Star Cat The Complete Series

by Andrew Mackay

The arena rumbled to life as the ground shifted around and cracked open.

  Both of them were going to die. It was just a matter of who would kill who, first.

  “Roooaarrrr,” Jelly launched herself from her prone position. She bolted toward Mastazita and kicked herself from the floor, lifting into the air, prepared to take a final swipe at the beast.

  He lifted his head as his eyes followed her trajectory.

  Time slowed down to a near-halt.

  Jelly spread her arms out and roared into his face as she descended upon him.

  He clenched his fist and pulled his arm back, ready to stab her with his claw.

  He opened his mouth as wide as he could and revealed his fangs.

  “Yaaaarrggggghhhhh,” Jelly pulled her arm back and threw a devastating punch.

  Mastazita moved his paw in front of his face in an attempt to block the attack.

  Bad move.

  Jelly wasn’t going for his face. She landed half a foot away from him and punched him in the cheek.

  She yanked her paw away from his face and rammed them into his abdomen.

  “Grooooooooo,” Mastazita wailed. His tongue flapped down his chin, allowing the pink spittle to fly against her face.

  Jelly rammed her arm in further and grabbed his left shoulder with her free paw.

  As she stood up straight, her right paw moved up with her, chewing through his innards.

  “Gwuh,” Mastazita coughed out a rope of pink blood and felt his spine crack out.

  She squeezed his shoulder with her left paw and forced his head forward.

  “Ngggg,” she whined and revealed her fangs, pulling his head to the side of hers, “Ngggggg.”

  Her right claw chewed up his body and arrived at something fleshy.

  A little larger than the size as her paw.

  “Whuh,” Mastazita lilted in her arm as she squeezed around the fleshy object.

  Jelly buried her face into the crook of his neck. Floods of tears blasted around his shoulder and down his back.

  She tugged at the thing inside his chest once, twice, three times - but the organ just wouldn’t budge.

  “Nggg,” She pushed him forward, feeling the life drain from his body. He grew heavier in her arms the more she tried to pull her claw back.

  “Whuuuu,” Mastzita felt his eyelids grew heavier.

  “Nuuuuuuhhh,” Jelly squeezed the organ in her infinity claws, lifted her left leg, and placed her paw on his hip.

  She leaned back with all her might and booted him away, tearing his still-beating heart out from his chest.

  She kept her paw held up, imprisoning the beating organ within her infinity claws.

  Mastazita slumped in her arms, dead. She kept him upright, with the side of her face pressed against his.

  She stared through the light funneling from the gargantuan crack in the ground and tried to catch her breath.

  Huff-huff-huff.

  Mastazita’s corpse slid through her arms and dropped to the ground.

  Jelly didn’t flinch nor blink. Her breathing slowed slightly as she stared into nothingness.

  The beating organ in her claws slowed and slowed until…

  …it stopped altogether.

  Nothing but a useless mound of muscle that once powered her ultimate foe.

  This time, however, the light didn’t burn anything.

  The rocks blew apart in all directions. Jelly snapped out of her catatonic state. Mastazita’s heart softened in the prison of her infinity claws.

  The howling wolves raced towards the arena from the horizon.

  Jelly lifted her head to see the light headed straight for the core of Saturn. Blasting past its rings, the light throttled into the core.

  Enceladus rocketed toward the light, magnetized by its ferocity.

  The moon stretched out into an oblong and slipped into the stream, joining the magnificence…

  The last of the beam of light rocketed towards Saturn. Her rings began to grind and gyrate, creating an intense grinding sound like that of a drill against concrete.

  The rings revolved quicker, somehow inspired by the light that had funneled into Saturn’s core.

  Jelly closed her eyes and clenched her claws together, keeping the heart in her talons.

  Finally, she was at peace.

  There she stood - victorious, but battered, bruised, cut and almost-disemboweled.

  Jelly Anderson looked a mess, but she was still upright - which was more than could be said for Mastazita.

