Star Kitten

by Purple Hazel

  It could have worked, rotating nearly five thousand beings in a constant circuit of climbing up elevator shaft ladders, then descending all the way back down to reload. But having two working elevators was much, much easier.

  Instead, Schpleeftkorkii gang members were able to ferry up supplies on giant freight elevators and provide military support in the attack. What a lucky break, this was. And this rebel army was in dire need of lucky breaks too, because the air below the surface would be getting thinner and thinner every day they fought on against the Security Forces defending the Warden’s stronghold….

  In the meeting between Hicks and his aides, General Hicks urged the men in his unit to “think outside the box,” as he put it—coining an old Earth expression. Standing on the cavern floor looking up at the ceiling, Hicks and his men had to contemplate the horrendous task of getting all the way up to the command center above them. And no doubt, up in that command center (250 feet above the cavern floor) Warden Ggggaaah and his own aides were looking right back down at them, trying to guess their next move.

  All access to and from that loading bay had now been cut off, when the riot alarm had sounded, so General Hicks and his men were going to have to figure out a way to get all the way up to that planet surface where the main terminal facility was located; or find a way to break into the terminal office complex up near the top of the canyon.

  Hicks folded his arms and glared. “We’ve got about three days of really good air, before it starts thinning out in here, boys. Gotta find a way up there… Gotta hurry up too” he said gesturing toward the windowed command center 250 feet above them. “Nothing’s too crazy, like I said. Give me any idea you can come up with!” he urged. There was a long pause. No one wanted to be the first idiot to suggest something stupid or impossible.

  “Anything at all…come on boys,” he said, hands on his hips and glaring at them. Finally within a few moments, ideas began to flow from members of the group. Some were creative, some were unrealistic, and some… were just downright insane: from spot-welding components of equipment together and creating a giant scaffolding… to detonating the thermonuclear warheads inside the one single captured space craft still sitting down in the cargo bay with them. This idea involved blowing up the entire terminal, and leaving nothing but a giant crater. The entire premise behind this idea was thus: if the Nausties could not survive much longer on thin air and dwindling rations, they’d take out Warden Ggggaaah’s staff and security forces right along with the whole terminal. Then they’d find a way to survive on the planet growing hydroponic farms below.

  Perry, who was General Hicks’ male life partner, disagreed with that idea immediately, saying with a sarcastic grin, “Nah, we’re not desperate enough to blow up the whole terminal… not quite yet, anyway.” After all, Perry deduced, capturing the terminal intact was still the best solution, regardless of the casualties required…. Perry’s greatest fear, after the fall of the Warden’s headquarters, was for the planet to descend into chaos, murder, cannibalism, riot, and even civil war. His fears were well-founded, too.

  But that one crazy idea about blowing up the entire terminal eventually led to more sane ones. And eventually a really ambitious idea was proposed, that only someone like Perry could grasp and be inspired by. In fact, when it first was proposed, almost everyone balked at the audacity of it, except for Perry. It just needed a little tweaking, that’s all. Because someone in the group actually suggested they build a giant hill... out of mineral ore! It took a crazy man to come up with a crazy idea like this, and the Arian Knights gang sure had plenty of them.

  The man’s name was actually Vladimir “the Impaler” Vyebyvatsya, and he was from the Earth region of Russia. On Earth, he’d been leader of a Russian mafia cartel, and responsible for—or even directly involved in—over a hundred murders. Now pushing 40 Earth years old, he was tattooed almost from head to toe, just like a lot of Russian gang members, and though long in the tooth, he was still quite terrifying.

  All he suggested actually, was to dump dirt all over the large space craft still parked in the loading bay and build a large mountain that could reach the top of the cavern. Then the Nausties could construct a spiraling roadway that could ascend it. Once reached, The Impaler suggested, the men could use explosive charges to take out the command center and from that breach, enter the facility and battle its defenders. The other aides at first scoffed at the idea, arguing that it would take too long, and the base would have to be quite enormous to create a road wide enough for vehicles to spiral up to the top.

