Эндрю Маккей: Star Cat: War Mage

“What’s the score?” Jaycee asked.

“She won’t listen to me,” Tripp turned to Manny, “Look, this is serious.”

“Manny?” Jaycee muttered.

“I’m sorry, Tripp. I can only take instructions from a commanding officer or my captain. And they are dead.”

“We’re all dead if you don’t enable the thrusters and get us out of here,” Tripp tried to little avail.

“Want me to threaten her?” Jaycee passed the kitten to Tripp, “Give it some of the old ‘user friendly’ approach?”

“I’m afraid that will not work.”

Tripp held the messy kitten in his arms and stared at its face. She nestling into his arms and opened her gunky eyelids.

“Look at you, you have no idea what’s going on, do you?” He said, looking at his forearm. The blisters on his synthetic skin bubbled and popped, “Are you okay, Jaycee?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Ruptured a few vessels. Kind of annoyed about discovering I’m not human, but that’s nothing that a good sleep won’t fix,” Jaycee clenched his fist and threatened to punch the console, “Manny. If we die, you’re coming with us.”

Jelly stormed into the room with Alex, “Where’s my baby?”

Tripp looked up at her and smiled, “She’s right here, with me.”

“Give her to me,” Jelly held out her paws. Tripp dropped the tiny ball of fluff into her palms.

Jelly ran the side of her face along its body. The whiskers on her face lit up, along with her daughter’s. They fizzed and connected together, calming the kitten down.

She took a deep breath and looked at Tripp.

“Why aren’t we moving?”

“The autopilot won’t engage the thrusters.”

“Take her,” Jelly passed her newborn to Tripp and walked up to Manny, “Hey, you . Stupid book. Why won’t you engage the thrusters?”

“Because it is not in my remit to take orders from strangers.”

“Really?” Jelly marched over to the communications console. She knocked Jaycee out of her way and expanded her infinity claws at the screen, “You have five seconds to get us out of here or I’ll rip your guts out.”

Manny shuffled in the air in an attempt to seem calm, “You can do that if you wish. It won’t help.”

Alex stepped forward. He knew what had to be done, “Manny?”

“Yes, Alex?”

“Captain Weller was killed on his mission. That makes me the captain, now.”

Tripp, Jaycee, and Jelly turned to Alex with relief.

“Captain Weller is dead?” Manny asked.

“Yes, Jelly killed him. And Nutrene, and droids Poz and Neg.”

“I see.”

“Make no mistake. Anderson is in charge, now, after me. I hereby assign full captain privileges to Anderson in the event of anything happening to me. ”

Manny froze in mid-air and drained the color from her book-body.

“You will take orders from us as we see fit. Do you understand what I’ve just said?”

“In that case I await your commands.”

“Engage thrusters,” Alex said. “Make up a course for Earth, please—”

“—Nggggg,” Jelly grunted in agony, inadvertently catching everyone’s attention, “It’s h-happening again.”

Alex’s eyes widened as he saw Jelly pushing her second baby out from between her legs, “Jesus.”

A gush of transparent liquid fountained down her thighs.

“Stand back. Give her some space,” Tripp said.

Opera Charlie rumbled to life as Jelly rolled onto her side. She arched her knee into the air and meowed at the top of her lungs, “My baby… it’s c-coming…”

KER-RUUNNNCCCHHH!

The spacecraft shunted around, spilling the crew off their balance, “What’s that?” Tripp screamed and clutched at the chair in front of the console.

Opera Charlie’s back thrusters lit up and blasted away from Saturn’s spectacular light show.

The bridge cracked and broke away from Opera Beta entirely. Huge clumps of white metal daggered out and tossed Opera Beta into a sustained revolution, like a Catherine wheel.

KERCHUNK-BOOM!

The bridge severed itself from both vessels and twirled in the air like a discarded bone.

Saturn’s tumultuous ring revolved so fast it threatened to light up the black whirlpool on its surface. The sound it produced was beyond deafening.

BLAST-BLAASSST!

Opera Charlie’s thrusters lit up and sent the structure rocketing away from the planetary event literally unfolding behind them.

The nukes in Opera Beta’s control deck detonated.

“Cover your faces. Don’t look at the window.” Jaycee stood in front of the flight deck windshield, “Beta’s gonna blow—”

In an intense slowing down of motion, Tripp, Jaycee, Alex, and Jelly turned away from the windshield. Tripp covered the kitten’s face with his palm as each of their faces bleached out into a mass of pure white…

KEERRR – WHUD-WHUD-WHUD-WHUDD-DD…

Opera Beta exploded in sections. The sharp-end of the cone rocketed away from the vessel like a bullet. A running detonation devastated its centrifuge, catapulting sections of its shell and insides into space. The middle of the ship rippled and blasted apart, pushing the thruster-end towards Saturn in a haze of destructed glory – enough of a blast to push Opera Charlie away as its thrusters roared into the huge blanket of space…

Jaycee and Tripp picked themselves up from the floor and looked up through the windshield.

Opera Beta and it inhabitants were no more.

A gigantic tear in the fabric of space discharged a shaft of white light that streaked all the way back to Saturn’s core.

“She’s gone,” Tripp muttered, suppressing his emotion. He didn’t dare look away, “They’re all—”

“— Dead ,” Jaycee finished the sentence, “All of them.”

Tripp double-took and passed the kitten to Alex, who took her into his arms.

“What am I meant to do with her?”

“Guard her with your life,” Tripp made for the flight deck, “Manny? Tell me we’re moving.”

“Hyper-thrusters currently engaged,” Manny said. “They’ve ten percent damage, however.”

“Enough to get us back home?”

Manny went quiet.

The silence drew attention to Jelly on the floor kicking her legs and tensing her muscles, “My baby is coming.”

“ Another one?” Tripp ran over to her and held out his arms, “What do you need me to do?”

“Leave me the hell alone,” Jelly squealed and clutched the console edge, “Nggggg…”

“Excuse me, Tripp?” Manny sprang to life, “I’m afraid I have some good news and bad news.”

“What is it? Give me the good news first.”

“The thrusters are engaged at ninety-two percent. We have a better-than-good chance of making it home.”

“And the bad news? I mean, apart from Charlie about to acquire a litter of kittens?”

Manny projected a holograph in the middle of the room. Opera Charlie’s escape from Saturn had slowed it down, perilously close to being pulled back, “We may not leave Saturn’s orbit intact.”

“Oh, great .”

“Maximum capacity on the thrusters, please,” Alex looked at Manny as he comforted the kitten in his arms.

“We can’t outrun a black hole, Hughes.”

“Is that what that is? A black hole?”

“It resembles one. It’s not fully-formed yet. I’ll take my chances on outrunning it and not sticking around to find out.”

Manny threw a holographic projection of the engine’s view of Saturn. It folded out in the middle of the room and showed the giant planet shaking around like a blender at full speed.

“I’ll maximize the capability, but there are no guarantees. The force is threatening to pull us back in,” Manny said.