Catacombs

by Anne McCaffrey

  “Is Pshaw-Ra royalty?”

  “He is of the royal line, yes, though the power passes from mother to daughter. But my father, who was once the servant of Pshaw-Ra, said that he bore the closest resemblance of any cat he knew to those described in the sacred texts.”

  “Did the cats write those?”

  “They dictated them to the ancestors. They had great powers of thought transference through which they imparted their advanced ideas.”

  “Like what happens between Chester and me or you and Renpet?”

  “Yes, only much more potent.”

  Jubal chewed the corner of his lower lip thoughtfully. “One other thing I don’t get, then—from what I’ve read, back in the early days when the new worlds were being settled, there wasn’t much of a luggage allowance—how did your people get to bring a bunch of cat mummies?”

  “We would not leave them behind! We had to leave many of the sacred implements as it was …”

  “The sacred scratching post, that kind of thing?” he asked. He was a little put off by all the “sacred” this, that, and the other thing. He loved Chester and thought he was very smart, but he didn’t revere his cat particularly.

  She smiled at him as if he’d said something very bright, and he felt bad for being sarcastic. “Yes, all of those things. The sarcophagi of the mummies were small, and I suppose were easily disguised as other things those in charge might have considered more useful. The sacred cats were thought to be mere pets, rather than our leaders.”

  “So the whole thought transference thing continued up until the time your people left Earth?”

  “Only occasionally, among certain individuals with a special affinity, an important ingredient in a bond even now. But those cats who coupled their minds with the minds of human interpreters directed us.”

  Jubal wondered how much it was the word of the cat passing through the interpreter that did the directing, and how much it would have been the interpreter making up edicts that would suit his own purposes and saying they were from the divine kitty.

  Chester looked up at him through slitted eyes. You don’t think a mere cat could come up with that on his own? Is that it?

  No, no, that’s not what I mean. I know you’re smart and everything, but wouldn’t inventing space travel interfere with your napping, hunting, eating, and the other stuff you seem to need to do every day to be happy?

  Inventing feline space travel would be a lot like hunting … and we are natural-born explorers with a lot of what you humans call scientific curiosity.

  Jubal was stung to suddenly be lumped with “you humans.” Of course you are, buddy. You’re brilliant. I didn’t mean you.

  Or Renpet? Chester asked, having evidently forgiven the little female for stealing his fish.

  Jubal reached down and petted both of them between their ears. Sure. Renpet too.

  Both of them purred up at him. He was evidently forgiven.

  Chione gave him a startled look. “She tolerated your touch!”

  “Any friend of Chester’s is a friend of mine. Evidently your princess feels the same way about me.”

  “Walk with me,” the girl said, rising to her sandaled feet and straightening her skirt. “Our friends wish to commune with each other, I think.”

  Chester? Jubal asked.

  See you later, boy. Some things a tom has to do by himself, you know what I mean?

  Jubal and Chione left the entire huge cavern room to the two cats, walking along the ledge that formed a bank for the vigorous and noisy underground river.

  “What happened to the bridge that was here when we crossed from the other side?” he asked her.

  “I retracted it,” she said.

  “I didn’t see you do that.”

  “You didn’t see a lot of things.”

  “You can say that again. You talk a lot about dead ancestors. Is this place haunted or something?”

  “What would make you think that?”

  “Well, back on the other side, we kept getting lost. Chester was looking for that mummy place you showed him before, and he said the tunnel had been fairly straight, but we couldn’t seem to escape all sorts of twists and turns that led us up and down, just under the surface and to these sort of primitive houses. Just about the time we figured out where to go, the passage that seemed to be there wasn’t anymore, as if someone was changing the layout of the tunnels.”

  “Someone was, at least on this end. When we heard the alarm, Renpet had me route you away from your pursuers and toward us.”

  She took a small device from inside her skirt and waggled it in one hand.

  “You control the tunnel walls?”

  “Not really, just a series of doors and sliding walls that block off some passages and open others. Mine only works within a certain radius. There is a control room on the other end where they can monitor activity in the critical passages and control traffic within them. This only has a little light that comes on if someone unauthorized enters the area.”

  “We still haven’t located the kittens. I know you didn’t take them, but do you suppose they might have somehow come to this side of the river—maybe someone brought them? Or do you think they’ve been killed?”

  She shook her head and the tiny braids into which all of her hair was plaited bounced. “I do not think so. You are honored guests, and it has been so long since we had kittens here, I cannot think that anyone would harm them.”

  “We thought we heard them close to the surface on the other side, but Chester said that even though it sounded like kittens, he wasn’t getting any mental response from them. I’d like to keep looking, even if he is otherwise occupied.”

  “I will clear the passages on this side for you, or those within my range. The west is reserved for the dead, and the living rarely visit here. It would be a good place to hide someone. Like me, like Renpet. There are doorways to the world above concealed beneath the sand.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “Uh—is there another way back through them without disturbing Their Catships?” It came out a little sarcastic. After all he’d gone through to find Chester, the cat had gone and got his head turned by a kitty face.

