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Lucky Cat
#1
1
The young chef enters the kitchen, and is greeted by his boss.  “Good morning, did you sleep well?” 

“Yeah? What does that have to do with anything?” he never asks about me so why now?

“Well you’re here on time so I figure you woke up early or didn’t sleep well and just stopped trying?” Smirking he adds “start on the lettuce and the rice”

“Why do I always have to do that? Everyday. ‘Yoti you go make the rice. Yoti wash the lettuce’ I know how to make the rice and the lettuce, I always do it. You do it!”

“You work for me. Yoti Higato. You can thank your sister for that.  But your sister got you the job.  It is up to YOU to keep the job. Now wash that lettuce.  I will go chop the squid and the mackerel”

Groaning the young man gets to the cooler for the lettuce and grabs a bag of rice as he walks by the dry stores.  He hears the chef yell from the freezer “Yoti Higato!!-Get your ass in here!”

In the freezer his boss stands, holding one fish and one bag of meat parts.  He is a foot taller than the chef who’s breath now steams as he exhales and he sees steam on the top of the old man’s head and it makes him laugh 
“you look like a chef from the Looney Tunes, Hutu, ha ha - what do you want?”

“You want to tell me where is the mackerel? And the squid?”

“ you crazy fool you are holding it”
“ yes I am,- shouting now, “I am holding one of each and where is all the rest of the fish and the squid?!?!?” 

“ you ordered it yesterday“ Yoti guessed

 “no I ordered  the day before and they should have brought it yesterday. “ Hutu said

“so then they brought the fish and it’s here” 

“ then show me where it is, Yoti!”

The young man looks at the barely stocked freezer shelves, seeing mostly empty boxes, a fish head (whose face looked as surprised as he felt) a few bags of freezer burned chicken-
“Hutu- there’s is no food.“ 
“Yeah there is no food. We have hungry mouths coming and now we have no food...you looked at the truck when he brought in the food, yes?”
Yoti was about to say yes when he paused “No, he brought in the ticket after he brought the food and I signed and he he left”. 
“So you didn’t see him bringing food, but he brought you a ticket and you sign for it, is that right?”

Not answering the old man, he yells “It’s not my job to check the delivery, he is the delivery boy they check it already”

Walking towards the boy, with fire in his eyes looking up at him as he talks- “Well he didn’t bring enough food and now we have nothing but one fish and one bag of pelt squid. “ Hutu said slamming the freezer door behind him. Then slowly yet precisely articulated these words which passed through his teeth,
 “I order, you receive. You make sure it’s right and you make sure it is here. -slamming the mackerel down on the counter he yells “That is your job!“

Throwing up his arms in a fit the boy yells back mockingly “I order the food and it’s YOTI wash the lettuce, YOTI mop the floors , YOTI get the toilet,  YOTI get more Saki, YOTI wash your feet’-grabbing a clever from the counter-‘YOTI do all the low work and I ‘Big Chef Hutu’  cook the food, make all the money and boss YOTI around and get all the credit” slamming the clever down lopping off the frozen fish’s head in one swipe. 

“Credit? The old man says looking up that him ‘We don’t take credit,’-picking up the fish head, calming down he says ‘now if you are done whining get your coat back on, get down to the market and buy all the fish you can! And do it NOW!!”

Muttering has he does he steps outside the kitchen door hearing a strange sound and a flashing light-scared the boy yells for the chef who also heard the commotion too and they both step outside the back door unable to believe what they see.  

Out of thin air, wearing black boots, matching black pant and long sleeve shirt, stood a 6 ft tall...

“Mao?” the young man asks looking down at his boss.  Fearful
The old man looks at this cat man, looks at his ward looking down at him and smiles “Mao...Maneki Neko.  Then looking at the wide eyed Caitian temporal test subject, Chef Hutu says “That means ‘Lucky Cat’. “

2

“Sh’arff, come in?  Sh’arff, do you read me?” He didn’t like what he saw on the viewscreen, operator where did we send him? 

“Past the Temporal Threshold to 20th century Earth “

“Is that the destination and the timeline we agreed upon?” He knew it was

“Yes, sir”

Pacing he lightly rubbed his brow with his thumb and second finger.
‘Without the interference of technology earth will develop in the 21st century we can come and go virtually undetected’...This is what they told him when he signed on to start this project, they call Tempus Reise

‘With standard transports we can transport anyone any where.  Civilian units have nowhere near the range of Starfleet issue models, but transporting any WHEN is the future’  that was the pitch he’d heard last year and after seeing their technology far surpassed that of anyone’s he knew he had to be a part of it.  

