Free The Battle for the Ringed Planet by Richard Edmond Johnson

hand between my legs and taking your thing out! And when you were done, you pissed all over me!”
    Lexor stepped forward, “You little …”
    “Stop right there!” Torian stormed forward and aimed his pistol right at the Lexor’s head, “I didn’t come here to kill you all, so don’t make me!” The leader shrunk back surprised by Torian’s ferocity.
    “He did that to you?” The tall off-worlder glanced her way.
    Defiantly, she raised her head, “Not just to me.”
    Then Torian flicked the targeting on his right pistol off, pressing the barrel against the leader’s temple, “He’s so dead …”
    The others backed up a little, until everyone was distracted by a slight commotion from the rear of the group nearest the river. Murmuring increased as a figure appeared, striding purposefully at the head of another crowd. Too late, Torian realized the folly of sheathing his Con and relying on the two pistols; if he hadn’t he would have been able to detect the newcomer and his followers.  
    “Father Jarlan …” Siiri whispered close, keeping her eye and crossbow on Lexor, who had grown a little pale.
    The new man was tall, close to Torian’s height, dressed in a brown robe with a wooden cross hanging from his neck, wielding a thick crooked staff. A wrinkled face framed by wisps of long grey hair and a clean shaven chin was dominated by a pair of striking blue eyes. Torian swallowed as he stepped back, they were the same eyes as Siiri!
    Striding evenly, accompanied with a throng of villagers, including women and children, the man gave Lexor a scowl before turning his gaze on Torian. “A live one!” he exclaimed in a surprised tone. Then he barked at Lexor, “Put that gun away fool!”
    The priest calmly stood before Torian and Siiri and spoke boldly, “Well, you brought her back.” He studied the off-worlder from head to toe, “Uniforms haven’t changed much, and judging by those two chevrons you’re no starship captain.”
    Furrowing his brows, Torian tried to make sense of the man before him. Archaic and simple, not what he expected, “You’re a Holy Man?”
    Planting his staff firmly in the ground, deftly the old man reached into a wide robed sleeve and pulled out a small silver pistol and shoved it up under Torian’s chin, taking the military man completely by surprise, “So, before I cut open your head, tell me why you came here and brought those star cruisers in orbit?”
    The pistol was a simple laser, an old but popular design. It had a charge pack in the handle and when the trigger was depressed an invisible beam emitted. If the beam was continual it would last under ten seconds. Though the laser made only a micrometer hole, the lethality was in the cutting: a slight twitch in the wrist could result in disembowelments, decapitations, and traumatic amputations. Torian was about to lose his head and his proximity shield offered no protection against a laser.     
    Siiri stepped back alarmed, but grasping her crossbow aiming at the priest, and then back at Lexor who grinned from ear to ear at the sudden change of events.
    Grimacing as the barrel of the pistol pressed against his chin, Torian clenched his teeth, “I can still take out 25 …”
    “I’m willing to risk a few deaths to save the entire village from a Sky Demon.”
    Sweat from frustration and fear formed in beads along his hair line, “I didn’t come to kill anyone, just deliver you a warning!”
    “I’m listening.”
    Swallowing hard, “More of us, fleets in fact, are coming. You need to hide your people ...”
    “That’s your fiery mess up near the city?”
    “They tried to evade by burning through the atmosphere … stronger armour than the rebel cruisers.”
    “How did you get out?” Father Jarlan pressed the pistol further into his neck. Siiri looked on, stepping back as Lexor and another man began to advance on her.
    “I was in a scout vessel. We crash landed in the city.”
    “We?”
    “My pilot died