"Tell me about your childhood, Jenni." Nash's tone of voice was that of a commander expecting routine obedience.

"I have no childhood," Jenni replied. "And you are fully aware of that, so why did you ask me about it?"

"Because I'm still proving you out," Nash explained. "If you answer me correctly on things I know are true, then I have at least some indication that you are being truthful and forthcoming with me on matters that I do not know at the moment."

"My project managers would have a plethora of things to ask you, Colonel, should they ever discover that I am even sitting here with you." Jenni locked her eyes onto Nash's. "That you have been debriefed from all of your classified access for how long now? Certainly since before your failed run for the Senate. The location and activity data reported on me are false at this moment. Certainly you know you would do jail time were you to be caught."

"No, I wouldn't do jail time," Nash countered. "Milt would, as it was he who hacked the system to get you here."

"Clearly a misuse of privileged information, Mr. Fitzsimmons," Jenni said to Milt. "Your brilliance could be your undoing."

Milt looked at Nash. "I would go to jail for you, sir."

Nash looked at Jenni and snickered. "You are so quaint for one so advanced as you. Jail time. Undoing. Lady, let me tell you something: Even if I were to be caught, they would never prosecute me; to convict me would require the release of such sensitive information as the damage done by a trial would be far and above anything I could do myself. Furthermore, there aren't enough people cleared at that level to form a jury."

"You certainly aren't anymore," Jenni retorted.

"Since I have the hack to the system," Milt suggested to Nash, "I could reprogram it to neutralize both her and that Nenmaran chick. That way we could dispatch two of Lyle's bitches in one fell swoop."

Nash and Milt shared a hearty and gleeful laugh.

"Nice thought, Milt," Nash replied still choking from his laugh, "but that wouldn't get what we want, would it?"

"No," Milt agreed. "First Bennett, then the bitches."

"Now you have your priorities straight, Milt." Nash turned to Jenni. "What missions are you active in at the moment?"

"A couple," Jenni replied.

"What are they?" Nash probed.

"Declare your role in them, and I will be able to disclose the information pertinent for you."

"Don't be coy with me, Jenni." Nash appeared displeased, but with practiced patience. "What I'm really interested in are the windows of open time in your operations schedule."

"Ah, now we're getting down to business." Jenni sat up sharp and alert. "What times are you interested in?"

"My schedule is dictated by yours," Nash replied. "And I need to know my options."

Jenni raised an eyebrow. "Options indeed; if you want to call them that."

"Well?" Nash persisted.

"Believe it or not, my free time is during the busiest time of the workday for most people. So do you want to do whatever in broad daylight with thousands of people around?"

"Frank." Milt nudged Nash. "Suppose we go back into the system and get the scheduler key. She's programmed to lead us astray anyway."

"No!" Nash shook his head. "There are too many safeguards deeper in, and your whole hack would collapse. That's why we're here talking with her now; it's the only way available to us."

Nash turned to Jenni. "Milt and I need to consider our options, so perhaps we could meet again here tomorrow at this time?"

"My schedule can accommodate that," Jenni confirmed. "By the way, you've never been clear on what it is that you wanted to accomplish with me."

"No, I haven't." Nash smirked. "You're not cleared to know."

"I count it as my good fortune to be such." Jenni smiled at them and took her leave.

"We're screwed, Frank," Milt sighed.

"I'm not ready to give up just yet," Nash replied. "Let's go think this through."

[ more to follow ]

---

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Follow the story as it develops at http://marwalk.livejournal.com/.

Enjoy.
mcw

Penelope watched the restaurant front door open from her vantage point behind the crack in the divider. She sniffed the air from the room outside coming through the crack. "I think I know who that is." Penelope sniffed further.

"So do I," Comet announced. "That's that old colonel from the military base. He's as evil as he's ever been."

"I know the other man with him too." Penelope continued sniffing. "I remember him. I crawled all over him at one of the colonel's press conferences when he was running for the Senate." Penelope snickered. "Kaggla was telling me through my collar what to do, and I had jumped onto him and evaded his attempts to shake me off. I even licked him like a puppy dog; the audience really loved that."

Felice twitched her tail. "That woman with them is a lot younger than the men; and very poised."

"Yes, very," Comet agreed.

"She's perfect," Felice whispered in amazement.

