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# <center> Part 51: Busted</center>
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So I was married.  Again.   Married to my truck. This wasn’t really as odd as it might seem. Actually it wasn’t really new. I’d been pretty much married to my job and my truck for years. This just made it official. Consummating the marriage was going to be…er…

“So tell me about yourself my dear” I said .“What’s it like being an Alien Cat Girl?  Did you wear Bobby Sox and go on dates?”  I was leaning back in my chair watching the countryside go by.  I had a window cracked and was smoking a big black Cuban Ceegar. The air filtration system was working over time, Bubba didn’t seem to care.

“I don’t think I’ve ever worn Bobby Sox ” She said shyly “Cats don’t do that. ”

I looked at her closely. She was leaving something unsaid.  Could she read my mind? I sat there puffing on my ceegar and said. “I  thought you were a nano-swarm? ” 

“That came later.” she said “In other news…tell me about how you lost your legs.   You’re almost as much of a cyborg as I was”

Always try to make the little lady happy. Even if or perhaps especially if she was a multi-ton truck.  I spent the next few hours telling her about my life history and the wars that I had fought in.  She was particularly interested in the gear and equipment that I’d used in the past. 
 
“Speaking of nifty gimmicks…ain’t it just the cutest thing what happened to my feets?” I asked  “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you?  I’m pretty sure that they didn’t originally have talons. I’m  damn sure I couldn’t run fast enough to keep up with Bubba.”

She lifted an eyebrow and looked at me.

I lifted an eyebrow right back at her and blew smoke in her direction. She was a hologram. Smoke didn’t matter to a hologram.  

She grinned.  “You caught me out.  I did it. I fixed them and made them better. Your smoke-pole too. NanoSwarm  you know…we can do that.”
 
“Speaking of smoke-pole.  That’s smart matter isn’t it?” she asked, as if she didn’t know. She was, after all, hooked into the internet. She thought really fast. By now she probably knew more about everything than  just about anyone.  I didn’t care, we were just visiting,  just chatting, man and wife.  I was NOT being  interrogated.

Riiiiight.

“Yup.” I said  “It’s a form of structural smoke. DiamondFog actually, my family speciality.”

“Tell me about Structural  Smoke.” She said. “I’m familiar with the concept but this is a different application that I am used to.”

“Ok..we got time.” I said.  I leaned back and proceeded to tell a story. I do love a good story. I told her the story about my niece and Tesla Tech.

“As I was saying, she’s a really smart girl.  While she was learning all about nanotechnology and stuff at Texas A&M she met another black girl.  The little gal was a direct descendent of a maid who had worked for the Hotel New Yorker in New York City in 1943.  She came into possession of a certain leather covered journal and that had remained in her family ever since.  No one understood the contents for all that time.  She and my niece figured it out.  They used that knowledge to make stuff  that no one else can figure it out either. Reverse engineering her stuff is damn hard, not to mention lethal. My family has zero sense of humor when it comes to anyone stealing our stuff.  They made DiamondFog and later we all made  the Bifrost Bridge, and other stuff.”

“You speak authoritatively of technical matters for a Truck Driver.” Gretchen said.

“Yeah…don’t I just.” I replied. “Since we’re married I suppose you ought to know my sordid past.  I’ve got a few college degrees.”

“Oh NOEEEES!” she gasped in horror.  “Tell me it isn’t TRUE! Um..what’s a college degree?”

“Yes it’s true. A degree is a piece of paper. It’s a credential.  I have credentials. “ I said, my head hanging low. “Several of them.  Mostly in Engineering of various flavors, but not all _shudder_. I have a degree in a Soft Science. That was a mistake. I should have known better than to keep at it. But once I start something I’m too stupid to stop  so I’ve got some “You want fries with that?” credentials too. I have a **BS** degree and a **M**ore of the **S**ame degree in it actually.  I din’t **P**ile it **h**igh and **d**eep though.  I have SOME self respect.”

“Oh…that’s good.” She said “I’m so relieved.  I was beginning to wonder who I’d married.”

“Humor.  That’s a good thing. “ I said “ I like that in a disembodied alien cat girl that I married, how good are you in bed?”
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***To Be Continued***
***The Next Episode is***
[Part 52: A bit of Family History…](https://steemit.com/fiction/@everittdmickey/4msvpl-ride-the-lightning)
***The Previous episode was***
[Part 50: Leave the driving to me.…](https://steemit.com/fiction/@everittdmickey/5jpljd-ride-the-lightning)
***the first episode was***
[Part 1 : Winter Storm](https://steemit.com/fiction/@everittdmickey/part-1)
***
***
I'm
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@everittdmickey
.
I  write
___SPECULATIVE FICTION___
[I have other books on Amazon.](https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00DXISW74)
Sometimes I also comment on the news
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmNoscPQPjPbksJjYjDSajn4w3zf9eGsZB43kgY1NNfask/image.png)
Sometimes it's hard to tell fiction from the news.
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