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.Of course, the rays of light were no help whatsoever.And some of the kittens, especially those with no telepathic links with their controllers, still preferred to chase the space junk instead of herding it.One or two headed away from the mock battlefield and had to be drawn back to their shuttles.It would have been amusing if it weren‘t so serious.What kind of weapon could kill something that was apparently not killable? Not only that, but in its diffuse form—countless smaller serpentine shapes writhing in space—Apep had expanded to be much much larger than it had ever been in the tunnels—large enough to obscure a sun from the planets orbiting it.How could the cats possibly cover so much space and zap enough snakes to neutralize the monster? It all seemed pointless, hopeless, and he would have said needless, except of course you couldn‘t have snakes eating up suns whenever they wanted to, not really.Not if Pshaw-Ra and Balthazar were right and they could be stopped.All too soon, after not nearly enough practice, the commander announced that they were ready to launch their offensive.CHAPTER 26CHESTER, MISSION COMMAND POSTBefore we arrived at what the noisy man at the front of the room called ―the mission launch coordinates,‖ Pshaw-Ra, Renpet, and I went around to every cat on the ship while Pshaw-Ra told them that I was in charge, especially of coordinating the cats who hadn‘t found a special human yet.―Why should he be?‖ asked Metaxa, one of Zvonek‘s kittens by a Mau queen.―He‘s no better than us.‖―Because I am the Grand Vizier and this is your queen, and if you do not mind Chester and yet somehow you survive, we will smack you.And that, my child, is why.‖As the two of them turned, Metaxa gave a tiny snarl in their direction, but I put my paw around her neck, pinned her down and licked her nose.―Believe it or not, it is for your own good,‖ I told her.―I don‘t like this either, but I‘ll try to keep you alive and get you back safe.‖Two naps, a couple of mouthfuls of kibble, and a thorough grooming and petting session with Jubal later, we boarded the shuttle and got in line with the others to exit the mother ship.While en route, our weapons were installed where the light beams had been.―What if the kittens don‘t understand the difference and use it on one of the other ships?‖I had asked Pshaw-Ra.―It is a snake-specific weapon,‖ he assured me.―It would harm you and your craft no more than the beam of light you used in practice.‖Meta was behind me, her shuttle controlled by a soldier.I sent out reassurances to her and all of others who were going out without their own person.―Oh, stick it up your tail, Chester,‖ Bojangles told me.―Cats have been hunting way before any humans could read any cat thoughts.Get over yourself.This is going to be fun!‖Then the bay doors opened and the shuttles streaked out into space, the central feature of which was the serpent- infested star, all blinding orange fire around the top and bottom with a black snake middle.Even from back there—probably thousands of miles away by Standard reckoning—I could see those snakes wiggling, and it made my paws itch with the urge to smack some scaly tail.The shuttles fanned out as they got closer to the snakes.―Good luck, buddy,‖ Jubal said as I patted the top of my barque and hopped inside.The lid closed after me.It was cozy in there, but it smelled a little different—the weapon, I thought.The weapon had a sharper smell than the light beam.For another moment I was inside Jubal‘s head, hearing his heart beat fast and tasting his fear that I would never return, that he was sending me to my death, and then I was back out in space as I had been in practice, a free agent, a mighty hunter stalking something that had invaded this great vast territory that was mine to defend.I tried to take it all in but it was so enormous, just the enemy in the middle of that hypnotizing heat ….Engage, Chester, Jubal said inside my head.What?Sic ’em, boy.Those little boat things will sustain you only so long.Right ! I said, and shifted my weight to shoot forward, as we‘d been shown.My vessel obeyed and homed in on the target, just as I did.How far it was exactly, I had no way of knowing, nor how close to the sun we would have to go to engage our foe.The snakes feeding on the sun‘s light and heat did not dull its power nearly enough to suit me.The shuttles were positioned about halfway between the Quanah Parker and the snakes, close enough to stay in thought and radio communication with our barques but far enough away to be out of the fray and away from the sun‘s heat that was not being absorbed by the snakes.The barques were the swiftest things I‘d ever been aboard, and they covered the distance between the shuttle and the snakes so fast that Jubal was just at the end of thinking Good and hadn‘t yet thought luck by the time I arrived at the target.I flew right into the mass of wriggly things, quivering with the thrill of the hunt.Snakes surrounded me, big ones, little ones, snake heads, snake bodies trying to wrap themselves around my craft.Up go my front paws into sunbeam-batting mode, but now it is not the warm and life- giving motes of sunlight I slap around but the slithery things leeching life from the sun itself.Bat.Smack.Batabatabata!The weapons elongated and smashed the snakes together, right snake, left snake, all one snake.The snake wrapped itself around the extension and tried to pull.These little ones were as cunning as the big ones.Another head was coming toward me.I pulled it in with the unencumbered weapon rod, zapped it, and smacked it into the other head, zapping them both.The loose snake pulled, flopped, welded face-to-face with the one that had tangled my weapon arm.With no head guiding it, the body fell away and drifted off.That was it! A tactic!Fuse them head-to-head, I told the other cats in thought-talk.Three snake heads struck the top of the barque.To me a snake looks like a very angry if ugly cat, with flat ears, slitty narrowed eyes, fangs bared, and tail lashing.Venom floated up from their open mouths and they bit down again and again.A fang broke off.I automatically ducked back from their furious faces, my paws frozen by their glaring eyes.Their wiggling tails caught my own eye, though, and the paws came up, the barque paws shot out and fused their tails together.They fell back away from my craft.I didn‘t wait to be attacked again but waded in, fusing tails together and heads together over and over again.Little snakes strung into big snakes, tails tails, heads heads heads heads tails tails flip the barque and do the ones trying to climb it, double flip and attack a new area, pouncing the barque sideways to duck clutching coils.Mrrryowwww help! Yow yow yow! It was Buttercup.Where are you? I asked, already leaning the barque.Here! she cried.It’s got me!Except for Pshaw-Ra, cats don‘t do coordinates, and in space, direction doesn‘t make a lot of difference—but I headed for my daughter as if she were a magnet drawing me through the wiggling coiling serpentine masses.I saw her then, between a snake‘s jaws.The snake was enormous—not as big as the serpent of the tunnel but large enough to stuff a barque in its mouth with a cat inside [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]