Barbary

“Then your solution’s right here.” Leigh gestured toward Mickey who had curled up in the corner for a nap. “He won’t wipe them out, but he’ll keep them under control. And if he catches quite a few of them, it wouldn’t hurt to import a few more cats to keep him company. Manxes are good hunters — though I prefer Abyssinians, myself.”

Barbary could hardly believe what she heard. She glanced at Heather, who grinned.

“We’re going to have to tighten the shipping precautions,” Jeanne said. “Otherwise we’re going to end up with cockroaches, too, and who knows what. Any suggestions?”

“I’ll think about it, and let you know.”

“Thanks, Leigh.” Jeanne leaned back in her chair and smiled at Barbary. She looked almost relaxed for the first time since Barbary had met her.

“Well, Barbary,” she said. “It looks like Mickey has made up his own excuse to stay on.”

o0o

Yoshi remained silent all the way to their apartment. By the time they got home, Barbary felt like yelling, Go ahead and do whatever it is you’re going to do to punish me!

But, of course, the times she had been punished worst had never been in public.

Mick sensed her nervousness. He twisted, trying to free himself. This only made her hold him more firmly, which in turn made him growl.

Inside the apartment, Barbary let Mick down. He ran across the room, jumped over Thea’s camera contraption, and disappeared under a chair. The contraption looked almost finished, but Thea was nowhere in sight.

“Sit down, Heather, Barbary,” Yoshi said.

They sat.

“Heather, I assume you knew about Mickey from the beginning.”

“Sure I did,” Heather said.

“No, she didn’t!” Barbary said.

“Barbary!” Heather exclaimed. “I told you I’d rather get in trouble than have you try to convince people I’m so dumb that —”

“Okay, okay,” Barbary said.

“At least now I understand a lot of what’s been going on since you arrived,” Yoshi said to Barbary. “And why you were so upset at not having your own room.”

“Yeah,” Barbary said, feeling more and more glum.

Yoshi sat back in his chair, thoughtfully rubbing one finger across his mustache. It made a soft, bristly sound.

“Have you ever read a book called

Catch-22

?” he asked.

“No.”

“The main character is in the military, and he does something that he shouldn’t do, but it turns out well. So his bosses have to decide whether to court-martial him and send him to jail, or give him a medal. Does that sound familiar?”

“I guess,” Barbary said. “You have to decide between hitting me or not.”

“Hitting you!” Yoshi sounded both shocked and appalled. “Hitting doesn’t even come into it! No, I was trying to decide whether to send both of you to bed without any dinner... or whether to fall off my chair laughing. All in all, I think laughing is the best solution.” He grinned. “Getting your cat on board was a good trick. It reminds me — !” He stopped. “Never mind. For now —”

Just then, Thea padded in from Yoshi’s room, rubbing her eyes, her hair tousled.

“Good morning,” she said. “Or whatever it is. Anything happen while I was asleep?”

Barbary couldn’t help it. She started to laugh. Soon Heather and Yoshi joined in. Trying to talk and laugh at the same time, they managed to explain to Thea, and after a moment she was laughing, too

Chapter Ten

That night, Barbary lay in bed. Mick purred beside her. She felt peaceful and happy for the first time since she had arrived on the station.

“Barbary?” Heather said.

“I thought you were asleep,” Barbary whispered.

“Uh-uh. I feel kind of tired, but I don’t feel like going to sleep.”

“Are you sure —” She stopped. Heather would just get annoyed if Barbary asked if she were all right. “Yeah,” she said. “It’s hard to go to sleep after everything that’s happened.”

“I think we ought to tell Jeanne about the open panel.”

“If we do, we’ll have to tell her we were down there.”

“Yeah. But, after all — nobody ever told me I couldn’t, and it isn’t dangerous, so there’s no reason why I shouldn’t, and besides, if there’s sloppy stuff like that anywhere else on the station, we all ought to look for it, because it could be dangerous.”

“If you think we ought to tell her, then I guess we ought to tell her.”

“It’s probably lucky for all of us that you brought Mickey,” Heather said. “Maybe you saved all our lives.”

Within a few minutes she was breathing slowly and regularly in the way Barbary had already learned meant she was sound asleep.

o0o

Barbary woke early. Burrowed under her covers, Heather slept. Now that Barbary did not have to worry about Mick’s whereabouts every minute, he was, of course, purring right next to her. She petted him and tickled his belly, and he play-fought with her hand.

“Today you get to go to work,” she whispered. “You get to go hunting, and if you catch anything they’ll keep on liking you. Don’t catch all the rats, though, or they won’t need us anymore.”

Bored with playing, he jumped, bounced from the bunk to the desk to the floor, and stopped to lick his paw.

“Got dirty, huh?” she said, and grinned.