Animalis (6 page)

Chapter 5

Fox

The fox’s ears perked up as it looked at the small group.

“Are these them? Boys? Oh, they stink, Hurley. Hi, hello. Where are you from?” it said to Jax. “Idaho?” It sniffed the air. “Oh, a rat! Who was the rat you were with?”

Jax glanced over the fox. Orange fur, small black eyes above a slender snout, two tall triangular ears standing high on top of its head, a patch of white that extended from its chin down into its shirt, and a two-foot-long puff of tail coming out from behind it. The corners of its mouth were pulled up and its lips were slacked.

“The captain arranged this?” Jax asked Hank, waiting at the bottom of the staircase.

Hank shook his head. “This is a surprise.”

Grimshaw walked back down the stairs and opened the animal cage. “Sorry if Hodge makes you nervous,” she said. “Jax, Hank, this is Hodge. Hodge, Hank and Jax. And Moxie, and, oh what is your name?” Grimshaw jingled her wrist in front of Little Hank as it poked its nose out of the cage.

“An Animalis?” Jax said. “You mean, this is your copilot?”

“You own him?” Hank asked.

“Can I get you anything?” Hodge started to wave their guests into the plane. “Water? Food? Lay down before the jump?”

“These two little guys could use a bite to eat,” Grimshaw said as she walked back up the stairs. Little Hank crept out and followed her. “Let’s get our departure request sent in as well,” she said to Hodge. Then she answered Hank’s question: “Neither of us own each other. Lifelong friends.”

Grimshaw walked inside with Moxie and Little Hank following her.

Jax started to follow them up the staircase. What made Jax uneasy about getting on the plane wasn’t fear that the fox was a militant Animalis—for now Hodge was helping humanity’s side—it was that Jax didn’t know how to treat it. It had to be well trained to handle flight plans, but should Jax expect it to wait on him? Or, as Grimshaw’s “friend,” would it have the tenacity to invade Jax’s personal space, sniff him, or whatever Animalis did in social situations?

It isn’t any of that,
Jax realized.
I just don’t want it to upset Hank. I wonder if it will affect him.

Hank was the last to enter, and from the look on his face, it seemed nothing could have spoiled his first time inside an Atticus more than sharing it with an Animalis.

Hodge bent down and sniffed Moxie. Moxie sniffed him back. Little Hank joined in, and the three of them circled for a moment.

“You’re some strange fellows. Been around that same rat. Mm, healthy, aren’t you?” Hodge said between sniffs. “Nice to meet you, yes, nice to meet you.” With his snout close to Moxie, she stretched out and started licking his nose. Hodge straightened up and left down the hall to get them food. He kept talking to them as they followed him. “You’ll like this. Oh, you’ll like this. My favorite.”

Grimshaw’s hand softly rested on Jax’s back. His muscles tensed and he moved forward out of her reach.

“Just closing up the hatch. Thank you, Jax,” she said.

Her flip-flops landed in a small hamper by the door, and she stepped on a lever that sent the stairway beeping, driving itself back to one of the airport’s garages. Once she had pulled the door shut, she stepped past them and went to the right, where the hall opened into a kind of open living space.

Grimshaw’s jumper looked plush. The wall screens ran video of rolling hills of wheat, a gentle breeze sending waves across them. Currents of warm air flowed through the cabin to match the wind in the video. With only a short hall and an eleven-square-foot room in front of him, Jax felt like he was walking into an endless expanse of nature.

The floor was covered in a white, haptic surface that had a menu hovering above it in Jax’s retina monitor. He had noticed that when Grimshaw stepped on the flooring, the surface pillowed up just under her step, and then looked like a marshmallow trail as she walked by. When Hodge stepped, a geometric, textured pattern bumped up under his feet.

“Well, he’s fun,” Hank said, hiding his sarcasm with what sounded like a sincere compliment toward Hodge. “Miss Grimshaw, would you mind if I used one of your cabins? There’s another mystery to this mission that I’d like to start unraveling.”

