Alien vs. Alien

breath telling you what it is. It’ll send the Z’porrah back to their part of the galaxy.”
    “Where we all hope they’ll stay.” The first Z’porrah ship went into the net thing and did a fast fade. Not much better than a slow fade, really, at least per my stomach.
    “You’re right,” Chuckie said. “They visit here a lot. We’re going to put a stop to that. Somehow.”
    Alexander coughed discreetly. “Handled.”
    “How?”
    He shrugged. “In addition to the fact that we’re explaining to the Z’porran leadership that Earth solar is considered as off limits as Alpha Centauri solar, we gave your . . . special friend . . . some much needed new instructions.”
    “By ‘special friend’ I hope you mean ACE.”
    “I do.”
    “What instructions?”
    “Permissions might be a better choice of words. We removed several overriding initiatives within the PPB Net programming.”
    “As in, you removed the guilt?”
    “Hopefully. I’m sure ACE will need some adjustment time.” Alexander looked me in the eyes. “He may choose to leave.”
    “And if he does, I’ll birth him, just like I said I would when we fought your late brother for your throne.”
    Alexander nodded. “Good. I feel more than a little . . . responsibility toward him.”
    “Good.” Alpha Four finally had a leader who cared about more than himself. While that wasn’t the only requirement for good, effective leadership, it was a requirement I personally found vital.
    “If ACE does leave you, we will provide some kind of assistance to ensure the Z’porrah aren뀀O’t able to casually use Earth as their playground.”
    “Thanks. And wise. Because they were planning to head over to you guys the moment they had us subjugated.”
    “We were impressed with your world’s restraint,” Alexander said. “Once the first wave of nuclear missiles didn’t work, the fact that you sent no more toward the Z’porrah was quite intelligent.”
    We all smiled and nodded. If Alexander wanted to think humans had been smarter than we normally were, why disabuse him of that notion? ACE wouldn’t mind us taking the credit on this one, I was sure.
    “How’s the Dome?”
    “Safe,” Chuckie said. “Our allies arrived before it was damaged. Our people are back inside, everyone’s accounted for.”
    Heard a soft mewling behind us. Turned to see some Poofs. “Harlie, Poofikins! Where have all my Poofies been? Kitty’s been so worried.”
    The Poof that was Jamie’s bounded to her. “Mous-Mous!” Jamie squealed.
    We all stared. “Did she just say her first word?” Jeff asked.
    “I think so.”
    “And instead of Daddy or Mommy, she said Mous-Mous?”
    “Yes. I think . . . I think that’s her Poof’s name. Mous-Mous?” The Poof in Jamie’s arms looked at me and purred. “Mous-Mous it is.”
    Jamie seemed to be saying moose-moose, but I knew she wasn’t spelling it that way in her mind. Which was a bizarre thing to be thinking. The Poof looked at me, and I realized that it knew how its name was spelled, which was why I knew how its name was spelled. I sensed another new career option—pet psychic.
    Mous-Mous hopped out of Jamie’s arms and over to my feet. It went large and toothy. It was a younger Poof, so it didn’t go Jeff-sized, but it was easily as big as one of the Z’porrah. Mous-Mous opened its mouth and hacked.
    “You’re kidding me,” Christopher said. “It’s throwing up on us?”
    It was indeed throwing up, but what Mous-Mous tossed up wasn’t regurgitated food. It was a glowing Power Cube.
    “Hey, that’s the one we had growing up,” Jeff said.
    “Mous-Mous, did you find the cube at home?”
    Mous-Mous mewled and looked pleased with itself.
    “Oh, really? That was Part Two of your mission after you came by to remind me to get the supersoldiers active? Well done.” I looked at the other Poofs. They all looked exceedingly pleased with themselves. “Did you each take a Power Cube?” Many purrs. “And you could because as long as one Poof had a Power Cube, all Poofies have access to use the Power Cube and so can go in and out of the dead-zone rooms?” More purrs. “And are the Power Cubes safe inside my Poofies, and vice versa?” Many purrs again.
    Thought about my one-on-one fight with the Z’porrah. “Did my Poofies take the Power Cubes so the nasty Carnivorous Flying Dinos wouldn’t be able to sing their funny song and blow us up?” Mo뀀 re purrs, some jumping up and down. Got the impression the