Chapter Eleven

Gwen had to be dreaming. Holding hands—sort of—with the specific Mars robot that had inspired her to go into a STEM field in the first place. Being in a room with a lizard-person from the Vega system. Standing close to a gorgeous alien who made her feel cherished and desired and…loved.

The only thing that could make the moment better was if the adorable, non-allergenic kitten was with them.

As if she’d summoned him, the door opened again, and Bandit shot inside, followed by two other kittens. One was a short-haired calico, and the other was a fluffy calico. All three had their ears back and were hissing at each other.

Okay, so maybe having the kitten in the room wasn’t making it a more special moment.

Margaret backed away from the kittens, a red light flashing near her camera array. “What are these creatures?”

“They are kittens,” Peri said. “Another kind of Earth creature and not to be feared.”

Margaret backed away farther. “More Earthlings?”

“Earth cats,” Gwen said. “There are many forms of life on Earth.”

“They don’t seem very friendly,” Margaret said.

“Sometimes they have trouble getting along.” Xan bent down and picked up Bandit when the orange tabby ran to him and tried to climb up his legs to escape the fluffy calico. “What has gotten into you?”

“This takes sibling rivalry to the next level,” Gwen said.

The two calicos—presumably both female, since male calicos were so rare—started batting at each other and hissing. Gwen reached out to the fluffy one, but she whipped around and swatted at Gwen’s hand, claws extended.

“Careful,” Peri said. “Queenie is…prickly.”

“I was just trying to help,” Gwen said, addressing the kitten.

Queenie’s eyes widened and her ears perked forward. But then the short-haired one, who must be Patches, meowed in what sounded weirdly like a taunt.

Queenie hissed at her again. She jumped onto one of the workstations lining the walls and grabbed something in her mouth, then ran for the door.

“Not this again,” Peri said.

The kitten made a spectacular leap up to the control panel, batted at a bunch of buttons, then landed back on the floor. The door opened a crack and Queenie darted through with whatever she’d stolen.

Patches let out a yowl as the door closed in her face when she tried to follow. She did the same acrobatic jump, opened the door just a crack, and took off after her sister.

Gwen couldn’t believe what she’d just seen. She pointed at the door, and said, “What the hell? Those are not normal Earth cats.”

Peri tsked at her. “Cyan assures us their behavior is within the realm of what Earth cats can do.”

“She’s shown us videos,” Xan said. “Cats walking along tightropes and jumping through hoops.”

“Although, I do not see why you would want them to do so,” Peri said.

“Perhaps the humans are training them to deal with emergency situations,” Margaret said.

Gwen shook her head, her mind reeling. “I’ve seen videos like that, too, but those cats were highly trained. It had to take months or even years. These guys are just kittens.”

“Well, they are about six months old,” Xan said.

“Six months?” Gwen looked at the tiny kitten in his arms, who was rather pointedly not looking at her. “They should be way bigger than that. They should be at least halfway to adulthood.”

Xan laughed. “I may not have been around many—or…well any—infants in my life, but even I know it takes more than six months for something to fully mature.”

Gwen stared at him. It took her a moment to imagine how sheltered his life must have been that he didn’t know other species had different life spans. He was going to be crushed when he learned how long cats lived.

Then again, with how smart these kittens were, she was starting to wonder what else was different about them. The not-triggering-allergies thing was great, but she was a little scared to think of what super-intelligent cats could do.

She scratched Bandit’s head, and said, “What other secrets do you have locked away in there?”

He meowed plaintively, then grabbed her hand with both paws and pulled it to his chest. Gwen felt her stomach do a little flip.

“I am smitten with this kitten,” she said.

Xan laughed, his smile broad enough to bring out his dimples.

There was no denying it. She was smitten with him, too.

Bandit nipped her hand hard enough to sting, bringing her attention back to him.

“Ouch,” Gwen said. “What was that for?”

“Bandit.” Xan pulled the kitten away, but then Bandit started swatting at him. The kitten twisted in Xan’s grip until he had to let him down to the floor.

“What’s gotten into him?” Xan said. “He’s never bitten anyone before.”

Bandit ran to the door and started pawing at it. He turned to look at them over his shoulder, and starting meowing constantly.

“What, can’t you open the doors like your sisters?” Gwen asked.

Bandit chuffed, then leapt up and hit a series of buttons. He landed in front of the door, facing them, and sat with his tail curled around his feet, the very tip of it flicking in annoyance. He stared at her with one ear back as the door opened fully.

A sinking feeling grew in Gwen’s stomach, strong enough to make her a little dizzy. She reached out to Xan for support.

“These are not normal Earth cats,” she said.

Margaret wheeled a bit closer. “He’s very obviously trying to tell us something.”

Gwen turned to Peri, and said, “Cyan said she can understand them. Can you understand them, too?”

Peri shrugged. “I have never really tried.”

