Kitty Katt 11: Alien Separation (52 page)

“A
ND I CAN'T WAIT
to kill all of you in the same way,” Chuckie went on. “Every last one of you.”

Got the distinct impression that he meant this, in a very real and very personal way. Also had the impression that the Z'porrah were standing in for Cliff right now in his mind. Couldn't argue with that, really.

“And right after we enjoyed that particular hand-to-hand combat,” I said quickly, before he could go on, or Jeff had to obviously restrain him, “we took over her ship. What you fail to realize is that this system has far more protections than you're aware of. One of those is on Beta Eight. Beta Eight has more protections than this one, as well, but what I'm talking about for this scenario is a giant laser cannon. We'd like to show you what it will do to an attacking ship. Lenore's command ship, for example. Commander Dwyer, go ahead.”

“On your order, Commander Martini. Firing in three . . . two . . . one . . .”

This was our biggest special effect, and the one everyone was most worried about working. Serene and Rohini had altered the telescope to reflect the sunlight. We had several ships in the fleet stationed at points both within the planet's atmosphere and at different distances in space, all leading toward the wreckage of the Shantanu ship.

The picture shifted to the ship nearest the telescope, which was a Feliniad vessel. Happily, the telescope “fired” right after Serene said “one” and the ship caught it well. The view onscreen instantly shifted to the next ships in line, some of whom were catching the light, and some of whom were making their own and enhancing the light coming up from the planet.

Because everyone involved in this portion had hyperspeed—the crew member handling the view switches in particular—it went well, with no discernible breaks in coverage.

The picture switched for the last time, to show a gigantic burst of light. This had been filmed earlier, by having every ship in the fleet shine their lights toward where our action was taking place, and then splicing them together to create the huge light show. Serene was the current Head of Imageering and Christopher was the former, meaning that this was done well and easily.

As the light died down, remains of the Shantanu ship we'd brought up from the planet were floating there. The Cleophese had broken it up into smaller pieces for us, so that it would be difficult to tell that the remains were from an allied ship.

“That wreckage was from one shot. A wide lens shot. We can make the shots more pinpoint, but when you're destroying something you really want to obliterate, wide lens is the way to go. And lest you think we're faking it, I have a handheld version with me. Please watch your live demonstration.”

Pointed my “laser” penlight at Usha, who screamed. “No! Please! I helped you! I cooperated!”

“Sorry. You work for the Z'porrah, so you get to die.” Turned the light on her.

This was Christopher's cue and he didn't disappoint. He zipped in at full Flash Level, grabbed Usha, and took her off-screen, while Reader surreptitiously took pictures with his phone camera aimed right at our ship's internal camera—with the flash on high. To everyone watching it looked like Usha was here one moment and completely obliterated by the laser flash the next.

Turned the penlight off and looked back at the screen. “So, one more Z'porrah spy down.”

“We will destroy you,” K'tano said. He sounded angry and, happily, just a little scared.

I snorted. Loudly. “Oh, you can try. I mean, I know what you're thinking. ‘Oh, they have a laser cannon and some spaceships and lots of people who are seriously angry with us. But we don't care because we think we have more ships and we know that we still have allies in that system. Plus we have a giant Dino-Bird army. And now we're here to say that we don't just have one Hulk. We have a plethora. Dino-Guys and Gals, meet the Cleophese.”

Another cue, this time for the cameras to beam what was going on outside, a little ways away from the site of the laser destruction, to the Z'porrah, and for the Cleophese to do their Hulk Smash thing.

There were only four ships and a lot of Cleophese. So it took them almost no time to rip the four ships apart. Then they ate all the remains. Nice to know the Cleophese could do that without harming themselves. Had no idea how they could do that and not explode in space, either, but since they were not exploding, figured they had their ways. Maybe dwelling at the bottom of deep seas gave them special advantages in the airless vacuum of space. Maybe I'd ask Rohini about it later. Much, much later.

I let the silence build as the Space Sea Monsters did their thing. Then they sort of swam over to the ships in our part of the fleet, being careful not to block any key ships' windshields. They dwarfed most of the ships—only the gigantic Alpha Four battle cruisers looked normal next to the Cleophese.

“Now,” I said sweetly, “you've met some of our other allies. They happen to live in this solar system and they happen to dislike you Z'porrah on general principle. Which shows how highly intelligent they are. Your allies here are conquered. Speaking of which . . .” Pointed the laser at Lakin.

Who cringed and put his claw hands up. “No! Please! I beg for mercy! The remaining Rapacians give full fealty to Earth and Alpha Four. We will fight for the Imperial Monarchy forever if you will spare us.”

He was acting, but he did actually mean this—that had been agreed to during our planning session. And since he was now the leader of the Rapacians—us having killed off the other leaders—Lakin's word was Rapacian law.

“But King Alexander showed mercy to the Z'porrah, and they returned that kindness by sending more of their spies and insurgents into this solar system. They repaid the magnanimous gesture by coming here to destroy everyone. You're a bird-race, too. Why should we trust you?”

