13 Degrees of Separation

by Hechtl, Chris

  “I've tried,” Adam said in disgust, remembering what he'd gone through in the past week. The cat had put on weight, gaining kilograms almost daily. He'd filled out, his coat was now a glossy green and orange. He was beautiful, but still no one would take him in.

  “He's your problem,” Adam was told by the Neocat community. Kringer clung to his leg. It took a week to get the Neocat to walk on his own, sometimes he would jump on Adam's back for a piggy back ride, or into his arms. If he was startled he'd tangle himself in Adam's feet, cowering in terror.

  Adam tried to get the cat to go to school and an orphanage but he would duck out and appear. Finally the cat settled on being nearby, in a tree or high place watching Adam.

  Marlena took to the cat right off. He liked her but she was busy flying, which terrified the cat. The loud engines at the space port kept him from following her. He learned to climb into Adam's window and curl up on the floor when the door was locked.

  He had a maddening ability to look small and helpless, wide eyed kitten with his hand paws clasped in front of him, ears back, eyes dilated. He got that way anytime he was asked to do something he didn't like. It infuriated Teela. “The kitten puppy,” she snarled in a huff.

  Adam wasn't excused from his work schedule, duties, or training despite having an extra around. He reluctantly took the cat with him. He had even taken the cat with Teela to Prime for a brief time to pick up their remaining belongings before they had returned to Eternia. Kringer hadn't liked the station, he had constantly complained about the smells and sounds the entire time, nagging Adam to return to the planet. He had practically lived in Adam's skin, yowling when he had his tail trod on twice. He'd finally settled into a baleful glare in their quarters until they had returned to the planet.

  Teela had lingered on the station wrapping up a few things with station security before she had returned to the planet. Adam teased her about getting a vacation from their surrogate child. She hadn't disagreed with him.

  Duncan wouldn't have any lay abouts, he put the cat to work. Kringer was surprised, so was Adam, but Kringer seemed to take to the task hesitant, but eager to prove himself. He looked at Duncan as the human patiently explained what to do. The cat fumbled with the project, but Duncan gave encouragement. When he passed the test Adam, Duncan, and Marlena praised him. The cat perked up, coming out of his shell a bit.

  “That's what he needs, encouragement. Keep it up,” Marlena told him. Duncan agreed with a nod. “He's a good kid,” he said nodding in approval to the cat. “I'll take him on as a student,” he said. Kringer perked up, delighted.

  Adam had been tempted to agree with Teela and drive the cat off, but his mother had helped step on that. He was frustrated, tired, but she reminded him she had been the same way with him. “That's what being a parent is about sometimes. He'll grow out of it and into a man under the right guidance Adam. Be patient,” his mother assured him.

  That got Adam thinking about being a parent. He realized he'd inadvertently taken on the role. He didn't want it at first, but those trusting eyes changed his mind. There was something there, something in the trust, in the knowing he had to look out for the little guy. He took the teasing in stride.

  Kringer also had a tendency to run and hide at the sound of a weapon or loud bang. His least favorite place to be was the gun range. It took Adam a week for him to teach the Neotiger about it without him diving for cover. “Good reflexes,” Duncan commented and then moved on.

  Kringer hesitantly told him about his mother, how she had been killed by an ape man under the orders of a human. The humans had watched, laughing and cheering at the sport. He had fled into the swamp and had survived there.

  Teela was disgusted that Adam took care of the tiger, even letting him sleep with him in their room on the floor. She was inhibited with an audience, occasionally she would wake to find the cat staring at them from the foot of the bed. They hadn't had sex since Adam had found the dratted cat. The three places the cat avoided, the machine shops, the space port, and the gun range were all filled with people. It'd be fun to ambush Adam in a closet, but she didn't like getting caught, it was embarrassing.

  The cat was afraid of everything. Loud sounds set him off, and she couldn't help roll her eyes in disgust over his terror of thunder. Sure her first experience with it had spooked her, but for a minute! Her disgust didn't help the situation, the cat picked up on it and reacted. That drove a wedge between her and Adam.