  Perry, however, immediately saw how the concept made sense, given the resources they had available, but it just needed a slight alteration. “Wait, General, I think the Impaler may have something there,” interjected Perry. Suddenly all eyes were upon him—even the very violent Russian who’d thought it up, looked at Perry with surprise. Perry continued, gesturing at the space craft and then up at the walls of the cavern above, while the general and his aides watched. “We’ll take this idea of a large dirt mound, but make it into a RAMP that would use the spacecraft underneath to support its weight, then simply DRIVE dump trucks up the formed ramp to create a steep incline leading up past the command center above us.” The Impaler nodded in approval, then added, “Right, Perry. See General? We then could drive a tractor UP that dirt ramp to the wall of the space terminal offices. Then… we just drill through it!”

  As Perry explained it to everyone, “Captured guards have told us that on the other side of that wall are thousands of offices and barracks for soldiers; even a massive mess hall. You can see them through the windows up there… look!” There were many windows, and if the assault ramp was wide enough, there could be a constant convoy of dump trucks driving up with full loads to lay additional soil, and still allow plenty of room for a tunnel driller to drive up and break through.

  The Slarts could figure out all the engineering. And General Hicks had thousands of experienced mine workers to create it! Hicks liked the way it sounded.

  Hicks loved reading about ancient warfare when he was in prison back on Earth, and he could recognize immediately that they were all basically just taking a page from Earth History. Much like Alexander’s ingenious “Mole” that he built to attack the city of Tyre in 332 BC, or the Battle of the Crater near Petersburg, Virginia in 1864. Even more specifically this sounded like the way the Romans did it in the Battle of Masada in 73 AD. This plan that Perry and the Impaler proposed would be almost exactly like that of General Lucius and the X Legion. In the assault on Masada, the same strategy was employed: an earthen ramp was constructed leading up to an otherwise impregnable mountain fortress, perched on a mesa overlooking a valley.

  It was diabolical what the Romans devised, using only 10,000 legionnaires, auxiliaries, and slaves, to build an earthen ramp in the desert heat by hand, but somehow they did it. The Romans simply dumped basket after basket of soil onto a narrow path that led up to the main gate of the fortress. It took them three months to create the earthen ramp and make it wide enough and strong enough for their army to attack up it. And they knew they’d be pelted with arrows and stones by the defenders as soon as they got within range.

  The Romans were successful in finishing the ramp (which is still there to this day), taking thousands of casualties in the process. They made it with bedrock and soil from the nearby desert, broiling in the sun as they worked day after day. But they just kept on dragging basket after basket of dirt up that ramp, until it was solid enough to hold horses with wagons. Then wagons carried even more dirt for them to pile up and smooth out to create a solid roadway, and they used wooden beams to add stability. They then drove and dragged a metal-clad battering ram up to the gate to punch a hole through it.

  Of course, when they finally got there, the Romans only found horror and death: almost all the 961 rebels had killed themselves in the night. None of them wanted to be slaves, preferring death to the alternative, so they committed mass suicide. When they entered the fortress, the
Romans found only a few women and children left alive, hiding in an empty cistern.

  This task would be similar: to build a giant dirt ramp by using thousands of already experienced miners to pile up millions of tons of soil and ore and form a road on top to drive a tractor across. The tractor would have a drill mounted to the front which could punch a giant hole in the wall of the offices above them. And just like the doomed defenders of Masada thousands of years ago, the Warden and his staff would get to watch this amazing feat going on below them, with nothing to do but just wait and see if the Rebels could make it all the way up to try and kill them.

  In antiquity, it took the Romans about three months to finally take the fortress of Masada... but could the Nausties pull of the same thing? And could they do it before the thin air exhausted them…before their food supplies ran out… and before help arrived to rescue the besieged Warden?

