“I’m never letting you go ever, ever again,” Leesa buried her face in Suzie Q-Two’s neck, “Let me see you.”
She held her face a few inches away from her own and looked into her eyes.
“What did they do to you, Suzie-Q?”
“Meow.”
Leesa felt Suzie tug on her sleeve.
WHIZZ-WHIRR.
“Huh?” Leesa whispered. “What are those?”
“They’re infinity claws, young lady,” Sierra said. “USARIC’s special weapon they install on their subjects.”
Leesa ran the back of her hand along Suzie Q-Two’s infinity claws and discovered just how sharp they were.
“Oww. How do we take them off?”
Sierra sighed and affected a consolation smile, “You can’t. The medicians open her little paws up and actually fuse them into the bone. It’s a very painful process, and one of the reasons we needed to rescue them.”
Jamie moved over to Leesa and lifted Suzie’s left paw, “They did the same to Jelly, too. I know they did. They told me they were going to do it when she got to Saturn.”
“That’s gross. USARIC are sick.”
“That’s right, kids,” Siyam marched over to the holoscope and spotted Dreenagh passed-out against the wall. “Wake up, Remix.”
“Can you see now why we did what we had to do?” Rana asked the children.
The rest of the cats tussled around on the table in a gargantuan free-for-all.
Sierra ran over to the tabletop and retrieved her machine gun, “Okay, that’s enough. We need to get our little guests to calm down.”
“How are we gonna do that?”
“Simple,” Sierra flicked the catch down on the side of her gun and held it in the air, “Warning shot?”
“Don’t do that,” Jamie shouted at her. “You’ll terrify them.”
PSCCCCHHHHT.
A static drone-like sound came from the computer banks, “Hello—arlie. Does—Read M-Meeeeee?” asked a confused sound of noise and voices.
Everyone, including the cats, turned to the computer as Noyin bolted over to the keyboard.
He slung the headgear over the top of his head, “It’s IMS. We intercepted their frequency, and someone is trying to get through.”
Noyin hit the green button and looked at the audio wave on the screen, “Yes, this node Arr-Ay-Gee-Eee on your frequency. Please reveal your call sign. I repeat, reveal your call sign.”
TSSSSSHHHHH.
“Who is it?” Siyam asked.
“I dunno, that’s what I’m trying to find out. Can I get a bit of quiet, please?”
Rana moved to the tabletop and held her index finger at the cats, who all looked back at her with cute, innocent eyes.
“Shhh.”
“They think they’re connecting to the International Moon Station?” Sierra asked.
“Yes, I think so,” Noyin removed his thumbnail and slotted into the keyboard holster, “I’ll try and get a visual. Call sign Arr-Ay-Gee-Eee. This is a Synthetic Private Outernetwork using configuration IMS One, Niner, Five.”
“… who is this?” a very familiar voice pushed the audio wave along the screen. “No, it can’t be. I must be hearing—”
Sierra widened her eyes and recognized the voice, “Hughes?” she mouthed at the others.
“Alex?” Siyam blurted.
“Yes?” the voice responded. “Is that… Siyam?”
Everyone nearly lost their mind; Alex Hughes was calling from Space Opera Charlie.
“I don’t b-believe it,” Sierra said.
Noyin pinched his mouthpiece, “Alex Hughes, this is Noyin Odrassa. You’ve hit RAGE’s SPO. Buddy, is that you?”
“Yes, it’s me—” Alex’s voice disappeared into a haze of static, “—osted outside Saturn and we can’t—”
“—No, no, Hughes. We’re losing connection.”
“What?” Alex asked. “Did you hear my last?”
“No.”
Jamie licked his lips and ran over to the computer bank, “Noyin?”
“What is it, Jamie?”
The boy was about to ask something very specific, but suddenly stopped. “Uh, uh—”
“—Look, can someone get this kid away from me, please?” Noyin blurted as he adjusted the frequency slider on the screen.
“No,” Jamie snapped, and felt his arms shake, “I, uh, uh, can you—”
“—Can I what?”
