She made a bee line for Wool legs and took refuge behind them.
"Hey, girl. What’s up?"
Jelly whined and tilted her head up to Wool. Her inner-suit had split open across her two front arms.
"You’ve damaged your skin, girl," she crouched to her knees and held Jelly’s arm, "How did that happen—?"
"—She’s grown, Wool," Haloo smiled sweetly and held out her hand, threatening to press the panel on the wall. "She’s growing."
"Growing?" Wool collected Jelly in her arms and inspected her suit.
The underside, covering the belly, had torn at the seams. Her two hind legs bulged through the legs of the suit. Even the stitched named tag - J. Anderson - hung from the material.
"She’s gotten heavier."
"What’s going on, Haloo?" Tripp was ready to take out his gun. He saw that Jaycee was already a few steps ahead of him in that respect.
"Oh," Haloo giggled palmed the panel, "It’s okay, don’t be nervous. Something fantastic is coming."
"Yeah, you keep saying that," Jaycee squeezed the handle on his K-SPARK, "It’s not helping."
"Good people of Opera Beta. I have something fantastic to show you."
The door to Botanix slid open.
A thunderous draught flew along the walkway and shot through the door, carrying whatever remained of the pink mist with it.
In the distance a chorus of classical music wailed around. Quite unusual for Botanix. Haloo usually liked it quiet and peaceful in there, being the crew’s botanist.
Haloo’s hair lifted and rippled across her shoulders as she embraced the opened door, “Come, see…" she said as she drifted into the brilliant white light.
Tor took a deep breath and tilted his head. He was greeted by the metal disc housed around his neck. "You’re not seriously going to follow her, are you?"
"She seems to know what’s going on," Tripp said. "It’s a room full of plants and fresh water—"
"—Correction, Tripp," Jaycee interrupted, taking a step back, defying all reason to enter the chamber. "It was a room full of water and plants until that bomb went off. How do we know it’s not contaminated?"
Tripp considered the facts and pulled out his Rez-9. "Good point. You stay here with Tor. Make sure he doesn’t run off. Wool?"
"Yes, Tripp?"
"We’ll go in and see what Haloo’s got to say. We’ll take Jelly with us."
"Okay," Wool double-checked the proposal with Jelly. She did this by smiling at her face, waiting for as positive a reaction as a human could expect from a cat. Jelly licked Wool’s glove, excitedly.
"Okay," Tripp thumped Jaycee on the back, forgetting that his exo-suit was made of much stronger stuff than his flesh and bone. "Ah, damn."
"What did you do that for?" Jaycee asked, failing to get the joke.
"Just trying to be friendly.”
"Well don’t," Jaycee snapped. "Just get in and get out."
"We’ll be right back, as they say."
"No, don’t say that," Jaycee huffed. "Don’t say anything. Just go in there and get the hell out."
"Yes, good idea."
Jaycee yanked Tor’s Decapidisc around, ensuring it caused the man a healthy amount of discomfort, "If you’re not back in three minutes, I’m coming in there all guns blazing, leaving this headless piece of crap to paint the floor red. Is that acceptable, Captain?"
Tripp stared at the opened door, thinking over his response. "Yes, very good. Wool, let’s go."
He waved Wool - and Jelly - along with him. Seconds later, they disappeared into the haze of white light...
***
They expected to see a ruined Botanix. Initially, that’s precisely what they saw.
Rows of plants stood before them in various states of charcoaled destruction.
Wool looked to the left. Jelly’s sectioned-off area in the corner sat relatively unscathed from bomb’s blast.
"Some damage done. Seems we can salvage a lot of it," Wool turned to Tripp and gasped. "Tripp?"
He stared dead-ahead, eyes bulging, unable to speak. She turned her head forward and saw what he was marveling at.
"Oh… my… God," she exclaimed. "It’s… beautiful."
Jelly turned her head. A puzzled expression on her face formed, along with her two humans.
"Good people," Haloo’s voice chimed around them, "Welcome to life."
The immediate vicinity of Botanix was as it always was. The walls, however, broke apart like a shattered toy fifty feet ahead of them.
The rows of plants subsided, adjacent to the walls.
