***The Hills of Time***
***by George Pollock , Jr.***

***Chapter 5***
***A Little Touch of Catty***

   How long ago did I see you,  Mother ...?
   Years?
   Seems like it ...
   Or was it ... today?
   It was today ...
   So many things since then ...
   Oh, Mother ...
   I'm tired ...
   I am so tired ...
   I want to sleep ...
   And I can't ...
   You won't let me ...
   Duties ...
   I want to sleep ...
   And I can't ...
   You won't let me ...
   Not yet ...
   Slowly, Catty turned in her chair on the bridge and faced the dying 
captain in the cold.
   To begin her next-to-last duty.

*******

   Stardust.
   Beautiful word, Eluza thought.
   Ironic, for the death of a race.
   "Catty ...?" Her word floated past her blue-tinged lips in a puff of 
steam, then faded. The cold of space was in the ship, and the emergency 
lights were fading. Frost coated everything.
   Even me, Eluza thought.
   Cold. She would face the possibility of eternity in the cold a second 
time. 
   Damn.
   "Yes, Captain?" Catty's words puffed out, too. Her systems were still 
working. For now.
   The bridge was barely lit. Eluza, bundled in thermal wear and blankets, 
shifted slowly in the command chair. Much more painfully than the last time, 
Catty noted. 
   The end was close now, she thought.
   Eluza asked, "The others ... ?"
   "They went to quarters, as you suggested."
   "Good ..." Eluza saw the fading lights reflected in Catty's golden eyes. 
"You'll be ... last ..."
   "Yes. But even I will not survive." 
   "I remember ..."
   "My operating range goes down only to 200 degrees above absolute. My 
organic components will freeze before then, but my mechanical systems will 
continue at minimal levels until that point. Below that threshold, they will 
lock up. Eventually, I will freeze as well, Captain."
   "To ... death ...?"
   "No ... not as I understand that term."
   Eluza looked away. "Lucky ..."
   "I could be reactivated. But I doubt I would be revived by any Solnoid. We 
on the ship appear to be the only survivors. Of both races ..."
   "We won't ... survive ..." Eluza closed her eyes. Damn Journey, she 
thought. The insane bitch. Damn her Central Guard. Damn the Paranoid. Damn 
all their stupidity. 
   Damn our stupidity. 
   She shuddered. From cold. From anger. From sorrow. 
   "Damn them all ...," she whispered.
   Catty looked at the captain. The android's neural net was patterned from 
the synapses of her mother, so she understood Eluza's bitterness. She shared 
it.
   But she couldn't spare a tear.
   She needed all her electrolytes now. She had two final duties and needed 
her fluids to ensure she could operate. 
   But she understood. 
   "Yes," Catty said quietly. "Damn them all."
   Eluza breathed deeply. "Time ...?"
   Catty turned to the control panel at ops. It was dark. But dimly, the tiny 
red readout in the corner displayed a countdown. "Zero point five two hours 
before complete battery failure, Captain."
   Eluza's head, heavy with blankets, nodded. "Too short ... a  season ..."
   "Captain?"
   "Poetry ... " Eluza smiled. Barely enough strength even to smile now. 
"Catty ... want ... tell you
something ..."
   "What?"
   "Told the others .. before they went ... Told each ..."
   "I saw you going among the crew."
   Eluza shuddered again. This time, Catty saw it was intense. Deeply 
intense. Violently intense. 
   The shudder of those about to die from cold. 
   Eluza looked down at her legs. Catty saw fear on her face. 
   "Oh, Mother ...," Eluza whispered. "Oh, Mother in heaven ... My legs ... I 
can't ..."
   Catty got up and knelt in front of the captain. She folded back the 
blankets over Eluza's legs and rubbed the captain's calves through the 
thermal wear. "Can you feel that?"
   "No ..."
   "I'll keep massaging."
   Eluza reached out slowly and put a gloved hand on the android's head. 
"Thank you ..."
   "What did you want to tell me, Captain?"
   "... Catty ... Proud ... to have served ... with you ... friend ..." She 
took a breath. "Even if ... for a few hours ..."
   Catty stopped massaging for an instant, looking up into Eluza's purple 
eyes. She resumed rubbing and looked back down. "And ... I am proud to have 
served with you, Captain. We all are."
   A surge in the neural net. Damn it, she thought. Can't cry. Need the fluid 
for later. 
   Damn it! DAMN IT!
   Eluza sighed. "Knew ... one ... your sisters ..."
   "On the original Star Leaf. I know. Her record is part of the Catty 
central database. Can you feel anything now?"
   "No ..."
   Not good, Catty thought. There should have been some reaction by now if 
Eluza wasn't too far gone. Her circulation was failing. Catty would have to 
act soon. The rest of the crew would be in the same state. 
   Not much time.
   "I thought ... sister ... traitor ... Let me ... be attacked ... Paranoid 
... monster ..."
   "She was following Mission 21 directives, Captain."
   "Knew ... of 21 ... Been briefed ... Didn't think ... they'd try ... me 
... Hated her ... in last moments ...
Pain ..."
   "She sacrificed herself later to save Rabby, Patty and Rumy, Captain. She 
was programmed to preserve life, not destroy it." She looked up. "All Catties 
are."
   Eluza smiled. "Know that ... Learned it later ... Wasn't dead ... Coma ... 
Ten years ... in stasis coffin ... Space ... dark ... cold ... so cold ..." 
She closed her eyes.
   Catty stopped rubbing and stood. Dimly, she saw a tear slowly fall down 
Eluza's cheek. It hung on her jaw for a moment, swayed a little, then fell.
   It froze the instant it soaked into a layer of fabric.
   Now, Catty thought. Now.
   She pulled up her left sleeve and touched a panel on her forearm. The 
panel popped open, exposing a hypospray.
   There was still a chance at happiness, she thought. For all of them. 
   For all of us.
   Eluza slowly opened her eyes. She saw the hypospray. "Catty ...?"
   Catty pulled the fabric layers away from Eluza's neck. She lunged. The 
hypospray hissed.
   Eluza's eyes bulged. "Catty ... no ... NO! ..."
   "You won't die, Captain. By your Mother in heaven, I promise. You won't 
die."
   Eluza fell back into the chair. Another tear surged out of her eye. "What 
...?"
   "I am Catty. I am programmed to preserve life. Not destroy it."
   Eluza shuddered again, exhaling in gasps. "Catty ..." Then, slowly, her 
head sank to one side.
   The purple eyes closed.
   Catty listened carefully. Eluza's breathing faded.
   Then -- for all Catty could tell -- it stopped.
   The surge came again. Catty closed her eyes tightly. Her chest started 
heaving. 
   Fight it, she thought. FIGHT IT!
   But soon, in the darkness of her mind -- as if from far away -- she heard 
herself crying.

