Star Cat: Training Day: A Space Opera Fantasy Read online

  Contents

  Chrome Valley Books

  CHAPTER ONE Good Kill

  CHAPTER TWO USARIC Compound

  CHAPTER THREE Spacewalk

  CHAPTER FOUR Classified Risk

  CHAPTER FIVE The Genius Switch

  Author Notes & Acknowledgements

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  CHAPTER ONE

  Good Kill

  USARIC HQ - Training Facility

  Year: 2117

  Cape Claudius

  (South Texas: Southeastern Peninsula)

  Jelly the cat snaked around her caged paddock, angry at not being able to attack the tiny little mouse behind the bars of the cage. The earpiece attached to the side of her face didn’t allay her fury.

  “Grrr,” she whined.

  A husky voice flew into Jelly’s headgear, “Jelly? Can you hear me? This is Dr. Bonnie Whitaker. This is USARIC’s training program.”

  She paced toward the door and tried not to chew the mouthpiece in front of her face. She lifted her paws to find strange metal gloves with extended claws resting over them. An opposable “thumb” on each paw shifted to and fro.

  This is certainly something new for her to explore.

  “Welcome to Stealth. I see you’ve discovered your infinity claws.”

  “Meow,” Jelly exercised the sharp, metal cuticles on each paw, ready for action.

  “Your first task is simple. All you gotta do is catch the mouse. Ready? Here we go—”

  SCHLAM. The cage door flew open.

  “—That’s a go,” Bonnie advised with a degree of haste, “Kill it.”

  Jelly wasted no time. She launched herself out of the cage and flung her paws in front of her face. Her fierce titanium infinity claws opened out as the mouse squealed.

  CLANG-CLANG.

  Jelly took a swipe at the furry creature. Her claws sparked as they scraped the metal surface, allowing the mouse to scuttle down the tunnel and turn a corner.

  “Call yourself a Star Cat?” Bonnie’s voice indicated a healthy dose of evil delight, “Come on. Kill, kill, kill.”

  Jelly kicked her hind legs and growled. She pressed down on her haunches and bolted along the metal maze in search of her prey.

  “Squeak, squeak.”

  Jelly’s ears pricked up. She could hear a mouse wailing around the bend in front of her. She pushed her right hind leg out and kicked herself around the corner.

  The mouse’s behind scurried down the tiny, metal corridor.

  ZOOM!

  Jelly thundered after the rodent. The repetitive clanging of claws on metal echoed through the maze.

  USARIC’s chief medician and Jelly’s caretaker, Wool ar-Ban, watched the event from the spectator’s gallery twenty feet above the vast, labyrinthine tunnels and rooms.

  A dozen lab-coated men and women peered over the edge with her and took notes on their screens.

  “Seems very big. What’s the purpose of this exercise?” one of them asked.

  Wool fixed her eyes on Jelly trundling along the metal walkway, “We need to make sure she’s on-point. Her geography, her temperament. You know, all the good stuff.”

  “Beautiful cat,” another technician said. “What are those things on her paws?”

  “Temporary Infinity claws. She won the Star Cat Project with them.”

  “They look like gloves.”

  “They’re Titanium-coated blades attached to mechanical gloves which sit in her paws. An extra layer of protection for when she joins Opera Beta on its mission to Saturn.”

  “Protection?”

  “Yep,” Wool traveled along the spectator gantry, following the cat as she ran behind the mouse, “Who knows what we’ll run up to when we get to Saturn.”

  Jelly landed on the mouse and ravaged it with her claw, “Meow.”

  “Squeak, Squeak.”

  The mouse didn’t stand a chance. Tufts of fur flung into the air as Jelly burrowed into its stomach.

  Sparks flew as its insides puked out in the tussle. Wires, connectors, rods and bolts jarred every which way from the robotic mouse.

  SLASH-JAB-FIZZ!

  Jelly sunk her teeth into its neck and tore off its head.

  “Whoa,” Wool winced. “Vicious.”

