Title: Olga's Cat-astrophy

Author: David Lee Rickman II

Fandom: 7 Days

Rating: PG-13

Status: complete

Archive: Feel free to include on any web page or archive. The truth must be known!

E-mail address for feedback: frankbparker@yahoo.com

Series: 7 Days

Disclaimers: I do not own the characters. I just report what's happened at NNL lately, which Christopher Crowe can't use because he is sworn to secrecy.

Summary: Parker releases a cat into the Nevada population which may carry a deadly disease.

By David Lee Rickman II
***

"O.K. Donavan, put on your safety goggles."

Parker turned on the power saw and cut a hole in the wall between Olga's office and a broom closet. As he turned off the saw after his job, Parker stuck his hand through the hole and knocked on the bottom of Olga's desk.

"You see, this hole is partially covered by her desk.

Now for Ballard's contribution..." Parker took out the remote control to the toy car with built in microphone.

The car whizzed through the hole in the wall and parked under the TV stand.

****

Location:
Nathaniel Research Institute, Northern Nevada.

The lab grounds were dark as a lone car pulled up to the guard station. The guard got up and aimed the beam of the flashlight into the front seat.

"I am sorry to bother you sir, but I lost my way. How do you get to the Extraterrestrial Highway?"

The guard shook his head and pointed east. "You're about fifty miles away from it."

"Do you have a map?"

"In my shack over there. Come with me." As the guard lead the man toward the shack, the stranger hit the guard over the head. A woman then jumped out of the back seat. They went across the lawn into the lab facility.

****

"Hey Olga, who's your new friend?"

Olga held up her new cat. "I am watching him while a friend is taking a vacation. Parker, meet Mr. Shroodinger. Mr, Shroodinger, meet Mr. Parker."

"He's a cute little furball."

Olga held her hands over the cat's ears. "Don't call him that!"

"He doesn't know what I said."

"He can hear your tone of voice."

"I said it nice!" Parker looked into the cat's eyes.

"Are you a furball?"

"Meow.," the cat said licking its lips.

"You're simply impossible Mr. Parker!"

****

As the two strangers entered the main lab, a man in a white suit got out of his seat.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Against the wall!," the man said waving a gun. As the man went to the wall, the woman started opening the lab cages.

"No! Please, you don't know what you're doing!"

"We're ending the suffering of these poor cats." As she opened the third cage, one of the cats scratched her on the wrist.

*****

"We have a problem folks.," Mentnor turned on the projector.

"Five days ago a couple of members from an animal rights group broke into a local lab. They released a group of cats that were involved in a couple of...um, tests."

"What kind of tests?," Olga Vulkavitch asked.

"Biotoxins. These cats were breed to be very aggressive to all mammals. The cats just carry the disease. They spread their biotoxin through blood contact. Once they scratch you, death is inevitable...

Only cats are immune from death because of a unique protein cats produce in their liver."

"Ouch. what about Olga's friend Mr. Shroodinger?"

Talmedge looked at Parker. "The effects take four days to appear. I ordered Olga to lock the cat in her office until Thursday. We're pretty sure the cat's not infected though because it hasn't been in close contact with many cats."

"In her office?," Parker thought back to the hole he cut.

"Darn tree-hugging libs. Those cats were perfectly safe and taken care of in the lab.," Ramsey said drinking a gulp of coffee.

****

Later the next day, Parker hustled toward the sphere.

"The sphere will arrive the day the cats were released. Call us as soon as possible and give us the information."

"Great. Maybe for once I can let you guys handle everything. Say 'bye' to Olga's cat for me."

****

"Reactor is energizing. Olga watched the power levels on the computer display increase. Parker was about to give a thumbs up to the camera, but heard a terrifying hiss in the back of the sphere.

"Uh, Oh!," Parker said in his helmet microphone.

"Olga, stop the sphere!"

"I can't! What's wrong?"

"Schroodinger's in the sphere!"

"How can he be?"

"I..," Parker closed his eyes ready to confess.

"Parker, you need to engage. The sphere core is saturating!"

*****

Parker hit the red engage button. As the blue energy engulfed the sphere, the cat began to yelp. Parker focused all his energy toward concentrating on the needles. As the clock began to flip backward, the cat jumped into Parker's lap.

"Please. Please don't!," Parker pleaded. Just as the sphere began to fall into reentry, the cat's claws cut into Parker's arm through his flight suit like butcher blades.

"Aaarrrgghhhh!," Parker grabbed his wounded arm out of instinct.

The needles jumped out of Parker's grip and moved around in a dance of chaos. The suit was ruptured, but the sphere was pressurized. Before the sphere was halfway back to the Earth, the cat was floating in a state of weightlessness.

After the sphere hit the ground, Parker jumped out of the sphere. The cat also quickly jumped out and landed by Parker.

"Nice cat." Parker said stepping toward the cat. The cat arched his back and hissed at Parker.

"I didn't mean you were a furball."

The cat jumped away from Parker's advancing pace.

"I can't let you run away. You might infect other cats."

The cat darted into the Nevada desert manuvering and avoiding Parker's attempts to grab him.

****

"Ramsey! Ramsey!," Olga screamed running into the security office. She stood at Ramsey's desk trying to catch her breath.

