Once the meeting was over, the crew left feeling frightened. The team did not want to defend themselves against the SCW’s. They were exhausted and feeling defeated over the last battle they had with the SCW’s Shadow barely made it safely out of the war on Planet X. They all knew the SCW’s were relentless in their quest to kill Shadow. Phoebe said to Shadow, “You know I love you and will protect you to the best of my effort, but I am afraid. I’m only three years old.” “I know Phoebe. I wish no one were in this position to protect me. It bothers me. People must put their lives in danger so that I live,” said Shadow. “We all know you are important to mankind and Catmoonians. We fight for your life willingly,” said Suzie. Peter said, “Shadow we will know what we must do. I, in fact, I give my life willingly so that you may live and give your gifts to the world.”

Peter was interrupted by an announcement over the intercom system:

“Please go to your PODS and study your defensive training. I need all of you to be prepared for battle at any moment. Shadow must live at all costs,” said Captain Cattitude.. “In the meantime, please try to get some rest. You will need it,” continued Captain Cattitude.

Shadow was the first awake. She heard the loud wind and thunder outside, and She knew they were no longer in space. We must be on Catmoon, she thought. She looked out the ship’s window in her and Phoebe’s quarters and saw the purple rain coming down. The wind was blowing hard and knocking things over. The sky was a dark purple, and the sun was nowhere in sight. Shadow wondered if the rain was safe.

“It’s beautiful, huh,” said Suzie as she walked into Shadow’s and Phoebe’s headquarters. Shadow jumped. She was startled by Suzie’s entrance. “Yes, it is,” said Shadow gathering her composure. “As you can tell, we have safely made it to Catmoon. We need to wake up Phoebe as Captain Cattitude wants to have a meeting with the crew,” said Suzie.

“Phoebe, wake up. We need to be ready for a staff meeting in a half-hour,” said Suzie as she gently placed her hand and shook Phoebe to wake up. “Ruff, ruff, ruff,” said Phoebe as she was startled by the hand on her shoulder. Suzie realized she should have gently shaken Phoebe’s mattress instead. “Sorry, Phoebe,” said Suzie. “I needed to wake you up. I thought direct contact was better than shaking your mattress. I was wrong, I am sorry,” said a sincere Suzie. After Shadow and Phoebe got dressed, the three of them headed to the conference room aboard the ship.

Everyone was milling into the conference room when Suzie noticed that Captain Cattitude was dressed in his military clothes. She knew what he was about to say was of high importance:

“Good morning, crew. As you can tell, we made it to Catmoon without the SCW’s stopping us. We damaged their navigation system, and it will take some time for the SCW’s to repair it. However, they will repair their Navi system and then head directly to Catmoon. We probably have a few days before they reach us. They are not going to be happy and will be gunning for all of us. After all, we did save Shadow from certain death. Luckily, the government is for protecting Shadow at all costs. Social war may break out between SCW’s plus their followers on one side and the government on the other side. We must be ready to do battle with the SCW’s once the SCW’s land on Catmoon,” said a solemn Captain Cattitude.

After the damage caused to SCW’s mothership navigation system, Captain Cattitude was certain he and the spaceship crew could safely make it to Catmoon without being pursued.  He was so certain in fact, he held a celebration party for the crew.  Suzie made a big chocolate-blueberry cake to honor the day they escaped from certain doom.  “We should be near Catmoon by 0400 hours tomorrow,” said Captain Cattitude as he raised a glass of tinkle berry wine to honor the event. The crew laughed and cheered as the toast was made. ( No one from Earth ever heard of tinkle berry wine.  They shuddered to think what it was made from.)

“The SCW’s are crippled.  We damaged their navigation system,” said John to the crew.  “It will take them hours to make the repairs,” he added. The gathered crowd cheered upon hearing the news. 