  “He's a kid Teela, treat him like a child. Treat him like shit and he reacts to that. He's a person, not an animal, and not an adult. A kid. He's a scared lonely kid. Put yourself in his shoes!” Adam growled at her when she'd gone off on a rant.

  “But...” she saw Kringer growling at her.

  Adam noticed the growl as well and went over and sat down beside the cat. Teela looked hurt as Adam stroked the Neocat. “Calm down kid. It's okay. We're just having a spat. Parents do that sometimes.”

  Kringer yowled softly, looking at Adam lovingly. He finally settled down, crossing his arms.

  That comment about being a parent, that made Teela stop and think. “You...” her communicator beeped, interrupting her. “Yes?” she snarled.

  “Teela? This is Duncan. Got a minute? I could use your help,” he said.

  She frowned. Her eyes darted to the cat, now drowsing in the sun in Adam's lap. “Sure dad, be right there,” she said and left.

  She made her way to her dad's office and stopped at the sign on the door. “Duncan Na. Cute dad. Just let the bad guys know where you live,” she said, shaking her head. She knocked then entered and flopped into a chair. Her dad looked at her, reading her body language. “Problem on the home front? Adam being lazy?”

  “No, just... I don't know. He coddles that damn cat!” she got up and threw her hands in the air. She related the story to her father and then paused when she noticed he was thoughtfully looking at her, even smiling in amusement. “What?”

  “He's right. You're a parent, even though you didn't want to be one,” Duncan said. “A grandson. A little Na. What did you say his name is? Kringer? Kringer Na Prince?”

  Teela rolled her eyes. “We're not married yet dad,” she said. She turned away, unsure if they ever would be now. Things had changed drastically. She now regretted getting him to come here.

  “No, but eventually. Unless you find some other boy toy to play with,” he teased. Teela had set her sights on Adam and she kept them there. She never strayed, and she became intensely jealous if any women fawned over Adam. Suddenly she realized that and blushed. She was getting jealous of the cat. For the wrong reasons too, she thought. It was actually good that Adam was showing some parenting interest. That spoke well of the future, she supposed, biting her lip. Maybe she'd taken the wrong approach to the entire thing.

  “He's a child,” Duncan said. “So being a little understanding could help. He's in a new environment, new people, scared. No family, no support.”

  “Okay dad. I'll try to be... more understanding.”

  “Do that. Try something to bond with the cat. Some common ground. It might help.”

  “Okay dad,” she sighed, sitting on the edge of his desk.

  “Hey, it helped with you,” he teased. She poked him. He chuckled. “You turned out okay.”

  “Gee thanks dad. What did you need before I wring your neck?” she asked.

  He chuckled, eyes twinkling then leaned over and pulled a tablet out from under a sheaf of papers. “I've been working on this map of the city, trying to plug the holes in our perimeter, and well, I'd like another set of eyes on it...”

  Teela leaned closer, frowning as she got into the job at hand.

  <=={----------

  Meanwhile, Adam's parents and friends were busy working on rebuilding the city and space port. Fully functional, the space port would be one of three on the planet, and the only one on the equator. His mother Marlena Glenn Prince focused on the space port, as a pilot she had a natural draw to that. Her shuttle had b
een recalled to the station but she kept the landing field cleared and it's small tower manned at all times. It was also one of the few places that had a satellite link as well as a series of radios.

  Randor oversaw the clearing of roads to the city and to the fusion reactors, then the beginning of the restoration to the fusion reactors. Without power the city would be a ghost town. There was more than one fusion reactor, there were actually six tokomak style reactors laying on their sides. Each looked like a cluster of cylinders laid out in a neat bank of rows. They were half buried in the hillside. Cables were buried underground. Many of the superconductive cables were past their impedance points, part of the problem with the reactors, their loads had been shifted to other cables over the years.

