Kitty Katt 11: Alien Separation (42 page)

H
AVING TAKEN THE
Katyhopper Express already, I was prepared for the flight. The others adapted quickly, which was good, since it was a long way down if anyone fell off. Oh, sure, Rahmi and Rhee both had to hold onto Ginger and Wilbur a little tighter than expected when both animals almost fell off, but otherwise, we were pros by the time we were halfway to the nearest spaceship.

Not counting Ginger and Wilbur, there were eight of us riding, but there were more Matriarchs than that here. They all came with, which I was relieved about. We needed the protection from the Rapacians' mind reading.

“Her Diamonds” by Rob Thomas came on my iPod now. Which made no sense, really, because it was a song about his wife's illness, which didn't seem really relevant to our current situation.

The song skipped, which was an extremely rare occurrence, and the next song started. Elton John's version of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” So Algar wanted me to focus on diamonds? Treasure hunting right now seemed like bad timing.

The song skipped again. Didn't think it was my iPod dying. Clearly Algar knew I wasn't catching on. This time, “Free Your Mind” by En Vogue came on. And I got it.

But before I could share my revelation with the others, we reached the ship. Sadly, it was still manned, which was proven by the fact that several Rapacians flew out to engage us.

The princesses had taken the lead, and they were able to use their battle staffs while riding a katyhopper and holding a large animal. I was impressed. They were also the only ones with blunt weapons. The rest of us had nothing or guns, which weren't necessarily the best choice when flying around very high up in the air with a lot of your friends involved in the fight.

Fancy, however, was hella impressive. She stood up on the back of her Matriarch and whipped out a knife from somewhere—had to figure out where everyone from this solar system stashed their weapons and how—and engaged the Rapacian nearest to her.

Reached into my purse. “Need weapons that will work against Rapacians.” And pulled out a Beta Twelve battle staff. “Abby!” Tossed it to her and she caught it just in time to block an attack.

Reached in again and this time came out with a baseball bat. “James!” Tossed it to him, reached in, and pulled out three more bats. Tossed them to 2.0 and The Clarence Clone, and kept the last for myself. “I can use a battle staff, too, you know,” I said to my purse.

But then a Rapacian was attacking me and I had to focus. Kept a good grip on the bat and swung for the head, not just to brain this bird, but to break the jewel on its forehead.

Missed, naturally. But because I did, my body slipped to the side, meaning that the Rapacian's mace missed me.

Tried to send a message to the Matriarchs that we all wanted to get into the spaceship more than fight outside of it. Figured they already knew, but it couldn't hurt to try to share that info again.

Meanwhile, had to deal with the Rapacian flying around me. Was pretty sure it was a male. It was also above me in just the right way, so I aimed for what my mother, father, Chuckie, and every martial arts instructor I'd ever had always said to—the groin.

Slammed the bat upward, ensuring that I hit all of whatever was between this birdman's legs.

The scream was indicative of a good hit. He dropped his mace, which I just managed to grab before it hit me or my Matriarch. He'd dropped the mace to curl up into a fetal position. He also plummeted downward, since flapping his wings wasn't the first thought on his mind.

“So far so good. Gang!” I shouted, hoping the Matriarchs would assist with broadcast. “The males are just like ours. Go for the family jewels!”

Had a moment to look around. Interestingly enough, none of the Rapacians were attacking the Matriarchs. Hoped that would continue. The Rapacians were also, for the most part, doing a one-on-one combat style. The few that weren't were after Fancy and Abigail, who were now both standing on the backs of their Matriarchs. Those appeared to all be females, meaning my attack strategy was unlikely to work.

Wasn't sure at all where Abigail had learned to fight, but experience reminded me that the battle staffs responded to women and definitely gave their user an assist. Even so, though, clearly someone had been making sure that Abigail could fight. Probably Chuckie, but maybe not—she wasn't fighting in a style he used.

The others all listened, even the princesses, and shortly another five Rapacians were screaming and falling out of the sky.

The rest of us went to help Abigail and Fancy. But they were doing amazingly well all on their own—in fact, their Matriarchs were flying close together and the women were jumping back and forth on their backs, fighting as if they'd done so together for years, slicing and dicing on Fancy's part, slamming and sticking on Abigail's.

But Fancy's knife wasn't nearly as long as the battle staffs, or the maces and flails she was facing. Waited for her to have a break in her fight. “Fancy!” Tossed her the mace, which she caught. She shot me the same toothy smile King Benny had done, stashed her knife, then swung the mace two-handed into the nearest Rapacian. Said birdwoman went flying, and not from her own power.

