13 Degrees of Separation (46 page)

“Yeah, coming,” Mairi replied cheerfully, waving as she
climbed into the Bitch. The Red Rover a Conestoga class freighter was in the
slip, already robots and space hands were hard at work tearing into her
systems. “Coming!” she called, dropping down into her tug. “It's great to be
alive,” she said, grinning as she strapped in and keyed the start up sequence.
She patted her arm rests, following tradition. “Come on baby, time to get to
work.”

The end

Note: The events in this story are just prior to Plague
planet.

Chapter 1

Nohar
flicked his ears as Jerry rolled his eyes. He smelled a familiar scent as
someone bellied up to the bar on his off side. He turned slightly to see an
expectant Rajar there. The neolion flicked his ears in greeting.

Nohar
heard the Jerry the neochimp on his left snort in good humor. They both knew
what was coming from the black manned young neolion. Rajar, like many of the
other youth's, loved hearing war stories. They loved hearing them from other
Neo's, and on an off day Nohar could trade war stories to pay his bar tab. But
right now it was paid up he didn't want to. Besides, he wanted to drink and not
remember. His great grand nephew could be annoying sometimes.

All the
Neocats held him in awe, sometimes he used it to his advantage, most of the
time he chafed under their gaze. Sure, he was old, he'd had the anti-geriatric
treatments in his youth before the Xeno war. He had been nearly 40 when his
ship had been lost, picked up and sold here on Epsilon 60 long years ago. Long,
long years, he thought, staring into his mug. Years that had him feeling the
weight of his age now more than ever.

“So,
you said you were going to tell me about an orbital drop swarm next time we
meet?” Rajar said, giving up on hiding his eagerness as he took the bar stool
next to the old yellow Neotiger.

Jerry
chuckled, slapping the yellow Neotiger on his good left arm. “Give it up kid,”
he said, shaking his head.

“I'm
getting a little too old, and you are getting way to eager for this shit,”
Nohar growled, knowing he was going to give in. “And don't uncle Nohar me,” he
warned, holding a finger up.

He
turned, catching the disappointed wide eyed puppy look of the young neolion. He
sighed, knowing he was going to give in. Hell, the doc's said talking about it
was good, it relieved the mental stress attached to the event. But sometimes
things were best left in the past. He saw the kid wave to Kong, indicating the
silver-back proprietor of the bar should refill the private eye's drinking
stein. The gorilla chuffed in good humor and did so, stroking his braided gray
beard.  Rajar flicked a couple credit coins over to him. The gorilla wiped them
up with his bar rag as he shined the bar and then turned to another customer.

Other
patrons were getting closer,  in expectation of the upcoming story.  Nohar
sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get off so easily. “Fine, one more,” he
growled. He hadn't seen the kit in nearly a year, he'd filled out since then.
He had the beginning of a full mane, and was putting on muscle mass. He
certainly looked better than the scrawny skin and bone thing the kit had been.
And he didn't look like he'd get a gut, just enough exercise to tone the muscle
and keep him trim. Good he warbled another sigh as the young Neo chirruped at
him like an earnest kit.

“Fine,
fine,” he grumbled, flicking his ears as Rajar's ears rose expectantly. “I've
been in a couple drop swarms, all the ones prior to the war were sims of
course. During the war we didn't have that many opportunities to participate,
I'm a ground pounder, a ranger. Army didn't usually do swarms, that was what
the dumb jarheads and Navy squids where for. They formed the beach head and
then we came in and did the real fighting,” he said. What a change his life had
taken he thought. When he'd been stupid enough to sign up for boot, he'd loved
stories like this. Of course that was before it got all too real during the
Xeno war. He'd been lucky to survive the last war, trillions hadn't. Many
species had died out along with thousands of star systems on both sides. Space
around where the core worlds were was just that, empty, burnt out cinders and
echoing memories of the life that had once flourished there.

All
gone, now all but a painful memory for people like him, sleepers. People who'd
been trapped in a pod, stuck in stasis for an eternity. He shivered a little,
fighting to control his revulsion at the time he'd lost. At how close he'd come
to being a popsicle for another 600 odd years or longer. Possibly even all of
eternity... if the power in his pod had lasted that long.

