“Like this?” he asked.
“Yes, like that. Thank you.”
Manny lifted into the air and angled her front cover at the kitten a few feet below.
“Commencing E-MRI.”
She emitted a blue scanner beam over the white, furry “F” on Furie’s forehead. The kitten shuffled and licked her mouth, comfortable in the relative warmth of the jacket lining.
“Is this really necessary?” Alex asked.
“If Jelly has brought a foreigner on board my vessel then I want it thoroughly vetted.”
Blip-beep.
A second beam projected a 3D image of Furie’s internal organs. Furie’s lungs, heart, stomach, liver, and pancreas glowed purple within the contours of the image.
“All seems to check out. The organism is in proper operating order by all accounts,” Manny said as she shifted closer to her subject, “Hmm. Interesting.”
Alex moved to the flight deck, ready to assist, “What?”
“One moment, please.”
The beam thickened as it ran over Furie’s beating heart.
“Where’s Jelly?” Manny asked, suddenly anxious.
***
Jelly wasn’t in the mood for company.
She trusted Alex to look after proceedings while she enjoyed some alone time in the first level walkway.
The busted airlock hung thirty feet away.
The very same area where she’d witnessed the execution of her second daughter at the hands of Mastazita.
Where Tripp had turned and attacked his crew.
The same wall where she discovered her youngest daughter’s body concealed within Jaycee’s leg compartment.
Opera Charlie barely afforded opportunity for solace. Besides, she’d yet to explore the ship in any great detail.
The battered electric box provided a place to perch her behind and run events of the past day or so through her mind. When they’d defeated the crew of Opera Charlie, they were so close to escaping Enceladus and Saturn’s orbit.
If only it weren’t for the unexplained circumstance of being pulled to the planet they were stranded on.
She stared at the USARIC headgear communication device in her hands. Reluctantly, she slung the hooks over each ear and angled the mouthpiece in front of her teeth.
A moment later, she forgot she wore them, and couldn’t help but review the events of the past few days.
Why did those on board Opera Charlie try to kill her family, she wondered. How did Alex manage to help stop them?
How did she get in this mess in the first place?
“Jelly? This is Alex. Are you there, yet?”
The sniffling and howling from the wolves outside threatened to break her train of concentration.
“Ugh, humans.”
She rose to her feet and pinched the mouthpiece on her headgear, “Yeah, Hughes. I’m here.”
“Good,” Alex’s voice dampened as Jelly stood up straight, “There’s a box to your immediate left on the wall through the door you came in. You’ll find carbon fiber ropes in there.”
“The Motary?”
Alex’s voice contained a twinge of confusion, “Uh, yes? Why, aren’t you at the Motary?”
“No, not yet.”
“Why not? Where are you?”
Jelly licked the side of her paw. She made her way to the staircase without the feeling the need to explain her actions.
“I’m going now, Alex.”
“What have you been doing for the past ten minutes?”
“I, uh—”
“—Whatever. Just buzz me when you get there, okay?”
“Fine.”
The static dulled into nothingness as Jelly’s foot hit the top step. She clung to the railings to assist her descent.
Bzzzz.
Jelly’s heart thumped as the headgear buzzed once again.
“Jelly?”
“What is it, Hughes?”
“Are you okay?”
Jelly trundled down the stairs and turned the bend en route to level two.
“I told you, I’m fine.”
Alex launched into his reassuring tone, “I hope you’re right, Jelly, because we can’t afford to waste much time, here.”
Back in the Control Deck, Alex cut the call to Jelly and looked at Manny, who completed her scan on the kitten.
“What’s the story?”
“Everything checks out,” Manny said with a hint of apprehension. “Blood pressure is as expected. All her internal organs are operational and healthy—”
“—But?”
Manny fluttered closer to the sleeping Furie and observed her purring so loudly it vibrated through the fur in her stomach. “But, I have no explanation for this.”
