Kitty Katt 11: Alien Separation (9 page)

W
E 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 princesses 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.”

“Rahmi and Rhee are Queen Renata's daughters, and I'd bet that she's the one behind pulling us over,” Chuckie said. “She's more strategically minded than Alexander is, and if there are problems somewhere in the Alpha Centauri system, pulling in the people who stopped the former King of Alpha Four makes a lot of sense. But why Abigail? She was with the families during that battle and she's not a warrior.”

The light dawned. “But Michael's dead, and Abigail is a Gower. And a woman. You're right, Chuckie—Renata, or someone working with her, is who brought us here. A Free Woman would definitely feel that the sister of a fallen male warrior would be an excellent replacement or slot filler or whatever they're doing. Meaning we can probably feel confident we're in the Alpha Centauri system.”

“Maybe,” Christopher said. “But with the way we traveled, and by the mere fact that none of the others are nearby, I don't think we can be a hundred percent confident yet.”

“Why take Jamie, though?” Chuckie asked. “Yes, she was conceived by then, but that's pushing it in terms of saying she was there.”

“They know how powerful she is,” Christopher suggested.

“Yeah, but . . .”

“I know that look,” Chuckie said. “And I have no guess as to what you're thinking, which is almost refreshing based on the past couple of hours.”

“I don't think they're bringing her because she has power, at least not that kind of power. I think they took her because she's Jeff's daughter.”

“To use against him?” Christopher asked, sounding worried.

“I don't think so. It's because they may need her. There's trouble right here in Alpha Centauri City and that starts with T and that rhymes with C and that stands for ‘chain.' As in the chain of succession.”

“How and why did you work
The Music Man
into this?” Chuckie asked.

“It's Kitty, why ask why? But Amy loves that movie—I've had to watch it more than once, so I get the Kitty-ism.”

“So proud. My musical point is that Jamie could, conceivably, be the new ruler of Alpha Four. Especially if the Free Women have lost their patience with having to listen to King Alexander and Councilor Leonidas.”

C
HUCKIE SHOOK HIS HEAD.
“Renata liked Alexander and respected Leonidas the last time I heard from anyone out here which was, yes, right before the princesses arrived. I can easily believe that someone's against the two of them, but I have trouble buying that it's her unless things have shifted drastically.”

“Things shift drastically all the time.” Like, Chuckie's presumed best friend had shifted right over to the top of our Most Wanted list.

“We won't know until we find the others and figure out who really brought us here,” Christopher said quickly. Figured he'd read my mind or was just thinking the same thing and wanted to keep us off the Cliff Goodman Is Our Mastermind topic. “But I think we need to pay attention to our here and now.”

The katyhoppers seemed to be done communing with each other and Bruno. At least I took the bigger ones sort of nodding their antennae at Bruno and wandering off to mean that the chat was over.

Sure enough, Bruno immediately came over to me and did some serious head bobbing, wing flapping, and squawking. “Right you are, Christopher. Bruno says that we have been invited to stay with the katyhoppers. This is a big deal—they don't allow something like this often, but they've never seen anything like us, so they feel that we're here as a test of some kind. Possibly of their hospitality. Anyway, we need to bed down for the night.”

“But it's still light out,” Chuckie shared. Accurately.

“Yeah, I know, but Bruno says that the katyhoppers say that it's going to get dark fast, and when it does, things that are not as nice as Louie the Lizard will be roaming around. We need to nest with them.” Bruno squawked some more. “Really? Wow, that's going to be awkward.”

“What is?” Christopher asked with prescient trepidation.

“The katyhoppers consider us a family group. They don't mate like we do, meaning any female and any male, whenever they want, can do the deed. Children are raised by the community.”

“It really takes a village I guess,” Chuckie said.

I snorted a laugh, but went on. “However, the three who have been escorting us are two females and a male, and they all nest together. Not necessarily as sexual partners,” I added quickly, as both guys got looks of panic on their faces. “As in, Jeff isn't going to want to kill us for how we have to spend the night. But their space is limited and they are generously giving us our own family nest, which is a huge honor and we have to treat it as such.”

“You got all that from some wing flaps and bird calls?” Christopher asked.

“Actually, I've gotten more. Including the fact that the three who'd given us a lift and, as far as they're concerned, saved our lives from Louie the Lizard, are young adults. If we don't behave appropriately they're going to get in trouble with the community. And that can be bad and mean they're ostracized because of their helping weird strangers.”

“Then let's make sure we behave appropriately,” Chuckie said.

“I know, I just
know
, I'm going to hate the answer to this question,” Christopher said. “But, how do we have to sleep?”