"Yeah, too perfect," Penelope replied. "There's something not exactly right about her, and I'm not sure I've figured it out yet."

"What's wrong with being perfect?" Comet retorted. "Are you feeling threatened by a confident human?"

Felice moved her head around, taking in the strange woman from all the view angles allowed her by the crack in the divider. "I agree with Penelope, Comet; and not because I feel threatened by that woman."

"I don't much like her either," Comet admitted, "but I'm not sure why. She seems very smart, but that's not it."

"She doesn't have the air of evil about her that Nash and Fitzsimmons have ... ." Penelope looked away to pull her thoughts together. "It's more like her mind is way beyond the other two, to the extent that it's not even human."

"Not human?" Comet nodded toward the three persons, now seated at the table outside next to their vantage point inside the divider. "She obviously is exactly human; just look at her. She looks more human than Colonel Nash and that Milt guy with him."

"That's the problem!" Felice exclaimed. "She is 'exactly' human. No human is exactly human. They all have distinguishing imperfections, like we have uneven or mismatched markings on our fur."

"She speaks perfect English too," Penelope observed. "She's also not at all afraid of them, and seems very much at ease in spite of their obvious malice."

"Oh, yeah," Felice added. "Those guys give me the creeps, and she seems to sense that about them too but isn't unnerved by it."

"I wonder why she is so confident?" Comet seemed unusually reflective. "People I've heard talk about Nash either have an air of discomfort about him or fawn all over him. But this woman seems to know and dislike these guys, but still stays so poised in the face of them."

"Well said, Comet." Penelope focused on the people outside the divider just under their noses. "Let's concentrate on what they're saying to see if we can figure this out."

[ more to follow ]

---

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License

Follow the story as it develops at http://marwalk.livejournal.com/.

Enjoy.
mcw

Felice was waiting for us when we arrived. "So you missed your first bus."She winked and arched her back against the corner of the building; its old bricks had strands of cat fur trapped in them in that spot.

"That must be one of your favorite scratching areas," I replied, "judging from the amount of fur you've left behind."

"I like it," Felice confirmed. "I come around here often. When they close at night, they dump all the deli scraps in that dumpster; there's a gap in in the top where I can slip in and feast on all kinds of tasty things. Then afterward, I enjoy the flavors again as I groom myself." Felice licked her whiskers. "Kind of a nice deal."

"So you're the one who told Kaggla about this place?" I asked.

"And Kaggla told me about your little misadventure getting on the bus out in the County." Felice looked down. "She was worried about you."

"Comet almost got us run over," I admitted.

"That kid on the skateboard had no business being there!" Comet looked indignant.

"You are not the king of the sidewalk, oh mighty hunter," I scolded Comet."This is not your clump of woods behind the field at the house."

"I don't know why I bother coming to these things with you," Comet retorted. "There're too many things to keep track of in this crowded place."

"Because you're bored at home." I smiled at Comet. "Penna knows you come on these jaunts with me."

Comet twitched his tail in irritation, and stared out at the street. "She just lets both of us do what we want because she's so preoccupied with that baby human of hers."

"He's part Nenmaran too," I reminded Comet.

"Is he black like Kaggla then?" Felice asked.

"No, Kaggla's not Nenmaran; she's Gattonian."

Felice appeared thoughtful. "I think I knew that already."

"I'm sure you did, and just fogot."

Comet's tail jerked back and forth. "Okay, why are we here, anyway? I didn't mean to start a whole discussion about hominid anthropology."

"Sometimes I just want to rip that collar off of you and let you go back to being a mindless cat!"

"Be nice, Penelope," Felice interjected. "I'm feline too, and I can appreciate how Comet feels; although I don't feel that way myself."

"Then why are we here?" Comet persisted. "Are we just going to talk until midnight and then jump in the dumpster?"

"No, we're going to listen to humans talking until midnight," Felice replied. "But first we're going to have a little to eat before we settle into our listening post."

"That's the first good idea I've heard so far." Comet held up his head inself pride. "Where are the goodies?"

"Just follow me." Felice led us through a door in the back of an adjacent restaurant.

I crouched behind a box on the floor. "Aren't you two a bit exposed out there?"

"She has a point." Comet slinked behind a box near him, and peered out at Felice. "Well?"

"Not to worry," Felice assured us. "I've never seen anyone in this room this time of day."

