Laughter burst out from the table and those still seated rolled onto the floor and cackled. The little dog stomped his feet and howled in frustration. “Come on! All you guys had to do was stay quiet. That’s it!”
Denali realized she’d been had. A grin spread across her face.
“C’mon in, Denny Forge,” Kane mumbled through a mouthful of meat. “That titan of comedy is Kell.”
Kell gave Denali a wink and jumped up onto a large round cushion. He nudged a dirty brown stuffed bear and tucked it into place. “Hey! It means I’m not the rat anymore!”
Denali walked closer, but still kept her distance. It was a new pack, a new structure, a new place. She couldn’t just barge in and sit down.
“Come, come!” Kane said. He stood and stretched his plump legs. His implant sockets were almost hidden beneath shaggy brown fur. He looked well fed, and ate like he was still hungry. “I’m Kane Sunset, demolitions.”
Denali came closer and stood at the edge of the table. The caribou tickled her nose and her stomach rumbled.
Kane plopped back down and nudged a female with short wavy brown hair. “This here is the most bullheaded brawler you ever did meet. Say hi, Wiss.”
“Hi, Wiss,” she said through a mouth of meat. Her soft brown eyes smiled at Denali.
“And that upstanding gentleman is Til, he’s our integrated systems expert.”
“Heyo!” Til said. He was jet black with pointy triangular ears. Long wispy fur hung from his chest and stomach. “I get into things that Kane can’t blow up.”
“No such thing!” Kane bellowed.
Denali glanced at a white haired dog, thick in the face, that looked down at the table and ate quietly. Her fur was cut and pocked with scars. One of her rear legs was an implant, and her tail was mostly gone. She looked sober and somber.
Kane saw the look. “That snow tinted beauty is Belle D’Lisle, our sniper.” He leaned close to Denali and whispered, “You can call her your guardian angel.”
“Sniper? But the shields?” Denali knew almost all combatants wore energy shields and that rendered projectiles useless.
Belle looked up shyly from the table. “It’s not a kinetic, I use a shoulder mounted fusion lance.”
“Like the starships use, but smaller,” Kane added.
“It torches things,” Belle said.
“Things, aliens, naughty dogs, poker players, even the occasional mech,” Kane rattled.
“Oh, Kane,” Belle said and turned away with a bashful smile on her face.
“You met Garlan, our drone expert,” Kane sighed. “He’s not a bad dog, just well, he tends to judge people.”
“Yes. Yes I do,” Garlan growled from behind a curtain.
Kane whispered to Denali, “His world was once a free planet, and Caesar dropped dogs from Forge, Hades, Styx, and Frost to pacify the population.”
Denali glanced at the curtain and then back to Kane. A free world? She’d never thought of anything beyond Forge, or even the starship. But to know there was an alternative...
She could picture what dogs like Samus or Munin would do to other dogs if ordered to kill. Terror. She shuddered at the thought. A part of her felt ashamed that she’d be lumped together with others like that.
“And now you, my dear Denny Forge, are the new rat.” Kane settled himself in and sprawled his legs under the table.
“Rat?”
“Rat,” Kell barked back. “I’ll train ya right, darling. Have no fear.”
“Kell made an exceptional rat.”
Denali wasn’t sure whether to smile or scowl. She had no idea what a rat was.
“Best rat I’ve ever seen,” Til said. “I bet he’ll get fat now. Fat and slow.”
“Hey!” Kell barked back.
“Big shoes to fill,” Wiss added with a laugh. “Big shoes, little dogs, get it?”
Kane blinked at her and shook his head.
“What’s a rat?” Denali asked.
“Tunnel rat,” Kane said. He snapped up another strip of meat. “Now,” he said while he chewed, “sometimes we need to know what’s inside and I can’t blow it up, Garlan can’t send in a drone, Belle can’t shoot it, Wiss can’t beat it, and Til can’t hack it. So you go in.”
“What do I do when I go in?” Denali asked. Her stomach tightened.
Kane tore another chunk. “Whatever it takes.”
