Star Cat: Killer Instinct

by Andrew Mackay

  “Hey, hang on to me,” Jaycee dashed over and grabbed her arm. He slung it around his shoulder and carried her forward, “Hold on tight, we’re nearly there.”

  “Be careful with her, Jaycee,” Tripp said as he reached the top of the staircase.

  “Ugh, I think I’m gonna be sick,” Jelly whined.

  “Those things aren’t going to wait around forever, you know,” Alex voice echoed down the stairwell, “Jaycee, are you okay with Jelly?”

  “Yeah, but sh-she’s a big girl,” Jaycee struggled as he carried her forward.

  “We’ll get a head start with Manny and see you at control,” Alex said as he nudged Tripp, “C’mon, Healy. Let’s go.”

  Control Deck

  Opera Charlie - Level One

  Alex and Tripp could hear a distant scratching and meowing coming from the other side of the door on their approach.

  “Wait,” Alex said.

  “What?”

  “Oh, Christ. Don’t tell me they’ve entered the control deck.”

  Scritt-scritt.

  Alex breathed a sigh of relief and released his grip on Tripp’s shoulder, “Oh, thank God.”

  “It’s just Jelly’s kittens, right?” Tripp offered.

  “I swear I’m going out of my mind, here. Something’s not right about this place.”

  “With all those feral animals and that huge thing?” Tripp quipped. “What makes you think that?”

  “I’m not talking about the animals.”

  Alex looked up and around the slanted walkway, taking his time to survey the surroundings, “I know this ship like the back of my hand. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it without the aid of an outer-mask. Something bad is about to go down, I can just feel it.”

  Alex continued forward and raised his gloved hand in front of his face.

  Tripp caught up with him, “You’re not talking about those creatures out there? What makes you think—”

  “—I don’t know, Healy. Okay?” Alex snapped, utterly perturbed, “I just—” he tailed off, unable to finish his sentence.

  Something had gotten to him. It was a challenge keeping it to himself.

  Tripp stared at him for an answer. Or a response. Or anything.

  Alex took a deep breath as he stared at the wall, “The look in that wolf’s eyes, man. I saw it. Deep, deep down. Inside it.”

  “What did you see?”

  Alex blinked and shook his head, bringing himself back to reality. He palmed the panel on the wall and moved through the sliding door, “No time for this lessense. Let’s get in control and get out of here.”

  “Miew, miew,” White and Furie raced over from the flight deck and greeted the two men entering the room.

  “Manny?” Alex asked.

  “Ah, you’re back. How did it go?”

  “I’m asking the questions, Manny. I want an update on the International Moon Station connection, please. Hopefully someone picked up the signal we sent.”

  “Certainly, standby.”

  Alex crouched to his knees and scooped Furie into his arms, “Hey, pet. How you holding up?”

  She’d shed a lot of fur since he’d left and shivered, feeling the cold.

  Tripp held out his right hand at White, “Hey, girl. You okay?”

  “Hisss.”

  Tripp had forgotten about his severed hand. A small, silver talon folded out from between the connectors.

  “Huh?”

  White trundled over to him with a lack of enthusiasm. She spotted something on his hand and froze on the spot, not especially keen on moving any closer.

  “What’s up, honey?” Tripp asked, confused as to White’s refusal to move forward.

  He extended his hand, only to be greeted by a snarl and vicious hiss from White.

  Tripp grimaced and spluttered.

  The talon punched through the wires in his wrist, followed by a slimy limb. His arm began to shake uncontrollably.

  “Hisssss,” White twitched her nose and ducked back, flapping her bushy tail against the ground.

  Alex hadn’t noticed the confrontation. He cozied up to Furie and let her attack his free hand playfully, “Who’s a good little pussycat, huh?”

  “Alex?” Manny asked.

  “Yes?”

  “We have established communication via IMS with a SPO.”

  “Private network?” Alex set Furie onto the floor and walked into the middle of the control deck. “Show me the signal, please.”

  “Not much to see at the moment.”

  An audio waveform rumbled to life in the middle of the room.

  Jelly and Jaycee walked into the control deck.

  “Hey, guys. What’s up?”

