Chapter 2

Another year gone; and with the 'squirt drive' FTL ships there is a lot of tourist traffic to both here and Orlana as everyone is curious about the place of first contact and the world of the 'Angels'. Solara and I went to Orlana to visit family and friends and to check on the family's investments. I find it hard to believe how much I have; let alone the family. Father's legal staff invested my royalties and took great care in doing so. I am worth over 3 billion 'Mann' equal to about 200 million NAC dollars.

So much has changed and some not for the good; there are reports that some Orlanan exploration vessels have been attacked in the two core-ward sectors. Lord Chula is concerned that rumors of a warrior race in that region are not just rumors.

Another year gone and the 9024 and Enterprise have returned from refit. Cmdr. Sordane says it is so strange to no longer need the sleep cells and to be able to go from world to world in just a blink. The 9024 will continue on to Orlana to show off here new drive system while the 'E' will remain here with the 'Connie' to maintain security and explore core-ward on our side of the nebula.

The 'Connie' has just returned and she is damaged; fired upon by scout ships three systems core-ward from us. Capt. Rosewood reports that he had just entered real space when they were attacked by more than 300 scout-sized ships. After their first volley the 'Connie' returned fire and most of the first wave of attackers was destroyed. By the time 'Connie' had fired her fourth volley all but about a dozen escaping ships were destroyed. Those ships escaping fled core-ward and appeared to have a drive system similar to ours. The 'Connie' searched the debris field and two ships not heavily damaged were tractored to shuttle bays for examination. One of the ships had no survivors on board but the other had two on board; injured but alive. They were Cats! Not the house cats of old but the size of an old Earth tiger and walked upright.

So how do you talk to a 2 meter tall, 140Kg hissing, spitting, ill-tempered fur-ball? Well first you drug it; then you put it in a cell. The next step is figure out its language; what I wouldn't give for Dr. Nakamura, give her 24hrs and she could talk to an ant.

We sent out 'squirt probes' to Earth, Tau Ceti, Beta Centauri, Orlana, Arilon, Vega, Omicron 3 and others requesting information about a race of Cats. Bommer's World was the first back saying that they had had a run-in with a race of cats calling themselves the 'Kreel' or something like that; it had been about 500 years ago so their memory was vague. Their world being all water the 'Kreel' had left them alone and not returned.

Next in was Talaria; they even sent video and audio recordings. The 'Skree' as they call themselves are a feline based warrior race from an area about 100 light-years core-ward. As the Talarians can produce a very painful electric shock from their bodies and their world is an ice giant the 'Skree' left them alone. They had not heard anything about them in over 600,000 cycles (about 550 years).

When the Xeno-linguists got these videos and listened to our two 'friends' talk it took them about a month with the aid of the computer and we had some limited understanding of their language. They are indeed the 'Skree' as our guests were so bold as to boast. They are the dominant life form in the galaxy and all others are to be their slaves or chattel. They are now returning to this quadrant as they have cleared out the vermin from core-ward, spin-ward and anti-spin-ward of their home world. They consider themselves the master of all they survey and if we didn't agree then we would be exterminated or; he licked his chops as he looked at Cmdr. Sordane, eaten: "We like bird flesh." I thought Cmdr. Sordane would shoot him on the spot but he maintained his composure and we left the cell block.

Our tear-down and examination of their ships revealed that they used a drive system similar to the 'squirt drive' but powered by fission reactors; very small, very efficient but fission just the same. One good pulse cannon shoot and boom "No more ship." The problem was we found out that the 'Skree' built these ships by the thousands and were more than willing to sacrifice ship and crew to stop an enemy. The one possible key to their defeat lie in the fact that their military was very stratified; the orders came from the top down and nobody questioned them: the commanders gave the orders and the soldiers followed them, Period! The lower ranks did not think for themselves at all. We checked and found out that the one we had that liked to brag was a ship Commander and the only reason he had not rammed the 'Connie' was a pulse cannon shot on another ship had taken out his drive.

It was about a month later that something happened to make me rethink the whole relationship I had with Solara; and my idea of their peaceful society. I had picked up one of the translators to go with me to the 'Connie' to see the 'Skree' Cmdr. When Solara found out where I was going she decided to come along to meet face-to-face our coming trouble.

When the three of us came to the Cmdr.'s cell he looks at Solara and says; "How nice, you brought me a snack." Now Solara give him a look that would freeze Jupiter to the core, when suddenly the Cmdr. leaps forward his arms through the bars and tries to grab my darling. Before anyone could react to it Solara had lept up and grabbed the overhead and swung her feet up and sank her claws; NO, TALONS into the Cmdr.'s arms. My, oh so sweet, so calm, so loving, gentle as could be lover had 160 to 175mm razor sharp TALONS completely through the Cmdr.'s arms. He cuts loose with the most blood-curdling scream and is trying to get free from her grasp. She is holding on to some piping in the overhead and he is pulling for all he's worth and all that is happening is the flesh on his arms is being peeled right off the bones. Finally Solara relaxes her muscles and the talons retract releasing the Cmdr. letting him drop to the floor of his cell. He is still screaming in what must be mind numbing pain as Solara turns to exit saying as she does; "I need a bath now!"