by Gini Koch
Christopher looked thoughtful. “No, you’re right. We’re in a foreign environment and I’m used to killing things that look dangerous. But . . . the katyhopper just didn’t feel dangerous. But I’m not an empath, so I don’t know why that would be. Jeff might have been or might be communing with these things, but how would I have done it?”
“The mind reading. The katyhoppers told you in some way that they were coming to help you, not hurt you.” I patted my katyhopper’s head. “They rock. But, this gives a lot of support to the idea that there’s something, or many things, we won’t like in the underbrush. And, I say again, if they’re giant snakes or snakelike creatures, you can count me out. I’ll stay up in the trees screaming my head off, thank you very much.”
Of course, no sooner said than Bruno squawked and flew for the nearest tree. It was one of the lone giant ones, but we were closer to it than to our original set.
As he did so, we watched the ground start moving. Not like an earthquake, but undulating. Like a sea serpent or a snake.
I opened my mouth to scream.
CHAPTER 14
I MANAGED TO REFRAIN from screaming because, as it turned out, what was under us was neither snake nor sea serpent.
The groundcover was undulating because it wasn’t entirely made up of plants. Plants were there, still, and they were purple, yes. But what was moving looked like extra-large butterflies or moths.
“Can those be what’s scared the katyhoppers?” I managed to ask, in a relatively normal tone of voice, as the katyhoppers landed on a sturdy branch and Bruno came and perched in front of me to serve as my protective avian shield and to give me something to clutch in case things got freaky.
“Proud of you for not losing it,” Chuckie said. “But I doubt it. My guess is that whatever spooked the katyhoppers has just spooked the butterflies. If that’s what they are. Presumably they’re slower to react or have less sensitive senses.”
“Butterflies eat carrion.” Why my mind had felt the need to toss this tidbit up from memory I had no guess. Maybe my mind was just ready to freak out and taking whatever opportunities it had. Lucky me.
We were facing our original copse of trees, at least I was pretty sure we were, based on the placement of the mountains and some other trees. And butterflies were leaping into the air in droves, making even the air look purple.
“So do many other things,” Christopher said. “But I think I’ve spotted what’s freaking the insects or whatever they actually are out. And, Kitty, it’s not a snake, but still, don’t freak out either, okay?” He pointed down and off a bit to our left.
I saw what Christopher had and relaxed. “It has legs. Sure, it’s a giant Budweiser Lizard, but still, it’s a giant Budweiser Lizard with legs. Legs are good.”
The animal, or reptile, or whatever it was, was about the size of a Komodo dragon, only it had big, round, bug eyes that stuck out from its head, a long tail that could and did curl up into a spiral, a pointed cowl around the back of its head, and an incredibly long tongue. And colors. Many, many colors.
At least when it jumped up it had colors. When it was on the ground it went back to mostly purple.
“What the hell is a Budweiser Lizard?” Christopher asked.
“It’s a giant chameleon,” Chuckie and I said in unison.
“Thanks for the chorus,” Christopher said, taking time out to shoot Patented Glare #1 at both of us. He was a pro, after all, and always kept in practice. “But here’s the big question—do giant chameleons eat people?”
“I doubt it,” Chuckie said. “But they would eat the katyhoppers if they could, and the butterflies for certain.” As he said this, the chameleon zapped a butterfly out of the air and ate it. The katyhoppers all shuddered.
“So Louie the Lizard down there is a direct predator of our katyhoppers, which is why they helped get us to safety. They’re awesome!” I patted my ’hopper again. “And so very brave.” Gave the guys the hairy eyeball look, and they followed suit and patted their mounts. I could feel all three katyhoppers relax a bit.
“So, does this mean that we have to sleep in the trees?” Christopher asked as Louie the Lizard romped on. Clearly, he was one happy chameleon, enjoying his whatever time of the day it was snack. “Because while that thing might not be into eating us, it’s big enough that it could give it a shot.”
