by Laer Carroll
Finally Elizabeth stood up from the bench she had occupied silently beside Jane.
"I hate to break this up, but Colonel Kuznetsov has to get back to her ship soon."
Jane and Thelonius rose. Jane wished everyone goodbye and a good life and walked away from a chorus of Goodbyes and Thank Yous!
Just as she stepped into the hallway she heard from behind her Morbius say "I love you, Jane!"
She twisted back and said "The same to you! To all of you!"
She turned quickly and blinked away tears.
Thelonius said, only partly jokingly, "You are a real threat, Colonel! Much more contact with our people and they'll all be following you to your ship and volunteering to work for you."
Elizabeth said, "Well, naturally. She has the 'charisma' augment.
"Next I'd like to show you our greenery levels."
They followed the now-familiar procedure of flying to the bottom floor, entering the surrounding walkway, and taking a wide open stair down to the top walkway of the next level.
As they did so Jane pondered this "charisma" augmentation. By now she knew she'd been genetically engineered in almost every way possible. This included her emotional makeup. This augment seemed to be made up of several parts.
She liked people, even the murderers and torturers she encountered. Only when they threatened other people, not herself, did burning anger flare and push her to kill them.
She was curious about people and fed that emotion by asking questions, not hiding her genuine interest.
Lastly it helped that she was visually attractive and a bit but not a lot sexy, small, and even now childlike. All qualities that triggered the caretaker reflex in most people.
And that was most of what made her "charismatic," being likable or even lovable.
Should she change herself? Coldly, logically, make herself different, or act differently?
She put those questions on hold as they arrived on the topmost walkway surrounding the shaft inside the "greenery" levels.
"This topmost floor is the staples crop level," said Elizabeth. "It includes plants similar to your potatoes, tomatoes, corn, wheat, and so on. A big fraction of our people spends some time every week taking care of the plants."
"Week. How long is your week?"
"Since we'll be sharing your star system we'll be using your time system, calendars, and so on. That will lessen the friction between the two species."
Thelonius said, "There will be some, of course. Especially because we come from two technological levels."
Elizabeth said, "It won't be as bad as it might. Our sociological and psychological sciences are as highly advanced as our physical sciences. This sharing of time systems is just a small example of the many ways we will be employing to minimize friction."
The other Cat said, "Plus we have a long history of handling Cat-human relations. Your case is only the latest of many times two species have had to adapt to each other."
"This time," said Elizabeth, "the Cat tech levels are higher than the human levels. In other times it has been humans who were the higher."
Jane said, "How is that?"
"The human and the centauroid spheres overlap a good deal and are constantly expanding into the other's sphere. Each has stellar systems on their periphery which are primitive. So sometimes advanced humans discover a primitive Cat system, and vice versa."
"I still don't understand how human species can evolve separately in different star systems yet have DNA that is so compatible it lets all humans interbreed. That seems impossible."
"No one understands, even the oldest species such as the Hive Minds, who claim to have an unbroken history of millions of years. Maybe those you call the Star Gods understand the seeming paradox, but they don't talk to any of us lesser beings."
At that they entered into the first greenery level and Jane dropped the subject.
This level, like that of the school level which Jane had just visited, gave the illusion of being a vast field under an open sky lit by a sun like that as seen from Earth. This time she tried to see any limits of the illusion but it was too good.
"This looks as if it covers the entire width of your ship. That must be an illusion."
"No, that's accurate. There are support columns throughout the expanse, but they are camouflaged to look like trees."
"Impressive. And the height seems to go up forever."
"That part of the illusion is helped because it's over a hundred feet to the ceiling."
They walked down one of the rows of green vegetables like purple eggplants. Jane trailed her bare hand along the tops of one row. The green leaves were cool to her touch.
Robot intervened a few minutes later with a warning. Humans were mildly allergic to these plants. Much more touching of the leaves and her skin would begin to itch. She should re-don her spacesuit glove, which she did.
After a while they turned at the end of a row to walk about fifty feet then turn again to walk back toward the entrance to the level.
"This is beautiful, but why do you grow staples, or anything? I know the food replicators in the asteroid habitat duplicate everything down to below the atomic level, so the replicator food is indistinguishable from the grown food."
"Physically these gardens are unnecessary and most people don't care if food is grown or made. But there is a psychological need, our psychotechs tell us, for us to remember the origins of our species and reconnect with it occasionally. It's unhealthy not to."
The next level down was a jungle level used for recreation. It was lush but the trees were tall and widely separated, not crowded together. One could see at least a hundred feet in every direction.
"We use this for a lot of games and other activities where we climb in the trees. This is yet another part of remaining closer to our animal origins. Our earliest ancestors were similar to your squirrels."
Jane nodded. "Ours were tree dwellers too. Perhaps that's one reason why Cats and humans get along so well. Oh, do your mind being called Cats?"
"Not in the slightest."
They visited three more levels, one with sections which mimicked plains and sandy deserts, the second with illusions of hills and mountains, the third which included a river and an Oceanside. Then it was time to return to her ship.
She parted with Elizabeth and Thelonius with genuine regret. She'd grown fond of both of them.
