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PART THREE

Chapter Twelve -- Island Idyll

The shade cloth flapped gently in the breeze, waking Aiko from the light doze she had slipped into. She yawned lazily and turned her head to see if her mother was awake.

Fujimoto Kagami was lying on a beach chair next to her, watching the children playing and laughing in the water. "Did you drift off?" she asked her daughter.

"Hmm, just for a moment," Aiko answered idly. She started to stretch, and then remembered in time that Benjiro was still curled asleep on her lap.

She stroked his soft fur gently with one hand, and was rewarded by the toddler's drowsy purr. He was the only one of the five children on the beach not yet able to reliably levitate; therefore he still needed to be watched while he was in the water. His older siblings had gone out further than he could manage, so after he'd had a paddle in the little waves and had raced about chasing seagulls for a while on the beach, Aiko had taken him to where Grandma rested under the shade stretched between two trees. The combination of the humid subtropical summer day and the soft wash of waves on the beach had been effectively soporific.

Carefully, so as not to wake the child, Aiko sat up straighter and looked out to where the others were still playing. The eldest twins Mieko and Montaro were levitating completely out of the water while holding the hands of their younger siblings Hanako and Hideaki. They were dragging them through the waves to their delighted laughter. Water splashed and sparkled in the bright sunlight as they played.

"What energy they have," Kagami commented. "And isn't Montaro getting tall! He's eye-level with me now."

"He's beginning to look very like Miyatsu," Aiko agreed. "And Mieko is almost as tall. Although I don't think she'll quite match her brother's length. He seems to be all legs and tail at the moment!"

"Your father was trying to explain accelerated growth rates to me the other day, but I'm afraid he lost me early on. Montaro and Mieko are only ten years old; yet I'm sure Montaro's voice has started to break. When he talks, it's deep one moment and high the next!"

Aiko chuckled softly. Her eldest "son" had been both embarrassed and puzzled about the changes his body was going through as he hit his early-onset puberty. Aiko had already explained the facts of life to her "daughter" Mieko to prepare her for the start of menses and knew that Miyatsu had talked to Montaro about what he could expect.

"Humans have the most extended childhood of any mammal," she explained to her mother. "But like Miyatsu, the kittens are only quarter-human. So they're maturing earlier. It's a learning curve for all of us."

"So Mieko and Montaro are equivalent to... what human age? Twelve, thirteen?"

"Mm-hmm, around there. And while Hanako and Hideaki are chronologically six years old, they're at the same point of development as a human child of about nine or ten. While my little Benjiro," and she smiled down at the kitten in her lap, "at eighteen months, is equivalent to a three-year-old human." She shifted a little. "And as big. My legs are going numb!"

"Miyatsu said he spent a lot of time gestating. Yet the kittens were only in their units for one year."

Aiko rested her hand on Benjiro's soft fur. Unlike Miyatsu, who dated his "birth" from the day his cells were put into the gestation unit, his children calculated their age from the day they were taken out.

"That's because cloning techniques have improved," Aiko answered her mother. "And Miyatsu was kept in the gestation unit much longer than necessary; we've since found out that actually slows growth rates down. When I first saw Miyatsu, he was smaller than me, even though we're the same age. If he'd been taken out of the unit after one year and given some mental and physical stimulation, he'd have been twice my size and nearly pubescent. But of course the researchers back then didn't know, because he was the first of his kind."

"Your father tells me that Miyatsu and the children should have the same lifespan as humans," Kagami said. "But how could anybody possibly know something like that?"

"When we took Miyatsu's stem cells to clone the kittens, we looked at things called telomeres. They're a good indicator of potential aging. Miyatsu's rate of aging is the same as that of a human male. Cat GMAs typically live for around forty years, Coatis a little less. But with his human genes, Miyatsu has a human lifespan." She grinned at her mother. "I'm glad he's got human genes!"

Her mother smiled back. "So am I. I must admit, I don't think of him as an animal anymore. I haven't for years. He's my son-in-law. Oh, I know you could never officially marry, but still, that's how I think of him. Just as much as if he were a human. What are humans, anyway, but intelligent apes?"

Benjiro moved slightly and Aiko looked down at him fondly. He drowsily licked the fur of one hand in his sleep, the kitten equivalent of thumb sucking. She sighed.

"What's wrong?" asked her mother. "You sound sad."

"I'm just thinking how Benjiro is the only one of the kittens without a twin. Montaro has Mieko; Hanako has Hideaki. Even Raku and Raiden will have each other, once they've finished gestating," she said, referring to the newest pair of kitten foetuses, currently growing in the gestation unit.

"And you're worried because Benjiro has nobody of his own age?"

