Diamond looked at the rats for a long moment. They couldn't be that smart. Really, just couldn't --
"How?" he finally said.
"Chit implant that passes pictures straight to the brain." That was Alyna. "We'd been training them in associations already. Also, the distinction between good and bad. I worried that someone might try to grab them. So we are 'good,' and others are 'bad,' and they should keep away from them. When I asked where the bad people were ... well, it worked better than I hoped."
"And the battle bots?" Diamond asked.
"Even easier. Alyn gave orders to disassemble the primary controls and hide the parts. Alyn and the Rats have been playing hiding games ever since they came aboard."
Diamond nodded. He nibbled a cookie and looked at Alyna again. She shrugged. "They must like us to bring their favorite cookies to share."
He did not get a warm spot in his heart just then. Really.
It was not going to be easy to take out all seven invaders without others being warned. Even if communications went down, the ship was not so large that yells wouldn't draw attention. Diamond was also aware of his aching shoulder. They needed something to give them an edge.
The others were already spreading out and would get off the Starfire if things went bad. Alyna stuck with Diamond, though. They were heading for the controls, but he stopped her at the first curve.
"Does Alyn still have those night goggles? Diamond asked.
Alyna gave him the brightest smile he'd ever seen from her. "At last, something he's bought that might be useful. Well, besides all the stuff for Mik and Min. Wait here."
Alyna hurried off before he could protest. Standing around didn't sound wise, so he opened the closest door -- Dyna's room as it happened. He had purposely not thought much about her or Smarl. He did not look at the walls with pictures or the bed that had not been made. It did not help. He stood next to the door and listened until someone arrived and paused.
Alyna -- she'd dropped Alyn's flashy jacket off -- looked annoyed until she glanced past him to the room. Her face changed.
"I have the goggles," she said and held them out.
"You should wear them," Diamond said and touched his shoulder. He'd been doing his best to ignore the pain. "If they try to get away, disable them. If they try to kill us, do what you have to. I assume Mik and Min are already at work?"
"Any moment now. I sent warnings to the others."
This was why he liked Alyna. She thought of those pesky little details. The ship went dark in the next breath. In fact, everything went silent, too, as the ship went entirely dead.
Then the little guys switched the ship from planet gravity to zero gravity.
People screamed. Diamond cursed and grabbed at the wall, hoping for a handhold. Alyna sighed.
"I must not have made that plain enough. You know, I think they've panicked," Alyna said from somewhere ahead of me.
They weren't the only ones. At least Diamond could hear Alyna and knew she had the goggles. They were getting closer to the others, who didn't sound any less panicked.
"There's some alien creature in here!" a man shouted, his voice probably three octaves higher than it should have been. "Something small with fur! Get out of the way! I'll kill it!"
"You fire blindly, and you'll kill us!" the woman in charge snarled. "Just -- something bit me!"
People began firing. In the odd flashes of light, Diamond could see Alyna near the opening to the crew's lounge. Mic and Min were heading straight for the exit, moving as though they were creatures born to zero gravity. Alyna had her weapon up and ready, but Diamond had the feeling they would not need it. The others were shooting each other while Mic and Min swam through the door and grabbed hold of Diamond. He held them tight.
Alyna took his arm, and they backed away. One of the Rats jumped to her shoulder and held on. The other stayed nestled up against my chest. Min, he thought.
"Good work, guys," Diamond told them.
Min gave me a kiss on the chin.
Within an hour, it was over, and the Cyber rats had reset in ship gravity back to normal and turned on the lights and in-ship systems. The loss of Smarl and Dyna became obvious now as they locked up the group in the now-empty rooms -- Alyn cleared them out, and the rats made sure the doors could not be opened except by Alyn or Diamond. It was odd because he suspected even Alyna wouldn't have been able to do it. He might have to take lessons from the rats.
The crew met up in the lounge. They looked caught between elation and disbelief. The rats were handing out treats. They knew who liked which kind, too. That was just bizarre. But Diamond took an oatmeal cookie with a nod of thanks.
"What do we do with them?" Diamond finally asked.
"We keep them!" Alyn said indignantly. "We know they can be trained, and --"
"The people we have locked up, Alyn. Not the crew. But just so you know -- yes, we keep them."
He'd made Alyn very happy. Mik and Min, too, from the looks of things. Hell, the entire crew, including him, looked brighter for the news.
"If you mean the humans, we keep them locked up and take them back to Fisher, along with whatever they dragged into the ship," Alyna said.
"Prototype engine of some sort," Quince said. "I'll look it over while we track down Fisher. No, I won't take any of it apart, but scans should tell us a few things."
"Good. Get to that. I don't want to head off-world if the thing is too dangerous to transport. We better check on the people running the port."
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