The full moon hung in the air along with the stench of hops from his umpteenth bottle of beer.
There weren’t many cars at this time of night. The occasional lorry passed by. On the rare occasion an Individimedia GPS failed to work, he’d have lost drivers knock on his door asking for directions to Houston. Or the nearest gas station.
Tonight, something caught his eye in the middle of the road.
“Huh? Wassat?” he tried to focus on the thing fifty feet from his porch, “Is th-that roadkill or somethin’?”
He staggered to his feet and tipped the remainder of the bottle into his mouth. Nary a drop produced, he threw the glass in the direction of the thing lying in the middle of the road.
“Gaw, nuthin’ but damn roadkill,” he burped and wiped the end of his sleeve across his wet lips.
The thing shifted around and slapped its tail to the ground.
Little did Glenn know that the animal in the road was an Egyptian Mau. The moon bounced off its pupils and projected a sliver of green light at Glenn.
The Mau whined and continued to slap her tail against the tarmac.
“Hey, you,” Glen shouted at her and took hold of the porch railing for balance, “Get off the highway. Y’all gonna get yersel’ killed.”
“Muuhhh…” Mau murmured as a white light enveloped her face. A pair of headlamps from an approaching car folded over the bump in the road.
“What the hell?” Glenn blinked a few times at the oncoming car, “Oh Jeez, no. Hey, you. Pussycat, get off the road.”
“Grrr….” Mau returned to the surrounding trees and licked her paw.
The headlamps belonged to a purple SUV which sped along the freeway. The driver blared his horn, trying to coax the cat off the road.
Glenn looked left and then right. The Egyptian Mau was ten seconds away from getting mauled by the tires of the SUV.
“Hey, cat. Move it.”
Mau pressed her front paws to the tarmac and lifted her behind into the air, determined to take the SUV head-on, “Meeooowww…”
BEEEEEEEP!
The driver slammed on the brakes, throwing the car to a screaming stop inches away from the Mau’s nose.
“What the heck is goin’ on around here?”
The lone driver kicked his door open and planted his feet on the ground. He looked over the roof his car and spotted Glenn watching the scene from his porch.
“Hey, mister. Is this your cat?”
“Nu-huh”, Glenn shook his head in a fit of inebriation, “She ain’t mine.”
The driver turned to Mau and tried to shift her away with his boot, “Go on, get outta the way, you dirty little varmint—”
A cacophony of violent "meows” whirled around the driver’s head. They appeared to be coming from the trees.
“Huh?”
One by one, a variety of felines trundled out from behind the trees and made their way onto the road.
Mau extended her claws and scraped them along the road, gearing up to attack.
“Grrrr…”
“What in the hell is going on here?” The driver stood still on the road as the cats swarmed toward him like an angry and fluffy virus, “No, no. Y’all stay away from me, ya hear?”
“Screeeeeeech,” The Mau launched into the air with her paws out. She buried her claws through his shirt and clung as hard as she could, kicking and gnashing away at his face.
“Ahh, gerrof me!”
The cats meowed as they swarmed the still-running car. Two white American bobtails bolted into the driver’s side. The remainder hopped through the window and swarmed around the interior of the car.
Glenn squeezed his eyes shut in disbelief. He looked at the half-full bottle of beer in his hand, “Jeez, I drink too much.”
The driver did his best to fight off the Mau but it was no use. His behind slammed against the car as she ravaged his face, “Roowwaaarrrr!”
VROOM! VROOM!
One of the white Bobtails pressed her front paws on the gas pedal, forcing the car to shunt forward.
“Meow,” Mau climbed onto the driver’s seat, leaving its previous occupant screaming on the road.
She ran the side of her head along the stick shift, signaling three of her tribe to push it into first gear.
The car jolted forward once again.
“My car. They’re taking my damn car,” the driver pushed himself to his knees, “Someone call the cops.”
An intense whirlwind of squealing and meowing came from inside the car as it rolled forward.
