Jen thought she heard Tye's voice. "Damn that last Irish coffee," she muttered as she rolled over on the poolside chase longue toward the voice.
Finally managing to open her eyes, she saw Angstrom on John's chest poised to attack Barney sitting atop of his lounger.
"We have got to go, now!" Tye pleaded, pulling on John's foot hanging over the edge of the chase. "We are leaving," she said just as Angstrom made his move and leapt over John's head for the parrot. The bird let loose a piercing squawk and narrowly managed to escape less a tail feather that flittered down squarely on John's nose.
Smiling at the primitive drama that just played out and propping up on one elbow Jen asked, "Tye, what's wrong?"
"I do not have time," she said, clearly exasperated.
Concern mounting, Jen saw Tye grow more terrified as she continued to try to rouse John.
"I'm sorry," Tye said to her just as John blew the feather back up into the air. "We are going Minus," she said and then vanished with John as the feather floated gently down onto the chase.
Jen checked her sat-chron, 0903, and then looked around. Some partygoers were up stretching and there was a short line at the poolside shower. She heard what could only be a Kharg's snore coming from a poolside cottage. And a Higgs was up, appearing focused on the Sojourn monitoring equipment.
A whiff of velvety coffee caused her quickly to turn to see Sara attending the Breeze's coffee maker or the Machine as regulars called it, filling bins and drawers with condiments.
"Sara," Jen called to her.
"Good morning!" Sara said with a grin. "How's the head?"
"Tye just took John to Minus," Jen said anxiously joining Sara at the bar. "She was terrified of something."
"Tye left four or five hours ago with Mick, Clare, Prophet and a Higgs," Sara said. "Come to think of it, they did leave suddenly. I wonder what's up."
"I might have the answer," Higgs said as he joined Sara and her at the bar.
Jen noted the yellow, Plus pin on his collar.
"Everything okay?" Jenny said coming up behind Higgs.
Jen did not know where to start. "Rodney," she asked, "you know what's happened?"
"Mick and Clare came to get Tye," Higgs said. "She was angry; she didn't want to go but then changed her mind and insisted that Rodney had to go, too."
"But why?" Jen asked.
"I think I can venture a guess," he said. "It's the very fabric of the universe. It's collapsing, degenerating," he said pointing to the Sojourn monitor behind him.
"Ces!" Sara called out looking for her across the pool.
"Ces insisted they take her with them," Higgs said. "Mick was worried Amhrán and Turas Luath wouldn't be able to take them all if they waited any longer. Then they all translated."
"Sam!" Sara yelled into their house.
"They left us," Jenny said slowly while looking at Jen.
"They must have a plan," Jen told her and then looked at Higgs, who just shrugged his shoulders.
"What's all the commotion?" Sam said joining the now large circle of most of the remaining party guests.
Everyone looked to Sara.
"Okay," she said, "The universe is degenerating. Mick, Clare and Tye made transit out of here with Prime Rodney and Ces, who apparently refused to stay behind. Tye just returned, terrified and took John to Minus."
Plus Higgs cleared his throat. "The monitor indicates not only is the Sojourn weakening at an exponential rate but the universe is as well," he said. "The unusual thing is the exponential rate itself. It is a high-order, fractal polynomial. It's also the same, theoretically, used to describe a dark-energy flux." He paused and then added, "That's Rodney's work, not mine."
"Probably why they needed him," Sam said. "And the connection to the universe ending?"
"Although a dark-energy event could not, theoretically, last long enough to significantly damage the universe's fabric," Higgs said, "there is another possibility. The Navis' null space implosion could have caused a temporal hiatus, a tear in space-time. If there was a high-powered transit during the implosion, the combination could create a dangerous feedback loop or rip. A rough calculation indicates the event may reach a threshold necessary for infinite implosion in a few days, five maybe at most."
Everyone kept looking at Plus Higgs.
"TRs use dark energy," he explained in a whisper.
"I thought all the dark matter theories have been debunked," Jen said.
"That's different," Higgs said, but offered nothing else.
Carl took a mug of coffee from the line of mugs Sara was forming on the bar. "So there must have been a high-powered transit unfortunately timed to coincide with the time of the Navis' destruction."
"Must have been the missing leadership," Billy Lutzger said thoughtfully. "The First Officer was unaccounted for."
"What kin be done?" Benny asked.
"We're stranded here and now without the Family," Jen said.
Sam sat down his coffee mug. "Okay, let's all get a shower and have a quick breakfast. And there's a lot more coffee," he said with a nod to the nearby urn. "One-hour max. We meet back here and re-form this creative circle."
Jen, standing next to Sara, just barely heard her whisper to herself,
"Fuck. Not another creative circle."
