The Pathfinder Project (27 page)

“Wow,” Adam said proudly. “That
looks pretty darn cool, I would have to say.”

“One of the technicians told me
you usually float an apple once in a while to let them know you’ve been by.
Have you decided that
more
is
better
, for some reason?”

“Actually, I can
explain
that…” Adam said, feeling a slight flush of embarrassment. “You see, I sort of…
well, I kind of taught the Captain’s son to do that – you know, just to impress
him a little.”

“The villain admits his crime,”
grinned Jeff. “We caught the
whole
thing on tape. The teacher from one
of the schools brought a bunch of the kids by on a field trip yesterday
afternoon,” he said, unable to stop himself from chuckling. “The minute they
passed through the apple grove
this
happened.”

He switched the monitor’s image
again and Adam watched a bunch of giggling kids first pick and then throw a
series of apples as high as they could. Some of them came back down and landed
in the general area but most of them stuck in the gravity void. The teacher
protested futilely through the whole thing and Adam laughed out loud, watching
the expression on her face as she looked upward and saw the floating fruit for
herself. A look of determination crossed her face and she finally got everyone
settled down and moving forward again.

“I’ll be careful what I teach
the kid from now on,” Adam said sheepishly, holding up his hands. “You’ve got
to admit, it
is
pretty funny!” He held up the tool kit that he had
brought with him. “The Captain sent me up here to help you beef up the
filtering systems, at least temporarily.”

“There’s a maintenance team
waiting back out into the corridor and off to the left,” Jeff said. “They’ve
already been throwing around some ideas, but wanted to wait until they could
discuss with you what is possible without putting unnecessary strain on the
equipment.”

“I’m on my way,” Adam said,
heading back the way he had come. He stopped abruptly and turned back to
Mathison. “Speaking of the Captain’s son,” he said, suddenly getting an idea.
“I’d like to bring him back up here once we’re finished so he can help me with
another project I’m working on. I know you’re under quarantine and everything
but you have to send suited technicians into the wings anyway for maintenance
on the equipment inside, so my idea shouldn’t be a major problem.”

“What do you have in mind?”
Jeff asked, his curiosity obvious.

Adam smiled and promptly
told him.

Thomas had decided to watch the
Pathfinder
’s latest transit from the observation windows in one of the
restaurants on deck one. Although the CAS transits between far away points were
virtually instantaneous, this one had been worth making the trip for. Despite
the fact that there was an unknown biological agent on board, the Captain had
discussed the situation with the ship’s medical teams. No one had seen any need
to retrace their steps just yet… they had plenty of samples of the mysterious
bacterial agent and were already working hard to find a cure.

Thus Dr. Markham got her way
again and – minutes ago – the ship had moved in close to one of the smaller
galaxies they had charted over the past few days. It was really quite
impressive to be sitting next to one of the large windows and its view of the
dark exterior void, then suddenly see the PTP flash and – pow – just like that
a window full of stars again. They were too close for him to distinguish any of
the galaxy’s unique details… he couldn’t see spiral arms or anything like that.
But it was very impressive just the same.

Afterwards he wandered slowly
back through the corridor in the general direction of his quarters, sipping the
leftover iced coffee in his cup through a straw. He noted that the people on
duty were flashing quickly by on the moving sidewalks, while off duty civilians
like him took their time and were walking about normally on the edges of the
corridor. He hadn’t yet chosen to stop by one of the exercise rooms aboard
ship, mainly because so far he was having a lot of fun just spending so much
quiet time alone.

He reached the door to his
quarters and slid his card key into the entrance slot. The door quietly opened
and Thomas entered, moving directly into the kitchen and dumping the leftover
ice from his cup into the sink. He headed into the living room and sat down in
his easy chair, reaching to his left until he found the light switch. The room
lit up brightly and he found himself staring at a tiny black kitten with white
spots on its chest and tummy. The kitten just sat there in the middle of his floor
for a moment with its bright yellow eyes and looked right back up at him.