  Perry looked around at the other aides in General Hicks’ war council. Hicks was grinning and nodding; so was The Impaler. A few others grunted and stroked or rubbed their bald heads (The Arian Knights all shaved themselves from head to waist). Looking up, at the task before them, it struck them with both awe and apprehension. This was going to be an amazing feat, but they had all the resources to do it. Historically the Romans had much more time to pull it off, but the Nausties had mining equipment, and thousands of experienced mine workers. It could most certainly be done again!

  The General and his men were standing right next to the enormous landing pad and their newly captured space craft which only a week earlier had been docked and ready for loading when the rebels burst in. Sarcastically, Perry had renamed it THE ANARCHY. Everyone looked up one more time at the command bubble suspended from the ceiling of the cavern above them. It seemed so far away and high above them.

  The command bubble was a thickly glassed-in and reinforced terminal traffic control building, suspended from the cavern roof like a ceiling lamp in a giant ballroom. It was enormous though and extended in an oval shape about the size of an apartment building, with two stories and levels of offices and traffic control desks manned by mostly Zorg and a few other beings who observed and coordinated the loading and unloading of ships in the cargo bay below.

  From the command bubble, the Zorg Terminal controllers could see everything going on below; and this idea of a dirt ramp? They’d see everything the Nausties were doing from start to finish. “No deceiving these mothers this time, ‘P’,” muttered General Hicks to his lover Perry. But Perry was still thinking deeply, arms crossed and one hand stroking his three day beard. Perry looked over at his General with a mischievous grin. He was forming yet another idea already….

  Within hours, Slart planners were brought up from the Naustie headquarters below the Service Tunnel. A new field headquarters was established… in full view of the command bubble above them. That was Perry’s idea, and though Hicks questioned him on it, Perry assured his lover that it was better that the Warden and his staff THINK they knew everything that was going on at all times below. Perry said, “Let them see everything for a while, General. We want them to have several weeks to plan for their defense according to what they SEE us doing. Trust me….” The General just raised his hands up, shook his head slightly, and grinned. No use questioning his life partner and companion. Hicks and Perry had been together now for ten years, and by now Hicks knew that when Perry had a good idea, just to let him move forward with it.

  The Slarts estimated that the height possible to reach would be 200 feet, with a feasible angle and grade for a tractor. This would put them right up next to the wall of the canyon and level with the Employee mess hall looking out at the loading bay. The command bubble was about fifty feet higher in the cavern and suspended from the ceiling about a hundred feet from the cavern wall. From this point of view, the traffic controllers could see pretty much everywhere in the loading bay. The plan Perry initially hatched, was to merely drill through the thick glass wall, create a breach, and then rush through with shock troops… eliminating any outer defenders.

  That’s the plan that Perry WANTED the Warden to see that is. Most importantly that’s what he wanted his enemy to prepare for.

  The Slarts then estimated how long the ramp would need to be. They determined and calculated necessary labor and equipment needs; and assigned work teams. Thousands of Nausties were called up from the mines below; and for three long weeks they worked in shifts of a thousand to five thousand miners dumping and then packing; piling and spreading thousands of tons of soil, rocks, mineral ore, and extracted dirt. Crews followed dump trucks with water buckets to douse the ramp and packed it firmly with shovels so it would hold the tractor drill. Thousands of Nausties worked loading full-size dump vehicles with ground ore extract from the nearby crushing plant. Drills were used and in some cases explosives were used to blow up walls and doors to warehouses storing food supplies and tools down at the cavern floor.

  Warden Ggggaaah’s aides watched with amazement at the activity below. In only a few days of observing, they were able to report back to the evil Warden of the Rebels’ progress. “S-sssir, the prisoners… are building a ramp!” Warden Ggggaaah couldn’t believe his tiny reptile ears. He went down to the command bubble to look out and see the activity himself. THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of half-naked rebellious prisoners were hard at work. Pumalars, Zorgolongians like himself… Earthers, Schpleeftii, Porkonjis, and amazingly… over in one area of the cavern past the now-captured Earth Cruiser… Slartigifijians! And there was one very tall Slartigifijian standing in the center of them, clearly in charge of the whole operation! “That’s-sss got to be Architeuthis, Warden Ggggaaah. That’s-sss him I’d wager,” said the Warden’s aide, a young Zorgolongian named Yeeeeeeek. Warden Ggggaaah hissed angrily for a moment, then muttered cynically to Yeeeeeeek, “Thought that S-sssquid would be dead by now.”

