Mystery Crossover #1: The Stalk
by Jonathan Rosebaugh
The hunter took a moment to recheck his surroundings. Infrared lasers,
invisible to humans, pierced the corridors at irregular intervals and
heights, absent only in the area immediately surrounding the security
keypanel, halfway down along one wall. Beyond the doors controlled by
that keypanel lay the treasured objects he was seeking. He laughed to
himself; this wasn't even a challenge. Of course, the humans on this
world hadn't learned to secure things against him yet.
His mind reached out. No humans were nearby, not even a security
guard. There was a strange sensation located somewhere within the
building, but it did not taste like either a human or any creature
from his home world. It was very strange, almost blending in with the
background noise.
He let the back of his mind keep working on it, and continued
onward. A leap, a twist, a rebound, and a mad scrabble for a clawhold
and he was at the security panel. Keeping both his true-feet and
hand-feet firmly clutching the wall, he reached out with a true-hand
and tapped the combination he'd memorized during the tour earlier that
day. Being so closely associated with a trusted human had MANY
advantages, he thought to himself as he proceeded to move stealthily
down a cross-corridor, confident now that almost all of the security
system had been deactivated. A few fail-safe functions remained, but
they would not be able to incriminate him.
--------
She was unsure of her surroundings -- she'd never been here before --
but she could sense her prey ahead. She could always sense their
presence, if she were close enough. She walked down a hallway and
back, triangulating the location. There! She jumped up onto a ledge,
right underneath an observation window. Her goal lay in there! She
probed at the edges for a bit, her other senses stretching out. There
was a security system active, so she couldn't break in without getting
caught. She nudged up against the window and quickly phased through.
It took a moment for her to recover. Ordinary glass was no problem,
but this stuff had all sorts of elements in it, making it much
denser. All of a sudden her senses felt the security system shut
off. She stretched her mind wide. Feeling a presence, she quickly dove
for cover. As she focused her attention on the mind-flare, she brought
some of the lesser-used functions of her brain online. Being a
genetically engineered creature had MANY advantages, she thought to
herself, not least of which was the ability to reprogram her
senses. That, of course, was a recent addition; her creator, as
always, hungered for experimental subjects and was happy to give them
benefits in exchange for their services.
The flare came into focus as she switched operating modes, narrowing
her mind-sense ever closer onto the narrow channel which the
mind-flare used. It became a gentle glow. Automatic analysis systems
returned their verdict: 99% probability of intelligence, 76.9%
probability of being able to use language, 2.6% probability that it
could use mental powers to be a threat to her. It also wasn't human,
nor was it any of the other species she had ever been near. She sent
an inquiry pulse.
<Hello/HowAreYou/WhatAreYou/WhyAreYou/WouldYouLikeToBeFriends/PleaseReply>
--------
He almost fell over when the itch resolved itself into a mind-glow
stronger than anything he'd ever seen off his home world. The glow of
his mate was bright, since she had the ability of a mind-singer, had
she not abandoned that path, but this stranger was brighter still. Was
it a new security system, designed to protect against him? No, his
human would never allow that. Besides, the humans were barely able to
use their own mind-senses, much less build artificial ones. He fixed
his attention on his mind-sense and probed.
A flood of gestalts coursed into his brain. It was not unlike his
early attempts to communicate with his human, but he could tell that
there was so much more potential here. He sifted through the gestalts,
looking at shades of meaning, trying to identify what the sender had
intended.
It was difficult. He compared it to the challenge he had with
German that time he was in the Andermani Empire with his human. It was
even worse, though, in this case. German merely had a confusedly
different word order. This was barely words at all.
<I am called Laughs Brightly.> he sent back. <Where are you?>
--------
Language! Words! Her analytic systems made quick work of the incoming
signal. Whatever it was was sending in English, a fact that made her
very grateful. She did have enough computing power available to
unravel nearly any language, given a large enough sample size, but it
was rather tiring to use all that power in her current form, and the
sample sizes required tended to be horrendous, anyway.
<My name is Water-spirit Lord-of-Demons. I call myself Lady of the
Hunt. I'm in here.> She sent Laughs Brightly a mental map of the area,
with her position marked.
The reply came back. <I'm coming. Stand ready, Lady-Huntress.> She
stood and readied her systems for combat. A life form entered the scan
range of her infrared sensors, coming up fast on her from behind. She
turned and backed off somewhat to give Laughs Brightly some room. A
face poked out of the foliage above her, then tumbled down gracefully
to the floor.
<Greetings, Lady-Huntress,> he said. He didn't LOOK like any species
she'd ever seen before, either. Six legs, a tail, and the most curious
face. The face looked like a cross between a cat and a human, though
mostly cat. He had a strange sort of pack tied between his fore-legs
and mid-legs. Another was buckled onto the back of the first. <What
ARE you?> he asked, the overtonal nuances showing her quick flashes of
all the known species in his experience. There weren't very many of
them, she noticed, with far less variety than in her home universe.
<I am a cabbit.> She sent data along with this simple
statement. Small, dual-gendered, high fuel efficiency, love of
carrots.
<I am one of the People. The humans call me a treecat.> Dangerous,
mysterious, long-lived, love of celery. She marveled at the
similarities and even more at the differences. This treecat creature
was so like herself and he hadn't even been engineered. Granted, he
didn't have the ability to cross lightyears, but even so, such kinship
was astonishing. <And what is it that you hunt, Skilled Lady?>
--------
Skilled Lady laughed in his mind. The laugh rang like the steel
wind-chimes he'd loved at Honor's house on Sphinx. "Miya!" An image
formed of golden purity, ripe for harvesting from the nurturing
ground. He remembered the stream of data he'd picked through moments
before, thought for a moment over the layout, and turned and hopped
into the tree again. <Follow me, Hunter of Delicacies.> Nimitz saw her
mind-glow follow him, so he led on, out of the decorative trees and
into the greenhouse proper. He led her to the carrot section and
stopped. <Behold your prey, Skilled Lady.> He unbuckled the second
pack and opened it, explaining to her what he intended to do.
--------
Ryo-ohki hopped joyously back to her landing point, her backpack now
full of carrots. Outside the domes, away from any place a human would
willingly come without good reason, she transformed. Her swift form
lifted off with barely a sound. Once out of the star system, she
danced an intricate pattern, firing certain weapons. The gravity
patterns resulting from this attracted the attention of Washuu's
computers. They bent the universe and she was home.
Nimitz is from David Weber's Honor Harringon series of novels. It has
been noted by people other than me that Weber's books often have
references to anime. Nimitz was just too much of a reference. I got
the mental picture of Nimitz and Ryo-ohki in a greenhouse together,
and things went from there.
The last paragraph could probably use some work. I was going to say
that she built a rotating naked singularity since, according to
Stephen Baxter, a naked singularity is a place where universes
kiss. But I figured that the physics involved in that were probably a
bit too expensive, not to mention the problems it would probably cause
in the Honorverse. (I was writing the last half of this during the
FFIRC's Hour Challenge, so I couldn't really look things up.) I'm open
to suggestions on this bit.
I've totally made up the bits about Ryo-ohki's mind. All I've seen of
Tenchi is the first four OVA episodes, and they haven't had much to
say about what goes on in Ryo-ohki's head...