“—Miew,” Jelly licked her lips and lifted her infinity claw, eying Bonnie dead in the eyes the whole time, “I’m s-sorry…”
“You’ll k-kill me,” Bonnie’s voice croaked as she spoke. She knew she was dead, “Do you want me to d-die?”
Jelly looked up at the scorching sun and widened her mouth. The light reflected off her fangs and into Bonnie’s face.
She saw her feet dangling across the stars and then back to Jelly. In a desperate bid to save her own life, she grabbed hold of Jelly’s jeans.
No mercy was shown from the cat as Bonnie’s fingers slipped helplessly along the denim.
“I d-don’t want to d-die…”
Jelly scrunched her face, unable to resist her instinct. She scraped the sand with the side of her paw and pushed Bonnie’s two remaining fingers from her jeans.
“Meow.”
Bonnie fell away from the edge.
Her face turned to a picture of hell. She clutched the torn fabric in her hands and plummeted from the edge of Pink Symphony and into the infinite blanket of space and time.
“Sorry,” Jelly licked her face, satisfied that she’d knocked the things from the edge.
Bonnie’s death yell funneled from her mouth as her body plummeted away, getting smaller and smaller… until she disappeared altogether.
Jelly flicked her ears and watched a tiny, new star form against the black canvas of space like a single drop of spilled, white paint.
Pink Symphony’s entire land mass lit up as the sun got closer.
Millions of grains of white sand cascaded to the ground. Jelly turned to face Opera Beta, one hundred feet in the distance.
The Shanta stopped in their tracks and turned to face the girl standing at the edge of Pink Symphony.
“Miew.”
“SCREEEEEE!”
They charged at Jelly in unison. Their new distraction would buy her crew members in Opera Beta some time.
Jelly scraped the ends of her infinity claws through the sand and flapped her tail, ready for war, “Let’s take out the trash. Come and get some…”
She ran her claws through the sand and prepared to attack, “Die, you ugly scumbags!”
ROOWWAAARRRR!
Two dozen Shanta barreled toward her as she bolted across the sand in their direction.
“Meeee-owwww,” Jelly looked above the first two creatures and saw the towering blackened tree stomp its way out of the ocean behind the ship.
BOLT!
Jelly ran into the Shanta. The first one flung its talon out and stabbed it to the ground. Jelly swiveled around and landed to her front paws, narrowly missing its stabbing motion.
“Screeeee,” it wailed as her claws tore through its two front limbs, sending it onto its behind.
SWISH-SWIPE!
Jelly darted through the limbs of the others. In the furor they swung their arms out and hit one another in a desperate bid to stop her from reaching the ship.
She planted her hind legs on the ground and lifted herself off her heels.
A vicious swipe to another Shanta’s slit. The claws tore out its lip, forcing it to gargle and choke. She hit the ground and sliced at its standing limbs, sending its vast body crashing to the ground.
“Yuck,” Jelly flung the goo from her claws and raced toward the ship.
Jaycee’s K-SPARK turret oscillated back and forth, firing at the Shanta. The crew had done a good job of keeping them out of Botanix - but still they came.
“There’s another,” Tripp pointed at the ceiling and shot a crawling creature in its center. The carcass extended its talons and dropped onto a bunch of beasts, below.
SCREEE-SCHLAMM-SCHPLATT!
“Where did they go?” Jaycee asked over the firing bullets.
“I dunno,” Tor took aim at a particularly aggressive creature. Standing a clear ten feet tall, it held out all twelve limbs and formed a spider web at the hole in the wall.
It’s slit opened up to reveal a disgusting, black tongue.
SCHWIPP-LASH!
“Ugh, that’s one ugly beast,” Tor aimed his D-REZ at its mid-section, “Eat this.”
THRAA-AA-TAT-A-TAT!
Tor emptied his clip at the creature’s mouth. The slit exploded in a hail of pink gloop and pinged the limbs away from its center section. The mass of ungodly monster shunted down the sides of the walls and gasped its last.
Jelly ran between its legs and jumped inside Botanix.
“Jelly,” Tripp shouted, relieved that she was still alive, “Get in, quick. Against the back wall.”
