Ekron

Maria's Cats - 5

Maria's forest had grown to reach fifty hectares that provided an atmosphere almost the double of that size before the gases started to dissipate into space. In the day month, the sky over the Moon station looked green with low white clouds. Under the trees, a population of blue hydrangea had started to bloom, and they became Maria's favorite food. As the stars weren't visible, Maria did not notice until the beginning of the night month, that a big vacuum, an absence of stars had formed in the celestial equator; Orion and Taurus were gone, replaced by darkness. She putted down the hortensias she was eating and went inside, where she found the whole pack of thirty-six Macsks gathered in the outer part of her lab, visibly upset. They were looking at each other nervously, sensing that something was about to happen. Then Astarte asked Maria for the longest rope available in the station. At this point, Maria trusted Astarte's judgment so blindly that she didn't even question the reason behind her request and just gave her the rope that she was asking for.

A vibrational wave, almost imperceptible at first, gradually crescent, inundated everything, and space became white to a degree that it was blinding. Then a turbulence, like a gigantic broken wheel rolling, lasted a couple seconds until all came apparently back to normal. Nevertheless, the sky outside the windows looked slightly blue, something impossible in the night month. They gathered in front of the windows set and saw three blue giant stars shining in the western horizon, apparently several times further than where the sun would have been in the day month, but close enough to make the atmosphere turn blue. From the eastern horizon, a clear vision of Mars, that had apparently got closer to the Moon, haunted their eyes.

"Take Theresa to the army ship," said Astarte, "take one end of this rope, tie it to something solid inside the ship and leave the other end here with me... wait for me on the ship... is time for you to show us your home, Maria."

With the help of Trimurti and other two Macsks, Maria carried Theresa and the mainframe inside the ship, tied the rope to a pole inside the spacecraft and waited for Astarte with the rest of her cats. Astarte was in front of the window set, with the rope on the ground, looking at Mars, when a figure, almost the same size of the red planet appeared next to it. It was Vadállat, beast between the abysses, whose black eyes had six stars each, one for each system it had consumed. It was reminiscent of a dragon; in the same way a vulture is reminiscent of a dove. With claws as large as his legs, Vadállat clinched Mars, and opening his mouth like an ocean, shredded the red planet in minutes. Astarte began to breath deeper and deeper as the monster approached the moon leaving behind the remains of Mars. When Vadállat's face occupied half firmament, reflecting the light of the blue giants and some light from the sun, gravity on the Moon shifted towards him; Astarte walked to the window and stood over it, perpendicular to the ground, as objects in the lab floated and accumulated against the wall facing the monster. Maria's forest atmosphere was sucked into space by the massive presence of Vadállat, so darkness became predominant except for the light reflected by the monster. Then, Astarte knelt down on the window and put the palm of her right hand on the crystal, stared at those incommensurable eyes, and blinked. The eyes of Vadállat became white and the monster's advance became an inertial drift without direction. Astarte's eyes became black, and six stars appeared in each of them. She tried to stand up, but her legs failed, and white blood started to emanate from her eyes and nose, she crawled from the window to get the rope on the floor but fainted before she could get it. Then Maria appeared hanging from the rope and took her. The cat-eyed girl tied Astarte to her back and climbed the rope back to the spacecraft, closing the hatch once they were inside. They escaped towards the underground city of Kish, on Earth, while Vadállat drifted to collide against and destroy the dark side of the Moon.

END OF MARIA'S CATS