Star Cat: The First Trilogy (Infinity Claws, Pink Symphony, War Mage)

by Andrew Mackay

  Tripp and Jaycee ran out of the control deck and made their way to the primary airlock.

  Alex leaned against the door frame and lowered his gun. He surveyed the battered room and smiled at his Captain, “Hey, Oxade.”

  “Leave me alone, you treacherous little runt,” he slumped into the splattered swivel chair. Resigned to an early death, he leaned back and hung his arms down by his side, “If you’re going to kill us, just do it already.”

  Nutrene rolled around on the floor and clutched her arm. Her cries of anguish didn’t stop the conversation between the two men.

  “Oh, I will.”

  “Just tell me one thing, Hughes,” Oxade said. “How did—Hey, Nutrene, can you stop your screaming, woman?”

  “He shot me in the d-damn shoulder.”

  A smart bomb grenade tumbled across the ground and knocked the side her hand.

  “I don’t care. Just quit your whining, I can’t hear myself hear myself,” Oxade yelped.

  “You were saying?” Alex asked.

  “Yeah. H-How did you get in? To USARIC?”

  “It’s a long story, my friend,” Alex stepped over to Nutrene and snatched the smart bomb from her clutches, “Give me that.”

  “Ugghhh, and to think I had the hots for you.”

  “In your dreams, grandma,” Alex snorted and returned to the door. He set the grenade down by the wall in the corridor.

  “PAAC?” Oxade asked. “You’re part of that stupid animal cruelty pack of inbred imbeciles?”

  “Nah, they’re long gone, now. We’re a new breed, I guess you could say.”

  “Like a revolution?”

  “More like an evolution,” Alex snorted through his mask, “A plan five years in the making. If you thought USARIC were ruthless killers, you should check us out.”

  Oxade shook his head. “Why, Alex? Why all this?”

  Alex stepped out through the door and gripped the frame in his hand, “Because USARIC is a hell-sucking, mega-conglomerate behemoth that needs taking down. We can’t have whatever Opera Beta and Anderson discovered falling into their hands, now. Can we?”

  “You’re so dead.”

  Alex gripped the door and pulled it across it slider, “You first.”

  SCHLAMMM!

  He took several steps back and aimed his D-REZ at the panel.

  THRAATATATT-SCH-PACKKK!

  He fired a semi-automatic burst of bullets at the panel, shutting the door down and sealing the bad guys in.

  Alex’s parting shot - a swift flip of the bird through the window - provided the icing on the cake.

  Alex sprinted along the gantry and looked for the staircase. He lifted his left forearm to his face and pressed the ink on his skin to his wrist, “Tripp? This is Alex, do you read me?”

  Tripp’s voice came from his wrist, “Yes, I read you. We’re at the Primary Airlock, now. We, uh, found something.”

  “What?”

  “Get down here, quick. We’re going to need your help.”

  “I’m on my way…” he cut the connection off and ran into the depths of the walkway.

  The smart bomb outside the control deck remained perfectly still - for a few seconds.

  Then, it came to life and shifted around.

  CLICK-CLANG.

  It fell onto its side and rolled toward the door. The outer shell warbled and expanded.

  “Nggg…” it’s feminine voice squealed. The shell casing liquefied and streaked across the floor, “Ugh, I hate this so much…”

  The liquid twisted a few inches into the air and formed a cylindrical shape about the size of a beach ball.

  A secondary ‘head’ inflated into a silvery metal. It shook its head and blinked its eyebulbs.

  “Ah,” Neg bounced against the door, fully-formed, “That’s better.”

  “Neg,” Oxade’s damp screams came from within the control deck, “Get us out of here.”

  “I’m way ahead of you,” she said and pressed her curved ‘chest’ against the door.

  SCHWIZZ-SCHPAANG!

  A metal sphere formed around her frame and spun at speed, twisting the image of the door in front of her, “Poz, get ready.”

  Poz hopped up and down from the other side of the door and looked through the window, “What? How did you get out there?”

  “Just shut up and connect.”

  Neg’s magnetic strength slipped through the door and pulled Poz toward it.

  “Hey, what are you—”

  “—Saving everyone’s life, you numb skull. Get over here, now.”