“What do we do now?” Wool asked, taking potshots at the creatures with her Rez-9.
“The sun is coming,” Jelly said. “It’s going to kill us all.”
Jaycee knocked the side of the turret and swung his secondary K-SPARK from his shoulders, “I’m out. Turret is down.”
Tripp grew impatient and snapped his fingers, “Keep firing.”
A rectangle of holographic light formed in the middle of Botanix, creating the outline of a book - Manuel.
“Did someone ask for me?”
“What? No,” Tripp emptied his magazine and palmed a fresh one into his Rez-9, “We’re out of ammo. This is my last magazine.”
“In that case, do you mind if I step out of the line of fire and let you perish alone?”
“That would be very helpful, Manuel. Thank you.”
The book flapped over to the door to Botanix as the others kept shooting at the Shanta.
Jelly raced after Manuel, suddenly fascinated by his contours. She jumped in the air and tried to catch him, “Miew.”
“Miss Anderson?” Manuel pressed his pages against the wall by the door, “What are you doing?”
“I want to touch you.”
“In the middle of a gunfight?”
“Yes,” she spread her claws out and swiped at him, “Meow.”
“Uh, Tripp?” Manuel tried to avoid making eye contact with Wool, who looked at him suspiciously.
“Not now, Manuel,” Tripp yelled, “Later.”
“The cosmic event taking place in the sky isn’t technically a sun,” Manuel said. “It does not contain the gaseous properties of what we consider to be a heavenly body.”
Jaycee stomped over to Manuel and raised his eyebrows, “What is it?”
“Some kind of portal is my best guess. If we seal off Botanix and get you into the hyper-sleep pods I’d say you all have a twenty percent chance of surviving whatever is about to happen.”
“Twenty?” Tripp took his eyes off the Shanta for a second longer than he should have.
“Screeeee!”
Tripp pointed his gun at the noise whilst looking at Manuel, “I’ll take those odds.”
BLAM-SCHPLAT!
He yanked the trigger and throated the creature with his nozzle, blasting its innards across the dead plants.
“Quick,” Manuel scanned the panel on the wall and opened the door, “Get to the hyper-sleep chamber. Follow me.”
Wool, Jelly, Jaycee, and Tripp took one, final look at the sky. It wasn’t pink, anymore. Instead, a huge gulf of white lamped the entire horizon.
SCHTAAAMMMM!
The black root of the tree stomped down, crushing all the Shanta in front of Botanix.
GROOWWLLL…
“Oh dear,” Wool said. “Let’s do what Manuel said. Run, run.”
Jelly ran through the opened door. Tripp and Wool followed after her, leaving Jaycee to open his thigh compartment and grab five dumb bombs. He pulled each pin from them and clutched them in his hand, “Come get some.”
He bent his elbow out from his chest and threw them among the plants.
“Screeeeeee!” The Shanta squealed in unison, thumping their talons to the tiled ground.
“Adios, amigos,” Jaycee kicked the door shut, sealing them inside.
“Jaycee, quick. Let’s go!” Wool yelled over her shoulder as she raced down the walkway with the others.
“Yeah, just gimme a minute,”
he turned to the wall panel and lifted his right boot, “Just sealing the bastards in.”
He smashed the panel with all his might and disabled the door mechanism. The Shanta slapped their limbs against the window in a wild, screeching frenzy.
Jaycee rubbed his gloved hands together and held up his middle finger to the window, “Time to go sleepy-byes…”
He turned around and stormed up the walkway.
KA-BOOOOM!
The walkway shuddered as the other side of the window splattered with dark, pink gore. The bombs eviscerated everything that turned oxygen into carbon dioxide within the room.
“I know the feeling, my friends,” Jaycee finished as he turned the corner, “Rest in pieces, Botanix.”
The Hyper-Sleep Chamber
Space Opera Beta
Manuel shuffled into the room and bent out his pages, “Hyper-sleep. Engage. Pods one through five, please.”
The glass on the first five of the nine available pods slid open.
Tripp entered the chamber with the others in hot pursuit.
