Cowboy Fifteen
Louis Mattioli
(Snake)
By Jack
Louis was a good friend. And he was a nasty enemy. I didn’t always handle him well. We were a lot like fire and gasoline in that way. We just didn’t mix well. We came from different worlds and we didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things. He was a lawyer. I was a human. It normally didn’t get better from there. I’m just glad the last time we met we were friends, and I hope wherever he is now he remembers the good times and not the bad. God knows there were too many bad ones.
Louis became my brother when we became Cowboys. He was my brother when we started that bar fight on Pacifica. He was my brother when we shot our way out of Procyon. He was my brother when he died at Epsilon Reticuli. He’ll be my brother until the day I die, and I’ll be his until the same. I know there’s stories about him doing bad. And I know there’s stories about me stopping him. Well, they’re stories, and I’m not going to repeat them. He’s my brother and I won’t speak ill of him outside the family.
Me and Louis Mattioli got along like brothers from the day we met on Alpha Centauri. We fought each other almost as much as we fought the real enemy, and sometimes it was for real. He was a Martian lawyer. I was an Earthborn human. There was a lot of source material for us to argue over. But he was a professional, and when the enemy called he always fought them at my side. Procyon. Epsilon Reticuli. Wolfenheim. Whether he lived or died, he fought well. I know there are some bad stories about him right now, but I was there. I saw it all in living color. When the cards got played, he never blinked. Even knowing what he was going to lose, he never blinked. Not many people I can say that about.
Louis Mattioli took the Peloran Treatments when he was young like most people. They didn’t do much for him. Oh, they fortified his immune system, and he got a really long lifespan out of it, but he didn’t get any of the really shiny side effects. H grew up as a normal Martian, with his greatest claim to fame being that he was a very successful lawyer. He made a lot of money, but there was enough humanity still in him that he decided to volunteer after the Shang attacked us. Without the Ageless reflexes he couldn’t fly in any front line formation, but he ended up in the reserves out at Alpha Centauri. That is when he ran into Charles. His Family had been working on supersoldier serums of their own for a rather long time, and one of them actually worked with the Peloran Treatments. Usually. Mostly. Louis took it and never looked back.
Mars has the largest population of any of Earth’s colonies, but is absolutely not united under a single flag. Every nation on Earth has a colony on Mars, and that leads to more legal shenanigans than you shake a whole pack of lawyers at. Louis Mattioli excelled in that environment. He got one really shiny side effect from the Peloran Treatments, you see. Eidetic memory. He could walk into any courtroom on Mars and argue based on the local laws, including any precedents set by other courts the local court may choose to recognize depending on the current nature of international relations on Mars. He was by far one of the best lawyers on Mars, and he had high-level contacts in every single nation that would answer his call at any time of the day or night. I say this to make certain you understand what he walked away from when he volunteered to fight the Shang.
Louis Mattioli actually lived on Alpha Centauri when The War began. He still had his practice on Mars, but had been building a new one in the Alpha Centauri Trinary System for decades. He owned a swift courier ship for taking trips back and forth between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Well, his firm did. Same difference. He could fly to Mars, argue a case, and then go to a party at one of the various governors’ estates to hobnob with the other rich and famous. Then he’d fly back to Alpha Centauri and do the same thing over there. He had one of the largest mansions in Landing City and hosted his own parties as well. Trust me. I’ve seen a few of them, and his was seriously amazing. Still is, I suppose, not that I’ve been there in a while. That kind of thing happens when a relationship gets as sour as ours did.
When Louis Mattioli volunteered to fight, he was not good enough to earn a spot in the front line fighter forces. But he was an excellent pilot, and the reserves needed pilots real bad. The Alpha Centauri reserves were happy to have someone as famous and rich as him in their number, and they used him as a recruiting tool. Then we came in. Charles gave him a Family supersoldier serum, and he soon developed most of the faster reflexes we Ageless had. He said he never got precognition, but he could fake it good enough to pass all the tests we needed him to. I could beat him five ways to Sunday on the training mat, but he could hold his own behind the stick of fighter. I still can’t explain it even now. The Earth-designed supersoldier serums were always weird like that. Unreliable but useful when they worked right. Louis was an example of them working. Mostly. We figured it was good enough. Not entirely certain we were right.