“
Mew, mew, mew
…” it
said, rolling cutely on its side. It stretched, reaching out with its front
paws, then pulled one paw quickly back and began licking it scrupulously.

“Well hello,” Thomas said
cheerfully, rising to his feet and reaching out a finger. “Where did you come
from, little fellow?” he asked. The kitten responded by swatting playfully at
his finger and he quickly pulled it back hoping no blood had been drawn. “Talk
about sharp little kitty claws…” he said, putting the finger in his mouth and
sucking on it. It was right about then that he heard the little boy giggling
from behind the room’s other recliner.

“What are you up to, Joseph
Kaufield?” he asked. The boy stood up, still laughing and he was astonished to
see Adam hiding behind the chair with him. “Oh, I see…” he said smugly. “This
is a two-person operation.”

“That’s right,” Joseph said
proudly. “This is your new cat George. We brought a litter box, some food, and
all the other stuff you’re going to need.”

“George, huh?” grinned Thomas.
“You named him after…”

“We just decided to call him
George. You get to keep him and hug him. And you’ll love it… he’s really cool.”

“Be sure and keep fresh water
out for him at all times,” Adam suggested. “The vet we got him from said cats
absolutely
love
drinking fresh water. They’re very finicky if it sits
out too long.”

“They need water because they
lick
themselves so much,” giggled Joseph.

Thomas couldn’t help himself.
He picked the little kitten up and held it gently, looking into its yellow
eyes. The baby cat began purring and rubbing its chin against his hand, then
began licking him with its sand-papery tongue. “Hello George, how are you?” he
said, reaching around with his other hand to scratch the kitten behind its
ears. It purred more quickly and pushed its head into his hand, prompting him
to continue the scratching. Thomas suddenly got a puzzled look on his face and
glanced at his brother. “How did you swing this with the environmental people?”
he asked. “From what I’ve heard, there’s an unknown bacteria floating around.”

“That’s exactly
why
we
want people to
start
keeping pets in the passenger areas on the ship,”
said Adam. “Anything
really
dangerous that spreads into the civilian
quarters should normally affect the animals first.” He grinned at his brother.
“The added bonus, we decided, is that lots of the people who are living alone –
primarily
you
, for instance – need a friend for company.”

“You
can’t
have a dog,
though…” said Joseph disappointedly. “If you want to see the dogs, you have to
go to the Livestock wing and play with them there.”

“Dogs would have to be pretty
well trained to live in the passenger section,” Thomas mused. He held the
little kitten close to his body and it curled up in his arm, purring away.
“Thanks very much, you guys!”

“Have you experienced any of
the hallucinations yet?” Adam asked curiously.

“No, oddly enough,” said
Thomas. “For the past couple of weeks I was having all kinds of whacko visions,
but ever since they put me on my new prescription there’s been absolutely
nothing. It’s kind of disappointing, actually. I heard that some of the
passengers have been taking some pretty memorable trips.”

“I saw Mom and Dad last night
right before I fell asleep,” commented Adam idly. “Dr. Simmons thinks that the
bacteria affects and enhances the subconscious area of our brains, so when
we’re at rest and not keeping mentally active the hallucinations begin to assert
themselves.” He reached out a finger and gently stroked the purring kitten
sitting in the crook of his brother’s arm. “That’s very good from the Captain’s
human resource perspective. We’ve had very few incidents reported from people
on duty, since they’re naturally pretty focused on their work.”

“Did Mom and Dad have anything
important to say?” Thomas asked.

“Yeah, they told me to
take
good care of you
,” grinned Adam. “How about
those
apples?” He
watched Joseph twitch at the mention of the word ‘apples’ with more than a
little satisfaction.

“Where did the bacteria come
from?” wondered Joseph. He might be only twelve years old, but the kid knew
when to try his best to quickly change the subject.

“We don’t know. Your Dad
doesn’t want to say anything officially yet. But the word around the ship is
that we caught an undercover agent working for the Brotherhood. There were
marines searching
every
cabin on deck four this morning.”