The second half - the farthest from Tripp, Wool and Jelly - transformed into a magnificent utopia.
A blue sky with white clouds and flying birds. Where the ground sunk, a glorious beach front, complete with crystal white sand ran all the way up to the horizon.
Looking down, they saw the water filtration system pumping its wares into a beautiful lake of sparkling blue water.
Even the air was a pleasure to breathe.
Tripp closed his eyes and took in a lungful. "It’s heaven." He exhaled slowly and rubbed his face, ensuring he wasn’t stuck in the middle of a particularly comforting dream.
Wool walked forward with Jelly in her hands, wanting to involve herself further. "Did we die? Is this heaven?"
"No, this isn’t heaven," Tripp whispered in quiet ecstasy. He walked alongside Wool, steadily approaching the end of the burnt plants. The glistening white sand crunched below their boots with every step, "Where are we?"
Haloo moved in front of them with a glorious grin on her face. She held her hand out, introducing the pair to the perfect rendition of life awaiting them.
"Where are we, Haloo?"
"Welcome… to Pink Symphony," Haloo moved her hand to the sprawling ocean to their left, "Where everything began. And where everything will end."
Tripp fell to his knees in utter awe. He cupped the lukewarm sand in his hands and let it waterfall through his fingers.
All the blemishes and varicose veins that had formed through years of service in the American Star Fleet fell with it. A thorough and vital rejuvenation.
Jelly was less impressed. Her whiskers buzzed to life, as did her infinity claws. She dug them into the fabric of Wool’s inner-suit, “Meow.”
"Whoa, Jelly."
The cat landed on the sand, finding it a little too hot for comfort. She bolted toward Haloo in a haze of fury.
"Hey, girl," Haloo kept smiling and opened her arms. "Come to me. I have a gift for you. You like gifts, don’t you?"
"Hissss..."
Jelly kicked a bunch of sand into the air as she skidded on her claws. She had no intention of going anywhere near the woman.
"Oh," Haloo pulled a dramatic and sad face. "Don’t you love me, anymore?"
"Hisss…"
Jelly bushed her tail and flapped it around in circles, certain that danger was close by.
Haloo fell to her knees and wept. Quite the theatrical performance, she began muttering to herself as if she was speaking to someone else, "But I tried. Really, I did."
"Maaah," Jelly knuckled down and sat on her hind legs ten feet away from Haloo. She took no pity on the poor woman.
"What’s she doing?" Wool turned her attention to a giant tree shooting up a hundred feet or so from the center of the ocean. "And what’s that?"
Streaks of pink lightning streaked across the sky as Haloo continued muttering to herself through her sobs. "She’s here, now. She’s here."
The light breeze turned into a gale. The clouds bleached across the perfect sky like spilled paint hitting a canvas.
"Aww, no," Haloo fell sideways to the sand and lifted her hands to her face. "Please, leave me to die in peace. Haven’t I done enough?"
"Haloo?" Tripp stepped forward in an attempt to help her. Jelly scowled at him and forced him to stop. "Jelly?"
The cat heaved and spluttered tearing the rip in her inner-suit apart. "Traaah… Traaah…"
"
What’s going on, girl?" Wool watched Jelly tumble around on her side, clawing at her inner-suit. She wanted out of it as quickly as possible.
Haloo screamed through her tears and grabbed her lips in each hand. "Gnaawww…"
"Jesus Christ…" Tripp held Wool back as the woman lifted her lip over her nose, coughing a plume of pink gas across the sand. "Gwaaar…"
"Haloo!" Wool squealed, unable to watch.
"Treeh…" Jelly tore chunks of her inner-suit away with her claws in a feisty fit of anger. "Treep… Trep…"
Haloo’s shoulders hulked several inches above the ground. Her head and her body below the abdomen hung, suspended, as her inner-suit broke away.
"My G-God," Tripp pushed Wool back. "Get back, get back. We need to get out of here."
Suddenly, a classical tune emitted from the tree in the middle of the ocean, catching their attention.
It billowed at an increasingly high volume - enough to fill the air. Four, simple chords, twice repeated.
Da-da-da-dum. Da… da… da… dum.