Procyon was the key to our first offensive campaign of The War. The Russians had decided to involve themselves in The War with the Shang and their Chinese puppets, and so the Western Alliance decided to show them how bad an idea that was. Louis Mattioli was right there at my side through most of that offensive. We argued about everything from politics to religion. Star Trek or Star Wars. Whether a proper sky was blue or red. You name it, we argued about it. But when it came to shooting Russians, we were always in sync. And one of the things he’d picked up on Mars was a fluency in Russian that was impressive. He could pass for a native speaker, and he used that more than once to confuse the enemy. Can’t tell you how many times he got onto their command channels and ordered some poor Ivan out of position before taking advantage of the momentary confusion. The man was an artist at confusing our foes, and it was a pleasure to watch him work.
Epsilon Reticuli was supposed to be the finale of our Russian Campaign. We sent what was possibly our most powerful fleet to crush their largest fleet base, and Aneerin sent six of us Cowboys to support the assault. To protect the fleet. He had a bad feeling about the whole thing, you understand, and he told the Alliance they shouldn’t do it. They didn’t listen, so he trusted me to help the fleet if things fell through. Well, we walked into a trap, and I got everybody out that I could. It might have been the largest fleet battle I’d seen at the time. We could practically walk across the missile volleys. Louis Mattioli didn’t manage it. One moment he was guarding one of our best cruisers, the next he and the cruiser was an expanding fireball. We lost a lot of good men and women that day. And a lot of good ships. Though not all of them stayed dead. And some of their deaths were greatly exaggerated. But that is another story.
Louis Mattioli died at Epsilon Reticuli. I did not know that Aneerin grew him a new body with a cloning chamber, and used his last brain scan on Alpha Centauri to bring him back. That wasn’t a technology that was widely used on us back then. Sure, the Peloran used it on themselves all the time, but they didn’t work right on Earthborn humanity’s more complicated DNA. Or so I thought. So everybody thought. But Aneerin had been a busy little tinkerer since our first failed experiment, and Louis came out of the cloning chamber exactly the man he’d been the day he left Alpha Centauri. After a new name and some edited records, he was a new man with a new mission to guard the Wolfenheim Project. It’s amazing what technology can do these days.
Me and Louis Mattioli had a lot of disagreements over the years, but there was one that always stuck in his craw. One he could never forgive me for. I tried to steal his cyber. I didn’t. He was dead, but I can see his point of view. I talked Natalie into fighting on rather than shutting down. I got her to stay with me for a while. I think she was coming around to the idea of staying permanently when she got news he was alive. Not that she told me. It was classified. But it’s where she went when she left. To be with the man she’d been born to protect. But her time with me changed her. Not much, you understand, but it was enough that he noticed. And he she didn’t erase the parts of her that changed when she linked back up with him. She kept the parts of her that had grown. Their relationship was just a little bit different after that, and the fact that it was festered in him.
Louis Mattioli and Natalie never had exactly the same relationship they had before he died. Before I stuck my well-intentioned nose into keeping her alive. She wasn’t all his anymore, and there was a jealous streak in him. It burned deep and cool over the decades, but he never put it to words. I would have handled things differently if I’d recognized it bothered him, but I didn’t. Nobody did. Even he didn’t. And that just made things worse. He couldn’t tell me why he resented me because he didn’t understand what he resented me for. But our disagreements got worse, and I just tried to stay away from him in the end. Our cybers helped with that, and of course that stuck in his craw too. He should be able to confront the man who messed everything up, right? Even if he couldn’t say how I had done it.
Louis Mattioli was a good Cowboy for a long time after War’s End. He lived up to everything we stood for. Truth. Justice. The American Way. All that jazz and more. He had his problems, but he kept them from showing in his work. As long as I wasn’t involved. He helped a lot of people over the decades. He fought a lot of fights, and he won most of them. Entire planets owe him a debt that can never be repaid. They are free because of him. Because when they called for help, he answered. He put his life on the line for them. Again and again and again, he did everything a Cowboy was supposed to do. Everything we’ve devoted our very long lives to. He devoted most of his to that same goal. When it comes time to tally up his legacy, we should never forget that.
