A Tale of Two Strangers

Note to Reader: This story contains some strong language.

"Chancy you have no idea where we are, do you?" Dmitriv asked.

"Well," Ensign Chancy Delany started and then fell silent again. "I think maybe we need to go that way," she raised her right arm and pointed to her left. "Or maybe that way," she now raised her left arm and pointed to her right. Chancy looked back down at the map in her hands and tried to make sense of the compass in front of her. A confused look crossed her face. Lt. Vladimir Dmitriv who was standing behind her shook his head in disgust.

Finally she responded again, "Ok, maybe we are lost."

"Well that's just great ensign." Dmitriv replied as her walked past her.

"Where are you going?" Chancy curiously asked.

"Do you realize that we are lost in the middle of nowhere in the vast nothingness of the American Wild West?" He kept on walking.

Chancy ran to catch up with him. "Well walking just to be doing something won't help any," she responded.

"Standing around and waiting to die of starvation or dehydration won't help either."

The two of then continued to walk in silence, until they saw up ahead a building on the horizon. The closer they walked the more they realized that it was some kind of homestead.

"Maybe it's our lucky day, kid." Chancy said as soon as they realized that they were no longer as lost as they had been. Dmitriv gave her a curious look and then drew his handgun from the holster on his belt.

Beside the main house they say a smaller wooden building. Outside on the porch a group of young men were lounging. Upon seeing this Chancy thought that today must be their lucky day. The young men looked like they would be helpful in getting Chancy and Dmitriv headed in the right direction. Dmitriv however was more suspicious. He realized that almost all of the young men had holsters with six shooters.

The Young Riders were lounging around and taking a break from work when they say two figures walking toward then on the horizon. The figures appeared to be walking straight for them. As they got nearer they realized that their clothing was a little odd and wondered where their horses were.

Rachel came out of the door of the bunkhouse. Upon seeing the two approaching strangers she wondered aloud, "Well what have we got here?"

"Not sure," Kid replied.

"Looks like they're lost though," Lou added.

About that time Ensign Delany made it close enough to the riders to be heard. "I was wondering if you could tell me where me and my companion are?"

As she continued to walk closer still, it did not take long for the young riders to see that the stranger was a woman. Her clothing was odd. She wore big black boots with a rounded toe that looked much too heavy for riding, odd green pants with several pockets all along the sides, a tight fitting black short sleeve shirt which helped to show off her figure (or at least the top half of it). Her hair was a mass of short, dark curls and her eyes were a beautiful green.

Cody ran from the porch to greet the strange, lost woman with Ike and Buck close behind.

"William F. Cody at your service ma'am," Cody eagerly greeted her, flashing his best smile. "Here to help you in any way that I can." It was about that time that he realized a pair of dark, brown eyes looking back at him. He turned to face the lost lady's companion. He wore the same funny clothes as she had on. The same color even. His hair was brown and cut short, his face was young looking and his dark eyes stared steadily at Cody and the rest of the riders just daring them to make a mistake. He held a gun of some sort in his right hand by his side.

"Well thank you,; the lady said smiling, a little taken back by the overzealous Cody. "If you could just tell us where we are and get us headed in the right direction that would be great."

"Certainly," Cody began, now a little flustered by the strange man a few feet away. Cody soon got over that and laying on the charm big time continued. "This here is the Pony Express station outside of Sweetwater…" Cody began.

"Where's your horses?" Kid asked coming off the porch to join the others.

This seemed to fluster the lady, "Well," she began.

The companion stared at Kid as he walked closer to him. "Got stolen," he replied bluntly and with a slightly odd accent.

The lady looked quickly at her companion not seeming to know what to say. "Yeah, I forgot," she added.

"What's with the gun?" Hickok asked, as he walked threateningly toward the strange man, resting his hand on the gun at his side.

The stranger shifted his gaze to Hickok and stared at him for a good while. This made the others riders wary enough that they began to reach for their own guns.

Noticing the tension between the two men, the strange lady stepped slightly in front of the stranger with her and replied, "Nothing." She then shot a look of warning to her companion.

Still staring at Hickok the stranger gave a small chuckle. "Your not very good at this Chancy," he said. He then stepped in front of the woman that the riders now knew was called Chancy. "Give me the map," he sharply ordered not letting his eyes leave the riders in front of him.

"Here." Chancy said as she shoved a map at her companion. "Don't let me help then, kid. Like I care," she then said in anger.

