The last of the intense beam funneled into her daughter and whisked away with a tiny bwup sound.
Saturn’s surface resembled a bright ball of fire.
Night-time turned to daytime for everyone.
The entire planet lit up, exposing the beautiful green foliage and trees that surrounded the Colosseum. Even the white, broken sections of the ship seemed less dirty than they had thought.
The ground felt a lot hotter than it did just a few minutes ago.
The wolves howled at their new sun as Jelly lifted her daughter back to her chest.
“My girl,” she whispered at Furie. “Look at you. So beautiful.”
Furie shimmied around in her mother’s human hands. Jelly kept her daughter in her palms, careful to avoid injuring her on the imprisoning effect the claws provided.
Furie’s eyelids fluttered and eventually opened. Her pupils dilated in the intense sun. Her eyes had turned brown.
The shadow created by Jelly’s head blanketed over her daughter’s face, protecting her from the harsh light.
“Hello, honey.”
Furie blinked a couple of times and spluttered, “Muh—Muh—”
“—It’s okay, honey,” Jelly whispered. “Breathe in and try again.”
Furie shut her eyes, stretched her front paws out and accidentally brushed her mother’s face with her paws.
“Heh,” Jelly smiled. “It’ll take some getting used to, honey.”
Furie relaxed and shook the fatigue from her head once again. She opened her eyes.
“Muh-muh—” she tried. “Mommy?”
Jelly ran the side of her huge face along daughter’s tiny body and head, “Yes, honey. It’s me. Your mother.”
Furie cleared her throat and pressed her paws against Jelly’s face, “Mah.”
Jelly turned to her audience and took a step forward. The wolves shifted back, hoping she wouldn’t snarl at them.
Alex and Jaycee rose to their feet.
In a bizarre act of overconfidence, the latter held out his arms, “J-Jelly?”
The house cat had grown so much since he last saw her, which wasn’t all that long ago.
A towering mess of a woman, she must have grown to twelve feet in height - possibly more.
“Jaycee?” she asked, expecting no more conversation.
He scanned the orange horizon and took a final look at the wolves, before returning to her. He went to point at Furie but had second thoughts about what he wanted to say.
“I, uh—” Jaycee tried. “What—what do you want us to do?”
Jelly approached the men with the wolves in tow.
A wondrous and perplexing sight for the two remaining crew members.
“We want to go home,” Jelly said.
Jaycee held out his arms in a wry attempt at peace, “Where is home, Jelly?”
“Silence,” Jelly snapped at him, “Murderer.”
Alex came to his rescue, “Jaycee didn’t kill your daughter, Jelly—”
GROWWWLLL.
The wolves backed up, afraid of her venomous outburst.
Jelly found the idea that Alex might try to negotiate the life of his colleague pathetic.
Lily-livered at best, and downright stupid at worst.
She hugged Furie tighter and stomped forward, causing Alex and Jaycee to back up and consider running off.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she snapped.
“Uh, over there?” Alex whimpered.
“Without us?”
“Um, no?”
“Damn right um, no. Dickhead,” Jelly snapped.
“Oh.”
Jelly moved between the two men. She purposely barged Jaycee out of her way and continued walking.
“Where are we going, Jelly?” Alex chanced.
“Back to Charlie. We’re going home.”
Alex turned to Jaycee for a reaction. He needn’t have bothered - Jaycee was just as confused as anyone else.
The wolves gathered together and trundled after Jelly as she traversed the rocky ground. One by one, they filtered between the two men on a pilgrimage with their new master.
Furie extended her two front legs and tried to paw at her mother’s shoulders, “Mommy.”
“Honey.”
“I’m c-cold.”
Jelly stopped walking and shot Alex an evil glance, “Hughes.”
“Uh, yes?”
“Give me your jacket.”
Without delay, Alex pulled the zipper down from his neck and removed his arms from the sleeves, “Is she cold?”
“No, she’s suddenly got all fashion conscious,” Jelly snapped. “Of course she’s cold. Give me the jacket before I puncture your face—”
“—Jeez. Okay, okay,” Alex huffed as he bunched the jacket into his hands, “Here, take it—”
“—No. Stay away from me. I’m toxic,” she said and nodded at Jaycee, “Give it to the murderer and have him hand it to me.”
Alex turned to Jaycee and offered him the jacket, “Here.”
Jaycee took the jacket and thought twice about approaching the one being who had it in for him.
“Uh—”
“—Today, dickhead,” Jelly snapped, startling the two men.
She snapped her infinity claws together and indicated her frustration.
“What’s the problem, Nayall?”
“Huh?”
“Don’t want to go near me? You’re nothing but a treacherous Androgyne. You are perfectly safe, now give me the damn jacket before I twist your head off and finish what I started.”
Jaycee gulped and threw the jacket onto her left paw.
“Thank you.”
“Jelly, I—”
“—Shut the hell up and get away from me and my daughter.”
“Yes, okay.”
Jaycee did as instructed and stepped over to Alex. It seemed as if the wolves knew that he was the bad guy, too. They gnashed their teeth at him. If it weren’t for Jelly, they’d have decided to tear him apart.
