13 Degrees of Separation

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Yes sir,” the boy said but his eyes were on the girl. He realized suddenly he could of gotten her killed. Worse, he could have gotten her killed. That bothered him more than his own mortality. She however didn't look as much frightened as surprised by the sudden turn of events.

  Monty studied him for a long moment. Finally the intel guy nodded. “Though you do deserve something for your troubles.” He eyed the girl, who was wide eyed behind Teague. “But first, why don't you show the lady home,” he said, indicating the girl with a nod.

  The lad guiltily looked at the girl and then nodded. He hustled her off gently, taking her elbow and guiding her to her flat. “You dummy! You could have been killed!”

  “Me?!” he asked as she pummeled his shoulder, tearing up. “What about you! You're my whole world!” he said, shaken. “I don't know what I'd do without you!” he said.

  She kissed him, holding his face with those gentle fingers. They held each other, trembling for a long moment, head to head, just drinking in each other's presence and the fact that they were safe. She dragged him inside with an imperious hand. He made a brief call to Rick to let him and Penny know he was okay before her hands took the phone away and her lips devoured his. There was a frantic brief burst of removing clothes and passionate kisses and then coherent thought was but a memory.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The next day the lad checked his bank balance. He was shocked when he discovered more credits in his account. He went to the girl who also had credits. Monty had given them both of them a hefty reward for the find.

  The Intel officer also asked both of them to keep their eyes and ears open and pass on anything they hear. “That's a given,” the barkeep said with a nod and hand clasp. Intel officer nodded and then as their grasp ended he turned with an enigmatic smile and left.

  The barkeep was amused by the whole affair and the reward. He offered the kid half the money, then frowned and took it back. Jerald looked hurt. “You know what kid, here's what I'm going to do, instead of giving this to you to blow on something young and stupid, how about we send you to that barkeep college?” he asked. “I'm tired of working sixteen hour shifts, I'm getting old. I could use someone to cover a shift, maybe even buy me out down the road. Penny's been on my ass about having a long delayed vacation honeymoon. What do you say? You interested?”

  The kid grinned and agreed with a nod.

  The End.

  Cali and the wolves

  Premise: The events in this story take place during the Wandering Engineer time line, after Destiny's choice but before Pirate's Bane. They take place on Kathy's World, an inclement small world between the Horathian empire and the newly reforming Federation.

  ACT I

  Chapter 1

  The Neo wolves were on the hunt. The alpha and beta male and female lead the pack, running in a loping gait on all fours as their ancestors had done. They were in their prime, ready for a hunt, eager for the chance at meat to fill long empty bellies. It's a simple matter for the Neos to stalk, hunt, and take down an elk or caribou. As they fed in cast order, another group called in news with the sounds of a far off train sound of old. The group looks up with bloody muzzles, some interested, others only annoyed by the interruption. Nostrils flared, exhaling clouds of hot breath and inhaling the wind for trouble as some of the news registers. There was something in the air indeed, a strange almost unknown scent. The oldest of them recognized the scent of metal and fire. A few of them growled, uncertain of where this was leading. The pack didn't like change. When they ran into something strange it meant changes for the pack were in the wind, and sometimes that change was like the wind, it tore at them for better or for worse.

  The pack priestess went out to investigate being that she was low in the packs priority. She didn't think about it, it was the way things were done. The pack must conserve its' best hunters. They were the ones who brought the meat. She was their link to the past, teaching and minding the cubs, a link some no longer wanted.

  Their world was a dying one, she knew it. The others had forgotten it in their quest to fill their bellies. Their world was called Kathy's world by the Terrans. It had been terraformed and settled nearly a thousand years ago just before the Xeno war. Seven hundred years ago the great war had come to this star system, the single capital of this world had been obliterated by the Xenos with contemptuous ease. As had the towering terraforming equipment that had dotted the landscape. It was said that the aliens had launched a planet destroyer but it had been stopped.

