Star Kitten by Purple Hazel Page A

his mind. Had he
considered everything? Every potential challenge?
    Lying next to him as always when he sat down
on the bed was his companion, Perry. They’d been together for a
decade now; and Perry had always been his right hand man, his
confidant, and his partner. Perry was not just Hicks’s bedmate
either, Perry was in actuality a really smart Earth man who could
devise amazing solutions to both technological and physical
challenges. Hicks was the warrior-leader type who had that rare
ability to be able to see inside men's hearts and motivate them.
Perry, by way of comparison, was the type who could help such a
strong man with those abilities come up with a viable plan to
succeed. Always the man behind the man. Always the man behind the
scenes, Perry was. But now Perry's brilliance was under the
spotlight, and Hicks was thrilled to let his lover's star
continually shine bright.
    "What am I not thinking of 'P'?" asked Hicks
with a snarling sigh. His throat had been badly damaged in a fight
many years earlier, by a Pumalar's dagger, and never healed all the
way back to normal. His neck still bore the terrible scar. Hicks
said, "This ramp... it's insane. The Romans built one at Masada,
just like we’re doing. Lucius had about 10,000 men working on it,
just like we do—give or take a thousand. And like us, those tough
bastards built a ramp out of soil and bedrock—in the middle of the
god dammed desert!” Hicks reclined onto the mattress next to Perry,
and continued, “Theirs was 375 feet high too I think I read once….
Did you know that?” Perry nodded with a grin. He had heard Hicks
tell the story before several times.
    Perry rolled up on one side of his body so
that Hicks could lie down next to him comfortably. Hicks gave out a
long sigh and continued in a low mumble, “… they did all that just
to assault 900 rebels in a damned fort. Crazy. But they did
it—somehow—those stubborn Romans.” Hicks pulled in a really long
breath of air, then sighed it back out, “And I guess so can we...
but I just don't know, 'P'. So many things could go wrong… at the
top, I mean… you know?"
    Perry snuggled up to his companion and
caressed his chest to calm him a bit. Perry knew very well that if
they tried a frontal attack they only had a thousand captured EIC's
to use in the assault; and half of them were nearly out of
ammunition. Otherwise, they’d be using spears and javelins against
space age weaponry. He knew they’d be going up against a very
likely well-fortified barricade inside that mess hall, once they
broke through, and that they’d be facing a hellish barrage of
weapons fire once they tried assaulting the breach. But yet Perry
wasn’t worried in the least. Not even a bit, really.
    However… General Hicks was quite worried!
“So let’s go over this again, ‘P’,” growled the General. “What
REALLY happens when we get near the top?” Perry gave a big sigh and
continued caressing his lover’s shaved and tattooed chest. Perry
said soothingly, “Hickey, just get some sleep. Tomorrow I’ll show
you exactly what I have in mind. I promise…. But for now you need
to sleep.” And Hicks knew Perry was right. He just needed to put
everything on ice for a little while, and breathe in the better
oxygen inside the converted warehouse. His head needed to stop
pounding too; and his body needed rest.
    Gradually Hicks drifted off to sleep,
despite the cacophony of noise going on outside on the ramp
construction. Four hours of sleep. That’s what he kept telling
himself. That’s all he needed. Just sleep four hours and try not to
think…. Come out swinging the next day. Tomorrow was going to be a
really big day once again, Hicks knew, and people would be counting
on him. Let Perry handle the details. He probably had it all worked
out anyway. He always did in the past after all.
    Once again, Hicks was quite correct, because
Perry had it all figured out in his mind. In the final phase of the
ramp construction,