"Orders?" asked Amanda.
She and Aleesha were technically senior on the ground.
"Give your combat suits over to Jane, and go hurry the refugees along."
"Everyone on me," said Amanda, and I watched them all step out the back of their combat suits, and run off towards the first of the people coming down the road.
They were a lot closer than I realized, which wasn’t surprising since I’d had other things on my mind. The team spread out along the road, urging people to move faster. Their red uniforms made them stand out, and they were obviously getting odd reactions from some people, but the mass began to move faster. I had a thought.
"How are they being understood Jane?"
"We're in the book now. We automatically speak the same language."
"Of course we do," muttered Abigail, who as our tech expert, handled all our coms issues. I wasn’t totally sure she wasn't being sarcastic.
Time passed. The dragons continued to be most unhappy, but couldn’t move. People passed the closest point to where the dragons had been heading, and began putting distance between them and the team.
"Here good for you?" asked Jane.
I looked around.
"As good as any."
The dragons dropped. Some of the outside ones managed to get their wings flapping, and succeeded in landing with some dignity, but the rest simply hit the ground in a big mass.
They all reared up in anger, some still shooting fire and ice fire at the sled, and managed to get themselves extracted from the rest. Jane moved us out of range. Several of the larger ones moved after us, and Jane moved us again.
Heads suddenly turned back towards the road in the distance, and as a group, they began walking towards it again.
Ten
"They just don’t get the message, do they?" I said.
"They're hungry," said Jane.
"What do they mainly eat?"
"The buildings were a sort of ranch, which managed something like cattle. Some of them were driven towards the caves each year, to keep the dragons fed well enough so they didn’t do what they're doing now."
"What happened?"
"Long story."
"You telling me to read the book?"
Jane chuckled.
"There should be a replacement food source coming, but we need to protect these people until it gets here."
I sighed. The dragons were single minded it seemed.
"Put me over the head of the biggest one."
Jane moved the sled, and I was quickly over the lead dragon.
"Sword," I said to myself.
On my back appeared my combat suit sized sword. Bigger than normal, it adjusted to the larger size the suit could wield. I reached back, and pulled the sword out. It had changed shape a few times since I'd first discovered it, but I saw it was back in its original shape, something resembling a Japanese Katana. But not.
The dragon below was looking up at me now, and I brought the sword around in front of me, using both hands, and moved to the edge of the sled.
"Geronimo!" I yelled, and jumped off.
A chorus of "Don’t yell!" was ignored, and I landed in the middle of the dragon's face, and the sword sliced straight into the side of one eye, going right in to the hilt.
The dragon reacted by rearing up to its full height, making a noise I assumed was shrieking, and not having any grip, I was flung away.
"Catch!" I called.
Jane missed, and I hit the ground quite hard, the sword carving into it as I rolled around. I jumped up immediately, and brought the sword around into a high guard position, turning towards the nearest dragon.
The one I’d hurt had turned tail, and was running as fast as it could towards the caves. Several smaller ones were trying to keep up. The rest were coming at me.
I ran straight at them as fast as I could. A mouth opened ahead of me, coming down towards me, and I dodged to one side, swiped the sword along the side of the head, and heard another shriek, as the sword went through scales. I kept running, and lopped toes off the next one.
A tail came out of no-where, and I was able to lop off the tip, before the rest of it slammed into me, and I went shooting through the air.
Jane caught me. Well, not really caught as such. She put the sled on its side in front of me, and I crashed into it head first, falling over on my side, and rolling onto my back, as she turned the sled so I was on top, and took me up out of the way of some now extremely angry dragons. I sat up, and popped up a hollo of what was going on below.
The entire group was now moving towards the caves.
I sighed. But the view changed as Jane showed me the flyers were almost back. I sighed again.
"Aim me at the lead," I told her.
"No need. I'm taking you back to the team."
"Err…"
"Surprise inbound."
I had to wait until the sled was almost back to the team combat suits, before her surprise arrived.
My jaw dropped open.
The largest dragon I'd ever seen swooped down towards the lead dragon. Fire was streaming out from its open mouth, and while nowhere near close enough to hit anything, it was an incredible sight.
As one, the entire group turned towards the caves, and flew off as fast as they could.
"Nice one," said George.
I agreed silently. The sled set me down by the other combat suits, and I stepped off, and stepped out the back.
It was one gigantic dragon, and it was now inbound towards me. The distance was covered much faster than any other dragon could, and it gently set itself down not far away, the legs and feet seeming to fold up underneath it. I smiled as a hole appeared in the front chest area, a ramp slid out, and as one, the combat suits began walking that way. I followed.
Jane was waiting at the top of the ramp. She was grinning, and obviously waiting for me to say something.
"What took you so long?" I asked her.
The grin widened.
"The basic shape was easy enough, but getting the flapping right was a real challenge. It took even longer to run external connections to the head part, so I could light up an oxygen feed to emulate dragon fire."
