Star Kitten (56 page)

Nicky knew, now that they’d found the Service Tunnel, it was
only a matter of locating food, without being detected by Earth
patrols if there were any about. To that end he sent patrols out in
both directions looking for a food warehouse still intact, while
the rest of the ragged refugees marched into the partially lighted
Service Tunnel to make camp and finally get some much-needed rest.
The patrols searched far and wide, hoping to hit the jackpot; then
“
budda-bing
budda-bang
,
just like that”
(as Nicky might have
said), within a week or so they indeed found a food warehouse
(miles away) that had not been destroyed completely in Earth
missile attacks. This discovery ended up yielding several days’
food rations for the now nearly starving refugees.

However… one thing they never found… after another full week
of scouting… was Earthmen. There were none to be seen.
Anywhere
.

“
Yuu mean ta tell me… dey all lefft? Jusss like dat… jusss up
and freakin’ leffft?” asked Nicky with a joyous fire in his eyes.
His tone was that of indignation; but the happiness revealing in
his face was comparatively quite disarming.
Yes
, his scouts reported. They’d
traveled for miles through the Service Tunnel and one unit even
made it all the way back to the remains of the old Terminal Loading
Bay. The Earthmen were gone. All of them. And the evidence of their
hasty exit was quite apparent everywhere. Hospital pods (basically
modular component buildings that had been transported to the
surface and connected to form a vast medical complex) had been
abandoned near troop transport landing sites; and inside some of
them were found the telltale remnants of meatball surgery. Even
some human body parts and organs were left behind that had been
amputated or extracted during surgery. Burn units had even been
established to quickly treat wounded who’d been carried up to the
surface, too. It was a horrifying sight. And the smell of death and
burnt flesh still lingered inside the massive abandoned medical
complex which had beds for nearly a thousand patients, plus
doctor’s quarters, nurse’s stations, bathrooms, showers, and triage
centers. Yet it was all abandoned. No Earthmen… nowhere!

So
that was it… the miracle had indeed happened; and now Nicky
Ciancio, his eyes wide with excitement and his chest swelling up
with pride, was able to address all the refugees that very evening
with the news. “Duh bastuhds aah gahn, fohks! Ouhl of ‘em!” he
exclaimed to the crowd. They could all go up to the surface
now.
The war was
over
!

Felina and her
little daughter rejoiced with all the others. Her husband and all
those gallant heroes below… they’d somehow pulled it off! Naustie
refugees all around them celebrated joyously when the news was
announced; and in a gesture of flamboyant generosity, extra food
rations were given out as well. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief at
the news. For all these weeks they’d been slogging it out day after
day not knowing their fate; and for that matter, even now they
weren’t completely sure! But when the word got around about what
the Spleef scouts came back describing; the refugees began to
accept that at the very least the most dangerous of their problems
was gone. No one was trying to kill them anymore.

The only remaining task now was to try and find the Naustie
merchant fleet. That’s what Nicky told them. Those were his orders
from Solomon, so he gave the command: Any volunteers wishing to
participate in a scouting mission were to go with an armed escort
of Spleef troops up to the surface. The journey would take several
days, they were told. But they were to stay there and try to signal
friendly ships until successful. The Naustie fleet would soon
arrive, from outer space.
Many were skeptical about going, but Felina didn’t
hesitate. These had been her husband’s orders after all! So she and
the adorably effervescent Star Baby quickly joined up with the
platoon of Spleefs and also several brave female Pumalars to go
explore the surface.

Yes… many of
the refugees were hesitant. After all; if they did go up onto the
surface in that intense heat… wearing breather units to get air…
they couldn’t last that long before having to take cover. If they
went up at night; no one could see them, unless they built some
kind of beacon that could withstand windstorms. And worse; what if
they did go up to the surface; and a space craft landing there
turned out to be an Earth army transport or medical evac unit
coming back to pick up more Earther troops? Even a few of the
female Pumalars riding with Felina posed the same question. However
the Spleef scout leading her squad merely wiggled his nose and
replied dryly, “Well, if they don’t try to kill us, then we’ll know
they must be Nausties.” Felina chuckled. That may have been blunt
but it was the right answer. They’d have to risk it if they were
going to be rescued. And they’d have to go up during the day, no
matter how hot it was—that was a given.

Riding in the
back of stinky dump haulers once used by Spleefs to haul dung, they
took off for the Terminal Loading Bay. They sped along the smoothed
out highway of the Service Tunnel, dodging debris and destroyed
vehicles as they cruised along; slowed only by patches of pitch
darkness that they had to light their way through using headlamps.
Not only that, but occasionally they’d travel through a massive
crater created by a missile attack, and this exposed them to the
brutal Rijel sun or freezing cold night air. When they came across
these areas, they had to zig zag around or through rubble-strewn
surfaces. This slowed them down to a crawl at times, making the
journey all the more arduous.

The planet had
been devastated, no doubt about that. Basically there was little
left in the way of infrastructure. The power plant had been
obliterated, there was no electrical system powering oxygen
production systems; and there was no artificial lighting except for
emergency lights powered by independent solar-powered battery
panels connected to them from the surface. These ingenious systems
had been installed years before to give the Service Tunnel constant
lighting around the globe; and a recharging station for electric
vehicles. And though many had been destroyed in the bombing, there
were still thousands of them operating. It gave the refugees and
their scouts at least a little bit of lighting to see their way
through the unexposed parts of the tunnel while they traveled
toward the old Terminal Loading Bay.

