Stone, white like bones. Porous texture, rather pressed dust than a solid. Lifeless and cold, seldom touched by the sun's warming rays. Its slumbering innocence taken in the moment the mighty excavator defiled the soil and tore it from its home. Conveyor belts, kilometers long, brought it away where it was, maybe for the first time, touched by an organism sentient enough to emphasize with it.
There it was now in hands, her hands, that would decide its future. Bleak was the outlook and the hands did a swift job shoveling dust before the hatch closed.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead, she had been shoveling for nine hours already. Her stomach growled, hunger was a feeling she was used to after all this time here.
She wouldn't have survived for so long if hunger had been a greater problem. The lizards would give out rations after her shift anyway, so that was dealt with. Even if it was barely enough to survive. Especially if you tried to see through a sick family member not eligible for rations. You work, you eat and when you don't, you die.
She knew that she might just fight the inevitable, but maybe her mother would get better. Maybe she would get back on her feet and maybe she would earn her meals herself very soon.
A shrill scream made her twirl around and the moment of shock quickly yielded to the sighting of the ordinary awful.
One of the ovens had once more succumbed to the pressure that built up during the heating of the white stone and exploded toward its operator. A burning figure was rolling on the floor screaming in agony. She turned around to her oven and ignored the screams as well as she could.
If she helped she wouldn't be able to fulfill her quota. Apart from that, even with quick help, the guy would be marked as unable to work. A death sentence. So he either died right there on the floor or the lizards would take care of that.
One worker more or less wasn't important, the only thing that mattered was that the belts never stopped. Another collective punishment would be enough for most of them who already just hung by a thread.
The rusty hunk of metal in front of her bleeped hungrily, the oven was done and ready to be emptied. She grabbed her shovel and carefully opened the hatch. What followed was bone-breaking labor. She just had a few minutes to empty the oven and clean it before the hatch closed and the ever-moving conveyor belt refilled it with gray rocks.
Once more her callused hands cleared the oven while paying attention to stay outside of the combustion chamber. Many of the others around her climbed inside the oven to clean it. It made work a little less arduous but she did not mind the extra effort seeing more than once the combination of tardiness and self-closing hatches.
"Ssssslavesssss!" The hoarse sardonic voice of the warder triggered a Pavlovian reflex in her and everyone around her. She leaned the shovel against the oven and stood at attention her back to the oven. Every one of the warder's wide steps through the rows of prisoners sounded like the it was accompanied by a slight giggle from him.
It was pure arbitration whom he would antagonize today. The first few weeks he exclusively went for teens and the physically weak but after months of starvation, everybody became a target. Today, she seemed weak enough for him as he planted himself in front of her and she could see her reflection in his disgusting big teethed smirk.
"You dissssgusting little furballssss." Spit hit her right on the forehead and she restrained herself from flinching. "You don't know how fortunate you all are that our great emperor hassss the benevolence to allow you to survive." He came closer, she could smell his breath. Whatever the lizards ate, it stank to high hell. "In my book, you all had been exterminated like the rest of your worthlesssss speciessss."
Her body desperately wanted to shake but the little bit of self-control she had suppressed it. They wouldn't win this too. The warder straightened back up, he seemed angered and started to look around at the crowd eying him. "You all are lucky." He was about to leave and she about to sigh in relief as the sound of steel biting steel made her turn terrifiedly to the hatch.
The shovel, she must have put it too close to the door. Now one bitten off half lay outside the furnace while the other was buried with gray rocks.
"How… missssfortunate." The smile crept back on the warder's face and his blank white teeth sparkled. "It issss good that I sssstrive to be like our beloved emperor." He pointed at the shovel and then at the end of the working area. "A new sssshovel will be asssssigned to you tomorrow, for the low price of this week's rationssss."
She stared stunned at him as every suppressed motion came to the surface. The warder smiled and loudly proclaimed. "Praisssse the emperor." and a choir of voices joined in. Her voice followed the cacophony and repeated the phrase sobbing uncontrollably.
The last three hours of her shift were the continuous sequence of cleaning the oven, this time by climbing in to even have the chance to empty it out in time, and clinging to the hope that as soon as she returned to the barracks the situation there might have improved. For once, just for once, a little silver lining on the horizon.
