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  Bodies were everywhere. Dead Police officers, dead civilians too. The carnage was appalling. Some of the dead were piled up on top of barricades to create extra shields against enemy fire. Their bodies had been pulverized and mangled by flying bullets during SP Police counterattacks. The interior had been shot to hell too. The giant aquarium had been all but obliterated, and dead or dying sea creatures were everywhere strewn across the floor. It smelled disgusting and looked horrifying. Could Felina have actually been inside when all this occurred? If so, how could she have survived it?

  Kscheeech made his way through the bodies and debris back to the kitchen. It was all silent now inside the restaurant. Very little noise outside too, just the yelling of the Porkonji guards driving the female captives off to the space port for extraction, and the moans of wounded being tended to; or executed if they were SP Police. That was Naustie policy regarding wounded enemies. Leave few if any witnesses, whenever possible.

  Kscheeech crept through the restaurant stepping over bodies of dead customers shot up in the firefight earlier. He went way around the sand shark that lay on the floor motionless (but still its creepy eyes seemed to be glaring right back at Kscheeech). He winced when he stepped on a spiny sea urchin, but his big lizard feet didn’t puncture easily like a human foot would. He stepped lightly through puddles of sea water mixed with algae and blood… his innate reptile lizard senses telling him there was still someone hiding somewhere in the place. He could just feel she was still in there. So he kept on looking. He crept carefully into the kitchen. Moved slowly and quietly.

  More bodies. One dead human male, crumpled in the corner… yet another lying in the doorway of a walk-in pantry. Inside the freezer room there were two or three young Porkonjii that Kscheeech could see… all face down; shot to death execution style. He stepped slowly and gently through the puddles of sea water which had dribbled in from the burst aquarium. It smelled like a fish market—actually more like an abandoned fish market at the end of a long hot summer day back home on Zorgolong. Sensing she was near, Kscheeech picked up a large chef’s knife from a cutting board on the food prep table in the center of the very large kitchen. He stepped carefully between the food prep area and the stainless steel industrial stoves until he found yet another body.

  This dead human corpse was so grotesque it even made Kscheeech (old hardened space pirate that he was) shriek back with disgust. The nose of the man was obliterated, the eyes and mouth still wide open aghast with horror as though the victim was pleading for his poor pathetic life when he was shot. The entire back of his head was gone, and brains were oozing out of his blown-open skull. Kscheeech actually felt a bit nauseous at the gory sight! But then Kscheeech noticed a slightly cracked open cabinet door....

  Could this be large enough for someone to be hiding inside? It sure looked enormous. And no one would have thought to look there either! In their haste, the pirates apparently opened closets and pantries and walk-in freezers, killing everyone except attractive marketable females. They wouldn’t have bothered to check cabinets... certainly not a sliding-door cabinet underneath a kitchen counter. That’s where pots and pans go. Kscheeech looked around the kitchen floor; and grinned evilly. Chafing Dishes and pans were strewn everywhere… clearly taken from somewhere and dumped out on the floor. But why? Only one reason possible, thought Kscheeech: A cabinet had to have been emptied in a really big hurry.

  He nodded and snickered. She was probably right there hiding... and likely had been all along... right under everyone’s noses and snouts. Kscheeech gripped his chef knife and nimbly hopped from the floor right up on top of the stainless steel table. It made a huge clank from his big lizard feet and claws landing on it; and someone—or maybe more than one being inside below—suddenly let out a startled yelp.

  “Ah…, here you are, my dear,” snarled Kscheeech in a low menacing voice. More rustling could be heard in the cabinet below him.

  He knelt and crouched on the table, peering carefully over the edge so that his long lizard mouth was near the cracked-open sliding cabinet door. As he did so, he could see his reflection in the polished steel stove door across from him. Inside he could see movement and glistening eyes looking out.

  In a sinister voice, he muttered slowly, “Hello… Sssstar Kitten. I’ve been looking for you.”

