Star Kitten (40 page)

Similarly, the flight of
the Naustie flagship
Anarchy
from the Star Pussy battle site was fraught with
danger; as well as the gradual ongoing threat of mutiny. Admiral
Snout, however, was expecting it or at least anticipating it at all
times. He knew it would sink in with his crew, starting with the
staff on the command bridge, that this would likely be a
one-way mission
; and no
matter how brave they’d all been thus far under his command, well…
time would eventually test their loyalty, Snout was sure of
that.

Subsequently, he took measures to make sure
his crew weren't tempted to mutiny. First off, he changed the crew
and its assignments, switching things around sporadically just to
keep crew members from spending too much time with the same
colleagues. He shortened the duty shifts also, to give crew members
more time to sleep and relax. That also gave them more time to
enjoy some of the female prisoners; which they took full advantage
of by the way.

Of course, more Draconian steps could always
be taken, if time passed and there were real problems with morale.
Insubordination… even the slightest infraction… would have to be
dealt with by confining the crew member to their quarters; and
repeat offenses would result in being sent to the brig. Snout had
plenty of experience with that in his younger days as a freighter
Captain. Cutting rations was another way he could maintain
discipline; and if a crew member pushed the envelope too far, they
could even be threatened with the worst of pirate consequences:
being marooned! That was usually the fate of mutineers when caught
organizing a rebellion. Snout had his ways of finding out of
course; and if crew members were ever suspected of it; he wouldn’t
hesitate to do so.

For the next month, Star
Fleet chased the
Anarchy
hurtling through space at top speed. No, there
was no use explaining the mission to his crew. He knew he couldn’t
really trust anyone with the knowledge that his entire strategy was
to make SURE that Interplanetary Authority units followed him—and
his ship only—through infinite space. No matter what the enemy
Admiral may have thought or suspected about the origin of the
pirate fleet; Snout knew he’d err on the side of caution and tail
this one ship (the
Anarchy
) until it tried to return to
base. That was likely the enemy Admiral’s orders; and if it had
been Snout—that’s exactly what HE would have done also. Just follow
at a comfortable distance and track them all the way to their
hideout, like Pinkertons chasing a Wild West train robber back to
his lair.

Snout had to play a very dangerous game with
all of this. The crew were already suspicious within a couple
weeks; even crew members like the young pure-of-heart Brilly, his
communications officer. It was clear in the questions Brilly asked;
and in the way he seemed to be expecting much longer explanations
whenever Snout would clip off a reasonable (but far too brief)
answer. Yes, even the kind-hearted Brilly had pieced it together by
the second week. There actually was no real destination at all… and
there wouldn’t be one anytime soon that was for sure.

The Admiral of the Star
Fleet squadron pursuing them must have also been growing quite
agitated with the situation as well. Snout had directed the
Anarchy
to fly toward
Earth for two weeks; then he suddenly and surprisingly ordered the
crew on the bridge to change course to a whole new heading before
getting too close to the Earth star system. The erratic move must
have frustrated the squadron pursuing them, causing them to form
all new theories on where the pirates were ultimately
heading.

However… it technically made sense for the
pirates to change heading, because on their present course they
might run into hair-triggered Earther patrol ships. Captains on
these ships had a nasty habit of acting like overzealous border
patrolmen: obliterating anything that looked suspicious; and asking
questions later. “Let’s stay away from those Cowboys and Yahoos,
shall we Mr. Brilly!?” laughed Snout when he ordered his crew to
change course. “We don’t need any trouble from Earthers today. Set
a course for the Kapteyn Star System.” Brilly replied in a relieved
voice, “Roger that Admiral!”