As soon as the lizards had officially ended their shift she schlepped her leady limps towards their living spaces, even if the word living should be used carefully here. It were metal blocks, 3 by 5 meters crammed with bunkbeds too short for a grown-up to sleep in. Generally, up to 18 people were squished in these containments and the only way to get more space was when a cell member died.
She sometimes felt horrible for considering herself lucky that her block was almost empty, then again she sometimes also envied those who were lucky enough to not suffer anymore. In the end, the all overcasting apathy and indifference protected her from deeper introspective. She was the first today on the elevator that connected the different levels of the stacked blocks.
There were 20 levels and she lived just one below the roof. Up there the ground is so far away that the myriads of slaves coming and going to work looked like ants. She didn't like being outside up there for too long. The catwalks that connected the different cubes horizontally were flimsy at best and incidents of them breaking down were even once witnessed by her.
She quickly retreated into her cube where the known but hated cough sound made her heart sink. It didn't get better, it got worse. She gently moved to the bed, trying not to wake her mother as she sat down on the bed frame. The once plump cat with the tanned fur was reduced to a thin layer of skin that covered the dwindling muscles attached to the old frame.
The marks in the fur of her face have lost a lot of color and looked like grey arrows that pointed towards her nose which was losing more of its black hue with every day.
"I fucked up mom…" She sobbed laying a hand on her mother's forehead. The temperature hadn't fallen one bit since this morning.
"L..Language…" her mother coughed. "We do not use this tone inside our home…"
"Mom we…" She sighed and quickly moved away from trying to correct her. Lately, she was hallucinating more and more. "I'm sorry, mom."
"You… You better be…" The elder cat coughed once more and then took a deep breath. "Now tell me w…what is bothering you."
"At work I…" she moved from the bed frame and placed herself onto the joke their captors called mattress. It was hard as a brick, and not beneficial for a backpain-prone spine. "Mom, I broke my shovel…"
Silence was the answer, utter and complete one. Settling quickly in the room and even swallowing the rattling breathing sound her mother made. The unbearable stillness sent a fear to her intestines, twisting them like a wet towel and she turned slowly to her mother who stared at her with eyes wide open.
"Katty, how?" the elder cat gasped expelling the silence as quickly as she summoned it.
"The warder distracted me I… I left it in the hatch and the… the automatic door snapped it." Katty ran her fingers through her hair unintentionally ripping out a few of them. Absentmindedly she shook them off her hand.
"How many ra-"
"A week." Katty sighed burying her face in her hands. Both of them said nothing for a while knowing full well where a week of starvation would lead them. She looked up feeling the warmth of her mother's hand on her back. "We can ask the neighbors, maybe they share."
"The neighbors are as 'well off' as we are. I doubt they will share." Katty detached her face from her hands and looked at them.
Back then when there was still a world they could call their own, she had a certain set of talents that helped her get by quite comfortably. Sure, it meant not staying on the friendly side of law and order, but it was a career too lucrative to not pursue. Also, the lizards didn't care if the slaves stole from each other, they were only concerned with damage to what they called 'property'.
The idea wasn't bad, it was easy and she knew she could pull it off without being caught but it still left a bitter taste in her mouth. Stealing was a lot easier when there was a certain gradient of wealth. And even without the certainty of that, the people she stole from never looked like they would end up starving after their wallets got snatched.
"You know what?" Her mother gently patted her back. "We simply ask your sister. She's good with handling these things."
Katty turned immediately to her mother looking into the face of a person having a fever dream. She grabbed her mother's hand gently and laid her other palm onto her forehead. No change, even worse, she could swear it was just a nuance hotter now.
"Sure mom, I'll go and ask her." She whispered and got up from the bed and outside the container.
Her sister was dead. She probably died during the first attacks. The lizards have taken a lot of them to be enslaved and stretched out the time to their death. But Kitty must have been among the lucky ones who had a quick ending.
Katty sighed as she left their container and stepped back on the catwalk. She was never really fond of her sister, Kitty was a T.U.F.F. agent, boring and annoyingly pedantic when it came to abiding the law. Also, since the mutt died she was unnervingly gloomy, as long as Nick wasn't around.
