Oxade slumped to his knees and held his neck for dear life. His mask bloated out and crushed into his face. His suit tore into strips. Neg’s ball-like surface indented and crushed in on itself, killing her instantly.
THWUMP!
Jelly smashed the dial with her fist, “Can you hear this?”
Neg’s body rolled up the inside of the outer door hatch along with Poz. The charge caused the door to crush outward and create an opening into outer space.
“Got it,” Poz squealed, hanging from the opening at the bottom of the airlock hatch, “Now, let me in—”
“—No, Poz,” Neg screamed, “We’ll die—”
SCHLAAAM!
Jelly screamed into the window, “Meow.”
The chamber rocked against the intense pressure drop.
A rope of blood daggered from Oxade’s mouth as he screamed, “Noooo—”
SCHPLATTTTT!
His body exploded, throwing his insides through the hatch opening. A concoction of destroyed Oxade limbs and organs rocketed towards Saturn.
“Holy h-hell,” Alex backed away from Jelly as she watched every second of Oxade and Neg’s death, “J-Jelly, y-you’re a—”
“—Killer?” She turned to face him matter-of-factly and with little emotion.
“Y-Yes”
“That’s right. Don’t ever forget it.”
Alex pressed his hands against the hatch window. He saw Poz and Neg fly with Oxade’s remains towards Saturn.
“What have y-you d-done?”
“I took out the trash,” She pushed herself away from the door and stormed down the walkway, “Now let’s get out of this hellhole.”
Alex clambered to his feet and raced after her, “Where are you going?”
“To the control deck,” she shouted over her shoulder, “Keep your mask on. I’m still toxic.”
“Toxic?”
“I’m carrying Symphonium. Keep your mask on,” Jelly turned her walk into a sprint, clanging her claws along the walkway, “Who’s got my child?”
“Uh, I gave her to Jaycee.”
“I want my baby. Give me my baby.”
The Control Deck
Space Opera Charlie - Level One
Jaycee carried Jelly’s kitten into the control deck to find Tripp negotiating with Manny. She hung in the air, refusing to budge.
“What’s the score?” Jaycee asked.
“She won’t listen to me,” Tripp turned to Manny, “Look, this is serious.”
“Manny?” Jaycee muttered.
“I’m sorry, Tripp. I can only take instructions from a commanding officer or my captain. And they are dead.”
“We’re all dead if you don’t enable the thrusters and get us out of here,” Tripp tried to little avail.
“Want me to threaten her?” Jaycee passed the kitten to Tripp, “Give it some of the old ‘user friendly’ approach?”
“I’m afraid that will not work.”
Tripp held the messy kitten in his arms and stared at its face. She nestling into his arms and opened her gunky eyelids.
“Look at you, you have no idea what’s going on, do you?” He said, looking at his forearm. The blisters on his synthetic skin bubbled and popped, “Are you okay, Jaycee?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Ruptured a few vessels. Kind of annoyed about discovering I’m not human, but that’s nothing that a good sleep won’t fix,” Jaycee clenched his fist and threatened to punch the console, “Manny. If we die, you’re coming with us.”
Jelly stormed into the room with Alex, “Where’s my baby?”
Tripp looked up at her and smiled, “She’s right here, with me.”
“Give her to me,” Jelly held out her paws. Tripp dropped the tiny ball of fluff into her palms.
Jelly ran the side of her face along its body. The whiskers on her face lit up, along with her daughter’s. They fizzed and connected together, calming the kitten down.
She took a deep breath and looked at Tripp.
“Why aren’t we moving?”
“The autopilot won’t engage the thrusters.”
“Take her,” Jelly passed her newborn to Tripp and walked up to Manny, “Hey, you. Stupid book. Why won’t you engage the thrusters?”
“Because it is not in my remit to take orders from strangers.”
“Really?” Jelly marched over to the communications console. She knocked Jaycee out of her way and expanded her infinity claws at the screen, “You have five seconds to get us out of here or I’ll rip your guts out.”
Manny shuffled in the air in an attempt to seem calm, “You can do that if you wish. It won’t help.”