“He is fun. Sometimes more fun than I feel like I can handle. It’s so nice to have some new company for a jump,” Grimshaw said, smiling. She tapped on the wall screen next to her and manipulated a few menus. “Hank, this plane is at your disposal. Here, key in a password and you can lock up this cabin for as long as you need.”

A password dialogue box popped up, and Hank typed in a quick password.

“Don’t be too generous,” he said. “If you offer for me to take this bucket off your hands, I might just accept.”

Before Hank left, Grimshaw held his shoulder. “Now, Jesus asked me to transport the two of you as a favor, but I don’t want to be involved with whatever you are doing once we land. I’m just making sure that’s clear.” She looked at Hank, then at Jax, and let go of Hank’s shoulder. “A lot has changed since the last time I worked with the military, and I don’t think Jesus has ever acknowledged that.”

Hank nodded. “Absolutely. Thank you again for your help.”

She tapped on the cabin door to open it. Jax noticed her smile revealed a dimple in her right cheek. “Beyond that, I want you to feel like you can ask me for anything. If you need us, we are at your disposal.”

Hank thanked her again and closed himself up in the private cabin.

“He seems like a smart kid,” Grimshaw said. Then she whispered to herself, “Why on Earth is he in the military?” She tapped another series of menus on the wall again. Two padded benches extended from the wall. “Jax, have you been around many Animalis?” She sat on one with her bare feet tucked under herself.

“I haven’t. No.”

Jax stood where he was and held his hands behind his back. Hank was gone and Jax was left alone with this girl. Of course he wasn’t uncomfortable, and it wasn’t like he could be attracted to her, not with her being more than five years his senior. He wanted to just act normal, but somehow normal was a far off concept now. Even standing still at the entryway was unnatural.

He glanced at the floor and brought up the list of feedback options:

Carpet, Play Mat, Grass, Water Puddle, Stone, Wood, Therapeutic Insole, Memory Foam Pillow …

“I remember hearing all sorts of stories about them when I was growing up. They really are amazing, though, aren’t they?” Grimshaw said. She pulled her hair tie out and let her mass of red curls fall loose around her head. The hair band was added to her army of bracelets. “Each one is just so unique. Sometimes I wish I could get to know them all.”

Jax gave a little nod, calculating how often to look up at her in a normal way. He didn’t want to give the impression that he was just looking at her. And he still needed to figure out what flooring he wanted; that was important. The menu still floated where it was above the floor, waiting for him to make a selection. He had usually used the Play Mat texture while growing up—he liked feeling like he could rough-house at any moment—but decided to try the Water Puddle.

He looked up again and saw her patiently sitting there. Her green eyes were watching him. Why was she staring at him? Was he doing something wrong?
Oh, she’s waiting for me to respond,
he realized.

“They are—” he started to say. But what was he about to say, that the Animalis were amazing? “What about the rabid ones?” he said instead. “The militants? They aren’t pets.” Jax unconsciously glanced where Hodge had gone. “They aren’t human.”

“No …” she said. She leaned forward and her voice became enthusiastic. “No, but that’s it, isn’t it? They really are completely alien. And that’s where most people get it all wrong. You can’t think of them like a human, and you can’t assume that they’re mindless, either. Every species has unique ways that they see the world. It’s almost cultural, but the differences are more alien. If they had come from another planet, what would you think of them then?”

Jax walked to the hatch to drop his boots into the shoe hamper. Her excitement for the Animalis was contagious and he found himself willing to delve into the conversation more. His mind’s eye filled itself with images of planets populated by horse Animalis, and dog Animalis, all packed side by side.
Hmm …
He did feel better having them off in other galaxies, leaving the Earth clean and peaceful.

“I’m serious,” she said. “What would people think if the Animalis were from another planet entirely? Or, not just one planet, but a whole galaxy of planets?”

