Star Cat: Training Day: A Space Opera Fantasy

by Andrew Mackay

  “We are ready for launch,” Daryl’s voice shot through the command center.

  Wool glanced at the holographic live feed and adjusted her mouthpiece, “Understood, Captain. How’s our furry little guest holding up?”

  Daryl turned to Jelly to find her relatively serene and calm, “Uh, I dunno. It’s difficult to tell. She’s not scratching me, though. I guess that’s a good sign?”

  “It certainly is, Captain. May I take this opportunity to thank you for allowing me to take launch duties away from that maniac Dr. Whitaker?”

  “You may.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Emily moved toward the 3D image and ran her finger across Jelly’s face. Her knuckle pushed through the transparent image. “You said there was a third thing? It said Classified Risk?”

  Tripp cleared his throat and moved out of the image, “Yes. There is. We can’t reveal that just yet but it’s the most important part of the procedure. Can you move out of the image, please?”

  “Sorry,” Emily took a step back and watched as the simulator thrusters hummed to life.

  “Captain?” Wool asked.

  “Yes, ar-Ban?”

  “You are good to launch. Prepare for takeoff.”

  Emily closed her eyes and crossed her fingers in the hope that Jelly wouldn’t freak out amongst the humming of the thrusters and drama.

  Jamie stepped back with her, wide-eyed at Jelly, “Don’t get scared, girl. You’re going to be fine.”

  Of course, Jelly couldn’t see Jamie. Her head fell to the side as she licked the dryness away from her mouth. She stared right into his eyes quite inadvertently as a result. To Jamie, it was as if she knew he was there.

  But he wasn’t.

  The thrusters fired up to life as Daryl flicked the control levers down and prepared for blast off.

  “Launching,” Wool said. “In five.”

  The simulator cabin rumbled violently from side to side, shaking its passengers in their seats.

  “Meow,” Jelly whined and clawed at her harness.

  “No, Anderson,” Daryl snapped. “Don’t do that.”

  Jamie threw his hands out in defiance, “She’s scared already. Look at her.”

  “Three, two,” Wool continued.

  “It’s okay,” Tripp smiled. “It happens to everyone.”

  “One.”

  “Thrusters engaged,” Daryl said. “We are go.”

  Jamie widened his eyes, temporarily forgetting that he was watching a simulation. He wondered if the 3D live feed would take everyone up to the moon with them, “What the—”

  WHOOOOSH!

  A blast of pure, white light bleached through the live feed and illuminated the command center and everyone in it.

  The “spaceship” rocketed away from the scaffolding and tore a beautiful path into the night sky.

  Jelly fanned her infinity claws out as the spacecraft scorched its way through the stratosphere. The fur on her face blasted back across her head. The sensation of her organs pressing into her spine felt sickening.

  “Meow.”

  Daryl gripped the arms of his seat and observed the stars streaking out like white paint either side of the flight deck.

  “Hold on, Anderson,” he shouted over the intense noise of the thrusters.

  The moon grew larger as they exited Earth’s atmosphere.

  Jelly felt her behind lift away from her seat, but the harness kept her back.

  Wool punched the air with giddy excitement, “They’re at escape velocity, now.”

  “So I see,” Tripp said. “She’s survived takeoff. Let’s see how she gets on in zero gravity,” he snapped his fingers, “Initiate autopilot, please. Daryl?”

  “Yes, Tripp.”

  “Now that you’re on course for your destination, let’s activate The Manuel.”

  ***

  BOOM.

  The spacecraft rumbled around unexpectedly, setting off the internal alarm system.

  “Oh my,” Manuel slapped his pages together and whizzed over to the flight deck windshield, “Something unusual is happening.”

  CRUNCH. SLAM.

  The spacecraft shuddered and slowed down.

  “Commencing Classified Risk,” Daryl removed his helmet and made his way to the simulation door. He took a final look at Jelly and gave her the thumbs up. “You’re on your own, pet.”

  “Meow.”

  SCHWUMP.

  The visor on her helmet flew down her face and locked into place. Her eyes turned from orange to blue in an instant due to the reflection of the microscopic color of the data flying up the visor.

