Tevun-Krus #12 - Space Western

Travelling the Great Plains of Wattpad: Space Western Short Stories

By @DeborahWalker7

Howdy! I have trawled the Great Plains of Wattpad searching for great space western short stories for y'all.

Yet the territory was smaller than I'd expected, with a mere dozen or so stories categorised under space western tag (compare that to hundreds of space opera stories, which is a similar adventure-led SF subgenre).

And many of the stories I found were the results of Forbidden Planet competitions. So within the desolate Space Western Plains, Forbidden Planet posse is doing a great job of pushing back the frontier. 

But fear not, I still managed to lasso four great stories that stood out from the herd. I hope you'll join me as I raise my glass of sarsaparilla to these excellent Wattpad space westerns. 

'The Adventures of Morley and Boots'
in Blasted Futures, Secret Histories (SciFi Smackdown)
by @CharlotteAshley

Mohr'lii is a buffalump rancher of the alien persuasion. The story immediately throws the reader into a finely rendered, desert, alien world, but you don't get a chance to linger as the story moves quickly into a livestock rustling story with the introduction of a ten-foot-tall, buffalump-stealing mechanoid. Within the mechanoid is pink haired, naked Captain Boots. 

Mohr'lii is delighted when Boots agrees to pay him for his stock with a lake of liquid wealth: water. But Mohr'lii's good fortune is fleeting, as he's abducted by Boots and transported to her spaceship.

Thus begins Mohr'lii adventure on the Leapfrog, a ship with quantum jump engines and the Tardis-like quality of being bigger on the inside than the outside. The Leapfrog is able to house fifteen thousand animals, including a golden, buffalump-eating, nebula dragon and a moon-sized space whale.

The Leapfrog's crew are lifeform traders. Alongside the pink-haired, pink booted Captain Boots is a motley assortment of ship-mates: Jubs, the reptile-man, the quadruplets, the shadowy weapon master, and a (possible) humanoid AI.

The situation turns deadly serious with the arrival of the Demos, with their FTL capabilities and their many big, big guns'. The Demos demand the safe return of their goddess. But which of the fifteen thousand lifeforms is the Demos goddess?

The Adventures of Morley and Boots' is a vibrant story with characters leaping off the page. I was pleased to read that the author is considering writing more stories set in this world. 

http://www.wattpad.com/11652237-blasted-futures-secret-histories-scifi-smackdown

'The Last Bounty: A Short Story (Space Western)'
in Catacylsmic Daydreams
by @GenXBlogger

It's just after noon when an obsolete spaceship is tied to the steel hitching post of a desolate world. Tarson was supposed to be a replica of Earth, but scant rainfall and bad air meant that the terraforming spores never got a chance to grow. Tarson became a place for emigrants down on their luck, scratching a living from the fields, stripping the world of resources, and hoping that the carcinogens in the air didn't catch up with them.

The arrival of as stranger, the first one in four years, causes excitement and the Tarsonians gather in Miller's Bar.

The stranger enters, dressed in boots, leather trench coat and a cowboy hat obscuring his faces, and orders a shot of whiskey. The taciturn stranger is revealed to be a top-tier bounty hunter, name of Stone, with a face-half full of metal, a cyborg. And it's not long before Stone has a showdown with the young sheriff, Dustin Baine, a man with secrets of his own.

http://www.wattpad.com/2839964-cataclysmic-daydreams-the-last-bounty

Dreaming of Lupisaurs
By @SJAisling

Once a thriving farming planet with lush grass and herds of helios sheep, Demeter IV is now an isolated desert world, most of the crops and livestock are dead, the AI machinery is damaged beyond repair and the communication array is shattered. Once a productive farming word, Demeter IV is isolated and dying. Genry and his grandfather shelter in their compound ranch while a devastating hurricane sandstorm rages. They realise that they need to leave Demeter IV. The only way is to repair the damaged teleports, and that means venturing outside, where the lupisaurs roam. Will the young boy and the old man manage to leave Demeter IV? Will they find be able to find Genry's missing parents? Will they be able to find safety on Earth?

http://www.wattpad.com/44221653-dreaming-of-lupisaurs

'When Daisy Meets Mal'
in Angus Ecrivain's Short Sci-Fi Tales.
By: @AngusEcrivain

Believe it or not this is my first sampling of fanfiction. This is an enjoyable very short mash-up tale. Daisy from The Dukes of Hazard and her memorable hotpants, meets Mal from Firefly. The two characters share an instant attraction as they try to escape from a maze of railway tunnels.

http://www.wattpad.com/40355840-angusecrivain%27s-short-sci-fi-tales-when-daisy-met