********

   Near the crew quarters in the heart of the ship, Catty saw fallen panels 
and cables. Buckled, torn metal. Soot from electrical fires. All being 
covered slowly with frost. When the emergency lights would finally die, she 
would have to switch to infrared. Even then, she knew, she couldn't function 
forever. The temperature now was below polar extremes on Marsus. 
   Eluza had stayed coherent longer than Catty expected. She remembered what 
her late sister, the Catty on the original Star Leaf, once said of the 
captain as a compliment:
   One hell of a lady.
   She hoped that the others loved life as much as Eluza did to fight the 
cold just as long.
   She picked her way past a fallen beam, turned a corner and saw the doors.
   Crew quarters.
   She pulled the hypospray out of a pocket. No need to conceal it now.
   A dull-metal tube with a nozzle and a reservoir. Infinizene 248. All Catty 
androids carried it. 
   One of our many secrets, Catty thought.
   It was a last resort if organic Solnoids couldn't get to stasis chambers 
or cryofreeze. In ultimate crises, injecting the organics with Infinizene was 
a Catty android's next-to-last duty. Even if she had to render an organic 
unconscious to do it. The drug lowered bodily processes to ultimate minimums. 
Unless a medical scan was made, the organic seemed dead. 
   Catty smiled grimly. You hoped that someone would scan you before they 
buried you.
   Gallows humor.
   She looked around.
   This gallows was once a spaceship.
   Infinizene's purpose was to conserve resources -- air, water and food -- 
until the organics could be rescued. That assumed there would be a rescue, 
she thought.
   She looked again at the destruction around her.
   But what if no rescue would come ...?
   Ever?
*******

