Star Kitten (30 page)

When combatants with EIC's began discharging
them outside—as SP Police responded and opened fire on the raiders
and they in turn fired back—projectiles smashed through the glass
of the restaurant windows and began ricocheting off the giant fish
tank. Customers and wait staff all screamed and cried out in fear.
Not Rex. He just winced a bit when he saw the .30 caliber bullets
leaving pock marks and divots in the giant fish tank. He just knew
that humongous aquarium was eventually going to shatter and flood
the whole restaurant with millions of gallons of sea water.

He needed to get Felina out of there… but
where to go hide? In a restaurant? They couldn’t go outside. Rex
thought for a few moments.... Then he looked over at Felina, who
was also wide-eyed in fear, hearing the screams and yelling outside
the restaurant. Bullets were flying about. People were falling
dead. Soldiers were firing back and forth at each other. It was
compete mayhem out in the food court. Rex yelled to Felina over the
din of noise and chaos, "Darling, come with me. We've got to get
you somewhere safe!" Felina nodded quickly and they both sprang up
from under the table. The other customers and wait staff stayed
put, cowering from the bullets flying through the air, ripping
apart the interior of the restaurant. But Rex and Felina crouched
over at the waist and scurried toward the kitchen, barely raising
up above the tabletops.

Soon they reached the kitchen and Rex held
the door open for her while she crawled through; legs already
buckling from the cramped running. He breathed, "Good job, Darling.
Now let's get into one of the pantries and hide until this is
over." Felina gasped and crouched on the floor rubbing her legs.
Kitchen staff were all piling into the freezer or into the food
pantries and broom closets, filling them full and leaving no room
for more. Rex sighed as he looked around for other options. Felina
cried, "What now Rex? Where are we gonna hide in here?" Rex said,
"Just follow me... I got an idea!" Outside the screaming and
yelling could still be heard. Bullets continued to fly into the
restaurant and smash lamps, artwork, and ricochet off the aquarium.
Rex just knew it was eventually going to crack and break. Those
poor people out there! Someone needed to warn them…. But first he
had to hide Felina.

Rex led Felina over to a massive stainless
steel preparation counter and table area with shiny sliding door
cabinets underneath. These cabinets were filled with serving trays,
chafing dishes, burners, racks, and other serving equipment for
when the restaurant catered events and orgies. Rex slid the doors
open and yelled to Felina to help him throw everything out of the
cabinets so they could crawl in. "You mean in here, Rex... we can
fit inside here?" asked Felina with a distressed tone. True, it
would be a tight squeeze, but if the enemy outside truly were
pirates here on Star Pussy to capture females... then Rex needed to
make Felina disappear from view. All the pirates would see if they
came in this kitchen was just a royal mess; and that would make
sense after the kitchen staff would have fled in panic. At least he
hoped it would fool them.

Rex and Felina crawled in, bumping heads,
elbows, and knees on the walls, on the roof of the cabinet... and
of course they bumped into each other repeatedly. They grimaced and
grunted and struggled to quickly get secured inside as Rex
carefully moved the sliding door closed from the inside. He left it
open just a small crack to let in air, and then they sighed with
relief together, hoping to just wait out the attack and emerge when
the fighting died down.

It was just about that time, that they could
hear customers and staff out in the restaurant screaming that the
aquarium was about to break. Rex could hear a group of them yelling
to make a break for the door; but when they stood up to try and
surrender, screaming for mercy from the warring parties outside,
bullets could be heard flying into the restaurant once again.
Screams of the wounded and injured soon filled the room, as the
hail of bullets that felled those foolish enough to stand; also
finished cracking open the enormous fish tank. Soon the walls of
the glass aquarium burst apart and the deluge of seawater gushed
through the restaurant terrifying the remaining customers into
fleeing into the outside food court where they too were gunned down
by SP Police who didn't know which side they were on; and weren’t
taking any chances.

