Snark's Quest Read online

  Snark's Quest

  By Elspeth Anders

  And Timothy Ellis

  Snark's Quest, Book One

  Copyright © 2017 by Elspeth Anders and Timothy Ellis

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and events are fictional and have no relationship to any real person, place or event. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely co-incidental.

  The authors are Australian, and some of the main characters in this book are of Australian origin. In Australia, we colour things slightly differently, so you may notice some of the spelling is different. Please don't be alarmed.

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the written permission from the authors except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contents

  Contents

  Dramatis Personae

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty One

  Twenty Two

  Twenty Three

  Twenty Four

  Twenty Five

  Twenty Six

  Twenty Seven

  Twenty Eight

  Twenty Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty One

  Thirty Two

  Thirty Three

  Thirty Four

  Thirty Five

  Thirty Six

  Thirty Seven

  Thirty Eight

  Thirty Nine

  Forty

  Forty One

  Forty Two

  Forty Three

  Forty Four

  Forty Five

  Forty Six

  Forty Seven

  Forty Eight

  Forty Nine

  Fifty

  Fifty One

  Fifty Two

  Fifty Three

  Fifty Four

  Fifty Five

  Fifty Six

  Fifty Seven

  Fifty Eight

  Fifty Nine

  Sixty

  Sixty One

  Sixty Two

  Sixty Three

  Sixty Four

  Sixty Five

  Sixty Six

  Sixty Seven

  Sixty Eight

  Sixty Nine

  Seventy

  Seventy One

  Seventy Two

  Seventy Three

  Seventy Four

  Seventy Five

  Seventy Six

  Seventy Seven

  Seventy Eight

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  A Message to our Readers

  Also by Timothy Ellis

  Dramatis Personae

  Cats

  Snark/Prrinks/Puss – Cat of the Plains trader/adventurer.

  Sissness – Cat of the Plains researcher.

  Snipp – Sissness’s ex.

  The Grand Mother – grandmother to Snark, and Head Cat of the City of the Plains Council.

  Prritchet – Grand Mother’s aide.

  Preddle – Snark’s niece, and granddaughter to the Grand Mother.

  Mattersnitch – son to the Grand Mother.

  Petupaws – one of Mattersnitch’s cronies.

  Minssner – Cat of the Plains Detective.

  Fitzharss/Fitzy – Cat of the Plains Commander.

  Sapperscar – Fitzy’s second in command.

  Fitznex – Fitzy’s daughter, Preddle’s friend.

  Pesker – Councillor to the Cat's Council.

  Slippersnapp – Councillor to the Cat's Council

  Smitch – Assassin.

  Wild Ones Cats

  Snettle – Lioness.

  Felderspath – Panther leader.

  Whisseth – Silvers leader.

  Patters – Cheetah warrior.

  Romanovs/Russians

  Anastasia (Anna) Romanova.

  Eddie – Anna’s bodyguard.

  Rema – Anna’s maid.

  Scots

  Cole McLauchlan/Mac – Head of the clans on Scots World.

  Jenny Anderson – Mac’s cousin, and head of the Estate.

  Jamie Anderson – Jenny’s younger brother, and Mac’s cousin.

  Maidie McLauchlan, nee Anderson – Mac’s mother.

  Hunter's Run

  Jane – AI - Leader of Sector Ten Council, and Queen of the Kingdom of Hunter's Run.

  Warspite – Fleet Admiral AI.

  Tranquil – Explorer/Trader AI.

  Sector Eight

  Bhatet – Warlord/Tyrant.

  Major Domo.

  Brotherhood – mystery religious sect.

  Brackett – hippo guard at Bhatet's stronghold.

  Petral Bombass – Brotherhood member on Bhatet ship.

  Grungle – Byways station frog station officer.

  Crocatich – Not-croc wife of Grungle.

  Flumberly – Not-camel Doctor on Byways station.

  Old Hootsmoon – Researcher and Hermit Owl, on Byways station.

  Jerry Patchet – Australian Engineer, Patchet station.

  Mash – ex-friend of Bhatet.

  Brindle – Cats of the Plains, Chef to Bhatet.

  Pitching – Brotherhood member on Byways Station.

  One

  Snark uncurled himself and yawned. A set of sharp yellowish teeth flashed, and his nose curled into a smirk as he surveyed the ships’ Heads Up display.

  It was showing him two ships at the outer range of his sensors. The alarm which had brought him out of his cat nap, was informative rather than urgent, and for a moment he wondered if the HUD alert system needed tweaking. There were always ships ahead, somewhere, and it wasn’t enough to ever interrupt his sleep.

  The colour on one of the two ship icons changed, and the audio alert came on again, now more strident.

  Snark bounced out of his cat bed, and landed in his command chair, correctly aligned to fly the ship. 'Wet Minnow' was a trading ship, and smaller than most given it was designed for cats, but it did have some teeth if needed.