On the other hand, Katty liked her nephew, she still had to smile remembering him. That little weird guy had the good traits of her sister plus his idiot father's tendency to be annoying. For a moment she wished he was here before remembering the fate she just wished upon him.
"Why am I still doing this?" She mumbled admiring the emptiness around her. All other prisoners were led back to their containments and no one was out. At around this time, sensible people usually tried to get enough sleep to slave through another shift. She closed her eyes and clenched her fist. She could go inside, and let it happen.
It would maybe be two more days and then her mother would simply drift away. It was the more merciful fate, she could rest. Forever.
She considered it, just for a moment, for all others she would consider it mercy, but here she faltered.
"One last attempt. Just this one." She meant and took a deep breath. Two levels below here was a container filled with a bunch of guys. Katty knew them and hated all of their guts. If she had to do it, she would do it there. She stepped closer to the edge and looked down. Nothing had changed, everything seemed empty.
The elevator was at the bottom level and stayed there parked until the shifts changed in the morning. The metal scaffolding next to the elevator's shaft was enough for her to get to the lower levels. The climb was neither easy nor hazard-free but she wouldn't have landed so many successful coups if getting up on buildings had been a problem.
Her target was the unit in the middle and she avoided quick loud steps getting there. The only positive thing she could say about these barracks was that the doors were never locked. At least it was positive for someone in her shoes.
She opened the door, just a bit so she could peep inside. The lights were out and the darkness inside had a tangible thickness her eyes couldn't pierce. She sat one foot inside then another. Another step into blackness and then she was part of it. Concentration was the key now, there was a little light left. Enough to see at least outlines of the things around her. The first place she looked was under the beds.
Slowly she moved her body to the floor only making a gentle clicking noise as one of her buttons touched the floor. She started using her hands to sense the few things under the bed. No luck. A certain tension started to rise in her. This was taking too long. She needed to be out there in a few seconds otherwise she would get caught. She eyed one of the beds close to her, her eyes had adjusted a lot better to the darkness now.
No one was in it but there still was a small visible bump under the blanket. Katty threw back the covers and discovered a small loaf of bread. Jackpot! She didn't waste any more time and grabbed it. Fleeing was just two steps now and as she pressed herself through the door the endorphins mixed with the adrenalin and flushed her whole brain.
The moment seemed too perfect to be true and reality quickly came back to remind her that it was still here.
"Who do we have here?" The voice itself suggested nothing more than a grin on the lizard's face. He grabbed her by the arm and pushed her back into the barrack. The lights went on and Katty was blinded for a moment.
"What are you doing outsssside during curfew?" he hissed gleefully as her eyes got used to the light. It was just the two of them in there she realized and felt like screaming. She could have been so much faster and could have avoided exactly something like this.
"But… there is no curfew." She mumbled as the lizard had pushed her against the wall.
"There issss now, ssssince today. You were ssssupposed to hear about that tomorrow." The lizard shrugged nonchalantly. "Too bad, well, you know the punisssshment for ssssuch misssstakes." He grabbed his side and took out a knife that just looked small in his hands. "But a tail will make due."
"You… what?" Katty pressed herself against the wall trying to hide her tail behind her. She had seen it on some of the lizard's coats and pants. Furs or cut-off tails, sometimes a paw hanging there like it was a lucky charm. She always thought that they took these from the dead.
"It cutssss that or it cutssss your throat." Demonstratively the lizard pressed the blade onto her neck giggling gloatingly.
Katty swallowed, everything, anger frustration pride. He wanted her tail, fine, for what would she need it anyway? He should have it, all of her, as long as she could keep the bread. Her eyes glazed over and she nodded. Happily, the lizard grabbed her tail, his knife searched for the root of it and Katty patiently waited for the pain.
He foamed from the mouth in anticipation and slowly moved the knife into her flesh. Katty endured the burning sensation rushing through her whole body and suddenly she stood beside herself watching how everything unfolded. She saw how her tormentor pushed disgustingly slowly deeper into her flesh and how he got more excited by every millimeter and every muscle fiber he cut.
