by Laer Carroll
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It took a week before the order came that Jane had guessed would be made to her. It had become clear that Asteroid Bastet was the destination of the Cat spacecraft, and Constellation was the best available Space Force craft to proceed to Bastet. Even more important, however, Lt. Colonel Kuznetsov had already proven adept at contact with alien technology and so somewhat with aliens.
She cornered Julius Hornsby in Mars City.
"Hey, Jules. I've just got some orders to proceed to Bastet. Afraid I'll have to let some other spaceship ferry off your people who are returning to Earth."
"How come? What's up?"
"'Ours is to not to reason why, ours is but to do or die.' You know the drill."
"OK. OK. Typical military stupidity. I'll miss taking your money at our weekly poker games."
"Hah! You have a very selective memory, I see. I'll miss the rest of you too."
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Jane's timeline to carry out her latest set of orders was loose enough to delay leaving until the next morning. It also let Constellation ferry a few scientists to Mars Base who needed to go there. A number of teary goodbyes later the building-sized spaceship lifted from Mars. Out of the skimpy atmosphere it oriented to where the alien spaceship would be in a few days time.
Jane had wanted to try out Constellation's legs to their fullest extent. She had Pilot ease up to one Earth-gravity acceleration, constantly feeling how the spacecraft felt to her. She did this while in full cyborg mode: Jane+Robot+Constellation.
SHE examined HERself in all HER parts, tiniest as well as largest, as acceleration built up and up. To one gravity, two, four, eight, sixteen, and finally to twenty gravities, HER maximum acceleration.
SHE stayed at that level. Faults were identified and fixed, but most were minor. One antimatter generator had a minor problem. JANE eased it to Off and set HER "jet jockeys" to fixing it. They were told to do it right not fast and left alone.
There was still plenty of power for all the spaceship's needs. There would have been even with one generator.
Turnover was only two days away even though Constellation was headed almost to the opposite side of the Solar System from Mars. By the time the spacecraft did its J-shaped "fish-hook" maneuver to begin decelerating it was already experiencing small but measurable relativistic effects.
All through this hurried flight the crew had been both apprehensive and confident. The Cap knew what she was doing, they said. They were safe, or as safe as astronauts could be. But what task required such extreme efforts?
A day later when Constellation had slowed to a more reasonable pace a few of the crew heaved sighs of relief as acceleration eased down. Finally it reached the cruising acceleration of one gravity. All over the flying brick people settled into curiosity about what awaited them when Constellation slowed to match local orbital velocity inside the Asteroid Belt.
Off to one side Bastet floated in space, a city-sized 50-mile long flattened potato shape housing some 1300 antique Cat habitats. A dozen spacecraft floated with her. Constellation settled down to a normal workday. But no one and no thing offloaded from her or onloaded to her.
Cat City, now fully operational, had a long-range sensor system which detected the incoming Cat spacecraft long before Constellation's several systems did. It informed the United Nation's local human-occupation manager of the City. They informed Jane. She called a conference of her staff immediately after lunch.
"OK, people, brace yourselves. We're going to meet real-life Cats any day now."
There were only a couple of gasps around the table among the seventeen people there. These were all experienced and capable officers who'd experienced bombshell announcements before.
"When?" was what Jane's exec wanted to know.
"A few days at least. Cat City has really good sensors. The Cat spacecraft is just crossing the sentinels' orbit and decelerating. We'll go out to meet it and accompany it in to orbit near the City. Assuming this is really its destination. That's not absolutely certain yet."
The United Nations had not yet publicly released info about the incoming spacecraft, so Jane had told no one about it either, even her exec. Major Lopez glanced at her but otherwise showed no sign that she was one of those who had not been told.