  Oxade scooped his D-REZ from the floor and unclipped the magazine. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a fresh one as he watched Poz’s body lasso toward the door. His lower frame swept the detritus and mess out of his path.

  “This is most embarrassing.”

  “Just shut up and open the door, nitwit,” Oxade palmed the magazine into his gun and turned to Nutrene, “Hey, you.”

  “What?”

  “How’s the arm?”

  Nutrene picked up her Rez-9 in her bad arm. She focused her monocle on the bleeding wound, “I’ll live.”

  SCHWUNT!

  Poz and Neg slammed together on opposite sides of the door. They blinked their eyebulbs at each other.

  “Nice to see you again, sweetie,” Neg beamed.

  “Yeah, whatever. Just help me open this stupid door.”

  They slid down to the floor together and rolled across the door railings, pulling it open.

  CREEEAAAAAKKK!

  “Oxade,” Neg beeped, “The door is open, as per your request.

  “Thanks, guys,” Oxade and Nutrene looked at each other through their masks.

  “New plan,” he gesticulated with his D-REZ, barely able to contain his anger, “I’m going to put a bullet in Alex’s brain. And then Jaycee’s.”

  “Good plan.”

  “And then I’m going to make Anderson watch me remove Tripp’s head, turn it upside down and thump it down the neck hole.”

  “Upside down? I like that,” Nutrene snarled, wanting revenge, but kept up the professional pretense, “Oh. As Opera Charlie’s medician, do you mind if I perform a live vivisection on that bitch of a cat?”

  “Be my guest, but on one condition.”

  “What’s that?” Nutrene licked her lips and walked toward the door.

  “Make it as slow and painful as possible. I want to watch the life fade away from her eyes.”

  “Get in line, sweetie.”

  “Kill ‘em,” Oxade yelled and kicked the chair into the damaged communications console on his way out, “Kill ‘em all.”

  Chapter 16

  Primary Airlock

  Space Opera Beta

  “Manuel?” Tripp snapped his fingers as he reached the inner airlock door.

  “Y-y-yessss,” The book flickered and spasmed in the air, never fully coming to life, “I c-can’t—”

  “—Manuel, what’s wrong?”

  “Oxade shot my m-mainframe. I’m d-dying—” Manuel buzzed in and out of the air.

  Tripp realized there and then that Manuel was dying in front of his and Jaycee’s eyes.

  “You’re l-leaving Op-p-p-pera B-Beta—”

  “—No, no, damn it,” Tripp went to grab Manuel. He forgot that the book couldn’t be touched, “We can take you with us. Install you on their comms panels.”

  “N-No. I’m obsolete. It’ll never work,” Manuel’s voiced ground to super-slow motion, “It’s over, Tripp.”

  White sparks zipped away from the book as it took its final curtain call, “I managed it, though, d-didn’t I? I l-lied for you.”

  Tripp half-smiled and held his thumb up to the transparent book, “You did. You bought us time.”

  “Goodbye, T-Tripp. Jaycee,” Manuel’s last words screeched to a halt. His image flapped away like a dove toward the ceiling and burst into several thousand digital atoms, never to be seen again.

  Jaycee thumped the wall in anger, “Bastards.”<
br />
  “No time to mourn, now. We gotta get off Beta. Open the airlock.”

  “With pleasure,” Jaycee yanked on the lever. The inner airlock door slid up into the ceiling.

  “Wait, what about Jelly?” Tripp asked. “Where is she?”

  “I dunno—”

  SCHTOMP-SCHTOMP-SCHTOMP…

  The two men turned to a colossal thumping noise coming from the other end of the walkway.

  Jelly Anderson stormed toward them. They flinched with each step she took.

  “There you are,” Tripp said.

  “Where’s my mommy?” Jelly looked around, expecting to find Wool with them.

  “No time for questions, pet,” Tripp stood aside and allowed her in the airlock.

  “I’m not going anywhere without my mommy.”

  Tripp looked over her shoulder, “Jelly, listen. Your mommy didn’t make—”

  He cut his sentence short when he clamped eyes on the wet patch between her legs. A dusty Kevlar panel hung by her knee. The fabric of the leggings were torn apart, “Jelly, did you embarrass yourself again?”

  She looked down at her thighs and whined, “Miew.”

  “Where did that liquid come from?”