  A female trainee held her hand over her mouth in shock, “No wonder she won the Star Cat Project.”

  BZZZZ.

  A buzzer forced the metal maze to light up. A spotlight blasted onto a tiny black device next to a service hatch.

  “Good kill, good kill,” Bonnie affirmed through Jelly’s headgear, “Now, grab one of those units.”

  What looked like a black pencil sharpener appeared on the wall under a spotlight. Jelly hopped over to the device and tried to paw at its lights.

  Bonnie encouraged her further, “In your paws. Go, go, go.”

  After a struggle and fumble, Jelly managed to thread the first of four talons through the devices hook.

  “Good girl,” Wool clapped her hands and looked up at the ceiling, “Bonnie?”

  “Yes, Wool?”

  “Satisfied, now? Hasn’t she had enough?”

  “Not yet,” Bonnie’s voice whirled around the ceiling from the speakers, “We gotta toughen this pussy up a bit more—”

  SHUNT!

  A loud slam from the maze made Wool and her colleagues jump in their shoes.

  The compartment to Jelly’s right slid up, revealing a secret tunnel in the corridor.

  Jelly peered round the hatch to see a half a dozen mice scurrying around with fear.

  “Flash bang, through the door,” Bonnie’s voice erupted through the cat’s headgear.

  Jelly looked at the device in her paw. It beeped up a storm as three white bulbs burst to life.

  Biddip-biddip-beeeeeeep.

  “Meow.”

  Jelly tossed the utility grenade through the hatch and dived sideways, landing on her side.

  SCHT-AA-ANG!

  The explosion missed Jelly - just. A crash of white light blasted through the hatch and lit up the corridor like a Christmas tree.

  “They’re hit,” Bonnie advised as Jelly rolled onto her stomach, “Don’t just lie there, you dopey ball of fluff.”

  “Hey,” Wool yelled at the ceiling. “Don’t call her that.”

  “Stay out of it, Wool,” Bonnie spat back through the speakers, “If she can’t handle a bit of antagonism then what use is she to us up there? Jelly?”

  The cat snaked around, sniffing at her own tail - anything but carry out the task at hand, “Meow.”

  “Get in there and deal with them. Go.”

  Jelly couldn’t understand the instruction of course. She sniffed around the plume of smog emanating from the opened door. Her ears pricked up, forcing her to think about what might lay behind it.

  She looked up to discover several USARIC officials looking down at her from the viewing gallery. She recognized Wool immediately and meowed at her.

  “Jelly?” Wool asked. “Go on. Go in.”

  “Meow.”

  Jelly took the opportunity to survey the sets of eyes blinking back at her. Then, her infinity claws sparked, frightening her.

  Her arm recoiled, signaling the intense pain that shot across her shoulder.

  “Get on with it, fluffy,” Bonnie snapped. “It’s just a bit of di
scomfort.”

  “Stop calling her fluffy,” Wool slammed the gallery railing in defiance. “You don’t know what effect it’ll have on her.”

  “Ah, quit your whining, ar-Ban. Jelly’s made of stronger stuff than you, evidently.”

  Bonnie’s retort was followed by the unmistakable sound of a dog’s bark. “Woof, woof.”

  Jelly bolted through the door thinking she was being pursued by her natural predator. The notion of being followed was quickly replaced by the sight of three discombobulated mice recovering from the blast of the grenade.

  She turned her attention to the mice and extended her infinity claws.

  Her first victim faced away from her - a relatively easy obstacle to overcome. Jelly pounced on the vermin from behind and wasted no time in digging her sharp claws into its neck.

  FIZZ! SPARK!

  She gutted the mouse’s neck and sank her fangs into the cavity. Burrowing through like a machete, she clamped her jaw shut, tore the head away from the neck and released the body to the floor.

  The two remaining mice slowly returned to a semblance of normality, shaking off the effects of the grenade. One of them twisted around on the spot and was greeted by a beast ten times its size with her friend’s head hanging between the cat’s teeth.