She saw his laughter, his glee, the madness in his face. And besides all of that she also saw his inattentiveness as he did not realize how two hands covered in black metal enclosed his head and turned it around so it was facing his attacker. The knife glided out of her flesh and Katty was pulled back into her body with all the suffering it brought.
She would rather look at her wound and tend it, but two more severe problems were in front of her. One was the corpse of the lizard who lay on his belly while his face looked shocked toward the ceiling. The other was the tall figure in a slim-looking full black armor who fixated on her through a non-see-through helmet visor. Katty was used to fear, after living in this nightmare for so long now, fear was the only consistent emotion.
But this kind of fear was new and old at the same time, it was like back then when she first saw one of the lizards. How she saw the overwhelming might they possessed and that surrender was the only way to deal with this unrelenting force. Seeing one being killed with such ease brought her back to where it all began back then. The horrifying start of hell.
The armor looked at her for another while until shaking its head mumbling something in a language she did not comprehend.
"Wh..What?"
"Where are the accommodations?" the voice from inside the metal sounded robotic and was spoken with a staccato that indicated urgency.
"The lizards? I-"
"The slaves." The armor cut her short. "Where are they accommodated?"
"H..Here, in this container unit." The reaction from the armor was confusion, Katty realized that without seeing a face. It looked around for a moment like it was trying to grasp how they were all fitting into these rooms.
"Is this the only unit?"
"There are more caves like that I guess but… I haven't seen them." Katty's organs started to relax again and her adrenaline-flooded brain regained some thinking abilities. "What, no, who are you?"
The armor ignored the question and started typing something onto a display that was integrated into its left lower arm. At least Katty thought it was a display, but as soon as a hologram of the area started hovering over the armor's arm she wasn't so sure anymore.
"How many guards?"
"You haven't answ-"
"How many?"
Katty sighed, the armor was right, there were more pressing issues. "About 6 here in the block, they sometimes patrol, mostly they just sit in their booth."
"Booth?"
"At the bottom of the unit, there is a quarter which they enter, they usually sit in there."
"Show me." The armor grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the door. The hold around her arm was firm but not so tight that it hurt. Seeing the dead lizard on the ground Katty supposed that the armor was holding itself back.
At the edge of the elevator shaft the armor finally came to a stillstand but just for a moment to shoulder Katty like a potato sack and jump down with her level by level. It felt like the air got squeezed out of her lungs every time they landed and the urge to kiss the moon's dirt was definitely there as she felt solid ground underneath her feet.
"Couldn't you war-"
The armor shushed her by raising a finger in front of its visor and asked "Where?"
Katty simply replied by pointing at a door close to them.
"Are you sure?"
She nodded and the armor grabbed a little black cube from the side of its arm and pressed its thumb on the surface of the device. The cube, not bigger than a regular dice, started glowing slightly, and from that point on the armor started moving quickly. It ran to the door, opened it just enough to throw the cube in, and closed it again holding the door shut.
Just a few seconds someone banged against the door then a loud splat silenced everything inside the booth. The armor waited a few more seconds before it opened the door again. Katty knew that all of the steel walls were painted with this nondescript greyish color which made them not looking good but also not looking offensive in any way.
Red on the other hand was no color the lizards had used in any bigger capacity still the walls in this room were all red and she had a slight suspicion that this was a very recent paint job.
"Any more guardposts you know of?" The armor asked peeking into the booth.
"Not here at least." The starvation had one advantage how Katty realized in this very moment, her stomach did not have the slightest reaction seeing this.
"Good." The armor, for the first time, opened its visor showing a creature Katty had never seen before, a smooth, almost hairless, face with whitish skin. The sight was shocking but the experience of one survived invasion gave her at least some foundation to not stand there flabbergasted.
"Casey to bridge. Suspected survivor shelter confirmed. Moving towards the rest of the team in the middle of the complex." The creature's voice, at least in a language she understood, still came from the suit. A short break ensued and it used it to check the holo display on its arm until someone answered.
"Affirmative. Meet up with the team and round up all the guards who capitulate." Something was odd about this other voice, Katty knew it from somewhere, she just didn't know from where.
"We might need them for bargaining at a certain point. I never said be gentle though."
