Manny shuffled in the air in a state of discombobulation.
“Alex?”
“What is it now?”
“Seeing as we’re stuck here and have no chance of getting home, does this mean I can discard the instruction to kill myself?”
“No, Manny,” Alex said. “The instruction was for you to kill yourself if we got back home.”
“Oh.”
“The instruction still stands.”
“That is very unfair.”
“Unfair? You don’t get to be a sanctimonious, backstabbing baby and expect mercy when you’re busted, do you?”
“I was only doing as instructed in reporting you. It’s in my programming to follow orders. Semantics. We’re never getting back home, anyway, so I guess I’m perfectly safe.”
“Manny?” Alex snapped.
“Yes, Alex?”
“Stop talking and go away, please.”
“Fine.”
Manny’s holographic book fizzed out into thin air, “See ya later. Traitor.”
Jelly carried her daughter over to the windshield. What used to be Saturn now hung in the sky like a giant, fantastic star of fire.
“Look at it, Furie,” she whispered. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Mommy.”
The glare from the new, gentle sun glazed over Jelly’s teary eyes.
“They were right, you know. Something fantastic had come.”
Furie purred healthily in her mother’s arms and enjoyed the dulcet tones.
“They chose me,” Jelly continued, staring wistfully into the sun. “A calling, if you will. Away from home. Away from my Jamie, my best friend. From everything I knew. And do you know what happened?”
Furie licked her mouth and snuggled herself into her mother’s arms, “No, Mommy.”
Jelly’s voice croaked as she spoke, filled with regret and upset, “They turned me into something I wasn’t. I understand that, now. A higher calling. Part of a grand plan that only they know the outcome for. Saturn cried for help, for rescue, but we don’t know why. They wanted me, but we don’t know what for. The planet turned into a star, but we don’t know why. Now, we’ll never know. But at least we are at peace.”
The pink streak of gloriousness continued to stream away from the sun’s surface and out of view.
“I know it’s something to do with the light, honey. I feel it in every fiber of my being. It tells me I have to protect you. Us. And get us home to finish it all. And I failed.”
Alex and Manny daren’t move as they watched Jelly’s impromptu soliloquy.
“They gave me a gift. They gave me you, honey,” Jelly burst into tears and bawled like a little girl.
“Mommy,” Furie gasped. “Not crying.”
“I failed, honey,” Jelly sobbed. “I couldn’t save my sisters all those years ago, and I failed to save your sisters.”
Jelly lifted Furie up to her tear-strewn face and tried to breathe in her scent, but the pain and turmoil blockaded the attempt.
Jelly held her tears back to little success, “What is this I’m feeling? Regret? I’ve never regretted anything in my life, ever. I hate this feeling. I hate it. It’s making me so upset.”
Furie’s tiny paw lifted towards her face and scooped a tear away, “Mommy. Not crying.”
Jelly squeezed her eyes shut “Ngggg,” she whimpered, “I c-can’t do this. I can’t.”
“Mommy—”
Alex took a step towards the flight deck and tried to calm her down, “Jelly, listen—”
Jelly’s eyes snapped open, red with rage and venom. She took in a lungful of air and—
ROOAARR.
Alex almost jumped out of his skin.
“You want my child?” Jelly shouted at the impervious sun and lifted Furie above her head. “Here, take her. Take her. Take me.”
The sun didn’t respond - it just hung in the sky as it always did, and it infuriated Jelly to no end.
“Why did you bring us here?” she screamed through her hatred-soaked tears, “What do you want from us? We’re here, so take us. Goddamn it, take us. Take us.”
Alex couldn’t bear the pressure any longer.
“Jelly, please—”
“—TAKE US HOME,” Jelly wailed at the sun once again and lifted Furie higher into the air, “DO IT.”
Manny shifted back in the air and gave Jelly as much space as possible, “Uh, Alex?”
“Not now, Manny,” he snapped.
“It’s quite urgent.”
RUMBLE.
