Star Cat: Killer Instinct

by Andrew Mackay

  “Where are you going?”

  “Mrs. Anderson?” her forearm spoke once again, “I think our connection has—”

  Emily swiped the ink with her forefinger, cutting the call off. She approached the front door and saw three silhouettes fold across the frosted window, “Oh, God.”

  BANG-BANG-BANG.

  Angry, the shadow knocked on the door, “Mrs. Anderson?”

  She clutched her chest and tried to stop her heart from exploding.

  “Mommy?” Jojo called from the kitchen.

  Emily turned over her shoulder and whispered just loud enough to hear her, “Stay there, poppet.”

  She turned to the door once again and moved toward it, very slowly. She extended her arm and grabbed the handle.

  CLUNK.

  The door opened.

  Dozens of suited reporters lined the front garden amongst hundreds of flashing white lights from their cameras.

  The buzzing whirled around her head as the drones lowered for a good look at her face.

  A man with silver hair shoved his wrist into her face and wasted no time in speaking to her, “Santiago Sibald, Mrs. Anderson. Can we speak to Jamie?”

  Emily gasped.

  A woman moved forward and waved her drone down in front of Emily’s face, “Mrs. Anderson, what do you know about the Star Cat Project and Jelly Anderson’s involvement with Opera Beta?”

  “No, no,” a flood of sweat fell down Emily’s face. She stepped back into the hallway in a daze of terror.

  “Is it true Jelly Anderson murdered the winner, Bisoubisou, and went in her place to decode Saturn Cry?” asked another journalist.

  WHIZZZZ-SMASSSH!

  Two drones collided in the air and exploded. The bits of metal twisted around and hurled toward the floor, hitting the patio on the doorstep.

  A dozen reporters ran into the front garden, trying to pull the sensational scoop from under their rivals, “Mrs. Anderson, can you confirm Jelly Anderson was the first cat in space?”

  “What really happened at USARIC?” asked another.

  “Uh, uh,” Emily began to hyperventilate and continued to step back along the hallway. In her petrified state, she’d forgotten to close the door, “L-Leave us—”

  “Can we speak to Jamie, Mrs. Anderson?”

  “N-No, no—” Emily stepped back and ran into the kitchen. Jojo had moved out of her seat and hid behind the refrigerator.

  “Jojo, poppet,” Emily barked. “We have to go. Now.”

  “Mrs. Anderson?” Santiago’s voice echoed down the hallway landing, “Will you come out and speak to us? Citizens demand answers.”

  Emily’s maternal instinct kicked in. She lifted Jojo out of her chair and marched her to the front door, determined to stand her ground.

  “Ah, Mrs. Anderson, you’re back,” Santiago said. “Citizens demand answers.”

  Emily cleared her throat and gripped the edge of the door. She looked at the commotion and refused to speak until they died down.

  “I have nothing to say. Get off my property, please.”

  “Not good enough, Mrs. Anderson,” Santiago said on behalf of the silent reporters. “You do realize that this revelation has had massive consequences—”

  “—No, it’s not my fault. None of this is my fault,” Emily went to close the door, “You’re disturbing me and my family, and you’re trespassing on private property—”

  Santiago placed his foot by the door to prevent Emily from closing it, “Mrs. Anderson, we want to speak to Jamie.”

  That particular question tore Emily’s heart in two. How did Santiago know Jamie had gone missing? There was a chance that he didn’t know, though, and Emily knew it. She had to test him.

  “He’s, uh, at school.”

  Jojo buried her face in her mother’s arm and continued to cry, “Mommy, I’m scared—”

  “—Shh, poppet,” Emily shot Santiago a look of evil. “Why do you ask?”

  “The two owners of the runner-up competitors have been reported missing.”

  The floor in the hallway began to rock from side to side for Emily. A feeling of burning lava traveled up her arms and legs, “No, no—”

  “—We tried the school already,” Santiago’s voice slowed and turned into a miasma of noise and muted sounds, “But he wasn’t there, and think he might—”

  Emily’s muscles tightened around her bones like a snake smothering its prey. She lost the power to keep her head up. The hallway floor lifted into the air and slammed against her knees, “Noooo.”

