“Oh, there is an enemy. Only it is not your enemy. This enemy has no hatred for you, or for any life in this galaxy. This enemy has a job to do, however, and plans to do it, in any way necessary. Sadly, the current way is to create galaxy-ending havoc and see what happens.”
He didn’t have to say more. I knew what was going on now. But it would help to be sure. “If I played the Counting Crows’ version of “Friend of the Devil,” would that fit this situation?” The song was about an outlaw on the run and how the Devil was always double-crossing him, originally written by The Grateful Dead. There were a lot of versions of it, but the Crows’ was my favorite.
Mephs laughed. “Yes. My time is almost up. Is there anything else you wish to know?”
“How do we get back to where Wheatles Kreaving and his ship are? There’s a solar system in danger of exploding and we need to help them. Our AI is being affected by whichever Powers That Be are currently having fun with us, and I can’t let all those people die without trying to save them. They don’t have a crazy leader—they were all just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I cannot tell you how to get back there, and I’m sure you can guess why.”
Sighed. “Because it’s your fault and so you have to be more obscure.”
“Yes. However, I can tell you this—what went into their sun is a living thing. You must destroy that living thing in order to save the sun and, therefore, the solar system and all the life within it.”
“And the galaxy, right? I just have to figure that if this system goes, we’re back to chain reaction time.”
“Of course,” Mephs said, as if this was obvious which, for my life, it was. “Just remember—every leader, good or bad, has those working closely with him or her, and some of those can be even better than that leader. Or worse.”
“Um . . . you mean like Jeff? Or Hitler? Or both?”
“You’ll figure it out—I have faith in you. Remember that, too. Even when you have lost faith in yourself, I will always have faith in you.” Then he kissed the top of my head and disappeared.
CHAPTER 52
WOKE UP TO SOMEONE kissing the top of my head. Sniffed. Didn’t smell like horrible fugly, so either I was actually still asleep or I didn’t have Mephistopheles snuggled next to me.
Cracked an eyelid. Thankfully, what I saw was a sea of fur with some feathers tossed in. Said sea appeared to be snoring in individual ways.
“Mmph?” Wasn’t my most coherent sound, but it was all I could manage.
“Sorry, baby,” Jeff said softly. “I’m trying not to wake the kids. But I’d like to get them into bed if we can.”
“Your butt’s gone to sleep?”
He chuckled. “Possibly.”
The way we were hooked into each other meant that we had some challenges. Fortunately, Bruno and Lola woke up and assisted, mostly by getting off of me and Charlie so I could move.
Was able to use hyperspeed to get me and our son, his Poof, and what I knew was now officially his rabbit off of the couch. All three kids were in one big bedroom. Wasn’t sure but had a feeling that Algar was doing some room rearrangements. Then again, I hadn’t looked at Drax’s plans for crew and passenger quarters and it wasn’t like I’d gone into every one of the living quarters, so maybe this was just standard in a family suite.
Tucked Charlie into bed and kissed his forehead as his Poof—which he’d named Mine, though the rest of us called it Miney—and bunny snuggled back into his neck and tummy, respectively, and Lola took the foot of the bed. Hoped Charlie would come up with a better name for his rabbit, though I didn’t count on it—his nickname for Wilbur was also Mine. Frankly, had a feeling that Charlie thought naming his pets Mine to be very funny. Chuckie felt Charlie had my sense of humor. Wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, but chose to roll with it.
Decided not to try to get any of the kids out of their robes because it was likely to wake them up. It was cool enough in the rooms that I didn’t feel they’d be uncomfortable. And, similar to the setup at every A-C Base, there were low nightlights in the room, so that no one would get lost getting to the bathroom or into our room in case of bad dreams.
Speaking of Wilbur, the chocho padded in and settled down right next to Charlie’s bed, since Charlie was, in Wilbur’s chocho mind, his very special human to protect at all possible times. I was good with Wilbur’s dedication to the cause. Wilbur thought it was great that Charlie loved him enough to give him the special Mine nickname, too.
Gave all the animals with Charlie pets, then trotted back out and took Jamie. Mous-Mous and Peter both woke up and did me a solid by heading to her bed without my assistance. Many of the unattached Poofs and rabbits followed them.
Tucked Jamie in as Bruno settled at the foot of her bed and the other animals got comfy around her, while Jeff carried Lizzie to her bed. Lizzie scored Ginger at the foot of her bed, along with her Poof, Fofo, and several rabbits settled around her head, including SuperBun. The remaining unattached Poofs and rabbits hopped up onto the bed, some snuggling right next to Ginger, too, rabbits in particular. Ginger and Bruno were basically heroes to the rabbits, and Ginger found this hero worship totally acceptable.
Kissed both girls on their foreheads, petted all the rest of the animals, including our Poofs, who were apparently going On Duty with the kids. Poofikins was with Lizzie, Harlie with Jamie, and Murphy had Charlie. These three Poofs were all at the head of each bed, and clearly on watch. Worked for me.
Everyone else settled in, Jeff and I went to our bedroom and closed the door. “I think we have enough animals to ensure that if something happens, we’ll hear about it fast,” Jeff said.
“Truly.” Yawned widely. Considered telling Jeff about my dream, but I rarely shared them with him, mostly because they were usually personal and always weird. Didn’t feel like trying to explain why I dreamed about Mephistopheles a lot, in no small part because I didn’t want anyone to suggest that Tito find a really good mental health professional for me to visit on a regular basis. My crazy worked for me and I was keeping it.
Jeff and I took off our robes and got into bed. We lay there for a couple of minutes. Then a pertinent fact I hadn’t shared with Jeff dawned on me.
“You know, Stryker told me that they were able to change the AI’s programming so that if we don’t specifically call for her, or she isn’t triggered by things that indicate mutiny or such, she isn’t listening in.”
Jeff laughed. “Oh, so that’s why you didn’t use her name. Yeah, I wasn’t really looking forward to being watched. Or rated.”
“Oh, you have no worries about your Yelp reviews.”
“Oh yeah?” Jeff purred as he rolled onto his side. “What’s my best review?”
“Mmmm,” I stroked his chest and decided I was bitter because he still had the t-shirt on. “You always get at least ten stars out of ten, and most times you go to eleven. Besides, maybe your best review is yet to come.”