Chapter 5

AFIS 3.51 She's a Killer, Queen

Marie:

Ulmer and I sat at his kitchen table sharing breakfast when the conversation came around to Jena. Which it always did, sooner or later, whenever I saw the small fennec. The longer she was away; the less effective he was hiding his interest in her. What had been at first a cute crush was now more serious, at least on his part. While I planned my reply, I spooned another bite of 'breakfast cereal,' as I prefer to think of this mixture of toasted small insects and ground, dried earthworms in milk. He fed me some a few days ago without first telling me what was in it. To my surprise I've found I like it. (Another palate change is now raw egg tastes better than chocolate. And fresh chicken…Oh, yes!) I tuned back to what the small fox was saying.

"I called the embassy last night, but they wouldn't put my call through. The operator said she would only accept calls or visits from you. It's been five days! Why don't you go check on her?"

I'd put off telling him that I already had an appointment to see her that afternoon. I knew about the instructions to the embassy staff: When I had called myself on the day after the fight, it was immediately routed to Maahr, his Excellency's senior wife. We spoke at length about Jena, about the killings, and what to do about her current state: depression, interspersed with violent bouts of crying. While the therapy she recommended certainly wasn't anything a I or any human psychiatrist would have tried, she explained her reasoning thoroughly. She was right; Jena had changed from the young human girl she'd been six months ago. I had done enough non-human things as my own 'foxiness' manifested itself, while my own memory patterns accommodated themselves to my new Diyim'yi body. So I agreed to let her try. Yesterday, a more rational-sounding Jena called and requested that I visit her.

All I told Ulmer was that I was going to the embassy later that day, while he was working, and that I would join him for supper when I got back.

"Be sure to tell her we miss her at the lab." He was earnestly transparent. It was clear the 'we' he spoke of was more 'me.'

I arrived at the underground station just down the block from the M'raeenn Embassy's fort-like chancellery. A youngster, one of the ambassador's own cubs, met me at the main entrance. She explained that everyone was napping after a large lunch, and took me by a roundabout path into the private residence. While I had seen its garden atrium before, I had never been in the baths. We passed an ornate shallow pool, a sauna and steam room as well as a more conventional group shower, before she led me to a screened lattice door. She gestured that I pass through it and then left me.

Jena was alone in a room that was both austere and opulent at the same time, containing nothing except pillows, with thick rugs on the wall and floor, and a wide window half-covered in honeysuckle vines facing onto the atrium. She had been manicured, shampooed and was immaculately brushed. Her back was to me as I entered, but I saw her ears swivel to track the noise I made.

"Hello, Jena. You're looking good." I kept my voice neutral, unsure of her mood. The lioness twisted around and pointed to a cushion beside her. I sat, watching her quietly.

"Oh, I feel fine, just a bit tired." She did look a little drowsy, and she was sprawled, resting. She was a little thinner, except her belly, which bulged somewhat. The tip of her nose and exposed skin were slightly pinker than I remembered.

"Well, it has been a stressful week," I observed diplomatically, unwilling to cause her discomfort if she still didn't want to talk. She let out a laugh that was a belch from her diaphragm.

"Oh, Marie! You are laboring under a misapprehension, I can tell. I'm tired because we just had a feast, among other things, and not because of my therapy, although that has completely erased the terrible events of last week from my concerns. I have a new perspective, if I may say." She leaned back onto her side again. She was wearing nothing except a ribbon around her neck, but she was completely unselfconscious.

"Maahr told me a little about your 'therapy.' Was he what you expected? The whole program seems to have been more successful than I imagined. Are you back to your old self?"

"No. My old self is probably gone. Let's say my personality has expanded to fit its new housing." She stretched her long legs and lay curled beside me, a confiding expression. I had to give Maahr credit: That was not the voice of an angst-ridden soul.

"How about your fear of hurting us little foxes, or of not being able to control yourself? That's a lot of cure from just a little sex." She continued, eyes smiling as she spoke.

"That' s where you misunderstand what happened. First, it wasn't just 'a little sex.' It was a lot! All I'd ever wanted. I've been rolling around on the floor with half the embassy's male population, from Prince Grauwl himself, on down to the staff accountant. An orgy: unbridled hedonism. Selfishly for me, all aimed at making me feel good. It showed me I was attractive, that I was wanted: desired, even. And it put the violence of that fight in perspective. Most M'raeenn males are quite a bit bigger than me, so I was able to bite, claw and wrestle without worrying about putting someone in the hospital." She snapped her eyes back from the far horizon and continued,

"Marie, I've learned my physical limits, and more importantly, control. It's always been great being with Mitzep, but even when I was human I'd been holding back my full strength. And when I killed those punks with less exertion than some of those nights with him, I think that's the part that scared me most. But I've got a sense of scale now."

"So are you going to stay with lions from now on?" She sounded like she'd found home. "What about Mitzep? He's bound to be back one of these days. Will he want to share you?"

"I'll be coming home tomorrow. And I'm already 'sharing' Mitzep pretty successfully with my sister, H'raawl-Hrkh. I'll let her work on that little fox's sensibilities."

"Speaking of 'little foxes,' there is another one who's going to be hurt if you don't set him right one way or another. Ulmer's been really worried about you. And more than that…"

"I guess I know what you mean. Well, let's just say that maybe the new, more confident me can see room for a second fox in her life. Just as a friend, of course. Possibly a friend who'd better have good health insurance next time he offers to groom my fur, say?"

"If you think you can balance all that. Good luck!"

"I hear what you're saying. And I do understand, still. Because seriously, there's a second thing I learned lately. Even with everything I just said, I'm still very human underneath this fur. They've helped me get in touch with my M'raeenn side, but lions are much too social, more communal than us. And I was quite a loner as a girl, before I met Mitzep. The other reason, unfortunately, is these people are not very deep or profound thinkers. They're not stupid, but do you realize that His Excellency, Prince Grauwl, is considered the most insightful philosopher of his generation?" We laughed, which would doubtless have hurt his feelings. When I had met him he demonstrated all the subtlety of Yul Brynner's King of Siam. "I chose to meet you here rather than up in the big sleeping pile of his harem, because I'm still different enough to want to come back and live with you. We have more in common, inside. But I'll be back here to visit; I'm certainly coming back when I come in season. Oh, yes. Maahr says it's even better then. I'm not planning to have kids, just to scratch the itch, you understand." She winked, exaggeratedly.

"On that thought, what kind of birth control are you using? Just because…"

"Awww, Mommm… A valid concern, though had I conceived, His Excellency would legally be the father no matter whose it was. But not to worry. As an M'raeenn, I apparently have an extremely regular fertility cycle, and I'm not in the fertile part of mine for another few weeks. Plus, I've found out you Diyim'yi make extremely effective contraceptive chemicals (think of the possibilities of flavored, edible spermicidal gel), even for my species. You might consider seeing a doctor about that yourself."

