the Cat
Names: the CatCatsCatherine Stewart
First appears in Book 1: The Dreaming Void, chapter 10 (5)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: The Dreaming Void
- Ch 10A woman called the Cat deliberately prolonged Tiger Pansy's death for many days.
- Ch 10Once sentenced to five thousand years of suspension, she is now out and walking about the Accelerators' station, small in stature with a wide crazy grin.
- Ch 12The Cat is honoured with a shrine on Far Away; Oscar spent a day with her crossing Half Way on the Carbon Goose.
- Ch 14The Cat has her own ship and is working with Marius, asking what to do about Aaron.
Book 2: The Temporal Void
- Ch 1The Cat wears white armored suit with ten black bands forming a cage around her head, and treats her pursuit of Troblum as a game.
- Ch 1The Cat is a feline, sadistic killer who tracked Troblum down through his money trail and his call to ANA: Governance, intending to use him to trap Paula Myo.
- Ch 1She wants to capture Paula Myo intact and keep her for a long time; she has big plans for their shared future.
- Ch 1She used a control insert on Stubsy and his companions, forcing them to obey and inflicting agony and death on Alcinda.
- Ch 1Her ship, supplied by the Accelerators, is powerful enough to destroy Troblum's ship in one shot.
- Ch 1The Cat is allied with the Accelerators, who gave her a ship and weapons; Troblum fears she will hunt him down.
- Ch 8The original Cat was put into suspension by Paula; any version now active would be a clone, possibly with an ultradrive ship and super-weapon.
- Ch 11Catherine 'the Cat' Stewart's memorycell, from squad ERT03 and stored twelve hundred years ago, survives intact in the Kingsville vault.
- Ch 11The copied personality is an early, probably raw version, not the older, smarter Cat who later founded the Knights Guardian.
- Ch 11At Narrogin the Cat led Knights Guardian and took twenty-seven Councillors hostage at Pantar Cathedral, then slaughtered their families despite her promise.
- Ch 11Paula found ten occupied suspension cases at the base holding multiple copies of the Cat; seven were confirmed.
- Ch 11Awakened Cats triggered a trap, attacked with biononic weapons, and lost to Paula's combatbots, but the damage alerted the base.
Book 3: The Evolutionary Void
- Ch 1The Cat, posing as a Living Dream major, created the Knights Guardian and is an Accelerator-linked figure whose body lies in suspension.
- Ch 1The Cat holds the twins Mixal and Freddy hostage while questioning Tandra's household about Araminta.
- Ch 1The Cat is hunting Araminta and questioned Tandra about her; she seems to move with accelerant-enhanced speed and left in a stolen capsule without harming anyone.
- Ch 3The Cat founded the Knights Guardian and is held in suspension; the Knights see some clones of her as violations by factions.
- Ch 16The Cat is a sadistic, emotionless-sounding entity who captures Cheriton, cuts his biononic connections to stop suicide, and tortures him by editing his memories.
- Ch 18The Cat catches Mellanie's Redemption at the yellow star, demands to be taken into the Void and admits telling Ilanthe about them.
- Ch 18The Cat attacks Paula's ship with quantumbusters and believes she has killed her, but she dies when High Angel rises and destroys her ship.
- Ch 18The Cat's death is stretched by warped spacetime to last hours, matching the time Tiger Pansy took to die 1,199 years earlier.
- Ch 20In Aaron's memory-nightmare the Cat is his lover who sears his flesh, vowing to take his body, mind and soul.
Connections
- ally ofStubsy FloracStubsy lured Troblum into her trap
- ally ofAcceleratorssupplied with a ship by them
- enemy ofPaula Myo
- ally ofMarius
- createdKnights Guardian
- enemy ofOscar Monroe
- enemy ofCheriton McOnna
- enemy ofAaron
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 10Qatux's tragic history revealed
Qatux explains he married Tiger Pansy, shared her torture-death at the Cat's hands, and has not known human emotion since.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Troblum meets the Cat
Marius brings the Cat to Troblum in the saloon; he recognizes her, is paralysed with fear, and retreats to his quarters, disturbed that the Accelerators revived her.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Oscar welcomed on Far Away
Oscar is greeted with ceremony by the Knights Guardians, sees the Cat's shrine, and asks Tomansio to help find and protect the Second Dreamer; Tomansio agrees and will lead a team.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Troblum's escape
Marius attacks Troblum's suite but finds only a solido projector decoy; the ship in the airlock is also a decoy. Marius sends the Cat to kill Troblum.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Troblum ambushed by the Cat
Troblum lands on Sholapur and visits Stubsy Florac to collect his collection, then is cut off from his ship and confronted by the Cat in the vaults.
- Book 2 · Ch 1The Cat confronts Troblum
The Cat reveals she tracked Troblum, controls Stubsy and his companions, and demands his ship to trap Paula. Troblum threatens to fire a zone killer; she kills Alcinda.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Paula warns Oscar about the Cat
Paula tells Oscar she suspects a Cat clone is the agent who tried to kill her and may turn up on Viotia, possibly luring the Knights Guardian away. Oscar refuses backup.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Paula examines the Cat's memorycell
Paula descends into Kingsville's vault and opens the Cat's storage box. Forensic analysis confirms the memorycell holds Catherine Stewart's memories, and she then calls ANA.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Paula destroys the Cat's memorycell
After ANA confirms the memorycell was copied, Paula crushes it in the Kingsville vault, then departs to follow Chatfield.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Bodant Park battle
Agents clash in Bodant Park; Araminta escapes with Knights Guardian help, and Marius reassigns the Cat toward her.
- Book 2 · Ch 11Raid on the ice moon base
Paula infiltrated the Accelerator base, found multiple Cats in suspension, and fought them. Sentries attacked, and a quantumbuster destroyed the moon and the evidence.
- Book 3 · Ch 1Confrontation with the Cat at Tandra's house
Oscar's team finds the Cat already at Tandra's home holding the twins hostage. Oscar bluffs and threatens, forcing a shared-information truce, and learns Araminta slept there the night before the Bodant Park fight.
- Book 3 · Ch 1Confrontation with the Cat at Tandra's home
Oscar, Tomansio and Beckia watch the Cat question Tandra about Araminta. She leaves after learning little, Oscar warns the family to flee, and he reports to Paula.
- Book 3 · Ch 16The Cat tortures Cheriton by gifting
Cheriton contacts the team via gaiafield. The Cat, having mutilated him, rewrites his memories to torment him. The team flees FTL as he is forced to relive shooting his family.
- Book 3 · Ch 18The Cat ambushes Mellanie's Redemption
The Cat catches Mellanie's Redemption as Troblum prepares the FTL device. Paula intervenes, the ship flees, then launches the device into the star while Paula draws the Cat away.
- Book 3 · Ch 18Paula and the Cat battle at the gas giant
Paula and the Cat fight with quantumbusters and Hawking M-sinks, destroying moons. Paula's ship is damaged as she dives into the gas giant's atmosphere, pursued by the Cat.
- Book 3 · Ch 18High Angel destroys the Cat
After the Cat's quantumbusters seem to bury Paula, High Angel rises from the hydrocarbon ocean and Qatux destroys the Cat's ship with a spacetime-warping energy pulse.