Drew's Trouble with Cats and Roaches

To all,

Due to the interest in this series, here is Chapter 19.

It's time to get back into space. Bureaucrats will start to creep in on the ground on both series. It is inevitable in the reaches of human societies. Cockroaches, bureaucrats and at least one accountant to keep track of them, will rule the world for all eternity.

Us explorers, artists, and adventurers, only hope to leave an acknowledged smudge on history.

Any aliens, real or imagined, are purely a construct of my twisted and warped mind.

I thank everyone so much for reading my stories and enjoying them.

As we enter and play in this year of 2021, please stay safe and sane.

Part 19

***

"Captain Nathaniel here..." stated the Cat looking down at another display until he looked up. He shot up in his seat and looked very startled.

"I am so sorry Lord Drew, what can I do for you?"

"I want to have a private conversation with your head of security, D32. Is that possible?"

"Yes, yes, of course. He is in conference room 3 giving a lecture. I am sure he will take your call. I'll have comm forward." The nervous Captain replied.

The next thing Drew was looking at was a room full of crew surprised to have the front display to the room filled with the face of Lord Drew.

"My apologies my old friend for interrupting, but can you please reschedule your lecture? I have security questions to discuss?"

"Of course, Lord Drew, we were almost done." All the different species filed out of the room, but the second Dragon in the room hesitated after a look from D32.

"May my second in command, S42, stay my Lord? He is as trusted as I am and has a better handling of Colonial Security than I do," request D32 head of security for Artemis.

"Yes, if you trust him as much as I do you. This is not about Colonial security, but about the security of all of our space and worlds." Drew paused to look at the two immobile Godzilla lookalikes.

"The Marauder space has been taken over by another species. We have just received word that the only other specimen that has been collected was Dragon DNA." Drew paused and he could see looks between the two scaled creatures in the room. "Can you please help us understand what can be going on? None of your species have been captured or ventured into that space, as far as I know. Also, this DNA has been slightly altered, by time or medical means, but it is still Dragon at its heart."

"Can you help us understand?"

There was a long pause and then D32 spoke, "Many eons ago, there was a break in our species. One branch of our tree wanted to follow the code of honor. Another branch wanted to follow the concept of war and perceived strength. We had a horrible civil war and Honor barley won. The others left to follow their own creed of strength and dishonor." D32 paused.

"If these are Those, they will be formidable and ruthless. They will not negotiate. They will not talk, and they cannot be trusted. They believe the end justifies anything and everything to gain and hold control. This includes within their own society." D32 continued

"We call them..." D32 stopped, trying to find the right words of phrases.

"They were, and still are called the 'Damned' in your understanding," stated S42.

***

Thing One, her huge pregnant belly almost reaching the bottom of Drews chest was leaning over her prey and growling. Thing Two was sitting on the sofa awaiting her turn to play with Drew whenever her sisters rage abated. Target had swung her feet over the armrest and had her head in Thing Two's lap. Hoppy paced back and forth, skittishly, and nervously watching the violence happen in the adjacent Cat breeding pit.

"Is...is this some type of reproduction dance?" Hoppy asked

"In a way," Target responded, "She, wants to know if he values her as a warrior and a bedmate. He, being human and male, keeps saying the wrong words, and that makes her furious."

"What type of doctor would produce such drivel? And I'll ask you again, what made you think of us, two beautiful furred, sexy, warriors, as two scruffy furred troublemakers?" Thing one paused and raised claws to him.

He just smiled, pissing her off even more. And then he said the one thing that could save him from gaining more scars.

"Because I have loved you two, from the moment I saw you all bandaged up, sitting at the bridge arguing who got more roaches and arguing over point scales. And then when I took you that night...well the whole ship knew how that went." Drew responded with a smile, as he watched the reaction in Thing One's eyes.

There was a squeak from Target, as she was almost thrown from the couch. The quieter of the two sisters, herself pregnant, slammed into the two in the pit and the three rolled together.

Giggling erupted from the pit, and if you did not truly know the two famous and fierce female Cat warriors, it might be disconcerting.

He rolled over half naked, his shirt having been shredded by Thing One in the lead up to the final questioning. Her lethal ministrations had left scratches and some minor blooding, but in Cat culture, this was minor foreplay.

