Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Furry Trouble

If I am this little thing, why am I here?Holloway thought.Small animals are not particularly complex creatures. No matter where they are in the universe, they always think about three things: eating, sleeping, and having sex.Holloway reasoned that the latter two items could be ruled out.In that case, eat. He looked around at the mess in the cabin, the plate by the sink on the kitchen counter where he put fruit, covered with a plastic cover to keep the little bugs out of the place.After the commotion, the plate was moved but the cover was still on.It contained two apples and a pendi - a local fruit that was shaped like a pear but tasted like a banana.Apples and Pendi are not perishable, that's why Holloway keeps them.

Holloway walked slowly back to the kitchen, his eyes fixed on the little furball, only daring to turn his eyes away for a second or two to lift the cover of the fruit bowl.He went to grab the apple first, but after thinking about it, he took the Pendi.Pendi is the fruit here, and the furball is the animal here.He had never heard of apples being able to eat dead alien creatures before, but why take the risk. Holloway opened the drawer and took out a knife, and the little fur ball shrank visibly when he saw the knife.Holloway lowered the knife and quickly cut the pendi into four pieces, only to remember that the pendi was a soft and juicy fruit, spattering his hand with its pulp.He didn't care about this, and put the knife back in the drawer with exaggerated movements, and closed it, and cleaned it up later.

The furball seemed to relax a bit, but Holloway made it tense again as he walked towards the bookcase again.The little thing was in the top corner of the bookcase, and Holloway walked in a wide circle to the other corner of the bookcase, well out of reach of the animal.The furball curled up there, staring at Holloway without blinking. Holloway picked up a Pendi, popped it into his mouth, and chewed and chewed slowly, with obvious satisfaction, watching the cat, and the cat was watching him.He swallowed it and put another Pendy in the farthest corner on top of the bookcase. "That's yours," said Holloway, as if the animal could understand what he meant by talking about the animal.He put the last two Pendi on his desk, then turned his back on the cat's big gesture of not being able to see, and started to clean up the mess in the cabin.

Holloway didn't know if the little thing understood what he was feeding it, or if he even liked Pendy.If that thing is really like a cat, it should be a carnivore.Well, Holloway still has some lizard steaks in the freezer, so I'll try that later. Part of Holloway's brain cells, the part that thought it was wise, was yelling at him.Are you crazy?Feed wild animals?They're yelling like that, you should open the door and let Karl throw them out of the cabin.Not when the lizard comes in! Holloway couldn't explain it for a while, only to say that for some reason, the creature intrigued him.Zara 23 is mostly reptiles, and mammals are rare on this planet.Seriously, Holloway really didn't remember seeing any mammals, not real ones, and none as big as this one in the database, so he'd have to check the database again.

But it was the animal's behavior that most intrigued Holloway.The little furball was clearly terrified, but it didn't panic like a frightened animal.It seems to be smarter than the average wild animal, especially on Zara 23. Holloway really doesn't think that native species have evolved any advantage in terms of brain. Also, the little thing looks like a cat, and Holloway has always liked cats, and the rational villain in Holloway's brain slapped the virtual forehead violently, helpless. Holloway folded the papers he had picked up, stapled them together, and placed them on the desk, looking up at the little furball.It was busy munching on pendi, as if it had been hungry for days.Hungry indeed, Holloway thought.He bent down and turned over the spare message board on the floor, nervous that the display would crack, or worse.The result was beyond his expectations, and the information board seemed to be safe and sound.As soon as he turned it on it started up and everything was functional.Heaving a sigh of relief, Holloway turned back to look at the little furball, which happened to have finished eating the fruit.

"You're lucky it ain't broken," Holloway said to the little one. "If you break it, I'm afraid I'll have to let Carl eat you." The furball (of course) didn't say anything, but kept looking back and forth between Holloway and the remaining two pieces of pendy.The little one was obviously still hungry, and was trying to figure out how to get around Holloway to Pendy's.Holloway leaned forward, picked up the smallest corner of a piece of pendi with only his thumb and forefinger, and slowly shook it towards the animal. "Here you are," Holloway said.

Ha, this is good.Said the sensible person in his mind.Now's your chance to catch Rabies on Zara 23. The little furball also had doubts about the new development at the moment. When the fruit slices delivered to the door arrived, it shrank back. "Come on, come on," Holloway said to the little one, "if I wanted to kill you and eat you, I would have done so." He shook the piece of fruit again. After a few seconds, the little fur ball moved forward cautiously, apparently hesitating, and then grabbed the fruit piece with both hands.It was indeed a hand.Holloway noticed that there were three fingers on it and a long thumb - lower in the palm than a human thumb.In the blink of an eye, Holloway's two little hands disappeared, and the little thing jumped back to the farthest corner, chewing on the pendi, keeping his eyes firmly locked on Holloway.