   Catty knocked gently on a door. There was no answer. The android knocked 
again. Silence.
   She tapped in 7-5-7 on the keyboard. A tiny red display lit up: "Locked."
   Of course, Catty thought.
   She looked down at the hypospray in her left hand and sighed. With her 
right hand, she tapped in the lock-override code. The display turned green: 
"Open."
   One of our many secrets, she thought.
   The door opened slowly on the dark room.
   "Hello?"
   The darkness didn't answer.
   She stepped in, and the door closed behind her. Feeling for the switch on 
the wall, she turned on the light. A spartan decor greeted her in the feeble 
illumination. Nothing personal anywhere. Anyone could live here, and many had 
in the ship's life. Visiting brass and officials. Later, troops passing 
through. By the end of the war, you took whatever they gave you when you 
needed a ride.
   A sparkle caught Catty's eye. A full set of thermal wear was carefully 
laid over the back of a chair. The thermal boots were placed neatly next to 
the chair. The gloves were on a small dresser nearby. Next to them lay a 
datapad -- the one provided for those who used the quarters while aboard the 
Star Leaf.
   Catty knew that an organic would be dead at this point without thermal 
wear. 
   Horror struck her:
   What if it were Spea?
   She had altered Spea's brain waves to stop the twitching.
   But what if ...?
   What if ...
   It had done something else?
   What if ...
   Spea had gone mad?
   Quickly, Catty scanned the room.
   Over the top of the covers in the wall bunk, brunette hair showed.
   Catty walked over. Spea lay on her left side, her face toward the 
bulkhead. Catty touched the small woman's shoulder and gently shook her.
   No movement. No sound.
   The android rolled Spea onto her back. 
   And gasped. 
   A ghost looked back at her.
   Spea's face was almost pure white, the color gone but for the blue tinge 
of her lips and the tip of her nose.
   But not the white of freezing, Catty observed. There would be more blue.
   Only then did she notice the dark stain on the covers. It had been hidden 
by some folded fabric and shadows. It was centered on Spea's groin area, 
where something seemed to poke up under the bedding. The stain was a kind of 
brown-red.
   Catty pulled back the covers.
   And she gasped again.
   The sheets were bright red. 
   Spea's bandages were now solid crimson, with brown patches where her hands 
had bled previously.
   Her hands were clasped around a knife handle sticking from her abdomen.
   The slashed fabric of her uniform slacks showed that the woman had ripped 
her belly open from hip to hip.
   Catty knew the knife. Spea once told her of how she had been given the 
blade by a good friend who later died in battle, so she treasured it. 
   The same knife she had pulled on Lufy.
   The same knife with her now.
   Catty felt something welling up within her.
   Not fear. Or disgust. Or revulsion.
   And not even sadness.
   Not yet.
   Anger.
   "Damn ... you ...," she whispered at the corpse. Then she screamed it: 
"DAMN YOU!!"
   She whipped the covers back over Spea and closed her golden eyes. Feelings 
flooded her mind, blind-siding her with their intensity. After the anger came 
confusion. Angry confusion.
   Catty opened her eyes and looked at the white face on the bunk.
   "Did I save you ... for this ...?" she hissed quietly with a hint of 
venom. "How ... DARE  ... you ... How DARE you ...?"
   Spea was silent. And would always be.
   And what angered the android most was that only Spea could ever give her 
the answer.
   "Damn you ...," Catty said a final time.
   After a silent moment, she put the hypospray in her pocket. She slowly 
straightened Spea out on the bunk and searched for the halves of the zero-G 
belt. 
   All bunks on the Star Leaf had the belts. As the war had ground down, 
battering Solnoid vessels, you couldn't guarantee that artificial gravity 
would stay on all the time. There were anecdotes in the Catty central 
database about artificial-G giving out on some ships, resulting in bizarre 
meals, showers -- and latrine visits. The untidy conclusions in each case 
prompted the central command to order installation of the belts on bunks.
   But if you weren't asleep when artificial-G gave out, you still ran the 
risk of getting messy.
   And in this instance -- Catty thought after calming down -- it was respect 
for the dead to make sure they didn't bounce off the walls when the gravity 
finally gave out ...
   The android fastened the belt over Spea, then covered her body with the 
blankets and smoothed them out. Then, solemnly, quietly, she gave the woman a 
final salute.
   As Catty turned to leave, the datapad on the dresser caught her eye. There 
was something on the screen. Picking up the pad, she checked the display:
   "I have served the Solnoid race to the best of my ability. Now I die with 
it.
   "It was my mistake, and my fault, that killed this ship and its crew.
   "May the Mother in heaven forgive my sins.
   "Intelligence Officer Spea Holgren, Solnoid Lorelei Fleet."
   Catty wanted to cry. 
   Again.
   But she had shed too many tears on the bridge for the captain. No matter 
her feelings, she no longer could afford to lose fluids now. They were an 
absolute necessity.
   But there was something she could do for Spea ...
   She tapped on the datapad and struck out the second paragraph.
   You were unfair to yourself, Spea, she thought. It wasn't your mistake, 
your fault, that killed this ship ...
   It died because of a war no one knew how to stop.
   That wasn't your fault ...
   Catty returned the datapad atop the dresser. She gave Spea's covered body 
a final  look. Then she walked away, turned out the light and left.
   As the door slid shut behind her, she tapped the keyboard. The tiny red 
"Locked" lit up again.
   That makes it official, she thought.
   No matter the conditions of the others ...
   This ship is now a tomb ...
   The android looked down the line of doors ahead of her.
   She sighed.
   Now a tomb ...