There was a blast of fire above and out front.
"Nice. How long do we need to stay here now?"
"A bit under two days."
"Why that long?"
"Food for the dragons is on its way. We'll keep up appearances until shortly before they arrive here, just to make sure any other dragons don’t come by."
"Will they?"
"There's a few dots moving this way already. But the nearest one has already veered off."
"Amanda?"
"Yes Jon?"
"Rotating shifts until all the refugees are well past. I'm going to get a drink and a snack, and be out to join you shortly."
Amanda started giving orders.
I slapped Jane on the shoulder, and headed in.
Behind me, the ramp slid up, and was replaced by a much smaller one. The airlock remained open, but the hole closed to just large enough for a person to walk in through.
I walked into the common room, and sat.
"Lunch is served, my lord," said Jeeves, and put a tray in front of me.
Star Cat
Eleven
"This is awful," said Jane.
"Understatement," I said. "Where are we?"
"Some sort of stadium."
"I can see that. Any idea why?"
"Not yet. Give me a moment."
Jane was the only one with me, and we were sitting in the back row of a stadium full of Americans. Our uniforms had been replaced with local attire. I had no idea where everyone else was. On Gunbus presumably, and as I thought it, the location popped into my head. The ship suit was currently hiding the ship from view, and it was parked at the back of the group of sheds behind the stadium.
"This has got to be a sick joke."
Jane didn’t answer, but her face expressed a similar viewpoint.
> Down below, they were forcing cats to fight each other. I could just hear what Angel would be saying about it if she was here, which was a good thing she wasn’t.
The crowd erupted as a winner was declared.
"Okay Jon, I know why we're here."
"Why?"
"Not why, who."
"Who then?"
The winning cat had been picked up by now, and was being rushed out of sight.
"The cat which just won. The one just taken away in a hurry."
"What about it?"
"It's dying. We need to save it."
"Last time we saved someone, it turned out to be the wrong move."
"Not this time."
"Why? What's so important about this cat?"
"Nothing at all. It's just a cat."
"Fine with me. Can we save it?"
"The care unit on the ship should be able to, if we can get it there in time."
"You can run faster than I can. What do I do?"
"Talk to the cat's kid owner."
"And say what?"
A file came in from Jane.
"Read this."
I did. By the time I finished what was obviously an excerpt from a book called Star Cat Infinity Claws, by Andrew Mackay, Jane was gone.
I waited, watching events unfold down below, and trying to get a sense of the Russian boy. I really felt for him, especially because he didn’t know what was happening.
When the boy left, so did I. My PC had a good schematic of the place, and I followed the arrow around until I was close to where the boy and his mother had been taken.
I stopped where I couldn’t be seen, and quickly shifted into the local military's uniform. I chose a middling rank, which I hoped wouldn’t be questioned. I walked into the room, and stood at the back listening to the explanations of how their cat was now being prepared for space. When the lies were done, the boy and his mother were left alone. She excused herself to use the facilities, and the boy was left sitting on his own.
He looked really unhappy, and I sat down next to him. For the first time ever, as far as I could recall, I changed a translator setting, so I could talk to him in Russian. I thought normally, but the PC threw Russian out of my mouth.
"Remy, isn’t it?"
"Yes. Who are you?"
"I'm here to help your cat. And you. Can you keep a secret?"
"Yes, I think so. Why?"
"They lied to you. Your cat is really sick now, from both the fight, and that stupid thing they put on her. In a few hours' time, someone is going to tell you she died."
Tears appeared in the boy's eyes.
"I need you to go along with whatever they say. Cry, get mad, and hit someone, if you want. Make your grief look real."
"My cat is dead?"
"My friend is with her now. We have medical stuff they don’t have here. They think she died, but we can revive her."
"You can?"
"Yes. Now here's the good part. After they tell you she's dead, and you get really angry at them, they're going to offer you a great deal of money to stay silent."
"You don’t want me to stay silent?"
"No, I want you to really take them for as much as you can get out of them. Make them pay for letting your cat die. They guaranteed her safety, and she died. Make them really pay for that."
"I can do that."
"I'd like you to do something else."
"What?"
"I want you to send a quarter of what they give you to each of the other two cat owners, the ones who lost, not the one who came second. Anonymously if you want to."
"What does that mean?"
"Without telling them who sent the money. There will be lawyers involved, so get yours to do it for you. Your mum will probably want all of it, but convince her."
"Why?"
"They went through as big a trauma as you did. You get half, because you still have to face the worst part yourself. But they deserve some of that money. If you’d been one of the first two eliminated, how would you have felt?"
"Lousy. I did when I thought we were going to lose."
"So you know how they feel know. Why not make their lives better as well?"
"I'll think about it."
"Good."