Manny lassoed the second beam above Furie’s body and enlarged the image rendition of her heart.
The beating organ seemed fine at first, until the image expanded so large it filled Alex’s periphery vision.
The ventricles illuminated and showed a pink tracer blasting around in all directions.
Alex inadvertently pressed his finger to his mouth in awe, “What is that?”
“You may remember I forewarned you about a toxic substance in the air before boarding Opera Beta.”
“Yes, yes, that’s right. Pink Sympathy or something?”
“The Manuel on Space Opera Beta recorded the substance as Symphonium. An organism with properties not unlike that of a carcinogen.”
“Pink Symphony?” Alex said. “I heard it mentioned. I thought Pink Symphony was a place?”
“If it’s a place then it hasn’t registered in any geo-scan I’m aware of. More likely, they entered a being and contracted some kind of bacteria. Or a virus. See here,” Manny floated in front of the scan and tilted the corner of her front cover at every pink-less organ, “No trace, no trace. It’s as if she’s immune.”
“Immune?”
“To the virus, but,” Manny returned to the beating organ, “Her heart, Alex. It’s made of Symphonium.”
“Huh?”
“I knew this was going to be too difficult to comprehend,” Manny shook her covers and let out a sigh, “There’s no carbon in her heart at all. The pericardium, endocardium, even the ventricles and atria. All made of this anomalous compound. In fact, it’s not even strictly a compound at all.”
“What is it, then?”
“I’m not sure. It’s nothing I’ve ever seen.”
Alex moved to the flight deck and felt a dual urge to both touch and get away from Furie at the same time.
“Her heart has been replaced.”
Alex approached the windshield and stared at the burning sun that was once named Saturn. Then, the penny dropped.
“When we found Jelly, she held Furie up to the light.”
“What light? What are you talking about?”
Alex pointed at the windshield, “Out there. She held her up and a light from Saturn hit her.”
“That makes no sense whatsoever, Alex,” Manny said, refusing to look through the windshield with him. If she had done, she’d have seen the perpetual blast of thick, pink light screaming through the sky and out of view.
Bzzzz.
Jelly’s voice came through his headset, “Hughes?”
“Yes, Jelly. Are you at the Motary?”
“I’m five seconds away—”
“—About to enter, now,” Jelly finished and palmed the glass panel on the wall.
SWISH.
The door slid to the right and allowed her inside. She stepped through and looked to her left, completely forgetting that Jaycee was inside, but out of view at the far end of the room.
“Good,” Alex’s voice came through her headgear, “As I said earlier, you’re looking for a wall cabinet to your left as you enter.”
She clapped eyes on the thirty foot tall unit on the wall, “Yes, I see it.”
“Okay.”
As she approached it she spotted a four digit combination screen by the handle, “What’s th
e code?”
Alex’s voice seemed to smile, “The year you were born, Jelly. Do you remember that?”
“Yes,” she paused and took a moment to smile, “I know it. Nice touch, Hughes.”
“Ha. You’re welcome.”
Jaycee watched Jelly in secret from behind the K-BOLT mini spacecraft.
Suddenly, with the benefit of having been isolated, he’d become suspicious of anyone who wasn’t him.
He crept forward with his hands along the fine, shiny ceramic surface and looked through the windshield.
Jelly’s image crept along the glass.
He paused to watch her open the wall cabinet, “What are you doing down here, Jelly?” Jaycee whispered to himself.
Jelly hit the floating numbers on the combination panel: 2-1-1-3.
SCHUNT — WHIRRRR.
The cabinet door rolled up into the ceiling. Jelly stood back and lifted her head.
“Is it opening?”
“Yes, I’m looking at it now.”
“Good,” Alex said. “The Motary cabinet has a variety of tools in the event of a crisis, crash landing, that kind of thing. We’re interested in the carbon fiber ropes.”
“Yes, I see it.”
