Star Kitten (25 page)

It had actually been a Pumalar tradition
that was copied by the Confederation… divvying up captured females
after plundering a captured town or village was part of their
military culture. It was much like when pirates hoard all the
plunder into one location on board after a successful raid, then
the Captain takes his cut and divides the rest among his crew.

Solomon sighed a moment then asked, “But
what about Pumalars? We never get those here. I would like to find
Pumalar females for my warriors in Schpleeftkorkii who come from
that planet. These human females… they don’t last very long with my
tribe.” What Solomon was referring to vaguely, was the
Schpleeftkorkii ritual of bringing in a new member to their gang
(tribe now) and “sharing” them with everyone. This might go on for
days while the different tribal members could enjoy the new member
in any which way they pleased until finally the new member was
“accepted” into the tribe. It had begun innocently enough years
before by having a new prisoner assigned to their section paired
off with a different worker for several days then rotated around
the tribe until the entire tribe had enjoyed an opportunity to work
with them, talk with them, and perhaps get to know them better.
This is how Architeuthis and Solomon learned about each other years
before and became such great friends, for instance.

But when females came in,
the tradition of “kujua wewe” (
getting to
know you
, in Swahili) sort of devolved
into passing around the female throughout the tribe until everyone
had gotten to experience them. Some of the females—the human
“women” especially—exhausted themselves rather quickly doing that.
Then again, many actually flourished. Amazingly enough some of the
women captured from Earth vessels and space colonies excelled
during their
kujua wewe
and became inducted into the tribe! They’d be
given a new tribal name… painted and decorated from head to toe
with designs that referenced their new name.

Their new name reflected some aspect of
their anatomy or their sexual persona that had been commonly
recognized by the tribe, like “Gushing Rose”, “Screeching Lioness”,
“Dangling Fruit”, “Howling Bitch”, or “Apple Bottom”. Each title
was indicative of what could be expected of them or what they
offered during community interactions with the males of the tribe.
For example, Solomon’s tribal name was Uume Kubwa (the Swahili
words for big penis… but it had the dual meaning of referencing his
past as a warlord just as much as his endowment).

Kcsheeech and Snout looked
at each other and then back at Solomon grinning. Snout snorted and
grunted humorously while letting Kcsheeech answer the Terminal
Chief for them. “Chief… if you want Pumalar females-ssss… we
actually already have a place in mind where we can get you what
you’re asking for. Have you ever heard of a place called…
S-ssstar
Pussy
?”

Solomon grinned with that kind of inebriated
humor one gets from that first glass of beer; and then he chuckled,
“It’s called what?” Snout grunted, "Star Pussy, Commander. It's a
converted space station, now used as a galactic brothel. Thousands
of females…." Then Kscheeech jumped in with, "Yes-sss, let us tell
you more."

In a little more than an hour he’d learned
all about the place; and with no hesitation agreed to sending a
mission there. One big score on this floating palace; and New
Australia could triple or even quadruple its female
population….

The voyage to Star Pussy
would take about three weeks, Kscheeech and Snout estimated; as
they readied the Anarchy for departure from the New Australia
Terminal Loading Bay. However, they asked Solomon to give them up
to three months to return from accomplishing the mission.
Things could get dicey
,
they warned him, as they boarded their ship and prepared to
launch….

One week into the voyage to Star Pussy
though, Kscheeech found himself alone in his quarters contemplating
the mission he'd been assigned. Alone with his thoughts as he
considered the sheer scope of it, he typed out a battle plan on a
Zorg-compatible handheld touch screen with long lizard-like
claws.

Basically the general plan was to take off
from New Australia with the entire fleet and travel through Deep
Space—practically undetected. Stay out of well-traveled
interplanetary freight routes, finally appearing again in major
shipping lanes in about two weeks (give or take a day). That was
the easy part. Eight ships were outfitted for battle, each of them
loaded with a full brigade of assault troops in their cargo holds.
Two additional cargo ships traveled with the fleet, but would be
held in reserve and remain outside of Star Fleet Patrol routes, at
the ready to be called in for any necessary emergency
extraction.

If the attack was a failure, and Star Fleet
showed up ready to do battle, then the Naustie pirate fleet was to
break off and head for New Australia through Deep Space—each ship
taking different routes home so to confuse any pursuers.

If the attack was a success, the two reserve
ships were to be called in to dock and extract prisoners. Each
could hold over a thousand captives in their hold; which was rather
ambitious, but Solomon was serious about achieving a “home run” on
this mission, if it was at all possible.

His overall impression
over the past year regarding New Australia had been that the
introduction of female slaves into the tribes had been quite good
for the planet; and the positive effects were being felt in terms
of enriched tribal societies. There’d been improvement in overall
health and sanitation. Tribal communities seemed even stronger as
well. It certainly led to tidier living conditions and cleanliness;
as well as
better
overall public order.

This certainly surprised Solomon, in that
his first expectation was that tribes would begin fighting with
each other over females, especially if long-suppressed rivalries
between some historically contentious tribes began to resurface.
Solomon just figured this could give hotheaded tribesmen an excuse
to return to conflict; and destabilize the productive peace New
Australia now enjoyed. Not so, it seemed... the tribes merely
resorted to trading females of different species with each other
just like any other luxury trade good.

From the very start… when
the very first ship arrived with fifty wide-eyed terrified and
quite withered female humans taken during a raid… the Tribal
Confederation wisely ordered the peaceful turn-based distribution
of captured females which led to a very stable bartering system for
supplies using females as an additional trade commodity. Arriving
Naustie freighters would unload their plunder, including captured
females, and the tribes would send a delegate with a small escort
to receive any new slaves when it was their turn. Depending on how
appealing the captured females were, they could certainly either
offer the slaves to their tribesmen for entertainment—or they might
simply trade them with other tribes for necessary supplies.
Earther, Porko, and Zorg females were the most commonly
captured.
However Earther women were the
most prevalent by far
.

