Dead Man's Hammer

le with a 'tonk' sound – its only effect to make the creature squawk again and shuffle along a fraction faster. So here he stood – at the side o

e as he seriously considered that perhaps he should get a crowbar fitted afte

something more real about a good fire-iron in his hands than the light plasti-steel alloy casing of a blaster. He felt inclined to shoot the freakin' crow

tting to San Fedora for his meeting with the Sheriff. And as a bounty hunter – even a good one wi

re intended to commemorate the founding of the colony, and the most prominent of these was a large bronze figure representing Adriano Lupini, the very first colonist to set foot on the surface of the planet. He was a bronze man of course, and he was dressed in bronze dungarees and wore a plain bronze shirt and a worn-looking bronze hat. His b

ence that Mr Lupini also set the record for being the first person to actually swear on Deanna. He still lived on Deanna, and attended the Founder's Day Ceremony every year, in safety boots. Not surprisingly, the bronze Lupini didn't look very

reputation as a road hazard and a general obstacle to wheeled traffic, obsidian crows were completely harmless otherwise. Obsidian crows were flightless, mainly because they were extremely hard-

directly from the front, the horse looked a little cross-eyed and seemed to be grinning. Lop-sidedly. And then, as a native of Deanna, you would remember – ah yes of course – the crabby-grass. And then there would be a n

ars with Humankind. Now, when looking at the fountain from the front, at the group of statues you would see – Lupini, crabby-grass, horse, obsidian crow – check. "– Okay, so where's the pigeon?

looking if anything a little intimidated, if that was the right word. A stout, serious-looking building somewhere to the left was the Court of Justice, with its many pillars and myriad of steps (purportedly designed to cripple lawyers) and on the opposite end, at the corner of Hasselblat Road right where it joined Lupini, was Atro Ci