Tau Ceti - The Phage (Aeon 14: Enfield Genesis Book 3)

by M. D. Cooper

  A chuckle from behind Terrance had him pivoting to see Rhys Andrews approaching.

  “I think I actually heard the quotation marks around those words,” the elder Andrews said as he paused next to his son and clapped him on the shoulder.

  “Pity Jane’s not here to see that the lad actually retained one of the phrases she was so fond of using when he was young.” The Weapon Born’s banter held a pronounced Irish lilt, and Terrance stifled a smirk as Jason shot the AI a dark look.

  Rhys laughed, nodded amiably at Terrance, then waved the group to the rooftop entrance. “Come on in; Jane has a few ‘individuals’ she’d like you all to meet.”

  * * * * *

  Tobias connected with the house’s comm system as they entered, exchanging greetings with Jane’s assistant, Rupert, the AI helping her to manage the latest brood of uplifted Proxima cats.

  Curious, he used the holoemitters in the family great room to skip ahead of his frame and project an image of himself. He bent down next to where Jane knelt and saw that her hand was enveloped by four tiny paws as one of the kittens gnawed at the knuckle of one hand. He was certain these were the ‘individuals’ Rhys had referenced earlier.

  “Cute little guy,” Tobias said, and Jane jumped and gave a muffled shriek, sending kittens scampering in all directions—including through his holo image.

  “Tobias!” she scolded. “Warn a person next time you sneak up on her.”

  He sent her a rakish grin, green eyes dancing, and he knew he looked as unrepentant as he felt.

  Jason’s right; I was a terrible influence on an impressionable teen.

  Although, said teen had already been eyeballs-deep in enough mischief that the AI’s presence hadn’t made much of a dent in the boy’s behavior.

  “Is this the new litter?” he asked, sending a nod at the various small animals who had recovered from Jane’s surprise and were back to scampering around the room.

  “Mmm, yes,” she acknowledged with a smile. “Indeed they are, all six of them.” She cocked her head. “I take it Jason’s here—or did you skip on ahead of him?”

  “Not through the habitat net, no,” Tobias told her. “I came the conventional route—although Jason did pick up a few hitchhikers along the way.”

  He grinned as Jane lifted a questioning eyebrow, arms crossed as she waited for him to elaborate.

  “Terrance and Tobi are with him,” he explained, and she smiled fondly at the mention of the large Proxima cat she’d raised from kittenhood before Tobi had taken to traveling with Jason.

  Tobias was glad to see Jason’s mother looking so relaxed. It had been a harrowing few weeks for the neurosurgeon as she struggled to rebuild her daughter’s brain after Eric had taken that fateful shot. Thanks to thirty-second century medicine, Judith was well on the path to full recovery.

  Tobias heard the three human men approaching and dissolved his projection as his frame entered the room. He saw his former method of transport bound past the three humans and rise up on her hind legs to run a cold, wet nose along the side of Jane’s face.

  “Tobi!” Jane scolded with a laugh, ruffling the fur behind the big cat’s ears, as the creature purred and rubbed the side of her face down Jane’s arm.

  The large cat squawked indignantly as one of the kittens—cream colored, with tips of silver edging his short, sleek coat—pounced, leaping onto her flank and nipping at her.

  Tobi yowled the word, turning to cuff the kitten with a sharp swat. Her swipe sent the little ball of fur tumbling away.

  “Fun!” a small voice called out, and the kitten who’d been swatted ran up to Tobi and latched onto her front paw with all four of his own. “Do it again!”

  “Voxbox?” Jason asked his mom, just as a low, rumbling growl emitted from the larger cat.

  Tobias saw Terrance glance askance at Tobi; it was a sound the AI knew the exec rarely heard from the big cat.

  Tobi, sitting stiff-legged between the little menace and Jane, nipped at the kitten’s ear as she enunciated each word. Her strikes were swift and sure, and the kitten sat back, clearly stunned.

  Then the small furball recovered and, with the fearlessness of youth, whirled about, barreling toward the three men.

