GRUMBLE… GROOOWWWL…
Jelly held her breath. The pain and rumbling in her stomach abated and settled down. She breathed a sigh of relief.
CLANG.
Sparks flicked up from her claws as they scraped against the railing. She hoisted herself back to her feet and stormed up the next set of stairs.
Jelly made a beeline for the flight deck.
Manuel paused his work on with the communications panel when he saw her enter the room, “Jelly, you’re here.”
“Yeah,” she kept her focus on screen on the flight deck as she approached it, “I heard comms are back on. Patch me into N-Gage. Now.”
Manuel tilted his covers in confusion, “Oh my, you have grown.”
She pulled the chair out from under the desk and spun it around, “No,” she quipped, “Do you really think so?”
“Yes, I do think so. Your height. Your frame, if I can call it that?”
“Stop looking at me like some kind of weirdo,” Jelly lifted her tail the way female humans hitch their skirts and slumped into the chair, “Patch me into N-Gage. Anderson household, Chrome Valley. Do it now.”
“But, we’re awaiting rescue—”
“—Hey, Manuel?” she snapped.
“Yes?”
“Do you want me to scratch your eyes out and hump the sockets?”
“Umm, no?”
Puzzled, he fluttered further away from her, “It’s just that we’re awaiting contact with Opera Charlie to establish—”
“—Aww, God damn it,” Jelly slammed the flight deck with her claws and spun her chair around, “You’re not listening to me. I want you to patch me into N-Gage. Now.”
“But I—”
“—Make no mistake, you floating piece of crap. I want to speak to Jamie and tell him I love and miss him. Not that I have to explain my actions to you.”
Manuel tried to calm her down.
“Miss Anderson. I’m fully aware that you, like the others, miss your family. But if we connect to Earth it could jeopardize our bridge with Charlie. We must keep the channel free for—”
“—What’s the first rule?”
“Uh, I wasn’t aware there was a first rule, Miss Anderson?”
“Oh, then let me enlighten you. The first rule is I get what I want. Everything that ever was, is, and ever will be is mine. All mine. Do you understand what I’ve just said?”
“Uh, yes?” Manuel lowered himself, hoping not to get swiped by her vicious infinity claws.
“I want to see Jamie. Now patch me in.”
“Okay, okay… don’t have kittens,” Manuel said as the color drained from his covers.
“Har-har, very funny,” Jelly stopped herself from giggling at Manuel’s inspired quip, “Let’s see how funny you are when I tear your covers off, comedian.”
“Patching you in now. Please be quick.”
“I’ll take as long as I want, you encyclopedic-head.”
“Oh, come now, Miss Anderson. That was uncalled for.”
Jelly threatened to push herself off the chair and punch the communications panel.
“Shut up and do your job or I’ll tear out your pages and Origami them into a baseball bat and smack you around the covers with it.”
“Fine,” Manuel paused in mid-air, enabling the flight deck screen to come to life, “Here we go.”
“Thank you,” Jelly turned to the screen and briefly caught a glimpse of her own face in the glass. She didn’t recognize herself at all. The girl who’d battled on Pink Symphony was no longer present. Instead, a beautiful half-cat looked at her. The screen beeped and displayed white text.
N-Gage
Anderson Residence
Chrome Valley, United Kingdom.
Dialing…
“Come on, come on,” she spat, impatiently, “Answer, Jamie.”
The screen wobbled around and flushed into white static. A shape of a man’s face formed within the dots.
Tony, Emily’s husband, appeared on screen and looked into the lens, “Hello. Who’s this?”
Jelly shook her head and winced at Tony’s face, “Who’s this?”
“Sorry, who are you trying to reach?” Tony said.
“I want to see Jamie.”
Tony’s face peered against the screen as he tried to ascertain who, exactly, this strange half-cat, half-women was, “Who are you?”
“I want Jamie. Put Jamie on.”
“Not until you tell me who you are,” Tony looked under the screen and then back at Jelly, “USARIC?”
“My name is Jelly Anderson.”
Tony raised his eyebrows in amazement, “You’re J-Jelly Anderson?”
“Yes. Put Jamie on.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Don’t care. I want Jamie.”
“He’s not here, I’m afraid,” Tony whispered. “He’s at school.”
Jelly’s face fell, fueled with anger. She tapped the side of the screen with her claw as if trying to goad a mouse, “No. No, I want Jamie.”
“I’m sorry,” Tony said. “If you call in a few hours when he’s home, I’ll let him know you—”
“—I want Jamie,” Jelly burst into tears and clenched her fist.
KER-SMASH!
She punched through the screen and smashed the glass, severing the connection. “Agggghhhh!” She took the screen’s wires in her paw and tore them out like a bunch of stringy intestines. The force yanked the screen from the desk. It whipped off the deck and crashed to the floor. Sparks and jolts of spent electricity whizzed into the air, underscoring her juvenile-like sobs.
The color came back to Manuel as he whirred back to life, “All done?”
“No,” Jelly wept and stomped her feet on the ground in a tantrum, “He wasn’t there.”
“Oh, I’m sorry—”
“—What’s all this shouting?” Tripp walked into the control deck and immediately spotted the wreckage on the floor, “What happened?”
He looked up and saw the torn wires and cables hanging across Jelly’s infinity claws, “Jelly?”
“What?”
“Did you do this?”
“Yes. Bad screen.”
“You can’t go around damaging USARIC property like this. They’ll dock our wages if there’s any damage done.”
“So?”
Tripp crouched down and scooped the battered monitor into his arms. The wires streaked from the shattered glass a few meters away in Jelly’s claws.
“Jelly. Let go of the wires.”
“No.”
“Jelly, I’m the captain of this ship. You have to obey me.”
She tugged taut on the wires and refused to let go, “Mine.”
“No, Jelly. Not yours. Let go of the wires. I need to get this screen fixed.”
“Mine,” Jelly coiled the metal connector at the end of each strand around her wrist. She wrapped each infinity claw around it and tugged it back to her hip, forcing Tripp to walk toward her.
“I’m not going to say it again, you bad girl. This is a direct order. Let go of the wires.”
“No,” she reached across the taut wires with her other paw and gripped them, pulling him closer still, “It’s mine.”
“Look at it. It’s useless. What do you want a broken screen for?”
“Don’t care. It’s mine.”
Tripp dropped the broken device to the floor. Jelly’s elbows hit the flight deck due to the lack of pull.