  Sealed off rooms and chambers that the Nausties burst through, let freshly manufactured air in from the air processing plant on the surface above them, replenishing the supply of manufactured air into the Service Tunnel. This was a pleasant surprise, and one they hadn’t prepared for. The Slarts had calculated for each being just how long they could work out in the cavern on the ramp, before he would have to take a break and another crewman rotated in. Crewmen taken off the hill for mandatory breaks, were sent to recovery rooms to replenish their oxygen levels for a while until it was time to rotate back in. These ventilated rooms and chambers and warehouses made for great break rooms to rest workers who’d exhausted themselves at work, so the plundered food warehouses became a great place to set up barracks for the ramp crews to rest between work shifts.

  But it also gave General Hicks an idea: If those rooms and warehouses were ventilated, then they had to have air ducts. And if there were industrial size air ducts pumping fresh air into those rooms, then perhaps smaller beings could get through them! Schpleeftii were quite tiny enough for the job, so Spleef raiders were sent through the air shafts with the mission to attack and capture the crushing plant and air processing facility. They got quite far too, but eventually their surprise attack was blunted by far superior security forces when they tried to capture the whole oxygen pumping plant. In this bloody attack, hundreds of Slart engineers working for the mine as plant operators were slaughtered; and Nausties were able to override the air system controls to pump fresh air back into the service tunnel for several days.

  Their hold on the oxygen pumping plant was temporary though, and after about a week, the Spleefs had to retreat through the air ducts that only they were small enough to fit through. Their daggers and throwing knives were no match for Security Force Electrical Impulse Cannons. But for several days, the air system blasted freshly oxygenated air into the cavern, and the workers were revitalized.

  It came right in time too, because by the third week entire work crews were having to be rotated every few hours to stave off exhaustion from the thin air. Food and drinkable water were quite adequate now, manpower was plentiful, and so was
raw determination—but healthy air was the only thing in short supply.

  Meanwhile, below in the planet core, the Slarts and their new Zorg assistants (former guards who’d surrendered and joined the Nausties) had been working feverishly for days in developing solutions for the challenges going on above. Each Food Depot and Guard Station had its own generator which had been set up in case of a riot, or electrical outage. Hundreds of these generators were cannibalized and eventually welded and combined together to form a make-shift power plant below the Service Tunnel. This gave electrical power for running water filtration systems and for charging electrical vehicles, both of which were vital to the task above. Best of all, these generators were powered by Piezoelectricity, and the planet had plenty of crystals that could be used to power them.

  Aquifers continued to supply water into filtration systems. Crews of Nausties, commanded by their gang leaders, enlisted their members into units assigned to transporting water and food to the service tunnel above. Soon, over half the planet’s former prison population were up in the Service Tunnel, serving in any capacity they could. Meanwhile, nearly ten thousand Nausties worked feverishly hauling up dump trucks full of soil and mineral deposits to form the ramp. It would take several million tons of soil to create this ramp, and as long as no relief forces arrived in time; the Slart engineers were certain they could complete a ramp long enough, and high enough to reach the Mess Hall windows above.

  Of course none or at least very little of all this activity remained secret to the Warden and his forces for very long. Perry intended for all of it to be seen, and prepared for by his enemy. The security troops and Warden Ggggaaah could see everything going on from above and get fully prepared for the attack. They even calculated its exact location for an eventual breach, based on the trajectory of the ramp. To be sure, for the first week, they did scramble a bit and panic, realizing that the rebels now controlled the cargo bay. Worse, the only ship on the whole planet—the only means of escape—was now sitting right in the middle of it below them, in rebel hands.