Barbary (14 page)

“All right.” She picked Mickey up. He twisted, trying to
free himself, almost as if he knew that he would not like the next place they
went to.

“Oh, ugh!”

Everyone turned toward the exclamation.

One of the controllers, behind her console, put her hands on
her hips and glared at the floor. She reached down and came up again with
something thick and stringy pinched between her thumb and forefinger. She lifted
it above the edge of the console.

The skinny tail widened out into the dangling brown body of
a very large rat, its bony grayish-pink paws curled up against its fur.

Oh, no, Barbary thought. Somehow Mick got into one of the
labs, and he’s killed one of the animals. He probably wrecked somebody’s
experiment.

“That’s really disgusting, Mollie,” Heather said.

“Is it dead?” Charlie asked.

“It’s still warm,” Mollie said. “But it’s very dead.” She
put it down.

“Barbary — ” Jeanne said.

“How was he supposed to know?” Barbary held Mick tighter.
“Other places we lived, he was supposed to catch rats! He’s never been in a
lab!”

Everybody in the room looked at her, hardly able to believe
that anyone would live in a place where rats ran around loose.

“But that’s not a lab rat,” Heather said.

“Of course it is,” Jeanne said.

“What else could it be?” someone else asked.

“Don’t be silly,” a third said.

Everyone sounded disgusted at the idea that it might be
anything but a lab rat.

“If it isn’t a lab rat, Heather —” Jeanne said.

“You high-tech people!” Heather said. “You guys have
probably never been anywhere near the lab. But I have, and I know what the lab
rats look like. First of all they’re white, and they have pink eyes. Also
they’re about half the size of that one. And their teeth are a lot smaller.
Actually they’re kind of cute. Which that thing isn’t.”

“That’s for sure,” Mollie said. “Excuse me, I’m going to go
wash my hands.”

“Somebody get a box to put it in,” Jeanne said. “We’ll take
it to the lab and ask if it’s from the animal room or not.”

o0o

Chang Leigh, the chief biologist, looked at Mick with
curiosity, and at the body of the rat with astonishment.

“Quite a menagerie,” she said. “What’s the story?”

“Is this one of yours?” Jeanne asked.

“Certainly not. Nor can I claim the cat, handsome fellow
though he is.” She stroked Mick, and he arched his back and purred.

“Are you sure?” Jeanne asked. “There’s no way this rat could
have escaped from the lab —”

“I was afraid you were going to say that,” Leigh said. “You
caught this creature loose in the station?”

“As far as we can tell — the cat did, I mean.”

“Jeanne, we have troubles.”

“I was afraid,” Jeanne said, “that you were going to say
that.
”

o0o

Chang Leigh took Barbary, Jeanne, Heather, and Yoshi on
a tour of the animal room, just to reassure them that the rat Mickey caught
could not have been one of the lab animals, even if one of them had gotten
loose. Heather was right, the lab rats were kind of cute. At first Mick pricked
his ears and ruffled his whiskers at the sight of so many animated toys all
together in such a convenient spot, but then he seemed to realize just how many
of them there were. He huddled in the safety of Barbary’s arms.

“Okay,” Jeanne said, gazing into a cage of small and
undeniably cute rats. “I’m convinced.”

They returned to Jeanne’s office. Barbary kept quiet, glad
to have escaped the lab without having to leave Mick locked up and surrounded
by rats. But he was tired of being carried. Barbary let him slip out of her
arms. He set out exploring.

“This means the station is infested with rats,” Jeanne said.

“That could have been the only one,” Leigh said. “But I
wouldn’t bet on it.

“But how —”

“It was inevitable,” Leigh said. “Rats always go along with
explorers, no matter how many precautions you take. They’re sneaky little
bastards. They’re perfectly capable of stowing away on a ship and getting to
shore before the people do.”

“Not on a spaceship,” Jeanne said dryly.

“Metaphorically speaking. And all it takes is one.”

“Don’t you mean two?”

“Not if the one is pregnant. Which rats frequently are.”

“So what now? Poison?”

“I’m a biologist, not an exterminator,” Leigh said. “But
poisons are seldom an effective long-term solution. The rats can evolve
immunities faster than we can invent stronger poisons. And I’d be very
uncomfortable about setting out poisons in a closed ecosystem like ours.”

