janson’s manner, but he could take his money. No problem. Hell, this job might be the financial boost he needed to finally make this claim profitable.

  “How long is the job, and where is it?” Cole asked.

  Janson smiled again, clearly certain he’d already sealed the deal. “I expect the job to take around six months. All expenses paid, of course. With an option to renew for a second mission after that, if you are so inclined. Your season here is winding down? Am I correct?”

  Considering the ruined washplant screens? Yeah, winding down would be a kindness.

  “You didn’t tell me where the job is,” Cole pressed.

  “Ah, that’s the best part, Mr. Hudson. The job is on Amun. It’s an asteroid. I want you to mine it for me.”

  Chapter Two

  Roswell, New Mexico – the near future

  Tessa Hernandez swirled her straw around the gin and tonic sitting on the bar top in front of her at O’Malley’s. Another Friday night in the Roswell bar—was this six or seven weeks since Janson had dragged her out of her self-imposed exile of humiliation with an offer she couldn’t refuse?

  Ever since she’d been dismissed from the NASA training program, she’d been in a downward spiral. Anger issues, they’d said. Hadn’t passed the final psych eval. Even after completing the twenty-month program—she’d totally financed—they’d passed her over for promotion to astronaut. Let them try growing up with six older Hispanic brothers in a Catholic home in South Texas.

  They hadn’t even seen anger issues yet.

  She wasn’t sure what burned her ass the most, that she had been days away from fulfilling her dream when they’d booted her, or that they’d let her spend out before it happened.

  Total toss-up.

  But, now? Janson offered her a second chance. Her own personal patron saint of lost causes, it seemed.

  She tipped back the tumbler and let the clear, tart drink slide down her throat.

  “Want another?” Noah Wright slid up to the barstool beside her carrying a head-sized plate of greasy home-cut fries covered in cheese. His dirty blond hair feathered out beneath the ball cap, and his blue eyes sparkled with mischief.

  “Sure. You buying?”

  “Absolutely. Barkeep, send the lady another.” Noah gave her a crooked smile and shoved the plate of fries closer to her. “I’ll share.”

  “No, thanks. You’re going to regret those tomorrow.”

  “Probably. They’ll evacuate us, anyway, before we go. Might as well make ’em work for their money.”

  “You’re disgusting.” Tessa smiled at him.

  “I try. Besides, no way is my potentially last meal on Earth going to be space MREs.” He shoved a fistful of fries into his mouth. “Aaahve oooo sheen tha nooo ghay?”

  “I had brothers—who were animals—and still, I have no idea what you just said. Swallow a few fries first, then talk.” Tessa slid her new drink closer to her and began again with the stir-and-ignore vibe she’d mastered.

  Noah swallowed audibly. “I said. Have you seen the new guy?”

  “No. You?”

  “Heard Janson flew to Alaska and dragged him off a gold mine claim.”

  “Alaska?”

  “Yep. Also, heard he was in ‘The Program.’ A reject. Just like us.”

  “You had better be freaking kidding me.” She laid her head down on top of her tumbler, disgusted by what she knew was coming next.

  “What’s that reaction all about?” he asked, wiping cheese off his cheek.

  “You got a name for this reject?” she asked, hoping against hope.

  “Hudson, I think. Like the river. Can’t remember his first name.”

  “Cole,” Tessa mumbled. Just as she’d feared.

  “Was he in your class?”

  “Briefly.”

  “Reeeeally? You gonna make me drag it out of you? Spill it. If we’re going to space with this guy, I’d like to know whose hands I’m putting my life into.”

  “Oh, you’re safe enough. Not dangerous. Pendejo.” Tessa sighed. “Besides, you’re on the wrong team for him to cause you any trouble.”

  “Cole is gay? You’re mad because he’s gay?”

  “Good God, no. He’s…”

  “I’m confused. Granted, it’s a state I’m familiar with. Still. What’s your grind with this guy? Do you know why he got booted?”

  Bar noise picked up behind them as the band came onto the stage. “Money problems from what I heard. But if not for that, he’d still be sleeping his way through the female recruits.”