Mau wrapped her claws around the sticky steering wheel. She meowed at the two white bobtails to apply the gas. Two silver Siamese cats joined them and threw their weight onto the pedal.
The car bolted along the road as Mau held the steering wheel in still, “Meeeooow…”
The car picked up speed and threatened to veer off the path. Fur spat into the air as the wind rolled through the opened passenger window.
Trying to stave off the effects of drunkenness, Glenn stepped down his porch and made his way over to the driver, “Jeez, did you see that?”
“Of course I saw them,” the driver picked himself off his knees and cupped his bleeding eyes, “Call the police. They’ve taken my car.”
Glenn threw his left arm into the air and pulled his sleeve back. He spoke into his Individimedia ink, “Hello? P-Police?”
The ink swirled around to reveal STPD - South Texas Police Department.
“Thank you for contacting the STPD,” a friendly voice came from the pinpricks in his wrist, “Your call is important to us. Please wait while we find you an agent.”
The purple SUV’s rear lights shot off the road and into the fields in the distance.
The driver brushed himself down and pushed Glenn by the shoulder, “Why didn’t you stop them?”
“Why didn’t you s-stop them—?”
“—This is the STPD. How may I direct your call?”
“Ah, I, uh—” Glenn swallowed and waded around on the spot, “P-Police?”
“Yes, caller. This is the STPD connecting on your Individimedia channel.”
SCH-PRRAANNGG!
The SUV crashed against a giant tree. A cloud of smoke billowed out from under the battered hood. The left indicator blinked on and off as the cats made their escape.
“Caller?”
Glenn couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
He double-took and looked at his forearm, “Uh. You’ll never guess what’s j-just h-happened. A bunch of cats has c-comm—” he spluttered and tried to keep from laughing, “Commandeered a… c-car.”
“Very funny, caller,” the voice sounded extremely put-out, “Please stop wasting our time. Good evening.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Pink Symphony
The tree that wasn’t a tree had grown in size since its re-emergence from the ocean. Standing one thousand feet in height, it sprouted a second stump and root and now resembled a nightmarish hell of pure black.
Its two stumps stormed through the water, carrying Space Opera Beta at the end of one of its twelfth branches. It twisted the spacecraft upright in its ‘palm’.
Hundreds of thousands of Shanta scurried around the sandy shore hundreds of feet below.
A large number of them crawled over the tree’s bark-like stumps. Most of them tumbled back down to the ground. Despite having twelve limbs themselves, they weren’t able to climb very far up the root.
The tree hulked its way through the water and headed for the dunes. It arched its mid-section and squealed as the blinding light from the converged three suns blossomed in the pink-black sky.
The rumbling from the celestial event taking place thousands of miles above Pink Symphony forced the grains of sand to shimmy around. If something fantastic had already happened then perhaps the crew had been misinformed, or gotten the wrong end of the stick.
The real fantastic event had yet to occur…
The Control Deck
Space Opera Beta - Level One
Tripp led the charge along the revolving walkway. The door to the deck lay on its side in the distance as he, Bonnie, Jaycee, and Tor raced along the wall. The bizarre geography resembled a tumbling carnival ride that threatened to return to normal any moment.
“Guys, make sure you keep your center of gravity,” Tripp hopped over three wall pipes like a racehorse.
“What the hell is happening around here?” Bonnie asked.
“I don’t know. Hopefully Manuel can give us some answers,” Tripp reached the panel on the wall and slammed his palm onto it.
The door slid across and allowed them inside.
They were used to seeing the communication console on the left-hand wall. Due to the imbalance of gravity it was technically on the ground.
Tripp walked over it, careful not to damage the panel, “Tor, get Manuel online.”
“Yes, okay,” Tor snapped his fingers and tested the environment, “Manuel?”
“Be careful with your weight, Jaycee. Don’t tread on anything important,” Bonnie tiptoed over the screen and ran to the windshield at the far end of the room.
“It’s not easy, you know,” Jaycee clomped his way past Tor and looked up at the flight deck - which was now on the wall, “What in the hell?”
