by Chris Hechtl
His repair had been one of the last the elderly Neochimp had accomplished before his untimely death. Linnaeus had been the first chimp doctor. He'd also been set in his ways and had refused geriatric and life extension treatments. His son hadn't followed that view.
Sometimes Osbert had wished Doctor Lagroose hadn't taken her life extension treatments. The universe would have been a better place once she'd shuffled off. Now she had and he wasn't going to shed any crocodile tears. He certainly felt no loss at her death. Far from it.
He wasn't willing to dance on her grave. There were too many that owed the woman; that'd be asking for trouble. Trouble he didn't need. But he wasn't going to shed any tears for her either. He'd heard they'd had some sort of rather short memorial for her. Jack Lagroose hadn't been able to attend due to preparations for what was to come.
He wasn't so sure of that or what it meant. It didn't bode well; he felt that itch like something was going down.
There were only three of them left, those who had survived Gentek: Eggbert, Oswald, and him. Well, those that were felines. Tumagar was the only walrus selkie left. He scratched his side, and then stretched. It was time to go hunt down his old buddy and get his fifty credits back he thought, padding out on all fours.
<>V<>
Doctor Chad Glass rubbed his brow, trying to contain his frustration over the situation. Just when he'd thought things were well and truly looking up, the devil stepped in and pulled the rug out from under him.
He'd finally replaced Aurelia, his mentor and creator. He loved the woman like a mother, but he, like a lot of the Neos, had chafed under her restrictions and smothering. She'd pushed things too far too often. He'd had to sit back, biting his tongue, biding his time. He was glad Jack had finally intervened to rein her in. It had taken a long time, but the wheels of justice had finally turned and she'd had her hands slapped. She hadn't liked being reduced to a consultant; he hoped she'd understood it hadn't been personal. But her meddling had to be curtailed, which it had been.
He was far more popular with his patients and the Neo communities at large. He respected their wishes, and did his best to help them with their own ideas of what their species should evolve into.
Well, technically evolve wasn't the right word, he thought, tugging on an ear unhappily. It was more of a …
He snorted and put the thought aside.
“What's so funny?” a familiar voice asked.
“Nothing,” Chad replied. “Life in general I suppose,” he replied, sitting back on the stool, letting the lumbar support cradle and massage his back.
“Funny, I thought life was handing us quite a few rotten lemons right about now. Not many can see the humor in it,” Vinny replied.
“It's not that,” Chad replied, waving a dismissive hand. “I … this sucks. I'm not happy; that was something else. This downright sucks, having my life's work put on hold like this,” he growled, teeth slightly bared. Despite himself he felt his composure slipping slightly. His hairs were rising.
“So much put off, schedules ruined. You can't just turn someone off when they are pregnant! Genes matter! Lives matter!” He waved a hand in anger. He'd finally gotten a better hand on the selkie and cat situation, integrating the cats into the Lagroose prides and clans. But the selkies were proving to be a much thornier issue. At least they were able to live in the dolphin habitats with them— not that they weren't having issues there! At least they were behavior and social clashes outside his field, he thought.
“And I think they understand that,” Vinny said to him. Vinny Montenegro, Doctor Montenegro, was an old friend and classmate. The Neochimp doctor had come up for a visit with his family but had been stuck when the shuttles had stopped moving due to the current crisis. No one wanted a shuttle to have its telemetry infected. He'd heard there were still some ships and shuttles moving, but he wasn't thrilled about taking the risk.
“I was hoping we'd be able to shuttle down some of the fins and selkie. Maybe even some of the other Neos who want to go groundside. Gee, my mistake,” Chad said in disgust.
Vinny eyed him. “Ready to get rid of me that quickly? I see how it is,” he asked, only slightly in jest.
Chad exhaled. “You know what I mean. I know you want to get back to your practice groundside and your students. That's another thing!” He waved another annoyed hand. “We can't publish, we can't trade papers, can't communicate, we can't teach!” He practically shrieked the last word as he got up and paced. He looked up and grabbed some hand holds and swung about the room.
