Jupiter Fleet 1: Werewolves Don't Purr

by JS Rowan

  “Your plan sounds long on hope, short on details,” said Captain O’Neil.

  “I dunno, sir,” said the gunnery. “It’s better than waiting for them to take us one by one and kill us—or worse.”

  The gunny looked at the nearest werewolf. Axel looked back at him calmly, and then looked toward Leona.

  “Heh,” thought Axel wistfully to her, “a werewolf body is strong, but he’s right about that ‘worse’ part. I don’t know if I could ever hold chopsticks in my big werewolf hands again. And typing on a keyboard? Impossible!”

  “Axel says that the werewolf body has its strengths, but I think he’d jump at the chance to be in human form again. Of more interest to you, Captain, should be that your women are likely to be sold as slaves, and your children…” Leona paused and cleared her throat, thinking about the “agricultural feedstock” classification she’d found on the computer.

  Axel put his ears back at that thought. The captain looked thoughtful while he weighed the options.

  “All right, men,” he said, “being as some of you have your families here, I am going against military tradition for the moment. I am going to ask for a vote. Don’t get used to it, it won’t happened again. Please raise your hands—who is for this woman’s crazed plan?”

  A shout went up, and almost all the hands were raised. The marines’ spouses looked on stoically, and the older kids took their cue from their parents.

  “Well, there it is. For better or worse, crazy wins the day,” announced Captain O’Neil.

  “The good thing about crazy is, it’s so…unexpected,” the gunny said.

  The gunnery sergeant got up to shake Leona’s hand, and little Amy went over to Axel the werewolf. She stood looking gravely up at the towering red-furred form, then took her thumb out of her mouth. The girl turned to Leona.

  “Can I pet your wolfy?” she asked.

  Leona smiled warmly at the child. Despite the dead guard wolf outside the cell, the kid could evidently tell from the expression in Axel’s eyes that he was trustworthy.

  “Could you bend down so the cute little girl can pat your head?” Leona thought to Axel.

  “No. And I am not a ‘wolfy,’” replied Axel.

  “Please, Axel, it would go a long way to showing our good intentions toward these people.”

  “No.”

  “Axel,” Leona thought, and gave him a stern look. Her eyes flashed darkly.

  “Oh, all right,” Axel conceded. Then he looked at the other reclaimed werewolf. “If you so much as make a snort—”

  “No, man, I’m cool,” the other werewolf replied.

  Axel lowered himself to the floor and the little girl started happily petting the top of his head. The gunnery sergeant, her father, was alert, but relaxed as it became clear that Axel really was different from the werewolf raiders.

  “If we encounter other werewolves, how do we tell if they are our wolves or enemy wolves?” asked Captain O’Neil. “They could indicate that they are ours, then lead us into a trap, or turn on us.”

  Leona had not considered this. With her growing telepathic communication with the wolves, this wasn’t a problem for her.

  “Does your wolfy purr?” Amy asked. Axel’s left ear was twitching a little as the girl tickled it with her pats.

  In a flash of inspiration, Leona remembered the story of the word shibboleth. The ancient Israelites of the Old Testament had used it as a password. The enemy kingdoms of those times could not say that word. So, anyone who could say shibboleth was a friend. The same would work here! The enemy werewolves could not conceive of purring!

  “Do what the girl asks, and purr,” Leona told Axel.

  “Are you out of your mind? Werewolves don’t purr!”

  “I’m not asking, Axel: start purring.”

  The other reclaimed werewolf was grinning at Axel being told to purr.

  “What are you grinning at? Get down there on one knee like Axel, and start purring.”

  With a sheepish expression, the other werewolf joined Axel in kneeling on one knee.

  “RR-rr, RR-rr,” they chanted softly in unison. Amy chortled, and the child’s laugh eased Leona’s heart in a way she could not have predicted. How long had it been since she had heard childish laughter?

  “There you have it, Captain. If a werewolf tries to get you to follow him, then he will get down on one knee and purr.”

  The marine captain looked at the sight of two purring werewolves and smiled wryly.

