“Does he really? Could he be fooling you?”
Considered this. Wasn’t the first time I had, after all. “No. He’s sincere. The Powers That Be that allow him access to me are on our side. I rarely get visitations from our true enemies. I mean, it’s happened, but nothing like with Mephistopheles. After all this time, I’m willing to take him at his word, because, frankly, every time he’s visited me in my dreams, he’s helped me, always greatly.”
Wruck nodded. “That’s fine. I just wanted to be sure you were sure. In that case, the answer to your question of why he’d want to stop his mother was already given to you by him—he has the perspective of true death and the realization that he will watch until it all ends or he figures out how to help you fix it. He’s trying to help you fix it.”
“Me over his mother? He didn’t make it sound like he hated the person he was talking about. He was warning me about them, but it wasn’t with distaste.”
“You can love someone who you realize is evil or wrong, you know,” Wruck said gently. “If Jamie did something terrible, you would still love her because she’s your daughter.”
“True enough, and I sincerely hope that wasn’t you giving me a warning or some creepy foreshadowing.”
He laughed. “No. She’s a wonderful little girl and I sense no evil in her. ACE is a help in that way, of course. I used her merely as an example.”
“Okey dokey. So, let’s say it’s Mama Mephs in there. She’s been the queen mother to the most powerful Superior there was. Maybe she agreed with his decision to destroy their sun. Maybe he tried to send her into it to do what she’s doing with this sun only it didn’t work. Maybe he sent her into their sun because she’d disagreed with him. But she’s been in space for hundreds of years and, instead of landing in a mammal—and I want to point out that she was near an entire ship full of them when the neutron wave hit the Eknara—she went for a sun. So, the next question is—how did she manage to get inside it without being incinerated?”
“I have no idea. But I believe another question is just as important. How is she able to speak to and influence every living native on these planets? She’s turned people who should be terrified of what they can see happening to their sun into docile sheep.”
“Did the Superiors have the same tele-talents that the A-Cs have?”
“No. The A-Cs are particularly strong in those, just as those you’ve told us about on Beta Eight who are far stronger in tele-talents than the norm out there. There are many races with tele-talents, but statistically they’re a minute percentage of the whole of the known galactic worlds.”
“Does that mean you don’t think that Mama Mephs is telepathic?”
“No, it means that we don’t know where her telepathy would come from. Perhaps she was just lucky.”
“So, she was like Ronald Yates, a sport—someone who deviated or varied abruptly from type.”
“Possibly. Or she’s had time to learn somehow while sailing through the galaxy.”
“And she just somehow hits a star? Should I be worrying about coinkydinks?”
Wruck shook his head. “The space between galactic bodies is vast. That so many Superiors have managed to reach planets is amazing. And I know you feel that Mephistopheles was calling to them once he joined with Ronald Yates, but even so, it’s amazing.”
Jerked. “Wait. You just said it. Mephs was calling them. I mean, we’ve always assumed that’s what it was. Frankly, we thought it was Yates doing it, but he was never really as in control of the pairing as he’d thought. That means they have telepathy and it’s freaking strong, because Mephs was calling to his people thousands and tens of thousands of light-years away and they were able to alter their courses somehow and reach Earth.”
“How do we counter that?”
Didn’t have to think too long on this one and, for once, didn’t really need the musical cue of Tom Petty’s “A Mind With a Heart of Its Own,” though, as always, tunes were enjoyable. “We ask a wascally wabbit for help.”
CHAPTER 80
WE DECIDED THAT WE could leave the closet and do the rest of this in my rooms. We headed off at hyperspeed and joined the majority of the animals lounging around in my suite. Interestingly enough, Bellie was here, too, but MJO was presumably still in the mess hall with everyone else.
Bellie greeted me like my long-lost bestie. “Floaty! Floaty! Floaty!” She flew into my arms and started nuzzling. Yeah, say what you will about Operation Fundraiser, it had really bonded me with this bird.
Stroked her head and gave her a gentle scritchy-scratch between her wings. “Good to see you, too, Bellie. And who would like to explain to Kitty how Bellie got in here?”
Bruno birded up and shared that Bellie had been lonely and the Poofs had done her a solid and brought her over. Chose to be magnanimous and not complain about this.
Handed Bellie off to Wruck, who she proceeded to coo at. Yeah, African greys were supposed to be one-person birds, but Bellie’s viewpoint was that whoever the top man in the room was, he was hers. And so were all the other men. That she’d taken to me probably had a lot to do with her deep and abiding love for Jeff more than anything else.
Found SuperBun and gave him a snuggle, then sat with him on the couch while Wruck and Bellie took the armchair. Most of the other animals gathered ’round, too. Well, it wasn’t like they were going to tell anyone other than me what was going on, not even the rabbits, because I swore them to secrecy first. R.E.M.’s “Animal” came on, which I took to mean that Algar agreed that the animals were trustworthy and might be helpful.
Animal spit swears and pinky oaths given, it was time to get down to business. “SuperBun, we have a situation and we need your insights.” Explained the current dilemma in detail and was quite pleased that Wruck didn’t do one single thing to make me feel crazy for talking about this with a rabbit. He even added in as necessary. As confidants and brainstorming partners went, he was top-notch. “So, we think that we have a hugely powerful telepath in that sun and we’re wondering if you can scope her out in any way.”
SuperBun shared that he’d give it a shot. He closed his eyes, leaned against me, and concentrated.
Knew this could take him some time, so chatted quietly with the others while SuperBun did his Most Powerful Psychic Rabbit In The Galaxy thing and Lifehouse sang “Into the Sun” because Algar sometimes enjoyed being really obvious.
“Any ideas for what to send into the sun to get rid of the parasitic Superior superbeing and ideas for how to get whatever in there without destroying our weapon or the sun itself are absolutely welcomed at this time.”