13 Degrees of Separation (21 page)

Leo frowned after them, scowling blackly. He looked at his
wife who sat down next to him and took the remote. She casually pointed it and
clicked it off. “Now, we don't need to get all worked up over something that
doesn't concern us honey,” she murmured. She set the remote down and then her
lithe hands began to caress him. One of her hands drifted to unbutton her
blouse.

“After all, we have more important things to do. And since
the kids are busy,” she murmured wickedly, climbing onto his lap to capture his
face. She kissed him hungrily when he opened his mouth to protest. A second
kiss soon followed and his protests and thoughts were quickly drowned out as
events took on a life of their own.

<|> <|>
<|>

A few days later he witnessed a bonobo chimp dragged into
the street and stoned by a mob and the police. The chimp screeched, not hitting
back but baring her teeth in fear. She tried to brush off the arms of her
tormenters but more took their place. She kept her hands to herself, using her
arms to try to protect her head and torso.

“Here now! Enough of that!” Leo called, waving a hand.
Angered by the mob Leo tried to intervene, and was beaten as the crowd turned
on him. His intervention allowed the chimp to escape momentarily, the crowd
bayed as half gave chase. He thought he'd be killed as well by the jeering
crowd until secret police officers intervened.

Sullen feet were around him, shuffling but no longer
kicking and punching him. He moved the hands shielding his head to look up
cautiously, not sure what was going on. He was dragged to his feet and then
escorted to his office where he nursed his wounds, both mental and physical.

He entered the network, curious if the event had hit the
news. What he found appalled him, he discovered carefully erected firewalls
covering certain information. “Blinders. Blinders all the time and I never saw
them for what they were,” he muttered darkly, cursing himself for being so
blind, so fecking intent on his next great project.

Drawing on his coding skills he hacked the firewalls with
ease and stumbled onto the dark truth. Horath was no Renaissance center, it was
a haven of bigotry and hatred. His friends and neighbors... all of them. He
scanned the text of various speeches, wondering where he had been when they
were given. Most likely busy, buried in his office in one project or another.
He did like to read the paper, but he now remembered that ten years ago their
household had converted to an electronic format. So much easier to blind him if
they could just filter it out. He realized they had censored him thoroughly. He
scanned a speech detailing how they were cleansing the worlds around them of
all alien and Neos. At first Aliens, but lately their bigotry had shifted to
Neo's when aliens were no longer available. He closed his eyes, remembering
that poor chimp. The planet was a cesspool he realized.

He frowned, now wondering about the technology he had
gotten. He looked into the various devices he had created, and was shaken to
see that they had been applied to a vast fleet of warships. Many of those ships
were now out bringing in material. According to the article the material had
been scavenged or 'appropriated' from other star systems. He scanned the
comments. One mentioned booty, and complained that the people on the planet
didn't get a share of the prize money involved. Another mentioned a television
show. He frowned and looked it up.

The show was part reality show, part documentary. It went
on about how the Horathian's had 'a duty' to liberate other worlds of the evil
aliens. It was heavily laced with images of Aliens and Neo's fighting the
'gallant Horathian liberators' and their 'just' executions.

“Pirates,” he murmured. He was in the heart of a den of
thieves, murders, and genocidal fanatics.

His journey of discovery was interrupted by his assistant,
who was upset when she noted what he was viewing over his shoulder. She shut it
off and helpfully redirected his efforts to more constructive lines. He allowed
her to lead him as his mind wondered how much of her was his assistant, and how
much was his jailer?

They'd catered to his vice for women he realized. His wife
was jealous of her... his wife. He sat still, stricken by the very thought,
mind trying to shy away from it, but unable to do so. Goddess of space could
she
be involved? Was she? His heart twisted as his mind came up with those
questions and more. He was a scientist, it was in his nature to get answers. He
thought about the situation and didn't like what he saw.

They had certainly been careful when they had constructed
his prison, he was a caged bird and up until now he'd not even known it. But
now he did, he thought, though he wasn't at all sure what he would do about it.
He ached to talk to his wife about it, she made things make sense to him. Her
thoughtful look, her quick wit... she had a way of distracting him... that
thought he abruptly cut off with pain. He didn't want to go there, he was too
afraid of where it would lead.

<|> <|>
<|>

Later he passed the assistant's door and overheard her
reporting his hacking to the authorities. That bothered him, he became pensive
and troubled, now concerned for any retribution to his naive search for the
truth.

On his way home he noticed he was being followed, and
became afraid. Never had he thought of crime, but now it wasn't crime that made
him fear but the authorities that were supposed to protect people like him from
the criminals. Finding out that the authorities were even more of a menace to
civilization... he tucked his hands in his pockets and hunched over, fighting
an urge to run as he walked home.

At home he mumbled something to his wife as she bandaged
him and berated him for intervening. When she stung his pride to the quick his
angry eyes locked onto hers. “I still don't understand why they turned on that
chimp. And what is this about aliens? I don't understand!” he said, throwing
his hands up in the air. “It doesn't make any sense!”

“Leo, it was an isolated incident, not a great conspiracy.
You are seeing things that aren't there. Relax!” she told him, blowing his
concern off as she put the first aid kit away.

“Yeah, maybe you're right,” he mumbled.

“Why don't you go work on something to take your mind off
this,” she said, pushing him to the door. “I'll call when dinner is ready,” she
said, smacking him on the rear.

He nodded, distracted. Troubled he went to his workshop and
pretended to work as she went to start dinner.

