1. The First Times They Met
The first time Gary Goodspeed saw Little Cato, the Ventrexian was being escorted to a cell by four heavily armed guards.
He had never seen a Ventrexian in person before, but he'd heard the stories of what formidable fighters they were. Young as he clearly was – Gary could only guess, but based on his height and slim build, he mentally placed his new fellow prisoner's age around early teens – his bearing was impressive. Even with his wrists pinned by stasis cuffs, the kid carried himself with grace and poise. Back straight, ears erect, his expression sharp and just shy of haughty, this was a kid who clearly had a lot of self-control and knew how to fight. His fur was dark orange, and a crest of stiff blue hair ran from his forehead to the back of his head like a Mohawk. Gary thought he was pretty stinking adorable, for all he looked as cuddly as a ball of razor wire.
It was evident, too, that his particular prisoner was a lot more important – and dangerous - than Gary. If goose-stepping escorts were any means of gauging pecking order in the Lord Commander's estimate, ginger cat boy over there had it all over the humanoid trash in the pen across the hall. Four armed guards and an officer to ensure one scrawny Ventrexian kid stepped into his cell. And not just any officer – it was freakin' Viro, the Lord Commander's latest-but-not-greatest second-in-command. It was a like a parade. Gary, by comparison, had rated two leaky robots and a moody, middle-aged Hooblot armed with rotten taste in haircuts, a cattle prod, and a piss-poor attitude because her husband was carrying on an affair with her sister. Woo, woo.
Still, this was someone new to look at and, hopefully, talk to. That the Ventrexian was kept here in the alien zoo told Gary that the Lord Commander wanted him at hand versus being chucked into the depths of a prison asteroid. Prison planets were remote and vulnerable, and when he wanted to gloat, the Lord Commander wanted to gloat now and in person, and he hated having to wait for anything. It was much easier keeping his audience close, but with the prison on Tera Con Prime already hopelessly clogged with people the Lord Commander had yet to get to but didn't want to kill just yet, it wasn't practical. A high-profile captive needed isolation, as much to be kept safe as to inflict some psychological damage. That the Lord Commander would do this to a kid came as zero surprise to Gary.
The Ventrexian entered the cell in the monstertorium without protest, standing with his back to Viro as the force field was activated. It was a pretty ballsy show of disrespect, but Gary wasn't sure Viro was savvy enough to recognize the gesture. Instead, the cyborg activated his comm unit, saying,
"Lord Commander, the Ventrexian is secured."
Instantly, Gary felt himself relegated to the bottom of the bottom feeder list because within a minute or two, here came the Cosmic Tictac himself. Gary slunk to the back of his cage, anxious to avoid notice. The last time he'd been 'questioned' by the Lord Commander, his left arm had been torn off and he'd almost died. That had been fairly soon after he'd been caught, probably a year ago or so. Since then, he'd been pretty much ignored and wanted to maintain that state of affairs. Dismemberment was not an experience he wanted to repeat, especially since the robotic arm they'd given him was knockoff-toy-robot-cheap. Plus, he simply didn't have the information the Lord Commander was after. Mooncake was long gone, and Gary would not have told where he was even if he knew.
Tiny, egg-headed, and gray, the Lord Commander dressed in long robes and to Gary's eye, always looked as if he'd just gotten ready for bed and was on the prowl for a glass of water. He ponced to the edge of the force field and commenced gloating over his latest prize. His wicked (and annoying) chuckle gurgled up as he taunted the Ventrexian.
"Welcome to your new home, Your Highness."
Highness? This kid was royalty? What a twist.
The Ventrexian glanced back over his shoulder, oozing disdain. "For now." He did a double take, frowning, and looked the Lord Commander up and down. "You look like crap."
Gary pressed his lips together to keep from laughing out loud. This kid had sand. Like, Jersey Shore levels of sand. This called for some serious respect. The Lord Commander glowered, but Gary realized the Ventrexian was right. The Lord Commander's gray skin was dark and splotchy, and on his face and bald pate were open sores and sagging skin. He was a little hunched, too, and his hands trembled.
"For real," the Ventrexian said. "I mean, you always look like crap, but now you're worse than usual."
"And you look like you'll be my guest for quite a while, so you'd best behave. Unless you have some grand plan to escape my gracious hospitality?" sneered the Lord Commander.
His guest returned to examining the back wall of his cell, casually saying, "I don't need one. My father will come for me."
The Lord Commander took a step forward, his eyes flashing magenta as those words suddenly incensed him.
"He's not your father!"
