Page 55 of Pets in Space 10

She’d always had what her mother called willful stubbornness and what her ex-lover had derided as a savior complex.

It didn’t matter. She’d never been able to let the important things slide if she could do something about them.

Her kinder, more understanding friends said she had a crusader’s soul, and she’d learned to choose her battles.

Most of the time. Which is why she owed Gaerynx an apology.

He was an experienced and capable person, and hadn’t asked her to take up the proverbial lance for him.

After finishing the final, closing move in her sequence, she sat on the bed and considered her career.

Filing the request to review the reorganization decision and her demotion would keep the door open at RyoGenomica, but was that really what she wanted?

She’d left the nonprofit world because she was tired of struggling against the tides of indifference.

She’d had three years of relative peace.

Was she now inventing this fight because she felt lost without a cause? She didn’t know the answer to that.

With nothing better to do, she decided to unpack, talking to Merix in a low, soothing murmur as she arranged what she was afraid was too few clothes and too many toiletries.

She hadn’t taken a trip longer than overnight in years.

The one-sided conversation with her cat was as much for her own benefit as his.

The ventilation system’s low but noticeable pulsing hum should have been a welcome change from the chaos of the last few hours, but it somehow felt oppressive.

She shook the wrinkles out of the loose tunic that could pass for business or casual. “What do you think, Merix? Despite what Iovanna said, I’m not sure purple is my—”

An insistent chime from the stateroom door startled her.

She palmed the door control, then regretted it when she saw Dhalshun and his empty-eyed coworker standing in the corridor.

Their faintly suspicious expressions reminded her uncomfortably of the guards who had escorted Tikka from the RyoGenomica campus.

“Security Leader Rishi has arranged for you and Triplo to be moved to the deluxe staterooms on Deck Five,” Dhalshun announced, his voice flat.

He held up a wound-sealed hand to forestall any argument.

“She wishes to make Vice President Sainik’s special guests and their pets as comfortable as possible. ”

Even though there were probably hidden strings attached, she didn’t see a reasonable way of rejecting the gift. Amalena gave him a tight, polite smile. “How thoughtful.”

Though it apparently pained him, Dhalsun added, “Toldt and me are s’posed to help carry your luggage.” His expression turned belligerent. “Not going near the animals.”

When Toldt walked down the hall, but Dhalshun stood still, she decided she might as well leave the door open. She gathered Merix’s supplies, then hastily collected her belongings from the bed, desk, and fresher and stuffed them in her duffel bag.

She stepped out to hand her duffel bag to Dhalshun.

Gaerynx, who had emerged from his own room, handed his bag to Toldt and guided Pavrel’s carrier closer to Amalena so she could put Merix’s smaller carrier on top.

The disgruntled security team led them south to a different lift, this one roomy and plushly carpeted and upholstered.

On Deck Five, a short hallway turned right — south, she supposed — and ended at two stateroom doors set side by side.

Outside panels labeled them as Luxe 1 and Luxe 2.

Amalena selected the first room and carried Merix inside.

The new room was a pleasant surprise. It was easily twice the size of the lower deck staterooms, with a bench seating area, a larger desk and matching mobile chair, and a wide viewport styled as a window.

Architectural details included narrow bronze ribs that met in the center of the ceiling at a wide, circular lighting disc.

The generous platform bed had a puffy cover and an abundance of pillows.

After Dhalshun dropped her bag on the floor with a grunt and departed, Amalena sealed the door, then set Merix’s carrier in a corner and unsealed its soft net door.

The air was chilly enough that she kept her jacket on as she went to the wallcomp, accessed the environmental controls, and moved the temperature up a few degrees.

She set up food, water, and litter box again for her cat. “Come out when you’re ready, buddy.”

The closed door near the foot of the bed turned out to be a large closet.

“I guess special guests need luxe closets,” she told Merix, who was feeling brave enough to poke his head out of the carrier.

The farther door revealed a full-featured fresher in gleaming white and bronze.

“Very fancy. Even has an enclosed solardry if we don’t like towels. See what you think, Merix.”

