The Chrome Saga

The sun rose slowly over the horizon, perhaps a little too slow. The eerie red light cast long forbidding shadows along the streets of MegaKat City, perhaps as a prelude of things to come. It was warmer then usual, but in the summer, what kat would notice an extra three degrees?

Jogging to work as normal was Deputy Mayor Callico Briggs. The attractive she-cat usually took the extra time to style her blonde hair and relax. But this day was different. This day, Miss Briggs was not jogging to work, she was running. How had she allowed herself to sleep in this late? Five minutes is alright, ten is pushing it, but twenty minutes was unacceptable. Not to mention it was a fifteen minute jog to City Hall. “I’m really in for it now..” thought the she-kat as she ran to work, briefcase in hand. As she arrived, a familier kat was there, though his greeting was rather cold.

“Good morning, Deputy Mayor. Nice of you to join us.” Commander Feral always had a way with words, unfortunatly his tact for such words needed work. Now, there are those who would call Commander Feral tall. However, this is only half the picture. Commander Ulyses Feral is both tall and wide, not in berth, but in stature. A mountain of a kat, with dull brown fur. His grey Enforcer uniform was clean and pressed. Not a wrinkle blemished its surface. He obviously took great care to keep it clean.

“Good morning, Commander. What’s new?” In her mind was such a jarble of thoughts that he actually sounded sincere in her mind’s eye.

“Well, the techs down at NASA have determined that asteroid has absolutly no chance of hitting the earth, so that’s something to look forward to.” He seemed neither happier nor saddened by this news. He remained pokerfaced. However, this was great for Callie. She smiled, and walked past the Enforcer and into the extravagent building. The City Hall building was impressive. It’s steel girders and mirrored windows reflected every ray of sunlight, making it look all that much larger. That same sunlight made her own green eyes seem that much deeper, though deep down, she felt something was …. amiss.

The individuals in the massive, and highly overglorified City Hall lounge waved to Callie as she entered. This made her feel a little better. Now all she had to worry about was being verbally scoulded by the Mayor. She could just hear his thick accent now, telling her something similer to “When was the last time I was late here, Callie?” or something more like what her mother told her when she was just a kitten. She sighed, and reached the elevator with ease, tired, though with ease. She stepped onto the elevator, put her key in and turned the red arrow from “On” to “Express”. The doors closed, and the elevator worked its way up. Floors came and they went, but the elevator never stopped. When it reached the top floor, Callie turned the key back to “On” and got out. The elevator doors closed and it returned to the first floor. She entered her office, locked the door, and entered her private bathroom … A clean business suit felt a lot more comfortable then her jogging outfit, or at least it sounded as such.

Mayor Manx, on the other hand, was not in his office. He wasn’t even in MegaKat City.

After Callie changed from her jogging outfit to a much more comfortable suit, she noticed an envelope on her desk, dated and timed for last night. She silently cursed herself for leaving early last night, but opened the letter, anticipating back papers or necessary signatures, but instead found a letter from the Mayor:

” Dear Callie:

Urgent business has called me away. Please take care of my city while I’m
away.

Manx ”

“Urgent business indeed” she scoffed. But there was another letter in the envelope, which she decided would be vastly more important then this one.

” To: Miss Callico Briggs
From: Pumadyne Technological Developments
Re: Security Upgrade

Dear Miss Briggs:

This letter is to inform you that we have finished upgrading your network
security with Vocal Recognition hardware / software. To access the
network via the Vocal Recognition, merely hold the green button, and
speak your name in a clear voice. Once you have access, you can change
your voice password.