I knew he was going to hate the answer, too, but not as much as Jeff would hate the answer. “Spooned up together.” Both guys opened their mouths, but I put my hand up and they didn't speak. “Per what they've told Bruno, it's going to get hella cold about an hour after dark. Cold for a planet that has two suns may not be our version of cold. Then again, it might be worse. This isn't Alpha Four, so I'm betting that Christopher is going to feel like he's freezing once night really hits, and I'm sure Chuckie and I aren't going to be asking to strip down to our skivvies. The Poofs cannot go large here—they will freak our hosts out beyond belief. Ergo, we're spooning and you two can fight about who cuddles up against my back and who gets the front on your own time.”

“She moves a lot in her sleep,” Chuckie said to Christopher. “I call dibs on her back.”

“Jerk,” Christopher muttered.

“Wow. I so totally feel the love.”

“We're both envisioning what Jeff's going to do to us,” Christopher snapped, sharing Patented Glare #2. “There is no win in this situation, and we're both past wanting to grope you.”

“Speak for yourself,” Chuckie said with a wicked grin. He and I both laughed while Christopher switched it up to Patented Glare #4. “I'm kidding, White. If you'll feel better, I'll take Kitty's front side.”

“You two could spoon each other, you know.”

“No, we couldn't,” Christopher said flatly. “We'll work out who gets which side later.”

“Honestly, it doesn't matter,” Chuckie said. “I was just having fun at your expense. Seriously, she moves a lot in her sleep. At any time during the night she'll be using one of us for a butt pillow and one for a headrest. Just accept that it won't be fun, because she also hurdles in her sleep, and just roll with it.”

“I think I resent all this personal information you're sharing about me. I can't deny it, but I do resent it. And I'm forced to add that Jeff never complains.”

“Probably because he knows what's good for him,” Chuckie said with another grin.

Wondered if Chuckie was really okay with this. Having just had Other Me around, presumably thinking he was her husband, at least for a little while, had to have been difficult, especially since he hadn't really recovered from losing Naomi and he'd just found out that the guy he thought had his back had been busy shoving knives into it for the past several years.

But right now he seemed fine, and, frankly, we weren't in a situation for him not to be fine. So, decided to err on the side of assuming he was smart enough to not let anything get to him at the moment and roll with things as we had to deal with them.

Our discussing the sleeping arrangements and such didn't seem to be taken amiss by our hosts. “Bruno, my bird, do you know what our katyhopper friends are really called and what their names are?”

Much feather ruffling, head bobbing, and clucking ensued.

“Aha. Well, that's very nice of them.”

“What is?” Christopher asked.

“They say that there's no way we can pronounce their names or what they call themselves. They think katyhopper is a nice name and are fine with us calling them by that species name.”

“Only you would be in this situation,” Christopher pointed out.

“Be glad she is,” Chuckie said. “Besides, White, they saved you first.”

“True enough. Proved they were sentient. So, what do we call them?” he asked quickly, before Chuckie or I could add a comment. “By name, I mean, versus species.”

“They said we could call them whatever we like.” The guys gave me the “oh really” looks. “What?”

“It's not like with the Poofs, is it?” Christopher asked. “Where we name them and they're ours for life? Not that I have anything against the katyhoppers, mind you. But, if all goes well, we'll be leaving this planet, and that means leaving them behind, because I'm sure they don't want to go to and probably can't live on Earth.”

“Ah. No, not like that at all, at least from what Bruno said. They're sentient for certain, and they know we use names, and they also know we can't manage their names, so, whatever we want to call them, as long as it's not mean or insulting, is fine with them. And they mean if it's mean or insulting to us. They've already said that what offends them and us will be different and they're making allowances.”

Chuckie looked thoughtful. “If you're not making this up or just winging it, Kitty, and if they really shared all this with Bruno, they're of a very high sentience level.”

“Peregrine's Honor, that's what transpired.” At least insofar as Bruno knew, but he seemed confident and who was I to argue? He'd been born in this solar system, after all. “Bruno's from here, remember. I'm betting on him having the skills to translate what's going on properly.”

“Then maybe they are the highest sentient life-forms here and were just being docile because they were trying to help us.”

“Could be. All I know is that it's time to nest.”

“Truly, I can't wait,” Chuckie said. “I just hope that, whenever they find out, Jeff and Amy both understand that we all snuggled together because we had to.”

Christopher looked pale. “I hadn't thought about Amy's reaction to any of this.”

I patted him on the shoulder. “Don't worry. I'll tell her you were great.”