13 Degrees of Separation (4 page)

Peter Banning scowled. As chief engineer, he had the final say on
a project like this. He went over to the exposed wall and looked at it, rubbing
his chin.

George spread his hands. “Hey, with the animals dead they won't be
pooping and tearing the place up right?”

“True. But she's right. We'd need deep freeze, and we've got some
important runs here behind this bulkhead. Plus some water lines over there.
We'd have to insulate them or something, if they froze they'd rupture those
lines. We're talking a lot of work here, a massive project that I don't even
know we have the materials for.”

“Also we wouldn't need to deal with the animals, their feed, life
support, or waste for the remainder of the trip,” George said doggedly,
ignoring the chief engineer.

“But dad, the meat tends to go bad if it is kept frozen for more
than a few months. You know that, I know that. Everyone here knows that,” Wendy
said, waving an arm to indicate the others around them.

“How long can it last?”  George asked as he turned to the cowgirl.

Annie set the bale of hay down on the stack. She wished they had a
grav cart or something. Moving the bales of hay and other fodder by hand was a
pain in the ass. At least they had a wheeled cart, but getting that over the
knee knockers was a bitch. She sighed, slapping dust and bits of hay away
before answering. “Don't look at me, I just handle the live critters,” she said
hands up. “I don't deal with steak unless it's with a fork, knife, and with a
bake potato and a big pad of butter or sour cream,” she drawled.

The Captain and crew were amused by that. The Captain chuckled.
“Take five everyone,” he said, waving a hand. George scowled, but a look from
the Captain made him back down. The hands settled down, passing a canteen
between themselves.

“It's their ruddy gene engineering,” Annie finally admitted. “It
makes them grow fast... and break down quick. Which is why they have to be
slaughtered and dressed in minutes or the meat goes south on you. I don't even
want to think about trying to slaughter them here,” she said, looking around the
compartment. “And by the way, slaughtering them and dressing them is
not
in my contract,” she said, giving a pointed look at the cargo master.

“No one said it is,” Wendy interjected before her father could put
his foot in his mouth.

“We could just vent the compartment. Suck all the oxygen out and
they'd pass out,” Peter suggested.

Annie frowned. “You do that and they'd panic. If you went the
opposite way with hypoxia and flooded the compartment with carbon dioxide you'd
taint the meat. Both are humane, but you are taking a risk. Besides, you do
them all at once and you'd have spoilage before you were a quarter done
dressing them. By half done quite a bit'd be waste. And what would you do with
the hides and offal? You can't tan hides in space right? And the offal?” she
shook her head.

“I don't think we've thought this out very far have we?” the
Captain asked, looking pointedly at George. George flushed and kicked at the
deck.

Reluctantly they agreed to keep the animals alive. They offered
her a ticket to go on to Triang.

Annie frowned. Wendy smiled invitingly. “You'd like it there
Annie, it's even better than Syntia. Not as many people, some really nice
ranges. Think of it. A fresh start, a place to start a family, Ranch.”

“Right.”

“I can get you some images we've got.”

“Huh,” she grunted. She twisted about, not looking at the
expectant faces. She was put on the spot, she realized she'd been set up.

“It's just after Senka.”

“I'll think about it,” she said, not agreeing to anything. If she
did go, she'd have to go on, staying in Senka was out.

“Well, if you don't want to stop there, there are other worlds,”
Wendy said.

Annie looked up, tipping her hat up out of her eyes. “Oh? Where
else you going?”

“Well, from Triang we head down to Briev, and then Agnosta. you'd
like it there, bison and herds there. A bit cold though. From there further
south to Pyrax and then we cut across to Gaston and then up to Centennial and
then back into the New Texas chain.”

“I'll... think about it.” She had enough saved to buy a spread now
but only a small one here on Syntia's world. Most of the big land was staked
out already. Finding fresh ground where there weren't a lot of bodies sounded
good. As long as the price was right.