“Sh’arff? Tempus to Sh’arff? Come in” it’s no use sir.  We need a crew in here to boost the signal, he’s somewhere in Asia, 1950-1953 is the best I can do.”

They recruited Sh'arff for the project for his connections and more importantly his fortune.  The Caitian had invented a unique method of farming and made a small fortune in Dilithium harvesting.  He then made a nearly unlimited fortune selling access codes and usage rights to the method.  

He agreed to fund but he insisted on being involved in the testing, said his life needed adventure.  Well, now if we lose him, we lose everything.  

“We can read his life signs fine, he’s agitated, he’s running, no jumping in fact but either he’s unable to hear our hails or-“

The administrator finished her sentence for her “ or he’s unable to respond.” looking out the window into the coldness of space.  “Keep working on it, we need him back”

3

“Lucky Cat?” Sh’arff replies

“Yes. Kitty.  My luck has changed. How is it that I can talk to you and you can talk to me? 

Taping the diamond shaped badge on his wrist which is calling for immediate transport he takes a step back from the men in white and begins to think, trying not to panic, 
“I am able to understand any language and be understood just the same with this” he holds up the device attached to his wrist. It was not entirely true but he has transported to what appears to be a kitchen and he may or may not be on the menu so he’ll say anything 

“ Yoti. Get the Saki, for our...guest.  And bring my Katana, please”

“Why do you want a katana?” The boy replied and in Chinese the chef insistently repeats “Get my katana now”  

Sh’arff speaks up “again I can understand your words in whatever language you choose to speak them.  I am not hungry for any Katana or Saki, I’ll just be on my way” 

“You stay cat. And to be clear the Saki was for me, the katana for 
you.” Pushing the boy from behind he then yells “Yoki!  Get it!”

Yoki lurches forward towards the Caitian almost stumbling on his own feet, yelling out “Hutuuuu!” With hands that have no intention of touching that monster splayed out in front of him as Sh’arff leaps 5 feet straight into the air over him and lands at the back door.  
Watching him fall into metal cylinders that spill out various items of garbage, he turns to look inside the kitchen as he sees a metal utensil fly into his field of vision. He effortlessly bats it away. 

“Hutu? Is that what he called you? Look, I am not from around here.’ Sh’arff says ‘and you can just let me go. No one will believe you if you tell them about me. Even if I looked like you the way I appeared, you’d be” -
A shelf of pots and pans come crashing down on top of him and he hears foot steps and feels enormous pain behind him-his tail. “He cut off my tail” Sh’arff yells
“ and I’m going to cut the rest of you up too. “ Hutu says standing meters from him, holding  four inches of his tail.  “We won’t have to go to the market for weeks and weeks” 
Sh’arff tries to free himself from the shelfs on top of him

“our prays to Caishen have been answered. You just need to stay still.  Yoki??!! Get in here, I have him!”

On the floor looking up at the small man holding the giant sword in both hands above his head, Sh’arff begins to realize the seriousness of his situation, facing death in the eyes, helpless to stop it he closes his eyes regretting his involvement in the program that got him here in the first place.  
He didn’t notice the badge on his wrist come to life but felt as the temporal transporter came to life and transported him out of Asia and out of the kitchen of Chef Hutu forever. 

Lying on the cold transport pad, Sh’arff opens his eyes looking at the administrator.  Coming towards him, smiling .  
“ Sh’arff, welcome back, we thought we -“ 
Sh’arff sprang to his feet, shushed him with a single finger.  And said “ I want out”

 Epilogue 

It’s been 6 months, since pulling out of Tempus Reise completely, and Sh’arff’s life is finally back to the way it was.  Sure he had to move to a different planet and endure months of begging “to reconsider” and a month of “breaching verbal contract” threats, but in the end he’s found a nice quiet place to settle down and keep his head right where it belongs.  

Sh’arff (and his fortune) are finally free, and even though he doesn’t need the work, you can find him working as the new bartender, of a place called Club 602 under the name Jeffery Scharf.  
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#2
That was kinda sweet!!!! Nice story!
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#3
(12-17-2020, 04:06 AM)brawndo_mom Wrote: That was kinda sweet!!!! Nice story!

Now we know why he has a human name.  I suppose.
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