by JS Rowan
The station’s white-furred Alpha wolf was there with her, making sure his wolves behaved themselves. However, Ashley was happy that there were also two wolves she knew plus a dozen human fighters keeping her company.
With the help of some of her human companions, she had removed the collars off about fifty wolves. The procedure required a dainty maneuver with a nonconducting work glove that was beyond the skill of a werewolf’s paw-like hands.
The next wolf eyed Ashley with a cunning grin. “There’s a tasty treat, and she’s coming toward me. I can get out of this collar and have lunch at the same time.”
Ashley turned to her assistants and gave a thumbs-down. The other humans went on alert, touching their weapons reflexively.
“Give this wolf a miss. I don’t like what he is thinking,” she said in a flat tone.
The wolf had a surprised look on his face, so Ashley addressed him directly.
“Not too bright, are you? I couldn’t do this job if I wasn’t telepathic.”
The werewolf was rising up from the bench to confront Ashley. Captain O’Neil knocked him down by hitting the wolf on the back of the head with his rifle butt.
“Relax, dumbass, you’ll live longer that way,” said O’Neil.
The werewolf spun around and was about to attack O’Neil with fang and claw, when O’Neil put his rifle right up to the wolf’s face.
“I said, relax!”
“O’Neil, he doesn’t understand you,” said Ashley.
“I think he understands the pointy end of a rifle just fine.”
The station’s Alpha walked up behind O’Neil. The immense white-furred Alpha wolf (even taller than Admiral!) picked him up with one paw. The aggressive station wolf started to stand up and the Alpha punted him about forty feet. The wolf hit the ground and tried to rise up, but then collapsed, unconscious.
The Alpha lifted O’Neil up so that he was eye to eye with the blond human. The station’s Alpha was a powerful telepath, and he was in physical contact with O’Neil, so he was able to telepathically talk directly to the human officer.
“I discipline the wolves on the station, not some human,” the Alpha wolf’s thoughts boomed.
“Put me down, Frosty, or we’re going to have a problem.”
“How could you give me a problem?”
O’Neil did not say anything—he just looked at the big wolf’s chest. The white-furred Alpha wolf looked down at his chest and realized that somehow the human had planted a rather large explosive on him.
“I like you, human. I think we’re friends now. What is this name, Frosty, that you have called me?”
“Um, Frosty is a snowman, and I called you that because you are all white.”
“This snowman, is he someone of renown on your planet?”
“Well, they do sing songs about him.”
“I will consider that for my name. Admiral says that all the wolves must choose a name for themselves. Now that we are free from the Masters, we are not to be known by just our designations anymore.”
With that, the station’s Alpha wolf put down O’Neil, removed the explosive and handed it back to the human, and walked away.
“You’d better hope he doesn’t choose that for a name,” laughed Ashley. “When he finds out about the ‘Frosty the Snowman’ song, you will be so screwed! And another thing, what are you doing here? Didn’t I leave you on board the Space Dog?”
“When I heard you were being called over to this ship, I hopped on the shuttle coming here. I wanted to keep an eye on your back.”
O’Neil gave Ashley a quick full body scan, but not quickly enough. She saw him do it and her hand involuntarily brushed her blonde hair back a little.
“Is that all you’re keeping an eye on?”
“Yes, ma’am, I am an officer and a gentleman,” he said.
Ashley just gave a pained groan in response, but she was repressing a smile and it made her dimples show.
“However…I didn’t know this could be a one-way trip. Still, I’m glad I’m here.”
“What about your rifle company, shouldn’t you be with them?”
“They’re in good hands with Gunny. Also, did you miss the part where I didn’t expect this to be permanent?”
“I hope you won’t get in trouble.”
“With whom? Last anyone on Earth heard, my whole unit was abducted by aliens. It’s not like they’re gonna mark me AWOL. Or whatever you Canadians call it,” said O’Neil.
“I’m not a military person, but yeah, I doubt being abducted by aliens was ever in the rule book. Well, I’m glad you made the trip, you know, to watch my back. Or, whatever, you know.”
Ashley stood there, desperately wishing she was not glowing red, and that she was not telepathically hearing how cute O’Neil thought she was because of her blushing.
Leona was on the Command Deck of the Space Dog, when Commander Gupta walked onto it.
“May I have a moment of your time, Captain?”
“What did you just call me?” said Leona.
“Do you not like the title of captain? Perhaps you would prefer that I call you Ship Master instead?”
“No, ewww! Not that! I meant, why would you call me Captain—or Ship Master, for that matter?”
“Did you not make an arrangement with Admiral the Alpha wolf that this was going to be your ship? Before that, did you not get the human troops to follow you and capture the ship? And at the very beginning, did you not get my support to follow in that crazy effort to seize our lives and freedom? If all these people are following you and this is now your ship, you must realize that you are the captain, otherwise called Ship Master.”
Leona hadn’t thought of it that way before. She had just been solving one problem at a time, keen to get back to Earth (and stay alive!), and she had needed the help of captive wolves and humans to take over the ship.
