Star Cat Forever: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Adventure (The Star Cat Series - Book 6)

by Andrew Mackay

  SCREEEEEEEE.

  The Shanta rammed itself against the door, forcing a giant dent to dagger out and nearly removed Jonas’s head from his shoulders.

  “Get the hell out of the way,” a gruff man’s voice thundered from behind the two men.

  They turned around to see Jaykay aiming his rifle at the bay door.

  “Get down.”

  Jonas and Nathan hit the deck and scurried away like lab rats down the corridor.

  “I’ll take care of this bad boy myself,” Jaykay said as he trained the sight of his gun at the window, “Come on, coochie-coo, you little scumbag, you.”

  SCREEEEEE — WHUD-WHUD-WHUD.

  Six of the Shanta’s limbs rammed the door and smashed the glass.

  Jaykay reached out with his free hand and tapped the button on the wall.

  SWISHHH.

  The Octopus-like beast slapped all twelve limbs against each wall and coiled around like a jellyfish in an attempt to escape its impending doom.

  Its mid-section focused into Jaykay’s sight at the end of his rifle.

  “Jeez. You’re one ugly son of a bitch,” Jaykay muttered. “Let’s see how you get on with a shell in your sick, ugly face.”

  The Shanta pressed its talons into the wall and prepared itself to launch.

  BLAM — BLAM — BLAM.

  The creature flung itself forward, avoiding the three bullets which burst into the walls around its limbs.

  SCREEEEEE.

  Jaykay lowered his gun and saw the giant monstrosity flying towards his face, “Oh, shii—”

  SCHWIIRRRR-AA — WHIPPP—PP.

  It’s first limb twirled forward and wrapped around Jaykay’s neck and whipped his body into the air.

  KERR—ASSSSHHH.

  The Shanta rammed Jaykay’s head into the ceiling and slammed his body on the table, catapulting the two oxygen cartridges into the air as the surface snapped in two.

  The Shanta planted six of its limbs at the door and hoisted itself forward, dragging Jaykay’s body along with it.

  “Nggggg,” he groaned as he gripped the beast’s limb in his hands, “Gerrof meee—”

  WHUP.

  The Shanta bolted forward, and attached its remaining five limbs to the corridor wall. The force of the pull whipped Jaykay out of the bay, through the air, and into the fire alarm.

  CRASSHHHH.

  Spider cracks crunched across the wall, throwing fragments of dust and brickwork all over the creature.

  Everyone screamed and ran off as it lifted Jaykay into the air and tilted its bulbous mid-section at the man’s face.

  “Ngggg, wh-what, are y-you?” Jaykay kicked his legs around and tried to fight off the strangulation.

  SCREEEEEEE.

  Time seemed to slow down as Jaykay looked inside the monster’s slit. He saw rows of teeth covered in a transparent slime. The slit in the center yawned out over the man’s petrified face.

  “M-My G-God—”

  CHOMP.

  The Shanta bit down on his neck.

  SCHPLATTCH.

  Its razor-like teeth crunched through Jaykay’s neck and lifted his body into the air. It swallowed the mercenary in several gulps.

  BWUCK — BWUCK — BWUCK.

  Jaykay’s chest and arms broke out as it vacuumed its way into the ball of flesh, followed by his waist.

  CRUNCH — SNAP.

  Jaykay’s legs broke out and snapped over the knee-bone as the Shanta swallowed him in five successive attempts.

  “Attention, attention,” the alarm announced, “This is not a drill. The alarm has been triggered. Please make your way out of the building and convene at assembly point A.”

  Six USARIC mercenaries stormed up the corridor, ready to open fire with their rifles.

  “Trouble in B Thirty-Three, dead ahead.”

  The Shanta squealed and spat Jaykay’s boots to the floor as it spotted the mercenaries running towards it.

  SCREEEEEEEE.

  “Open fire,” the first mercenary screamed as he pulled his trigger.

  THRAAA-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TAAAT.

  The Shanta stiffened all twelve of its limbs and fanned them in all directions like a giant star. It spun around and cartwheeled down the corridor away from the mercenaries.

  RROOOOOOAARRRR.

