They are wannabee free cats who travel onboard the space shuttles. Some, unknown to the space program, aren’t even home-grown.

"Which cat sprayed gang graffiti on the space shuttle?" A ground controller cat, an orange tabby, studied the photo. "But how did it get there?" He aimed a scowl over his computer at his boss.

"Maybe it's a paste-on the astronauts put up to celebrate all those years here," the boss said in a dark-as-coffee voice.

The cat’s boss hurried to another computer. Patches, the Earth-born part orange tabby, part Siamese cat, formerly a library cat adopted by the ground controller's boss, sniffed with disdain and curled up on top of the main filing cabinet. A computer screen banner reflected bright red in each kitten's cornflower blue eyes.

Rows of blinking computers lit up the room everywhere. The controller called in an expert. Every expert in the room studied the graffiti this time through video monitors as they watched the space shuttle.

The controller pressed a button on his phone. "I'll call security."

He learns his father, a man with Etruscan enemies, is missing. After childhood years spent learning Greek, Latin, and Aramaic from diverse sages in Alexandria, seeking proper, holistic parenting is no problem. He owns the Antikythera device, a mechanism of complicated gears physically representing the Callippic and Saros astronomical cycles. It’s not only gears he wants to mesh. It’s the human condition. And he looks for patterns in nature.

Quintus believes in proper holistic parenting as an adventure within a timeless search for the perfect nurturing mother. His goal and life purpose are achieved through practical deeds. He is an ancient builder of dreams so far ahead of his century, that he finds time travel a gift of destiny. For Quintus, the explorer and observer of comparative thought, the best way to study the human condition is through art. He believes that peace in the home feeds the growth of consciousness.