Star Kitten

by Purple Hazel

  Even the thought that they might never find Solomon or his staff anywhere… even the thought that—God forbid—they might find him dead? They just wouldn’t believe in such a thing. Star Baby was right after all. They just had to believe he was alive and they’d find him. It was like that for everyone else searching for a loved one down there too. Hope was all they had—and as long as there were more tunnels and caverns to search, they just had to keep on believing. Nevertheless, the searches usually yielded nothing. Occasionally there’d be a cavern they could open up; hoping in vain that the Naustie army had tunneled up this far and into it. But alas, they’d find no one alive. No matter, though. They just went right back to work and kept tunneling deeper into the mine network; through cave-in after cave-in.

  Then finally one day it happened. Porko units were interrupted from their drilling by Spleefs who ran up to their vehicles waving madly. The Spleefs said they smelled something! The Porkos turned off their vehicles and waited for several minutes while diminutive little Spleef detection units ambled over rocks and debris to sniff the rubble. They listened too. Humans working in the unit also came forward to listen through the pile of rocks to hear any noises coming from the other side. That’s when a human female yelled out, “Oh my God… Here!!!” A crowd of Spleefs and Humans descended on the area, and with wildly waving hands and arms, the Earth woman hissed at them to keep quiet. A faint scratching sound was heard… it was coming from the other side!

  Within a few hours, Zorg ship crewmen, Pumalar females, and humans working with bare hands and claws, carefully dug and ferried away stone after stone; then bucket after bucket of dirt, until they punched a hole through the top of a fifty foot high cave-in pile. Miraculously all their toils had finally paid off! On the other side were thousands and thousands of emaciated, and dehydrated Naustie warriors. The army had finally been found!

  After this big success, the word spread all the way back to the new Naustie headquarters inside the Chengshi. Survivors were being brought to the surface! The celebration was incredible. Cheers and screams. Crying and singing. Children running about yelling “Pa-pa… Pa-pa!” Kscheeech himself flung his breather unit with excitement and roared with pride like some prehistoric dinosaur. They’d actually done it! They’d found the Naustie army!

  Onboard the Chengshi, Warthog, and other ships now landed on the surface, hospitals were thrown together inside their loading bays; and canopies were constructed to protect the wounded starving troops as they were brought up from below and ferried to the waiting ships. And there, of course was Nicky Ciancio (hair perfect as always) running the show. “Yeh… jusss keep the freakin’ sun off uh them, ah’ight? Dey been tru enufff ah-reddy!” yelled Nicky as the first thousand or so survivors were carted up from the destroyed terminal loading bay. A massive elevator system had by now been constructed using wenches and pullies which lifted platforms full of gallant warriors to the surface; then lowered fresh supplies and reinforcements for work teams below. It was a long trek back up to the surface, yes, but the thrill of rescuing someone’s husband, father, or brother, was motivation enough to get thousands of hard-working volunteers ready and willing to get the job done speedily.

  And there was even more good news! There were still more Nausties further down below in the mines, some of the surviving warriors said. Star Baby herself, with her mother in tow, darted through the crowds of grateful warriors awaiting evacuation from the caved-in tunnel. The sweet little girl asked warrior after warrior, “See Da-da? See Da-da?” And warrior after warrior would gently assure her, “Yes, Star Baby. Da-da back there,” then gesture for her to look further down the tunnel. Felina would of course follow up with each warrior and clarify, “Just how much further down, brave one?” What Felina gradually found out from them was that Solomon and his team had joined another small unit of troops and made their way through an access tunnel to detonate the charges; then they’d planned (they told General Vlad) on merely fleeing for their lives before the detonation led to an eruption of the volcano.

  Felina came upon a big Pumalar who was terribly wounded but quite alert. “You should be proud, Princess,” the big cat stated solemnly to Felina, “…it was an honorable mission.” He was a Pumalar from the Cave Lions, who remembered her vividly. He spoke in a low voice, almost right up next to her face, but safely out of earshot from Star Baby, who was carrying around a child-size canteen half full of water and greeting warrior after delighted warrior with, “Wa-wa? Deenk Wa-wa?” Felina’s heart sank. The Pumalar’s words made it sound like it might have been a suicide mission! However one of the big cat’s badly injured human comrades nearby interjected with, “Actually, Princess… the detonation did not set off the eruption immediately (cough). He had plenty of time, I think.” Other warriors lying on the ground nearby agreed with him. They confirmed that the eruption of the volcano developed over the next several hours after the blast but it did not really explode violently until later.

  “How much later… I mean how long you think he might have had?” she asked the human warrior, who was gashed and scarred from God knows how many battles; but also was burned horribly along his arm and both of his legs. She doubted he’d live very long with burns like that (not unless he got to a surgeon immediately). The human rolled his eyes and gasped in reaction to some shooting pain that was wrenching his body in agony. “Plenty of time, Princess," he croaked, "…he had a detonation team with him which set timers on the explosive charges… plus they had their escape route all planned out… even had that little Slart with him who knows so damn much about volcanoes.”

