Memoirs of Kitty Siam Ch. 35

Memoirs of Kitty Siam – Earth.

I did my best during the three-minute trip to Earth to argue back and state that I was trained differently and that I am well trained perfectly capable of making these sorts of jumps even though the Veron Space Force prohibits taking such risks. I had to laugh to myself that here we were less than an hour into our first mission together and already I had hacked off the mission commander. We came out of hyperspace on the backside of the moon just as I had calculated. Oh, that was another point of contention... I made the jump calculations in my head instead of using the onboard computer as required by Earth regulations.

I quickly made a course adjustment then put my right index finger to my lips in an attempt to silence my still loudly objecting mission commander. Once the Lieutenant went silent I opened a channel to Earth Traffic Control.

Galora Explorer One to Earth Traffic Control.

We waited for a few minutes but there was no reply so I tried again.

Galora Explorer One to Earth Traffic Control, do you read?

A few minutes more and still there was no reply. At this point visions of Udon were running through my head so I activated our cloak and raised the shields before putting the ship on a direct course for Earth. Jarro looked at me and asked me to explain my actions. I gave him a rundown on what we had discovered on Udon when we arrived there, and I explained my fear that something similar had befallen the over eight billion inhabitants of Earth given that we still had not received a reply from Earth Traffic Control.

Along our way from the moon to Earth I maintained a communications blackout but had Sheba rotate through the sub space frequencies that Earth Traffic Control and the Earth Defense Forces normally communicate on, and there was total silence until we hit the frequency reserved for emergency use only. I could feel the color drain from my face and my hands began to go numb as I sat in silence and listened to an automated message being broadcast from a beacon in a high polar orbit above Earth.

WARNING: This planet has been quarantined the Earth Defense Force and the Pan Galactic Consortium. Do not attempt to land. A lethal biological agent with no known cure, vaccine, or antidote has been detected. Planetary atmosphere has been deemed fatal to humanoid life.

We both sat there in total silence listening to the warning over and over again as it repeated its self in every known language in the Earth Force database. Jarro began scanning for life signs as we assumed a standard equatorial orbit around Earth. When we came upon Earth's orbiting space stations, we found the stations intact but there were no electronic emissions coming from them. All attempts to communicate as we passed by failed, including the old style ship to station radio. We were unable to locate any signs of humanoid life on the orbiting platforms or on the ground. Now I was able to fully understand why Earth never sent anyone to investigate the attack on Mars or Udon.

When the reality of what had happened finally hit me I totally lost it. I tried to fight back the tears as I thought of the eight billion souls that had been snuffed out, but eventually the tears began to flow freely and I began to sob uncontrollably. I became a blubbering mess and I finally had to ask Jarro to take over for me before abruptly I left the flight deck. My head began to spin as I made my way to the habitation module and my bunk. I felt like I was going to throw up, and I probably would have if I had eaten anything before we launched for Earth.

I tossed myself onto my bunk and curled up into a tight little ball laying on my side with my legs pulled up into my chest. My mind raced through the faces of the friends that I would never see again. I remembered the sights and sounds from the trips that I had taken to Earth and the people that I had met there and I lamented on the senseless death that they had suffered. I thought of all the possibilities of how such a terrible plague had come to Earth, and tried to understand the reason why someone would unleash something like this on humanity. These were my last thoughts before I finally cried myself to sleep.

While my ship still had power I used my built in data port to download the Sheba AI from the Orion's computer to my PDA. Once Sheba had signaled that the transfer had been successful I activated Sheba before setting the Orion's communication system to the emergency frequency...

Sheba, open personal log and begin recording...

MAYDAY... MAYDAY... MAYDAY...

Orion 412 to Shinawatra Rescue Control... Location: 114.7.413.67.101.5.771

Mayday... Hull has been breached, engines offline, venting atmosphere and fuel... cannot hold orbit... contact with atmosphere of third planet in seven minutes... three casualties... one soul on board...

MAYDAY... MAYDAY... MAYDAY...

I knew that my Mayday would not be answered but my academy training and all of my experience up to this day told me that this was the only official duty left to perform as my ship spiraled down toward the planet below. I could not even give the name of the planet, as this sector of space was uncharted.

I hope that someone will find these unfinished accounts of my life and perhaps how my life ended on this uncharted world. The 412th Fighter Squadron fought bravely today, even though the battle was a futile gesture at best. From what I can tell, I am the last remaining member left alive. Colonel Sempolski and Major Kraznov perished early on in the battle when the command section of our craft was hit. Lieutenant Emiko Sato my co-pilot and long time roommate died shortly after when a disruptor beam sliced through her side of the flight deck. So to whom ever reads this, know that my crew and my squadron accounted well for themselves today.

This morning the Shinawatra jumped into the Magnus system in answer to a distress signal relayed to Central Command by a Corvalen freighter. When we arrived at the designated coordinates, there were three Zeta warships waiting for us. We began taking damage immediately after entering normal space and in the face of overwhelming odds the Shinawatra turned and made a run for it. It took several minutes to recharge the jump engines and the aft battery crews gave them hell with their plasma cannons at our stern until we were safely back in hyperspace.