  And it was now looking like it would be needed, as one ship was firing on the other.

  The ship being fired on wasn’t broadcasting a distress signal. In fact, it didn’t appear to be doing anything. It was sitting there, and taking a beating.

  Snark pushed his engines up to full speed. He doubted he'd be able to arrive in time to help, but he certainly was going to try.

  His mind was still full of the momentous events on the owl Homeworld, ending the war between them and the Kingdom of Hunter's Run, and the crowning of Queen Jane formalizing the Kingdom itself in the space once known as the Gauntlet. Even though it was now a few weeks later, and especially since he'd been there for both.

  Seeing the Owls being defeated so decisively was the experience of his apocryphal seven lives.

  And now, well, he was riding on a wave. A wave of trade with the infamous Owls. Who'd have thought he would even contemplate such a thing, and yet here he was with a commitment to trade his favourite, and everyone’s, well his species at least, favourite rodent snack. He even had exclusive rights! He could not believe his luck, which considering he'd thought his luck had finally run out, before being rescued by Queen Jane. He'd ridden his rapidly improving luck on Jane's tail, so to speak, but he certainly wasn’t tel
ling anyone the real version of events.

  In the distance ahead of him, the firing stopped. The one doing the shooting, now closed the distance towards the other, already stopped ship.

  Still too far away to be of any use, Snark let his mind wander again. On the spot he’d been, curled in primary place on the console of the now famous Queen Jane, while she worked her magic combination of power and diplomacy, and only he'd been there when she’d laid it out finally for the Owls. Heaven! Not only just a bystander, but present to reap the rewards of lucrative contracts for all sorts of goods. Not to mention being first in line for the new technology of the humans. His mind wandered as he absent-mindedly licked his butt, and stretched his hind legs for a good clean.

  His often wondered question came to mind yet again. Would this be enough? He pondered the thought, and sighed. Perhaps he could get an audience at last.

  An alarm squawked again. He scanned the HUD, this time seeing one of the ships had been identified.

  A known pirate. That figured. This route wasn’t usually used by freighters for precisely this reason. It was more than usually dangerous, and pirates were to be expected more often than on normal routes.

  Snark cleared his mind, and concentrated on what was going on ahead of him. He watched the pirate dock with the other much larger ship.

  Time passed as he came closer and closer, wishing he had Jane's sensors. She would have been able to tell him exactly what was going on. He knew what pirates did. If the ship could be taken, they took it. If not, they stripped it of anything not bolted down, and destroyed it so no-one else could benefit from it. Neither ship was moving, so they can't have been planning on taking it. Or they'd damaged it too much for it to move again.

  The HUD chimed this time, telling him he was now in range of the new missile launcher Jane had fitted onto his ship as a farewell gift. It was designed for Jane's fighters, and Wet Minnow being about the same size, meant there was very little else his ship could mount. It had a magazine of twenty Fire and Forget missiles, which were smaller and faster than most missiles he was used to seeing, but with more hitting power than the newest local capital ship missiles.

  They were great as a deterrent for would be attackers, but were not too much use as a surgical strike weapon. The forget part was all too true. You fired it in the direction of an enemy, and it went where it felt like it. Snark sighed. He hadn’t intended ever using them, unless in case of great need to escape.

  But he couldn’t just let pirates pillage a ship. He wasn’t that sort of cat.

  Snark painted the pirate as a target. Joined as the two ships were, he risked hitting the wrong one, but it was a risk he had to take.

  He opened a channel to the pirate.

  "This is Cat World Corvette Wet Minnow. Cease your piracy, or you will be fired upon."

  The reply was thirty seconds of pure laughter, and the channel closed.

  "Laugh at me, would you?" snarled Snark to himself.

  He pressed the firing button, and the first of his not easily replaceable missiles launched. In a fraction of the time he'd take to get there, the missile crossed space, and not only hit the pirate side on, but punched through its hull.

  Both ships shuddered from the impact, and began to tumble, still joined together. Long seconds passed before the pirate's engines started up, and the tumble stopped.

  Snark pressed the trigger again, and waited to see where it landed.

  "Bullseye," he yelled, as the missile took the pirate in the engines.

  The effect was immediate. The pirate undocked, and began to move away, although not at the speed Snark would have expected, indicating actual damage.

  The pirate crept away, the unknown ship they'd just left came nearer.

  Snark wondered why the big ship hadn’t sent out a distress signal, until he finally heard one, so weak it must be coming from something other than the ship coms array.

  He opened the channel.

  "Emergency. SOS. Emergency. Life support has failed. We need help. Can anyone hear me?"

  Snark didn’t know what an SOS was, but emergency and life support failure was enough.

  "Wet Minnow to unknown ship. Did the pirate take any of your people?"

  "No. They killed a lot of us though."

  Now he was close enough, Snark could see what looked like bodies floating around the ship.

  "Are you in immediate danger of running out of air?"

  "Not immediate. But soon."

