13 Degrees of Separation

by Hechtl, Chris

  The bridge crew argued over possibly slaughtering some of the bison on Syntia's world and then transporting the beef in a refrigeration container. George Darling, the burly cargo master was certain they would make a great deal of credits in Senka, they were a dying space colony. “How can they pay for it if they are broke and dying?” the Captain asked.

  “Man's got to eat Captain,” the cargo master said spreading his hands. “They'll find a way.”

  “True. But we need to pay for port fees and fuel. We're not trading one for one, we'd go broke.”

  George shook his head vehemently no. “Oh no, hell no! No way.”

  “So...”

  “I'll think of something. They are a space colony right?” the Captain nodded. “So they have to have, um, you know, space tools and parts and stuff right? We can name our own price. Even if it's just junk we can still use it, or sell it.”

  “You mean foster it off on some poor unsuspecting sap after us?” Wendy asked, raising an eyebrow.

  George scowled, hitching his thumbs in his broad belt. “No! No, I'm saying we can make the run south to Pyrax as we'd planned and dump any of the scrap off there. They love that shit. And Michael and his crew will love picking through the stuff we pick up before hand, putting aside the good stuff and giving me some idea on the prices.”

  “Ah. I see.”

  “It'll keep him busy,” George said ingeniously. They both knew how her brother and the lost boys loved to tinker. When they weren't tinkering they were up to pranks and mischief that drove some to distraction.

  “Dad, you and I both know he works hard, and works longer hours than you or I.”

  Her father snorted. “Yeah right,” he scoffed, indicating the work crew around them.

  “Dad,” Wendy sighed, and then shook her head, giving the argument up before it really began. “Do you have any idea what's involved in rigging this or another compartment to freeze? What it will do to the electronics and plumbing?”

  Peter Banning scowled. As chief engineer, he had the final say on a project like this. He went over to the exposed wall and looked at it, rubbing his chin.

  George spread his hands. “Hey, with the animals dead they won't be pooping and tearing the place up right?”

  “True. But she's right. We'd need deep freeze, and we've got some important runs here behind this bulkhead. Plus some water lines over there. We'd have to insulate them or something, if they froze they'd rupture those lines. We're talking a lot of work here, a massive project that I don't even know we have the materials for.”

  “Also we wouldn't need to deal with the animals, their feed, life support, or waste for the remainder of the trip,” George said doggedly, ignoring the chief engineer.

  “But dad, the meat tends to go bad if it is kept frozen for more than a few months. You know that, I know that. Everyone here knows that,” Wendy said, waving an arm to indicate the others around them.

  “How long can it last?” George asked as he turned to the cowgirl.

  Annie set the bale of hay down on the stack. She wished they had a grav cart or something. Moving the bales of hay and other fodder by hand was a pain in the ass. At least they had a wheeled cart, but getting that over the knee knockers was a bitch. She sighed, slapping dust and bits of hay away before answering. “Don't look at me, I just handle the live critters,” she said hands up. “I don't deal with steak unless it's with a fork, knife, and with a bake potato and a big pad of butter or sour cream,” she drawled.

  The Captain and crew were amused by that. The Captain chuckled. “Take five everyone,” he said, waving a hand. George scowled, but a look from the Captain made him back down. The hands settled down, passing a canteen between themselves.

  “It's their ruddy gene engineering,” Annie finally admitted. “It makes them grow fast... and break down quick. Which is why they have to be slaughtered and dressed in minutes or the meat goes south on you. I don't even want to think about trying to slaughter them here,” she said, looking around the compartment. “And by the way, slaughtering them and dressing them is not in my contract,” she said, giving a pointed look at the cargo master.

  “No one said it is,” Wendy interjected before her father could put his foot in his mouth.

  “We could just vent the compartment. Suck all the oxygen out and they'd pass out,” Peter suggested.