  “Well, I guess that will do. I never saw a werewolf purr before.”

  The holding cells on the Masters’ generational ships were set up in a standardized configuration such that the guard wolves lived just outside all the cells, in barracks. The prison (or brig on an oceangoing human ship) was divided into fourteen cell blocks. Inside each block, there were twenty-four werewolves guarding the connecting entryway to the werewolf barracks. There was a massive door to the prison area that could only be opened by a werewolf on the outside of the barracks. Similarly, each cell door could only be opened from the outside of the cell block area. This made the cell blocks escape-proof to most sentient species.

  When Leona arrived at the cells with her group of wolves, the intent was to take the cell block and open the cells. Prior to the cell being opened for Leona, Constable Bhatnagar, one of the COBRA commandos, arrived with a wonderful-smelling floater-cart and a telos showing that his task was to bring it to the cell where Leona was making contact with the humans.

  “Can you believe that this wonderful-smelling food is for those worthless humans?” the constable complained loudly to all the guard wolves, after gaining entry to cell block 15 to 28.

  The leader of the cell block guards sniffed deeply, with appreciation.

  “What? The kibble we eat every day is not good enough for them?”

  “I had to cart this here from halfway across the ship, smelling it all the way—and I cannot have any of it. It is so very unfair!” thought Constable Bhatnagar.

  “That is not right,” thought one of the guard wolves, drooling just a little.

  “I am going to closely inspect this food that you are bringing, in case it contains contraband,” announced the leader.

  He opened the container and took a little of the food. It tasted every bit as good as it smelled. He addressed Constable Bhatnagar.

  “You should try some too, it is very tasty.”

  “My Master would kill me! Unless, of course, you ordered me to, in order to pass inspection…hmm?”

  “Very well. I order you to try some of this very good…mmm,” thought the leader of the guards.

  There is only one sound that will bring a werewolf running faster than another wolf howling in distress, and that is the sound of a wolf moaning while eating really good food. Soon, all but one of the cell block’s guard wolves were feasting on the food “meant” for the humans. None of them noticed that they were getting very sleepy until it was too late to do anything about it. In no time, twenty-three of the wolf guards—and Constable Bhatnagar—were sleeping soundly, with bits of food strewn all over the floor and the wolves.

  Not long after that, Leona’s entourage came in and tied up the sleeping werewolves, putting green collars and thought-helmets on them. The green collars had connectors built into them that allowed for joining several wolves together in one group. Connect enough of them together, and they would not be moving anywhere.

  “Wow, that sleep drug really worked quickly,” thought Barry Santarelli, a reclaimed werewolf, while putting collars on the sleeping wolves.

  “Yeah, Constable Bhatnagar was really lucky to be the one to eat the food with them,” thought Jozef Daszko, another reclaimed werewolf, eyeing the food.

  “Don’t get any ideas! But lunch and a nap does seem like a good idea,” thought Axel Chin, chuckling.

  The twenty-fourth guard wolf, who was not lucky enough to have eaten the food because he was being held captive, was now being “convinced” to open all the cells
in block 15 to 28.

  Fifteen minutes later Joe ran into the cell where Leona was meeting with Captain O’Neil. He paused for moment in mid-step at the sight of the two purring werewolves.

  “Leona, we found him—it’s time to go.”

  Leona entered the cell where she had been led. The smell was incredibly bad. Leona knew from her system search that there were 983 normal werewolves in the cell, plus one Alpha wolf.

  All the werewolves had green collars and thought-helmets on. They were not restrained in any other fashion. Except for the Alpha wolf. He was in the center of the room, and when he stood up, Leona caught her breath in fear and awe. Four thick metal posts affixed to the deck formed a large square around him.

  The Alpha werewolf stood about twenty feet tall, and his biceps seemed two feet thick. He wore a red collar and a huge, thick thought-helmet. Leona knew from the computer records that if he moved past the four posts there would be a large explosion. The Alpha would be dust and most of the wolves in this cell would be dead.