"I doubt I'll need it anytime soon. But since we've come all the way around to discussing the inevitable children, remind me when you get back home that I've got a project you can help me with. I'm going to be seeing a bunch of them in my new job, and there are a few you'd be a good influence on."

"After this week, I'm probably not a good influence on anybody. And I'm not sure I want to be!"

"Come home soon, anyway. We both miss you."

"I'll be home tomorrow night."

Ulmer:

I cleaned up after breakfast and left for my job at the Consolidated plant. Two months working here and I still look forward to each day's assignment, if not always the conditions under which we perform it. The plant's lower, subbasement levels consist of a series of laboratories surrounding a machine tooling and fabrication shop; scientists' and administration offices on the main floor, while us draftsmen are in the upper floor rafters, where the sawtooth-angled skylights furnish direct light. And trap the heat. This was a textile mill before the war, and then later (I'd been told) a secret weapons plant. Now, it was the center for research about anything made by aliens, originally the jaguars, now humans. But ten years after the last cloth had been woven, six years after the last weapon was machined, a smell of freshly dyed cotton combined with that of cutting oil still lingered, and an oily film still clung to the walls no matter how many times they were washed or painted.

But we all knew we were taking part in the greatest explosion of scientific research in modern times, or at least since the biochemistry revolution of the last century. It attracted some of the best scientific minds, and even us lowly draftsmen were excited. It wasn't uncommon for some genius whose name you might see in the papers to walk upstairs and reach over my shoulder in order to pencil changes directly onto my unfinished drawing, even asking me if I thought he'd interpreted something right. So, I was happy but not surprised when our supervisor told me to take a sketchpad down to Doctor Halfa's laboratory that morning.

I covered my work with a cloth and headed out right away, detouring only far enough to see if the attractive fennec vixen in payroll was at her desk. I spotted her in the tearoom talking to an exotic-looking Aleutian blue fox, the only one I'd ever seen, and the only subspecies smaller than us fennecs. Since reds and grays are mostly bigger (and usually stronger) than me, I've always wondered what it would be like with another fennec. We're such a small percent of the population; I've never met a member of my subspecies who was both attractive and available. I hadn't spoken to her yet, but another draftsmen had told me she was single. So I was trying to think of an excuse to talk to her. Both vixens looked up and smiled as I went past, so I was smiling myself when I entered the doctor's lab.

Doctor Halfa was old. He had been a famous personality even when I was a kit; now, the light-colored markings on his muzzle I remembered from the newsreels were more gray than silver. Two assistants were standing with him around an electrical test bench with apparatus scattered across it. Over against the wall was another bench with the human-built computer that was now the status symbol of the modern scientific establishment. The obligatory 'flying toasters' screensaver was visible.

"Ah, come over here." He gestured for me to stand with his assistants. "No! Around the other side, that's the output end." I reversed and went around the table the long way, avoiding the shielded box I now saw on the end. "You want to have kits, don't you? That's bit's somewhat radioactive, there." He signaled to the assistant to throw a switch, and the hum from the transformer ended. He made introductions and showed me the device on the table. About halfway through his description of the components, I recognized it as the innards of one of the kitchen appliances I'd drawn while we waited for my security clearance to be completed. It was the thing Marie had called a microwave oven, but strung out so that the emitter pointed into a small anechoic chamber. They watched an oscilloscope while it ran for a few more moments, and then shut it down. I was a bit disappointed to be back on appliance detail, and it must have shown. He explained what I was supposed to do while we waited for the printer to catch up with the data.

"Don't worry this is simple stuff. I've been here longer than you've been alive, and they still don't show me the mother ship! This oven is important. It produces radar frequency radiation using a fraction of the power required by our current systems, and reverse-engineering it will make possible much smaller transmitters than we have now. I'd like you to draw the components as they are, before we start disassembling them. Everything between this transformer," he pointed, " and this tube." The transformer looked fairly conventional, and since windings are hard to draw accurately without disassembly, I asked if he wanted it done also.

"No. That wasn't part of the original system; it's out of an old Jaguar-built motor we had in the shop already. Funny thing," He stuck a claw-tip into the unit. "They used the exact same wire color-coding, gauge, and compatible binding posts as the humans. Even though I doubt the cats could even see some of these colors. We just had to screw them together. Just shows that once you find the right size for something, it doesn't make sense to change it." He chuckled to himself and left me alone to work, joining the technician in front of the computer. I sketched and measured quietly while they worked at the computer. When I was finished, I waved my pad to call it to his attention.

"That's fine. Bring a blueline copy of the drawings down when you finish them. Say, you don't know anything about these computers do you? We've locked our program up again, and that M'raeenn female that works in admin, the one who does our translations of the help screens from english is gone this week. Have you met her?" He turned right back to the keyboard, so I guess it had been a rhetorical question. His comment reminded me about Jena. I knew she had been hired as a translator, but hadn't seen her at work more than once or twice even before the fight. She seemed to have a real talent for the humans' language-I guess she learned it when she worked for the Corps. I was so distracted thinking about her situation that I almost ran over the fennec vixen as I returned to the loft. She yipped pleasantly as she dodged around me, gliding down the hall with a cheery, "Coming through." She was gone before I could think of a response. I hoped she would come by my area again so that I could use our encounter as an excuse to meet her, but she didn't show again before quitting time.

When I arrived home, I went straight across the hall to see Marie. Our shared meals and conversation had become a highlight of my social calendar: She's the first adult female platonic friend I've had, and I've gained a lot of confidence just from talking with her. Not confident enough to speak to that fennec, apparently, but at least I hadn't run away or said something stupid, like I would have done pre-Marie. She sounded like she had an interesting day, so I sat quietly while she told me all about it.

"I've never had an office of my own before in my life, and now I've got two!" I knew she had taken a position with the University staff, and although she's explained it, I still don't know quite what a "counselor" does. What it seems to mean is that all the kids that used to come visit her at the apartment now drop by her office, instead. How she gets any of her work done with them around, I don't know. The Dean seems happy with her performance, so I guess she finds time for both.

Anyway, she had started a second; part-time job this afternoon, one with the Exploration Corps. Just talking to people, she said. Making them comfortable, so they felt at home. She'd already told me that who they were was a secret, so she couldn't give any details. Since my own job is supposed to be highly classified, even though I haven't seen anything that hasn't been on TV or in the newspapers already, I understand that some things can't be made public yet. Besides, it came to me while I was riding home. I thought about all the strange things going on with Marie and Jena, their seeming lack of background or history, and the strange ways they act sometimes, and I decided to tell her my suspicions.