Kscheeech himself, was
actually quite the connoisseur of human females captives; and on
board the
Anarchy
, he most certainly enjoyed them during the long voyages. It
delighted him to receive a human female in his private quarters for
the first time; led in bound and stripped naked so to practically
petrify the captive woman. The poor young lady might have feared
the worst when first entering... screaming with terror seeing a
menacing looking lizard-like being crouched in the corner hissing
when she was brought in (lights down low and red heat lamps driving
the temperature into the 90's to replicate his jungle-like homeland
back on Zorgolong). But Kscheeech loved Earther women and took
extremely good care of them—thrilling them in his quarters for
hours and hours when he was off duty.

Zorgolongians had all evolved from a common
ancestor called the Eudibamus. This species of bipedal lizard stood
erect and could sprint to hunt down prey. They died out on Earth
hundreds of millions of years ago, but on Zorgolong they continued
to thrive and evolve and grow over the millennia, until they stood
nearly five feet tall. Being able to stand and walk—or run—meant
they could elude predators as well as learn how to use simple hand
tools to defend themselves and even hunt. They became the dominant
species and eventually developed into highly intelligent beings.
Not wise, and not even particularly brave, they were nevertheless
very clever indeed. Clever enough to eventually rule their own
planet….

The
Anarchy
now was the flagship of the
Naustie fleet, and Snout had been made Admiral. But Snout was still
just a ship's captain by nature (mainly just good at commanding a
star ship, and delegating the rest). Kscheeech, however, was the
sharp-minded First Mate who helped his Admiral with quick decision
making and the avoidance of dangerous situations. That’s what Snout
liked about him. Pirates throughout history knew they could only
stay alive as long as they avoided direct confrontation with naval
fleets or heavily armed defenders. Kscheeech had the right
instincts for that, as well as avoiding detection by Star Fleet of
the location of his home base. And that’s what Solomon liked best
about him.

Slarts had not been used as crew on the
actual ships, and the crews likely could have used their brilliant
minds for mathematical calculations and devising probabilities for
interception by Star Fleet. Yet the crew didn't mind in the least,
because they had Kscheeech. He didn't know much about math, but he
most certainly could smell an ambush before anyone else could.
Snout trusted him implicitly; and so did the crew.

For this mission, each of
the eight assault ships in the fleet, including the
Anarchy
, had been
stripped of most all their cargo in their holds; to make room for
troops. A full brigade was packed into each, but there was room
enough for them to train and work on getting into a high level of
fitness and battle-readiness. They'd need it, Kscheeech assured
Admiral Snout. Star Pussy was indeed a more formidable target than
any of them had faced as of yet: Larger defense force, in a more
concentrated area, and on top of that, this attack would be
occurring in space, not on a planet surface.

As he sat in his quarters
on a fluffy bed made of simulated jungle leaves, Kscheeech took a
break from typing on his handheld and watched a recorded broadcast
from the IPN network on his giant room video monitor. The
recordings of broadcasts had been stored in the ship’s computer for
Kscheeech to study during the voyage. There was a lot he could
learn from them (news broadcasts about pirates, reports about
distant colonies in space that made for good raiding targets…things
like that). IPN network actually even had a
Star Pussy Channel
, which
transmitted right from the converted space station itself. From
this channel, Kscheeech was able to download recorded shows that he
could watch over and over again to study his target objective. How
convenient this turned out to be! It was like a general being able
to look at a documentary movie made about a fortress he was about
to attack.

He even found a program called "Your Safety
on Star Pussy". What a show this was—it even made him chuckle a bit
at the sheer irony of what he was seeing. Maps, diagrams of the
station, animated cutaways showing locations of police stations,
patrol routes for police patrols, shuttle vehicle security and
emergency call stations, response procedures for riots or
"disruptions of the peace"—it even had a map of the police
headquarters. Even had an interview with the damn Chief of
Police!

So much great information. It gradually gave
Kscheeech the idea for his attack and he planned it all out to the
most minor detail after the recorded broadcast ended. For the next
hour, the ideas flowed….

He typed it all out for
Admiral Snout’s eventual review
: land one
newly captured freighter under a false flag, secure the dock with
shock troops, fan out to capture nearby stations, and land
additional craft. Pretty simple really. Travel on captured shuttle
vehicles to the police headquarters and to other sections of Star
Pussy (using the facility’s transportation network much like they
did back on New Australia with the old Service Tunnel).

Eliminate all resistance. Capture the police
headquarters. Kill the police chief. Basically a complete takeover
of the station accomplished within a day or two; then land
additional freighters for the extraction of females. They could use
the space station's own shuttle vehicle system to transport
captured females out to the waiting Naustie freighters; and in a
matter of hours pile them all in… and as always... get the hell out
before Star Fleet warships arrived.

Next day, Admiral Snout
read through the report on the bridge of the
Anarchy
, looking up occasionally to
glare at his trusty First Mate. The Admiral snorted a few times
with apprehension. This was a really dangerous plan thought
Snout—and he wondered how the generals would react to it. Kscheeech
could understand his Admiral’s hesitation. This was certainly
ambitious. But Kscheeech felt the need to stage a massive attack
which could last three full days if Star Fleet hadn't responded
already. In his mind they needed to seize the entire facility. That
made the most sense; and was probably the safest bet.