“—A-Ask him if Jelly’s s-still alive, p-please?” Jamie spluttered the last part of his sentence and felt like crying. “Please?”
Noyin sighed and whacked the slider up to its highest setting, “Hughes, can we go to visual, please?”
Alex’s voice dampened, “Manny, go visual, please.”
Bip-bip-bip…
“Standby for visual.”
A glass plate folded over Noyin’s thumbnail on the keyboard.
WVHOOOOM.
It threw a fifteen-foot high two-dimensional live feed into the middle of the room like an IMAX screen.
Alex’s face appeared in front of the crew, looking right at them, “Can you see me?”
The image wasn’t the best resolution, nor consistency in its latency.
Alex talked to someone off-screen, “Okay.”
“Who are you talking to?” Noyin asked.
Alex turned to the screen. “Ah, that was Jaycee, one of Beta’s Androgynes. A big Series Three unit. He’s great.”
The children giggled.
“Hey, guys,” Alex waved at Siyam, Noyin, Sierra, and Rana, “Where’s Grace? I can’t see Grace?”
“She’s, uh, not here,” Sierra quipped. “Long story, but we got USARIC’s product out.”
“Wow, really?” Alex clapped his hands together excitedly, “Great work, guys.”
“What’s going on up there, Alex?” Siyam asked. “Did you connect with Opera Beta?”
“Yeah, uh, sort of. It’s a very long story, but—”
Alex’s image flickered in and out and nearly lost connection altogether, “—crew didn’t make it, and we’re on some bizarre terrain we don’t recognize.”
“Huh?” Sierra asked.
Alex turned to his left and held his hands up, hoping something wouldn’t attack him, “We got the connection.”
Jamie stepped forward and stared, wide-eyed, at the feed.
“Okay, okay,” Alex moved out of the way and ushered the person in front of the feed, “Go on, I think he’s there.”
Jamie’s mouth opened as he watched the next person move in front of the lens.
A tall woman with cat-like features.
Her fur looked coarse and bristly, much of it in white and black streaks that covered her face in diagonal direction.
She stared at the crew and eventually moved her eyes to Jamie.
“J-Jelly?” he stammered.
The monstrous tiger barely resembled the tiny cat she once was. She stared at him and let out a vicious grunt. Her nostrils flared up as she moved her huge paw up the live feed, “Jamie.”
Siyam gulped and couldn’t tear his eyes away from the event, “My God, what have they done to her?”
“Jelly Anderson, Star Cat?” Noyin whispered to Rana. “More like Star Tiger.”
Jelly moved her nose forward and closed her eyes. She tried to breathe Jamie in and remind herself of home, but it was no use. It was only an image of Jamie. For a brief moment, though, it felt like they were physically in the same room.
Jamie whimpered and wiped the tears from his eyes, “What h-happened to you, Jelly?”
“They did this to me,” she grunted. “I’m a mess.”
Jamie bit his lip and ran his finger through the holograph of her head, “I miss you, Jelly. Please come back home.”
“Juh—Juh—” she licked her lips and gulped. “Jelly. Is sick, Jamie. Pink Symphony eating m-me inside.”
“No,” he sniffed. “I’m so sorry, it’s all my fault—”
“—Jamie protect others. Jelly… t
-try t-to get… home,” she croaked.
“But when?”
Jelly growled and turned away from the live feed, “N-Need to go, now—”
SCHWIPP—BZZZZZZ.
Jamie stumbled forward through the image as it flipped into nothingness.
“We’ve lost connection completely,” Noyin typed on the keyboard and tried to reconnect the feed. “Something’s interfering with the transmission.”
Sierra looked at the cats. They howled and shrieked and shifted across the tabletop.
GRRRRRRRRRRR.
The ground began to rumble and shake.
“What is it?” Rana squealed, “What’s going on?”
The lights shut off in an instant, blanketing the arena in darkness.
The moon provided a dim shaft of light from the telescope hub.