The stranger took the map with his empty left hand. He put his gun back in its holster on his belt and then walked toward the group of riders. "Sweetwater. Where is that on this map?" He spread the map out for the riders to see.

"Well let's see," Kid said as he grabbed the map and held it up for the rest of the riders to see. "I'm not really sure."

"Funny map you got here," Buck said looking over the Kid's shoulder.

"How is that?" the stranger asked.

"It doesn't look quite right," Kid answered for Buck.

"Like how?" the stranger asked. "Show me."

"There should be a creek there," Lou said pointing to a spot on the map.

"And where'd that lake come from?" Cody asked.

The stranger turned back toward Chancy, "Delany, where did the fleet get this map?" he asked.

"I don't know?" she answered. "They said it was the best map they had for the area."

"From when?" the stranger asked curiously.

"I don't know? There should be a date on it," Chancy replied.

The stranger grabbed the map back from the Kid turned it over to look at the top right corner on the back. "Those bastards!" he exclaimed angrily as threw the map to the ground. The riders and Rachel were all shocked by the language of the stranger and the anger that he seemed to now be radiating. Seeing the sudden anger of the stranger, Hickok once again reached for his gun.

"What?" Chancy asked as she reached down to retrieve the map from the ground. She seemed totally unaffected by the sudden anger of her companion or his vulgar language.

"Those bastards!" he swore again. "They're catching hell from me when we get back!" he said directly in Chancy's face.

Chancy seemed to ignore him as she looked at the same corner of the map. The riders looked warily at the now angry stranger. "19 ... oh my gosh!" she exclaimed although with surprise instead of anger.

"Those jerks gave us a map that's over a hundred years too young!" the stranger ranted. "It ain't worth anything!"

The riders all had confused looks on their faces. "Maybe we can help," Kid said friendly.

"I'm sure it can't be that bad," Rachel added.

The stranger looked at them both and then shock his head and laughed. "They don't know anything," he said referring to the group of pony express riders before him.

"What do you mean we don't know anything!" Hickok exclaimed, repeating the words without thinking. Rachel gave him a harsh look. Kid held up his arm to keep Jimmy from attacking the stranger, and Chancy stepped in front of the stranger.

"Listen, Dmitriv, it can't be all that bad right?" she asked as she placed her hand on the stranger's (that the riders now knew as Dmitriv) shoulder. "Will it really make that much of a difference?"

Dmitriv took a long look at her and then replied. "With dams and irrigation, deforestation, farms, cities, not to mention erosion and the war. Yes it matters ensign."

"But most of the big things are still there right?" Chancy asked as she looked at the map.

"Yeah," Dmitriv replied, "and if we only needed to know the big things it'd be fine, but we need to know little details and all of them."

Rachel interrupted the conversation. "You must be tired and thirsty from your walking. Would you like to come in for a drink? Maybe we can help you out somehow."

"You can't," Dmitriv harshly replied.

Chancy shot him a stern look and then hit his chest with the back of her right hand. "Thank you, that would be great," she said as she turned back to face Rachel. "You coming, Lt.?" she then asked as she walked into the bunkhouse as Dmitriv stood glaring. Whether he was mad at Chancy, the map problem or the riders was unknown.

Once inside Rachel got two glasses of water for their guests. "I didn't quite catch your names out there," Rachel said as she placed the glasses on the table in front of them.

"Oh, sorry. I'm Chancy Delany."

"And you would be?" Rachel asked to the young stranger in front of her.

"Lt. Vladimir Dmitriv," was his blunt reply.

"And who would all of you be?" Chancy asked as she looked around the room.

"I'm Rachel Dunne," Rachel replied as she sat down at the table.

"I'm William…,"Cody started.

"F. Cody," Chancy finished. "I think we've already met."

Chancy's eyes moved to Buck.

"Buck Cross," the Indian said as he nodded his head.

"An injun right?" Dmitriv asked.

"An engine?" Chancy asked

"No. An injun, Indian," Dmitriv replied. The look on her face told him she still didn't understand, "A Native American."

"Oh." Chancy replied although the rest of the riders were a little confused.

"Native American?" Cody asked.

"They were here first weren't they?" Dmitriv replied.

"So who are you?" Chancy asked Ike, who was staring intently at her.

"His name's Ike McSwain," Buck responded for Ike.

"He doesn't talk," Buck said answering Chancy's unspoken question.

"And you?" Chancy asked Hickok.

"James Butler Hickok," he paused and then added, "Jimmy".

