Star Cat: The First Trilogy (Infinity Claws, Pink Symphony, War Mage) Read online

  "Meow," Jelly scanned the ball and decided to let it go. Quite by accident, she clutched the ball using her new thumbs and rolled it back to Wool.

  "Good girl," Wool pocketed it and held out her arms, beckoning Jelly into them. "Let’s go and do some work."

  The Manuel

  The Speed of Thought

  Pg 773,313

  (exposition dump #779/7a)

  Pure Genius is a super-computer. Invented by USARIC, it became a revolutionary communication device which changed the course of the future and, in some cases, even the past.

  Shortly before his death, Pascal D’Souza worked with USARIC to develop a logical system of interpretation. The result was Pure Genius, a room that harnessed every emotion, physicality and attribute of the user inside it.

  First to use Pure Genius was D’souza himself. He and his team invented the Genius Drive that harnessed one of the twenty-first century’s greatest findings - The Speed of Thought - a speed several times faster than the commonly regarded Speed of Light.

  The Speed of Thought’s speed is approximately 788,501,118 miles per second.

  Until October of 2110, humans believed that nothing could travel faster than light. Saturn Cry changed all this when it was decoded by D’Souza. Light, being a physical utility was limited because of its tangibility. The first clue that ‘things’ could travel faster than the speed of light was discovered by USARIC.

  To understand this concept better, it is useful to conduct the following experiment:

  1: Imagine a picture of a black cat. Do you see it?

  2: The image you thought of took approximately 0.2478 seconds to appear, which is ten times faster than the speed of light.

  3: The ability to transmit said image to another location is just as fast.

  The intangible - electronic messages, for example - and hyper-connectivity with the Outernet were sent at a rate way faster than 186, 282 miles per second; the approximate speed of light. The ability to transmit data through space and time became the exemplar for The Speed of Thought.

  The discovery was the backbone of Pure Genius during its conception. It devised the concept of travel along ripples through the fabric of space and time. A wholly remarkable discovery, and one that would set a precedent for scientific discovery hence.

  It was little surprise that USARIC, under the guidance of D’Souza, named this facility Pure Genius.

  Not only did it change space exploration, it also improved commercial flights and communication in general. The International Moon Station was able to detect Saturn Cry because of it…

  Pure Genius

  Space Opera Beta - Level Five

  Wool carried Jelly into Pure Genius. A cylinder-shaped room with several fluorescent tiles lit up on the floor, walls, and ceiling.

  Apart from an almost indecipherable low-emission hum, the place was immaculate and completely devoid of sound.

  In truth, it was a little eerie.

  Wool stood in the middle and looked around, trying to figure out where the door she had walked through was. The tiles seemed to blend into each other. It was quite typical for a person entering Pure Genius to become quickly disoriented.

  The chilling effect of the light and pure silence disturbed Jelly. It was possibly the first time either she, or Wool, had been in such a place of sheer tranquility.

  "Tor?" Wool scanned the surrounding tiles. "We’re here."

  One of the tiles on the ceiling slid open, releasing the hum of Space Opera Beta into the room for a short time.

  "Yes, I know. I’m here, too."

  "Where are you? This place is freaking me out. I don’t want to be in here any longer than necessary."

  "I’m up here," Tor climbed into the cylinder from the open tile in the ceiling. "Whatever you do, don’t jump. Stay out of dead-center or you’ll get pulled apart."

  "I don’t intend to move, Tor."

  Gravity didn’t behave in the way people are accustomed to within Pure Genius. Each surface had its own pull, which exacerbated the feeling of unease.

  Tor walked down the curvature of the wall and stepped onto what Wool knew to be the ground.

  "Glad you could make it," Tor took out a screen and stretched it from his hand. "We’re going to have to leave Jelly in here by herself while we conduct the decoding.

  "Okay."

  "Can you set her down, please?"

  Wool squatted to the ten by ten floor tile and released Jelly onto it. She looked at her tail and followed it around for a few seconds, trying to attack it with her infinity claws.

