The first of the men was the tallest. He moved forward and announced himself in a light Russian accent, “Is this the Rebels Against Genetic Engineering?”
“Yes, we are.”
“Good,” he said and turned to his friends, “I told you it was the dome. We have the right place.”
He turned to Sierra and removed his mask. An impressive wound ran from the bottom of his eye down to the side of his jaw.
“My name is Roman Voycheck.”
“What do you want?” Sierra asked. “How did you find us?”
“We saw Dreenagh’s Viddy Media broadcast. May we come in?”
Sierra eyed the three strangers and made damn sure they could see her shotgun was fired up and ready to go.
“Yeah, okay.”
Jamie, Leesa, and Remy watched the guests make their way into the dome, and along the central table.
The legs on the table had been substituted with random wooden boxes after the turmoil it had suffered from the PAWZ attack.
Roman looked around and nodded, “Nice place you have here. We had rather a lot of trouble locating the place.”
“We don’t exactly broadcast our location.”
“Yes, and quite wise, too,” Roman said to Siyam. “Next time, perhaps you will use a multi-proxy encryption to mask where you had transmitted your broadcast.”
Rana walked over to the children and brushed her hand across the flap of her jacket, deliberately showing her fastened handgun to the new guests.
“This place looks like a refugee center,” Roman chuckled. “Oh, I am sorry, where are my manners? These are my friends.”
He pointed to the first stocky-built man of few words, “Saad Hook. A good man.”
Saad’s voice had a twinge of Russian, “Hello.”
Roman turned to his other friend, a tall woman with a svelte figure and white hair. She refused to make eye contact with anyone in the room.
“Santara Iskra,” Roman introduced her to Sierra, who was far from impressed.
“What’s this about?”
Roman smiled at Noyin, Rana, and the children, “It is okay, we are compatriots. We are here to help.”
“Not until you tell us what you’re here for.”
“We wish to help you in the war against USARIC,” Roman revealed. “You see, we have evaded the IRI for some time now. They took my family and shipped them back to the motherland.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“My daughter, she fought back. They executed her mother and thousands of others in retaliation. Detonated their ship as a warning to others.”
Sierra released her hand from her concealed firearm.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Oh, yes. I am sure you are,” Roman nodded at Santara. “May we show you what you need to know?”
“How can we trust you?”
Rana stepped forward and sniffed the air, “I don’t like them, Sierra.”
Roman chuckled with incredulity, “What is this? You ask for help and yet, when it arrives, you decide you don’t want it? Make up your minds, people.”
Santara slammed her palm to the side of her head and knocked her right eyeball into her skull.
BWAAAAAAMM-MM.
A burst of light projected from the eye socket and plastered the adjacent wall.
Much to everyone’s astonishment.
Santara stood perfectly still as the image projected showed an army of gray-suited soldiers marching in tandem.
“In our country,” Roman said. “We have been developing a territorial army, so to speak, in case the Americans decide that sending us home was not enough.”
Dreenagh looked up from her forearm and squinted at the image, “You have an army?”
“We are classed as misfits in this country. Even my daughter, who was born here, has been tarred by our brush. Back home, we are heroes. We refuse to leave, and why should we?”
“Yes. Why should you?”
Roman punched his fists together and joined the conversation, “We have lived here for thirty years, my family and I. They drag my daughter kicking and screaming. Parade her in front of the others, and make an example of her.”
Remy’s ears pricked up when he finally landed the newcomer’s accents. He climbed up from his knees and was about to run over, when Jamie held him back.
“No, Remy. Don’t.”
“Get off of me.”
“We don’t know who they are,” Jamie hushed. “Just wait.”
Leesa chimed in with her thoughts as surreptitiously as possible, “Psst. Remy.”
He looked at them both with venom in his eyes, “No. This is my chance, you understand.”
“Don’t—”
“Hey,” Remy raced over to the three newcomers and clapped his hands together, “Is it true?”
Roman and Saad turned their heads at Remy. They seemed to recognize him.
“Is what true, little boy?”
Remy slowed his approach and cleared his throat, “Is it true that the Americans are forcing us to go back home?”
Roman was about to answer when, suddenly, he remembered were he’d seen the cherubic little face, “Remy Gagarin?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Star Cat Project Remy Gagarin?”
“Yes.”
Roman looked over the boy’s shoulder and instantly clocked the boy and girl sitting by the holoscope.
“Oh my,” he muttered, “The other two. Jamie Anderson and Leesa Task. Look.”
Sierra and the adults in the room had no choice but for the revelation to play out.
“We were lead to believe you had been executed.”
“You were lead to believe wrong,” Sierra snapped. “We would never harm a child.”
“Yes, unlike those in charge,” Roman offered.
Noyin moved in front of Jamie and Leesa, less than impressed with proceedings.
“They’re safe here with us.”
“So I see,” Roman turned back to Sierra. “I presume you are in charge, here?”
“Yes.”
“We offer our assistance in the war you intend to wage with USARIC and the IRI. Our numbers are many, and our firepower is not to be underestimated.”
Sierra didn’t look convinced, “As my friend asked, how can we trust you?”