“Thank you, Shealla!” she called as she slammed the mace into the back of a birdwoman attacking Abigail.

My music switched to Queen's “Fight from the Inside” and I figured it was time to divide the attack. Flew over to the princesses, grabbed Wilbur, and flung him over my mount in front of me. Ginger took the hint and leaped over, landing behind me. Both animals managed to stay on and not struggle. “Rahmi, Rhee, help Abby and Fancy! Try to hit the jewels on the birds' heads. The rest of you, come with me!”

The princesses leapt into the melee—literally. Their Matriarchs flew behind the other two, creating a sort of living platform for the four fighters. Decided watching wasn't going to do anything but make my stomach create a lot of acid due to worry about all eight of them.

2.0 took the lead into the spaceship. “Get away from my world, you feathered bastards!” he screamed as he slammed his baseball bat around like he was trying out for the Yankees. He hit heads, and The Clarence Clone followed up and hit groins. They worked well together as a team and more Rapacians fell. Either we weren't facing the good fighters, or the Rapacians rarely engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

Reader and I, meanwhile, were able to fly around them and into the ship. As soon as we were inside, Wilbur and Ginger jumped off and led their own kind of charge. Reader and I dismounted too. “We're looking for the command center, where they fly this thing.”

“I'd guess it's the area that looks like a head, though that could be wrong,” Reader said. “But that's where your cat and dog are going, I think.” The animals were indeed racing off somewhere. Decided we should follow them.

“I think the jewels on their heads give them the mind reading or control or whatever power,” I said as we ran after the animals, Matriarchs right behind us. “We need to destroy those.”

Reader shook his head as we stopped to assist Wilbur and Ginger with three Rapacians. “We need to destroy whatever it is that powers them,” he said as he slammed his bat into a Rapacian head.

“Wouldn't that be on their home planet? Or their minds, or something?” Did some cool kung fu moves on one Rapacian while Wilbur chomped on the birdman's leg.

“Ronaldo carries his power with him, but he doesn't power anyone else. Same with the katyhoppers, right?” Reader slammed his bat onto the head of the Rapacian Ginger was clawing up.

“Right.”

2.0 and The Clarence Clone rejoined us, ran past us, and attacked the third Rapacian. Apparently they were enjoying themselves. Grabbed the circlet off the third Rapacian right before 2.0 smashed his head in.

“None of them use something else to power their abilities,” Reader pointed out, as the animals took off again, with 2.0 and The Clarence Clone in gleeful pursuit. “I could be wrong, but I'm betting on a device that sends amplification through the jewels, or the circlets, or whatever. And I'm also betting that it's on each ship, or the command ship, since I wouldn't want to risk losing my mind-reading abilities merely because I left my power source back home.”

“Works for me.” Third Eye Blind's “Faster” came on my personal airwaves. Chose to take the hint. Grabbed Reader's hand and kicked it up to hyperspeed. I agreed with Algar—it was time to get where we needed to go. We passed several Rapacians who literally had no idea of what hit them. Caught up to 2.0 and The Clarence Clone. “Ronnie, grab Ginger. Clarence, grab Wilbur. Then follow us at hyperspeed.”

Reader and I zipped off. It was a lot easier to get through the ship this way and we were in the command center shortly, even though we made a ton of wrong turns.

“Never thought you'd find it,” Reader said as we slammed bird heads together.

“It gave us an opportunity to knock out every enemy in this portion of the ship.”

“Whatever answer lets you sleep at night, girlfriend. Now what?”

Found the chair that was obviously the one that the pilot used and shoved Reader into it. “Now you fly this thing.”

“What? I've never seen this ship before, let alone have any idea of how to fly it.”

“James, you're the best pilot we have. Just channel Will Smith from
Independence Day
and do it.” My iPod chose now to share “Put a Lid on It” by the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Grabbed an available circlet from a nearby unconscious Rapacian and put it onto his head. “Maybe this will help.”

He concentrated. “Actually . . . yeah, I think it does help.” He started flipping switches and such. “I need a copilot.”

Grabbed 2.0, flung him into the chair Reader indicated, and put another circlet onto his head. “Help James fly this thing. Resist any urges you might have to take over.”

He nodded. “Interesting. I . . . understand how the ship works.”

Put the other circlet I had on my own head because why not?

Why not was expressed in one word. “Whoa!”