Jeanne tapped her fingers on her desk.

“The quickest solution,” Leigh said, “would be to get
everybody in one place, seal it off, and let the air out of the rest of the
station.”

Jeanne groaned. “Quick, maybe, but complicated, even under
normal conditions. Right now —!” She grimaced. “Besides, it would be
terrible
public relations.”

“Then your solution’s right here.” Leigh gestured toward
Mickey who had curled up in the corner for a nap. “He won’t wipe them out, but
he’ll keep them under control. And if he catches quite a few of them, it
wouldn’t hurt to import a few more cats to keep him company. Manxes are good
hunters — though I prefer Abyssinians, myself.”

Barbary could hardly believe what she heard. She glanced at
Heather, who grinned.

“We’re going to have to tighten the shipping precautions,”
Jeanne said. “Otherwise we’re going to end up with cockroaches, too, and who
knows what. Any suggestions?”

“I’ll think about it, and let you know.”

“Thanks, Leigh.” Jeanne leaned back in her chair and smiled
at Barbary. She looked almost relaxed for the first time since Barbary had met
her.

“Well, Barbary,” she said. “It looks like Mickey has made up
his own excuse to stay on.”

o0o

Yoshi remained silent all the way to their apartment.
By the time they got home, Barbary felt like yelling, Go ahead and do whatever
it is you’re going to do to punish me!

But, of course, the times she had been punished worst had
never been in public.

Mick sensed her nervousness. He twisted, trying to free
himself. This only made her hold him more firmly, which in turn made him growl.

Inside the apartment, Barbary let Mick down. He ran across
the room, jumped over Thea’s camera contraption, and disappeared under a chair.
The contraption looked almost finished, but Thea was nowhere in sight.

“Sit down, Heather, Barbary,” Yoshi said.

They sat.

“Heather, I assume you knew about Mickey from the
beginning.”

“Sure I did,” Heather said.

“No, she didn’t!” Barbary said.

“Barbary!” Heather exclaimed. “I told you I’d rather get in
trouble than have you try to convince people I’m so dumb that —”

“Okay, okay,” Barbary said.

“At least now I understand a lot of what’s been going on
since you arrived,” Yoshi said to Barbary. “And why you were so upset at not
having your own room.”

“Yeah,” Barbary said, feeling more and more glum.

Yoshi sat back in his chair, thoughtfully rubbing one finger
across his mustache. It made a soft, bristly sound.

“Have you ever read a book called
Catch-22
?” he
asked.

“No.”

“The main character is in the military, and he does
something that he shouldn’t do, but it turns out well. So his bosses have to
decide whether to court-martial him and send him to jail, or give him a medal.
Does that sound familiar?”

“I guess,” Barbary said. “You have to decide between hitting
me or not.”

“Hitting you!” Yoshi sounded both shocked and appalled.
“Hitting doesn’t even come into it! No, I was trying to decide whether to send
both of you to bed without any dinner... or whether to fall off my chair
laughing. All in all, I think laughing is the best solution.” He grinned.
“Getting your cat on board was a good trick. It reminds me — !” He stopped.
“Never mind. For now —”

Just then, Thea padded in from Yoshi’s room, rubbing her
eyes, her hair tousled.

“Good morning,” she said. “Or whatever it is. Anything
happen while I was asleep?”

Barbary couldn’t help it. She started to laugh. Soon Heather
and Yoshi joined in. Trying to talk and laugh at the same time, they managed to
explain to Thea, and after a moment she was laughing, too

That night, Barbary lay in bed. Mick purred beside her. She
felt peaceful and happy for the first time since she had arrived on the
station.

“Barbary?” Heather said.

“I thought you were asleep,” Barbary whispered.

“Uh-uh. I feel kind of tired, but I don’t feel like going to
sleep.”

“Are you sure —” She stopped. Heather would just get annoyed
if Barbary asked if she were all right. “Yeah,” she said. “It’s hard to go to
sleep after everything that’s happened.”

“I think we ought to tell Jeanne about the open panel.”

“If we do, we’ll have to tell her we were down there.”