  Annie frowned. “You do that and they'd panic. If you went the opposite way with hypoxia and flooded the compartment with carbon dioxide you'd taint the meat. Both are humane, but you are taking a risk. Besides, you do them all at once and you'd have spoilage before you were a quarter done dressing them. By half done quite a bit'd be waste. And what would you do with the hides and offal? You can't tan hides in space right? And the offal?” she shook her head.

  “I don't think we've thought this out very far have we?” the Captain asked, looking pointedly at George. George flushed and kicked at the deck.

  Reluctantly they agreed to keep the animals alive. They offered her a ticket to go on to Triang.

  Annie frowned. Wendy smiled invitingly. “You'd like it there Annie, it's even better than Syntia. Not as many people, some really nice ranges. Think of it. A fresh start, a place to start a family, Ranch.”

  “Right.”

  “I can get you some images we've got.”

  “Huh,” she grunted. She twisted about, not looking at the expectant faces. She was put on the spot, she realized she'd been set up.

  “It's just after Senka.”

  “I'll think about it,” she said, not agreeing to anything. If she did go, she'd have to go on, staying in Senka was out.

  “Well, if you don't want to stop there, there are other worlds,” Wendy said.

  Annie looked up, tipping her hat up out of her eyes. “Oh? Where else you going?”

  “Well, from Triang we head down to Briev, and then Agnosta. you'd like it there, bison and herds there. A bit cold though. From there further south to Pyrax and then we cut across to Gaston and then up to Centennial and then back into the New Texas chain.”

  “I'll... think about it.” She had enough saved to buy a spread now but only a small one here on Syntia's world. Most of the big land was staked out already. Finding fresh ground where there weren't a lot of bodies sounded good. As long as the price was right.

  “We can dicker over dinner later,” Wendy said, smiling.

  “Beer. Cold beer,” Annie said, rubbing the small of her back.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  In orbit of Syntia's world, they negotiated the port fees and then headed down on the shuttle. She tweaked Jane's braid as the girl passed her on the way to the cockpit. She smiled, shaking her head as the girl stuck her tongue out at her and then scampered off. “Little scamp,” she called.

  George Darling had determined half their herd would go down. He wanted to keep the pick of the litter for Senka for some reason, but Wendy and Annie had struck a deal, half of the sickly ones and half of their best. “The sickly ones we can get healthy with a bit of sunlight and TLC. Some fresh grass, fresh air, they'll turn around in a week, you'll see. And who knows, you might even sell them to someone willing to take them off your hands!”

  “They wouldn't be sick if you'd done your job right,” George growled. He'd been more of a pain as the trip had progressed, pissing and moaning about the state of the animals.

  “Now look, I warned you, these here critters aren't meant to be cooped up for long periods of time. Developing muscles need wide open spaces to run about to stay toned and fit. They need fresh air and light, not this artificial stuff. Same for food. You know this, you've got the records, you know we haven't lost a single head!” Annie said with some heat, eyes flashing.

  Wendy poked her father. “Dad, knock it off,” she said in an exasperated tone of voice. “Annie's done wonders, we haven't lost a single calf and you know the odds of that.”

  “Yeah but still...”

  “Perfection is a nice thing, but it ain't ever going to hap
pen. Doesn't mean I'm going to give up trying, but I ain't going to kick my own ass and feel sorry for myself when I ain't got there either. Just work with me here,” Annie said. Wendy nodded and dragged her father away before he could say anything more.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  As they transferred the pick of the herds to the port, she knew something was going to go wrong. It never failed, always something would happen. They'd gone on too long without something blowing up, it was building up steam. She was tense, her expecting it was making her look over her shoulder a lot. “This is going too smooth,” she told Ricardo, the lead hand at the Syntia port.

  “Don't jinx it gal,” he said, shaking his blocky black manned head. He had an off sounding voice due to the crook in his nose. It looked like a broken nose that hadn't healed properly.

  “I've just got that feeling,” she said stubbornly. They were old friends, they'd known each other for over thirty years.