She set her duffel bag on a padded bench apparently intended for much larger luggage. “Can’t say I’m enjoying this beige-on-beige decor, though.” She pulled out the purple tunic. “The joyhouse vibe in the Deck Four hallway at least has character.”

The larger space and her silly commentary seemed to put Merix at ease. He slinked out of his carrier, tail low, and began a cautious exploration. He sniffed at the leg of the mobile chair, then issued two short, questioning meows and did a little two-step with his front paws.

“What did you find?” Amalena asked, walking over.

It was their game, one that had started the first week she’d found him, injured and thirsty, in her townhouse’s minuscule backyard.

He’d revealed himself as a cat who noticed things.

She encouraged it by always being willing to listen and praise him for it.

Merix noticed when her kitchen dish sanitizer made the fluttery sound mid-cycle, or a construction crane stopped at the townhouse building across the street from his bay window.

She praised him for each of his alerts, but especially when they were useful, such as when the cleaning bot missed a clump of autumn leaves near the door, or when her housecomp was blinking but not chiming.

“Clever cat,” she praised, examining the chair’s axial leg, but finding nothing notable.

However, feline senses were far superior to her own.

He also pointed out a stray length of gray thread under the desk and a smudge on the bottom corner of the viewport screen.

Because the Herikkusu Dansa was an interstellar starship, the viewport was actually just a vid feed from exterior cameras, giving the illusion of a window.

At present, the unchanging view of the space station’s outer hull wasn’t very enthralling.

As she was collecting the spilled bag of toiletries from her duffel bag, Merix alerted yet again, this time at the far end of the stateroom’s desk.

“Yes, it’s a tech panel just like the one we have at home.

” Something about it wasn’t quite right.

Then she noticed the nondescript gray oval that looked like a domed overcoat button.

Her eyes widened as she realized it was an older-style audio-only monitoring device.

She wouldn’t have recognized it if it hadn’t been for a chatty contractor during the security upgrade at RyoGenomica.

The hopelessly gregarious installer kept a running commentary while adding the new audio-vid combos in her building’s hallways.

Amalena had learned more than she’d ever wanted to about the old tech, the new tech, the inadequacies of whoever had installed the original audio-only system, and the trade-offs for wired versus broadcast.

The device wasn’t quite centered, and it appeared to be attached via an adhesive pad. It was the faint whiff of the adhesive that made her suspect the device was freshly installed. That might have been what had drawn Merix’s attention.

Her inner conspiracy theorist insisted the luxe staterooms now came with extra monitoring, newly installed by the security team. Her rational brain couldn’t come up with a simpler explanation. Shit.

She straightened, then went to Gaerynx’s door and pressed the chime icon on the wall panel. At his surprised invitation to come in, she gave him a bright smile. “Nice. My room is a mirror image of yours, but beige instead of gray.”

He’d shed his boots, and his coat and vest were draped over his gear bag on the bed. His green knit shirt hugged his lean frame. Pavrel was still in his carrier, watchful but not hissing.

She stepped closer to the desk. “Have you tried the viewport? I hope we can use them for the safety briefing since the security team took our tablets.” She examined the tech panel on the desk. Sure enough, it was adorned with the same extra gray domed device.

“Er, no, not yet.”

Silently, she beckoned him over and pointed to the device, then to her ears. “I hope the security team gets them back to us soon. I want to listen to something besides the air handlers.”

She saw the moment that Gaerynx got what she was trying to tell him because his expression went from bemused to annoyed.

Channeling her friend Iovanna’s charming babbling, Amalena brightened her smile again.

“Have you seen Merix’s leash? I can’t seem to find it.

” She patted her jacket pocket. “Oh, here it is,” she said, pulling out the thin lead as if it hadn’t been there the whole time.

“I’m going for a short walk to figure out where everything is on this deck. ”

“Good idea,” Gaerynx said, straightening up. “I’ll come with you. Then I’ll know where I can take Pavrel later. Once he calms down, he’ll probably enjoy exploring.”

“Merix is a little more cautious, but I think he likes knowing where things are.” She cast a quick glance at Pavrel, hunched in his carrier. “We should probably wait to introduce them to each other. It’s been a stressful day for felines.”