SpaceFarms

SpaceFarms

     Beauregard jumped into the air in front of Hildegard. He just got in front of her as the Laser Bullet heading toward her struck him instead. The angle of it would have hit her in her forehead right between her oval blue tint eyes – and killed her.

     “Thanks for saving me, Beauregard.” Hildegard scanned in the direction of where that bullet came from by interlacing her fingers above her eyes.

     While Hildegard searched for the shooter Beauregard finished his jump by first landing on his front paws. Followed a second later by his back feet. Right after he landed Beauregard fell to his side. Blood gushed out of the hole created by that bullet.

     Hildegard kept her eyes on the lookout for the shooter as she continued talking to her Saint Bernard. “I knew Sandegard wanted my property too, but I didn’t know he wanted it that bad.”

     A wimple from Beauregard made Hildegard look in his direction. When she saw the blood sipping from him she ran over to check him out. She bent down and placed both hands over the hole and puts pressure on it. The gushing stopped instantly.

     After a few minutes of this Hildegard took one hand off of Beauregard and tapped a button on her wrist. “There has been another attempt on my life.”

     “I need an Animal Medic out in my farmyard now.” After making contact for help Hildegard placed her hand back on Beauregard’s hole. “My bodyguard needs help, and he needs it now.”

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     “Father, I don’t need a bodyguard.” Hildegard paced all around the living room of her family residence.

     “Yes, you do.” Leaundegard sat in a chair behind a desk in front of a large window. He kept one eye out that window, and the other one on the papers in his hand. “Sandegard came by here again today to increase his offer for our SpaceFarm.”

     “He threatened me again when you turned him down – didn’t he?” Hildegard asked.

     Leaundegard swung around in his chair. “He didn’t exactly threaten you, but the way he talked it sure sounded like a threat to me.”

     “We can’t afford a bodyguard.” Hildegard sat down opposite her father. “This SpaceFarm is barely making it as it is.”

     “That’s because Sandegard has been causing trouble with our little farm,” said Leaundegard. “If it weren’t for that we could not only feet ourselves but we could help feed a dying below us.”

     “Why does Sandegard want our little farm anyway?” Hildegard asked.

     “I don’t know for sure, but he wants all the farms on this SpaceFarm.” “Maybe even all twenty SpaceFarms in orbit around Thoric.”

     “How many has he gotten so far?” Hildegard asked.

     “I’m not sure about that either, but I know it’s about half though.” Just then the window scattered inward behind Leaudegard. Blood and more went out the window. The last thing he said, “This is why you need a bodyguard.”

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     Hildegard stood over the dead looking body of Beauregard. He laid on a couch table in the living room. His hole had just been sealed up by an Animal Medic who was now going over the saint Bernard. Once the scan got completed the medic, Gildagard, looked up at Hildegard with sadness on her face.

     “He’s going to be okay – this time,” said Gildagard. “It was only a Warning Bullet.”

     “So Sandegard only wanted to scare me into giving up my farm,” said Hildegard. “He didn’t actually want to kill me.”

     “Whoever shot Beauregard they didn’t want to kill him - or you,” responded Gildagard. “They did only want to scare you.”

     “There’s only one slight problem with that theory,” replied Hildegard. “That Laser Bullet wanted to give me a third eye in my forehead.”

     “Your right,” said Gildagard. “Whoever shot you would have killed you.”

     “I knew it,” said Hildegard. “Sandegard does want me dead too, but he wanted it to look like an accident.”

     “That’s one possibility,” commented Gildagard. “Another one could be that they figured your bodyguard would protect you if that Laser Bullet was aimed at your head.”

     “You sound like you are trying to make excuses for Sandegard.” Hildegard looked at Gildagard with anger in her eyes – and on her face. Her face appeared redder than usual. “Are you working for Sandegard too?”

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     It started a few days after my father being killed by Sandegard that the Local Law Enforcers informed me that there's nothing they could do against Sandegard. There's nothing to indicate he's behind the ‘accident’ as they called it. In other words, they were working for him too. It's starting to look like everyone on that SpaceFarm worked for Sandegard.

     At first I still didn’t want a bodyguard. I didn’t think I needed one. All I needed to do was be more careful, more watchful, while in the open. What I really wanted to know was why the house wasn’t Protected like it should have been. Then it occurred to me that Sandegard must have turned it off when he came by to give his latest offer.

     When I realized that that’s when I knew I did need a bodyguard after all, but we still couldn’t afford one. While sorting out my father’s death I came across the information he had collected about a bodyguard we could afford. I always wanted a pet. What eight-year-old kid didn’t. One look at Beauregard, and I was in love. We have been together ever since then. Hildegard had been thinking a lot about her father’s death, and her getting Beauregard, since Beauregard got shot - again.

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     “I’ve had enough,” said Hildegard as used her foot to smash through a door. She’s very strong for an eleven-year-old. “Where's Sandegard?”

     Sandegard came storming down the hall of his residence. Before he could say anything Hildegard pointed a weapon at him – and fired. “If no one else will get rid of this killer I will.”

The Word Count, including this line, is 997