"Tell me if this is out of bounds, but I think I know what is going on around here. Now, everybody knows you both were with the Exploration Corps before. I think that the humans held Jena on Earth for a long time, maybe since she was a cub. After all, she hardly speaks our language, or even her own very well. And she can read english better than anyone. So I'm guessing that either the humans have a jaguar ship, or they were trading with them before the war. Maybe, we even have captured a human ship, or some human crew on a jaguar ship. And I think you are involved in that. And I'm betting your husband is on a mission, maybe even trapped, on Earth right now."

As I spoke, Marie looked at me as if in shock, picked up her teacup and sat back on her haunches. Once I finished, she daintily wrapped her tail around like a porcelain figure, composed herself, and after she took a few shallow breaths across the surface of the tea, she replied teasingly,

"That's a pretty breathtaking conclusion. Creative. It's all wrong, of course. How do you know I'm not a cleverly disguised human? And Jena is a jaguar in a lion suit!"

"Oh, I am, I am!" Jena arrived as a blur through the doorway, pouncing me off my chair, my cup spraying my face with tea before it flew out of my paw- as she flattened me to the floor. I had a flash of fear mixed with, dare I say; desire, as I saw her. Pinning me against her chest with one massive arm, she wetly licked the top of my head and all over both ears. "Ick, tea with milk. I can't eat this one, you clever human, you. Bring me another, coated in white chocolate this time." The lioness carried me over to the couch and put me down next to her. Marie joined us, sitting on the other side.

"If Tigger here can restrain herself, we do need to talk about this." She looked first to her roommate. "I'm glad you came back. You look a lot better." Then she eyed me steadily. "Ulmer, you shouldn't say any of those things to anyone. I repeat, they aren't true, but they might lead certain people to the truth. Dangerous people."

"But something like that is true?"

"A bit. Like I said, I can't tell you everything. Jena has been to Earth. But she has only traveled in our own spaceships. And my secret job is just like what I do for the University. I counsel kids, mostly aliens, just like I do for the University. Some of them have to be hidden because there are threats on their lives, and we're working to fix that. That's all we can say." She looked back to Jena, who was absently grooming my ears again. "Do you both understand?" She nodded. "Lastly, I want you to talk to this young fox before you wear the fur off him. Both of you spend at least ten minutes without touching while you do it. Because I don't think you are both on the same sheet of music, and I refuse to patch up any more misunderstandings tonight. Or bruises. Now go! Out in the hall, or next door, just not here in my living room."

I led Jena next door to my place. She looked uncomfortable around me for the first time. And I realized I felt a little uncomfortable, too. And I wasn't sure why, but I thought it involved the vixen in the office, and maybe bringing one like her to meet my father's Senior Wife someday. And that they would none of them ever understand if I brought Jena instead.

"Jena, I-" She started to speak, so I stopped. Then she stopped, realizing she'd interrupted me, and we both said nothing for another moment. I motioned for her to go on.

"Marie said I should think first, and I did this afternoon. Besides her, you are my only friend on Diyim'yi. I would not want to end that by assuming too much. There is another fox, who is far away on another planet that I also like, who I think I love. And I would not want to harm him, either."

"I think I understand. I like you as a friend, too. I understand you want to keep your distance."

"You don't, I think. I'm a cat. I like to touch my friends, to be very close indeed. It just means that there are others, and that I still love Mitzep best, but I love you too."

"Now I'm confused. Jena, I'll like you no matter what. But now I don't know what you want, again."

"I mean that Marie's ten minutes are up. Friends?" She put both arms on my back and carefully and yet very gently pulled me against her, feeling for my slightest resistance. I leaned into her, still unsure, but much more certain by the moment of her intent.

"Close friends." There is a lot to be said for a close platonic relationship, but I won't say it here. We reached an understanding, that's all I'll say.

Marie:

Long after I'd gone to bed, I heard Jena open the front door, returning from Ulmer's place across the hall. As she was obviously making an effort to unfold her bed from the couch as quietly as she could, I interpreted her actions as a desire for privacy and pretended to sleep. I hoped she and Ulmer were still good friends after this, but I'd already said my piece to both: any more would be nagging. Still, I had plans that should keep her too busy to either sulk or wear him out (depending on how things were between them now, of course). She still had classes three days, and her job two days a week; I wanted her to work on my project as many evenings and weekends as possible. And since she was home again, and seemed recovered, there was no time like tomorrow to show her exactly why I needed her. I fell asleep just as the springs on her bed stopped creaking as she settled in bed.

Morning came and everything was cheerful; neither of us discussed her activities while we walked to the campus together, her to class and me to my new job. As we parted, I asked her to meet me after her classes. Checking my grooming in the reflection of a nearby puddle, I straightened my signature green silk scarf, smoothed back the white fur on my cheek ruffs, and walked confidently into my office.

To be nearly driven out by the overpowering fumes from the spilled mimeograph fluid Pok'op was futilely blotting with paper towels. The ferret's hands and large spots on his creamy fur were stained blue from the crumpled mimeo master I could see jammed in the machine on the outer office's worktable. He jumped up to explain, but the fumes, which he had been breathing far, far longer than I, caused him to fall back down. Backing away lest he transfer the stains to me, I propped open the door and windows to the outer office before returning to lift him to his feet by the scruff of his neck. I carried that diminutive member of the weasel family to the window and leaned him against the sill to breathe some fresh air. When he had recovered enough to stand, I told him to go back to his residence hall and clean himself.

"Yes, ma'am. But who'll take care of the office? The Dean's office called. You're supposed to be in a meeting over there in ten minutes!" Figures. If I hurried, I'd still be late.

"Go home. There wasn't anyone here before we opened this office, they'll just have to wait until you get back." He made as if to pick up the paper towels.

"Leave those, they'll dry out by themselves." I pushed him out the door, shutting it behind us as I took off at a brisk walk. I was just barely late; Gwenne, his secretary, was closing the door to the meeting room as I walked in. She gave me her 'I-hate-you' look, but it was only the general one she reserved for everyone, not a personal 'this-means-you' one. Seated around the table were the Dean, the Provost, and several of the residence hall housemothers, including my friend Imirip. I found a seat next to her.

The Dean, surprisingly, smiled pleasantly at me as I took my seat. He began,

"Thank you all for coming this early in the morning. I had an informal conversation last night with several members of the Exploration Corps Council. I've been told that we can expect a significant increase in the number of alien students during the next session, and that funds will be made available to expand our academic program as it relates to the Corps' mission. Now, I'm meeting with the department heads later this morning, but since you housemothers will spend more time than anyone with our new students, I felt I should start with you first." He was really laying on the charm, showing as much warmth as I'd seen from him to date. The Corps must have either given the University a _ lot_ of money, or really leaned on him.