  “Well, fortunately for you, this is the next to last shipment going up, so just go with it.”

  “Right,” she drawled. So far everything had gone well. They'd even found a runty white bison in the herd, it had been so dusty during boarding she'd overlooked it. White bison were prized on some worlds for some reason. On New Texas they were culled, their albino nature was a clue to health maladies down the road. She'd tried to cull the little bastard, but she'd been over ruled by the 'I know what I'm doing' Veraxin assistant cargo master. Apparently he'd known something she hadn't and had convinced George to pay extra for the wretched thing.

  She clenched her jaw. She'd signed on for the next leg, but the way things were shaping up it was going to be some trip.

  “We're bound to have some trouble with the animals sometime you know, it ain't ever gone this smooth. I mean ever,” she said, waving a hand to the shipment of animals in the holding pens outside of the port. "Getting too old for this," she muttered. "Get along there!" she called, swatted with her brown felt hat to move the beasts on. A third of the beasts had been sold before they'd even made planet fall. Another ten were being negotiated. George had worried about having to bring more animals down, but there wasn't interest in the other nine animals. Of course they were all the sickly ones. With the sun, wind, and fresh grass they were already perking up.

  Annie knew the drill, she knew the buyers were waiting until the ship was about ready to leave. They'd wait for the price to drop, banking on the desperation of the crew to be rid of the animals. What they didn't know was that another fifty head were still on board, and the ship was restocking its provision hold to keep them in better health. George was determined to keep the herd in good condition, going so far as to go aboveboard on the rations and storing them who knows where. Hopefully he knew when it came time to use them. So the nine might very well end up back on the ship if the cargo master didn't get his price.

  An idiot local hand wanted to see the animals to show them off for his town girlfriend. Annie saw them across the way from her as she talked with Ricardo. She didn't like being short handed, from what Wario had told her, she was it and he'd been good to his word. One woman managing a herd this size for months at a time was not on, it was a lot of work, even with Jane's help she dreaded something going wrong. She groaned as the yahoo propped the girl up on the fence.

  “Will you look at these yahoos?” she demanded, waving a hand. The kid was talking as the girl in the bright yellow sundress flirted with him.

  “Ah, leave em alone, they're just kids. Young love. It's about that time anyway,” Ricardo drawled, leaning against the fence. “You were young once too you know.”

  “I was never that young,” Annie grumbled, eying the two with scant favor. She knew something was going to happen. For one the kid was supposed to be mucking and feeding, not giving tours! The girl had no business here. Annie snorted as the girl made nasty faces and pointed to a pile of nearby cowpies. She nearly unbalanced herself trying to move away from the dried up manure.

  The girl accidentally kicked the gate latch, swinging it wide. Annie groaned, seeing it all unfold but being too far away to do anything except yell. The animals had been cooped up and contained too long, the opportunity presenting itself like that... One of the nearby calves saw the opportunity for freedom and got loose, dashing through the gate before the boy could close it. Chaos erupted as the woman screamed, flapping her skirt and the boy jumped out of the animal's way. The flapping skirt startled the animal. It's young eyes rolled white and its tongue came out as it bawled in terror and took off bucking and running. Before another could get loose the idiot hand got a hold of himself and closed the gate, then went to his girl.

  Of course the damage was done, one of the bison was off and all he cared about was his beau. Annie shook her head angrily as she marched around the fencing and grabbed a lariat hanging from a hitching post. The animal kicked and bucked, and tore up the port, making the most of its freedom. Annie followed in its wake, measuring out the lariat with grim determination.

  Hands waved as they tried to direct the animal to an alley. Ricardo, the lead hand on duty yelled for someone to do something or he'd put the animal down. Annie could see him loading a rifle grimly.

  “Don't do that!” she yelled.

  “Then get a hold of that critter!” Ricardo bellowed. “Get a rope on it!”

  "What'dya think I'm trying to do!" she snarled tossing the rope. It dropped over the animal's head neatly. She yanked, pulling the calf off balance. It stumbled in the dirt, going down to its knees. "If that damn fool idget hadn't opened the gate this'd never of happened!"