Roman smiled at Remy.
“You can trust us to not kidnap children and hold them to ransom. All we want is to smash the system and return to normalcy. Put right what went wrong. Free movement of people. Reunification between our two great nations.”
Some of the cats peered behind the opened tech door and saw three strangers in their dome.
“Meow.”
Roman turned around and looked at the tech door, “What was that noise?”
“You do know what we do here, don’t you?”
Roman walked to the door with great caution, “Yes, we do. Your recent actions clearly state you know USARIC better than they do. Did you know the Russians had a secret star program of their own?”
“No,” Siyam said with interest. “We didn’t.”
Saad moved forward, “The Russian Cosmonaut Program sent a manned crew of three to investigate Saturn. Much like the USARIC’s Opera vessels, Lyulka-451 never returned. Never heard from again once she left Earth two years ago.”
“No wonder all this has happened,” Sierra said. “Both countries have been acting like petulant, jealous children.”
Roman nodded, “The Star Cat Project clearly had unintended consequences that have brought us to this point.”
“Guys?” Dreenagh snapped as her forearm beeped. “I think you should see this.”
“What is it?”
Dreenagh lifted her thumbnail back onto her knuckle and projected a live feed onto her open palm, “It’s an update on Maar Sheck.”
Sierra and the others spread out and looked at Dreenagh’s palm.
Santiago Sibald’s gluttonous face smiled back at them as he stood in front of a hospital.
/>
“I’m here at the Corpus Christi Infirmary where Maar Sheck, CEO of the United States and Russian Intergalactic Confederation is understood to have died in emergency transit after suffering a fatal heart attack.”
Sierra couldn’t believe her eyes, “Dead?”
Noyin’s face fell, “Huh? When did this happen?”
“Shut up and listen.”
Santiago continued, “This, after months of speculation that the IRI and USARIC were due to form an historic conglomerate to excise all Russian nationals from the fifty-two United States.”
“Pause,” Dreenagh said.
The rendition of Santiago’s face froze two inches from her palm, “If he’s dead, what does this mean?”
“It means nothing,” Noyin said. “Even if Maar is dead, he has protocols in place. A business continuation plan. It’ll never stop.”
“Really?” Dreenagh asked. “How come you know so much about him?”
Sierra stared into Santiago’s paused eyes, “Looks like the diplomatic route is back on if he’s dead. Play the footage.”
“Play,” Dreenagh said.
Santiago leaned into the lens and enacted his serious face, “First, Dmitri Vasilov. Now, an alleged attack on Maar Sheck. With the fate of the winners of the Star Cat Project hanging in the balance, what can we expect to happen now?”
Sierra turned away in disgust, “I don’t know what’s worse. His fawning sensationalism, or the fact that Maar’s dead.”
She caught a glimpse of the three children’s innocent eyes and felt her heart melt.
“It’s never, ever going to end. Is it?” Sierra huffed. “It’s not fair. He should’ve been alive to fight back, the scum-sucking douchebag.”
“He’ll pay,” Roman said. “They’ll all pay eventually.”
Dreenagh looked up from her forearm, “I’m getting reports that his estate in Angel City has been razed to the ground.”
“Probably moving his family out of the line of fire,” Noyin said. “Standard USARIC procedure, the guy was holed up for months while they were protecting him.”
“Not good enough,” Sierra snapped. “He should have paid for what he did. For what he did to those children, and those poor creatures he molested.”
Her face was a picture of death warmed up, and the rest of the team knew it.
“If Maar Sheck thinks he can dodge his responsibility just because he’s dead, he has another thing coming.”
Sierra stormed off in a teary-eyed huff.
“Huh?” Dreenagh thought aloud. “How does that even work?”
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Control Deck
Space Opera Charlie
Jelly stormed into the control deck, ready to kill anything that moved, “Alex, what the hell is going on?”
She stopped in the middle of the room and saw him holding Furie in his arms.
Pensive, he looked up at her from the flight deck, “Jelly, I—”
“—Don’t say a word,” she said. “I want my baby.”
He turned around on the spot and glanced at Jelly, initially refusing her instruction, “No.”
“What? What do you mean no? Give me my child.”
“You’re angry. I want you to calm down, first.”
Jelly wanted to attack him, but realized that he was right - she was apoplectic. She’d sustained a lot of injury during her fight with Jaycee. A gaping wound bled on the side of her wrist, along with damaged and jagged infinity claws.
Her fingertips bled, and the pain threatened her will to continue.
“Are you okay, Jelly?” Alex chanced.
“Wounds,” she whispered.
She moved her wrist to her mouth. Carefully, she traced the tip of her tongue inside the wound and tasted her own blood. The saliva mixed in with the thick, pink gloop and drooled down her chin.
“I’m sorry, Jelly.”
She moved her wrist away from her face and glanced at Alex, “Sorry for what?”
He looked down at Furie and allowed her to claw at his sleeve, “I’m sorry it didn’t work. We’re stuck here.”
“Aren’t you sorry about Jaycee?”
He lifted his head and grimaced at her, “Why should I be? It’s not my fault he malfunctioned.”