"But I hear voices close by in the next room," Comet protested.

"They're the managers," Felice explained. "The cooks don't get here until much later; closer to the time the restaurant opens."

Comet sighed. "All right. Shall we just take what strikes our fancy?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Why not?" Comet glared at Felice.

"Because … " Felice turned sad and looked at the floor. " …Because another restaurant that I and some of the other feral cats frequented, just like this one, didn't like us around. This food isn't for us, Comet—they don't want us to bother it. A couple of the other cats died very painful deaths from eating something the humans at that other restaurant left out for us."

"So you've brought us here to kill us, like the rats old man Rosser used to put out those small boxes for?" Comet shook his head. "Fine hostess you are!"

"I'm telling you this to protect you!"

"How come you're not dead like those other cats, then?"

"Because the rest of us who are alive figured out how not to leave a trace of our presence."

"Why are you still alive after that—alive to do your figuring out?

"I was sleeping off a large rat I had caught and eaten that morning."

Comet looked over at me and sneered. "Oh you mean like that large rat?"

"You are a mental case." Felice shook her head.

"No, I was just trying to be funny." Comet looked at me with contrition. "I know I'm difficult sometimes, but we're really family."

"Speak first, think later," Felice snickered. "You fit right in."

"Even though I'm a mental case?"

"Sure." Felice smiled. "Even though you're a mental case."

"How can you tell which packages are safe?" I asked.

"The ones that are not opened," Felice explained. "I know this even better after I got my collar from Kaggla. You see, humans assume that we will go for the most easily available food—to them, that is something that is opened. For example … " Felice looked around the room and nodded toward a torn package on the floor next to a table leg. " … over there. See it? Don't touch it! However, if we take one of the unopened packages without disturbing the others, they're likely never to notice."

"How are you so sure about them not noticing?" Comet asked.

Felice looked back over at the stacks of packages on a low shelf under oneof the tables. "Because there are so many different humans who take packages from this room as they're needed during the day. If a stack is down, the humans will just assume that one of the other humans took it."

"Any chance they'd suspect an animal?" I asked.

"No, because animals usually just grab things and let the rest of the pile fall all over the floor. It's a dead giveaway. We know better now."

"What do you do with the package after you take it down from the table?"

"We take it immediately outside and eat it under cover and out of their reach." Felice crept up to a package she had been eyeing and pulled it downfrom the stack.

"I see how you do that!" Comet exclaimed. "You lift it up off the other packages so it won't drag the others down when you take it off the stack."

"You seem like you have a new respect for Felice," I observed.

Comet looked at me and nodded. "Yes I do. Now let's get out of here and enjoy that whatever it is that you took down, Felice."

Felice exited past us at a brisk trot, holding the package in her teeth high off the ground.

Comet and I followed her to an area behind one of the buildings with some tall grass and a lot of cast off human things.

Once under the cover of the area absent of humans, Felice tore open the package with her teeth and claws—and we feasted on its contents.

"Excellent death food." Comet sat back as if waiting for us to compliment him on his wit.

"No, you silly feline," Felice retorted, "excellent dining. Admit it, Comet; it was delicious."

It was obvious to me that Comet resented being bested, but he managed a courageous display of grace with a nod toward Felice.

"It was indeed." Comet's head drifted to the side as he turned away from us with a blank gaze at the nearby grass.

"You look a little sleepy, Comet." Felice's voice was sympathetic and supportive. "Why don't we nap here for a while until it's closer to time for the restaurant to open."

"Yes," Comet replied in a distant voice, "I think that would be a good idea."

I wanted to nuzzle Comet to comfort him, but knew better of it; he would only snarl at me and possibly scratch me, considering the mood he was in. Instead, I snouted a place to lie down and settled in against the side of the human cast off object next to me.

…

"Wake up you two." Felice shook me awake with her paw. "It's time to go in now." Light from a nearby streetlight assaulted my Nenmaran eyes as she nodded toward Comet. "I'd best let you wake him. At least you're more familiar with his moods."

"I have to agree," I replied.

I flicked a pebble toward Comet with my snout. "Wake up, Comet. It's time to go inside."

Comet stirred and began a feline stretch as if it were not I who had awakened him.

Felice started out toward the restaurant, as Comet and I followed her. She stopped underneath the steps to the back door of the restaurant and sniffed at a hole in the masonry.