  The injured man suddenly winced again with pain. His comrade next to him gently offered him a canteen of water, but he waved him off. The brave man knew there was no use wasting precious water on him. He knew he was dying anyway. Felina didn’t need to trouble the poor suffering man any further. She just bent down, kissed his forehead and placed her paw on his shoulder. Then she stroked his cheek and purred softly, as the man drifted off into unconsciousness.

  Felina just knew in her heart Solomon had planned everything to the finest detail. He was not on a suicide mission, no. His placement of the explosive charges was designed to explode only the cavern floor. The tunnel he was using to get under the cavern was right above the magma chamber, she remembered him telling her. He and Cuttlefish must have set the charges to explode in twenty minutes, or maybe even their maximum thirty. This would have enabled them to get at least several miles away if they were using a mine vehicle. Possibly more. And if the eruption had not occurred until several hours later then Solomon and his staff could have been walled up and secured safely long before it went off. Besides, knowing Slarts like Cuttlefish, they must have provisioned their protective hiding place quite well to try and live through the eruptions for as long as the tremors lasted.

  As the human warrior breathed his last breath and his mates said their goodbyes to him, Felina stood up and thanked them all for their information, wiping tears from her eyes with the back of her paw. Then she turned to Star Baby with a warm motherly smile saying, “Okay now my daughter… let’s go find Da-da!”

  For the next several days, Felina and a team of Porko tunnelers with Spleef detection units, tunneled and traveled deeper and deeper into the devastated mine. More troops were found as they descended; and steaming lava flows had to be dodged constantly. Eventually thousands more warriors were discovered, passed out exhausted from their breathers running out of water to operate; or nursing battle wounds. Vlad the Impaler was found too! But he was in woefully bad shape and had to be evacuated immediately. His troops insisted—even those who were more seriously injured—that he go first. He’d led them to victory; after all! And best of all, he’d kept most all of them alive to see this day. To all these brave defenders of the planet, Vlad was truly THEIR personal hero.

  Another grueling week passed. Star Baby was in tow at all times, adored by the Spleefs and Porkos in their rescue team; and at her mother’s side almost constantly. Even when
she wasn’t, there were always nine or ten workers keeping an eye on her. She was their mascot! She motivated them and inspired them constantly. She could sleep for hours, regardless of the noise going on, then she’d spring to life with an adorable yawn only to run about the worksite playfully urging the workers on. It just broke some of their hearts to think about it; so they just kept putting it out of their minds, but every day that passed the chances of finding Solomon’s team alive were getting slimmer and slimmer.

  Then another question was raised… just why would they have stayed put in the first place? Solomon would not have WAITED for a rescue effort, would he? And, he would never have abandoned his team to survive on their own if they could not keep up with him. That’s what Felina and the rest of the tunnelers began theorizing. True, Solomon would have tried to escape and take his team with him. But which direction would they go? How would they get out? Once that question was answered, the rest was beginning to become clear. One of the Porkos suggested it; and soon everyone on the crew agreed: Likely Solomon and his team would have tried exiting the mine the same way the refugees went! And they likely traveled that direction for as far as they possibly could before their water and food would have run out.

  So that became the strategy for Felina’s rescue team. With all the rest of the Naustie army rescued or accounted for; she turned her team’s attention to again finding the route by which her fellow refugees had escaped the planet. It took little time to retrace it.

  For another agonizingly long day they travelled, knowing and believing in their hearts that THIS must be the way Solomon and his team had gone. And then finally after nearly twenty three more hours of frustration, they found them. Bodies slumped over rocks. Bodies lying face-down on the floor of the cave. Bodies seated on the tunnel floor with their backs against large rocks or mine vehicles. The Slarts among them? Some had clearly been dead for days, including the great Architeuthis. The wise spiritual leader and father of the rebellion had apparently spent his last desperate moments gasping for air from his dried out breather unit. Sad and respectful Nausties silently lifted him into an empty dump hauler to return him to the surface for a hero's funeral.

  A human was found, the former Chinese mobster named Bui Hoang Oh who worked on Solomon’s team. Spleefs went to work on him immediately trying to resuscitate him; and this lifted Felina's spirits seeing a human had survived this long. Then they found the body of Cuttlefish. He’d finally collapsed on the floor when he’d run out of enough oxygen too. It looked like they’d all had one last meal together, then camped together in this spot while they drifted off to sleep and slowly suffocated. The Slarts probably died off first; and then when Bui also passed out, someone from the group apparently tried to drive out on his own. Spleefs in Felina’s unit noticed the tracks; and everyone not tending to the few survivors, hopped into one of the dump haulers and began speeding down the tunnel. It had to have been Solomon!

