A/N

While this is another case of "crossover oneshot that plays around with an idea," I'll specify ahead of time that yes, I know this is not how bonding works in the Honorverse, that the treecat/human link is more empathic (or at least, going by the wiki). That said, with Nova being a psychic and a cat person...well, cats are cool. Thought I'd have some fun.

Here, Kitty Kitty

Aw, it's so cute!

When people thought about Ghosts, they usually thought of a few things – assassins, murderers, freaks...At best, one got a charitable thought of them being the best that mankind had to offer, at least in terms of psychic potential. But Ghost Agent X41822N, known only to a select few as Nova, doubted that anyone would think of Ghosts like Agent X63101D, real name Delta. A twenty-something year old who could look at a treecat and descend into something akin to a schoolgirl. A very bubbly type of schoolgirl. The type of schoolgirl who could forget how easy it was for humanity to find itself extinct.

And yet, the words had been uttered in the brief communique they'd shared. Nova didn't know Delta that well, but in the few times they'd worked together (and thankfully, access to those memories had been allowed), they'd got on well. Freakishly well. Enough that Nova had felt compelled to get in touch with her fellow agent over the acquisition of her latest pet.

Pet?

She looked down at the creature that looked up from the end of her bed. A sleek, white feline that lay on grey sheets, fitting a grey room. Her quarters on the Condor-class starship that she now commanded.

Companion, Nova shot back.

Friend?

Nova remained silent in body and mind. Friend. She was a trained killer. A Ghost of the Terran Dominion. People like her didn't have friends, only enemies.

That's a bit moody.

Oh go back to sleep.

I'm not sleepy.

Then be quiet.

In that, Isis obliged, and Nova wondered what had happened to her that had allowed her to get so soft as to take on a flicking pet. Yes, the ship had encountered the planet Sphinx as they tracked the Defenders of Man. Yes, she and a black ops force had descended to the surface to look for any signs of DoM activity. Up until the point when she'd encountered Isis, she'd been operating well within the parameters of SOP. And then, the treecat had found her. Jumped onto her shoulder. Connected her telepathically in a manner that she'd never felt. Not even with a fellow Ghost.

Bonding, it was called. A treecat, was the name of Isis's species. And she'd decided that the two-legs that had come down to her world would make a quite interesting companion. Not at all like the other two-legs who were pointing guns at her. The marines hadn't liked it, but Nova had let the treecat stay on. Had let the treecat talk to her. And even board the dropship that took them back up to their Condor. An intelligent, telepathic alien boarding a Dominion ship? Highly unorthodox. But Nova had allowed it. And now, sitting on her bed, playing with a bailsong, she was left to wonder why.

Is it Tosh? Isis asked. You think he's out there.

Nova folded the knife and pocketed it. Tosh. Another enigma. Strange how the man that had helped that loon had ended up being Emperor Valerian's most trusted commanders. Even stranger when he had disappeared from the face of Mar Sara, and indeed, the galaxy. But Tosh had gone to. And part of her felt…strange, about that.

"Why am I doing this?" Nova asked aloud. She knew Isis could understand her when she talked vocally, as long as their telepathic link remained. "I'm meant to be hunting rebels. Be on the lookout for aliens. Not…not…"

Admit it, you're a cat person.

Nova glanced at the feline. You're not a cat. You're a product of convergent evolution that somehow mimicked Felis catus.

Isis yawned. Whatever. But like I said, you're a cat person.

How would you know?

Pip.

Nova blinked. Pip. It was such a simple word. And yet…

Pip, she asked. What's Pip?

Dunno. Only that somewhere in that screwed up brain of yours there's the word "Pip." And "Zeke." And "Constantino." And-

Stop.

Isis did. But the way she looked at the human above her…Nova knew that wasn't enough.

Don't go there, she said.

Why?

"Because…" Nova checked herself. Because I'm a Ghost. I can't operate if I delve into my old life.

Why?

Because…it's against protocol.

Why?

Do you want to see the airlock? Nova asked. Because I can arrange it.

Isis yawned again. Nova wondered if this was the treecat equivalent of laughing.

You're a strange one, the treecat said. You were the only one of the two legs I've with any psychic abilities. And your mind…well, it's buggered, y'know? Like the other two legs, but…messed up.

Other two legs?

You call them protoss. Isis began purring. Yes, the treecats know of them. Very powerful psychics. But they gave us headaches. And they didn't want our company. They called us lesser species.

Nova remained silent and shielded her thoughts, wondering what to say. On one hand, the Dominion was trying to maintain peaceful relations with the Daelaam, even as the DoM tried to undermine that. On the other…they were aliens. Aliens that had wiped out millions of terrans with their death ships, in both the Great War, and when the Golden Armada had been unleashed on terran space. Nova was privy to the circumstances of both incidents. That didn't mean she had to like them. She'd killed protoss, and they'd killed members of her own species. An ally was just an individual who happened to not be your enemy.

So where are you then? She asked herself, looking at Isis. Where are you on the enemy scale?

Isis kept licking herself, and Nova asked herself, not for the first or last time, what she was doing. Why a pet, or friend? She needed neither. And why would Isis have joined her? Did the treecats operate on the premise of desiring friends? Was Isis curious as to what lay beyond Sphinx? Or was this part of an elaborate alien plot that-

Hairball!

Isis's warning came less than a second before the event. And Nova sighed.

Elaborate alien plot indeed.