"What the hell?" Tripp shouted over the gale and the music.
"The tree is singing?" Wool snapped, not knowing which way to turn. "What’s going on—"
Jelly squealed and shredded the last section of her suit. She sprang to her feet and exercised her infinity claws, wrenching them in and out.
She launched into the air and took two swipes at Haloo’s levitating body as it rose toward the sky. Her titanium claw caught the woman’s left ear, tearing the skin.
"Waaah!" Jelly screamed in a furious rage, unable to jump higher as Haloo’s body tilted to a halt twenty feet in the air.
"Oh, Jesus," Tripp quipped. "Let’s get back to Beta, right now."
"Jelly," Wool let out an ambitious, final call of hope that Jelly would return with them.
It fell on deaf, furry ears.
Jelly thudded to the floor, pushing grains of sand away from her. She howled at Wool, terrifying her.
"No, no, no," Wool threw Tripp’s hand from her forearm. "I’m not leaving her here—"
Jelly roared, negating the desire to be rescued. She’d grown a few inches, more resembling an orange panther than the common, domesticated cat.
Her growl was near adolescent in nature. Even her face had matured.
Jelly Anderson was… evolving.
Tripp and Wool’s attention was caught by a rumbling, buzzing noise shooting from the violent pinkish purple sky.
Haloo’s chest broke apart and emitted a pink beam of light into the heavens. The back of her head hung down, pushing her chest upwards. It was as if her heart and soul tried to escape from her body.
"Take me," she screamed with a disconcertingly calm manner, "Take me home."
The pink beam blasting from her body thickened and ruptured, seeming to imitate the launch of a spacecraft.
Her knees broke, flinging her legs behind her ass. The back of her head recoiled under the small of her back, snapping her body in two, shattering the bone.
Then, the beam carried her body into the sky and crashed to a close into an electric storm of thunder with the clouds.
Jelly shrieked at the light show and ran toward the ocean in a fit of anger.
Tripp and Wool didn’t stick around to watch the unnatural event. They bolted across the sand, backtracking across their original footsteps.
The sand turned from hard ground to scattered mud. Next to them, rows of blackened plants and tiled walls.
The fluorescent lighting in Botanix crept along the floor.
"The door, quick!" Tripp pulled Wool along and darted for the opened door. As they gained on the rectangular structure, Tripp covered her from behind pushed her through the door to Botanix.
"Tripp," Jaycee lifted his shotgun and aimed it at the door, "What the hell’s going on out there?"
"It’s a long story," Tripp spat as he ran through and thumped his fist against the panel on the wall.
SCHUNT.
The door slid shut, cutting Opera Beta off from whatever that place was beyond the door.
Tripp caught his breath and coughed up a storm. Wool paced around, trying not to emote. She held her chest, hoping her heart wouldn’t grow limbs, climb up her throat and jump out of her mouth, "I feel sick."
"What happened out there?" Jaycee stomped his foot to the floor and thumped Tor on the back for some semblance of satisfaction. "Where’s Anderson?"
"No time to explain," Tripp turned to the door and hit the glass, making damn sure nothing could get in - or out. He spun around and pushed past Tor. "You."
"Me?" Tor asked.
"Yes, you," he said, pushing Tor forward by the shoulders. "We need to get Manuel back online right now. Let’s go. Come on."
"Okay, okay."
Wool chased after Tripp as he stormed off, "Where are we going?"
"The flight deck. It’s time for some answers."
Jaycee kicked Tor along the corridor and showed him his glove. He delighted in threatening to activate his Decapidisc, "Speaking of answers, can you tell me what happened out there?"
For the first time in his career, Tripp felt that his crew might not believe his next statement.
"The dumb bomb Baldron threw into Botanix before we passed out?"
"Yeah?"
"It blew a hole open on the far wall and opened us up into a whole world of trouble."
"What trouble?" Tor tried.
Jaycee hit him on the back of the head. "Hey, idiot, I’m asking the questions here, okay? You’re the convict who gets to shut up. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, I understand."
"Good," Jaycee spat. "What trouble, Tripp?"