“A-W-A-K-E,” Tor lifted the keyboard and sat next to the panel, “Four, five, seven.”
The console whirred to life and attempted to boot up.
“Success,” Tor clapped his hands and turned to Tripp at the windshield, “We’ve got—”
Tor’s eyes grew with disbelief at the view from outside.
“Jesus Christ.”
“I know. Look,” Tripp pointed at the view of Pink Symphony.
The horizon staggered up, down, left and right, due to the tree’s transportation of the vessel. They could see the edge of the universe due to the height they had.
Pink Symphony wasn’t a globe as previously thought. It was a disc - the quasi-planetary equivalent of a dinner plate. Where the horizon would naturally curve, instead, it simply ended.
Thousands of tiny white dots scrambled hundreds of feet below them. The Shanta.
The enlarged sun provided a brilliant light source for the view. Worse, it seemed to be growing by the second.
“Is this heaven?” Jaycee attempted to take in the spectacular view, “How are we moving?”
CREEAAAKK-WOOOOSH
The ‘floor’ tilted up and around, forcing the communication console to climb up the wall to its regular position.
Tripp, Bonnie, Tor, and Jaycee barrel-rolled down from the wall and hit the ground. They were finally upright once again.
“I think that black tree is carrying us,” Tripp turned to Tor for an answer, “Where’s Manuel?”
“Waiting for him to boot up,” Tor tried to ignore an unusual shifting noise coming from the ceiling, “What do you mean carrying us?”
Tripp pointed at the edge of the universe through the windshield, “Look out there, we’ve—”
CREAK-THWUCK!
A giant Shanta carcass slammed to the ground. Its pink, gloopy remains splattered in all directions.
“Gaahhh,” Tripp kicked himself back, scared it would attack him.
“No, no. Wait,” Tripp held the others back and approached the gory miasma of flesh and limbs with trepidation, “It’s dead.”
Everyone turned to face the flight deck. A cylindrical metal disc rolled from under the desk and fell onto its side.
“The Decapidisc?” Tor said in fright, “It’s been used.”
Jaycee thumped his fists together, “Yeah, I think that one was for your friend.”
Tripp looked around for something, “Speaking of Baldron, where is he?”
THWUMP!
Baldron’s decapitated android corpse crashed against the ground behind the crew.
Everyone jumped back in fright.
“Damn,” Jaycee stepped back onto Baldron’s severed head, “That’s one dead Russkie.”
His boot accidentally kicked the severed head toward Tor. The jumbled fusion of synthetic skin and protruding neck wires sparked and fizzed as the football of a head rolled toward Tor’s knees.
Tripp stomped his feet to the floor, “Okay, everyone. Just keep calm. They’re dead. We know about them. We know what happened.”
The console produced a succession of beeps.
Manuel’s holograph appeared in the middle of the room, swinging his pages around like a flailing Octopus.
“Duh-duh-duh… ¿Dónde estoy?”
“Huh?” Tor pressed the return key on the keyboard, “Say that again?”
“Estoy confundido. ¿Qué me pasó?”
“Eh?” Bonnie asked, “Is that Spanish?”
“He must have taken a serious knock, or something,” Tor punched in a command on the keyboard, “Wait. Let me try something.”
Manuel flapped his pages like an angry pigeon, “¿Compréndeme? ¿Holaaa?”
“Nah, this is no use,” Tor hit a button the keyboard, “Let me try something else.”
“¡Oh, por Dios! Es ridículo…”
As Manuel spoke, his sentence shifted from Spanish to English.
“… You changed my language, you morons,” Manuel slowed his speech down and realized the crew understood the latter half of his complaint perfectly well, “Umm, did you hear that last part?”
Everyone nodded, taking great exception to what he’d said.
“Yeah,” Tripp said. “We did.”
“I apologize.”
“You can make amends by telling us what’s going out there.”
Manuel’s shivering covers caused some consternation in the crew, “My scan suggests we are still on Pink Symphony.”
