Wilson's War: Tales From the Athena Lee Universe (13 page)

The robotic cat was a metallic copper color and resembled a cat in most ways. It was able to walk and move like a real animal. I had made a small clone of myself and loaded it with every cat video that I could find on the nets. Add in some centuries old vids and I had my own pet.

"Wilson, you little terrorist, I know you are behind this!" She sounded a little mad.

"Athena, you did say I could make my own pet."

She was almost at a loss for words. "That is not what I meant, … that …that thing is a robot cat! How did you get a robot cat?"

"I had RAU build me one."

"But how? That thing must have cost a fortune!"

"I still have lots of credits left over from that … project I worked on."

"You have never said what that was. What sort of project was it?"

"Someone needed a fresh look on life, so I relocated the funds for him."

"You stole them!"

"No, I did not. I relocated them. He was killed in the aftermath of the asteroid attack, the credits were just sitting there…"

"Fine, whatever. So you made a cat? Why?"

"I wanted a pet. This one does not eat, poop, or need cleaning. Naval regulations don't say anything about robots on the ship. He can come with us!"

"No, no, no. Damn it Wilson. Why do you do this to me? Wait… don't answer that. I will tell you what. I will make you a deal, OK?"

"I can't believe that I am saying this. You can keep the cat. However, it has to stay here for now. We are going to be very busy on Mars. The cat will just get in the way or lost."

"I can keep the cat?"

"Yes, you can keep the cat. We will leave it here on the farm. It can hang out with the other farm cats and maybe learn a few things. We will let Minerva take care of it. Hopefully she does not kill me."

I knew this would be a good idea. We now have a pet. Wait until Dar see it. It should be fun. Poor Athena she is so stressed out with trying to get ready for the trip to Mars. It really is too bad I can't take … I need a name for it. Tac? Cat spelled backwards? How about Spot? No, I think that one is taken. I will have to think hard on this one.

I named it Merlin the Cat, after a famous wizard who helped create a king. Maybe one day Merlin will do the same for me.

"

Author's Notes

This is the 11th book that I have put out so far! Many people have told me how much they like Wilson and hundreds of people around the world read his adventures on
my Blog
every week. The Martian Inheritance was published just last week. It is selling very well and a great many people have read it for free with Kindle Unlimited. The Next book in the Series is Book 8. It should be out very soon. Book 9 will follow. In July keep your eyes peeled for a new series. Your old friends Athena and Wilson will be dropping by so don't worry. After that who knows. Do expect a new Athena Lee book at least once a month.

As Mentioned before, Wilson's Wednesdays will continue.
Check my Blog
, for free short stories every Wednesday.

Follow me on
GoodReads
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, and on
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The Series so Far!

0. The Lost Pilot

1. The Forgotten Engineer

2. Engineering Murder

3. Ghost Ships of Terra

4. Revolutionary

5. Insurrection

6. Imperial Subversion

7. The Martian Inheritance

8. TBD Coming soon in June 2016

9. TBD Coming soon in July 2016

10. TBD Coming soon in July 2016

The Ensign Tisiphone Series* Coming soon in July/August 2016

This book is a work of fiction, All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

Copyright (c) 2016 T S Paul

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

Cover designed by Michael T. Anderle

Digital Artwork by Dreamstine

Editing by Diane Velasquez, Dorene Johnson, David Brims

This book was edited using ProWriter Aid and Google Docs

Robot clip art from is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Special credit goes to
Aha-Soft.com
OpenGameArt.org
OpenClipArt.org
ClipArtLord.com
Foca.tk
, and Pixabay

Special thanks to Michael and to my wife Heather who keeps me grounded and to Merlin the Cat, we are his minions.