by Gini Koch
“We understand, and agree with, those concepts,” Neela said. “As a race, we have few wants.”
“Our race is similar,” Hixxx said. “As are the elephants, horses, and squirrels. Especially after what they have experienced.”
“Do you understand and agree?” Jeff asked Harvey.
“We do,” Harvey said slowly. “And that all seems . . . right and fair.”
“We agree, as well,” Sandy said. “And yes, we will interfere as we have to, but only as we have to.”
“Super. Then, one more thing. ACE is off parole. You’re done being his jailers in any way, shape, or form. You broke all the rules you were punishing him for, and you did nothing to fix your errors, unlike ACE. ACE is only focused on good. You were only focused on noninvolvement. I’m done with ACE having to be scared of anything, all of you in particular.”
Sandy nodded slowly. “We agree. ACE is . . . free to act as ACE sees fit.”
“Forever?” Hey, I wanted to be a hundred percent sure.
“Yes, forever. However, you must remember that ACE is still bound by the rules we all live by. ACE cannot break those.”
“How about bending them?”
Sandy chuckled. “We all bend as we see fit, do we not?”
“True enough.” And probably all I was going to get, so that meant it had to be good enough. For right now. “Then our work here is done, and it’s time for us to get back to our fun galactic road trip.”
We said our good-byes, my airwaves now playing “So Long-Farewell-Good-bye” by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Hugged Neela—thereby making myself an official tree-hugger—then forced myself to go over and give Hixxx’s head a hug, too. Focused on the fact that Hixxx seemed like a great leader and a cool guy, not that I was hugging a giant water snake’s head, with limited success. But I managed not to shudder or anything while giving him his hug, so one for the win column, which was, at least right now, not that empty.
“I look forward to the next time you visit,” Hixxx said when our hug was over. “Courage like yours is rare.”
“Oh, not really.”
He chuckled. “How many others embrace that which terrifies them, merely because they know it to be the proper thing to do?”
“Um, sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. And I know it’s silly to be afraid of something that has, quite frankly, never hurt me.” Because I’d never given an Earth snake a chance to be near me, but why quibble?
“You were not rude—I knew you were afraid of us before we actually met, and your fear remains, though you hide it well. I am aware that you are not actually afraid of me in the specific, but are afraid, in a general way, of things without legs. It is not a rational fear, but that does not make it silly. It would be a silly fear if it stopped you from being a leader or your full self. But it does not. It is just an aspect of who you are.”
“You really are a cool dude. The folks that I’ll be sending over to help you guys leave the water if you want will love you and, I think, vice versa. They’re pretty philosophical, too. I think you and the Shantanu are going to get on great. They look like what we call penguins on Earth, by the way, and they’re great in the water.”
“I look forward to meeting them. Now, journey safely and remember—should you ever need it, Nazez and all those who live upon it will always be a place you can call home. And should you ever need us, we will give you whatever aid we can, and all that we can, because we owe you all that we have, and none of us will forget that debt.”
Gave him one last hug, and this time I wasn’t all that afraid. Maybe it was because he’d understood the fear and hadn’t felt it was insulting. Most likely it was because Hixxx was really a great leader.
Everyone’s good-byes said, green and black chlorophyll in hand—or whatever scientific equivalent we actually possessed—Eagle Nebula Neighborhood problems solved and the Nebula System saved, and “Come Go With Me” by The Beach Boys in my ears, we got back into the shuttle and finally returned to the Distant Voyager.
Butler showed us Tropea on the way, just so those of us who hadn’t seen it could get a shot. Was glad he did, so that I would always be able to remember what a scorched earth really looked like. It looked horrible, worse than the moon, because I knew that people had been living there. We hadn’t asked Neela or Hixxx how many of their people had been killed by Dopey and Grumpy. Just hoped that Harvey had learned from this. At least he’d have good teachers on the planet.
