When she was ten, Jessie had spent part of the summer at Girl Scout camp. During a nature hike, the troop came upon a marsh bloated with fetid water from recent rains. A log about as wide as Jessie's leg floated on the surface of the water. While their guide was consulting the map, Stacey Kearns dared Jessie to walk across the log and back without falling into the water.
"I'm not going to do that. I'll get in trouble," she said.
"You're just scared because you know you can't do it," Stacey said.
"I can too."
"So do it then."
"I don't want to."
"Chicken." Stacey made the same clucking noises Jessie usually made when she dared Tom to do something stupid. She never directed these dares at Will, regarding him with a motherly feeling since he was the youngest and littlest of their group.
Like Tom, Jessie caved in. "Fine, I'll do it."
She checked to make sure their guide was still looking at the map before she hopped on the log. The wood vibrated beneath her feet, threatening to throw her off. She imagined herself on a balance beam in the Olympics, just like Mary Lou Retton. She took one step and then another, keeping her feet in a straight line for balance.
"Jessica, what are you doing?" their guide called out. She tried to tune this out as she reached halfway across the log. Nearing the end of the log, she prepared to turn around with a triumphant grin at that stupid Stacey Kearns.
She took the last step and then heard a snap. Before she knew what was happening, she was plunged into cold, brackish water. Flailing her arms, she tried to grab onto something. Meanwhile, the foul-tasting water began filling her mouth and nostrils. She looked up to see a spot of light overhead. She reached out for this spot of light—
Jessie broke through the surface only to realize the spot of light was not the sun and that she was not at Girl Scout camp. The light came from a bulb at least a dozen feet over her head and around her she saw nothing but black metal walls. Looking down, she found herself floating naked in a vat of purple liquid.
She tried to remember how she had gotten to this place. Putting a hand to her wet hair, she thought back to her foolishly going down to the surface of Cattatonia. She was clutching the pistol Ricky's sergeant had given her, trying to keep behind the raccoon as they headed for the main palace, where they would link up with the rest of the Bloc forces.
They climbed to the top of a ridge overlooking the flat-topped pyramid. She could see bursts of red and blue lightning from the Black Ship warriors and Bloc defenders. "We're going down there?" she said.
"We don't have any choice," Whiskers said. "If we can reach the palace, we'll be able to hold them off long enough for my husband to clear out the enemy fleet."
Jessie didn't know about that, but she tried to be positive. She checked the pistol's charge as the sergeant had instructed her. The weapon felt tiny and insubstantial compared to the rifles everyone else—including Whiskers—carried, but at least it was something. And it was better than sitting around on the ship, listening to her creations die.
Ricky gathered the platoon commanders around him. He traced a path with one clawed finger. "We'll try to swing around to the rear of the palace. From what Queen Whiskers says, there should be a secret entrance we can use."
"Let's hope the Black Ships haven't found it," Jessie said.
"If they did, there are booby traps only a member of the Catt royal family can disarm," Whiskers said.
Jessie didn't see any booby traps that could stop thousands of bloodthirsty robots that seemed to care little for their own survival. She thought better than to say this aloud, not wanting to sour the mood any more than it probably was already.
"Try to stay low to use the grass and trees for cover," Ricky said. "We might be able to go undetected then."
This proved far easier for the dogs, cats, and raccoons, who simply strapped their weapons on their backs and walked on all fours. Jessie had a much more difficult time of it, squatting down in the thick grass and trying to scuttle like a crab. Even the grass seemed to fight her, whipping into her face to nearly knock her over. Her cheeks turned red as Ricky and Whiskers glowered at her.
"Climb onto my back," Ricky said.
"What? I can't. I'm too big."
"Don't worry about it." He took the rifle off his back so that she could hop on. At this point she was grateful no one from school was here to witness her humiliation. She took Ricky's rifle and then bent forward to press her face into the soft brown fur of his neck. The raccoon moved with a grace she could never have managed, navigating the terrain without so much as disturbing a leaf. She thought back to the piggyback rides her father had given her when she was a little girl; when her father still lived with them. She resisted the urge to shout, "Whee!"
Ricky came to a stop, lifting his head to sniff at the air. He looked back at Whiskers, who was also sniffing the air. "They're close," Ricky said. "Hush."
Jessie thought he was ordering them to be quiet until a Bassett hound shuffled up to the head of the line. "Sir?" the Bassett hound asked.
