Chapter 9

It started as a joke.

"You know who SHE is, don't you?"

Sarah looked up from her textbook. Lily sat there, grinning, eyes motioning over Sarah's head. She didn't need this interruption. She was behind in Quantum Math to begin with, between the treatments and therapy. Her family told her not to worry, not to put more stress on her body, but ... to not ace the next test meant repeating the year, falling behind her friends. The very friends who were trying to distract her with...

What the hell. Sarah turned.

She saw her. Red. Red fur. Nobody had red fur. At least, no one that she had ever seen, in her life or on the screen. Was it dyed? Couldn't be! From her bearing, and the simple blue dress, the woman had to be a teacher, or researcher. Not a student, certainly not someone young like her that might play with colors on a whim.

"Who is she?"

Lily grinned across the library table, brown furred face smug. Lily was always smug. Annoyingly so. Reaching a clawed finger up, she scratched her long face.

"You don't know?"

Sarah groaned.

"No, I don't. I'm busy here. If I had any idea who by the Acorn of Knowledge that was I'd be ignoring you and doing some actual studying. Now, who is it?"

Smug grin even worse, Lily leaned back in her chair, hands folded in her lap.

"She's a follower of the Insane One."

The rumors were too outlandish not to be true.

The 'Insane One', some called her. The 'Mad Scientist'. The 'Furred Freak'.

She Who Saw.

Whenever Sarah heard the whispered tales, she felt sorry for the woman. Empathetic, even. After all, SOMETHING had happened. Something ... strange.

She had been, was, a scientist. A researcher. Brilliant. Everyone agreed on that. Incredibly observant, intuitive, Not one to stay put, though. Always looking for the next problem to be solved, the next unknown her mind could dive into, she had cut a path through the world of the most cutting edge scientific endeavors. As one project started to bore her, or more often as the truth began to become apparent to her and her colleagues, she moved on. Always staying one step beyond the Known.

Her last major project, last government funded experiment, had involved one of the most massive instruments known. Planetary in scale, it was constructed as a series of hollow spheres, one inside the other. At the center, at the core ... the attempt to peer beyond the universe.

She had been behind the fundamental ideas, the foundations of Multi-Reality Theory. While not an engineer, she had helped design the key sensors and test beds. Her fame, although never officially used as such, was a recruiting tool, bringing the brightest minds in M'ntsn space to her. Women, for all the hard sciences were the domain of the female sex, flocked to be with the one changing history. Other species tried to join, offering funding, expertise.

But, no. This was for the furry tailed M'ntsn.

What happened next ... well, that was the thing. If the Insane One was to be believed, then she was not insane. Thus, what DID happen? Something, certainly. Into the central chamber went the most decorated intellectual in her species history. Out came ... a zealot.

What is known is that the P'aqt research facility literally imploded as she fled through the station. The work of years, resources that would take the planets decades to recover ... gone. So too, all data. All hope of understanding. The pride of their culture now preached insanity, of knowing the unknown. She did not, however, preach to the masses. Did not rail against the government now demonizing her. She allowed herself to become a pariah.

She did not, though, vanish.

Slowly, rumors spread of a small band of young women, students, researchers. Responding to some siren call. She Who Saw gathered them, taught them...

"See? You aced it. Why were you worried?"

"I aced it because I WAS worried. Studying your tail off does help, you know."

Sarah shook her head. They'd never understand. Lily, the others. They never ... applied themselves. Not beyond what was needed for the now. Dedication. That's what was needed, to get anywhere. Not that she knew where she was going...

"Besides," she sighed, stopping as they exited the exam building to rub her leg, "what did I get by passing? A chance to go through five more years of this? Ten?"

"Whine, whine, bitch, bitch." Lily's face was unsympathetic. Once again, the question of why they were, in fact, friends crossed Sarah's mind. Rooming with someone shouldn't automatically grant that status. Lily suddenly perked up, reaching into her bag. "Oh! Almost forgot! I know what can take your mind off of things!"

"Roasted nuts?"

"This!"

Sarah took the small piece of paper. It was an ad, torn off of some wall or tree where it had been nailed. She frowned, reading it.

"See. Listen. Learn." There was an address, too, a small pub in a quiet part of town. She looked at Lily. "OK, what is it?"

"I THINK, based on what I've heard, and you would too if you'd actually listen to the gossip, that it's a meeting run by that red furred doctor. About, you know ... HER."

Her.

Sarah looked at the paper again. Suddenly, her leg didn't ache so much...