Dr. Katterman,
Administration of Pumadyne”

This was the moment that Callie has been waiting for. She waited all month for Pumadyne to finish upgrading the network. “Maybe the network will actually work now” she thought with a smile. Fifty thousand tax dollars to create a network linking the City Hall Mainframe to the Enforcer Mainframe to the rest of the world via the Internet. She grined wide and sat down at her terminal. Sure to their words, there was a microphone now sitting by her monitor, with a green button on its base. She turned it on, then her terminal, and waited. Then the screen popped up, “Please enter Vocal Password for Identity Verification”

It was just like one of those super spy movies. She held down the green button, and spoke her name as clear as she could. It worked, and slowly started to read off the network’s files. Callie was so happy, she wanted to try out everything that this new network had to offer. Perhaps, though, other forces deemed it impossible.

Meanwhile, in the far west, deep under the surface, a major discovery was about to take place.

“SIR!” yelled out one of the kats at a terminal “Sir! I … oh dear, SIR! You need to see this!”

The kat, Professor Nethanial Morrison, jumped out of his chair, wearing his sanitary white lab coat. The thin kat stood about 5 feet and six inches in height, and had unremarkable grey fur covering his stick-like figure. Obviously, he was in favor of brains, not brawn. He gathered his notes and ran to General Westlake. The lab-kat’s laminated ID card flopped about as he ran to the general, who was in the middle of drinking hot tea when the kat burst into his office.

“What the hell?!?” blurt out the wide general, spilling his tea on his clean uniform. He growled…”This had better be important, Morrison.”

“It is sir.”

“Well…I’m waiting.”

“It concerns that asteroid. You recall Asteroid Apex?”

The General nodded, taking some napkins and cleaning the tea off of his uniform.

“Well, it’s … How can I explain it? It’s still headed this way, sir.”

The General nodded. “Yes, but we’ve already determined that the chance of the asteroid causing a problem was zero. I’m not seeing your point, and I’m losing my patience quickly.”

Morrison gathered his notes, and put them on the General’s desk. “Yes sir, I know, but we’re tracking a new signal from the asteroid. It’s larger then Megakat city, and that’s not all.”
The General reviewed the notes. “There’s more?”

“Yes sir. Well….This new signal…..It’s composed entirely of a base metal. And it’s headed straight for Earth. In fact, our calculations show that the actual point of impact is …. ”

The General raised his hand for the kat to stop, he had heard enough. This new fragment of whatever it was, while signifigantly smaller then the main asteroid, was still lethal to those in the area of impact. And according to those notes, that area of impact wasn’t some out of the way plain, nor some deep ocean treanch……

It was MegaKat city.

“Sir…we have to at least warn them. If ….If we warn them now, maybe they can evacuate..” Morrison sputtered out.

“And where exactly would you like them to go? Do you know what an impact that large would do?”

“We……we have projections.” Morrison turned to a console, and pulled a disk out of his jacket. His hand was shaking so baddly, he had to steady it with his other hand before sliding it into the drive. He accessed a file, idlely named “End”.

“Our calculations indicate…..” The projector showed a view of the Earth, and this new fragment of the Apex Asteroid. “…. Show the impact time for three days, maybe four….” The kat continued while the projected image of the apocaliptic asteroid fragment loomed closer and closer to an almost comical red “X” on the surface. “…At the time of impact, we project total destruction of the impact area, namely ….. ” The projected fragment hits the mark, issuing a bright flash and a shockwave, much like a nuclear weapon’s shockwave, only the wave is pushing the atmosphere as well as destroying the ground. The kat scientist concluded by merely saying.

” … Megakat City will literally be blasted off the face of the Earth, followed by the destruction of the surrounding 20 miles.”

“The damage to the atomsphere would be irrepairable, as well. The atmosphere attempting to fill in that hole would thin the air everywhere.” The new voice was female. She was Professor Sandlehaze. A beautiful she-kat with bright tan fur, dazzleing blue eyes, and a voice that would call men from miles around to just sit and hear her voice. She was also a ecologist, called upon to study the ecological effects of the Apex Asteroid.
“This new fragment, this ‘Omega Fragment’ as we’ve named it, while possessing awesome destructive power, could also destroy the very eco-system we’ve grown so used to.”

