The Ships Cat

Jyra woke up the same as any other day, slowly then suddenly then reverting to slowly for the actual act of moving out of bed. A flashing clock on the wall signaled in red block numbers that it was six in the morning and domed lights began to illuminate in a soft faux dayglow to signal the start of the day. The small speakers dotted at carefully set points begin to play recordings of bird song, the sound gently fills the small room and drowns out the constant hum of the engines and air filters.

Jyra doesn’t notice most of this or at least doesn’t notice in the way others might. This is not out of ignorance, it is because Jyra is a cat.

She begins her morning routine, a prowl of the bedroom and the connecting living room and kitchen. Space on board a ship like this comes at a premium but she is fortunate enough that her owner has provided a reasonable area for her to claim. She could run for a few seconds before colliding with a wall at least, which was enough. Her owner had been kind enough to construct a small virtual garden for her too where she spent several hours a day. Jyra didn’t quite understand how it worked but that didn’t matter too much. Her paws felt artificial grass, but she had never felt real grass to know the difference. The three connecting screens showed footage of animals and insects she’d never seen but a millennium of inbuilt instinct was not about to be broken by a few centuries of technological progress so she pounced and hissed and chattered all the same. The smell would not have been alike had these been real, if Jyra had anything except distant primaeval memories to compare too, she would have noticed.

It was midday when the ship banked, a gradual movement barely felt onboard due to endless compensators and stabilisers but there was always a slight lurch when the movement began. Jyra felt this as little more than a disturbance in her sleep and she raised her head, eyes squinting to see what had caused it, upon seeing nothing, her eyes closed again. In the movement, the shadow of some celestial object passed over the room throwing it into darkness, the lights reacted quickly, fading into brightness and then dimming again. The new direction brought in the light from a nearby star, a bright white glow toned down from blinding by refractors and shields in the glass. The humongous forms of planets, moons and asteroids were reduced to little more than darting shadows across the room that caused her ears to prick and eyes to widen. She leapt into action, stretching her paws to catch these objects as she sped around the room; tumbling and rolling, dashing and pouncing.

Then the movement stopped and the shadows lay still. Jyra blinked, licked her lips and returned to her sleep.

The domed lights cycled to mid-evening, an orange and pink glow settling in one corner of each room, angled to appear as though emitting from the solitary window, they halo that one sheet of glass that separates the room from the outside. To Jyra, of course, this window is little more than another screen, this one changed more frequently however, she found this one to be the most interesting at any time of day but still preferred its view in the evening. Her owner had set a table there a while ago, a thin strip of pale brown plast-wood and she had set a bowl of ceramic shells made in the image of some small and ancient sea creatures in the center of it. This evening, a glass of whiskey sat next to the shells in a wide short glass. The rich woody smells tingle Jyras nose, but she knows better than to try it. She sat in her usual spot, two paws touching the white and cold plastic of the windowsill, and watched the great expanse of the endless universe exist beyond the thick glass sheet.

A grey clouded planet, not too dissimilar a colour than that of her own soft coat, unfolded beneath them. The swirling undulating clouds buffeted by silent unseen and unfelt winds. Behind that, the orange and cream giant of Juniv IV, encircled by its two small moons, hung in the middle distance, half in darkness so it appeared like it was being submerged. Beyond that, a few stars winked and clouds of vapour and debris moved in leisurely orbit like cloth in the wind.

Jyra watched in silent fascination, her tail flicking this way and that as long, thin cruisers and starships moved in slow glacial patterns across the windows view. Occasionally, she tapped at the glass with her paws, swiping at the distant shapes like they were tiny invaders or toys dangling just out of reach.

Perhaps she saw the entire view as a game constructed for her entertainment, another screen to watch to pass the time.

And in some small way, it was.