Lakin shook his head and stood up slowly. “We are avian, yes. But we are not of the Z'porrah. We are of Ancient blood and design, and we will always be. The Ancient's enemies are our enemies, just as enemies of the Earth's and the Imperial Monarchy's are our enemies. I vow this for all Rapacians, from here forward.”

I appeared to study him for a few long seconds. “Fine. We'll be keeping an eye on you—just as we're keeping an eye on Alpha Five and Alpha Six. But for now your life and your planet are spared.”

Looked back at the Dino-Birds. “So, despite all this, I know you still think you have an ace up your flowing, feathered sleeves, and that's the fact that you have a puppet as the king of Beta Eight.”

2.0 stepped up next to me and waved. “Hey there, K'tano, is it? And Ast'ria and Riol, too, right? How's it going? Look, apparently I was supposed to be some useless figurehead, just holding a planet for you until you came to destroy it. But, well, I got a better offer. I'm happily with Earth and the Imperial Monarchy, where they don't just use you and then throw you away. So, there is no planet in this system that is open or sympathetic to your cause.”

“Thanks, Ronnie. Keep an eye on Lakin for me, would you?” Handed him the penlight, which he then aimed at Lakin. Those two moved back, so that I was once again in the foreground. “I realize this has been a lot for your birdbrains to take in. So, let me lay out your options for you.

“Option A is that you can turn your nasty Dino-Bird asses around and leave, and by leave I mean never darken Alpha Centauri or Earth solar systems again. And by never darken I include that to mean that you will stop sending spies and insurgents into our systems.

“Or, as Option B, you can try to fight us. Keeping in mind that there are more Cleophese on their way to guard every planet and support all of the fleet—which conveniently enough your actions mobilized, so everyone's all fired up and ready and, now that the civil war is over, just itching to shoot at the people who made them start fighting in the first place. You know how it is when you get your fancy ships up into space—you just want to blow stuff up all over the place. Something I realize you're all itching to do, too.”

“If you do choose to fight,” Chuckie said, once again not on script, “then know that we know where you are. I saw all of you in your ships, coming here. I saw where you came from. I can find your home planet now, with ease. And if you attack I'm going to ensure that everyone in this system knows where your home planet is, too.”

“Meaning we'll bring this war to you next,” I said. Off script or not, had a feeling Chuckie was definitely scaring the Z'porrah. “We're going to make sure that everyone in both solar systems has a map to your house. And then we're going to use that map and we're going to turn your planet into rubble. Because if that's what it takes to make you leave us all the hell alone, then that's what we'll do.”

I made and held eye contact with K'tano. Not as hard to do as it sounded—the audiovisual in this solar system was top-of-the-line.

“If it were me, I'd choose Option A. But I've never felt you were as smart as me. So, if you go with the same plan that failed before and choose Option B, I have just one thing to say to you. Bring it.”

A
ND NOW WE SHUT UP.
This was what I'd stressed the most in the planning session—that once I made this final offer, no one else, on any ship in the fleet, was to speak.

Everyone—even Chuckie, which, today, seemed like a miracle—managed to keep their traps shut. The silence spread out. And still we waited. And while we waited, I tested my staredown skills on K'tano.

He was tough, I had to give him that. But in the end, maybe because of the oxygen-rich atmosphere I'd been in for days, he wasn't Mom or Chuckie. I won—he looked away.

Then he turned away from the cameras, as did Ast'ria and Riol. And their screen went blank.

“Audio as well as visual cut to Z'porrah fleet,” the fleet announcer shared.

“All ships, stand by,” Alexander said.

We waited.

“Sire, this is Battalion Ship Twenty-Seven-Twelve, on sentry at the Z'porrah point of entry into our system.”

Felt everyone on every ship hold their breath.

“Go on,” Alexander said.

“Sire, the Z'porrah fleet is in full retreat. Repeat, enemy ships are in full retreat at warp. And have just made a hyperleap through their traveling wormhole. They are now nowhere near our solar system.”

As we cheered, other sentries reported no signs of the Z'porrah fleet popping out anywhere we didn't want them, Earth solar system included.

Christopher and Usha rejoined us. “I'm honestly shocked they fell for it,” he said.

Usha shook her head. “They aren't used to being lied to. They're used to frantic begging and a variety of offers and bribes, but someone risking everything by staging a fake show like this? I don't believe it's ever happened to them.”

“You'd think a people who'd been around for longer than humans can contemplate, let alone individuals who've been around for three or four hundred years, would figure out that liars and fakes exist. But I'm perfectly happy with the outcome, so let's keep them naïvely in the dark.”

“I'm all for that,” 2.0 said. “So, now what?”

“Now we all go home.” Of course, I knew it wasn't as simple as that. No one leaves a war, even one that's over, all that quickly. Especially when there were innocents who still needed protecting.

“By home, do you mean Earth or Beta Eight?” 2.0 asked. “For me, I mean.”