"Now, we'll keep the present system: one hall for senior program students, the rest for the junior program." He continued describing the mixes of gender, academic level and age he wanted them to use when making room assignments. Finally, he addressed the Provost and I. "There will be no diminution in the standards for student behavior; I want both of you to check out any reports of problem students: persistent problem students will be expelled, and returned home." He continued a bit longer in this vein, finally telling a joke we all laughed dutifully at as we were dismissed. I walked out with Imirip.

"I wonder what caused that? I can't think where we're going to find any more qualified alien senior program students." I could, several sources. But I didn't know whether _ my aliens_ were exactly the same aliens he meant. It could just be more coyotes and wolves. Well anyway, I'd be sure to ask tonight. Imirip continued. "And I think he's decided he likes your looks. His eyes followed you from the moment you came in."

"I can't imagine that, he's barely been civil whenever we've spoken."

"Well, something's changed. He's in love with the Corps now, that's for certain. Maybe it's rubbed off on you, with your connections." I hadn't told her about that, it was a worrisome leak, and my concern must have showed. "Don't look so surprised. I saw your guest in the limo when I was at your place that night last month. It's obvious you've still got connections there."

"Not many, I'm afraid." She snorted, laughing.

"And there's another clue, Marie. Chessec Candroc was a resident in my hall for almost two years. I recognize the family resemblance in you. I'd guess you are either half-sisters or close cousins." She laughed again and left me as we arrived at my office.

Pok'op was back, fur now damp but still slightly blue: the office was cleaned up. He handed me a note as I walked past him toward my inner office.

"Three Moon's River wants to see you during her lunch break: She can't understand her Calculus professor's accent, and wants to change classes. The department says it's too late for her to change without a note from you." This was delivered in rapid-fire as I walked past him. Pok'op not only moved fast, he talked fast, and unfortunately both suffered accuracy problems as a result.

"Type it up, I'll sign it. By the way, her name is Three Moons Risen, if, as I assume, you mean the Awlroo who was crying in my office yesterday." Not waiting for a response, I close the door and climbed into my cushioned window box seat. Three Moons was a typical case. Her complaint was probably justified, but was probably not her real problem, or she wouldn't have asked to see me in person. I'd just have to wait and see what turned up. I took advantage of the brief quiet to think, Pok'op's typing and the bees buzzing in the honeysuckle outside my only distractions.

So the Corps was planning more students. Maybe just from the existing populations, but possibly humans, also. I wished I knew more about what Dave was doing. We'd talked about sending some kids to study here if we could get them off-planet safely and inconspicuously. But I couldn't imagine him arranging so many this quickly. Of course, there was a second potential group. I dismissed that thought. Maybe in a year or three….

Besides the distraught young coyote, I had six other students walk in that day. Word was beginning to get around that I would listen to their problems, and might possibly help them. Of course, without a magic wand all I could do _ was_ listen to some problems. But since that was a fresh concept here, it worked more often than not. Sooner than I expected Jena stuck her head in the door.

"Quite a plush little office." She looked around admiringly, then said in a whiney voice, in English, "Missus Corbet, I want to smoke like all the cool kids, but my mom says I'll get pregnant if I do. What should I tell her?" I intoned sternly,

"Don't give in to peer pressure." We both laughed. "I knew all those after school specials would come in handy. Hey, I'm glad you're here. Let's get going. Was Pok'op still out there?"

"Yes. Is there any particular reason he's turning blue?"

"Religious reasons." I said with a straight face, then yelled through the door, "Hey Pok'op! You'd better be gone home before I come out there!"

We caught the subway at the edge of campus, rode it downtown to the S-bahn station, where we caught a local train to just outside the city. Jena was puzzled, but to keep her occupied, I asked her about how her classes went, found out how things were between her and Ulmer, what the M'raeenn Embassy was doing; firmly keeping the topic off where we were going. We got off the train at a rural village platform and we walked over to a small van parked in the gravel lot. Motioning her into the back, I fished the key out from under the floor mat and started the engine.

"Sorry about the secrecy, but I can't take a chance of anyone overhearing." I drove along a series of ever-narrowing farm roads until we entered a small forest preserve. "The Corps asked me help them with a project. I'm convinced that you are probably better suited for this than I am, and they finally allowed me to recruit you. If you decide you don't want to do this, all I can do is ask that you don't tell anyone else what we're doing." We drove down a long, straight stretch through the thick woods, which was designed to trap anyone following us. We turned a blind corner, immediately pulling to a stop in front of a guardhouse and gate. A young fox checked to see if anyone besides Jena and myself were inside the van, while his armed partner watched. I drove the van into the fenced parking area, and then led her through a second gate into the compound. It consisted of a large old farm arranged with stone outbuildings around a central courtyard.

"All very James Bond-ish, but what exactly are they doing here?" I put a finger to my lips, motioning her to follow."

"Don't spoil my surprise." I led her directly to the enormous manor/farmhouse, entering through a side door. Inside was a small room with several chairs and a couch where a young vixen dressed as a nurse was resting, sipping her tea. She greeted us, smiling up at Jena (only a little intimidated), but making no move to stand.

"The little ones are all asleep for their afternoon naps, finally. Marie, if you go inside, please be quiet."

"But I want Jena to see them at their best. Why do you think I came here first?" Motioning for silence again, I quietly opened the door on the opposite side of the room. The next room was a nursery, where five of the most beautiful jaguar cubs I've ever seen were sound asleep. Jena let out a chuff of surprise, but stayed otherwise quiet. After looking in for a minute, I just as silently closed the door. Waving to the vixen, I led Jena outside into the courtyard again. I explained what they had discovered about the second generation of jaguars: how the effects of the virus were not hereditary.

"The cubs that were the offspring of the few surviving jaguars on Diyim'yi are here. Several females with the occupying force were pregnant at the time of the revolt, or became so before the survivors were rounded up. They all appear to have normal intelligence, and we intend to educate them just like any other children, and eventually let them loose on the public. I'd like you to help us." We walked across the courtyard toward the dairy barns.

"I'd be glad to help, but I don't know anything about babies. Wait a minute, though. The war ended years ago, how can there be babies?"

"I simplified, because I wanted to show you the cute ones first. That particular group was brought from the jaguar home world, when another research project was wrapped up, I'm told. The ones from around here are in the barn, where the exercise area and classroom are located. They're a bit older."

Inside, half the barn had lowered ceilings and clean, white walls while the rest was open. I led her down the hall, where we looked into the back of a class of eight pre-teen cubs. The instructor, an older fox, was having a hard time keeping order in the late-afternoon class, as his students were mostly ignoring him. While we watched, he admonished one unruly student, who flattened his ears and snarled, obeying with ill grace.

