Cats Cradle Chapter 2
Cally and Teela had found their way to a bar instead, ditching their guide halfway through in the process. It was a good place to talk... unlikely to be bugged, and loud enough that any conversation would be drowned out.
Just make sure your drink hadn’t been spiked before trying it.
Teela was still brooding about the discussion between Cally and Sato. On the first look the Senshi had been quite nice, but there was a smoothness with how she suggested the insane credit rates for Cally... or how easy the word ‘pet’ for Teela herself had rolled of her tongue. But at least the Furby had been a nice touch to the office. It was cute and humanising.
The bar itself was a rocky cave with a large counter and a number of small tables distributed over the area. Indirect lighting rising up along the edges was giving the whole bar a dim touch in the otherwise well lit asteroid station.
“Get me a table,” Cally ordered “I’m getting myself a drink,”
Teela watched her waiting at the bar for a moment, before picking a table towards one of the edges of the cave. She was hoping Cally would order her something to drink too. A few passersby gave her odd looks.
They probably weren’t expecting to see a feral cat in their bar.
Cally came back with a cheap looking beer, and a litre glass of rehydrated milk for Teela.
Teela smiled and pulled the glass towards herself, the long wait in the truck and later in Satos office had made her thirsty. It didn’t quite smell right, but then nothing in Fenspace did ever match the creamy goodness of Earth milk.
“Wait!” Cally snapped, sharply snatching the glass back. “Got to check it first.”
Teela looked a little bit puzzled, but then nodded, still staring possessively at her glass. Cally just popped open a small compartment in her right arm, taking out a Leatherman, a small plastic dropper, and a tiny booklet of test strips.
“Thionite,” Cally explained. “They might’ve spiked our drinks,”
It wasn’t a case of being paranoid, it was a case of being paranoid enough. Even if they didn’t know who the pair really where, chances are they’d do it just to get ‘em both hooked on the stuff. It wouldn’t be the first time Cally’d heard of it being done.
First she tested the milk. The spot paper turned red. Cally snapped the red part off.
Teela looked alarmed for a moment. “Is that?”
“It’s okay,” Cally assured her. “Just means there’s iron in it.”
Now for her beer. Take a small drop and place it in the box. It came up a slight pale yellow, tinted solely by the beer itself. Cally just nodded her head with satisfied approval.
“Also clear.” As well it should be, she saw him open it.
Cathy grabbed her glass of Milk a second time, sniffed at it for a last time and then took a large gulp. She hesitated for a moment, but then she took a second one.
“Thank you Cally...” she said with a smile.
“It’s cruel not to feed pets,” Cally answered with a hard grin. “Ain’t you glad to have such a kind owner?”
Teela put an arm around Cally, pulled herself to her side and purred loudly for a moment... Cally tensed up noticeably, looking a little uncomfortable for a few brief moments before remembering that Teela was supposed to be her ‘pet’. Forcing herself to relax, she started to stroke the catgirl gently under the chin.
God how she hoped Jet didn’t find out. That thought gave her the devils own grin.
“I see you’ve got it well trained,” An woman’s voice said. They both looked up, a little startled, pushing off each other.
Glasses, golden-brown hair and a pair of straight pigtails like motorcycle handbars. A blue bodysuit, a figure that suggested ‘biomod’ and a white cape with grey furred collar. Beside her, a bewildered looking tabby catgirl with weird boatlight eyes, stuck in what looked like well-worn overalls.
Cathy looked at both of them suspiciously, but stayed silent. There was something terribly wrong about their scent, and it wasn’t something she could easily place.
“Who’re you?” Cally demanded.
“Kua tro,” The woman answered with a cheerful smile. Her eyes were hidden behind Cally’s reflection in her spectacles. Cally saw the roman number IV engraved on a plate just beneath her collar bone, and assumed it might’ve been ‘Quattro’ that she’d said.
Beyond the Audi reference, it meant nothing to her.
“Whad’ya want then?” Cally snorted.
“I hear you need some cash,” Quattro answered, still smiling.
Cally quickly figured the whole cuteness was an act... but covering what? Something wasn’t right, not with that stylised lab coat. A zwilnik mad?
“What about it?” she asked, forcing herself to look uninterested.
“Well, I need a new feral, this one’s getting a little too worn out.” Quattro explained, still in that creepy alto-voice of hers. “Vivio,” she snapped.