  Chapter 17:

  A Heart’s Desire

  When Kscheeech captured Felina in the kitchen, she slowly crawled out of her cabinet hiding place, all sore and hobbled from being curled up inside such a tiny area for so long. Following her, climbing out from inside, was her best friend Rex Middlefield; and Kscheeech suddenly found he had a real dilemma on his hands. Should he execute this male human? Or should he give him to the Arian Knights to make sport of perhaps; on their long voyage home? Actually Felina would end up making the decision for him.

  Kscheeech eyed the human viciously and pondered what to do; then looked back at Felina. “You’ll be coming with us-sss now,” he hissed at her menacingly. Then the tall slender beauty merely looked Kscheeech square in the eye and said, “Very well… but he’s coming with us too. This… is my friend Rex. He’s a chef.” Kscheeech was so flabbergasted at what he thought at first was her audacity in giving orders of her own (to a ferocious lizard-creature brandishing a large chef knife) that he glared back at her for a moment; and heaved out an indignant sigh. But dammit if he didn’t find himself more than glad to accommodate her demands, after only a few more seconds. She seemed to just have some magical effect on him; as he marched his two prisoners back to the docking station.

  When they finally got back, a single male Pumalar guard was all Kscheeech needed at first. As he sat in the command pod, he got to know this incredible creature Felina—and her male friend—very well. The Pumalar guard merely stood by and stared the two down, while they talked for some time with Kscheeech. Then after a while Kscheeech even dismissed the very tired guard to go get some sleep while stevedores outside launched the Varanus and prepared to accept the Chengshi once again. During the course of an hour conversing with the amazing Empath, Kscheeech became quite enthralled with her as well as her companion Rex. They had lots of questions for the paunchy lizard.

  They chatted tentatively at first, keeping the conversation superficial and technical, with things like “so who are you people?” and “where are you taking us?” But eventually the questions became more blunt and direct. It was the first of many experiences that Nausties would have with Felina. She was polite and disarming during conversation, but also fearless and confident. She correctly anticipated the emotions of the being she was talking with; and instinctively matched her words and tone to fit the manner and mentality of the person.

  Kscheeech never once found himself taken aback by her bluntness; just continually so amazed and surprised by her candor. She could read his mind, yes… but she could only sense what he was feeling—nothing more. She didn’t detect facts from his mind; or anticipate what details he knew about things. Moreover she wasn’t concerned with details at all. Her questions were always about intentions, motives, and rationale. Rex asked detail-oriented questions of course; but Felina would always clarify the answers Kscheeech gave. He didn’t mind a bit. She was just so… so easy to talk to. It was so easy to express himself honestly with her.

  Kscheeech told her and Rex everything too. The Prison, the Rebellion, the Civil War, the fear of food shortages, and finally the decision to become pirates. She didn’t judge or evaluate answers given. She wasn’t looking for a confession of guilt for his actions; nor repentance for the atrocities committed by his troops. He was her captor, she and Rex were his prisoners, and she merely wanted to understand him; that’s all. And in time; as the Chengshi was docking and preparing for reloading supplies and taking on passengers; Kscheeech answered every question she posed to him.

  “So you’re taking us back to your planet… New Australia. And it was a prison, you said?” asked Felina. Kscheeech nodded and smiled, tongue flicking the air like liz
ards often do. Kscheeech expanded on that with, “Yes-sss, my dear. We were all s-sssentenced to prison terms-sss on a planet once called Rijel12. But we rose up and overthrew the authorities-sss.” He paused to let it all sink in with her. She clarified, “And you were prisoners there because you were criminals?” Kscheeech chuckled, “Oh yes. All of us. Every planet in the galaxy sent us there for breaking the law. Me, I was a pirate, captured many years ago and sentenced there to die, basically.”

  Rex grew indignant at this answer. He interjected, “And you are once again… still a bloodthirsty pirate, aren’t you?” Kscheeech barely moved his tiny eyes from Felina to her flamboyant friend. “Yes-sss my friends, I am. A very good one too,” smiled Kscheeech pleasantly. Rex guffawed like an offended old woman, then retorted, “Ptcha… Well aren’t we proud of ourselves then? Killing and raiding. Stealing and pillaging. And now you go around the galaxy capturing female Pumalars?”

