by Chris Hechtl
“I'll consider it,” the admiral said when all eyes fell to him. He wasn't committed to any decision at the moment. He wasn't happy about being backed into a corner though. But then again, committing to not performing any more KEW strikes was an easy thing, he was almost out of rounds anyway.
>=,=@
Mara did her best to keep her head down like the others as the cold woman and male came into the brig area. She was warm and dry; something she wasn't thrilled about. They'd confiscated her wetsuit; like many of the others she was naked. She wasn't bound, and she had no nudity taboos like a stock human so she didn't cover her genitals or breasts.
They stood in a line with heavyset guards watching over them. The door to their cell was open, but everyone knew better than to try to move out it.
The pirate medics had gone over them carefully, even shaving her beautiful brown locks. It had been a cruel gesture, they'd even laughed at her tears and made snide jokes about her thinking she was human enough to fit in with them.
They hadn't brutalized her, nor had they molested her, much to her surprise. Apparently such things were beneath them. They had injected her with something to help her, or so they said. They'd done it with everyone. It had given her a bit of a euphoria and had helped calm her nerves.
The heavy step made her pull her awareness back to the here and now with some reluctance. She had to pay attention; it was important.
“We'll get the dosage right, sir,” a medic said. “It's all about weight and their metabolism. We have the models; we're just tweaking the numbers a bit. They have been losing weight, but that seems to have been stabilized for the moment,” the medic said softly.
“Keep them that way. Happy but alert. If you have to, dial down the dose a bit,” the admiral murmured.
Mara's sharp ears caught that but wasn't sure what it meant. Drugged? The medicine? She wasn't sure …
The stern woman with the hair bun stepped up to the bars. She was replenished in an ink black uniform trimmed out in silver. The silver-haired male behind her had his uniform trimmed in gold. She had marks on her sleeve and a shape on her collar. He had more marks and a star on his collar.
“My name is Captain Bordou. I stand next to Admiral Von Berk. You will think of him as god of your miserable existence. You will do exactly as you are told—no more, no less. If you comply, your friends and family will not suffer and will eat. You will get your medication on time. They will get their medication on time. If you are defiant, if you fail, you and they will be punished.” the woman intoned harshly. “And we'll make sure you watch to prevent you from any stupidities in the future.”
Which one of you is Mara?” the captain asked. Mara flinched then raised her hand. “You are said to have some experience in navigating, yes?”
“Yes.” She tried to keep her tone neutral. She would be damned if it would be subservient though.
A heavily muscled Horathian guard standing near her poked her with a baton. She flinched away. “You will answer with a respectful sir or captain,” he snarled.
“Yes, Captain,” she said.
“Good. You can start then,” she said.
Mara grimaced, unsure of what to do. Fortunately, two of the goons knew what to do with her. She was grabbed by each arm and dragged from the group. “She will return if she does her job properly. If she does you will eat,” the captain intoned.
---<>))))
“Do you think this is worth the risk, sir?” the captain asked.
“Yes. No risk no reward. Are your orders clear?” the admiral asked.
The captain grimaced but nodded. She didn't like giving slaves preferential treatment but understood the need. They were necessary. They were the golden geese that would lead the fleet out of the area and possibly the entire navy to victory. “Yes, sir. But it ties the hands of our people. If they can't punish infractions properly, it will give them incentive to resist or mutiny,” she reminded him.
He nodded. “We'll have to find softer measures to deal with that then. Your reference to their children being used as hostages was a good pointed reminder of what is at stake for them. We'll start training them individually, working them in gradually I suppose.”
“Yes, sir. The other ships?”
“Once they have been trained, we'll transfer the rest to the other ships at our first stop.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“Carry on then, Captain.”
---<>))))
Mara was taken to the bridge where she was roughly put into the number two helm station. The air was dry making it rough to breathe. Still, the images the repeaters sent to her eyes arrested her attention. “John, it's just as you said it was,” she murmured, admiring hyperspace. She was backhanded for speaking out of turn.
“Enough of that. We need her intact and undamaged,” an officer barked, glaring the human who'd assaulted her down. The man glared but then turned away.
The other officer knelt. “You're going to learn how to helm the ship this shift. We'll be watching. If you do it right, you'll eat. Fail and you won't eat and you won't swim.”
She winced. She needed to swim; her gills were already dry.
“Understood?” he asked. She nodded. “Out loud?”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
“Good. Here is what you need to know,” he said, starting to point out the various features of the controls. “You don't have implants so you'll have to learn to do this by hand.”
---<>))))
Captain Mayweather grimaced as the pirates made their retreat. The geometry for interception was wrong, her reinforcements weren't large enough either. They missed the interception window by a razor-thin margin. “At least they are gone. Now it's a question of if anyone else is in a position to catch them.”
“And what they'll do elsewhere,” Firefly agreed.
“Yeah, you would remind me of that,” the captain said looking away from his image.
