Drew's Trouble with Cats and Roaches Pt. 20

To all,

Due to the interest in this series, here is Chapter 20. My apologies to those that focus on a certain aspect of these stories, this one has no sex. Sorry, just did not squeeze it in. Promise to do better in the future...😊

It's time to get back into space. Bureaucrats will start to creep in on the ground on both series. It is inevitable in the reaches of human societies. Cockroaches, bureaucrats and at least one accountant to keep track of them, will rule the world for all eternity.

Us explorers, artists, and adventurers, only hope to leave an acknowledged smudge on history.

Any aliens, real or imagined, are purely a construct of my twisted and warped mind.

I thank everyone so much for reading my stories and enjoying them.

As we enter and play in this year of 2021, please stay safe and sane.

Part 20

***

El frowned but did as directed. She was shocked but there they were. Two small scout ships and one the size of a destroyer all outlined in a fuzzy output display.

"They think they are invisible, but they are mistaken. It's our little secret among the smugglers." The captain paused and swung his chair around to look at El's station. He had a plasma weapon laying in his lap.

"Think of this and the next two days as a gift to your Lord Drew. And welcome to my ship, Intelligence Officer Electra. Your partner in your little adventure should be stowed in your cabin about now." El flicked he eyes and saw other bridge crew with weapons drawn.

"What? Do your think that you were the only one to have secret contacts in Earth's intelligence communities?" the smuggler captain commented while smiling.

"I am offering a deal. I want us and the other smugglers...well all that want to, to be legitimate. To be an independent merchant class, to come and go from Cat space freely. We wish to expand with it and grow beyond our current loose affiliations." He paused, "In exchange, you will receive the information we have about what has happened in this sector and what we see as the natural outcome. Plus, I believe our partnership will have other benefits, since the Cats do not have a merchant marine fleet.'

He paused again, "I know of you and your reputation. The main reason you are not floating dead in space is because I know you fed the Earth space forces incorrect data and so saved countless smuggler ships and spacers. So now Electra, what say you? Will Lord Drew talk of sharing his space with lowly smugglers?"

El just smiled and responded, "Its El but you already know I hate the name Electra, don't you? As for the main question, yes, I have already been authorized to negotiate with you 'lowly smugglers.' Now either take me back to your cabin and let me fuck you to death, or open hailing frequencies and let's see where the next two days take us."

***

Drew sat on the foundation looking down the valley. It had been quite a while since he had sat on this same piece of concrete contemplating life. The last time ended in revenge.

This time, for renewal and hopeful insight.

He could feel their presence. And he knew that that they knew, and so on. The large male came up behind him and Drew could feel his exhale. The skin and hairs at the base of Drew's neck stood on end and goose bumped accordingly.

The large male came to stand beside him. He was magnificent. He was the younger pup that had growled before at Drew during their first meeting. He had later replaced the huge silverback...when it was time. He was now huge, and easily matched his sire in size and strength. The large male Alpha sat beside Drew as the silverback had done before.

Drew slowly reached up under his neck and they made their connection. Drew found the same contradiction inside the younger alpha as he had from the older male. Having to breech eons of Darwinist drive to sit with a human and allow a sharing...instead of attacking and feeding. The younger Alpha knew that the survival of the pack was because of Drew. He may not have had the language to express it, but deep down, the Alpha and the pack knew.

They knew that there was a symbiotic relationship between this odd group of creatures that lived in their strange above ground caves, and the survival and growth of the pack. Drew was taken aback how easy it was to just sit and watch the sun rise over the mountains next to this prime predator. The smell of pine, the wolves and the mountain were refreshing.

He had left the Cat home-world the day before. With the ability of DB, he traveled to warn Earth of what they had found out about the 'Damned.' They were headed this way, due to the natural resources of this planet. The same reasoning the Roaches had for their venture. That and a plethora of overfed, soft, meek, feeding stock...humans.

The refurbished Compound was the easy destination. Others could travel here and not have the eavesdropping of the press. Elsa and Adrian had moved all the earth-bound ex-slaves to the compound once the illegal slavery operations had become public. Very public, much to the embarrassment of multiple governmental officials from multiple countries.

