Cats of War

by Carol Van Natta

  He used his sleeve to wipe the blood off his face.

  Behind him, as if from nowhere, Subcaptain Tauceti climbed quickly and silently over the railing and onto the walkway.

  Ferra concentrated her teke on Lambru’s hand and pushed with everything she had. The stunner arced up and landed on the walkway.

  Before Lambru finished his vicious oath, Tauceti jabbed him with a stick. Lambru stiffened, then crumpled like a deflated balloon.

  Tauceti stepped over him to crouch close to Ferra. “Can you move?”

  She sat up, feeling bilious, but that was better than feeling dead. “Yes. How did you get up here?”

  He stepped back while she stood. “I hung on underneath the lift.” He collapsed the stick and slipped it into his thigh pocket.

  She edged away from Lambru’s body. “What did you hit him with?”

  “Military shockstick.” He quick-stepped down the walkway to scoop up the fallen stunner and drop it in his uniform chest pocket. “The lockdown is still in force.” He crossed back to search Lambru’s body and confiscate two more weapons and the tech suppressor.

  Her spirits sank. “Do I have to stay here, then?” She shoved her hands in her vest pockets to hide the trembling. Between the adrenaline aftermath and the blowback nausea from overusing her lightweight telekinetic talent, she was a mess.

  “No.” He invited her into the lift with a wave of his hand, then followed her in and closed the gate. The lift descended.

  He looked at his feet. “To be honest, I was hoping to get stuck with you.”

  She squinted at him. That made no sense, so she focused on the more immediate problem. “What about Lambru?”

  “He’s being transferred.” Tauceti’s smile had a hint of predator. “I’m responsible for all military indenturees. I arranged a slot at a higher-level CRIO facility. At his present restitution rate, he’ll need another eighty years to pay his debt. The CRIO system isn’t meant to be a lifelong career.”

  She touched her neck and winced, then looked at the blood on her fingers. Her stomach churned.

  Tauceti’s smile faded. “I’ve just decided Lambru will be leaving tomorrow, with me. He’s not safe here.”

  “He’s, uhm, hurt.” She mimed a cat’s claw down the side of her face. She couldn’t think of anything in that part of the plant that could plausibly cause those injuries. Lambru would scream about being attacked by something, even if he hadn’t seen it.

  Tauceti nodded. “I’ll make sure he gets treated in the big autodoc before we go. Twilight drugs sometimes give patients vivid dreams.”

  The lift arrived at the ground floor. When they stepped out, two guards with a leashed hellhound approached them. “Lockdown means everyone, amigo.”

  Tauceti pointed upward. “Call the medics and bring a gravcart. There is an injured person on the top walkway.”

  Ferra had never seen the command side of Tauceti. She wasn’t surprised the guards looked at him with careful regard.

  The guard not holding the hellhound leash touched her earwire and subvocalized. After a brief conversation, she nodded, then turned to Tauceti. “The Sec Chief respectfully asks you to confine yourself to the military area until we’ve concluded the search.”

  Tauceti nodded. “Very well. Barray will be with me.”

  “Indenturees aren’t...” The guard trailed off.

  Tauceti’s forbidding expression would have stopped a squad of Jumpers in their tracks.

  “Okay, then,” said the guard. She nudged her partner. “May as well start up top.”

  On impulse, Ferra reached out with her newfound animal-affinity talent to see if she could sense the hellhound. She thought she felt its presence as an entity, but nothing of its thoughts or emotions. She needed practice.

  They are drooling puppies, said Novo in her head. The image of a hellhound baying at the two moons accompanied the disdainful thought.

  Ferra dropped her head to hide her smile. Says the superior cat who chases her own tail.

  12

  Kedron showed Barray where he’d stashed her tech bag, then led the way through the main plant doors. Instead of going down the long hall to the government wing, he turned left, into the shipping area and out onto the flitter pad. He led her into the small hangar and sealed the door behind them. Technically, it was a military area.

  The high-low flitter took up most of the room. He opened the flitter’s side door, then gestured inside. “It’s the only place to sit.”