  One hundred silver wolves crept along the ground toward her with great caution.

  They stopped short of entering the light-filled arena.

  Bolts of brilliant white light streaked into the sky and throttled the center of Saturn, powering it with an exposed energy source.

  The wolves’ attention was drawn to the angry ringed planet directly above them, and they remained as a pack as best they could. Traversing the rocky terrain was uncomfortable.

  One of them hung its tongue as it pushed through to the front of the pack. It made the mistake of looking dead ahead at the tiger fifty feet ahead of him.

  The corpse of their dead God lay at her feet, preventing the wolves from moving forward.

  Jelly opened her eyes and lowered her head. Her shadow cast over Mastazita’s corpse, eerily outlining just who was in charge, now.

  Saturn’s rings spun faster, seemingly tearing sparks as it scratched across the vast blanket of space.

  Jelly made eyes at the first wolf and scowled at it.

  “Grrr,” Jelly whined, making damn sure they could see what was in her right paw.

  The first wolf whined like a scaredy-cat and sat back on its hind legs. The ninety-nine others wanted a better view and fanned out around him, daring to tread closer.

  But none dared tread too close.

  Jelly moved her left foot back one step, followed by her right. She released Mastazita’s severed heart from her claws.

  The organ splattered against the rocky ground.

  Her feet traveled backwards until her right heel hit the side of something.

  She kicked her hind leg against it to ensure its was strong enough to contain her weight.

  The torn-out pilot’s seat from the grounded spacecraft.

  Turning back, she saw that the wolves had spread out and left a twenty-foot, semi-circular clearing around the tiger creature that had killed their God. They tilted their heads up to take in the enormity of the battered and angry tiger standing before them.

  Jelly sneered at them and revealed her fangs in the process. Bright white, razor sharp, much like her infinity claws.

  She raised the first claw on her right paw and pointed at Saturn’s gyrating rings.

  The wolves looked up and then back at Jelly, who lowered her arm and squinted at the pack.

  Jelly stepped over to the pilot’s seat at the head of the arena. She spotted two figures in the distance.

  Human-shaped figures.

  Jelly squinted at them as they ran forward. She knew who they were.

  “Jelly,” Alex’s voice came from the silhouetted pair. It was unclear which person was which until they got closer.

  Grunt.

  Alex ran into the shaft of light and slowed down on his approach behind the wolves.

  They all turned to Alex and growled.

  Jelly roared and caught their attention. She clenched her right paw into a fist and thumped her chest three times, “Friend.”

  Alex couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Jelly, the little cat he’d heard about most of his adult life, stood at the center of the galaxy with everyone - human and animal - in the palm of her paw.

  “Jelly?”

  A beyond-battered Jaycee hobbled toward the Colosseum.

  The skin on his face had been completely removed to reveal a badly damaged endoskull.

  He caught sight of the tiger standing in front of the pilot’s seat, “Jelly?”

  “Yeah, it’s her,” Alex said.
<
br />   Jaycee’s electronic voice shifted up and down as he spoke. His voice box had evidently been destroyed in the attack back on the ship.

  “Wh-wh-what happened? Is sh-she okay?”

  Alex didn’t tear his gaze away from the tiger, “I, uh, don’t know?”

  “What’s going on?” Jaycee asked as he looked into the sky, “What’s happening to Saturn?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Jelly screeched at the top of her lungs - she was in charge now.

  Jaycee, Alex, and the wolves turned back to her to see her crouched to knees with her arms open.

  Furie snaked through Alex’s legs and poked her head out for a good look. She bolted away and made a bee-line for her mother.

  “Child,” Jelly grunted in her now-eerily masculine grunt. She waved Furie forward and beckoned her into her arms, “Mommy.”

  “Miew.”

  Furie ran past the last row of wolves and jumped into her mother’s arms.

  Jelly scooped the kitten up in her arms. She stood up straight and lay her daughter along the length of her bloodied forearm and cradled her softly.