  “Aha, Miss Anderson?” Manuel said. “Can you see me?”

  “Meow.”

  The harness unfastened on her seat as if by magic. She pushed herself away from her seat and tried to claw at the floating book. A quick turn to the right revealed that Daryl had exited the simulator.

  As far as Jelly was concerned she was thousands of miles away from home. Everything was real.

  “Do you hear that noise?” Manuel asked.

  Boom-boom-boom.

  Jelly twisted her body around and clutched the back of her seat.

  “Why don’t you go kill it?”

  “Meow.”

  She launched herself away from the seat and started her investigation in earnest. Her body darted through the air.

  “How do you get out, Anderson?”

  “Meow,” she whined and looked around the closed door. The panel on the wall lit up, begging to be pressed.

  “Come on, girl,” Jamie muttered as he watched the live feed from the control center. “You know what you have to do. Press the thing.”

  The live feed warbled and fizzed as he stepped into it and held his hand out at the panel.

  “Press this,” Jamie repeated.

  Jelly was on her own, but a strange symbiosis was at play. As Jamie moved his hand to the panel, she did the same.

  The revelation wasn’t lost on the team, nor Emily, “Oh, God. Come on, Jelly. Press it.”

  BOP.

  Jelly palmed the panel on the wall. The door slid to the right and offered her into the spacecraft proper.

  “Good girl,” Jamie whispered at her, although she couldn’t see him. “Go on.”

  She gripped the side of the door and pulled herself through.

  Jamie turned to his mother with confusion. She unclasped her hand and pretended that she hadn’t rooted for Jelly to undertake the task.

  “Mom?”

  “Uh, yes?”

  Jamie smiled and bit his lip. A wave of wonder fell across his face as he caught his mother red-handed, “Ha. Nothing.”

  Manuel followed after Jelly as she floated down the walkway. A vast, seemingly endless man-sized tube of pipes and metal gantry. Up ahead, another door leading somewhere.

  “Excuse me, Miss Anderson?”

  “Meow.”

  “I can report that the noise is coming from the back end of the ship.”

  “Meow.”

  “As expected, you’re of very limited vocabulary—”

  BOOM. BOOM.

  The door at the end of the walkway seemed to shuffle every time the noise occurred. Jelly clung to the railings, turned to her left and saw a compartment in the wall. The three lights on its surface sprang to life.

  “What’s going on, Tripp?” Jamie asked as he stepped out of the live holographic feed.

  “This is Classified Risk, Jamie.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s very important. We’re hoping Jelly can figure out what to do on her own terms.”

  “She’s smart. She’ll take care of it,” Emily said. “Whatever it is.”

  “It’s all a simulation,” Tripp said. “Nothing you see here is real. She’s perfectly safe.”

  “She’s got through this much. I’m sure a bit of danger won’t sway her.”

  “Really? You’ve changed your tune,” Tripp said.

&nbs
p; Emily pulled Jamie away from the 3D live feed and massaged his shoulder just a little bit too hard, “It’s okay, poppet. She’ll be fine.”

  “Oww. Mom, it’s okay. She won’t get hurt. She might surprise you.”

  Wool pressed her finger to her ear, “Manuel?”

  “Yes, Wool ar-Ban?” his voice flew around the control center.

  “We are thirty minutes ETA on arrival to IMS—.”

  “Dr. Whitaker,” Manuel interrupted. “The International Moon Station will never be reached. Anderson is on Classified Risk. I suggest I leave the simulcast entirely to let her demonstrate her own prowess.”

  “If you’re sure, Manuel,” Wool turned to Tripp, “Is that okay for you?”

  Tripp cleared his throat, somewhat unsure of the proceedings, “Sure. Better we see how she does alone.”

  Manuel slammed his book covers together, catching Jelly’s attention, “Very well. Exiting Simulcast now.”

  SLAP-SLAP-SLAP.

  “Best of luck, Anderson.”

  “Meow,” Jelly swiped at Manuel, but it was too late - his holograph fizzed away into nothingness.

