An orange capsule blasted out of the back of the flying object and splashed in the water ahead of the hundred-strong cats swimming towards the tree.
“Suzie, come back,” Leesa shouted at the determined cats as they continued to breast stroke and meow.
The spacecraft ran out of sight and disappeared into the horizon.
Leesa gave up on trying to holler her cat. She turned her attention to the orange object falling from the stars, “It’s dropped something—”
“—Like a parachute?” Remy asked.
Jamie’s put two and two together and hoped he’d arrive at four.
“Oh, my God,” he said. “It’s her, it’s her.”
“Who?” Sierra asked.
“Jelly.”
Jamie clapped his hands together and jumped in his shoes.
“She’s back.”
Sierra held everyone back to allay their astonishment, “No. It can’t be.”
Jamie stomped his foot to the floor and faced the gang, “Who else can it be? Aliens? I don’t think so.”
Roman folded his arms as he watched the ASF fighter jets circle the tree in the middle of the water.
“They seem to have a welcome party. Whoever it is.”
Jamie, Leesa, and Remy turned their heads toward the middle of the Gulf. The jets circled around the tip of the tree as the colossal entity waded around and around.
WHOOOSH.
Two helicopters appeared from behind the clouds and blasted their lights on the side of the tree.
The first chopper issued an announcement to the tree, but it was so far away no one could quite make out what it was saying.
The second banked to the left and illuminated the falling black object as it splashed into the water.
“Is that USARIC?” Jamie shouted.
“That’s them, all right,” Sierra said.
Jamie bolted forward, but Sierra grabbed his sleeve and kept him back.
“Jamie, no—”
“—They’ll kill her.”
“There’s nothing you can do, Anderson.”
The gang watched the second chopper lower itself above the violent waves that crashed over the orange capsule.
Jamie squinted at something shooting out of the side of the second chopper. The lights at the front of the flying machinery dipped. The vehicle settled over the waves and pulled at something beneath the surface of the water.
“Jelly Anderson?” Roman asked.
Everyone turned to him for an explanation.
“Star Cat Jelly Anderson?”
Jamie nodded, “Yes. My cat.”
“The one who went to Saturn?”
Remy and Leesa turned away, barely able to look the man in the face.
Jamie ran toward the arena, “It has to be her. We have to do something.”
“Where are you going?” Sierra asked.
“If you won’t help me then I’ll get her myself.”
Rana and Noyin peered through the door as Jamie screamed towards it.
“Hey, Anderson,” Noyin said. “Wait. Calm down.”
“Get out of the way. I need to go and rescue Jelly.”
Noyin positioned himself dead center of the door and allowed the teary-eyed Jamie to run into his arms.
He grabbed the boy by the shoulders. “Stop running. Stop it.”
Jamie tried to push the much bigger man away to little success.
“Let go of me.”
“He’s running again,” Siyam giggled.
Sierra bopped him on the shoulder. Now was not the time for jokes.
“Stop being such an asshole and help us get equipped.”
Sierra turned from the apologetic Siyam to Jamie as he sobbed in Noyin’s arms.
“Hey, Anderson.”
Jamie pushed Noyin’s hands from his shoulders. He wiped a tear from his cheek in the knowledge that he couldn’t act alone.
“What?”
“It can’t have been Jelly. It’d take them at least two years to get home from where they were.”
“It’s her. I just know it.”
“How do you know, Anderson?”
“I feel it,” he pleaded. “I feel it in my stomach.”
“Do you have any evidence other than what’s inside your bowels?”
Jamie hung his head, not wanting to hear any ideas contrary to his own.
“It’s impossible, Anderson,” Sierra said. “They’d have to be going damn near the speed of light to get home. It simply isn’t possible.”
“What if you’re wrong?” Jamie muttered. “If it is her, then that means your friend could be with her, too.”
“Alex?” Sierra whispered, realizing the severity of the situation they now faced.