"Has Parker backstepped?"

"Yeah, he disappeared from his room a quarter hour ago. Why?"

"My cat also disappeared about fifteen minutes."

"You mean?..."

Olga waved her hands about. "Yeah. Litterally disappeared as I was holding him."

****

A moment later a voice came over the intercom.

"Ramsey, Conundrum on line four."

Ramsey pushed hard with frustration on the phone button. "Parker, what took you so long to report back?"

"I was trying to handle a problem."

"Parker, please tell me my cat is with you."

"That's the problem."

*****

"I can't forgive you for this!"

"Olga, I tried to catch him."

"You lost him Parker. First you destroy part of my lab. You put a cat in danger. And then you lose him in the desert!"

"Hey, you might have also lost him. You're also human."

"No, because tomorrow I was going to put a radio tag on his collar."

"What did you say?"

Olga rubbed her head. "I am so mad at you."

"No, you said tomorrow you were going to tag him."

"Yeah, I..." A look of realization came to Olga. "If I did tag him in the last time line, it would be tagged now."

*****

Ballard handed Parker an N.S.A. issue laptop. "The program will display the cat's movement within a one hundred mile radius. The closer you are, the more accurate the dispkay."

"O.K. I am off to get that cat."

"I am going with you.," Olga said blocking the door.

"No, I can do this."

"I promised Amy I'd watch her cat. I gave her my word."

******

Mr. Shroodinger walked along the main street of Rachael, Nevada. The closest thing to food so far today was litter like discarded beer cans and bubble gum wrappers. The cat focused on food, but also reflected on the torture humans put upon it. The cat smelled something in a nearby alley.

*****

Shroodinger moved clandestinely along the wall, and saw a piece of meat between two bread slices. But it was beside a female human. The cat studied how to quickly grab the sandwhich and run. The human was young and very sad. Water fell out of her eyes. The cat inched closer. As it's whisker's rubbed the food, the human made no movement toward the cat. "What is happening?," the cat pondered.

******

The young girl looked toward the cat. "Hi.," the cat perked up its ears at the word. The cat felt this human was different. A feeling humans called "empathy" swept the cat. The cat nibbled the sandwhich, yet the human sat there hurt.

"You've ran away from home also, huh?," The young girl sniffled.

*****

The cat sat for ten minutes studying the human. The cat thought maybe this girl also hated humans, but the only anger in her voice was when she said "father" and "drinking."

******

Then the human got up and started walking away. The cat ran beside the human. The girl stopped and looked down at the cat.

"Are you sure you want to follow me home? You might not like it there."

"Meow. Meeooow.," The cat said.

******

Parker drove the car past the line of houses along one of the streets of Rachael. Parker had heard of Rachael, but never imagined it had that small town charm to it. "It get's rarer every year.," Parker thought to himself.

"We're about eight blocks from the cat.," Olga said.

"This would be a nice town to settle down in."

"I'll remember that when I find the right guy.," Olga responded.

*****

The cat hissed as a taller man slapped the young human who was kind to the cat. The cat was about to take matters into his own hands, but then saw the woman who had been caring for him the last six days staring through a nearby window. Olga left, and the cat began to wait for the right moment.

******

The man began shaking the girl, "How dare you think about running away you ungrateful baby! You're so stupid you flunked a simple math class! Do you want to live here forever? I won't let trash like you're mom live here, so I won't let you either!"

The man slammed the girl against the wall. "Leave if you want to and take that f---ing cat with you!"

The cat lept into the air swinging its claws and landed on the man.

"F---!," The father screamed.

******

Suddenly the door slammed open and a man holding a gun followed by a woman came in.

"N.S.A.! Everybody stand up."

The man threw the cat across the room into the kitchen and moved toward Parker. Parker could smell alcohol on the man's breath.

"Don't make me use my gun."

*****

The man swung and hit Parker's nose. Parker returned an even harder blow with his unoccupied hand along the guy's jaw and knocked him unconscious. Parker held his bleeding nose and waved Olga away. "The biotoxin is spread through blood."

******

Parker was silent looking up at the Leonoid meteor shower. If it weren't for the light pollution from Las Vegas, the sky would be perfectly beautiful decorated by starlight.

******

Olga walked up to Frank. "Mr. Parker."

Parker was startled at Olga's appearance.

"Don't worry. Mr. Shroodinger wasn't infected. Also Child Protective Services has custody of the girl and is back with her mother. It turns out she was kidnapped."

"No, it's that I just wished on a shooting star moments ago you would talk to me again."

"I am sorry I screamed at you." Olga looked up at the sky. "It sure is beautiful."

"Olga, what are the chances that the Roswell crash wasn't an accident?"

"You're saying we shot it down?"

"No, I mean maybe it was planned. Fate or destiny or something. How could an advanced ship travel long distances and suddenly fail?"

"It could happen.," Olga said pointing to Jupiter.

"Things seem to happen for a reason. They seem to lead to something."

"In the Russian Acadamy I attended, a professor believed we all exist in a higher being's imagination. He thought maybe we're just an insane dream."

"Do you believe that Olga?,"

"Of course not. I am a scientist."

The End