  This world had three continents, or so the song story said. The two great ones were on the poles of the planet, and without the terraformers their world had slipped into an ice age. It was said that in another thousand years it would be frozen over and no life would exist. The Terrans were along the coasts, keeping to the warmer areas and avoiding the arctic interior of the continent. Less and less game were venturing north, the frigid temperatures just couldn't support plants that the herbivores needed to feed on. The winter periods were becoming longer and longer...

  For the pack it was a problem for their children's children, not their own. They cared little for such things, only in making sure they had enough food to fill their bellies now. It was disturbing to see how low her people had come. Sure they had been changed from lower animals, but they were Neos. Just because they were once animals didn't mean they should become them once more! The priestess thought with a sigh.

  She didn't know why the Xenos hadn't returned. Perhaps the stories were true, that the great war had consumed them. She'd heard a few Terran ships passed by each year, but she herself had yet to see one. She went to the port sometimes to see them, but each time she had just missed the star visitors.

  In her youth she'd wanted to run away, to go to the stars, to see and experience things with her own eyes. What things she would see! What things she could tell the pack if she ever bothered to return!

  Ben, her human friend, had laughed when he had heard her dreams of the future. He'd tried to be kind as he told her that even he would be turned away. Spacers needed people who had been taught to live and work in space. A person used to the great wide open spaces of a planet would fret and not be able to handle the tight quarters of a ship, the smells alone would probably drive her mad for home.

  It hadn't been easy to accept that, a part of her resented Ben's attempt at bringing her down to the ground. Since that time they'd grown further apart as the pack ranged further from his homestead. She'd even come to accept a mate and had pups a few years ago.

  She wrestled with her internal dialog as she fell into an easy lope of long practice. The group made little noise, easily moving across the snow. They could go for days at this speed if necessary. Her daughter, Blizzard had made it clear she didn't want to be a simple priestess. She chuffed at the thought, she too had thought such thoughts, but a love of learning and the need for the young to be educated had guided her into the role. She looked back at her one surviving daughter. The snow white wolf was growing into her own, now finding that being a priestess wasn't as good as she'd liked it to be. The pack didn't recognize the need for the role, they didn't like to look at the past. They knew the young needed to be educated but the here and now was all they saw, the hunt, the fight for survival was everything to them.

  She's near her prime the priestess noted. She wanted more, to be more, to see more. Their last argument over the tundra had been an echo of her own argument with her own mother years ago. She sighed feeling the winds of memory and life ruffle her fur. Mother had been right, she did get a daughter just like herself.

  The Omegas lopped off ahead of her, breaking trail in their eagerness to get to the scent and see what it was. They bounded over a bank and into a clearing then howled that they had found something. She found them circling a body of a biped being dressed in strange clothes. She stopped Blizzard from killing it in automatic reflex. She took a look, noting the soft movements of breathing, and then rolled the small body over. The scent tha
t clung to the being's clothes was cloying with metal and oils... but also something vaguely familiar.

  She growled softly, trying to remember, searching her memory for clues of what this meant. She'd spent too much time in the pack, too much time away from sapient thought. She knew it was a human, but the scent was maddeningly familiar. It teased at her subconscious, not coming to the surface. She pulled the parka hood back to see a teenage female human. Ah, yes. She nodded in understanding. “A Human,” she said out loud. That was true, and one she vaguely knew.

  “Human? They dare come to our lands now?” the Omega growled. She shot him a quelling glance, as the Omega male he was the lowest of the pack's caste. He acted as a jester, frequently being picked on by the other members of the pack and eager to raise his social standings. His ears went flat at her look, not in challenge, but in deference to her.

  “No, something tells me no. This little one doesn't belong here,” the priestess said, looking up and scenting the air around them.

  The being in the parka stirred in discontent. The others backed away, growling softly. The girl looked up muzzily. She rubbed at her head then stared, eyes wide. They smelled fear and a trickle of urine. “Oh my...” the girl breathed, eyes wide in shock.