Rana leaned against the door frame and hung her head, “Sierra, sweetie. What if Anderson’s wrong?”
“I’m not wrong.”
Siyam shook his head and winked at Noyin, “Impossible. It’s not them. Some random thing fell from the sky—”
“—You tell me that thing that fell from the clouds wasn’t Jelly? The sky opened up and threw something out, and now USARIC are all over it. You reckon they’d be all over something that wasn’t worth taking? I’m telling you, whatever fell out of the sky is important and I think it’s Jelly.”
Sierra was the first to approach the boy with sincerity.
“Anderson?”
“No. Shut up. You’re wrong.”
“Anderson.”
Jamie threatened to run in any direction that might enable a speedy escape.
“Are you going to help me or not?”
Sierra stared into his eyes as she crouched in front of him, “Okay. I believe you.”
Her revelation took him by complete surprise.
“What? Really?”
Sierra took his hands in hers, “Yes, really. We can’t afford to not investigate.”
“Will you help me get her back?”
“That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Jamie couldn’t help but grin as he wiped his face a second time.
Sierra, in turn, couldn’t help but smile - a none-too subtle signal from a woman the crew knew all-too-well.
Rana and Noyin glanced at each other and nodded. Siyam clapped his hands together and winked at Remy and Leesa.
“I guess that’s decided, then.”
Sierra stood up straight and held out her arms, catching everyone’s attention.
“Listen up, everyone. It seems USARIC have decided they’re going to be the welcoming party.”
Everyone watched as Sierra pointed at the second chopper in the distance. The pink beam of light shooting from the moon’s surface appeared to thicken as it connected with the tip of the tree.
“We are in the midst of something amaziant. What it is, we don’t know. But what we do know is this. Just because it came from the sky does not mean it belongs to USARIC. Like Anderson says, I think this is the moment we’ve all been waiting for.”
Sierra reached into her belt and retrieved her hand gun, “Rana?”
“Yeah?”
“Start the truck. One hundred percent ammunition.”
“You got it.”
“Load both crates on. Use one of the PAWZ vehicles to load them if you have to, and take Siyam with you.”
“Got it.”
Rana beckoned Siyam over to her as she disappeared into the dome.
Sierra turned to the man with the gold teeth, “Noyin, get your headset on. We need full geometric coverage.”
“Already ahead of you.”
“And make sure the children are safe,” Sierra added.
Remy stepped forward, “No. I want to go with you.”
“No, Gagarin. This is an adult’s war.”
“I want to go, too,” Leesa barked. “I want to help you fight and bring Jelly Anderson back home.”
“I told you already this is an adult’s war. It’s not safe.”
Remy huffed in anger.
“An adult’s w
ar? You kidnapped us. You made us wear Decapidiscs and threatened to execute us. Tell me again, American, how we are not yet adults?”
Sierra didn’t have much of a comeback for the boy’s somewhat perverse judgment.
“You Americans do not want me here,” he continued. “Yet you refuse to release me.”
“Not anymore, my Russian friend. You can run off if you want to know. Not much else matters if that’s Anderson and Hughes who’ve dropped from the sky.”
“I lose my family, and you Americans killed my cat.”
“Yeah, you killed his cat,” Leesa chimed in. “And what’s with all the cats swimming in the ocean?”
“Look, I don’t know. Stop talking.”
“—You have that right, Sierra,” Remy announced. “There is much you do not know. But I do know I am going to fight and prove myself worthy.”
“You can’t even fire a gun.”
Remy chuckled and tapped Leesa on the shoulder, “Come on. They cannot prevent us. We go.”
“Okay.”
Jamie wasn’t about to dissuade his partners in crime from withholding the desire to fight. It would have come across as pathetic if he had.
“You can’t stop them, Sierra,” Jamie said. “We’re friends or foes. Don’t make us decide which.”
“Don’t threaten me, Anderson.”
“Why not?”