“We can dicker over dinner later,” Wendy said, smiling.

“Beer. Cold beer,” Annie said, rubbing the small of her back.

...*...*...*...*...

In orbit of Syntia's world, they negotiated the port fees and then
headed down on the shuttle. She tweaked Jane's braid as the girl passed her on
the way to the cockpit. She smiled, shaking her head as the girl stuck her
tongue out at her and then scampered off. “Little scamp,” she called.

George Darling had determined half their herd would go down. He
wanted to keep the pick of the litter for Senka for some reason, but Wendy and
Annie had struck a deal, half of the sickly ones and half of their best. “The
sickly ones we can get healthy with a bit of sunlight and TLC. Some fresh
grass, fresh air, they'll turn around in a week, you'll see. And who knows, you
might even sell them to someone willing to take them off your hands!”

“They wouldn't be sick if you'd done your job right,” George
growled. He'd been more of a pain as the trip had progressed, pissing and
moaning about the state of the animals.

“Now look, I warned you, these here critters aren't meant to be
cooped up for long periods of time. Developing muscles need wide open spaces to
run about to stay toned and fit. They need fresh air and light, not this
artificial stuff. Same for food. You know this, you've got the records, you
know we haven't lost a single head!” Annie said with some heat, eyes flashing.

Wendy poked her father. “Dad, knock it off,” she said in an
exasperated tone of voice. “Annie's done wonders, we haven't lost a single calf
and you know the odds of that.”

“Yeah but still...”

“Perfection is a nice thing, but it ain't ever going to happen.
Doesn't mean I'm going to give up trying, but I ain't going to kick my own ass
and feel sorry for myself when I ain't got there either. Just work with me
here,” Annie said. Wendy nodded and dragged her father away before he could say
anything more.

...*...*...*...*...

As they transferred the pick of the herds to the port, she knew
something was going to go wrong. It never failed, always something would
happen. They'd gone on too long without something blowing up, it was building
up steam. She was tense, her expecting it was making her look over her shoulder
a lot. “This is going too smooth,” she told Ricardo, the lead hand at the
Syntia port.

“Don't jinx it gal,” he said, shaking his blocky black manned
head. He had an off sounding voice due to the crook in his nose. It looked like
a broken nose that hadn't healed properly.

“I've just got that feeling,” she said stubbornly. They were old
friends, they'd known each other for over thirty years.

“Well, fortunately for you, this is the next to last shipment
going up, so just go with it.”

“Right,” she drawled. So far everything had gone well. They'd even
found a runty white bison in the herd, it had been so dusty during boarding she'd
overlooked it. White bison were prized on some worlds for some reason. On New
Texas they were culled, their albino nature was a clue to health maladies down
the road. She'd tried to cull the little bastard, but she'd been over ruled by
the 'I know what I'm doing' Veraxin assistant cargo master. Apparently he'd
known something she hadn't and had convinced George to pay extra for the
wretched thing.

She clenched her jaw. She'd signed on for the next leg, but the
way things were shaping up it was going to be some trip.

“We're bound to have some trouble with the animals sometime you
know, it ain't ever gone this smooth. I mean
ever
,” she said, waving a
hand to the shipment of animals in the holding pens outside of the port.
"Getting too old for this," she muttered. "Get along
there!" she called, swatted with her brown felt hat to move the beasts on.
A third of the beasts had been sold before they'd even made planet fall.
Another ten were being negotiated. George had worried about having to bring more
animals down, but there wasn't interest in the other nine animals. Of course
they were all the sickly ones. With the sun, wind, and fresh grass they were
already perking up.

Annie knew the drill, she knew the buyers were waiting until the
ship was about ready to leave. They'd wait for the price to drop, banking on
the desperation of the crew to be rid of the animals. What they didn't know was
that another fifty head were still on board, and the ship was restocking its
provision hold to keep them in better health. George was determined to keep the
herd in good condition, going so far as to go aboveboard on the rations and
storing them who knows where. Hopefully he knew when it came time to use them.
So the nine might very well end up back on the ship if the cargo master didn't
get his price.

