Prologue:
The artificial lighting aboard the Christa told Radu that it was 'night' as easily as if he'd been on a planet, even if his drooping eyelids and the snores of his bunkmates hadn't given the fact away as instantly. For a moment, he wondered what had woken him at such an early hour, before dismissing it as the same that had woken him at night for the last four days. Something was aboard the ship that shouldn't have been. He was almost sure of it.
It was probably another animal, possibly from the moon the ship had stopped in orbit of not long ago for spare parts. Suzee had said the protomix drive had need to be repaired. Surprisingly, though Ms. Davenport was sneezing a bit more than usual, she didn't seems suspicious about it. None of his fellow students seemed like they had anything to hide, and Radu was usually good at reading at least that much from all of them.
Closing his eyes, he tried to drown out Harlans snores, but with minimal success even with the earmuffs Rosie had given him.
Finally, he sighed and stood up, placing the earmuffs in the cubby-hole beside his bunk and sliding said bunk into the wall. Stopping only a second to change into uniform, he quietly slid out the bunkroom and into the corridor. He had hardly gone two steps before he heard a tiny whoosh of air behind him that made him jump, before realizing that it was only Thelma.
"Hello, Radu. Shouldn't you be sleeping now?" She asked brightly.
Thelma was a lot of things, a colleague and a friend of sorts, plus the only one of the crew who could actually communicate directly with the ship. She possessed a wide variety of skills. Unfortunately, common sense was not one of those skills.
"I should." He said, as softly as he could, which was quite soft, considering that the voice he used with the others was almost a shout to most andromedans. His own voice hurt his ears sometimes, especially when he yelled.
"Then why aren't you?"
Subtlety was another of the traits she was lacking in.
He merely looked at her. She blinked.
"Have I said something wrong?" She asked.
He shook his head. "No." He answered. "I'm just. . .I can't sleep. I'll go to the MedLab and find something to help me."
"I will accompany you, Radu!" She said, seeming to stand straighter.
For once, he wished that the ship wasn't so finely attuned to her crew.
"No, no, that's alright. I'm sure you have other duties." He said quickly. "I can make it on my own, really, I don't want to keep you."
"Nonsense! What would I be doing so late?" She asked, as if it were the most logical thing in the world. Maybe it was, for all Radu knew. He'd never actually seen her working at night, he was usually asleep, yet he'd been under the impression, as was the rest of the crew, that Thelma did more work at night, while she wasn't under constant surveillance, that she did during the day. That fiasco with the secret, so long ago, had almost permanently imprinted the idea in their minds.
Not seeing much choice, he let Thelma lead him to the MedLab, and waited patiently while she went through cupboard after cupboard, muttering to herself in binary, that though he could hear, he couldn't translate. He'd never told anyone about her muttering, it was usually at an auditory level that none of the others would hear, but she did it quite frequently. Usually before she said something that was actually helpful. He had the feeling that she was communicating with the Christa when she did it.
As if sensing his thoughts, Thelma turned from her chore and smiled at him. Then, with another tiny whir of binary, she plucked a pill bottle off a shelf and exclaimed, "Oh! Here you are!" With a slightly patronizing voice, she proceded to lecture the bottle about 'running off and hiding', and Radu had to concentrate not to pull a Bova and roll his eyes.
Sometimes, Thelma was just plain weird.
Abruptly, she stopped her lecture in the middle of a word, and her eyes rolled up into her head.
With only a small amount of concern, it was the look she had when she was receiving large bits of information from the ship, Radu half-rose before her eyes snapped back with a slight, sigh-like sound and she smiled wider.
"This should do the trick, Radu." She said, handing him the pill-bottle. "You can keep it in your room if you like."
Nodding and muttering a polite 'thank you' Radu attempted to use the Jumptube to return to the boys bunkroom.
"Radu, the jumptube system is-"
He'd already jumped into the tube, however, and though he heard her quite clearly, there was nothing he could do to remedy the situation.
Thelma sighed. "Not working." She sighed, then shrugged her shoulders. "Oh well. He'll find his way back eventually." With a new whir of binary already forming, she went back to nearly mindlessly patrolling the corridor of the deck.
Radu, on the other hand, was not quite so confident he could find his way back. The tube had finally spit him out, in an unknown, or at least basically unexplored, part of the ship. Oh, he was confident that he could find his way back, his andromedan sense of direction would see to that, he just wasn't sure if it would be in time to get any sleep, or even in time for ComPost duty or Ms. Davenports lesson.
Another demerit might cost him the course, and he knew it very well. Not only was he about three lessons behind in most of his studies, he already had three demerits for being late, and a fourth would merit him a total absense. A failing grade, and he hadn't even started the science project he was supposed to have started.
Without another thought on the hopelessness of the situation, and mentally yelling at himself for sounding like his rather annoying bunkmate, he began to walk, in the only direction that the current corridor would allow.
