I was so happy to have Liz in my arms again that I felt my heart would burst with joy! Then she turned into my embrace, and I realized that we were going to have another child. I suddenly became aware of the love in her mind and a soft, baby presence that held the rudiments of consciousness. I knew instantly that the child would be a girl. Her baby mind was similar to Michael’s before he was born, but there was a difference. She was already becoming feminine. I lost myself in their joint presence for a timeless moment.
Our mental melding was interrupted by Kasm, who directed his thoughts towards me.
“Dec, I can sense that you are happy, and I’m glad!” He paused in his thought, then continued, “It’s good that I was here. This one meant death! I could sense it in him.”
I was jolted out of our linkage. I had been so intent on Liz that I hadn’t really noticed what Kasm had done. William’s neck was broken, and red blood was still running out of his ripped carotid artery. As I looked, it ceased to flow. He was definitely dead. Then I saw the rifle. It shocked me. I felt like I was definitely slipping in my reflexes. Previously, I would have come out of the shuttle ready to tackle any challenge. Now, I understood how much Liz meant to me. I’d been so focused on her that I could have lost everything. I resolved to try to do better in the future. The world was far more dangerous now than ever before, and I couldn’t allow my love for her to interfere with my ability to protect her.
Kasm was still linked to me and acknowledged my series of recriminating thoughts with a loud snort, followed by an unhappy thought: “At least you have a chance to continue to protect her.”
I was instantly ashamed and sent, “For that, I have to thank you. I’m in your debt. I wish I’d been there to help you when you needed it.”
“There’s no debt. You saved me from the vision-beast. I just want to work with you to finish off our mutual enemies. We cannot allow them to continue to threaten our worlds and those of the small furry ones.”
I agreed. We’d need to do something about the Pug-bear threat. I instinctively felt I’d first have to build a force to handle the two space ships. That thought led to thoughts of Jake, the Warlord, and those led to Frank and Erin.
Thinking about them made me realize how lucky I’d been. They’d been great assets during the past few months, as had the Sunnys. Maybe Erin was a little overly attached to me, but – I had a thought. Somehow, my return to my normal mental state made me retroactively more perceptive. It had been evident for a long time, but I’d bypassed the knowledge. Frank was hopelessly in love with Erin. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he loved her deeply, although he’d never volunteer it to her. He was intent on waiting for her to realize it.
I smiled. Perhaps I could help with the situation. I’d manipulated her mind before. If I could somehow lead her to realize his feelings, maybe she’d forget about me. She knew I was unavailable, and I knew she was beating herself up about it. Maybe a little surreptitious mental influence would be a good thing here. I didn’t want Liz to feel like she had a rival, even though Erin wasn’t a threat to her.
Tentatively, I extended my mental touch across the miles we’d come in the shuttle. The two of them were already on horseback and headed for the Continental Divide. They were following us. I sensed Joe’s presence with them, so I knew they were on their way here.
I sank deeper into Erin’s subconscious thought pattern. There was a sense of loss and sadness as she thought of not being loved. Those thoughts were linked to images of me, but as I explored her mind, I found a series of images of Frank helping and defending her. She felt grateful to him, and that feeling gave me the key that I needed.
I rearranged the linkage in her mind so that the feeling of love was more closely attached to the emotion of gratitude. I didn’t want her to consciously sense that I was manipulating her feelings, so I left it at that and detached from her carefully. That was all that I did. I still didn’t like messing with the mind of a friend, but I consoled myself with the thought that I hadn’t done more than provide a possible route for her to realize Frank’s feelings. I just hoped that it would work.
About an hour later, as we were all sitting, or lying as was the case with Kasm, in the cabin’s living room, Stormbreaker, Virginia, and Michael arrived. They had gotten a deer, which proved handy. Kasm immediately appropriated the left hindquarters and retired to the porch to eat. He was accompanied by a fascinated Michael. Michael had hugged me happily and then been immediately distracted by Kasm’s alien body. Shortly after they went out, there was a bit of a commotion on the porch. I could sense Michael’s alarm, but Kasm was giving every evidence of being amused. There was also an overtone of rather fierce anger tinged with curiosity. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, so I jumped up, alarming the others.