  The 983 werewolves heard Leona enter with her cadre of ten wolves. The prisoner wolves moved out of the way as Leona walked into the square. She took a wand-looking device out of her pocket and walked up to the Alpha.

  He looked at her with eyes that could freeze your soul. She looked back at him without flinching.

  He bent down so she could reach the control area of the helmet. Leona passed the wand over the mechanism and there was a soft click. The Alpha took off the helmet and grinned, his immense fangs glinting.

  “Someone has sent me a tasty snack for lunch!”

  Leona started to flee but discovered she could not move. A quick glance revealed that her escort wolves were in the same predicament. The Alpha bent down so he could look her right in the eyes.

  “That is why they use such a big helmet,” he thought.

  The Alpha stood up and let the helmet drop. It hit the floor with a resounding crash.

  Leona found that she could move again. She wanted desperately to flee. Her knees were shaking, though, so she thought she probably couldn’t run effectively. One of Leona’s escort wolves tried to move out of the square, away from the Alpha. Leona transfixed him with a stare. None of her wolves moved—however, one of them let out an involuntary dog-whine.

  “Now, what is it that you want?”

  The green-collared wolves in the room could not hear what was going on, but they started to take an interest in what was happening with their Alpha. Leona realized that her decision not to flee had just saved her life. Nothing like a bunch of hungry, bored werewolves to ruin your day!

  Leona was glad she wasn’t using her voice to reply. Her mouth was completely dry. She wouldn’t have been able to speak.

  “I came to ask for your help to take over this ship,” she thought privately to the Alpha.

  “I was the Alpha of this ship for seven hundred ship years. I was the Alpha when your species still thought that your puny planet was the center of the universe. Why would I help you?”

  “You were Alpha of this ship until just last year. When the Masters decided you were too strong, they did this to you,” Leona thought.

  “Yes, I was taken captive, not even in open combat, as is our way, but betrayed while I was eating, with a foul poison,” replied the Alpha.

  The Alpha growled, a low basso rumble that made the floor vibrate under her feet.

  “Do you remember anything about your home planet?” asked Leona, looking for some leverage.

  “I remember everything about my home planet. However, I have not thought about it in many years.”

  Leona waited for him to go on. Under the heavy red thought-helmet, he had not been able to talk with anyone for six months. She thought this might give her an opening, to convince him to help the humans.

  “You know, when the Masters create an Alpha, they let him retain his memories. They only pick someone with an extremely playful past, a past that they can use to motivate the Alpha to lead the pack to great battles.”

  “Uh-oh, this is not going the direction that I wanted it to,” thought Leona specifically to Axel. She addressed the Alpha again, rubbing her chin as if thoughtful. “You don’t know it, but the Masters intend to sell you to a planetary system to fight the local wildlife.”

  The Alpha became enraged at this statement. He picked up the massive helmet and flung it toward the back of the chamber at least one hundred yards away. The helmet shattered against the wall in shower of sparks and metal fragments, and some nearby werewolves yelped. The Alpha put forth an ear-splitting roar.

  “DO NOT SPEAK TO ME OF SUCH THINGS! IT IS NOT A WORTHY FATE FOR A WARRIOR!” he thundered.

  The force of his thoughts knocked Leona and her party to the ground. Leona was dazed for a moment. She sat on the floor, wondering why she was sitting there. She looked at the crowd of green-collar wolves working themselves into a frenzy. She thought something was wrong with that, but she couldn’t quite remember what it was.

  The Alpha took her arm and helped her to her feet. He motioned to his werewolves to calm down. They all did somewhat, but still had the look of dogs waiting to be told it was OK to eat a treat.

  The world and situation came rushing back to Leona as she regained her wits. The Alpha waited for her to speak, calming himself.

  “You don’t have to go to that planet. You can help me take this ship,” thought Leona.

  “So, you are the Alpha for the humans, then?”

  “No, well…I guess I am.”

  “Which is it, yes or no?”

  “Yes, I am the Alpha for the humans. I am the only one right now that can communicate with werewolves without the ship’s system helping me.”