"There are some mice that live under here." Felice looked at Comet as one making a point. "But we won't hunt them now because we have already eaten our fill."
"Suits me fine," Comet replied.

"Good." Felice slipped through the hole and waited for Comet and me to join her. "Okay, now that we're all inside, we now go up through that hole above us that our rodent friends have so considerately gnawed open for us."

"Ah yes," Comet retorted, "but that doesn't preclude us from gnawing on them in the future." He smiled with pride at his wit.

Felice gave Comet a look that was the equivalent of a human rolling his eyes. She turned and leaped up through the hole.

"Come on, Comet, get over it." I turned and followed Felice to the floor above. Once there I watched Comet come through after me, to ensure that he did not stay below and pout.

"There really is a lot more room in here than I thought from your description," Comet observed.

"It's a wide divider," Felice explained. "They have potted plants and other knick knacks on the shelf above us. It draws a particularly talkative group of humans that are fascinating to listen to."

"Can you sometimes tell who they are?" I asked.

"Usually." Felice motioned toward a small space between the shelf and the side walls. "It's too dark in here for them to see us but there's plenty of light out there for us to see them. A very nice arrangement for the most nosey of creatures."

"Like us!" I beamed.

"I like this, Felice," Comet agreed. "You've done well."

"Then settle in and enjoy it. There should be some interesting conversations coming along any time now." Felice gave Comet a look of benign tolerance.

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[ Background in the Earth Alien Trilogy, which consists of Earth Alien, Penna: The Alien Earthling, and Familiar Aliens ]

Hello, I'm Lily, a teddy bear hamster. See how well I can hide? Or "notsee" would be more descriptive. Okay, here I am, so we can talk.

It was my hiding ability that got me where I am. Actually I'm lost as far as my humans are concerned. Being the adventurous type, I escaped from my carry cage while the young human who was in charge of me wasn't looking. It was on a long trip, and the car stopped at a farmer's market somewhere along the way. Somehow the latch to my carry cage got unfastened and I discovered I was able to nose the lid open. I crawled up to the top and oops, I flipped onto the car floor.

The car door was still open while the humans were busy talking among themselves and looking all around—anywhere but at me. I crept to the edge of the floor to get a better look at things myself and oops, I flipped onto the ground. Instinctively I scurried for cover under the car.

The smells were wonderful—so many and different fresh things to eat! How to get at them? Dropped bits of lettuce, kernels of corn, and other detached vegetable goodies were everywhere. It was a real feast! I just followed my nose and enjoyed each treat along the way, taking great care not to get stepped on by humans or big animals like the dogs roaming around there.

Some young humans (not my human) started to chase me, as young humans seem to like to do. I found myself in the middle of a bunch of them, and was in total flee mode. I scurried up some furry hill that then raised up even higher from the ground.

I discovered I was on top of the head of the largest animal I'd ever seen. I held on tight, clutching the fur between its ears, hoping that it would not try to shake me off. All the humans there pointed at me and talked to each other.

After a long while, the humans began to go away, and I was ready to get down. But there was no place to go—I was too high up to jump to the ground. I was trapped on top of this large animal!

Where do you think I'm trying to go? What kind of a stupid question is that, you big but stupid animal? Wait a minute; that stupid big animal is right. Where do I want to go? I have no idea how to find my humans' car. And besides, it really is nice and soft and pleasant up here on top of you, oh large animal.

You're a what? I've never heard of an alpaca before. You're not that large? Oh, I beg to differ! Horses and cows? What are they? They're even bigger, and I'm going to see? You sound so sure of yourself. Because I'm your hamster now! How so? Well, I suppose I am … since I can't find my humans. Your name is Ariel? Hello, I'm Lily. Pleased to meet you too… I think.

I kind of just held on to his thick fur—by thick, I mean the individual hairs of his fur were like ropes compared to mine. Oh, well, the day got late and most of the people were gone. All the remaining humans were doing the "getting ready to go" activities I'd noticed mine doing before they disappeared for long times.

Ariel's human untied him and led him into what looked like a car made just for him. The human had to have noticed that I was there, but seemed to speak only to Ariel, as she closed the door behind us. The human thinks I'm cute? You have no way of knowing that. Oh, yes you do, and so will I, eh? I think your cockiness, oh Airel, has overstepped its bounds this time—I'm only a little hamster and humans have never made any sense to me, except when they give me tasty treats.

