"Lao Zhao's trying to rot away with some gross disease," he answers as he drops back to all fours and takes a few steps back.

"Keep holding still," he cautions, and then leaps remarkably lightly up onto B's shoulder for such a portly cat. "Maybe you guys got kicked off your ship because it was, like, a plague ship or something. Need to find out if any of the rest of you are going to start trying to ooze black, stinky goo."