"We'll take a couple of days to rendezvous with the ship. It's moving at about seven gravities deceleration and has to traverse a third of the span of the Belt from Saturn's position in its orbit to reach Bastet. We'll match its trajectory and do a fishhook when we near it, staying always away from anything near to a collision course. We'll move at twenty gravs on our path. I'm hoping this gives the Cats the impression that this is our ship's normal cruising speed and has a lot more in reserve. Any questions?"
"Any hint," said Lopez, "that they are hostile?"
"None. If we believe the Encyclopedia Cats and humans have always been friendly and never had any major conflicts. Our native habitats are too dissimilar to be useful to the other, and we--the Confederation humans, of which we are now a part despite what any of us might wish--both are so rich in energy and resources we have no need to take either from other races.
"If there are no other questions, let's all go to our duty stations and hit the space roads. No? OK, dismissed."
In the control room Jane had the pilot, the Samoan woman again, plot an intercept course for the incoming Cat ship. The pilot did so, then at Jane's command notified United Nations Bastet traffic control of their intention to leave. Given permission to do so, Constellation pulled slowly away from Bastet space.
Safely away, the pilot took the ship above the plane of the ecliptic to clear the majority of asteroids. At the speeds which the ship reached even the vast distances between the space rocks didn't offer enough protection from collision. Then it began to cautiously pile on their speed till acceleration reached twenty gravities.
This took most of two hours. Then Jane got on the pubic address system.
"Crew, we're on our way to, brace yourselves, to meet real-life Cats."
She paused to let those who heard her to adjust to the news.
"We anticipate no major problems. Cats and humans have always gotten along, which you know if you've been doing the homework I assigned everyone a couple of weeks ago.
"We're going out to meet them just inside the orbit of the sentinels and escort them in. If you're lucky, inside a week or three you're going to be meeting aliens for the first time in human history.
"Tell your mates who are asleep or otherwise occupied the news.
"Interesting times ahead, companions."
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Constellation slowed to fifteen gravities acceleration when it grew closer to the alien spacecraft than 10,000 miles. Then it slowed to seven gravities at 1000 miles and so was pacing the ship on a parallel course.
As it did so the alien ship ceased accelerating. Jane ordered her ship to do the same so that the two ships were motionless relative to each other.
Jane instructed the communication officer to beam a standard greeting over multi-spectrum radio and laser frequencies toward the aliens. But before the greeting could be sent Constellation received one of its own on one of the several radio channels used by Earthly spacecraft. It was in English, seemingly feminine.
"Greetings, USSS Constellation, from Centaurus vessel 101437."
Jane opened a matching channel.
"Welcome vessel 101437, from the Human Interstellar Confederation planet we locals call Earth."
"Thank you. You may call me Elizabeth. I am the owner and captain of this vessel."
"You may call me Jane. If it please you to tell me, what is your destination?"
"An asteroid we lived in and left some time ago."
"If it's the one I suspect, you left it some 9,000 Earth years ago."
"That's the one."
"Please pardon me, but I would use some other description for that span than 'some time ago.' I'd say 'a long time ago.'"
"Understandable. We know from the bri
efing packet we received from the Confederation that Earth inhabitants have not yet acquired unending youth. Cats, as you call us, have had it for a long time. I myself am about 3000 years old, and am considered by my people as just into my middle age."
"Interesting. I'd like to meet you someday, if it would not be too boring to talk with someone as young as me."
"It would not be. I suggest we do so today or tomorrow.
"Speaking of time, we have adopted the same day-night period you use on Earth. However, we do not know when in that period the day begins for Constellation. We want to change our's to match your duty periods."
Jane read off their current time and the alien captain thanked her. Then the alien asked if now would be a good time to meet face to face.
"It is. At first it will just be me, so I suggest I come to you."
"Good. We'll prepare rooms to match your comfortable temperature and atmospheric pressure and composition. My clothing can easily handle your hotter environment and I'll wear a clear face mask to give me a comfortable air pressure and yet maintain the 'face-to-face' feeling."
"Very well. I will leave now. I'll come in one of our shuttle craft."
