by Gini Koch
“The strautruch are also supposed to help us,” Jerry said. “They fly fast, and I’m sure they can probably handle the hyperspeed.”
“They aren’t going to turn tail and go home,” Randy added. “Like your katyhoppers, they’re excited to be a part of all of this.”
“We’re responsible for these people,” Jeff said with more patience than I’d have expected. “We destroyed their homes.”
“Protecting them,” Joe pointed out.
“Protection they might not have needed if it wasn’t for us,” Hughes countered.
Chuckie shook his head. “Frankly, I think the snakipede herd or flock or whatever they call them was headed for King Benny’s caravan. From what Jeff said, the Lecanora would have been on the far side of the Bronze Land if they hadn’t been coming to meet us. Meaning the snakipedes smelled them and went after a large food source.”
“Meaning we’re responsible,” Jeff said. “I realize we want to find everyone else, my daughter included, in case anyone’s forgotten. I realize we want to solve the problems and fix whatever’s going on around here. But while I agree that the katyhoppers are probably the top of the sentience pyramid here, the Lecanora are by far the most populous race on this planet and their so-called king is therefore considered to rule this entire continent. Or, as they think of it, world. And if we want to actually effect positive change, then we cannot leave these people, who are already shoved down to the bottom of their society, in worse circumstances than when we found them.”
We all stared at him for a few long moments. “Wow,” I said finally. “You’ve spent a lot longer in D.C. than I realized.”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “It’s not a political speech. It’s reality.”
“I told you, he’s the only politician I trust,” Chuckie said with a sigh. “Jeff, believe me, I understand your position. And I agree with it. But we still have ten people to find, including Jamie, as you said. Most of them are humans, meaning they have none of the advantages that the A-Cs and Kitty have. For all we know, they aren’t having nearly as good a time on this planet as we are. And I don’t mean that facetiously. All four groups here landed either with friendly natives or in a place where they were left alone and able to find shelter. There’s no guarantee that’s what’s happened for the others.”
“You know, I want to know how you knew Fancy would find us when you and I went out,” Christopher said to me. “I know that’s why you wanted to leave the cavern. And it could be relevant to the issue.”
“It is but only sort of. We all landed near friendly natives, as Chuckie said. But the girls didn’t, at least as far as they knew.”
“Correct,” Lorraine said. “We didn’t find any living soul. We saw the cavern and headed for it.”
“So you landed in view of it?” I asked.
Claudia nodded. “It was far away but we could see it, so that’s where we went. We figured we’d find people or animals or something. People we’d talk to, animals we’d deal with.”
“You said this aloud, right?”
“Yes,” Lorraine said. “We were speaking to each other. Oh, and duh.”
“Just checking. And you ran to the cavern at hyperspeed, right?”
“Of course,” Serene replied. “It was cold, Kitty. We wanted to get inside before we froze. You know, like right now.”
“Right. Only, I’d bet you had to land and make sure each other were okay, look for the rest of us, things like that. In addition to making the plan to run for the cavern, right?” All three Dazzler heads nodded. “Right, then. See, it’s cold here, as you’ve all so astutely pointed out, Christopher took me all over this area and I never saw one home or anything that could be construed as a home, and that means that the natives are likely to be burrowers. Meaning that their homes are underground. They have gorgeous fur, and it blends in beautifully with a snowy landscape. I assumed that whoever lived here spent some time watching the girls.”
“Why didn’t they help them like the katyhoppers helped us?” Christopher asked.
“Because the girls are really efficient and I’d imagine they weren’t scared all that much.”
“We weren’t,” Lorraine confirmed. “We were pissed, but not scared. By the way, since I’m sure you’re going to care, we’re headed roughly toward where we landed.” She pointed at some tracks to our right that I could only see because of the pretty glow and the fact that I had enhanced A-C vision now. “Those are ours.”
“And we’re definitely going in the same direction we came from,” Claudia added.
This surprised me not at all. The girls had landed near help. They just hadn’t needed it.
“But you knew they were all female,” Christopher said. “Fancy’s Ferrets, I mean.” Knew he’d read my mind. Didn’t mention it aloud.
“Yeah. Because males tend to come check on females. But female warriors tend to see if the females are other warriors first. The girls showed that they were, and then they entered a place where Fancy’s people have been told for generations not to go because it’s dangerous. Meaning they were either dead or brave. They didn’t die, and they didn’t run away. Meaning brave.”
“We used snow for water, too,” Claudia said. “In case that was impressive or something.”
“It would confirm your resourcefulness and intelligence, so yes. Warriors tend to not be impressed by Gods that don’t fight. I’m sure Fancy’s people assumed you were the Muses, but they’d have been a lot more excited if the Winalla had landed here.”
“Maybe excited in the wrong way, if they’re like Rahmi and Rhee,” Walker said with a laugh. He shook his head and the smile disappeared. “You know who I’m the most worried about? Them. They don’t have a lot of experience and their first reactions are to fight, and to fight men. That could go badly here.”
In some ways I agreed with Walker. It was curious that the princesses hadn’t been placed in this land. They would have had an instant affinity with Fancy’s Ferrets. But as I said all the time, I didn’t get to make the plans, I just had to foil the bad ones or make sure the good ones worked.
