Chapter 3: Clean up

I had watched the cat drop the man. Before I could react it leapt at the woman and child. That stirred me to move, before I even considered what I was about to do, I yelled and leapt from where I was at the cat. I must have cleared at least 20 feet to the cat, hitting it with much more force than I would of thought possible. Both I and 500lbs of fur went rolling in the dirt together.

I felt the first swipe of the cat into my ribs, I felt it scratch into my skin hitting the reinforced nanotube fibers underneath it. I responded by punching it as hard as I could, I heard the crack of bone as my fist impacted its shoulder.

The cat howled in pain and backed up from me. We both squared off against each other. The cat clearly ready to pounce, a combat display popped up in my head and began to calculate probabilities and angles of attack.

Obviously, I had not cleaned out all the military wetware from the Golem. Thank God I didn't. I saw the finishing move I needed before the cat even jumped at me. When it did I was ready. I side-stepped the beast and grabbed it around its neck, I planted my feet and exerted just the right amount of force to cause its neck to snap like a twig. If I had had the proper equipment I would have emptied my lunch at the sound it made. The cat went limp and I dropped it to the ground.

I turned to see the child cradling his mother's head. I rushed over to her, already knowing that she was dead. My sensors detected no life in her, still I knelt and felt for a pulse: nothing. I looked at the child, he looked lost. I didn't know where we were or what I was going to do, but I'd help this child as best I could.

"Hey there, My name is Laura." He looked at me and furrowed his brow, then he started chattering away in a language I didn't know, I saw my HUD pop up with a new window, it started to tick away percentage of translation starting at .0001%. Great, this could take awhile, the child continued to chatter. When he pointed at his father, I saw the tears come, without thinking I reached over and picked him up. I cradled him as he continued to talk, he was soon crying uncontrollably. I gently rocked him as he fell asleep.

I could only guess his age but I would say he looked to be 5 or 6, I carried him over to what must have been his camp site. I felt something maternal for him. I had always wanted a child but my work had always come first. Wait, what the hell, hormonal driven instincts? I guess I was still human, albeit grown in a test tube and enhanced with machinery. I lay him down on one of the furs, gently stroking his head, before going back to his father and mother. I searched them for anything I could use. Both sets of fur they wore was soaked in blood. They would be useless. His father had a flint knife and a spear. I saw how pointless that would be to me. I set them aside for the child. I dug a large grave for both of them, It was fairly simple with my strength. I had them both in the hole side-by-side and buried within a few minutes.

I said my own silent words wishing them peace wherever they may be, I placed some river rocks on the grave as a marker. I glanced back at the sleeping child, feeling sorry that I had not made it in time. If only I had been faster to react, I made a promise to myself I would make this up to him.

Then I looked at the cat, I had no need for food but the child did. Plus, perhaps, I could skin it for clothing. Walking over to the cat I called up my specifications on the tools I had. They gave me several options: I had cutting instruments including a low yield laser, and several weapons system; all could be used to dispose of the cat and process it.

I was a walking Swiss army knife. I examined the cat, it was unlike anything I had seen, it looked like a saber tooth. Damn, that really complicates things, I had hoped I was in a remote part of the world. I glanced back at the boy, his skull looked different too, perhaps Neanderthal?

Shit, either I am in another dimension or somehow the wormhole had jumped me back in time. Wormhole travel had been around for 20 years now and we had never experienced a time jump, it had been theorized bet never achieved.

"Yippee, if I wait around 20,000 years maybe I can get the Nobel Prize for this." I knelt down and started to cut up the cat as clinically as I could, not since biology class had I been elbow deep in mammal guts. Thanks to the cutting laser in my index finger, I made short work of skinning it fairly cleanly.

I put the skin aside for later work. I began to cut sections of meat in strips, I laid them out on a pile of sticks that were near the camp. I used the entry-thruster in my palm to flash bake them. I played with the different heat levels trying to make jerky for the child. Perhaps we could use it for traveling food. I laid the meat next to the child as he slept.

I had copied the design of the furs the kids parents had been wearing, and I came up with a workable design that would allow for maximum movement for me, I used some ligaments from the cat to create a sort of string. Again, thanks to all the apparatuses I had built-in, I was able to cut and sew at least a covering for myself so I wouldn't be naked.

Even with all that, I still had a fairly large pile of rotting cat to deal with. I didn't want to attract scavengers. Stepping back I powered up my cutting laser which was designed to slice rocks for samples. I played with the settings until I had something that would incinerate the carcass. While I was burning sections of the animal I felt eyes on me.

My HUD showed a 360° view around me and I noticed the child was awake and looking at me with awe in his eyes. I turned and smiled at him. He was still staring at me with big eyes but he returned my smile. He got up and walked over to me.

The child surveyed the burnt animal with wonder in his eyes. He then looked at the skins I had made myself. He walked over to the smoking cat remains chattering something at me. He knelt down and sifted through them until he pulled out the cats large teeth, he pointed to his own necklace of small teeth, I smiled.

"Sure kid you can have them." When I didn't do anything else he pointed back at his and made a motion for me to put them on my neck. I didn't get it at first but he refused to keep them, he kept trying to give them to me. So I took the teeth. He then walked over to the furs I had made myself and held them up to me while looking down. I guess my being naked was embarrassing him. I shrugged and put on the furs, they fit fairly well if I don't say so myself.