  BAM-BAM-BAM. The door throttled in and out. Something tried to burst through. It caused Jelly no end of anxiety and consternation.

  Wool’s voice came through the cat’s visor, “Jelly, can you hear me?”

  “Grrrr,” she whined, unhappy with being left alone in a strange, weightless place.

  “Look to your left, you’ll see the compartment open. It contains a suit. All you have to do is climb in.”

  Emily threw her hands into the air. The entire endeavor seemed utterly incredulous, “Why are you talking to her like she’s a human? She can’t understand you.”

  Wool shot the woman a dirty a look, “It’s nothing to do with the words. It’s the tone. If Jelly is going to join Opera Beta as a crew member then she needs to be included. Of course we don’t expect her to understand what we’re saying.”

  “Oh, I get it,” Jamie butted in. “You just talk to her like a normal person? So she feels like an astronaut.”

  Wool smiled and nodded, “Yes, something like that—”

  “—I guess you could say it’s more for our benefit than hers,” Tripp added as he returned to watch the live feed.

  “Meow.”

  Wool smiled, “She understood that all right. Look, Jelly. Bright, pretty lights. Catch the shiny-shiny.”

  The compartment lights blinked, catching Jelly’s attention. The door slid open, offering Jelly inside.

  She looked at her gloved claws wrapped around the metal railing, then at the door. Her curiosity went into mad overdrive. She wanted to know what was behind it.

  “Go on, girl,” Wool’s voice bolted through the cat’s visor. “Go get it.”

  “Meow.”

  BAM-BAM-BAM.

  Emily pointed at the 3D rendition of the opposing door, “What’s happening there?”

  “She’s about to get a visitor,” Tripp whispered. “Shh.”

  “A visitor?”

  SWISH.

  The door to the control center opened. Daryl walked in, dressed in his spacesuit, “Hey, guys. How’s she getting on?”

  “Hey, Daryl,” Wool pointed at the live feed. “She’s about to suit up.”

  “We hope,” Wool recorded the events on her screen with her thumbnail, “Heart rate approaching one-eighty. She’s not as shaken by the events as we had predicted.”

  “So far so good, huh?” Daryl chuckled. “Seems she’s toughened up over the course of the day, am I right?”

  “That’s the idea,” Wool looked up from her screen and pointed at the compartment door. “She has about sixty seconds to suit up before the guest arrives.”

  Daryl joined Tripp at the 3D live feed, “Let’s hope she figures that out for herself, then.”

  Wool eyed the 3D feed and squinted at Jelly. The cat pushed herself away from the railings and floated towards the compartment.

  “Good, good,” Wool whispered. “Very smart. Climb in. Get inside.”

  Jamie watched the scene with wide-eyed wonder as Jelly reached the compartment door, “Go on, girl.”

  Jelly wrapped both sets of infinity claws around the sides of the compartment and swung the lower half of her body through the frame of the compartment.

  Standing before her was a strange exo-suit. It looked like an Origami rendition of a medium-sized tiger. A lack of curves on its body made it look even fiercer. The helmet and visor were opened up, along with its back compartment. A lifeless, forklift tiger that, despite it size, might make a regular-sized human being quake in their boots.

  “Classified Risk” adorned the side of the body in the USARIC font, completing the look.

  A spotlight shone down on it. The light reflected off the dark, metallic surface.

  “You don’t have much time, Jelly,” Wool’s voice came through Jelly’s headgear. “Get inside.”

  “Meow.”

  Jelly pawed her way to the device.

  SCHWIPP!

  The spine on the exo-suit folded out, allowing Jelly to climb inside - if she wanted to.

  “What is that?” Jamie asked Tripp

  “It’s a special kind of exo-suit. We think she may need it to complete the task,” Tripp ran his finger across the feed, from the body, down past the arms and to the claws at the end. “It’s modified Kevlar. She should be able to maneuver herself easily enough.”

  “Why does she need the suit?”

  “Who knows what we’ll run into when we’re in deep space?” Tripp said. “She’s already wearing the Infinity Claws. This new suit will protect if things get really serious, though.”