The many deaths of Louis Mattioli are spread out all over explored space and beyond. He has a lot of graves on a lot of worlds, and sometimes he claimed the first plot of Cowboy Country on a new world. Other times, we’ve never been able to find out what happened to him out there in the dark. He just... went out and never came back. That happens to us more often than we’d like to admit. But a new Louis was always decanted in time, and went out to do his duty again. Based off the most recent backup, he knew everything he’d known before he left, and sometimes that made it easier to try again. Sometimes it didn’t. But Louis never gave up. He was stubborn that way. It was one of his better traits.
It took decades for Louis Mattioli and Natalie’s relationship to truly go bad, and by then she was caught in the cycle and couldn’t get out. They did bad things together. Bad enough that I had to go do something about it. Most of the stories about him are true to a certain extent. Exaggerated, but there is a kernel of truth in almost all of them. Even most of the stories about our final confrontation are at least partially accurate. It was a heck of a fight. He was a Cowboy through and through, and he’d gotten better over time. I was too confident, and he took advantage of that. He got me real good in fact. That was my fault. He was good. But then, that’s the point. Cowboys are always good, even when we go bad.
Most of the stories don’t do justice to Louis Mattioli. I get it. Most easy stories have to have a clear-cut villain. But there was nothing simple about his story. And I wasn’t always the white knight in it. I made my own mistakes, and most of the stories paper over them. One of these days, I’m going to tell the real story. They deserve that. They were Cowboys to the end, you see. I didn’t go in and heroically saved the day. I brought no justice in the final act to close out the story with a bang. It was his choice in the end. He and Natalie made it together. I did not finish it. They did. They did what Cowboys are supposed to do. They brought justice and peace to those who needed it.
The Louis Mattioli living on Mars and Alpha Centauri now is not the one I spent the last century arguing with. He’s not the one any of the stories out there have been written about. He’s the man who volunteered to fight back when The War started. It was his choice. It is what he wanted. To be the man he was back then, so we found his earliest brain scan and brought him back. Back when he was still a lawyer. Before he earned the callsign Snake. He tried to slip back into his old world, but things had changed in the last century. His law firm wasn’t even his anymore, and just because he came back from the dead does not mean he could just walk in and take it back. Dead is dead according to the law, and once ownership has passed on it stays passed on. That turned out to be a bit of a challenge for him.
The Louis Mattioli of today is a good lawyer again. An amazing lawyer. Probably the best in the Solar and Alpha Centauri systems. I should know. I hired him to watch over my affairs on Earth. Most of us Cowboys who have affairs on Earth or Alpha Centauri have done the same, and our homes have always been ready for us every time we’ve returned. And that many contracts represents a non-trivial amount of money let me tell you. He may not have had his old firm, but we gave him a nice little nest egg to grow out with. Louis took full advantage of that and did what he has always done. Excelled at what he meant to do. And what he meant to do was regain control of the law firm he built from the ground up with his own sweat and tears. The new partners did not know what they were dealing with.
The battle for control of Louis Mattioli’s old law firm was epic. I mean, they totally had the law on their side. All he had was some money and one of the finest legal minds on Earth and Alpha Centauri. He started by trying to buy the firm, but the new partners were not interested. Then he tried to partner with them, but they weren’t interested in that either. So he started seeking out people who were on the other side of lawsuits initiated by his old firm and offered to represent them. Often pro bono. He sometimes even offered to pay the judgment if he lost. Not that he lost very often you understand. It was truly glorious to watch him work.
Our man Louis started a one-man legal war with one of the most powerful and richest law firms on Earth and Alpha Centauri. And then he proceeded to beat them like rented mules again and again and again. Every time he won, he said that he would see them again next time, and wink. It did not take long for word to get around that if they represented you, then Louis Mattioli would be seeing you in court soon. And you were probably going to lose. Companies soon began canceling their legal contracts with the law firm and finding other representation, and even insurance companies began increasing their rates if a corporation used their services. It was a bloody legal battle that more and more companies sought to distance themselves from, and that did not make the partners happy.