Jen had to admit she felt much better and refreshed after a hot shower and some eggs, but mentally, John's disappearance was taking its toll. She, Jenny and Billy had made short work of the breakfast dishes. As they entered the bar from Sara and Sam's house, Jen could see the rest of the partygoers arranging chairs, bar stools, loungers and pool floats into a circle. A table with the Sojourn monitoring equipment was in easy view off to one side next to the sauna. Several coolers filled with ice, fresh fruit, and various beers, including root were interspersed between the seating. Another small table held Luca.
Most of the group was in the circle already. The adult Khargs just sat next to the pool in a large gap between chairs. Sporadic, loud snoring disrupted an otherwise peaceful South Padre morning; the teenage Khargs were still sleeping.
Jenny, Billy and Jen took the last three empty chairs in the circle.
Sam gave Jen a nod.
"Okay," she said, "everyone is up to speed on what we know. Any more thoughts on what can be done?"
"Rodney," Carl said, "can we figure out when and where this tear is?"
Higgs slowly shook his head.
A peripheral flash caught Jen's attention. Benny pressed an old Zippo to a huge joint held by the former cull master. The Kharg passed it to Benny after two tokes. Benny took his turn and handed it back to the Kharg.
"Let's take stock," Jen suggested. "Does anyone have any hi-tech with them?"
Higgs injected, "What we need, we don't have and can't get in the year 2000."
Jen surveyed a circle of dejected faces.
"Wife has key," the former cull master squeaked through a bluish haze. "Wife has key," he repeated after no response and pointed to the necklace around his mate's neck.
"The cull master's key," Billy explained.
"Think the Leadership that created the rip is still alive?" Jenny asked.
"The Leadership and this rip are probably in Minus," Carl said,
"given that's where Tye said she was taking Doc."
"Getting back to the cull master's key," Billy said, "could we kill them with it? That's got to help the situation regardless."
"It would still transmit to their Synth if the key was in Minus,"
Higgs said, "but with the threshold approaching, I'm not sure of the signal strength. It might just poke the Synth enough to give them a bad headache."
"I'd be for giving them a bad headache," Jen said.
"Yeah. Me, too," Jenny said to nods from the others as Angstrom followed closely by Dotty ran through the center of the circle.
Angstrom peeled off to hop in Jenny's lap, and Dotty jumped up on the Kharg's shoulder and into the lingering haze to stretch then yawn.
Jenny continued, "But we've got no way to get it to Mi—"
"Maybe we do," Jen injected looking at the cats.
"Dotty never does what she's told," Sara said, "but I'm sure she understands every word."
"What we got ta lose?" Benny added.
"I'd throw rocks at tanks," Sam said, "if there was nothing else."
Sara clutched his arm tightly.
"Is he wearing a collar?" Jen asked reaching over to pet Angstrom and confirming there was one under his thick Maine Coon mane. "Luca, have you monitored how many fractime trips these kitties made since yesterday this time?"
"Approximately one hundred and fifty-two and only as a pair," Luca reported.
"Okay," Jen said, "Angstrom does travel fractime with his collar, so we can send the key with him, that is assuming Dotty and Angstrom can find John."
The Kharg's wife took off the key and cord and handed to Benny to pass around to Jenny. Jenny slid the key off the cord and then passed it to Higgs.
Billy said, "There's a small panic button in the center of the device.
Depressing it for more than a few seconds will activate any Synth in its proximity."
"Can you rig it to transmit continuously?" Jen asked.
"Just some duct tape wrapped around it to activate the pressure switch should do it," Higgs said. "There seems to no power supply to worry about," he added.
Sara got up and then tossed him a roll from behind the bar.
He wrapped a thin strip of the tape around the key several times then handed it back to Jen, who attached it to Angstrom's collar.
"Now the maybe the biggest problem of all," Sam said, "who can tell two cats what to do?"
Murmurs and mumbles confirmed that most of the team understood their obvious problem, but had no answers.
"I can ask Angstrom," Jenny said. "He's usually eager to please.
Aren't you boy," Jenny said rubbing behind his ears. Angstrom appeared to confirm the plan by a louder purr.
"Ces would be the logical choice, but I will attempt to make the request of Dotty," Luca said.
"Anybody have anything to add?" Sam asked.
The circle was silent.
Jenny picked up Angstrom and turned him around to face her on her lap. "Angstrom, go find John," she said.
Angstrom quickly flicked the end of his tail.
"Boy, go find Doc," Carl added.
"Find the captain," Higgs offered as Angstrom jumped in the middle of the circle, joined by Dotty.
"Dotty," Luca said. "Help Angstrom find his companion, John Mackinac."
Dotty walked over to inspect Benny; rubbed against his shins, but soon ignored him. The cat sauntered back to Angstrom to rub chins, touch whiskers and then both vanished.