Holloway shrugged, turned away again, and knelt on the ground to collect the scattered books and folders and put them back on the shelves. After tidying up for a few minutes, he felt like he was being watched.He looked up, and the little furball was looking down at him from a height and winking at him. "Hi," he said to the little guy, "finished? Do you want more?" The little guy opened his mouth to answer, but he didn't make a sound.Holloway saw the little guy's teeth, nothing like a cat's, more like human teeth.Omnivore, said a voice in his head, not his own, but someone he used to know well.Hearing this voice, he had an idea.

Holloway stood up and walked to his desk.He took off the beanie hat that was resting on the surveillance camera, and straightened the surveillance camera—Carl had bumped it sideways while chasing the cat.The surveillance camera has a full-angle image sensor that captures images in every direction except directly below—which is blocked by its own stand.He picked up his spare message board, mounted the stand, turned it on, and set it to display live feeds from the surveillance cameras.Then he picked up the last piece of Pendi and handed it to the little furball.The little thing is not too afraid of Holloway now, so he stretched out his hand to pick it up.

"No," said Holloway, putting the fruit slice back on the desk.He raised the chair from the ground and arranged it so that after the little fur ball got off the ground, it could climb up the chair to get the fruit. "If you want it, take it yourself," Holloway said.He put on his beanie hat and walked to the door of the cabin, opening just enough for himself to get out and not to let Carl in. Carl was very dissatisfied with this, and shouted at Holloway in frustration.Holloway patted his dog on the head, then walked to the ship.He reached in, took out his message board, and activated access to surveillance cameras.