I got nothing negative from Louie, but that didn’t mean anything. The chameleon reminded me of a big dog, really—he was romping and eating and just enjoying life. I had no guess whether that made him dangerous to us, though. We weren’t insects or insectoids. Then again, dogs could and would bite and we were riding on giant insects who were afraid of Louie. Caution was probably going to be the smart watchword.
“Maybe Louie’s a danger and maybe he isn’t, but the butterflies clearly nest on the ground.” Louie kept on going, jumping and romping, but in a reasonably straight line. As soon as he left an area, the butterflies settled back down on the plants, so my saying they nested there was a safe bet. “And the katyhoppers don’t appear to nest in trees.”
No sooner had I said this than the katyhoppers flew off our branch and headed back toward the trees we’d arrived on and around. Bruno stayed with me and I didn’t argue.
I kept an eye on Louie—he seemed to be going far away. Had no idea if that meant he’d be back later, if there were more of his kind around, if they were like tigers and it was one giant Bud Lizard to a territory, or if we’d never see him or one like him again.
“You know what I don’t see?” Chuckie asked as we flew back. “I don’t see anything that we could rightly say was a dominant sentient species.”
“Nothing humanoid,” Christopher agreed.
“But what if those butterflies or whatever are a hive mind? It might explain why everyone’s reading each other’s minds.”
The guys actually seemed to give my suggestion consideration. Wondered if they were feeling okay, Christopher in particular.
“Wouldn’t we, I don’t know, get some feeling that they’re there and thinking, though?” he asked finally.
“No idea,” Chuckie replied. “Ants and bees are a hive mind and we get nothing from them, so to speak. If their minds are alien enough from ours—like bee and ant minds are, I mean, not just alien in the planetary sense—then we might not know if they’re dominant or even highly sentient.”
“The katyhoppers have better senses, and they can tell what we’re thinking or feeling or something. Wouldn’t that make them more highly sentient than the butterflies?”
Chuckie shrugged. “Maybe, but, I say again, if the minds are too alien, we might not recognize the intelligence. And they might not recognize ours.”
“We’re lost on an alien planet, have no idea where the rest of our people are, and the only things we’ve got are whatever Kitty has in her purse,” Christopher concisely pointed out. “Right now, I don’t feel too intelligent. I feel lost, trapped, and out of my element, but not intelligent.”
We were near to “our” trees now. “You know, other than the Poofs and Bruno, I haven’t taken inventory of what I have in said purse.” That there were things in it I was going to be sure I hadn’t put in was a given. Algar had essentially handed me my purse before we were all taken, and it was heavier than normal, meaning he’d put in some surprise extras I sincerely hoped were going to help keep us all alive.
If we could find the others, of course.
As we reached the trees, I shoved the worry about Jamie, Jeff, and everyone else aside. Right now, Chuckie, Christopher and I had to be sure we were okay and going to be able to survive in this world. Couldn’t save anyone else if we ended up Louie the Lizard Chow.
Once back to our starting point, the katyhoppers landed on the ground underneath the trees we’d landed on.
And then it got weird.
Which was, you know, for what had gone on so f
ar, saying quite a lot.
CHAPTER 15
WE WALKED INTO THE TREES.
Not onto the branches, not into the spaces between the trees, and not into a giant hole in a tree, but into the trees. Like we were dryads or something.
“Whoa!” Chuckie said, as we entered Tree Land. “This is like something out of Greek Mythology!”
“No,” Christopher said slowly. “It’s not. I know what you two think you’re seeing, because I think I’m seeing it, too. But, while looking straight ahead, see what you see in your peripheral vision.”
I’d done this with the Jamie in Bizarro World. It was how she saw into all the other universes out there where she and I existed. She started straight ahead in the three-way mirror and watched everyone go past out of the corners of her eyes.