Hyperspace proved to be no salvation for us as the enemy followed us and continued to rake the Shinawatra with disruptor fire until our hyper drive was hit causing us to drop back into normal space in this uncharted system. The crew of the Shinawatra made a valiant effort to repair the hyper drive and was making some progress but needed more time to make repairs.

Our fighter squadrons were launched to augment the fire from the defense grid's rail guns that were being taken out quickly by the enemy. We knew that once we launched we would never land aboard the Shinawatra again as it would take too long to recover the fighters and command ships once the jump drive was back online. Admiral Forest would have no choice but to jump to hype space and abandon us here if he were to save the ship and its crew.

It is all but over now, the fighter squadrons from the battle cruiser Shinawatra have all been destroyed. One hundred and thirty brave crews all gone in brilliant flashes of light against the darkness of space. As I watch the end through my top viewport, the dark shimmering fighters and assault craft of our enemy have surrounded the Shinawatra and are firing at will. The Shinawatra's main guns and her defense grid have stopped firing, and her shields have failed.

Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light followed by a violent shockwave spreading out from where my home once was... the Shinawatra is gone. The last major warship of the Earth Alliance is gone. The Pan Galactic Consortium would now decide the future of humanity, but whatever the future holds for humanity, it is a good chance that I will not be around to see it as my disabled ship has now entered the gravity well of this uncharted planet.

With the decent thrusters and the anti-grav pods offline, punching out was my only hope to survive. Since ejecting involved firing the explosive bolts directly over my head, and then igniting a rocket bolted to the bottom of my seat, I used my wardrobe device to quickly change from my dark grey Alliance flight suit to my black well tested battle suit knowing that I had a better chance of surviving should I come down in a hostile environment, or plunge through tree branches on my way to the ground.

As my Orion begins to disintegrate as it plunges through the upper atmosphere I reach for the ejection handles on the bottom side of my seat and pull sharply. The roof over my head explodes away from the crippled spacecraft and a few milliseconds later the thruster under my seat ignites and propels me through the gaping hole that once was a solid composite roof.

I was taught in flight school that if you ever had to eject at high altitude, it was best to do so over a large body of water, or over a lush fertile grassy plain because landing in these sorts of spots gave you a better chance of survival than landing in a thick jungle or rain forest. Unfortunately when I punched out of my Orion, I did not really have a choice of where to punch out and as my luck would have it, I landed in a jungle complete with triple canopy trees.

I was thankful once again for my battle suit that spared me from being gored, or disemboweled by a tree branch as I plummeted though the thick canopy of tree branches to the ground. When I came to I was on the ground and tangled up in my parachute cords. A quick assessment by my installed systems, and the pain registering with my brain told me that both of my legs were broken in several places. My left wrist was broken as well and had a long deep laceration across my forehead where my helmet faceplate broke on impact with a tree limb and embedded its self under my scalp.

There was also a long laundry list of internal injuries including several broken ribs. The pain was not totally unbearable and in the past I had been injured worse than this. I knew that it would take a day or two before the majority of my injuries would be healed. With that in mind I fumbled for the survival pack attached to my parachute harness and retrieved the small medical kit. Inside I found the auto injector marked "Sedative." I removed the top, pressed it against the side of my neck and after a little hissing noise, I was off to dream land.

The sedative that I had injected myself with was meant to keep your average 230-pound man unconscious for twenty-four hours, and it was enough to keep this slender woman out for over fifty hours. The time that I was out gave my genetically enhanced regeneration system just enough time to heal my internal injuries and my broken bones. I still have several major lacerations and puncture wounds that were in the process of healing, but the pain from these remaining injuries was minor compared to the internal injuries I had sustained as I fell through the tree branches on my way to the ground.

After the sedative wore off I was able to pull myself to my feet with the assistance of a nearby tree trunk. I stood on wobbly legs and removed the parachute harness from my torso, then gathered up my chute to perhaps use as a shelter later on. There were more survival supplies available on the Orion depending on what was left of it after it impacted with the ground. There is always the chance that there was some fuel left onboard and the ship exploded on impact. I would hope that this was not the case as I would at least like to give my crew a proper burial, and I really would love to have the survival gear that the Orion carried.

The climate on the surface was hot and humid, just as you would expect in a jungle. It was much too hot for my black battle suit, and since I had slept for two days without being attacked, I changed into something a bit more comfortable like my tan rip-stop hiking shorts, a white t-shirt and over the ankle-hiking boots. But just to be on the safe side, I slung my katana over my shoulder and strapped my bowie knife to my right upper thigh. I knew that the katana would at least come in handy for hacking my way through the jungle.

I found a fallen branch that made a good sturdy cane that I could use for support while the nerve damage in my legs were repaired. Each step was painful but rewarding as the pain was a reminder of what the other alternatives could have been after being shot down over an unknown planet. As I cautiously scanned the area for threats I realized that my vision was slightly impaired. It was as if I were looking at everything through a grey colored filter. My brain was still under the influence of the sedatives and it took me a few minutes to realize that my eyes had defaulted back to their black on black state. A few seconds after this realization I had them changed back to my preferred brown and white color scheme.