“Who the hell is in my room?” a gruff voice said.
Denali snapped her visor shut, spun around, and clacked her paws together. Whoever spoke, spoke with authority.
A brown and black bodied dog stood with her chin held high. Her ears were pointed up, alert, and pointing right at Denali. Her fur was short, crisp, and flowed down her body in a mix of brown and black. She stepped in closer and studied Denali’s suit. “Ursa citation,” she said to herself.
Denali blinked hard. Her heart raced, a tightness gripped her body, and every implant point burned. Memories emerged that Denali had pushed away. Memories of the implants. Before her was the dog who locked her into the implant cage.
She focused her eyes on the dog’s face and saw the gray around the nose. Tremors shook her and she was thankful that the suit hid it.
“What’s your name?”
Denali tried to speak but barely managed to croak, “Denny.”
“Denny what?” the dog snapped back.
“Denny Forge.”
The dog raised its head up and narrowed its eyes.
Kane cleared his throat. “Denny, this is—”
“Captain Maya.”
Kane finished, “Lead of the 19th Recon group.”
Maya walked up to Denali and looked down at the armored faceplate. “Unsuit and come into my office.”
“Over there,” Kane said, and pointed to an array of robotic arms.
Denali ran across the room and stepped onto the X beneath the waiting arms of the deconstructor. Captain Maya left the room and the door closed behind her.
The robots plucked away the armored panels and gently laid them into a holding rack. Denali felt the cool air against her fur and closed her eyes while the robots finished. She tried to compose herself, the armor offered her more than just physical protection, but emotional as well.
The moment the robots finished Denali darted towards the closed door. She knocked her metallic leg against the door and waited.
“Enter.”
Denali pushed the door open.
A crystal glass window occupied the rear wall, a dull light glowed through the frosted glass. The room felt close, not quite tight, but cozy. Red cloth drooped from the ceiling, steel piping poked through in the gaps. Captain Maya sat on a round rug at the edge of a low slate table.
Denali loped in and stood on the edge of the rug. She locked her eyes straight ahead and focused them into nothing. “Denny Forge reporting as ordered!”
Maya tapped her console and looked up at Denali. The door closed with a hiss. The ventilation system hummed gently.
“Denali,” Maya said slowly, forming each syllable. “Denali.”
Denali’s heart pounded. She had a sudden urge to hang her tongue out and pant. The room was warm, too warm, and the terrible violence of the implant procedure was so close in her mind.
“I’m sorry,” Maya said.
Denali’s knees nearly collapsed. She stared at Captain Maya. Her heart rate slowed down to a more regular pace.
“Sit.” Maya nodded to the rug.
“Yes, ma’am,” Denali mumbled. She sat and felt numb.
Maya took a deep breath and blew it out through her nose. “Forge is a brutal planet. The implant equipment was designed with dogs in the same genetic pattern. You are not in that same genetic pool.”
Denali’s eyes darted back and forth. The tales of her birth, or arrival, came back to her. Was it true then? She really did come from the stars.
Maya looked down and couldn’t meet Denali’s gaze. “You’re smaller, the scans showed a Flavian gene pattern. I had to go forw
ard with the operation, otherwise the engineers would have biomassed your body.”
She looked down to the carpeted floor. Flavian, she kept hearing the name. Something was familiar about it.
“Two years ago there was a human incursion.”
What? What?
Maya sighed deeply and rested her head against the wall. “Mistakes were made.”
Denali’s heart fluttered. She couldn’t speak or even move. Cicero clamored up and demanded more.
Who? Who!
“Mistakes were made.” Maya spoke again, faster, “Men came, and a fleet of starships led by one named Everest. But,” she looked away. “Caesar was too strong.”
Everest. Dead? Ask her! Ask her! Damn you, ask her!
“Did Everest die?”
Maya looked at Denali. “No, Everest was heavily damaged. They tried to capture a ship called Flavius. They boarded with men, a legion of dogs, and would have won. They even took control of the ship. The dogs of Flavius wouldn’t fight men, couldn’t.”