“Yeah, good point,” Christopher said.
“Really?” Jeff asked with extreme politeness. “What point is that?”
CHAPTER 44
DIDN’T LOOK AT CHUCKIE, because I knew he’d also gotten whatever Christopher had from me. Had no idea why I didn’t want to admit what was going on. Unless, you know, it was because I was becoming a waterfruit addict.
Followed Dad’s sage advice and avoided answering the question by asking another question instead. “You can’t read me here?”
“I wasn’t trying to. But since you didn’t say something aloud, it’s clear Christopher read you.”
Christopher and I looked at each other. “Ah . . . I did. Sorry.” Christopher looked as guilty as I felt.
“Nothing to apologize for, I guess. But Kitty, for the rest of us who can’t read minds, what point did you make that Christopher agrees with?” Jeff sounded pleasant and not at all jealous. This was, frankly, not like him.
“I think it’s odd, since we were all carefully placed, that the princesses weren’t the ones who were put here.”
“By the way,” Chuckie said, “it’s not mind reading in the way you do it with Kitty, Jeff. We’re just thinking the same things at the same time, or sort of feeling each other’s strong thoughts.”
“That’s exactly how I do it with Kitty.” Jeff looked at the three of us, and I got the feeling he was empathically examining us. Risked a look at Chuckie out of the side of my eyes—yep, he looked guilty, too, though only a little bit. Chuckie had a poker face, so him betraying this much was a rarity. And indicated that the three of us might be in trouble.
But Jeff’s probe was interrupted by our arrival at our destination. It turned out that I was right—Fancy and her folks all lived underground. But not like any burrowing an
imals on Earth lived underground.
First off, we didn’t go down into a hole, which, considering the size of the bosthoon, was probably a good thing. We came to what looked like a dead end. Well, our line of refugees came to a halt and, after waiting for a minute or so, Jeff, Chuckie, and I went forward to find out what was going on. So we got to see the rock that looked like it was part of the mountain rise in front of us.
This was actually an entrance, however—an eight-foot-tall door of rock. Not that you could tell, because it was basically seamlessly fitted to the mountain.
The rock was covered with indentations the size of a fingertip. Fancy tapped some of these indentations in what looked like a random manner but was obviously this world’s version of a keypad lock, and the doorway lifted just a bit.
The indentations she’d hit were not close together and they were too small for any creature without fingers or beaks to manage. Meaning that while a normal enemy might figure out how to get in, snakipedes would be out of luck. Unless they were being led by a being with fingers or beaks. Filed this thought away to mull over later.
The bottom of the doorway had pieces of metal on the bottom, just like a portcullis. Lifting this door normally took at least ten of Fancy’s Ferrets. Jeff took one look at them straining and went and opened the door himself. Not to increase his Leoalla reputation—though of course that’s what happened—but because he didn’t want them overdoing it when we were right there to help. Didn’t argue—he opened the door far faster than they could, and we had a lot of Snakipede Chow to get into safety.
Chuckie ran the head count, and after everyone had tramped on through he was happily able to confirm that we had no runaways, strays, or wanderers.
Everyone finally inside or underground or whatever we were calling it, Jeff and Christopher dragged the entrance door back down into place using the metal bars attached on the inside. Noted that Jeff had needed Christopher’s help, meaning the cold was affecting him, and probably the other A-Cs as well. Not that it wasn’t affecting everyone—but I’d never seen the A-Cs in a freezing environment for too long. Sure, we had folks all over the world who were in cold regions—Moscow Base, for example. But they were all dressed for the weather there, living in the A-C underground facilities, and out in the elements only on rare occasions, all of them using hyperspeed.
Once the door was down, I could see that it had similar indentations on this side. Fancy hit a different set of indentations and I heard a locking mechanism go into place. On this side, the only way I could tell this was a doorway were the metal bars sitting on the ground.
None of us were dressed for the weather in this spiral of the world. At least I had jeans, Converse, and a hoodie on. The girls were in the usual female version of the Armani Fatigues—white oxford shirts, black Armani slimskirts, and black pumps. Their look didn’t say “adapting to the elements.” Jeff, Christopher, and Chuckie were all in the male Armani Fatigues, so at least they all had suit jackets on. The flyboys had come to our meeting in their regular Navy uniforms for whatever reason, meaning they had layers on, but short sleeves and no jackets.
Wanted to ask my purse to cough up some parkas, but figured it would raise questions I both couldn’t and didn’t want to answer. I had enough of that going on with Jeff already—no need to create more reasons for him to be suspicious of my behavior.
Thankfully, it was warm once the stone door was closed and secured and got warmer as we followed the trail into the mountain. The trail here was much more like a dirt road and much wider than the trail had been on the outside.
We walked for a few minutes, still going up on a gradual incline, and it appeared that all we were going to see was a road and the mountain walls on either side of us. Jeff pulled me, Christopher, and Chuckie to the end of the line, while indicating that he wanted the rest of the Earthlings to go on ahead. Tried not to worry. Failed.
