Catalyst_ A Tale of the Barque Cats - Anne McCaffrey [39]
Then he ran his hand through his thinning hair and shook his head. “Damn, I wish she wouldn’t go off half-cocked like that. You neither. You both should have known I was working on a plan. Now I wish I hadn’t left her the money from the sale of the other kittens. She’ll have enough from selling the Duchess and Chester to last for a bit.”
“You left her that money? When?”
“Just awhile ago, when I went up to the house. I didn’t know you were in the shuttle then or I’d have hung onto our assets.”
“Yeah, maybe we could have bought Chester back,” Jubal said.
“You are a single-minded little sonofagun, aren’t you?” Pop asked. “I think we can get your cat back but it’s going to take some doing.”
“How?” Jubal asked. “We can’t just steal him. That girl and the vet know who Mom and I are and where we live.”
“I can grow us another one,” Pop said, shrugging. “I’ve got DNA from all the cats, including the mother. You may not know it, but cats have been cloned longer than any other species except sheep.”
“I don’t want a clone or any other cat,” Jubal said stubbornly. When his father looked angry, he added, “Pop, it wouldn’t be the same. Chester and I—well, don’t laugh, but I think we can read each other’s minds.”
“No kidding?” his father asked mildly. “Well, well, well, that’s special.”
“Yes, it is,” Jubal said. He wasn’t sure what the old man was making of it. He didn’t sound exactly like he didn’t believe him, but he didn’t sound like he took him seriously either. He sounded like he had a use for the information.“If you’re thinking we’ll get him back so we can do some kind of hokey psychic act like at the Universal Chatauqua show last spring, forget it.”
“Me? Put my own boy in a hokey act? No siree, nothing like that. I admit I couldn’t see what the big deal was until you told me about you and your kitty—”
“Chester,” Jubal said. “His name’s Chester.”
“Yeah, that’s the one. But I think with a slight change of plan and quite a bit more trouble and risk on my part, we can still make the cloning thing work for us. In fact, it opens up a number of other interesting possibilities.”
“Whatever,” Jubal said. This was sounding all too familiar, like some of the old man’s other crazy schemes.
“Meanwhile, though, we’re going to need a grubstake and—ah, I see just the ship!”
“I was going to wait here for Chester’s ship, the Molly Daise, to come back,” Jubal said, still not willing to trust his father again, though he was feeling a little better about him. If it hadn’t been for Pop, after all, he wouldn’t have ever had Chester to begin with. “I thought maybe the vet could use some help around the clinic.”
The old man dismissed that plan with a wave of his hand. “He’s not going to hire you if he thinks you had something to do with the fire.”
“I guess not,” Jubal admitted.
“So, what do you say? Are we a team or what?”
“Might as well, I guess.”
“You want to call your mother before we leave the station?”
“Nah. If she got your kitten money, she’ll figure I’m with you, and if I call, she can track us.”
They continued down the ramp of the docking bay, in search of a ship with two open berths.
CHAPTER 10
Chessie took up her duties again as if she had never left, and at first it looked as though she and Chester were going to make a good team. The kitten trotted along beside his mother, alert, attentive, curious, and very fast. Janina realized how much Chessie’s perpetual pregnancies had slowed her down. In spite of her recent surgery, she was much quicker now that she was free of her litter. Amazing how rapidly cats recovered from even the most drastic surgeries, once they’d been set to rights. Of course, Jared was an excellent surgeon, and that helped.
Chessie caught several rodents and one of the shiny bug things in the first week she was back aboard the ship. Chester clung to her side and didn’t give her enough maneuvering room in the tight passages where she did much of her stalking.
Chessie