She had told the Alpha wolf that this was going to be her ship. And she had said that she was the Alpha of her people, so it made sense that she was now Captain. Had she dared any less, none of them would be free, and she personally, and all her family, would have been rach fertilizer.
“If I’m going to be a captain, I’m going to need a good second-in-command. I need an Alpha for all the wolves, and someone who can lead the humans. I think that should be you, Commander Gupta.”
“I am honored to accept the post. I certainly cannot go home to India in my present form. We do, however, also need a leader for the human fighters that I can talk to directly. I recommend that we ask the gunnery sergeant to fill that post.”
“That is a good idea. I was going to ask Captain O’Neil. However, Ashley has sent a transmission saying that he is accidentally stranded on the Victory. She also said that Thor is in the Med Bay, again. I really don’t think he’s getting the hang of being a werewolf.”
“Very well, we can ask him now if he will accept the post, because the gunnery sergeant is waiting to talk with you.”
“Very well, send him in,” said Leona.
The marine gunnery sergeant looked a little nervous as he walked up to Leona. She wondered what could make an experienced military man so nervous. The gunny came to a parade rest position in front of Leona.
“Captain, our unit and dependents wish to stay on board the ship when we get back to Earth.”
“Really? What about your little girl?”
“She doesn’t want to go back to Earth either, and I met a woman named Caroline who wants to stay on the ship as a teacher. In fact, we would like you to perform a marriage ceremony for us.”
“Wow! I would be honored. How long have you known her?”
“For the past three months that we have been aboard this ship. Before, in the prison cells, all we could talk about was what we could do if we returned to Earth. Now all we want to do is stay on board the ship and fight to save humanity.”
“OK, Gunnery Sergeant, I will approve that. You played a significant role in recapturing the ship, and I would like you to play
a significant role in running it, if that’s OK with you.”
“I would like nothing more, Captain,” said the gunny.
“Then I’m asking you to be in charge of all the human fighters on the ship.”
“I can do that. I would like to suggest that we make maximum use of the sword-master, Isamu. At the very least the wolves should be armed and trained with his swords.”
“Everyone should! Good idea, talk with him about that.”
“I think we need to call all the humans and wolves together, and talk about what is going to happen when we return to Earth,” thought Commander Gupta.
Leona relayed the commander’s remark to Gunny. “Do we have any place on the Space Dog large enough that we can do that?” she asked.
“Yes, Ashley told me that Deck Forty-seven is the Arena, and is meant for watching sporting events and hosting social mixers between the generation ships. Some of the werewolves have picked up the game from Earth called Frisbee football. It was quite popular with the Supes as a sporting event. However, they did not consider it a good match unless at least one werewolf died. That was a bit hard on the wolves.”
Leona went to the ship’s computer and saw that Deck Forty-seven was almost one hundred feet tall and that the grandstands stretched the half-kilometer distance from one bulkhead to the other. It could seat a one-hundred-twenty-thousand-person audience.
“That Arena on Deck Forty-seven is pretty impressive,” she said, in a way that included Gunny as well as Gupta. “I never would’ve guessed that the Supes had that much interest in sporting events. We could host the Super Bowl there. OK, let’s call everyone together.”
Leona walked onto the field of the Arena three hours later. The entire ship was gathered in the lower stands, except for the engineering and Command Deck crews, and they were watching through the ship’s communication system.
Leona did not need a microphone. She had set up the ship’s comm system to translate her thought patterns. She broadcast thoughts to those people that were telepathic at the same time that the system broadcast audibly in English. She hoped those people who weren’t telepathic or didn’t speak English could pick up her words from someone nearby.
“Thank you, everyone, for coming. Two weeks from now, we will be returning to Earth, a place many of you never expected to see again. However, this fight with the alien raiders is just beginning. We have now captured two of their main ships and a space station in orbit around Jupiter.”
A tremendous cheer went up from the crowd. Leona had to wait almost two minutes for the crowd to settle down so she could continue speaking.
“In order to carry on this fight, we will need people who are willing to live, work, and if necessary die in space. This new fleet that we have started will not belong to any Earth country, or even to the people of Earth itself.”
Leona could sense that the mood of the crowd was approving—even the werewolves had their ears pricked forward.
“We are going to encourage the Earth governments to build their own ships. We will sell them the technology they need to do so, but I’m not counting on the governments of the Earth to support us militarily. So I’m asking for volunteers from the people that were captured and brought aboard this vessel to form part of our new space fleet.”
Another cheer came from the crowd, though it was not as loud as the previous one.
“The alien raiders’ practice of converting captives to werewolves will be discontinued—except for volunteers. There are some benefits to being a werewolf, such as an extremely long life span, and very fast healing. My mother, Mary O’Brien, has volunteered to be the first female that we know of to be converted to a wolf.”
Some enthusiastic yips were heard from the werewolf seats.
“Anyone who does not wish to remain on board the ship will be returned to Earth soon after our arrival there. Please remember that we here on the good ship Space Dog need not only combat troops, but also doctors, engineers, computer technicians, and anyone else with a skill that would be helpful—even child-care workers.”