“Honestly, Ronnie, I'm not sure. I think discussion needs to happen. About a variety of things.”

“I have no home,” Usha said. “Though I assume a prison will be where I reside for the foreseeable future.”

“Perhaps,” Fancy said. “You have committed grievous crimes against my people. But you have also done much to save them.”

“Like I said, we have a lot of discussion topics.”

“As long as we're discussing when we go back to Earth,” Reader said, “I'm good with that.”

“Let's regroup on Beta Eight,” Bettini suggested. “I would like to have Rohini involved in discussions.”

This plan was agreed to by all. So, all the Earthers and Beta Eight natives, along with the leadership from the other planets, went on down to the spiral world.

The first order of business was advising Earth of our whereabouts and the situation that had just happened. Who to tell was the question.

“I'd let Vince know, and Kitty would tell her mother,” Jeff said, accurately.

“But I'd tell Cliff.” Chuckie wasn't on the angry side of his latest mood swing—he was on the depressed side.

“So tell him,” Tim said. “Just do it in a way where you don't sound like you want to kill him.”

“What if they've already caught him? What if he's on the run?” Chuckie sounded ready to cry. This was so unlike him that I could honestly say I was more worried about him than Jamie, who was in Jeff's arms and asleep, her head on his shoulder.

Time to solve this dilemma. “We'll send the communication to Hacker International. Chernobog can decipher anything, and Stryker will disseminate as needed.”

Everyone stared at me. “Good one,” Reader said finally. “I don't know why the rest of us didn't think of that.”

“Um, just finished a gigantic civil war? Anyway, that's the easy decision. The rest are going to take a little more thought.”

“I agree,” Rohini said. “And I believe everyone should rest, relax, and eat before those discussions begin.”

No one argued because we were all coming down from the adrenaline rush of the last day.

Where everyone was going to bed down and such was decided quickly. While the strautruch and the Lecanora offered to let us all stay with them, everyone other than a select few actually ended up in a Shantanu Emergency City, which was something they carried with them. It wasn't really a city, though it was big. But it provided shelter and set up quickly. It was put on the site of the now-demolished castle.

The Matriarchs insisted that several of us needed to stay in the Purple Land. So Jeff, Jamie, Gower, and Chuckie were required. Jeff had been near death, Jamie and Gower were still showing signs of sluggishness, and no one needed convincing that Chuckie wasn't himself. There was no way I wasn't staying with them, and Reader and Christopher said the same. Tito insisted on coming along, too, since we were all his patients.

The Medical Family Group was taken to Boz's nesting city, which happened to be the one closest to the All Seeing Mountain, meaning those of us in the Purple Land were relatively close to those sleeping above the former castle, especially with hyperspeed, and vice versa.

We were given our own large family nest. Saffron, Turkey, and Pinky weren't katyhoppers from Boz's clan, but they'd requested to stay with us and Boz and their Matriarch had agreed. Surprising no one, Wilbur and Ginger had insisted on being with us, too, and of course we had Bruno as well.

So we were one big cuddled-up family. Proving how worried Jeff was about Chuckie, he'd suggested I sleep between the two of them. However, Jamie had insisted on sleeping between me and her Uncle Charles, and no one had argued, especially when the two of them curled up together, with Gower's back up against Chuckie's with Reader next to him. Wilbur and Ginger settled themselves between me and Jamie, too, Ginger at our heads, Wilbur snuggled from the waist down. Bruno went to Chuckie's head and nested down. And a variety of Poofs, both our attached ones and some unattached, snuggled around them, too.

“I feel special,” Jeff said dryly.

“I could put you into isolation, if you'd like,” Tito said. “The Matriarchs can make something that would work similarly.”

“I'll shut up and go to sleep,” Jeff said with a laugh, as I snuggled into his chest.

Christopher was next to Jeff and Tito was sleeping at everyone's heads, with Saffron next to Christopher, Pinky at our feet, Turkey next to Reader, and more Poofs scattered in between everyone.

As everyone fell asleep, I spoke in my mind.
ACE, are you there?

Yes, Kitty, ACE is here.

Is it really over?
Silence.
Sorry. Is our battle with the Z'porrah really over? At least for now?

Yes, Kitty. Kitty has done well.

Will Jamie, Paul, and Chuckie recover?

Yes. Jamie and Paul will recover faster than Chuckie, but Kitty saved Chuckie in time.

Jamie saved him. Or was that you?

ACE helped. Jamie would have made ACE help if ACE was unwilling.

Is that a bad thing?

He didn't reply for a few moments.
No. Not in this case
.

Decided now wasn't the time to ask about other cases.
How long should we stay on Beta Eight? Or, to put it another way, where will Jamie, Paul, and Chuckie recover fastest?

On Beta Eight, though Kitty should only stay a few more days. Once things are settled Kitty and the others can go home. Jamie and Paul will be well by then.

What about Chuckie? When will he be well?

ACE . . . does not know.