  “Ah, I see then.”

  Tessa whipped around on her bar stool. “What’s that mean?”

  “You had a thing for him. Am I right?”

  “Not. Even. Close.”

  “Okay, I give up. Clearly I have no idea what your damage is with this guy.” Noah used his last three fries to sweep the remaining cheese from his plate and then pointed them at Tessa. “Whatever it is? Let it go. This is our big shot. Those losers still in ‘The Program’…” Noah made air quotes with his fries and fingers. “They have to follow the rules. Us? We’re making the rules.”

  Tessa watched as Noah licked cheese from each finger. “I think rules are the least of our worries.”

  ***

  Cole dropped his saddlebag on the floor inside the doorway of his small SpaceXport housing apartment and surveyed the room: clean, state-of-the-art, giant flat screen on the wall, and a desert view outside the patio doors. Other than the distinctly pod-like shape, it wasn’t half bad. The view outside his doors went on forever to the horizon: a moonscape with sagebrush dotting the floor then erupting in mountains off to the north. Not bad, considering he’d been sleeping in a tin can on wheels in the Alaskan bush for the past four months. And a damn sight better than the windowless Texas cell he’d spent the five months in prior to that.

  All one big FUBAR, that business.

  If the bar fight had been ten miles south, the cell would have been Mexican. He didn’t like his odds of return on that prospect. The thing with money was, it was great while you had it, but, for some reason, it seemed to run through Cole’s hands like sand through a washplant.

  This time would be different. This time…

  He turned around and grabbed his toiletries out of his motorcycle saddlebag along with his book. It was a Koontz number. Odd something. He’d lost track how many there were.

  So this is where he was. The middle of New Mexico at the behest of a billionaire about to fly into space despite being thrown out of any official ‘Program.’ An irony he could appreciate. He may have fallen, but he was on his way back up. Big time.

  Nothing but blue skies from here on out.

  Yeah, that sort of thinking always worked out for him. Still, he was determined to turn over a new leaf. Janson was giving him a shot at a second chance. A shot at glory.

  A shot at redemption.

  He was going to grab hold with both hands and ride it to its bitter end.

  Chapter Three

  Briefing Room, SpaceXport Base, NM

  Janson was late.

  Tessa shook her foot nervously under the expansive conference room table while she pored through the mission binder before h
er. Noah bent over his own binder beside her, his forehead wrinkled in concentration.

  This mission was insanity.

  She’d been up in the ship with Noah at the helm a half-dozen times in the past few weeks, testing the prototype. They’d traveled to the Karman line and back like a cosmic basketball drill. It was glorious.

  Still, she wouldn’t hold her breath for those golden astronaut wings from NASA, even though she’d now technically earned them. She’d been to the edge of space, which officially made her an astronaut. Noah, too. Janson had more than fulfilled his end of their agreement so far. He’d promised to get her to space and, now, by surpassing the Karman line, repeatedly, she’d done it. But this?

  She wasn’t sure the money or the glory was worth the risk. No one had been to the moon in decades, let alone attempted anything close to what Janson proposed. Certainly no one had mined an asteroid. Not to the extent Janson envisioned.

  The tether harpoon—necessary to get them anywhere close to landing on an asteroid—had been launched and retrieved from their ship time and again…in the desert. Never in space…where it counted. Same with the mining equipment they’d developed. From what she’d heard, and now read, it had all worked flawlessly—but only outside the spaceport.

  She understood the draw to mine an asteroid and the time crunch Janson faced to be first. There had already been limited mining decades ago on the moon, which had many of the same elements in its crust as Earth: oxygen, silicon, iron, calcium, aluminum, magnesium. All pretty run-of-the-mill stuff, and mostly as a result of asteroid impact debris.

  The real money lay in the asteroid belt. One asteroid in particular, Amun, was estimated to hold north of twenty trillion dollars in platinum and other rare minerals. A treasure chest begging to be raided. Janson’s ultimate goal was to build a space hotel on the Moon for his civilian space tourism program, but to do that, he had to first raise billions more dollars to finance it. And he wanted to be first.