Star Cat: Training Day: A Space Opera Fantasy

by Andrew Mackay

  Another swish to the left took the rest of her body along with it.

  Whether she knew it or not, Jelly had started to swim.

  A teachable moment, as they say.

  The right arm swished up and down which only produced a ripple of bubbles. Big, frightening balls of oxygen.

  “Jelly? Can you hear me? It’s Wool. You’re doing so well, girl.”

  “Meow.”

  “Not you, ar-Ban,” Jaycee’s voice came through Jelly’s headset. “She can’t understand you. I’m just going to have to have her follow me.”

  “You and your big ass? Try not to release any gas when you’re in front of the poor girl.”

  “Very funny.”

  BLOICK-BLURCK.

  Jelly’s eyes opened right out as Jaycee swam into view. An ugly, nasty helmet, followed by a giant frame and huge flippers that looked like two sharks attempting an underwater Tango dance.

  “Meow.”

  “Well, hello there,” Jaycee hung in the water and pointed at his visor. “Friend.”

  “Meow.”

  “You’re right, Wool. I think she is a bit hassled by the submersible,” Jaycee said.

  A beep, followed by a rush of static rolled into both Jaycee and Jelly’s helmet.

  “Okay, Jaycee. It doesn’t matter if it’s the suit or the fact she’s in the water. Proceed with the task at hand. North-northeast, twenty-five feet as per your reader.”

  Jaycee lifted his left arm and looked at the circular radar on his glove. A digital dial spun around, lighting up a red square in the bottom right-hand side every time it passed by.

  “Can confirm wreckage location,” Jaycee shifted his body around and pointed at the “crashed” spaceship at the far end of the aquatic parameter, “Okay, girl. We’re going down there. To find, uh, treasure.”

  Wool’s voice came through their helmets once again, “Stop playing around with her, Jaycee. Just get down there. You’re on 40% oxygen. Approximately five minutes till last draw.”

  “Oh dear,” Jaycee snorted and offered Jelly his hand, but she didn’t respond, “Come on, Anderson. Let’s go fix the ship.”

  “Meow.”

  Jaycee looked up at the rippling surface and shook his head, “She doesn’t want to go.”

  “Damn it,” Wool’s voice crept through the helmet.

  Wool observed the aquatic parameter on the giant screen in the control room. Tripp, Emily, Jamie, and Bonnie stood behind her and watched the events unfold.

  The first, largest, central screen showed the live feed within the pool. A tiny submersible suit containing Jelly, and a much bigger version trying to coax it to move forward.

  The second screen showed two sets of heart rates in real time. The first displayed a reading of two-hundred-and-twenty beats per minute. The second ran much slower at a mere eighty-five BPM.

  A thought came into Jamie’s mind. Something didn’t make sense.

  “Wool?”

  “Yes, Jamie?”

  “How can Jelly use her infinity claws in the suit?”

  “Good question,” Wool enlarged the visual of Jelly’s two front arms on the giant screen. “The suit fastens around her wrists and makes them airtight. She can still use her claws normally.”

  “All USARIC suits have been modified at great expense to accommodate her infinity claws,” Bonnie added. “It’s truly unprecedented.”

  Wool held her headgear in her fingers and looked at Bonnie, who did the same, “Commence compliance procedure.”

  “What? Now?” Bonnie asked.

  “Yes. They don’t have very long.”

  Bonnie didn’t seem happy with what she was about to do. She hastily punched a command onto her screen, “Jaycee?”

  “Yes, Bonnie?” his voice entered the room for all to hear.

  “We’re about to make this daft ball of fluff comply. Standby.”

  Jaycee turned away from Jelly and swam away, “Okay.”

  Bonnie opened her palm. A small holograph of Jelly’s suit rolled a few inches above her fingers, indicating the pressure points on the suit. She moved her fingertip to the back part of the suit and pushed it through the hologram.

  SCHWIP.

  Jelly yelped as a small current zapped her from within the suit. Her voice permeated the room as everyone watched the central screen. She swam forward, away from the jolt of electricity. She doggy paddled through the water after Jaycee.