"I do want to try and answer the question. As Target pointed out, it will come out wrong, but it was always meant with love. In human culture, twins were always unique. Very much like you two in the Cat culture, until now that is. Dr. Suess created his two mischievous hellions, because for some reason, twins had this reputation. You two fit the example perfectly, then, and now. The competition for cubs, the blending of the pride, the handling of the rogue Cats...only my two most loved andamazing warriors could have done all that." Drew finished, but he had a cat on either side of him nuzzling his neck and running claws over him from both sides.

"Did I explain better to these two great warriors how much they mean to me?" he asked while raising his head to see Target.

"You did better that expected my mate, so fuck them silly and send them back to space, or let us get lunch. Cara came in and said it's on the patio." Two sets of furry ears came up when lunch was mentioned.

"Nothing personal 'My Lord' but when you are eating for multiple mouths, one does have to take her up on the lunch offer." Thing One whispered in his ear. He saw Thing Two nod her head too.

Drew just laughed. "let me change quickly and I'll meet you out there." They scrambled as best they could with their extended bellies, and he went to the bedroom to find Target waiting with a wet towel and medi-spray.

"I do love those two. They keep you in your place and they would be the first to bat you behind your head if you ever become too uppity." Target commented while she wiped him down and then sprayed him to seal his wounds.

***

Drew was always amazed at how much meat a full-grown Cat can put away. A pregnant one? Two pregnant ones? The cooks below must have been warned by Target. Tray after tray. The Cats metabolism did not deal well with refined sugar, so it was meat, eggs, cured bacon, and a simple roll for them. Kitten and Goldie were right there to share in the bounty.

Cara went for Crepes, just to be a spoiled pain. He had warned her that the frontier was going to be quite different from what she had gotten used to as his ward and sort-of adopted daughter. Her plans to relocate to the combined colonies was fixed and Goldie was selected to go with her. Kitten of all creatures, had 'requested' in her own way to go, to keep Cara "safe." Then of course the emissary from the spiders was not to be left out, so his growing spider 'daughter' filled out the entourage.

Drew felt at times like he was living the life of old stories and Vids. "Here goes the company of the ring or some-such' he thought written by a brilliant writer Tolkien or something like that. 'Just skip the orcs and Dwarves and add in cats and spiders to the quest...wait a minute, weren't there spiders in that tale?'

As breakfast was wrapping up and the preverbal hog and steer had been sacrificed upon the alter of pregnant Cat hunger, he received notification of an unexpected visit by the Earth ambassador.

"Let's meet her over on the small patio so we can let the dishes be cleared without drama." He commented and looked at Goldie. Goldie had 'helped' clean off the table last time causing the loss of several dishes. She did not understand the concept of letting food leave the eating space.

"Papa, Hoppy and I need to finish packing. Are we needed to be part of this meeting?" Cara asked.

"We will call you if needed. Make sure you take your entourage with you so there are no incidents like last time." He finished looking at a guilty Goldie. He knew she could not read his mind, but because of their constant contact with him and the empath Cara, Goldie had a more intuitive understanding of voice tone and the meaning of facial expressions.

Drew and Target settled themselves with new coffee and tea. A new service was set up just before the arrival of Earth Ambassador Adrian Booker. The Ambassador came along the outer pathway from the drop zone looking pensive and looking around corners.

"Don't worry, only us Bipedal aliens at this gathering. Ill warn you if creatures on four or eight legs are coming to join us." He paused to chuckle. At least some of the stress in her shoulders seemed to slacken. "Ms. Ambassador, what may we do for you?"

"It's just Adrian for now. I may have to cloak myself with 'Ms. Ambassador' soon enough." She paused and took the offered cup of coffee and dumped a load of local honey and milk in it.

"Well Cousin, you have kicked the proverbial hornet's nest on Earth." She stated while stirring. "I have interstellar threats of lawsuits regarding the illegal confiscation of private goods. I have the request of several of earths governments to investigate murder charges. I have an accusation of genocide and hate crimes from the Russian federation forthcoming because of an alleged bias against their citizens now residing on planet."