Anarchy’s
next tactic was to head toward a planet called
Kapteyn-B, about 13 light years from Earth. This planet had been
colonized by Earthers years before and had a few relatively
habitable areas along the coasts. Kapteyn’s Star System had been
discovered by a Dutch astronomer named Jacobus Kapteyn in the 19th
Century; and the star was only about one third the size of the
Earth’s sun. However it had two larger Earth-like planets that were
habitable, with Kapteyn-B being the more hospitable of the two. The
surface was solid, and there was water on the planet; but basically
most Earth colonies existed beneath its oceans, farming plankton
and harvesting sea creatures for food. The only buildings on the
planet surface were shipping ports located next to gigantic food
processing plants.

The infamous packaged seafood “cakes” that
came from Kapteyn-B had been exported all over the galaxy and
contained an abundance of protein and nutrients. Millions of these
fishcakes even made their way to New Australia Planetary Prison (in
years past) to be fed to the prisoners there.

Snout planned on just
dropping onto the surface near one of the Kapteyn-B ports and
unloading all the captured prisoners from the
Chengshi
who’d been packed on board
the
Anarchy
all
this time. Sure, they’d been a most pleasant diversion for the crew
to enjoy along the way; but now they were becoming a liability.
Snout didn’t want them around for much longer; and knew they’d be a
problem once food stocks started running low.

Of course, he’d already personally enjoyed a
couple of the more plump and heavy-set human females in his private
quarters. They’d been delightful—once they’d gotten used to him a
bit. After all, he was quite literally a large pig-like humanoid
with pinkish belly, barrel-shaped chest and a thin glaze of fur
stretched over a rather muscular hide. He stood over six feet tall,
with hulking shoulders and three-fingered hoof-like hands. Like
most male Porkos he had scary jagged teeth with a deadly hard bite,
if he was ever provoked; and he walked bow-legged on enormous
legs.

Yes, he was quite
intimidating to look at… and quite disgusting to a female human not
familiar with Porkonjii (and their unique odor). But after a few
boring weeks in space; and a little coaxing; Snout did manage
to
seduce
a
couple of them (if you could possibly manage to call it a
“seduction”, anyway… it was really more like being chased around a
pig pen). It was just a simple way to pass the time, during the
long boring weeks in space. And those two became his favorites. But
enough was enough. After another month in space; and with Star
Fleet still tailing them several million miles away;
Anarchy
finally reached
the Kapteyn star system and the earthlike planet
Kapteyn-B.

Anarchy
made a desperate plunge through the Kapteyn-B
atmosphere to the surface and set down on a barren desert plain.
They were approximately three miles from a known Earther processing
plant and port facility; but that’s as close as Snout would dare to
go. The thick, humid oxygen was barely breathable, but again Snout
had no choice. The Earther prisoners would have to be set free; and
they would have to do their best to march through the foul muggy
air to safety. The crew was sad to see some of them go; to be sure,
but Snout knew they’d have to face facts.
Anarchy
did not have enough food to
keep feeding all these prisoners for several more months in space.
For that matter, Snout still had no idea how long he’d be fleeing
Star Fleet anyway.

Snout knew if he kept all
those humans on board, they’d perish right along with everyone
else… eventually… when Star Fleet finally caught up to them. He
couldn’t bear the thought of that, so he hugged goodbye the pair of
plump Earth women whom he’d enjoyed some fabulous times with. He’d
miss them for a while he figured, but they didn’t deserve to be
cooped up on that ship in his cabin for God knows how long
until
Anarchy
was
finally cornered and destroyed.

The whole population of Earther prisoners
from both genders was put out onto the soft sandy planet surface of
Kapteyn-B with bottles of water to drink; and a small oat bar for a
snack. Snout and his crew watched them trudge off; having
absolutely no idea if they’d all—or even if any of them—would make
it to safety at the Earther seaport miles away. Likely many would
fall prey to swamps or quicksand. For that matter, no one really
even knew for sure what kind of surface predators may exist!
However, Snout was assured by human members of his crew that only
the insects were any nuisance on this horrible planet and none were
big enough to carry off either of Snout's former girlfriends—that
was for sure, they told him.