When the partners controlling Louis Mattioli’s old law firm realized they were in a fight for their lives, they began to fight as if their lives depended on it. They tried to assassinate his character. To be honest, there was a lot to target there, especially with the various stories out there, but he answered the public charges forthrightly. He said that, yes, another him had done Bad Things after War’s End, but he came from before The War, and never done anything like that in his life, and he just wanted a fresh start. And the company he built. Really, that shouldn’t be too much to ask, right? When properly given, the people love a good fresh start story, and we Cowboys may have made certain we helped bolster it as much as we could. It was really rather fun.
When the partners failed to assassinate Louis Mattioli’s character, they tried to assassinate him all the way. They attempted the tried and true applications like sabotaging a car first. He kept walking away from the wrecks though, and all it did was help car companies diagnose faults in their security and send out targeted updates. They tried various biological, chemical, and cybernetic attacks next, but the Cybernetic Council tends to frown upon people killing their favorite people. So they helped make sure none of the attempts worked out. And Louis continued to calmly represent people in court without ever once accusing his old law firm of doing anything at all to him. The news media followed the various cases with far more interest though, and every failed assassination attempt became one more step on his path to cultural folk hero.
The most spectacular assassination attempt on Louis Mattioli’s life happened on the front steps of the Alpha Centauri Supreme Court. A dozen gunmen shot him five times, and sprayed fire across nearly three-dozen spectators watching him arrive to fight another case. He fired ten shots, one each to the head to make certain the gunmen were very dead, killed the other two with his bare hands, and kept walking up the stairs and into court. When the judge asked him if he wished to ask for a delay, Louis said he didn’t wish to inconvenience the court over such a minor issue, and argued his case in his bloodstained and scuffed up suit. The footage hit the front-page news on Earth and Alpha Centauri. He never once suggested that the partner he was arguing against had anything to do with it, smiled at the man after the judge ruled in his favor, and said he would see them again next time. The public loved it.
Louis Mattioli was well on his way to cementing his reputation as a regular folk hero of the legal profession when the incident at the Alpha Centauri Supreme Court exploded over the news. The fact that he killed the gunmen before they could kill any of the spectators just added to his legend. Yes, many were injured and went to the hospital, but Louis reacted faster than any of the court police, and kept the bloodshed to a minimum. Not counting the gunmen of course. Those he left bleeding and dead on the courthouse steps for everyone to see. He went to the hospital after arguing his case, where they removed the bullets stuck in him, and walked back out with his bloody and scuffed up suit to wave at the media. Now his smart suit could have easily cleaned itself and filled the bullet holes, but the show must go on. And Louis has always been an amazing showman. Once again, the public loved it and his folk hero status went into the stratosphere.
The law firm Louis built did not survive the debacle outside the Alpha Centauri Supreme Court. Not because Louis escalated his tactics, mind you. He stayed well away from anything that might be considered an escalation. But no one wanted to be represented by the firm trying to kill the folk hero named Louis Mattioli. They may just be stories and rumors, and Louis never called the new partners out, but the companies still doing business with them could no longer ignore the stories. Every major corporation on Earth and Alpha Centauri ended their contracts with the law firm and that sounded their death knell. The partners were not ones to admit defeat easily though. They snatched up all of the fungible assets the firm still had, and went to the stars with enough money to finance very comfortable lives on planets that lacked extradition treaties with Earth. The firm quickly collapsed behind them.
The collapse of Louis Mattioli’s old law firm covered the front pages of every major news network. It had everything needed to hold the public’s attention for at least a few days. Corrupt partners disappearing into the stars. Employees left high and dry at a firm too broke to even pay their wages. And then there was Louis. His first reaction to the news was to guarantee their wages while the bankruptcy court went to work. As long as they were willing to work for him, of course. There were a number of companies looking for legal representation after all, and he would need a large number of employees to service those contracts. Many of the firm’s employees accepted his offer, including a majority of the old timers who had been around when he built the place, and Louis massively expanded the reach of his firm in a matter of days. He did not pick up all the contracts, since many companies wanted out of the whole situation, but he picked up enough to easily pay his new employees.