Alex stepped forward. He knew what had to be done, “Manny?”
“Yes, Alex?”
“Captain Weller was killed on his mission. That makes me the captain, now.”
Tripp, Jaycee, and Jelly turned to Alex with relief.
“Captain Weller is dead?” Manny asked.
“Yes, Jelly killed him. And Nutrene, and droids Poz and Neg.”
“I see.”
“Make no mistake. Anderson is in charge, now, after me. I hereby assign full captain privileges to Anderson in the event of anything happening to me. ”
Manny froze in mid-air and drained the color from her book-body.
“You will take orders from us as we see fit. Do you understand what I’ve just said?”
“In that case I await your commands.”
“Engage thrusters,” Alex said. “Make up a course for Earth, please—”
“—Nggggg,” Jelly grunted in agony, inadvertently catching everyone’s attention, “It’s h-happening again.”
Alex’s eyes widened as he saw Jelly pushing her second baby out from between her legs, “Jesus.”
A gush of transparent liquid fountained down her thighs.
“Stand back. Give her some space,” Tripp said.
Opera Charlie rumbled to life as Jelly rolled onto her side. She arched her knee into the air and meowed at the top of her lungs, “My baby… it’s c-coming…”
KER-RUUNNNCCCHHH!
The spacecraft shunted around, spilling the crew off their balance, “What’s that?” Tripp screamed and clutched at the chair in front of the console.
Opera Charlie’s back thrusters lit up and blasted away from Saturn’s spectacular light show.
The bridge cracked and broke away from Opera Beta entirely. Huge clumps of white metal daggered out and tossed Opera Beta into a sustained revolution, like a Catherine wheel.
KERCHUNK-BOOM!
The bridge severed itself from both vessels and twirled in the air like a discarded bone.
Saturn’s tumultuous ring revolved so fast it threatened to light up the black whirlpool on its surface. The sound it produced was beyond deafening.
BLAST-BLAASSST!
Opera Charlie’s thrusters lit up and sent the structure rocketing away from the planetary event literally unfolding behind them.
The nukes in Opera Beta’s control deck detonated.
“Cover your faces. Don’t look at the window.” Jaycee stood in front of the flight deck windshield, “Beta’s gonna blow—”
In an intense slowing down of motion, Tripp, Jaycee, Alex, and Jelly turned away from the windshield. Tripp covered the kitten’s face with his palm as each of their faces bleached out into a mass of pure white…
KEERRR - WHUD-WHUD-WHUD-WHUDD-DD…
Opera Beta exploded in sections. The sharp-end of the cone rocketed away from the vessel like a bullet. A running detonation devastated its centrifuge, catapulting sections of its shell and insides into space. The middle of the ship rippled and blasted apart, pushing the thruster-end towards Saturn in a haze of destructed glory - enough of a blast to push Opera Charlie away as its thrusters roared into the huge blanket of space…
Jaycee and Tripp picked themselves up from the floor and looked up through the windshield.
Opera Beta and it inhabitants were no more.
A gigantic tear in the f
abric of space discharged a shaft of white light that streaked all the way back to Saturn’s core.
“She’s gone,” Tripp muttered, suppressing his emotion. He didn’t dare look away, “They’re all—”
“—Dead,” Jaycee finished the sentence, “All of them.”
Tripp double-took and passed the kitten to Alex, who took her into his arms.
“What am I meant to do with her?”
“Guard her with your life,” Tripp made for the flight deck, “Manny? Tell me we’re moving.”
“Hyper-thrusters currently engaged,” Manny said. “They’ve ten percent damage, however.”
“Enough to get us back home?”
Manny went quiet.
The silence drew attention to Jelly on the floor kicking her legs and tensing her muscles, “My baby is coming.”
“Another one?” Tripp ran over to her and held out his arms, “What do you need me to do?”
“Leave me the hell alone,” Jelly squealed and clutched the console edge, “Nggggg…”
“Excuse me, Tripp?” Manny sprang to life, “I’m afraid I have some good news and bad news.”