  Jelly’s curiosity got the better of her. After a few seconds of sniffing around the ass-end of the suit, she decided to hoist herself through the opening and jump inside.

  “Yes,” Wool clapped her hands, giddy with excitement. “She’s in, look.”

  BANG-BANG-BANG.

  The door at the end of the walkway rattled with every hit.

  “Now isn’t the time for celebrating. Thirty seconds till Classified Risk,” Tripp returned to the control panel, “Prepping lock-in.”

  He threw the main lever forward on the control panel.

  SCHTANG-SCHTANG-SCHWUMP.

  The exo-suit tightened around all four of Jelly’s legs and locked into place.

  “Meow,” Jelly whined and struggled to release herself from the suit. A feeling of constriction pummeled through her organs as the visor crashed down around her face and shut onto her hanging telescope necklace, trapping it against her neck. It swung in front of her chest.

  She blinked a couple of times and saw a blue, flashing warning light fold across the interior of the visor, accompanied by a series of rolling arrows pointing to her right.

  Her eyeballs followed the indicator, forcing her to move her head over her shoulder and outside the compartment.

  Finally, her infinity claws - and opposable “thumbs” - pushed through the ends of the arms on the suit. The wrist buckles fastened under her paws, enabling maximum self defense.

  “Get out of there, Anderson,” Daryl muttered. “You can’t stay in there.”

  “Twenty seconds to Classified Risk.”

  Emily held her breath in shock and squeezed Jamie’s hand, “What’s happening?”

  Wool watched the proceedings, equally as awe-struck, “She’s getting ready to save herself, her crew, and the universe.”

  Jelly threw her arms forward, carrying the exo-suit with her. Her two front paws clomped along the ground with a faint hint of magnetic force connecting to the ground via her digipads.

  A series of micro-jolts of electricity zapped her hind legs within the suit. The result had her moving in the direction of the ship’s walkway.

  “Meow.”

  Wool kept her feelings about the unethical way the suit operated, “The shocks work, at least. Heaven help us.”

  Jelly trundled out of the compartment. She resembled a m
iniature, metallic tiger. She swished her tail around as she acclimatized herself to the new suit.

  “Ten seconds,” Wool’s voice soared into Jelly’s helmet. “Get ready, Jelly.”

  “Meow.”

  Jelly tumbled onto her side and pawed at the body of her suit in an attempt to free herself. Frustrated, she rolled over once again and butted the railing with her helmet.

  “Get her out of there,” Emily said. “Can’t you see she hates it?”

  Tripp kept his eye on the feed as Jelly threw a hissy fit, “No, no, wait—”

  “—You can’t do this to her.”

  “Mom, wait,” Jamie said. “Let her get used to the suit.”

  “Meow.”

  “Five, four, three—” Wool counted and moved her finger over a red button on the deck.

  Jelly sprang to her hind feet and threw her forearms down by her side.

  Whizz-Whirr. SNAP. SNAP.

  Jelly extended the suit’s claws out and in, practicing her swiping actions. She got used to the suit very quickly. Whatever was behind the door was about to get in.

  “What’s happening now?” Jamie asked with bated breath.

  Tripp held the boy’s shoulder, “Kid, please. Be quiet and watch.”

  “Two, and one,” Wool finished. “Here we go.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The Genius Switch

  BOOM. BOOM. BAMMMM.

  The door bulged and burst into several pieces. The miniature shards of metal rocketed through the air, never slowing down due to the weightlessness of the event.

  Jelly moved her right paw in front of her face as the bullets of metal screeched past her and buried themselves in the flight deck wall behind her.

  “Meow.”

  Two sharp sections of the pulverized door jabbed into her exo-suit’s forearm and nestled into the Kevlar like diamond studs.

  The voice in the exo-suit helmet antagonized her, “Danger. Danger. Classified Risk.”

  Jelly moved her paw away from the visor and caught sight of the broken door. A shaft of light billowed though the frame.

  The silhouette of a much larger creature than her leaned on its haunches and scowled at Jelly.

  GRROOOWWLLL.

  Jamie squinted at the live feed, “Is that a dog?”