  “Uh, guys?” Jaycee waved Jelly and Tripp in from the airlock compression chamber.

  Jelly reached into the chest compartment at the front of her exo-suit, “Let’s get out of here—”

  “Oh my God,” Tripp gasped.

  A tiny, goo-drenched kitten lay shivering on her palm. It meowed with its eyes shut, clinging to Jelly’s infinity claws.

  Stunned, Tripp and Jaycee looked at Jelly for a reaction.

  “My baby,” Jelly held the kitten for both men to see, “We have to protect her.”

  “But-but,” Tripp swallowed and went to touch the newborn kitten. His sleeves rolled up the length of his arm, revealing the holes on his wrist.

  “This is Alex. Do you read me?”

  Tripp moved his wrist to his mouth, “Yes, Alex. We’re at the Primary Airlock, now. We, uh, found something.”

  “What?” Alex’s voice came from Tripp’s IndividiMedia ink.

  “Get down here, quick. We’re going to need your help.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  Jelly cradled the kitten in her arms. The light from the fireball rocketing towards Saturn illuminated its gorgeous, fluffy face.

  “It’s a she?”

  Jelly nodded and purred, “Yes.”

  Jaycee joined Tripp and tried not to let his emotions override the severity of their situation.

  “Jelly, listen. We don’t have any outer-suits. We need to cross the bridge to Charlie as quick as we can.”

  “But we can’t breathe in space?” Jelly asked.

  “No,” Jaycee pointed to the bridge through the window, “You have to exhale. Push all the air out of your lungs and hold until we get there.”

  Tripp took Jelly’s newborn in his hands. The gunk slopped between his fingers, “What are you going to call her?”

  “—Tripp, man,” Jaycee screamed, “Not now. We need to leave.”

  He stormed into the airlock compression chamber and waved the pair in with him, “Let’s go.”

  Jelly took the kitten from Tripp as they made their way into the airlock.

  He double-took and looked at the door. A pang of déjà vu throttled through his body, “There’s something very familiar about all this.”

  Jaycee grunted, “You don’t say.”

  “Guys, wait for me,” Alex reached the door and immediately spotted Jelly carrying her kitten. “My God, what happened?”

  “She gave birth,” Tripp said. “You know how to operate Charlie when we get in, right?”

  “Yes,” Alex hopped into the airlock and pressed his fingers around his mask, “Where are your outer-suits?”

  “We don’t have time.”

  Jelly ran the side of her face against her kitten, “Hey, honey. Don’t be scared.”

  “What about that thing?” Alex pointed to the kitten, only for Jelly to take offense.

  “She’s not a thing.”

  SCHWUMP.

  The inner-door slammed down, instigating the start of the decompressions process. A blast of white gas filled the chamber.

  “Right,” Jaycee grabbed the lever next to the outer-door, “Let’s get out of here and go home.”

  “Wait, let me go first,” Alex pushed his way to the front, “Jaycee, when we get there, Manny might not open the door for you. She will for me, though.”

  “Okay,” Jaycee turned over his shoulder, “Everyone ready?”

  Tripp nodded, “Jelly, cover the kitten’s mouth.”

  “Okay,” she exhaled and stood poised to blast through the door.

  “ETA sixty seconds, here we go,” Jaycee yanked the lever down.

  SWISH!

  The door slid up, allowing them onto the bridge. They had expected it to be a silent journey. The white bridge seemed whiter than usual.

  GRRROOOOOAAARRRRRR!

  Jaycee gripped the shuddering railings and pulled himself forward, “What the hell?”

  He squinted at the blinding light coming from Saturn, above. The fiery Enceladus sunk into it, throwing the planet’s surface out like an exploded balloon sticking to the stars.

  He held his hand over his eyes and ignored it, pulling himself forward.

  Alex followed, clocking some of the celestial event as he moved forward, “Jesus Christ. Look at that.”

  His feet drifted across the bridge floor. Saturn’s rings began to gyrate as if wading through a magnificent lump of treacle. The stars pushed aside as the planet’s body pounded away like an aggressive boom box.

  “What the hell is happening up there?” Alex muttered, wide-eyed at the spectacular light show. He held out his hand for Tripp, “Come on.”