Chapter 9 - Cat Business
As soon as Jane re-entered Constellation the Cat spaceship resumed its deceleration from the enormous speed it had reached by the midpoint of its path from Saturn space toward the asteroid Bastet. Lopez ordered their own spaceship to follow suit.
Jane went to the control room, took off and racked her spacesuit in its niche, and visited the bathroom to freshen up. Then she re-assumed command of her ship.
"So, Captain," said Lopez, "how was your visit?"
"Very interesting. I met a couple dozen adults and a dozen children. Cute as Hell, they are. I also got a tour of a few parts of the ship. I'll write it all up and send a copy to Earth. You and the rest of the crew will be able to read it too."
"Your body cam was set to record?"
"Yes."
"Great!"
<>
At seven gravities deceleration it took less than a day to near Bastet. Jane called the United Nations traffic control when they were a few thousand miles out and got permission for the Cat ship to take up a location near the asteroid. Jane relayed this and the exact coordinates to Elizabeth.
When the two spaceships came to a stop Jane got a call from Elizabeth. She returned to the control room and briefly took over command from the captain who had the evening duty.
"Thank you, Captain, for all your help," Elizabeth said from her own control room. On the biggest view screen at the front of the Constellation's control room her full-body image loomed large.
"My pleasure, Captain."
"We're going to be out of communication for a few hours while we get settled in. I
'll call back as soon as the first stage of that is done."
"Do so. Even if it is after midnight."
"I will. Goodbye for now."
The image blinked out to be replaced by an image of the mile-long rounded-end cylinder of Centaurus spaceship 101347.
A low hum came over Robot's hyperspace communicator. It rose to a tone so loud that Jane had to turn the volume down.
An instant later it shut off. And the spaceship disappeared. In its place was a small machine.
"What the Hell?" said someone.
The External Observations officer zoomed the big view screen in on the tiny dot till it filled a quarter of the screen. Scales alongside the right and bottom of the screen revealed it to be about the size of an automobile. It was roughly round and had several antennae on all sides.
"Captain!" said the communications officer. "We've got a signal from the...artifact."
"Show me."
"It resolves as a web page. Here."
What came up onscreen was a somewhat old-fashioned page. It had a rectangle along the top of the page which showed Spaceship 101347 gleaming gold in the light of an unseen sun. Two other suns were seen near the extreme left and right of the screen. The big red sun was above the image of the spaceship, the small blue one was just below.
Underneath were two columns, a wide one on the left, a narrow one on the right. In the wide one were a few short paragraphs. The first began "The Centaurus spaceship 347 is now available for rent. Containing generous space and advanced facilities...."
Major Lopez said, after they'd read a bit more, "Well, it looks like our first invaders are not going to be evil warlike monsters but evil money-hungry hucksters."
Jane smiled but absent-mindedly. "Where did the ship go? I wonder... It couldn't have gone far. And..." She glanced at the various screens which gave views and information about the near and far surroundings of Constellation and Bastet.
"Got to be inside," said Lopez. "In that big empty space we found inside the asteroid. It's large enough to hold several vehicles the size of the Cat ship."
"I imagine you're right, Second."
<>
The supposition proved to be right when Elizabeth called Jane the next morning. Jane guessed it was not coincidence that the call came in fifteen minutes after she resumed her command seat in Constellation's control room.
She was still sipping coffee when the two swapped greetings. Jane said, "I assume you've docked inside Bastet and are getting ready for your day. When may we expect to exchange visits?"
"Today would be possible if you have an urgent desire to. Tomorrow is the earliest convenient for us. The day after is when I'd prefer."
"The day after tomorrow it is then. What I'd like to do is come there with a few of my crew and with some United Nations officials for a tour like the one you gave me. Then perhaps you and some of your people could visit Bastet's human quarters for a similar tour. The sooner we establish easy, or at least routine, intercommunication the better."
"I agree. There is one matter I think you should be aware of. I've told the Cat facilities manager to begin extending the existing living quarters to create a Cat neighborhood. We expect that to take three weeks to complete enough to off-load our Cat colonists into Bastet."
Jane was silent for a moment to digest that information.
"I suspect the UN officials to object to that. They have the idea that Bastet City is theirs to control."
"Our legal team will disagree. They'll point out that the city was created by Cats and is owned by Cats. Humans are thus our guests, not the other way around."
"The UN, I'd guess, will claim that you abandoned the city 9,000 years ago and that it is thus legitimate salvage."
"And our team will counter with the statement that such a period is not a long time given the history of Cat culture. That we shut down temporarily to wait for a time when humans had a space-based culture with which we could have beneficial financial intercourse."
Jane grinned.
"I don't care what you and the UN do. The only time I'd get involved is if Cats attacked humans. Or vice versa. That is when I'd invoke my police authority. Until then I'll treat your legal back-and-forth as great entertainment."
Elizabeth smiled back. "Meanwhile Cat City will be building an extension exactly equal to the present day in the expectation that matters will be decided in our favor."
Her smile widened. "Also I'll be unleashing a devastating weapon on your social media platforms. Our kits."