The General nodded, as did Morrison, then the General placed the notes on the table. “What are the chances of a miscalculation?”

“You mean, is there a chance the ‘Omega Fragment’ … ” Morrison smiled at Prof. Sandlehaze as he spoke this fragment’s new name. ” …will not hit MegaKat City?”

The General nodded solumnly.

“Well, sir. Calculating impact of celestial bodies is an inexact science. I’d give it a fifteen percent chance of missing MegaKat City. And if it does miss, it’ll miss by a margain of about ten miles…meaning .. ” Morrison was interrupted by Miss Sandlehaze

” … Meaning, no matter what, either half the city is being destroyed, or it’s all gone.”

The General dismissed the two of them, and picked up a set of keys. He unlocked the padlock on a red phone, and picked it up, and pressed a button on the face.

“Yes sir…..It’s official…. MmmmHmmm…yes, the Omega Fragment is headed for MegaKat city…..Yes….Not much, only fifteen percent. Are you sure that’s wise, sir? Very well.”

The General hung up the red phone, and then pressed the speakerphone button on the one next to it, one more conventional. The operator picked up the line, and in the usual nasal voice issued a “May I help you?” that would inspire most kats to hang up right there, but instead the General merely spoke.

“Connect me with the Mayorial office in MegaKat city.”

A few seconds of silence, then a ring. Another. Another. “How long must it ring before someone picks it up?” The General thought as a fourth ring issued. Then a voice came onto the line…..tired, as if it were just running.

“…….h..h…Hello? Mayor’s office …… Deputy Mayor Briggs here.”

“Miss Deputy Mayor. This is General Westlake. I need you to remain completely calm. Can you sit?”

“Yeah…..Okay, sir. What’s the matter?”

“It’s the Apex Asteroid. We’re following a new signal from it, codenamed the Omega Fragment.”

“A new piece?” Miss Briggs gasped….then tried to speak…”c….can you destroy it?”

“It’s too big to destroy. The damage those fragments would cause more damage then if we allowed the fragment to fall, but we believe we can nudge it just a few degrees so it won’t hit it’s point of impact.”

“Uh….General? Where exactly is the point of impact for this new fragment?” Miss Briggs had a feeling she knew the answer

“The Lab-Kats here have projected the point of impact as being downtown MegaKat City. I’m sorry Miss Briggs.”

Callie was horrified, and at the same time, angry at how the General was just sitting there while this rock shard hurtled toward her city. “I’ll begin evacuation immediatly!”

“Don’t. It’ll cause a panic, Miss Briggs. We don’t want this to be more hazardous then it already is..”

“MORE HAZARDOUS?! You’re talking about the lives of thousands of kats, and you want me to just let them go on living, not even evacuating? Forget it, General. I’m evacuating these kats, and if you wanna stop me, come and try.”

“Cal……” The General stopped. Callie hung up the phone, filling his speakerphone speaker with the sound of the tone.

— Meanwhile, back in MegaKat City.

“Commander Feral. Come to my office please?” Callie called over the Enforcer band. Within minutes, the impressive figure of Ulyses Feral filled her office.

“Yes Miss Briggs?”

“Begin the preparations to evacuate MegaKat City. Try to keep the panic to a minimum, please.” The tears in Callie’s eyes were evident.

“Concider it done, Miss Briggs.” He took her hand and gave it a gentle pat. “It’s like the old saying….Coming true.”
“What’s that?” She said with a smile, patting his hand softly.

“All good things … must come to an end.” Feral said solumnly, then walked out the door, already calling for the Enforcers to start blocking all roads into MegaKat city.

Callie waited until Feral was gone, then started to cry……His parting words stung in her mind as he left…”All good things….” They echoed in her head as she cried….”All good things…” She knew the people would be in a panic, but it beat the alternative: Utter annahilation. She kept crying and crying as Feral’s words echoed still in her mind ….

“All good things … must come to an end.”

To Be Continued …

Next Chapter