Drew's Trouble with Cats and Roaches

To all,

Due to the interest in this series, here is Chapter 25.

For those reading from other countries and cultures, the US may seem to be acting a bit odd. At the tender age of 60ish, I have seen a bit and lived a bit. As a history buff, I am always fascinated to learn from the great and stupid beliefs and acts of our ancestors. I sat on the knee of my grandfather, who was two years old when the Wright brothers flew their first flight. He and I together, watched men land on the moon. I lived through the start and closing of the Vietnam war. I lived through Watergate and the resignation of Nixon. I watched and lived through the shift in our social structure caused by the ripples of pain wrought by others in power.

Yet, I have never seen the current level of stupidity and absurdity in our society, at least during my lifetime.

I wish I would be alive to see how history treats the insanity of our current US situation. I know in my heart we will bounce back, but to see the edge of the precipice is frightening.

While there is sex in this story it is not the primary driver and more an afterthought.

As we play in this year of 2021 and on into 2022, please stay safe and sane.

Part 25

***

And then the world went dark.

Directly above and behind them, a full class destroyer appeared. The air displaced by the sudden arrival made the sound of a monstrous thunderclap or sonic boom. The air movement overwhelmed the compensators and shook the small shuttle almost spinning it 90 degrees.

The aggressive enemy shuttle spun and took flight only to halt in mid-escape as the rear of the shuttle folded into itself. It plummeted to the caldera lake below and to the waiting arms of the tenacle creature.

Both the beast and the shuttle disappeared into the frothy water, not to be seen again.

The whole field of people stood frozen watching the shuttle plumet.

Alaina's voice echoed out through the exterior comm. "All aggressor forces are to stand down or be put down where you stand. Drop all weapons and lie prone on the ground with feet and arms outstretched."

With that direction, she raised the level of the bug weapons to maximum. A thin green rod of energy reached from the shuttle and etched a perfect circle in the tundra around the grouped combatants. Smoke and the acrid smell of burning soil spread over the adjacent area. Aya's 'theorical' creations and math had wrought some interesting innovations.

Multiple humans threw away their weapons and lay prone on the ground.

A single furred arm and hand stretched out of the grass and waived. "A Little help here!" came a shout and a mental request for help.

It was answered by the streaking of two muddy, tired animals coming to her aid and taking up a defensive perimeter next to her.

The giant ship sat above the scrum in near air, blotting out the sun on the ground like a giant eclipse.

"Hello Pappa, I am home. I came back on a diplomatic mission from CHOTH 4MB. I was on my way when I heard Kitten's cry for help." Stated a familiar voice in Drew's mind.

"Hello, my daughter, be careful we have an enemy destroyer at edge of atmosphere. But I assume you already know that?" Drew commented and asked.

"Yes, well that. They have their own problems now. They have lost power and their orbit is decaying quickly. But I think that the ship will be a fine addition to the CHOTH navy." Aya paused briefly.

"I'll transport the Humans to the Rock. They are Northern Alliance, and I am sure there are lots of questions to be asked." She commented with mirth and then paused.

Aya stated quietly, "the slaves will be given choices."

There was a quiet pause for more than a few minutes.

"Lord, the enemy destroyer is no longer in orbit? It's gone!" Alania commented with little reserve and a lot of emotion.

"Poppa, let me formally introduce myself in my new role." She mentally sent him.

He then heard Aya's voice over open Comm. "This Aya Drew Scott, Daughter of Lord Drew Scott, now ambassador from CHOTH 4MB. I am the special envoi from Queen Nor. Here to broker peace between the two kingdoms."

Lord Drew was quiet for a few moments as he stared at the shuttle console.

"And that would be my daughter, Aya, out to save worlds." He spoke with a sad smile and a shake of his head.

*

What he did not tell anyone else was Aya's personal communique before she signed off and went back to Choth 4MB,

"I warned you Papa. The new Tiffany is pregnant with your offspring and her game of chess continues. Be careful my Papa."

And Aya was gone.

***

Drew stomped down the corridor on the secured side of the Rock. While prisoners that had been tried and found guilty were allowed to roam the island as part of their sentence, these prisoners were either awaiting trial or something worse.

