Catalyst_ A Tale of the Barque Cats - Anne McCaffrey [110]
Fortunately, thanks to Pshaw-Ra’s mousehole, a cat-created shortcut through space, our trip was not a lengthy one.
One moment we were fleeing with Galactic Government attracker ships hot on our tails, the next we were surrounded by space empty of other ships with a sandy colored planet looming ahead. In the far distance were one large star and two smaller ones, but no other ships that we could see. We passed a moon on our left. It seemed to be circled by a bristling cloud of something or other.
“What’s all that?” I asked Pshaw-Ra, indicating the cloud.
“State of the art terraforming equipment in its day,” Pshaw-Ra replied. “It transformed Mau from an uninhabitable chunk of rock to the paradise you see before us.”
I beheld the big planet, most of it a nondescript beige, growing ever larger in the viewport. It continued to fail appearing any more impressive. “Mrrrrumph,” I said. “Some paradise.”
“Once great cities and pyramids rose from the sand, but that was in ancient times. Ours was among the earliest colonies to be settled, and when the great colonial corporations decided they could do better elsewhere, they took many of our people to newer worlds. Mau serves its purpose quite adequately for the rest of us, however, at least until we are ready to rule the universe.”
“Rrrrright,” I said.
“Do not judge a planet by its surface, catling,” he said sharply. “I have many wonders left to show you.”
“I can hardly wait,” I said, cleaning delicately under my tail.
“Just wait until we are given our heroes’ welcome, the choicest tidbits placed before us, the most alluring mates offering themselves, our two legged slaves providing every imaginable comfort.”
What’s that about two-legged slaves, Chester? My boy, Jubal, sent me the thought privately. The short furred tawny cat couldn’t have heard them anyway because he was too busy gloating about the joys of his planet and all he expected to find there. I don’t like the sound of that.
The boy and I can share senses, he seeing through my eyes, hearing through my ears, smelling, tasting and feeling what I smell, taste and feel and vice versa.
He sat just on the other side of the hatch that separated the cats-only bridge of the pyramid ship from its docking bay. We were the only creatures remaining on the ship since our escape from the Galactic Government. Once Pshaw-Ra had threaded us through the mouse-hole, we had entered the docking bay of the Reuben Ranzo, the ship Jubal had served on. The hatch was opened and the dozens of Barque Cats who had been packed around my boy inside the pyramid ship were released into the Ranzo to join the throng of cats who had been transported to the larger ship after being crammed into two other shuttles.
This was the result of our daring rescue.
As soon as we had unloaded our passengers into the Ranzo, Pshaw-Ra launched the pyramid ship into space once more, leading the way to his planet. “Why do they call your planet Mau?” I asked Pshaw-Ra.
“They didn’t call it Mau, we did. The humans named it Bubastis but that’s not a word easily spoken by their gods—namely us—so they had to change it,” Pshaw-Ra replied.
Pshaw-Ra dismissed me shortly before we landed so that I could be with Jubal. Though I was somewhat surprised by the tawny cat’s consideration, I was quick to take advantage of it.
I bounded down the catwalk leading from the bridge in the nose of the pyramid cone, leaped onto the deck and