"Let's see how smart you are," he said to himself.He adjusted the video to show the panorama of the cabin. For the first few minutes, the furball did nothing.Then it began to climb down from the bookcase, much slower than it swished up.For a split second, Holloway couldn't see the little thing, the desk blocking the floor.As the chair moved slightly, a kitten-like face poked out, looking around for the piece of fruit. It spotted the fruit, then suddenly showed a vigilant expression, and then hid and disappeared.Holloway snickered: the little one just saw himself on the spare information board in front of the fruit.Holloway wondered if the thing could recognize itself in the mirror, or in this case, if it could recognize itself in a mirrored film.Looking at the reaction now, it didn't recognize it at first, but Holloway has been frightened by himself in the mirror a few times, and it will be interesting to see what happens next. The little guy poked his head up again, this time he was much more cautious, and slowly observed the "other" little furball.Finally it clawed and dragged itself onto the table and crawled towards the information board.It stooped down to look at the board carefully, and waved a hand, as if to verify whether its shadow would follow suit.After a few minutes of fiddling with it, he turned away contentedly from the information board, clutched the piece of pendi with both hands, sat on the edge of the table, dangled his little feet, and gnawed at the fruit—it recognized itself. "Congratulations, your IQ is now officially on par with dogs," Holloway said.Carl looked up when he heard the word "dog."Holloway knew that the comparison was unlikely to hurt the dog's feelings, but that his imagination was too rich. Holloway played back the video of the furball, recorded it, and activated the surveillance camera recording.He put away the information board and went back inside.This time, he opened the door and slipped in. Carl outside the door was even more unhappy. The little furball saw Holloway coming in, but it didn't move, it didn't even stop swinging its calf and kicking its feet.Apparently it judged Holloway not threatening.Carl barks at the animal through the window.The cat glanced at it casually, and continued to eat its fruit.It knew Karl couldn't get through that window, and it wasn't a threat just yet. Carl is still barking. The little fur ball put down the fruit, retracted its two legs from the edge of the table, carried the fruit and walked to the window.Carl stopped barking, not understanding what the little thing was trying to do.The cat sat down just a few millimeters from the windowpane, met Carl's gaze, and very deliberately ate the fruit under the dog's nose.Holloway could have sworn it was chewing with its mouth open on purpose for Carl to see. Carl barked like crazy, but the little furball didn't move, eating and eating and blinking.Carl went down from the window, and within two seconds, he heard the sound of Carl's head hitting the dog door.The manual lock is still locked.A few seconds later, Carl poked his head out of the window again. Although he didn't bark this time, he was obviously annoyed by the little fur ball. "That's a very small thing for you," Holloway said to the cat.The little furball looked back at Holloway, then continued to stare at Carl, and finished eating the fruit. Holloway decided to try his luck again.He walked to the desk and opened one of the drawers.The cat watched him curiously without moving.Holloway produced a dog collar and a dog leash.He almost never wore them for Carl, but sometimes they both had to wear them when they went to Aubreytown.He closed the drawer, walked to the door again, and walked out sideways before Carl had time to run over from the window.Holloway walked over to the dog, put the collar around Carl's neck, and buckled the leash in front of the little thing. With the dog in a collar, Carl looked up at Holloway, as if asking: What the hell are you doing? "Trust me," Holloway reassured Carl, "stand still!" Karl was quite unconvinced, but it was trained.A dog who can wait for instructions to detonate explosives certainly knows how to obey its owner's orders.The boss came down reluctantly from the window and stood next to Holloway. "Stay still," ordered Holloway, stopping as far as he could straighten the leash.Carl didn't move.Holloway looked at the little furball, which seemed to see all this with great interest. "Sit down," Holloway said to his dog.Carl looked in the window for real now, and then squinted at Holloway, as if to complain: Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the newcomer.But it sat down anyway, whimpering almost inaudibly. "Get down," Holloway said.Carl fell to the ground sadly.It lost all face. "Stand still." Holloway gave the order again, and Carl got up and stood next to its owner.Holloway did not take his eyes off the furball, and the furball watched the play from beginning to end.Holloway wrapped the leash around his hand so that Carl could stay close to him and started walking towards the cabin door.The little furball watched carefully, but didn't move. Holloway opened the door and stood outside with Carl for a while.Carl was ready to lunge through the door, but Holloway yanked it, forcing it to stand still.Karl complained a few words but quickly calmed down, it understood what it was going to do. The two of them walked in the door slowly, the little fur ball was still on the table, its eyes widened but it didn't panic. "Good dog," Holloway said to Carl, leading him straight to the desk. "Sit down." Carl sat down. "Get down," Holloway said.Carl gets down. "Turn around," Holloway said. Holloway swore he heard his dog sigh.Carl rolled and lay there on all fours, staring at the cat. For a moment, the little furball sat still, looked at the open door, and at the dog on the ground.Then it went to the edge of the table, slid down and jumped onto the chair.Carl tried to roll over and stand up, but Holloway had his hand on his dog's chest. "Stay still," he said.Carl didn't move. The furball slid from the chair to the floor and landed within a foot of Carl's nose.The two animals looked at each other curiously, the cat looked up and down at the lying Karl, and Karl, sniffing desperately, tried to analyze every molecule in the smell of the little furball. The cat moved a little closer, then cautiously put a hand up Carl's nose.Holloway secretly added some strength to the hand that was pressing on Carl's chest, and then squeezed the other hand that was wrapped around the dog leash to prevent Carl from overreacting. The kitten touched Carl's nose, withdrew its hand, touched it again, and stroked it repeatedly for several seconds.Judging from Carl's reaction, it wagged its tail slightly. "As I said," Holloway said, "look, it's not too bad." Carl turned his face away, stuck out his tongue like lightning, and licked the drool all over the face of the little hairball.The little guy backed away quickly, hissing angrily, trying to wipe his face clean.Holloway laughed, and Carl wagged his tail even more. The little furball suddenly raised its head, as if it heard something.Carl jerked around, but Holloway held it down.The cat opened its mouth and neighed for a while, as if out of breath.It looked at Holloway, then at the door, and then ran out of the cabin and disappeared. A minute later Holloway took the collar off Carl, and the dog sprang to his feet and chased him out the door.Holloway also straightened up, pacing leisurely to follow. The dog stopped at the edge of the platform, looked up at the high thornwood canopy to the east, and flicked its tail.Holloway guessed that their guests had already walked in that direction from the platform. Holloway called Carl back to his side, went back to the cabin, and gave the dog a biscuit as soon as he entered the door. "Good dog," said Holloway.Carl wagged his tail and dropped down to enjoy its reward. Holloway walked to the desk, picked up the information board, and checked the visitor's video.Now he was sure he was the first person to have seen such a creature: if anyone had seen it before, such a friendly and intelligent creature must have been kept as a pet by now.It's time for various breeders, pet shows, and fur ball food advertisements to appear.Holloway was thankful that his greed didn't go in that direction at all.Pet breeding is too much work for him and he doesn't like it. Even so, finding a mammal of this size that had never been seen before was significant.The significance is not for Holloway, who has difficulty making money from it; nor is it for the Zara Group, whose interest in local flora and fauna is basically limited to digging up the dense silt deposited by the remains of animals and plants and extracting resources therein.But Holloway knew someone would be interested in the little furball.Wacky little furballs are her specialty. Holloway saved the video, closed the file, and smiled.Yes, she must be very happy to see this video. The only problem is that she doesn't know if she is happy to see him.