A humongous spool of black, thick gauze loomed above her head, secured to the wall.
Jaycee stepped forward and took a deep breath. He was about to announce himself, but decided against it. He kept watching as Jelly climbed the ridges of the wall and reached for the end of the spool.
Even though she was communicating with Alex, it appeared to Jaycee as if she was talking to herself.
“I c-can’t reach it,” she said. “Who the hell designed this damned thing?”
“Ah, that would be your buddies at the USARIC Research Institute, of course.”
“Dickheads.”
She gripped the end and launched from the top step, taking several yards of fiber down to the ground with her. She stepped back and tugged on the spool.
“Tight, isn’t it?” she said.
Jaycee looked her up and down from behind. She was almost half the size of the cabinet itself. A true sight to behold from his point of view. Not only had she grown, but she’d developed, as well.
Despite her recent entanglement, her tail looked bright and bushy and healthy. Her legs were cut and beaten, but otherwise in immaculate shape.
Truly, Jaycee had never seen such a magnificent beast in all his life. He lost himself for a moment, thinking of what might have been.
“Nah,” he shook his head and whispered, “That could never happen. Stop thinking about it.”
“Huh?” Jelly loosened her grip on the fiber rope and looked over her shoulder, “Who’s there?”
Jaycee cleared his throat and looked up, ready to excuse himself. It was only a matter of time before Jelly’s eyes landed on his ungainly frame, anyway.
“Hey. Jelly.”
She huffed and returned to the fiber in the hands, “Oh, it’s you. You gonna help me unload this thing, or what?”
“Sure.”
Jaycee found it virtually impossible to tear his eyes away from jelly’s perfect frame as he made his approach, “You forgot I was down here, didn’t you?”
Jelly struggled with the weight of the spool, “No, I never forgot. Did you replace your—”
She looked down and saw the K-SAPRK II attachment in place of his left leg.
“—Ah. Spoke too soon.”
He lifted his leg-gun up by the hip and turned it around for inspection, “Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?”
“Ha. Bonnie wore them better, my friend.”
SCHTOMP.
Jaycee slammed his gun-leg to the ground and folded his arms, “Flattery will get you everywhere.”
“Ngggg,” Jelly wound the fiber in her hands and leaned back with all her body weight.
SCHTOOWW.
The spool unraveled, throwing wave after wave of carbon fiber rope in her direction.
“There, that’s got the bastard.”
“Jelly?” Alex asked.
“Yes, Hughes?”
“Is Jaycee with you?”
Jaycee pressed his finger to his ear, forcing his left eye to glow blue, “Yeah, I’m here.”
“Good. At least I know where you all are,” Alex said. “Listen, you need to unravel the entire length of the rope. You can use The Motary door to cut it in sections.”
Jaycee snorted and winced, “You mean to tell me we’re using ropes to get Charlie upright? Just me and Jelly? How the hell are we supposed to—”
HOWL — BARK, BARK.
“Ya hear that, big fella?” Alex said.
Jaycee closed his eyes as the tinny sound of the wolves outside flew into his ear drums, “Yes. I hear it.”
“We have one hundred or so volunteers out there just salivating at the prospect of helping us out. Manny says the thrusters are operational. We just need to be facing in the right direction. In other words, up.”
“Up?”
“How did you get to be a USARIC employee, Nayall? Did you win it in a box of cereal?”
“No,” Jaycee protested and gripped the carbon fiber, pushing it along twice as fast as Jelly was able to yank it, “I’m weapons, not physics.”
“Jaycee, let me ask you a question.”
Jaycee continued to fling meter after meter of rope to the ground, “Go ahead.”
“One hundred and fifty years ago, Apollo Eleven, back when they called us NASA?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think Neil Armstrong and his team waited until night time to fly to the moon?”
“No.”
Jelly tried to suppress her amusement. She turned away and held her hand over her face, much to Jaycee’s dismay.
“What are you looking at, you stupid cat?”
