Space Station Rat (10 page)

Can't hide!

It pinned paws flat. It pinched and did not let you move while they did whatever they wanted to you.

Only the angry voices shouting to be let into the room stopped her from scratching at the boy. The captain! The mother! The father! She was helpless. Only the boy could keep her safe.

A lurch. The cloth snatched tighter, hurting her leg.

What is that boy
doing
?

A violent twist. The zipper dug across her back. Then a jounce.

“Okay. Come in.”

The boy's voice, heavy with forced tiredness, vibrated against Rat. Clever boy! He was pretending he'd been asleep. Rat heard the door open and a heavy tread. The boy's breath caught.

The boy leaned forward, and Rat missed some things as she adjusted to the sudden roominess. But soon she understood what mattered. They were looking for Nanny. The boy was not telling, not about Nanny, not about Rat.

Rat relaxed into the warm, dark softness of her hiding place. Her body moved with the rhythm of the boy's breath. It was like a lullaby, taking Rat back. Back, back to memories of a time when the fur in her nose was not her fur, the foot in her ear was not her foot, the tail under her chin did not belong to her. Feel the pulse of a dozen hearts different from her own. Smell sweet milk and sour pee and the warm largeness full of goodness.

Such sadness for the long-lost goodness.

Such bliss in the newfound closeness of the boy.

Rat began to knead his T-shirt with her front paws, lost to the passing of time.

C
HAPTER
E
IGHTEEN

T
OO
M
UCH
A
TTENTION
!

Dad leaned against the desk. At least the screen saver was on now! He took the tube from his pocket. He twirled it thoughtfully.

What did he suspect?

Dad was good at making intuitive leaps on thin evidence. He didn't know about the e-mail, and maybe he hadn't seen or understood the rat's words; but Dad
did
find the wire. He'd seen the tooth marks in neat pairs, just like Jeff.

“Now wasn't that something?” Dad said, looking up at last. “She
yelled
at him.”

“Yeah, she did, didn't she?”

“A development.” Dad's smile flashed briefly. “Too bad it took circumstances like this. You do realize how serious the situation is, don't you?”

Jeff nodded. He hardly ever lied to his parents, but the damage to Nanny was so bad, and the consequences were so huge, he couldn't find a voice to admit what had happened.

“Imagine! The fate of the world decided by a stray meteor and a missing robot.”

Dad looked around. Jeff, too.

So much to hide! He wasn't doing such a great job, either. The mistakes were piling up: the computer left on, the box a big bulge under the blankets, bandages all over the place, the telescope left lying around.

“Are you sure you can't help, Jeff?”

Earlier Jeff had thought there might be a way. But that was before Dad said there were only four hours and thirty-six minutes until solar max. With so little time, what good would it do to tell them where to find a broken robot?

“I can't.”

“Hmmm,” Dad said. “What happened to your foot?”

Didn't Dad miss
anything
?

“I got a blister from following Nanny halfway around this stupid space station!”

Dropping the tube into his pocket, Dad knelt to inspect Jeff's foot. A little red seeped through the wrapping. At least that could explain all the bloody bandages on the floor.

Dad sniffed. Jeff noticed some liverwurst still smeared on his jumpsuit leg. How would he explain that?!

Dad sniffed again, then with a little shake of his head, examined the foot.

“Nice job. That's right—you got the first-aid prize at camp last year, didn't you. Bet you'd rather be at camp right now!”

“I guess.” Jeff shrugged, then squirmed from a sudden tickle. What was that rat
doing
?

“Oops, did I hurt you?” Dad asked.

“A bit,” Jeff lied. He forced his body rigid against the rhythmic push and pull along his left side. The rat was kneading, just like a cat—slow, trancelike. Do rats purr?!

Dad looked at Jeff, a frank, total seeing that made Jeff feel completely noticed—and nervous!

“The rat was here, though, wasn't it?”

Jeff nodded. Lying about the obvious didn't seem smart.