  Kscheeech just continued to smile; nodding calmly but clearly starting to lose patience with this effeminate-acting human Poof sitting there with arms folded and shaking his balding head with disgust.

  But once again, Felina could completely understand the emotions and needs of the two males in her presence and soothed their tensions in an instant. “Rex had a wonderful restaurant, Captain Keech. I’m sure you understand. He was so proud of it; and loved his staff who worked there.” Felina amazingly had said precisely what needed to be expressed so that Kscheeech could grasp the depth of Rex’s grief. It worked perfectly, and Kscheeech replied, “Yes-sss. Things were done today that we Nausties can’t really be proud of….” Then he looked back at Rex. “It was-sss not our mission today to murder your s-ssstaff or destroy your restaurant.”

  Felina sensed that Rex was feeling indignation, and she very gently patted his shoulder, then stroked his arm with her right paw. Not letting up though, she got right to the core of the matter at hand, and before Rex could speak again, she jumped in with, “What was your mission today then, Captain Keech?” (Earlier in the conversation, Kscheeech had already taught her to use his popular nickname instead of trying to pronounce his Zorg name accurately.) “Our mission?” asked Kscheeech folding his little arms. “Well, you sss-see my Dear, our mission today was-sss to capture females-sss to bring back to our planet. We don’t have many; and well, you sss-see, the prison originally only had male inmates, so we don’t have much in the way of companionship.” Then he smiled broadly, adding, “And MY mission today wuzzzz to find and capture you personally.”

  Rex interrupted with a sarcastic tone, “You mean to tell me you flew across the galaxy just to capture Felina… and hundreds of female Pumalars… just to bring them back to your planet for companionship?” Rex emphasized the sarcasm by holding up fingers like quotation marks when he said the word “companionship”. Kscheeech once again glanced over at Rex, this time with a more patient and compassionate look on his face. “Yes-sss… and about 175 male prisoners from the Earth Environ as well,” answered Kscheeech matter-of-factly, then added quickly, “And…uh… about three hundred females—women, I believe you call them.”

  This unsettled Rex and distracted him from his line of questioning. “(Gasp)… Randy. And Charles… maybe Luis too? Oh God. They’re going with us too? Oh please tell me they’re okay!” Kscheeech smiled warmly—by Zorg standards—replying, “Well I don’t know any names-sss yet, but I’ll try to find out for you. These humans-sss… are they friends-sss of yours?” Rex covered his mouth with both hands, fingers together and eyes wide with concerned terror. He nodded, blinking. Felina stroked Rex’s head with her furry right paw, and soothed her best friend’s mind with these words: “Captain Keech will look into it, Rex. Don’t worry Sweetie. I trust him.” She looked back at Kscheeech and smiled as she caressed Rex’s head.

  An amazing sensation came over Kscheeech as she said those words. He had never felt such an amazing feeling in his life. This, right here in front of him, was the famous Star Kitten, Felina Toyger. The most incredibly awesome, most famous Empath in the galaxy. And she’d just said she “trusted” him. It certainly wasn’t an oath that he’d spoken at the time when he said he’d try to find out about Rex’s friends. Frankly, when he said it; he was just being polite to his prisoner and promising he’d look into it at best (when he got time maybe).

  But the moment Felina said she believed he would live up to his word… Kscheeech vowed in his mind to do everything in his power to make it so. Whatever it took. He smiled back at Felina like a proud little boy in a classroom getting a compliment from a teacher he secretly had a crush on. Then he took out an electronic notepad and typed in the names Rex had spoken earlier… reading them off to make sure he pronounced them right. “Mmmm-hmm. There we are then. Luis-sss, Randy, and Charles-sss. Leave it to me then, Rex. I’ll try to find your friends-sss.”