A low murmur arose from the human seats.
“You can go to any comm terminal and give us your information if you wish to stay and help. Also, with the technology we have to sell, I think the pay will be quite good. That is all.”
Leona walked off the field with a standing ovation from the humans and encouraging howls from the wolves.
Leona put the Arena to use again within a few days, for the wedding of Gunnery Sergeant Ray Masters and Caroline Salazar. The whole rifle company (except for Captain O’Neil) attended—including all the spouses and children. Commander Gupta “gave the bride away” and the bride and groom put on rings found for them in the ship’s inventory by Rebecca Murray, Ashley’s sister.
Leona had studied the classic Christian marriage ceremony, and managed to perform the rite without stumbling over the words. When everyone left to have a celebration on Deck Four, Leona smiled and returned to the Command Deck. She gave Gunny a two-day honeymoon, and he returned afterward looking tired, but happy.
It had been thirteen days since the Jupiter Station victory. Ashley had just checked on Thor in the Med Bay. He was recuperating well and would be released tomorrow. It was amazing to her that he could have a hole through his leg the size of a softball and after two weeks in the Med Bay it was fixed. She had looked up the process on the Victory’s computer and discovered that the bone growth compound was the same one used in the werewolf conversion process.
Ashley smiled when she remembered how Thor had looked. His fur had grown in with different colors for each injury. He was becoming a calico werewolf. Very stylish.
She was walking near the entrance to the Command Deck. It was late in the Victory’s daytime/nighttime schedule—about 2:00 a.m. Why Admiral had requested a meeting at this time she had no idea. Suddenly she heard a noise behind her. Ashley whirled around, but nothing was there.
“Get a grip on yourself, Ashley, you’ll be telling yourself ghost stories next,” she said.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. So Ashley stopped and looked carefully around the deck. Even though she felt silly taking the precaution, she used her telepathy to sense any thoughts from people or wolves hiding near her.
Then she felt it—a thought pattern, of a kind that she had felt before. It was a pattern that a wolf had when it was being controlled by a Master. A cold shiver ran down her spine as she tried to locate the wolf.
There! She perceived it. Ashley looked toward the Command Deck door, and about fifteen feet from it, a wolf was being hidden in a recess.
When the werewolf realized that it was no longer being shielded from Ashley’s sight, it started to advance on her. She knew that she could not withstand even a single strike from the werewolf’s fangs or claws. She looked around for help but none was visible.
Arjun, where are you when I need you? she thought.
The wolf was sixty feet away when it broke into a full charge. Ashley knew there was no point in trying to flee. Instead, she stood her ground and fired a mind-blast at the charging wolf. She had been trying to learn how to do that, with limited success. It worked for a moment; the wolf sat down looking confused.
Ashley reached out to the wolf’s mind, trying to calm it. That was when she realized there wasn’t anything left of the original wolf. The attacker was just running on programming that the Master had installed in his brain. Just like wiping out the original programming on a hard drive with a computer virus.
Arjun should know—those horrible Supes really are Mind-Breakers, she thought.
Ashley also realized that she was in big trouble. There was not enough time to try to put something else into the controlled werewolf’s mind. All that was running through its mind right now was a command, repeating over and over: Kill the yellow-haired human woman. She didn’t know anyone on the ship that resembled that description but her. The Masters were trying to kill her, specifically.
The wolf
regained some of its sense and began to charge at her again. Ashley stood there and focused on the thought of running. She could feel her feet flying down the hallway, away from the wolf. She then felt the wolf gaining on her; she could feel his hot breath on her neck. She felt the wolf lunge at her.
Oh no! This is it!
The wolf went through the image of Ashley, because she was not there. She was still standing at the same spot, now nearly two hundred feet behind. The wolf was very confused by how he could have chased Ashley down the hall, but it was just the image of Ashley.
The wolf was not the only one that was confused.
How the heck did I do that? Ashley wondered.
She realised that this was not the time to ponder that. The controlled werewolf was on his feet and looking for her. She was sixty feet from the door to the Command Deck and the wolf was two hundred feet farther down the deck.
“You can make it,” Ashley said to herself.
She began to run as fast as she had ever run in her life. The werewolf noticed her and began to run after her. As Ashley neared the door, she was feeling the wolf gain on her. She was listening to his thoughts and realized that she was not fast enough. Still, she pressed on, and willed more speed from her feet.
She was thinking that she just might make it when she saw another wolf running toward her from the direction of the door.
Two wolves! This just isn’t fair! she thought.
The other charging werewolf replied to her exclamation. “Ashley, shut up and duck.”
Ashley didn’t have time to question the new wolf. She hit the floor just as a wolf missing a chunk out of his ear went flying over her.
Arjun hit the controlled wolf in mid-stride. It was a tremendous collision of fur and fangs. Ashley did not wait to see the result. She ran inside the Command Deck and alerted all the werewolves on duty to what was happening in the hallway.
“A Master-controlled wolf just tried to kill me. He is fighting with Arjun just outside the door. Hurry and help him.”