Jelly pinched the jacket and threw the back end toward the floor. It unraveled over her right arm.
“Okay, honey,” she said as she draped the flap over Furie’s body, “This will keep you warm till we get back to Charlie.”
Furie snuggled into the jacket and relaxed in her mother’s arms. Satisfied that her daughter was safe, she began her journey back to Charlie.
Space Opera Charlie wasn’t much of a walk, by all accounts. It took about ten minutes for Jelly to chase Mastazita to the Colosseum.
The crashed spacecraft where she first encountered the enemy provided a unique milestone for the journey. It also indicated that they were headed in the right direction.
Alex helped Jaycee walk across the uneven ground.
“My b-battery took a lot of d-damage,” he whispered. “I’m n-not sure h-how much longer I’ve g-got.”
“That’s the least of our problems, Nayall,” Alex whispered back. “Charlie is in no fit state to get us home.”
The bulb in Jaycee’s eye flashed three times, “I c-can’t think s-straight. My head hurts.”
“Just keep walking.”
Jaycee clocked a deep vein of reservation in Alex’s voice. His lack of assurance suggested he knew something that the others didn’t.
“So we’re stuck here?”
“Literally, I think,” Alex said. “I don’t even know if we can get inside Charlie at this point.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I think she’s processed what’s going on.”
The wolves ran ahead of Jelly and made their way to the crashed spaceship, howling and grunting all the way.
Jelly turned around and looked at Alex, “What do you know about this spacecraft?”
“We don’t know anything.”
“You saw the bodies, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Alex said. “Cosmonauts. Next to the beast you killed.”
The trio approached the spacecraft as the wolves ran around it, clawing at the sides.
The airlock had been torn off and discarded.
Everything looked crystal clear in the bright light of their new sun.
Much of the Cyrillic writing on the side of the ship had burned away and was barely legible.
Lyulka-451
A few of the wolves entered the craft and rummaged around.
“Heel,” Jelly ordered.
Without haste, they sat on their hind legs and obeyed the order. The wolves who entered the craft hadn’t heard the instruction.
“This is not their ship,” she said. “The interior was designed for human occupation.”
“What are you saying, Jelly?” Alex asked.
“What I’m saying, Hughes, is that these creatures have been here the whole time. They had visitors from Earth, but they weren’t from USARIC.”
Jelly crouched and opened up Alex’s jacket. Furie hopped out and exercised her legs.
“If it isn’t a USARIC vessel, then whose is it?” Jelly posited. “Why is it written in Russian?”
Alex shrugged his shoulders, “Lyulka-451. I don’t know?”
Jelly stood up straight and observed Furie run around, building up a sweat. She looked at Jaycee and feigned a smile - which may or may not have shielded a sinister undertone.
He pricked up his ears and tried to remain upright.
“USARIC thought we went missing, and so sent a search and rescue vessel to get us, right?”
“Right,” Jaycee said.
“Wrong,” Jelly snapped and pointed at Alex, “Hughes?”
Alex took a deep breath, “Charlie wasn’t a search and rescue operation. It was a search and destroy venture, ordered by Maar Sheck.”
“Why did they want us dead?” Jelly asked. “Why go to all that trouble?”
“They wanted you, Jelly. The last communication the IMS and USARIC had was that you had deciphered the code. If it hadn’t have been for me joining the crew of Charlie, everyone except you would be dead.”
Jaycee looked around, finally realizing that he was the only one of Opera Beta left alive.
“Fat lot of good that did,” he said.
Furie butted her head against her mother’s bloodied left shin.
“USARIC wants you, Jelly,” Alex said. “Whatever you did, whatever you found. They want you, and to hell with everyone else.”
“Well, they certainly got that last part right. They managed to kill everyone except me and Jaycee.”
Jelly scowled at Alex and lifted her left foot with Furie clinging to the heel.
“To hell with USARIC,” she sniffed. “If they want me, then they can have me. All of me. Angry, unfiltered, unforgiving, and in an exceptionally pissed-off mood.”
Furie yawned and opened her eyes, “Miew.”
“What’s happening, Jelly?” Alex chanced, this time, knowing his question might be answered now that she’d calmed down.
She cradled her daughter in her arm and lifted her tiny paw up, “Say hello, Furie.”
“Huh-hello,” the kitten said.
Alex cleared his throat and did his absolute best to process the bizarre events unfolding in front of him.
“J-Jelly, I’m g-going to level with you,” Alex said. “I’m really scared.”
“I know you are, Alex,” Jelly wiggled her nose and ran her tongue across her teeth, “Do you know how I know that?”
“No, how?”
“I can smell it.”
She swallowed and smiled at him with great confidence.
“Fear of the unknown. You don’t know what’s happening. How could you possibly know?”
“Please. Tell us what’s going on. What happened to Saturn? Why is your daughter acting strangely? Why are the wolves suddenly your best friends?”
Jelly chuckled to herself, “Oh, Alex. So young and wet behind the ears.”
“Jelly?” he asked again. “What’s happening?”
“Something fantastic, Hughes.”
Chapter 3
R.A.G.E. Arena
Laguna Vista, South Texas, USA
“What the hell is that thing?”