"Jena, there's my problem. I want you as a role model. Look at that one. In a year or two, he'll be uncontrollable, at least by anyone as small as that teacher there. Oh, they can be made to obey, we've got a SWAT team here just in case; but I don't want them to grow up as prisoners, I want them to be normal. And like it or not, you're the only lion I know and trust. Take a look, make up your mind: The kids are going to be let out for their afternoon exercise in a minute, so this is your last chance to back out."

She watched them for a few moments.

"You know, I'm no good with kids, either. But I guess I am the only tame lion you know. I warn you, I'm not a very good teacher, either."

"Don't worry, we've got teachers. I want you to teach them control, and I think you've learned all about that lately." She nodded soberly. "You'll do fine. Let's go rescue that poor man in there, and meet the kids."

Jena:

The jaguar kids (bigger than cubs, now certainly there is a better word?) didn't suddenly run out and form a circle like the Von Trapps around Julie Andrews in Sound of Music. They were cautious, though clearly curious, at having an adult big cat in their midst. Each one had wide eyes fully on mine as their exercise instructor introduced them, and they all watched carefully for my reaction to them.

I asked him to continue with what they had been doing, and found a place on the edge of their ragged semicircle while he led them through stretching exercises. After about five minutes of warm-ups, nobody was _ obviously_ watching me. I, however, saw Marie smile and mouth 'have fun' to me before she headed back to the main building and the younger cubs.

We spent half an hour at organized exercise disguised as play: running (they were sprinters, like myself), climbing (they can, I can't), and some throwing of balls (none of us are very good). Our instructor clearly liked his charges, but was careful not to place himself in danger. While they ran, he watched or followed, and made sure never to place himself in a position of being 'chased' by one of the much-larger cubs. Likewise, there weren't any contact sports, except informal roughhousing among themselves. One time, toward the end of the period, I saw why: While he was watching two of the cubs climb a tree, a third took advantage of his inattention and began stalking up behind him. The cub was totally focused, like a housecat stalking a bird, and his claws were already expressed. Had he made his pounce, the smaller fox might have been hurt. I coughed a warning. The cat broke off his stalk, momentarily snarling before he did, just as he had in the classroom. I decided that was my cue. Running up to the angry juvenile, I tagged him and shouted 'you're it!' before I took off running. With an uncertain snarl, he gave chase.

Think of all the jungle movies you've seen with a frightened native fleeing sure death in the form of a big jungle cat. My hind-brain replayed those scenes as he charged, berating me for being so stupid. My forebrain was laughing, though, and slowed deliberately so that he caught up inside a dozen strides. As he leaped, claws outspread, jaws open, I rolled and came up facing him. His own higher intellect must have kicked in at the sight; because he suddenly realized his prey was before him with outspread claws twice as large as his own; roaring with a tooth-filled mouth that must suddenly appear as wide as a railway tunnel.

So he did what any cat does when confused. He sat right down and pretended to lick some imaginary dust off a paw, as if nothing had happened. So I pounced. Oh, I did it with claws retracted, pushing him onto his back with the pads of my feet and top of my head. But I still scored a solid hit, one that forced the breath right out of him.

"Play nice," I said, then jumped up and started running away from the startled jaguar. He hadn't gotten up yet, so I paused and yelled, "I'm waiting. You're still it!" He must have figured it out, because he finally scrambled up and gave chase. I let him catch up and pounce me: He was sure this time to keep his sharp bits covered and let the ground take most of the blow. I wrestled playfully with him for a moment, letting him know exactly how much force was appropriate. Then I grabbed one of his paws and pulled it to my nose.

"Now we're both it. You go catch that one, I'll catch his brother!" I pointed to the now interested gang of jaguars that had climbed out of the tree and come over to watch. The two we picked were half-a-step short reacting, but both took off running. We played this game until dark, and I even included the surprised instructor in one round, carefully pouncing him when he thought he was a safe bystander. We all were tired as we returned to the farmhouse for supper.

It was nearly midnight before Marie and I got back to the apartment. She wouldn't talk much on the train for security's sake, but she clearly wondered if I was willing to continue with her 'project.' I wasn't sure, but I did know what I needed, and the minute we got the door closed behind us I asked:

"We've got to have some other M'raeenn involved with this. I can't possibly find enough time to do it all myself. Has anyone thought about approaching them?"

"I thought of you first, but that's exactly what I said when I heard about this one. The high command is adamant that nobody from the M'raeenn government finds out. I'm sorry."

"I had His Excellency's sons in mind. They'd tell their mom, of course, but I doubt they could pass on anything important. They're only just kids themselves. Let me talk to whoever's in charge. I know the boys would be a good influence."

"I'll see what I can do. Tomorrow." She looked at the clock, and I simultaneously realized how tired I felt. It had been a long day. "Don't you go back to work at the plant?"

"Damn. We'd better get some sleep. I promised Ulmer I'd ride in with him."

Unfortunately, Ulmer is a morning person. I grumped along behind him as best I could on the subway, through security and more or less followed him all the way to his drafting table before I woke up enough to remember that I had my own place to be. He probably talked to me the whole way in, and I felt terrible that I couldn't remember any of it. I started to make my apology when I saw his attention wasn't on me at all. He was trying unsuccessfully to catch the attention of a diminutive big-eared vixen who looked like a female version of himself, who was walking between the next row of tables over. I felt a momentary twinge of jealousy, a legacy from my human self. Then my new instincts reminded me of a certain conversation not two days before. I acted, casually stepping into the aisle in front of her, 'accidentally' placing the immovable object of my large self in her path. She looked up, and then up, again, sort-of 'eep-ing' softly in surprise, before I swung into a big, fake-hearty apology and introduction, casually sweeping Ulmer into our conversation with an outreached paw. Mission accomplished, I disengaged, snagging a rawhide sweet from the tea cart enroute to see my supervisor for the day's assignment. They were still talking together as I left the room, and another twinge caused me to flick my ears.

Translation is probably the wrong word to describe what I do here. There are a number of Diyim'yi who speak and read our major languages. Certainly better than I, in a few cases. What I provide is context. It's hard enough to read a schematic in a set of assembly instructions written in English, but when it was written by a Malaysian factory translator- well, you get the idea. Knowing how to interpret the phrase 'this contains no user-servable parts' has probably saved them countless fox-hours of effort. And then there is my contribution to office automation.

Diyim'yi certainly understand and create enough paperwork, using their own typewriters, facsimile machines and even crude photocopiers that produce blurry copies on stinking, shiny paper. But Marie's husband Dave blessed (or cursed) them with maybe a thousand generic PCs. The spreadsheet revolution arrived immediately afterward, and has ensured that each of those machines is in use constantly by scientists and engineers who never had to actually touch an office automation product before. And they all run Windows™. Badly. And I'm the closest thing to a customer support hotline for 50 light-years.