  She walked up the shallow ramp and stepped inside, only to be nearly tripped by two spotted, winged cats twining about her legs. She laughed as she waded through cats to get to the bench on the far side. The moment she dropped her bag and sat, Boz draped himself across her lap like a rug. Novo put her front paws on Barray’s knees and presented her chin to be rubbed. “You are both treasures.”

  Kedron was glad he’d remotely retracted the hangar’s roof and opened the flitter’s skylight for the cats. He leaned against the entryway and watched the reunion. Barray’s happiness made him smile, too.

  Her earlier fear had cut him like a knife. Her injuries were partly his fault. He should have removed Lambru the first day he’d thought of the way to do it, not waited for the CRIO system to respond to the order.

  “Thank you for what you did. You and the wee beasties.” Nova dropped to all fours and licked her own leg.

  “They felt your distress and alerted me. I’m glad we got to you in time.”

  “Me, too.” She smiled up at him. “You even look heroic just standing there. You should be in military recruiting posters throughout the galaxy.” She blushed and looked away. “Sorry, that was inappropriate.”

  His face burned with a blush of his own. “I was, actually. When I was a sixteen-year-old cadet. I hated it.”

  Her eyes widened in surprise. After a moment, she nodded once. “The other cadets teased you mercilessly, didn’t they?”

  Novo’s attention focused on something outside the flitter. In a flash, she launched herself past Kedron’s legs. He turned to look, but the cat had vanished. No wonder their processors identified them as stealth weapons.

  “They did.” He’d had no idea what he’d been letting himself in for. Most people assumed it had been his ticket to fame. She was the first person he’d told who’d understood.

  She smiled sympathetically. “When we were fourteen, my twin brother and I topped the local newstrends for a few months as the prize-winning holo image in an exposé about the secret world of abandoned children on space stations.” She made a rude sound. “Secret, my ass. We were wards of the government, living in group dorms. I changed my look as soon as I could afford a body parlor, so I wouldn’t be that kid anymore.” She pulled out a strand of dark wavy hair. “I haven’t looked like this in fifteen years.”

  He stepped further inside the flitter and watched her stroking Boz’s shoulder and wing. “What did you think of my idea on what to do about your treasures?”

  “Idea?”

  “I sent them a message three days ago to relay to you.”

  She looked down at Boz, who swiveled an ear and twitched his tail. She frowned, then looked up again. “They won’t tell me.”

  Kedron suspected they didn’t want to leave her. He knew the feeling. “I could ship them to me via a commercial transport and mark the container as live scientific samples.”

  “From what I’ve read, that’s how the pet trade used to smuggle their wares, so now, eco-inspectors open every container. That’s why…”

  She trailed off and her eyes widened.

  Novo trotted past him carrying a small, struggling cleaning bot in her mouth. She dropped it at Barray’s feet. When it righted itself and started to move, Novo stopped it with her paw.

  Barray laughed as she gently urged Boz off her lap, then picked up the cleaning bot. “My restitution account thanks you.”

  Novo went back out the door. Boz stretched out on the end of the padded bench. His fur color rippled into a pa
ttern that made him look like a carelessly wadded-up blanket. The cats truly were remarkable.

  Kedron watched as Barray pulled out her multitool and opened the bot’s service port. She touched something inside, and the bot stopped waving its rollers.

  Second thoughts about his plan to talk to her about the future tied his tongue. He still had authority over her. Maybe she’d think he’d retaliate if he didn’t like her answer. And once again, he was expecting her to take all the chances. “Is it too late to make me a courier?”

  Ferra held up the little bot to the light and peered into its interior. “Hmmm?”

  “What are you doing to my bot?”

  Startled, Kedron turned to see Calderosh, the maintenance tech, standing in the entry of the flitter. He hadn’t heard her approach. He hadn’t even heard the door.

  “Your bot?” Kedron asked.

  Ferra put the bot back in her lap and closed its port.

  Calderosh held out her hand. “I’ll take it off your hands, if you’d like.”

