The Slender-Fingered Cats of Bubastis by Xanna Eve Chown

Author:Xanna Eve Chown [Chown, Xanna Eve]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Big Finish Productions, Ltd.
Published: 2012-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

I hand’t really planned on going to Babastis; because the Lonely Universe Book said that it was inhospitable and the locals had no appatude for tourism. But there was all that stuff in teh papers, wasn’t there? Then the ship I was on had to stop for emergency repairs, so I got out and had a look round anyway. I give it 2 stars out of ten.

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Tulip Fawcett

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

GIRLS’ DORM

Ruth awoke to find the compound almost deserted. She wandered the corridors looking for life and found Allie alone in the canteen, eating a large slice of chocolate cake. The surrounding tables were littered with plates of half-eaten food and empty mugs, and several balls were still scattered around the pool table as though the people playing had been forced to leave mid-game.

Neon had insisted that everyone went deep into the swamps to do some kind of prayer ceremony for the Dean, Allie explained. She had stayed behind because she felt a bit sick. Yes, the chocolate cake was helping. Had the weird-looking guy with the pointy ears and the older lady gone too? No, they’d gone to look for Mina. No, it was fine, the Bal weren’t on a killing spree, they weren’t in any danger.

Ruth’s head was still throbbing painfully and, although she would have gone out to rescue her friends from hordes of murderous insects without a second thought, she was quite relieved that she didn’t have to at this very moment. She sat at one of the windows in the canteen, watching a small rain of dead beetles fall outside. The tiny glistening bodies were making little heaps on the boggy ground.

‘No idea why they do it,’ Allie said, when Ruth asked. ‘Just a beetle thing.’ She seemed to have about as much interest in the fauna of Bubastis as she did in the Dean’s death: Neither were as important as her cake.

It was obvious that the girl had no real desire to talk, but Ruth couldn’t help trying to start a conversation. Her brain was still tingling with inaccessible information; it was an itch she couldn’t scratch, and talking helped her to ignore it.

‘So, are there really no mammals on Bubastis?’ she asked.

‘Not one,’ said Allie, through a mouthful of chocolate icing. ‘Bugs, bugs, bugs. That’s why the Cats are so weird, yeah?’

‘Yes,’ said Ruth. ‘Is that why you’re interested in them?’

‘Well, I suppose so, right? Because it’s like a mystery. And we’re going to be the ones to unravel it.’

‘Oh, you are?’ Ruth couldn’t help grinning at the girl’s certainty.

‘Yeah, Neon says so. She’s pretty much solved the mystery already, but she’s keeping it a secret until we find the evidence to back it up.’

Ruth decided not to question, for now, the dubious nature of fitting the evidence to the theory rather than vice versa. ‘How did you meet Neon?’ she asked.

‘At college on Altan,’ said Allie, through a forkful of cake.

‘You went to college with Neon?’ asked Ruth, puzzled. Allie couldn’t be more than nineteen.

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