Jane fake-groaned. "Oh, fighting dirty. Those adorable children. The UN won't know what hit them. But don't worry. I'll keep your secret--in exchange for another secret. How did you get into Bastet's interior dock?"
"It's no secret. Besides, even if it was I have no doubt that Jane Kuznetsov would figure it out anyway. We entered hyperspace-3, moved to the same location there as Bastet Dock, and returned to our universe."
"Hmm. Thank you. I thought so but wasn't sure."
"You're welcome. Now if we're done I've got a lot of work to do. Lunch sometime soon?"
"Yes. Bye."
"Bye."
<>
For three weeks Jane stayed in Bastet space, interestedly watching UN officials and the Cat legal team wrangle about the legalities and rights of the recently arrived Cats. She also presided over a major effort by Constellation personnel to further bone up on Cat history, culture, and nature. Some of her crew visited the Cats frequently and had them visit on Constellation or neutral territory in Bastet.
Among other arguments Cat representatives pointed out one which interested Jane very much. It was that the Solar System had been annexed by the Human Interstellar Confederation as a Protected System. Under those terms (the Galactic Encyclopedia said) Earth would govern itself and the Moon as it chose. But the rest of the Solar System was under Confederation rule.
Jane's study of the Encyclopedia convinced her that the Space Force was free to operate in the rest of the Solar System. On top of that the four sentinel satellites continued to regard her as a Confederation citizen and thus free to protect the system in whatever way she chose.
At the end of those weeks the Cat spaceship had finished offloading her Bastet colonists. Jane and Elizabeth prepared to leave the asteroid and proceed to Mars.
<>
"Coming up on Cat ship emergence," said the External Observations officer.
Jane focused all of Robot's esoteric senses on the space near where the Cat ship had disappeared, currently occupied by the Cat communications satellite.
Suddenly Robot's and the ship's hyperspace communicator registered a hum rising in volume. When it cut off the mile-long golden spaceship gleamed where the satellite had been.
Elizabeth's image appeared on the large view screen at the front of Constellation's control room.
"Constellation. Ready to travel?" said the Cat.
"We are," said Jane.
"Proceeding."
At that her image disappeared and Centaurus Spaceship 101347 began slowly accelerating away from Bastet, its acceleration slowly ramping up to seven Earth gravities. Jane gave the order to follow and Constellation began to move.
<>
Mars was in a favorable conjunction with Bastet so it took less than a day to arrive there. Jane called Mars traffic control and received clearance for Constellation to land near the uncovered Cat city.
Jane added that she would be accompanied by Cat landing craft. From the tone of traffic control's reply she guessed that the controllers were not happy with that information but saw no way to object. Jane and her ship were, of course, part of Earth's Space Force and so free to dispose of alien spacecraft as they saw fit.
Jane had Constellation's pilot set down where it had been before: near the eastern end of Mars Cat City's Main Street. She and a couple of her officers suited up and exited the spaceship to stand on the beginning of Main Street. Waiting for them were Administrator of Martian Research Dr. Victoria Haskell and several associates. Th
is included Dr. Julius Hornsby, the group's chief scientist.
Jane slapped space-suited hands with Haskell and Hornsby.
"Good to see you again, Dr. Haskell, Dr. Hornsby."
"Likewise, Jane. Please call me Victoria. Let me introduce you to my companions."
After introductions they chatted briefly. It turned out that most Martian personnel had relocated to Mars's Cat City leaving only a skeleton staff at their old site hundreds of mile away.
Soon they were rewarded by seeing the huge cylinder of what Jane thought of as S-347 slide down into place a hundred yards up and off to one side of her ship. From a slot in its side came the dart-like shape of a Cat shuttle craft. It quickly slowed and settled without fuss beside Constellation. It was about a third the size of Jane's ship.
A door on one side opened and a thirty-foot-long ramp extended down to the Martian surface. Down it came seven Cats in form-fitting spacesuit of several colors. The one with Elizabeth's signature gold color headed up the group. The Cat approached Jane and stopped.
"Well met again, Colonel Kuznetsov. Let me introduce my companions."
She did so, saying that they were experts in diagnosing and maintaining Cat cities. She added, "I expect the city to be in good order but problems can crop up over several thousand years."
Jane in turn introduced her companions and they walked through the force-field barrier into the city. Following Jane's and Elizabeth's leads everyone opened their helmets and let them tilt back to rest behind their heads.
The city had waiting an open-topped bus like an overgrown golf cart which floated a foot above the Main Street roadway. Elizabeth spoke to it.
"Can you take us to the main gathering place for those whom the Earth natives call Cats?"
"Yes, Elizabeth. It is a hotel tailored to Cat environmental needs."
"How do you know my name?"
"As soon as your spaceship arrived I talked with it. We exchanged public information."
"Well done. Please take us to the hotel. Perhaps we could call it the Martian Cat City Hotel."
"Board and we will be off."
Jane was interested to note that the bus had human seats on one side and Cat seats on the other. She also noted how self-governing the city's robotic manager was, taking initiative in contacting S-347's robotic command system and sending a bus with both human and Cat seats.