One Pawgor, One Shapeshifter
Chapter 42
XLII
Jung-Jo appeared to be smiling. It was that satisfied look that only a cat truly has. But Jung-Jo had reasons to smile. Since arriving onboard the New Granolith, he had been a certifiable celebrity. Everyone wanted to pet him. Everyone wanted to walk him. Everyone wanted to hug him… especially the girls. Jung-Jo rolled over, and Maria, Liz, and Isabel rubbed his tummy while he purred with approval, with all four legs relaxed, paws hanging over limply, and a big cat grin on his face. Amy and Tess watched from the side and waited for their turns to pet Jung-Jo, too.
"If only I had been a pawgor when I was in high school," Alex quipped, shaking his head with a grin. "Who'd have guessed! And he doesn't even play football."
"Well, he's got purr-fect charm," Max said with a wry smile. Alex shook his head and groaned. Max and Michael both laughed.
At that moment, Jim Valenti walked up, accompanied by his double from Antar. The Jim from Antar was holding a pillowcase in his hand…
"This should have Nasedo's scent on it… assuming he has a scent. It came off of Max's pillow. I'm hoping Nasedo touched it when he touched you, Max. Even if he just leaned over it, there may be enough of a scent for Jung-Jo to find his trail. We've already looked everywhere we know to look for him, but him being a shapeshifter, we don't know for sure what he'll look like when we find him. He could be disguised, and we could look right at him and not know it was him. He won't fool Jung-Jo, though." Jim patted the smiling pawgor on the side.
"Here you go, boy. Get a good whiff of this."
The pawgor sniffed the pillowcase, seeming to understand Jim's meaning even without Danyy being there to "translate," then it turned around a couple of times, sniffing the air, and trotted straight over to Max. Max put his hand on Jung-Jo's head and patted him…
"Good boy, Jung-Jo! You're right! That's my scent on the pillowcase. Do you smell any other scent on my pillow?"
Jung-Jo sniffed the air and walked over to Liz. Max grinned sheepishly.
"Okay… besides Liz, Jung-Jo? Anybody else?"
Jung-Jo looked around and walked over to Jim from Antar.
"I carried the pillowcase out here," Jim said. "Is there any other smell on it, Jung-Jo?"
Jung-Jo sniffed the pillowcase again then sniffed the air in all directions. Then he sniffed the floor and headed off down the hall.
"I think he's onto something," Jim said, hurrying to keep up with Jung-Jo, as the others all tried to keep up. The further Jung-Jo went down the hall the faster he ran. Fortunately, every now and then, he stopped to sniff the air or the floor. Then he would be off again. He led the group straight to the glass ascension chamber.
Max passed his hand over the sensor, and the chamber opened and everyone got in with the pawgor and Jim.
"How will we know what floor he went to," Maria asked.
"I don't know," Jim replied honestly. "We'll have to stop at each floor and let Jung-Jo sniff the air I guess."
Michael nodded. "Sounds reasonable."
The ascension chamber went down to the cargo bay, and the door opened. Jung-Jo sniffed the air for several moments. He looked unsure at first but seemed to decide that this wasn't where Nasedo was anymore.
"I don't think Nasedo's scent is fresh down here," Jim said. "He probably smells an old scent that he knows is not as new as the one where we started out."
"Smart kitty," Isabel said.
Jim nodded. "Yes, he is." Jim closed the door back and pressed level two on the control pad. The ascension chamber started up. After a moment, it stopped again and the door opened.
"Dining Room and Galley," Jim said. "Anything up here, Jung-Jo?"
Jung-Jo licked his lips. Jim nodded. "Yeah, it does smell good. We'll have time to eat soon, though." Jim closed the door again.
"We can skip the living quarters on level three. That's where we started out."
The ascension chamber stopped on level four. "Bridge and control deck," Jim announced as the door opened. Jung-Jo sniffed the air but did not seem to smell anything unusual. Jim closed the door and pressed the "up" button. Moments later, the chamber stopped again.
"Level five," Jim announced. "The gardens."
Jung-Jo sniffed, but again, he didn't seem to pick up the expected scent. Jim closed the door and pressed "up" again.
"Well, we've just got the arboretum and the observatory left. If we're going to find him, he has to be on one of these two floors. The chamber stopped again.
"Level six," Jim announced. "The arboretum." The door opened, and Jung-Jo sniffed the air then leapt out of the chamber, headed at a trot down the path.
"Bingo," Jim said, hurrying off after the big cat.
The group stepped out of the glass ascension chamber onto a neat pathway that led through a small forest of trees. It was a pleasant place to go for a walk, and the crew of the New Granolith came here often, usually as couples, to walk along the paths. Everyone who had been to the arboretum had commented on how much energy they seemed to have and how well they felt after walking through the tree park. Undoubtedly, it had something to do with the fact that the air here was saturated with a superabundance of oxygen. In fact, it was the arboretum that supplied oxygen to the ship during its long voyages in space.