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Jane donned her suit, exited into one of Constellation's cargo holds which housed the runabouts, and entered one of the smallest. It was little more than a framework containing a dozen seats in two rows and a room-sized cargo hold behind them. A perfectly clear unpressurized DiamondGlass hull let those inside it see in all directions, including below. There was little else besides a control console, power and engine modules, and space jets.
Jane merged with Robot and the runabout as SHE sat in one of the front seats and tethered HER suit to the skeletal seat. Then SHE exited into space and moved away from Constellation.
SHE felt HER mind expand into the vast empty space around HER. Behind HER was Constellation, familiar warmth not just physical but psychic, filled with familiar and for the most part well-liked companions. A mile ahead of HER was the huge round-ended cylinder of the Cat ship, over a mile long. It could easily hold a hundred thousand Cats. SHE wondered how many it did hold.
As SHE crossed the several miles of space between the two ships HER mind expanded still further, out dozens, hundreds, thousands of miles of distance, a huge volume. Seemingly empty, to Robot's several esoteric senses it was filled. This included several kinds of radiation, fleeting elusive neutrinos, the tiniest wisps of plasma, the seething froth of space particles which virtualized for picoseconds before lapsing back into nonexistence.
Further still were flecks of matter, microasteroids smaller than dust particles, a hundred thousand, a million, two million miles apart.
The goddess-like being which called itself JANE exulted. This was where SHE belonged! SHE was home!
A new function of Robot blossomed: the ability to pull energy from the many parallel universes, of which Jane had once calculated numbered some three billion. The amount of energy was just enough to light a candle--so far. But SHE could tell: the ability would grow.
For the next several minutes SHE explored her new power. Then the Centauroid ship grew in HER sight, its hull expanding into a cliff on a mountain side. JANE slowed, slowed some more, slowing finally to a walking pace. A hole in the wall in front of HER opened some thirty or forty feet across. Inside yellow-white light glowed into being.
The cyborg crossed into the alien spaceship. Gently gravity asserted itself, pulling JANE to a near wall. SHE pivoted on HER space jets till HER bottom swung down to touch what was now the floor. SHE flexed HER mechanical legs to absorb the slight impact of HER landing.
The outside wall of the ship now became the ceiling.
A sound penetrated HER suit's electronic ears, the faintest hiss at first, quickly rising to a louder hiss. Air of some kind was flowing into the room. It rose to a loud hiss then leveled off and then to lessen.
After half a minute the hiss ceased. At the same time a door opened in one of the walls. Standing on the other side in an apparent hallway stood a Cat centaur.
In HER earphones came speech. SHE instantly abandoned HER goddess state. It would be impolite to meet merely biological creatures that way.
"Welcome aboard my ship, Jane. I'm Elizabeth."
"Thank you. I am pleased to meet you in person." She moved forward into the hallway. Behind her the door hissed shut.
When Jane had studied the Cat people she'd done so while merged with Robot and so had absorbed into her biological brain much of the enormous information about them in the Galactic Encyclopedias. But not all the images and videos could equal the emotional impact of physically meeting the alien.
Her lower body was shaped like a panther about two and a half feet high and four long. Her front end reared up another two and a half feet so that her head was a little over five feet above the floor. She was covered all over with very short light blue fur except for the skin of her face. This was also blue.
Her head was catlike but with a shorter muzzle. She had small cat ears atop her head.
She looked up the several inches into Jane's face. Her head was tilted to one side slightly and she was smiling just enough to show white teeth.
On her body was a loose gold garment which covered her body but left her four lower limbs and two upper limbs bare. She had small breasts, formless under the loose garment.
She had been looking mostly at Jane's face. Now her gaze shifted to what Jane carried. It was about two feet high and looked like an abstract art depiction of a small plant with spiky up-thrust leaves in a flower pot.