  “Mommy?” Jojo pushed her mother’s shoulders, “I’m scared.”

  The buzzing from the drones buzzed into a long flat line. The hubbub from the reporters wound down and became one, incessant garbled engine sound.

  Emily slumped on the floor and felt her whole world crumble around her.

  Santiago stepped back and waved his drone down to knee-level, capturing the image of Emily’s suffering at the news that her son was definitely missing.

  “I think actions speak louder than words, here,” Santiago pulled the drone to his face and spoke into the lens. “One in Russia, the other in the United States, and now Jamie Anderson. It seems someone - or something - wants answers…”

  Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean…

  The jet plane flew across the ocean at thirty-thousand feet.

  Sierra’s thumbnail projected a holographic feed of Santiago’s report in the middle of the aircraft.

  “… wants answers, and will stop at nothing to get them,” Santiago smiled and pointed at the weeping Emily.

  Jamie moved forward in his seat with shock, “Mom?”

  Sierra folded her arms and found the report difficult to watch, “Look at him with his white teeth and stupid, silver hair.”

  Rana chuckled, “Ha. Yeah.”

  “Smug douchebag.”

  “Hot douchebag, though.”

  “Ugh,” Sierra winced. “Really? Sleeping with the enemy. Makes me wanna vomit.”

  Santiago continued with his report, “As we approach the five-year anniversary of USARIC’s ground-breaking Star Cat Project, the questions are inevitable. What really happened? Who, in fact, joined the crew of Space Opera Beta? Moreover, just who knows what the hell is going on? Stay tuned to Viddy Media channel one-one-eight to find out more—”

  “—Okay, that’s enough,” Noyin clapped his hands together, “Get rid of him. I don’t want to see his stupid face.”

  Sierra snapped her fingers and grabbed her thumbnail from the arm of her seat. She clipped it back onto her thumb and turned to Jamie for a reaction.

  Rana ran her knuckle across her cheek and collected up a sliver of transparent goop, “Speaking of which, I need to get this stuff of my face. It’s starting to harden.”

  She walked out of the cabin and made her way to the restroom at the back of the plane.

  “Be quick. We’re due to land, soon,” Sierra turned to Jamie and sized him up, “You see that report, Anderson?”

  Jamie attempted to process the information from the replay, “Yeah.”

  “We got to you just in time.”

  A million questions bubbled in Jamie’s mind, “What—who?”

  Sierra felt her patience drain away.

  “Imagine if you had been at home, or at school. They would have swarmed you.”

  “But, but—”

  “—Jamie. They know,” Noyin said. “Everyone knows.”

  “Knows what?”

  “That Jelly went to Saturn with Opera Beta,” he huffed. “Are you really that slow?”

  Jamie leaned back into his seat and closed his eyes, “I can’t believe this.”

  “Well, you’d better believe it, young man. It’s a fact.”

  Jamie slammed the armrests, “This isn’t my fault. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Noyin stormed over Jamie’s chair and gripped the armrests, “Listen to me, you little turd.”

  Jamie yelped as his oppressor’s face moved close
r to his, “No, don’t hurt me—”

  “—Do I look like someone who would hurt a child?” Noyin fumed, taking great offense to the boy’s allegation.

  “Y-Yes?”

  Sierra let Noyin release his anger with the child. Anything to speed up the friend-making process.

  “You’re an ingrate,” Noyin barked at Jamie. “We’ve gone to all this trouble to protect you, and you’re—”

  “—You kidnapped me. Took me away from my mom and my sister and my dad.”

  Noyin chuckled evilly, “He’s not your real dad, though. Is he?”

  “How do you know that?” Jamie looked at Noyin’s big arms imprisoning him in his seat, “Get off of me.”

  He lifted his knees up and booted the man in the chest, pushing him across the cabin.

  “Ooooph.”

  “You don’t know jack about my real dad.”

  Jamie jumped out of his seat and ran over to the cabin door. Then, he remembered where he was - thirty-thousand feet above the fluffy, white clouds.

  “Ugh, you asshole,” Noyin recovered from his attack and pointed at the cabin door, “What are you gonna do? Open the door and try to escape again?”