  Ferra held the bot as she put her multitool in her pocket. “No, I’m good, thanks. I’ll give it to my boss, so I get the bonus.”

  Calderosh produced a very lethal hand-beamer from her pocket. “I insist.”

  She edged in, covering both Ferra and Kedron. She couldn’t miss at that distance. “Hand it over. Easy.”

  Ferra slowly leaned forward to put the bot in Calderosh’s hand, then sat back down on the bench.

  Calderosh curled her arm to hold the bot against her ribs. She waved the beamer toward Kedron. “So, what’s this about treasure and a courier?”

  He kept his face neutral and said nothing. He reached out to the cats. Once again, they couldn’t go for help, so they’d have to be the help.

  Calderosh hissed in annoyance. “I thought it was my lucky day when the famous Subcaptain Kedron Tau landed here and I found out about M’Tendere’s missing treasure. All my data-broker contacts said you were her number-one boytoy. I thought you were just laying low, waiting until the meteor storm passed.” She rolled her eyes. “But no. You are the most boring man on the planet. After two years of watching and waiting for you to leak significant information, I deserve a frickin’ medal.” She aimed the beamer at Barray’s knees, the threat implicit as she glared at him. “So, tell me about the goddamn treasure.”

  Barray sighed loudly. “It’s a pet-trade shipment. One of the scientists has a side gig, designing unlicensed hybrids for a pet-trade company.” She pointed to the bot. “Just like your bots, indenturees are everywhere, and no one notices us. I overheard the arrangements for a live shipment for tomorrow.” She frowned sourly and pointed a thumb in his direction. “Since Subcaptain Perfect is also leaving tomorrow, I was trying to convince him to intercept it and act as a courier, so I can pay off my restitution early.”

  Although he probably shouldn’t have, Kedron admired her ability to weave a lot of little truths into one big lie.

  Novo’s controller requested orders on whether or not to kill Calderosh.

  Disable only. They had enough trouble without explaining a dead body.

  He suddenly noticed both women were looking at him. He frowned sternly and shook his head. “Pets are not allowed on military transports.”

  Calderosh’s expression turned thoughtful. “What kind of pets? None of Lambru’s spy eyes recorded any pets.”

  Barray shrugged. “Dunno. I know the shipment weighs twenty-two kilos. How did Lambru get surveillance tech in the government wing?”

  Calderosh shrugged. “Hired people, probably. Lots of personnel turnover here, which is good business for me. My bots found the fresher where he hid the central data collection hub, so I modified the AI to delete anything with me and my bots. Which was a mistake, because it took me a while to figure out Lambru was stealing them to send them along the ducts with his crappy home-brew recreational chems. They’re what killed that indenturee, Healey. Lambru dumped her body in the filtration plant and made it look like an escape.” She shook her head. “I’ve got the proof, so I’m going to have to do something about him.”

  “No need,” said Barray. “He got hurt in the plant at the start of the lockdown. Tauceti is taking him to the military base tomorrow. I heard he’s being transferred.”

  Kedron nodded when Calderosh looked at him questioningly. “He will not be coming back.” In the level-five facility where Lambru was going, he’d be a nurse shark in a sea of krakens.

  “Good.” Calderosh looked at her beamer, as if she’d forgotten she had it. After a moment, she slipped it into her pocket.

  Barray eyed Calderosh speculatively. “Do you have any contacts you trust in the shipping business?”

  Kedron hoped his face didn’t give away his disapproval about Barray negotiating with a woman who’d been willing to shoot them with a beamer.

  “Maybe.” She squinted one eye. “This is about that pet-trade shipment, right? I deal in grey-market data, but I have friends. I’d have to see what’s being shipped.”

  “Is now a good time?” Barray’s expression was the picture of innocence.

  “Sure.” Calderosh’s tone held a wealth of skepticism.

  Barray smiled. “Look to your left.”

  Boz decloaked, his skin and fur rippling as it changed shape and color. He sat only a few centimeters away from Calderosh’s leg. He hissed.

  Calderosh jumped right and banged into the entryway hard enough to rock the whole flitter.