As the Ariel's car began to move, he lurched and shifted to stay on his feet. Fortunately for me, his gnarled fur gave me something to hold onto. What a ride—I thought it would never end.

When we got to where Ariel lived, the human opened the gate and once again untied Ariel's tether. Once Ariel was out and away from his car, it moved away and disappeared.

Ariel went into one of the buildings around there and bent his head into a long box of some sort. Jump off now? Crawl down your head and nose? I thought that was a dubious proposition. You really won't eat me? I can have some of your food? I was really scared, just plain scared, but I also was very hungry again and Ariel's food sure smelled yummy.

I lost my grip on Ariel's fur and rolled into his foodbox—fortunately, it was a soft landing in the pile of food. Ariel nudged me to the side with his nose. Eat from that pile there and I'll be safe. Safe? From what? I don't want to know. Ariel's food was different that what I was used to but very tasty; I actually gorged myself more than I should have. Ah, now for a nice nap.

What? No nap? This is outrageous! We're going out in the field this evening? Whatever for? Just get back on your back, and we'll get going? No way! I scurried over to the corner of Ariel's food box, and burrowed into the pile of grain there. You can't get me now.

Ariel seemed to mock me as he thrust his nose in the grain underneath me and flung me onto his back. Okay, time for another ride. You may be large but certainly not stupid, because I'm back to not being able to get off your back. I've been out smarted—for now.

I wonder where are we going, anyway. To a nowhere in the middle of the pasture? To meet a woman who is not human? This is more than my hamster brain can fathom. Not after I visit this woman? And, oh by the way, she likes rodents? We're part of a group of some sort that is more or less led by a rodent? And I'm the only other rodent to be let in the group? This sounds very off beat to me. Oh, it is, you assure me. I'm so pleased to be different—I think.

This is not the middle of a pasture. Look at the big funny shaped barn over there. That's exactly where we're going, and yes indeed, it is in the middle of the pasture because that barn, as I call it, is really the woman's car, of sorts? I'm losing my mind; I wish I were just running in my hamster wheel.

The barn, or rather, car started to come apart before my very eyes. Why are we going toward a car that is coming apart? Because it's only opening its door—yeh, sure; looks like it's coming apart to me.

I cringed as Ariel walked right inside the car that was coming apart. Then it looked like the inside of a human house of some sort. Ariel went straight to a room where this woman was sitting. She seemed to be waiting for us.

The woman reached over and picked me up off of Ariel's back. She put some type of collar on me. For some reason, I did not dislike the collar. Your name is Kaggla! How did I know that? My new collar was like a super big brain that made my hamster brain smarter? Wow, I actually can understand you! I'm not sure I'll ever get used to this new open world. It's sort of like humans when they get new eye glasses for the first time? Okay, I actually understand that!

Ariel turned to go. You're leaving me here! Why? Because there are cats in your barnyard? I understand that! Cats would want to eat me for snack. But not the cats in our group? Because they can tell the difference between animals in our group, Kaggla's animals, and others—I see. And dogs too? We have dogs too? Wow! I raised up on my hindquarters and sniffed the air as Ariel disappeared through the door.

Kaggla stroked me and put me in a room made just for me. It was the best hamster room I'd ever had. I would go out sometimes when it was safe for me. I curled up on my new soft bed, and soon was into a delightful sleep. What an exhausting day—but I was Kaggla's hamster now.

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[ Background in the Earth Alien Trilogy, which consists of Earth Alien, Penna: The Alien Earthling, and Familiar Aliens ]

By now, you've met Comet, Gretchen, Airel, Rocky, Felice, and me! There'sanother thing, a little thing, I'd like to mention; and that is we've added alogo to our email version of this RSS feed. Thanks to Feedblitz, the servicethat emails the RSS feed to those who subscribe to it on marwalk.com, it's a littlemore personalized now.

Part of the personalization is that we can include a special graphic inour emails. I looked around for a good picture of me, but decided to justshow you the book covers instead for now; that is in our personalizedgraphic.

See you soon!

Penelope

This work is licensed under a Creative CommonsAttribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

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[ Background in the Earth Alien Trilogy, which consists of Earth Alien, Penna: The Alien Earthling, and Familiar Aliens ]