A smile crawled over the lips of the armor-bearer. "Affirmative, Captain. Will proceed. I-" it looked at Katty like it just remembered that she was here. "We need to contain the survivors in a way."
"Good point… I will prepare a landing shuttle with medical personnel and some crew. Can you spread the word of our arrival in any shape or form?"
"Will do, captain. Casey out." The creature typed on the display and then grinned at Katty. "I got to go and kill some lizards, you will handle this duty."
"Wh… Why me?"
"I don't see anyone more capable here."
"Yeah because no one is here!" Katty complained now loud enough that the first door next to the lizard's booth was opened just a tad bit. Hungry eyes peered through the door slit.
"Just tell them someone comes to greet them. Good luck." And as quickly as it found its way into Katty's life, as quickly it was gone.
Leaving her alone with a mess and a lot of problems. This Casey thing had some nerves.
Katty clenched her fist as her tail reminded her of the deep cut it suffered. A simple patch up with cloth from her uniform had to be enough for now. After all, like her captors before she was once more giving work. So she did what she had been used to during her time here, and got to it.
She first briefed the few people who had still seen Casey and told them to spread the word, then she went from level to level, this time using the elevator. There were no lizards to withhold her from using it. After two levels and a lot of show and tell in the freshly lizard-blood-red painted booth, the whole situation was self-sustaining. She had enough time to get her mother now.
Arriving at her bed once more Katty saw that her mother had been through another fever cramp, she could always tell by the way her body was bent.
"Mom, I… I don't know but maybe this will be over soon. Somethings changing… New management I think."
Her mom just moaned barely having enough energy to make a sound at all.
"I mean it mom, you just have to get up come on." Katty tried a few things, lending her mom a hand, aiding her walk, using her shoulder to prop her up, in the end, she decided to simply carry her on her back like an uncomfortably light backpack.
As she arrived back down in front of the barracks the whole crowd of dwellers was mumbling amongst one another with some of them turning to her with questions she could not answer. Katty brushed them off as well as possible but the demand for answers got higher quickly. The blood-smeared guard room was also a reason for concern amongst the group. Everyone knew who the lizards would enact their rage upon when they saw that.
She saw the first few hands clenching into fists as also her tone got more brass when one of the creatures in the black armor entered the room. It wasn't this Casey, this one looked different. A darker skin tone and a more grim-looking face.
"The captain is asking for your attendance in the main factory hall." It said.
"Where?" One in the crowd asked.
"The room with the ovens."
"Oh, hell floor," Katty interjected and pushed through the crowd with the help of her living backpack. She formed the tip of the group that marched down the same halls she had for over a year now.
On hell floor, a bunch of these black armors stood in line holding a group of 20 lizards at bay. Someone in a less armored and more sleek-looking black and white uniform with blue features stood with them. Even from far away, Katty saw that this was none of these creatures, it was a dog in this uniform.
A switch was flipped in her as she approached the figure who had turned his back to them. Could there be the slightest chance that they had not just exchanged the old slavers with new ones? The dog was standing with his arms crossed behind his back eying a lizard that knelt on the ground in front of him and spouted pure anger.
"…you will ssssee when the high-fleet arrivessss they will destroy you, your sssship and all the resssst of your puny little speciessss."
"Is that so?" The dog replied unfazed and shock traveled through Katty's spine so intense that she had problems holding her mother. She knew that voice. It has been a while but she knew it from these videos Kitty had shown her nephew when he was a baby. How was he still alive?
"You dirty fur covered-"
"So there is no chance for you to cooperate with us?"
"I would never-"
"How unfortunate, sorry to hear that." Without waiting the dog fired a beam of light from his glove's palm evaporating the head of the lizard at an instant. "But maybe someone else will come out and find the courage to cooperate." He looked at the lizards for a moment who stared in shock at their decapitated comrade. "Take your time to think." The Captain said and then turned around to the crowd seeming surprised like he hadn't expected them to be there already.
"Oh, well, great… uhm." He cleared his throat and stiffened up. "First of all greetings, let me introduce myself, my name is Captain Dudley Puppy from the Alliance ship Leviathan. We came here… basically for you uhm…" Dudley sighed, muttered something under his breath, and continued. "What I wanted to say is… you are free."