  "Fine. I'll be with you shortly."

  He pulled the ship around to follow the pirate, and retargeted it. He opened a channel to it again.

  "Laugh at me will you? You spat at the wrong cat. Eat this!"

  He closed the channel, and pressed the missile launch button three times. He smirked at the HUD as he watched the dots track to their target. The first punched another hole in the same side as before. The second one hit the underside towards the rear, and the ship slowed some more. But the third one overshot, turned, and punched a hole straight through the bridge front screen. The ship began tumbling out of control, but after only a few seconds, it exploded.

  Snark high fived with his outside hands, and the middle one brought his ship around to return to the big unknown one.

  Snark thought carefully about his next moves. False distress calls were a pirate’s, or Owls’, favourite gambit in taking advantage of a sympathetic response. However, he himself had been rescued by Queen Jane herself, and she was a righteous being indeed. He’d like to think he could live up to her example.

  He scanned the vessel as far as he could. If only he had half of the human technology, he would be a god amongst his people. Well, he was a god to himself at least.

  Get a grip, and keep focussed, he told himself. Plenty of time for accolades later.

  "Unknown vessel, identify yourself!"

  "Seasprite. Private yacht. We're harmless, and we need help."

  The scans indicated no shields, no weapons systems on-line, and no targeting systems active, so it looked safe. But he’d never seen such a ship before. Sleek yet spacious, a large-sized vessel in an off-the-trade-routes part of space. And not just big by his standards, being one of the smaller species in the galaxy, but big even by big species standards. Especially for being a private yacht.

  He smelled fish. Bad fish. The type of fish which really stank, and was actually quite appetising.

  The translator was dealing with the word 'Seasprite'. A type of sea fairy. It made no sense to him at all. The closest he ever got to water was a quick tongue bath, hopefully by some she-cat, rough and sensuous at the same time.

  Get a grip Snark, he told himself again. Maybe he’d been in space too long?

  "Seasprite, stand by."

  Snark had suddenly realised he knew what language the translator was dealing with, one he'd only just loaded into his lexicon. Human. The sounds were unmistakeable, like someone swallowing their dinner at the same time as choking on it. And yes, now he was close enough to see it properly, it did look something like a human ship.

  What? Humans here? The only ones he knew of were the Federation Ambassador and his staff, recently arrived at the Sector Ten Council, and Queen Jane herself, and her people. The blockade due to the poisonous and addictive purple plant, trafficked by the Owls, was still in place in human space.

  So where had this ship come from?

  His right paw reached out with claws half extended. Wait, was this a trick? But who else would know the humans’ language?

  His scanner sounded a warning, but it wasn’t a threat. The Seasprite was losing hull integrity, and yet there seemed no reason for it. Wait, now he could see multiple hull punctures, and a major gash along the hull. Life-support did indeed seem to be compromised.

  What to do? If they were humans, his tiny ship would not be suitable for a rescue. The cargo hold could be made available in a pinch, but he'd have to empty it first.

  He sighed. Much against his nature he was going to give assistance.


  "Seasprite, I am prepared to give assistance, please await docking."

  Not that he thought he could dock with such a large ship. He took his ship around the other one, until a cargo airlock at the front was revealed, which opened slowly, so no need for docking, as he could easily dispatch droids into the empty cargo area. His repair droids had been given data about human ships, in case he came across one in need, although no-one had expected it to happen so soon. They were small, like everything on his ship, but should still be able to seek out and fix a lot of the internal systems problems, especially the lack of life support. However, they were not able to do anything with hull breaches. Seal internal doors yes, but repairing hulls needed a shipyard.

  Strange, he thought. The cargo hold was empty. Surely it would be full of trade goods or supplies? And how had they sustained such damage? It looked like a human ship, since they were the only ones with cargo airlocks at the front of the ship, but human ships were so powerful, so why the damage?

  While Snark hated a problem, he loved a paradox, and was curious to find out what was going on.

  His droids soon got to work. However, it became apparent the damage was too extensive to be fully repaired. The other ship’s air supply was almost depleted in the remaining sealed sections of the ship. He told them so.

  "Thank you for trying," said the same voice as before, "but we are nearly out of air. Can you help?"

  The voice seemed particularly stressed and anxious, and the little fuzzy down Snark had, stood up along his otherwise bare spine. Snark didn’t know what to do. His ship was too small, yet, if he abandoned his cargo, he could convert the hold to a potential living space. But humans were large beings though. He could tow them to the nearest station, but it was far too far away, way too far for the available air. And the humans would soon deplete his reserves, needing so much more of it than he did.

  What to do? His tail swished back and forth. Ears pricked and eyes wide, he considered. In or out?

  "Hello, can you hear me?"

  Snark came back to the moment. Indecision was a hallmark of his species, and certainly a disadvantage in most situations.

  "Seasprite, how many are you, and what is your species?"

  There was a pause.

  "Three of us. Humans."