Drew's fear and loathing of transitioning had been palatable, but with DB's quickness and guidance he has arrived at the Cat Compound on Earth with only a minimum of sickness. He was pleased with its rebuilding and resurgence as a place of peace and safety on Earth for all species.

Elsa and a large pack of lawyers had been needed to bring things back to parody after they left for Cat space. There had been moments of known vigilante and vandalism against the Compound from 'unknown' sources while under the oversite of his father. But when Drew had defeated and embarrassed the Northern Alliance fleet, the NA had wrecked the compound on purpose.

Luckily, they were stupid enough to do it with uniformed troops, so the lawyers had a field day. Never admitting to culpability, they paid and paid dearly. They never did quite understand the tech, but all the damage was recorded and transmitted for evidence. The NA found nothing because Drew knew what his past countrymen were capable of. They just found empty caverns, and more empty caverns under the beautiful compound buildings.

Now the compound was surrounded by a double layered 12-foot-high fence system, sensors galore, drone patrols and lack of satellite observance. Drew had to smile at that one. Each time they tried to place a satellite over the compound, it went missing. Accusations were made and scoffed at. The replacement cost was so prohibitive that they finally gave up.

And the wolves were provided for. Secret tunnels led under the fence to a breeding cavern within the compound. Ground based security was not needed in the compound at night, because the compound belonged to the wolves in the dark. The symbiotic relationship was good for all species.

The sun finally cleared the top of mountain and shafts of strong light filled the glade in front of the tower foundation. Drew was about to stand when he felt the male shift. Drews head was lightly shoved and a she-wolf trotted out with a pup in her mouth. She gently laid the mewing pup at his feet and there was a menacing growl. The she-wolf then backed away showing fear of the Alpha.

Drew picked of the female pup and noticed that the coloring was different, more of a splotch pattern verses normal Wolf coloring. He looked into the eyes of pup and saw one blue, one brown. Drew slowly placed his hand one the Alpha. Drew felt more that heard the concept...mongrel.

The rest of the litter had not survived the ire of the pack. But this female pup was a gift, like Goldie had been before. Drew stood, mewing pup in arms, and bowed his head to the Alpha. Within seconds he was alone with the pup in the clearing.

"What shall we call you little girl?" Drew asked while looked at the mismatched eyes. He knew the answer, let the women in his life make the decision. He may be male, but he was not completely stupid.

***

Drew knew it was time to go in. He just did not want to. He was sitting on his old porch, outside his old suite in the compound watching the children romp in the playground he had help construct so long ago. The children had found the yipping pup and asked to keep her busy while he did his adult thing. They had named her too, once they found out that he was somehow tied to the famous Lady Target. So 'Lady' was his new family member. He must therefore be the 'tramp.' After hundreds of years, Disney, and Shakespeare, never seemed to fade away.

He got up and walked through his suite, down the corridor and into the large meeting room. So much had happened in this one large room. Life, adventure, and death all originated between these solid wood walls. He turned and looked, and his Claymore sword still hung on the wall behind the chair at the end of the long table. He put forth a sigh, the representatives were already arguing.

It was too early in the morning to start drinking so he just sauntered over to his old chair at the end of the table and sat down. The arguing participants ignored his presence for a moment and then the arguments began to faulter.

Drew looked up from his pad finally when he felt he had made his point and slowly looked at the faces at the table.

"Don't stop arguing because of me. I can use the time to schedule all of my people to be pulled off planet." He looked back at his pad trying to make them uncomfortable.

Elsa rolled her eyes and stayed silent, always the good diplomat.

"You want me to pull my ships away from protecting our colonies at Ganymede and Callisto to go chase boogeyman? What will protect our claims against these upstart federations that want to stake their own claims?" asked the NA representatives while looking at the representative of the Pan-Asian consortium.

The table reacted in more squabbles. Drew loudly slid back his chair and turned to pull the huge Claymore off the wall and return to the table. He took a two-handed grip and swished the blade back and forth a couple of times and then dropped it in the middle of the table with a huge clatter.