“Look. I just want what’s best for you. I don’t want any harm to come to you.”
Jamie chuckled at her best attempt at sincerity.
“A bit late for that now, right?”
“I realize how stupid it sounds,” Sierra snorted.
Roman and Saad found Jamie and Remy’s attitude beyond interesting. He seemed to be calling the shots, as if he were Sierra’s right-hand man.
“Jamie Anderson?”
He looked up at Roman and Saad, the two strange men he barely knew.
“British?” Roman asked.
“Yeah,” Jamie said. “So? Who cares?”
“It does not matter to us.”
Roman whispered in Saad’s ear.
The giant man nodded and held up his left forearm and thumbed the ink on his Individimedia.
“Okay.”
Roman smiled as Saad moved off and conducted a conversation in his native Russian.
“I think we may be able to assist you all,” Roman said.
Jamie pointed at Saad with suspicion, “What’s he doing?”
“He’s putting a call in. How we have waited for this moment to arrive,” Roman grinned. “Young Jamie Anderson. Perhaps one day you will make a good soldier. Perhaps that day has come?”
“Maybe.”
“Have you ever heard of the saying ‘always outnumbered, always outgunned’?”
Jamie shook his head, “No.”
“Okay. If you ever hear it again, just remember something.”
“What?”
“The first part is true. The second part is lessense.”
Sierra shoved her firearm in Jamie’s hand, “Okay, I’ve heard enough. Here, take this.”
He fumbled the handgun with his hands and eventually wrapped his fingers around the grip.
“Yeah?”
“You and your friends want to join this little war we’re about to have? You better learn how to shoot properly.”
He lifted the gun at Sierra and Roman, who jumped back and held out their hands in self defense.
“Whoa, Anderson. Be careful. Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Point it somewhere else, you idiot,” Roman spat.
“Oh. Sorry.”
Jamie lowered the gun and scrunched his face.
“For God’s sake,” Sierra said. “Never, ever, point a gun at the people you’re working with.”
Jamie inspected the brutal weapon of doom in his right hand. The weight was impressive. He felt like a real man, right now.
“So, I point it at things I want dead?” he asked.
Sierra nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Ugh. Yes. You’re a fast learner.”
Jamie turned around and pointed the gun at the second helicopter as it flew away from the tree carrying something small and orange in a bright white net.
The nub of the gun traced the helicopter’s trail from right to left.
Finally, Jamie pretended to shoot it.
“Pow.”
CHAPTER THREE
Port D’Souza
South Texas, USA
(South-eastern Peninsula)
The first USARIC fighter jet rocketed through the air, headed for the tree that wasn’t a tree. Both wings sported the name Caesar XT3 in large, aggressive lettering.
“Cleopatra, this is Caesar XT3,” the pilot said. “We are en route to target. Please standby.”
“Confirmed, Caesar XT3,” came the response. “Three clicks to the south. Prepare to engage.”
“Standing by.”
As Caesar XT3 approached the tree, a blast of pink light bolted from the surface of the moon, blinding the pilot.
WHOOOOSH.
The second jet named Cleopatra followed hot on the trail of the Caesar XT3, “Visual has been compromised. Do not engage. I repeat, do not engage.”
The third jet, Brutus, prepared its rockets.
The pilot moved the gears forward and aligned the cross-hairs on his visor, “Confirm target. Ready to engage.”
“Light ‘em up,” Cleopatra said.
“Understood.”
BRAAAYYZZEEEEE.
A constant, thick stream of bullets escaped Brutus’s wings and trailed up the stem of the tree. The pilot released the trigger, and stopped firing.
“Target hit. Target hit.”
“Uh, Brutus?” Cleopatra said. “I’m not seeing anything but smoke coming from whatever that thing is.”
The bullets hadn’t made so as much as a dent in the structure towering out of the water.
The rocket launchers on each of Brutus’s wings lifted down from their compartments and locked into position.