The tabby catgirl in the grey overalls stared blankly at her. The lights were on behind her eyes but clearly, nobody was home.
“It’s not worn out at all...” Cally scoffed. “It’s blank.”
Teela looked like she’d bitten a lemon. The catgirl hissed at the newcomer in her bodysuit.
“And my, some spunk,” Quattro commented approvingly. “Just what I need!” she beamed. “I’ll give you 70 thousand Australian for her. I’ll even throw in Vivio here for free, since I need to get rid of her anyway and Sato doesn’t let me just dump them.”
70 thousand. Just enough to cover her debt to Naoko. Interesting.
“No deal,” Cally said quickly “Besides, I don’t know where that’s been.”
Teela was nearly on all fours ready to pounce.
“You might want to control that,” Quattro suggested, pointing a single finger at Teela. The catgirl’s hair was standing on end.
“Cool it, Teela,” Cally warned, making a show of waving the remote control. Even on the small screen, it was obvious just how pissed off the catgirl was.
Teela froze, eyes locking on the device as she scratched at her collar. Unnoticed by either of them, Quattro reached into her pocket, clicking a single switch with her finger. A savage grin spread across her face for a moment, before she clamped down hard on it.
Vivio just stared with blank curiosity at the world around her.
“75,” Quattro said, “Along with Vivio. It’s a good deal, ne?”
“Yeah,” Cally admitted, “But I’ve had Teela for so long, I can’t bear to part with her.” She smirked. “I’ve got her just right,”
Teela shot Quattro a smug grin as Cally began to stroke her just behind the ears. Teela started to purr quietly.
Quattro’s expression blackened into a vicious sneer, her sharp golden eyes penetrating through her glasses for a few moments. Cally was reassured by the familiar weight of her gun pressing against her chest. She slipped a hand inside her jacket, making it obvious she’d defend herself and her property.
Her heart began to pound... just draw, aim and squeeze.
Quattro exhaled a sigh “Well, your loss,” she said, making it as clear as possible that it really didn’t matter to her. The madgirl spun on her heels. “Vivio,” she snapped, “Come with me.”
She marched from the bar trailing a chilling draft, Vivio following mindlessly behind.
“I think we might’ve found our ghost hacker,” Cally commented, keeping her voice quiet. She looked down into her beer bottle. Suddenly, she wasn’t very thirsty.
Teela was just breathing in and out, trying to calm down again. Yes, Cally was right, maybe they were at the right place. Teela found herself hoping she was wrong.
The other Gliesbies in the bar hadn’t even bothered to look at them.
Quattro exhaled a long sigh. “Go back to the lab, Vivio,” she ordered. The catgirl nodded and disappeared. Quattro herself was heading to Sato’s office, doing her best to ignore the useful idiots around her.
She pulled the device from her pocket, just a little PDA with a few choice...’modifications’ and began to smirk as she ran through the data it’d collected.
Low level radio signals from the collar. Responses from the controller. Collar signals were encrypted. She thought for a few seconds, considering it thoroughly, reading the raw data.
‘Dane encryption’ she thought, with a contemptuous sneer. “Like opening into a child's toy box.”
It didn’t take her too long to break.
She didn’t bother knocking on Sato’s door.
“What is it?” Sato demended. glaring at her from behind her desk.
“I have the information you wanted,” Quattro answered. “It wasn’t hard at all. Just a basic mundane algorithm.”
She spoke like it really didn’t matter to her, like it was trivial.
“And?” Sato pushed.
“Biosignals mostly like you’d expect” Quattro said. She smiled with satisfaction. She knew something Sato didn’t, and wanted to drink deep of that feeling. “And something interesting. It sends back location data to the controller.”
Sato raised an eyebrow.
“Mmmm,” Quattro nodded smugly. “You know what that means?”
“That someone likes to know where her catgirl is,” Sato answered, crossly.
Quattro scowled. “You’re too trusting.”
“And you’re too paranoid.” Naoko snapped back at her. “If it was sending something more complex maybe, but right now, it is a reasonable precaution for an owner to make. I knew people who sold collars like this for years.”
“Position, connections and the memory of the catgirl... the result could be a perfect map of the asteroid” Quattro said coldly.
Sato hated when she talked down to her like that. “I know.” she snarled through gritted teeth. “And every single shipment coming in through the hanger could be a Patrol sting... but if I turned away each ship that you found something suspicious about, then the only thing that’d land here would be cosmic dust.”
