A hangman comes to Tyche: Part 9
Where a Grim cat finds a family
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Violet Pace flicked through the video screens with one hand while she stifled a yawn with the other. Picking up her coffee mug, she forced her eyes wide then she sighed, remembering her mug was empty.
She scrolled to the next screen then paused. She used her fingers to zoom in. The grey cat was back. A tom judging from the package he carried, and she’d guess he was an adolescent — not fully out of kittenhood but not entirely an adult. He’d clearly been cared for, given the collar he wore, but if he had an owner in the past, there was no sign of them now.
The cat pounced on something out of frame. Violet switched to the next camera. She smiled — the animal had caught a bakweevil.
Cats weren’t unusual on Mantadae, or any other station. They found lots to eat, between the insects cargo ships brought with them, the station’s own endemic pests and the soft-hearted residents who’d throw scraps from them. But this cat hadn’t figured out its place in the feline hierarchy, and he got skinnier each time she saw him on her screens.
She frowned. Her gut said she should tell someone, but who? Her boss would chastise her for watching the cat instead of flicking through frames ad nauseam.
The cat looked behind him before fleeing out of the viewport, legs sticking out of his mouth. A clowder of cats showed up in frame, but thankfully didn’t chase the grey cat further.
Violet scanned the screens, seeking the cat. Maybe she go look for it after shift, take it home with her. She snorted — she couldn’t care for a cat when the only space she had to call her own was a pod in crew barracks.
Footsteps sounded over her shoulder. She glanced back, expecting to find her boss frowning at her. Instead, Gate Keeper Inta strode across the mezzanine.
Still, Violet hunched over her monitor as she continued her search, ignoring the proper order of screen review.
She spotted the cat again in the docks. A woman with an afro of lavender curls gestured at something out of frame with one hand. The other rested on her hip, above a blaster that was technically illegal in port. But Violet decided she’d wait to see if the woman left the docks before reporting it.
Another woman with electric blue hair hefted one of the two crates at their feet and said something in response to the first woman. A third person with unruly curls and adorable freckles tapped a tablet as she pointed at the crates then at something off screen.
The grey cat played with something at the edge of the frame, unnoticed by the trio. Blue Hair heading up the ramp, into the ship, followed by Lavender Curls. That left Adorable Freckles studying her tablet. Her nose wrinkled, and a smile played at Violet’s lips. Then the woman tucked the tablet into her coveralls and started up the ramp, stopping as the cat jumped in front of her, peering at her for a second with his green eyes, back arched, before it skittered up the incline. A stream of words escaped the woman’s lips as she ran after the animal. Violet thought she made out Hades and Jacks, before the woman disappeared into her ship, the ramp rising behind her.
Violet's gaze lingered on the closed ship for a few minutes, making a list of the places the ship might be headed. She imagined herself on the bridge beside Adorable Freckles as they had adventures spanning the stars.
Then she sighed and returned to flicking through her set of screens.
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