Short Story Sundays: "Catnip Chaos"

For those of you who haven't yet gotten to read my sci-fi novel Rules, Resilience, and Renegades, this is a rather awkward drabble (see my "Glossary" post) with a few of the characters from that novel.

As background, Briley Camryn is a soldier in her planet's (Cyon's) army and her kind of aliens are called Cyonians. Though the Cyonians appear human, they are very, very catlike, in agility, their ability to walk and run gracefully on all-fours, their language, and their general behavior.

Jackalyne Sawyer is the commander of the starcruiser this story takes place on (the Resilience) and is the narrator of both this drabble and the novel.

Without further ado, I give you:

Catnip Chaos

When I walked into my own room on my own starcruiser, I did not expect to see my catnip plant missing from my desk, a fair amount of dirt all upon the floor, and several things knocked from my shelves to the ground.

I frowned and looked around my room for the plant, grabbing an ancient newspaper and using that to sweep some of the dirt into a pile as I did so.

Where could it have gone?

"You lose something, Jackalyne?" came a voice behind me and I turned around to face the ship's African-American doctor, the ever cheerful Leona Sugar.

"Yeah... my catnip plant is missing," I answered, waving my hand first at the emoty desk, then at the mess on the floor. "Have you seen it?"

"Catnip plant, huh?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "You know I'll bet I know who took it."

I snapped my fingers. "Briley! Of course! She's a Cyonian."

Dr. Leona nodded. "And everyone knows Cyonians are like cats in human bodies..."

"I'll be right back," I answered, heading off down the wide hall towards Briley's room.

Overriding the electronic doorlock with my commander's ID card and pushing open the door to Briley room, I halted.

The rusty-haired alien was sitting on her bed, reading an electronic newspaper that was projecting up from her tablet and though her room was unusually messy, she looked like she'd been there for hours.

"Hey Briley," I said, rapping on the doorframe. "Have you seen that plant I keep in my room? It's missing and whoever took it made a mess when they did so."

She shrugged, not looking up from her paper. "Why would I want a plant?"

"It's a special plant," I answered. "It attracts cats, for one thing."

Now she looked up and as she met my gaze, I noticed her emerald green eyes looked glassier than usual.

"Are you saying I took it?" she asked, her voice briefly spiking in an unearthly yowl on the "I".

"No, I'm just asking if you've seen it!" I said, starting a bit at the yowl.

"Well, I haven't," she answered in a still yowly tone, returning her gaze to her newspaper.

I shrugged, then backed out of her room. "Okay, well, sorry to have disturbed you."

In answer, she hissed at me as I closed her door.

What was that all about?

~*~

30 minutes later, when my communications officer called everyone in for supper, Briley was absent.

I frowned and tapped my watch to call her. "Briley! Supper's ready, if you're coming to eat."

"Ya... Gimme a sec..." she answered, slurring her words and half yowling as she spoke.

My pilot, Jason, stared at my watch for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Uh, Commander Sawyer? You may want to search Miss Camryn's cabin for that catnip plant of yours."

I sighed and got up from the table. "Dr. Leona, please come with me. Leo, you come too."

She rose and followed me, as did her twin brother.

This time, when I overrode Briley's doorlock, I found what was both pathetic and laughable sight.

The normally serious and collected alien soldier looked like a toddler caught with their hand in the cookie jar as she tried to hide the now-mutilated catnip plant behind her back.

"Goaway," she mumbled, still slurring as she lost her balance and flopped backwards on her bed, hugging the catnip plant as she did so.

Dr. Leona sighed and shook her head, watching Briley. "Yep. She's catnip high. It should only last about ten minutes though and she'll start coming out of it."

"So there's no way to help her regain her dignity right now?" I asked.

"You could take the plant away from her, but I'm not going to risk my life for that," she answered, looking pointedly at her brother.

Leo sighed and stepped forwards. "I'll see what I can do."

Briley sat up again and hissed at him, then grabbed the poor plant and half-sprinted [half-drunkenly staggered] past him, somehow making it out of the room and into the hall.

"Briley, no!" yelped Leona, turning to follow her and make sure she didn't hurt herself,

"Whyyyy?" Briley whined, turning to face us as she found herself backed up into a dead end hall.

"You're acting foolish and you're not in your right mind!" Dr. Leona answered, putting her hands on her hips as her brother came up beside her.

I sighed. "Briley, just put the plant down and let us help you. You're going to hurt yourself like this."

"No I izn't," she mumbled, though the glassiness in her eyes was beginning to fade.

Seeing this, I held my ground and after a few moments, she sat down against the wall, then curled up and fell asleep, letting me walk over to her and take the plant from her hands.

Poor soldier... she'll never live this one down.

Shaking his head, Leo picked her up and carried her to the medical ward whole Dr. Leona and I followed.

"Is she going to be okay?" I asked about ten minutes later as Dr. Leona checked the still sleeping Briley out.

"Well, it looks like she bruised herself a bit walking into things, but otherwise, she seems okay. I'd get rid of any remaining traces of that plant as soon as possible though," she answered, shrugging.

I nodded and just then, Briley mewed and opened her eyes, which were much clearer and looked around.

"Why... am I here?" she asked, frowning a little at the medical ward and then at Dr. Leona, Leo, and me.

I exchanged glances with Dr. Leona and Leo, then took a deep breath. "Well... you had a bit of catnip and it put your mind into chaos... you kind of made my cabin and yours into a mess."

Briley blinked at me for a moment after I told her the whole story, then scowled. "Well, it's not my fault! Catnip is illegal on Cyon, so how was I supposed to know that that's what that plant was?"

Back to normal already, I see.

"Why were you even in my cabin?" I asked, "That's off-limits to the rest of the crew."

Briley looked away from me and mumbled, "I smelled something good and wanted at it... so I sabatoged your doorlock."

I snorted. "I suppose this is what I get for letting a trained sabotuer be a passenger on my vessel. All right, Briley Camryn. Seeing as how you broke into my cabin, you now have to clean up the mess you've made and repair the lock. I'd punish you more severely, but I think you've suffered enough damage to your pride."

Briley sighed, then tensed, sniffed the air, then slipped out of the hospital bed and skulked over to the door leading into the the hall.

I followed her, wondering what she was so intent on following her nose to.

My mechanic was carrying a cardboard box of trash towards the trash chute and sitting on top of the pile of papers and other things was the remains of the catnip plant.

Even from where we were about 20 feet away, Briley saw [and apparently smelled] the plant, wriggled like a kitten preparing to pounce, then charged.

"Briley, nooooo!" I screeched, chasing after her, but she had already tackled poor Chul and snatched up the plant.

Here we go again.