I did not know which way to go as I started walking I set my sights on the rising sun and just kept walking. The jungle was thick with trees and the undergrowth was sparse so there was not much need to cut my own trail as I went. Around mid day I had come to a clearing and for the first time I could see the sky, and beyond the tree line on the other side of the clearing I could see a thin plume of smoke rising up in the distance. My hopes were that this was the remains of my Orion, so with that in mind I altered course toward the smoke.

Several hours later I had made my way through the trees and was very close to the crash site when overhead I heard a high pitch whine then several explosions off in the distance. I dropped my crutch and did my best to run in the direction of the explosions. Though I was hobbled, I was just able to make it to a small clearing, and in the center of the clearing was a pile of burning debris that at one time appeared to have been an Orion class squadron command ship.

Whether it was mine or not I would never know as any means of identifying the ship was obliterated by the explosions. I heard the whining sound again and knew that the craft that destroyed the remains of the Orion was returning, and as I looked up a shimmering black Saloof class fighter streaked over the smoldering rubble and went into a steep power climb. Not only did the Zeta destroy the Shinawatra, they were now searching the planet below and exterminating the survivors from the air. I did not know if they had seen me or not, or had possibly picked me up on their scanners, but in case they did I used my wardrobe device to store my clothing and other effects before changing to feline form knowing that the Zeta would be looking for humans, not panthers.

I came upon a cobblestone path that perhaps long ago was a paved road, but due to the absence of maintenance and use narrowed to a path barley wide enough to two people walk side by side. I did not know where the path would lead but I did follow it, as it was much easier to take the road than to make my way through the thick plant life of the jungle.

This planet had no moon so when the sun set there was nothing but darkness to be seen by the human eye, but being in my feline form I saw everything and was able to keep moving. I was beginning to tire from the day's travels and from my injuries but I wanted to press on as long as I could in the hope of coming across survivors from the Shinawatra. I continued to scan the trees visually and kept my nose to the wind in the hope of detecting human life. I was beginning to have thoughts that I was the only survivor on this planet until a blue flair rising up in to the night sky from directly in front of me drew my attention. I knew then that I was not alone and that I must press on and fight the fatigue.

I went on a few more hours and without the aid of a scanner or map, I reckoned that I was very close to the source of the flare. The blue flair was a signal that someone was alive and was showing the other survivors the way to a meeting point, but unfortunately I was not going to make it to that meeting tonight. I barely had the strength left to climb into a tree that I chose as my safe spot to take a little. As I curled up on a sturdy branch I could see a second flair rising up before me and in the light of the flair I could see several humanoid shapes gathered around in front of a sturdy stone structure.

At first light I left the safety of my tree and returned to the path and headed toward the stone structure. It took me about an hour to get to the clearing that surrounded the structure. I was just about to enter the clearing when a rustling of brush near by caught my ear and as I turned in the direction of the noise, my nose caught a whiff of another feline in the area. My first thought was that I had attracted some local tomcat that was just out looking for a quickie. I knew I did not have time for a jungle meet and greet with the locals but you know what they say about curiosity and the cat... so I waited and waited. A few minutes later a brown feline head poked out of the brush on the side of the path opposite me.

Seconds later this big beautiful light brown jungle cat joined me on the path for a stare down. After a few minutes of full on eye contact we both moved closer to each other and began to circle. It did not take long for me to determine that the other cat was female once we got all up close and personal. I made the mistake of getting too close too fast as she hunched her back, hissed and batted at me with her front right paw. Even though she did not deploy her claws, I let out a loud growl as I backed off a bit. I tried to let instinct take over, as I did not have any actual experience to help me get through this awkward feline situation.

We continued to stare each other down at a close distance until a loud roar overhead drew our attention. As if on cue the two of us looked up at the same time to see a trail of fire following behind a missile as it streaked overhead. We watched the missile as it began to spew a thin black mist from nozzles installed in its belly. When the missile had emptied its tanks of the mist it exploded with great force leaving only billions of tiny metallic shards no larger than a grain of rice to rain down upon the ground.

We both hit the ground as soon as we saw and heard the explosion. We hugged the ground as several more of the missiles passed overhead and detonated off in the distance after spreading their black mist. The barrage of missiles went on for several minutes. Most of the explosions were far away but several were close by and even in feline form, the close by explosions caused my lungs to vibrate inside my chest.

When the noise stopped I lifted myself off the ground to stand on all four paws, and the large brown cat next to me did the same. I looked at her and she looked back. Our eyes met for a few seconds and then in unison we walked the final few steps of the path until it opened up into a large field of tall grasses. In the distance was the stone structure that I had seen the night before from my tree and standing before it was a group of humans, perhaps fifteen or twenty... perhaps more. Off to the right of the path leading toward the structure stood one of the black mist missiles, its nose buried in the ground and its nozzles still secured within its belly. This one perhaps was a dud and failed to deploy its payload and self-destruct as the others did.

I knew what was in the belly of the missile and I knew what the mist was that was now circulating and multiplying through the planet's atmosphere. I also knew that the humans gathered around the stone structure in the clearing in front of us would be dead in the next three days.