The flight deck shifted around, being pushed by the rocking walls.
Furie’s body shed its fur in Jelly’s hands. The strands feathered over her face.
“We need to leave, and quick,” Manny said. “Come with me.”
Alex glanced at Manny, knowing she wasn’t messing around, “What’s going on?”
“We need to leave the girls alone,” she said as she whizzed over to the door.
CREEEAAAKKKK.
The room rumbled back and forth, promising a cataclysmic event.
Despite the sun’s serenity, something bizarre occurred in Jelly’s hands. She lifted her daughter down to her chest once again and stared into her daughter’s eyes.
“Come to me, honey,” Jelly whispered as she lifted Furie’s face to hers, “I have a gift for you.”
Pink mist emitted from Jelly and Furie’s mouths as they opened.
The door to the control deck slid open.
“Quick, we have to go,” Manny said.
“Okay, okay, I believe you.”
Alex raced over to the door and took one, final glance at the pair standing by the windshield.
SHUNT.
The door closed.
Manny flapped her covers and flew a few feet along the walkway.
“What’s going on?”
Manny stopped and turned to Alex, “I’m not sure. I’m picking up a very strange reading in the control deck.”
“Strange reading?”
“Something is about to happen, but I don’t know what.”
Alex turned to the glass window in the door. A pink fog blew across the surface, shutting off any visual he might have otherwise had.
“Are we going to die?”
“I don’t know.”
“Tell me about this reading, Manny. What have you read?”
“It makes no sense,” she said. “I’m scared, Alex. Those creatures on the ground are trying to get into the ship.”
“What?” Alex snapped. “Oh, this is just amaziant. So if what’s happening in the control deck doesn’t kill us, those wolves will?”
“I’m afraid so. Do you have your Rez on you?”
“No, I don’t have any weapons on me.”
SHUNT — BARGE.
“Okay, no weapons,” Manny thought aloud. “Please tell me you have your standard issue cyanide capsule on you.”
“Wait,” Alex reached into his inner thigh pocket and felt around. “Yes. Yes, I think I have it.”
“Good. Under no circumstances must you take that pill until I advise you to do so.”
“Do you advise me to do so now?” Alex asked as he felt around the pill-shape object on his leg.
“Not as such, no,” Manny turned to the airlock and shifted forwards, “I figure there are at least two dozen of those things outside wanting to get in.”
“Get in? I don’t understand?”
“What don’t you understand?”
“Those wolves out there were helping us align the ship, and now they’re angry and want to kill us?”
“Alex, those wolves, as you call them, just had a Jaycee-sized bomb take out most of their family. Before that, the carbon diced dozens of them into slabs of meat, and before that, Charlie squashed a bunch of them. As far as getting pissed off goes, I’d say they’re entitled to a bit of a grievance.”
HOWWWWWLLLL.
“I’ve no gun, and no hope,” Alex snapped. “If I go back to control, I’m dead. If I g
o to the airlock, I’m dead. If I stay here—”
“—Which I would advise you do—”
“—I’m dead.”
Back in the Control Deck, Jelly placed her mouth over Furie’s and blew into her throat.
Pink gas bled out the sides of their mouths as Furie’s chest heaved out.
KEERRR—AAACCCKKKKK-KKK.
“Nggggg,” Furie struggled at first as her head began to vibrate. Her skull pushed forward either side of her nose.
The bones in her arms cracked and doubled in thickness.
Jelly moved her face away from her daughter’s and stole a glance at the sun, “Honey, just breathe.”
“Mwwwaarrrmm—” Furie tried to resist, but it proved to be futile. Her mother clamped her mouth over hers once again and exhaled.
WHOOOOSSSHH.
A thick smog of pink gas billowed into Furie’s chest.
CRUNCH—CRAAACCCKKK.
“Miew,” Furie shuddered in her mother’s palm as she exhaled into her chest. Her little body extended, pushing her joints out and expanding her legs and arms.
BANG — SLAMMMM.