“I’m not sure. It looks like a tree?” Sierra moved back to the dome as the Gulf water rushed across the ground and around their feet.
The tree that wasn’t a tree loomed a few miles in the distance. A charcoaled stem thrusting out of the Gulf of Mexico like a bizarre antenna.
It had grown to over one hundred feet in height.
Jamie, Leesa, and Remy couldn’t tear their eyes away from the charcoaled beast that lay to the east.
Leesa clutched Jamie’s arm for comfort, “I’m scared.”
“Don’t be,” he said. “I’m sure it’s there for a reason.”
Noyin ran through the exit door with a pained expression on his face. He hollered at Sierra, Rana, and the children.
“Everyone, quick. Come in and see this.”
***
A giant holographic feed hung by the holoscope. It displayed footage of a giant vessel named EXODUS-23 making its way through a dark, featureless ocean.
A familiar male voice narrated over the footage as everyone watched.
“The IRI tankers, much like many thousands before it, made its way to the Russian coast. Naukan Harbor via Diomede Island. It contained more than one thousand Russian nationals. And then, disaster struck.”
The ship burst into a cataclysmic ball of fire into the dark sky and filled the water with light.
“Jesus Christ,” Sierra gasped. “What the hell do they think they’re doing?”
Noyin ran his hands through his hair with despair, “It was unexpected. It just exploded.”
“They’re meant to be transporting them. Not massacring them.”
Leesa burst into tears as the visual burned into her retinas. She buried her head in Jamie’s arms, “What are they doing?”
Remy looked at his feet and felt his heart sink into the pit of his stomach.
“They’re killing us.”
Jamie turned to Sierra, “Why are they killing them?”
Sierra just about managed to look away from the footage. She never had to explain what was happening between the two nations - until now. In her mind the answer was simple, but the moment she tried to convert that information into speech, she stumbled.
“You know the Bering Treaty of 2085?”
“No.”
Sierra shook her head and looked to Rana for help. An utter waste of time, judging by her response.
“Nearly thirty years ago, America and Russia became a combined nation state. Infrastructure, free movement of people. Even space exploration. The idea was to come together and advance people’s lives.”
“Like two countries combined?”
“Yes, something like that. The government halted funding for space exploration and privatized it when we teamed up with Russia.”
“So what happened?”
“In the twentieth century, Russia and America were enemies, pretty much. They fought to be the first in space. We had good leaders, and they didn’t. It got messy. The Bering Treaty of 2085 was designed to ensure it never happened again. In fact, exactly the opposite happened.”
Jamie, Leesa, and Remy couldn’t fathom why such an idea couldn’t work. They’d learn soon enough.
“So we all became friends,” Jamie smiled and turned to Remy. “That’s a good thing, right?”
Remy snorted and turned away.
“It worked at first, but it was never going to last,” Sierra said. “One side was bound to get jealous. Power-hungry. A Russian diplomat was executed. Shortly after that, Dimitri Vasilov was executed, and it sparked a huge war conflict.”
“I’ve met him,” Jamie said. “Dimitri Vasilov was one of the heads at USARIC with the other guy.”
“Exactly. We were the ones who killed him.”
Noyin folded his arms and shook his head, “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Sierra turned to the screen to find a young girl with a yellow bow in her hair being d
ragged away from the port kicking, screaming, and crying.
“We just wanted to do good. But we kicked off a chain of events that we couldn’t stop. The Russians decided they wanted their sovereignty back. Before they enacted it, we forced them out.”
The footage of the burning vessel reflected in Sierra’s wet eyes.
“We can never go back,” she muttered. “You can’t turn back time.”
The narrator continued over the footage, “It’s yet to be determined whether or not the explosion was an accident. What we do know is that an attempt to sabotage the process occurred just moments before.”
A stern-looking IRI official named Keller addressed the camera. His name appeared in text in the bottom right-hand corner of the visual.
“If any Misfit is found to interfere with our repatriation process they can expect the full force of the International Repatriation Initiative to take matters into their own hands. Let us be clear. We will not tolerate defiance,” he said as he moved into the camera. “Russians. Make yourselves known to us so we can ensure your safe return to your country.”
Jamie pointed at Keller, “Who is that?”
“The head of the IRI. The government is forcing all Russians to return home now that the dissolution of the Bering Treaty has been ratified.”
The footage displayed graffiti on a wall reading “Misfits Out!” followed by various gang attacks on random individuals.
“The IRI has requested that both documented and undocumented Russian nationals, which they refer to as Misfits, make themselves known to authorities without delay.”
Remy couldn’t stand to watch the recording. He wiped the tears from his face to reveal two thoroughly bloodshot eyes full of anger.
“First, they kill my pet. Then they destroy my life. And now they are breaking us apart,” he said. “Why do they do this? They think they can just ruin lives?”
Noyin threw the Russian boy a smile, “Don’t worry, Remy. You’re safe here with us. As a matter of fact, you’ll be instrumental in rectifying this situation.”
Remy stomped his feet to the floor, “Are you kidding me, American? If anyone knows I am here, they will force me back home.”
“Well, we’ll just have to make sure you’re not found,” Sierra quipped.
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