The Ventrexian turned, a faint smile touching his lips at having gotten a rise out of the Lord Commander so easily. "He's also not your general anymore."
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
They talked. And talked. There was literally almost nothing else to do, besides offer relationship advice to the Hooblot zookeeper, Melanie. The Ventrexian exercised and did a lot of martial arts forms, and he talked Gary into following along, teaching him the basics of Ventrexian self-defense. The kid was crazy strong and flexible, and his habit of hanging upside down by his tail made Gary give him the nickname Spider Cat. They were stuck in a zoo made for one person's pleasure who was too busy to visit (though the Cosmic Tictac did summon Little Cato two times just to gloat and once to berate him, which was good indication that Avocato had just kicked more Tera Con butt). They had no notion of the passing of time save for meals and sanitation sweeps every third-ish day (Little Cato hated the showers he was forced to take, but then, so did Gary because cheap robotic arm). It felt like ages passed, though it was more likely a matter of several months. It took a while to get past the Ventrexian's suspicions, but even princes grew bored, it seemed.
Eventually, it was Gary's honesty and humor and persistence that won the teen over. Though he stayed guarded, Little Cato did open up a bit. Gary started by talking about himself. Endlessly. About his heroic dad and crappy mother and crappier childhood, all the way up to being captured and put on display like a monkey in a cage.
"Oh, and FYI, trying to steal anything from that little turd in a bathrobe is a bad idea. Like, teasing a Zargon slug with a pork chop bad. I mean, yeah, I pulled it off, but so did he." He waved his mechanical arm for emphasis.
It turned out that the man Little Cato – not his real name, by the way, just the nickname he'd given himself that stuck – called his father was none other than General Avocato, former second-in-command under the Lord Commander. Even stuck in a cage in a monstertorium, Gary had heard about the infamous General Avocato - his rise and his fall. Well, not really fall. More like running leap off a cliff, accompanied by the ultimate screw you, asshole, with less cursing and more lasers.
But the fun revolutionary stuff came later. After the Lord Commander had conquered Ventrexia and killed the royal family but for the infant prince, who was held as a hostage. General Avocato, away fighting the Tryvuulians at the time, had been compelled to take over command of the Tera Con Empire's military. The finest, most skillful and ruthless military commander in the universe, Avocato's presence at the Lord Commander's side was the price the general paid to keep his planet and his prince alive and unharmed.
"He raised me. I adopted him as my dad. He said it doesn't work like that, but I said I'm the prince of our whole planet, so if he doesn't like it, he can take it up with Ventrexia's management. Which happens to be me. From all I've read and heard, my parents were pretty lousy at the whole ruling a planet thing," Little Cato admitted ruefully. "They messed up a lot of things and pissed off a lot of people, including most of Ventrexia. Dad thinks they were too young and inexperienced to have a chance. He said you can't lead until you know how to follow, and just because you're the one in charge doesn't always mean you're right. Ruling and serving are the same thing when you do it right, and I have a duty to what's best at all times for Ventrexia. I wish somebody had told my parents that. I hope I'll do better."
"It sounds like a hell of a big job, but your old man seems on the right track. You care about doing it right, so you will."
"I hope. We can't go back until . . . until it's safe."
Until the Tiny Turd was deader than disco, in other words.
The fragile treaty between general and tyrant had lasted just under ten years. Ten years of war and conquest as the Tera Con Empire expanded at an astonishing rate under Avocato's leadership. Ten years of loyalty, of carefully protecting and raising a prince to someday be a king. Ten years of Avocato following every order, of humiliation, and swallowing his pride until he choked on it.
"So what happened?" wondered Gary.
"The Lord Commander suspected my dad was plotting against him. He wasn't, until the Lord Commander threatened me. He decided his top generals would prove their loyalty by killing their firstborns."
Gary stared in slack-jawed horror. "Well, that's just sick. How does that prove anything except he's a total psycho?"
"You got me. That was Dad's breaking point. He tried to kill the Lord Commander on the spot. He was arrested and I was imprisoned. I think he thought he could keep forcing Dad to serve him. As if. Dad escaped and more than half the fleet defected to join him, including some of the top officers. Lord Commander didn't see that one coming, but my dad had rejected his whole 'cult of death' and it turns out, a lot of soldiers felt the same way. He got me off Zetakron Alpha and for the past two years he's been negotiating pacts and treaties and whittling down the Tera Con Empire."
"So how'd you end up here?"
"Dumb luck and . . . dumb me. There was a big thimbles tournament on Zilcris. I thought I could get there and back without my father noticing."