Jelly moved forward and whipped her tail around. It momentarily dulled the pain. As she moved, she felt her ribcage buckle.
Alex noticed that she was in pain, and was close to giving up entirely.
“He was the last one, right?” Jelly asked. “The last of Opera Beta? That’s what all this was about. You never cared about him.”
“That’s not true,” Alex pleaded. “I’m just as upset as you are, and besides, you were all for murdering him.”
“He shouldn’t have died like that,” Jelly said as she moved closer to Alex. “He freaked out. Something got to him.”
“He was an Androgyne, Jelly. You know what they’re like.”
Alex’s behind hit the flight deck. He had nowhere else to go.
“Don’t come any closer, Jelly.”
She defied his order, held her arms up and took another step towards him.
“Our orders were to eliminate everyone but you,” Alex said. “You’re right. All of Opera Beta is gone, now.”
Jelly bent her elbow and thumped her neck with her damaged hand.
“All but one.”
A look of confusion swept across Alex’s face.
“What? What are you saying?”
“I’m the last crew member of Opera Beta.”
“Jelly, you do know I’m one of the good guys, right? Oxade and Nutrene didn’t know my real identity. It’s a miracle I managed to get on board without my real identity being discovered.”
“I know, Alex. I have no beef with you. I’m just sorry for Jaycee, that’s all.”
“Forget Jaycee. He was a liability, anyway.”
“Well, Charlie got its wish. It’s just me left, now.”
“I just want to get back home, Jelly. I want to be with Grace and my friends. We’ve done everything we can, here.”
“I want to go home, too.”
Alex calmed down when he realized that Jelly didn’t intend to attack him, “Good. We were ordered to bring you home. And I fully intend to do just that.”
“What? Just so they can capture me and my daughter and open us up for a lifetime of testing and analysis?”
Jelly glanced at her daughter in his arms. She lowered her hands and exhaled. A pink mist wafted out of her nostrils, complementing the guttural purr of death buried inside her.
“It’s all academic, now, anyway,” Jelly murmured in time for her tail to stop wagging and slump behind her legs. “We’re going to die here.”
A tear rolled down Alex’s cheek. He put on a brave face and turned to Furie.
What a gorgeous creature she was - by now, not much bigger than his forearm.
“And to think we came so, so close,” he whispered at her. “After everything we’ve been through.”
Biddip-beep.
Manny appeared in the middle of the room and hovered between the pair, “I have the damage report, Alex.”
Jelly turned to Manny and extended her claws.
“What’s the story?”
“You want the good news or the bad—hey,” Manny yelped as Jelly’s right hand swiped at her, “What do you think you’re doing, Anderson?”
“Come here,” Jelly took a step forward and swiped at Manny once again. This time, her three remaining claws rifled through the covers, “Wanna play?”
“Get off me, you dumb feline,” Manny lifted into the air and out of Jelly’s reach, “Are you out of your mind?”
“I think so, actually.”
“Jelly, stop antagonizing Manny. She’s hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“I’m beginning to understand why Jaycee flipped out.”
“Stop it.”
“Ugh,” Jelly tilted her head back and scowled at the holographic tome, “I don’t care, I
want to kill her.”
“That’s your problem, Anderson,” Manny said. “Scratch first, ask questions later.”
“What’s the damage, Manny?” Alex asked.
“Each time Charlie hit the ground it exacerbated the damage. Thrusters are entirely depleted.”
“Empty?”
“No, depleted. What little fuel we had left burned out when you launched the first four thrusters. Even if Charlie had remained upright for a trajectory into orbit, we wouldn’t have had enough fuel to make it to Jupiter, let alone Earth.”
Alex closed his eyes and took in the bad news. This was the end.
Nothing mattered any longer. No actions or consequence would save them now, and so the last act of philanthropy available to him was inevitable.
A reunion of mother and daughter.
“Here, Jelly.”
To her surprise, Alex offered her daughter back.
“Take her.”
“Thank you, Alex.”
“You’re welcome.”
Furie left Alex’s arms and rolled into Jelly’s hands. The beleaguered mother looked at her only child and held her to her breast once again.
“Born of Pink Symphony, Furie Anderson,” Jelly whispered. “It’s for the better that we don’t return home. We can stay here.”
“There is some good news, however,” Manny interrupted, even though Jelly and Alex weren’t much interested. “Which is nice, if you want to hear it.”
“The only thing that would constitute good news is a plan to get us back home,” Alex said.
“Ah, yeah. About that. That’s kind of where the good news comes into play. It looks like you won’t be arrested, after all.”
“No?”
“No, because we can never get home with the tools we have.”
“I can’t argue with that logic,” Alex quipped.
“And the idea to have those beasts pull Charlie into launch position with ropes was one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard.”
“Who asked your opinion?”
“Didn’t they teach you physics at ASF Training?”
Alex couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “Are you serious? It was our only chance.”
Manny snorted in the way humans do, “I mean, what is this? Ancient Egypt?”
“Did you take a knock to the processor, or something?”
Star Cat: Exodus: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Adventure (The Star Cat Series - Book 5) Page 15
