Star Kitten (31 page)

In a way, it almost seemed
like they were...
singing
! Could that be right? Was
this some ancient Pumalar ritual, to mourn the death of fallen
comrades? Were they singing some traditional funeral dirge?
Kscheeech walked past them, and stared as he passed. Mesmerized, he
almost tripped over a dead body and some debris on the ground, too.
Porko Nausties were all around going through the battle site,
scooping up weapons off dead Police and fellow Nausties, tossing
them into bins and carrying them back to the port for reloading.
Other Porkos came along and scooped up bodies of fallen Nausties
and returned them to the ship. The wounded were being hauled off to
the waiting Naustie craft at Pumalar Port for a quick evacuation
back to New Australia. But Kscheeech wanted to be on that ship with
his biggest prize of the day’s victory: Felina Toyger, the Star
Kitten. So he searched in vain through the mass of huddled
captives.

Everyone was scurrying about all around him.
Only the Nausties assigned to guarding the prisoners stood still or
walked slowly around the huddle of prisoners. No one dared try to
escape. They were armed, sure, but the Nausties' appearances were
far more terrifying even than their guns. Even if they'd been armed
with butter knives, not one of these helpless horrified females
would have tried to run for it.

Kscheeech debated how to approach this. He
couldn’t understand anything the Pumalar Empaths were saying… and
he wasn’t even sure if they were saying really anything at all. It
seemed like they were just wailing and crying mournfully; yet not
really singing along with each other or mouthing anything like
lyrics to their songs. Just randomly meowing; is all he could make
out. Frankly it was almost terrifying, especially to Kscheeech who
stood barely five feet tall. He looked around and saw a large
billboard overhead that had an electrified animated screen showing
scenes of the Star Kitten herself, waving back subtly and glaring
alluringly.

In the animated image showing above the
street, “Felina the Star Kitten” held a finger up to her lips as if
to say “shhhhh” then winked in a sexy manner. The five second video
was on a loop and continued to play over and over again; while a
banner advertisement repeatedly scrolled slowly across perpetually
urging customers to “make reservations with a Star Pussy Empath
tonight”.

It gave him an idea! He walked up to the
terrified giant she-cats and stood for a moment with his hands on
his hips. Hmmm, what to say to them, he wondered. At first he
stammered out, “Um, ex-ssscuse me ladies...,” but he couldn’t get
anywhere with them. None of them acknowledged or even looked at
him. They just kept wailing and meowing mournfully.

Then a pair of Porkonjii came by with a
stretcher that held a large injured Pumalar Naustie warrior. He was
bleeding terribly and needed to get to a surgeon quickly before he
bled to death, but Kscheeech really desperately needed his
assistance. Kscheeech said, “Ex-ssscuse me could I get your help
for a moment?” The big cat looked up through pained eyes and
noticed he was being addressed by Captain Kscheeech himself, the
Admiral’s first mate and close confidant. The cat’s eyes widened
and he raised his hand up to salute but was barely able to do so.
Kscheeech interrupted this effort with “No, no, no… no need for
that. I jussst don’t know how to get theez… I don’t how to get
their attention and I need to ask them how to find s-sssomeone…
Felina actually. Could you help me communicate with them?”

The giant cat didn’t hesitate for even a
moment. Just rolled over to his side and tried to raise up from the
stretcher, even as the two Porkonjii carrying him snorted
indignantly in protest. It took him several moments but when he
stood up fully erect, the she-cats began to increase their wailing
and moaning to the point it was almost deafening. Taking in a deep
painful breath while holding a field dressing close to his gashed
chest, the big Pumalar heaved out a five second-long (quite
horrifying) lion-like roar that terrified the already cowering
females. When he finished they were completely silent, almost
crouching in obedience. Kscheeech too, was even a bit startled by
the ferocity of it all. The warrior had seemed almost half-dead
when the two Porkonjii brought him past only moments ago; yet now
he’d silenced the entire crowd.