  Tor chuckled as he looked at his screen. "How’s she getting on with her new toy?"

  "She’s taken to Infinity Claws remarkably well. No allergies, no reactions."

  "Did she figure out how to use her thumbs, yet?"

  "Not yet," Wool puckered her lips at Jelly as she trailed around, meowing at her own behind.

  "Okay, let’s start," Tor looked up at the ceiling and barked out a command. "Pure Genius. Cuboid, twelve-eight-six."

  Jelly sat on her hind legs and licked her paws.

  "Right, let’s go," Tor clutched his screen and planted his foot on the curve of the wall. "It’s okay, follow me. It’s perfectly safe."

  "I trust you," Wool smiled and stepped onto the wall, following behind Tor as he walked to the open tile in the ceiling.

  He stepped through and offered Wool a helping hand. "Just through here."

  "Will Jelly be okay?"

  "She’s perfectly fine," Tor said, "Take my hand, and prepare for a little disorientation."

  He pulled her through and allowed the tile to slide shut behind them.

  Jelly looked around at the brightly lit tiles and squinted. One of them began to change shape.

  All the others changed, too. Very slowly.

  The cylinder flattened out and folded onto itself, startling Jelly. "Meoowww…"

  The corners of the flat surface branched out and locked together, forming a cuboid structure all around her from every angle.

  The silence was completely deafening.

  For Jelly, it wasn’t a matter of escape. If she wanted to run away, she wouldn’t be too sure she’d run back to the same place.

  So, she did what any cat would have done under the circumstances and made for what she thought was the door. One of many of perfectly-squared tiles measuring ten by ten feet.

  She hopped onto it, surprised that it had its own gravity. The door had become the floor.

  Jelly whined and looked around. Six walls, a ceiling and a floor, all containing twenty-four tiles.

  "Jelly?" Tor’s voice buzzed into the room. She shrieked and jumped into the air, wondering where the voice came from. "Shh, it’s okay, girl. Calm down."

  Tor sat at the Pure Genius deck with an audience watching the screen from behind.

  Bonnie, Wool, Jaycee, Haloo, Baldron, and Katz were captivated by the visual of Jelly in the cuboid on the large screen.

  "Activating Saturn Cry," Tor pressed a button on the console. The familiar static-hiss started to play.

  "What’s going on?" Bonnie asked. "Can she hear it?"

  "Yes, the message is coming at her from all directions," Tor said. "We’re closer to the source of the signal, so she’s in a position to respond due to the strength and quality."

  A twang of an electric guitar shot through the room.

  Jelly jumped into the air as a visual audio waves from the guitar twang flew around her. She landed on the adjacent tile, somewhat disappointed that she hadn’t caught the waveform.

  "Nine… ten," Tor said, analyzing his controls, "Eleven… and…"

  WHUMP.

  A blast of pink audio illuminated the cube. Jelly tossed herself into the air and tried to claw at it. She shrieked at the top of her lungs and landed onto what she knew to be the ceiling.

  Her paws hit the tile, pressing it like a button. It turned pink and displayed a readout in the middle of the cuboid.

  "Amaziant. Someone take a note of th
at," Tor looked at Baldron, who unfolded his screen and scribbled down the set of numbers:

  1691411

  "Coordinates?"

  "Could be," Tor raised the volume of the audio message. "Hang on. Fifteen… sixteen…"

  "We’re waiting for the twentieth second?" Tripp asked. "The second bump?

  "Yes, shh."

  The guitar sound crept into the hiss and struck three successive chords.

  The second whump blasted around the cuboid, scaring Jelly across the middle of the structure.

  Another blast of pink light zipped from her previous tile to the one directly opposite. She tried to catch it but it was far too fast for her.

  The pink waveform splashed against the tile, moving out for Jelly to land against it.

  The tile lit up and produced another number.

  "Meow," Jelly dug her hind legs into the tile and rolled over, angry with herself.

  "Baldron," Tor said, "Capture the result, please."

  "Got it," he said, writing it down. "One, niner, two, five, one, three, one, six."