“Whoa,” replied Thomas. “That
must have been upsetting to some of the folks.” He invited his unexpected pair
of guests to sit down while he lay down on his couch. He settled back
comfortably and carefully set George on his chest. The little kitten
immediately began poking him with its front paws until it found a comfortable
spot, then curled up and went right to sleep.

“You have to
stay
there
now until George wakes up,” Joseph said, pointing. “You
can’t
get up and
disturb the kitty – it’s a
Pathfinder
rule!”

“Really,” Thomas said, looking
at the curled up ball of fur sleeping on top of him. “What if I have to use the
restroom or something?”

“Too bad so sad,” Joseph
replied, shaking his head back and forth repeatedly. “The kitten needs his
sleep.”

They visited for a while
longer, with Adam and Joseph pointing to and explaining the use of the various
pieces of cat gear they had brought with them. Most of the items were toys of
one sort or another, but there was also a small book on feline care and behavior
that had been donated by one of the veterinarians. Eventually Adam decided it
was time to take the Captain’s son home and they left, but he promised to
return again the next day as usual to see how his brother was getting along.

“Thank you very much, guys,”
Thomas said softly to himself as they left. He watched the door to his quarters
slide shut and then put his right hand on top of the sleeping kitten. It
snuggled up against his palm, opened its eyes, yawned widely and began
stretching out its paws. Thomas carefully watched the splayed claws catch and
pull on the fabric of his shirt and commented, “Those
front
claws are
coming out as soon as you’re six weeks old, little friend. I’ve only got so
much blood to give.”

*    
* * *     *

Karen was staring at an image
of the strange new bacteria on her computer screen when Kaufield joined her. He
had just finished his duty shift for the evening and sat down next to her,
folded his hands and lowered his chin onto them.

“How are things coming, Doc?”
he asked.

“We lucked out, Captain sir,”
she replied. “The planetoid this came from had a minimal atmosphere – I checked
with the shuttle crew. There wasn’t a lot of oxygen and nitrogen around but
enough was present for these little beasties to survive.”

“How big of a threat are we
looking at?”

“Fortunately for us, not much
of one.” She switched the computer to standby mode and swiveled in her seat to
face him. “Jeff’s botany team can’t even tell it’s here without us showing them
what to look for – most of the animals and all of the plant life are almost
totally unaffected. Except for the mammals, of course…”

“Ahh,” Kaufield responded
carefully. “Anything with higher brain functions and a subconscious capable of
producing dream activity is vulnerable.”

“That’s right,” Dr. Simmons
confirmed. “And anything with the ability to dream normally has a reasonably
developed immune system.” She smiled at him, overwhelmed with relief. “It’s
like catching a cold that makes you hallucinate. Instead of a stuffed up nose,
you get to see all of the people and things your subconscious chooses.”

“Colds have a habit of…
recurring from time to time,” Kaufield pointed out. “Ongoing, unpredictable
hallucinations among the crew would be
bad
, Doctor.”

“I can help you there, too,”
said Karen confidently. “Including Thomas Roh I’ve treated a total of ten
members of the crew for stress-related issues over the past couple of weeks.
Seven of them are taking an anti-depressant that contains a new, experimental
chemical we call Mirzion and not one of them has had any hallucinations even
though the bacteria
is
present in their systems.”

“So you’ve got a cure already,”
Dennis grinned.

“Not a cure,” she corrected,
“But a chemical that appears to nullify the hallucination symptoms anyway. We
can administer it to everyone right away and then give them a booster every ten
years by including it with their tetanus shot.”

“I’ll take that solution,”
Kaufield decided, standing up. “I hope the folks in the Lab wing can
manufacture this ‘Mirzion’ of yours as a stand-alone chemical without the
anti-depressant.” He chuckled under his breath.

Karen smirked. “What’s the
matter, Captain?” she asked playfully. “Don’t you want a happy, laughing crew?”

“Not
that
happy,”
grinned Kaufield. “So I take it this whatever-you-call-it is already part of
the ship’s bio-system?”