  Their bullets whizzed past it and smashed into the sides of the walls.

  “Goddamn it,” the first mercenary lowered his gun and gave chase, “Get it, now. Now.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  — Bay 70 —

  Santiago looked at the Individmedia ink on his forearm. The time read: 15:30.

  He looked up at Jelly to find her deep in contemplation.

  “How many are watching?”

  “Current count is over fifty million people, Jelly.”

  “Worldwide?”

  “Worldwide.”

  Maar paced back and forth behind Santiago. He shot Julie an evil glance. Brayn joined in with the antagonizing.

  The young woman busied herself with her membrane, vowing never to look at her boss ever again.

  “There are things people should know,” Jelly said with solemnity.

  Santiago grinned, hoping for some revelation that might cement his place in the pantheon of celebrity stardom for good.

  “We’d love to hear it, Jelly.”

  “When I was just a cat I didn’t understand why human beings made a fuss of me. What they were saying. I thought they were mocking me with their stupid voices. Spouting lessense. Treating me like I was some kind of idiot. My only allegiance was to survival. Keep alive. Keep warm. Keep from being hungry.”

  “Right. So, you vowed to remain faithful to those who provided all that for you?”

  Jelly nodded, evidently uncomfortable with her restraints and her increasingly shrinking chair.

  “That’s right.”

  “It sounds like you’re going to tell me you learned something?”

  “She hasn’t learned crap,” Maar spat. He soon silenced himself for the broadcast, despite the feeling of anger pervading his body.

  Santiago looked into the light and grinned, “I’m sorry about that, viewers. That was Maar Sheck, CEO of the newly reformed USIRC, who we’ll be talking to later.”

  “Asshole,” Maar muttered.

  Santiago ignored him and returned to the interview, “Jelly? You were saying?”

  “About a month after my sisters are and I were born, our owner decided he didn’t want us anymore.”

  “What happened?”

  “He put us in a cardboard box. We thought we were going outside to play. New ground to explore.”

  A tear escaped Jelly’s eye duct and dampened into her fur.

  “You should have seen the look on their faces. They were so excited.”

  “What happened?” Santiago asked. “Did you get your new playground?”

  Her mood soured, “Yeah. It was a new playground, all right. Full of fast vehicles and cycles.”

  “He left you by the freeway?”

  “Abandoned us,” Jelly corrected him and licked her mouth, “Left us to die. I tried so hard to set us free. We were just kittens. We got out, and I escaped. My sisters did, too, but I don’t know what happened to them.”

  “How did you feel about that, Jelly? Talk to me about your thought process.”

  Jelly sniffed, “I felt betrayed. Angry. I felt pain and sorrow. An intense fury. I wanted to kill. It was all I wanted to do.”

  SLAMMM.

  She thumped the table top, startling everyone in the room.

  Santiago took a deep breath and yanked on his collar, “Do you feel angry now, Jelly?”

  “I feel conflicted. Both anger and love. Directed, equally, to those that deserve them. To those that anger me, I wish a slow, painful death. To those I love? I would die an agonizing death if it meant that they were happy.”

  “By way of explanation. Do you, uh, hate me? Jelly?”

  She squinted at Santiago’s immaculately-made face a
nd grinned.

  “Yes.”

  Santiago’s face fell and his arms began to shake.

  Maar sneered at the monstrosity sitting at the far end of the table, “Who cares?”

  “Yeah, I thought you might say that, Sheck,” Jelly spat. “You know what the funny thing is?”

  Maar couldn’t have cared any less. He shrugged his shoulders with apathy.

  “No. Tell me.”

  “All this business about anger and how I felt at the time?”

  “Yes?”

  “I didn’t know it until I became human. And that’s all thanks to you, and the Star Cat Project. And my friends and family aboard Space Opera Beta.”

  Maar growled at her, having expected her to display a pained expression of threat and not the rumination on feelings she expressed.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “You clearly survived what your original owner did to you,” Santiago continued. “What happened after that?”

  Jelly poked her tongue between her teeth and gouged out a chunk of beef.

  “I was rescued by the People Against Animal Cruelty. A man named Handax Skill.”