“Right,
I bet they had a different view of things,” Jerry murmured. Nohar growled at
him. Jerry feigned fear. Nohar snorted and flicked his ears. Jerry was a motor
mouth, he spoke without thinking. He was good though, a bit of a JOAT, Jack of
all trades. A little bit of a mechanic, a helper in electronics for Hank, and
sometimes an occasional helper for Nohar in his line of work as a PI. But his
biggest problem was he didn't know when to shut up.

“Anyway,
I didn't get into many drops as I said, but I did get to see one from the
ground once, but it was a sim. It's different when you are on the ground, you
think you are going to just clean their clock but if they do it right, the
tables turn damn fast. We did one on um... Brenhem 3, which is now a memory,”
he sighed shaking his head.

“But a
real one? You said you did a real one?”

“Oh?”
Nohar looked up, coming out of the morose memory he'd started to fall into. He
shook the melancholy from his mind with difficulty. “Yeah, we did one once on a
Xeno world. Snatch and grab. It was a real cluster frack, believe me kid. We,
that's the 501
^st
battalion, we were supposed to get liberty but we
got backstopped. Seems a Marine transport convoy got chewed up by the Xeno
raiders and we were closest so we got to go fill in the gaps.”

“Why?”

“Cause
the raiders hit the transports. One of the reasons I hate being on a ship kid,
helpless and all. They pop the ship with you on and it and you are dust in the
wind,” Nohar said and then took a chug of beer. He wiped at his right side with
the back of his left hand. Kong tossed him a bar towel. He grunted and cleaned
up the light spill. He hated that, the right side of his muzzle didn't have
much left in the way of lips so it leaked unless he tipped his head to the
left. But of course he usually forgot, he thought absently.

“Getting
old sucks,” he muttered.

“The
drop?” Rajar asked, sounding anxious. Nohar snorted.

“Yeah
kid, we were there, we were sent to cover a Marine force that was going in. The
powers that be wanted the colony as a bridgehead into Xeno territory, we
figured we could get some intel and use it as a base to stage operations. It didn't
work out that way...”

He
scented a familiar scent at the door just as Jerry poked him. He turned to the
chimp and caught the not too subtle finger pointing to the door. “Don't look
now but I think you have a customer,” Jerry said quietly.

“Ah
shit,” Nohar muttered, not looking. He closed his good eye briefly. “Is it
really him?”

“It's
him,” Jerry said, trying to hide his disgust.

“Who?”
Rajar asked, turning to the right to look. He saw a red neolion in the doorway.
Most of the other Neo's in the room looked briefly but then went back to their
business. A few kept a wary eye on the interloper though. “Who the hell is
that? And what happened to his torso?”

“that's
Solaximara, assistant director of internal affairs. He's trying to create a Neo
position in the government but he's not getting anywhere. He's a politician. In
a word, trouble,” Jerry grumbled.

“You
don't want in on this?” Nohar asked halfheartedly.

Jerry
put his hands up and shook his head no. “Hell no, keep me out of this,” he
said, turning in place and getting off the stool.

“You're
all heart banana breath,” Nohar grumbled, ears going flat briefly. He felt
Jerry pat him on the shoulder in sympathy and then move off to a safe distance,
hopefully for his sake melting into the crowd.

“How do
you know this guy's here for you?” Rajar asked. He turned to Nohar and then
back just in time for the other lion to spot them and come over. “Oh” Rajar
said.

“My
friends,” Solaximara said, hand paws spread. Nohar hunched his shoulders and
closed his good eye briefly in pain, claws flexing. He felt a bang on the
counter and opened the good eye to see Kong waving a finger no in rebuke.

Nohar
sighed and turned. “What is it this time Solaximara?” he asked.

The red
neolion put on an injured air briefly, one hand going over his heart. Before he
could open his mouth he apparently decided not to waste time. He shrugged.
“It's a job, as usual.”

“I've
got one,” Nohar said.

