Stop being ridiculous. The cat-woman is the one to keep an eye on. K kept her gaze fixed firmly on Ilesca’s rounded hips as they passed through the wide doorway and into the well lit interior.
Inside the large space they found themselves in, everything seemed to be made of dull, battered metal. The area was sparsely furnished with benches that looked as though they could withstand a great deal of mistreatment and almost nothing else. The floor was made of some reddish-brown stone and highly polished, enough that K could look down and see a dim reflection of herself as they walked.
“I’ll take you directly to Father’s lab,” Ilesca was saying to Boone—she seemed content to ignore Loki and K completely and focus on him. “He has it right in the same building as the port so he can get supplies more quickly. And of course, it’s a good thing to be close to an escape vehicle at all times.”
“Oh? And why is that?” Boone wanted to know.
Ilesca batted her long eyelashes at him and twitched her whiskers. “In case of a saurian attack, of course. The new electro-shock perimeter we’ve set up recently helps deter them, as do the scent repellants, but we do still have one or two get through now and then. They can be most…persistent.” She stopped in front of a bronze door banded with iron and turned to face them again. “Which is why Father’s lab is underground.”
Boone raised his eyebrows. “Isn’t being located by the landing port protection enough? Can’t you just take off in your ship if a saurian breaks into your compound?”
“Escape from the planet’s surface is a last resort. But even if we do have to leave, Father can’t have a deranged beast running amok in his delicate equipment.” She pressed a series of buttons to one side of the door and there was a soft clicking sound as the auto-lock disengaged. “After you, Doctor Boone,” she purred.
Boone eyed the narrow dark passageway that was revealed when the door slid to one side with what K thought looked like trepidation. It truly was a small space, especially for someone as large as him. He would have to bend almost double to even get down the stairs.
“Our most abject apologies for the size of the corridor,” Ilesca murmured. “I promise that once down the stairs, the space opens up.”
Boone shrugged. “Not a problem. It’s a good thing I’m not claustrophobic though.” He ducked to go through the doorway but K stopped him with a tug on the back of his shirt.
“Wait. Let me go first.”
“Why?” He turned, frowning at her and she knew he was thinking that she wasn’t even armed.
“I’m smaller—I can maneuver more easily.” K gave him a level stare. “Let me go first, Boone.”
Ilesca appeared to notice her for the first time. “How charming. Is this creature your bodyguard? She doesn’t appear to be armed—how does she defend you?”
“Who are you calling a creature?” K gave the cat-woman a cold look. She was taller than Ilesca which helped.
Ilesca stared back just as coolly, apparently unfazed by their height difference. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”
“I am a fourth level Paladin which means that armed or not, I am perfectly able to protect Boone, especially if you’re leading him into a trap.”
“Ladies, please.” Boone put out a hand to stop them. “There’s no need for hostility.”
“Not yet anyway.” K kept her eyes on Ilesca. “Lead the way and we’ll follow.”
“As you wish, bodyguard.” The cat-woman’s full lips twisted into a superior smile that K wanted to wipe off her face with a fist. Then she nodded and led the way down the narrow stone steps.
“Why’d you stop them?” K heard Loki whisper as they made their way down. “For a minute I thought we were going to get to see a cat fight—literally.”
“Shut up, Loki,” Boone growled. K could feel his breath at the back of her neck—he really was too large for such a small passage. The sensation was oddly comforting but she took care not to let it relax her too much. She needed to keep alert in case there really was a trap at the bottom of the stairs. Despite the fact that they were simply on Minotaur to get the ship fixed, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something wrong here—very wrong.
Ilesca had at least been telling the truth about the space underground, K saw as they finished their long descent. The narrow staircase opened out into a huge area—clearly it was a natural cavern that had been molded into a living quarters. In contrast with the wide, empty room above it was lavishly furnished with a thick purple carpet and fixtures and furniture made of shiny brass and glass. The ceiling was so high it was difficult to make out what the lighting fixtures were made of but they cast a warm golden glow over everything that seemed to make the large space more cozy somehow. K distrusted it at once.