  The priestess barked, and the others stepped back as the girl sat up. After a moment a few of them sat, either no longer paying attention or pretending not to. The girl looked around and got up slowly. She brushed snow off her body.

  “Wolves. At least it wasn't bears,” the girl said, shaking her head. She was acting wary, not moving quickly.

  “Not quite,” the priestess laughed, flicking her ears.

  The girl stopped and stared at her. “I must be dreaming. Did you just talk?” She asked.

  “Yes,” the priestess snorted in amusement. She sat and then raised a hand paw. Her fingers unfolded and she gestured to the others. She waved to the others to leave. She knew it was a futile order, this was too new, too interesting to resist watching. “What brings you to our lands little one? You are far from the villages,” she said as the others faded into the forest. They weren't gone, the priestess realized as she scented the wind, and her daughter was still here, stubbornly by her side, endearing but not needed, or hopefully not needed she thought.

  “I... oh spirit of space Bobby, Susan,” the girl moaned and moved slowly, turning in place. She's disoriented the priestess realized. Finally she found her tracks in the snow and pointed a mittened hand weakly southwest.

  The others looked in that direction. “More humans?” Blizzard asked. Whatever this was it was an interesting diversion.

  “My...my brother and... and my little... my sister,” the young Terran said weakly. She shook her head, one hand touching her temple. There was a splotch there, a forming bruise. “We crashed. I mean, we... it was dark and I've never driven before and well,” she shrugged helplessly.

  The priestess nodded sagely. “Ah, then perhaps we should take you to the grandmother, she will know what to do,” she said

  Blizzard stared at her mother, aghast at the thought of bringing a Terran to one venerated by all the clans. But the thought of meeting her, the legend that she was...

  “No I... I should get back, they weren’t doing well. I came for help but I don't know where I am,” her voice said, she was obviously struggling to control her fear and roiling feelings. “Bobby has a broken leg, he got tore up in the crash,” she said, sniffing.

  “Oh,” the priestess sighed softly. She glanced at Blizzard who flicked her ears once. She knew that the young human would be dead in this landscape and weather. The temperatures were already falling quickly as the winds picked up. She looked at Blizzard once more, she was wrinkling her nose. “Stop that,” she sighed, “honestly, she's a person not food,” she said in exasperation.

  If she wasn't food then she needed to establish her hierarchy Blizzard thought. “Hmmmm,” Blizzard said as she stared at the girl. The girl stared back. Blizzard growled but the girl held her ground, not sure what was going on, but not willing to turn her back on a possible threat. Blizzard was shocked that the little Terran wanted to challenge her. Even in her present condition she wouldn't back down.

  “No, wrong again,” the priestess interrupted, cuffing her daughter as her hackles rose. “She is not part of the pack, Terrans do not know not to stare,” she said turning back to the girl. “You're Ben’s kin right?” She asked.

  The little girl nodded, “yes, ah, uncle Ben. How did you know?” she asked shivering. Ben had dealt with the Neos for years but he rarely let the kids see them. Of course most of the time the dealings had been during the day when the kids had been in school or doing chores. “I wish I had fur like you,” she said teeth chattering. Her parka had fur but it was on the inside, strange that, Blizzard thought to herself.

  “Well, you can't stay out here, follow me,” the priestess ordered. She turned and followed the tracks, her nose dilated taking in the scent.

  “Um...” the girl said.

  The priestess sighed, the two leg would never keep up with the people. There was however a solution, one she hadn't done since Blizzard had been big enough to walk on her own a year ago. “Ride me young one, we'll have to stay out of the snow drifts,” she said. She turned and waved to the Omega, “go return to the pack with word of this,” she ordered.