His sons returned from school and for the first time he was
troubled by them, by what they were learning, by what they were becoming. He
knew that men were shaped by their environment, by all they saw and did. Their
parents and their views were but one part of their education. He listened to
them talk about their day, his eldest Marcus had scored several goals. But his
mind ticked over to the dinner conversation of the night before and compared
it. The things his children said were almost word for word the same he
realized. His wretched edict memory brought up other conversations with his
children. They had been vague about their studies, vague about the events
around them. That troubled him.

<|> <|>
<|>

A few days later he used his military passwords to hack the
intelligence database and discovered the pirate war with the New Federation
forming in Pyrax. Apparently the Horathians had shifted from raiding to taking
and occupying other worlds some time ago. They were expanding beyond the local
colonies, now seizing systems that held strategic importance. One such was
Pyrax.

Apparently that had been thwarted however, broken by the
most unlikely of returning heroes, Admiral John Henry Irons, returned from the
dead. Irons had recovered a group of warships and turned them against the
pirates. There was a bit about how Irons had turned the entire system into a
black hole for Horath. Good, he thought. His lips twisted in a rare smile.
Irons would be hell to the Horathians. From the look of the report's time stamp
they had just gotten word of this six months ago. An amendment report stated
that an intelligence bureau chief  on Konohagakure had received a copy of the
report months before and had dispatched an intelligence team to investigate the
situation, do some sabotage, attempt to assassinate the admiral if they could,
then get out and meet up with the 'Prinz Zir'.

That name struck a nerve with Leo. He closed his eyes
briefly as more pieces fell into place. Then he opened them to look on to the
image of the Admiral, still there on his tablet screen.

Admiral Irons had been something of an idol to Leo when he
had been growing up. He even had a tattered poster of the engineering admiral,
or had. He'd left it behind in his room in the family home. His home... he
looked. Yes indeed, Antigua was next on the list for conquest. That frightened
him, in order to do it they would... they would devastate his world to get
through her defenses. Defenses he had helped rebuild and bring online, defense
plans he had also shared with his wife and with his 'assistant'. He felt
intense bitterness and guilt over his role in what was to come. What bothered
him the most was that there was seemingly nothing he could do to prevent any of
it from happening. The fleet had been dispatched two weeks ago. His tools, his
ideas, his efforts would be turned on his homeworld.

He was immediately dismayed and appalled by the thought.
Would they... Spirit of Space, what would they do with the nonhuman people?
That thought made him shiver. He viewed recent recordings of the
"Emperor" and became sickened. The Emperor was done with the slow
build up. Leo's efforts and some recent events had pushed Horath's plan of
conquest into overdrive. They planned to conquer and 'cleanse' all the worlds
that remained. His stomach was nauseated, he felt like a cold lump was there,
just weighing him down.

He decided to look his own situation up, but he mistyped
Mr. and hit Mrs. and got his wife's file. His sickened eyes teared as he looked
at her unsmiling photo at the top of the bio. She was an officer in Horathian
secret intelligence, she has been rewarded for her recruitment of him. Of him,
as if he was something... he stopped that thought as his hand shook and tore at
his hair in frustration and rage. His children were on file as potential
officers in intelligence, having participated with his wife in deceiving him.

Anguished he called up his own file and read it quickly.
Grimly he noted the links to various things including the network of cameras
watching his every move. They even had his terminals bugged but over the years
had become slack in monitoring them. At least until now, when he had naively
woken to their deception.

<|> <|>
<|>

Later that day he stumbled home in a mental fugue. He
stuffed his hands in his pockets, feeling the back of his neck itch as if he
had eyes on him. Two "helpful" police officers escorted him to his
home when he passed them. For the first time in a long time he took notice of
how others dressed. Both men were big, dressed in black. They wore black
visored caps. His educated mind turned to his memory of his historical studies.
They reminded him greatly of the German Nazi police.

Fortunately both stopped and tipped their hats. He didn't
look at their cold eyes though, just mumbled a thanks and made his way up the
walk to his home.

Disturbed he passed his wife without so much as a kiss and
went directly to his workshop and reviewed his work with a now dispassionate
eye, realizing it had all had been used for war. His efforts had unlocked a lot
of the suppressed tech he thought bitterly, he'd been steered to find ways
around the lock outs, ways to manufacture the equipment and weapons with
minimal input from a replicator. That explained the industrial age the planet
had entered he thought bitterly. It was allowing them to build their own ships,
ships that would be used to kill thousands, possibly millions. Genocide on a
galactic scale, finishing what the Xeno's started seven centuries ago. He felt
sick again. Sick to his stomach and unsure what to do.

He went to bed that night late, he felt his wife spoon
against him and he let himself drift or at least tried to. Her presence and
familiar scent was usually all the tonic he needed to relax and unwind but no
longer. Now her traitorous presence was like a goad, making his mind turn down
other paths. Thoughts of what they could do to him to force his cooperation...
he stiffened in fright, then forced himself to relax. He remained awake all
night and when dawn broke he had a plan.

One of the first things he did was write a program to
overlay his image in the surveillance network with images from the years of files.
He rarely ever deviated from his established schedule, so it would hopefully
keep the casual observer from noting his change in demeanor and work. He did
the same to the bots monitoring him on his home computer, then sat back and
thought hard.

Marcus came home and had an argument with his wife.
Frowning, she stormed to his office door and closed it. Leo flipped to the
camera feed and watched her go back to their son and then chew him out. There
was no audio, but he could read lips when they were turned to the right angle.
From what he deduced his son had realized he was acting differently and was now
realizing what was going on. His wife agreed, but made a point of telling their
son to not aggravate the situation. “That is why we need to keep up a good
image at home. We need to protect your father from himself,” Leo echoed. He
shook his head. Did she really love him? Was she protecting him? Or her and the
children? He didn't know anymore.