Shadow and Phoebe were dancing to the music Captain Cattitude played over the intercom system. It was a strange hybrid of scatchtechno, clawhouse, and countrycat welded together.  The girls were not so sure they liked the sound but liked the beat nonetheless. Shadow liked the gospel-tinged song called ‘He Is’ by Copyright. She preferred they played that song instead but was happy she could dance to the mishmash that was Catmoonian music. She began to purr to the music as she grew happy they were safe, at least for now, she thought.   

At that moment, Captain Cattitude could be heard over the intercom system. “I suggest we all get a good night’s rest.  We have a lot of explaining to do to the military personnel once we land, and we must prepare for when the SCW’s make it to Catmoon.  I don’t think we are out of the woods yet,” said Captain Cattitude to the crew as he pulled the plug on the party after two hours. 

Suzie, Peter, Phoebe, and Shadow reluctantly went to their sleeping quarters and tried to sleep.

After the hull had been repaired by Captain Cattitude and Shadow, John set the ship’s destination for Catmoon. They would have to fly past the Shadow Cat Warriors’ mothership on the way. Luckily, the spaceship’s weapon shields had been fixed and updated by John before the onset of the SCW’s descent on the spaceship’s crew while on Planet X.

The crew was tired, exhausted, and ill-prepared for a battle in space. In a couple of hours, the spaceship was going to enter the space where the SCW mothership lay waiting for an attack. John was nervous that this was to be the end of Captain Cattitude’s spaceship and the crew aboard. As they came into orbit near the SCW’s spaceship, John turned on the spaceship’s early warning system. Sirens and flashing red lights soon filled the atmosphere. Crew members got into their battle stations. Shadow and Phoebe were scared. They didn’t want to die. Shadow knew the crew was in danger because of her and she got angry and upset. Tears began to fill her eyes as the guilt for putting the crew in danger grew by the minute.

The first torpedo coming from the SCW’s spaceship, hit the side of Captain attitude’s spaceship. .The shield’s force field held up and the weapon disintegrated without any major damage.

Next, John fired back. It was a direct hit. John watched in pleasure as the flames shot forth into space. John had hit his target and the SCW’s navigation system was compromised. As John flew the ship past the weakened SCW ship, he knew he had bought time for them to get to Catmoon. He turned off the warning system, and announced over the speaker system, that they were now safe and would safely land on Catmoon.

Shadow and Captain Cattitude and the rest of the crew were working to fix the breach in the ship’s hull. Before they began work on the hole in the spaceship, Captain Cattttude pulled Shadow aside and let her know that they could pull their powers together to weld the hole in the spacecraft. “What do you mean?” asked a puzzled Shadow, “Being you are a half-alien and domestic cat, you have more powers when you combine yours with a Catmoonian. You are capable of so many powers when used with a Catmoonian. That is why the Shadow Cat Warriors are afraid of you. One such power you have is you can create a fireball when you combine your power with my powers; we can weld the ship together faster than a welder can,” said Captain Cattitude. “How do we do that, asked Shadow with a puzzled expression on her furry face. “You hold my paw while we wiggle our ears and nose. This action will create a fireball that we can direct to the ship’s metal to close the hole in the ship. We must deal the spaceship quickly as I am afraid another horde of the SCW’s is coming soon,” said Captain Cattitude. “Let’s do this,” said Shadow as she reached for his paw.

They stood in front of the gaping hole in front of them. Suzie and the grew were placing slabs of meta over the hole. “Okay, the metal pieces are in place. Work your magic,” said Suzie as she stepped away from the breach.