  “Oh, yes,” she said. “There are many ways. This one will do,” and she led him to another entrance that wasn’t even cavelike. It had a doorway, with lintels and carvings, but until they got right up on it with his headlamp and her torch, the opening hadn’t been evident.

  “Thanks,” he said, and stalked off into the tunnel.

  He had barely started, however, when he heard the skitter of paws behind him. Wait! You are my boy. How can you go away without me? Wait for me! I love you. I am lost without you, Chester’s voice pleaded inside his head. And in another moment claws dug into his shoulders and neck before the familiar furry weight settled against the back of his head. Chester licked his ears and his jaw and his hair, purring like a small machine.

  I thought you had better things to do, Jubal said.

  She clawed me! he said. I did what she wanted and then she turned around and almost knocked my nose off my face. I’m sorry. Am I getting blood on you?

  Jubal sort of wanted to teach Chester a lesson and be a little standoffish, but it was hard to do that under the circumstances. He raised his hand back to pet his friend, and his fingers did come away sticky. She nailed you a good one, didn’t she?

  Yes, and I did exactly as she asked.

  My pop would probably say that’s females for you.

  My mother’s not like that! Git wasn’t either, and I doubt if Silvesta is, even though I haven’t seen her for a long time. Maybe it’s that royal blood thing again.

  Maybe. When we get back, you should ask your mother.

  At some point while they’d been communicating, another set of noises beyond the gurgling of the underground river and the sandy crunch of Jubal’s footsteps began.

  A dry rustle and slide, and then—and this was what got through to them—high-pitched feline cries of fear and dread. At t
he same time, a nauseatingly pungent smell filled the corridor.

  I think we’ve found the kittens, Chester said.

  Somehow, Jubal didn’t think this was a good thing.

  CHAPTER 12

  Pshaw-Ra had been running his tail off ever since he and the Barque Cats landed. Once his master plan was complete and the universe conquered, he would have a nice long nap.

  Perhaps it would have helped if he had a dedicated two-legged assistant, but that seemed to defeat his purpose. True, humans here on Mau knew their place, but if cats were to be independent of humans, exercise their superiority over them, then he, the engineer of this metamorphosis, must lead by example. Besides, he didn’t know of any human who could keep up with him. His former servant was much too old now—not to mention politically inconvenient, as the father of the outcast princess’s handmaiden.

  So Pshaw-Ra knew he had to convince the queen, house the Barque Cats, arrange for their feeding and for the proper medications to be administered to them and to the resident feline populace as well, so the breeding could commence. Sadly, this medication also made sure that no more inconvenient full-Barque kittens would be born, so that the mothers would be available to mate again and bear the superior sort of hybrid kitten he had in mind. Meanwhile he had to ensure that the polydactyl gene common among the Barque Cats got spread as widely as possible. And then there was the problem with the half-grown kittens and what to do with them so their mother would be ready to mate again.

  Chester and his boy were in some ways an asset, but in other ways they were a pain, since they understood far too quickly what was on his agenda. He had not given Chester the drug, because he had something special in mind for Chester, the first specimen to respond as he had hoped as a result of his experiment with the kefer-ka. Chester seemed to have figured out the special destiny for himself. But now the reckless pair had gone after the blasted Barque kittens. How inconsiderate! If only they had stayed put until he was ready to deploy them for their role in his scheme.

  Now he had to track them through the tunnels and reroute them to keep them away from secrets he wasn’t yet ready to share, including the whereabouts of the kittens. He had thought he was being clever using a voice sim of the kitten cries to lure them into the right passages, but somehow they hadn’t continued following it. And then, to his astonishment, the minute his back was turned, he lost them! He couldn’t find them on the locator screens at all, so to be on the safe side, as if he didn’t have enough to do, he snatched up the kittens again and transported them to a more secure location.

  The area was disused, but he left them food and water, told them not to wander off, and stuck up a force field to seal off the tunnel.

  He checked the underworld scanners one more time before returning to his lab, and located Chione and Renpet, who were where he expected them to be, along with, to his relief, Chester and the boy.

  But then everyone had to start moving about, and soon the cat had reclaimed his boy and Chione returned to Renpet.

  The males were headed for the kittens. They were moving very fast.

  Watching them, Pshaw-Ra became aware that something else was moving fast, though less perceptibly, as it was roughly the same size and circumference as the tunnels.

  But how could it be that? It was supposed to be dormant, inactive, trapped in the underworld. His force field was not going to protect the kittens from it, nor would it protect Chester and his boy.

  He lightened his gravity and bounded down the corridors, praying to—well, to himself, since he was the wisest and most powerful entity he knew—that he would be in time. Otherwise, it would mean starting all over again with the kittens, which would be a great deal of bother.

  CHESTER IN THE TUNNEL ON THE WEST BANK

  This time the mewing was coming from real kittens, I could tell. When I sent a mental search party toward them, they latched onto it with all of their paws and teeth as well. Get us out of here, they said. Well, one of them did. Another one said, Something’s coming. Something big and stinky. And the other two wondered if I’d brought anything for them to eat.

