Jaycee climbed to his feet and brushed his exo-suit down. He detached the wire from his belt and moved to the window with great curiosity, “What the hell are those things?”
Tripp couldn’t provide an explanation, “I have no idea.”
Jaycee reached into the compartment in his leg and took out a red dumb bomb. He teased the pin with his thumb, “Do I have your permission to toss this in Botanix and buy us some time?”
“If you do, we lose oxygen—”
“—Are you out of your mind, Healy?” Jaycee stomped his boot to the floor. The arsenal inside his leg compartment rattled around.
“Have you seen the state of Botanix? It’s as good as over, anyway.”
“But the oxygen?” Bonnie asked. “We’re screwed without it.”
Jaycee turned to the window once again. The Shanta chewed and ravaged their way through the charcoaled plants and soil and bashed against the door.
“You’re forgetting one thing,” Jaycee flicked the pin from the dumb bomb. The lights lit up and the device armed itself, “We don’t need oxygen. We’re Androgynes.”
Jaycee grabbed the lip of the door and pulled it across its slider. “Nggggg…”
Biddip-biddip-biddip-beeeep.
“Go to Medix and find Wool. Go, go,” Jaycee tossed the live dumb bomb through the ten-inch gap in the door.
Tripp and Bonnie shot off down the walkway.
Jaycee to pushed the door shut. The Shanta backed away from the beeping device rolling around the floor. One of them crouched on its front four limbs. Its top ‘arms’ bent over and tried to pick it up the rolling grenade.
“Screeeeeeee,” another shouted when realizing what the device was.
KA-BLOICK!
The dumb bomb exploded. A torrent of pink gloop splattered up inside of the door’s window. Jaycee caught sight of his severed left hand in the window as he tried to flip them the bird. Unfortunately, no hand – no fingers.
“Bon appetite, you ugly bastards.”
He turned around and raced up the walkway where Tripp and Bonnie had gone moments earlier.
CHAPTER TWO
Tor sprinted across the level three walkway and pressed his fingertips along the red mark around his neck. The Decapidisc had turned the skin on his neck raw during the time he wore it. The mark resembled a choker. The pain was very real; an unfailing reminder of just how unpopular he was with the Opera Beta crew.
“Where did that damn cat go?”
He scanned the staircase looking for her. The emergency strip lights on the floor provided limited visibility in the darkness.
“Jelly? Where are you?”
His footsteps echoed along the metal gantry as he made his way to the staircase.
No sign of her.
“Miew,” came a familiar cry on the descent to level four.
“Jelly?” Tor hollered once again and placed his boot on the top step, “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you. Where are you?”
Jelly’s light whimpers crept up the staircase. Tor gripped the railing and made his descent.
Her continued whining indicated her close proximity.
“Jelly, I know you’re here—Whoa!”
He tripped up and tumbled to the halfway turn in the staircase. His shoulder blades slapped against the ground, forcing him onto his side.
He blinked a couple of times and caught sight of Jelly on all fours, snuggled against the fifth step.
“Miew,” she cowered.
“You vicious pussy,” Tor kicked himself back, uneasy at the sight of Jelly’s cat-like face, “What are you looking at me like that for?”
Her ears pricked up. Somehow, she looked more human than she did not ten minutes ago.
“Hisss…”
“Okay, okay,” Tor pushed himself to his knees and stood up straight. He held out his arms and took a step forward.
Jelly revealed her incisors. She flapped her tongue and began to purr – this time, not in a friendly way. An intense growl rumbled through her body as she backed up the next available step, “H-Hate you.”
Tor threatened to scoop her up, “I’m not the bad guy, Jelly. I know you think I am, but I’m not.”
“Grrr…”
She climbed onto the next step and hissed at him again. Her beautiful, flowing hair fell down her back. She demanded freedom.
“Grrr…” she bushed her tail out and slapped it against the step.
“Come on, sweetie—”
Jelly’s face pulled back as she roared at him. A scary-looking half-cat, half-girl. Frozen solid with his arms outstretched he finally processed the vision of perversion in front of him.
“What happened to you, girl?”
“Hate you,” Jelly’s six-year-old girl’s voice croaked as she spoke. She extended her infinity claws and ran them across the step. The screeching noise and was unbearable.
“We have to get you back to Medix,” Tor failed to grasp the bizarre nature of having to negotiate that with a sort of cat, “Wool says something is happening to you.”
“Stay back,” Jelly hopped up the next three steps. She entered a shaft of light billowing in from the level three walkway.
Tor clamped eyes on her face. A moment ago she looked like a cat with a human face. Now, in the unmistakable harsh light, the opposite was true. A girl with cat-like features. Her Titanium whiskers fizzed and sparked.
Her ears remained further up the side of her head, unlike a human’s. Her nose had protruded into human form. A strange, pink hue bleached out from under the white sheet she held against her body.
“I go,” she meowed, “You stay.”
“You want me to stay here? In the staircase?”
“Away from the gift.”
Tor looked at her belly and swallowed hard, “What is that you’re doing?”
Jelly turned around and climbed the six remaining steps. Her tail swished around as she bolted across the walkway.
“No, come back,” Tor grabbed the rail and hoisted himself up the steps, “Jelly, please. They’ll kill me if I lose you.”
Jelly scrambled on all-fours along the metal grilles. The walkway shifted around and began to vibrate. She stopped and pressed the side of her body against the wall in protest, “Miew…”
Frightened, she scanned at her surroundings. Her paws vibrated up a storm and shifted along the floor. The movement had nothing to do with her, though – the ship had come to life.
One by one, the lights in the walkway punched to life. An intense hum rumbled behind the level three walls as its bulbs shone brighter.
Jelly tried to adjust to the commotion by pacing around.
Tor approached her from behind with extreme caution, “Jelly, come on,”
She spun around and howled in his face, “No.”
“But, but—”
KERR-RUNCH!
Jelly’s forearms shot out in front of her body. Tufts of fur coughed into the air as the skin underneath bulged. The bones within cracked forward and thickened.
“Mee-oowwww…” She struggled in front of an astonished Tor and rolled onto her back.
“Jesus, what’s—” Tor couldn’t finish his sentence.
Jelly’s abdomen pulled out and up. Her first layer of skin pushed out in all directions. The pink glow in her stomach boomed beyond the sound of transforming bone and flesh.
Tor took a step back in shock, “This is insanity.”
The ship’s rumbling and Jelly’s pain was too much for him to take.
“Roowwaaarrr…” Jelly kicked herself against the wall and ran her infinity claws across the fur on her stomach.
“Jelly, what’s happening to you—”