  Wool raised her eyebrows in shock. She knew what was happening and waved at Bonnie, angrily, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “I’m making her comply, what does it look like?”

  “By administering shocks? You—” Wool hadn’t the heart to finish her sentence. The brief moments of discomfort were working a treat in getting Jelly to move - or comply.

  Jamie and Emily hadn’t the first clue what had happened. Instead, they were just relieved to see that Jelly was taking to the event as well as she did.

  Jelly swam after Jaycee’s flippers through the aquatic parameter. They passed by a colossal pipe and made their way across a section of busted spacecraft.

  “Good news, Jaycee,” Wool’s voice came through his helmet. “She’s following. Keep a safe distance but not so far as to lose her.”

  Jaycee twisted his body around in the water and kicked his feet out in front of him. Jelly rocketed towards him in a state of anxiety.

  “Come on, Anderson,” he said. “We can do this.”

  “Meow.”

  Jelly thrust her arms forward and tried to shake off the electric shock.

  “Ten meters till target, Jaycee,” Bonnie advised. “A simple mechanism switch. Be careful, though. Reports of an unidentified object has been reported on the vessel.”

  “Switching to digital enhancement, now,” Jaycee reached up and pressed a button on the side of his visor.

  A torrent of blue writing data along the Perspex interior showing their depth, time spent underwater since submerging, and how far the event was from their current location.

  He reached over to Jelly’s helmet and hit the same button.

  The blue data scared her as it loaded across the screen. She swiped at it, causing her entire body to swing around in the water like some mad balloon.

  “Come on, girl,” Jaycee waved Jelly over to him, “Update on oxygen level, please?”

  “Four minutes. You’re in and out. No messing around, please,” Bonnie advised from the control room.

  Wool turned to Bonnie, who kept her focus on the screen.

  “Bonnie?”

  “Yeah, hi,” came her half-hearted retort.

  “An unidentified object?”

  “Uh huh,” Bonnie said, busying herself with her own screen. She daren’t look up at her colleague.

  “Is there something we should know about?”

  “No,” Bonnie lied through gritted teeth, “I’m doing my job, I might suggest you do the same thing.”

  Unhappy, Wool returned to the central screen knowing full-well something was seriously awry.

  Jamie found the underwater events unfolding on the screen utterly fascinating. The cameras followed Jelly swimming behind Jaycee as they made their way to the spacecraft daggered into the north side of the aquatic parameter.

  “What are they doing, Tripp?”

  “Well, Jelly is assisting Jaycee with repairing a node on the exterior of the craft.”

  “But Jelly can’t do that? She’s a cat. She doesn’t know—”

  “—Yeah, I know. She can’t really assist, Jamie,” Tripp pointed at the swimming cat on the central screen, “It’s about the spacewalk.”

  “Spacewalk?”

  “Yes. This is a very accurate representation of what it’s like to move in space. She’s getting practice. Of course we don’t expect her to be able to help-help.”

  Tripp moved his finger to the second screen. Her heart-rate settled down to a cool one-fifty-five.

  “It seems she’s gotten used to the idea. She obv
iously knows that when she moves her arms, her whole body moves along afterward. Look.”

  Sure enough, Jelly appeared to be swimming right behind her colleague, Jaycee.

  “Be careful with your feet, Jaycee,” Bonnie said. “The cat’s face is right behind you.”

  “Her name is Jelly,” Wool spat.

  Bonnie closed her eyes, unhappy with the interruption, “Whatever. Jaycee,” she continued and threw Wool a purposeful, dirty look, “Be careful you don’t kick her in the face.”

  Wool shook her head in disbelief at the utter disdain she got from her colleague.

  “Hey, it’s not my fault if she’s slow—” Jaycee finished his sentence early when he saw the cat travel up alongside him, “Oh, hey. Anderson.”

  “Meow.”

  The pair reached the top of the broken spacecraft. Jaycee’s glove flashed white, indicating that they had arrived at the section that required changing: a tubular metal housing on the side of the radar.

  “We’re here,” Jaycee grabbed Jelly’s paw and placed it on the gantry keeping the radar in place. “Hold on to that.”