  He’d simply have to make a Ship2ship communication with the other ship holding the male prisoners and order them to go find any prisoners with those names. They’d do what he said, because of who he was; and no questions would be asked. Moreover, he’d give them special instructions: If found, these three were not to be touched until reaching New Australia. He told that to Felina and Rex too. Felina smiled, then reached out to grasp the lizard-like claw of her captor.

  Kscheeech suddenly realized what he’d just witnessed… this was the true greatness of the famous Star Kitten. She truly had abilities that bordered on the magical. Manipulating without causing anyone to do something they wouldn’t normally do; and inspiring other beings to be far more than their minds previously believed they could achieve. He’d only ever known of ONE other being in the entire galaxy who’d clearly been endowed with gifts and abilities like these: Architeuthis, the aging Slartigifijian spiritual leader of New Australia.

  Kscheeech felt a warm rush of adrenalin go through his body; like his whole mind was being relieved from some emotional burden. Just the touch of her furry warm paw did something amazing to his poor old icy corrupted soul. His mouth dropped open a crack, without him consciously noticing it. He felt like—God it was like she had read and grasped and absorbed everything about who he really was deep inside; both good and bad… and now she was about to reach right into his heart with her next words. She removed her other arm from around Rex’s shoulder and leaned forward to grasp both of his claws. Felina looked into his tiny lizard-slit eyes and purred for a moment. When she finally spoke Kscheeech was mesmerized already.

  Felina said in a low purring voice, “You were all desperate for food… all of you prisoners in that horrible mine… so you rebelled against your cruel masters. You killed them. You captured the planet from them. Then your newly captured planet became your home but you still needed even more food to survive. So you became pirates. Yes… I see now.”

  Kscheeech just nodded like he had been hypnotized. His body just floated. He felt nothing but her touch. He saw nothing but her beautiful gray-green eyes. His cold blood flowed through him like a rushing stream which he could practically feel pumping in his little lizard-like body. But alas, she had even more to say.

  “You came from violence. Lived with violence. Survived violence. And then used violence to further your existence,” she added in a voice barely more audible than a whisper. “And now your warriors want to experience comfort and joy. Happiness and companionship. The things that bring meaning and balance to life. The things that every intelligent creature wants. So they must take from others to get what they feel they need. They take back what they feel was taken away from them years ago.”

  Kscheeech was so relaxed and intoxicated by the feelings he got from being near Felina, that the words he replied were mere mutterings that he doubted she could even hear. He mumbled, “It’s-sss the only life we know.” Felina reached up and caressed the lizard’s face with the furry back of her left paw while she continued to hold his two claws in her right paw. She replied to him, “Yes. The only life you know. That is…until you learn a better way. A better life for you and everyone.
That’s what you desire, deep in your heart.” She gently placed her paw on his chest right over his now thumping heart.

  Kscheeech startled back at first, then bowed his head and sighed deeply. Tears welled in his eyes. He then leaned into Felina’s paw as it gently touched his scaly chest. Yes, this was completely true. Like Solomon, Kscheeech shared the common vision of a better existence for his fellow Nausties and a peaceful co-existence within the galaxy. He lived for the day when he could quit being a pirate; and settle down to enjoy the twilight years of his life.…

  As a young Zorg he’d seen his best friend Ggggaaah abandon him to the authorities and allow him to be exiled to Rijel12. For years he seethed with hatred for his former compatriot; and lived off that hatred coursing through his veins. It kept him alive. It kept him vibrant and alert, working down there in those infernal mines. But when Ggggaaah was captured and executed by his fellow inmates, something changed in Kscheeech. An odd peace descended over his soul.

  Kscheeech found he had no one left to hate anymore. He had no reason to be angry either, or to seek the demise of another being. He found friends amongst the brethren within his gang, and during the rebellion he befriended Snout, who later became his Captain onboard the Anarchy. The killing and the raiding? It was just a necessary evil. He did it; and ordered it done because it was his duty. And he did all those things because his friends needed him: they relied on him. Kscheeech found no joy or any morbid fascination with it. A means to an end, that’s all it was. And someday… hopefully… it wouldn’t be necessary anymore.