After almost two hours of walking in very nearly a straight line, he stopped. It was rather pointless to keep walking without knowing where he was going. He could only think of one thing to do, and he didn't particularly like that option. However, it seemed to be the only one left to him.
"Thelma?" He called, expecting her to appear behind him, as she always did, and willed himself not to jump when she did. The fact that she didn't appear after several seconds of waiting bothered him. Frowning, he called again. Still, there was no reply, and no strange burst of air behind him, to signify her strange teleportation, the only way he could describe the way she came and went almost without notice. A hint of actually worry tinged his voice when he called a third name, which still earned no response.
He was about to start walking again when he felt a gaze on the back of his neck, like someone watching him just beyond his vision. Hearing nothing, besides the usual noise of the engine and the breathing of every member of the crew, he turned hesitantly, unsure if he was imagining things or not. His eyes quickly scanned as far up the corridor as they could see, from the ceiling to the floor, and working their way back to within a few feet of himself within second, they still located nothing. Reluctantly, he turned again and began to walk. Within five steps, he fell, an unusual feat for any andromedan, and landed on his face, his eyes staring straight ahead, at a tiny creature about the size of an earth cat.
The creature itself resembled a cat in other ways as well. It was decidedly feline, though with smooth, black fur so short it was almost skin, and six legs instead of four. Its face was oddly shaped as well, each pointed ear tapering off into the air, and each a bit longer than it seemed they should be, tipped in silverish-white. It had no whiskers, unlike most felines, though its curling tail almost appeared prehensile, though it was curled around its feet. It's eyes marked it as feline, even if the rest of it was a bit strange. Each eye itself was perfectly round, though the pupil itself was an almond-shaped slit, and unlike an earth-cat, its eyes seemed to glow more from the inside than from light reflected off its eyes.
For a stunned second, Radu simply stared at the creature, before realizing he was still laying on the ground. Before making an attempt to get up, he noted that he didn't hear any heartbeat or breath coming from the creature, though that could mean anything. It might not have the same types of organs, but still, he should have heard something. Once more, he tried to call Thelma, but as he'd begun to suspect, she didn't answer him. He rose to his feet, keeping one eye on the creature suspiciously, and glanced around the corridor again. It seemed to stretch as far as his eye could see, with no end anywhere at all.
He began to regret leaving the jumptube control, even though there was only one tube, and it was an exit tube, not an entrance. Maybe he could have disabled the controls and climbed his way back to the MedLab. Rejecting that idea almost as soon as he thought it, he shook his head.
The creature didn't make any move at all, seemingly content just to watch him, and though he watched it as well, it didn't appear concerned when he began to walk again. After he had gone only a short distance, he turned around again, to find the creature sitting almost on his heels, looking up at him expectantly.
Beginning to get freaked out, he sped up his pace just a bit, and a bit more until he was almost running, but each time he looked back, the creature was walking -walking- behind him, as if it wasn't affected by the speed at all. Realizing that trying to out run the thing would be impossible, he slowed to a walk, which seemed to suit the creature fine. Glancing back every few seconds, almost paranoically, he continued until he thought he might drop from exhaustion.
He stopped to lean against the wall, listening for the sounds of the rest of the crew waking up, he heard nothing besides their breathing. It must not have been as long as he thought. He hoped they'd wake soon, if only to realize he was missing and try to find him. Thelma, he knew, would tell them what had happened, but only if they asked, and only then if they asked very specifically.
He decided that maybe the best way for him to be found was to stay in one place, and lowered himself to the ground. The creature made a small sound, somewhat akin to a mew, and pawed at his knee. He looked at it curiously.
"What are you?" He asked, then laughed quietly. "I'm talking to a cat. At least, I think you're a cat." He turned his attention back to the creature.
Not a cat.
He heard the words clearly, inside his mind, and wondered if he'd imagined them.
Not imagined, either.
He tipped his head, and looked at the creature, unsure whether he was simply tired, or there was intelligence behind its eyes. That voice had almost sounded as if it were mocking him. Hesitantly, he reached out and touched the creatures head. It nuzzled his hand encouragingly, so he didn't opt to remove it.
Perfect.
He didn't get a chance to ask the real-or-imagined voice what it meant by perfect. The creature nuzzling his hand suddenly dung sharp, painful fangs into it, piercing its amazing density as if it were clay. With a yelp, he jerked his hand back to his chest, glaring at the creature, who stared impassivly back.
He felt his mind begin to numb before his body, and his last thought was of toxins, as his eyes slowly dragged closed against his will, and his body fell with a thud to the floor.
The creature padded up to him without a sound and flicked its tail toward his face. When he failed to respond it seemed to get a tiny bit bigger, not in a physical sense, but in another way, prouder and more confident, before it turned its back on him and disappeared into the corridor.