“This is some lab you’ve got here. Where’s the equipment?” Boone said scanning the huge room.
“This way.” Ilesca led them through what appeared to be some kind of a sitting area with comfortable brass-studded leather furniture and tall bookcases filled with old fashioned paper volumes. After that they came to a dining area much like the one on the ship although the furniture was considerably more elegant and less battered. A food prep area followed and then they came to a large shiny brass wall with a narrow hallway down the middle and a door on either side.
“We have no natural partitions here so we’ve had to build some.” Ilesca nodded at the wall. “We use a lot of brass because the metals to make it are most common on Minotaur. The door to the left leads to our guest sleeping quarters. And this leads to Father’s lab.” She pressed a series of buttons on the shiny wall beside it and the door on the right slid open with a soft whoosh. “Please come in.”
K went before Boone without asking. She assumed Loki was bringing up the rear but she didn’t really care. Her interest was in what danger might lie ahead, behind the tall, polished brass wall.
Inside the space was partitioned into rooms of varying sizes. Ilesca led them past several doorways and down to the very end where it opened into a much larger area. K looked suspiciously for any signs of a trap but all she could see were several large pieces of expensive looking computer equipment as well as some counters and stools, all made of brass. There was a glass partition at the end of the room which seemed to contain cages, though what kind of animals were inside, K couldn’t tell.
“Well, well, well—Doctor Boone. Such a pleasure!” A tall cadaverously thin man with a shock of thick white hair came through a side door that appeared to lead to a small, inner office and held out a hand to Boone.
“Doctor Abrahams.” Boone took the offered hand and gave it a firm shake. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
“None of it good, I’m sure.” Abrahams cackled in delight at his bad reputation. He was wearing strange brass and crystal goggles that shielded his eyes from view and he stared up at Boone myopically. “My, they do grow them tall on Colossus, don’t they?”
“I’m on the big side even by Colossian standards.” Boone grinned charmingly. “My mom always joked that dad must have put quick-grow in her caffeine brew when she was carrying me.”
“I can certainly see why.” Abrahams cackled again. “And who are these two—your assistants?”
“This is Loki, our pilot. And this is K—she’s a fourth level Paladin.”
“She’s his bodyguard,” Ilesca put in nastily, her whiskers twitching.
Doctor Abrahams appeared to remember that he was wearing the brass and crystal goggles because he slipped them up to sit on the top of his head in order to study K more closely. “Indeed? You have a fourth level Purist Paladin as a bodyguard? I must say, Doctor Boone, I am most impressed.”
“She’s not actually—” Loki began.
“Still a Purist,” K finished for him smoothly. There was no way she was going to let Ilesca and her father see any division between herself and the others in her group—it wasn’t tactically sound. “That is to say, I still adhere to the precepts of Purity but I have been contaminated and so cannot
go back to Athena,” she added.
“Which explains the absence of your skinsuit, no doubt.” Abrahams nodded at K’s expression of surprise. “Oh yes, my dear, I know much about your kind. I have studied the Purists methods of genetics for generations. There is much that is admirable in the way your people mix DNA—admirable but flawed.”
“What do you mean?” Boone asked, stepping up and putting a hand on K’s shoulder. “K’s case is… unique. I’d appreciate any insight you might have on the matter.”
“Why merely that they refuse to use all the resources available to them. The solar system is filled with strange and wonderful creatures—why not use them?”
“Because human/animal hybrids tend to be unstable. They can’t reconcile the two halves of their nature which most often leads to madness or death,” Boone said sharply.
“Do I look mad to you, Doctor Boone?” Ilesca stepped toward him, her whiskers twitching. “I assure you, I am not though Doctor Abrahams is my father and my mother was a common tabby feline from Earth-that-was was.”
Loki looked at the white haired doctor and made a face. “You had sex with a cat?”