  “Miew.”

  White and Furie ran up to Jelly, demanding a cuddle.

  “Heeey,” she crouched down and scooped both cats into her arms, “Mommy’s here.”

  “Miew, miew.”

  The pair of kittens were overjoyed to be with their mother, at last. Jelly wondered where her third child was.

  “Where’s youngest? Huh? Is she running around on the big ship?”

  Tripp doubled-over in a furious sweat and groaned, “Shuh, shuh,” he clamped his lips shut and stumbled over to the flight deck chair.

  He sat into it and coughed, keeping his severed wrist buried underneath his jacket.

  “Hey, Captain,” Jaycee said. “Looking a bit unwell there, aren’t you?”

  “Shhh-hhh, shhh,” Tripp squealed and nearly puked on his own shoes. His face broke out into a sweat. “Muh, muh.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Mmhmmm,” Tripp insisted, fighting against his right arm.

  Alex moved around the audio waveform and analyzed its pattern.

  “Hello? This is Space Opera Charlie. Does anyone read me?”

  No response.

  Alex looked at Manny and waved Jaycee over, “The signal’s weak. How did it hop onto the IMS frequency?”

  Manny floated through the image and appeared at Alex’s face, “I don’t know. The main IMS channel has been disabled.”

  “Let me try again,” Alex turned to the image and cleared his throat.

  Before he spoke, a voice ruptured through the audio waveform.

  “Yes, this is node Arr-Ay-Gee-Eee on your frequency. Please reveal your call sign. I repeat, reveal your call sign.”

  Alex walked up to the wave. The green hue crept up his face as he revealed the information, “This is Space Opera Charlie. Who is this?”

  Jelly looked up and held her babies in her arms, “Who is it, Alex?”

  “I don’t know, yet.”

  Tripp buckled in the chair and wiped the sweat from his brow, “I-It’s Earth, isn’t it?”

  Alex looked over at Tripp and raised his eyebrows, “Are you feeling okay, Captain?”

  A shiver ran down Tripp’s spine, “I hurt m-my hand on the turret. It came off.”

  “I told you to let it cool down,” Alex returned to the image. “I dunno. Who is this? Is it Earth? No, it can’t be—”

  “—Hughes?” asked female voice from within image.

  “Alex?” a recognizable male voice followed.

  Alex’s face lit up. He recognized both voices. He turned to Jaycee with a huge grin on his face, and then back to the image. “Yes? Is that Siyam?”

  “Alex Hughes, this is Noyin Odrassa. You’ve hit RAGE’s SPO. Buddy, is that you?”

  “Yes, it’s me,” Alex beamed. “Listen, you’ll never believe this. Charlie is fine, but her crew went down. We found Beta and managed to rescue most of them. We’ve crashed somewhere, posted outside Saturn and we can’t get the thrusters up and running.”

  Alex realized quickly that the connection had broken.

  “—osing connection,” Noyin’s voice buzzed.

  “What? Did you hear my last?”

  “No.”

  The audio dulled, angering Alex.

  “Damn it, hello? Can you read me?”

  No response.


  “Excuse me, Alex?” Manny asked.

  “What is it now?”

  “The connection is still available, but the signal is weak. I could open up all available channels. If it’s not an issue on their end, it could strengthen the signal?”

  “Yes, do that.”

  Jaycee rubbed his hands together, “You know these guys, huh?”

  “Yeah, they’re my gang. My real gang, I mean.”

  “Ah, I see. So, not like Opera Charlie who tried to kill us?”

  “Hey, I was undercover. You better get on your knees and worship me, because I saved all your asses—”

  BZZZZZ.

  The waveform rumbled back to life.

  “Hughes, can we go to visual, please?” Noyin asked.

  A grin formed across Alex’s face.

  “Manny, go visual, please.”

  Bip-bip-bip…

  “Standby for visual,” she said.

  Jelly, Jaycee, Tripp - and the kittens - fell silent as flat, live feed of the RAGE gang replaced the audio wave.

  “Can you see me?” Alex asked.

  BOOOOM.

  Opera Charlie shunted left and right, briefly taking out the lights. The bulbs snapped back to life.