  “That is good, then. You have a strength in you that I find most interesting. Of course, I would have killed you where you stood if you weren’t the human Alpha,” he thought to her.

  “Can I count on your help?” she asked.

  “Yes, but I do not work for you, or your planet. When this is done, I will take this ship and leave. Understood?”

  “No. You can have the next ship we take. This one is mine!” thought Leona.

  “Maybe I will kill you, and eat your tasty-looking flesh.”

  “You could, but it’s the forest moon of Endor for you, if you do.”

  The Alpha was confused by this reference, but laughed a deep wolf laugh. “In seven hundred years, I have not met anyone like you. Very well, we will take two ships or die in glorious battle.”

  “Excellent,” replied Leona.

  “And then I will take you as my conversion bitch, and we can make plenty of new wolves,” the Alpha thought.

  Leona gulped. “Sorry, bub, I’m taken by a very handsome wolf already.”

  Leona turned and walked away. She passed the wand for removing the restraints to Axel and left the cell. The last thing she heard from the Alpha was his deep wolf laugh.

  CHAPTER 5

  Rise Up

  November 9, 2038, 8:24 a.m.

  On Board Alien Ship

  After the conversation with the Alpha wolf, Leona found a communication console in the hallway between the cells.

  The fastest-growing plant in the known universe, according to the Masters, was called rach. An interested person could literally watch this plant grow. It could grow almost anywhere, taking nutrients from whatever surface it might be growing on, and even from the air if necessary. When allowed to grow as fast as possible, this plant would consume huge quantities of CO2 in its photosynthesis. Rach was quite bland, but very nutritious. However, its propensity to absorb any kind of nutrient worked well if a sentient wanted to season it. It would be possible to make rach taste like anything—chicken, eggplant, fish. The fastest-growing animal in the universe, as known to the Masters, was the aarach. It was an animal that looked like a cross between a Komodo dragon and a pig. Given enough food, in forty-five days it would go from a half-inch-long hatchling to a full-grown adult capable of breeding. When the female laid her eggs
, she would lay up to five hundred of them at a time. The interesting thing about the aarach was that it would vary in taste according to what it was fed in the month before it was slaughtered. Its name, aarach, meant “eats rach.”

  Their traits made them the most popular plant/animal combination to grow on board a generational spaceship. Both species came from the same planet, where they were locked in an evolutionary war of which could grow the fastest.

  The auto-feeders on board the spaceship dispensed a kibble for the wolves made out of both rach and aarach. It came in twenty-four flavors. Given that werewolves would eat almost anything, rapidly, it was a system that worked.

  “Hey, Leona, what’s happening?” asked Ashley.

  “Oh, I’m at a console in a hallway, just learning some more about the ship and its systems,” she said. “How’s it going with you? Are Gupta and his team almost ready?”

  “I’ve been having a lot of fun monitoring the training Commander Gupta and his guys have been doing with the ‘reclaimable’ wolves.”

  Ashley’s tone made it clear that this “fun” was similar in nature to watching a football practice, right down to the sweat and bruises of the players.

  Leona stood up from the Supe-shaped chair at the console and stretched. She paused for a moment with a distracted look on her face.

  “You know,” she said, “I think we are very fortunate that my Thor and the COBRA team didn’t become tools of the Masters like most of the other werewolves on this ship. When I think of the difference between them—and the Alpha wolf too—and all the rest of the werewolves…” Leona blinked back tears, and cleared her throat. “What I mean is, the regular werewolves are like shock troops, that follow their leader like a mob, a force of nature. Our COBRA guys and Thor and the reclaimed wolves, they’re like human men in Halloween costume.”

  “I doubt the Alpha wolf was ever a human man,” said Ashley, pursing her lips grimly.

  “No, I guess you’re right.” Leona nodded. “He came from some faraway planet—who knows what his original species looked like. But, what I mean is, Thor and the commandos and reclaimed wolves—and the Alpha—are unquestionably people! The regular werewolves that the Supes use as raiders—they have no memory of Earth or any other planet, and will kill whoever they are sent after like a pack of wild dogs.”