I ducked, put my fist into the middle of something soft and rubbery, and attempted a dive roll out of the way. A too-close-for-comfort laser blast singed the tip of my right ear. I winced and twisted. The ceiling crashed into my shoulder, and lights shot off across my vision. That was gonna hurt. I struggled onto my back and scuttled toward the darkest corner I could find, one eye on the swirling chaos currently occupying most of the bar and the other squinted shut in pain.
I gained the corner without being noticed or at least without being made into a target and huddled against the bulkhead, searching for an escape route. I figured the cops would be arriving before too much longer and if they weren’t, the bouncers would be.
The door was out. Flying fists, bodies, energy blasts and what looked like a winged pink elephant were in the way. I rubbed my shoulder and scanned the walls. A small window near what would have been the floor, had we not been in lowgrav, looked promising. I twisted around and started sliding across the wall.
I was halfway to the window when someone got the bright idea of turning the gravity generators up to Earthnormal. Up and Down suddenly had unpleasent universal definitions and I smashed into the floor.
“Incoming.”
Most of the time it irritates me when the computer built into my suit interrupts with some pointless observation. In the middle of an interstellar bar brawl, it comes in slightly useful. This wasn’t one of those times. I jerked my head around in time to see a large mass of green goo descending toward my face. A second later, I was frantically trying to get the green goo off my face and cursing silently.
I’d just managed to clear one nostril and part of an eye when something shook the bar. So much for getting out before the calvary arrived. I snorted short breaths through half my nose and continued prying the drunk Flurdian off my face, all the while expecting something large and beefy to grab one of my arms and start dragging.
It didn’t happen.
The Flurdian came loose less than a minute after it landed, let out a high pitched screech that shattered what intact glass the bar still possessed and went whirling across the room. A cloud of noxious vapors trailed after it, spreading rapidly through the room, and sending the airbreathers reeling. My forcefield activated of its own accord. Not a second too soon, either. I backed as far away from the crowd of drunken, nauseous patrons as possible, then turned and made a hasty exit through the window.
Big mistake.
The problem with spaceport bars is that they’re usually located in a spaceport.
The problem with spaceports is that they’re normally crawling with the lowest life in the quadrant. And sooner or later, the worst of them find their way into the alleys. This being a typical bar on a typical port, the fact that the window let me out into an alley wasn’t surprising. The pile of putrid refuse I landed in wasn’t a problem. The fact that I’d managed to interrupt a couple thugs in the act of shaking down what looked like an urchin with tenticles and a tail didn’t bother me. But the rip that now ran across one knee of my pants did. Cotton cloth’s expensive out here on the rim and they were the only pair I had.
I snarled, stomped past the thugs, stormed out of the alley and headed home to dash off a quick article for the morning news about the Flurdian. At least the night hadn’t been a total loss, but next time I smuggle in a less expensive species.
Crystalwizard is both an author and a graphic artist, with far too many hats hanging on the wall.
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17 Responses to “BAR FIGHT • by Crystalwizard”
Comments
« UPON THE DOORSTEPS • by K.C. Ball | Home | AND BABY MAKES TWO • by Stephen D. Rogers »
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:50 am
Hey, I know that name – from the Flashing Swords forum (along with a few of the other regular contributors and editorial on here as well of course.)
Nice bit of action but it ultimately left me a little confused – that happens easily.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:57 am
Good pace and action here. Neat.
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:54 am
Good one! Nice pacing, plenty of action and a fun finish.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:43 am
I liked the style and pace of this piece, and the writing is great, but, like Gerard, I was left reeling (could be an age thing). An awful lot happening for a short sharp piece. Loads of atmosphere (and gravity changes) though, so fun… Yup, that says it. Fun.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:50 am
Some nice action and a nice voice, but without much connection to, well, much of anything. How’d the fight start? Why was he in the bar with the Flurdian? Is he a smuggler or a writer? And lastly, if he has a personal force field, where’s the necessity for ducking in the bar fight? I’m willing to read-in, especially with Science Fiction, but there are too many loose ends here.
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:02 am
Well I liked the fury over the ripped jeans
and of course don’t forget the Crysalwizard atrwork over at Bewildering Stories folks.
I’m a big fan of Crystalwizard graphics
Nice to see you here.
Oonah
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:06 am
As I read the first two paragraphs, I was impressed by the detailed description which made this world convincing and real. But then it turned into a typical but, in this case, non-believable class war with accusations of the well-placed against the opposition being that the disadvantaged are disgusting.
POINTLESS OBSERVATIONS:
It’s good to know that among all the drunken, nauseous patrons there is one patron among all of them who is not that; Do you know how drunk people act? They slide along the walls looking for a place to rest their heads. If the aggressive non-drunks would start dragging a broom to clear the ingress and egress of the alley, the protected priceless species might be allowed out of the bar and show up at the door.
Flurdian ectoplasm doesn’t drink alcoholic beverages. It’s not sticky and when it gets high on persimmon squeezes, it sings.
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:11 am
This sci-flash tale is clearly an action-oriented one, from beginning to end. Nice read, CW.
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:58 am
Bar fights are so fun to write…and read.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Good action tale.
–dj
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:11 pm
I really didn’t care that we didn’t know all the details of this story, it was a great action oriented peice and this is coming from someone who’s not always a fan of action.
January 24th, 2009 at 7:42 am
In response to Robert, post #7:
>But then it turned into a typical but, in this
>case, non-believable class war with accusations of
>the well-placed against the opposition being that
>the disadvantaged are disgusting.
Wow. I had no idea I was writing that. I thought I was simply writing some pulp fiction about a reporter that needed to make some news he could write about, and got caught in the middle of the bar fight. I don’t write hidden agenda messages into anything. I’m not that subtle. If I’ve got an agenda, I’ll write a piece that’s right out front and in your face about it.
Great comments, all. It’s always fun to see what others got out of something I’ve written.
I
January 24th, 2009 at 8:54 am
a reporter that needed to make some news he could write about
I like this piece a lot better now that I know that bit.
January 24th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
T-well-v -
But then it turned into typical class war,
The well-placed accusing the disabled poor
Of disgusting poverty-caused deformations
And accepting sub-standard habitations.
January 24th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Okay, Roberta. You’re welcome to read that into it if you wish, but I certainly didn’t write it with any of that in mind. Frankly, I don’t understand how you even get that out of the story. It’s a sterotypical bar-in-bad-neighborhood (albeit that i just happens to be on a space port) with a sterotypical back ally and a couple of muggers (aliens, but still) and a victim.
January 24th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Cw-
I know, but it was so well written and brought alive in such a sharply delineated realistic roomscape, that I recognized it’s resemblance to so many other actual historical descriptions of similar events. Your attitude toward whats happening and my attitude toward it may be different, but you did a great job of realistic depiction. By the way, I don’t put down stereotypical – it’s just history repeating itself.
February 7th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
I enjoyed the barfight. I like a good fictional bar fight. The ending was a bit of a let-down, but excellent descriptives and you engaged my interest right at the start and kept me with you all the way.