  "Well, fix it or we'll kill the damn thing," Ricardo snarled, waving an angry hand, since the gun was tucked under his arm. He dropped the round he'd been loading and looked down, trying to find it in the dirt, buying her time.

  "I'm working on it. He's just scared and lonesome. Let me get him settled and back where he belongs,” Annie said, smoothly working her gloved hands up the rope to her captive.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Jane saw the whole thing. Her father held her back when she moved to help Annie. “She's the expert here,” he told her quietly as she looked up to him. “You don't expect her to help in the shuttle, just let the expert do her thing here,” he told her quietly. He rubbed her shoulder but held on as Jane watched.

  Jane looked up to her dad and then nodded. She turned as Annie got the calf under control with the rope and a suitable sugary bribe. A second carrot was employed to lead the miscreant back to his pen. The bison calf nuzzled the older woman, nearly knocking her off her feet.

  Ricardo had control of the gate as the woman led the animal inside, broke off the carrot and dropped it under the animal's nose, then quickly slipped the lariat off and then walked out of the pen. She crunched on the other half of the carrot while Ricardo latched and wired the gate shut. “Told you so,” was all Annie said. Ricardo snorted but didn't say anything.

  “I wonder what she meant by that?” Jane asked, looking at her dad. Her father shrugged.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Jane tried to get a felt cowgirl hat like Annie's but was rebuffed. Her father took one look at the price and shook his head no, putting the item back. The ship didn't have the credits to burn on frills and fashion, not when they needed the credits to pay for fuel, food, and parts. Her face fell, but she stoically went on, helping buy provisions for the ship.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  They returned to the ship two animals light, a last minute buyer had bought the remaining animals as well as two more that had been hastily shipped down to fill the order. They broke orbit fully stocked with the forty eight remaining animals and a lot more room for them to grow and roam around in.

  “Too bad virtual reality doesn't work for them,” Jane joked.

  Annie snorted, resting her arms on the railing. “I can just imagine it, them all wandering around bumping into things with VR goggles on their heads. Where'd you find some their size though?”

  Jane chortled at th
e imagery. Annie smiled at the girl's antics.

  “Are you going to miss it? I mean, this?” Jane asked, waving to the ship.

  “I'll miss seeing you grow up, sure,” the older woman said, turning to rest against the rail as she faced her interrogator. “The ship? Ships come and go, people though, they stay in your heart. The good ones I mean,” she said smiling ever so slightly. Jane nodded.

  “Though I wouldn't mind a nice ranch. I'd have to rope me a man, one of those big ones, none too bright, but hard working. Hog tie him good and proper then drag him back to the ranch.” The girl snickered. “I'd want me a good looking one too, one with a nice tight rear end...” she mused, watching her conspirator break out into a fit of giggles. Annie's eyes twinkled merrily. Jane had gotten over her attempt at keeping her uncle and Annie together, Annie just wasn't a spacer brat and Michael had gone in knowing that. They'd had their roll in the hay and had split amicably before things got too permanent. “I might be past my prime in having a passel of kids, but it'd sure be fun trying to get em anyway,” Annie drawled, tipping her hat back as Jane bent double laughing, hand over her mouth. She whooped as she lost her balance and nearly fell off the railing. “What'd I say?” Annie asked, eyes twinkling.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Half way through their journey, Annie looked up from her chores to see the girl come in. The girl seemed grief stricken. “What's up cowgirl? Why the long face?” Annie drawled, bending over to brush her boots off. She kept looking at the girl expectantly. She could read something was wrong.

  Jane's face crumpled and she rushed to Annie. She'd come in to find a quiet place, but now, faced with someone else asking her... she wrapped her arms around the older woman and cried. Annie hugged her in surprise, catching her balance before she fell. Slowly she sat on the nearby hay bale and let the girl cry her heart out.