  “Very famously had blue hair,” Santiago said.

  “A scumbag,” Maar added. “Him and his three lame-brained buddies.”

  Jelly lowered her voice as she spoke.

  “At the time I thought I was being kidnapped by some blue-haired freak. Handax Skill. He was the one who gave me to Jamie. It turned out he was a friend.”

  PTCHOO.

  She spat the fragment of beef at Maar’s shoes.

  “Which is something you will never be to me, dickhead.”

  Livid, Maar lunged at the table, “You son of a—”

  “—Sir, please. Don’t.”

  Brayn grabbed Maar’s sleeve and held the agitated man back.

  GRUNT.

  Jelly sneered in Maar’s face, “You gonna hit me?”

  “I’m gonna have you vivisected.”

  She lifted her shackled wrists and displayed her wounds to the broadcast light.

  “No worse than what you’ve already done to me.”

  She turned to face the light and buried her head into the beam.

  “You see what USARIC did to me? Look at me. Look at me.”

  Millions around the world watched as her face formed into a 3D representation in their front rooms, cafes, and Individimedia panels.

  “Look at me. The first ever STAR CAT,” she shrieked, “You like what you see? Do you?”

  Maar threw Brayn’s hand off his shoulder, “Don’t touch me.”

  “Just calm down, sir.”

  “I’m gonna have that fluffy rodent opened up, dissected, and then incinerated. I swear to God.”

  Jelly heard what Maar said and threw him a look of intense anger, “You swear to me, huh?”

  Maar chuckled evilly at the mad cat on the chair.

  “What? What the hell are you talking about, you messed up perversion of science?”

  The interview slipped out of Santiago’s hands. He didn’t know which way to turn.

  “Uh, Jelly?” he chanced.

  “What do you want?”

  He cleared his throat and tried to allay her temper, “Earlier in the interview you said something that had me curious.”

  “Just one thing?” Jelly snorted.

  “Oh. No. Of course you’ve said many, many things that are interesting. But there was one thing in particular.”

  “Go on.”

  “You said the phrase I swear to myself when you threatened Mr. Sheck.”

  “Yes,” Jelly whispered. “And I meant it.”

  “Which part?”

  “Both parts, asshole.”

  “Right, but—uh, look, I’m quite sure you want to kill Mr. Sheck—”

  “—And everyone who works for him,” she added.

  “Right, and everyone who works for him. But, I mean, why would you swear to yourself?”

  Jelly looked confused by the question.

  “Why not?”

  “Most people swear to God, don’t they? They don’t swear to themselves.”

  Jelly didn’t have to respond. Her interviewer and everyone else in the room figure it out for themselves.

  Once Santiago’s brain had connected the dots he felt his hands begin to shake faster. Jelly noticed it happening.

  “What’s the matter, Sibald?” she grinned. “Starting to feel the heat?”

  “I d-don’t feel too well—”

  “—You got that right. Your hands are shaking. Why?”

  Julie’s held her breath in shock at the revelation, “Oh my God.”

  Santiago placed his hands on his lap and out of sight for fear of embarrassment.

  “I, uh, well—”

  “—Duuuuh, duh, I uh, well,” Jelly mocked, “What’s wrong with you? Cat got your tongue?”

  He stared the tiger in the face and awaited her next line.

  WHUMP.

  Santiago’s knees rammed under the table, which took him and everyone in the room by surprise.

  All except Jelly Anderson, who just laughed in his face.

  “No, n-no,” Santiago grumbled, “Okay, we can t-take a quick break there—”

  “—Ohhh, no. No breaks,” Maar snapped. “You continue while we have everyone watching. No breaks.”

  Santiago burst into tears and choked, which made Jelly beam with excitement, “I n-need to—”

  Maar shoved Santiago’s shoulder and whispered in his ear.

  “—Shut the hell up and talk to her. Remember what we agreed?”

  “Yes, y-yes, but—”

  “—Do it. Or I’ll have Brayn shoot you in the face.”

  Maar stood up straight and smiled wistfully at Jelly.

  “Hey, you.”

  “Yes, dickhead?”

  “Stop playing with your food and just eat it, okay?”