The legend of Louis Mattioli filled the news for days, and continued to hit the top news charts for weeks and even months as the bankruptcy court went through the books of his old law firm. Paying the wages of the old employees further enshrined him in the hearts of the public, and his steadily expanding new firm proved itself over time. Not only could he personally destroy any opposing counsel in court, but he and his people also proved capable of helping even the largest of companies that needed legal advice or representation. The news faded in time though, as his firm quietly and competently took up contract after contract and did their jobs well. Until the bankruptcy case came to a conclusion. That brought the newsies out again in force.
The day Louis Mattioli’s old firm saw its final day in bankruptcy court was a media circus in every way. It was the most famous bankruptcy case in Alpha Centauri history, and everybody knew Louis was coming to buy. A few brave souls showed up to bid against him, and in many cases he let them have what they wanted for a song. The old partners had started up numerous side hustles that Louis had no interest in. If someone else wanted to try their hand at it, he was happy to let them have their way. But even the most hardy souls declined to put up more than token resistance to Louis when it came time to secure the downtown office building he had built from the ground up over a century before. No one wanted to be painted as the bad guy that took that waterfront view from a genuine Alpha Centauri folk hero.
Louis Mattioli is probably the most famous lawyer on Earth and Alpha Centauri. And he has earned a good reputation from atop his waterfront tower. He even has a well-known series of network commercials where he does nothing but tell people about common safety issues, usually oriented around personal or public transportation, and how to be careful and avoid personal injuries. They are always filmed from his desk, with the Landing City bay glittering behind him, all the way out to the horizon. His simple, gentle voice, and his common sense warnings and suggestions make people want to come to his firm for more advice or help. His firm has corporate contracts with some of the richest companies in known space, and yet he assigns fully half of his employees to helping people who come in off the street looking for help. That has only increased his popularity in the minds of the common citizens.
Louis Mattioli is a good man. He hasn’t always been, and he has paid the price for that, but he has chosen to be good in the life he has now. I will aid him on his current path. I owe him that. I also owe him the real story of the man we called Snake. I will write it, and he will be the first to see it. And if he wants, it will then be released to the public so everybody knows who that man really was. What Louis walked away from when he chose to be the lawyer he is now. But it will be his choice. I owe him that too. So if it never gets out there, trust me when I say that most of the stories are very wrong about him. He was better than they say. And sometimes worse. He was an amazing friend and a terrifying enemy, and none of the stories fully grasp the whole picture. He was a Cowboy, through good and bad, in life and in death. He succeeded and he failed. He was the best and the worst of us. He was, in the end, human.
By Charles
All of the original recruits who filled out Cowboy squadron were Ageless. And most of those we recruited to expand our ranks at Alpha Centauri were as well. Louis was the exception to that rule, and the example that many later Cowboys would follow. He was exceptionally smart from the start. He was a Martian, for one. And he was a lawyer. He moved to Alpha Centauri to start a new practice and joined the Devilcats reserve fighter squadron. I have been informed that he was looking for a vacation from dealing with criminals. Little did he know the kind of people who often volunteer to become Marines. I gave him a sample of the supersoldier serum my family had been working on for centuries. He reacted well to it and joined our ranks as an equal.
The Peloran Treatments had many purposes. One of the primary ones was to boost our immune systems so we could fight off diseases. And in most people, it recognized my family’s supersoldier serum as a disease to be fought. Louis was one of the minority of people who took the Peloran Treatments and did not then reject the supersoldier serum. That allowed him to match our physical reflexes and made him a superior combat pilot. Add that to his lawyer’s cunning, and he was a dangerous foe. And an equally dangerous friend. Make no mistake. He was a good man. He was a good Cowboy, and more. But the Shang got him at Epsilon Reticuli. It is amazing what fulcrums of history can turn on a single life. Or death. He was a stronger fulcrum than most, and the worlds today have been profoundly affected by his death.