Such a real object at her parent's home was the inspiration. Except that she had colored the soft triangular plastic "leaves" not only green but blue, yellow, orange, red, and violet. On her way from Mars she had created it for this occasion, if it ever occurred. It had.
Tentatively Elizabeth put out a slender hand and gently touched a spiky point with a pointing finger. Jane noticed that her hand, except for having three not four fingers, was very like a human's.
The "leaf" resisted the touch but gently bent when the finger pushed slightly harder.
The alien snapped back her hand and laughed.
"It's beautiful! What is it?"
"It was inspired by a plant my mother has in her kitchen window as an ornament: an aloe vera, a succulent green plant. It has many uses, including medicinal."
"Did you make this?"
"I did. But not manually. I drew it on a computer and had a 3D printer make it. I'm sorry. Some people make a hobby of building stuff like this out of paper by hand, but I don't have that skill."
Or time, but it wouldn't be diplomatic to say that.
"I want to cry," said the catlike creature. She fanned her face and blinked several times. "An actual sculpture, by a human. Thank you so much. I will cherish this forever."
She gently took the offered object and cradled it in her arms.
"A bit of an overstatement, Captain Kuznetsov," said another Cat. He had just come out of a large open doorway nearby. Beyond it inside Jane could see at least a dozen more Cat centaurs. He was a tad larger and bulkier than Elizabeth and wore a lime green garment.
"But she will keep it for several thousand years, which is close enough to 'forever' for government work."
Jane noticed his easy use of slang. The briefing package the Human Interstellar Confederation had given--or sold?--these aliens must have been very comprehensive.
The Cat offered a hand to shake. Jane removed a gauntlet, took it carefully in her naked hand, squeezed it gently, then gave it three up-and-down shakes before dropping it.
"I'm Thelonius, Captain. I serve as an assistant to Elizabeth. Won't you join us?"
Jane glanced at Elizabeth. The woman had been admiring the plant sculpture in her hands and now looked up.
"Thank you, Thelonius, for reminding me of our duty. Yes, please join us, Captain. I hope you don't mind me calling you Jane earlier."
"Not at all, as you told me to call you Elizabeth rat
her than Captain."
She followed the two Cats into the room, noting how gracefully they flowed over the floor inside, exactly the lithe movements of real cats.
The little procession of three mounted a six-inch high dais containing a human chair and two Cat chairs. These were more like light grey padded benches. Elizabeth gestured at the human chair as she and Thelonius approached their benches. They remained standing, watching Jane.
She assumed she was to sit first and did so. As soon as she leaned back in her chair the two Cats flowed onto the benches. Their lower body covered their folded legs while their upper bodies remained upright. Apparently they didn't need the equivalents of chair backs to support their own backs.
Jane's Robot part had analyzed the air and found it safe to breathe, so Jane unsealed her transparent helmet and lifted/tilted it back to free her face. Her first breath of Cat air found it cool but not chilled and flavored with a slight scent like apples.
Elizabeth spoke partly to Jane and partly to the audience of perhaps twenty other Cats.
"You asked where we were going. I told you we intend to drop off some of our passengers at our old Asteroid Belt home. That was only the first part of the truth. We also plan to drop off some on Mars at our city there. The remainder of our passengers want to visit your moon."
"Why the Moon?"
A member of the audience, a Cat a bit smaller than her two companions on the dais as best as Jane could tell, spoke. She wore a black coverall but the black was almost invisible. Every inch was covered with a motley assembly of random geometric designs of all colors.
"To play Quidditch first of all. And play in your casinos. And swim in your low-gravity pools. And oh so much more!" She seemed quite excited at the idea.
Jane glanced at Elizabeth. She looked back with amusement on her face.
"Let me explain something to you. I'll start with a question: What is the greatest danger to an immortal?"
"Or to be more accurate," said Thelonius, "to an 'ever-young.' Immortality implies 'forever.' But even a trillion-year-old universe is eventually mortal."