What I didn’t tell him was if he didn’t do it, Jane would be able to re-route funds from Gunbus. Here and now had no protection from our level of coms tech. But it would be better if the kid did it.
"Now here's what's going to happen. Your mum will be back in a minute. Don't tell her we talked. Be shocked and angry when they tell you. And go home looking sad and miserable. After you get home, we'll show up with your cat. She may not be back to her old self, but you'll be able to nurse her back to health. Just don’t tell anyone it’s the same cat. Only your mum once you get home."
"She's really dead?"
"They think so. A couple of days, and I'll bring her to you. Deal?"
"Deal."
The door opened, and I toggled Russian off. His mother came in, and looked at me.
"I thought the boy shouldn’t be left alone."
"That's very kind of you. Thank you."
"Someone should be back to see you shortly. Congratulations on winning."
She nodded. The boy looked at me strangely for a moment, but didn’t say anything.
A five minute walk, and I was outside the main airlock. It opened, the ramp came down, and I walked up. The ramp retracted, the airlock closed, and I headed up to the med suite.
Alison was gazing intently at the care unit readouts. Jane was with her. So was Angel. Angel was not a happy puss, and her tail was rapidly swishing from one side to the other. Alison looked up.
"That's a really nice Russian Blue Jon. What the hell did they do to it?"
"Enough for me to want to shoot someone. Whoever organised that event is no friend of mine."
Meow!
"Or Angel's. What's the care unit say?"
"Her paw is damaged, to the point where she'll probably limp the rest of her life. She's also got poisons in her system, which the care unit is dealing with."
"How long to get her on her feet again?"
"At least a day."
"Good. Jane?"
"Yes?"
"Any reason we should stay here?"
"No. We'd be better in orbit of their moon while the cat heals."
"Fine. Come on Angel, let go get something to eat."
Meow.
Twelve
Two days later, having waited for an hour after the boy and his mum had returned home, Jane knocked on the door of their apartment. She'd done a good job of suit programming to make me look different enough the mum shouldn’t recognise me, and especially no-one else monitoring these people could make any connections.
She answered the door, and was quite surprised to see two people standing there with a cat cage.
"Excuse us for intruding," I said. "We heard you lost your cat, and wanted to give you a new one, if you'll allow us to."
Her eyes opened wide, her gaze went to the cat cage, and she opened the door fully for us. We entered, and were ushered into the living room. She called the boy, and he came rushing in. His face fell when he didn’t recognise me, but his eyes were drawn to the cat cage. I set it down in front of him.
He knelt in front of it, and peered inside.
Meow?
His hands fumbled with the door lock, and he pulled it wide. The cat inside shot straight out, and into his arms. He started crying.
His mother knelt down beside him, and hugged both the boy and his cat. She raised her head, and looked at us.
"How can this be? He told me on the way home, but I didn’t believe him."
I shifted my suit to remove the face alterations.
"You? How can you be here? With our cat? Who is alive? I don’t understand?"
"You don’t need to understand. It's something we could do, and had to do."
"Bless you."
"I made them send the money," said
the boy, now recognising me.
"I know you did. Thank you."
"What do we tell people?" asked his mother.
"Just tell them two strangers saw you win the contest, and lose your cat to the space people, and saw how devastated the boy was when he realised he might not ever see her again. And they found a cat which looks just like her in a cat sanctuary, and thought to offer her to you as a replacement."
"I can say that, yes."
"She's not fully healed yet, so keep her close, and let her sleep if she wants to. And she'll probably limp for the rest of her life."
"But she's alive," said Jane, "and that’s all that matters."
"How can we repay you?"
"Forgive everyone involved. They thought they were doing the right thing." The boy looked puzzled. "Just say it in your head."
"Will we see you again?" asked the boy.
"No. We have to be somewhere else now. Take care of your cat."
"I will."
The mother rose, and saw us to the door. I shifted my suit to look as I did when I’d arrived, just for appearances sake in case anyone was watching.
"Thank you both," she said as we stepped out. "We'll never forget your kindness."
"Goodbye."
Neither of us said anything as we walked back to Gunbus.
Clunk
Thirteen
"Is that a tank?" asked Alison.
"Yes," said Jane.
"What are they doing?" asked BA.
"Drinking tea."
"Why?" I asked.
"The coms are down."
There was a silence, while we all looked at each other, and back to Jane.
She shrugged her shoulders like it made no sense to her either.
"Why are we here?" asked Alison.
"It's tea time?" suggested Amanda.
Aleesha sniggered.
"Where's the coffee?"
Alison had a point. They were all coffee drinkers. Coffee drinkers showing up where tea is being drunk, made no sense at all.
Movement in the distance caught my eye, and I pointed it out to Jane. There appeared to be an amount of damage to the trees in that direction.
"Ah. That's Clunk."
"Clunk?"
"Clunk."
There was another silence.
Crossover: It's a Jon Hunter thing. Page 4