“Now that it’s just us, let me see one of them.” He put his hand out.
“One of what?” I asked, hoping I sounded reasonably innocent.
“The fruit you three don’t want to share with anyone else.”
Looked at Chuckie. “You, too?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. I have no idea why.”
“I think they’re addictive,” Christopher shared, as I pulled out a waterfruit and handed it to Jeff. “But Poofikins had Kitty eat one, so maybe not.”
Jeff examined the fruit, including sniffing it. “Uh huh. Why do you three think it’s addictive?”
“Because we don’t want to share it with anyone else,” Christopher said. “That’s not like Kitty, at all.”
“It’s not like Chuck to take something, think it’s addictive, and keep on taking it, either,” Jeff said. “Here’s a question, though—why do you think this fruit allows you to read minds?”
“Well . . . honestly, we were reading each other the moment we landed in the Purple Land. But as soon as we ate this fruit the ability got stronger and better.”
“I’m sure it did. But baby? I have a request. Tell me what I’m thinking.”
Looked at Jeff. He had a very placid and pleasant expression on his face. “Um, that you’re mad at us?”
“I know I’ve made my expression pleasant, so why would you think I’m angry?”
“Because it makes sense that you would be,” Christopher offered.
“Maybe. However, I’m not angry. And what I’m thinking and feeling isn’t something the three of you seem to be picking up on. If you were really able to read minds, you should be able to read mine.”
We all concentrated. “Nothing,” Chuckie said. “I can feel Kitty’s stress and Christopher’s guilt, but nothing from you Jeff. Are you blocking us?”
“No. Eat all of this you want. Don’t give it to anyone else.” He tossed the fruit to Christopher, who caught it. “You three can’t actually read minds. Or emotions.”
“Care to explain that? I mean, just so we have a freaking clue as to what you’re talking about?”
Jeff grinned. “Sure. I think the katyhoppers gave the waterfruit to the three of you because it makes it easier for them to read your minds. While you two,” he indicated me and Christopher, “went off to survey the territory and find reinforcements, and Chuck was having an in-depth discussion with the girls, I chatted with the flyboys. We all think that the katyhoppers’ antennae work like radio towers—they broadcast and receive. In their case, because they are mind readers, they’re broadcasting and receiving brainwaves.”
“Okay,” Christopher said slowly. “Then why just the three of us?”
“And why did it start immediately?”
Chuckie jerked. “It didn’t. We’d landed and then Christopher found the katyhoppers, or they found him, and that’s when it started.” He looked at Jeff. “Why didn’t I think of this before?”
“They probably didn’t want you to,” Jeff replied. “From what you’ve said about them, they know aliens exist. Meaning they know this is a crowded solar system, life-wise. So, the katyhoppers have been waiting for visitors from far, far away. You three dropped in, they wanted to read you, and they did. The side benefit was that you three started reading each other. It helped that the three of you didn’t freak out about it, so the katyhoppers knew they’d found kindred spirits, in that sense.”
We were quiet for a few more steps. “Kitty’s really rubbed off on you,” Chuckie said finally. “I mean that as a compliment.”
Jeff laughed. “And I take it like one, believe me.” He put his arm around my shoulders and hugged me. “Stop worrying, baby. You’re all fine and I’m not upset with any of you.”
“You’re awfully calm about all of this. You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Well, freezing like the rest of us, but otherwise, fine.”
“Why don’t you want anyone else to eat the waterfruit, then?”
&
nbsp; He shrugged. “Why allow anyone access into more of our minds than they already have? Frankly, with the three of you, they don’t need access to the rest of us.”
“Mind explaining that?” Christopher asked.
“Sure. Chuck’s the smartest guy we have, and by ‘we’ I mean Earth.”
“There are smarter,” Chuckie said, sounding a little embarrassed.
“Fine. One of the smartest guys on Earth,” Jeff said with a grin. “So they have access to everything you know. Or maybe only access to what you’re actively thinking. But they don’t need access to the girls because they have access to you.”
“Okay, why me then?” I asked.
All three men snorted. “That’s easy,” Chuckie said. “And I see where Jeff’s going with this. You’re the leader, Kitty. Yes, technically Jeff is, but we all follow your plans. You’re the one who usually instigates the action, comes up with the bizarre ideas that are correct, and so on. They don’t need access to our other leaders if they have access to you.”
“And me?” Christopher asked, sounding more than a little down. “Why do they need me?”
Based on the thinking going on, this one was easy for me to answer. “You’re the military mind. You were the Head of Imageering for years. Sure, you’re not in a military position now, but you were the number two guy from a military perspective for over a decade, and every person here other than Jeff answered to you at one time or another. So, you know how we work in a military fashion—both the A-Cs and the humans—and you have knowledge of how this solar system functions, too, right?”
“Yeah, I do.” Christopher sounded a little more perky. “We had to learn about it when we started moving up the ranks in Centaurion Division. It’s not really taught to us before then.”
“You’re also an imageer,” Chuckie said. “And that means you see things differently. Serene is as well, but as Jeff’s pointed out, if they can access the three of us, they don’t need to worry about accessing the others.”