The ground rumbled harder and angrier as the seconds flew past.
The cats shrieked and hopped around, frightened for the lives.
“I think this time it is an Earthquake,” Remy said.
Sierra saw the objects on the table shift around and pointed at dome’s entrance, “Quick, everyone get outside.”
“The truck is blocking it,” Siyam pushed through the kids and waved them to the back end of the arena, “Quick follow me. We’re safer outside than in here.”
RUUUUUMMMBBBLLLEEE…
“Christ, the place is breaking apart,” Rana shouted at everyone as the dome began to shake and cough dust from the walls and ceiling, “Everyone, follow Siyam. Go, go, go.”
Siyam ran past the telescope and pushed the back door open, “ Through here.”
He held the door out and ushered everyone through.
“Jamie, Remy, Leesa, go.”
The children ran out first, followed by a flurry of meowing and screeching cats filtering past their ankles.
Sierra and Rana moved to the door.
“I hope you haven’t left anything valuable in here,” Rana said.
“Only everything we’ve ever worked for.”
The girls pushed through the door and onto the rough terrain outside.
In the far corner, Dreenagh opened her eyes and woke from her slumber, “Ugh, where am I?”
“Remix, get up. There’s an earthquake.”
She squealed and looked around, “Oh, no.” The earthquake and her disorientation made the rumbling twice as angry.
She ran to the door, and considered escaping once she was out.
“Don’t get any ideas, Remix,” Siyam quipped at Dreenagh as she ran past him. He turned to Noyin, who tried to press his thumbnail out from the keyboard.
“Come on. Let’s move.”
“Gimme a second, I’m coming.”
“Leave the stupid nail in the board. I don’t want you perishing under the rubble.”
“Fine,” Noyin ran towards the door as a section of the ceiling smashed to the ground behind him.
“Go, go, go—” Siyam reached forward, grabbed Noyin’s hand and flung him through the back door.
SCHWUNT.
Siyam closed the door behind him and picked Noyin off the ground, “Here, get up.”
RUUUMMMBBBLLLLLLEEEEEEE.
The trees and bushes vibrated with a ferocious intensity.
Jamie stepped over the cracks in the mud and grabbed Leesa’s arm, “What’s happening?”
Remy looked up at the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, several feet in the distance, “Look. Look at that.”
The cats bolted toward the shoreline.
The full moon hung over the ocean, illuminating its wonderful crystal blue hue.
Sierra, Rana, Noyin, and Siyam looked at the horizon. The water broke apart and sent a series of gentle waves in all directions.
The ground rocked so violently that the adults had to hold onto each other to prevent themselves from falling over.
Dreenagh was mid-way through her escape, and the others hadn’t noticed.
But something in the ocean made the woman stop and gasp, “Oh, Jesus.”
“What the—?” Sierra blurted as she watched the gulf erupt.
CRASSSHH.
“Jamie, look,” Leesa squealed and tugged on his arm. She pointed into the distance as the shore rolled up along the bank and plastered over their feet.
The cats jumped up and down and screeched blue murder at the full moon.
And then…
A jet black thing rocketed out of the water a mile or so in the distance. From the distance they had, the thing seemed to grow ever-so slowly.
GRRROOOWWWWLLL…
The thing resembled the stem of a jet black tree. Branches pinged out either side of its structure as it continued to climb into the air.
“What is that?” Jamie asked, stunned by its magnificence.
Dreenagh walked back to the others, choosing to delay her escape.
“I don’t believe what I’m seeing.”
CREAAAKK-CRAACKK-KK.
Dozens of branches flung out either side as the tree-shaped object towered above the gulf.
A whirlwind of meows and howls from the cats threatened to drown out the ferocious sound of the vent taking place in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
“Meow.”
ROOOOAAAAAARRR.
“It looks like a tree,” Sierra shouted over the commotion.
“A tree that isn’t a tree,” Dreenagh said. “How can a tree be growing in the middle of the ocean?”
The rumbling abated as the structure’s growth slowed to a halt.