  Jelly wrapped her claws around the metal. Her behind drifted upwards along the current caused by Jaycee’s shifting as he prepared to exchange the tube.

  “Okay, simple operation,” Bonnie advised. “Quick repair. Have Jelly take the new node while you unfasten the damaged one, and perform the switch.”

  “Seems simple enough,” Jaycee pulled out a fresh node from his pocket and held it in front of Jelly’s face, “Don’t eat it.”

  “Meow.”

  She swiped her paw at it, pushing it further away from her face quite by accident.

  Jaycee reached out and caught it in his gloved hand, “No, no, Anderson.”

  He set it down by the gantry and placed her paw on top of it. “Keep it there.”

  “Meow.”

  Jelly defied his order and removed her paw instantly. The node didn’t float away this time, however. It remained stuck to the surface of the ship as if magnetized.

  “Just look after it, then.”

  “Meow.”

  Jaycee extended his pinkie. It whirred around like an electric screw.

  “Stop flirting with her, big boy,” Bonnie said. “You have three minutes to repair the radar.”

  “On it.”

  Jaycee unscrewed the housing with his pinkie extension and lifted it away. He shifted his head away from a string of bubbles that blasted through the hole, “Device removed. Commencing replacement node.”

  “Very good,” Bonnie hit a button on her screen.

  Jaycee turned to Jelly, “Okay, give me the node, Anderson.”

  “Meow.”

  Jelly didn’t understand the instruction.

  “Anderson? Pass me the node.”

  She looked at the piece of metal and decided if she should touch it.

  “Useless. But, hey. At least she’s not getting in the way—”

  SCHLAMM-SCHLAMM.

  Something punctured the underside of the vessel. A relentless action, it wouldn’t stop. Something was trying to get through.

  “That’s classified risk, Jaycee,” Bonnie said. “Get out of there, now.”

  “What?”

  “Abandon the repair. You and Jelly have to move. Moment of truth.”

  “Classified risk? You put a creature in there?” Wool barked at Bonnie and returned to the central screen.

  Jamie watched on with great concern, “What’s happening?”

  Wool scowled surreptitiously at Bonnie and made an excuse on her behalf, “We’re simulating an escape scenario. Nothing to worry about.”

  “Nothing to worry about?” Emily roared and pointed at the screen to a thoroughly flummoxed Jelly thrashing about in the water, scared out of her wits. “Look at her. She’s freaking out.”

  Wool turned to the screen, “Jaycee. Get out of there. Unidentified entity. We will reconvene at the crane.”

  “Sorry,” Bonnie said. “Had to be done.”

  “If anything happens to her, I’m holding you responsible,” Wool said.

  “Understood,” Jaycee pushed himself away from the vessel as the thudding continued. The metal hole tore open, releasing the node which began its trajectory to the surface.

  Jelly tried to catch it, temporarily forgetting that danger was forthcoming.

  “Jelly, not now. We have to go. Quick.”

  Jaycee twisted around and looked down the length of his body. Jelly kicked her hind legs off the vessel and chased after the floating node in the wrong direction.

  SCHTAMM.

  The top of the spacecraft ripped apart. Shards of metal rocketed past Jelly as she swam in pursuit of the darting node.

  “Damn it,” Jaycee said.

  He barreled over his feet and swam toward the cat as her little feet kicked her entire body up through the water.

  “You have ninety seconds, Jaycee. Don’t come back without her.”

  As Jaycee swam over the cavernous tear in the spacecraft, he noticed two squid-like tentacles slap over the sides from within.

  “Jesus Christ, what is that?”

  Glug-glug-glug…

  “Don’t stick around to find out, Nayall. Get Jelly and get back,” Bonnie said.

  “Is that a squid?”

  “Classified risk, Jaycee. You know that,” Bonnie said. “Get out of there. Eighty-five seconds till oxygen depletion.”

  Jaycee pushed forward and darted toward the surface, right behind Jelly.

  “Come back girl.”

  Jelly stopped swimming and hung in the water like a dead fish. She blinked at the node as it floated up toward the light.

  “I’m gonna have to try something. I can’t get up there in time.”

  “What are you thinking, Jaycee?” Wool asked.