Drew could see Target getting riled over the stupidity of humans again. Her pregnancy did not help her temper. He just put a hand over her paw that was flexing and unflexing claws. It was one of her tells.

"I am still trying to keep a lid on the ouster of the previous Ambassador. Luckily, she was ill liked and so her accusations of assault have fallen on deaf ears. But the money and Russian issue will not go away."

Drew just sat back. He had spun his chair to look down into the harbor and shivered. Unlike on earth, the oceans here were filled with creatures that prefer to eat the boat vs getting caught for dinner. The harbor was ringed with high walls to allow building near the harbor, but there was a fifty-meter concrete buffer to allow the drones to protect the city from any large creature that wanted to exit the water looking for easy prey. Yet there was always some idiot, of several species, that tested the boundaries and lost the gamble.

It reminded him of the current conversation.

"I feel that we understand each other, but I want to lay out my positions on the several intermingled issues and I would like your honest response. Except for diplomats and their staff, plus some spacefaring types, there are no earth citizens in the colonies. They gave up their citizenship when they migrated. We have the documents to back that up." He paused thinking with his face scrunched up.

"Oh, I forgot the slaves. We do need to ask them if they want to stay as full citizens or go back to whatever awaits them. They did not come here of their free will so the choice is theirs to make. "Drew paused picking up his comm device.

"Let me pause for a second, I need to inform your son and his staff" he sent a simple 'contact me'.

All of them were shocked as an apparition appeared at the table in one of the empty seats. DB was not solid but a see-through version of himself.

"Lord Drew, Lady Target and mother, what can I do for you?" Asked DB.

Adrian could not help herself. "Why can I see through you? and where are you right now?" she then realized that she was sitting at Lord Drews table and what she did was a break in protocol.

"My apologies Lord Drew for speaking out of protocol."

"Remember you are just Cousin Adrian now, so no protocol broken. Not that I would care anyway," he paused looking over at the 'ghost' of DB.

"So, I assume you are in Omega?" requested Lord Drew.

"Yes, sitting on my patio overlooking the creek in New Hope,"

"Can you link in the Slave envoy and the intelligence officer you stole from Alexander?" asked Lord Drew.

"Give me a second..." DB responded.

"Here" came the singsong voice of El. DB knew there was no singsong in El.

"Oh. Oh yes my lord, what can I do to help" came the nervous voice of Nalia as she was brought into the conversation.

"We are having some problems with Earth. They are complaining about the loss of their goods..."

"Illegal goods confiscated within the bounds of the law," came the voice of El losing most of its sing song quality.

"Agreed, but part of those 'illegal goods,' were additional slaves that are now being held at the Capital," commented Lord Drew.

"What we need to do is devise a program to legally integrate the ex-slaves into our population. We must give them a choice to go back or stay as full citizens. I don't want to add to your problems over there, but I do not want a repeat of north America's failure at integrating slaves, and really do not want the violence of South Africa." Drew just paused. everything came with layer upon layer of issues. "If they are to stay, that means I want them to sign the charter, but that will mean finding someone they trust to read it to them and explain it without bias." Lord Drew stated his concerns.

"Do we have a census on how many slaves we have in the two colonies?" asked Adrian.

"No accurate census, but a feeling of around twelve hundred. I would like to offer migration to the other colonies if the Governors would be ok with that." Stated Nalia.

"I'll check and get back to you. How are we coming with the social media campaign on the tuber?" asked Drew.

"The cookbook is out, and we are pushing the idea of survival with jest." Said DB.

"What cookbook? What jest?" Questioned Drew.

"Well, the root stock needs to be blanched, sort of like trying to cook and eat Earth acorns. Even with the blanching, it tastes like eating dirt, but its nutritious. So, we have been thinking up things like unleavened bread and calling them 'mud pies.' The native north Americans survived on acorns because of drought issues, same blanching, same taste in a way. But we are trying to get folks to survive not win a baking contest." DB commented.

"We are playing with certain spices that can make it more palatable and running contests for prizes, so we get everyone involved." Nalia noted.

"You are all doing and amazing job. I can't tell you how much it means to have you all there where I can count on you." Lord Drew commented hoping to keep up the positive attitude.

