“Excellent idea,” Sachuu agreed. “Jolar can sit with you while you do that, so you can explain what you see.”
“It’ll take a few days to go over it all,” Reynolds warned.
“That’s fine. We can prepare you and Peterson guest quarters until you’re done here.”
The two agents looked surprised but didn’t argue.
“Lucky!” Klora whispered to me. “I wish I got to be the one to do it! You’ll have to share what you learn with me!”
I gave my friend a small smile. “Sure .”
The rest of the meeting was spent deciding who would update Braevan and his husband on the outcome of yesterday’s search, making arrangements for the FBI agents to obtain spare clothing and quarters, and deciding the exact questions we wanted Linda to answer and gauge her responses to. Then it was time for lunch and I found myself more than ready to head back home to see my mate so we could eat together.
“Guess it’s time to decide about applying for that internship, maybe,” Reynolds said to his partner as we left the conference room. He rubbed the back of his neck in agitation as he spoke. I nodded a quick good-bye at everyone before hurtying off, but as I strode away, I heard Peterson say, “I think you should go for it.”
Perhaps the agents wouldn’t be returning to Earth at all, after all.
CHAPTER28
MITCHELL
After a picnic lunchin the park with Molly and the still unnamed kitty, a tired and now slightly grumpy Neal was pouting.
“I don’t wanna take a nap! I’m not a baby!”
I sighed. If only he knew how wonderful getting to have a nap was once you became an adult.Maybe he’ll fall asleep in front of the TV.I felt guilty for even thinking about using this tactic, as if I was somehow cheating. I knew I wasn’t and that this was a perfectly okay thing to do as long as it wasn’t an all the time thing he got used to.Right?I asked myself.Yeah, I’m sure I heard that somewhere. Or read it and from a reputable source.Still, I was also ready to put my feet up for a little while, and watching some TV sounded good.
“Tell you what, buddy, let’s sit down and watch some TV.”
“Yeah!” he agreed, his eyes bright with excitement at having won the nap discussion.
“Hey, Xero,” I called out as I settled down into the comfy wooden chair. The padding was soft and the matching padded footstool had a dozing Morris curled up on it despite his cat condo being only a few feet away in front of the window. Which I knew wasn’t really a window at all, but a viewscreen displaying outside. Darla had told me it could show me any view from all the worlds and parts of space that the Mylos had been to. Which gave me an idea - later on Neal and I could pick places for Xero to show us and choose a new view. We could do that once a week, one week a view from Earth or its solar system, the next somewhere else. Xero could tell us a bit about each place and we could have the replicator make us some local foods to try. It would be fun and educational.
“Yes, Mitchell?”
“Neal and I are in the mood for some TV.”
“What would you like to watch?”
“Lilo and Stitch!” Neal called out.
“No,” I replied. “We already watched that today.”
“The TV show one,” Neal insisted.
“You can watch that while I cook dinner tonight,” I told him. “Um, Xero, what live action family movies do you have? Got any of the Disney ones from the 60s and 70s?” Those were what I thought of as the golden years of Disney movies, having rapturously watched them on old VHS tapes my grandmother had kept from my mother’s youth.
“Here is a list of 60s and 70s Disney films available. I have taken the liberty of highlighting a few I thought might be of particular interest to Neal.”
I grinned in delight, seeing the ones he was suggesting.
“The Cat from Outer Space,” I decided.
Neal stared dubiously at the screen but upon catching sight of the Absynnian cat that was the star of the show, became entranced. He didn’t fall asleep, though, but he was quiet and relaxed. Once the movie was over, he scooped up his cat, saying, “Come on, Jake! Let’s build a spaceship! I got lots of Lego but don’t eat any, okay?”
“You know she’s a girl, right?” I asked, wanting to make sure.
“Uh huh, but it doesn’t matter. Her name’s Jake so that makes it a girl’s name too.”