The Russian federation representative spun on him in mid word.

"Is this a threat to us Sir Drew or whatever your title is?" he asked. The woman representative from the Pan Asian consortium was half out of her chair before the sword could settle itself on the table.

"Threats with an ancient weapon are not acceptable on Earth. You have been gone too long or gathered improper values on the rough world you call home." She stated while trying to stand taller than her 4'10".

Drew just took a deep breath and thought about what to say, but as usual, he just let it come out.

'My apologies, I was not threatening you. I just want to make sure I do not leave it behind again. It was a gift from a dear friend. It does have its uses, but threats are not one of them. The blade still has the blood of the last...Being...I used it on. It is not used for threats but bring closure to an argument." Drew paused choking up a bit and took a deep breath to steady his nerves in front of these...'Guests.'

"I would normally clean the blade after such a use, but I wanted to remind myself of the finality of death. She was someone I loved dearly," Drew paused looking at Elsa and then down at Tiffany's dried blood still staining the blade, guard, and pommel. "I hope to never use it again, but if it means protecting of ones I love? Well, I'd burn this planet to the ground before I allow those that I love to be hurt by your inability to make decisions." Drew stopped and took and huge breath and let out a sigh.

"I came to warn you, in person, so you would know that it is real. Plus, I wanted one last look at the Compound before we pull everyone out. If you do not believe me. Send a ship. They are building up forces in the 'Seven Sisters', the Greeks called the cluster the 'Pleiades.' Its 450 light years from here and visible by the naked eye. If you want to find it, look along Orion's belt past Aldebaran. You can see the damn thing from your porch. It's a short jump to Earth."

"We handled the roaches last time. We can handle this fight again to protect Earth," stated the representative from the NA.

"We? Who is 'We'? What type of revisionist history are you living in? What type of bullshit are you telling each other?" Drew had to pause because he was about to lose his temper and kick everyone out.

"The Roaches were beaten by mistake. Actually, a whole series of bungled mishaps that all cumulated in a victory." Drew paused again and started to sort of giggle. "After the Elder fleet ran away from the approaching Roach horde. With I think, some of your ships following their asses out of system? My dad decided to commit suicide. But he decided to do it with style."

Drew just smiled with a huge grin on his face, "Dad took a crewman with him that later became his mate, but that's another story," Drew stopped because someone harrumphed when he said mate, it came from the NA section of the table.

"Still having issues with interspecies mating?" Drew commented and shook his head.

"Oh, where was I? Oh yes saving Earth. So, my father and his mate Kay were taking an old Elder destroyer and committing suicide by planning to ram the destroyer into the roach hive mother ship. At that same time, I decided to join my father in his wild stupidity. I took a rowboat up into space to keep the roach bombers busy and keep them from seeing the old broken-down Elder destroyer. I also had a crewman with me. Later to be my mate." Drew took a deep breath, "This is her blood on the sword, a really long story I will not speak of now."

He looked at all the wide-open human eyes at the table that flicked between the sword and Drew.

"Then something really crazy happened. The Elder AI came back alive on the Elder destroyer and violated its protocols. It agreed to disobey a direct order from the head Elder and join them on committing suicide. My dad named the AI 'Hal' after an earth Vid from long ago. Insane Hal then dumped the wounded Kay and Dad out into space before the impact and flew the ship into the roach mother ship by itself, recording all for posterity." Drew paused.

"God it sounds so crazy and impressive, but I assure you it wasn't. It was scary as hell. My little ship killed all the roaches we could. We got damn lucky until the dreadnought showed up and blew us to pieces. But we got in one last kick and got lucky again."

Drew was angry at this point and decided to make his final point.

"I am not sure who this 'WE' was that destroyed the Roaches. But since I am related to all the 'WE's, I assume you were not referring to some stranger. And the title is LORD Drew to you. I earned the honorific, use it carefully in the future, if you have a future." Drew was surprised how he seethed under the watchful stare of the others in the room.