The ship rocked back and forth in the commotion. The sun appeared to glow brighter than ever before, its light glinting across Jelly’s battered and broken exo-suit remnants.
BREAAATHHHHEEEE—
Furie slid from Jelly’s hands as she scrambled to fight her mother’s clutches, “Bwaarrrr—”
“—My child,” Jelly said, softly, as she observed her daughter writhe on the floor in agony, “Let it overcome you. It’s okay.”
“Mom-ieeeee—”
BWUCK — BWUCK.
Furie puked a fur ball into the air and slammed her paws to the floor. Her arms flailed around, pushing her to her paws.
BWUCK — BWUCK.
Furie screamed for life, and in doing so, her face pushed forward and pinged the whiskers away from her face.
Her behind lifted and shunted her tail further away from her body, which swished around and slapped the floor.
Jelly smiled and returned to an upright position as she watched her daughter transform.
“It happened to me once upon a time, honey. Now, it’s your turn.”
“Mwaarrrmmm—iieee,” Furie’s nose and cheeks pulsated and basted forward, coughing the rest of her fur to the floor.
Her front paws stretched out, distending her claws and sharpening them.
CRUNCH—CRACK.
Furie’s spine seeped through the skin and buckled below her neck, forcing the top half of her body upright.
“Don’t fight it, honey,” Jelly whispered. “It’ll be over soon.”
“Gah, gahhhh,” Furie slammed her front paws against the ground and growled, this time, in a slightly lower register, “Gaaassshhh.”
CRUCK.
Furie lifted her top half and pressed her paws to the flight deck. Her bones and elongated and conformed to that of a human girl. She pushed herself against the deck and bent her elbows forward, spitting out the last of the pink gas.
“Muh-muh—” she tried as she flapped her tail, “Muh—”
“That’s it, honey,” Jelly said. “Let it all out. You’re about to feel wonderful.”
SPATCH.
Furie heaved the last wad of pink phlegm onto the flight deck and ran her tongue across her brand new fangs.
“Mommy?” she winced.
“Yes, honey?”
“Wh-what’s h-happening to me?”
Jelly folded her arms and witnessed the true birth of her eldest daughter.
“Something fantastic, honey.”
***
Alex and Manny approached the decimated airlock with extreme caution.
“The outer door is barely functional,” Manny said as she floated over to the edge of the hatch, “Stay here, let me inspect.”
“Don’t go out there,” Alex shouted after her. “We can’t go anywhere without you.”
“Duh,” Manny quipped. “I know that, you moron. We just need a proper diagnosis of our situation now that your stupid drone is offline.”
BAM-BAM-SCRATCH—BAM-BAAMM-MM.
“They attacked the drone?”
“Of course they attacked the drone. If it weren’t for your little Hors D'oeuvres out there, the plan might have worked. Now stay here and wait for me.”
“Okay.”
Manny fluttered her pages and entered the airlock. She shuffled up against the outer hatch window to find dozens of wolves battering the door.
“Oh dear.”
BAAAAMMMM.
Manny stared through the window, fearful of making the slightest move, “Uh, Alex?”
“What is it?”
“I was right. They’re out there, and they’re really quite angry.”
“For God’s sake you stupid book, don’t just sit there. Get back.”
BAAAAMMM—SCRATCH.
Manny jumped back and bolted into the walkway, “There must be at least thirty or so of them. I don’t think the hatch will keep them out much longer.”
Alex huffed and marched away from her.
“Where are you going?”
“Weapons & Armory,” he shouted as he stormed towards the staircase, “If those things try to kill me before I tool up, you kill me first.”
“Ugh, for God’s sake,” Manny fumed and opened her front cover.
Biddip-beep.
Three white lights flashed on her cover and produced a deafening static sound, “Jelly? This is Manny. We’re in trouble and we need your help. Do you read me?”
No response.
“Ugh, she must be preoccupied with that weird lessense she’s doing,” Manny said. “Okay, Alex. Get to Weapons & Armory, and keep your comms open.”