When I poked my head through the door, it was all clear. Jefferson had returned. He’d apparently left when Smith had arrived, having great disapproval of the man, but enough time had passed that he must have figured that William had left. Indeed, he had – in a permanent manner. We’d moved his body to one of the stalls in the barn, pending the Sheriff’s arrival to check on the circumstances.
Finding another cat, Jefferson was convinced that Kasm fit into that category, so our Tomcat proceeded to work up a proper case of indignation about the interloper feeding on our porch. When I came out, he was standing on the steps with every hair on his body sticking out and posed in an arch-backed, bristle-tailed, witches’ cat stance, showing his profile to Kasm in a vain attempt to intimidate the six-limbed alien.
Kasm hadn’t moved and was just lying there over the remains of his meal with a sort of pleased expression on his face. He could display more emotion than one of our felines and was doing so. When he noticed my presence, he said, “This little one is a true fighter! I like him, but I’m unable to reach his mind to calm him down. Can you help?”
It only took a moment to show Kasm the ... I guess you could call it, “the frequency” of Jefferson’s lightning-like flickers of thought. He’d missed them; they were on a level that he normally didn’t access, even though once shown, he had no problem getting in touch with the alarmed cat. I didn’t intervene. It wasn’t necessary. Kasm shortly had Jefferson literally eating out of his hand.
Once convinced that Kasm was friendly and not threatening, Jefferson curled up next to him, accepted some scraps of meat that the Sim-tiger dangled in front of him, and began to purr contentedly. During this process, I hadn’t actually stepped through the open door. However, after Jefferson calmed down, I could see that his eyes strayed over to me. He squinted at me a couple of times before I got it. He was giving me the cold shoulder. I tuned to his thoughts, such as they were. He was not ready to forgive me for being absent so long.
I figured I might as well take what was coming to me, so I walked out and sat cross-legged in front of him. He looked away momentarily and then audibly sighed, stood up, and faced me. Then he proceeded to tell me off in a series of yowls that left no doubt about what he was saying. “How dare you leave us all alone for so long. There’s been all kinds of trouble here, and I could have used the help. You should be ashamed of yourself!” There was more like that, and I felt adequately chastened. He finished and turned symbolically away from me. In response, I made a little ‘churring’ noise with my tongue, and he turned back, looking surprised, as if he’d just seen me. The next instant, I had twenty pounds of purring cat frantically rubbing his head on my chest and face, much to Kasm’s amusement. I could also hear Liz laughing softly from her observation post in the doorway.
The big cat-like creature had understood every aspect of the emotions that were flying back and forth. He was probably more human in that regard than the Sunnys. As cuddly as they looked, they still didn’t map as closely to our mental processes and emotions as Kasm’s kind.
Once the delayed greeting was over, the others came out of the cabin and sat on the porch chairs. It was nice there, except for the still-drying blood stain. Stormbreaker filled me in on his experiences with frequent glances at his bride for her approval, intermixed with a couple of appraising stares at Kasm. He ended by asking me if he could learn to communicate with the alien. I glanced at Kasm and noted that he could more than half follow the verbal aspects of the discussion. He couldn’t understand all of the words, but he could tune in to the emotions, which provided a good key, allowing him to understand what was said.
“Stormbreaker, Kasm understands you already. He normally communicates mentally, but he’s learned a lot of English from being around me. He just can’t speak it, though,” I responded.
“Can some,” rumbled Kasm in a deep growl. I was shocked. I hadn’t known that he had the capacity to actually speak. His words were well formed, but the growling tone made them a little difficult to follow at first.
During the next few days, the two seemed to bond and become close friends. I was all for that. We’d have to work together closely if we were to make any impact on the Pug-bear problem.