So it was easy for me to do what Christopher suggested. Managed not to fall off my katyhopper. “It’s an optical illusion. The trees create some kind of barrier that makes it look like nothing’s in between them other than ground and what you’d expect to be underneath trees.” What I was seeing wasn’t what anyone would expect to be underneath a tree, at least, not trees in my world.
“And as if we walked into a tree trunk,” Chuckie added.
The illusion didn’t last long—as soon as the last part of the last katyhopper crossed whatever weird threshold we had around us, our eyes stopped lying to us.
We were inside the copse of trees, and we could see what was outside of them. But what had merely looked like the ground underneath the trees was actually an elaborate nest setup that went up several stories.
The nests were, shocking no one, made of purple sticks and leaves, and I was fairly certain I saw a few butterfly wings in there, too. Not that I necessarily thought the katyhoppers were the butterflies’ enemies, but then again, for all I knew, they considered the butterflies food, not the plants. Or both. The animal kingdom was really big on the whole Circle of Life thing after all.
But in addition to being purple, it was also intricate and beautiful. The nests were set up like the cave cities of ancient peoples who’d lived in Arizona thousands of years ago—sort of like a gigantic interconnected apartment building.
It was easy to spot the katyhopper young, because they were both smaller than the katyhoppers we’d been riding and also iridescent. There were some medium-sized katyhoppers who were colored, but not as richly or brightly colored as the larger ones. Meaning they achieved their full color at adulthood.
“Welcome to Katyhopper City, Land of Beauty and Enchantment, and a riot of color. I wish I had a camera with me, and before one of you says that I have my phone, let me mention that it doesn’t have a never-ending battery and leave it at that.”
Our katyhoppers stopped walking and we all dismounted. The Poofs jumped back to each of us and bounded into purse and pockets respectively. Bruno flapped off our katyhopper’s back as well and took a look around.
The katyhopper Christopher had been riding started walking around, and Bruno followed. So we followed him.
The trees formed a ragged oval about the size of half of a football field, and three quarters of the interior area was given to the apartment of nests. There were larger ones on the bottom and some smaller up high, but it was hard to be sure, because the trees were tall and the nests went up within them.
Neither Chuckie nor I had seen this katyhopper city when we were in the trees, meaning the illusion was effective from all angles. For all I knew, we’d only been able to get inside because we were on the backs of the katyhoppers.
Katyhoppers were doing things, but they were insect things and mostly didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Unlike the other races we’d met from the Alpha Centauri system, which all felt human even though they were cats, dogs, and lizards, the katyhoppers were definitely still insects. Cocoons were in evidence, and it didn’t take genius to guess those held babies. There were piles of leaves and other things I couldn’t identify, and since katyhoppers went to these piles—randomly, as far as I could tell, not that this meant anything—and took items from the pile back to their nests, either this was group nesting material or group food. Or something else that didn’t compute for me.
However, what did compute was that we were led to several large katyhoppers of various sparkling colors. The three katyhoppers with us did a lot of antennae waving, and these others waved back.
Antennae were waved toward Bruno, and he moved closer and joined the group. He bobbed his head, did some squawking, clawed the ground a bit, and flapped his wings. Only he wasn’t talking to me, but to the katyhoppers.
“What’s he saying?” Chuckie asked, with a lot more interest and a lot less resignation in his tone than I was used to when anyone other than Richard White asked this kind of question. Then again, this wasn’t the world where we were married. Had a feeling that Charles in the other universe was taking a speed course in what his wife now knew and could do and probably had a lot of resignation in his tone going.
Realized I’d really only been back in my own universe less than a day before we were all tossed into an alien solar system. Would have complained to the Powers That Be, but had a feeling that they’d either tell me to pull up my Big Girl Panties and deal or they’d merely been waiting for me to get home to take me on their next version of Ms. Kitty’s Wild Ride.