"Yes. You know none of us, not me or Dad or any of the other researchers, could find what caused his sister's... failure to thrive," she said, using the polite euphemism for death during gestation.

"You were an only child, Aiko. And it did you no harm. Benjiro has four siblings, six if you count Raku and Raiden. He'll be fine."

Aiko nodded. "I know. It's just..."

"You're like your father: when Miyatsu's cloned siblings began to fail, he became very discouraged when he couldn't find the cause. But babies don't always make it to birth. It's not your fault, or anybody's. It just -- happens, sometimes."

Suddenly Montaro gave a shout and shot straight out of the water. Like an arrow he headed for the open sea, levitating so low his feet and tufted tail skimmed the surface of the waves, leaving a choppy wake. Hanako and Hideaki followed him. But Mieko hesitated for a second and then sped towards Aiko on the beach.

"Dad and Grandpa are nearly home," she said as her feet touched down on the sand. "Can we go out and meet the boat, Mum?"

Aiko laughed, thinking it would be rather pointless to refuse now that the others were so far out. "Off you go, then."

"See you later!" And Mieko turned tail and raced to catch up with her siblings.

Aiko watched the little group as they sped away over the bright water. The male kittens were all clones of Miyatsu and unrelated to Aiko genetically. But the girls were another matter. They were unrelated to their "twin brothers" in that the Shima researchers had used a different set of Adersi leopard, Coati, and human genes, kept in the same proportions as those that had created Miyatsu. Aiko had provided the human component for the girls. Although she thought of all the kittens as her children, the girls were the only ones related to Aiko genetically.

They all had warm brown eyes instead of blue, and their fur was not the same color as the males in the family, but had Aiko's black hair tipping the fur, so that their coloring was an attractive silver-gray with black rosettes, toning to a slightly darker dove-gray on their stomachs and tails. It also meant that Aiko's daughters were genetically her younger sisters...

"How do they know?" Kagami wondered, breaking into her thoughts, and confusing her until she realized her mother was talking about Miyatsu's imminent arrival. "I can't even see the boat yet."

"Miyatsu says everyone has a psychic signature'," Aiko explained. "He always knows where I am anywhere within a kilometre radius, and if he levitates high enough, he can spot my signature from further off. The children aren't as good at picking up signatures yet, but they're learning. So if they say Miyatsu's nearly home, then he is. Feel like a stroll to the jetty?" she added.

Her mother stretched and sat up. "All right. A little exercise down the beach before dinner would do me good."

"Come on, Benji-chan, time to wake up," Aiko said, stroking the child's fur and adding the affectionate diminutive to the end of his name.

Benjiro blinked drowsily at her. Bit more sleep, Mummy...

He did not vocalize. Although he could talk, he spoke to her mind to mind when he was sleepy. Aiko felt a wave of love for the toddler -- he looked so like the Little Kitten of her childhood, with his kittenish face and soft baby fur. He had his father's wide blue eyes and sweet nature. She brushed her cheek against his forehead in a brief "kiss".

"Daddy and Grandpa are nearly home," she answered. "Grandma and I are going down to meet them at the jetty."

"Okay, Mummy." This time Benjiro spoke out loud. He yawned, showing needle-sharp kitten teeth, then slid off her lap to stand on all fours on the sand. He arched his back in a stretch, and then rose to stand on two feet, his long tail held in a graceful curve behind him. Standing on his hind legs like this, he was about the same size as a three-year-old human child.

Aiko stood as well, taking his little hand in hers. This was another area where she and her father as principal researchers had improved on the original genes. Miyatsu had insisted that, if possible, his children should not be hindered by short fingers and long claws. Although these were ideal for a fighting creature, they were a clumsy nuisance in a sentient animal who needed to be able to grip a pen or use a keyboard to write. Accordingly, the two Drs Fujimoto had manipulated the genome of each of the children to develop long fingers, as dexterous as any human's, with a fine pincer grip. Each finger was tipped, not with hooked retractile claws, but with flat human nails.

Aiko gazed out over the sea. The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky in a blaze of bright orange, pink and purple, and the children had disappeared, lost in the glorious colors and distance. The distant drone of a boat engine could now be heard faintly over the murmur of the waves.

Grandma took Benjiro's other hand, and with the child between them, they began to stroll down the beach, leaving three sets of anomalous footprints in the damp sand.

*

Several vessels were moored at the jetty or bobbing at anchor nearby, some belonging to fishing families living on the island, others by staff who worked at Shima labs. By the time Aiko, Kagami and Benji arrived, the big catamaran had been moored in its usual spot. The catamaran was the family's preferred mode of transport. It was fast, comfortable and efficient, and could reach the mainland in around three hours on a calm sea, making day trips feasible.