"What about the prisoners? The longer we hold them the higher the cost of incarceration. Also, the higher risk of security breaches. Can't we just pick another island and then drop them off? Or preferably just dump them in the ocean and let the local sea creatures feast?" asked El.

"Um...as for a new island, that is what the Rock was created for. We did not expect to deal with this type of quantity in this fashion." Drew paused and tried to gather his thoughts, the view of another sea creature trying to breach the wall in the harbor helped. "I did not want to start this new world out with Governments choosing capital punishment. That is why it was banned."

Drew paused thinking how quickly El went to that final solution. "too many governments on Earth have chosen to give their citizens death. Studies of executions have proven time and time again, that racial bias played a very heavy hand in each ending of a life. That is why I chose the Rock and lifetime incarceration on a tropical island. I do not want species bias to cause the same issue. And as I pointed out, to the previous Ambassador, it was Humans that were providing the species bias and we have only just established these colonies." Drew ended the sermon before he got deeper.

"Thank you all again for your input and send me a list of three recommendations that you feel are the highest priority. Thank you, DB, for playing inter-planet switch board. I need to get back to the ambassador and figure out what I am going to do about Cat space and Earth space relations."

With the closure of the discussion, DB broke contact with all the participants. In the capital, sitting at the Lord's table, DB winked out of existence.

Drew had been holding Targets and Adrian's hand to allow them to at least hear the interconnected conversation. As he released their hands, he sat up a little straighter and looked at Adrian.

"So...talking to a relative who knows the ins and outs of earth politics and you know that I have no desire to appease the bullshit spewing from Earth. But, I want their trade. What do I do now?" crossing his arms in frustration.

"I don't have an answer for you my cousin. As Ambassador, I would be trying to talk you into appeasement because of the trade issue. Many still think of you as the younger kid brother that built his own playhouse, but still needs to go to mom's house to get food. And when you get dangerous toys to play with, like the space station and elder destroyers, it makes them nervous. Nervous people tend to make mistakes, sometimes bad mistakes. All of them would like to see this fail and swoop in to 'help.''

"So, what do I do with the ruffians? We could just use them to feed the fish. There are lots of those out in the big bad ocean. Or do I send them back?" asked Drew.

"Earth would never allow them back through UN entry points." Adrian slipping more into her Ambassador role.

"I am not talking about asking and I was not talking about placing them on ships..." Drew paused and reached down to grab a bag and then dumped its contents on the table. A set of dentures, a Russian nesting doll, a lacquered bamboo box and a pistol in its holster.

"DB experimented for me. He wanted to get fresh Ginger for Nalia and so he went and procured two. He stole them off a counter, in a shop in Shanghai, Earth. He left money to confuse things." Drew cracked the bamboo box and Targets ears and whiskers spang awake. Targets hands were already reaching across the table when Drew slid it over.

"So fresh..." was the only thing to be heard from Target.

"The pistol is a Makarov made in Russia. Just a day or two ago, it was in the bed side drawer of the Premier of the Russian Federation. Those are his dentures too. We did give him a present back, well several. We sent back the 16-foot ball python and some type of cashmere rabbits that his Odessa Don illegally imported. All arrived safe and sound and we assume that one is hunting the other. It should make for an interesting moment of clarity."

Adrian immediately went to her pad and started to scroll. She stopped and her eyes got big and the blood drained from her face.

"You left a note? A fucking signed note?" Adrian gasped and Target just shook her head.

"Of course, I did. I did not want to be rude. I put it on his pillow, or DB did it for me. The Premier was the one that gave the Don the damn snake. I just informed him that snakes either need to be caged or killed. And to expect the arrival of additional snakes, ones of the two-legged variety." Drew paused trying to think of a better way to explain his actions.

"The first satellite in space was a Russian one, Sputnik. What terrified the peoples of the old United States was not a shiny ball beeping through space. It was the knowledge that, if the Russians could put that in space, they could have put up a warhead." Drew paused looking at Adrian, "Now they have something to worry about. If we can 'liberate' such private items from the home of the Premier without detection and replace them, we could deliver something much more dangerous than the damned snake and a couple of rabbits."