Alien Proliferation

Jeff’s.”
    “Yeah, yeah. Through my father.” Jeff tried to hide that he was petting Harlie and Poofikins from me. I decided to be nice and not point it out.
    “Fluffy is Chuckie’s, Fuzzball is Michael’s, Gatita is James’, and Toby is Christopher’s. Speaking of which, Toby, go to Christopher and take care of him and Amy.”
    Toby bounded onto Christopher’s shoulder, purring like mad. He looked embarrassed. Until Amy cooed. “I only really saw them large and, uh, toothy. This one is so cute. And what an adorable name.” Toby hopped onto Amy’s shoulder, purred, and stayed there.
    “It was the name of Christopher’s stuffed toy when he was little.” This earned me patented Glare #2.
    “Oh, that’s so sweet, naming it after your stuffed animal.” She said this with absolutely no irony.
    Christopher perked up a bit. “Yeah, well, they make great pets.”
    Heard a knocking at the main door. Walter went to get it. Tito went with him. They were back shortly with everyone else in tow, former and current Pontifexes, too.
    “Wow, it’s a party. Everyone talk quietly, the baby just fell asleep. In her own bed.”
    “Not that it matters,” Jeff said. “Because if we don’t figure out why we’re all feeling uncomfortable, we’re all sleeping in this room together.”
    “Does everyone else feel icked or creeped out?” I still did, even though our whole gang was here.
    Most of the others nodded. “I didn’t feel anything wrong when we were here before,” Chuckie said.
    “The place has been swept for bombs and similar things at least five times now, maybe more,” Tim added.
    “I know you guys searched physically, but how are the other searches done?”
    “Radar, sonar, infrared, a variety of other scientific ways, some human, some A-C.” Gower looked uncomfortable. “Something’s wrong, though. ACE is nervous.”
    “How does a superconsciousness get nervous?”
    Gower sighed. “ACE wants us to figure out what’s wrong, but when we don’t do that quickly, he gets anxious. Not all of him, I mean, it’s not like if we take our time the PPB net will collapse, but the longer we take to determine the threat, the more upset he gets.”
    “Christopher, I’m sorry I have to ask this, okay? Not trying to make you feel bad. But Paul, was ACE upset when Christopher was being drugged and shooting up?”
    “No, Kitty, that doesn’t make me feel bad at all.” Christopher’s snark was on full. Amy stroked his hair and the back of his neck in that “my poor put upon brave and beleaguered warrior” way. As near as I could tell, he loved it. Jeff caught my eye and winked.
    “No,” Gower said, thoughtfully. “There are so many things going on in the world at any one time. ACE observes them, but like Jeff or our other empaths, he blocks most of them out. The closer a threat gets to us, or the more devastating it can be to the most people, the more distressed ACE gets. He still has a hard time with what we call Acts of God and he calls dangerous weather patterns, as an example. He can’t save everyone, and he knows it, but he doesn’t necessarily like it.”
    Reader shook his head. “Let’s be honest. ACE has two people who he cares about more than any others—Kitty and Paul. Add Abigail, Naomi, and Serene, and, I’d guess, Jamie, and you have the main humans ACE is attached to. Radiating out, Michael and Brian have been in space, so ACE cares about them and all the other astronauts, past, present, and future. The rest of us, the closer we are to those sets of people, the more ACE cares. Ergo, if ACE is nervous, the threat is centered somewhere around those spheres of influence.” He grinned. “Not saying ACE doesn’t love all his penguins, but he has his favorites.”
    “When did ACE get nervous, Paul?”
    “Been growing steadily for the past hour or so.”
    “About the time Jeffrey and Kitty decided to come to the Embassy.” White looked thoughtful.
    “Gladys said the security checks were run and the Elves had put all the stuff in we’d need. From what little we looked at, that seems done.”
    Michael pulled out his phone. “Gladys, odd question. Yeah, I know, shocker, right? Did anyone who did the Security or Operations set up at the Embassy mention any feelings of dread or fear? Yes, I’m serious. Yeah, actually. I think all of us who are here. Twenty or so. Huddled in Jeff and Kitty’s bedroom. Yeah, true, huddled is probably an exaggeration. Okay, thanks.” He looked