  “What was that?” Jaycee asked. “Manny?”

  “Something hit the exterior,” she said.

  “I’ll go and check on it,” Jaycee ran past Jelly and opened the door, “Alex, I’ll leave the communications stuff to you.”

  “Okay.”

  Jaycee stomped down the walkway as quietly as he could - which wasn’t very quiet at all.

  His boots clomped along the grilles on the ground, “Who’s there?”

  No one was there, apparently.

  “Hello?”

  He turned the corner that lead to the Primary Airlock. Historically, all the bad happenings occurred there, and Jaycee felt it was worth checking.

  Jaycee felt a draught on his approach to the hatch.

  The window was still shattered and covered in dried blood.

  “Hello? Who’s there?”

  Still no response.

  Just a faint growling from way outside the ship.

  CLOMP… CLOMP… CLOMP.

  Jaycee heard the footsteps, but they weren’t coming from the airlock.

  They were coming from behind.

  Jaycee turned around and saw a shadow accompanying the sound of the footsteps.

  He reached into his belt and gripped hi Rez-9, “Who’s there?”

  Sniff-sniff…

  Jaycee pulled the gun out and aimed it down the length of the corridor, “Who’s there?”

  A whimper echoed across the walls.

  “Come out,” Jaycee demanded. “Or I’ll shoot.”

  “I wish you would,” came a husky, feminine voice.

  Jaycee squinted at the shadow’s tail.

  “Jelly?”

  She turned around the corner in a flood of tears, and traipsed towards Jaycee.

  “You can shoot me right in the head, if you want to.”

  “What happened? Why are you upset?”

  Jelly wiped her face. Most of the fur on her cheek came away in her hands, “I’m a mess, Nayall. Look at me.”

  “What?”

  “They all thought so, too. I could tell by the way they were looking at me.”

  “By the way who was looking at you?”

  Jelly half-chuckled through her tears. She’d resigned herself to her fate - that of a half-cat, half-woman. A disparate and devilish abortion of science.

  “It doesn’t matter. I had to get out of there.”

  Jaycee replaced his Rez-9 on his belt buckle, “Where are your kittens?”

  “Ah,” she licked her lips and sniffed. “With Alex and Tripp. I just needed to get out of there. I thought I’d come and assist you.”

  Jaycee burst out laughing.

  “You? Jelly Anderson? Help me? Are you feeling okay?”

  “Shut up, I’m good at helping people.”

  Jaycee scanned the walls and pointed at the airlock, “It’s those things. They’re trying to get in. The airlock isn’t going to hold them off much longer.”

  ***

  “Miew,” Furie caught the material on his glove and sank her little teeth into them.

  Tripp swallowed hard and turned his severed hand up to his face. He kept one eye on Alex, hoping that he wouldn’t turn around from the live feed.

  “Connection has dropped, Alex,” Manny said. “I did my best.”

  “At least we connected,” Alex sighed and looked at the kittens, “That’s right, we connected. Didn’t we?”

  “Miew,” Furie offered.

  A fleshy limb burst through Tripp’s busted wrist. He grabbed his arm and shoved it between his legs, “Shhhh.”

  “Huh?” Alex turned to find his Captain ostensibly touching a part of him that had no business being touched in polite company.

  “What’s wrong, Tripp?”

  “Shhhh,” he gasped to himself, knowing Alex could hear him.

  “Please don’t shush me, Captain.”

  The skin on Tripp’s right arm dripped away from the flesh underneath to reveal the beginnings of a metal talon.

  His left arm rumbled like an aggressive food mixer, “Gahhhh.” Quick-thinking, he clutched his left wrist with his right hand to prevent himself from thrashing around.

  Alex gasped, “My God, is it that Symphonium stuff?”

  “Shhhh,” Tripp fell onto his ass and kicked his feet around.

  It caught Alex’s attention.

  “Shaa-sha—”

  “—Hissssss,” White repeated, extremely unhappy with Tripp’s presence.

  “Tripp?” Alex grabbed Furie in his arms for protection, “What the hell is happening to you? Pull yourself together.”