  Novo hissed from the right, then decloaked. She unfurled a bit of wing, then folded it again.

  Calderosh froze. “What the hell are they?”

  “Cats,” said Barray.

  “Right,” said Calderosh sarcastically. “Because all cats have wings.”

  Barray laughed. “Only superior cats have wings.”

  By the end of the lockdown two hours later, Calderosh left the flitter after agreeing to use her contacts to ship the cats to Merganukhan a week after he arrived. His job was to sell the cats to Barray’s supposed pet-trade contact, then split the profit with Barray and Calderosh. He’d pay for the shipping, so he’d have less incentive to steal the cargo for himself. He wasn’t sure how that was supposed to work, but it satisfied Calderosh.

  He disliked the idea that anyone believed he’d be involved in such a transaction, but realistically, after his last post, people would always question his motives. Regulations and ethics didn’t always intersect.

  Mindful of Calderosh’s ubiquitous bots, he turned on the tech suppressor he’d confiscated from Lambru, then sat next to Barray on the bench. “Can we trust Calderosh?”

  “I think so. She’s got a good gig here, collecting and selling unrelated data. She’s probably a finder of some sort, so she can sense what’s valuable.” Barray smiled. “I’ll bet half the fund managers in the financial industry are unregistered minders. Finders for the research, forecasters for trends, filers to remember everything they hear or see. The CPS can’t expose them without crashing the galactic economy.” She snorted. “Or without admitting they’ve been ignoring the patterner class of minders for the last century, because there are too many of them.”

  “I never thought of it like that. Maybe that’s why the Ayorinn Legacy meme is so persistent. The promise of freedom and equal treatment for minders would definitely resonate if it affects half the galactic population.” He tapped his fingers on his thigh. “That would also explain why the CPS is so obsessed with obliterating it, and why they keep failing.” He smiled wryly. “Not that they’d admit that, either.”

  Boz jumped onto the bench and butted Barray’s arm, then licked her cheek.

  She laughed and pushed him away. “Yes, you poor starving creature. I’ll buy each of you an extra mealpack for lunch.”

  A distant attention tone sounded three times, followed by unintelligible words. Kedron’s earwire told him it was the all-clear for returning to regular operation. The bongs that signaled the midday meal service would be coming soon.

  “If I
’m out of line, please tell me, but I want to pay for shipping and boarding the cats until you can come for them.” What he really wanted was to pay off her restitution debt, but then they’d be right back where they were now. “You’re taking the risks.”

  Her eyes narrowed in thought. “I’ll split the cost with you. I’ll give you codes for an account for my half. But I’m paying Calderosh’s commission on the ‘sale,’ since it was my idea.” She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. “I’ll resolve the restitution in ninety, maybe a hundred days. After that, I have to clean up the mess I left behind. You okay with waiting six months, or even longer?”

  “Yes. Take as much time as you need.” He tilted his head toward the cats, where Novo was grooming Boz. “They can stay here tonight, if they want.”

  The lunch bongs sounded.

  Barray rubbed her neck and winced, then stood and stretched, exposing red and bruising skin underneath her tunic. “Maybe the medic will give me a painkiller.”

  Maybe he could accidentally drop Lambru on his head a couple of times on his way to the military base. He turned away before his expression gave him away.

  He pushed to his feet. “I’ll be giving my full contact information to the CRIO office. I’ll make sure they know about the policy that requires them to let military indenturees send private communications to me until such time as my successor arrives.”

  She looked puzzled. “I don’t remember reading that policy.”

  He scooped up the tech suppressor and put it in his pocket, then handed her tech bag to her.

  “That’s because I haven’t written it yet.”

  She laughed and shook her head. “I think I’m a bad influence on you, Subcaptain Perfect.”

  He certainly hoped so.

  Epilogue

  * Combined Transport Spaceport, Planet Merganukhan * GDAT 3242.329 *

  As far as Ferra was concerned, the Merganukhan southern-continent spaceport was one of the best-kept secrets in the galaxy. Of all the transportation hubs she’d been to in her life, she’d never seen a more well-run facility.