“Five?” Tripp asked. “There’s six of us.”
“I only count five, Tripp?” Manuel offered. “You, Jaycee, Wool, Tor, and Jelly. I strongly advise you disrobe, now, and enter the pods as quickly as you can.”
Tripp looked around the pod and watched Jelly hop into the room, “Jelly, where did Bonnie go?”
She arched her back and stood on her two hind feet. Tripp’s eyes grew with wonder. She matched his height.
“She fell off the edge of the universe.”
“What?” Wool slipped off her inner-suit top and folded it in her arms, “What do you mean?”
Jelly looked down at her jeans. She’d grown into them so much that they’d torn.
“She turned into a star.”
“What are you talking about?” Tripp said.
“She’s dead.”
The crew knew it already, but Jelly’s innocent delivery of those last two words sucker punched them in their collective gut.
“I knew it,” Jaycee removed his exo-suit. His muscled body glinted in the fluorescent light, catching everyone’s attention.
Tor looked away and bit his lip. He flung his inner-suit into the slider on the wall, feeling extremely inferior - both mentally and physically, “I can’t do this anymore. Whatever that sun thing is out there, I hope it kills us,” he climbed into a pod and exhaled. It felt comfortable inside.
“I hope it kills you,” Jaycee yelled as he climbed into the pod next to his, “Just know I’m right next to you if you try something crappy.”
Tor crossed himself and muttered a silent prayer, “Please, let me sleep while it happens.”
Jaycee thumped the side of the man’s pod, “Shut up, princess. Praying won’t get you anywhere.”
Tor cleared his throat and swallowed back his pink saliva. He noticed a bleeding scratch on the top of his arm from the melee in Botanix, “Oh God, make it stop,” he winced.
Manuel hovered over Tor and Jaycee’s pod, “Gentlemen, please. Do try to exercise a little decorum?”
“Put us to sleep, Manuel,” Jaycee crossed his arms over his pectoral muscles and closed his eyes.
“My pleasure.”
Manuel blasted two beams from his pages, forcing the glass fronts to slide into place.
Dressed in her underwear, Wool helped Jelly remove her ridiculously tight jeans, “Honey, we’re about to go to sleep for a while. You can’t wear these in the pods.”
“I know,” she clung to Wool for balance, “I hate wearing clothes. How do you spend all day in them?”
“No time to talk now,” Wool chucked the jeans over her shoulder and grabbed Jelly’s hand. They walked over to the third pod, “Okay, climb in and pretend you’re going to bed.”
“Nap time?”
Wool smiled and kept an eye on Tripp, “Yes, nap time.”
“Please, Miss Anderson. Hurry.”
“Okay, fine,” Jelly let go of Wool’s hand and climbed into her pod, “I’m going. Happy now?”
“Immeasurably.”
Jelly looked up at Manuel and screwed her face, “I don’t like you, you know.”
“That’s really of no consequence at this precise moment, Miss Anderson. Now, close your eyes.”
Manuel shot a beam over Jelly’s pod. The hatch slid up and bolted shut, pressing a shaft of gas within the tomb. Jelly closed her eyes and passed out.
“Phew. There, she’s done,” Manuel spun around and darted over to Tripp, “So, just you and Wool left—Oh.”
He caught Wool and Tripp hugging each other. A quiet and solemn embrace. A moment of sanity in an otherwise insane situation.
Wool’s pink tears wet her cheeks as she spoke, “Hold me.”
“I am,” Tripp breathed her scent in, “I am. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve held someone?”
“Too long,” Wool kept her grip on his shoulders and moved her face in front of his, “Longer for me than for you, I think.”
“I may be married, but that’s no guarantee of physical contact.”
“Not now, Tripp,” Wool looked down and sobbed into his chest. He held her gently in his hands.
“Tripp?” Manuel mouthed, “Hurry up.”
“Wait,” Tripp mouthed back and tilted his head down to Wool, “Hey. It’s okay.”
He held her face in his hands and looked in her bleary eyes, “We did everything we could. Right?”
She nodded and wiped her messy nose, “Yeah. Yeah, we did.”