  Jamie looked through the window, mournfully.

  Sierra held Noyin back with her arm, “Okay, that’s enough. Look at him. He’s scared out of his mind.”

  In that very moment, Jamie climbed out of childhood and stepped into adolescence.

  He had little choice in the matter.

  Emily had borne the brunt of both her and her son’s actions five years ago. There was no question it had landed Jamie in serious trouble. As he looked at his captors, he wondered who’d go to the trouble of snatching him and transporting him what surely must be thousands of miles away?

  No escape.

  No answers.

  No time to pity himself - not anymore.

  Jamie turned to Sierra with immediacy, “Tell me what’s going on?”

  “Okay, Jamie,” Sierra turned her left forearm up and pushed the ink around her skin, “You wanna know what’s going on?”

  “Are you really that slow?” Jamie spat with sarcasm.

  Noyin frowned and shook his head.

  “Yes, I want to know what’s going on. I want to know why you’ve kidnapped me, and where we’re going.”

  Sierra held her Individimedia Ink in front of Jamie’s face. The ink swirled around to form of a man in his thirties.

  A chiseled jawline, and with bright blue hair.

  “You know who this is, don’t you?”

  “It’s Handax Skill,” Jamie nodded. “I know him.”

  “Shortly after your real father died, your mom got you Jelly. Handax delivered her to you. Some rescue kitten, or other.”

  “Yes, I know him. He checked up on her from time to time.”

  Sierra lowered her arm, “Past tense, Jamie. You knew him.”

  “Huh?” Jamie asked, puzzled, “How can I knew him? I know him—”

  “—He’s dead, Jamie,” Sierra affected a very serious tone as she sat into her seat.

  “Dead?”

  “Murdered,” Noyin thumped the cabin wall with frustration, “Him, Leif, Moses, Denny. All dead. All gave their lives fighting for the truth.”

  “Huh? Who are they?”

  Sierra offered Jamie a seat opposite hers, “Sit down, Anderson.”

  He obliged the woman, careful not to bang his leg on the table that separated his seat from hers.

  “A couple of years ago, Handax and some of the People Against Animal Cruelty broke into USARIC’s animal compound.”

  This was news to Jamie. Exciting news.

  “Why?”

  “Because, Jamie, sometimes big companies do bad things,” Sierra explained. “A few years ago, one of USARIC’s commanders, a guy named Tripp Healy, discovered that the household cat was responding to something called Saturn Cry. A distress call sent from Saturn. The discovery was a complete accident.”

  “How did he find out?” Jamie asked.

  “We don’t know for sure, but it’s not important. What is important is that USARIC decided to hold a contest to the best cat for the task. And I think you know who that was, right?”

  “Yeah,” Jamie whispered.

  Sierra held her hands out, hoping Jamie would take them, “Take my hands, Jamie.”

  He chewed over the offer, and eventually relented. He slipped his fingers across her palm and saw the sincerity in her face.

  “A couple of years ago, Handax and three of his team broke into USARIC’s animal compound. They believed the bosses there were abusing the animals. They wanted to stop them.”

  “Did they?”

  “Get in, go everywhere, steal everything,” Sierra continued, “That was their mantra. Yes, they found what they were looking for.”

  “What did they find?”

  “Unbelievable,” Noyin walked away from the pair and shook his head, “Cavorting with the perpetrator. Why don’t you two get a room?”

  “Hey,” Sierra barked at him and squeezed Jamie’s hands, “Someone around here needs to show Jamie a little empathy right now.”

  Noyin pointed at Jamie’s face and huffed, “Who, him? You want me to empathize with this little brat? He’s the whole reason we’re in this mess.”

  “It’s not his fault,” Sierra spat back and shooed Noyin away before returning to the young boy.

  Jamie smiled at her, at once realizing she genuinely wasn’t the bad guy in all this.

  If she was, it was a damn good act.

  “What did they find?” Jamie asked.

  “They found Bisoubisou’s body. They found most of the runner-ups in the enclosure. They hadn’t been returned to their owners.”

  Jamie’s hands lilted in hers. She knew the information would kick him in the gut, but now was the time to grow up and face the facts.