  Wailing at the top of his lungs, he proclaimed, “Mean! She’s a meanie! She bit me! Wifout provocations!”

  Terrance chuckled at the little guy, and the sound acted like a beacon. Suddenly, the exec found his lower leg encased in fur, as the kitten clung to him.

  Tobias grinned as Terrance looked over at Jane in mild alarm, his face telegraphing a clear ‘what do I do now?’ as the little guy attempted to use Terrance’s leg as a ladder. Wincing, the exec bent and picked the kitten up; Rhys helped the man adjust his hold so that the kitten didn’t protest being held—and so that Terrance didn’t turn into a human pincushion.

  Jane nodded at Jason. “Yes, to answer your question, what you’re hearing is a voxbox. This is the first litter to be uplifted in vitro, and they’re too young to have a Link embedded just yet, so implanting a vocalization device allows them to communicate until then.” She grimaced as she looked at the cat Terrance held. “It’s been…interesting.”

  “And by ‘interesting’, she means noisy,” Rhys confided in a stage whisper. “This litter likes to talk.”

  “Do they have names?” Terrance asked, his attention focused on the kitten alternately gnawing on and licking at his fingers.

  “You could say so,” Jane said, and her voice held a note of laughter that had Terrance looking puzzled, and Jason groaning aloud.

  Tobias grinned in anticipation. In their earlier greetings, Rupert had told him that Jane had magnanimously allowed Rhys to name this litter. He’d chosen various physics names for all six of the kittens—a combination of exotic particles and other units of measurement that Tobias was sure would have Jason rolling his eyes.

  This ought to be entertaining.

  “Yes, indeed,” Rhys said, rubbing his hands together. “The girls here are Perl, Joule and Geim.” He pointed to each in turn and pronounced their names ‘pearl’, ‘jewel’, and ‘gem’. He caught Tobias’s eye with a ‘see what I did there’ look that had Jason—

  Yep, cue the eyeroll.

  “They’re named respectively after—”

  “Physicists, yes, we know, Dad,” Jason interrupted, but Terrance quirked a brow at Rhys.

  “Joule I recognize,” the exec said, “but not the other two….”

  Rhys nodded, and Jane groaned as her husband launched into one of his favorite topics. “Well then, let’s see, the Cliff’s Notes version—” and here, he spared an ‘I can be brief’ look for his wife, “Perl discovered the tau lepton, and Geim was one of the two physicists who discovered a way to isolate single-layer graphene.”

  “He also developed one of the first biomimetic adhesives,” Jason added, then grinned wickedly at Terrance’s confused look. “It’s that material in our base layers that allows us to adhere to ceilings, like the time you—”

  Terrance jabbed him in the side with an elbow.

  “The time you, uhh,—” Jason stumbled, “were just…playing around. Well, at any rate, that’s who Geim was,” he finished lamely.

  By the look on his parents’ faces, he’d fooled no one. Jane looked intrigued, and Tobias was afraid she would ask about the incident Jason had brought up.

  “And the rest of the litter?” the AI prompted in an attempt to derail her. “What are their names?”

  “Oh, well…” Jane sighed and waved one hand at her husband. “You might as well tell them the rest, hon.”

  Rhys grinned unrepentantly at his wife, then turned and pointed at the kitten Terrance held. “That little guy you’re holding is the runt of the litter—and the most spoiled.”

  “Am not,” the kitten grumbled around a mouthful of Terrance’s fingers.

  Tobi chuffed in disgust, and the kitten turned a tiny glare down at her and emitted his own
miniature growl.

  “Not the mama,” he said with finality, as if that decided the matter of Tobi’s authority.

  He then turned back to Terrance and reached up to pat the man’s face—with unsheathed claws. Tobias saw Jason wince sympathetically as Terrance abruptly pulled back.

  “Anyway,” Rhys continued, “that little guy is Becquerel—Beck, for short. The two running around chasing their tails under the sofa are Pascal and Kelvin.”

