Mercedes Lackey - SCat

NoooOOOWOWOWOW!

The metal walls of Dicks tiny cabin vibrated with the howl. Dick White ignored it, as he injected the last of the four contraception-beads into SKittys left hind leg. The black-coated shipscat did not move, but she did continue her vocal and mental protest. :Mean,: she complained, as Dick held the scanner over the right spot to make certain that he had gotten the bead placed where it was supposed to go. :Mean, mean Dick.:

Indignation showing in every line of her, she sat up on his fold-down desk and licked the injection site. It hadnt hurt; he knew it hadnt hurt, for hed tried it on himself with a neutral bead before he injected her.

Nice, nice Dick, you should be saying, he chided her. One more unauthorized litter and BioTech would be coming to take you away for their breeding program. Youre too fertile for your own good.

SKittys token whine turned into a real yowl of protest, and her mate, now dubbed SCat, joined her in the wail from his seat on Dicks bunk. :Not leave Dick!: SKitty shrilled in his head. :Not leave ship!:

Then no more kittensat least not for a while! he responded. No more kittens means SKitty and SCat stay with Dick.

SKitty leapt to join her mate on the bunk, where both of them began washing each other to demonstrate their distress over the idea of leaving Dick. SKittys real name was Lady Sundancer of Greenfields, and she was the proud product of BioTechs masterful genesplicing. Shipscats, those sturdy, valiant hunters of vermin of every species, betrayed their differences from Terran felines in a number of ways. BioTech had given them the hands of a raccoon, the speed of a mongoose, the ability to adjust to rapid changes in gravity or no gravity at all, and greatly enhanced mental capacity. What they did not know was that Lady Sundanceraka Dick Whites Kitty, or SKitty for shorthad another, invisible enhancement. She was telepathicat least with Dick.

Thanks to SKitty and to her last litter, the CatsEye Company trading ship Brightwing was one of the most prosperous in this end of the Galaxy. That was due entirely to SKittys hunting ability; she had taken swift vengeance when a persistent pest native to the newly-opened world of Lacuun had bitten the consort of the ruler, killing with a single blow a creature the natives had never been able to exterminate. That, and her own charming personality, had made her kittens-to-be most desirable acquisitions, so precious that not even the leaders of Lacuun owned them; they were held in trust for the world. Thanks to the existence of that litter and the need to get them appropriately pedigreed BioTech mates, SKittys own matecalled Prrreet by SKitty and unsurprisingly dubbed SCat by the crew, for his ability to vanishhad made his own way to SKitty, stowing aboard with the crates containing more BioTech kittens for Lacuun.

Where he came from, only he knew, although he was definitely a shipscat. His tattoo didnt match anything in the BioTech register. Too dignified to be called a kitty, this handsome male was Dick Whites Cat.

And thanks to SCats timely arrival and intervention, an attempt to kill the entire crew of the Brightwing and the Terran Consul to Lacuun in order to take over the trading concession had been unsuccessful. SCat had disabled critical equipment holding them all imprisoned, so that they were able to get to a com station to call for help from the Patrol, while SKitty had distracted the guards.

SCat had never demonstrated telepathic powers with Dick, for which Dick was grateful, but he certainly possessed something of the sort with SKitty, and he was odd in other ways. Dick would have been willing to take an oath that SCats forepaws were even more handlike than SKittys, and that his tail showed some signs of being prehensile. There were other secrets locked in that wide black-furred skull, and Dick only wished he had access to them.

Dick was worried, for the Brightwing was in space again and heading towards one of the major stations with the results of their year-long trading endeavor with the beings of Lacuun in their hold. Shipscats simply did not come out of nowhere; BioTech kept very tight control over them, denying them to ships or captains with a record of even the slightest abuse or neglect, and keeping track of where every one of them was, from birth to death. They were expensivetraders running on the edge could not afford them, and had to rid themselves of vermin with periodic vacuum-purges. SKitty claimed that her mate had heard about her and had come specifically to find herbut she would not say from where. SCat had to come from somewhere, and wherever that was, someone from there was probably looking for him. They would very likely take a dim view of their four-legged Romeo heading off on his own in search of his Juliet.

Any attempt to question the tom through SKitty was useless. SCat would simply stare at him with those luminous yellow eyes, then yawn, and SKitty would soon grow bored with the proceedings. After all, to her, the important thing was that SCat was here, not where he had come from.

Behind Dick, in the open door of the cabin, someone coughed. He turned to find Captain Singh regarding Dick and cats with a jaundiced eye. Dick saluted hastily.

Sircontraceptive devices in place and verified sir! he affirmed, holding up the injector to prove it.

The Captain, a darkly handsome gentleman as popular with the females of his own species as SCat undoubtably was with felines, merely nodded. We have a problem, White, he pointed out. The Brightwings manifest shows one shipscat, not two. And we still dont know where number two came from. I know what will happen if we try to take SKittys mate away from her, but I also know what will happen if anyone finds out we have a second cat, origin unknown. BioTech will take a dim view of this.

Dick had been thinking at least part of this through. We can hide him, sir, he offered. At least until I can find out where he came from.

Oh? Captain Singhs eyebrows rose. Just how do you propose to hide him, and where?

Dick grinned. In plain sight, sir. Look at themunless you have them side-by-side, you wouldnt be able to tell which one you had in front of you. Theyre both black with yellow eyes, and its only when you can see the size difference and the longer tail on SCat that you can tell them apart.

So we simply make sure theyre never in the same compartment while strangers are aboard? the Captain hazarded. That actually has some merit; the Spirits of Space know that people are always claiming shipscats can teleport. No one will even notice the difference if we dont say anything, and theyll just think shes getting around by way of the access tubes. How do you intend to find out where this one came from without making people wonder why youre asking about a stray cat?

Dick was rather pleased with himself, for he had actually thought of this solution first. SKitty is fertileunlike nine-tenths of the shipscats. That is why we had kittens to offer the Lacuun in the first place, and was why we have the profit we do, even after buying the contracts of the other young cats for groundside duty as the kittens mates.