During the journey over the next few days, the Pumalars and
their Spleef scouts had a chance to plan what they’d do next when
they got there. The Spleefs were pretty adamant about it too: The
only solution to being detected by the Naustie fleet
if it indeed was waiting
up there in orbit
was to climb up through the wreckage of the facility and try
to hail any friendly craft that might be waiting outside. Spleef
scouts had seen no Naustie ships when they’d explored the abandoned
Earth landing site several days before, but Nicky Ciancio had
assured everyone that the Naustie merchant fleet had strict orders
to come; once they knew the battle had finished. The problem was,
no one had any idea what kind of signal to send from the surface to
try and get the fleet’s attention!

In a few days,
they all finally reached the Terminal Loading Bay. And that’s when
they saw the horrible scene everyone had been talking about. The
stories that Spleef scouts had told about the carnage and
destruction were quite accurate indeed; but it was even more
incredible seeing it all in person. It was like a scene from some
tortured dream about hell; where a guilty mind imagines being sent
to suffer eternal damnation for their sins. There was death
everywhere and the smell of death. There were noxious fumes one
could smell that came from the gradually cooling lava and debris
expelled from the bowels of the planet. Bombed-out buildings on the
surface were splayed open like giant carcasses of enormous dead
animals which had been picked clean by carrion birds. Felina kept
her little daughter Star Baby out of the sun too; far from its
rays. The Spleefs warned her, there were things a little girl
probably shouldn’t see out there, anyway. Felina soon found out
just what they meant! That’s why she had one of the other Pumalars
watch Star Baby for her, while she toured the abandoned Earther
campsite with a small band of Spleef scouts.

After exploring the
scene of devastation and death for several hours in the late
afternoon sunlight; Felina (covering herself in a hooded robe made
out of a tarpaulin that Spleef scouts had cut out for her) finally
began to succumb to the Rijel sun as her huge, cat-like feet were
beginning to burn on the scorching sand. She had ten Spleefs with
her—all of which she towered over by about two feet—and they were
not doing much better either in the incredible surface heat. So
they all decided to bolt for shade where they could meet and devise
a plan for signaling any friendly space craft after the sun
set.

Suddenly
they
heard the roaring swoosh of a space craft entering New Australia's
atmosphere
!

It
scattered the Spleefs around her like mice getting caught in a
kitchen with the light turned on late at night. But Felina merely
threw
back her
hood, shielded her eyes, and looked up at the sky. As the craft
approached the scene of ruined wreckage which had once been the New
Australia Terminal Loading Bay and the converted Main Terminal
solar domed farm, Felina froze and looked up into the sky with
squinting cat-like eyes. Could this be the Naustie fleet come to
rescue them? Or was it another enemy craft, coming back? Felina
just stood there and waited. The craft was getting closer and
closer to her. If it was the enemy, it would do her no good to run
and hide she concluded; and wherever she ran to, it might bring
missiles down upon her that would kill all her friends and her
daughter. So she just stood there, shading her eyes with her
paw.

Within a few minutes
the craft was landing. By now, she just knew they had seen her.
After all she was standing in the middle of what had once been the
assembly hall for the Tribal Confederation. The explosions of
missiles fired on it months before had vaporized an entire corner
of it; and there were no walls anywhere standing within hundreds of
yards of her. They couldn’t miss her! Felina just stood there
bravely and gazed at the large craft as it landed in the desert
sand and kicked up a vast cloud of dust.

Felina
shielded her face from the dust; as the thrusters of the craft
(used for softly landing on surfaces without damaging landing gear)
whined and moaned to an eventual stop. Then there was a long silent
pause, as Felina could hear her comrades off in the distance
begging and pleading for her to “get down Star Kitten… get down…
please hide, Princess!” Felina knew it would do no good to run now.
Instead she actually raised up her paw in a gesture of greeting to
the craft!

But this friendly gesture was greeted only by a massive
kah-thunk
and a hissing release of
air; as the cargo bay door of the craft opened and a massive
loading ramp ever so slowly descended to the ground. Felina
startled and shivered with excitement; but still she didn’t move.
She stood there like a gorgeous feline statue and waited. The
billowing dust cloud obscured just who exactly was about to exit
the craft, but after a few moments Felina could barely make out a
large group of short pudgy figures and their silhouettes through
the haze. When the ramp finally rested onto the ground with a
metallic crashing sound; the occupants of the craft finally came
walking out. When they got about two hundred yards away, Felina
could count about fifty creatures walking toward her.

It
was nearly evening now; and the surface temperature was starting to
fall. Felina sucked air from her breather unit with anxious
anticipation. The creatures coming toward her… they were
clearly
Zorgs
! Could
it be? Could it really be the crew of the
Chengshi
? She tried not to get her hopes up. But then Felina
began to make out one little figure in the middle. It was a Zorg
with a little paunch for a belly. A Zorg she’d almost immediately
recognize anywhere. Yes it just had to be him. And in a few moments
she just abandoned all her fear and started walking toward them
all. She started waving again. They paused. Then she stopped too.
Then… one of them waved back! They recognized her! Suddenly the
whole group started waving; and several of them began running
toward her. She started running toward them as well!

Yes, it was the crew of the
Chengshi
! And in the middle, waddling toward her as briskly as he
could in his cumbersome breather device; was Kscheeech himself; her
very old and trusted friend. It was the creature who had taken her
away from Star Pussy; the kindly Zorg who’d introduced her to her
loving husband Solomon. Yes, it was really him!

As
the Zorgs celebrated around her, shaking and squeezing her paws,
jumping about in celebration; the little Zorg Admiral came up to
her and affectionately threw his little scaly arms around her
waist. Felina bent over and hugged his huge lizard head. Kscheeech
was giddy with excitement, spitting out his breather tube. “God, my
Darling… am I glad to s-sssee you!” he hissed with relief. Felina
chuckled and cackled joyfully while the other Zorgs hopped up and
down around her. She replied, “We’re so glad to see you too, Keech!
We’re so glad to see
all
of
you!”