Whistle hit it off with Michael. Michael was only a little smaller at five years old than the little Sunny. Something about the Sunnys’ nature seemed to fit well with the playfulness of a human child, and they were usually found in roughly the same location. The way Kasm and Whistle fit in with a group of humans was very reassuring to me. There was certainly hope for the future relationship of our kinds.
We put Stormbreaker and Virginia up in the guest room, and Kasm and Whistle stayed in the living area, with Whistle sleeping on the couch. Kasm was content to curl in front of the fireplace with Jefferson. About half the time, I’d come out of the bedroom in the morning, still half asleep from renewing my relationship with my lovely wife, and find Michael either sitting with Whistle or actually curled up with his head on Kasm’s side and Jefferson on his lap. It was like we were all one happy family.
Then the day came that I’d been worried about. Erin, Frank, and Joe arrived. The Sheriff escorted them out to our place, who’d been out a couple of days previously to take our report of Smith’s demise.
Stormbreaker and Joe pounded each others back in greeting while Erin hung back, seemingly somewhat reluctant to come forward. Frank had immediately strode over to me and shook my hand, but I sensed something in him that seemed like he felt guilty in some fashion. I finally tuned into their subconscious minds and realized as I did that my machinations had worked. Erin approached me at about the same time and said, “I’ve got something to tell you, Dec.”
“You know that you can tell me anything,” I responded, aware of the critical eye of my wife on me as I did.
Erin looked away, and I saw that she was blushing. When she turned back to me, she had gathered her courage, and she looked at both Liz and me. “What I’ve got to say concerns both of you. I want to clear the air.”
Liz looked at me with a long, slow glance that implied I’d have some explaining to do when she got me alone.
Erin continued, “Mrs. Dunham, I want to confess I fell for your husband. He was so competent and kind that I felt like I really wanted him. I was almost glad When I thought we wouldn’t get off of Kasm’s planet. I thought that I’d have him for myself that way. You see, I knew that I couldn’t compete with you. Even when his memory of you was partially lost, I didn’t have a real chance.”
She turned to me, “Dec, I know I was a pain, constantly trying to pressure you. You don’t know how frustrating you were to me, though.”
I started to answer, but she continued, “The most amazing thing happened, though. As we were coming over the Divide to Grand Lake, I had time to reflect on my life, and I realized something. Frank has been my bodyguard for years. Ted had only been with me for a few months, but it seems like Frank has always been there. I started to think about you, but then I suddenly understood my feelings better than I ever have. I realized that I love Frank. I’ve loved him for a long time, but I was just too proud and blind to allow myself to see it. I thought I had some status in Jake’s organization that would suffer if I hooked up with my guard. Jake no longer trusts me the way he used to, and I no longer care about that kind of status. Mrs. Dunham, you’ve got a wonderful husband, but I think I’ve just found that I might have a wonderful future with Frank.”
I looked at Frank. His heart was shining through his eyes. I’d known that he was devoted to her, but I had been too distracted to worry about their personal feelings during our adventure. He was obviously extremely happy, and I wished the best for both of them. I glanced at Liz, and she beamed at me. I received a pleased thought from her that had to do with the fact that she’d always known that I was reliable and trustworthy. My wife wasn’t one to hold grudges. She seemed to understand Erin’s previous actions and wasn’t offended that Erin had thought she wanted me.
It took several days for everything to begin to work out. Frazzle sent a message through the comm system to the Sunnys on Oberon. Since the Pugs didn’t monitor comm traffic, relying on the Sunnys to report anything out of the ordinary to them was easy and safe. The Oberon Sunnys wanted to be rescued and were easily convinced to simply come through the transporter to Estes as soon as they understood there were no Pugs or Pug-bears left alive to punish them. Once they were through, we turned off the transporters. They were the only ones currently on Earth, so there was no chance that we’d be taken by surprise by a flank attack.
