The Cat and seven Mice

The Cat and seven Mice

(a tale taking place in the Galactic Chronicles Universe) V.Ravencroft

Not all was shiny and bright in the mighty Union. As big and as advanced it was it had a dirty and dark underbelly. While the Union spread across thousands of star systems and planets; while space ships of incredible size flew with unimaginable speeds, bridging distances measured in light years. All that did not matter much to Carrie, for her the Center continent was as far away a s Distant Shores and her idea of big was a meal that stilled her hunger. She sat on her favorite spot, a duro-crete ledge about forty centimeters wide and almost exactly one thousand meters above the ground. The ledge belonged to the old Union Post Office building. It was still called the Old Post Office, even though the Union Post Administration had moved off planet to its very own moon, almost 500 years ago. Of course of course, there were no abandoned buildings on Pluribus, at least not officially. Real Estate on the most densely populated planet in the known universe was exorbitantly expensive, especially since it was almost impossible to get a new building permit. This was Government continent, from her vista point she could see Capitol Continent shimmering with billions of lights in the early morning mists. Schwartz Sky Needle III, the tallest building on the planet and the tallest one just about anywhere reaching so far up it’s top floors were almost in the mesosphere, glowed in a pretty bluish light. She wiped her whiskers and put her little pink nose into the wind, the breeze from the ocean was invigorating and reminded her of fish. She would love to have a fresh fish right now, heck she woudn’t mind any kind of food. She got up, in a fluid graceful motion and squeezed her almond shaped eyes shut for a moment and then jumped effortless across the transparent Duranium railing and onto the old observation deck. This observation deck was once used as lunch break area of the Union Post employees and it still had twenty vari-form lunch tables and like everything Union built they still worked. Vari-form furniture was essential to a society with so many different shaped life forms, not that the benches needed to adapt to Carrie, as she was human, more or less. CC the old cat sat on top of one of the tables and warmed herself in the first rays of the morning sun. She blinked at Carrie and said. “Prancing on the ledge again? Even for one of us, all it takes is a slip and you end up, smashed to a gory pancake.” Carrie shrugged and said. “Maybe that is why I do it, part of me hopes that this is just what should happen. This isn’t the