  "Nineteen and thirteen are prime numbers," Haloo said. "But the others aren’t."

  "We’re clearly not dealing with an intelligent life form, whatever it is," Tripp said. "What do we know of these coordinates?"

  "We don’t know yet till we reach the twenty-sixth second," Baldron looked at the screen and poised himself, ready to capture the next set of numbers.

  The hiss died down. Four successive chords from the sound that resembled an electric guitar played out.

  "Twenty-four. Twenty-five…" Tor muttered, "And…"

  Whump.

  Jelly didn’t know where to turn. The cuboid room seemed to revolve on its axis, tipping her away from her tile.

  She shrieked and dug her thumb claw into the side of the tile, clinging on for dear life.

  A third and final pink image screeched around the center of Pure Genius, toying with Jelly.

  She propelled herself from the tile and flew toward the haze of warbled pink sound, intending to ravage it.

  "What is that, it sounds familiar?" Bonnie asked.

  "Da-da-da-dum," Wool hummed to herself. "Like Beethoven’s fifth?"

  "No, that’s impossible—" Katz said.

  "—Anything is possible," Tor kept his eye on the screen, "Keep watching."

  Jelly burst through the pink cloud and purred, suspended in the center of the room. Her metal whiskers buzzed to life, causing an electrical spark. Her face pushed back under her hind legs.

  "What’s happening to her?"

  "That third and final bump," Tor pointed at the screen. "Look, it’s disappeared."

  Jelly hit the ceiling and meowed as loud as she could. The tile flashed under her feet, upsetting her.

  "That’s enough. Get her out of that room," Wool went to walk away, only for Baldron to keep her back.

  "No, it’s over. We’re done. Anderson’s safe."

  "That stupid room is scaring her."

  "Be quiet, Wool," Tor punched the data from the three lit-up tiles into the computer, "Here we go. Panels twelve, twenty… and twenty-six."

  Everyone held their breath. Katz leaned into the screen and watched Jelly licking her paws, quite happy with herself.

  "Twelve, twenty, twenty-six?" he said.

  "Yep," Tor smiled. "The exact points in the message where those bumps happen.

  "But what does that—"

  The final set up of numbers appeared in the middle of the room.

  8151425

  "Got that, Baldron?" Tor asked.

  "Yep, the entire string is complete."

  "Get her out of there," Tor looked at Wool, "Make sure you grab her once she’s out. She’s likely to be upset. Bring her down slowly."

  "Right," Wool marched off toward the door, "Open it up."

  "Okay, all we have to do is feed the coordinates into Pure Genius and see what the result is. Should take about an hour."

  "An hour?" Tripp asked. "Why so long?"

  "We’re expecting over a trillion permutations. It could be less. Either way, we need to give it time to analyze the data."

  The door to Pure Genius slid open, revealing Jelly sitting on the ceiling.

  "Meow."

  Wool look up and held out her arms. "Hey, Jelly. Come to me."

  She purred and remained seated, licking at her right paw.

  "Don’t play the fool, Jelly. You can’t stay in there all day," Wool snapped her fingers. "Let’s go, come on."

  Wool returned to the crew with Jelly in her arms. Everyone applauded and cheered.

  "Well done, Anderson," Katz said. "Not just a pretty face, huh?"

  Tor and Baldron high-fived each other and watched Jelly snake around the ankles of her new friends.

  "She did well," Tor said.

  Jelly didn’t seem particularly happy with him. She crouched back and snarled with a furious bushy tail.

  "Whoa," Tor stepped back and held out his hands. "Don’t take it so personally, Anderson."

  She snarled and threatened to pounce on him. Wool lifted her up by her stomach before she could act.

  "Meow."

  "Hey, honey," Wool cradled her and rubbed her nose against Jelly’s head. "Let’s get you your medicine, yes? Let you run around for a while."

  ***

  Jelly sat upright on her bed looking at Wool. She inspected the cat’s face and pressed her thumbs down under her eyes.

  "You seem okay," Wool whispered, "It must have been weird being in that nasty room, right?"