We returned to the ship to find that it was Easter in Space on the Distant Voyager. Apparently SuperBun hadn’t exaggerated—all the rabbits were hanging out with all the people. Literally everyone had a rabbit, some had several.
My music went off, so pulled out my headphones just as Jamie rounded the corner, Lizzie carrying Charlie trotting right behind her. “Mommy! Daddy!” Jamie came running to us, clutching Peter in her arms while her Poof, Mous-Mous, rode on her shoulder. “Can we keep all the bunnies who don’t have people to love them like we keep the Poofs who haven’t chosen their people yet?”
Heard Jeff mutter about living in a zoo, but good-naturedly. “Yes, we can,” he said in a resigned tone. “Because I know that saying no in this instance won’t work.”
“Yay!” She gave Jeff’s legs a hug, then came to me. Squatted down so I could give her a real hug, which was a relief—thankfully, the thought that we might not see our kids ever again seemed like it had been a long time ago now.
“Cool,” Lizzie said, as she brought Charlie to me so I could give him kisses, then handed him off to Jeff. “Because that’s what Peter said to do, so all the unattached rabbits are in our rooms.”
“How lucky can one man get?” Jeff asked. Then he jerked. “You can talk to the rabbit?”
“He can talk to us, yeah,” Lizzie said as if this was something that happened every day to people other than me. “Is my dad around? I need to know if he wants his own rabbit or not.”
“I’m right here,” Siler, who’d been behind us, said. “And before I answer that question, how many rabbits have you already claimed as ‘ours’?”
“Only a few,” Lizzie said, sounding only slightly guilty.
Siler exchanged the “why me?” look with Jeff. “Then I think I’ll just share yours.” He pulled her to him and gave her a big hug. “Just remember, the saying ‘breed like rabbits’ exists for a reason.”
Lizzie laughed. “It should be ‘breed like Poofs,’ you know.”
“She has a point. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” Ever. Because extra Poofs was never wrong.
Jamie looked at SuperBun. “Is he ours, too?”
SuperBun said that he definitely was.
Jamie giggled. “He’s smart.”
“He is. They all are.” Black water for the win, presumably. “And yes, officially, we’re keeping all the bunnies. ’Cause you know what my motto is?”
“What?” Jamie asked.
“Poofs and bunnies for everyone, and more Poofs and bunnies for me. That’s my motto.”
“Mine, too!” Jamie snuggled Peter. “You bring the best presents, ever!”
Managed a laugh. “So glad everyone likes the souvenirs we picked up at our first vacation destination.”
CHAPTER 45
ONCE THE RABBIT SITUATION was confirmed, Jamie allowed us to give her more hugs and kisses, we got hugs and kisses from Lizzie, too, and Charlie demanded to hold SuperBun by lifting the rabbit out of my arms telekinetically. Then they all made much over Bruno and Ginger, which appeased them, so all was well in our Animal Kingdom.
By the time we were all settled back with our families and friends and the many furred and feathered crew members were in quarters or arms, depending, Drax announced that Mother was back up and running perfectly.
“Time to choose our next destination,” Drax said to those of us on the command deck.
“We need to
go to Ixtha,” Mother said.
“Do we have a heading for that?” Tim asked. “I mean one we all get to know.”
“Yes,” Mother said. But she sounded evasive.
“What are you trying not to tell us, Mother?” I asked.
“When we were spun out of warp, the original coordinates were lost somehow. While I can determine where we are within the galaxy by triangulating from the Eagle Nebula and the star whose solar space we are within, I am having issues pulling the original coordinates back.”
We all exchanged the “oh really?” look. “That seems impossible,” Reader said.
Stryker shook his head. “It’s not. Think of it as Mother having experienced the Blue Screen of Death—her system crashed. We were all able to repair it, but that bomb affected more than the warp drive. It affected Mother’s memory banks.”
“But selectively,” Dr. Wu said. “Most of her memory appears intact. Just the information about where she was heading the ship originally is lost.”