  Jamie became upset, but found the strength within to remain mentally intact.

  “All of them?”

  “I’m sorry, Jamie,” Sierra smiled as politely as she could. “One of Handax’s friends, Moses, absorbed as much information as he could from the animal compound data bank. We managed to retrieve quite a lot of it, but it was scrambled. USARIC killed all our friends, including Handax.”

  “USARIC killed them?”

  Sierra looked at Noyin. He stared back at her with a small grin, acknowledging her success in winning the boy around to their side.

  “Yes, Jamie. They did,” Noyin offered.

  “It’s taken our team a long, long time to decode the data that was sent from Moses’ data transfer,” Sierra continued. “About a month ago we made a fantastic discovery.”

  “What did you find?”

  “We’ll reveal what we found when the time is right. After we’ve issued USARIC our ultimatum.”

  Jamie squeezed her hands in solidarity, “Do you know where Jelly is?”

  “Yes. USARIC sent another ship to go and get them. One of our team went with them, but the crew of Space Opera Charlie don’t know his true identity.”

  “Really?” Jamie jumped in his seat and let go of the woman’s hands, quite to her surprise. It was clear to Sierra that Jamie might have gotten the wrong end of the stick.

  “Jelly’s alive?”

  “Yes, but we don’t know what happened to Opera Charlie, yet. We’re waiting to hear from Alex—”

  “—Oh, wow,” Jamie hopped onto his seat, his inner five-year-old making a wild reappearance, “I knew it. I bloody knew it.”

  “Get off the seat, Jamie.”

  “Bloody?” Noyin said. “Those damn British and their stupid words.”

  “Jamie, listen. There’s so much more you don’t know. And you’re not going to like much of it.”

  Noyin rolled his shoulders, “Ain’t that the truth.”

  Overjoyed, Jamie calmed down and took a deep breath. Finally, someone knew that the love of his life was definitely alive - in his mind, at least.

  “Where is she
?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Primary Airlock

  Space Opera Charlie - Level One

  “Where are you?” Jelly yelped as she bolted down the walkway, on the hunt for Opera Charlie’s Primary Airlock.

  She’d forgotten that she wasn’t on Space Opera Beta for a moment.

  “Tripp? Jaycee? Ugh, why are there no signs on this stupid ship?”

  Jelly turned a left corner quite by accident and saw both men huddled together.

  A wave of suspicion fell across her face as she approached the pair. They acted strangely, almost as if caught red-handed.

  “There you are,” Jelly huffed. “Manny said there was an explosion outside. What’s going on?”

  “Miew,” the white kitten called out from Tripp’s arms, allowing him to change the subject.

  “We, uh, have your baby, Jelly,” he said. “Jaycee took care of her.”

  “Give me her,” she held out her paws and took her second daughter in her hands.

  The two men smiled as they watched Jelly sniff around her baby’s belly. Tripp caught sight of the bloodied and smashed inner airlock hatch and slid in front of it to obstruct Jelly’s view. He looked at Jaycee’s thigh compartment and bit his lip.

  “We heard an explosion, don’t tell me you guys didn’t hear it,” Jelly lifted her head and glanced at Tripp, who held his gaze at Jaycee’s leg, “Why are you looking at his genitals?”

  “Huh?” Tripp looked up at Jelly and cleared his throat. He stepped back against the hatch, “Explosion?”

  “Yes. Fifty yards from the ship.”

  Jaycee moved aside, forcing her to look away from the busted inner airlock hatch.

  “Oh, okay. We wondered what that noise was. We heard it, too.”

  Jelly turned to Tripp and slid her baby into the crook of her elbow, “Healy? Shouldn’t we go out and investigate?”

  Tripp couldn’t have acted more guilty if he tried. Jelly could see in his face and general demeanor that something was seriously amiss.

  “Well, uh, we’re just waiting for Manny to come back to us with a report—”

  “—Why are you sweating, Healy?” Jelly squinted and moved her face closer to his, “You seem hassled by something.”

  Tripp shook his head and felt his skull heat up. Had Jelly busted him? Was it worth the risk to tell her the truth and risk getting killed?