Jaycee grabbed Baldron’s ankles and dragged him over to the door, “Yeah. We figured that out on our own. What’s going on out there?”
Manuel shook himself and floated over to the windshield. He took in the impressive view of the edge of the universe.
“Oh my. Would you look at that?”
“What?” Bonnie rocked up behind him and watched the sun with him, “What’s wrong?”
“The entity that’s carrying us. It’s moving us for a reason.”
“It’s pulled us away from the Shanta creatures. Where is it taking us?”
Manuel bent his spine and ducked, “Its off the charts. That ball of fire in the sky is going to destroy everything. It’s headed straight for us.”
“So we’re all dead, then?” Tripp asked without a trace of emotion.
“Oh n-no,” Manuel freaked out and whizzed over to the comms panel, “Everyone grab hold of something. Now!”
BZZZOOOOWWW!
The power in the control deck snapped off.
“Guuuuh,” Manuel vanished into thin air.
“You heard him,” Tripp clutched the solid surface of the flight deck, “Grab hold of something and get ready.”
Tor dropped the keyboard and grabbed hold of the door, “Ughhh, I don’t wanna die.”
“Shut up,” Bonnie and Jaycee blurted at the man in unison.
The interior of the ship rumbled up a storm. Jaycee and Bonnie held onto each other and hit the deck.
“Gahhhh!”
Baldron’s body and the dead Shanta slid across the floor and slammed against the wall.
The ground lifted into the air and pushed the crew towards the ceiling.
Tripp closed his eyes and screamed at the top of his lungs, “Hold on, everyone!”
SCHWAAMM!
The rumbling noise grew louder and louder. Anything that wasn’t bolted to the floor sprang from the floor and crashed against the ceiling.
Everyone’s legs lifted away from the floor.
The windshield staggered around and threatened to break free from its housing.
Pink Symphony’s horizon sparked and elongated, appearing to zoom closer and closer against the roaring ball of white sun against the stars…
***
“What was that nois
e?” Wool lifted her thumb away from the wall. A thin blue line recorded Jelly’s height; three feet and three inches.
Jelly stepped away from the wall and looked at the window, “It’s coming,” she whined and flicked her ears with concern.
“I can see that,” Wool slid her detached nail onto the end of her thumb and joined her, “Stay there, honey. By your bed.”
“Mommy, I’m scared.”
Wool saw the edge of Pink Symphony rock up and down through Medix’s window, “I know. We’re all scared,”
SCHTOMP-SCHTOMP…
The ground thundered beneath Wool’s feet. She spun around and shouted at Jelly, “Honey, grab hold of the bed.”
“Miew,” Jelly did as instructed and coiled her tail around the metal head rest, “Mommy, I d-don’t want to die.”
Wool moved to the door and rolled her left sleeve up fer forearm. She ran her thumb along her Individimedia ink and roared into her wrist, “Tripp? Anyone? Does anybody read me—”
KER-WUMP!
Another blast across the ground sent Wool to her knees. She rolled across the floor and grabbed Jelly’s bed with her right hand, keeping her left forearm against her face.
“I don’t know where you are, but we could use some help up here.”
The lack of response caused Wool and Jelly to tremble with fear as they clutched onto the bed for dear life.
Wool’s legs launched into the air as the ground thumped harder and harder.
Just then, a blast of pure white light flooded the entirety of the room.
“My G-God…” Wool’s pupils dilated as she witnessed the horizon blast towards the window, “We’re g-going to…”
Jelly took a final look at the picture of Jamie on the wall. She gripped the side of her bed to prevent herself from flying off, “I want to go home.”
She buried her head in her pillow and squealed. The ferocious shaking became unmanageable. The bed’s casters rocked from side to side.
“If anyone can hear me, we’re trapped inside Medix,” Wool yelled into her wrist as her feet darted to the ceiling. Her entire body fell upwards, pulling her right hand away from the bed frame.
Star Cat: War Mage Page 4