Quattro glared.
Sato leaned back in her chair. “Remember, once is happenstance, twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”
“If you even get three times. This isn’t the Silly Sailors.” she sneered.
Naoko shot her a hard glare. “I am responsible for making money with our operations. We have been unbothered by the Patrol for so long precisely because I have not given in to the same paranoia as all the other zwilniks. Bring me something concrete first.”
And by her tone, that was final.
Quattro snorted her contempt and left quickly.
Cally and Teela were lost. They’d been trying to find their quarters from the bar, and figured they’d take a wrong turn somewhere. Compounded by another, then another.
“I’m sure it was a left,” Cally said, scratching her head.
Teela looked up at her, rolling her eyes.
“Up the main stairwell 2 levels, door 4, take a left... then a third right.” Cally recited from memory.
But they weren’t anywhere near AE-85.
“Directions were never your strong point,” Teela giggled.
Cally rolled her eyes. It was being mapped by the collar, that was the main thing. It was just a matter of wandering around lost in a very realistic manner.
“Maybe we should ask someone” suggested Teela carefully. Not really what they wanted to do now, but it sounded good.
“Then we look like idiots,” Cally replied and shook her head.
“We look like idiots wandering around.”
“Lets try this corridor... I think it should go back to the bar... maybe.” Teela said and pointed into a larger corridor. She had no clue where it was going. This asteroid station was definitely a large one and had most likely been in place for years.
Just when they decided to enter the corridor a voice sounded behind them.
“What you two are doing here? This is a restricted area.”
Cally and Teela turned around to see Sato standing in a different corridor, looking at them. Teela smiled happily and sighed relieved.
Cally looked angrily at Teela and slapped her.
“YOU said you knew the way to our room... keep your mouth shut next time if you are not sure” Cally said, then she turned to Sato with a slightly embarrassed look.
She exhaled a long sigh. “Teela said she remembered the way to our rooms....we’re new here.”
The catgirl scratched herself where Cally had hit her and stayed silent. It refused to stop stinging.
Sato wore a stern expression for a few moments, but then she nodded. “Follow me... and stay in the public areas next time...”
Cally looked annoyed at Teela. “Bloody cat..”
Teela put on an innocent ‘who me?’ face and nodded obediently.
Sato sighed mentally and began to lead them back to the living areas and to their room. She would have to check their story later by looking through all the camera recordings. Somehow though, she doubted any spy would make themselves look like an idiot by getting lost...
She decided not to tell Quattro.... it would just make her even more paranoid. She might even have sent the pair off into this area just to frame them.
“What is with that Quattro anyway?” Cally asked.
“She’s our madgirl.” Sato answered, “Try to stay away from her.”
“I mean, what could she want with Teela? She tried to buy her off us in the bar”
Sato shrugged, “Research.” Who knows? “She’s a madgirl. Try to keep it from straying if you don’t want to lose it,”
Teela bared her fangs, but her flicking tail showed she was not really feeling her bravest at the moment.
“Right so.” Cally cringed.. She’d picked that irritating phrase from Jet.
“So tell me Cally,” Sato continued, making conversation, “What was your last stop before you were attacked. What’s your normal route?”
“Stellvia was my last stop,” Cally answered. Sato’s expression blackened.
“That’s unusual,” she remarked.
Cally gave a dismissive shrug, “Best place. The rooms are private and there’s so much traffic through the station that they don’t have a chance to check everyone coming and going.”
Teela smiled. “And they like having catgirls around” she added with a cheery grin.
Sato looked dubious. “Most couriers I know run through Genaros,”
“How many of them get caught? Space Patrol and Bounty Hunters all over the place,” Cally began to strut.
“You nearly got caught,” Sato groused.
Cally saw her her opening. Time to spear the fish. The fastest way to make friends was to share an enemy.
“It was that 4-eyed stellvian bitch,” she spat. “I’m certain of it,”
“Oh?” Naoko raised an interested eyebrow. “Do tell,”
Cally snorted. “We did the deal in the bedroom... two duffle bags with 20 kilos apiece in them. Empty the bags of money, fill them with purple, the usual deal. So we do it, and everything’s sweet... I just have to check the purity of it,”
She popped open that small compartment on her arm, showing her the leatherman, and that leaflet of papers, one single one stained a deep purple. The papers were common, intended to detect thionite in a sample, or if a sample of thionite had been cut, and with what.