“What is it? Give me the good news first.”
“The thrusters are engaged at ninety-two percent. We have a better-than-good chance of making it home.”
“And the bad news? I mean, apart from Charlie about to acquire a litter of kittens?”
Manny projected a holograph in the middle of the room. Opera Charlie’s escape from Saturn had slowed it down, perilously close to being pulled back, “We may not leave Saturn’s orbit intact.”
“Oh, great.”
“Maximum capacity on the thrusters, please,” Alex looked at Manny as he comforted the kitten in his arms.
“We can’t outrun a black hole, Hughes.”
“Is that what that is? A black hole?”
“It resembles one. It’s not fully-formed yet. I’ll take my chances on outrunning it and not sticking around to find out.”
Manny threw a holographic projection of the engine’s view of Saturn. It folded out in the middle of the room and showed the giant planet shaking around like a blender at full speed.
“I’ll maximize the capability, but there are no guarantees. The force is threatening to pull us back in,” Manny said.
“Just do it. Full throttle.”
Jelly huffed and puffed. Her belly glowed a hot pink through her exo-suit top. She strained her stomach muscles and kicking her boots against the ground, “Oh, God… it’s coming, it’s coming…”
Tripp, Jaycee, and Alex looked at the holograph footage of Saturn as per the view from the back of the ship.
“If you believe in God, now’s the time to pray…” Tripp said, quietly.
The kitten shuffled around in his arms and meowed its first.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Port Lavaca
South Texas, USA
(Ten miles north of Port D’Souza)
The sun had set.
The only light provided on the road came from the occasional street lamp and the full moon.
An engine from a 4x4 rumbled beside one of many trees by the road.
Grace held her flashlight against the trees in a hunt for the escaped felines, “Here kitty-kitty-kitty. Where are you?”
A rectangular geo-scan hung above her flashlight. Several purple dots beeped as a blue radar swirled around. She held her finger to her ear and spoke into her mouthpiece.
“Siyam, they’re here somewhere,” she clocked a similar flashlight a few feet away.
“I know, I’m getting the same reading,” Siyam responded through her headgear, “Two clicks further.”
“I hope they’re willing to come with us. I don’t get it, they usually respond.”
“It’s unlike them to stay in packs. Usually they’re—”
A rustling coming from a bush by the road stopped him talking. Grace grew nervous, “What was that noise?”
Siyam waved his flashlight around, “By the road. Highway thirty-seven. Move.”
The trees seem to come to life as the pair turned around and made their way to the road.
A giant gale rustled the branches and blew Grace’s hair back across her neck, “Hey, what’s that noise?”
WHUDDA-WHUDDA-WHUDDA.
A deafening noise pushed the gale across their faces.
“Chopper. It’s one of USARIC’s,” Siyam kept an eye on the purple blips on the his geo-scan as he ran over to Grace, “Look. Up there.”
A fierce-looking black helicopter with tandem rotors hovered over the freeway and blasted its lights onto the road, “This is the United States and Russian Intergalactic Confederation,” a male voice announced through its speakers, “Make yourselves know immediately.”
Grace turned to Siyam and exhaled, “That’s it. We’re busted.”
He clutched her arm and held her back, “No, wait. I don’t think they’re talking to us.”
The helicopter lowered. The blades of grass and dust kicked across the ground.
“I repeat, come out now and await rescue.”
Grace tapped Siyam on the shoulder. She’d seen something crawl out of the bush by the stores.
“Look, over there.”
“Oh, wow,” Siyam gasped as he watch the Egyptian Mau bolt into the middle of the freeway.
Two cars blared their horns and screeched to a halt, narrowly avoiding contact with the cat.
She made herself comfortable in the middle of the road and looked up at the blinding light coming from the helicopter, “Meow.”
“Good. Stay where you are,” said a USARIC mercenary sitting at the opened door to the helicopter, “Where are the others?”
“Meow,” Mau growled and looked at the floor.
“What is she doing?” Grace lowered her flashlight and stepped forward, “I’m going to take her—”
“—Christ’s sake, no. They’ll open fire on us. On her.”