Though twice as old as Earth, Kapteyn-B had
never really developed a strong flora and fauna on its surface. The
oceans were teaming with life; yes. However the surface was just
insects and sparse plant-life. Earthers came there to farm the
oceans, not the surface. Water was the key. Water could be
manufactured into oxygen; and then the colonists could work under
the sea as plankton farmers and fish ranchers.

Snout waved goodbye to his two “girlfriends”
and watched them waddle off into the desert, wincing at the
broiling sun and gasping in the thick air. He could do no more for
them; it was just time to get back on board and flee the scene
quickly. They’d used up three precious hours already and that was
three hours that Star Fleet could utilize to close the gap on
them.

It was foolish, sure. But
Snout knew he couldn’t just brutally jettison them all into space
to suffocate to death. He’d never be able to live with that; and
neither could the crew. Besides, they… the humans he’d captured off
the
Chengshi
… had
no idea who the pirates were; nor where they came from really. The
crew and its complement of Pumalar marines had most likely “had a
go” with quite a few of them; that was for sure. But Nausties knew
better than to reveal any information about where they came from.
Not to captives anyway! No one ever talked about once being a
prisoner on Rijel 12. Everyone kept that completely secret from
captives while on board.

That said, most everyone in the galaxy had
been suspecting all along that the pirates were actually raiding
from a base on New Australia (actually “Rijel 12” is what everyone
still called it elsewhere in the galaxy). And the average Human,
Zorgolongian, Schpleefti, Porkonji, Slart, or Pumalar watching the
evening news broadcast of the Interplanetary News Network; had been
seeing almost weekly reports about Pirate attacks for over a year;
along with all the speculation as to where the attacks were coming
from. The average being in the galaxy knew what reporters like
Tabby Calico and Patty Persian were implying… the governments
didn’t want to acknowledge it because they were embarrassed. They
didn’t want to “admit it” because… they’d indirectly caused it in
the first place! That prison had been a political and social
disaster for the IPA; and now this “embarrassment” was likely
sending out pirate ships to raid galactic vessels.

No, the Interplanetary Authority wasn’t
going to spend taxpayer money just to send an invasion mission to
New Australia. They’d have a hell of a time landing there, even if
they did! What’s more, if there really were hostile beings living
below the surface; the IPA wasn’t about to try and go underground
to find and kill them. That would be bloody carnage. The
Interplanetary Authority… just wanted to forget the fifty year
mistake they’d made in creating a global prison where all planets
could simply “discard” their undesirables and social
malcontents.

And it was a political matter too! Families
had been clamoring for years to force the IPA to tell the truth
about loved ones sent there. Thankfully, this movement had died
down in recent months, due to the IPA’s official assertion that the
planet had suffered famine and death after the rebellion. So
without irrefutable evidence that the pirates were based there, it
was just safer for the Galactic Convention to vote that its Fleet
patrol the Universe to track pirates back to their bases and
destroy them there.

To that end, the Admiral
on the battleship which commanded the Squadron chasing
Snout’s
Anarchy
,
had but one major task left: follow this pirate ship as long as
necessary to track it back to its home base. IF it turned out that
the ship tried to fly to Rijel 12 (New Australia), THEN Star Fleet
would have the proof it needed to warrant orders from the IPA to
attack. That certainly made things easier for the Star Fleet
Admiral. He only needed to have his crew program the fleeing ship’s
transponder signature into their computer and the battleship
sensors would do all the rest. In a few months, they’d HAVE to land
somewhere for supplies, the Admiral thought… and when they did;
Star Fleet would finally have them snared.

But on the battleship command deck, there
was still a smattering of confusion. Because who exactly was this
they were following? Which ship was it exactly? Battleship
computers kept a database of EVERY ship that had been manufactured
in the past hundred earth years; and even had a mothballed fleet
list for decommissioned ships that might have been secretly
returned to service. This database had all information on the ship,
including its dimensions, capabilities, capacity, and potential
weapons complement.