The path through the arboretum began and ended at the same place, so there was no need to turn around and return the way one had come. It had been designed to meander back and forth through the trees, giving the stroller the maximum possible walking distance, about a mile and a half. At a point that lay in the actual center of the arboretum, there was a gazebo with a porch-type swing; but further along on the trail, there was a small clearing where one could lie down by a clear little brook that provided water to the trees, have a picnic, or swing on a two-person swing suspended by vines from high up in one of the trees. Max and Liz knew this area well. It was one of their favorites.
But now, Jung-Jo was headed off down the path through the trees at a gallop, and everyone was running to try to keep up, which turned out to be an impossible endeavor. Jim of Antar and his local counterpart weren't far behind Jung-Jo, but most of the rest of the group had fallen back pretty far. Everyone else followed, knowing that eventually Jung-Jo had to stop, and they would catch up again.
They reached the gazebo, but Jung-Jo had apparently blown right by here. Liz and Maria were tempted to take a rest and hang out on the porch-type swing at the gazebo for a few minutes but decided to keep going instead, mostly because Max and Michael would have insisted on staying with them so that they wouldn't be alone here with Nasedo hanging out somewhere in the area. They already knew that they were slowing Max and Michael down, and Liz and Maria were no slowpokes themselves. Isabel seemed to have longer legs than the other girls, because she and Alex had pretty much left the rest of the group behind, but they hadn't caught up to Jim or his double yet, much less to Jung-Jo. Amy was nowhere to be seen. Liz was concerned, but Max was pretty sure that he had seen Amy far ahead of them at some point.
As Jim and his double rounded a corner in the path, they found Jung-Jo waiting for them. But the big cat had no intention of hanging around. The moment Jim was in sight, Jung-Jo leapt off the path and made his own bee-line through the trees, heading deep into the small forest. Jim and his double followed, with Amy right behind her husband. Isabel and Alex came around the bend just in time to see the two Jims and Amy head off the path and through the trees. Alex noted the way they went and stopped momentarily.
"We better wait till the others catch up, so they'll know where everyone went."
Isabel nodded. They didn't have to wait long. Max, Liz, Michael, Maria, and their doubles, along with Tess and Rayylar, rounded the corner only seconds behind them.
"They went this way," Isabel yelled, then Alex rushed into the trees with Isabel by the hand. The others followed.
The arboretum was small for a forest. It was really more of a large arboreal park. But one could get lost there. The one and a half miles of meandering pathway through the arboretum ran through twelve acres of dense trees that one could get lost in, though eventually, walking in any direction would get one back to the path at some point or another. There was also a small brook that meandered through the arboretum, providing a source of water to the trees as well as a pleasant place for couples to stop along the path to relax and enjoy the serenity of nature… and each other. This brook ran into the trees, crossing the path in one or two places and running alongside the path briefly in another place.
Michael, Max, and the others had now caught up to Alex and Isabel, and Michael was pointing out the way Jung-Jo had gone by the trail of broken twigs and small limbs… and other indicators along the way.
"Have you been taking tracking lessons from Gray Hawk," Liz asked Michael of Antar.
Michael smiled. "No. It's a necessary skill in my line of work."
Liz knew what Michael meant. He was the General of all the Armies of Antar. It was somewhat of an overblown title, of course. There was only one army on Antar. But as someone had once pointed out, if there had been more armies, Michael would have been in charge of them. And he was, after all, charged with the safety and protection of an entire planet. It was not surprising that Michael had decided to hone his tracking skills along the way.
"They went through here," Michael said, lifting a vine for the others to go under. Then he took the lead again and continued following the trail left by the big cat and by the two Jims and Amy. After about ten minutes, Michael came to the brook. He looked both ways for any clue as to which way the pawgor might have gone, then he crossed the brook and looked around. He spotted what he was looking for, a bent twig.
"This way," he shouted. Everyone followed. Five minutes later, they passed under an overhang and emerged into a small clearing. Jung-Jo was walking around in the clearing, with Jim, his double, and Amy following close behind.
"What do you smell?" Jim asked Jung-Jo. "Is Nasedo near?"
The pawgor stopped at one tree and sniffed it then went on to another tree. He sniffed this tree, too.
"He was here," Jim said with certainty. "Jung-Jo smells his scent on these trees."
The pawgor sniffed several more trees in the small clearing then sniffed a small, thorny bush. After sniffing the bush, Jung-Jo turned around and lifted his leg, soaking the bush.
"Is that what you were looking for, Jung-Jo," Jim asked. "A place to relieve yourself?"
The cat looked satisfied.
"Okay, we all have to go sometimes. Now let's find Nasedo."
Jung-Jo turned around and sniffed the already thoroughly soaked bush again. It seemed to be shaking… like the leaves of an aspen. But Jim did not feel any breeze. Jim walked over to the bush and took a close look. As he did, the bush began to change. It all happened in less than three seconds. The bush became a very wet squirrel, and up the nearest tree it went, with Jung-Jo right behind.