"Nice to meet you Jimmy," Chancy said giving him a smile. Dmitriv gave Chancy a look and then chuckled to himself. Chancy turned to Dmitriv and gave him a stern look, which made him chuckle again even louder.

"I'm Lou McCloud," Lou said before Chancy got a chance to ask her.

"And you?" Chancy asked Kid.

"I'm Kid," he responded.

"Kid?" Dmitriv asked. "That your real name?"

"No, just what people call me," Kid answered.

"So what's your real name?" Dmitriv asked.

Kid didn't really like this stranger demanding that he give him his real name. Chancy noticed Kid's uneasiness, "Come on, you mad at him for stealing your name?", she asked Dmitriv.

"I thought you said your name was Vladimir?" Lou asked.

"Nobody calls me that." Dmitriv replied.

"So what do people call you?" Rachel asked nicely.

"Kid," came Dmitriv's reply.

"Why do they call you that?" Kid asked.

"Why do they call you 'Kid'?" came the reply, filled with anger.

"Don't be mean, kid." Chancy said obviously addressing Dmitriv and not the Kid.

Dmitriv gulped down the last of his water, raised from his seat and asked, "You ready to get a move on?"

Chancy gave him an annoyed look, "Yeah, sure," she then said in a defeated voice. She finished her glass of water and then got up from the table. Turning toward Rachel and the riders she said, "It was nice to meet you," as she gave them all a big smile.

"Some here," Rachel said.

"Maybe we'll meet again sometime," Cody added.

"Maybe," Chancy said.

After that Chancy and Dmitriv left headed in the opposite direction from where they came. Luckily now headed in the right direction.

"That was kinda odd wasn't it?" Kid asked the rest of the riders.

They all agreed that it was.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful for the riders. Come late afternoon though the two mysterious figures from that morning once again appeared on the horizon. And once again they walked toward the pony express station. Hickok and Cody were sitting on the porch of the bunkhouse and watched them approach.

"You'd think they'd be tired of walkin' by now," Jimmy said his thoughts aloud.

"I don't know. Maybe they like walkin'," Cody replied.

Chancy and Dmitriv walked toward the bunkhouse as Hickok and Cody lazily sat on the porch out of the sun. When Chancy and Dmitriv had gotten close enough to hear him, Jimmy asked, "You aren't lost again are you?"

"No," came Chancy's reply as the she sat down on the porch steps beside Jimmy.

"Finally get tired a' walkin'?" Jimmy asked.

"No," Chancy replied.

Dmitriv now approached and sat down on the other side of Chancy.

"So why are you back?" Jimmy asked.

"Should we tell them?" Chancy asked Dmitriv turning her head to face him.

Dmitriv just shrugged his shoulders signaling that he didn't know. He then leaned forward to look at Jimmy, "You have a boss around here?" he asked.

"Yeah that'd be Teaspoon," Kid answered having heard the question as he approached from the barn.

"That's the guy's name?" Dmitriv asked.

"Yeah," Cody answered.

"Where can I find him?" Dmitriv asked.

"What do you want with Teaspoon?" Jimmy asked.

"Just have a question for him," Dmitriv answered, which wasn't enough to satisfy Jimmy. "Got business to talk with him," Dmitriv explained further.

"What kinda business?" Kid asked.

"Obviously it's none of your business or I'd be talking with you about it," Dmitriv replied. This offended Cody, Kid and Jimmy.

"So where can I find him?" Dmitriv asked.

"He's over in the main house," Kid answered as he pointed toward the main house of the homestead.

"Thanks," Dmitriv said and then rose from the steps and started walking toward the building that Kid had just pointed to.

"So is this something I'm invited along to?" Chancy asked.

Dmitriv turned back to face her. "If you want to come," he said, "feel free."

Chancy rose and slightly ran to catch up with Dmitriv.

"We could have told them you know," she told Dmitriv.

"Better to talk to the guy in charge first," Dmitriv replied bluntly.

Once Dmitriv and Chancy got to the main house they knocked on the door. After a second it was opened by Rachel.

"Hi," she greeted them with a smile. "Did you find what you were looking for on that map?" she asked.

"Well, not really," Chancy answered.

Dmitriv ignored Rachel and the question and proceeded to walk into the room. He saw a gray-haired man sitting on the couch in the front room. "You Teaspoon?" he asked the older man.

"Yeah, I'm Teaspoon Hunter," Teaspoon answered. "What do you need son?" he asked.