Kscheeech thanked the
warrior, as the big cat laid back down on the stretcher. The
Pumalar then looked up at Kscheeech and growled, “Now... ask
question.” Kscheeech didn’t hesitate. He just took a moment to have
two other nearby Porkonji guards hoist him up on their shoulders so
that the Pumalar females could all see him. Then he pointed up to
the flashing billboard overhead and yelled, “WHERE… FELINA???” The
she-cats all looked right up at the sign and one by one looked
right back at Kscheeech, shaking their heads... bowing obediently.
Kscheeech was confused. He looked down at the Pumalar lying on the
stretcher. As the Porkonjii carrying him prepared to whisk him away
to the ship for evacuation, the big cat snarled, “Pumalar not lie.
Pumalar no can lie. Ask other question.” Kscheeech realized
immediately what the warrior meant. Pumalars were incapable of
lying. The she-cats were simply hanging their heads in shame
because they
did not know where Felina
was
. So Kscheeech turned back to them and
bellowed out even more sternly, “WHERE… S-sssTARFISH???”

Starfish was the name of the restaurant she
always went to for dinner after work. Kscheeech had learned that
from talking with Meerah earlier that day. If she’d gone to that
restaurant after work; she’d probably (hopefully) been trapped
there during the battle. Kscheeech was amazed at the response to
this question. “Where Starfish?” was greeted with nearly five
hundred arms thrusting in the same direction, pointing down the
street to the same location. They yelled out excitedly in both
Galactic and in their native Pumalar language, “THERE. Restaurant
is there! Starfish…there!”

Kscheeech nodded and thanked them all with a
grin. Then he had the Porko guards let him down from their
shoulders. When he looked back to thank the Pumalar warrior, the
Porkos carrying his stretcher were already whisking him away. “Wow,
what an experience...!” said Kscheeech under his breath.

With a spring in his step he walked briskly
down the street to what was once one of the most fancy, swank
restaurants on all of Star Pussy. He also laughed to himself about
the excitement of hearing a Pumalar male take command of a crowd of
females; with nothing but just a fierce roar.

Within a few minutes Kscheeech was standing
out in front of the place. Here it was, the famous “Starfish”
restaurant… but oh, what a woeful state of affairs! A shot-up sign
dangled from the entrance, secured on only one side. It clearly
once showed a big yellow gold star with a pink feminine-faced
cartoon fish winking back (including long elegant eyelashes and
luscious red lips). But now it was riddled with bullet holes.
Kscheeech sighed. It almost depressed him to see all the
destruction the battle had caused. In a way, he longed to see what
it had once appeared like, before bullets had ripped the place to
shreds. But it was far too late for that now. His cold reptile
blood ran a bit colder with dread when he saw the devastation. How
could anything in this place still be alive?

Bodies were everywhere. Dead Police
officers, dead civilians too. The carnage was appalling. Some of
the dead were piled up on top of barricades to create extra shields
against enemy fire. Their bodies had been pulverized and mangled by
flying bullets during SP Police counterattacks. The interior had
been shot to hell too. The giant aquarium had been all but
obliterated, and dead or dying sea creatures were everywhere strewn
across the floor. It smelled disgusting and looked horrifying.
Could Felina have actually been inside when all this occurred? If
so, how could she have survived it?

Kscheeech made his way through the bodies
and debris back to the kitchen. It was all silent now inside the
restaurant. Very little noise outside too, just the yelling of the
Porkonji guards driving the female captives off to the space port
for extraction, and the moans of wounded being tended to; or
executed if they were SP Police. That was Naustie policy regarding
wounded enemies. Leave few if any witnesses, whenever possible.

Kscheeech crept through the restaurant
stepping over bodies of dead customers shot up in the firefight
earlier. He went way around the sand shark that lay on the floor
motionless (but still its creepy eyes seemed to be glaring right
back at Kscheeech). He winced when he stepped on a spiny sea
urchin, but his big lizard feet didn’t puncture easily like a human
foot would. He stepped lightly through puddles of sea water mixed
with algae and blood… his innate reptile lizard senses telling him
there was still someone hiding somewhere in the place. He could
just feel she was still in there. So he kept on looking. He crept
carefully into the kitchen. Moved slowly and quietly.

