Chapter 7—The Captive and the Captor
Kat continued to scream for help as she soared through the air with her invisible assailant. She did, however, realize that she was under the cloaking device as well, so she eventually gave up on her efforts since no one could see her. Once they had flown outside of Newtech City airspace and the city limits, her captor dropped the cloak, revealing Kat and his own identity. It was Sinubus.
Kat took her first look at him and gasped in shock at his appearance. Other than his red scale color instead of blue, he looked completely identical to Anubis. She decided to remain quiet until their eventual landing.
As they flew farther from the city limits, Sinubus, with Kat in his arms, began to circle in the air over a sizeable clearing by the coast. It was a strange sight to behold; the grassy plain had most of its grass flattened to the ground, with several exceptions along the perimeter. It was like there was something enormous and invisible sitting on the field in that spot. They landed in an unaltered area of the clearing. Kat wriggled her way out of his grip, and darted backwards, hissing.
"Who are you?" she yelled as she positioned herself in a defensive stance. "What do you want with me!"
"You're a feisty one, aren't you?" he replied. "I'd expect nothing less from a ferocious kitty such as you."
Already angered that he had kidnapped her, Kat lunged at Sinubus with a scream. As she was ready to attack, the gang leader sidestepped the move with ease and grabbed her arms, holding them behind her back in a lock. She kept hissing despite her immobility.
"I'd quit trying to resist if I were you," he said, holding her close and walking to the flattened grass. "You're miles away from any help; you might as well give up."
Realizing that Sinubus was much stronger than she, Kat gave in to his demands and stopped struggling against his will, though she kept her senses on guard. He waved his free right hand in the air, revealing a small metal console out of nowhere. After a hand scan, the image of a dimly lit metallic interior was slowly revealed. Once they walked inside, the door slid back down behind them. They were inside the Sirian warship.
Kat gasped at the impressive mechanized masterpiece. The place was dimly lit from the ceiling lights; half the illumination came from the backlights of numerous consoles and monitors in the walls. To their left was the entrance to the numerous control decks. However, Sinubus headed down the corridor to the right with the feline in tow. A few canines strolled by on their way to the control decks; all clad in the gang regalia of a black, sleeveless, unbuttoned vest and black pants. After walking about thirty feet, they stopped as the gang leader did another hand scan to gain entry through the sliding door before him that led into his quarters. The door slammed shut as after they entered.
Kat looked around and took in her surroundings. "Nice place. Not."
"Humph, I glad you like you like it," Sinubus scoffed in reply, releasing his grip on her. Knowing that she was smack in the middle of an enemy stronghold, Kat knew better than to try anything outrageous such as another attack, so she kept her cool and walked around the room.
She looked back at him again. "You look like someone I know."
"What, you mean that blue dog you were with before I took you away?" he asked.
"Yes," said Kat. "You know him?"
"Well, not personally, but we have a lot in common." Sinubus sat on the bed. Kat sat in a chair.
"I can obviously see that. So tell me; why did you bring me here?"
"You obviously have a connection with that dog. If you haven't figured it out already, it's a trap. If I figured correctly, he's probably already plotting to come here and rescue you."
"That, I can believe. Why exactly do you want him for? And why didn't you just try to capture him instead, since he's the one you seek?"
"Silly girl. If you thought I would try to kidnap Anubis, you must be crazy. My cover would have been blown immediately, and you were a much easier target."
"Point taken. One more thing, what are you going to do with me? No matter what you say on this one, you're going to regret it."
The red dog let out a laugh. "Yeah, I'm sure! And I didn't say that I was laying a trap for nothing, either." Sinubus stood up and grabbed Kat by the arm, yanking her out of the chair with little resistance. He took her out of the room and continued down the hall.
"Where are you taking me!" Kat yelled.
"I can't have someone like you just wandering around my ship," he sneered in reply. "Otherwise, I would just have to kill you because you'd find out too much. And that would be such a waste."
After about another few minutes of walking, they reached another door on their right. A retina scan later, they were inside a long room lined with vacant cells. "You should be honored," he said. "You're the first one to use of these cells."
"Like I'm really thrilled," Kat muttered, as Sinubus forced her in the first one on the left and locked the door. "You're going to pay for this!"
"Oh, stop your whining, it won't get you anywhere," he growled. With that, he left her inside and entered the corridor. As he walked on his way to the control decks, Sinubus thought about his newest captive:
"So, she's my first captive from Earth. Not a bad catch. In fact, I kind of find her rather……attractive. So what if she's a feline and I'm a reptilian dog, I couldn't care less about that mismatch. But, what if she rebels? She's already showed resistance throughout our encounter……that might present problems that stack against what I have in mind for her. Even so, I'm sure I'm in store for some excitement from that feline…heh, heh…"
As Sinubis reached the end of the hall, the doors before him slid open, revealing the control room interior. The reddish-chamber was a massive expanse; five control decks were stacked on top of each other in the back of the room to a total height of 300 feet. The deck on the chamber floor extended out farther from the four upper decks, adjacent two three enormous viewscreens. The largest of these was in the front of the room; two others scaled each side wall. A fourth screen allowed view through the high ceiling. The place was bustling with activity; there were canines on all decks gathering as much information as possible on the planet.
As the gang leader found a place to sit among the numerous consoles of the lower deck, an officer came up to him with some print outs. "Sir," he said, "We have information on the force that we're up against."
Sinubus took the papers as the officer walked to an elevation pad that moved him up to the next deck. "Space Patrol Delta," he said, reading aloud from the sheet. "Hmm………Oh, damn. We're going against ANOTHER police force? I hate police…" It wasn't long before he finished reading. He paged the officer who presented the information. "Is this all the info you dogs could get?"
"I'm afraid so, sir," replied the voice. "The majority of their database is heavily encrypted. However, there are some images of the base available for view. I'll post them on the frontal viewscreen."
"Great, a slide show presentation…" grumbled the red dog as the pager clicked off and some images of the Space Patrol Delta base flashed in front of him. "Oh, good grief. That has got to be the……DUMBEST……work of architecture I have ever seen…" He tried to stifle a laugh, but failed as more pictures were displayed. Many other dogs joined him at the sight of the base. "Man, I thought the building was bad enough, but that big dog head on the top is icing on the cake! A moldy, rotten cake, that is…heh, heh…"
After a few more laughs, he looked back at the papers, hoping to find something that he previously missed. Eventually, he did find something. "The leader of this base is………Commander Anubis 'Doggie' Cruger? I guess he finally made something of himself…" Tired of reading, Sinubus tossed the pages behind him. He paged the same officer a second time. "Do we have any images of the base leader?"
"Actually, we have one. Do you want me to post it?" asked the voice. Sinubus just growled into the mic. "Ok, ok, I'll post it, sir!" The comm clicked off, and soon the image of the S.P.D. commander was revealed. The gang leader bolted straight out of his seat as many members gasped at the image. The resemblance between Sinubus and Anubis was striking.
"There he is…" he said, slowly walking toward the viewscreen. "You're finally within my grasp." Sinubus then closed his eyes and began a heat scan of the area, trying to pick up and identify Anubis' heat source. Within minutes, he found it, and opened his eyes. "It seems he hasn't taken the bait, yet. No matter." He walked back to his seat and clicked on the comm, adjusting it to a ship-wide transmission.
"Attention, all personnel. An attack squad is to be assembled immediately. Target: SPACE PATROL DELTA…"