*******

   The aroma of almonds.
   Damn, Catty thought.
   The scent greeted her when she opened the next door down.
   The sweet smell of death.
   I'm too late, the android thought.
   Again.
   Damn.
   The door slid shut behind her. In the weak light, she saw two closed-eyed 
figures -- still in thermal wear -- embracing in bed under the covers.
   Amy and Shildy.
   Catty checked their pulses under their open jaws.
   Dead.
   Of course.
   From their mouths, slightly, delicately, wafted the scent of almonds.
   Cyanide.
   Eternox.
   She looked around the room.  On the dresser, next to Amy's med bag, was 
the open black container with a narrow white band. Catty walked over, picked 
it up and smelled.
   A barrage of almond struck her.
   The android turned back to the dead women in the bunk and sighed.
   She was confused.
   I'm mostly a machine, she thought. I concede that.
   Amy ...
   I concede that ...
   But you and Shildy were "living" beings.
   And you chose death.
   Do I love life more than you?
   I don't know ...
   Mother ...
   I don't know so many things anymore ...
   Catty closed the container and put it in the med bag. She noticed the 
room's datapad nearby and inspected it.
   No message.
   How sad, she thought.
   They felt they had nothing to say about their lives ...
   She glanced back at the pair. Maybe their embrace was all they wanted the 
future to know about them.
   Interesting ...
   Still, for posterity ...
   She tapped the keys on the datapad:
   "Shildy Beausoleil, black-haired pilot.
   "Amy Rusnokova, brown-haired nurse.
   "Good friends who were like sisters to each other.
   "May the Mother bless them."
   Catty placed the datapad back on the dresser. Then she fastened the zero-G 
belt across their bodies, closed their mouths and covered them with the 
blankets.
   After a final salute, she left them alone.
   Amid the aroma of almonds.