While holding paws, Captain Cattitude and Shadow walked toward the now covered hole in the ship. Next, they began to wiggle their ears and nose. Shadow felt the heat rise in her that scared her. It felt as if she were on fire. Raising both his and Shadow’s paw toward the ship’s ceiling, a fire began to seem to burn inside them. Suddenly in the space before them, a fireball formed. It began to get bigger and bigger. In a quick movement, Captain Cattitude forced Shadow’s paw to quickly come down so that their paws were partially in alignment with the metal, “Flick your wrist toward the metal slabs, Captain Cattitude said to Shadow. The fireball shot away from them and hurtled toward the metal slabs. “Aim toward the metal to weld it to the hole by moving your arms with mine. We will have control of where the fireball goes,” said Captain Cattitude. In unison, they maneuvered the fireball to seal the hole. Sparks and smoke came forth, and soon the spacecraft was filled with the stench of burning metal.

Shadow heard the voices in her head. At first, they were a low hum; then, they became a roar. “Kill her. She is an abomination. She must be killed. She is the heretic. She is a threat to our species,” the voices rang in her head. She knew she must act fast. She began concentrating on levitating. Soon she was in the air. She floated herself to be behind the oncoming enemy, the Shadow Cat Warriors. Once behind the SCW’s, she lowered herself to the ground while concentrating on coming down. Next, she started to wiggle her ears and tail and to move her nose back and forth. The environment began to lose its color and time. Soon, she was invisible. She started to remove the weapons from the SCW’s who were frozen in time. One by one, she began to move their guns. But this time, it was different.

The SCW’s seemed to be aware that Shadow was doing this. Suddenly, she became aware she was in trouble. Several of the SCW’s pointed their weapons at her. The SCW’s were moving, and she could see it!!! “Your parlor tricks won’t work this time. You are dead, said the tall and angry-looking SCW to her. Out of nowhere, Captain Cattitude was shooting at the approaching SCW’s. He was invisible, and the SCW tech to undo his time freeze did not work. Soon, the SCW’s were screaming and shooting at what they could not see. They became outnumbered as Captain Cattitude shot at the SCW’s. The environment soon became filled with ash from the SCW’s as they turned to dust from the ray gun light. He moved so fast that Suzie could grab Shadow and bring her to safety amidst the SCW’s confusion about how Shadow could do this. In a matter of minutes, the SCW’s lost the battle. Shadow broke down crying. She was so afraid of the anger that she heard. Suzie comforted her and told her; we got your back. Captain Cattide began to think they would lose this war. There were just too many SCW’s remaining on their mother ship.

Captain Cattidude called in an impromptu meeting among the dead SCW’s. “I believe we have just experienced the first wave of the SCW’s. There are many more on their mothership. We need to fix the breach they made in the ship’s hull. We need to get the hell out of here. I now believe we need to head to Catmoon as not all Catmoonians feel Shadow should not live. I think we have a better chance on Catmoonian than we do here on Planet X.,” said Captain Cattitude…

Shadow looked at the Shadow Cat Warriors heading in their direction; there were so many of them. Shadow realized she needed to use her time power and stop time in an instant. She began to wiggle her ears frantically while she swished her tail back and forth along with twitching her nose. Suddenly color left the room. Shadow no longer saw color and she began to have a red outer glow about her. Time had stopped. Shadow moved among the Shadow Cat Warriors and took away their weapons, She went through the gang of SCW’s as fast as she could. The time stop only lasted ten minutes.

fAfter she took away the last weapon from an SCW, Color began to appear around her surroundings and her red outer glow suddenly disappeared. She was behind the SCW when the power wore off. Suzie and the others did not know what happened. They only knew the Shadow Cat Warriors no longer had weapons. Suzie began to fire at the unarmed SCW’s. One by one, she watched the Shadow Cat Warriors turn to dust as the gun ray found the SCW’s hearts. The other ship crew did the same. Soon there were no more SCW’s standing, Shadow nonchalantly walked back to the crew with a shit-eating grin. Suzie looked at Shadow and said, “You had something to do with them no longer having weapons, didn’t you?” Shadow simply nodded her head yes. Suzie gave Shadow a great big hug. “Thank you,” said Suzie. “We made it out of this battle. More are sure to come,” said Suzie as a new throng of SWC’s made their way through the ship’s hull. “You ready to do that trick again?” Suzie said to Shadow…

The alarm first started softly but as it went on the sound level increased. Shadow was in her learning POD when she jumped when the alarm became noticeable to her. Phoebe began to howl as the sound hurt her ears. Captain Cattitude came over the loudspeaker, “This is not a test. This is not a test. All personnel report to your battle stations immediately. The Shadow Cat Warriors are attempting to break into the ship. All personnel report to your battle stations immediately. And remember, Shadow must not get into the hands of the SCW’s. She is to be protected even if it means you must die in the process.”