Dad pointed at the vent and asked, “Did you shoot?”

Jeff shook his head. “Nanny.”

“Nanny
missed?
”

“Yeah.”

“So what actually happened here?”

Jeff told about forgetting the emergency mask and coming back to find the rat. Nothing about the Mid-Ring workshop. Or about the rat standing on the keyboard. He dwelled on Nanny knocking him down and threatening him when he wanted to join the chase. Jeff paused, feeling his terrible anger again as he watched Nanny zip along the corridor, leaving him behind.

What if Nanny had let him come? Would he have killed the rat?

Jeff focused on the warm aliveness inside his clothes. It still seemed lost in some good feeling.

“But Jeff.” Dad frowned. He glanced around the room. “Jeff. Where's the gun?”

“
Oh no!
” Jeff stood straight up. Sharp claws braced deep into his skin. He sat abruptly.

“Oh no …”

The sound of excited voices surged in the corridor.

Rip-rip-rip-rip.

The captain had remembered the gun, too.

C
HAPTER
N
INETEEN

N
ANNY
F
OUND

Rat did not mean to dig her claws in. She thought she was in a cozy place, a safe place. Quite a shock, the sudden movement and the fierce pressure when the jumpsuit went taut. The pain awakened in her leg didn't help her think, either.

She almost struggled more, harder, bit, and tore, afraid someone, some
thing
had caught her.

Then there was a jounce and roominess and the sharp, frightened scent rising from the boy.

Rat remembered where she was.

She felt the boy groan from deep in his chest. “Oh no …”

Something's happened!

She forced herself still.

Good thing.

The next sound she heard was the captain saying, “Where's that gun?”

The scent of the boy's fear grew so strong, Rat had to fight against a sympathetic panic herself. The smell spoke to her instincts. Run! Escape! Hide!

“I—ah—I—”

“Don't bother,” the captain said. “Control? Locate the boy's gun immediately.”

“Jeff! You didn't
shoot
Nanny?”

The father's voice blared into Rat's ears. He must be very close! Where are the other adults? Her teeth started to grind together. She clenched her mouth tight. The father might be close enough to hear!

“He couldn't have,” the captain said. “The SmartGun was programmed only to shoot rats.”

Wicked gun! Wicked man!

Beep.
“Captain, we have a signal from the gun. It appears to be in the Mid-Ring workshop.”

“What do you mean ‘appears'? Is it there or isn't it?”

Beep.
“The maps say there's no air in the workshop, so I don't understand how it
could
be there.”

“Well?”

The boy flinched. “There's air.”

“And when we find that gun, we'll find Nanny, right?”

The boy nodded.

“Jeff?” the mother said. “You
lied
to us?”

“I didn't mean to. I had to save the rat.”

“Save—the—rat?”

“I was going to kill it, to protect the project, to help. Then Nanny wouldn't even let me hunt. I followed anyway. When I got there, a sniffer had it and there was all this blood … and this
sound
… I
had
to save it. But Nanny wouldn't stop. I only meant to blind Nanny. Something happened … and now everything's ruined. I'm sorry.”

His body trembled. He was upset, but not blubbering. The muscles across his stomach were tight and hard like steel. Confessing, yes, but with control, saying nothing about Rat. What a good boy!

“What—
what
happened to Nanny?” the captain asked. “Spit it out!”

Somehow Rat must save him from that brutal man.

“I destroyed it!”

“More lies!” the captain scoffed. “Nanny can fight soldiers! You couldn't even scratch it!”

“I'm
not
lying! Nanny's dead!”

“Jeff, are you sure?” asked the father.

“There was this big crack, big ball of electricity. Nanny stopped and stayed stopped. I guess that's all I really know.”

“This is incredible—” the mother said. “A …
rodent
? Nanny … dead? I want to wake up now.”

Rat began to understand. This was only a little bit about Nanny. Mostly it was about the project. Vaguely Rat recalled the talk before all this excitement about the gun. They needed Nanny to fix something. What? Rat had stopped paying attention.

