Chapter 6

"If she asks if you're a god, say 'yes'."

Justin shifted his eyes around. Nobody really reacted. Daium did, though, nod her head in agreement. With a sigh, he let it go. Melinda would have gotten the joke. Probably Chuck, too. What was the point of making obscure geek jokes, if nobody was going to react? Laughs or groans, didn't matter. It probably didn't help that the movie in question wasn't among those in the store when they vanished, and thus was lost forever so far as they were concerned, but, still. The Bullwinkle thing got chuckles...

He set his attention back to the task at hand. A strange red furred squirrel girl was prostate on the store floor, hands outstretched, tail arching over her back. She was dressed in a white ... well, shift might be a good name for it, cloth barely longer than mid-thigh and cut short in back to allow room for the tail. Sexy, in a slave girl kind of way. If you were into animals, which he wasn't.

Anthony, dressed as they all were in their "away mission" uniforms, knelt down on one knee in front of her. Alicia, standing behind him next to Hannah, was scanning the room, hand down where her holster would be if she was wearing it.

"People are starting to look. We should take this elsewhere."

"Agreed," Anthony said. Justin noticed that every use of English seemed to send tremors through the squirrel. Anthony seemed to see it as well. Reaching out, he touched her head between the ears. "Sit up."

The girl shot up. Her legs were bent under her, trembling hands clutching furry bare knees. Her long face, with its black almond eyes on either side and brown nose at the end, looked down at the floor. Human like breasts, under the white fabric, heaved. Anthony stood.

"We have to talk, but not here. Do you know someplace close?"

Justin could see her eyes dart back and forth, mind racing.

"I ... we have ... a room. Close."

He noted the use of the word "we". The others did as well, exchanging glances. Hannah motioned Danny to move closer to her daughter, while she stepped up to Anthony's side.

"Take us."

Chuck whistled an early Metallica song as he moved the hose over to the next flower bed.

There were a number of amusing things about his current activities. The first, naturally, was the silliness of watering flowers during a rainstorm. The clouds, and their resulting downpour hitting the arching dome overhead, were so dark and thick he had turned on the spotlights on top of the store. Lightning flashed, and you could hear the thunder and pouring rain despite the thick shell. The very fact that Chuck was using a hose was also rather silly. After all, not only could they easily have installed sprinklers to water their expansive collection of exotic plants, but the bottom recesses of the ship had whole rooms full of droids. Any number of them could be modified to water and tend the garden, even though you might have second thoughts about having one perform personal grooming. But, the key to survival was keeping busy. The garden was as much to give them something to do as anything else.

"Oh, field hand! I need a drink refill!"

And, naturally, keeping busy kept one from killing various females.

He was tempted, very tempted, to use the hose on Melinda. Filling her glass from twenty feet away could be seen as an honest attempt at serving her. But, alas, there was the baby nursing with her to consider, as well as Rinda and little Jeli on the bench. Rinda had not annoyed him yet, although the day was still young. Nope, there was no way he was going to spray his lovely wives and children with water.

Naturally, he thought, turning to aim the hose a foot away from the bench, there was no reason they would know that...

Their driver did not bat an eye when the Bells crew returned to the bus not a half hour after entering the mall, accompanied by another alien. He expected nothing else of foreigners. The address they gave him was a mere four blocks away. They could have walked, not bothering him. But, again, they were soft aliens. Lighting up a cigar as they once again exited his vehicle, he sighed. What could he do...

They paused, out of the rain again at least for the moment. Alicia looked above. The ceiling on the ... well, driveway into the building, was an archway made of brick. She had seen buildings like this, in movies: a large, ugly structure taking up an entire city block, but once you traveled through the tunnel in one side you came upon a bright courtyard park with stairs and terraces leading to a hundred apartments or whatever on all four sides. Up ahead, their view showed them the first three levels on the opposite side, with three more unseen above that. The courtyard itself seemed to have more weeds than plants, although nothing would look good flooded as it was. She wondered if the rain ever did stop.

The slugs kind of hinted the answer was "no".

Her eyes went to their "guide". There was no trust to be had here, naturally. Not yet. Their position in the universe was much too fragile. They needed to get whatever information this fluffy tailed girl had, and get back to the ship so they could plan. Doing anything without the input of Chuck, Rinda, and even (though it pained her to say it) Melinda, was foolhardy. They all looked at the world from different enough points of view that someone usually saw the flaw in any plan.

Alicia liked finding flaws.

She felt movement inside her. As Justin was the father, she always pictured her baby just quietly reading a book in the corner of the womb. Recent crankiness on the infant's part, though, was causing her to think her side was going to be more dominant. Given stories her mother had told at about every gathering where the subject of children came up, this was not a good thing.

Another kick. She looked over at Justin.

"Baby's getting cranky. Can we hurry this up?"

Alicia felt Squirrel Girl's eyes on her. She flicked her eyes at the creature, causing the thing to cringe back a bit. For some reason, that made her feel better.

Umbrellas up once again, they made the not quite dash into the courtyard, and up the stairs. Anthony, despite the inner need to do this quickly, before the attention of some unknown bad thing fell on them, kept to an Alicia and Hannah friendly pace. The protective side of him wished they had been sent back to the ship. Who knew what they were getting into. But, that would have involved yet another splitting of the group. They were too divided as it was.

On the fourth landing, the newcomer led them down the row of wooden doors. It definitely looked like a motel, or maybe very small apartments. The place was not in good repair. The railings were rusting, with orange paint peeling off (the color change was an improvement at least). Down below, weeds grew up between paving stones. There was no sign of life, either. Kind of made sense, if this was a motel type place, as who would be in their room in the late morning. He'd expect some mothers and children to be around otherwise, though.

The red furred girl stopped in front of a door numbered 415. There was a window to the left of it, curtain drawn. She turned to him, seeming to struggle for the right words. She was nervous as hell.

"This ... is our room."

He nodded, motioning for her to enter. Her face almost seeming to blush through the fur, she pulled a string necklace he hadn't noticed before out from under her outfit and over her head. Fitting the metal key at the end into the handle lock, the door clicked. Seeming to brace herself, she opened the door and entered. Anthony quickly followed, Justin a step behind.

The room was small. It looked like every motel room Anthony had ever had a hookup in, if a bit dingier (hey, he had standards). One double bed, unmade, was against the far wall. It obviously had been pushed there, judging by the marks on the brown rug. The walls were an ugly yellow, ugly enough to distract him as he entered. It wasn't until he heard the voice that he noticed someone was already in the room.

"Miriam!"

It was another squirrel, naturally. This one had black fur, with a tinge of grey on the chest and tail, and eyes of a sparkling brown. She had been lying on the bed nude, reading something, but sprang to her feet on their entrance, breasts bouncing. Seeing those following her companion, any further words died in shock.

"Sarah! Speak only the holy tongue!" The one they now knew was called Miriam ran to her companion, practically shoving her down to her knees. Dropping down next to her, she looked back at Anthony. "We are yours to command, oh Lord!"

Anthony paused. He recalled Justin's joke. Despite the lessons of Ghostbusters, they had to be careful here. Nona, for one (and there were probably others), would get seriously pissed at any impersonation of godhood. On a more practical level, a comic book story he had read as a kid, long forgotten, had popped into his head. Two Spanish conquistadors had come to a South American city, claiming to be gods. As they were about to be killed, they said they could blot out the sun, and sure enough the eclipse they knew was coming happened.