  The Omega sneezed and then left without a backwards look.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Word got back to the rest of the pack when the Omega returned. The alpha male and female growled about the distraction, but shrugged it off, they had yearling cubs to care for. The distraction to the priestess was annoying, for she was usually in charge of caring for the cubs, but she was also in charge of dealing with the Humans so they would just deal with her absence. To his chagrin, the Omega was assigned the duty till she returned.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The priestess took the girl back to her air car, once there she paused at the sight. The battered and ancient red and yellow car was partially buried in a snow drift in the middle of a field. She could smell strange smells, metal, and others she couldn't define, but one she could.. “I smell death,” Blizzard whispered scenting the air.

  “I too,” the priestess said softly, the girl hugged her tighter. She could feel her hands gripping her fur around her shoulders. The little one had done well to go on this far despite her fatigue.

  They circled the wreck. Not able to take it anymore the girl got off and rushed in. She tripped in her haste and fell once but scrambled up and kept moving, calling urgently to her brother and sister.

  She tried to peer through the cracked windshield but couldn't, it was too fogged over from their breath and covered on the outside by frost. She struggled with the canopy release, it was frozen over and not meant to be opened by hands covered in mittens. Blizzard came forward and lent a paw. The canopy opened with a shush and cracking sound as the ice broke its' grip. Blizzard backed off, startled by the sudden change. Inside Cali found her brother and sister. She moaned when she realized what was wrong with Bobby, his blue eyes were staring at nothing, dark and lifeless. Her brother, her lively, exasperating brother was dead. She fought back a tearing sob as she checked Susan, Susan was barely breathing. Her little sister was barely alive, trapped with a corpse.

  The two Neos came and checked when the girl didn't come immediately out. The sister was still strapped in, clearly hypothermic, her brother had given her his coat. Frozen tears were on her eyelashes and face. The skin on her face was blue, frostbite was starting to set in. The little one didn't have much longer to live, the priestess realized.

  The priestess pushed the girl aside and checked the little one. Alive, yes, but her pulse was weak. Blizzard stood back as the wind shifted, she scented something. Head in the air, she grimaced and her ears went flat as she recognized the approaching scent. What she smelled she didn't like.

  “If we're going to do something, better make i
t fast. Polar bears incoming!” Blizzard said growling. The priestess looked to the north east and noted a polar bear was indeed coming this way.

  “Great, just great,” she growled, annoyed by the timing. She came to a fast decision. “We've got to get them out fast. We'll have to get both of them to safety,” she growled towards Blizzard. She looked at the air car, there was no safety there, it would obviously never fly again. The top was ripped off, the things that made it fly were torn apart and scattered across the tundra. The canopy was cracked and broken and wouldn't stop the bears, no, at least not for long.

  She sniffed the air, the bear was about five kilometers out on the tundra, heading in their direction. The last wind shift had probably brought the scent of death to them. Like any good carnivore they were coming to see what was good to eat. She watched the girl get her sister out and help her to the ground.

  “We need to rig a sled, she can't ride,” the priestess said. She knew she couldn't carry two.

  “I've got something,” the girl said. She pulled a small child’s sled out of the trunk. She ran lines to a dog harness then stopped.

  “Go ahead child, put it on me,” the priestess said amused.

  “Mother, I'll do it,” Blizzard said. “I'm younger and stronger than you.”

  Her mother turned, and there was nothing but love and approval in her gaze. Blizzard stood proud and tall then, aware her mother thought they were doing good, “nonsense child, you must watch our backs. Now hurry, Blizzard get their rations and furs, weapons as well. Spread some of the rations on the ground in the path of the bears. That should slow them down. Eat some and then throw the packaging in different directions,” she ordered.

  “Yes mother,” Blizzard said, climbing the wreckage and getting to work.

  The girl re-sized the harness to the priestess and put it on her. She lashed Susan to the sled and hastily stuffed the gear Blizzard tossed her way around her on the sled. They even ripped out some of the seat covers to use as improvised blankets.