He stopped to check in at the second security check point and the Cats standing watch bowed or more formally went to one knee while bowing.

It saddened him that he no longer knew all the Cats, most of these new adults were his progenies but his work in the capital and other political strains kept him tethered to his official office.

"Up warriors, up! You may be grown and warriors now, but you're still mine and there is never a need to go to a knee for me. Showing respect is needed, but a simple head nod to a position of rank is sufficient." Drew ordered verbally so others could hear if listening or going about their duties.

They all stood at a form of attention and provided the respectful head drop in unison. They made way for him since they all knew why he had come. He was to interrogate the larger of the human prisoners.

The two female prisoners had already been talked to. They were North Alliance victims too. Family held to force their obedience. Forced to come on this mission for the overall gain of the Alliance's experimental weapons department. Two chemists with geological background.

"But why?" he intoned to himself for the hundredth time since interrogating the two female spies the day before.

Drew now knew the focus of the search but not the reason for the illicit physical search of his planet. They had been looking at citrine found on the Cat home planet. The yellow crystal was found throughout the galaxy, but the chemical make-up here on Atlantis it seems was unique.

Drews head had started to ache as one of the prisoners went into long graphic detail on the covalent atomic three-dimension patterns of lattices. And how this structure was well beyond molecular or ionic patterns but a new type of covalent lattice structure.

Drews head could only take so much of the excitement he felt from her both verbally, but also mentally and physically. To someone un-versed in being deep in another psyche, all the emotions, subterfuge, worry for loved ones, just washed over Drew as he was also trying to absorb the technical details and impact of her body of work.

The human that he was to 'talk' to next would not be treated as kindly as the two women scientists. He was a spy, in every classic sense of the word, a plain spy. And a spy that was going to put his friend to death via surrogate.

Drew stepped into the viewing room. The prisoner was double manacled to the 'bull ring' mounted in the table. Old school, but it worked. The room was plain beige with the only ornamentation being mirrored windows on each end of the room. Viewing space and electronics filled the space on each side of the interrogation rooms.

They were not built for what he came to do.

The prisoner sat stoically at his chair in a sort of attention. Blank face showing no emotion. His eyes never shifted from straight ahead.

Drew grabbed the second chair in the room and dragged it next to the prisoner. Normally he would have sat across the table, but he easily matched the size of the large human. And this prisoner was not used to a loss of his own intimidating presence. Plus, this human was a xenophobic racist, a hater of aliens and anything that did not look just like him.

Drew sat right next to him, rubbing elbows.

"So, who are you friend? You seem far from home." Drew asked with a smile.

"James Franklin, Major, 10-356-554-01"

"Oh Jimmy..." Drew commented with a great deal of sarcasm. He was already mucking around inside the prisoners' mind and found out that he HATED the informal name of Jimmy. It went back to his overbearing father, who used the name when he was belittling his son.

"That's 'Major' to you...you fucking half breed." Responded the prisoner.

"Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy...there is no need to be so rude. You are not here on any sanctioned mission, at least according to the Northern Alliance. You were not in uniform when you attacked a member of my personal household."

Drew paused seeing and feeling the flicker that was essentially 'oh shit.'

"Ahh, didn't know that huh," Drew leaned in even closer to 'whisper.'

"I am glad she lived because she carries three of my progenies. You would have paid dearly for that loss." Drew let that sink in.

Drew felt the disgust wash over him from the xenophobic and racist man. Drew saw and then felt the prisoner try and strike out with his legs, but they were manacled too.

"You...filthy human hybrid, I'd kill you here and now, if you just let me loose," Jimmy the prisoner demanded while shaking the chains in the bullring.

"You could try, but you would be dead before your first blow struck." Drew just paused feeling sad in a way.

This was no patriot.

No man facing some unknown evil that he had to fight like a helmed knight of old.

He was not fighting for 'King and Country.'

He was not 'doing his duty' to hold honor.

He was evil personified. He was sitting strapped down and primed for slaughter because of money and a chance of violence.

The Northern Alliance had found a sociopath that liked to hurt people.