"Man that cat can climb a tree!" Jim said admiringly.
At the top of the tree, the squirrel changed again, this time into a red hawk, spreading its wings wide and leaping into the air, heading for freedom somewhere else in the arboretum. But if Nasedo was fast, he wasn't fast enough. Jung-Jo leapt from his perch in the tree and snatched the hawk by one wing in mid-air, landing neatly in the tree next to the one he had leapt out of. Then he scampered down that tree with the big hawk held firmly behind his two-foot-long front saber-teeth.
"Well, well, well…" Jim said, patting the proud-looking pawgor on the head. "What do we have here? A bush that changes into a squirrel that changes into a red-tail hawk? …And in our arboretum! I don't remember us having anything like that up here.
The hawk made a momentary effort to turn back into human form, but the pawgor's mouth was too confining.
"I wouldn't try to do that," Jim said. "Jung-Jo really hates things moving around in his mouth… and he's hungry, too."
"What are you going to do with me," the hawk asked.
"It talks!" Jim said, feigning amazement. It did look odd, actually. Nasedo had used his human voice while remaining in the form of a hawk. But that was not really difficult for one who could change his vocal chords or any other part of himself at will.
"That's a good question," Jim said. "What are we going to do with him, Max?"
"I hadn't thought about it," Max admitted. "…I mean in the long run… we can't leave him here on earth. After we're gone he would find a way to be a problem again."
"Staying on earth is not what I had in mind," the hawk replied. "I wish to return to Antar."
"Where you can take over the planet and become the next Kivar," Max said. "I heard. Sorry, but that's out of the question, too."
Max looked at Jung-Jo. He seemed quite happy holding the terrified hawk prisoner behind his huge teeth.
"Let Jung-Jo carry him back to the third level for us. We can find a way to restrain him there… a nice little cage or something that he can't get out of."
"I don't think a cage would hold him," Michael said. "He could just become something small enough to slip through the bars."
Max nodded. "You're probably right. Let's see if Rahn can help us come up with something."
"Good idea," Michael agreed. "A shapeshifter should know how to control a shapeshifter."
The group looked around then headed back through the forest of trees toward the path. Once back at the path, they followed the path the rest of the way around and back to the beginning and the ascension chamber, which they took back down to the third floor. Everyone got out on the third floor, including Jung-Jo, with the hawk still trapped helplessly behind his big teeth.
Max knocked on Rahn's door, and Rahn opened the door.
"We've got a present for you," Michael said. Rahn looked at Jung-Jo and at the hawk in his mouth. He didn't need to ask what it was. He knew.
"What are you going to do with him?"
"That's what we wanted to ask you, Rahn," Max said. "You're a shapeshifter. How do you control a shapeshifter? And the other question we had… what do we do with him? We can't lock him up forever. And we haven't done any executions on Antar since I've been king. I could make an exception, though." Max said this to let Nasedo know that he was serious.
"If he were returned to Antar, he could be turned over to the council of shapeshifters," Rahn said. "They would make sure that he was no longer a problem. He has broken many shapeshifter laws."
Max nodded. "I had heard that the shapeshifters have their own laws, but they live peacefully under our laws at the same time."
"That may be in your dimension," Rahn said. "But in this dimension, if there is no longer a king on Antar, the shapeshifters will be the only law in their community. But shapeshifter law is fair and just."
"How do we restrain him," Max asked. "If we need to take him back to Antar in our dimension, he will need to be restrained."
"You could take him to Antar in this dimension," Rahn said. "The shapeshifters here can take care of him. As for restraining him, that is more difficult. A small amount of poison from the Xiangar viper would take away his power to shift. It would be difficult… to determine how much poison to give him to remove his powers temporarily but not kill him. But it can be done. It would be a very small amount… much less than he injected into me when he bit me."
"Can you determine the right amount, Rahn, or should I ask Varec to help you?"
Rahn thought for a few moments. "It would be best if Varec could make the calculations. That is his field… as a scientist. I will create the poison the same way J'Shalo did, by becoming a Xiangar viper. Varec can give it to him in the correct dose… enough to strip his powers… not enough to kill him."
Max nodded and looked at Michael. Michael shrugged. "It's the best thing, Max. What else can we do? It's more humane than letting Jung-Jo eat him."
Max looked at the terrified hawk in Jung-Jo's mouth and nodded. "But then again, Michael, Jung-Jo is very hungry after that trek. It would be kinder to Jung-Jo to let him have the hawk."
Michael nodded, giving Max a quick understanding wink. "Let me think about it. If Nasedo moves in there or tries to escape, I'll let Jung-Jo eat him."
"Good," Max replied. Both Max and Michael knew that Nasedo was listening, and they were quite sure that he would be a little more cooperative if he thought he might be eaten. In the end, though, until they removed him from the pawgor's mouth, Nasedo would be going nowhere. Jung-Jo himself would see to that.
tbc