The crowd started to mumble.
Free? They were beaten, crushed, enslaved, starved, abused, broken and suddenly they are free? Though all they ever hoped for it felt like a shock hearing these words. Freedom hadn't been on anyone's mind. Someone in the crowd raised his voice and asked a question they all had in mind. "And now what?"
"To give you the gist of things…" The dog cleared his throat and started to tell something that sounded more like a fairytale than reality. About a small group of rebels supported by a new alien faction, fighting their way out of the dirt and gaining control over the dying planet. Katty trembled hearing the story and she had an even harder time holding on to her mother. The other survivors around her felt the same as she heard some breaking down crying or laughing maniacally.
"We will talk about the next steps later but for now, we have food and medical supplies to take care of your wounds. Please stay calm and listen to the personnel tasked with distributing the aid. Thank you." The dog nodded and calmly walked back to a shuttle that had landed in the hall. The first thing Katty did was try to head towards him. He must remember her, he just had to. She approached the shuttle just a bit before an armor blocked her way.
"Please, have patience, we…"
"Dudley!" She yelled out to the dog who had stopped in his tracks and talked to a human who tried to tell him something while always pointing at the shuttle. She yelled once more, and again, and again. The dog didn't hear her, instead one of these other alien creatures, these humans, was approaching her.
"Is everything alright?" It asked and Katty would have suggested that this human was female, she couldn't tell though, as they looked too similar to her.
"I need to speak to the Captain!" Katty demanded and once more called out Dudley's name as he disappeared inside the shuttle.
"I am sure there will be a time-"
"You don't understand, I know him!"
"Of course you do." The woman smiled. "But he is very busy now, why don't the two of you grab something to eat for now?"
From her back, Mrs. Katswell was coughing raspily. Katty was surprised, for a moment she had almost forgotten about her.
"Your friend does not look good." The woman said and looked concerned at Katty's mother.
"Because she isn't." Katty gently laid her mother on the floor. "She hasn't eaten in days and is heating up more and more."
"Okay then, I get someone from the medical staff." The woman hurried away and returned with the human that was furiously trying to tell Dudley something before.
"This is Doctor Ryan an-"
"And I am busy so let's get to the point." The doctor knelt down to his patient and examined her quickly. "Starvation, fever, any other symptoms?" He asked keeping his eyes pinned at his patient.
"Hallucinations from time to time." Katty took her mother's hand gently squeezing it.
"Hmm… Congrats, you won a high-priority ticket." Ryan sighed and pressed two fingers of his gloved hand into Mrs. Katswell's neck. The elder cat tensed up for a moment before losing all the tension in her body.
"That should sedate her for a while," Ryan said, nonchalantly answering the question that made Katty's body again the tension her mother lost. "We will take her to the ship for further checkups."
Ryan gestured to the woman who was about to pick up Mrs. Katswell but Katty did so before her.
"Fine." The doctor sighed. "You can join her, why not, it'll be a crowded hairy mess up there anyway." Dismissively the human waved toward the shuttle and before Katty could complain about his behavior, he was already bent over another patient.
It was an odd feeling stepping inside the shuttle, Katty would have described it as euphoria with sprinkles of existential dread. Another one of the armors onboard, this time without a helmet, assigned her a seat and she tried to strap her sedated mother into it as a pair of hands helped her with the mulish clasp.
"First join the parts together then move it in." The hands made quick work and she could finally rest for a while giving her whole back a much-needed break.
Katty turned around about to thank the guy as she looked into eyes she hadn't seen a long time ago. The words she wanted to utter died in her throat while the dog just stared at her with big eyes.
"Katty? Is that…" His eyes searched through the alopecic hair on her head until he found what he was looking for. "It is really you, isn't it?"
"I…" Katty took a moment to collect herself before she beat Dudley's shoulder in an only partially gentle way. "You jerk, I called after you!"
"I have not heard that. Sorry!" He rubbed his shoulder as a smile grew on his face.
"Yeah, you better be." She huffed crossing her arms like a pouting child.