---<>))))
Captain Bordou gloated as she noted her ship's efficiency. The water dwellers were working out well. A minor redirect of the vent away from them after the first shift and a bit of a vaporizer to keep them a little happier and they did their job far better than her own people. She wondered briefly what they would be like once they were fully trained. Apache was set to run rings around the opposition. She now fully understood why the admiralty had set a priority on such inferior beings.
Mara saw the woman's face, normally a cold mask smile, and she felt bitterness over that as her eyes cut away. Her last hope of rescue vanished when the ship jumped into actual hyperspace. She'd thought her first introduction had been real; she knew better now.
She had been briefly tempted to steer the ship into a grav wave to deliberately destroy her. Surely a quick death was preferable to slavery, right? She didn't do it though. Emory had tried during their first training period, and he'd been shocked by tasers then locked away in the cold brig without food or water for a day. He'd returned quiet and cowed by the experience, greedy for any drop of water the others could scrounge for him.
There was never enough water to go around it seemed. It was tepid too, lacking the salt of the seas they were used to. Harsh chemicals scoured their skins. The Horathian medics came around daily, tut tutting the rough patches.
She felt a bump as the officer monitoring her took notice of her inattention. She refocused on the task at hand. After a moment she glanced at the clock. They had each of them manning eight-hour shifts. She had six long hours left to go.
The one and only saving grace about the entire existence was the god sea. It was truly something spectacular she thought.
The End
Swatcats
Proofread by Thomas Burrows, Tim Brown, Carlos d'Empaire, Wayne Gaskin
Cast:
Mayor Manx
Deputy Mayor Callie Briggs
Jake “Razor” Clawfull
Chance “T-Bone” Furlough
Commander Ulysses Feral
Lieutenant S
teele
Doctor Abby Simian: Neochimp, Curator Mega museum
Professor Sackle: AI/roboticist, Professor at Mega City University engineering department
Lieutenant Felice Feral
Anna Gora: Reporter Knox News
John Knight: Cameraman Knox News
Doctor Lieter Greenwich: Inventor, engineer
Doctor Zyme: Biochemist
Forces began to move as Admiral Irons sparked an interest in rebuilding and a new renaissance. Some of that interest inevitably came down onto the downtrodden Mega City. Since the city was one of six major cities on the planet, interest came from all over to rebuild it. The city was strategically situated at the base of a river where farms, ore, and timber were floated down on barges. The prime real estate location was where the river met the sea, much like long lost New Orleans.
During the dark times after the Xeno war, a series of hurricanes had flooded much of the city and allowed the swamp to retake the southeastern low level parts of it. Many of the native people had abandoned the structures and moved to other locations over the centuries. Overtime the city had been almost forgotten.
Then Admiral Irons came and started Epsilon Triangula on a renaissance. That inspired a young but slightly tubby domestic Neocat named Manx. He had been born on a nearby farm, but he had other designs on his future. By visiting the locals in the area and wooing them to his cause, he managed to gather the necessary signatures from the locals around and in the city to hold an election. One hadn't been held in ages; no one had wanted the job as mayor. He sparked the interest and backing of merchant and industrialists and with their support and promises, he got himself elected mayor with the intent of rebuilding the city.
All would have been for naught until the Red Neocat Solimaxara got involved. He saw the city and mayor as an opportunity to expand Neo control so he managed to get a tax credit through the government as well as a series of windfalls to aid the restoration of the city.
That sudden largess made people reexamine the project and the man ultimately behind it, Manx. Manx turned out to be uncorrupted, which surprised some and pleased others. The newly elected mayor had quite the job however and a lot to prove.
He'd been creative about how to do it, but many had thought he was initially all talk and little action. He surprised them all when he'd dug into the project with a will. One of his best first moves had been to hire a young firebrand named Callie Briggs as the first city manager and then also deputy mayor. The woman was a light brown domestic Neocat like himself. She in turn worked with the mayor to hire a no-nonsense Neocat to run the police force from Gotham's GDPD.
Commander Feral was a hard charger, a captain in the GDPD who'd pissed some powerful mobsters off. He was a stickler for the rule book and tended to go to extremes when force was considered necessary. He had run a division of SWAT in Gotham for some time before one too many threats and a few too many rows with the political establishment had turned his career into a tailspin. Commissioner Gordon had reluctantly recommended a fresh start in Mega City, and the commander had pounced on it with the provision that he be given complete authority on all matters concerning security and police enforcement.
The mayor had been desperate at the time to hold off marauders and scavengers so he'd agreed. Commander Feral had taken a handpicked team with him from Gotham to form the nucleus of his “police enforcers.” He had recognized the problems of the swamps so his initial police force was also built from the local sheriff and deputies who had used skiff boats. But to augment them he bought a small fleet of Waynetech helicopters. Since some of the calls for help were from wildlife out of control, he had the helicopters and skiffs armed. If their opponents were sapient, the heavy weapons and the reputation of shoot first became something of a cooling deterrent to them.