T
O CALL THE EXPERIENCE
mind-expanding was an understatement. I could see everything going on in the solar system, could feel all the billions of minds, could feel all the emotions. The music stopped mid-note. Wasn't sure if Algar was doing me a solid or if my mind had short-circuited my iPod. I'd find out later if my head didn't explode.

“Kitty, are you okay?” Reader called.

“How can you fly? How can you concentrate? How can you focus?” With this on my head it was as if I was spinning out of control. Felt someone hold and steady me, and realized it was The Clarence Clone. It didn't help much, but it helped a bit.

Right before I thought I was going to pass out, I felt something soothing, and the barrage of everything stopped.

Kitty needs to relax.

Recognized the voice in my mind.
ACE? ACE is that you?

Yes, Kitty, ACE is here.

What's going on? What was that? How is it that the Rapacians can deal with that, let alone James and Ronnie?

ACE apologizes. This was the only way ACE could speak with Kitty. Kitty saw things as ACE sees them.

I'd seen things as ACE saw them before, but not like this. This had been far more than I'd experienced before. Maybe I was more ready to handle it now than before.

Yes. Kitty has seen and done many things Kitty had not before.

Right. ACE could “hear” the lower mind thoughts as easily as the upper ones.

The others do not and cannot see in this way, not even Ronaldo. ACE could not reach Kitty until Kitty put on the Rapacians' Mind Melder.

That's what this is called?

By the Rapacians, yes. It allows them to communicate with each other.

There was something in how ACE's voice sounded—I recognized a leading hint from him by now.

Have they always had this capability?

No.
ACE sounded pleased.
This ability is new. Very new.

Huh. So, were they always this bloodthirsty?

No. That comes with the Mind Melder.

ACE was constrained by what he could or should say to me. Meaning I had to ask the right questions. That was fine, I had several.

Is whoever created the Mind Melder making the Rapacians more savage than normal?

Yes. They must be stopped.

No argument. Does Jamie see things like this, through you?

No. Only if Jamie needs to. As Kitty experienced it can be . . . too much, even for a mind as advanced as Jamie's.

Well, that's good. Can the Rapacians talk to all their people at the same time?

No. The Rapacians have to choose the mind they wish to join with. Only a very powerful mind could do what Kitty just described.

Even better. Is one of those powerful minds controlling the Melder Prime right now?

In a way.
Now this was the evasive tone ACE used when I had to figure things out on my own. Decided not to push it.

So, how do we use this Mind Melder?

As Kitty would think.

I think I'm not sure how to use it, but I'll take this to mean we'll all figure it out. Is Jamie okay? You haven't talked to me much since you joined with her unless she was asleep.

Jamie is in a controlled sleep. So is Paul.

James saw them in a dream.

James saw a dream that was sent to James to reassure James, and Kitty, that Jamie and Paul were well. But Jamie and Paul will not be well unless Kitty can come to the rescue. ACE needs Kitty to hurry.

This again. And so much for me asking ACE for help. If ACE wanted me to hurry, it indicated things were bad for him, Jamie, and Paul. Pushed the panic aside, there was no time for it now.
What do I need to do? Where are you and Jamie and Paul?

We are where we should not be. But Kitty has to save everyone else before she can save Jamie, Paul, and ACE.

It figured.
Who has all of you, ACE? Is it the Rapacians?

No. It is someone who wishes to rule the solar system. And wishes to make ACE their slave.

I won't allow that, ACE, I
promise
. Who is it? The Z'porrah?

No, they are not here. Yet.

I know they're coming ACE. And we
will
stop them. But if not them, who? Do I have to guess?

It is someone Kitty knows. Someone Kitty has forgotten about, because Kitty barely met them before. But it is the one who was behind all before.

Interesting. ACE could be referring to the other superconciousnesses out there, but I doubted it. And he wasn't talking about the Z'porrah. Meaning that the “before” he was referring to was probably someone we met during Operation Invasion.

Gregory is dead, Uma is dead, King Adolphus is dead, and Lilith is scattered.

Many think Kitty is the one in charge, always. And yet, Kitty answers to someone else.

Jeff. Or Richard. Or Paul. Or the President. A long list sometimes. It's not Alexander, is it? Or Councilor Leonidas? Alexander's mother, Victoria? Queen Renata?

No. Kitty's friends are still Kitty's friends. But they will not be for much longer.

Because they're going to switch sides?

Because they are going to be killed.

And with that, felt ACE leave my mind.