Rex held Felina tight throughout the
horrifying ordeal. It was terrible. They felt relieved they'd
gotten out of there in time... but they also felt a bit guilty for
having survived when so many people had all been either shot down
or dragged away as captives. "Oh Rex, those poor people!" Felina
cried out. She sobbed bitterly while Rex held onto her. Rex knew
they'd only survived this far because they'd been out of harm's way
just in time. But this was likely only the beginning. They were
still in imminent danger. Just how long could this battle
last!?

Not long after that, Naustie troops of the
Smilodon Brigade actually made Starfish into their headquarters on
the battlefield and moved inside of it to create a fortified
position. The smell of fish likely drew them in. They ransacked the
interior looking for females they could capture, and then rampaged
through the kitchen grabbing food and opening up closets or
storerooms where they captured a few additional female prisoners.
Males were shot dead right on the spot of course. The Nausties
didn’t have time to deal with them. Attractive females were hauled
away, screaming, crying, and begging to be released.

Rex and Felina feared the
worst if those pirates opened up the cabinet they were both hiding
in. He just held on to her tightly and whispered, "Don't move.
Don't breathe. Don't make a sound... until they leave just don't
make a sound...it's gonna be alright Darling...
shhhhh
." The murder and screaming
went on for quite a while in the kitchen, as the pirates yanked
open food bins, refrigerators, freezers and pantries looking for
food; only to find more petrified kitchen staff cowering inside.
Then more killing, more screaming, more growling and snarling as
the pirates bound up young attractive female captives and dragged
them away.

Eventually though, the pirates in the
kitchen did leave. They moved back out into the restaurant to work
on setting up a defensive position from which to fight the SP
Police. For now, Rex and Felina were safe. Rex could hear them
commenting about how they were getting low on ammunition. Also he
could hear them struggling to move out all the dead and dying
marine life from the shattered aquarium. Rex could hear Naustie
Earthers too, rushing in and assembling equipment. Most spoke to
each other in Galactic, but occasionally Rex could hear these human
pirates speaking profanely in old Earth languages like English and
Spanish. He hadn’t heard Earth profanity in years.

The next two hours were a harrowing
experience, as several waves of Star Pussy Police assaulted the
Pirate positions and tried capturing their defensive barricades.
They tried driving them off. They sprayed the restaurant with
bullets too; almost incessantly. Yet they were repulsed several
times, until gradually the battle seemed to descend into an
anxious, ominous stalemate. Felina could soon hear Pumalar SP
Police off in the distance yelling obscene insults and jeers and
challenges at the Pirate Pumalars trying to get them to raise up or
rush out to fight. Cooler heads prevailed though, and the pirates
stayed put, hurling back vicious vitriol at their tormentors and
occasionally doing even worse: at one point, Felina heard the
pumalar pirates outside the kitchen in the restaurant talking in
their native language about using dead bodies in the restaurant as
decoys to draw fire from the SP Police. Felina could tell they were
just doing it as a trick to taunt the SP Police into revealing
their positions so they could fire back and pick them off.

Then finally after about two hours, Felina
could hear the Pumalar pirates chattering in their native language
about reinforcements coming; and ammunition arriving. One very
strong Pumalar male voice spoke above everyone else outside in the
restaurant and admonished the rest of them to hold their positions
and be patient while ammunition was being ferried up to them using
"Zorg Runners" as he referred to them. She whispered the
translation back to Rex and he sighed with frustration. The pirates
were getting reinforcements. “Shit…,” he muttered. If the Star
Pussy Police withdrew, just how would Rex and Felina get out of
this mess?

Nevertheless, Rex and Felina huddled in
their cramped hiding place; uncomfortable but still quite glad to
be alive—and best of all still escaping detection. True their
situation could be a lot worse!

Pirate reinforcements could be heard
arriving outside, and with fresh ammunition, the raiders began
firing back with earnest at the enemy. The mood of the pirates
outside in the restaurant gradually turned to excitement and
renewed confidence as more voices and more bodies could be heard
moving around both within the restaurant, and even outside in the
Food Court. When the pirates in the restaurant left their positions
to go assault the SP Police barricades in the distance, the place
actually began to quiet down finally; and Felina whispered to Rex,
"is it safe now... can we get out?" Rex waited a while to respond,
just holding his index finger to his lips. They waited and listened
for quite a while before he finally replied in a low whisper, "Okay
Darling, let me check...."

