His jaw dropped as he turned to the blinding-white bridge. Saturn’s rings gyrated faster and faster. A liquid circle formed over its surface. It appeared to sing as it enveloped the two ships with a brilliant white light.
“My G-God…”
SCHWUMP.
Alex couldn’t believe his eyes. A wondrous event was in full swing. He caught the newborn in his arms as the decompression thundered around them, “What’s happening up there?”
Jaycee yanked the second lever down and opened the inner door, “Give me the baby.”
Alex bolted through the door and passed the kitten to Jaycee, “Something insane is happening up there.”
“I know. We saw it,” Jaycee inspected the kitten. She’d bled a little form her facial orifices but was still breathing, “We need to protect Anderson’s baby.”
“What about Jelly?” Alex pointed at the door.
Oxade and Jelly faced-off in the middle of the bridge. He aimed his gun at her and threatened to shoot, “My name is Oxade Weller. I am the captain of Opera Charlie,” he said before realizing Jelly couldn’t hear a word. She could see he was speaking through his mask, but little else.
Nutrene sidled past him on the bridge with her Rez-9 drawn. Her monocle rotated and focused on Jelly, “Let me take care of this putrid ball of fluff.”
Jelly lowered her claws and huffed. The absence of atmosphere began to crack the fur and skin on her arms. She harnessed the pain and used it to psyche herself up, ready for war.
“It’s very pretty out here, isn’t it?” Nutrene looked up at the angry blue planet spinning its rings. She pointed her gun at Jelly’s heart, “Now surrender. You’re a perversion of science.”
Jelly whined. Her muscles tensed up as she held her claws out in surrender.
“Good girl,” Nutrene laughed through her mask, “Who’s a good girl? Yes, you are,” she pulled herself along the bridge with her free arm, “Come here for a murdering, you fluffy little—”
SCHWUPP!
Nutrene’s gun lifted away from her palm and shot up to Saturn’s spinning rings, “Huh?”
She grabbed at it – to no success. The gun sped at that bizarre circular formation smothering Saturn’s surface.
Nutrene made the mistake of looking up at the spectacle, “Oh, m-my,” Her monocle swirled around, focusing on her gun drifting towards the planet, “It is God!”
“Meow,” Jelly snarled and swiped her claws across Nutrene’s face. Her mask burst apart. The lens in her monocle cracked.
The gelatin frontage sucked into her face and blasted three perfect streams of gas towards Saturn, depriving the woman of oxygen.
“H-Help m-me…”
Nutrene let go of the rails. The pull from Saturn yanked her eyeball through her broken monocle, forcing her head away from the bridge. Her chest cracked out and made its way towards the blackened surface of Saturn as she suffocated to death.
“Aaggghhhh…” Nutrene’s suit tore open and punched a hole in her torso. Her organs plumed out and stretched away from her body.
“Oh God,” Oxade raced forward and kicked himself down to his back. He spun around on his side and watched what little remained of Nutrene fold out.
The bones in her body crunched together and threw her remains at Saturn like a stretched piece of chewing gum.
Jelly’s hair began to lift toward the cataclysmic black event on Saturn, “Miew.”
She turned around and held onto the bridge railing and yanked herself toward Opera Charlie.
“Oh, God, Nutrene.”
He witnessed the bottom half of her body, and legs, stretch over thousands of miles and melt into the fantastic light show above his head. Her monocle elongated as her messy amalgam of bone, flesh and skin snaked toward the angry planet.
Oxade felt his feet drift up and away from the bridge, “Come back here,” he screamed, pulling himself toward Jelly.
Poz and Neg peeked out from Opera Beta’s outer airlock hatch and scanned the bridge, “Seems stable enough.”
“Yes, but what about that black hole?” Neg tilted her eyebulbs directly above their heads.
“We can make it,” Poz said. “I don’t want to die on this crappy spaceship.”
“Okay, let’s go,” Neg rolled across the bridge at speed, headed toward Oxade and Jelly.
Oxade clung to the bridge and felt his shin bones crack apart, “Oh, oh…”
Jelly spun around and slammed the outer airlock door, “Let me in.”
Alex hit the lever on the wall. The hatch flew up and let Jelly into the decompression chamber. She tumbled backwards and hit her tail on the wall, “Mieewww.”
Oxade grabbed the outer door edges, trying to fight back the force of the event taking place above them. He looked at the ground and tried for one last push.
“Nyaaarrggghhhhhh…”
WHIZZ…
Neg rolled into the chamber underneath his chest as he pulled forward.
“Hello, Captain.”
“Gah, gah,”
Oxade wrenched the top half of his body through the frame of the airlock door.
SCHWUNT-SMASH!
The hatch sliced down on his right foot and severed it from his ankle.
“Gaaooww,”
The compressed air blasted around Jelly, Neg, and Oxade, sealing them in from the bridge.
Jelly caught her breath and held the end of her tail. The pain was sensational and angered her to the core.
Oxade and Neg looked up at her.
“N-Neg…” Oxade looked through the window and saw his severed foot drift through space, headed for Saturn, “Touch Jelly for me.”
“My pleasure,” Neg twisted around and rolled forward, threatening to make contact.
Jelly back up to the inner door, “Stay away from me.”
“Come here, girl,” Neg slid forward and beeped, “I want to absorb you.”
Jelly elbowed the inner door behind her, “Alex. Open the hatch.”
“Touch her, you useless marble,” Oxade shouted at Neg.
“Okay, okay,” She rolled further forward, nanoseconds away from making contact.
Jelly gripped the inner hatch, closed her eyes and squealed.
Neg almost made contact with Jelly’s knee. Her cylindrical body lifted ten inches into the air and rocketed back toward the outer airlock door.
CLANNNGGG!
Her frame smashed against the bottom of the door like a super-powerful magnet, “What the hell?”
Neg looked around and saw Poz on the other side of the door slowly drifting up toward Saturn’s event.
“Neg, Neg,” Poz’s muffled squeals blasted from the window, “Help me. Don’t let me go.”
“Ah, ah, ah,” Neg slid up the door with Poz, their magnetized surfaces keeping them bound together.
“Don’t l-let me go up there, I’m scared.”
Jelly and Oxade’s watched the magnetic droids share a moment together as Poz’s body dragged Neg further up the outer airlock door.
“Work with me, here, Neg,” Poz said. “Let me in.”
Jelly screamed and clanging her claws against the window, “Alex, open the damn hatch.”
Alex kept his grip on the lever and eyed the pressure inlet dial, “I’m waiting for the chamber to reset. C’mon, c’mon, c’mon…”
Biddip-beeeeeeeep.
The lever lit up, indicating the decompression had concluded.
SWISH!
Alex yanked the lever down. The inner airlock hatch flew up. Jelly backward-rolled inside Opera Charlie..
She thumped her claws to the ground and growled at Oxade and Neg.
“Come here, you defiant cow,” Neg attempted to break away from Poz’s magnetic charge from the other side of the outer airlock hatch.