"Safe bet, he's noticed by now."
A tiny snort escaped Little Cato. "He's probably lost his mind over this by now. I figure I'll be grounded until I'm a grandfather for this one."
Gary grinned. From what he'd heard about Avocato, the general would just want his child back. Any punishment for disobedience would be half-hearted at best, since Little Cato was already thoroughly disappointed in himself, as much for getting caught as for causing his adopted father any anxiety.
"Hey." Dropping his voice low, Gary said, "Would escaping put you on his good side?"
Little Cato shot him a sharp look. His trust in Gary was not absolute, but if there was a chance to get back to his father, he had to take it. He was savvy enough to know his presence on Tera Con Prime had shackled his father's efforts to defeat the Lord Commander. Plus, the food sucked and he was sick of showers.
"Seriously?" he whispered.
"This is a zoo, not a prison, kiddo. Zookeepers are not prison guards. Plus, no microphones. Seriously, you think the Lord Commode wants to sit around listening to that brywulp howling non-stop? We're only here because it's convenient."
"So why haven't you escaped before?" was the suspicious response.
"Because there was nowhere I could run to get away from that little tick."
He paused, weighing this statement. Then slow, a sly smile spread over Little Cato's face. "I know where we can go, and how to contact my father."
Gary found himself returning the smile. "Let's do this."
They did it. Against all odds, they managed to escape. They timed their escape at the change of shifts to maximize the mayhem. Gary sacrificed parts - and the use of - his bionic arm to short out the force field on his cage. He let Little Cato out, and as they ran through the zoo, they released every creature they could. Chaos reigned as the captive monsters attacked each other or bolted for freedom. Little Cato opened the bays and let the monsters into the city. Alarms sounded, troops were called up, and amidst the pandemonium, one human and one Ventrexian prince slipped through the not-so-secret elevator and stole an old cargo shuttle. They high-tailed it out of the ruined planetoid that was Tera Con Prime, well aware they would be tracked.
"Head for the Orosk system," said Little Cato from the co-pilot's seat. "I can tap into their deep-space satellite net and contact my father."
One lightfold, one hack, and one coded message later, Little Cato said, "Now we need to get to Lamnia Psi IV's largest moon."
"Then what?" asked Gary, setting coordinates. They were on quite the goose-chase, but he didn't have any better plans.
Little Cato smiled grimly. "Hope my father finds us before the Lord Commander does."
Avocato didn't.
The Tera Con fighters - a full squadron - tracked them down and opened fire as they dropped out of lightfold. The old shuttle, unarmed and with questionable shielding, didn't stand a chance.
Smoke curled up from the control panel as their ship, pushed far past its limit, finally gave out entirely. Another volley from the Tera Con fighters rocked the shuttle, knocking Gary and Little Cato into the control panels.
"Helmet on, Spider Cat," ordered Gary, activating his own helmet. The rounded red Infinity Guard helmet looked as much out of place as Little Cato's pointy-eared Ventrexian gear. The protection their space suits offered was nominal if the next shot blew them up, but it was something.
"Power's dropping to zero," said Little Cato. "Shields are . . . gone." He paused, letting out a breath, then softly said, "Life support's gone. Hull integrity at forty percent. I'm sorry, Gary. I really thought my dad would get here."
"No regrets, Little Cato," Gary immediately replied. "At least we tried like hell and hopefully annoyed the piss out of the Cosmic Tictac."
Despite the hopelessness of their situation, Little Cato laughed. "I think we managed that mu-"
They both cried out in fear and surprise as another blast, closer and stronger, shook the ship and sent electricity arcing through the panels, shocking them. Little Cato was thrown to the deck as Gary struggled one-armed to escape his seat. Fires sprang up from the roasted controls and smoke clouded the air.
A blinding flash suddenly filled the cabin. Gary looked to the small windows to see more Tera Con fighters flash by and engaged their attackers head on. In a matter of seconds, the ships sent to blow them to dust were themselves demolished. Gary dragged Little Cato toward the door, praying the airlock still worked since the whole shuttle was compromised. He just wanted, needed to keep moving. To stop was to die.
And he did not want to die. Not today. Not like this. Not this close to freedom.
A jolting shudder ran through their battered shuttle as something impacted it, almost spilling Gary to the deck plates. Steadying Little Cato against his leg, he reached to open the door. Before he could hit the control, the door slid aside and a tall figure in a Ventrexian helmet and battle armor strode through the smoke towards them. Gary let out a shout of relief.
And then the figure aimed a blaster and shot him at point-blank range.