  Tripp covered his eyes with his left palm. He grabbed Alex’s hand with his right.

  “Come on, let’s go. Quick.”

  Jelly cradled her daughter in her elbow and protected her with her claws. She used her free hand for balance as she traversed the bridge.

  GWAAAARRRR… WVHOOSH…

  A shower of light bleached out their surroundings. Saturn seemed to be growing. Jaycee and Alex saw a giant black hole form like a crazy, liquid cartwheel over its surface.

  “Go, go, go—” Alex pushed Jaycee along the bridge and gripped the rails, propelling himself after him, “Tripp, come on.”

  Alex’s voice may have fallen on deaf ears in the vacuum of space, but his haste in ushering Jelly and her newborn couldn’t be ignored.

  “Jelly, please.”

  She opened her eyes and clutched her baby tighter than ever, “I’m coming.”

  SWISH!

  Oxade ran into the airlock with his K-SPARK and thumped the outer door, “Look at them. They think they can abscond on our ship?”

  Nutrene held her arm as she stepped inside the chamber with her Rez-9.

  Poz and Neg rolled in with them, “Commencing decompression. Standby.”

  SPRIISHHH!

  Jelly turned to face him with her daughter’s scruff in her mouth. The kitten hung in against of her chin and thrashed its spindly legs around.

  “Hey,” Oxade thumped the outer airlock door in an attempt to catch Jelly’s attention, “Get back here and die like a good little pussy.”

  The decompression stopped as soon as the outer airlock hatch flung open. Oxade kicked himself away from the frame of the door and arrowed behind Jelly.

  Alex caught his action just in time and pointed behind her, “Jelly. Behind you.”

  “What?”

  FWUMP!

  Oxade bolted across the bridge and socked Jelly in the face. Her jaw opened, releasing her newborn into space, and away from the bridge.

  “There’s a good girl,” Oxade shouted under his mask, “Let daddy pass.”

  “Jeez,” Alex placed the sole of his boot on the railing. He pushed himself after the flying kitten as it heade
d away from the bridge. He just about caught her in his hands.

  Jelly massaged her jaw, taken aback by the attack. She flung her claws out at Oxade. Her eyes felt fit to burst in the airless void.

  Tripp and Jaycee reached Opera Charlie’s outer airlock door. They hadn’t seen the commotion - their attention was on Charlie’s outer airlock hatch.

  “Open up,” Tripp said with his last breath, “Now.”

  A miracle.

  Opera Charlie’s outer hatch opened up and allowed him and Jaycee inside. They pulled themselves in and immediately felt the pressure inside, as if their bodies were about to burst.

  “Get in,” Tripp pushed himself against the chamber and turned to Alex. A few blobs of pink liquid streaked across the air from Tripp’s tear ducts. He tried to grab a few of them, but missed.

  Jaycee moved forward and hit the lever on the wall.

  SCHWUNT-SWISSSH!

  The outer hatch closed, forcing the chamber to decompress.

  Tripp staggered to his knees and took a lungful of oxygen, “Gaaaah.”

  Jaycee did the same, coughing the infinite void of space from his lungs, “Ugh, I thought my chest was going to explode.”

  “Jelly,” Tripp pushed himself to the window. Alex blocked the view as he carried the kitten in his arms, “They’re going to die.”

  Alex waved his hands, forcing them to open the door. The events on the bridge - Alex barreled toward them, and Jelly preparing to attack Oxade - seemed to play-out in ultra-slow motion.

  WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP.

  Alex thumped the door, “Let us in.”

  Jaycee stormed over to the inner-door and grabbed the lever.

  The door slid up, “Tripp, get in.”

  “Yeah,” he turned around and launched himself into Opera Charlie proper, “Is there anyone else on board?”

  “How should I know?” Jaycee stepped after him and yanked the lever down on the inner door wall, “You got your firearm on you?”

  Tripp unhooked the Rez-9 from his belt and armed it, “Oh, yeah. We made it, Jaycee.”

  “We haven’t made it, yet. We don’t know who - or what - is on board Charlie.”

  “I’ll head for the control deck. Try to get us out of here.”

  “Good idea. I’ll make sure Charlie team doesn’t get in,” Jaycee turned watched Alex thumping the wall yet again, presenting the kitten at the window, “Go, go, go…”