  The light from Saturn and her spinning rings shone into the kitten’s face.

  “My God,” Alex whispered just loud enough for Jaycee to hear.

  Jaycee struggled with his voice, “You might not be wrong about that.”

  “Huh?”

  “Nothing.”

  Alex turned to face the tiger at her new throne, “Look at her.”

  The wolves began to whine and cower as Saturn’s rings spun around faster and faster.

  Jelly looked back at them and growled at the top of her lungs.

  They knew who was boss, now. Humbled, they sat back in sheer reverence for the beast.

  Jelly looked at Jaycee and Alex and growled at them.

  “D-Does she want us to do the same thing?” Alex asked.

  “I think so,” Jaycee got down on one knee and tugged on Alex’s sleeve. He felt across his jawline and was reminded of just how violent Jelly could be.

  “Best not to piss her off.”

  Alex dutifully followed his colleague and lowered himself to his knees.

  Jelly sniffed around her daughter’s face. She took in a lungful of her scent and finally felt at peace with the world.

  Furie pawed at her mother’s face, playfully, as Jelly sat into the pilot’s seat, which, from the angle Jaycee and Alex now had, resembled a ceramic throne.

  Jelly held her daughter tight against her bare chest and relaxed into the chair.

  “Wh-what do we do now?” Alex asked Jaycee.

  “I don’t know,” Jaycee turned from Jelly to the angry planet above their heads, “I doubt we have much choice.”

  Saturn’s rings spun in all directions.

  A scary and frightening ball of power.

  Any feelings of individuality, purpose, or control evaporated from Alex and Jaycee’s bodies.

  Jelly’s mouthed widened, enacting a cheeky grin as she clapped eyes on them.

  The wolves remained abated and sated.

  Sitting before them in the pilot’s throne with her daughter was Jelly Anderson; the new head of the Colosseum, with her subjects - both human and non-human - knelt before her in complete and utter reverence.

  The new Queen of Space.

  And there wasn’t a damn thing anyone could do about it.

  Acknowledgments & Author Notes

  From the author - Andrew Mackay

  Author notes from Star Cat 4: Killer Instinct

  Hey gang!

  Phew. So, what did you make of all that?

  Killer Instinct is my nineteenth full-length novel.

  What struck me when finishing was just how far I’ve come as a writer. I think back to my first series (In Their Shoes) and consider just how different they are to my latest works. In many ways, of course, they’re still the same. Now that Star Cat is really up and running, I doubt I’ll ever loosen my grip on satire - at the very least, I’ll always have something to say about the state of the world and society, no matter the genre. If you’ve read my other works, you’ll know this is true.

  And it isn’t abating in the slightest.

  So, onto Killer Instinct.

  I’d love to be a fly on the wall watching readers make their way through the book. I’m curious to see their reaction at certain points.

  I began writing Killer Instinct about a month ago during the UK’s incredible heatwave. I think it was July. I had a plan of what I wanted to achieve, and where to push the story. In the main, what you’ve read is what I had planned.

  Except for Maar’s heart attack.

  I’ll let you into a little behind-the-scenes secret.

  When I sat down to write that sequence, the original plan was to have Maar freak out about the USARIC animal compound break in. He sees the drone footage of RAGE’s van bust through the gates and Finbow and the security guard shoot each other dead. This happens in the book, of course, but the follow-on action was for Maar to order the execution of all the board members and demand Kaoz rehouse him elsewhere.

  But when I sat down to write the scene, he saw the footage and - for some very peculiar reason - he clutched his chest and hit the deck, complaining of pains and being unable to breath. Now, this is where the story gets interesting. When I write my books, I kind of imagine a giant IMAX screen a few inches from my face, and simply TYPE what I see as I’m watching. It’s fairly easy to do if you’re imaginative and can type at a reasonable speed.