"What's your nose telling you?"
"They're north of us, sir," Hush said. "I'd say about five hundred feet."
"Take the point," Ricky said. The rest of the group followed the Bassett hound through the grass. At times Hush would pause to sniff at the air before moving on. Jessie's feeble human nose couldn't pick up anything except a tangy odor in Ricky's fur she attributed to whatever raccoons used for cologne.
"There it is," Whiskers said. She indicated what appeared to be a fallen tree similar to a palm. "The hidden entrance."
"No enemy nearby," Hush said.
He was right in there were no Black Ship warriors around the entrance, but as Whiskers led the way towards the fallen tree, a landing craft appeared overhead. Jessie rolled off Ricky's back, tossing the rifle to him as he got on his feet. The Bloc soldiers began firing into the air at the landing craft. The saucer-shaped vessel shrugged off the damage to drop a platoon of enemy warriors into the grass.
The rest became a hazy mess of noise and light from the gunfire all around her. Jessie fired a few blind shots at the Black Ship warriors, unsure if she hit any. Another Black Ship landing craft came down nearby, followed by another and still another. Beside her, Hush the Bassett hound went down in a heap. Jessie put a hand to her mouth to stifle a scream.
"Get to the entrance!" Ricky shouted to her. "We'll cover you."
"I can't—"
"Move it, meatbag!" Heather growled, shoving Jessie forward. Whiskers took hold of her, pulling her along as Heather fired her plasma thrower to cover them. A cluster of Black Ship warriors appeared to cut them off from the hidden entrance. Heather pulled a grenade from her belt and went to throw it—
A shot went clean threw her arm. The grenade tumbled forward to land on the ground in front of Jessie. Time slowed down, her eyes going wide as she stared at the explosive. She only distantly heard Ricky's voice. Then the raccoon was in front of her, one hand pushing her and Whiskers away.
The grenade exploded with a flash of light, blinding her. As she slid into darkness, she could smell the tangy cologne of Ricky's fur mixed with that of ozone. Then rough hands grabbed her by the hair, pulling her away.
And now she was here, in this room, for some reason naked in a tub of liquid. "Where am I?" she asked aloud.
"On one of their ships," a voice hissed. She turned to see Whiskers on the floor below, her fur turned purple from the liquid. "We're prisoners."
#
There was no reckoning of time in the cell, but Whiskers estimated she had been awake for about twenty minutes before Jessie came to. "I've had a look around our cell. There doesn't seem to be any way of escape," she said.
"There wouldn't be anywhere for us to go anyway," Jessie said. She flopped out of the water to the cold deck, quickly putting hands over her sensitive parts before realizing that Whiskers had never seen a naked human before, nor would she probably care. "What's with the weird bathtubs?" she asked.
Whiskers licked her fur and then made a disgusted face. "Medicinal solution," she said. "Probably how they heal their own warriors."
"That's gross," Jessie said.
"But efficient." The cat shook herself like a dog to wring some of the water from her fur. Jessie yearned for a towel—and some clothes.
As if reading her mind, the door opened a few minutes later. Two Black Ship warriors stood in the doorway with weapons raised. Between them came an insect-looking robot carrying two bundles in its claws. One of these bundles turned out to be towels and the other a sort of bathrobe. The robot also deposited two silver foil packets of dried food. The robot then retreated, followed by the guards. The door hissed shut behind them.
"At least we're not going to starve," Jessie said as she toweled off.
"No, they want us alive. A Creator and the queen of Cattatonia and first lady of Bulldogovia are valuable hostages."
"But why do they need hostages? They seem to be winning the war pretty well on their own." She put on the gray robe, finding it a bit too big, but then they probably hadn't ever had to manufacture garments for humans before.
"I don't know. Maybe to ensure cooperation."
"Buster wouldn't give in to them, would he?"
"No. My husband would never give in to any demands, not even for me. He knows his responsibility is to his people. As mine would be to mine in a similar situation."
Jessie thought back to the incident on the Beagle when the Black Ship warriors had first appeared. At the time no one had ever seen the Black Ships try to capture a ship. Now it was a little clearer. "They want us. The Creators," she said. "We have to warn Tom and Will."