  “I’m Beck!” the kitten crowed, reaching for Terrance’s nose with both his front paws. “Who are you?”

  “Scratched,” the exec muttered, and Beck reared back, scrunching his nose.

  “Tha’s a funny name,” he said solemnly, then squirmed to be let down.

  Terrance let the bundle of fur drop to the ground, and Beck quickly licked one shoulder and then scampered off to play with his siblings.

  Jane ushered them out to the sunny seating area on the side of the house that faced the park, holding the door open as the kittens swarmed outside. A servitor bot trundled up with drinks and snacks as Jane gestured them to take a seat. Tobias found his attention drawn to the litter as they played an impromptu game of chase, weaving among the bushes and small ornamental trees that dotted the park-like expanse.

  The kitten who had taken a liking to Terrance had striking markings, unusual in a Proxima cat. In the dappled sunlight, his short fur took on an almost platinum hue, yet he had the breed’s classic build: large, lean and muscular.

  Tobias suspected that Jane had tinkered with their genetics, deviating a bit from the old-Earth strain of Savannah cat she’d used for Tobi’s litter. He found himself sifting through various strains of felis silvestris, searching for a possible match for this new batch, when a correlation appeared.

  he sent privately to Jane, who nodded with a slight smile.

  He was rewarded with a sly wink.

  “How’s Judith?” Terrance suddenly asked, breaking into the companionable silence that had fallen.

  “She’s doing well,” Jane said reassuringly, the smile that had been playing on her lips just moments before breaking out. “Her motor skills have almost fully returned, and she’s adjusting quite well to her new eye.”

  Tobias saw Terrance wince at that, but Jane waved away his response before he had a chance to say anything.

  “She’s actually thrilled with the functionality of the new optics, says they’ll be a huge help with some of her experiments back on El Dorado. Don’t worry, Terrance,” Jane said, leaning forward. “It’s all good. And behind us now.”

  She gestured out toward the cats. “That’s one thing we could stand to learn from our feline friends over there: the way they live is very in-the-moment. Cat sentience has a distinct otherness to it, as compared to that of humans or AIs. Although they do grasp the concept of a future, they don’t spend time dwelling on it overmuch.” She lifted her drink and saluted Terrance with it. “And they most certainly don’t concern themselves over what has already happened.”

  “Except for that time you accidentally spaced Tobi’s stash of bonito flakes during that freight run to El Dorado, boyo,” Tobias reminded Jason. “Don’t think she’s gotten over that.”

  came an indignant howl from inside the house.

  “Oops….”

  * * * * *

  Jason relaxed back in his seat as he reached for his glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade.

  Yeah, it’s good to be home.

  He savored that thought, his eyes coming to rest on first his mother and then his father, as he realized it could be a century or more before he saw them again. He was abruptly glad that rejuvenation treatments existed. In centuries past, this goodbye would have been their last.

  Turning his attention back to the reason for their visit, he gave his dad a questioning look. “You said you wanted to discuss the Tau Ceti trip with us before we left…?”

  Rhys nodded. “Indeed I do. For two reasons, actually. One is personal, the other is on behalf of the C-47 Council.”

  “The Council?” Jason could hear the surprise in his voice.

  His dad nodded, smiling, as he took a sip from his own glass and then set it down, the condensation from the chilled drink causing rivulets to run through the imprint that the man’s fingers had made on the outside of the glass.

  “It’s actually more of a business proposition with Enfield Holdings,” Rhys said, reaching for a still-warm-from-the-oven soft pretzel bite and gesturing with it before popping it into his mouth.

  Terrance swallowed his own bite before asking, “And what would that be?”

  “The C-47 would like to hire Enfield to drop a string of communication buoys between here and Tau Ceti as the Avon Vale takes you there.” Rhys reached for his glass again. “I know the ship has a small fabrication shop; any chance you could manufacture enough MFRs to power those buoys while you’re on your way? I know we cleared out your inventory when we took payment for the ship.”