Abrahams laughed. “Oh dear me, no. I must agree with the Purists on that point—asexual is the only correct method of reproduction. What my darling Ilesca means is that I mixed my own DNA and that of my pet cat, Madam Curie, in order to make her. So while the cat was her genetic mother, she was actually conceived and carried to term in an artificial womb.”
K knew the idea that the cat-woman had been conceived and born the same way she herself had, ought to make her feel better but somehow it didn’t. She frowned. “This is all very interesting but we’re here to get our ship fixed and move on. Can you tell us what you want from Boone in order to make that happen?”
“K—” Boone began but Abrahams laughed and shook his head.
“Now, now, don’t be upset, Doctor Boone. Your bodyguard poses a very reasonable question. After all, her only interest is protecting you and sadly, I must confess that the township of Jamesville and the surrounding territories can no longer be considered strictly, well, safe.”
K frowned, wishing again for her gauntlets. “Then what are we doing down here? Why did you bring us here in the first place?”
“Oh this area is safe enough.” Abrahams nodded vigorously, as though assuring them it was true. “It’s just the aboveground areas—the town itself—that is in danger.”
“Oh, is that all?” Loki muttered.
Boone cleared his throat. “How many people live in Jamesville?”
Abrahams shrugged. “Four or five hundred humans and hybrids, give or take. Less since the last attack.”
“Attack?” K and Loki spoke at the same time and K shot the Erian a glare which he returned with interest.
“Who or what attacked you?” Boone asked. “And how do you expect me to help?”
“We’ll get to that in a minute.” Abrahams made a shooing gesture as though it was a pesky, minor detail. “First, Doctor Boone, I would be honored if you would view some of my work.” He nodded at the glass partition at the end of the room where K could see cages.
“Only if I come with him,” she said before Boone could open his mouth.
“But of course,” Abrahams said smoothly. “This way. And perhaps your other colleague—Loki was it?—would care to see our guest quarters. Ilesca dear, show him, won’t you?”
K thought it was a mistake to separate—not that she considered Loki much of a backup. But after a short nod at Boone, the Erian followed Ilesca out of the lab without a murmur of protest. Foolish, K thought, watching him go. She was determined not to be parted from Boone for any reason and silently told him so with a look. He nodded back gravely and allowed her to precede him through the glass partition as Abrahams led the way.
“I’m very proud of my creations,” the scientist said, taking them to the far cage at the end of the long glass room. “Though most of them have only a little human DNA—just enough to boost their intelligence. Take this one for instance.” He nodded at the cage which was large enough to walk into. A creature with both fur and feathers crouched in the corner of the cage, eyeing them mistrustfully.
Boone frowned. “What is it?”
“A hybrid of a baboon and an African grey parrot. I often use DNA from species from Earth-that-was—it tends to be more stable,” Abrahams explained.
K frowned. “What is the point of such a creature? Why create a mixture of the two?”
“Aside from the pure scientific data that such a mixture generates, I try to make new species that will be useful in some way. This little fellow might not look like much now, but he will be an excellent lab assistant in the future. He’ll have a baboon’s ability to manipulate objects and a parrot’s ability to speak. Won’t you, Manny?”
The creature, which had a long, sharp curving beak, ambled forward on all fours to the front of the cage. “Yes…Doctor,” it said in a high, screechy voice that put K’s nerves on edge.
Abrahams winced. “That will do, Manny.” He nodded at the baboon/parrot hybrid and then looked back at Boone. “I’m still working on the voice.”
“Mm-hmm.” Boone nodded impartially. K wondered what he really thought.
“Well, continuing on…” Abrahams showed them the contents of the other cages, most of them mixtures of two, three, or even four other species. He told what DNA each contained and their future function, speaking mostly to Boone.
K had grown up in a purely industrial area on a planet where most of the animals had become extinct but she had seen enough footage of Earth-that-was to understand what its animals were supposed to look like. None of Abrahams’ hybrids looked right to her and from the look in Boone’s eyes, he felt the same but he only nodded politely as the white-haired doctor showed them cage after cage of aberrations.