"Rachel do you think you could excuse us for a second?" Dmitriv asked.

"Certainly," Rachel said a confused look on her face. "I should probably start seeing to dinner anyway."

After Rachel had left the room. "I heard that the two of you came by here earlier this mornin'," Teaspoon said. "I guess you figured out those problems with that map, huh."

"Actually that's what we came to talk to you about," Dmitriv started. "We have to find some… people, I guess you'd call them. But neither of us are very familiar with the territory. Your… riders, is that what you call them?"

Teaspoon nodded his head in agreement.

"Well your riders appear to know this land like the backs of their hands."

"They do," Teaspoon replied wondering what the young man sitting before him was getting at.

"We were wondering if they could help us out in finding the … people that we're looking for?" Dmitriv said.

"Well I can't really speak for them now can I, son?" Teaspoon responded. "What kind of people exactly are you looking for anyway?"

"It's a long story," Dmitriv replied bluntly.

"Well, I tell ya what," Teaspoon said, "why don't ya'll stay for dinner, and then you can tell us all about it."

"I don't know," Dmitriv said.

Chancy turned to Dmitriv, "Why not?" she asked.

"Rachel's cookin' is some a'the best in the territory," Teaspoon said.

Dmitriv nodded his head, "ok."

Dinner was fairly uneventful. Neither of their guests were very talkative, although they both seemed to enjoy Rachel's cooking. After the plates had all been cleared and everyone was sitting around the table Teaspoon finally asked Dmitriv what it was he had wanted to talk about earlier.

Dmitriv was silent for a while, seeming to be trying to think how he should start. "This is a long story, so maybe I should start at the beginning." he then paused to think again. "Well… we're from the future. About 200 years in the future." he looked around at all the confused faces. "We're with the military, on a top secret mission." he paused again. "You see there's these aliens,"

"Aliens?" Cody interrupted.

"Beings from outer space," Dmitriv explained.

"Martians?" Cody asked.

"No, they're not from Mars, but they're not from Earth. Anyway," Dmitriv continued, "they're kind of like mercenaries. They've been hired to kill humans. Whatever humans they can get their hands on."

"Who hired them?" Kid asked.

"It doesn't really matter," Dmitriv answered. The look on Kid's face told him that the answer was not good enough. "Other aliens," he said, which confused Kid and the riders even more. "The thing is they can move through time. Kind of like you and I move through doorways. Makes them real hard to hunt down. We got the report, the fleet that is," seeing the confused looks on their faces Dmitriv added, "The fleet's the military. We got the report that one of these little monsters was hiding out here, American west 1860, that is. Thing is..."

"The map they gave you is bad, right?" Cody asked.

"Yeah, but that's not the real problem," Dmitriv replied. "They thought that there was one of these things, but from the data we took today there's a minimum of three of them and a maximum of 6 or 7."

"What does that mean?" Buck asked.

"Means that they're using this time and place as a hide out. Finding them's going to be tough. Killing them's going to be even tougher."

"You have to kill them?" Kid asked.

"That's part of the mission," Dmitriv replied.

"So what does all of this have to do with us?" Buck asked.

"Me and Chancy have been sent to find these…aliens," Dmitriv replied. t;Thing is they could be anywhere, and they're probably hidden fairly well if this is one of their hideouts. And …"

"Your map is no good," Cody said interrupting.

"Yeah," Dmitriv said a little annoyed at the young blonde rider. "It will take us forever, me and Chancy that is, to find these filthy aliens, but from what I gather everyone here knows this territory better than their own mother's face, with or without a map."

"So you want us to help?" Lou asked.

Dmitriv looked around the room at them. "We can't offer you anything to help us."

"Now these… aliens are causing problems for people in … your time, right son?" Teaspoon asked.

"What part of the explanation didn't you understand?" Dmitriv asked the older man. The riders thought that the strange young man had some nerve saying something like that to Teaspoon.

"The answer's 'yes'," Chancy said trying to show Teaspoon that they did have some respect for him, or at least she did.

Ike signed to Buck. "He wants to know if they're causing trouble for people here?" Buck said.

Dmitriv turned to Ike to answer his question, "What do you think? Yeah, I'm sure they're causing some trouble. They're not going to set out to hurt people here. Would attract attention to themselves, at least eventually. But if anyone runs across them they will kill them, without a second thought."

"So they are dangerous," Jimmy said.

"Nothing about them is not dangerous." Dmitriv dryly replied.

