Chapter 25

Freyja and Odin, the latter of which carried Sprinkles firmly in his hands, hurried after Kira-217 as the cyborg woman unlocked the gate and entered the property as if they owned it. Behind them, Sam continued to film everything the group was doing, occasionally whispering to his Chat. Freyja was surprised he was able to keep his phone relatively stable while filming, though he did nearly drop it when the six bikers shooting the breeze in the shade of the front yard next door snapped to their feet and moved toward the short chain link fence between the yards. Their body language: shoulders square, eyes low, jaws set, was unmistakably pissed off.

"Hey! The fuck you think you're doing?" One of them shouted.

Freyja and Odin froze a few feet inside the yard but Kira-217 continued on, unperturbed.

"As I was saying before we left the Armory, we need to assemble the Unit now we have a suitable Commander," they said.

"The fuck are you doing at Miss Kait's house?" The biker shouted again, reaching behind himself to his waistband.

He's got a gun. Don't move, Freyja said via the Link.

He's dead if he shoots the Probe, Odin replied.

"I'll eat the body!" Sprinkles shouted.

The Brothers of Fervor all turned their attention toward Odin and the wiggling kitten in his arms. It didn't take long for the man nearest the fence to pull his gun and aim it squarely at the aliens. The rest of the gang members followed suit.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck," Sam chanted softly while hiding behind his phone like a blast shield.

Kira-217 stopped walking into the yard and turned around. They smiled softly and tilted her head. "Really, boys. You need to put those away before someone gets hurt."

"That cat just fucking talked," the lead biker said.

"I did! I love how scared Humans get when I speak. Maybe following Tradition was a mistake. This is great! I'm going to eat this one first!" Sprinkles cheered as he squirmed.

Odin held on to him more tightly.

Kill him if he makes a move on the bikers, Freyja ordered across the Link privately to Odin.

Understood, he replied.

She didn't like the idea of killing a cat, but the worm, Stymie, had already obliterated the original Sprinkles. If Odin eating him was what it took to stop them from being shot by bikers then so be it. The little shit was expendable.

"No one's going to eat anyone," Kira-217 said, stopping a few feet from where Odin and Freyja stood.

The lead biker didn't know who to aim at as he tightened his grip on his handgun. He settled on aiming at Kira-217, despite them looking every bit the soccer mom one would expect to see at a public park with her kid. They smiled again and sighed.

"Really, Laurence. A gun is not necessary. We're here to see Kait and her colony," Kira-217 said.

"She ain't here and you're not touching those cats," Laurence shot back, sweat dripping down the side of his face from the summer heat. The rest of the gang members kept their weapons trained on Odin and Sprinkles, but continued to glance between them and Kira-217.

It's a cat colony, Freyja said.

They're likely Hive members, Odin replied. I should eat Sprinkles now, correct?

Wait. You do that and they'll start shooting.

There wasn't really a good move. The stand-off was being broadcast, so it was only a matter of time before one or more of Sam's viewers called the police. Assuming they were able to figure out their location, anyway.

"Alright then. You want to play with guns? Mine's bigger," Kira-217 said with a light chuckle.

Shade covered both yards so suddenly that birds resting in the surrounding trees took flight. Laurence and the rest of the bikers lost their breath as they looked up, and up to the air behind Freyja, Odin, and most importantly Kira-217. Two of them dropped their guns entirely. Sam panned across everyone and then up as well. Freyja squared her shoulders before turning along with Odin to see what everyone was staring at.

"Holy shit," Sam squeaked.

Suspended in the air just above the gently swaying trees and roof tops, floated a ship, far larger than what Freyja had understood a Local Probe should be. No, this was some sort of warship, armed to the teeth with a variety of guns. Some of them were Hive origin, others things the Hive had taken over their long course of conquering other races. Most disturbingly were the weapons she knew Odin didn't recognize.

That shouldn't be planet-side at all, Odin said before quickly sending her a packet of information about Hive weapons and ships that was far more detailed than what she'd gleamed from him before.

While he knew it was a long range deep space gunship, he still didn't recognize two of the guns trained on the bikers. They weren't Human, nor were they anything the Hive had encountered before. He had been rather high ranking and privy to all classified data pertaining to Hive technology and invasion plans, or so he thought.

"Now, everyone, let's just wait for Kait to get back from the store. She's almost here," Kira-217 said.

The Brothers of Fervor lowered their weapons and continued to stare at the floating ship up until the point that it vanished again. Freyja hadn't realized how much the air temperature had dropped from the shade until the full brunt of the summer sun was baking the area again. Had the Probe been following them with the ship the entire time?

Probably, Odin said.

"Probably what?" Sprinkles asked. He was no longer squirming but neither Odin nor Freyja wanted to let him free. The feeling was strong enough across the Link that they didn't bother to say it.

"She just turned at the light," Kira-217 mused.

Freyja didn't like being on defense like this. Being dragged around by Kira-217 and left in the dark reminded her too much of the Old Man. Sure, it wasn't the same, but he had a manipulative side beyond his physically and verbally abusive ones. Like a six-sided die of awfulness. She needed to take a stand.

"Was she close enough to see your gunship?" Freyja asked.

Kira-217 shook her head. "Oh, no. Not at all. We only de-cloaked the side facing everyone here. Even if she was close enough to see that body, it would have remained invisible."

Freyja narrowed her eyes. "What are your pronouns? I don't want to misgender y'all."

"'She and her' work. Two Seventeen uses 'it' but doesn't seem to mind 'she and her.' Since there are two of us we also don't mind 'they and them' but not in the same way as the Commander who's on the way. They're just a solo they," Kira-217 explained.

"Odin's not the Unit's Commander?" Freyja asked.

"Of course not. Neither of us would trust a member of the Hive with this operation." She paused then leaned to see around Freyja and Odin, through a gap between them and Sam. A gray van rolled down the road toward them. "Oh good. She's here!"

Everyone remained where they'd been as the van pulled up next to Freyja's car and parked in the driveway behind the gate. A short woman with shoulder length bright red hair got out. She hesitated at the gate, eyeing everyone, especially Sam who had stayed outside the fence and continued to film with his phone.

"What's going on here?"

"Kait, it's good to meet you in person. We spoke on the phone, I'm Kira. Don't worry. We'll help with your groceries. Then, we have a lot to talk about," Kira-217 said.

"Kira? From the spay and neuter clinic? What's going on?"

Freyja took a step forward. "The fate of the world depends on your cat colony."