“A hundred percent pure, uncut stuff. Fresh off Venus.” Cally bragged. She hid the paper and closed the compartment. “Everything was done and dusted, just had to get out to my truck, when there’s a knock at the door,”
Cally took a breath.
“We both looked at the door, then each other, collectively shitting bricks. Kiko answered it, and it was herself in her uniform, smiling from behind her glasses. Fujisawa with some sort of scanner. Citing some safety clause about a bad pressure seal, she asks us to leave the room”
Probably bullshit. Cally knew as much about Stellvian operations as she did about memetic handwavium theory, but then again she was betting Sato knew even less.
“5 minutes later, she’s smiling as she lets us back in. Nothing looked disturbed at the time, so we finished up and hurried off.” Cally feigned a sigh. “Probably should’ve checked the bags for tracers, but we were both spooked and we forgot.”
Sato nodded. “And they were bugged?”
“Oh yeah,” Cally carried on. “I get out past Mars, I get a frantic message from Kiko in her van warning me. I hear the seals on the door go, followed by Fujisawa’s damn cheerful...” she loaded those words with as much hate as she could muster, “...voice telling Kiko she was under arrest and acting so damned proud of herself.”
Callys voice rang off the stone walls.
“I’ve known Kiko since before I came up here....”
“You weren’t tracked here were you?” Sato snapped her down, stunning her for a moment.
“Uh...”Cally held up her hand for a moment, “Well... when we lost the cargo we lost the tracker.... it’s how we got away. They went after the beacon while we hid on an asteroid.”
Naoko stopped for a few seconds, mulling it over in her mind. Paranoia could be a healthy thing in the right amounts.
“Are you sure?” she demanded. She stared into Cally’s eyes, her expression firm.
“Of course. Damn sure.”
Cally tried to act insulted. Hadn’t she been the one who planned the whole thing?
Sato stepped back a little. “We will still have check the truck for trackers,”
Teela smiled happily. “Can I help you looking for them... hunting for hidden stuff is always fun!”
The station commander glared down at her for a moment. “It would be best if both of you were nowhere near the vehicle,”
Teela shrunk down like a scolded child.
“So how did you escape, Cally?” Sato enquired, her tone flat. Cally wasn’t sure whether she was just curious to hear the end of the story, or starting to get suspicious. The senshi gave no indication.
Cally exhaled a sigh. “We got shot up, buncha trigger happy lunatics. The bags were blown out when the cargobay decompressed. The tracker must’ve been in one of them... they went after that while we cut power and hid on an asteroid. Once we were sure they were gone, we fired up the engine and crawled here.”
Cally forced the anger, calling up some of her most hated memories to fuel it.
“But they got Kiko. The bitch got her. Kiko’s my friend since I came up in ‘08... back before any of this SMoF politics got going, all these assholes making themselves kings in their own personal fantasy while screwing it up for the rest of us.”
Cally stopped with a bitter snarl. Sato mulled it over for far longer that Cally was comfortable with. After a few tense heartbeats, the zwilnik Senshi’s expression softened into an easy smile.
“I think we might get along just fine,” she said amiably. “Your quarters are just around this corner, try to remember where they are this time.” She chuckled, covering her mouth in that uniquely Japanese manner.
It creeped Cally out no-end for reasons she couldn’t quit put her thumb on.
“Thanks,” she said.
Naoko showed them through the door, before leaving on ‘station business’. If Cally hadn’t known better, she might’ve pegged her as just an ordinary Senshi. Villains had a disturbing tendency to be surprisingly banal.
There were very few Quattros in the world.
“So, do we do it know?” Teela asked, fidgeting with her collar.
Cally checked the her watch. “Another hour or so. Time enough to unpack my towel.”
“Towel?”
“Every good hitchhiker knows where her towel is.” Cally grinned.
Teela cursed in her own language, muttering something dark under her breath that sounded like a death sentence.
Cally dropped herself onto the bed.... little more than a simple cot. She half expected the thing to collapse under her weight.
It was a small room, even for Fenspace, and decorated in the local manner.... which was subtly creepy. There was a small table, a place that’d been set aside for Teela, and literally not much else aside from a small porthole, with the black cloak of space clinging to the other side of the glass.
Either Naoko was supremely good, and trying to string her along into a trap, or she’d made a connection with her.... she decided to hope for the latter and begin to wonder what she’d do if it was the former.
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