  I typed and typed and typed, and continued to watch the movie, only to discover the damn characters were doing their own thing. Maar hit the floor. And then - gasp! - Crain and Santiago have a very nasty discussion about whether or not it’d be a good idea if Maar just died right there on the floor. Maybe the medics would arrive “too late.” I stopped typing and took a smoke break on my balcony and remember yelling at myself “Hey, we never agreed to do that, Mackay!”

  A few seconds later, I got giddy with excitement. It opened up a new exploration for Maar that conforms to the plans I have for him in the next two books. I can’t tell you about the idea I had now that Maar has had a heart attack, but it’s going to be great. I’m really excited about the opportunities it has opened up. They’re fascinating, and I hope you think so, too, when you get there.

  Also - you may not have noticed this, but one of the main themes in Killer Instinct is that of “heart.” Maar’s heart attack. Tripp’s assumed heart break at being told his wife has remarried. Jelly tears out Mastazita’s heart. The numerous instances to pounding and beating, particularly when a character realizes they’re in trouble. Even Emily experiences it when the news media turn up and suggest Jamie’s been kidnapped.

  That kind of thing.

  The first idea I had for Killer Instinct was the very last chapter - the one-on-one fight between Jelly and Mastazita. I listen to music whenever I’m out, and loaded a host of sci-fi movie / action music - and some hiphop, believe it or not - and played that sequence out over and over again in my mind.

  Also, I knew that the fight sequence had to be quite long - perhaps a bit longer than readers would expect. The point of that final fight was to progressively break each opponent down piece by piece. They sustain some terrible injuries, but shake it off and get back up. After a while, they’re cut and seriously wounded, but they get back up. Both are so determined to kill the other, and will stop only at actually dying before they give up.

  In order to really exacerbate the fight, Mastazita had to kill White, Jelly’s daughter. I don’t know if you felt any emotion at that part, but I was in tears as I was writing that sequence. Furie runs into her mother’s arms and White runs on and into the Mastazita’s clutches. We know what’s going to happen. There’s one line Jelly says after White is executed that summed it all up for me, and that was “I’M GOING TO TEAR YOUR HEART OUT, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!” — with exclamation marks, of course. Because that’s precisely the way I felt at the time. I think
it’s the moment Jelly sheds any vestiges of being an outright protagonist and just wants to murder.

  Did you feel the anger and rage running through her veins at that point? I did, but it’s not for me to say. I hope I stirred enough emotion in most readers for them to want Jelly to run after Mastazita and kill him. I didn’t name book four Killer Instinct for nothing lol — also, I think we all know that if it weren’t for the domestication of the common cat, they are, after all, hunter/gatherers and would kill for reasons far less severe than what you see in this book.

  Cute and cuddly they may be, but they are animals. The instant I ignore that fact with Jelly, or any of the cats, the whole series falls apart. I know some readers might check out completely and having read about the death of a kitten - but, it happens, doesn’t it? I’d rather they check out because they can’t handle the picture I’m painting, than check out because they don’t believe the motives of the characters or the story.

  That final battle sequence was actually the first chapter I wrote, mainly because I wanted to keep a tally on length; a carefully calibrated sequence of events. Once I had that last chapter down, writing the others was easier as I had something to build to.

  It’s vital that readers recognize that Jelly may not win the fight. That Mastazita might actually kill her. He’s taller and bigger than her and, despite being blind, certainly a credible foe. See, this is why I want to be a fly on the wall and watch readers reading it. I think in terms of movies, and if we were all watching that particular final scene together, I’d be watching the audience, and not the screen. Why? Because I’m curious as to people’s reactions. I always have been. I love the idea of having written or otherwise produced something that evokes a reaction in my audience.

  The entire story hinged on that final battle, and everything was a lead-up to it. I’m talking specifically about the scenes set in space, of course. Keeping with the theme of asking more questions than I answer, I like the idea that they’ve landed somewhere and don’t know where they are. Again, it’s not terribly important to the story. What is important is that the theme of evolution has made itself known again.