"If they're recruiting, it's a failure so far."

Sarah ignored Lily, taking in the pub's small back room. Food had been set up, although not much, just some of the more common (and less expensive) nuts. They had been late getting there, the Blain monorail not running due to a track problem. Others may have had similar problems, but ... yeah, the room was sparse. Maybe fifteen young women, university age, most in pairs like she was. There was one single there, though. Light brown fur, with a tail mostly white with a brown stripe down the middle...

She knew her!

"I'm going to try and find the litter boxes, then something to drink," Lily told her. One glance told Sarah the drink was going to be more important than keeping her company here. She made a motion with her hand.

"Go. I'll be fine."

"Later."

Just like that. Drag her here, then abandon her. She needed a new roommate.

Sarah's eyes went back to the familiar face. Hedva. She had not seen her former tree mate since ... since before university. What a small universe...

"Sarah!"

"Hedva!"

They grabbed each other's hands, grinning like the idiots they were. Sarah's eyes immediately went to the side of the woman's face. The scar earned as a child, a lesson to pay attention while jumping branches, was gone, just a slight discoloration of the fur. She saw Hedva glance down at her left leg. She resisted the impulse to take a step back.

"Your leg! How is it? I heard!"

"Oh ... it's..." she blushed a bit. Talking about herself was never one of her strong suits. "It's fine. The treatments went well. The growth, they think, is gone this time. Why are you here? Didn't you go off to... ?"

"My exams finished, so I came back. As for why I'm here ... same as you, I think. I want to know."

Sarah scoffed.

"Don't we all..."

The room went quiet around them. Entering the room, from a door that she would have guessed led to either the kitchen or the bathrooms (speaking of which, where was... ), the red furred woman moved through the gathering. She was regal, or at least self assured. Her eyes seemed to meet everyone's as she passed. Sarah blushed a bit at the contact, which was rewarded with a knowing smile. She was younger than Sarah would have guessed, maybe not long out of university. Her outfit was no longer the blue of her profession, but a simple white, baring her arms with moderate cleavage. The dress fell just past the knees. Coming to the front of the room, she turned, facing them. With a motion, she bade them come closer.

"We are few, so there is no reason to be shy." Her voice ... was unremarkable. Sarah blinked as she complied, Hedva staying with her. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting. Why shouldn't someone with red fur speak normally?

"There, much better. This will be short, a disappointment perhaps given the distances some of you have traveled, but there are reasons. We have a Way." You could hear the capitalization as she said the word. Sarah put her hands together in front of her, ready. Now would come the unbelievable sales pitch...

"We are not interested in having you join us." Sarah's eyes widened a bit, a murmur going through the room. "Neither are we going to tell you anything you need to know about us."

" ... the fuck?" The whisper came from somewhere behind Sarah. The woman nodded in acknowledgement.

"More true than you know. My name is Miriam. I ... I am a servant, a servant of the She's who will not be named here. You have gathered here, some of you, because you know. Because you know you wish to know what is known, what can be known. You wish to experience, to help bring about..." She paused, as if contemplating the right word. " ... the sensualness of what can be."

That made no fucking sense.

"If you are one of us, you will know, and knowing, will know knowledge. Thank you." Miriam bowed her head.

Wait ... that was it? Sarah looked around. The others were equally confused. She looked around for Lily, still not seeing her. Well, naturally not. If she thought she'd need a few drinks before listening to this nonsense, there's no way she'd be done yet. People were leaving. Angry, amused people. Reactions ran the gamut. Shaking her head, she looked at Hedva ... she was moving towards the front of the room, as were two or three others. Not sure why, other than the excuse of staying with a friend, Sarah followed.

"Sorry for abandoning you."

"No problem..."

"I mean, as I was squatting down in the box, I had the sudden thought, 'what if this is some brainwashing thing?' My old G'al'k warned me about that. One of the few things I remember from Temple, actually..."

"It's OK. You wouldn't have liked it."

The monorail continued its journey. Looking out the window at the passing night, Sarah fingered the small slip of paper in her pocket.

The second meeting was two towns away, in a hotel not quite cheap enough to be affordable by the students gathered there but close to that bad. Sarah came alone this time. Her roommate thought she was ... well, at this point she didn't think Lily thought much. Hedva was here, though, smiling at her as Sarah entered the room. Two others she recognized from the first meeting. The other ten ... strangers, but like them young students. They smiled shyly at her, apart from the one black and brown furred girl with a strip shaved between her ears. She scowled.