“Bruno’s not talking to me. I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure he’s complimenting the katyhoppers on their nest setup. At least, he sounds impressed and seems to be sharing complimentary things. And I’m pretty sure he’s talking to the katyhopper elders.”
“I don’t want to know how you know that,” Christopher muttered, clearly doing his best to fill in during Jeff’s absence.
“As your father’s said many times, White, it’s her talent.”
“Do you think they grabbed my dad?” Christopher sounded worried, not that I could blame him. All the first Operations I’d been involved with had centered on removing Richard White from power in some way.
Of course, White had retired as Supreme Pontifex when Jamie was born, and Gower had that role now. My gut clenched. “No, I didn’t see anything around Richard like was around us. But . . . they don’t need Richard now, if they want our head man, religiously. They need Paul.” And Gower had Jamie with him. At least, I sincerely hoped she was still with him.
Chuckie put his hand on my shoulder. “I know where you’re going with this. And while I realize that our enemies have tried to steal your child from the moment she was born, if whoever brought us here—wherever here really is—had wanted that, why bring the rest of us along?”
“Good point.” Did the take a deep breath and let it out slowly thing again. Bruno and the katyhoppers were still deep in conversation. “Okay, you know, Mom was trying to tell me something before we all disappeared. Did either one of you catch it?”
Chuckie shook his head. “Just what you did, I think. Angela felt there was significance to who was being taken.”
“So did my dad,” Christopher said. “But I don’t see it.”
I looked around at the katyhopper’s hidden city. “Maybe we’re looking at it the wrong way.”
“Okay, we seem to have some time while Bruno talks to our hosts,” Chuckie said. “So, what do we know?”
We went over the list of who’d been taken as far as we knew, to see if one of us had spotted someone the others hadn’t. The three of us agreed on everyone taken.
“My dad asked why Abigail was being taken,” Christopher reminded us. “I don’t know why she would or wouldn’t be taken. Then again, I don’t know why whoever it is grabbed Tito and didn’t take Patrick. I’m inclined to agree with Reynolds—whoever it is isn’t necessarily trying to kidnap Jamie, because why not grab Patrick at the same time? And all the other kids, for that matter?”
“It’s a safe bet that whoever was taking us knows Queen Renata,” Chuckie said. “The prince
sses said they traveled here by the same means.”
“You know . . . could they have really been sent to us as badly as we were pulled here?”
The men both looked at me. “What do you mean?” Christopher asked slowly.
“I mean I thought we were going to die, more than once, when our Space-Age Pneumatic Tubes failed in the middle of space. I get why it would have taken a while to ‘grab’ us, but once grabbed, shouldn’t the process have been stable?”
“The gates never have issues,” Christopher said. “But they work differently. At least as far as I could tell. If we can find Lorraine, Claudia, and/or Serene, they’ll probably have a better idea about what brought us here. Scientifically, I mean.”
“Normally, I would think, once the beam or whatever it was latches on and is set, it should work smoothly. Unless there was interference.” Chuckie’s eyes narrowed.
“Dude, my turn to read your mind. You think there was interference, don’t you? Rahmi said the situation was bad here when she and Rhee were sent to us. What if there’s a fight of some kind going on? You know, like in the movies—the, we hope, good guys are trying to pull in their reinforcements and the, we think, bad guys burst in and turn the machine off. Good guys fight and turn it back on, and so forth. The people being transported don’t land where they’re supposed to because the process was interrupted.”
Christopher jerked. “Reinforcements. We’ve only had significant interaction with people from this solar system twice. The second time was when they came to save us from the Z’porrah attack, and really only Alexander came then. But the first time, the Planetary Council came.”
“And stayed for my wedding. Oh, wow. I have Alien Conspiracy Bingo. Think about it—everyone pulled was part of the fight right before Jeff and I got married. That’s why they pulled Tito, he was a big part of that battle. Everyone they grabbed was. Everyone except Jamie, Abigail, Rahmi, and Rhee, that is.”