“—What are you talking about?”
Tripp turned to Wool for her reaction. To say she was anything other than bamboozled would be a vast understatement.
“He’s nuts,” she walked over to Jelly and opened her arms. “We’re dead. Plain and simple. Jelly, come to mommy.”
Jelly jumped into her open arms and nestled herself in the crook of her elbow.
“Meowww-wwwaaar…”
The entire ship rumbled to life just as she made herself comfortable
Tripp, Tor, and Jaycee looked around and breathed a suspicious sigh of relief. Finally, an atmosphere that suggested progress, and one that was familiar to them.
“Beta. She’s back on,” Tor looked up and around. “I’m rebooting Manuel. This is a good sign. It looks like we’re in business again.”
“Tor, please do not reboot me. It is unnecessary. I am one hundred percent operational—”
“—Good call, Tor,” Tripp said. “Let’s get the controls up and running and find out where we are, at least.”
“No, don’t do that—”
“—Rest, Manuel.” Tor snapped his fingers, shutting off Manuel’s holographic representation. “Get some rest.”
Jaycee took a few careful steps forward and lifted his K-SPARK toward the door. “Wait. Something’s not right.”
“Not right?”
He looked around the walls and ceiling. The lights flickered. A distant, angelic humming grew louder from behind the door.
“You hear that?”
Jelly snarled, startling the others. She swiped her paw at Wool’s face, catching her off guard. Two of her infinity claws tore across the woman’s cheek, forcing her to release Jelly to the ground.
“Oww!” Wool yelped, confused by Jelly’s lashing out. “Jelly, what are you—”
“—Roowaaaarr!” Jelly hit the ground and tumbled onto her side.
Tripp, Jaycee, and Tor turned to Jelly. Her whiskers fizzed with tiny beads of electricity. She sat up right straight on her hind legs and allowed her whiskers to do whatever they were doing.
“Muuuuh…”
“What’s h-happening to her?” Tor gasped. “What’s happening to her face?”
Boom-boom-boom…
Three distinct thuds rattled from behind the door. Jelly ignored it as her whiskers perked up, fizzing away. Her face and body vibrated with small, swift shocks.
Wool felt the bloodied scratch on her face and looked at her fingers. Pink liquid trickled between them.
“Jelly?” Tripp muttered in astonishment, “What’s happening to you, girl?”
Jelly’s metal whiskers lit up and stood on end in a fascinatingly unnatural way. Much like her ears did whenever she heard something she hadn’t expected to hear. She lowered her head and stared Tripp in the eyes.
“Meoowww…” she whined. Only this time in a slightly lower octave than everyone expected. “Muuuuhhh…”
Boom-boom-boom…
Everyone turned to the door. It shunted open through the ship’s intense vibrations.
“What’s going on?” Wool cried for her life.
The angelic humming barreled down the walls and into the room, along with a fine pink mist.
“Come to me, sweetie…” A familiar voice accompanied the mist as it pervaded the entire control deck.
Wool’s jaw dropped. She lowered her hand, exposing the fresh, bloodied scratch on her cheek. “What’s h-happening?”
Jelly howled at the mist hanging around the walls and floor. Her infinity claws spasmed, almost involuntarily. The metal whiskers on her face fizzed to life, creating a spark in her pupils.
“Muh… muh… mwaaah… loo… ” Jelly croaked and gave up trying to speak.
“Jelly?” Tripp approached her, only to be met with a fiery resistance. She held up her infinity claws and clenched them tight.
“N-Nnn…” she coughed up a blob of pink phlegm and spat it to the ground. “No…”
Tripp could scarcely believe what he was seeing. The same reaction came from Tor, Wool, and Jaycee, who lowered his gun in astonishment.
“Jelly? No?”
“She just spoke,” Jaycee held his shotgun at Jelly as a precaution. He looked around the deck as the pink gas-like substance filled the room from the corridor. “This is weird. I don’t like it.”
The female voice flooded the room with terrific volume. “Jelly. Come to me, sweetie…”
Jelly turned to the door, jumped to her paws and scurried towards the corridor. She let out a low-pitched growl as she hopped through the opened door.
Jelly Anderson was on a quest. What’s more, she seemed to know exactly what was going on.
Tripp, Tor, Jaycee, and Wool watched her dart out of the room.
“After her!” Tripp said, chasing after Jelly. “Go, go.”
Jelly bounded along the level one walkway, headed for a particular location. The pink gas hung in the air, wafting away as the others chased after her.
“Where’s she going?” Jaycee stomped along the ground after her.
“How the hell should I know?” Tripp kept up the pace and turned to Wool as she ran alongside him, pressing her fingertips against the raw scratch mark on her cheek.
Jelly skidded on her paws and bolted around the corner. The chorus-like voice seemed louder, now. Wherever they were headed, they were getting close to the source.
“Jelly, girl,” Tripp hollered after her. “Where are you going?”
She ignored them and kept running.
“I think we’re going to Medix,” Jaycee grabbed Tor’s arm, careful not to knock his Decapidisc. “Come on, keep up.”
“I am, I am,” Tor hoped Jaycee wouldn’t knock him out or press the button on his glove.
“Come to me, sweetie…” the sleepy, female voice shot past their ears as they ran, “You’re such a good girl.”
“That voice. Is that Haloo?” Tripp pointed dead ahead at the opened door to the Medix chamber. “Jelly, what—”
She bounced into the room and disappeared in a cloud of smog.
Whvoom!
“Go, go, go,” Tripp said as he reached the Medix facility.
Wool screamed after Tripp. “Are you sure it’s safe?”
“No.”
Tripp launched himself into the room and into the pink cloud. Wool, Jaycee, and Tor followed him in…
Tripp walked through the pink gas and emerged inside Medix. Much to his surprise, the room was exactly how they’d left it.
Several beds, machines, and the unmistakable bright white walls, ceiling and floor. Nothing untoward as far as the room was concerned.
Jaycee, Tor, and Wool kept a keen eye on Jelly as she nosed around the trolley containing Haloo Ess’s covered body.
“Mwaaaar…” Jelly snaked around the metal legs, pawing at the casters. “H-Haaa… loooo… ”
Jaycee scanned his surroundings, ready to blast whatever presented itself to smithereens. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Tripp nodded at Jelly as she made a fuss over Haloo’s bed. “Jelly, what are you doing?”
“Meow.”
She seemed calmer, now, backing away from the bed.
The sight of the sheet shuffling around over Haloo’s body suggested she wasn’t dead.
“My God, stay back,” Tripp held out his arms and waved everyone away. “Haloo?”
“What’s happening to her?” Wool asked, terrified.
“I don’t know—”
Haloo’s body sat upright on the bed. The sheet dropped from her chest and landed on her lap. Her eyes were closed, her face still sunken.