Drew's Trouble with Cats and Roaches Pt. 15 Combined

"Are you ok with this?" he asked Li-Jing with a chuckle and a shrug of his shoulders.

She lightly bowed and smiled, "One must be flexible in matters of diplomacy, don't you think?"

There was a pause when Drew realized that he just became a father... he thought so anyway.

He heard something while contemplating this quandary. He turned back to Li-Jing

"I am sorry did you say something?"

'What does the cat eat?" Li-Jing asked

"Anything she wants," was his reply, which startled Li-Jing.

"Papa, no joke, you scare people!' he received in accented English from Cara.

"She has food in the shuttle Ill offload before I leave," he commented to Li-Jing.

He turned to Cara, "Come help unload and get some money to buy clothes."

LI-Jing commented "I have some she can wear. It's the least I can do to help my community with this opportunity."

"Just a day or two, ok Cara?"

"Yes papa," She said with a Mona Lisa smile.

***

His arrival back in the capital was meant to be quiet and he was so pleased that it was. He immediately called Eddie and 'requested' a meeting and did the same for the Clan queen and her human scholar Aiden. Aiden was the same human that was freed with Cara on the day of the Clan Cat capitulation.

The meeting was held in the overly ostentatious quarters he had been given in the palace. Drew did not live in this overstated museum of stolen objects. He lived in a three-bedroom suite originally created for a butler or someone or thing of that status. His living quarters were hidden behind all the drapes and hidden panels that adorned the room.

His guests arrived and he was so tired from continuous 'excitement' that he plowed right past all the pleasantries.

"So please tell me what Cara is to you? What is she?" he spoke directly to the Queen but kept an eye on Aiden.

"She was a plaything my husband gave me when we married and I kept her all these years," replied the queen.

"She is an abomination and should have been killed," stated Aiden through his translator.

"Silence dog, you will pay for that'" screeched the Queen.

"I am free now and can speak the truth. She was experimented on and changed from human to something else. A witch! She knows things when she should not. She is cursed!" yelled Aiden.

Drew sat up and leaned across the table, "You can leave now." Drew paused when Aiden kept sitting and not moving.

"You should get up and walk out now," Drew said in a low, slow voice, "because if I have to get up to help you leave, you may end up damaged." Drew could hear the words in Latin and then Aiden's eyes shot up and he almost fell backwards trying to leave.

Drew turned to Eddie and let out a sigh, "so what does her medical records show you."

Eddie was squeamish in responding, "I am sorry, this should have been flagged for my review when we did her Med review when she came to us," he kept flipping through the records on his tablet. He finally set down the tablet and let out a long breath.

"It looks like a very bad version of what my father did to you." Eddie almost had tears in his eyes remembering. "Hers was worse, there is actual scar tissue in her brain, my guess from the procedure. It's amazing she is not a vegetable."

"You did this?" Drew glared at the Queen.

"No. My Lord did," The queen would not meet his eyes, "when she lived but could not talk, mind to mind, she was given to me as a servant, I have protected her ever since."

"Well she is now my adopted daughter," Drew looked at Eddie. He could see Eddie start to smile, "And is now only one of two people that we know of that can talk to the spiders."

Drew got up and stomped off, he was feeling the pain from so long ago, and wanted to talk to Cara to see if she remembered. But that would have to wait for a day or two, until he picked her up.

***

He had picked up Things One and Two from their respective ships in orbit. He was taking them down for a council meeting and later celebration of the battle.

Council meeting sounded so formal. It was more an ad hock group of Cat leaders all forced to deal the life they now lived. Limited number of Cats, an active enemy on the Cat border, Humans that did not understand the word 'no' and colonists from almost all known races setting up settlements on the current Cat home planet...not too much to discuss.

"So, lord, explain to us again how you were just going to have a quiet couple of days at your new hut?" Commented Thing One for the third time trying to goad him into reacting, "what else did he say he was going to do, dear sister?"

"Umm, read a book?" commented Thing Two with lots of sarcasm.

Finally, Drew let out a sigh and responded "Yes, that was the idea."

"So, let me get this straight, in a couple of days, you find a stowaway, decide to adopt her. You find a new sentient species, big fucking hairy spiders! You find out you, and your adoptive daughter, are the only ones that can speak to the BIG FUCKING HAIRY spiders. And you leave her in the care of the woman you picked out of a crowd after you flushed her previous bosses into space," Thing One commented.

"Is that the general idea? Did I get the facts straight? And do we need to talk about the BIG FUCKING HAIRY spiders that can talk?" finished Thing One.

"Yup, that's about the size of it." Drew admitted

"Well this should make for a fantastic council meeting," Thing One commented, always being the more talkative of the two.

"This is just the beginning of these meetings you two. I expect you two be on your best behavior and learn to lead, not just shoot to kill," commented lord Drew.

***

He dropped his shuttle down gently in the designated zone. He could see a welcoming committee and he groaned. He hated the pomp and circumstance, the hellos, the shaking of hands and the polite small talk.