Now, I'm not a complete novice (I had a Mac Classic before the accident ruined my eyesight.) I'm an artist, a sculptor. I don't need to spend half my work day asking a stupid talking paperclip what's wrong with Dr ____'s machine, and I can't give it the direct hand-on correction it needs, because the claws attached to that hand might go clear through the keyboard into the wood of the desk. Lab assistants have learned to throw themselves between their precious machines and me whenever my whiskers start twitching.

Anyway, that's the downside. On the other hand, it's fascinating watching these really smart people pull their entire scientific base forward. It's like being in a combination of Edison's Menlo Park and the Manhattan Project. Every day there is a new discovery, and not all of them are rediscoveries of things humans have already made. And there are some really interesting people.

Doctor Halfa is a cute, furry caricature of a scientist, absent-minded and impractical, but brilliantly sharp and always willing to explain. He tends to explain at a sixth-grade level, however, which infuriates his colleagues and the administration, but the simplicity is so helpful to me, who skipped the basics the first time around. And his assistants, who say he had played a character like "Mr. Wizard" on television when they were growing up, love him. I try to have myself assigned to his research teams whenever I can, and was pleased that was where they sent me first.

His radar project consists of a number of smaller work groups; some studying alien equipment, others adapting them to work in Diyim'yi vessels, this one was testing the performance of one of the foxes' own sets, using the more accurate measuring and analysis possible with human test instruments. Several PC's sat in a row along one wall of the room, and the doctor was sitting next to an assistant who was operating one of them. I edged my way around the mass of wiring on the floor and over to where he could see me if he looked up.

"Hello, Jena! Welcome back, you're looking lovely." He hadn't turned away from the screen, if he'd seen me at all; it was my reflection in the monitor. Still, he was the first one besides Ulmer to be that polite today.

"Good morning, doctor. Can I help you?" He didn't respond at once, he was tapping the monitor with a claw as his assistant manipulated a graph on-screen. When it looked like he wanted it, he told him to print it and then stood up to face me.

"Oh, we rebooted the machine that was locking up earlier, and it hasn't caused any more problems. I'd like your help on another project, if you'll come with me. We're going to put this radar set back into a ship, and I need your help looking at the mounting first." I shrugged and followed the diminutive fox as we left the lab through the door opposite the one I'd entered, into the large assembly bay.

Separated from the main hangar area, behind a double layer of plastic dust sheeting was an airplane. It looked like a mid-size executive jet, maybe a Gulfstream, with swept stubby wings and twin-engine pods on either side of the tail. Large openings in the skin exposed wiring, tubing and insulation. The whole thing was painted white, except for a small Canadian flag and registration numbers. I was amazed, to say the least. I couldn't imagine how one of their shuttles could have possibly lifted such a big plane into space, let alone brought it here. He led me straight to the main hatch.

"Putting the antenna into the craft wasn't a problem, there was already enough space in the nose. But the transceiver won't fit in the same compartment with the rest of the flight instruments and radio gear, so we had to take some of the cabin." We climbed the ladder and stood (he stood, my head was bent over painfully,) in the small galley space. Behind us, the cabin continued back for only half the distance I expected, three rows of seats, before it ended in a blank wall. "The real engine and fuel already took too much room aft, so we had to sacrifice most of the lavatory compartment for our equipment rack." He looked away apologetically as he continued, "What I'd like you to do is see if you can still fit inside while you do, your, well, business. You are taller than a human, and if you fit, then they might, too."

I was laughing before he even finished talking. Technical expert, indeed! Once I stopped enough to move, I opened the lavatory door and squeezed inside. They had taken all the room normally devoted to the water tank, sink stand and vanity items, leaving a fold-down sink opposite an enlarged, rudimentary version of a Diyim'yi toilet, complete with the normal fold-down splash funnel for sheath-equipped males. I giggled and firmly closed the door, blocking the scientist's view.

"OK. Now you know, Doctor, there are certain anatomical differences involved here. Females should fit all right. A human male would probably try to use this thing backwards the first time without some printed instructions, but he'd probably have more much success than a M'raeenn male." I settled into position, the pre-marked foot pads barely wide enough for my hips. I narrated my motion as I got into position, "There could be some splashing, if there was any turbulence, and these paper towels you people use are way too small for someone my size." I finished my test and flushed. The rush of liquid was followed seconds later by an outraged scream from down below. I tumbled out into the main compartment, accidentally pushing him into the galley, just as an angry, wet vixen charged up the stairs into the cabin.

"Who said you could use that? Damn stinkin' cat piss! Plumbing was unhooked. Probably going to corrode the flight controls, have to have the whole thing steam-cleaned. Who's your boss?" She stopped yelling as she recognized the doctor, but continued to glare at me.

"Jena, meet Pilot Annas. She will be second officer and flight engineer on this shuttle when it's taken to Earth. I'm terribly sorry, Annas. I didn't realize the plumbing had been disconnected. Since you are here a day early, could you show us around your new shuttle?" She grumbled, but bowed to the senior scientists' request. I wordlessly handed her a towel from the galley.

The craft turned out to be a Diyim'yi shuttle that had been carefully disguised as a human business jet in order to take off and land from Earth without causing much suspicion. Even the inside was meant to be plausible to casual inspection, and had been copied from photos of real jets. The engines needed to lift to orbit were, of course, huge; the hull was titanium honeycomb filled with ceramic rather than aluminum sheeting to resist reentry heat. The wings were mostly ornamental. Annas was an Exploration Corps officer who had just been transferred to the project, I could tell she had a severe dislike of 'cats' but feared offending her new bosses. She put on a civil front as she gave us the tour but was clearly puzzled by my presence, and kept looking at me strangely. Just as we were preparing to leave, as soon as the doctor stepped through the plastic barrier, asked her if something else was the matter. She stared at me again, but shook her head.

"No. I could just swear we had me before. But that's impossible. She's got to be light-years from here. No, -" She cut herself off, so I shrugged and left. I realized who she meant, though: H'raawl-Hrkh. I started to ask her if she meant she knew my sister, but she abruptly walked off. Maybe she and the crew were back? I extended my mental feelers, looking for my twin, but she was nowhere within range. I wondered how she and Mitzep were getting along, and that made me remember I had agreed to eat lunch with Ulmer. I dashed for the stairs.

Annas:

The M'raeenn lioness was such an exact match to Commander H'raawl-Hrkh I almost blurted out her name; only my anger gave me time to recover. Her unexpected appearance made it plain I hadn't escaped from the confusing paranoid fantasy I'm trapped in, after all. The shadowy conspirators who took control of my life sent me to this job for a reason, not just to get me out of the way. And that it was a matter of time before they used me again.