  Recently the native Antiguan's had tried to set up overhead power poles, but the native vines climbed the poles and then draped themselves along the power lines. Moss grew as well. In less than a week they could festoon a transmission line, in another week they would blossom with leaves to catch the sun. A week after that and the vines would either breach the cable and cause a short and fire, or they would suck up so much water from the humid air that they would bring the cables down by their own weight.

  One of the reason's Randor had been brought on board was a fresh set of highly trained eyes. Some of the leaders suggested beam power, using microwave beams that Tribecca Electrical & Gas Company had set up to supply ground installations with power from the solar farm Yard Dog's Inc had built recently. That was still being brooded about, but Randor was against it for local needs.

  He patiently explained in public and town council meetings that they first had to look after themselves, get the town self sufficient, refurbish and open the space and water ports, then they could look into exporting power. The only export the island currently had in trade was jungle plant goods. Many medicines, vanilla, chocolate, and other things like spices were harvested and exported.

  Duncan put a lot of what he had learned on Kiev 221's last run with the admiral to work for Randor. He focused on security and main engineering systems while Randor focused on infrastructure and communications. Marelena's focus on transportation rounded out their set. The three of them made a good team.

  Duncan had his work cut out for him, there were constant raids on the island. Farms were being hit, some were being muscled. Any shipment crossing the island needed heavy escort to get through unmolested. Attempts to catch the raiders had so far failed miserably. He didn't have a full assessment of the situation but he made some changes right away.

  One of the first thing's Duncan did was reorganize the militia and police force, he created a separate unit when he noticed pay offs going to the sheriff and deputies. He outfitted his crew with modern weapons instead of the gunpowder weapons that the sheriff and deputies had. He also made certain they had body armor.

  Adam and Teela served as his lieutenants. Adam drafted his Neotiger friend to help. Together the three of them taught basic classes on hand to hand combat. Teela set up a firing range and enjoyed spending her time there, shooting up paper targets. She had to be coaxed into training new students. Her sarcastic teaching methods hampered her students ability to learn. She had little patience for fools, men who came in and drooled all over her got a quick course in paying attention, usually from the ground looking back up at her in dazed confusion.

  Mrs. Prince took an interest in medicine, education, the space port, and other things. She overhauled the tiny school house by setting up a solar panel and giving each of the students tablets. The interactive devices lightened the load on the single school's overworked and underpaid school teacher. Getting her better facilities helped as well. She received a pension and took on two understudies to act as assistants and to teach some of the basic classes. Getting her to lighten her load and take less of a hand in teaching let them focus on new methods and less on her bad habits.

  Mrs. Prince also set up the first library and overhauled the utilities when she became disgusted with the quality of the water and progress on that end. Randor had spent so much time in the fields improving the food quality he had neglected the water. She became so dirty and tired her husband finally stepped up to get it done. A snappish comment from her had him scrambling to get additional people involved. The men folk were amused, but they quickly learned Mrs. Prince might talk softly, but there was steel in her voice and eyes.

  <=={----------

  As the first shipments of parts arrived, the fusion reactor was repaired. Eternia soon had a massive power budget from the nearby fusion reactor. The spires were uncovered, they had been overgrown by vines and jungle growth. Also Eternia was the most modern city in the southern hemisphere, in fact it was the only ancient city remaining on the planet. Even the capital had been founded after the Xeno war. Zap and several power utility companies sent delegations to negotiate power contracts. The Zap delegates acted like they had it in the bag, smug and so self assure until they picked up rumors that the Umbrella corporation might have an inside edge. The Prince family traded aggressively in getting education and tech to schools, good medical, the works for their people, playing one side against the other in order to get the best deal.

  Adam ran into the Vinatelli family. Some cousins to Leo were working as managers of the fusion reactor. One was admittedly clueless, trading on his family name to get a cushy job. Adam recognized it right off from the dumb look the guy gave him. But he didn't call him on it. Adam realized a lot of the family were like that, trading on the name rather than their skills.

