Star Kitten Read online

  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.

  In a way, it almost seemed like they were... singing! Could that be right? Was this some ancient Pumalar ritual, to mourn the death of fallen comrades? Were they singing some traditional funeral dirge? Kscheeech walked past them, and stared as he passed. Mesmerized, he almost tripped over a dead body and some debris on the ground, too. Porko Nausties were all around going through the battle site, scooping up weapons off dead Police and fellow Nausties, tossing them into bins and carrying them back to the port for reloading. Other Porkos came along and scooped up bodies of fallen Nausties and returned them to the ship. The wounded were being hauled off to the waiting Naustie craft at Pumalar Port for a quick evacuation back to New Australia. But Kscheeech wanted to be on that ship with his biggest prize of the day’s victory: Felina Toyger, the Star Kitten. So he searched in vain through the mass of huddled captives.

  Everyone was scurrying about all around him. Only the Nausties assigned to guarding the prisoners stood still or walked slowly around the huddle of prisoners. No one dared try to escape. They were armed, sure, but the Nausties' appearances were far more terrifying even than their guns. Even if they'd been armed with butter knives, not one of these helpless horrified females would have tried to run for it.

  Kscheeech debated how to approach this. He couldn’t understand anything the Pumalar Empaths were saying… and he wasn’t even sure if they were saying really anything at all. It seemed like they were just wailing and crying mournfully; yet not really singing along with each other or mouthing anything like lyrics to their songs. Just randomly meowing; is all he could make out. Frankly it was almost terrifying, especially to Kscheeech who stood barely five feet tall. He looked around and saw a large billboard overhead that had an electrified animated screen showing scenes of the Star Kitten herself, waving back subtly and glaring alluringly.

  In the animated image showing above the street, “Felina the Star Kitten” held a finger up to her lips as if to say “shhhhh” then winked in a sexy manner. The five second video was on a loop and continued to play over and over again; while a banner advertisement repeatedly scrolled slowly across perpetually urging customers to “make reservations with a Star Pussy Empath tonight”.

  It gave him an idea! He walked up to the terrified giant she-cats and stood for a moment with his hands on his hips. Hmmm, what to say to them, he wondered. At first he stammered out, “Um, ex-ssscuse me ladies...,” but he couldn’t get anywhere with them. None of them acknowledged or even looked at him. They just kept wailing and meowing mournfully.

  Then a pair of Porkonjii came by with a stretcher that held a large injured Pumalar Naustie warrior. He was bleeding terribly and needed to get to a surgeon quickly before he bled to death, but Kscheeech really desperately needed his assistance. Kscheeech said, “Ex-ssscuse me could I get your help for a moment?” The big cat looked up through pained eyes and noticed he was being addressed by Captain Kscheeech himself, the Admiral’s first mate and close confidant. The cat’s eyes widened and he raised his hand up to salute but was barely able to do so. Kscheeech interrupted this effort with “No, no, no… no need for that. I jussst don’t know how to get theez… I don’t how to get their attention and I need to ask them how to find s-sssomeone… Felina actually. Could you help me communicate with them?”

  The giant cat didn’t hesitate for even a moment. Just rolled over to his side and tried to raise up from the stretcher, even as the two Porkonjii carrying him snorted indignantly in protest. It took him several moments but when he stood up fully erect, the she-cats began to increase their wailing and moaning to the point it was almost deafening. Taking in a deep painful breath while holding a field dressing close to his gashed chest, the big Pumalar heaved out a five second-long (quite horrifying) lion-like roar that terrified the already cowering females. When he finished they were completely silent, almost crouching in obedience. Kscheeech too, was even a bit startled by the ferocity of it all. The warrior had seemed almost half-dead when the two Porkonjii brought him past only moments ago; yet now he’d silenced the entire crowd.

  Kscheeech thanked the warrior, as the big cat laid back down on the stretcher. The Pumalar then looked up at Kscheeech and growled, “Now... ask question.” Kscheeech didn’t hesitate. He just took a moment to have two other nearby Porkonji guards hoist him up on their shoulders so that the Pumalar females could all see him. Then he pointed up to the flashing billboard overhead and yelled, “WHERE… FELINA???” The she-cats all looked right up at the sign and one by one looked right back at Kscheeech, shaking their heads... bowing obediently. Kscheeech was confused. He looked down at the Pumalar lying on the stretcher. As the Porkonjii carrying him prepared to whisk him away to the ship for evacuation, the big cat snarled, “Pumalar not lie. Pumalar no can lie. Ask other question.” Kscheeech realized immediately what the warrior meant. Pumalars were incapable of lying. The she-cats were simply hanging their heads in shame because they did not know where Felina was. So Kscheeech turned back to them and bellowed out even more sternly, “WHERE… S-sssTARFISH???”

  Starfish was the name of
the restaurant she always went to for dinner after work. Kscheeech had learned that from talking with Meerah earlier that day. If she’d gone to that restaurant after work; she’d probably (hopefully) been trapped there during the battle. Kscheeech was amazed at the response to this question. “Where Starfish?” was greeted with nearly five hundred arms thrusting in the same direction, pointing down the street to the same location. They yelled out excitedly in both Galactic and in their native Pumalar language, “THERE. Restaurant is there! Starfish…there!”

  Kscheeech nodded and thanked them all with a grin. Then he had the Porko guards let him down from their shoulders. When he looked back to thank the Pumalar warrior, the Porkos carrying his stretcher were already whisking him away. “Wow, what an experience...!” said Kscheeech under his breath.

  With a spring in his step he walked briskly down the street to what was once one of the most fancy, swank restaurants on all of Star Pussy. He also laughed to himself about the excitement of hearing a Pumalar male take command of a crowd of females; with nothing but just a fierce roar.

  Within a few minutes Kscheeech was standing out in front of the place. Here it was, the famous “Starfish” restaurant… but oh, what a woeful state of affairs! A shot-up sign dangled from the entrance, secured on only one side. It clearly once showed a big yellow gold star with a pink feminine-faced cartoon fish winking back (including long elegant eyelashes and luscious red lips). But now it was riddled with bullet holes. Kscheeech sighed. It almost depressed him to see all the destruction the battle had caused. In a way, he longed to see what it had once appeared like, before bullets had ripped the place to shreds. But it was far too late for that now. His cold reptile blood ran a bit colder with dread when he saw the devastation. How could anything in this place still be alive?