Fortunately, they had enough foresight to destroy the new Ansible communication system before their departure. I’d completely forgotten about that possibility. We’d destroyed the original one, and I hadn’t considered that the Pug-bears might have another. It had arrived on the larger ship that we’d captured. Its loss would eventually pose a problem for us since the Pug-bears used it to make supply requests on a fairly regular basis, and the loss of contact would surely be noticed. We’d have to do something about that in the near future.
I wanted to try and salvage the potentially useful equipment on Oberon. According to the rescued Sunnys, there was a large weapons cache there that I thought would prove very useful, provided we could get it. So far, I had been resisting the idea of making a direct assault through the transporters as too dangerous. I didn’t want to shoot the domes with the anti-matter cannon either, so the Pugs and Pug-bears in them went unmolested.
Eventually, most of the Sim-tigers moved into the Grand Lake area. They’d tracked down almost all of the adult Pug-bears and eliminated them. For some reason, there weren’t nearly as many on Earth as I’d feared. Unfortunately, not all of the Pug-bears’ nests had been located. There could still be some hatchlings that would cause rather severe problems in the spring.
The few surviving Pugs hadn’t lasted long. They died when their respirator supplies ran out. They just couldn’t live for long in our atmosphere.
We spent a lot of time arguing about the best way to solve the Pug-bear problem. Their natural aggressiveness combined with the Pugs’ warlike society and the Sunny technology meant they would never be good neighbors. Ideally, if they could be separated from the Sunnys and cut off from technology, they’d be forever restricted to their own planet. The Pugs might develop some more sophisticated technology of their own, but they, too, were caught in a biological trap. Their short life spans combined with a violent nature made it unlikely they’d rapidly pose a threat.
I discussed simply destroying their respective home planets with the others, but we were all resistant to the idea of genocide, even if the intended targets weren’t friendly. We wanted a less destructive solution. There was also the problem of removing the Pug-bears from the Sunny planets they’d invaded. Dropping ice balls from space might help, but there needed to be a more elegant solution that wouldn’t endanger the Sunnys.
We finally realized that we had a clue about the dilemma based on the autopsies we’d performed on the pug bears. The symbionts were apparently being stunted in their growth by some environmental factor here on Earth. We needed to figure out what that was, and to do so, we needed some Pug-bears and symbiont eggs. I sent over the mountain to ask the Warlord if he’d place a bounty on Pug-bear eggs so that we might have some to study. Some of his people had found some of the wafers of compressed symbiont eggs stored in the Stanley Hotel, and we got our hands on a case of these. We just needed a competent biological researcher to try and find the vulnerability and the agent that was exploiting it.
Once we’d worked through these difficulties, I needed to deal with our relationship with our eastern neighbors. We needed to come to an agreement with Jake about how we would jointly organize to fight the Pug-bears. That led me to realize that we’d have to also organize to start rebuilding. Jake was doing a good job, but he was running a sort of dictatorship, and I thought that we’d probably be better off with some sort of confederation. That, too, was a problem for the future.
After sending some messages back and forth, I set up a meeting with Jake to get started with our counter-invasion plans. We agreed to meet at Estes Park in the Stanley Hotel as a neutral location.
Frazzle brought the larger shuttle down to Grand Lake, and we all loaded up for the trip to Estes. There was no sense taking horses when we had the ability to fly, and Liz pointed out that the shuttle would be a great symbol of our power, improving our stature and helping our negotiating position.
The flight was short. The shuttlecraft was designed for space flight, after all, and had plenty of speed. Frazzle had us over the mountains and landing on the front lawn of Stanley in just a few minutes. He shut the craft down and opened the hatch as a large group of people watched from the elevated front porch of the historic building.
Together, our diverse group, composed of Sim-tigers, Sunnys, and humans, exited the shuttlecraft, coming out into the bright sun and crisp mountain air on the grounds of the Stanley Hotel. We walked across the unkempt lawn, headed for our meeting with Jake, the Eastern Slope Warlord, and his lieutenants. With any luck, we could agree on how to structure a strike force that would take the fight to the Pug-bears.
The End