After Lieutenant Mitzep's shuttle met that starship and disappeared, strange things began to happen. I hung around the base for two days, my shuttle grounded for unspecified technical reasons. Nobody gave me with fresh orders or asked questions about my missing student. Officially, he'd burned up and then crashed his shuttle on reentry, but there was no board of inquiry. There wasn't any mention of the ship I'd seen him meet, nor of my sister and the jaguars. My boyfriend and 'handler' Sennet was nowhere to be found, my sister's belongings had been cleaned out of her room. Finally, a clerk delivered a set of travel orders that directing me to report back to Diyim'yi for a flight-testing job. Envious pilots congratulated me on my plum assignment; puzzled I wasn't any more enthusiastic.

Things went little better when I got home. My parents were put out that I wouldn't tell them about my sister's disappearance; they were sure we had been fighting again: It wasn't the first time, and I didn't correct them. Soon, though, my leave was over and I reported to my new assignment. It started again the first day I went to work, someone jostled me in the subway and I found a note with a phone number on it in my pocket. Calling it reached an answering machine that encouraged me to leave a message whenever I had anything to report. They hadn't forgotten me.

Apprehensively, I used that number as soon as I could reach the nearest phone outside the Consolidated complex. Reporting what I'd seen to the machine, I went home.

It was less than a surprise to find Sennet in my room when I got there. He was cold and businesslike as he listened to my account of the M'raeenn female, and he ordered me to follow Jena and find out more about her. Toward the end of the meeting he hinted that he might be interested in resuming our after-hours relationship, I pretended I didn't understand him and he finally left. I was angry; it now was obvious he had used me from the beginning. I wondered if he had other lovers who were also spies for him, and most importantly, for whom he worked.

I looked back with a new skepticism at everything they had told me, for instance, it was clear they had taken advantage of my grudge against the felines before. I wondered if that was an excuse for some other, evil purpose. Certainly, nothing remotely concerning renegade jaguars was going on at the plant; and the cat I'd met this morning was only a minor technician, if that. Maybe their plans were purely political? I'd heard Mitzep was from a well-connected, powerful family. Maybe the whole point was to disgrace, or even kill him, putting pressure on his family. Had he been kidnapped? I didn't know. But the threats against me, both actual and implied were real enough, as was the power of the Diyim'yi controlling me, and so I followed Jena home that next evening after work.

I'd found her address from Company personnel records, and that she'd been working there for only a few months, and before that, she'd been a student. Her records ended just a week before I'd first met Mitzep. The M'raeenn embassy was listed as her next of kin, just like any other resident alien. There wasn't any hint of irregularity, except that her job was described as a translator of human languages, and there wasn't any record of her ever studying them, nor had she been on-planet long enough to learn. I thought at first maybe the job title was a cover for something else, but talking with one of the other translators I confirmed they also considered her an expert. Her age was another question. In the record, she was exactly the same age as what Commander H'raawl-Hrkh had listed in hers, and all other vital statistics matched. Maybe they really were twins?

I saw her around my shuttle almost daily. The scientists involved with the various shuttle subsystems all consulted her frequently, many times more for her sense of how something should look as much as for what the human's documentation said. Asked, they said she seemed to have an intuitive, artistic sense for it. She was friendly and joked constantly with all of them, even going out of the way to include me in the conversation.

Sennet urged me to make friends with her, but my unease among cats still made me too uncomfortable, and I unconsciously distanced myself whenever the opportunity arose. Still, I continued to stalk her and her acquaintances whenever I could. Sennet became more insistent, finally losing his temper, striking my face and exclaiming,

"You don't have a choice. Do what I say, or somebody's going to discover laser burns on Lieutenant Mitzep's crashed shuttle, and you know you were the only other shuttle n the air, without orders, I might add. You don't have a choice." He threw me down and left.

So I started accepting invitations to their apartment. Her roommate, Marie, loved to talk to people, especially the students she worked with at the university. There was usually a small group that included one or two of them for dinner. They were fascinated that I was a test pilot. The conversation and just plain friendship was something I had missed, and the thought that I was spying on these people often gave me a pain in my stomach. One night, Marie must have noticed my spirits were down, because she mentioned it. I gave her some excuses about boyfriend trouble.

Many, if not most of their guests were aliens, mostly other canine types, but even a few cats. Hearing them made me realize that most of the alien races were probably as smart as we are; they certainly had just as many problems as I did when I was a student. I like to think I was outgrowing the knee jerk hatred I'd grown up with; it certainly started to jar whenever Sennet used a charged word or phrase. More evidence just how much he was playing to emotional triggers I just wasn't feeling anymore.

But what could I do? He and the mysterious people behind him had made it clear what could happen to me. How could I escape? As the completion date of the new shuttle neared, I resolved to find a way out before we left for Earth. I started looking for an answer, and the direction of the way out was shown to me when Jena casually mentioned Mitzep's name.

I continued on for half a breath, when what she had said sunk in.

"Mitzep? Do you mean Pilot Mitzep? Where did you meet him?" I was hoping desperately that she meant another Mitzep entirely.

"Yes, he's my dear, dear little fox. He's a pilot like you, but he's been gone with his ship on a mission for several months. So you've met him?" She was more animated and smiling as broadly as I'd seen her.

I felt cold fear, my vision narrowing. The weight of the double life, the spying and the awful thought that she hadn't even been told of his death was too much for me. With a groan of agony, I wrapped my arms around the big lioness. Nonplussed, she patted me ineffectually until I was coherent enough to speak again. I sobbed out what had happened to him, repeating it again intelligibly after Marie made me sip some water and slow down. Finally, I told them about the missing jaguars: about my sister and Mitzep's disappearance, about the ship, and then the wreckage out on the savannah. I told them about what Sennet had told me, and about the threats. I spilled everything.

Jena:

I watched with a building anger as Annas told me her story. She repeated some parts several times; yes, something awful had happened to Mitzep, no, she hadn't actually seen his ship crash. The tendons in my arms tensed, clutching around the little vixen; my claws came out. I wasn't sure I wanted to hurt her, so I pushed her away and grabbed a couch cushion instead. It was Marie that broke her fall, pulling her aside, away from my wild slashes as I spread fabric and fiberfill around the room. It took about a minute to calm down enough to focus my anger, building a hard knot in my stomach for later.

Marie and Annas went into the bedroom and were sitting on the edge of her bed when I calmed down enough to join them. I guess my fangs were still showing under my lips, because Annas flinched as she looked up on my entrance. I tried first to force a human-style smile, stopped midway when I realized that wouldn't help matters, then finally flopped down on the floor in front of them. I practiced deep breathing while Marie led her through her story again. Finally, she'd heard enough to give us her version.