He did his post flight check, and he was out the hatch. Cara came racing over and jumped into his arms. She almost beat Kitten. He hugged her back and let her know she could fill him in later because they were going to spend the night at the 'cabin.' He had left Goldie at the capital because of her reaction to the spiders. So, it would be just the three of them.

He met Li-Jing and thanked her for taking care of Cara and Kitten. She motioned for him to follow and they walked a small distance away from the others.

She turned and looked him in the eyes, "Has she told you about the headaches?"

"NO! What headaches?" Drew asked.

"She had several while we were working with the spiders. The earth term in English is migraines, I think" Li-Jing commented. "They really worried me. She fought through them, but something is not right."

"OK, I'll make some calls from the shuttle on our way to my valley. I'll get her scheduled in for a medical review."

He made it back to gather up the two weary travelers only to find a spider a bit smaller that the queens mate bouncing on its pads beside Kitten and Cara,

Drew walked up and surveyed the scene, somehow, he knew this was going to end badly.

"And our new friend is who?" Drew asked standing over the energetic spider.

"I named her Hoppy. She is the spider emissary to the capital. But that sounds so formal. She is our friend. She wants to see our huge nest and then come back and share stories." Cara stated with the enthusiasm of youth.

He heard and then felt the queen approach. He slowly turned and was greeted by her foreleg stroking his chin. He felt her in his head and the symbols and images flowing. She was asking if he 'could be her child's mother for a short while and allow her to experience all of his nest."

Of course, he said yes.

They boarded the shuttle and after a brief pre-flight, they lifted off and started towards his valley. The three 'children' were in the back looking out the many view ports.

He put on his headset and called Eddie.

"Yes lord, what may I do for you?" asked Eddie.

"Before I stomped out of the meeting, you had mentioned lesions or scar tissue on Cara's brain because of the treatment?" asked Drew.

"Yes lord, but as I said, it was a cursory checkup, mostly dealing concerns over viruses and other contagions. I really need to have medical do a full work up. Is there a problem?"

"Yes headaches, massive migraines when she spends too much time being empathic." Drew said with a great deal of worry.

"When will you be back lord? I will schedule a full work up..." Eddie offered.

As Eddie was talking, he heard a squeak from the back and turned his head to see Cara holding her temples.

In his mind he heard Kitten say "Papa, sister hurt."

Drew did three things at once, he reached back, grabbed Cara with one hand, swinging her forward and into the co-pilots chair. He punched off the autopilot with his other hand and yanked the ship over for home. He cut Eddie off in mid explanation on differing tests.

"Eddie we are inbound, with a medical emergency. Clear the lanes and a landing space next to whatever medical facility you want" Drew was starting to cry, 'I can't let her feel the pain anymore."

Drew was crying remembering the pain of his change and through his link to her, he was feeling her pain now, and just could not bear it.

***

Drew sat with his feet propped on a coffee table. He was feeling melancholy and he was drunk. Thing One and Two lounged, on the sofa next to him, they were drunk too. They leaned on him from both directions. Empty beer bottles littered the table and the adjacent floor where the Other young lord had staggered into the table while trying to hand Drew another beer. The Clan Queen and her entourage were obliterated and half or more were asleep.

For Drew, it was the most successful negotiations he had ever been part of. They just finished the last of the 'council' meetings for a while. He was not sure he could survive anymore.

It started with an idea, that came from a simple concept, 'there were not enough cats in the three separate clans to rule anything.' 'So' thought Drew "combine them under one Lord or Queen.' Of course, easier said than done. But the introduction of tequila into the negotiations seemed to be the defining factor.

His melancholy came...because they chose him.

He just wanted to be normal.

He wanted to spend his time growing a garden. Playing with his children. Taking walks with... Just being normal.

Now, he was Lord Protector of three clans and had the responsibility to turn them into one, the Pride. The Pride now numbered over 400 cats and he was responsible. Always responsible.

While he could still walk, or sort of walk, it was time to go visit Cara in her med chamber. The nursing staff would chide him for showing up drunk, and they would have lots to whisper about once he left.

He found Target asleep on the sofa he had placed there. Her head back on a cushion, lightly snoring. Goldie was sprawled at her feet and kitten was curled next to her on the sofa.

The animals were awake and looking for him before he got there. They carefully unwound and silently greeted him with wagging tales. He sat on the sofa and looked at the tank in front of him. Cara rested quietly inside the nanite liquid. He pulled Target over, so her head was in his lap, she just snuggled in.

Cara was healing and he was grateful. But she was changing too. The docs explained that the med bed was bringing her to a health level that matched her genetic code. The 'treatments' she had received, the years of starvation, and lord knows what else all had taken a toll.

But she was alive and one of only two, that could talk to the spiders. That included the new 'emissary" living in Cara's new room...damn hairy, 8 legged spiders...

The tiredness from all the stress, the downing of lots of alcohol, the intense discussions of combining the clans, all had him dropping into sleep quickly. He had one last quick thought as he lost consciousness.

"Why does Cara have breasts?"

End of Chapter 15