  “Don’t tell me what to do. Maar Sheck.”

  Santiago wiped the sweat from his brow and onto his pristine suit sleeves.

  Jelly sniggered at the stain on his shirt, “Expensive suit, huh?”

  He examined the front of his jacket, “Oh, uh, y-yes. It cost—”

  “—How much is a life worth?” Jelly asked as her mouth opened up to reveal her fangs.

  “Huh?”

  ROOOAAAARRRRR.

  Everyone jumped back to the wall in fright as Jelly’s vicious-looking face of hell produced a guttural, wall-shaking wail of fury.

  Santiago’s eyes widened as he watched Jelly calm down in an instant. She spread her tongue around her mouth as if nothing untoward had occurred.

  “Are we going to continue this interview, or what?”

  Santiago cleared his throat. If nothing else, the sudden outburst had taken his mind off his shaking hands.

  His entire body and vocal cords erupted, instead.

  “Don’t make me ask again, Sibald. Sheck,” Jelly snapped. “Answer my question.”

  Maar growled back at her and approached the table.

  “I’ll tell you how much a life is worth, you miserable sack of fluff. Manning bills us one point seven million dollars for each unit, plus insurance, which takes each unit past the two million dollar mark.”

  Jelly flapped her ears, surprised by his answer. Julie felt sick and looked away.

  Maar continued, “That’s right. Opera Beta went to Saturn with five series three units and a series two. I’ll swallow the cost of the latter. But as for Tripp Healy, Bonnie Whitaker, Jaycee Nayall, and Wool ar-Ban? That’s four crew members at the cost of ten million dollars. Each of them easy to replace. Unlike you.”

  GROWL.

  This wasn’t the answer Jelly wanted. She scowled at the two men and grunted once again.

  “What about Haloo Ess? Lead charge of Botanix?” she snapped. “She wasn’t an Androgyne.”

  “No, you’re right. She was a human being. In other words, expendable. Like all other normal employees, she knew the inherent dangers of t
he expedition to Saturn. It’s part and parcel of the job. She didn’t cost us a penny.”

  “I thought you’d say that.”

  “Why is all this important to you, Jelly?” Santiago asked.

  Jelly clenched her infinity claws and nodded at Maar.

  “This man, here. He didn’t include me in his answer. I think that tells you everything you need to know about him.”

  “It doesn’t say a damn about me. You’re just a stupid cat. Ten a penny. Nothing but a useless waste of fur.”

  Maar’s wily antipathy got the better of her.

  SHOVE.

  Jelly knocked the table forward with her forearms, “Come here and say that to my face, asshole.”

  “With pleasure.”

  Maar approached the table with some trepidation, but felt that his reputation and character was on the line.

  “Make sure you get this, Sibald,” he said as he ran his fingers along the table top and reached Jelly.

  “Look at you, Anderson. Pathetic.”

  “Say it to my face.”

  Maar hitched his pants legs and lowered his face to hers. A mere five inches separated their eyes. He looked into her pyramid-shaped eyeballs.

  “You, Jelly, are just a stupid cat.”

  GRRRRRRRRRR.

  She whined and pinched her nose, wanting his head on a stick.

  “Ten a penny. Nothing but a useless waste of fur.”

  Jelly snorted and pushed her face into his, causing him to flinch for half a second.

  “Easy, tiger.”

  “Remember I said I was going to kill you?”

  “Yes, why don’t you enlighten us?”

  Jelly ducked her head into the broadcast light and stared at those who were watching.

  “Well?”

  She extended the infinity claws on her left hand and ran the sharp ends along the table.

  SCREEEEEEECH — HALT.

  She relaxed her hand and glared into his eyes.

  “I’m going to kill you like I would with any random mouse. Turn you into a trophy. A job well killed.”

  Maar held his gaze at Jelly’s face. He knew she meant business. She knew that he knew she meant it.

  “What do you think of that, Maar Sheck?”

  He spat in her face, quite out of the blue.

  “That’s what I think. Star Cat.”

  Maar’s thick phlegm slung down her nose and collected up in the crook of her chin. She didn’t respond violently this time, and just let his physical answer drool down her fur.