  A torrent of pink saliva burst from Tripp’s mouth as he spoke in a broken inflection, “Shaaaaaa—”

  “—No, no, no,” Alex focused on Tripp’s left arm. His right arm jolted back as the fingers on his left cracked open and out. A second fleshy limb bubbled underneath and pushed through the splintered cavity.

  Tripp convulsed. His chest pushed into the air and spun his body around.

  “K-Kill, k-kill m-me.”

  SCHPLATT.

  Alex witnessed Tripp’s body slam to the ground. His entire left arm branched out like a fleshy tree. A giant talon broke through what little remained of his arm.

  “Oh no, no,” Alex yelped in horror, “He’s turning into one of those—”

  “—SHAAAAAANTTTAAAAA,” Tripp’s face cracked apart as a fat, thick limb pulverized his skull in two.

  Alex chucked Furie toward the flight deck and screamed at White to take cover, “You, go. Now.”

  “Hisssss,” White wasn’t obeying an order. She was too preoccupied with the fleshy Tripp monstrosity convulsing in the corner of the room.

  Alex thought on his feet. He needed White to run away.

  “Woof,” was his answer.

  It worked. White pricked up her ears.

  “Raaaar,” Alex stepped forward, scaring the life out of the kitten. She turned around and bolted under the flight deck.

  Alex ran over to the door and opened it. He kept an eye on Tripp as a second and third Shanta limb smashed out of his right arm socket, “Manny?”

  “Yes, Alex?”

  “What’s happening to Healy?”

  “He’s turning into one of those things that Opera Beta found.”

  “Are they deadly?”

  “Yes, very. I’d advise you kill him.”

  Alex felt around his belt, but he didn’t have any firearms. Just a giant console and two chairs were the only tools available to dispatch what used to be Tripp.

  “No, no, it’s no good,” Alex gripped the door frame and shouted down the walkway, “Guys, can you hear me? Jaycee? Jelly?”

  No response.

  “Jaycee? Jelly?” Alex shouted once again, hearing the echo roll down the lengthy passage. />
  “Alex, your two colleagues are at the top of the stairwell. Would you like me to initiate an emergency alarm?”

  “Uh, uh,” Alex turned to Tripp’s malformed body just in time to see his jacket burst apart at the seams, “Do it, Manny. Red alert. Now.”

  “Understood,” Manny’s holographic book slapped its pages like a bird over to the communications console, “And the kittens?”

  “Oh Christ, I forgot about them.”

  “Signaling red alert, now.”

  The alarm system sprang into action.

  All the lights dimmed, quickly replaced by spinning red bulbs on all four walls.

  “Occupants and employees of Space Opera Charlie,” Manny announced. “This is a message of warning. This is not a drill. This is not a dramatization—”

  Two Minutes Earlier…

  “Ugh,” Jelly clutched her chest and pressed her back against the walkway wall, “My heart feels like it’s trying to climb out of my throat.”

  Jaycee slid his glove under her head, “Hold your head back and take a few deep breaths.”

  “We’re—we’re going to make it home, aren’t we?”

  “Yes,” Jaycee lied.

  He knew better than anyone that their chances of getting Opera Charlie operational and blasting off to Earth was remote. No one knew if they had the fuel to get back home.

  No one knew where they were.

  But Jelly bought the fiction. She had no choice.

  “My b-babies, Jaycee.”

  “Yes, Jelly.”

  “They’re s-safe. Aren’t they? Tell me they’re safe.”

  “Of course. They’re perfectly safe with Alex and Tripp back at control. No harm will come to them.”

  A tear rolled down her cheek as she coughed and groaned. A clump of pink phlegm soaked into her fur as it raced down her chin, “Wh-what’s h-happening to me?”

  Jaycee didn’t have an answer. He just stared into her eyes and tried his best. Killing and maiming were his strong suit, and not diplomacy.

  “I want to tell you something, Jelly.”

  “Wh-what?” She winced in pain as she lifted her head.

  “When I was a little boy, all I ever wanted to do was go into space.”

  “Ugh,” she spat and lifted her eyeballs to the lights in the stairwell ceiling, “This isn’t going to be a long-ass sob story, is it?”