  Terrance set his own glass down and leant back in his seat, his gaze growing unfocused. Moments later, Jason answered a ping the exec sent, and joined a group net with Shannon and Calista. He waited as Terrance summed up his dad’s request.

  the engineer said after a minute’s consideration.

  Jason met the question in Terrance’s eyes with a decisive nod.

  The exec turned to Rhys with a smile. “Tell the Council that Enfield would love to do business with them.”

  Rhys returned the smile with a wide grin. Jason started to ask after the other topic his dad wanted to discuss, when a kitten tore madly across the greenspace and made a beeline for Terrance. Hot at its heels was a second kitten, screeching in fury.

  “Scraaaaaaaaatched! Tell Perl I din’t eat her stinky ol’ bug!” With that, Beck leapt for Terrance’s lap, circled once, and plopped his little butt down, glaring at his sister, who was making tiny growling noises at him from the ground.

  “You’d better tell him, mom,” Jason warned.

  “Beck!” Jane leant forward, snapping her fingers to get the kitten’s attention. “His name is Terrance. Not ‘scratched’. And it’s not polite to use your claws on a human when you jump up on them. What have I told you about that?”

  Beck turned large aqua eyes toward Jane, opening them wide in mock innocence. “Hy-oooo-mans are soft an’ don’t have no furs to protect from scritchy-scratches.”

  “And what do you say to Terrance, since you scratched him earlier?” Jane prompted in the tone that Jason was sure every mother had used since time began.

  he sent to the AI, as the kitten began a laborious apology.

  the Weapon Born advised him.

  Jason shot the AI a quizzical look then returned his gaze to Beck, who had curled up in the exec’s lap and was now staring up at him adoringly. Jason’s eyes narrowed.

  Uh-oh. He shot his mom a sidelong glance. “Hey, Mom, mind if we bring another Proxima cat along with us to Tau Ceti?”

  Terrance shot Jason a look, glanced down at the kitten, then looked over at them with an expression of dawning understanding.

  “Uhh…” he said, and Jason smirked as, for once, words deserted the smooth-talking Enfield.

  “I’d say ‘cat got your tongue,’ but that’d be—” Jason began, only to be drowned out by a chorus of groans. “Fine!” he waved away his attempt to be punny, but then cocked an eyebrow at his mom. “I’m right, though, about the bonding? Looks lik
e someone’s just staked his claim.”

  His mother nodded, but then raised a calming hand at Terrance’s slightly panicked expression.

  “If you don’t think it’d work out, Becquerel will get over it,” she said. “But he’s always been the rascal of the bunch, jonesing for adventure. He’d love to go with you, if the team thinks they can handle a second cat.”

  came Tobi’s mournful cry from indoors, and Jason exchanged grins with Tobias.

  “Better stock up on bonito flakes, boyo,” the Weapon Born stage-whispered with a smile. “Otherwise it could be a very long trip.”

  “Thanks a lot,” Jason muttered. With a long-suffering sigh, he reached for the remaining pretzel on the platter, then shot Rhys a glance. “Not that I’m trying to change the subject or anything,” he said around a mouthful of warm, salty bread, “but what’s the personal thing you wanted to discuss with us, Dad?”

  Rhys looked considering as he rocked his chair slightly back and forth with one foot. After a moment, he smiled apologetically to his wife, then confessed, “It’s more a matter of professional courtesy, I admit. There is a young physicist on Ring Galene by the name of Noa Sakai. He’s been doing remarkable things with nanophotonics, and the data compares favorably with some of my findings. I was hoping you’d deliver some reports to him for me.”

  Jason’s expression turned wry. “Guess the Council’s not the only one looking forward to a more direct line of communication with Tau Ceti, huh?”

  Rhys chuckled. “You could say that again. Sakai’s findings are about sixteen years out of date at this point.” He shook his head slightly, and his mouth kicked up in a half-smile. “Those comm buoys will be welcome—even if they do only cut five years or so off a message’s journey.”

  Jason grinned as he rose. “Every little bit helps, I suppose. Maybe someday, you’ll figure out a way to bend light and make it go a bit faster.”