Rainbow Destructor – Chapter 3: CATS

BEEP. BEEP.

The AI, codenamed Maenad, flipped on in the main deck, its pink oval-shaped representation flashing on the viewscreen. “We get signal,” it said. Its grammar was a bit strange sometimes due to a glitch, but the crew of the Savior had learned to deal with it. “Main screen turn on.”

The video screen turned on and showed a somewhat-robotic figure behind a fiery background. The face on the screen was calm, but his twitches betrayed a sense of panic.

“It’s you!” Mikka shouted. She knew exactly who this was– Commander CATS of the Thylium Grand Army. Why was he taking the time to contact a small cruiser like the Savior?

“Please, you must help us! You’re the only ship in the sector that is open to contact. You have to listen. Someone–” Chhhhhhh…. the sound began cutting out, and the video picture flickered. There was a small explosion on a console in the background. Maenad began cutting into the broken words, trying to read CATS’s cyborg lips. “Someone set up us the bomb,” said the translation of what CATS was saying. “We are on the way to destruction.”

“What did you say?” Mikka asked CATS, trying to clarify for Maenad’s strange wording.

Another explosion knocked him down. When he propped himself back up on the commander’s chair, he lost all sense of composure and began screaming, but again there was no sound, and Maenad’s robotic voice said, “All our base are belong to–”

The screen began flashing various colors of orange and purple, green and violet, swirling around the ship and engulfing the picture, until suddenly it cut to static.

The crew of the Savior was silent. They all looked at Mikka with various faces of concern.

“What?”

The pilot Wins looked with her beady blue eyes at Mikka. “Are we going to help, sir?”

“Of course. We are two light years away, so we can reach their waypoint in eighty minutes if we hurry. Take off immediately, that’s an order.”

Koin smiled nervously. “But, Commander Mikka, the creature–”

“Isn’t going anywhere. But we are. Jump to warp.”

“Yes sir,” said Wins.

The space surrounding them flashed into a hazy blue as they entered the Warp Zone and sped towards the Zig System, an apparently-uncharted system near the edge of the sector. Why the Thylium Grand Army was there was a complete mystery, but Mikka wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass them up.

She was going to be a hero, she knew it. She could smell that promotion already.