  I know where you are now, I told them. So shut up. Probably not a good idea to attract the scary thing, whatever it is. The boy and I are coming.

  But of course they were really young and kind of stupid. I’m sure I was much brighter at that age.

  That cat who brought us here said we had to stay here, one of them said, making noises even while he thought-talked to me.

  I said to be still, I reminded him. Now the stench was worse, and it wasn’t the dead cats this time. It smelled like something had digested a meadow full of really rancid grass and horked it back up. I couldn’t see the kittens in the tunnel ahead of us, and their voices seemed to be coming from the side—there were probably more rooms cut out along the way here, as there had been in some places on the other side of the river.

  All I heard was the kitten voices in my head and, unfortunately, in my ears at times, and the dry scratching, scraping, and sliding sound. Now I felt a sort of a hump and thump once in a while, as if something was crawling forward on its belly.

  I don’t like this, Jubal told me. I don’t like this at all.

  Nevertheless, we continued forward, me in a low crawl slink and Jubal creeping on tippy toes. The kitten voices grew louder, but so did the other sound, and the smell was so nasty I paused to hork up my own last meal.

  Jubal’s headlamp picked up the opening in the wall marking a room, and I knew that was where the kittens were, but all of a sudden my nose banged up against some kind of barrier and no matter how I scratched and clawed it wouldn’t give way. Jubal pushed too until he stopped. “Hooooooolysmoke, Chester. Stop. L-Look.” He pointed.

  At first I couldn’t see what he was carrying on about because there was still just a big long tunnel, as there had been. Then I noticed the differences—the fangs at the top of it and the other teeth at top and bottom, plus big fiery eyes staring at us over a scaly snout.

  What is that thing? I asked Jubal.

  The most ginormous snake in the entire galaxy is my guess, he said. Coming straight for us. Do you suppose this barrier keeps it in as well as us out?

  Meanwhile the kittens are going “Mew mew mew” even louder, and I keep shushing them but they are so terror-stricken they can’t even hear me. The snake draws close to the opening in the wall and the head turns slightly so we can see its profile. Yuck. A tongue like forked lightning turned into a slimy slab of meat flicked in and out, searching for the kittens.

  “Meeyew!” Poor little beggars. They wouldn’t stand a chance with that thing. I didn’t really see why it was going to bother with them. They wouldn’t even make a good bite for a monster that big.

  Jubal pressed against the force field, kicked it, hit it with his fist. It drew the attention of the serpent momentarily. The thing blinked its fiery eye then pointed its snout into the hole in the wall.

  Cram yourselves into a corner or a crack, I advised the snake kibble even as they continued squeaking their terror. That thing is huge. It might not be able to suck you out of there if you get wedged in good.

  Save us! the most optimistic one cried. What did it think I was going to be able to do against that thing?

  “Chester, what are you thinking?” Renpet’s voice cut into the kitten pleas. She sounded awfully close, and no wonder—she was right behind me. Her voice was high and shrill. “The great serpent Apep has come back to life! He will destroy us all!”

  Jubal said, “Chione, what is that thing?”

  Chione whispered, “I had heard his lair and prison were down here but never did I guess that the Apep was active. He is lord of the underworld, eater of suns.”

  “I thought the cats were in charge?” Jubal asked, sounding doubtful. That thing was enormous.

  “They are—but, oh, how can we save those poor kittens?”

  The humans couldn’t, of course. And for some reason I didn’t understand, I couldn’t look away from what I was
sure would be a terrible massacre, even worse than when Buttercup, my litter sister, and our foster mother Git had been slaughtered by a canine predator.

  But Renpet, striking faster than any serpent, knocked the controller from Chione’s hand and stepped on it. I had been leaning with my forepaws against the invisible barrier between us and the snake. Abruptly, I was through that barrier, on all four paws.

  Renpet was ready for battle. “Attack its eyes, Chester. Ready?”

  It was a foolish plan, a desperate plan, and a plan any right-thinking cat would have yowled at and taken off in the opposite direction. Instead I took the serpent’s right eye, she the left, and we leapt much mightier leaps than I had ever leapt before, straight to the top of the ugly scaly head. It was slippery but that’s what claws are for. I landed high up on the eye ridge, clinging with my other three sets of hooks, and lowered myself to attack the eye that blazed with such an unnatural light I feared at first to burn my back paws. I clawed with all my might. The head thrashed wildly, whipping back and forth, trying to scrape us off on the walls, but we clung tight and dug at those eye sockets with all our might. The eye went bloody, then dark, and finally dull and flat as I clawed and clawed and hoped that Renpet was doing the same.

  The snake’s body was so huge it filled the tunnel to the walls, preventing it from thrashing even harder since there was so little room for it to move. Nevertheless, faster than I could swat a fly from the sky, it had scraped me off the eye ridge and sent me scrabbling its scales until one front paw and one back paw latched into a nostril, dangling me above that toothy lower jaw.

  Now it was backing away, hissing like all of the angry cats in the universe, back through the tunnels faster than an express tram. I unhooked and flung myself backward, tail over nose, onto the stone floor. My back right leg hit first, hard, and pain shot up my hindquarters.