  “I’ll have to improvise,” he said, before clearing his throat. He lifted his hands up and meowed through the microphone.

  “Miaowwww.”

  The silly-sounding enactment caught Jelly’s attention. She looked down to see the hulking man several feet below her. A few feet to his right, a giant octopus-like monster used all eight of its tentacles to hoist itself through the hole.

  “Meow!”

  Jelly swam towards Jaycee for protection. He held out his arms and smiled, thankful that she’d seen sense.

  “That’s it, Anderson. Come to Daddy.”

  “Mwaaah.”

  SWISH-SWIPE!

  Jaycee’s body suit rocked forward. His interior alarm sounded off, causing the suit to advise of a sudden pressure drop.

  “Danger. Danger. Contact made.”

  Jaycee flipped his body around to see the octopus bolting toward him. “Oh shi—”

  SWASH!

  Jelly darted through the water and pushed herself in front his body. She held out her arms and threatened to strike the approaching octopus.

  “Grrr,” she swished her claws at it, forcing it to re-evaluate its attack.

  “Jesus Christ,” Jaycee yelped. “Can you guys see this?”

  “She can’t keep it off you for much longer. You need to get out of there and return topside.”

  Jaycee grabbed Jelly by the scruff of her suit’s neck and flung her toward s the crane at the southern perimeter, “Come on, pet. Go.”

  SWISH-SWISH-SWIPE.

  The octopus roared, firing bubbles out from the slit in its head. Several of its tentacles wrapped around the pipework, enabling it to launch itself at Jaycee.

  “Go, go, go,” Jaycee roared. He booted one of its tentacles away and swam away on his back. Jelly twirled around as she swam and caught sight of the beast.

  “Meow.”

  Jelly moved her arms in front of her face and pushed back. She quickly discovered that it made her “fly” toward the blinding light rippling through the surface of the water.

  “Jaycee,” Bonnie said. “You’re not going to make topside before that thing catches you.”

  “You don’t say,” he spat ba
ck and grabbed his right shin in his hands. “An octopus of all things? Couldn’t you have started us on a squid, or an amoeba? Something easy?”

  “Don’t get smart with me, Nayall. Just get yourselves out of there.”

  The octopus pushed itself away from the pipework and stretched its legs out and twisted them around, enabling it to rocket toward Jaycee like a gelatinous arrow of death.

  The end of Jaycee’s boot opened up. Five barrels slid through the housing and locked into position.

  “Come get some, you ugly mother—”

  BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!

  The barrels pumped out three bullets. Each one rocketed through the water, headed straight for the octopus’s eye.

  It shrieked and shifted to the side. The bullets tore past and blasted into the wreckage, blasting the spacecraft’s radaraway from its surface.

  GROOOAAANNN.

  The radar came close and tilted to the side in ultra-slow motion.

  “Oh no, no, no,” Jaycee swung his body around and grabbed a nearby pipe, “That’s a miss.”

  “That’s thirty seconds on oxygen, Jaycee,” Wool said with concern. She traced her finger over Jelly’s image as she swam to the surface, “How’s Jelly holding up?”

  “Who cares about the cat?” he barked as he swam through the increasingly dense water. He felt like he wasn’t getting anywhere no matter how hard he tried to move.

  The oxygen canisters on his back beeped over and over again.

  “Warning. Oxygen depletion imminent,” came a tinny voice through his helmet.

  “I know, I know. Shut the hell up,” Jaycee continued to swim with the octopus hot on his flippers, “Christ. Jelly.”

  She swiveled around, inches from the surface and the submerged cage, “Meow.”

  “Get in the cage, Now,” he screamed and flipped onto his back, taking aim once again with his foot. He clamped eyes on the octopus as all eight of its legs splayed out into a ghastly star shape.

  SCHUNT-CLICK.

  His boot “reloaded” and pumped out a fresh quartet of barrels, “Arming again.”

  “Fifteen seconds till depletion, Jaycee. Get out of there,” Bonnie said.

  “No, not this time,” Jaycee booted himself away from the wall and aimed his foot barrel at the encroaching octopus, “Syncing now.”