"Then I guess there's not much else to talk about. Of course we'll help you." Kid said matter of factly. The rest of the riders nodded their heads in agreement.

"Now not so fast there boys," Teaspoon said. Turning to Dmitriv and Chancy he asked, "I'm not going to put any of my riders in danger. Just how dangerous are these … aliens?"

Dmitriv eyed Teaspoon intensely for a minute. "The whole thing certainly won't be any walk in the park, but none of your riders are going to get hurt."

"Just how do you know that, son?" Teaspoon asked.

"It's not the job of any of your boys to take these aliens out." Dmitriv replied.

"To what?" Cody asked.

"To kill the aliens," Dmitriv said to clarify getting upset that he had to keep doing it. "Your riders will simply help me and Chancy locate the hideout. The rest is up to the two of us." Dmitriv said to Teaspoon.

"And how do you plan on finding this here hideout?" Teaspoon asked.

"Simple," Dmitriv started to explain, "We'll survey the surrounding area, working in pairs, one of your riders and either me or Chancy. We have protective gear and we'll get you weapons."

"We already have weapons," Jimmy said.

"Not any that'll even begin to think about slowing down these monsters." Dmitriv replied.

Ike tapped Buck on the shoulder to get his attention, and then started signing. "He wants to know if that means you'll be staying in the bunkhouse?" Buck voiced for him.

"Vladimir can sleep in the bunkhouse," Rachel said. Dmitriv eyes stared coldly at her, he hated being called by his first name. "But I think Chancy might be more comfortable sleeping in the main house with me."

"Why?" both Chancy and Dmitriv said at the same time with a confused look on their faces.

"Well it wouldn't be right havin' a girl sleeping in here with the boys," Teaspoon said.

"But you let Lou sleep in here, don't you?" Dmitriv asked.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Kid said. Sitting beside him Lou, who had gotten a scared look on her face.

"Well if you're going to let me sleep in here it doesn't have anything to do with me not being a pony express rider," Dmitriv said. "And if Lou sleeps here it doesn't have anything to do with Chancy being a woman."

"Well the bunkhouse isn't really the place for a girl," Rachel said.

"Am I missing something here?" Dmitriv asked as he looked around the room with a confused look on his face. "Am I?" he turned to Chancy and repeated.

Looking at Lou and then everyone else in the room, Chancy's face brightened. "I think you are missing something, lt." she said.

"Lou is a woman. I'm right about this aren't I?" he asked the room. Chancy started to stop him, but he had already said it.

"That's not a secret is it?" he asked Chancy.

"Actually," Chancy started, "I think it is, or rather was."

"What?" Dmitriv said with surprise in his voice. "What idiot couldn't see that?"

A worried look crossed Chancy's face. "You all knew that didn't you?" Dmitriv asked the rest of the room.

"Knew what?" Teaspoon asked.

"Oh, great, now they're going to play dumb." Dmitriv said to Chancy with anger in his voice. " 'Knew what?' Knew that Lou isn't a man!"

Kid asked, "How did you know?"

Dmitriv just stared at him for a minute. "She's got hips," Dmitriv said finally. Kid shot him a stern look. Dmitriv ignored the look from the Kid, he then turned to Chancy and continued, "and a cute little butt," Kid's stern look became one of anger.

Chancy saw the look on Kid's face and to lighten the mood said, "You always go around looking at little boy's butts, lt.?" Cody chuckled.

"No," came Dmitriv's reply. "I noticed the hips. They looked a little odd, so I took a second glance." He then turned to face Kid and said, "It was just a glance. That's all."

Chancy chuckled, "I know all about your glances."

Dmitriv shot her a look, then he turned back to Kid, "Look she's your girl, that's fine." he said. "It was just a glance."

"Who said I was Kid's girl?" Lou asked.

"Oh, I'm not even touching that one." Dmitriv said as he put his hands up in the air like he had a gun pointed at him. He then opened his mouth to add more.

"Don't even think about it Dmitriv," Chancy snapped before he could say a word.

Dmitriv's mouth closed again and he turned to look at Chancy.

"You've already dug your six foot hole tonight. Unless you plan on digging to China, I'd stop while you're ahead." Chancy said in response.

"Well, it's getting' late boys." Teaspoon said to end the argument. "Why don't ya'll turn in for the evenin'." He paused and then added, "Feel free to sleep whereever you please, Chancy."

"Thank you, the bunkhouse will be fine, sir" Chancy said.

To Be continued... Chapter III