“Well …” Jax walked back to the living room, the material of the floor tickling his toes with chilled ripples. “I guess I’d be mad that they decided to invade Earth. Though, I might be a little more interested in them, wanting to know more about where they came from and why they would come to Earth—maybe disappointed that aliens weren’t more enlightened and benevolent.” He hesitated before sitting down on the bench across from Grimshaw. He couldn’t sit directly facing her, as if giving her all of his attention. But it would be rude to sit turned to the side and give the impression that he didn’t want to talk at all. So he sat on the corner, halfway between Grimshaw and the cabin Hank had gone into. “Sadly, they’re not aliens. They’re mutated animals. Someone created them.”

Grimshaw turned and watched the waves of wheat and spoke solemnly to herself: “And even if they were aliens, why would that make them worth anything more to people?”

With her head turned away, her silhouette became pronounced. One of the thick curls of hair came down over the smooth curve of her forehead and eyebrows. The line of her face continued down her nose. Her lips were slender and smoothly transitioned with a gentle slope down to her confident and modest chin.

She turned back to look at Jax. “You’re right. If someone thought they could control them, they would. Even animals have feelings and thoughts, and that doesn’t make a difference.”

She thought for a moment, and a smile came back to her face. “The unknown terrifies a lot of people. Whether it’s a new culture, or a new species. It takes a lot of effort to learn a new language, or new customs, but it’s absolutely worth it. I think I might love Hodge more than I’ve loved any human. Once I put in the effort to understand him, that’s when I could see him for what he was.”

“Jump has been scheduled,” Hodge’s voice came through the speakers. “We will start taxiing in just a few moments. Arrival in Port Hedland will be in two hours, ten minutes. Local time will be 6:27 a.m.”

Jax leaned against the wall and let his feet pat against the watery surface of the floor.

“You like the feeling of water?” Grimshaw asked, noticing the ripples.

Jax pulled his feet up. “No, not usually.”

——

“You’re not going to like the harness for launch, are you, Moxie? No, I wanted to tear it up my first time in it,” Hodge was saying to Moxie. “But I learned, yes, much better to be safe in the harness than to be thrown around during takeoff.”

Moxie, Hodge, and Little Hank had come back to the main cabin area once they had eaten. Grimshaw was stroking Little Hank, who had curled up on her lap. She lifted her head a moment after hearing Hodge speak.

“I almost forgot about that!” Grimshaw said. “These two won’t fit in any of our harnesses, Hodge. Oh, they are not going to like takeoff one bit. Are you?” She shook her bracelets at Little Hank and it batted at them with its little claws.

“That’s right,” Jax said. “I’ll get them back in their cage, and strap the cage in where you keep other supplies?”

“A cage?” Grimshaw sounded offended. “Don’t worry …” She stroked Little Hank’s fur. “… we won’t put you in a cage.”

“Or sedate them?” Jax tried again. Really, how else would they be able to get the two things to stay calm?

“A sedative?” Grimshaw said. “We do have a compounding machine for emergencies, but I don’t think this qualifies just yet. We have a 3-D printer, Jax. I’m sure there is something we can download that would be perfect. And perfectly comfortable.” She winked at Jax.

What was that supposed to mean?

Hodge pulled up a search on the wall screen near them. Harnesses came up, different designs, a globe or sphere of some kind, small plastic cages, leashes.

“I’ve seen that!” Grimshaw said. She pulled over the window and expanded the globe. “This was in
Animalis and Friends Magazine
a couple of times. It’s like a big hamster ball with wall screens inside to make it feel like it’s even bigger. Oh, you guys will like this. Not as much as being scratched on my lap, though. Right, Moxie?”

Moxie bounded past, ignoring her.

“But the coolest part is that once we start to hit zero gravity, it has a powerful gyroscope that creates centrifugal gravity inside the ball for them.” Grimshaw was already downloading the printer plans.

“Lots of assembly,” Hodge said. He growled a little. “I’ll put it together.”

“Yes, you are so good at that, Hodge. Thank you so much.” She said it almost reluctantly, it seemed to Jax.

It took about five minutes for the globe parts to be printed out. Jax stayed back, watching Hodge tinker with the parts. Grimshaw tried to lend a hand, but Hodge growled her away.