“You were fighting with Nanny?” the father asked.

“I
told
Nanny to stop. I told it Control was calling. It wouldn't obey. It
attacked
me!”

“This is very serious … if true,” the captain said. “Control! Send the chief engineer and a repair crew to the workshop immediately!”

Beep.
“Yes, sir.”

“Move out, all of you!” the captain ordered. “To the workshop. We'll get to the bottom of this right now.”

The boy went stiff. Rat startled.

If he stood up, Rat might be discovered!

How could Rat save herself? She couldn't even run!

She could bite.

She could slash.

Rat flexed her toes. Slowly, quietly she rubbed her teeth together to make the edges sharp.

They would be sorry if they found Rat!

“He can't,” the father said. “His foot is hurt.”

“Hurt?” the mother said. “There's
blood
!”

The boy shifted. Cloth crinkled. The mother must be looking at the foot. That close! Rat tried to fit even flatter to the boy's body. Maybe he liked that, because the clenched muscles loosened some.

“Look at this! Look! You told us he'd be safe with Nanny!”

“I don't understand,” the captain said.

“Oh, Nanny didn't—” the father began to explain.

Beep.
“Captain, we're in the workshop.”

The boy's breath caught. The adults', too. Rat could not hear anyone breathing.

Beep.
“We've found the gun. Looks like the kid's been hitting rocks with it. What's that? Okay, Tom sees Nanny. Hold on.”

Beep.
“It's …
yuck
… smeared with …
liverwurst
… and quite dead. A massive power surge by the looks.”

“Liverwurst!”

Rat licked her lips. She would like some liverwurst.

Beep. “All
over
the place.… It's impossible, but wait a minute—I'm taking the head off. Blast it! The stuff squished through and shorted the power-phase integrator. We must've nicked the O-ring seal putting Nanny back together.”

They
hadn't done it, the captain had. Jeff remembered how he had been hurrying and dropped Nanny's head. It clattered in the opening, then the captain smacked it down tight with his big fist. And after all those times yelling at Jeff for running, too.

“This is unbelievable!” the mother said. “The world is going to freeze because of … of
liverwurst
?”

“Can you fix it?” the captain asked.

Beep. “Don't know, sir. Even if Nanny's brain survived, the body's wrecked. Days, weeks maybe—”

“Give me that radio!” the mother yelled. “We don't have days!
Please
… we need that stabilizer fixed now!”

Rat knew that word. The label she had read so painstakingly in the dim light popped back into her head:
STABILIZER ROCKET #724 CONTROL BOX
.

The mysterious noise! From behind the big metal box with the little blue light. The one the meteor smashed. Rocket exhaust!

Rat could save the project.

Help scientists?

“Janice … shhhh … here, give that radio back to the captain.”

“Oh, Greg … we'll be too late!”

“Do your best, chief,” the captain said.

Beep.
“Aye, sir.”

The voices were all far away. They were not paying attention to the boy. Rat must act now. She had no idea if they would ever leave him alone in time. But how to tell him?

Did he know Morse code?

She could not waste the time finding out.

She shimmied up his T-shirt. The boy leaned forward, maybe thinking she needed more room. His skin felt hot and soft against her toes. Sensitive. Good.

Slowly she drew “724” across his stomach.

He started to squirm, then went very still.

She drew “724” again.

“T two four?” the boy whispered into his collar. His hot breath washed over Rat.

She nipped him. Pay attention!

“Ow!”

Noisy boy! A rat would never yelp at such a little nip.

“Jeff, what's the matter?”

“Ah, um, my blister … it smarted suddenly.”

Rat scratched the
“7”
again, not gently.

“Owww … ohhhhh!
Seven
two four.”

He spoke out loud.

Hasty boy! He did not wait for the other clue.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY

S
OME
A
DVICE

The captain snapped, “What's that supposed to mean?”

“I … I don't know.”

They stared at him.

“Then what did you say it for?”