  “Squeak.”

  Jelly fell back on her haunches and waved her tail from side to side as the mouse’s severed head swung like a pendulum.

  A final fling was all it took.

  Jelly threw her head to the left and launched the severed mouse head at her second assailant.

  BOP.

  The second mouse backed up, near paralyzed with fear. Jelly bounded toward the petrified critter and lifted her right arm.

  SWIPE.

  The mouse’s mechanical innards pinged away from the cavity created by the cat’s deadly stab to the guts. She wrenched her claws out and launched its innards into the air.

  The carcass might make an excellent trophy for her owner, who she knew was watching the event - from somewhere.

  The mouse seemed to merely pause with the deft ease of an on/off switch. Thousands of tiny wires blasted out from the mouse’s chest cavity, tangling around Jelly’s infinity claws. They acted as a harness with which to yank the battery from within its central compartment.

  Wool tucked her screen under her arm and gripped the railings, unable to tear her gaze away from the sheer viciousness on display.

  “My God. She doesn’t mess around, does she?” she muttered.

  Jelly threw a wry eye up at Wool with most of the half-chewed mouse’s electronic guts wrapped around her claw.

  Wool took the cat’s stare as a thinly veiled threat. Even though they were several feet apart, she could see the cat’s eyes dilate.

  “M-My God,” Wool muttered. “She knows.”

  “I’m sorry, what was that?” one of her colleagues asked.

  Wool blinked and snapped out of her mire, though still taken aback, “Oh. Uh, nothing.”

  Jelly licked her mouth and squinted up at the spectator gallery. She wanted Wool to know who was in charge. There was no way of telling her verbally, but this - with the mouse dead at her hands - seemed to convey the message pretty damn accurately.

  WRENCH! PULL!

  Jelly busted the carcass open with her claws and flung the two ends at the wall. She licked her lips and scrunched her nose as if to say, “You’re next, woman.”

  Wool returned to her screen and recorded the results, “Okay, I think she’s passed stealth section with flying colors,” she said into her earpiece.

  “No, not yet,” Bonnie’s advice was heard by those in the spectator gallery, including Wool, “There’s still one more challenge to come.”

  Wool tilted her head into the small room within the maze and saw the third robotic mouse scurrying behind a makeshift table.

  Jelly saw the creature’s behind disappear around the table leg.

  “Jelly?” Bonnie asked. “One more to get. Kill.”

  She wiggled her nose and traipsed toward the table as softly and stealthily as possible.

  “Just behind the table. Switching to thermal imaging,” Bonnie said.

  A visor flew down Jelly’s face, offering a different perspective of the proceedings. A static rendition of the room came into view, mostly blue in color. A few white spots of transmission noise waved down the screen, turning most of the inanimate objects purple and navy. Behind the black table, a small, mouse-shaped patch of yellow bounded backwards and forwards, trying to assess its escape.

  The bizarre color scheme sent Jelly into a frenzy. She clawed at her visor and rolled onto her side, trying to get the image out of her face.

  “What are you doing, you stupid cat?”

  “Meow,” Jelly whined and blinked as the yellow patch froze.

  The mouse faced the opened door, which meant only one thing - the proposition of escape.

  Jelly only needed a few seconds to process the information. What was once a round object resembling typical prey had disappeared and turned into a sun-like blob of yellow. Now, it was getting smaller as the pitter-patter of running feet shot out of the room.

  “Meow.”

  Jelly hopped to her paws, launched herself over the table and barreled out of the room after it.

  “Go get it, Anderson,” Bonnie’s voice piped up, “Don’t let it escape.”

  Jelly ran down the metal causeway in hot pursuit of the terrified mouse.

  “Squeak.”

  Wool walked along the audience gallery and kept an eye on the proceedings.

  A junction in the metal tunnel zoomed towards the mouse. It had a choice - turn left, or right. Of course, it didn’t know it was in the middle of a maze. It didn’t even know what a maze was.