“It’s going to be okay, you know.”
Wool chuckled with disdain. She wasn’t buying a word of that particular lie.
“No. It’s not going to be okay, Tripp. Going to sleep is just going to prolong the misery. That’s all it’s going to do.”
She grabbed his hand and pulled it away from her face, “But that’s what I love about you, Tripp.”
“What?”
“Your optimism,” she pecked him on the cheek and turned to the fourth free pod, “Okay, Manuel. Load me in.”
“Certainly.”
Tripp soaked up Wool’s last words. It’s possible he was far too optimistic. But that was the whole point of being a successful captain, wasn’t it? He thought as much in his mind.
Tripp lay in the pod and closed his eyes.
“Are you ready?” Manuel asked.
“I’m ready. Seal me in and wake me up if we survive.”
“And if we don’t?”
Tripp inhaled and exhaled with a degree of peace, “Then leave me alone.”
The hatch slid up and released the sleeping gas.
Tripp may or may never see his crew again.
They may not survive the event in the sky. Even if they did, they probably wouldn’t get back home. If they did they wouldn’t be able to go near anyone. They were contaminated with Symphonium.
The odds got bleaker by the nanosecond. The best thing to do was not think about it at all.
After all, there was a sliver of a possibility that all this was stupid a stupid dream.
“Yeah, right. A dream,” Tripp’s final thought steamrollered through his mind before he conked out, “Dream on, Opera Beta.”
***
The sun scorched its way across the stars in the sky. The tree stomped forward and threw its branches out at it in a loving embrace.
GRRUUNNT.
The ball of white fire slammed into its root and stem as the branches closed around it. The two shimmied together and became one.
Next to it, the water from the ocean formed a twisting line in the air and sucked through into the duo like a straw.
One by one, the remaining Shanta creatures exploded as a chorus of light blasted through them.
Space Opera Beta sluiced into the harmonious concoction of light and wonder.
Everything went white - an act of God previously unseen by anyone or anything that ever lived...
Chapter 7
Chrome Valley
Unit
ed Kingdom
“Happy birthday, poppet.”
Emily and Tony clapped their hands together and encouraged Jamie to take a deep breath. He blew out all eight candles on his birthday cake.
Emily rubbed his back as Tony slipped out of the front room. She whispered in his ear, “What did you wish for?”
“I can’t tell you or it won’t come true.”
“Hmm,” she looked at the frame of the door, along with her son, “Was it something along the lines of this?”
Tony stepped out of the way of the huge gift-wrapped birthday present, “Happy birthday, son.”
“Oh, wow.”
Jamie jumped from the chair and ran over to the flowery wrapping, “Is it what I think it is?”
“It might be,” Tony winked.
Jamie pushed his hand through the pink wrapping paper and felt a cold, metal bar, “Oh, wow. It is.”
Off came the wrapping paper in one fell swoop. Jamie laid eyes on the gift standing proud in the middle of the room, “Oh, wow. I thought you said I couldn’t have one?”
“No, no. It’s okay,” Tony moved over to the gift and retrieved two rubber sticks and ear buds, “See it muffles the sound. You put these in your ears. When you strike the pad it plays in your ears.”
Jamie took the buds from Tony’s hands and slipped them in his ears. He lifted the stick and thwacked it against the pad.
BOMPH.
“Oww,” Jamie yanked the plugs out from his ears.
“Bit too loud, huh?” Tony pointed at the slider on the side of the sticks, “Just turn the volume down.”
“Oh. Okay.”
The impressive drum kit meant the world to Jamie. He’d all but destroyed his a few of years ago in an attempt to ‘find out what made it bang’, as he described it. He loved to bash things. Why not create a cheerful tune in the process, he thought.
He felt life was complete now that he had a new drum kit. Tony and Emily were happy for him.
Jolene toddled over to the table and helped herself to some of Jamie’s birthday cake. Her hands scooped up some icing. Most of it went over her face rather than in her stomach.
“Jojo,” Emily said. “Please. Stop doing that.”
Star Cat: The First Trilogy (Infinity Claws, Pink Symphony, War Mage) Page 54