“Wow,” Jamie pulled Leesa to his chest and covered her face, “Look at it. It’s huge.”
The tree structure creaked to the side as the water around it settled down.
It appeared to breathe in and arch its stem.
“Is it God?” Noyin asked, utterly terrified.
GRRROOOOAAAAANN-CREAAAKK.
The sound of bark cracking and bending out whizzed around the air as the tree - that wasn’t a tree - stood up straight and froze solid.
The cats continued to howl and screech at the moon.
Mau trundled in front of her feline friends and placed her behind on the ground.
She stared at the bright, intense light from the full moon and opened her mouth. Suzie Q-Two brushed the side of her body against Leesa’s ankle and joined her master at the shoreline.
“Meow.”
“What’s she d-doing?” Remy asked. “Leesa, your cat is weird.”
Leesa opened her eyes and watched Suzie take a seat next to Mau.
“Meow,” she cried at the moon.
One by one, the cats joined in and produced a lengthy roar of approval.
“Meow, meoooowwww.”
Sierra looked up at the moon with them and wondered out loud, “Whatever it is, they know more than we do.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Jelly slowed her pace. Exhausted, she seemed to have been walking for hours in pursuit of her daughter’s killer.
Her legs ached, she’d been walking for so long over the uneven ground.
Mastazita was long gone, now.
An infinite array of opportunities to discover the planet lay in all directions.
She used the center of Saturn as guidance. It was her best shot, following the largest of the lights bursting through the trees in this infinite wasteland.
Jelly rifled through the tree branches to discover a well-worn track of paw prints in the mud. All she had to do was follow them and pray it didn’t lead to nowhere. Any energy she had left within quickly dissipated.
The cold and hunger could wait. She needed to find Mastazita and murder him. A promise to rip his heart from his still-living body needed to be fulfilled.
Jelly was, after all, a cat of her word.
She found the lack of wolves frightening. The area was so, so quiet. Could an ambush be waiting around the corner?
She stopped walking and surveyed the vast foliage that surrounded her. The trees stood at least one hundred feet high, towering over her like angry aggressors.
The creaking sounds coming from the branches added an eerie aura to the now-unknown area she found herself in.
Howls came from behind the end of the forestry. Surely she was on the right track?
It was worth finding out.
She mustered the energy from somewhere to continue forward, clenching her infinity claws tight, ready to pounce on whatever may announce itself at the last minute.
A few minutes later, Jelly emerged from the forest to find a barren patch of ground dead ahead of her.
This was no ordinary wasteland, however.
Bones littered the area. A muddied and shredded cosmonaut space suit lay crumpled across the ground.
Jelly sniffed it. She knew it was from the ship she’d discovered, and it seemed as if a fight had taken place at one time.
The lack of rocks paved the way for a relatively smooth surface - that of a giant disc made of fine mud.
With every step she took, reflective pangs of light fell across her eyeballs from sharp objects lined around the mud.
“Huh?” Jelly sneered at the fine, white shards of material stabbed into the ground.
She stopped walking to find herself in the huge, makeshift circular arena.
Sections of the vessel she’d found had been driven into the ground. Bits of the walls, pipework, floor grilles, and other random parts from the ship she’d found.
She looked left, then right, and saw that the parts formed a shape of a circle one hundred feet wide.
The pilot’s seat had been rammed into the ground at the north end of the makeshift Colosseum, directly under the heavenly body of Saturn.
Jelly’s ears pricked up. Something hassled her, and it wasn’t the gentle breeze brushing the fur on her face.
It was too quiet.
Mastazita was here, somewhere.
She clenched her infinity claws and cracked her knuckles, keeping a stern eye out for the beast.
Jelly stomped forward, digging her heels in the ground. The scaly surface threatened to crack apart with each step.
Then, the sound of a deathly growl came from somewhere.
Jelly paused to clutch her chest. A shooting pain blasted through her body. Her heart boomed back and forth, threatening to explode. She knew that the pain would never completely dissipate.
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