*******
   I'm not alone.
   Or so Catty thought.
   But only for a moment.
   In the next quarters down -- Patty's quarters -- the android was surprised 
to see another living face looking at her. Just a face.
   Just a head.
   On a nightstand.
   Only then did she realize, in the dim light, that she was watching an 
image on a video screen.
   Moving closer, she saw Patty in thermal wear under her blankets on the 
bunk. The ops officer lay on her right side, eyes closed. Her body language 
suggested she had positioned herself to view the image comfortably.
  On the nightstand, a small video player held a datatag -- the red, white 
and black triangular badge that all Solnoids wore. It contained personal and 
medical data on the Solnoid who wore it. And it had a limited audio-video 
recording capability. In this case, it apparently repeated an image of Patty 
herself.
  No, Catty thought ...
  It's not, really ...
  The face was a close match to Patty's, all right  ... but seemed ... harder 
... more angular ...
  An inferior clone from the Wellington genetic base? Why would Patty watch 
an image of someone that was almost her -- but not ...?
  The Catty central database interrupted her:
   IT'S HER CHILD, BORN ON CHAOS.
   Damn it!!
   I hate when it does that, the android thought ...
   The database often interrupted her. It was her "subconscious," an 
automatic data search that monitored  her conscious thoughts and attempted to 
supply information not stored in basic-operating memory. After the 
information was used, it was returned to the database.
   So it could interrupt me again later, she mused ...
   WELL, PARDON ME ALL TO HELL. BUT YOU WERE WONDERING ...
   I know, Catty thought: It's your job. OK ... go ahead ...
   OH, MAY I ...? 
   The android sighed. It was difficult having a subconscious with an 
attitude ...
   INFORMATION IS FROM "EYES-ONLY" CLASSIFIED REPORT BY LT. COMMANDER RABBY 
CIERA, SECOND OFFICER ON ESCORT CARRIER "STAR LEAF" (ORIGINAL), TO CAPT. 
CATTY NEBULART, CHIEF OF SOLNOID INTELLIGENCE.
   SUBJECT ON SCREEN WAS CALLED "THE MALE." 
   SUBJECT WAS RESULT OF PARANOID NANOPROBE ALTERING SOLNOID PATTY 
WELLINGTON'S CELLS. 
   NANOPROBE WAS PART OF MISSION 21, AN ATTEMPT TO CREATE SOLNOID-PARANOID 
HYBRID RACE. 
   PURPOSE: A BUFFER RACE BETWEEN WARRING PARTIES.
   ALTERED CELLS AND NANOPROBE WERE REMOVED FROM WELLINGTON BEFORE GENETIC 
CHANGE COULD BE EFFECTED ON HER. 
   THE CELLS MUTATED AFTER REMOVAL, USING LATENT GENETIC ALTERNATIVE IN 
SOLNOID DNA TO CREATE A "MALE" SOLNOID.
   WARRING SIDES ATTEMPTED TO TAKE "MALE" AND "CONTACT POINT WELLINGTON" FOR 
GENETIC RESEARCH. 
   CIERA OF "STAR LEAF" FOUGHT ATTEMPTS. 
   ON HER OWN AUTHORITY, SHE DESTROYED CHAOS' TERRA-FORMING MATRIX TO 
ANNIHILATE PURSUING FORCES.
   THE "MALE" AND SOLNOID CADET RUMY FREEMAN WERE LAUNCHED IN LANDING VESSEL 
BLOSSOM'S ESCAPE POD TO NEARBY PLANET TERRA IN NINTH STAR SYSTEM.
   FATE OF PAIR: UNKNOWN.
   Thank you, Catty thought.
   HEY, NO PROBLEM. LATER ....
   She looked back at Patty. Slowly, she reached for the dark-haired woman's 
neck. Barely, she felt a pulse.
   Alive ...
   Thank you, Mother Nebulart ...
   Catty took out the hypospray and injected Patty with Infinizene in the 
neck. Despite seeming to be asleep, Patty emitted the tiniest moan, then 
settled into silence again.
    Catty gave a salute -- not in mourning, but in respect for the 
resourceful woman. Lowering her arm, she tapped a keypad on the video player. 
The "male's" image winked and disappeared. Catty took out Patty's datatag, 
closed the player and pinned the datatag on the thermal-wear jacket. 
   After the android fastened the zero-G belt around Patty, she tucked the 
covers tightly up to the ops officer's neck and drew the thermal-wear hood 
close to her face.
   Finally, she bent down and whispered to the unhearing woman:
   "Dream of happiness ... 
   "Dream of your child ...
   "... Good night ..."