“Which
isn't working out, which is why you're here drowning your sorrows at Kong's
instead of out in the field,” the red neolion observed. Nohar rumbled a soft
growl. “Come on, I know that much about you old friend" said Solaximara.

“I'm
not your friend Solaximara, let's get that straight. Professional or nothing,”
Nohar said. Friends tended to expect you to do stuff for free. He couldn't
afford free, not with this damn neolion.

Epsilon
Triangula wasn't a great place, he liked the moderate weather most of the year,
but the people sucked. Most of the humans were prudish, in the cities they
dressed in Victorian outfits, decked out from head to toe in layers of
clothing. Down south and in rural areas they were more rustic and looser in
dress, but here in the so called big city? Not so much. Even though Hazard was
a bit of a humid hot house in the summer they were still wearing layers of
clothing and looking down on Neo's who went around wearing mostly their own
fur.

Of
course it wasn't just the humans that were bad seed. Case in point, the damn
neolion. He was trouble, pure and simple. The lion was one of a kind, a
politician. A human in a lion's skin. He would probably wear a suit if he could
find one that wouldn't itch and make him look stupid.

“Can we
have some privacy?” Solaximara asked, waving to the Neocougar bar maid to get
them a table. She nodded.

“Anything
you want to say to uncle Nohar you can say to me,” Rajar said with an air of
offended dignity.

“Sorry
kid, this is business,” Nohar said. “Another time,” he said, picking up his
drink with his good hand. He turned and followed the bar maid to the back of
the bar away from the other patrons.

She
occasionally shot looks over her shoulder, coy flirting looks to go along with
the playful flick of her white tipped tail. Nohar was fairly certain they
weren't for him either. He made a mental note of that as they each settled into
the booth. Solaximara ordered a beer from the Neocougar then after she fetched
it, he took a sip and waited until she moved off to serve the other patrons.

It
didn't take him long to lay out the job. Nohar didn't like it right off.

“You're
not serious,” Nohar said, trying hard not to stare. A stare or a show of teeth
was as good as a challenge. He didn't mind challenging Solaximara, but he
wanted to do it on purpose, not by accident.

“I
assure you I am very serious.”

“You
want me to go down south, to Ring City, and find out if someone is killing
Neo's? A hate crime? Why not get the police involved? If they aren't already
involved I mean?”

“Because
they couldn't care less unless a human was involved,” the red, white, and black
Neolion said with a theatrical sigh. Nohar's eyes narrowed. That was entirely
too true unfortunately. If it was a human victim they'd be all over it.

“I
think it is a human or group of humans. Someone who is picking off the weak,”
Solaximara said.

That
last statement resonated a little too much in Nohar's tiger mind. “Picking off
the weak,” he murmured.

The
politician smiled, thinking he had the tiger hooked now. “And of course you'll
be doing a service for the community...”

“Stuff
that,” Nohar said turning and this time not resisting the urge to glare.
“You'll get my patriotism rate but that's about it. You are still paying the
freight if you want me down there. I'm not going through my savings on an
errand of mercy.”

“I
wouldn't dream of it. You want your usual rates?” Solaximara asked, sighing.

“Plus
transit costs, upkeep... the usual, both ways. I'm not getting stranded south.
Ring City is a cesspool. Besides, there isn't much little work there. It's a
tourist trap and fishing village, nothing more.”

“All right,”
the red neolion sighed. He hated giving in so easily, but Nohar was the best PI
in the business.  He was also the only Neo Private Investigator on the planet.
there were a few canines who got out of law enforcement and tried, but none
lasted long. They either ran afoul of the mob or they disappeared... which
amounted to the same thing. Nohar had a knack for not only staying alive, but
sticking it to anyone who tried to off him. That was most likely because he was
a survivor from the great war, the Xeno war some 7 centuries prior.

He
sometimes resented that, Nohar would have made a great ally in politics if he
had been so inclined. But no, the tiger had stuck to PI work. A pity, but then
again, had he been in politics he would have been a rival of Solaximara's so
maybe this was for the best.