“Henry’s right,” Chuckie said, as he studied a printout I presumed Hacker International had given him. “And this is highly suspicious.”
“This whole trip is highly suspicious.” Had my suspicions as to how this had happened, for example. Or, rather, who had affected Mother’s memory banks. Had two major suspects. One I couldn’t easily speak to right now, because Jamie was awake. But one, and the most likely culprit, I could interrogate.
However, I had to do so in a way that wouldn’t immediately make everyone realize that I suspected him. “Okay, so two questions. First, can we figure out a general neighborhood by looking at our original trajectory? Or was that information wiped out, too?”
“Some of it, but not all,” Chuckie said. “So, good idea, Kitty. I think that can help.”
“Super. Second question—can we just fly off at whatever isn’t warp speed, versus hanging around here and letting Sandy and his pals think of other things they want us to do? I’m suggesting not going at warp since we have a really good chance of not going in the right direction, and we have so many directional options in space that I think going away but slowly is probably in our best interest.”
Everyone other than Chuckie stared at me. Chuckie looked up from his perusal of the printouts, looked around at everyone else’s expressions, rolled his eyes then winked at me, and went back to his reading.
“What? Is this going to be another time when you all insult me by acting shocked that I’m not a moron?”
“No,” Jeff said quickly, while shooting the “stop it” look around to everyone else. “I just don’t think anyone else had thought it through yet.” The rest of my friends and colleagues all nodded enthusiastically.
Snorted. “Right. And I hang with all of you why? Anyway, that’s my two cents for right now. You talk amongst yourselves. I’m going to go pet some bunnies and be offended for a bit.” I actually wasn’t all that offended, being used to this by now, but it seemed like a great way to leave without suspicion.
Jeff started to come with me. Put up the paw. He stopped walking. Wow, this power had depth! “Nope, don’t even try. Just stay here and help figure out where we might be heading.”
Was pretty sure Jeff knew I wasn’t really angry, but also was pretty sure he knew I wanted to be left alone, so he obliged. Yet another reason he was a great husband.
Siler, on the other hand, didn’t get the message. He shoved off the wall he’d been leaning against, nodded to Buchanan, who stayed put, and came with me.
We didn’t talk until we reached the maintenance closet where he and the others had been hiding out. Then he opened the door and ushered me inside. Algar and the least weasels were nowhere to be seen.
“Going to talk to the DJ?” he asked once the door was closed.
“Maybe, Nightcrawler, maybe. Why do you ask?”
He grinned. “You had your headphones in through all of the action. I know what that means.”
“You’re still the only one.”
He nodded. “I know. And, before you ask, no, no one else appears to notice. Still. Not your husband, not Reynolds, not Alpha Team, not even your children.”
“Well, the kids are usually not with me when the action’s rolling. Thank God.”
“True. And also before you ask, no, I haven’t talked to anyone else about this. It’s not that I can’t . . . I feel like I actually can, even though you’ve said that you aren’t able to. But I don’t see the point, honestly. The DJ helps us. I have no interest in affecting that kind of help negatively.”
“Good to know. Um, I kind of want to be alone, though.”
“I’m sure you do. I kind of want to know where you’re going in order to talk to the DJ.”
“Why would you think that’s what I’m going to do?”
Siler sighed. “You aren’t mad at anyone—that was just an act so you could get out of the room. But right before that, we’d been discussing how we’ve lost the coordinates and all of a sudden, and instead of trying to work through where we might be heading, you want to be alone. My conclusion is that you just had the idea to ask the DJ what’s going on and see if he can help us, and you naturally don’t want to and can’t do that with the others around.”
“If that were true, and I’m in no way saying that it is, then wouldn’t you being around mean I couldn’t talk to him?”
“Maybe. Maybe he’d like to meet me.”