*******

   IT'S AN ATTACKER'S MEDAL.
   I can see that, Catty thought. Why would they be holding such a thing 
together while they thought they were dying?
   LET ME CHECK IT OUT. BACK IN A FEW ...
   With that, the central database left the android alone in the frozen room.
   That wasn't quite accurate. Catty wasn't alone.
   She had felt pulses.
   Rabby and Lufy were still alive. Barely. 
   The first officer and the fighter pilot were together in Rabby's bunk, 
bundled in thermal wear and buried beneath blankets. Like Amy and Shildy, 
they were in each other's arms, eyes closed.
   Each had one arm out atop the covers. Together, they held the Attacker's 
medal. It was chipped and cracked -- unusual for so high an honor. Two metal 
links dangled from the end of the medal that stuck out above their clasped 
hands.
   Odd, Catty thought.
   The android also noted that Rabby had pulled her thermal hood back a bit, 
so the front half of her head was exposed. Her face rested against Lufy's 
head, which was similarly exposed.
   It looked as if Rabby had just pressed her lips against Lufy's right cheek 
...
   Very odd ...
   I'M BACK. MISS ME?    
   Just get on with it, Catty sighed in her mind.
   WELL, LOVE YA, TOO. GOT A PROBLEM ...
   What?
   I FOUND ONLY ONE REFERENCE THAT INCLUDED RABBY CIERA, LUFY CAMPBELL AND AN 
ATTACKER'S MEDAL.
   So what's the problem ...?
   IT'S FROM CIERA'S PERSONAL LOG. YOU KNOW THE RULES ON THAT SORT OF 
MATERIAL -- RIGHT OF PRIVACY, AND ALL THAT.   
   Hmm ... All right ... Accept override code Nebulart cosmic child 21.
   WHOA!! YES, MA'AM! RIGHT AWAY, MA'AM! DOWNLOADING MATERIAL NOW, MA'AM!
   Thank you.
   FORGOT THAT YOU'D KNOW SUCH A DEEPLY RESTRICTED CODE LIKE THAT ...
   Yes, I ... learned it from my mother ... Proceed, please.
   UM, RIGHT... INFORMATION IS FROM PERSONAL LOG OF LT. COMMANDER RABBY 
CIERA, SECOND OFFICER ON ESCORT CARRIER "STAR LEAF" (ORIGINAL). 
   EXACT DATE UNDETERMINED BUT RELIABLY FROM 10 YEARS AGO.
   A lot of records got lost toward the end of the war, Catty noted. Proceed.
   ENTRY FOLLOWS:
   The next voice surprised Catty.
   It was Rabby's:
   "Second officer's ... personal log ... Date ... um ... 
   "... Hell, I don't know ...
   "Another damn battle today ... Fighter crews gone ... Deck 2 crew all gone 
... Only six of us ... left on the ship ...
   "Seven ... An Attacker ... Lufy Campbell ... made a crash landing ... 
against orders ...
   "Lufy ... 
   "Oh, Mother ... Lufy ...
   "She's ... dead ...
   "Mother ...
   "Got orders to proceed to Chaos ... G-canceler gave out ... Dead in space 
... We were attacked by Paranoids at Alpha 12 ... Eluza ordered me and Lufy 
to ship's laser batteries ...
   "Lufy ... disobeyed ... went for one of the two remaining fighters ...
   "I stopped her ...Told her ... I wasn't impressed with her Attacker's 
medal ...
   "I was ... cruel ...
   "Told her that ... Attackers' wing pilots ... paid the price for medals 
... like hers ...
   "She tore her medal off ... threw it at the floor ... and ran off to the 
fighters ...
   "I picked it up ... and joined her ... in battle ...
   "G-canceler got fixed ... Eluza ordered us back to the ship ... Lufy's 
fighter got blown away ... but she fought on ... in a Struggle Suit ...
   "She ordered a Bronz-D ... to get my crippled fighter ... back to the ship 
...
   "The time to the light-speed jump ... was short ... too short ...
   "Lufy ...
   "She fought on ... She was still out there ...
   "Oh, Mother ...
   "WE LEFT HER THERE!! 
   "MOTHER!! 
   "WE  LEFT HER THERE!!