Vinny watched for a moment as he worked off some of his frustration. The situation was getting to all of them but in different ways. Some more than others apparently or they let it show in different ways.
When Chad finally settled down, he dropped back into his stool. He seemed sullen. Vinny reached over to the tiny cooler on the counter, pulled it open, and fished out a bottle of water. He tossed it over. “Feel better?” He asked.
Chad panted a bit but just grunted as he twisted the top off and took a swig. He wiped the back of his hand over his mouth. It wasn't hygienic, but he didn't care at the moment. “A bit.”
“Good. Athena needs the computer support to protect us. That's a given. That's fine. So, you need to overhaul your plans. Scale them back. You may not be able to do anything you've got on hold, not for the moment,” he held up a finger as Chad opened his mouth to object. “Let me finish here.” He warned, boring his brown eyes into Chad's. “That doesn't mean you won't be able to do it later,” he said. “Have a tad bit of patience like I have to have. Can you disable the Wi-Fi in some of the equipment?”
“What good will that do?” Chad demanded. “It'll just take a lot more time to move information. The firmware will get out of date too! We'll get nags to plug it back in …”
“But you'll still be able to use it!” Vince reminded him gently. That brought Chad's diatribe of complaints up short. “Oh, not all of it but a fair amount. Enough maybe to get by?” Vince suggested slyly.
Chad grunted, turning away to his tablet.
“Well?”
Chad grunted again. “I hate it when you're right,” he finally mumbled.
“See?” Vince said, smiling beautifully. “Am I a genius or what? Saves you from wearing yourself out or pulling the ceiling down on top of us, right?”
“If you are so smart, tell me why you didn't think of this days ago? Eh smarty?” Chad said sweetly, eying him.
Vince's expression soured instantly. He grunted in irritation. “Smartass,” he grumbled.
“Oh shut up and give me a hand. I can't call the techs in to do it for us; they are probably backed up as it is. So, we have to figure it out on our own.”
“Lovely. Me and my big mouth,” Vince said, pulling his own tablet out. “Where are the manuals?”
“Directory. I'll send you the link,” Chad said.
<>V<>
Wendy Lagroose did her level best not to reach across the room and strangle her brother as much as she'd like to or smack him, which was her other idea. It would give her no end of satisfaction at ending his whining and pacing, but it wouldn't serve her long-term goals any good. Quite the contrary.
What it would do would be to drive a wedge between them, weaken her control over him when she could least afford it. For better or for worse she needed him. Besides, he was her brother. Somethings you had to forgive or at least overlook.
“Yorrick,” she sighed in exasperation.
“What?” he demanded, still pacing.
“Will you settle down? You're going to wear out the carpet at this rate. We're not due in for another two days.” She consulted the clock and then frowned. “Forty-one hours. So give it a rest will you?”
Yorrick grunted as he flopped down into a chair. That didn't last, however; he got up and paced a moment later.
He was going cold sober and that apparently wasn't agreeing with him. That was tough. The captain of the ship they were on was a teetotaler and therefore ran a
dry ship. That sucked. All the booze she'd gotten from the crew who had hidden their own stashes was long gone; her brother had sucked it all down. She owed quite a few favors for it, but did he understand that? Of course not. All he wanted was more—more and adventure.
They couldn't get into the net, which was his other source of complaint. Well, that and the crew. The captain had shut down the recreational side to conserve the computer resources and protect it from possible attack. Since they only accepted transmissions from Mars, she wasn't certain where the threat would be. And they wouldn't know it if it did get on board and bit them in the ass.
She shot her brother a pitying expression behind his back briefly, but then schooled her face to more passive lines as he turned back from staring at the tiny wall screen. Her long-range plans to take over the company were in jeopardy, or so she had initially thought. Now she knew better. Their father had given them daily downloads to keep them up-to-date, not that Yorrick had appreciated or taken advantage of them.