SWITCH — SCHUNT.
“Target in sight. Ready to engage.”
“Keep it low, Brutus,” Cleopatra said.
“Understood.”
SWOOSH — WOOSH.
Both missiles blasted out, leaving a wake of golden dust drifting in the air. Each exploded several feet above the water as they blasted into the visible base of the tree.
“What the hell?” the pilot in the Brutus jet said. “Nothing?”
“That’s a negative, Brutus,” Cleopatra said. “Suggest we re-route at base and recalibrate.”
Brutus tilted his jet and circled the tree like an upside-down Helter-skelter. The back burners blasted the aircraft directly into the beam.
“Brutus, where are you going? Do not change the agreed-upon course of action.”
“I c-can’t c-control—”
WHAAAAAAAMMMM.
A God-like hum rumbled in Brutus’s cockpit, followed by a great white light streaking across the cockpit.
The pilot’s head expanded atop his shoulders.
“My G-God,” the pilot of Brutus gasped through the headset, “It’s b-beautiful—”
KRRAAMMMM.
Brutus’s entire body lit up like a bonfire and exploded into a giant storm of debris.
The majority of it rained into the ocean.
Cleopatra and Caesar XT3 bolted away from the scene, barely able to keep their jets steady.
“Metal Bird One and Two,” Cleopatra advised, “We are headed back to base. Advise you do the same.”
Metal Bird One, the first of two twin-propeller helicopters, stormed across the ocean towards the tree.
“That’s a negative, Cleopatra,” the pilot said. “Unidentified object is on course of sea impact. Engage and rescue.”
“God speed, Metal Bird One.”
The connection between the helicopters and the jet fights fizzled out.
The first helicopter banked to the left of
the tree, creating a mini tidal wave across the surface of the ocean. Its two front lights blasted across the water, illuminating scores of little animals swimming towards it.
“Metal Bird Two? Uh, please confirm visual.”
Metal Bird Two’s pilot viewed the commotion but was more concerned with the orange pod-shape that had crashed into the ocean.
The vehicle swung right and shone its lights onto the bobbing, lifeless vessel.
“Uh, confirm two unidentified objects at this time,” the Metal Bird Two pilot said.
“Understood.”
“It looks like an escape pod of some description.”
ROOOOAAAARRRRRR.
Metal Bird One rose into the air, throwing its light on the structure.
“It looks like a tree but without bark,” Metal Bird One said.
Metal Bird Two’s undercarriage opened up and released a giant net.
“Do not engage, Metal Bird One. We have the package.”
The pilot turned over his shoulder and waved at two men sitting on the bank of seats in the main compartment.
A USARIC mercenary carried his rifle across his lap. The name-tag on his shoulder displayed the name Hook.
“We’re here,” the pilot shouted to Hook over the deafening rotor blades, “I need eyes on the package.”
“Right.”
Hook waved his colleague over to the door of the helicopter.
“Do it.”
THRAAAASSHHHHH.
The rocket fired out a giant, sparkling white net at the sea.
“That’s right, that’s right.”
Hook gripped the handle on the side of the door. He turned to the pilot and gave him the thumbs up.
“That’s it, let’s go.”
GRRRR — SCHWUMP.
The net fastened around the large orange box. Hook wasted no time in signaling to the pilot to lift the vehicle up and away from the ocean proper.
“Whatever you do, stay away from that pink light,” Hook said into his headgear.
“Affirmative,” the pilot chuckled. “I think Brutus’s promotional death put me off going anywhere near it.”
“Just stay the hell away from it,” Hook said as he clapped eyes on the cats making their way to the tree.
“What are they doing?”
“Huh?” the pilot said.
“Aren’t cats meant to be scared of water?”
“Who cares,” the pilot said. “Sit down and prepare. We’ll be convening with the pick-up in two minutes.”
Star Cat Forever: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Adventure (The Star Cat Series - Book 6) Page 2