   "WHY DIDN'T SHE LISTEN?! WHY THE HELL DIDN'T SHE COME BACK?!
   "SHE STAYED THERE TO DIE!!
   "MOTHER!! TELL ME WHY!!
   "Mother ...
   "Oh, Mother ..."
   Catty shifted uncomfortably as Rabby's crying started to fill her head. In 
front of her, the redhaired woman whose agony she was listening to lay -- 
silently -- under bedding and a layer of silver metallic cloth. 
   At peace with the woman she had argued with.
   The android thought: Is there much more of this?
   NOT THAT MUCH. THIS IS PRETTY POWERFUL STUFF ...
   Shut up and get it over with ...
   ALL RIGHT ...
   Rabby's voice returned, sounding drained:  
   "(Sniff) ... Sat in my bathroom afterward ... Locked the door ... Just 
wanted to be alone ... away from everything ... Cried until my stomach hurt 
...
   "Felt like a stupid idiot ... for getting so worked up ... over her ...
   "Hundreds ... thousands ... die every day ... Solnoid ... Paranoid ...
   "What's another ... bitchy blonde ...?
   "But ... I still have her medal ...
   "I remember her ... every time I look at it ...
   "Her courage ...
   "I hate this war ...
   "I hate ... losing people like Lufy ... before I get to know them ...
   "I hate ... how hope dies ...
   "I want ... to die ...
   "I hope I die soon ...
   "Maybe ... I'll kill myself ..."
   Catty started. 
   That's enough! she thought. End entry!! END IT NOW!!
   ENTRY ENDED.
   Catty breathed deeply, trying to regain her composure. She felt moisture 
on her eyes.
   NO!! Can't cry!! Can't!
   Can't ...
   HEY .. YOU ALL RIGHT ...?
   The android wiped her gold-colored eyes. I'll be fine, she thought.
   OK ... LOOK ... IF YA NEED ... SOMEONE TO TALK TO ...
   I said I'd be fine ... But ... thank you ...
   NO SWEAT ... TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, OK?
   Thank you ... Goodbye ...
   CIAO, BABE.
   With that, the central database returned to its secret world within her, 
leaving her alone again.
   But again, not alone ...
   After a moment, Catty opened Lufy's hood slightly and injected her in the 
neck with Infinizene. She pulled the hood back over the Attacker's head and 
tucked the opening close to Lufy's face. The android noticed that the 
red-star tattoo on Lufy's right cheek had begun to turn faint purple as her 
body temperature had dropped.
   Catty leaned over the blonde's mute, unconscious face. "Dream of victory 
... and love ...," she whispered.
   Then she injected Rabby. The seemingly sleeping first officer let out a 
minute gasp and returned to silence. After arranging Rabby's thermal-wear 
hood, Catty fastened the zero-G belt around the pair and covered them to 
their necks with the blankets. She finished with a salute.
   She looked down at Rabby. "I'm very glad," she said softly, "that you 
didn't kill yourself after Alpha 12, Commander ...
   "I think you will be truly glad, too ... some day ...
   "Dream of happiness ...
   "Dream of life ...
   "... Good night ..."
   With a final sad glance at the women in the bunk, the android turned out 
the light and exited.
   Outside, she punched the keyboard. The red "Locked" indicator came to life.
   So, Catty thought ...
   The quick and the dead have been attended to.
   Well ...
   The organics have been attended to ...
   But there's another intelligence on this ship ...
   One that is not me ...
   I must see to see it ...
   I still have work.
   Oh, Mother ...
   I can't fight the obligations you've given me ...
   I want to ...
   But I can't ...
   I'm so tired ...
   I want to sleep ...
   And I can't ...
   You won't let me ...
   Not yet ...