  He sat at dinner with them, talking about what it was like to be a spacer. Kringer was on his best behavior, lapping at a bowl of cream. He took some interest in the robot bird Jane had, but it flew off.

  Jane Vinatelli the teenage girl was the exception. She was like her brilliant cousin Leo but actually took pains to hide her intellect. She wanted to be normal. She was lonely though, outcast by others of her own age who thought of her as a tinkerer and a nerd. She was socially inept and shy. Adam picked up on all that after seeing how she was ignored by her family, despite having the robot.

  She kept her intelligence mostly to herself, finding that being on the outside made it much easier on her. The family focused their efforts on training the boys in the ways of all things mechanical and scientific, she just loved to tinker.

  To help herself she found and repaired a bunch of robots she had found in the city. Some were basic machines, house hold cleaners. She got rather good at repairing the tiny vacuums and floor scrubbers. It was a side business, she traded or gave them away when they were repaired. One, a robotic bird pet she adored and kept to herself. The bird she named birdie, was a robotic parrot analog. It had silver and gold plumage. It spoke a bit, but mainly communicated as an animal would, with whistles, caws, and bird song. At night it would sing her to sleep. By day it went with her wherever she went, sometimes singing to her from outside a window. Adam took an interest in her work.

  Adam was impressed with her cybernetic skills. She had a bit of a crush on him. That died when she saw him with Teela. “It was nice to be noticed though,” she murmured to birdie.

  <=={----------

  John 'Pope Skeletor' Keldor nodded to his lieutenants Lynn Evil and Trap while they watched his team shake down another farmer. He was careful to keep them on a short leash, no sense killing the goose that fed them after all. If they burned the farm it would also draw attention, attention he didn't want.

  He'd taken over the mountain years ago. It had seemed like the thing to do, a nice quiet place to set up shop, build an army of cutthroats, then go out and plunder. It hadn't quite worked out as planned, he'd been stuck on the island, but it had gotten lucrative lately. Ever since that station had been found anyway. He just needed to find a way to cash in before the authorities got wise.

  He also needed a way to complete his mission. He had under a year to do it if central stayed to the time line they had given him. He was a criminal, he'd made his name on the mainland robbing t
rains and raiding farms before he'd gotten too popular with the Pinkertons and bounty hunters. Eternia had seemed the place to lay low for a few years until the heat died off, which it did. He'd just settled in and never gone back. Instead he'd used the base to create and distribute drugs to the surrounding area. Pope organized his forces into a make shift army and Calvary and even raided Eternia at night once a year ago. He had dozens of informants in the city, all addicted to what only he could provide.

  These outworlders though, they could be trouble. He didn't like the way they were doing things, didn't like the way they progressed so fast and so smooth. He had been tempted to interfere, to throw a monkey wrench in the works, but he'd talked himself out of it twice.

  Lynn smiled enigmatically at him. He shook his head. The bitch was beautiful but nutty as a fruit cake. She was also addicted to him and to his drugs. He knew he could trust her, but only as long as he kept her hungry. She'd turn on him if he ever gave him the chance.

  She was a sadistic bitch, she loved toying with the slaves they kept around. She had her uses though, and it was entertaining to see her interrogate someone for information he wanted. It let him indulge in his ego, playing the good cop to her bad cop. She could be a very bad cop indeed.

  His little brother Fist Keldor was a pain in the ass. Keeping him entertained was the only way to keep him in check. Half drunk or stoned, fucked senseless by one of the slaves, Pope didn't know why he bothered. Sure he was family, but Fist was a liability, plain and simple. He went off half cocked, and always overboard. He'd caught Lynn egging him on a few times. The bitch was evil, and his brother stupid for letting her get under his skin.

  He did things without thinking, which was a problem. The two were a potent combination in a fight, but they went overboard on the aftermath. He couldn't trust Fist out of his sight for long.

  “Something bothering you Pope?” Fist demanded.

  “Yeah, these outworlders. We need to know more,” he growled.