Jessie threw herself at the door, finding it perfectly solid. There was no lock or controls on this side of the room, nothing for her to pick or override to escape. She patted the walls to find a seam or weak point she might exploit. As Whiskers had indicated, the room had no weaknesses. They were trapped.
She sagged to the floor and pulled her knees up to her chin. "They might have already taken Tom and Will," she said. "There's no way we'd know in here."
"I doubt that. Your friends were aboard the Mutt, under Chancellor Mutt's protection. And Dr. Ruff's."
"That's where I should be. I'm such an idiot."
Whiskers sat beside her on the floor, touching Jessie's wet hair with one hand. "Nonsense. You wanted to defend my people. That's noble."
"It was stupid. I'm not a soldier. I dropped out of the Girl Scouts."
"You fought bravely. Even my daughter would have to be proud of you." Whiskers growled a little in her throat. "I pray they haven't taken Heather as well."
"I don't think there's a cell that could hold her."
"No, I suppose not." Whiskers made a stuttering hiss that approximated a laugh. "She tries so hard to prove herself. It isn't easy to be the daughter of a queen and a president. Sometimes I fear she tries too hard. At her age she should be looking for a mate."
Jessie couldn't help laughing that Whiskers would be worrying about grandchildren at a time like this. She could imagine her mother in a similar situation yelling at her not to slouch and to smile. Never had she missed that nagging so much in her life.
#
The food provided by the Black Ship guards left much to be desired. The contents of the foil bags were the same gray as Jessie's robe and as tasteless as the wrapper it came in. She supposed that a race of robots or cyborgs or whatever they were hadn't much need for culinary prowess. She set her block of food aside.
Whiskers had nibbled away a corner of hers before tossing it into a corner. "Not even a rat would eat such trash," she said.
"I'm not sure which will kill us first: the Black Ships or their food."
They laughed at this until the door opened again. Two guards appeared in the doorway again, their weapons drawn. Jessie braced herself for them to open fire. They didn't. Instead one said in perfect English, "You will come with us."
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"The Commander has demanded you make contact with him."
"The Commander? Who's that?"
The guards stared at her blankly. One gestured for her to get up with his rifle. She didn't need to be told again, springing to her feet. The deck was cold to her bare feet, but the Black Ships hadn't seen fit to include some slippers with her robe.
She and Whiskers were ushered into a corridor the same black as the cell. Winding their way along the corridors, the only variation came in the occasional blinking lights of a computer terminal. Black Ship personnel were stationed at these terminals, their heads lolling as if asleep. Jessie wondered if perhaps they were recharging.
She tried to memorize the turns they took, but with the nearly identical corridors, this soon became impossible. Even if she had followed their path, it wouldn't have done much good. The guards opened a door to shove them into an empty chamber. A platform of blue light activated and then a figure appeared in the center of the platform.
He looked like an ordinary Black Ship warrior except for a sort of horned crown around the head. He carried no weapon except a knife the same gold as the crown. This had to be the Commander the guards had spoken of.
His voice sounded less mechanical than the guards. It dripped with sarcasm as it said, "Greetings, Jessica McCormick. And Queen Whiskers, what a delight to see you."
"What do you want from us, you creep?" Jessie said.
"You should know that, esteemed Creator. If you really are as powerful as they say."
"Is that what you want? To prove I'm not a goddess. Fine, I'm not. Let us go."
"Oh no, I have much more in mind than that. I have something very special in mind for you and your friends."
"Don't you dare hurt Tom and Will! I'll give you whatever you want."
"But you are what I want. All three of you."
"And what of me? I won't betray the secrets of Cattatonia or Bulldogovia."
"I don't expect you to, Queen Whiskers."
"What do you want?" Jessie asked.
"You'll find out when you get here."
"Then why did you bring us here?"
"I wanted us to get acquainted. We'll be seeing quite a lot of each other."
"Who are you?"
"You'll find out. In due time. For now, all you need to know is that I'm an old friend."
"Why don't you just kill us instead of playing stupid games?"
"I'm not going to kill you, dear girl. I'm going to make sure you suffer for a long, long time just as I've suffered. You and your friends."
Jessie lunged towards the platform, but she simply went through the projection of the Commander to collapse into a heap on the floor. One of the Black Ship guards jerked her to her feet by the hair. "So much spirit," the Commander said. "But it won't do you any good."
The Commander's shrill, maniacal laughter rang in Jessie's ears long after the guards had taken her back to her cell.
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