He had no feelings of humanity in him at all. Drew could see into his core and saw this being's hatred for all humans and other beings alike. His narcissistic core glowed with malevolence and the enjoyment of inflicting pain.

He lived in his own world of his own invincibility.

"So, Jimmy, let us play a game. I ask a question and you respond. If not, well I'll just assist you on answering the next one." Drew stated.

Drew did not think this prisoner would answer, but he also did not want to muck around in this man's brain for too long. He wanted to bring the crux of the issue to the front of his grey matter.

Wallowing around in the open sewer that was this one's mind and personality, did not present a positive outcome.

"Define the context of your mission on this planet," asked Lord Drew in command voice.

"James Franklin, Major, 10-356-554-01"

"Jimmy, you are going to have to up your game. Remember that your own country, no I am sorry, your whole planet, has cut you lose." Lord Drew decided to play on his narcissism.

"There will be no rescue mission."

"There will be no star on the wall."

"No grave side firing of rifles for a lost hero."

"You are just one pathetic man, chained to a table and surrounded by aliens." Drew just paused and watched the interactions inside his mind.

"Sad, one such as you, to have no control. I assume, no one will miss you when you are gone. Your name will be erased, and you will be forgotten." Drew could see the storm and thunder inside the mind of the prisoner.

"How does that make you feel?" Drew asked watching the storm building higher into the lack of self-esteem of the narcissist sociopath.

"What's with the pretty yellow rocks?" Drew asked innocently.

The question blew a hole in the storm and the answer glowed brightly.

"Humm, no shit," thought Drew. Not one of Drew's deeper thoughts, but the answer to "Jimmy's mission' was a surprise.

The prisoner, nor Drew had the technical knowledge, but the answer was simple. The special matrices of the home world citrine focused, and exponential expanded the energy of certain weapons. It created a yellow bug-light, or something very similar.

Drew stood and walked to the door. He stopped and turned to the man chained and somehow beaten. Drew could see it on his face. The man did not know how, but he knew he had been beaten.

"I am going to give you a chance to die with honor. Or at least with the most honor I am willing to provide. I was just going to toss you off a ship to feed that creature that almost killed Dahlia, but with your skill sets, I have something else in mind."

Drew stepped outside the room and walked back to the sectional control area.

"Have the prisoner transported to my shuttle. He will be double manacled at all times and there will be at least three warriors with him until I am ready for takeoff." Drew looked at the warriors, all now, almost two meters of rock-solid muscle, claw, and fang.

"Never underestimate an opponent. He may be smaller than you, but he enjoys killing. He enjoys inflicting pain. It's the core of his life and soul." Drew ended and walked off to find a restroom where he could wipe his face and clear his head.

"Lord Drew" he turned again to face the Commander of the Rock.

"What do we do with the rest of the prisoners?" He asked.

"The two female scientists will go to the Capital and be Eddie's problem. The rest, send outside to live their lives on the Rock." The Commander nodded his receipt of the order, and Drew turned to find the restroom, still feeling the stink of the prisoner's mind.

As he walked up ramp of the shuttle, he saw what he expected to see from the orders given. Three cat warriors were within claw reach of the prisoner. The prisoner was manacled and double strapped to a jump seat folded down in the shuttle weapons and storage bay.

What he had not expected was Alania in the crowd flirting with the Warriors with her back to the prisoner and her ass not a foot away from the predator.

"Co-Pilot, why haven't you started preflight and why are you interfering with the security detachment?" Lord Drew questioned.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure the warriors had water..." Alania responded

"Two seconds to have your ass in your seat and start preflight or you're off this flight and I'll get another co-pilot." Drew was gritting his teeth by now," am I understood?"

By the time he heard her "yes Lord," she was fleeing to the cockpit.

He faced the three warriors, and they were all looking at the steel plates of the shuttle interior deck and counting how many fasteners held each plate down.

"There are many things that distract us each day. A beautiful female is one of the greatest. Especially one that was bred to be beautiful, and the human term is...beguiling."

Drew paused, because he wanted to turn this into a learning lesson. Drew had felt that there was something...something the prisoner was doing or about to do. He needed to know what the evil mind was up to.