He carefully slid the cabinet door open just
a few more inches and barely even made a sound. But even that small
crack of distance let in the foul stench of the broken aquarium and
dying marine life who'd been expelled from their happy home. As Rex
looked out, he found himself face to face with a corpse looking
right back at him. It was one of his human cooks, too. Rex gasped
and then held his breath. Felina was on the other side of him and
luckily couldn’t see. The cook had been shot through the face and
the entire back of his head was obliterated. Rex couldn't let
Felina see that. He just rolled back over toward her and said, "Um,
this way is blocked. Let's see what's on the other side."

The cabinet had sliding
doors on the either side too, so Rex knew they could get out that
way too; but he once again hesitated when he heard some more
movement going on outside in the restaurant. An Earthman—one of the
pirates—was speaking out in the restaurant about all the Pumalars
they’d captured. It was deeply accented English, like Rex hadn’t
heard since the last time he’d seen an Earth movie about gangsters.
“Fuckin’ weird, man. Bitches are
crazy
lookin’,” said the first one
laughing derisively. “Yeah… fuckin’ five hunnert of ‘em we found so
far,” replied the second one in a gruff voice, “Maybe more out
there, General says… we’ll keep on lookin’.”

Rex’s blood ran
cold.
Good God: Five hundred taken
already
? He realized the two human pirates
were referring to captured female Pumalars. “Second thought
Darling,” he whispered soothingly, “let’s just stay here a while
longer. Make sure it’s all clear okay?” Felina sighed. “Okay Rex…
we’ll wait here.”

Meanwhile back in the command pod at the
Pumalar Environ passenger port; Kscheeech was getting back reports
of smashing successes in the Pumalar sector. Porkos had cut open a
large hole in the security door and let in reinforcements—plus very
badly needed ammunition. Things were looking better and better. The
SP Police were being driven back. Reinforcements were overwhelming
Police barricades, the messengers said. Wounded and dead were being
retrieved. Prisoners now numbered nearly five hundred female
Pumalars including some assorted other species! This was all such
great news.

Kscheeech was both profoundly relieved and
deeply impressed. His own General Bengal had staved off disaster
and kept the enemy at bay against incredible odds. Now he could
round up prisoners and get everyone the hell out of there! Runners
also reported back that Earthers had cut open the security wall
separating the Earth environ; and messengers reporting on their
situation returned with just about the same positive news. General
Vlad "the Impaler" had secured and captured the entire Earth
Environ and taken nearly five hundred more prisoners. He'd cleaned
out the Roman Empire attraction, the Wild West adventure, and also
the medieval dungeon exhibit. Zorg messengers came back describing
an incredible sight as captured female and male body workers were
herded into the huge Gladiator Arena like scared sheep; many of
them half naked, completely naked, or in some kind of bizarre
costume. Saloon girls, Roman body slaves, medieval dungeon
mistresses… it was quite a sight to see they reported.

But what of Felina? Kscheeech pondered
whether she might very well be among the prisoners captured by the
Smilodons in the Pumalar sector. Could he even recognize her in a
crowd if he looked for her? While the last of the surviving
Smilodons were boarding a Naustie freighter for the trip home, and
bringing on board their wounded and dead comrades, Kscheeech put
one of his best officers in command of the operation and set out
into the horridness of the battlefield to look for her. Was she
even alive? Did she even live through the firefight? Was she
captured already? This wasn’t something Kscheeech could delegate.
He’d have to go find her himself.

Arriving at a large collection site for
prisoners captured during the battle, Kscheeech saw a rather
pitiful site: hundreds... perhaps five hundred wondrously beautiful
furry creatures—all of them over six feet tall cowering and huddled
together—hugging each other and meowing like helpless kittens in a
cardboard box. They seemed to be calling out for mercy, perhaps
mourning the dead and dying around them, or maybe they were just
enraged with their captors for being treated this way. It was hard
to tell. Female Empaths were something Kscheeech had heard about
all his life, but never really actually experienced in person.