As they were studying an animal that was a cross between a type of salamander native to Pan and an Earth-that-was rat, K had a sudden thought. Did Boone see her the way he saw Abrahams’ strange creations? After all, she was a hybrid herself, in a way. She didn’t think she had any animal DNA but she was certainly a strange case. A Puritan with Erian DNA—one might as well cross a soft, furry bunny rabbit with a prickly porcupine. Which, incidentally, was one of the few things Abrahams seemed to have missed.
“I’m especially fond of these though they have only a trace amount of human DNA,” he was saying as they reached the last cage in the row.
“What are they?” Boone asked, squatting down to peer into the rather low cage.
K stooped down as well. The creatures inside were no larger than her hand and all of them had sharply pointed ears and long muzzles with huge, clear crystalline eyes. Their long bodies had reddish fur with black spots and their slender tails whipped excitedly from side to side.
“These are a nice mixture—fox, miniature cheetah, and volkhound from Colossus.”
“A volkhound?” Boone frowned. “Those have been extinct for the last eighty cycles.”
“Indeed.” Abrahams nodded. “A great shame since they are most charming creatures. I was able to obtain a sample of their DNA from some well preserved specimens. I don’t like to tell you how much I paid—they’re collector’s items, after all. But it was well worth it.”
“I’ve never seen a live one,” Boone straightened up and K did too. “Weren’t they supposed to be mildly telepathic?”
“Empathetic is more like it. They sense the emotions of others and act accordingly. In fact, they feed off emotions in a way—they siphon off negative feelings like fear and pain and anger.”
“Huh. An animal version of valium.” For the first time, Boone looked really impressed.
Abrahams shrugged. “Oh, hardly that, though it’s true the person whose negative emotions the animal takes feels slightly calmer afterwards.”
“Still, it’s quite impressive. You say they have almost no human DNA?”
“Just a trace amount—enough to give them the ability to u
nderstand the rudiments of our speech. Though, unlike some of my other creations, they cannot speak themselves.”
“That might not be such a bad thing,” K murmured, thinking of the screechy voice of the parrot-monkey. Boone raised an eyebrow at her but Abrahams was much too busy talking about his “creation” to notice her sarcasm.
“I’m sure you can see the value of such an animal. They could be of great use in a number of places—med centers, care facilities for the mentally or terminally ill…the possibilities are endless. Just imagine!”
“Fascinating.” Boone nodded. “And pretty damn cute. Look at these little guys.” He whistled softly at the creatures and all of their ears pricked up, their jeweled eyes focusing on him in obvious interest.
“They are, aren’t they?” Abrahams smiled fondly. “I’ve been breeding them smaller and smaller with each succeeding generation. These will pretty much stay the size they are now. Would you like to hold one?”
“Well sure.” Boone smiled. “I’d love to.”
“Excellent.” Abrahams seemed inordinately pleased.
“Wait.” K frowned. “Do they bite?”
“Naturally not. All aggression has been bred completely out of them. This batch has the mildest nature yet.” He opened the door of the cage and snapped his fingers. “Here, little ones. Who wants a treat?” Several of the little animals ran to his outstretched hand, almost falling over themselves in their eagerness.
“It’s okay, darlin’,” Boone said in a low voice as Abrahams crouched down to pick up one of the creatures. “I know you’re trying to protect me but I think I can handle something this size.”
“You don’t know what it might do to you.” K frowned stubbornly. “He said they could alter emotions and since you have so many of them, you might be altered considerably.”
Boone’s eyes flashed. “So I should try to be cold and emotionless like you—is that what you’re saying?”
K lifted her chin. “In this case it might be wise.”
Abrahams had clearly heard their whispered discussion. “Now, now, my dear—I never said they alter emotions. They simply feed off them.” He straightened up and held out one of the little creatures to Boone who accepted it carefully. It was so tiny and he was so large it fit neatly into the palm of his hand. When it showed no fear, he lifted it to his face and looked at it more closely.