“Come in, Neg,” Oxade stepped back into the holograph, “Can you focus on the points of interest, please?”
“Yes.”
Purple light formed around the damaged flight panel.
“The main control unit is devastated,” Neg said. “In addition, the communications panel is barely operational. Beta herself is barely operational.”
“Neg, make sure Poz absorbs every piece of data available.”
“I will.”
Oxade turned to Nutrene and Alex, “Okay, that’s decided, then. We’re using Charlie to get back home. I don’t know what happened to Beta, but she’s battered beyond salvation. I wouldn’t trust her any more than I’d trust you alone with Hughes.”
Alex tried not to giggle at Oxade’s prescience.
“Did you have to say that?” Nutrene blurted. “That wasn’t nice.”
“You want nice?” he stormed up to her, face-to-face and held his palm open, “Maybe a physical reminder of who’s in charge, here?”
“Are you going to hit me?” Nutrene stared him down, “Then be a man and hit me.”
Oxade slapped her across the face. Her chin twisted over her right shoulder as a blotch of red heat formed over her cheek.
“Speak back to me again, Byford. I will leave you on Beta with Poz and Neg so they can detonate with you. Spread your organs around the solar system like some kind of worthless, spinster milkshake. Is that quite clear?”
She looked him in the eyes more determined than ever for blood, “Yes. Captain.”
Alex gulped and hoped Oxade wouldn’t deal the same talking-to as he did to Nutrene.
His luck had run out.
“What the hell are you looking at, Hughes?”
“Nothing, Captain.”
“Hey, you. Hughes,” Oxade stood in front of the lad and pushed his chin up with his knuckle, “Prove to me you’re on-point and on our side.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’re gonna board Beta, right?”
“Yes,” Alex said with anger.
“And you’re going to kill those bastards, right?”
“Yes, sir,” Alex lied to his face with great vigor, “I’m gonna kill ‘em. I’m gonna kill ‘em all.”
Oxade grinned and thumped him on the shoulder, “That’s my boy.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jelly sat on the edge of the bed nearest the door. Her original cat-sized trolley was much too small for her by now.
Wool ran the tip of her lit thumb along the wall and recorded Jelly’s latest measurement.
“Before we left Pink Symphony you were just over five feet tall,” Wool pressed her palm onto her thumbnail and stood to her feet in order to reach the new recorded height above her head. “Now, you’re seven feet and two inches.”
“What’s happening to me, mommy?” Jelly whined in her deep and husky adult voice, “Why am I getting bigger?”
Wool shot the cat-woman a wistful look, “I don’t know, honey.”
“Hey, Jelly. Are you decent?”
She was anything but decent if she’d have been one hundred percent human woman. Her fur provided the modesty she needed, given the circumstances.
“Yeah.”
Jaycee walked into Medix carrying a spare exo-suit and laid them on the nearest available bed, “Got you some fresh clothes. It’s okay. I’m not looking.”
“You can look,” Jelly hopped to her feet and swished her tail around.
Jaycee took her advice and took in her enormity, “Jesus Christ on a pogo stick,” he stammered and glanced at Wool, “Has she gotten bigger in the past few minutes, or what?”
“She won’t stop growing,” Wool watched Jelly throw the Kevlar exo-suit over her shoulders. She pulled the cord from the lapel, enabling it to soak around her chest, arms and abdomen.
“I like this,” Jelly said with her back facing the other two.
“Does it fit okay?”
“Yeah.”
She lifted her right leg and placed her foot on the bed, forming a statuesque right angle which inadvertently revealed her impressive thighs.
Wool held Jaycee back and took a step forward, “Honey? Are you okay?”
“I said I’m fine.”
The subtle croaking in her voice indicated otherwise. She tried her best to keep her cries to herself.
Wool turned around and caught a pink tear welling in her eye with her knuckle. She afforded Jelly some privacy and grabbed the exo-suit leggings, “I’ll cut a hole open for your tail.”
“No, give me it. You don’t know where the hole will be, yet,” Jelly cleared her throat and grabbed the waistline with her large paws, “Careful, don’t touch my claws.”
“Okay, okay,” Wool joined Jaycee and watched Jelly yank the fabric out into a thin, Kevlar belt. She wrapped it around her hips, accentuating the muscles in her thigh.
Jaycee’s hands shook at Jelly’s magnificence. He felt a sensation he was rarely used to. Standing before him was a woman who was his equal – or as damn near as could possibly be.
A beautiful, striking creature.
His eyes followed the fabric unravel down, away from her waist and down her thighs to her knees.
Wool cast a wry eye at Jaycee’s face. She knew what he was feeling, and didn’t approve.
“Jaycee—”
He half-heard her as he ogled Jelly’s legs.
“Jaycee. You’re not serious, are you?”
“Wha—?”
The fabric crept around her shin and soaked into her fur. She looked up in some discomfort and looked at Jaycee.
His eyes traveled from her waist, past her subtle baby bump, past her well-endowed chest – accentuated all the more by the tight top – and, finally, to her neck and face.
Both sets of eyes met quite by accident.
“What are you looking at?” Jelly stomped right foot to the ground and brushed her tail, “Were you checking me out?”
“No, no, I—”
“—You were checking me out, weren’t you?” Jelly hissed at him.
Wool buried her head in her hand, “Oh, God, don’t do that. You’ll make it worse.”
Jaycee’s tongue hung out of his mouth. He didn’t realize it at first, but short of having a neon love heart strapped to his head, anyone could tell he was smitten.
“I love it when you hiss at me,” he said.
BOP.
Jelly booted the bed off its wheels. She spread her claws out and poised to attack the man, “What the hell did you just say?”
“Nothing. I didn’t mean—”
“—Do you want me to kill you?”
Jaycee looked at his feet and apologized, “No, I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“God help me,” she scowled in pain and clutched her stomach. The pink shimmer of light from her abdomen pounded through the suit, “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
She staggered forward and slammed her paw against the wall. A spider web of cracks shot across the wall and coughed out a plume of dust.
“Guuuh,” she cowed and doubled-over, trying not to be sick.
Wool’s hands shook. The reality of Jelly’s predicament had major repercussions for the safety of the ship and its crew.
“Honey, you’re getting worse.”
Jelly lifted her head and widened her ashen eyes.
“I’m not g-getting worse,” she growled, “I’m g-getting better.”
She held herself against the wall and exhaled, blowing the dust from the cracks created by her claws, “Miew,” she whined, “My tail. Cut me open.”
Wool raced forward and placed her hands on Jelly’s hips, “Where? Tell me.”