  "Meow," Jelly rubbed her face on Wool’s wrist.

  "I know, sweetie. You did well."

  "So, you’re going to take this," Wool produced a white pill and held it flat in her palm, "It’ll help with your digestion."

  "Meow," Jelly sniffed around at the pill but decided not to slurp it up.

  "Come on," Wool grabbed Jelly’s chin. "It’s for your own good."

  She opened the cat’s mouth and plonked the pill inside. "Good girl, swallow."

  She ran her knuckle up and down Jelly’s neck, forcing her to gulp it down.

  Observation Deck

  One hour later…

  Tripp enjoyed a cup of coffee as he looked through the giant, transparent dome.

  Saturn hung in the array of stars, surrounded by its many moons. Enceladus stood out among them; indicated by a red digital reticule stretched over the transparent window.

  Tripp made out the cone-shaped Space Opera Alpha traveling alongside it.

  He took a sip of coffee, lost in his own thoughts. A picture of his son and wife appeared on the screen.

  "No, thanks, Manuel."

  "I thought you may want a reminder," Manuel’s voice suggested.

  "No, sometimes it’s just better without visual aids."

  "Very well. You know where I am if you need me."

  "Yes. Thanks."

  The image of his family vanished, pulling Saturn’s vastness into view.

  "Meow."

  Tripp turned around and watched Jelly saunter into the observation deck, "Oh, hey girl. What are you doing here?"

  She ran the side of her face along his shin, wanting attention.

  "You want a hug?" Tripp chuckled and set his coffee down. "Yeah. I know the feeling."

  He lifted Jelly into his arms and caught a glimpse of Wool by the door. "Hey."

  "Hey."

  "You okay, Wool?"

  "I’m fine. Jelly seems to be curious about the observation deck."

  "So you caved in and let her visit?"

  "Something like that," Wool chuckled to herself, "Need a bit of time to myself. Can she stay here with you for a little while?"

  "Sure."

  Wool smiled and moved off, leaving Jelly in Tripp’s capable hands. It wasn’t long before he felt the urge to talk to her.

  "See that up there?" Tripp asked Jelly, "That’s Saturn. Those are her rings, look. Big and beautiful. A bit like you."

  Jelly snuggled into his arm
s and lifted her head. Her internal engine fired up, emitting a healthy purr.

  She watched as Tripp grabbed the lever. He pressed his thumb on the handle and shifted the observation dome a few clicks to the right.

  Space Opera Alpha came into view in the distance.

  "That little white dot is our friends. They got lost, so we’re going to help them. You’re very good at helping our friends aren’t you?"

  Jelly traced her tongue up the side of her new Titanium thumb.

  "Yes, you are."

  She began to feel restless and pawed at his sleeves.

  "You want down?" Tripp asked. "Okay, I have a seat here just for you."

  Manuel’s holograph appeared, startling Jelly out of Tripp’s arms. She landed on the recliner and looked up at the stars.

  "Tripp, Daryl would like you and the crew to meet him at the hub."

  "What, now?"

  "Yes, right now. They have the results and wish to share their findings with you."

  "Wow, that was fast."

  He was about to collect Jelly but had second thoughts. It seemed she was having a private moment. She was safe in the observation deck. What harm could a little isolation do while he visited the hub?

  "I’ll leave you in peace, Jelly. Enjoy it while it lasts."

  Jelly never looked back. She turned her head, taking in the incredible view, "Meow."

  "Good girl. I’ll be back in a moment."

  Tripp opened the door and exited the observation deck.

  Jelly scrunched her nose as she took in the bright stars scattered across the unending chasm of space. She couldn’t find what she was looking for, however.

  In front of her stood the observation deck controls. A yellow joystick the size of a human fist begged to be played with.

  "Meow," Jelly tried to talk to it, but it didn’t move.

  Perhaps a little tap might make it do something?

  Jelly pressed the paw to the side, knocking the stick left. The observation deck swiveled for a second, shifting the view of Saturn over to the right.

  Jelly considered what had happened. If she hit the stick, Saturn would move again.