Some would see the situation as disaster. She remembered Donald Trump's maxim about the best time to be in the market was when it was down; you got good bargains that way. He was right; fishing in troubled waters could lead to lucrative returns.
“Dad said they are building a military. Roman's working on that now. So is Zack. As soon as we dock, I'm going to sign up,” Yorrick stated. He punched a fist in his hand. “Finally I'm going to be somebody! Prove myself!” He said with a hint of triumph in his smile.
“No, you're not,” She said patiently.
“I'm not?” he asked in amusement. “Just watch me,” he vowed.
“Yorrick,” she sighed. “You haven't been to a gym in how long?” He just stared at him. “The last time you worked out, full contact didn't work out well for you, did it?” She reminded him. She definitely remembered his busted nose and bloody face. He'd cried like a baby too. She gently explained why he couldn't be in military. “Brother, fighting is different in VR than it is in real life. There is no do over, no reset. It's for real. If you screw up even a little, you are dead. You can do it all right and still get dead if someone else gets you first,” she warned. “The answer is no.”
“But …”
“Remember our training? With Charlie and the others? Self-defense? How it had hurt?”
Yorrick grimaced. Eventually he looked away, now sullen and hurt.
“Now imagine that. Imagine being in the dirt. Getting shot at. Getting shot,” she said, eyes flashing in concern. The concern was genuine, not just for her brother, but for her plans. For her plans to have any meaning, she had to have him on board.
“Okay,” he mumbled. “I think I can do it though.”
She gauged his stringency. He could be stubborn and mulish, digging his heels in at the most inopportune moments. “You've never had the mindset like Zack. He's been the hands on-guy—the killer brother mine. He's better at it. Leave such things to the experts. You belong in a different circle.”
“Yeah, but I can do it! I can lead!” Yorrick insisted, waving his hands about as he paced. “I can handle strategy. Be the boss from orbit or something.” He threw his hand up in disgust.
“You think people would follow a voice over the radio? They don't know you from Adam, and they won't care who you are related to.” She shook her head. “No Yorrick, it's not going to happen. Dad'll tell you the same thing I'm telling you now. If you push it, he'll let you do something with Roman just to prove to you it's not worth your time. It's not. Get over it and get on board.”
“Whatever. I'll talk to him later.”
“Right.” Wendy considered her options. If he did get killed … she'd have to do some discrete checking, but it might mean his shares would revert to her unless he had a proper will.
<>V<>
Jamey McGillicutty wasn't happy about losing the VR network. He'd fallen in love with a girl on Earth and the loss of the web, plus the potential loss of the girl, it hurt. It hurt a lot.
He rubbed the back of his mane. Yes mane, he thought. He might have been born a human but that didn't mean he had to remain one. Step by step he was turning himself into something else, something more. Evolving, becoming … something else.
He'd started with his first love, an African lion. Even before he became a teenager he'd gotten into body modification, albeit at a limited amount. When he'd gotten through high school and college, his friends had barely recognized him. He'd had his legs and hands surgically altered, his face, his ears … the list went on and on.
But some of the surgeries had been by illicit companies. And normals, called muggles by those who were different, had looked at him with disgust. So, he'd moved to space.
When the Neos had been announced, he'd immediately gotten a job with Lagroose Industries. He wanted to be close to others of his kind, if not by birth than by strength of heart.
He'd gotten it, though some of their reactions hadn't been easy for him to accept at first. Some had thought of him as strange; others had looked on him disdainfully. None had embraced him, not until he'd embraced them, becoming the bridge between Neos and humans. Or so he thought.
With his salary and access to the company's medical establishment, he'd continued his self-determined evolution. He'd become a lion, having his face reshaped into a muzzle, the hair turned into a mane, his ears docked and reshaped, his hands turned into claws, even a proper tail grown and surgically attached. He loved the look, the feeling of power, the strength, his teeth …. Like a proper version of a lion creature from Earth's centuries-old animation.