“Yeah. But, after all — nobody ever told me I couldn’t, and
it isn’t dangerous, so there’s no reason why I shouldn’t, and besides, if
there’s sloppy stuff like that anywhere else on the station, we all ought to
look for it, because it could be dangerous.”

“If you think we ought to tell
her, then I guess we ought to tell her.”

“It’s probably lucky for all of us that you brought Mickey,”
Heather said. “Maybe you saved all our lives.”

Within a few minutes she was breathing slowly and regularly
in the way Barbary had already learned meant she was sound asleep.

o0o

Barbary woke early. Burrowed under her covers, Heather
slept. Now that Barbary did not have to worry about Mick’s whereabouts every
minute, he was, of course, purring right next to her. She petted him and
tickled his belly, and he play-fought with her hand.

“Today you get to go to work,” she whispered. “You get to go
hunting, and if you catch anything they’ll keep on liking you. Don’t catch all
the rats, though, or they won’t need us anymore.”

Bored with playing, he jumped, bounced from the bunk to the
desk to the floor, and stopped to lick his paw.

“Got dirty, huh?” she said, and grinned.

She went to take a shower. In half gravity, the big droplets
drifted and spread across her skin. She dressed and padded barefoot into the
living room. Heather was curled up on the couch next to Mick.

“Good morning,” she said. “I called Jeanne’s office and we
have an appointment with her at eight.”

The door of Yoshi’s room was closed. Thea’s contraption lay
on the floor with a plastic cover thrown over it.

“It looks finished,” Heather said. “She must have put the
lenses in. The plastic’s to keep it all clean.”

“Here’s something you ought to know about cats and keeping
stuff clean,” Barbary said. “Cats shed.”

“Well, I know, and he pisses too, but not on the floor —”

“No,
shed.
His hair falls out and grows back in
again. You’re always finding cat hair around. We’ll have to vacuum, or whatever
you do, more often.”

Heather looked at Mick with a curious, doubtful expression.

“It’s not that bad,” Barbary said. “And I brush him, so that
helps.”

“I don’t mind,” Heather said. “Only I can’t imagine what
he’ll look like without any hair.”

“He doesn’t lose all his hair!” Barbary said, trying not to
laugh. “Just a little at a time. You can’t even tell, except between winter and
spring. Then he goes from having heavy fur to less fur. I don’t know what he’ll
do here where there isn’t any winter or spring.”

“I’m glad he doesn’t lose all his fur,” Heather said. “It’s
awfully pretty.”

They went for breakfast. Mick followed, delighted to be let
out of their room. He bounded sideways like a kitten, slid to a stop, and
scampered past them going the other direction. Barbary smiled to see him having
so much fun, but the problem with letting him free was that she still worried
where he would go and what might happen to him. He might end up in the elevator
shaft. She could screw the panel on the shield level into place, but she had no
idea how Mick had gotten out of the shaft and into the control center.
Somewhere there had to be another hole, or loose panel, or something. She was
glad they were going to tell Jeanne about the opening.

Everyone in the cafeteria noticed their arrival. Barbary had
been novelty enough, but Mick was a wonder. Most of the people on the station
had been here several years. Several said the same thing as the technician in
the control center: “I don’t miss much about earth, but I do miss having a pet.”
Barbary began to wonder why no one before her had smuggled one on board.

She and Heather ate toast and fruit while the adults fussed
over Mick and brought him milk and bits of fish and generally fawned over him.
He took it all as if he had been waiting for everyone to notice that he was
completely exceptional. Barbary kept an eye on him, half expecting him to stop
lapping his milk and spit and claw at one of the people stroking him.

“I don’t get it,” she said to Heather. “Back on earth he’d
hardly let anybody but me get close enough to touch him. And if they did, he
bit them.”

“I don’t think you need to warn people about him anymore,”
Heather said. “He could get away if he wanted. I think he likes the attention.
Maybe he likes being in space so much he’s just calmed down. Or maybe…”

“What?”

“Maybe he knows practically everybody likes him here. Did
they, back on earth?”

“No,” Barbary said. “Not at all. Mostly they thought he was
a nuisance and I ought to get rid of him.”

“There, see? Nobody thinks that up here. Even if somebody
doesn’t like cats, they’d probably rather put up with Mick than have a bunch of
rodents running around loose.”

“I guess you’re right.”