“Could you make a collar that translates for them?” she asked. “So we can all understand what they’re trying to say?”

Peri blinked his big golden eyes a few times. “That is a fascinating idea.”

The metal band around his neck shimmered, then flowed up his face, like liquid defying gravity. When it reached his cheekbones, it extended from his scales, forming a pair of goggles with silver lenses.

He trotted over to a workstation, apparently still able to see fine. Margaret trailed behind him.

The bands on his arms extended into some kind of tools that retracted when he needed to use his hands for something. Margaret started handing him things as he asked for them, using the mechanical arms that had originally been designed to collect samples on Mars.

“This is really weird,” Gwen murmured.

Xan put his arm around her and squeezed. “Yeah, it’s weird to me, too. Something is going on.” He rubbed his stomach, and said, “I feel strange.”

“You feel that, too?” she asked.

Bandit turned and started pacing back and forth in front of the open door. The volume of his meows grew.

“This is probably going to take a while,” Gwen said. “Maybe we should try to figure out what’s going on ourselves.”

“It will be ready in a few moments,” Peri said, sparks leaping up from where he worked.

“You’re kidding!” Although, after watching his silver bands morph into goggles and other tools, she wondered how anything could surprise her anymore.

Margaret knocked a small cylinder that looked like it was made of rubber onto the floor as she moved to hand something to Peri.

“Sorry about that,” she said.

“It is of no consequence.” Peri remained intent on his task.

Bandit, however, ran over to the item. He pounced on it, batting it toward the door.

“Okay, now that is more normal kitten behavior,” Gwen said.

The rubber cylinder rolled into the hallway and stopped after a few inches. It didn’t slow to a stop, it just stopped, as if something had grabbed it and was holding it down.

“But that is not normal behavior at all.” Xan released her and walked to the door. He shook his head and staggered to the side as he drew closer to it.

Bandit ran over to him and leapt on his legs, meowing frantically. The dread in Gwen’s stomach grew.

“Don’t go out there,” she said.

She ran to Xan and pulled him back. He leaned on her as they stumbled farther into Peri’s workspace. She didn’t remember him being so heavy. Strangely, he seemed to grow lighter the farther they were from the door.

Peri turned around, a small silver collar in his hand. “I believe the expression is ta-da!,” he said.

His smile fell as he looked at them. The goggles separated and flowed back into the band at his neck, his tools vanishing in the same manner.

“What is going on?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Gwen said. “Xan tried to go outside, and I think it hurt him somehow.”

Xan rubbed his face and shook his head again. “It’s the gravity generators. They’re malfunctioning. I need to alert command, if they don’t know about it already.”

“Peri can fix malfunctions,” Margaret said.

“I appreciate your faith in my abilities.” Peri patted her carapace, but kept his focus on Xan, his brow furrowed. “However, we have no idea what we are dealing with.”

Xan lifted his watch closer to his face, and said, “Engineering, what’s the situation with the gravity matrix?”

He waited a few moments, but there was no response. “Bridge? Communications? Navigation?” Each time, Xan paused, and each time, no one responded.

Gwen’s stomach was in knots. At least it didn’t have that leaden feeling since they’d moved farther from the door.

“Why aren’t we being affected in here?” Gwen asked.

“My workshop has its own environmental controls,” Peri said. “Including gravity. I needed distinct systems in case my experiments had unexpected results.”

Bandit started yowling. He stood on his back legs and batted at the collar.

Gwen yanked it out of Peri’s hand and dropped to her knees, fastening it around Bandit’s neck.

“Do I need to do anything to activate—” she began.

“Queenie is messing with the gravity on the ship!” Bandit yelled in a light, child-like voice that perfectly fit him. The words overlaid his now constant meows. “Patches told her she didn’t know what she was doing and it was dangerous, but Queenie wouldn’t listen!”

“Oh my God.” Gwen was stunned. She had expected… Well, she wasn’t sure what she’d expected. But it wasn’t this.

There was so much to process in Bandit’s statement and about his statement. Gwen’s brain latched on to the least terrifying part.

“This is not an Earth cat!” Gwen snapped, turning to Peri.

“I am an Earth cat,” Bandit said, stomping his paw. “I’m just different because of my dad. We all are.”

“Your dad?” Gwen asked.

“We’re unexpected results, like Peri said, and like I’m sure is happening to Queenie and Patches right now!” Bandit let out another yowl, his eyes closing. “Queenie’s experiment is having unexpected results as well. We have to help her—and Patches.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Gwen picked up the kitten and snuggled him against her chest. “It’s okay. We’re going to work this out.” She looked up to Xan, and said, “Right?”

The grim set of his mouth sent a chill through her.

She didn’t have to be a huge sci-fi fan to know just how dangerous things could get if the gravity generators on the ship went wonky. Especially if they were turned up too far.

But there was no way her first space adventure would end like that. They had to be able to fix things.

“Xan,” she said. “Tell me you can fix this.”