“Sorry, Doc,” Anders apologized. “I just…I can’t believe this.”
“Here’s more evidence,” Scott said. “Like I said, I’m not a forensic expert, but I know enough to check under fingernails—or claws, in this case. These images are magnified. I’ll show them to you unenhanced, then enhanced. See what I mean?”
“That’s blood, isn’t it?” Jessica said quietly. “Blood and—” She made a little gagging noise, but went on, “Blood and flesh—I guess doctors call it ‘tissue.’ That’s easier. Blood and tissue.”
“Right. Needless to say, I analyzed it. Treecat blood. Treecat tissue. Some treecat fur. All three of the dead ones show indications that they were fighting other treecats. I haven’t tried to type for specific individuals, and I’m not sure we need to.”
“And Survivor?” Anders asked. “Was he fighting, too?”
“Oh, yes. I’m afraid he doesn’t get a free pass. Survivor was fighting, and Survivor lost. My guess is that he was left for dead. He was close enough.”
“Valiant must’ve heard him,” Jessica said. “That’s why he went tearing off. Survivor must’ve regained consciousness, been lying there calling for help, but no one came. No one at all.”
Her voice choked up, and Anders had to bend his head to hide the tears that came hot and unbidden to his eyes.
“Look,” he said. “I know the jury’s still out on the range of a treecat’s mental abilities. But I think all of us here agree that not only are they powerful empaths, among themselves, they’re probably telepaths. We’ve seen Valiant and Fisher—who aren’t related to each other or to Survivor—giving Survivor a huge amount of support, practically willing him to live. How could creatures capable of such compassion fight each other? Wouldn’t it be impossible?”
“I would’ve thought so,” Scott said. “I thought that among treecats we’d finally found a sentient species that had no need for war. Why should they fight when they’re capable of perfect understanding?”
“Yeah,” Jessica agreed. “So something has to have gone very wrong. We found the bodies near where the fires had been pretty bad. I wonder if the two things are related?”
Scott nodded. “I wondered the same thing. Survivor and two others were very thin, as if they’d been on short rations. The other male wasn’t exactly robust, but he was in somewhat better shape.”
“Oh!” Jessica said. “I hadn’t exactly forgotten, but I’d been waiting to bring this up until a better time. These three treecats weren’t the first dead ones we’ve seen. There was another one. He was pretty skinny, too.”
“Another?” Irina looked startled. “Where? What did you do?”
“We recorded images,” Anders said. “Then we buried it.”
Quickly, bouncing the story back and forth between them, Anders and Jessica told about finding that first dead treecat.
“We didn’t mention it,” Anders said, “because there wasn’t anything we could do. Also, because we didn’t want anyone—up to and including my dad—”
“But especially those blackhole x-a’s,” Jessica added.
“—taking the body back to some lab,” Anders finished. “I mean, the anthropologists might be arguing about their status, but as we saw it, the treecat was a person and deserved some respect.”
“Can we see the images?” Scott asked. After he’d reviewed them, he went on, “It’s hard to tell from an image, but that ’cat does look on the skinny side. I’d like copies.”
“Sure.”
Jessica was clearly excited. “What if the fires have physically stressed the treecats to the point that they’re susceptible to some disease? A disease might affect their empathic abilities.”
“Or just make them crazy,” Anders added. “One of Dad’s hobbies is looking at old legends in a medical context. There was a disease on Old Terra called rabies that made the victims become very violent and afraid of water. Animals could get it, too. There’s some evidence that hallucinogens and parasites on domestic crops contributed to outbreaks of belief in witchcraft. Stuff like that.”
“So maybe the treecats are eating things they shouldn’t be,” Jessica said eagerly. “Maybe stuff they wouldn’t usually eat, but are eating now because they are extending their foraging range. We know they eat various fungi. Valiant even cultivates it on trees near our house. Maybe they ate some bad mushrooms.”
“Or maybe,” Irina said quietly, “they’re just competing for territory or food. Let’s not rush too fast to assure ourselves that treecats have escaped our human failings. No matter how hard it is to accept, we need to keep that on our list of possibilities.”
“So what do we do next?” Anders asked. “I mean, do we tell anyone? Do we try a food drop?”
Scott considered. “How much right to we have to interfere? Fighting like this might be part of their natural life cycle.”
Jessica snorted. “Valiant and Fisher didn’t seem to think Survivor should be left for dead. Remember, Valiant’s the one who showed us where to find him.”
“But we’ve got to be careful, whatever we do,” Anders said. “I don’t think those x-a’s are up to any good. I’m sure they’d put this into the worst possible light.”
He paused, then shrugged. “I’d like to ask Stephanie’s opinion.”
Jessica frowned. “Me, too, but isn’t she in the middle of exams?”
“Yeah, but I think she’d be furious if she knew something about treecat culture that might help us and we hadn’t asked her.”
“I agree,” Scott said. “All of us are seriously committed to treecats, but I think Stephanie—well—thinks of herself as part of Lionheart’s family.” He bit his lower lip, clearly searching for a better way of expressing himself. “I’m certainly deeply attached to Fisher’s clan, but when Fisher and I met, I was an adult. I wasn’t a lonely only child.”
Jessica nodded. “I like Valiant’s people, but I have the impression he’s a bit of an oddball among them. I mean, he’s a gardener among ’cats who are mostly hunters. And I have lots of brothers and sisters. So, yeah, I’m with you, Anders. Let’s tell Stephanie and hope we don’t mess up her exams.”
Irina smiled. “I think she’ll be fine. Maybe an A or two instead of an A++, but at her age, she can afford to lose a few percentage points.”
* * *
Usually, Jessica and Anders messaged Stephanie separately, but this time they sat side-by-side, so they wouldn’t forget anything. After giving the background, they moved to speculation.
“There’s a lot we’re worried about,” Anders said. “Especially what caused this. Scott doesn’t leave any room for hoping that anything other than treecats did these killings.”
Jessica took over. “Here our our theories: disease, insanity, eating something like bad mushrooms, competition over territory.”
“That last has to include the possibility of war,” Anders said, “no matter how disgusting the idea is.”
Jessica nodded. “Yeah. We’d love to hear if you have anything more to add.”
“We’re attaching a bunch of images,” Anders went on. “Some are kind of grim, but you and Karl have been studying forensics, so we figure you’re up to them. One thing that’s bugging all of us is the dead female. From what you’ve implied and Scott has seen—”
“And, me, too, with Valiant’s clan,” Jessica cut in.
“—females don’t seem to hunt much. I know you were in bad shape when Lionheart’s clan came to help you, but were there any females? We’re trying to get any information we can that might help us find patterns, but for obvious reasons—”