“Phew,” Alex said. “I thought we had a dummy in our midst.”
“I’m not stupid, Hughes,” Jaycee tightened his grip on the carbon, almost breaking it in two, “You know what happened to the last person who called me stupid?”
“No,” Alex said.
SNAP.
The fiber broke in two in Jaycee’s hands.
“That.”
“Was that the sound of carbon fiber snapping in your hands?” Alex asked.
Jaycee winced in pain. Despite the amazing feat, the rope cut into the pain sensors in his palms.
“Owww,” he mouthed.
“Jesus. That’s almost three-hundred-million PSI you just snapped,” Alex said.
“I dunno what that means,” Jaycee spat back. “We’ll buzz you when we’re outside.”
Alex removed his headgear and threw it onto the communications console. He ran his hands up his face and through his jet black hair.
A rare moment of peace and quiet for him.
“Alex?” Manny asked.
He took in a lungful of air and exhaled. The book floated several feet away, not wanting to intrude in his personal space.
“What is it, Manny?”
No response.
“Manny,” Alex said at the floor. “Just say it.”
The holographic book hung the tip of its cover to floor, enacting precisely the same action as Alex.
“I, uh—”
“—Stop stalling, Manny. We don’t have the time. Just tell me.”
“I am very concerned about our current situation.”
Alex lifted his head and looked at the book hovering in the air. Transparent and weightless, and certainly inanimate, Manny had an usual air about her that couldn’t be ignored.
“Concerned?”
“Yes.”
“Explain?”
“Do you have time for a long, drawn-out assessment?”
“No, but tell me anyway.”
Manny spread her covers and flew over to Furie as she slept on the flight deck.
“Space Opera Alpha and Beta went to Saturn. They never communicated with base. Not even the International Moon Station. We were sent to destroy both, but save Jel
ly and bring her home.”
Alex watched Manny lower herself to Furie.
“That’s right,” he said. “I didn’t much care for the first half of the mission, but I intend to fulfill the last half.”
Manny traced the edge of her cover over the sleeping kitten’s face.
“What if we get back to Earth and it turns out to be humanity’s undoing?”
Alex screwed his face, “What do you mean?”
“We have carried out all but two instructions, Alex,” Manny said. “One crew member remains alive. Once he’s taken care of, we return home with the cat and our orders are complete.”
“We don’t have to kill Jaycee,” Alex said. “He’s not a bad guy.”
“I’m not so sure about that, Alex.”
Manny flew over to the communications console and addressed Alex one-on-one.
“Before Jelly got to the Motary, Jaycee had a seizure. Something bad happened in there.”
“Something bad?”
“Yes. I don’t have a visual, but there was a certain amount of damage dealt to the sensors in the Motary. I do not trust him. And neither should you.”
Alex chuckled, “Yeah, you don’t trust me, either. Are you going to kill me, too?”
“Indirectly, yes,” Manny said without a hint of sarcasm. “I have sent a message to base to have you arrested the moment we return to Earth, Alex Hughes.”
“Is that so?”
“It is so. You deliberately disobeyed Opera Charlie’s mission statement and a direct order from your superiors. For that, you must be taken to task. Hauled before the USARIC select committee, found guilty, and almost certainly executed.”
Alex stepped off the chair and rolled his shoulders. By this point, he couldn’t have cared any less about his own well-being, “Get back to Earth, huh? But you can’t get back without me. Or Jelly. Or Jaycee. Am I right?”
“You are correct.”
“I know I’m correct, Manny. So, we need each other to get back home.”
“Correct.”
“And now you tell me you’ve instructed USARIC to have me arrested for defying my orders?”
“Correct.”
Alex folded his arms and made little effort to conceal his sheer anger at the book hovering before him.
“Maybe we won’t get home, then?”
“We must get home,” Manny said. “We have to complete the mission.”
Star Cat The Complete Series Page 102