Still, it had its downsides. Table manners went out the window. His family on Earth had essentially written him off long ago. Speech could be a hassle too, what with his muzzle and long fangs. He'd gone through several sets of teeth before settling on his current ones.
He'd worked various postings until he'd been assigned most recently as a liaison to the feline districts where he belonged. He wasn't popular among some; a few complained he still smelled of human. That was tough for them. He was king of the jungle, and he didn't let them forget it. He tried to think of himself as tough but fair. He had few complaints from them on his record. At least, none legit or unearned.
So, being a giant lionoid had its perks: teeth baring, fur, the growl, the eyes. When he roared they listened. Well, most did. All but Snarf and his ilk, but he ignored them.
The snarfs weren't true Lagroose people. They tended to stand apart because of their origins and their insistence on clinging to not only their idea of independence but also their supposed disinterest in human matters. Eggbert wasn't a bad sort; he tended to support the others. That foolish enabling said a lot about the little cat. He might have a big heart but wasn't that bright.
That had to change. Eventually it might. But Jamey had a mission. He'd served in security for decades. Now it was time for him to help liberate his homeworld. Maybe, just maybe he'd find Esmerelda. Anything could happen he reasoned as he signed up for ground assignment. He knew with his history of being from Earth he'd most likely be tapped despite his age and appearance.
“What do you want, McGillacutty?” His supervisor, Dadsworth, Aka “Daddy” demanded, half exasperated.
“Sir, I want in. Whatever's going to Earth, I want in.”
“You missed the boat, didn't you hear? Charlie's left a while ago.”
“Not SAR. I want ground duty. We're going to need soldiers,” the chimeran said, flexing his claws in front of the camera. He knew the gorilla hated it, which was why he enjoyed doing it. “I'm in. I've been on the ground. I've got security training. You know I can whoop your ass in any VR battlefield sim out there. I'm in. I'll bet you Claudis will be in too, if he hasn't called already.”
Claudis was another lionoid. He was bigger, a bit older, and more cat than man now. He was also pretty good at just about everything from hand-to-hand to command and control.
Dadsworth grunted. If the lionoid was stupid enough to be gung ho, so be it. He didn't want a hero on his wa
tch. Besides, if he said no, the cat would just nag the shit out of him until he changed his mind or bearing that, jump the chain of command to get his transfer from someone else, possibly Roman himself. He might as well save himself some future headache and go with the inevitable. “Fine, I'll let Roman know. Anything else?”
“Yeah. Get Snarf to piss somewhere other than on the curb near the front airlock. The cat has no manners honestly. He's as bad as a damn dog.”
The gorilla grimaced in distaste. “Whatever. I'll get maintenance to clean it up. All's quiet?”
“Of course,” the chimera answered.
“Then I've got better things to do than waste my time with you. Stick to the job you've got before you go off and play soldier. Some hero,” he said contemptuously as he cut the circuit.
James shut the phone off and put it in his vest pocket. He whirled his billy club, tapped it occasionally on a railing, and kept going. If he could whistle he would have. “Finally! Some action!”
<>V<>
Duncan shook his head as he sat down. It was still hard to understand some of the greater concepts the humans talked about. It was unfair, he was a generation 1 Neodog, created by their creator but not as smart as the others.
Their universe was filled with unfair things. Neodogs were to be the first of the uplifted animals. Instead they were among the last it seemed. The apes were so close to humans that it was understandable that they became like them so easily.
His kind hadn't had that easy road. The Dalmatian knew that. For over a century, they had served in the shadows as “smart dogs.” Jerry Lee, Niner, Rin Tin, Blaze, the list went on and on. Their forefathers and mothers, the legends of their kind. They walked in their footsteps now.
He'd gotten news that Bumper had lost his life on the ground. Now the humans were getting ready to go there as a war raged. He'd had to look the word up. What he had learned appalled him. Such death and destruction! On such a vast scale, it was hard to understand. And even harder to understand why … why it had happened, and why the humans felt the need to intervene.