An idiot local hand wanted to see the animals to show them off for
his town girlfriend. Annie saw them across the way from her as she talked with
Ricardo. She didn't like being short handed, from what Wario had told her, she
was it and he'd been good to his word. One woman managing a herd this size for
months at a time was not on, it was a lot of work, even with Jane's help she
dreaded something going wrong. She groaned as the yahoo propped the girl up on
the fence.

“Will you look at these yahoos?” she demanded, waving a hand. The
kid was talking as the girl in the bright yellow sundress flirted with him.

“Ah, leave em alone, they're just kids. Young love. It's about
that time anyway,” Ricardo drawled, leaning against the fence. “You were young
once too you know.”

“I was never that young,” Annie grumbled, eying the two with scant
favor. She knew something was going to happen. For one the kid was supposed to
be mucking and feeding, not giving tours! The girl had no business here. Annie
snorted as the girl made nasty faces and pointed to a pile of nearby cowpies.
She nearly unbalanced herself trying to move away from the dried up manure.

The girl accidentally kicked the gate latch, swinging it wide.
Annie groaned, seeing it all unfold but being too far away to do anything
except yell. The animals had been cooped up and contained too long, the
opportunity presenting itself like that... One of the nearby calves saw the
opportunity for freedom and got loose, dashing through the gate before the boy
could close it. Chaos erupted as the woman screamed, flapping her skirt and the
boy jumped out of the animal's way. The flapping skirt startled the animal.
It's young eyes rolled white and its tongue came out as it bawled in terror and
took off bucking and running. Before another could get loose the idiot hand got
a hold of himself and closed the gate, then went to his girl.

Of course the damage was done, one of the bison was off and all he
cared about was his beau. Annie shook her head angrily as she marched around
the fencing and grabbed a lariat hanging from a hitching post. The animal
kicked and bucked, and tore up the port, making the most of its freedom. Annie
followed in its wake, measuring out the lariat with grim determination.

Hands waved as they tried to direct the animal to an alley.
Ricardo, the lead hand on duty yelled for someone to do something or he'd put
the animal down. Annie could see him loading a rifle grimly.

“Don't do that!” she yelled.

“Then get a hold of that critter!” Ricardo bellowed. “Get a rope
on it!”

"What'dya think I'm trying to do!" she snarled tossing
the rope. It dropped over the animal's head neatly. She yanked, pulling the
calf off balance. It stumbled in the dirt, going down to its knees. "If
that damn fool idget hadn't opened the gate this'd never of happened!"

"Well, fix it or we'll kill the damn thing," Ricardo
snarled, waving an angry hand, since the gun was tucked under his arm. He
dropped the round he'd been loading and looked down, trying to find it in the
dirt, buying her time.

"I'm working on it. He's just scared and lonesome. Let me get
him settled and back where he belongs,” Annie said, smoothly working her gloved
hands up the rope to her captive.

...*...*...*...*...

Jane saw the whole thing. Her father held her back when she moved
to help Annie. “She's the expert here,” he told her quietly as she looked up to
him. “You don't expect her to help in the shuttle, just let the expert do her
thing here,” he told her quietly. He rubbed her shoulder but held on as Jane
watched.

Jane looked up to her dad and then nodded. She turned as Annie got
the calf under control with the rope and a suitable sugary bribe. A second
carrot was employed to lead the miscreant back to his pen. The bison calf
nuzzled the older woman, nearly knocking her off her feet.

Ricardo had control of the gate as the woman led the animal
inside, broke off the carrot and dropped it under the animal's nose, then
quickly slipped the lariat off and then walked out of the pen. She crunched on
the other half of the carrot while Ricardo latched and wired the gate shut.
“Told you so,” was all Annie said. Ricardo snorted but didn't say anything.