I said, “The cats who want to come with us. Where do they ride?”
“Inside the Simba with me,” Mateo replied. “They’ll need protein and a cat box.”
“Speaking of which. No cats in the office while I’m gone,” I said. “Wanda will provide protein, kibble, and water as per the usual schedule.” I set my eyes on Little Kitten. “Any cat who tries to enter by stealth or diversion will be neutered when we get back and put on half rations for two weeks after. We clear, Little Kitten?”
She showed me her hind quarters, which drew Tuffs’s attention. The queen cat looked from the juvenile to me and narrowed her eyes. Slowly the Guardian Cat stood and walked across the table to the young cat in Alex’s lap. Deliberately she stepped down onto Little Kitten and stood there, looking away, as if unaware she had pinned the smaller cat. Little Kitten’s ears went back, and she showed me her fangs, hissing. Tuffs turned her eyes to the smaller juvenile cat and leaned into her. Touching her.
Little Kitten’s snarl disappeared. Her body went rigid. Her hair stood on end.
Tuffs raised her head and, moving faster than I could follow, bit Little Kitten’s ear hard enough to pierce the skin. Tuffs held the cat in place with her fangs. Two beads of blood appeared.
Slowly, Little Kitten’s shoulders hunched and her body flattened on Alex’s lap. A good three seconds later, LK went limp.
“Wow,” Alex said, their own eyes wide.
Tuffs released LK’s ear.
Little Kitten sprang off Alex’s lap, leaped across the room, and leaned her whole body against the airlock door. Wanda opened the door, and all of the kitten’s clowder departed, tails low, feet almost flying.
“Well, now, that was mighty interestin’,” Jolene said.
I had a weird moment of curiosity. Could I do that—whateverthathad been—to an enemy? Or . . . could I scare off an unwanted thrall? “Yeah. It was.” I scowled. “Jolene, if I told you to bomb a small city, would you do it?”
“Hey-yell no.”
I laughed. “Good. Mateo. When do we leave?”
“Today. Dark.”
I said “Done” and shooed my nest out of the office. Alone, I took a deep breath and said, “Gomez? You there?”
“Indeed.”
“Disconnect from Jolene.”
“Now wait a minute. That’s my fella you’re—” Jolene’s tirade stopped.
“Done, Shining.”
I hadn’t talked to the office AI in weeks. There was something creepy about airlock doors suitable for interstellar, intragalactic space travel, a comms chair big enough for several humans, and talking to an alien AI. Creepy enough that I tended to avoid it.
“Thank you.” I wasn’t sure how polite I needed to be to Gomez, so opting on the side of very polite manners was smart. “Secure the airlock doors, please.” I heard the suction sound as the doors sealed tight enough for space travel.
“Secured.”
“I’m going downstairs.”
“Do you wish to use the feline pathway or your previous method?”
I stopped, my hand a hair’s breadth from the handle that opened to a sharply angled chute to the lower levels. “The cats have a way in?” Little crawly phantom fear-spiders scampered across my flesh.
“Indeed.” The command chair rotated silently into the command center, leaving that part of the floor empty. “If you press the small black button in the center of the floor, a panel will open, and a stairway will be visible. Lighting will appear as you descend. It is my impression that the wavelength is too dim for human eyes, though the felines had no difficulties. Now that I know humans have such poor vision, I have devised methods to increase the illumination if you wish.”
“Yes. Ahhh. Thank you.” I spotted the black mark on the floor where the command chair usually sat, an oval with notches. It wasn’t a button as I would describe it, or a knob. It wasn’t raised, and it felt prickly to my fingers, but when I pressed the rough black oval, the section of the floor around it slid open to reveal a black nothingness that led to more black nothingness.
“When you are below the level of this deck, the access will close,” Gomez said. “When you are ready to return, there is a small black button in the same location on the other side that will alert me to provide access.”
“How . . .” I stopped. “Which cats went down there and when?”
