Other Trails Chapter 17

[random_xtras]

(warning: mention of cloning, slavery, cannibalism, and cosmetic surgery. Safe for work)

Shade stretched, then poked her head out of the nest formed by the giant fuzzy blanket that Captain Twohundredproof had given to her as a get well gift. "Ur?"

Joel glanced over from where he was laying on the couch with his back propped against the arm. "Don't wake the other two up."

"Other two?" Shade was aware of her sister's warmth in the bed beside her, but then perked with dismay as she realized that Mist was the only other denizen of the whispering mattress and the furry blanket. "Starfighter's shut down again?"

"Yeah. The doctor said he wasn't ready for that kind of excitement yet." Joel let the computer pad he'd been reading rest on his belly as he studied her with a frown. "They were wrong."

"What?" Her eyes widened. "Who was? About what?"

"You have a scar."

"Oh." She relaxed. "Is that all?" Then she looked down at herself and made a soft sound of surprise as she saw the small white star on her chest above the elastic top that the medic had put on her to replace her ruined crochet vest. "It doesn't even look like a scar. It's pretty."

Joel gave a slight half grin, then took his hand from the computer pad to absently scratch his own chest. "I don't understand something."

"Uh?" She looked up, then hugged an armful of furry blanket as she curled up and snuggled into the soft warmth.

"Why'd that Defense Force guy have to wear a shirt if I don't?"

Shade snerked softly. "I think they're the default quick clothes fix. And besides, you're pretty much fully dressed all the time anyway."

He frowned at her, but then lifted an arm and looked at it. "I guess you're right."

She smiled at him drowsily and rubbed her cheek on the blanket. "Hey, have you heard anything else about what's happening?"

"Yeah." He wore a grouchy scowl as he let the arm drop. "The Earth Defense Force queen offered to make me her primary consort, and the doctor found out what those things Adonis brought aboard were."

"Her consort." Shade sat up, scowling protectively.

"Yeah. Don't worry, I'm not interested in bound feet, stretched ears, a wasp waist, and a face carved up to look like a doll's." Joel snorted. "And I don't have time to lay around on cushions all day while most of that space station's population lives like industrial robots."

"You lost me." Shade resumed her curl among the blanket folds, though she kept her eyes on her friend's face.

"The Earth Defense Force practices human cloning, and what the doctor called extreme decorative body alteration," said Joel. "The queen's had her insides doctored to make her waist thin enough to put my hands around. Her feet have been wrapped in growth inhibiting pods since she was small, her face has been cut and shifted to have large eyes and a tiny mouth and nose, and she's got these things shoved through the lobes of her ears that are wider than my palm and that hang down to her shoulders. And then she wears a gold corset and a matching collar that goes from her shoulders to her chin."

Shade stared at him for several moments, trying to envision all this, then winced and rubbed her neck and her waist. "Ow... Gross."

"Gross." Joel snorted, then continued in his usual deep, quiet tone. "Yeah. That's one way to put it."

"What did you mean when you said that most of the population live like industrial robots?" Shade looked at him uncertainly as she noticed his moody scowl and the way that he actually wasn't looking at her as he spoke.

"They cut up unborn babies that are just starting out, and then make the pieces each grow into someone. Then the kids get dumped into this little set of rooms and spend the rest of their lives making things or keeping parts of the station working. When they can't work anymore they get processed into food."

"For the monsters?" asked Shade hesitantly, burrowing down into the blanket.

"Monsters." Joel sighed. "Good name for them." He turned his head and looked toward her, his expression tired and sad. "Shade, the only living things on that station when the Big Nuke hit were humans, rats, cockroaches, and some chickens and plants."

"I thought I smelled human blood," said Shade quietly, hiding her face. "Not from the bird, but I smelled it."

"It was the scorpion. They cut him up and put robot parts on him to make him look like that."

"But why? Are there things that can attack them on the station?" Shade hunched her upper shoulders and shook her head to make the dizziness and fear go away.

"No. Prince Adonis and the other Officers just like to have pets."

"Why do so many humans try to make other people into animals?" She reared out of the blanket angrily, then meeped as Starfighter coughed and turned his head.