Drew sent a message to Alania but also yelled across the shuttle for effect.

"Co-pilot return to the weapons bay," Lord Drew commanded.

Once everyone was surrounding the prisoner, he went and pulled up just a small part of the webbing that held the prisoner in his seat. There was a cut mark. Drew had heard about potential enhancements. He knew that if anyone had them, this human would be the one. And one quick look into the slime that was this prisoner's mind, and he could see the enhancements.

"Check each of his fingernails for mechanical enhancements. It is his way to play with Cats and find a more even footing. Pry them off his fingers if you must but find them. Encase his hands with the reinforced gloves like we do with Cats that are taken for questioning."

Drew paused, trying not to be too xenophobic of his own race.

"Humanity is the most dangerous of the species. While not as large as a Cat or overly muscled, we have our own specialty. We, as a species are incredibly adaptable. We shift, we change. We do it sometimes, just because we want to."

Drew paused again, "Do not presume that other species will follow your code of honor. If I must say, humanity will NEVER follow your code. So never presume we will."

"Co-pilot, he could have killed you and the warriors would have been responsible to me for your death. When on assignment, you are on duty. When at home, you are female and can play your ways on us unsuspecting males." That was responded to by chuffs from the male warriors.

"Now, warriors, carefully strip him down again and then double check his bindings, we take off in fifteen minutes." and with that Drew took his seat in the pilot's chair. Alania had beat him to the cockpit. He shifted one camera in the bay to look at the prisoner and set if for light motion warning.

He planned to seal the weapons bay and if the prisoner got loose, he would open it to vacuum.

This prisoner was going to die a spy. Drew's options had always been limited. He was going to die by Drew's own hand or dropping him into the caldera lake to feed the creatures or another alternative.

He contacted Alexander and was surprised that all the Clan chiefs were in one spot. They were at the one location where all Cat provinces meet, the Nexus. It was the "Four Corners' of the Cat provinces.

He knew the gathering was happening soon, but he was just so surprised that he again missed being part of the Cat Pride. He was going to have to find a way to find balance between the Pride of differing species and the Pride of the Cats.

He told them to expect him soon.

***

"You know that I carry your kittens, correct?" Alania stated as she washed his back in the inground tub at the secondary "palace' at the Nexus.

He hated the whole concept of palaces, castles, and anything else that smacked of royalty. He was ignoring Alania because he knew she wanted all the trappings of royalty, prestige, and status she could beg, borrow, or steal.

"Yes, I am aware. You will be facing a lot of hard questions from your aunties when we return. They were not pleased that you 'stole' the medicines that allowed you to cross species breed. Eddie is worried that your self-medicating may not have been done correctly."

"I have been warned by others of the games you are playing. You will not be a queen. Do you understand that?"

"You need someone by your side. The foreign queen has been cast aside. Auntie left you to go play in the Colonies. Why can't I stand by you and provide you advice?" Alania stated in a pleading voice.

"I have lost three mates now. Two by the treachery of ultimate power and one to escape the seat of power so she could spend the rest of her life doing her duty for the Pride... All my mates earned where they were, by creating mutual trust and becoming my equal. Tiffany paid the ultimate penalty for losing that trust."

"You my dear, were bred to be a queen. But this is not the same thing. You have lied to the aunties and stole medicines to leverage your power. I assume, if I broke through your amazing mind shielding, I would find other things you would prefer to remain hidden."

Drew felt her withdraw and the water shift as she climbed out of the tub. He could feel her pause.

"You are an intelligent, beautiful creature Alania. You have a drive to move up your position within the palace hierarchy," Drew paused trying to figure a way to be softer. But he gave up his internal fight.

"But it will not be with me, is that understood?"

She did not reply but she did turn to leave.

"You can be my copilot on the way back and meet with the Aunties or stay here. That is your personal choice. But remaining here will not be living in this palace. If you want to remain here, it will be with the Cats of the four provinces." He ended their discussion.

She was gone from the bathing room, and he found himself alone in his bed for the night. She had left the Nexus Palace when he awoke in the morning. He would fly the Shuttle forward solo when he left.