More bodies. One dead human male, crumpled
in the corner… yet another lying in the doorway of a walk-in
pantry. Inside the freezer room there were two or three young
Porkonjii that Kscheeech could see… all face down; shot to death
execution style. He stepped slowly and gently through the puddles
of sea water which had dribbled in from the burst aquarium. It
smelled like a fish market—actually more like an abandoned fish
market at the end of a long hot summer day back home on Zorgolong.
Sensing she was near, Kscheeech picked up a large chef’s knife from
a cutting board on the food prep table in the center of the very
large kitchen. He stepped carefully between the food prep area and
the stainless steel industrial stoves until he found yet another
body.

This dead human corpse was so grotesque it
even made Kscheeech (old hardened space pirate that he was) shriek
back with disgust. The nose of the man was obliterated, the eyes
and mouth still wide open aghast with horror as though the victim
was pleading for his poor pathetic life when he was shot. The
entire back of his head was gone, and brains were oozing out of his
blown-open skull. Kscheeech actually felt a bit nauseous at the
gory sight! But then Kscheeech noticed a slightly cracked open
cabinet door....

Could this be large enough for someone to be
hiding inside? It sure looked enormous. And no one would have
thought to look there either! In their haste, the pirates
apparently opened closets and pantries and walk-in freezers,
killing everyone except attractive marketable females. They
wouldn’t have bothered to check cabinets... certainly not a
sliding-door cabinet underneath a kitchen counter. That’s where
pots and pans go. Kscheeech looked around the kitchen floor; and
grinned evilly. Chafing Dishes and pans were strewn everywhere…
clearly taken from somewhere and dumped out on the floor. But why?
Only one reason possible, thought Kscheeech: A cabinet had to have
been emptied in a really big hurry.

He nodded and snickered. She was probably
right there hiding... and likely had been all along... right under
everyone’s noses and snouts. Kscheeech gripped his chef knife and
nimbly hopped from the floor right up on top of the stainless steel
table. It made a huge clank from his big lizard feet and claws
landing on it; and someone—or maybe more than one being inside
below—suddenly let out a startled yelp.

“Ah…, here you are, my dear,” snarled
Kscheeech in a low menacing voice. More rustling could be heard in
the cabinet below him.

He knelt and crouched on the table, peering
carefully over the edge so that his long lizard mouth was near the
cracked-open sliding cabinet door. As he did so, he could see his
reflection in the polished steel stove door across from him. Inside
he could see movement and glistening eyes looking out.

In a sinister voice, he muttered slowly,
“Hello… Sssstar Kitten. I’ve been looking for you.”

When Kscheeech captured Felina in the
kitchen, she slowly crawled out of her cabinet hiding place, all
sore and hobbled from being curled up inside such a tiny area for
so long. Following her, climbing out from inside, was her best
friend Rex Middlefield; and Kscheeech suddenly found he had a real
dilemma on his hands. Should he execute this male human? Or should
he give him to the Arian Knights to make sport of perhaps; on their
long voyage home? Actually Felina would end up making the decision
for him.

Kscheeech eyed the human viciously and
pondered what to do; then looked back at Felina. “You’ll be coming
with us-sss now,” he hissed at her menacingly. Then the tall
slender beauty merely looked Kscheeech square in the eye and said,
“Very well… but he’s coming with us too. This… is my friend Rex.
He’s a chef.” Kscheeech was so flabbergasted at what he thought at
first was her audacity in giving orders of her own (to a ferocious
lizard-creature brandishing a large chef knife) that he glared back
at her for a moment; and heaved out an indignant sigh. But dammit
if he didn’t find himself more than glad to accommodate her
demands, after only a few more seconds. She seemed to just have
some magical effect on him; as he marched his two prisoners back to
the docking station.

When they finally got
back, a single male Pumalar guard was all Kscheeech needed at
first. As he sat in the command pod, he got to know this incredible
creature Felina—and her male friend—very well. The Pumalar guard
merely stood by and stared the two down, while they talked for some
time with Kscheeech. Then after a while Kscheeech even dismissed
the very tired guard to go get some sleep while stevedores outside
launched the
Varanus
and prepared to accept the
Chengshi
once again. During the
course of an hour conversing with the amazing Empath, Kscheeech
became quite enthralled with her as well as her companion Rex. They
had lots of questions for the paunchy lizard.