What happened? Cicero was bubbling up with excitement.
“What happened?”
“Caesar launched robots to repel the boarders and when they failed, he fired on Flavius.” Maya looked away and swallowed hard. “The starship burned on impact and was shattered across Forge.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Denali asked. Something stirred in her heart.
“I was one of the last to escape from Flavius before it burned. I prayed to find a survivor, anyone. I always hoped to find a survivor, any survivor. So many mistakes were made that day.”
Captain Maya looked away. Neither of the dogs looked at each other. Denali stared at the floor and didn’t know what it all meant.
“I was born on Flavius?”
“Yes.”
Denali’s eyes welled with tears.
“Denali.” Maya leaned close. “I know your father.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lineage
“My father,” Denali mouthed silently. “Who is he?” Her tail thumped heavily on the floor.
“His name is Martin.”
“When can I see him? Is he here?”
Captain Maya shook her head. “You can’t.”
“I need to see him, what is he like? My mother? Who is my mother? Where is she?”
“He serves Caesar now. I didn’t know him well. Those who did...are dead.”
“Dead?”
Captain Maya looked away. “Your father was horribly wounded trying to rescue your mother in the assault on Flavius. We were ordered out, but he wouldn’t leave, not without...” The words drifted away. Captain Maya took a breath.
“Then Caesar fired on Flavius and we were caught, we just barely made it out. He wouldn’t leave, even almost dead. Now, now, he’s something different, I don’t think much remains of his mind.”
Denali numbed and her ears burned. Something different, the words hung in her mind. “My mother?”
“Her name was Freya. She was a diplomat that wanted to stand with the men, to give dogs their freedom. Men came in, Flavius tried to negotiate a peace, but it failed. We could have done it.” Captain Maya shook her head. Her eyes were dark and bitter.
Captain Maya continued: “We could have done it, Caesar would have come to their terms, I know he would have. Instead they seized the ship, killed Flavius, and tried to escape. Your father didn’t agree with the path, he, well, he always served Caesar.”
Denali saw her father in her mind and whimpered. “What happens now?”
“We serve Caesar and protect our families, our kind.”
“I must find him,” Denali said. “He has to know I’m alive.”
Captain Maya shook her head. “You will serve and do your duty. You are protecting the worlds where dogs live and by holding this flank protecting mankind as well. We are a buffer on his flank, we still serve men.” Maya relaxed and tucked her tail against her legs. “We serve Caesar because he serves us. One day we will have our freedom.”
“What of men?”
“There is something in us, something deep, ancient, written in our genetic code that we serve men, we can’t fight them.” Maya cocked her head. “Caesar can’t invade the realms of man. Instead we live on the borders. He can defend himself, but something in his core doesn’t allow him to invade.”
Such is true, Cicero said in her mind.
“The alien soldiers.” Denali remembered them on the edge of the starship.
Maya nodded. “We handle the aliens on the borders, other aliens handle the men who invade our space. We’re stuck between the human nations on one flank, and countless aliens on others. If we don’t fight and hold, then we’ll be overrun.”
Denali felt confused and relieved. Questions became answers, but those answers brought her to even more confused places. What purpose her life had was again adrift in a sea of uncertainty. She could never fight for Caesar, not knowing that he fired on her mother, so instead she would fight for her comrades and to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.
“Your name.” Maya said slowly. “Is the name of the starship that almost destroyed Caesar in that assault. Denali came with Everest and sent the humans across to negotiate, they were the ones who seized Flavius.”
I told you I knew a Denali, Cicero spoke smugly in her head.
Almost destroyed Caesar. Denali ran it through her mind. Someday, I’ll finish that job.
“Speak of this no more. It is the past, and it’s better not to dwell on such things. The only reason I spoke, is I was there, you had to know.”
Denali nodded. Her mind roamed and she dreamed of her father, her mother, and a starship named Denali.
“When you leave you will find Kell, he’s to train you.”
“To be a rat?”
“To be a rat.”