  In another couple hours they found him, passed out in the driver’s seat and slumped over the wheel, head resting on his arms. And he was alive!

  Springing into action, Felina and the rest of the team pulled Solomon’s giant body out of his electric hauler and laid him on the tunnel floor. He'd driven until the battery finally lost all its charge, then he'd obviously lost conciousness. Felina stood by frozen in terror while Spleefs went to work on him. She wanted to cry… wanted to weep. But she didn’t want to startle her child too, so she kept it all in. She didn’t know how to pray, like Solomon often did, so she just muttered to herself what she thought Solomon would have said:

  “God… please give me back my husband. Please let… um… please let him see his daughter again.” Amazingly, with all her talents and skills at sensing and feeling and communicating with other intelligent creatures, this was basically all she could think of to say. But it was plenty. Star Baby came running up to her and embraced her legs, saying “Da-da find?” Da-da find?” Before Felina could answer, the little girl looked over to see her nearly unrecognizable dust-covered father lying on the tunnel floor being administered oxygen from a spare breather. A cloth soaked with water was being applied to his dried out and cracked lips. Her father’s beautiful brown body was now grayish white from tunneling through the repeated cave-ins they’d had to crash through; and from all the tremors which tumbled dirt and debris all over his tunnel vehicle. Star Baby dropped to her knees and knelt right beside him, as Spleefs worked on slowly reviving him. Suddenly he coughed! Felina let out a gasp of excitement. But Star Baby was merely tickled with delight. “Da-da here! Da-da here! Da-da… okay?”

  Slowly the tough old former African warlord and saviour of the planet began to gain consciousness. His thoughts went from dreaming of death as his body dwindled from the thin oxygen… to suddenly realizing that the lamps flashing in his face from workers all around him meant that he’d been—somehow—rescued. It felt in his mind almost like he was in a dream where he was hearing his lovely daughter’s voice. But the physical sensations he felt: thirst, pain, and the burning in his lungs could only mean one thing. He was actually alive, and this was really his daughter Star Baby now patting his chest gently and caressing his cheek.

  Solomon coughed one more time, and hacked up a dusty phlegm ball before lying back down on a rolled up shirt that had been created to make a pillow for him. His eyes slowly adjusted to the light around him, and suddenly there, with his beautiful wife’s silhouette looming in the background, he saw his lovely daughter. He smiled feebly, and gazed upon her adorable smiling face. She’d never doubted they’d find him of course. Nope, never for a moment. And now she was here with him. He was going to be okay. He’d live—live to watch her grow up someday. Solomon’s eyes danced with delight. He could hear Felina gasping and sobbing with joy. She knelt down on the other side of him and the family embraced once again; just like they’d done so many times before. With a raspy voice, Solomon uttered feebly, “You found me, Star Baby. Good girl.” He coughed again, this time a little more crackly like he was finally getting moisture into his body. “Daddy is so proud of you,” he added, still coughing and choking.

  Then, when he recovered himself a bit, he forced out the words, “Perhaps we should start calling you… Scout.”

  The Wild Fields

  Scheduled for release Thanksgiving 2015

  Two girls, born within a mere month of each other, grow up in sixteenth century Russia experiencing vastly different childhoods. Tatyana, a petite brunette with a dazzling smile and effervescent personality, grows up in the southern Russian city of Belgorod. Ludmilla, a big boned and freakishly strong peasant girl from the countryside, grows up working on a farm with her father and five older brothers. Ludmilla's mother, sadly, has died when Ludmilla was only three, leaving her to develop with no real female role model; and having to struggle through the hard daily drudgery of Russian farm life. Though meticulous and intelligent, she not only dresses like a young man but most certainly looks like one as well by age seventeen. Tatyana by way of comparison, has lost her own mother to cancer when she was age ten, leaving the girl to have to work with her Father running the family business night and day. Fate would eventually draw the two together though as the boyish-looking Ludmilla visits the town one day and sees Tatyana for the first time. Ludmilla finds the phenomenally beautiful girl to be all but irresistible; and though not really sure as to why she'd be so terribly attracted to another girl; the feelings she experiences are quite too real to try and suppress. Tatyana for her part finds the gender-bending Ludmilla to be quite intriguing as well; if not also rather appealing! A relationship blossoms between the two as they fulfill for each other many of the longings they'd both had growing up. Neither had ever had a true childhood friend, for one thing. And as the relationship progresses they also find in each other the passionate amazing lover that both women could have only ever dreamed of. However fate serves to come between them yet again, when an army of 100,000 barbaric Tatars invades Russia bent on destroying Moscow itself. They are cap
tured and enslaved … separated at the infamous slave market of Caffa. Ludmilla is classified and branded as a prime field hand and barely evades being detected as an actual female; but Tatyana? Tatyana endures a quite different fate when she is purchased by an evil slave trader who is quite famous within the Ottoman Empire for training beautiful young women for the harems of the Great Sultan.