*******

   It was time to wake the dead.
   There was no emergency lighting where Catty was going, deep where the ship 
had been cold the longest. There was no thought of heat left there. Very 
little of anything registered on her infrared vision. 
   Only thick blue images of frost.
   Damn, it's cold, she thought -- for the first time since the battle at 
Sigma Narse. She could feel her skin start to harden. Start to freeze. As the 
frostbite progressed unbearably across her skin, she would turn off her pain 
sensors in series. Her mechanics could finish her current task -- and then 
her final duty -- without flesh.
   Then -- when the cold finally shuts down my tissue regenerator, she 
thought -- I will truly be only a machine.
   Oh, Amy ...
   Did you  know how much you hurt me ...?
   Did you know ...
   ... before you died ...?
   But ... I hope not ...
   In my mother's name ...
   ...  I pray you had happier thoughts than that ...
   ... in your final instant ...
   The crunching of her boots on the deck's frost stopped. The place she 
sought was before her.
   Ordinary bulkhead doors.
   The grave of OX-11.
   She puffed out clouds of breath for a few seconds as she reflected. The 
higher autonomous functions of the Star Leaf's "brain" had been out of 
commission since the battle debris smashed the ship. Automatic regulatory 
functions -- life support, lighting, gravity -- had continued after kicking 
in on emergency circuits. The organics had assumed that the main computer's 
higher memory and processing had been lost.
   The organics were wrong.
   Mostly.
   True, the hardware that ran the higher functions was damaged beyond use. 
OX-11 would never function again.
   In that form.
   But there was another ...
   Catty stepped forward and forced her fingers into the frost-filled space 
between the door halves. The cold was shocking, and her fingertips screamed 
with needles of pain as her flesh froze solid instantly, even through her 
white duty gloves. For a moment, the android winced. Then in a reflex, the 
pain sensors in her hands turned off.
   Her fingers stopped screaming.
   She pulled her hands in opposite directions, closing her eyes to 
concentrate. She grunted as her arm and shoulder servos kicked into 
overdrive. Her synthetic muscles strained as she upped the energy pouring 
into them.
   A sharp cracking sound echoed in the darkness.   
   A fissure appeared in the frost on the doors.
   Catty screamed and pulled.
   And in a powdery shower of shorn frost, the doors snapped open with a 
metallic screech.
   Catty paused, shrouded in steam as she caught her breath. In normal 
temperatures, forcing open a door was easy. As readings crashed toward 
absolute, it was a chore. Even for an android.
   She looked inside.
   Dimly in the blue, she saw a hexagon on the far wall.
   The featureless face of OX-11.
   Below the six-sided screen on the wall were consoles and the operator's 
seat, crusted with cold. The chair was her goal -- or rather, the wide boxy 
base of the chair.
   One of our many secrets, the android thought. And one of our mother's.
   Catty knelt behind the frost-covered chair and inspected the base. She 
hoped that the release mechanism wasn't frozen shut.
   Only one way to find out ...
   In the darkness, a low hum arose. 
   From Catty.
   A well-modulated tone, increasing in volume but maintaining the frequency. 
She drew her face closer to the chair and touched the base, feeling the 
resonant vibrations getting stronger in the cold metal.
   She hummed louder.
   Louder.
   Louder.
   Come on, she thought, come on ...
   Catty increased the volume to her vocal synthesizer's maximum. The tone 
filled the dark, blue room until it seemed that the universe was that sound, 
enveloping the android, smothering her in the cold.
   Damn you! Come on!
   Come on!
   COME ON!!
   With a metallic burst, a camouflaged panel on the chair base popped open 
wildly and fell to the deck. The surprised Catty lost her balance and landed 
on her buttocks in the frost.
   Damn, that's cold, she thought. 
   And shut off her pain sensors there.
   She peered into the chair base. A boxy device rested within.
   Thank you, Mother Nebulart, she thought as she picked herself up. Reaching 
in, she grabbed  a handle on the device and pulled it out.
   A beige rectangular box with a single green indicator and a row of red 
indicators. It had the tiniest keyboard she had ever seen, as well as a small 
display screen. On one end was a small round opening, only large enough, say, 
to stick a finger in. Attached to the other end of the box was a coiled cable 
with a computer-interface head on the end.
   This is it, Catty thought.
   The auxiliary central processing unit.
   ACPU.
   Her mother's idea ...
   Capt. Nebulart, as head of Solnoid intelligence, figured that accumulated 
data from a ship's missions were too valuable to lose. So she had programmed 
the Catty androids to recover the data during ultimate emergencies, 
regardless of what had happened to the OX-11 computer.
   Or what had happened to the crew ...
   Of course, you hoped that the operator's chair wasn't destroyed somehow. 
That's why what Catty was about to do was only a task, not a final duty.
   She still had that to do ...
   Oh, Mother ...
   I'm so tired, she thought. 
   And now I'm cold ...
   She sighed. Well, let's get on with it ...
   She stuck an index finger into the hole in the box.  The hum of her 
building internal charge grew quickly, and soon, her eyes flashed. In that 
instant, the hard "THUMP!" of a power discharge escaped and rattled the box.
   The green indicator light winked into life. Immediately, a small whine 
grew from within the box, crescendoing into silence.
   ACPU was alive.
   Quickly, Catty went to the main OX-11 console. She studied the 
frost-covered controls, seeking the download port. Finding it, she snapped 
the interface head of the box's cable into the port.
   ACPU did the rest.
   It emitted a tiny beep, and a small display lit up on the tiny screen: 
"Downloading root programming and memory -- 0% 1% 2% ..."
   The android watched the numbers grow -- slowly at first, then gaining 
speed. On ACPU, the row of red indicator lights started to glow, one by one.
   My mother was a genius, Catty thought. She thought of everything.
   Nebulart had designed ACPU. It had a data-compression rate that equaled 
that of an entire OX-11 system. It was, in fact, an entire miniature 
mainframe. Perfect for storing and manipulating vast amounts of data in a 
small space until it could be retrieved.
   Whenever that proved to be ...
   Catty started.
   Dear Mother ...
   When would this data be retrieved?
   What if no one was coming to retrieve it?
   Ever?
   What if no one would ever come to retrieve ...
   ... me ...?
   Oh, Mother ...
   Did you think about that ...
   ... ever ...?
   Catty watched the numbers approach 100 percent. And sighed.
   I guess my mother didn't think of everything, after all ...

TO BE CONTINUED