“The person he can’t actually control? The one person in, as far as I can tell, the galaxy? Um, no. I’m betting that you’re the last person he wants to meet.” As Algar, at any rate. He’d met Siler as the Ard Ri, after all. And Siler hadn’t picked up that the Ard Ri was the DJ. Meaning that Algar’s powers weren’t shorted out fully with Siler, just somewhat.
“I can wait,” Siler said, as he leaned against a wall and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Why does this matter to you?”
“I’m curious.”
“Bull pookey. You’re an assassin and you can go invisible. I’m somewhat surprised you didn’t just blend and follow me.”
“I don’t want to do that. This isn’t something that I want to discover by . . . skulking.”
“Why not? And, again, why do you care? Why does this matter to you? It’s not curiosity, so don’t try that one again.”
He tried for the stare down. Geez, it was like a party game on this trip. But, as per usual, since he wasn’t Mom or Chuckie, he didn’t win. He was a very worthy opponent, though.
Siler heaved a sigh. “I want answers from a source I can trust.”
Considered this. “Oh. Trevor the Tinkerer did pique your interest. There’s a lot about you that no one understands, particularly you yourself. But here’s the thing—the DJ really likes to play fussy little word games. I mean, don’t get me wrong—I like him, frankly, a lot, but he’s kind of a jerk. He never comes out and says ‘do this’ or ‘don’t do that’ or anything of the kind. I get song clues, vague innuendo, and weird forms of encouragement, and that’s about it. I have no idea if he talks to the two others who know in the same way, or at all, really. But if you’re looking for straight answers, Trevor’s far more likely to give them to you.”
“He won’t. And I can’t trust anything he tells me anyway. And I know you know that. Besides, we need to keep him on the hook, thinking that the only reason I don’t make him dead is that you won’t let me—so far—and that I might want the information he claims to possess. Actually wanting the information means we lose. So, no, I don’t want it, not from him.”
“Maybe I should give you the Wolverine moniker and I take Nightcrawler.”
He laughed. “No. I’m good with the nicknames as they are. But I’ve been thinking about who the others could be, the ones who know the DJ, in my off time. I think I’ve figured it out.”
“Yeah?”
He nodded. “Ric
hard White and Paul Gower.”
Hoped I was keeping the shocked look off of my face. “Um, why would you think it’s them?”
He laughed. “Because they’re the former and current heads of the A-C’s religion. And if I was a godlike being, I’d want to deal with the people most likely willing to believe in my existence.”
“It’s a good theory.” Per what he’d told me, that was basically the reason Algar had told them.
But, way back when, others had known who he was, too. The leader of the A-Cs, normally their king, had been in on it. Though, in reality, not for several generations. While Algar was all for supporting Alfred to the point that he’d exiled himself to Earth right along with him—because Alfred had been the rightful heir and that meant so were those in his bloodline—he hadn’t shared his existence with Jeff’s father.
He still hadn’t with Jeff, either, and Jeff was now the official King Regent, too. At least, as far as I knew. But he’d continued to share with the Head of Security all the way along, because Algar was part of what made things secure. Once our A-Cs had come to Earth, those in the know had just been the Former and Current Pontifexes and Gladys Gower. Until she died. While on a mission with me.
Tried to shove back the sorrow thinking about losing Gladys always gave me. I’d worked one mission with her and watched her sacrifice herself to keep her people safe. I would have really liked to have gotten to do more with her. Then again, I’d wanted to have more time with Michael Gower, and Naomi Gower-Reynolds, too. Operation Infiltration had really been a hard one to take, especially for the Gower family and those of us who loved them.
Siler cocked his head. “The other people who knew, they’re dead now. And you knew them.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Your expression. You’re missing someone and the memory is painful. Who?”
“It happened before you joined us.”
“But not before I knew about you.” He looked thoughtful. “I got the full rundown of events from Buchanan. At least from as long as you’ve all been in D.C. The worst losses you took were when Dulce got infiltrated . . .” He jerked. “Ah. That would make sense. I wonder if that knowledge has passed on to her successor.”