  “If it turns right, it’ll hit a dead end,” Wool said into her earpiece.

  “That would be unfortunate,” Bonnie said. “This isn’t a test of intelligence. This is stealth. All she has to do is kill that damn mouse.”

  Jelly ignored the comment and gave an even faster chase. Her claws clanged along the corridor like a succession of mini thunderclaps, antagonizing the mouse even further.

  It skidded on its feet and turned to the left, continuing its journey of escape.

  Wool watched Jelly reach the junction, “It’s gone left.”

  Her front paws slammed to the ground, forcing her to skid sideways along her ass. Her hind legs kicked back, propelling her even faster down the right-hand turn.

  “Squeak.” The mouse was unable to look over its shoulder, but was clearly of the knowledge that the end was imminent.

  “Meow,” Jelly picked up the pace and gained on the mouse.

  An eight-inch door lay at the end of the metal tunnel. No escape, and a certain death. The mouse didn’t know what to do, and so slowed to a halt.

  Clang-clang-clang. Jelly’s paws rattled across the metal, growing louder and louder in volume.

  The mouse turned around, tilted its head and made eyes at Jelly as she stormed forward.

  “Squeak.”

  “Kill it, Jelly.”

  Jelly bolted forward and lifted her right paw. The infinity claws fanned out like a sharp set of teeth, glinting in the light that shot down around the maze.

  SWIPE.

  No mercy.

  Jelly’s heart fired up with her natural killer instinct. She ravaged the mouse to shreds, tearing out its wires and connectors.

  “Meow,” she squealed as she made completely sure that the mouse was dead.

  Wool recorded the event on her screen, “Very good, very good. Can we get her out of there, now, please? I want to move onto the next session while her energy’s up.”

  Jelly tossed the dead robotic mouse into the air and caught it in her mouth.

  The door at the end of the tunnel flew up, offering Jelly a way out. She clamped the half-remains of the mouse in her teeth as she trundled toward the door.

  CHAPTER TWO

  USARIC Compound

>   Jelly moved through the door. She arrived in a pitch black room containing a subtle humming sound. Her growls were muffled somewhat by the half-eaten robotic mouse hanging from her teeth.

  The door slid shut behind her with dramatic fervor.

  She tilted her head up and around, but couldn’t see anything.

  Bonnie’s voice sounded like the arrival of God, swirling around the darkness, “I guess I had you figured all wrong. Well done, Anderson. You’re one mean pussy.”

  BOOM.

  A spotlight illuminated Jelly’s head and back, forming a bizarre shadow of her own which elongated across the floor. It resembled something more akin to a tiger.

  It startled Jelly, but she chose not to attack it.

  Just then, a familiar scent wafted up her nostrils.

  “Hey, girl.”

  Boom-boom-boom.

  The lights in the room snapped on one by one. Jelly saw she was standing outside of the huge maze walls. Two size six sneakers walked, one in front of the other, toward her.

  Sneakers she recognized.

  She looked up the length of the denim pants to the waist. The person wasn’t very big, maybe four foot or so.

  Whoever it was had a Star Cat Project t-shirt on.

  “Meow.”

  She didn’t have to tilt her head up any further to clock the owner’s face. Instead, he crouched to his knees and opened his arms, awaiting a cuddle.

  “Hey, Jelly.”

  Jamie Anderson had returned, and he was offering cuddles.

  “Meow,” Jelly stepped over the destroyed mouse and made a bee-line to her five-year-old owner.

  “I saw what you did, Jelly,” he said. “You’re a very good girl.”

  “Meow?” Jelly stopped in her tracks and had second thoughts. A trophy for her owner in the shape of a battered mouse lay a few feet away.

  She turned around and went for it.

  “No, it’s okay, girl,” Jamie whispered and reached into his pocket. “I don’t need that. Here, I have something for you.”

  Jelly opened her mouth and sank her teeth into the mouse’s neck. She turned around and wagged her tail, happy with her kill, “Meow.”