“We can’t just leave her there,” Grace whispered. “They’ll take her back.”
A chorus of ‘meows’ snaked through the trees. Several cats emerged and joined their leader on the road.
“That’s right, you fluffy idiots,” the USARIC mercenary said through his megaphone, “Out you come. Nice and slow.”
Another merc pushed forward as the helicopter hovered to the liquor store’s parking lot. He produced a mini gun and attached it to the frame of the hatch, “Just tell me when.”
“Drivers,” The merc said, “Exit your vehicles and make your way to the parking lot, please.”
The drivers in each car jumped out and ran under a giant vertical billboard advertising Rollneck Kojak beer. A neon image of a bald-headed man blinked underneath its logo.
“Meow,” The Egyptian Mau stood up and walked around in a circle, forcing her twenty-nine peers to stop moving. They sat on their haunches, randomly dotted all over the road.
Grace reached into her belt and retrieved her handgun, “They’re not taking those cats and abusing them.”
“Grace, don’t. Look at them, we’re outnumbered. We’re too late. They beat us to it.”
“I’ll take as many of those bastards out as I can,” Grace bit her lip to prevent herself from crying, “I don’t c-care if I die.”
Siyam grabbed her shoulder and sidled into her, “Well I do. You’re no use to any of us dead, are you?”
Grace lowered her gun, resigned to defeat.
“You wanna end up like Handax? Like Denny, Moses, and Leif? Then go out there and go down in a blaze of glory. Just know that you don’t have our blessing.”
She swiped his hand away from her shoulder and fell to her knees, “Let go of me.”
The helicopter’s landing gear hit the ground, kicking up a giant whirlwind of dust. The armed Mercenary jumped out and swung his machine gun at the Egyptian Mau, “There you are. Stay right there.”
He waved his colleague out of the vehicle.
“Get the net. Tell base we’ve located the re
st of them.”
SNAAARRRLLLLL!
The Egyptian Mau looked up at the full moon along with her peers.
“Hey, you,” the merc shouted over the noise of helicopter’s rotors, “Stay where you are.”
His colleague hopped out of the helicopter with a giant net in his hands. He unraveled the ends and yanked them taut, “Ready to capture.”
The Egyptian Mau wasn’t impressed. She stood on all fours and showed the men her ass, and faced her peers. A tiny white spark erupted a few inches to the left of the moon, a billion miles away from Earth.
“Meow,” she cried.
All the cats howled with her. They turned to the mercenary as he aimed his gun at the Egyptian Mau.
“What are you doing?” he said with a heart full of fear, “It’s weird.”
“Meeeeooowww,” the Mau growled and scraped her paws on the gravel.
“Oh no… no-no-no…” Siyam eyes widened, “They’re not going to—”
“—Jesus Christ,” Grace held her breath.
A standoff occurred between the two men and the thirty cats, “Don’t anybody move or I’ll blow her damned head off,” he shouted, hoping the cats understood English.
They didn’t comprehend the instruction but knew a threat when they saw it. Now was the time to act.
“MEEEOOOOOOOOWWW,” All thirty cats shrieked and launched toward the armed mercenary.
“No, get back!” He opened fire on the stampede of felines. A flurry of them trampled over the parked cars and cracked the windscreen as they bounded toward him.
The Egyptian Mau nodded the two white bobtails ahead.
BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!
The mercenary fired at the cats. The ones who didn’t get hit bolted towards him.
“Get back you vicious, little shi—”
ROOOWWAAAAARRRR!
“Look! They’re gonna kill him.”
“There’s nothing we can do,” Siyam spluttered in amazement, “Keep back.”
The Egyptian Mau jumped into the air claws-first and punctured the mercenary’s visor. A jut of blood splattered up the inside. She dug her hind legs into his chest and ravaged his face, “Meow!”
Twelve cats ran up his trouser leg and jabbed their claws into his flesh, tearing bits of him apart. He screamed and fell to his knees in agony.
Star Cat: War Mage Page 23