Wool knew her captain wasn’t in the mood for explaining as they turned the corner and made their way to the control deck.
"We’ve landed on another planet. Haloo said it was called Pink Symphony. Then, she, uh, died again."
"Died again?"
Tor started to sniff. "I’m s-scared."
"Shut up, Russian scum," Jaycee shouted in his ear, "Say one more word and you’re dead."
"I’m sorry."
Jaycee, at the end of his tether, thumped the man on the back of the head to underscore his point. "And stop apologizing."
"I’m sor—"
"—Something strange happened to Jelly," Wool interjected, saving Tor from himself, "She went on the attack. She didn’t want to come back with us. It was like she turned bad or something."
"Enough," Tripp entered the control deck. He pointed at Tor and then at the communications panel. "You, over here."
"Come on, sweetheart," Jaycee pushed Tor against the chair in front of the console. "Let’s get to work."
Tripp scratched behind his ear and evaluated his orders before speaking them. "Okay, call up Manuel. He said something about us not being on Opera Beta. At first I thought he was mad, but he might have been onto something."
"How can we trust him?" Tor asked.
An instant pang of irony stretching across Tripp’s face, "That’s rich coming from you."
"Look," Tor thumped the console in a fit of despair. "I’m just as scared—"
"—Do not speak back to me, okay? I am your captain—"
"—No," Tor screamed into Tripp’s face, determined to have his say. As soon as he realized that his wish was granted, he calmed down a touch and sat into the chair.
"I’m just as scared as you are. I don’t know what’s going on. If I stay here, I’m dead. If I go out there - wherever that place is - I’m dead. Run out of oxygen? Yeah, that could happen, or this hulking ignoramus will take my head off. In fact, even if we make it back home, I’ll be arrested, tried and sentenced to death. I’m a mathematician. I figure the odds of being alive for much longer are about six million to one."
"The odds will be considerably worse if you don’t reboot Manuel and get him to function," Tripp slapped Tor across the face and pointed at the console. "Do you understand what I’ve just said? Russian?"
Wool and Jaycee lo
oked at each other for a response. Their captain was about to lose his mind once and for all.
"Yes, I understand."
"Good," Tripp moved his face into Tor’s and stared him out. "One false move, and it’s all over. Do you understand?"
"Yes," Tor blurted, deeply upset. "I understand."
"I wasn’t talking to you." Tripp rubbed Tor’s hair like a child, and winked at Jaycee. "I was talking to him."
Tor and Tripp looked at Jaycee’s glove. He teased the button once again, "Just give me the word, Captain. Any excuse to press this button."
Tor cleared his throat and swallowed. He threw his arms forward and hit the live switch on the console. "In my country… I am considered a hero. In the vacuum of space I am considered a traitor. A scumbag." He rose from his seat and snapped his fingers. "USARIC communications officer Tor Klyce, reboot autopilot four, five, seven—"
"—that’s not even his real name," Jaycee whispered to Wool, trying to lighten the mood. She didn’t laugh so much as roll her eyes.
"—Manuel, do you read me?" Tor finished and snapped his fingers.
"Yes, I read you."
WHVOOM.
Manuel’s holographic book image sprang to life in the middle of the room. He rifled through his pages and floated over to Tor, "Good whenever-it-is. How are you?"
"I’m well, Manuel."
"No, I’m Manuel."
"No, I said I am well, not I’m Manuel."
"I beg your pardon?" Manuel shuffled back, slamming his front and back covers together, trying to work out the joke. "I’m sorry, I don’t understand—"
"—Never mind that," Tripp stepped in and watched the book float around the room. "How are you feeling, Manuel?"
"Full of the joys of a typical Spring day, Tripp. Yourself?"
"Good. He recognizes us, at least."
"Soul count returns a number I was not expecting," Manuel said.
"How many souls aboard Opera Beta?" Tor asked. "We’re counting me, Tripp, Wool, and Jaycee. That should make four."
"I am expecting eight. Haloo Ess, Captain Daryl Katz, Miss Anderson and the series two Androgyne unit."
Tripp squinted at Manuel in confusion. "Eight? Do you know what happened to them?"
Star Cat: Pink Symphony Page 8