"I am pulling all of my people and as many of the ex-slaves that wish to go. I will make my own plans and you had better pull your heads out of your bureaucratic asses. Just like with the Roaches, these beings are coming with a purpose. To take Earth and use you for food stock." Drew paused again to regain his nerves. He had forgotten how angry he got at sheer stupidity.

"As the old saying goes, you can't fix stupid. But the new adage should be 'But Godzilla can stomp it into the ground." Drew kept having to pause and collect his thoughts. It was aggravating him.

"One more warning and comment. All the slaves can go, ex or not. If any person or group have kept prize trophies hidden, they are to release them now! The secret is out." And with that he reached into his satchel and tossed a stack of letters on the table, each with the name of a different political group.

"You think Godzilla is vengeful, wait until you meet my mate and her niece! Have all the slaves here within a week, because if we have to come looking for them, someone is going swimming in the oceans of the Cat Home world."

***

"Not no, but FUCK no! That creature is not coming to live here, in this house with me and children? Are you out of your fucking mind?" Target barked at Drew.

Drew was bright enough to let her blow off steam for a few minutes. He heard her muttering from the small in suite kitchenette. It was times like this he was reminded she was a spacer and had the temper and language to go with her past livelihood.

"Just remember you were not happy with Hoppy coming to stay with us. You were not exactly thrilled with our four-legged friends bouncing around the house, but now you miss them. She is just another ambassador like Hoppy," countered Drew.

"Don't you fucking dare! You are asking me to agree to a two-meter cockroach coming to share our house. One of the same creatures that killed most of my spacer family and gave me this shiny eye!" Target responded becoming even more agitated if that was possible.

"As the Cats did to me and mine, my love. Yet I came to love them, be part of the Pride and lead them into a new life." Drew responded.

"That's only because you could fuck them..." she just continued to fume for a moment longer.

"OH OK, but if the 'ambassador' twitches one antennae at the children..." Target stated throwing up her arms.

Drew forcefully pulled her into a hug with a kiss on her head between her fuzzy ears.

***

A small ship sat in empty space. It was not much to look at from the outside. Other than a few odd markings and some strange protuberances, it was a basic medium size shuttle with a shark's mouth and eyes painted on it.

"Welcome to near Earth space. Please state your intentions." The little ship broadcast. There was continued silence both in and out of the little ship.

'We are broadcasting to %&*$%#$ ships directly in front of us. Please respond. We do not wish to take offensive action," stated the 'Mouse that Roared' now formally named the 'Royal Cat.'

The seven 'Damned' ships popped into visible space and opened fire. The little ship was bathed in multiple spectrums of light and energy.

"That was impolite," responded Drew from inside the little ship. He sounded calm but had almost pee'd himself as he saw the shield power signals almost fade out. 'Thank god for Kay and her home-schooled engineering on the small craft.' Drew thought.

There was silence.

"Surrender" came a translation from the lead of the other ships.

"Um...well...No," Drew responded.

There was a silent standoff.

"Since we seem to be having a miss-communication. Please let me clarify." There was a pause while Drew pulled up his preprepared speech on his tablet.

"You have entered our space with the intent of colonizing this solar system. We wish to inform you that we do not accept your request to be colonized. But we wish to offer our friendship and offer to assist you with all medical issues that we have at our disposal."

"Do you accept this offer of friendship and cooperation?" Drew finished and looked over at El and her rolling of her eyes at what she had been calling 'human stupidity' for weeks. Drew just shrugged as the energy bath from the Damned ships started up again.

As he was being shaken by the blasts to the ship, he just shrugged and stated, "I promised to read the damn thing...ok?"

The firing stopped and there was just this tiny ship, nose to nose with the seven much larger ships.

"My turn?" El asked. Well, it was not really a request, but it was as close as she was going to get to being 'polite.'

"Just remember the world is watching and listening El," Drew commented. El just looked at him, scowled and shrugged.

She stood and talked directly to the ships AI. "Visual comm on, broadcast with prearranged frequencies."

The front of the interior of the 'mouse' became a Vid screen and the bridge of the Damned ship was visible.