ganged up on me, took my crono, froze me, and sent me back to your parents as a birthing gift for you to punish me for not breaking your parents’ hearts.”
Khorii, arms crossed over her chest, snorted. “From what I hear, you didn’t care about that when you ran away with my father, then tried to convince my mum that you were him.”
“No, I didn’t care particularly then. Even more than most of my kind, I am a curious and exploratory sort of fellow. But your parents rescued me from the Khleevi—returned for me when they could have safely escaped. And although, as you suggest, my previous actions may have caused them alarm, even psychological pain, neither of them tried to hurt me. They were so happy once it was all over.
“I could not betray them so completely as to take both of their potential children. I knew you were twins and would be exactly the same for the purposes of science, so I simply took the nearest, your sister, and allowed the other, you, to be born in due time. Had I not been forced into small cat form to be your pet, I could have remained with Ariin and instructed her about her origins. I could also have shown my people how to treat a sensitive and impressionable child so she didn’t grow up bitter and sneaky.
“I am the most empathic of my kind, which is one reason the females love me so, and I’d have had a softening influence on your sister’s upbringing. It’s not my fault that my people’s idea of justice meant that you got the advantage of a loving family and an extremely talented, versatile and clever feline companion while your sister grew up surrounded with the tenderness commonly shown to laboratory animals.”
Khorii thought that over, and finally said, “You have to admit you have caused a great deal of trouble for both of us, my parents, and even yourself.”
“Yes, but see how that trouble has also made all of you learn and grow—even Ariin, who did find you after all. Now that we’ve resolved all of this, perhaps we can stop casting blame and get on with the mission?”
“First we have to find Ariin,” Khorii said.
“I suppose we must,” he agreed. “Now then, when could she have gone?”
Twexa reappeared as if they had summoned her. “Couldn’t help overhearing you talk about some mission, sir?”
“Indeed, Twexa. There is an alien threat in my little friend’s time that may be the doom of the universe as we know it if it isn’t addressed, and smartly. We have noticed certain similarities between the threat—”
“It involves great galumphing masses of matter-eating—er—matter,” Khorii put in. “Organic.”
“Yes,” Grimalkin said. “It put my friend’s sister and me in mind of the shapeshifting nature of our own fluid dwellings. You’re a tech. Ring any bells with you?”
“Certainly, sir. Would the young lady have been using the time map or a crono?”
“She—uh—borrowed my crono from another time”—he supplied the signature—“but I don’t know which she used. She will be raised right here in the time lab a few years hence and is familiar with the operation of the device.”
“Ah well, I’ll check the logs of both then.”
“There are logs?” Khorii asked. “Why didn’t you say?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t know. Normally we leave these things to the techs.”
Waving her palm across one of the wall panels, Twexa revealed a long, scrolling graph, then another. “Aha! There you are, you little minx. Gotcha.”
“You found her?” Khorii asked.
“Indeed. After she left then, she went then, ” Twexa said, pointing to Ariin’s points of departure and arrival, respectively.
“What is significant about then. In particular?” Grimalkin asked.
“Ah, of course. That is when Pircifir launched his voyage of discovery and also when he returned with the organisms we’ve groomed into your lordships’ dwellings. She arrived shortly before launch.”
“Please arrange for us to join her, Twexa.”
“If I may make
Khorii, arms crossed over her chest, snorted. “From what I hear, you didn’t care about that when you ran away with my father, then tried to convince my mum that you were him.”
“No, I didn’t care particularly then. Even more than most of my kind, I am a curious and exploratory sort of fellow. But your parents rescued me from the Khleevi—returned for me when they could have safely escaped. And although, as you suggest, my previous actions may have caused them alarm, even psychological pain, neither of them tried to hurt me. They were so happy once it was all over.
“I could not betray them so completely as to take both of their potential children. I knew you were twins and would be exactly the same for the purposes of science, so I simply took the nearest, your sister, and allowed the other, you, to be born in due time. Had I not been forced into small cat form to be your pet, I could have remained with Ariin and instructed her about her origins. I could also have shown my people how to treat a sensitive and impressionable child so she didn’t grow up bitter and sneaky.
“I am the most empathic of my kind, which is one reason the females love me so, and I’d have had a softening influence on your sister’s upbringing. It’s not my fault that my people’s idea of justice meant that you got the advantage of a loving family and an extremely talented, versatile and clever feline companion while your sister grew up surrounded with the tenderness commonly shown to laboratory animals.”
Khorii thought that over, and finally said, “You have to admit you have caused a great deal of trouble for both of us, my parents, and even yourself.”
“Yes, but see how that trouble has also made all of you learn and grow—even Ariin, who did find you after all. Now that we’ve resolved all of this, perhaps we can stop casting blame and get on with the mission?”
“First we have to find Ariin,” Khorii said.
“I suppose we must,” he agreed. “Now then, when could she have gone?”
Twexa reappeared as if they had summoned her. “Couldn’t help overhearing you talk about some mission, sir?”
“Indeed, Twexa. There is an alien threat in my little friend’s time that may be the doom of the universe as we know it if it isn’t addressed, and smartly. We have noticed certain similarities between the threat—”
“It involves great galumphing masses of matter-eating—er—matter,” Khorii put in. “Organic.”
“Yes,” Grimalkin said. “It put my friend’s sister and me in mind of the shapeshifting nature of our own fluid dwellings. You’re a tech. Ring any bells with you?”
“Certainly, sir. Would the young lady have been using the time map or a crono?”
“She—uh—borrowed my crono from another time”—he supplied the signature—“but I don’t know which she used. She will be raised right here in the time lab a few years hence and is familiar with the operation of the device.”
“Ah well, I’ll check the logs of both then.”
“There are logs?” Khorii asked. “Why didn’t you say?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t know. Normally we leave these things to the techs.”
Waving her palm across one of the wall panels, Twexa revealed a long, scrolling graph, then another. “Aha! There you are, you little minx. Gotcha.”
“You found her?” Khorii asked.
“Indeed. After she left then, she went then, ” Twexa said, pointing to Ariin’s points of departure and arrival, respectively.
“What is significant about then. In particular?” Grimalkin asked.
“Ah, of course. That is when Pircifir launched his voyage of discovery and also when he returned with the organisms we’ve groomed into your lordships’ dwellings. She arrived shortly before launch.”
“Please arrange for us to join her, Twexa.”
“If I may make
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