The administration set its sights on draining the flood waters and then shoring up the damage. To do that they instituted a work program to get people to come to the city, signing over some of the real estate to them in exchange for their work on various public works’ projects. Since the plague had ended and modern medicine was in full swing, there was a boom in the population, the biggest among Neos. Neos of all species swarmed the city for the chance at a new life.
Once Manx proved his word and had the flooded streets drained, work began on cleaning the streets and assessing the buildings. Many were centuries of tangled growth and debris. A few of the trees and vines had grown into the buildings and toppled them. A few were in danger of falling, so the administration set their sights on inspecting and demolishing the unsafe buildings as some of the owners of the more recoverable real estate applied for loans to rebuild their homes.
For investment and a five-year period of no taxes on their property, Waynetech loans division worked with Miss Briggs to broker a deal to extend no interest loans to the city to help bankroll itself. The loan officer of Waynetech went on to help the deputy mayor entice ET Investments into making matching loan commitments to the city, doubling the investment and catapulting the administration's plans exponentially.
Work was also constantly underway on the wharfs and docks. The deputy mayor had the canals and river mouth dredged to allow traffic to flow better. The mud was sent into the swamps on the other side of the levies to help buttress them up.
She also guided the new city council into zoning the city with massive warehouse districts along the wharf and central highways and airport. This brought in new investments from merchant and industrial houses as well as farming concerns from all over the continent. Waynetech, Powers Industries, Puma Industries, Lexcorp and others vied to be on top in the city.
Deputy Briggs took advantage of their competition and did her best to foster it by getting the various concerns into competing on public works programs such as rebuilding blocks or buildings for the publicity. She sicked her new friend Anna Gora onto each story as a trade with her and her Knox News affiliate to allow them unfettered access to the administration.
Anna and her cameraman John Knight had arrived on a freighter from Pyrax a short time after Admiral Irons' departure. She'd been lured to Mega City over the dark and corruption-riddled Gotham and Landing or the slick industrial feel of Metropolis.
It had taken a bit of political work on Miss Briggs’ part to get Anna a helicopter. Only after she'd talked Commander Feral into selling Knox News—one, at a cut-rate price in exchange for getting a bump in his budget to include new equipment and two, new helicopters—did she get what Anna wanted. With the helicopter and a series of remote controlled video recording drones, Anna was able to get to any site in the city quickly, even if she did have a bad habit of ignoring flight regulations.
The mayor took his interest in beautifying the once bedraggled city to extremes. Anything considered junk was towed to the junkyard on the northeastern outskirts of the city. He made it his personal project to build a new grand city hall tower along with several golf courses and a sports stadium. He also enticed Doctor Abby Simian over to the city. She had performed digs in the city and had based her thesis on some of the sites around it. The Neochimp had been on her way to a dusty back room cataloging finds for another decade or more before the mayor had lured her into the museum project. The museum building had been in relatively good repair, though the basements had been flooded and the collections stored there had been damaged or destroyed.
It had been a heartbreaking endeavor for the new curator to resurrect the collection and building. She'd fought tooth and nail for funding and personnel to get the museum sorted out. The mayor had been in her corner from the beginning, but he'd been forced to temper his enthusiasm for her project for other more pressing concerns. The art of compromise had been used quite often in the council chambers right from the beginning.
But with money flowing into the coffers of the city, the budget started to grow each quarter. When it became self-sustaining, the city began to pay back some of the principle on the no-interest loans from Waynetech and ET Investments while at the same
time taking out larger loans to continue expanding the city.
Miss Briggs had her hands full with the budget. Keeping it balanced and on track was a daily headache for the Neocat. Too many times she'd been forced to rein in the mayor or the commander when they got too overzealous about a project or concern or promised more than they could deliver.
Of course the mob had to get involved. They sank their hooks into things like trash pickup, the teamsters, dock workers, and unions while they also opened up bars, exotic dancer clubs, and the occasional casino. As long as they kept the violence to a minimum and kept the graft and corruption under control, the city council didn't push cleaning them out, despite the commander's desire to do so.
Biosyn and Mega City Biochemicals were founded to take advantage of the materials in the swamps and the lucrative income they could derive from the products there. That meant more jobs for the community, some of them high paying but college based.
To help facilitate that, Doctor Simian worked with Doctor Zyme the lead biochemist and Doctor Lieter Grenwich a well-known local inventor and the city's chief engineer to hire Professor Sackle to run the University. For decades the elderly professor had been an institution in Metropolis, working on various engineering projects there.
At first the professor didn't have a large student body so he spent a great deal of time working on various projects of his own as well as projects with Doctor Grenwich. He occasionally found time to consult on various hardware that was recovered in the area.
More than half of the population of Mega City quickly became Neo, prompting some to consider changing the name to Neo Mega City. The idea was polled by the administration but abandoned after a mixed return.