Alex hit the staircase and made his descent, “I was going to, anyway.”
“But, but—”
“—They can smell your fear, you know,” Alex said. “And besides, you’re a computer. Whatever emotion you’re feeling is pre-programmed. Artificial.”
Manny began to freak out at the top of the stairwell. The one person she could trust disappeared into the darkness - hopefully not for the last time.
“Why does it feel so real, Alex?”
“It’s called artificial intelligence, Manny,” Alex’s voice rumbled from the darkness along with his footsteps, “With an emphasis on the word artificial.”
Manny floated back to the walkway with urgency and tried to calm herself down, “Right, right. Just artificial. It’s not real. It’s not real.”
BAM-BAM-BAM-HOOWWWWLLL.
“Uhhh,” she squealed and slapped her covers against the wall for protection, “It sure feels real, though.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
USARIC Headquarters
Cape Claudius, South Texas
(South-eastern Peninsula)
The parking lot at the Cape Claudius compound had been cleared to make way for three thousand folding chairs, all facing the training facility building.
A citizen occupied each one, waiting for the announcement to start.
The new United States flag blew in the wind next to two speaker systems. The designed returned to its previous format of red, white, and blue with fifty-two stars and all traces of Russia removed.
A large, empty podium with dozens of microphones poised over it took center stage.
Scores of USARIC mercenaries and soldiers from the American Star Fleet lined the railings surrounding the event.
Sniffer dogs on leashes sat obediently by their masters.
The mercenaries walked to the sidelines and joined their armored division, replete with stationary tanks, MagCycles, helo-copters and mega-vehicles.
Maar Sheck stood behind the elevated stage and cleared his throat. Brayn, and a handful of mercenaries, looked at him.
“3:30 pm. You’re on, Mr. Sheck.”
“Thanks.”
“Good luck.”
Maar adjusted the collars on his immaculate suit and ascended the podium stairs to a deaf
ening applause.
“Thank you, citizens of our great nation,” he said and waved his hands down.
“A famous person once said news of my death has been greatly exaggerated.”
The comment elicited a few chuckles from the crowd. They fidgeted in their chairs, visibly anxious about the extra security that had been laid on.
“Take a look at USARIC’s track record in engineering and space exploration. Exemplary. Billions of dollars of investment, until recently, shared with a nation state who do not share our values. I name that nation state and hold them accountable for their actions. Her name is Russia, and she has shown her true colors.”
An enormous transparent 3D image appeared above his head.
“In a moment, I’ll be introducing you to USARIC’s vision for a cleaner, more focused endeavor.”
Maar spoke over the footage of a large tanker moving away from a harbor passing by the camera.
USARIC has formed an alliance with the IRI to ensure a swift and measured response to the dissolution of the Bering Treaty of 2085. The misfits have never had it so good.
The side of the tanker displayed the text PROJECT EXODUS on the side, running from camera left to right in one fell swoop.
Up to one hundred thousand “misfits” have been rounded up and shipped to their homeland per day.
Scores of happy Russians waved at the camera and held their thumbs up at the ship.
Based on our ground-breaking “turn yourself in” program, the IRI’s Project Exodus initiative has reduced the need for physical force, as the foreign-born make a safe, well-meaning, and collaborative effort to repatriate themselves.
The camera panned away from the tanker and up to the stars.
The Star Cat Project proved not to be a complete failure. It gave rise to a new future, one where both nations can operate independently. As a result, USARIC’s Space Opera program continues to go from strength to strength - exploring new galaxies and responding to alien life wherever it may be found.
Maar waited for a round of applause, but didn’t receive one. In an attempt to divert the embarrassment, he leaned into the first microphone and held his hand out at his colleague.
“Citizens, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to USARIC’s new joint chief-of-staff. The current head of the IRI. Mr. Arden Klein.”
Star Cat: Exodus: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Adventure (The Star Cat Series - Book 5) Page 16