"Both of you listen to me. Jena, you don't actually know Mitzep is dead. He and his ship are only missing based on wheat she's said. Annas, you know he couldn't have crashed, you said you dodged the other craft that crashed on a reciprocal course. How could Mitzep have turned so fast?" Annas reluctantly conceded the point.

"That's possible, more likely than not. But they would have reached the base and told the authorities within the hour. Why didn't I hear anything about that?"

"That's what we'll have to find out. Jena, take care of Annas while I make a phone call or two." She went into the other room, leaving the two of us looking at each other.

Her shoulders were hunched, tail limply hanging over the edge of the bed. To look up at my face, she rolled her eyes enough that the whites showed, unwilling to raise her muzzle. I mentally discarded several insults that I could use instead of striking her. Certainly she would embarrassingly curl up in a ball or something if I hit her, and the parallel to kicking a small dog was right behind my forehead. With what I now imagined as my freshly acquired, much larger soul, I decided I would try forgiving her. (If that doesn't work, you could always hit her later), my old, unreconstructed one whispered. Seeking to distract both, I instead asked her where she'd met Mitzep and what she thought about him.

"Before I start, you're not really Commander H'raawl-Hrkh in disguise?"

"No, I'm her sister, Jena-Hrkh. We're often mistaken for each other. It's the hair, I think." I brushed back imaginary bangs.

"But he's in love with you, not her. I mean, when he said he didn't want me, he said it was because he had a girlfriend back here on Diyim'yi. But he spent a lot of time talking about her, it seemed. " She wasn't at her best, still, but she seemed to be trying to focus her brain on this smaller puzzle rather than worry about the bigger one that her life had become. The more tentative Annas got, the more unworthy of any hatred on my part she seemed. She was seriously screwed up, and I was moving at a rapid rate toward pity. After all, before _ I_ met Mitzep, I'd been there too. It wasn't so long ago that I'd felt weak, defenseless and unloved.

My sister and I both like him, after all, she met him first. But I'm pretty sure I'm the one who loves him the most, and he's never given me any reason to doubt he feels the same way." Marie came back from making her phone calls and interrupted our 'girl talk'.

"I've spoken with some people who can help you, Annas. They want you to go back to work tomorrow, then contact Sennet and ask to meet with him. They want to catch him, but you'll have to lead him to them. Can you do that?" She was scared, but Annas agreed to do it, on the condition they protected her afterwards.

"He said the exact same thing. They'll protect you; get you away from here. Annas, I can't tell you who they are, but please trust me."

She spent the night with us. The next day, I walked with her to work, escorting her as far as the lab. I made sure I was nearby when she slipped out to make her phone call.

I couldn't follow her home to her apartment without warning Sennet of the trap, so once I saw her onto her own train, I left to meet Marie. She was waiting beside the road once I climbed the stairs at our normal subway stop, and she was standing beside a vixen I'd not met. There were two large sedans illegally parked along the opposite curb, motors running. The drivers, two beefy foxes in long coats, stood conspicuously at either end of the procession. Marie motioned me over to her side.

"Jena, this is Commodore Amkro, my sister Chessec's adopted mother. Her husband is with the stakeout team, but I thought you'd like to hear what she's heard about Mitzep's ship."

"Hello, Jena. While you were working, we checked with our sources in the Exploration Corps. Chopka's ship was last reported on a shakedown cruise in the outer system. The day of Mitzep's crash, traffic control got a radio request from Navigator Lossp to dock with main base. The operator remembers that a landing bay was assigned, but central control lost power to their main computer immediately afterwards, and he spent the next three hours working on it while another controller handled traffic manually. The log shows their request as cancelled, but it also shows the computer logged it, which he says was impossible. We have agents there now, but we can't raise an official inquiry, because this has made us realize we don't have reliable people in control of that system."

"But you are the high commission, or the council; or whatever! If you don't control them, who does?"

"It's all factions, just like on Earth. Most of the time, we can be sure of a five-three vote. There are a few issues we're tied on. Some, anything to do with the jaguars, for instance, we'd probably lose if it came to a vote. More extreme project-oh, like Doctor Plaksa's, well; nobody wants to test that. So we just don't ask."

"What is the doctor doing?"

"I've said too much, I'm sorry. She's doing more studies on the transformations that made you two possible, and some of the unusual side-effects, too."

One of the drivers called out, "Radio message coming in. Shots fired at the stakeout. Subject's dead, and they're bringing the female back here. Something went wrong, the boss didn't say what, ma'am." He said the last apologetically. Ten minutes of silence followed while we waited for news. Finally another sedan drove up behind us. Huddled in the back of the sedan was Annas. Her lip was cut and she was dabbing the blood with a towel. She looked beaten down, lost and a bit bewildered. I climbed in beside her and shut the door.

"There, dear. It's not so bad. That little cut will heal before you know it. What's the matter? We got him!" I patted her paw with my own.

"Sennet was using me. I know that. Still, don't you understand? They used him too, and when he wasn't any more use, they shot him."

"What do you mean?"

"They shot him, not your people. The bullet came from the roof of a building across the street. The gunman got away, that's why they threw me into this car and drove me over here." I slid the glass back and asked the driver, who nodded.

"Right. Orders are to take her to the farm, keep her under guard until her ship's ready to leave the system. We're driving there now." He looked back to the road.

I thought about that while we wound through several quiet neighborhoods. Finally I looked at her slumped in her seat, and leaned back across the seat to him.

"I've got a better place. Get a hold of Candroc on the radio." He spoke into the mike for another block and then stopped at the next intersection. He got out of his own car and climbed in back beside me, our combined bulk jamming Annas against the door opposite.

"Jena, tell me about it." I described what I thought we could do for her, and emphasized the tight security. Meanwhile, the driver continued cross-town at a steady rate. Since he was headed my way, I let him continue on as we talked.

"Besides, you know they're looking for the farm as hard as they can. It's going to be hit one of these days, and she doesn't need to be in the middle of that. I'll guarantee her safety." He clucked his tongue and agreed, gesturing for me to tell the driver. "It' right over there. Pull up to the front door and let us out."

Without breaking stride, I led the mystified vixen directly through the public areas into the family quarters of the Embassy. As I'd expected this time of evening, all of His Excellency's daughters and as many of the younger female staffers were resting idly on a pile of pillows in the middle of the room, watching a small black and white television set. They looked up with interest.

"Girls, Annas is staying for a while. She's had a hard day- why don't you help her brush those knots out of her fur and find her a nice robe; while I go talk with Maahr?" I left her surrounded, a dwarf within the swarm of half-grown, eager to help kittens.