Kat Nonet

KAT NONET

Books by Lesley L. Smith

The Kat Cubed Series

Kat Cubed

Neutrino Warning: A Kat Cubed Prequel

Temporal Dreams

Reality Alternatives

Conservation of Luck

The Quantum Cop Series:

Book 1: The Quantum Cop

Book 2: Quantum Murder

Book 3: Quantum Mayhem

The Space Operetta Series

Book 1: A Jack By Any Other Name

Book 2: A Jack In The Dark

Book 3: A Jack For All Seasons

A Discovery of Time and Space

Kat Nonet

By Lesley L. Smith

Quarky Media

Boulder Colorado

Kat Nonet

ISBN: 978-1-950198-80-1 (e-book)

Published by Quarky Media, PO Box 3332, Boulder, CO 80307

www.quarkymedia.com

A New Esperanza © 2017 Lesley L. Smith

The Imperio Strikes Back © 2017 Lesley L. Smith

Return of the Cientifico © 2018 Lesley L. Smith

The Phantom Amenaza © 2018 Lesley L. Smith

Attack of the Soldados © 2019 Lesley L. Smith

Revenge of the Profesor © 2019 Lesley L. Smith

The Fuerza Awakens © 2020 Lesley L. Smith

The Last Diplomatica © 2022 Lesley L. Smith

The Rise of Garcia © 2024 Lesley L. Smith

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Making or distributing electronic copies of this book constitutes copyright infringement and could subject the infringer to criminal and civil liability.

Table of Contents

A New Esperanza

The Imperio Strikes Back

Return of the Cientifico

The Phantom Amenaza

Attack of the Soldados

Revenge of the Profesor

The Fuerza Awakens

The Last Diplomatica

The Rise of Garcia

Message from the Author

Kat Cubed Chapter One

This was the first short story I wrote in the Kat Cubed world. It takes place soon after the events of Kat Cubed, so, I was excited to find out what happened to Kat. Movie fans will notice some similarities to a famous (my favorite) franchise.

A New Esperanza

It turns out being twenty years old and going to high school isn't that great, after all. I thought I wanted to live in a town, but I hated it.

Psst! Kat! my best friend Pablo said. He was sitting next to me in the back of the class. He was also twenty. We were basically arranged by age with the youngest kids in front and us old folks in the back

A few weeks ago, me and my friends and family joined the last vestige of the old U.S.A. in their base under Cheyenne Mountain. Before that we'd been struggling to find food and water and medicine.

Frankly, up until that point, we'd plain been struggling.

I'd always dreamed of going to a real school like I'd read about in novels, but it was not living up to expectations. It was boring. And don't get me started on town meetings, three hundred people sitting around sharing their opinions; they were interminable. But the remnants of the old U.S. military, which ran the place, thought it kept the townspeople calm.

In fact, my initial excitement about having plenty of food and water was morphing into uneasiness. I didn't like it here. Up until recently, I'd scrambled for necessities, but at least I'd been free--able to do what I wanted when I wanted. Suffice it to say, I was pretty grumpy these days.

Pablo held up a folded piece of paper.

He was passing me a note? I had to struggle not to let out a hysterical giggle as I took the note. I'd read about note-passing in those novels. But twenty-year-olds didn't giggle.

I held the note under my desk and unfolded it. It said, 'Let's blow this pop-stand.' The giggle burbled again under the surface. We'd been watching a lot of twentieth-century entertainment shows because that's what they had here. Watching any kind of video was still a novelty.

I turned my attention back to the elderly teacher in the front of the room. She was saying, If x equals three, what's y? and pointing with a trembling finger at the equation on the chalkboard. I already knew algebra. I'd taught it to myself.

I'd had enough. I stood.

The teacher frowned, deepening her many wrinkles. That seemed to be her go-to expression. Miss Garcia, what do you think you're doing?

I'd never met such an old person. On the bright side, it did mean people lived a long time here in the base.

Thank you, ma'am. I forced a smile. Thank you for the knowledge, but Pablo and I have something else important to do. I picked up my backpack.

She just frowned some more as Pablo stood, flung his backpack over his shoulder, and joined me. The two of us walked out the door.

Outside in the hall, he said, Yay. I'm ready for something important. What is it?

I grinned a little, hiking my own backpack onto my shoulder. You tell me.

In my ear, the link to my secret AI computer, Pandora, said, I advise against this, Kat.

I ignored her.

Pablo snickered. Let's go find Josh. Josh was a recent addition to our underground town. Truth be told, I think both of us were crushing on him a little.

Pandora said, Control center.

I think he's in the high-tech control center, I said. Josh was an expert in computers. He said he'd squatted in the basement of a big twenty-first-century tech company for a lot of his childhood.

In the control center, things were quiet. Josh was the only one there. He sat in front of a bank of monitors. Behind him, banks of computers flashed led lights.

Hola, Pablo said.

Hey, Josh said. What, did school get out early? He grinned. It was infectious.

No, I said, not being able to help grinning back. We were bored. I plopped down in a chair next to him, trying to stay cool, trying not to stare at his big expressive gray eyes.

Also grinning, Pablo looked around the room. Where is everybody? A couple of the guys from the Council were usually in the control center.

They had a meeting or something. Josh shrugged. You wanna watch a video? He patted the console. I've got access to hundreds of them. He paused. Actually, there's something even better: video games. Do you wanna try them?

It sounded stupid to me.

What kind of games? Pablo asked. Like playing cards on the computer? Why? Cards were the go-to game of our childhood; they were easy to transport when you had to run away.

No, Josh said. Video games are awesome. They're all about fighting and shooting and blowing things up.

That did sound fun, but we were in the one-and-only monitoring center of the whole base. And we were unsupervised. Let's spy on people.

Pablo gave me a long look. I would like to know where all the cameras are.

I pointed at him. Yes. I smiled. So, we know where we should behave ourselves. In the past, my group had been involved in some mayhem. I'd killed people, but I hadn't enjoyed it. I wanted those days to be behind me. I wanted to be civilized.

Josh shrugged and flicked through a bunch of camera views of mostly-empty hallways, a few meeting rooms, and the large Town Center which was filled with people. Town Center was a large cavern with full-spectrum lighting which enabled plants to grow. For a group of people reduced to staying inside during the day, green living plants were almost magical.

Pause there, I said, staring at the greenery.

Pablo whistled. I don't even remember the last time I saw so many green plants. Outside most plants were dead because of the heat and drought.

Josh glanced at his watch. Huh…

What? Pablo said, watching Josh's every move. I hoped I wasn't that obvious.

I'm surprised the deputies aren't back yet, Josh said. Usually, they don't leave me alone in here so long.

I wonder what they're doing? Pablo said.

It is a bit odd, I said. The military types around here tried to keep an eagle-eye on everything.

Actually... Josh stopped, biting his lip in an adorable way. We might be able to watch them.

"What does your, ah, special amiga, think?" Pablo asked me quietly. He knew about Pandora, but so far, Josh didn't.

I would like to know what they're up to, Pandora said. Part of the network here is ancient and impregnable. Military. I haven't cracked it yet.

That was a surprise. Or maybe not, since the equipment was so old. And she was so modern.

Let's look, I said.

Pablo pulled his chair closer to Josh.