Denali stood on shaky legs. She looked up at Captain Maya. “Why did you tell me this? Why find me?”
Maya looked away and spoke in barely a whisper. “I should have stood with those who fell.” She drifted her eyes onto the wall and then at Denali. “Dismissed.”
A thin light blurred the floor beneath the closed curtain. Denali stared at it and wished she could sleep. She closed her eyes again and thought of her father and mother. The emotions boiled inside of her.
What were they like? Did her father even know she still lived? With every question came desperation, and the realization that she might never know. Was he so changed? What made her mother risk so much? Freedom? She didn’t even know what it really was.
My life is here, she thought. How could I ever escape? Where would I go?
There are other places in this universe.
“Shut up,” Denali muttered. She didn’t feel like listening to Cicero prattle on about things she’d never see.
If you could escape, would you?
Denali closed her eyes again. Could she?
Pictures of other places flowed through her mind. Planets she’d seen pictures of, vidrolls of firefights and invasions. Forge. The planet she was raised on. All she knew was violence, it was as much a part of her as was her own fur.
“Yes,” She said it to herself and knew it to be true. For now the dogs around her were her family, her duty, but if she had a chance...
Claws clacked outside of the niche. Chewing sounds and a loud sigh disturbed the silence of the room. A fart broke the moment and the claws clacked away.
Denali closed her eyes and slept, dreaming of a father she never knew.
“I have to go in there?” Denali asked.
She hunched down and stared into the ventilation shaft. It burrowed into darkness with dust and cobwebs drifting in the wind.
“Yup,” Kell snorted.
Smells wafted out, a mix of dog, rust, dust, and a tint of feces.
“Ugh, where does it go?”
Kell cocked his head to the side. “Well, it wouldn’t be much fun if I told you.”
He laid down next to the tunnel and scratched his paws in front of hi
m. His back legs sprawled out like a jumping frog. “When it’s tight you go in like this,” he rolled a bit and tucked his legs, “now you grab with your front and pull, kick with your back.”
“What if I run into something?”
Kell stood and stretched. “You always run into things.”
“How do you fight?”
“You get a set of monofilament blades and a fusion lance. The mono is mounted on your paws, and the lance on your shoulder.” Kell shivered. His eyes lost focus then snapped back. “They work.”
Denali stared at Kell.
“I’m fine, really,” he said.
“Is it that bad?”
“Sometimes it’s nice and quiet. You could almost take a nap. Other times, well...” he drifted again. “It gets tight.”
A brute of a dog trundled past with a heavy wheeled cart. He glanced at the pair and wrinkled his stubby coal black nose.
“What you looking at, eh?” Kell snapped. “You big ugly son of a turd.”
The cart slammed onto the ground. A low rumble rose. The black dog locked his teeth onto the leather strap and tore it off.
“What are you doing?” Denali asked Kell.
“Fat and stupid. You from Hades, big boy? Ya smell like sulfur.” Kell stood with his shoulders braced and his head held high, a head that wouldn’t even reach the knees of the black dog. “Fat! Slow!”
“I’m gonna—”
Denali backed up into the wall. “Kell?”
“She thinks you’re ugly, too,” Kell snarled.
The black dog stomped. Spit flew off his face.
Kell spun around, his legs a blur, and disappeared into the tunnel with a mischievous yip.
“You,” the dog roared, and charged at Denali.
Denali dropped onto the ground and crawled into the tight space. Kell’s bottom wiggled in the darkness ahead and Denali followed after. Her heart pounded and she turned to see the maw of the dog snarling and barking at her. She grinned to herself, “Fat and stupid!”
The black dog roared in anger.
Kell laughed. “See! Now remember that. Lesson number one: always go where the enemy can’t.”
Denali grinned and pushed forward.
The tunnel scraped her back and at every junction a bit of hair tore loose. She gritted her teeth and winced anytime a seam came into view. The smells rolled over her and she tried to discern where exactly they were. The smell of feces hit her and then faded away.
DogForge Page 17
