Part 24 (1/2)

Beside her, the navigator - and Nypp's twin, both third-litter - Tuq confirmed their trajectory. 'Bay eleven, engineer.'

Aall mewed. 'Prepare recompression.' She stabbed a b.u.t.ton on the communication's console near the command cus.h.i.+on. 'All crew. Observe respect. Queen Aysha's shuttle returns. Communications blackout now on-line. Queen's Guards to bay eleven. Engineer out.' Aall rolled off the cus.h.i.+on, and flicked her fur upright, straightening her tail.

She waved a paw at the comm's cus.h.i.+on. 'Jodi, you have the conn.'

A smooth-haired brown first-litter acknowledged and moved on to the command cus.h.i.+on.

Aall exited the bridge and walked towards bay eleven, down a short stairwell and pa.s.sed the mess hall. As she went by, the door-curtain swished aside as the Queen's Guard emerged, twitching their whiskers in deference to Aall. She followed them to the bay and waited for the green light to announce the return to oxygen and safe entry.

After a moment, there was a buzz and the voice of Tamora in bay control purred over the intercom: 'Shuttle returned safely. Atmosphere returned to bay.' The light flashed green and the door raised inwards.

Without hesitating to confirm the bay controller's statement, the Queen's Guard strode in, forming a neat flank on either side of the shuttle door. The door to the shuttle slid away and Chosan emerged, nodding almost imperceptibly to Aall. The Queen was fine - Lotuss had made no 188 attempts. Aall noted that all the Queen's Guards' rifle-blasters were primed. At a flick of her tail, their red charge lights were uniformly changed to green. Unless Chosan had swapped sides, everything was safe.

Queen Aysha was helped out of the shuttle by two of her guards and then the other Cat-People, including Lotuss at the rear, jumped out. Lotuss turned back and called into the shuttle, 'You can come out now. We're here.'

Aall twitched a whisker (but was glad to notice not one of the guard did likewise) in surprise as two aliens jumped out.

One, short, about Lotuss's height in fact, dressed in a baggy black jacket and checked trousers. The other was taller - but still shorter than any Cat-Person - with fair fur on its head. Both were clearly male but both - especially the smaller one - were by no means either idiotic or drugged as toms were on the s.h.i.+p or Feles, the litter-world.

'Anthropoid-toms,' muttered Chosan as she drew beside Aall. 'I'll explain later. Who has the bridge?'

'Jodi.'

'Excellent. Nypp and Tuq will be annoyed.'

Aall smiled back. 'I thought so.' She looked in the direction of Lotuss. 'Any problems?'

'Not at all. In fact,' Chosan put a paw on Aall's shoulder, 'we had a tragedy. We lost Jayde.'

Aall breathed deeply. 'Indeed. A sad loss to the Litters.

And especially Lotuss and her rebellious pride.'

Queen Aysha, having acknowledged her guard as befitted the occasion, had caught up with Chosan. Aall began to bow but Aysha spoke. 'Leave it, Aall. I want these two toms defleaed and brought to my chamber in twenty minutes.

Chosan, who can you leave on the bridge?'

Aall spoke up. 'Your Majesty . . .'

Aysha barely flicked her head but the message was clear.

She wanted Aall with her as well as Chosan.

Chosan licked her incisors. 'Jodi is there now. If we can keep Lotuss away, our only potential trouble is from Nypp and Tuq. However, their duties ought to keep them busy.'

189.

They pa.s.sed under the raised door, Chosan having to duck very slightly. 'These two toms are important.

Repulsive but important. Lotuss will seek to eliminate them even harder than she wants to kill me.' She called over her guard commander. 'Protect them, Nihmrod.'

'Your Majesty.'

'Could we not remove the problem of Lotuss now?' Aall asked.

Aysha smiled slightly. 'You underestimate martyrdom, Aall. Lotuss's direct supporters are few - the third-litter are merely grumbling. But destroy her and they'll rally, attach themselves to her first-and second-litter supporters.' Aysha flashed her eyes. 'But we'll set a trap that'll do the job for us - quickly, efficiently and without creating a martyr. A hero maybe, but we can live with that.'

Chosan hissed, 'Excellent, Your Majesty. When?'

Aysha shrugged. 'When do we invade this planet?'

'As soon as you give the word,' Aall said.

Aysha purred and licked a paw, then wiped her whiskers clean. 'Well, let's not bother restocking Lotuss's larder beyond the next few days.'

On their eventual return to London, Tim booked plane tickets for Sydney (she still could not understand how he could afford it for both of them) and then insisted on taking her shopping. 'A train ride's all very well, but arriving in Sydney looking like a reject from Mary Quant isn't going to enable you to hide in the crowd.' On impulse, he claimed, he took her to Austin Reed in Piccadilly and sat patiently flicking fas.h.i.+on magazines while Polly tried various jackets and skirts on. Eventually she chose the cut of a nice olive-green riding-jacket, pure wool of course, and a dark grey skirt that hung uncomfortably just below her knees. Polly preferred her own mini-skirt but she noticed that a majority of younger women were slightly more conservative in 1994.

Tim paid for the clothes with something he called a store card - if they were there on impulse, how did he have one with him? Polly was amazed: everyone seemed to be using 190 little plastic rectangles to pay, lots of different colours and shapes. She was fascinated by them, and the bleeps and whirls that came out of the machines they pushed them through. 'The average computer in 1966 took up a room the size of this shop,' Tim laughed. 'The black magnetic strip here,' he pointed to the back of his store card, 'is the equivalent of that in basic terms. It reads, digests, feeds and correlates information in the blink of an eye.'

Polly gaped. She didn't ask how. She didn't want to know.

'If anyone asks,' said Tim, 'say you've been away for a while. That'll explain your ignorance. And I don't mean that unkindly.' He slipped his arm through hers and gently eased her closer as they walked.

Polly did not mind. She liked his company and protection.

'I could say I've been at the South Pole since 1986 if that would help.'

'Credit cards are a bit older than that, Polly, but it's a start.'

They walked up Regent Street. 'It's busier,' she said, looking up, around and across at everything, 'but basically recognizable. Oh. Hamleys never used to be here.' She looked towards Liberty. 'It was nearer Beak Street, I'm sure.'

'Probably,' said Tim. 'Even the greats cannot avoid expansion and commercialism. Ever been to Carnaby Street?'

Polly gripped his arm tighter. 'Have I ever? I practically lived on Carnaby Street. Bette and I used to go every Sat.u.r.day and buy heaps of kooky things. I mean . . .' She stopped walking, ignoring the curse of the couple behind who nearly collided with them. Tim carefully eased her into a shopfront - Gap for Kids. 'I . . . I can't go to Carnaby Street, Tim. I can't.'

'Why not, precious?'

Polly suddenly felt very small. Very frightened. All around her, people, wearing strange clothes, reading strange books, eating strange food, using strange plastic cards to buy things, tiny coins of decimal currency everywhere.

Noisy, dirty buses with doors at the front that opened by 191 themselves. Taxis that looked like hea.r.s.es. People with tiny earphones in their ears, surely deafening themselves with what pa.s.sed for music in 1994. 'I can't cope with that, Tim.

Please, don't let's go.'

'But there's a great shop there. Buy you the best tops in London.'

'But it'll look different. I've coped with Euston station, all that concrete. I've managed that awful underground with that grafti -'

'Graffiti.'

'Whatever. Gosh, Tim, I even don't mind Hamleys moving a few hundred feet. But Carnaby Street - that really represents 1966 to me. It was my life. What if I meet Bette, or Kitty or Brenda or -'