"It's not just humans," he said groggily as he rubbed one eye. "Those rusted out shifters on Hell have done it too. Junk like that can happen any time any people start walking down the wrong trail."

"You sound like her," growled Joel, though the grim anger was gone from his voice.

"Thrrpt. Whatever, rug." The young shifter man stretched with much creaking and a few pops, then lay and stared at the ceiling with a slightly stunned expression. "Rust, that felt good."

Shade couldn't help it, she buried her face in the blanket and laughed hard, grateful for the relief that Starfighter's silliness brought and for the rumble of Joel's laughter from the couch. After a moment Mist poked her in the back, and she meeped again, then turned and told her sister what their cybernetic herd mate had done.

[Doof.] Mist did her own mighty stretch, and then went to check on Joel and pat him before trotting across the room to do the same to Starfighter.

"But yeah," said Starfighter as Mist leaned against him and watched the holographic screen he'd put up for her. "Not all humans are jerks. I hear that some of the most near to life mechadrones are human make, and humans made the navcats and the Hogs. And remember, your pals on the Nothing Yet are all human."

[We know a navcat.] Mist grinned absently as she remembered the thirty pound bundle of mischief and affection who made it his life's work to guide the Nothing Yet safely through space. [What's Hogs?]

"Sentient pigs. Some of the most sought after security guards in the galaxy." Starfighter sat up, and then held his head. "Urg, someone slipped me more high octane fuel."

"Take it easy, kid." Joel frowned at him. "I suspect the Chief Medical Officer would strap you down too if he thought you needed it."

"Whatever." Starfighter checked for Mist and then lay down again, though he turned onto his side with his arm under his head so that he could more easily see his crew mates.

"Are the pigs that work with some of the security people here Hogs?" asked Shade at the same time as her sister did.

Starfighter sniggered softly at them, but nodded. "Yeah. There are three of 'em aboard. I hear the oldest one could have had his own assignment, but Hogs like to follow better than lead."

"Huh." Shade absently pulled the front of her mane down over her face, then started to finger comb tangles out of it. "But did anybody decide what they're going to do about your people, Joel?"

"Not yet." He looked at the computer pad. "We're still talking." A slight smirk touched his face. "Though the convertor captain got hold of the head Nazi."

[He talked to the Nazi?] asked Mist, her eyes wide.

"Yeah, after the guy stopped having the vapors. Then he spouted the usual Nazi BS and hung up."

"Bet the Cap had something funny to say about that." Starfighter grinned slightly.

"Yeah. But I'm not repeating it in front of the girls." Joel rubbed his forehead as he read the computer pad. "Right now it looks like the IGP thinks that the best bet is to station cops on Earth to protect the rad babies and other people from the Nazis."

[It's safe? The radiation's low enough that it won't hurt people from off planet?] asked Mist.

"Yeah, in most places. And the right suits'll keep the cops from starting to glow." Joel watched as images panned over the computer pad screen. "There are a lot more people than I ever knew about. Some of the old cities are still standing in America."

"There aren't any where you're from?" Shade looked up from discovering that a ration pack had been in bed with her and was now poking her in the flank.

"No. Most of Europe's just coming out of an ice age."

"An ice age?" Starfighter stared at the furry man. "How'd anybody get through that?"

"The ice couldn't cover the hot spots or the mountains." Joel frowned at something on the screen, but then blinked and pulled his knees up so that he could rest the pad against his legs and engage in rapid hunt and peck typing.

"Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense." Starfighter fell silent and watched with the girls as the human man sent his response and then nodded and typed again.

"That's what they're doing." Joel shut the pad off and set it aside, then put an arm over his eyes for a moment.

"So it's all settled?" Shade paused with a bark strip halfway to her mouth.

"Pretty much. The IGP just has to set up some bases and get a space station somewhere in the system," came the quiet and tired sounding reply.

"You should eat something." Starfighter glanced toward the call button. "I'll ask somebody to bring you a meal from the mess."

"No." Joel lowered his arm and looked around, sniffing. "Do you have any more of those bark strips in cheese?"