Dudley glanced over from Katty to the cat that he helped to strap into the seat and the penny dropped. "No way!" he said almost euphoric.
"Oh yes." Katty said following his look. "And it's a damn miracle that she's still here with us."
"It's a miracle that the two of you survived! How di-"
"How we survived?" Katty huffed again and closed her eyes for just a moment. There was a whole series of pictures flashing before her eyes she did not want to remember right now.
"Was at mom's place, she wanted to know something about my fiancé, I actually just told her that I might see a guy and she of course blew it out of proportion."
"Yeah, I remember that trait of her." The dog grinned his attention back at Katty, she didn't know if it was seeing a familiar face or the fact that no one smiled at her friendly for a while, but it felt soothing to see him.
"Well, then these bastards attacked, we could evade the first wave of bombs and soldiers but in the end, we were cornered by a group of lizards. I was damn sure they would just shoot us but they brought us here instead. I don't know if that was better."
The dog's smile vanished, and he frowned at her. "You have made it Katty, you are free."
"But what now? Going back to the destroyed mess these shitheads left us?"
"I'll be honest with you," Dudley said and straightened up in his uniform. "Our plan is still full of holes but we are not planning to linger."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Leaving this rock. And the lizards."
Katty tilted her head and tried to see a creeping smile that indicated a joke. But either Dudley had improved on his dead-panning or he really tried to sell her that.
"Leaving? Where?"
"See that's where things get a little messy. But we are on it." He laid a hand on her shoulder that seemed to weigh a whole tone. "So, try to relax a little."
Katty moaned and slumped down onto the seat next to her mother. "Why not, I rather die shot by a lizard than from starvation."
"Speaking of that." He jogged into another compartment of the ship and returned, before Katty could fasten her own seatbelt, with a sand-colored bar in his hand.
"Here." He said and pushed the object into her palm before sitting down on the empty seat next to her.
"What's that?" Katty looked at the bar, even giving it a sniff. It smelled neutral, sterile almost.
"A nutrition bar. Due to you starving down there, we put together some basic nutrients that won't tax your systems too much."
"Aha…" Katty said and bit into the bar. It not only had the color of sand, but also shared its taste.
"They probably not very tasty."
"I was about to steal a loaf of moldy bread to share it with my dying mother, I am used to bad food by now." She chewed, swallowed, and took another bite before saying. "So, Captain Puppy, huh? Climbed the ranks, huh?"
"Yeah I… got around a little." He laughed. "Also took me quite a while to do so but I think it was worth it."
"I see…" Katty took another bite as the cogwheels in her head reenergized and turned. "Last time I saw you was before the launch of this rocket of yours. How are you still alive?"
Dudley took a deep breath and then started retelling his story while being interrupted from time to time by other survivors, whom he greeted friendly, or crewmates, to whom he delegated new tasks.
The shuttle took off and he was still talking and Katty, munching on her third nutrient bar, was still listening. He was talking about transdimensional travel through black holes when the shuttle stopped moving.
"I think that was the gist." He said and stood up. Katty swallowed down the last bits of her flavorless meal and stretched.
"Not bad, hadn't expected you to have that in you."
"Oh well, I am full of surprises. And I still have one up my sleeve" He grinned and through the shuttle's door a bunch of people entered the vessel. Most of them directly walked up to the critically injured survivors, carrying them away swiftly, like Mrs. Katswell who was carried away by a bearded man who looked more than in a hurry.
"She'll be looked at." Dudley blocked Katty who had jumped from her seat in the moment the alien laid hands on her mother.
Katty wanted to object but a voice petrified her to a pillar made from bones. "Dudley?"
Behind the dog, the tall tanned cat looked confused at her fiancé. The dog said nothing and simply took a step to the right.
And their gazes crossed. Eye met eye, teared up and soon two sisters lay in each other's arms.
"I think you two have enough to talk about without me being here," Dudley said these words fully knowing that they were not heard before he left the shuttle heading towards the bridge. There was still a lot of work to do.
-Authors note: A family reunion is always nice, isn't it? The Katswells are all back together and ready. Let's see what they will get into. Anyway, folks, as always, tell me what you think in the comments and, most importantly, stay tuned :)-