Dr Fujimoto caught sight of his wife and daughter, hailed them and stepped onto the jetty.

"The BioTech Expo at Kagoshima was very informative," he called out. "Miyatsu and I are planning to go back tomorrow."

Benjiro called out, "Grandpa!" and ran to him; Dr Fujimoto caught him and swung him up high with a laugh, then let the child clamber onto his back and loop his tail loosely around his upper arm.

"Where are Miyatsu and the twins?" Aiko asked. "Are they still below deck?"

Dr Fujimoto smiled enigmatically and shook his head. "They're not on the boat. Look behind you."

Just then Aiko heard Hanako's high childish giggle. She turned and saw Miyatsu and his four eldest children, levitating a little above the sand so as not to leave footprints, all five of them grinning at her triumphantly.

"You walked right past without seeing us!" Hideaki said, wriggling in childish joy at tricking the adults.

"You've done it!" Aiko cried in delight. Miyatsu had been coaching the children for some time to block light and shield their thoughts whilst simultaneously levitating; but only now had they perfected the difficult maneuver.

The five landed on the sand, looking very pleased with themselves.

"I didn't know they'd managed it until they appeared on the boat five minutes ago," Miyatsu said.

"They scared the life out of me," Dr Fujimoto admitted. "We were just discussing the Expo, and suddenly there they all were! I nearly jumped out of my skin. You didn't sense them did you, Miyatsu?" he asked.

"No, I didn't pick up a thing. You approached the catamaran downwind, so your scent didn't give your positions away. Very good, I'm impressed."

"We've been practicing by ourselves all this week," Montaro said proudly.

"Montaro and I got the hang of it a couple of days ago," Mieko continued. "And we've been coaching Hanako and Hideaki. They did well, didn't they?"

"Teach Benji, too?" Benjiro asked hopefully from his grandfather's back.

Miyatsu transferred Benjiro onto his own shoulder. "You need to be a little older yet," he told him. "You have to be able to shield from light first, that's the hardest part."

Benjiro considered this. "Can block light now," he insisted. "Look!" And he screwed his eyes tightly shut in concentration.

With the child flickering and shimmering on his father's shoulder, but never managing to completely disappear, the family began to walk back up the beach towards their house.

*

After the children went to bed that evening, the adults talked for a time about the BioTech Expo in the city of Kagoshima. Dr Fujimoto was effusive about the new developments in biotechnology that he had seen; however Miyatsu seemed to Aiko to be a little subdued. He appeared content to let Dr Fujimoto do all the talking. Finally Grandma and Grandpa retired for the night to their little villa adjoining the main house, and Aiko and Miyatsu went upstairs to their bedroom.

Aiko left the light off and walked out onto the balcony. She watched the moonlight glimmer, leaving a silvery trail on the dancing waves. Miyatsu joined her and stared out over the water, deep in thought, his tail tip flicking idly, his claws extending and retracting continually where his paws rested on the balcony railing.

"You've been shielding your thoughts since you got home," Aiko accused her mate gently. "What happened at the Expo that upset you?"

Miyatsu glanced at her with a slight smile. "You know me too well. I wasn't shielding intentionally. I ran into an old friend of ours at the Expo. The Raikatuji Corporation has a stall there, showcasing some of their new developments. I saw Sakaki."

"Sakaki?" Aiko's former boss had not contacted the pair since the day they'd left. She'd assumed this was because he felt guilty about the manner of their parting. "Did you speak to him?" she asked.

"Yes. His mental shield is as tight as ever, but I believe he was happy to see me. He was eager to talk and wanted to know what we've been doing since we left. But I've never been able to completely forgive him for that day. I'm not as generous as you. I felt a little uncomfortable speaking with him again." Miyatsu's voice was wistful as he said this.

Aiko put one arm about her mate's waist affectionately, leaning her head against his upper arm. "It was twelve years ago! I've forgiven him. He didn't mean it, you know that; it was just a silly overreaction on his part. How was he? Did he look well?"

"A little older-looking. He's still as charming as ever. He wanted to know if you were with me at the Expo; I think he was disappointed when I said you'd decided to stay on the island."

"I'm beginning to think I should have gone after all. I've always thought what a pity it was we let a ridiculous misunderstanding destroy our friendship. Sakaki's basically a good man, I believe, just too used to getting his own way."

"I'd like for us to be friends again," Miyatsu admitted. "Before we came here to the island, you and Sakaki were the only family I had. Your father wants to go back to the Expo; there's such a lot we didn't get to see today. I told Sakaki I'd look in on him tomorrow. Why don't you come with us?"

Aiko nodded. "Yes, I think I will. I'd like to see Sakaki again."