Phoebe began to cry. Susie yelled at her, “Pull yourself together. We dodn’t have time for the drama. Shadow should be your top priority. Now, you heard Captain Cattitude, report to your battle station.” Phoebe pulled herself together and headed to the armory room to gather her weapons, praying along the way. “Oh God, please keep Shadow safe and protect all that are fighting for her,” said Phoebe,

Once she got her weapons, she headed back to Shadow. She was to be Shadow’s personal bodyguard since they were best friends forever. When she got to Shadow, she heard the ship cry as the ship’s hull was penetrated by SCW’s Phoebe looked in shock when she saw the first SCW enter into the POD room. The SCW fired at Phoebe’s head Luckily, it missed her. Now it was Phoebe’s turn to fire back. She pulled the trigger of the laser gun and then saw the SCW turn to dust as the ray found its target. Behind him were more SCW’s. Phoebe was outnumbered. From behind came the rest of the ship personnel firing at the backs of the SCW’s. One by one, they turned to dust as ray runs were fired. And then more SCW’s showed up behind Suzie and the rest of Captain Cattitude’s crew. One ray grazed Peter’s arm. He smelled the burnt skin as the pain raced up to his brain. He dropped his weapon, the pain was so great, Suzie saw the whole thing and took direct aim at the Shadow Cat Warrior that had hit Peter with the ray gun. She aimed and fired at the Shadow Cat Warrior’s heart. The ray gun found its target and the Shadow Cat Warrior turned to dust…

After the meeting was closed, Suzie went up to Shadow to check up on her. “Shadow, how you doing? Remember we all love you and know how important you are to mankind and the Catmoonians. We will not let you be captured even if that means we die in the process of protecting you,” said Suzie as she gave Shadow a big old bear hug. “We have no time for these niceties. We must be focused on the task at hand. Please head to the learning pods ASAP, ” said Captain Cattitude. “Yes, of course,” said Suzie, as she let go of Shadow and started heading to the learning pods…

Captain Cattitude called the meeting in session once everyone had gathered in the Conference Room. “As you all know the Shadow Cat Warriors’ have discovered we have landed. It’s only a matter of time before they find the ship. I need each and every one of you to go to the learning pods and study up on what you learned. I need all of you to be at the top of your game. Phoebe was the first to raise her hand. Her voice cracking, Phoebe said, “Aren’t we out-numbered? How soon before they will find us and will we be ready to tackle their larger crew?” “That’s a good question Pheobe and I have a good answer. Shadow is key to Catmoonian and Earth’s future. The Shadow Cat Warriors don’t see it that way. We must protect Shadow at all costs, even if that means the death of a crew member. We cannot let the SCW’s get a hold of Shadow. As far as our crew size compared to their’s, we have something they don’t have which is heart. A good heart can never lose. We will persevere because of this factor, that and the pod training we have all undergone. Suzie said, “I am prepared to give up my life so that Shadow remains alive and helps Catmoonians and Earthlings. She is too important to let the SCW’s get a hold of her. She must be allowed to procreate and offer hope to both the Catmoonians and Earthlings. She is both of our future.” At that, Captain Cattitude adjourned the meeting. He asked everyone to quickly get to their learning pods and brush up on the skills they have learned. Thank you for your time and may God be on our side in protecting Shadow.” With that everyone dispersed to the learning pods…