Fighting Kat

by PJ Schnyder

  Dev met her at the junction to the main corridor and walked with her a ways before stopping. Far enough away from the holding area even she couldn’t have listened down the hallway. Interesting.

  “Kat, you with me?” Dev waited for her to meet his gaze.

  “Aye, captain.”

  “The good Captain Petrico-Calin the Fourth, has demanded a briefing.” Annoyance simmered beneath her captain’s words, but then, he had little tolerance for idiots either.

  Still, if Dev was having a word with her first, there must have been a communication from Rygard’s unit. New information, and it couldn’t be good.

  “So I’ll ask you again, Kat. Are you with me? No slips.”

  Scratch that. It had to be bad news, very bad news.

  Rygard.

  “Kat.” Her captain’s voice demanded a response.

  She reached deep and put an iron hold on the beast inside her. “Aye, captain. Fit for duty.”

  * * *

  There was no room on the ship large enough for a formal briefing of the full crew. Built for speed and mobility in and out of tight situations, many of their common spaces served dual or multiple purposes. With the need for a briefing to both Dev’s crew and the military contingent on board, the only place to fit everyone was the mess hall.

  Kaitlyn entered with Dev and peeled off as he headed for the head of the main mess table. She hopped up to sit on a counter with Skuld and did her best to look inconsequential. Just one of the girls.

  It might have worked better if she and Skuld weren’t the only two females on board ship.

  Plenty of the military visitors snuck the occasional sideways glance, unobtrusively sizing up their chances. No doubt there were several fantasies being entertained about both of them. There was a better chance of getting beat into the floor where Kaitlyn was concerned, but then, she had to admit a couple of them might entertain dreams about that too.

  Kaitlyn suppressed a sigh. She’d been chatting with Boggle too much.

  Several more minutes passed before they had all of the military crew assembled, including to her surprise, Bharguest with his military escort.

  The CO stood and rapped his knuckles on the table to get everyone’s attention. What little talk had been going on had been at a low volume but it still took a few seconds to gather everyone’s attention.

  Kaitlyn frowned. All Dev ever had to do was stand up and all eyes immediately snapped toward him. Whether this CO was new to his team or not, there should have been a certain amount of respect given to his rank. Some judging by the soldiers had been going on during whatever time the team had been assembled prior to boarding Dev’s ship and it hadn’t been in Petrico-Calin’s favor. She wondered if this mass briefing was an attempt at team-building or some other move to gain surer command of the men assembled. Information, especially on a mission of this level of secrecy, would normally be disseminated in smaller groups and filtered down through the chain of command.

  “We don’t entertain rumor in this unit.” Captain Petrico-Calin could have chosen a better way to start his briefing. More frowns all around the room. Seeing those, Kaitlyn schooled her face back to a blank expression. If she noticed them, somebody was going to notice her. “Therefore, I am giving all of you the official news. Communications from our ground team ceased abruptly at approximately 1700 hours planet time. All we have as evidence of what occurred is a distress message set on loop, sent out just prior to communication loss.”

  Fear for Rygard speared her gut. She quickly compartmentalized it and tucked it away for later. For now, she had to focus.

  “Obviously, our mission has changed.” Petrico-Calin turned his back to them all. She supposed it was meant to be a dramatic movement but it only served to make it harder to hear him. “Rather than tagging the next outbound ship from the outpost and following it to its destination, we will go in to perform thorough reconnaissance on the site of attack and report back to HQ to await further orders.”

  A few men stirred. Tempers rose and the scent of discontent soured the air.

  The fed stepped up. “I’m sure if evidence is found indicating the ground team is alive, orders will be to mount a rescue. But we must keep HQ abreast of the situation as any new information is gained to give them a clear picture of the state of matters planet side.”

  The reassurance might have mollified the soldiers present if it hadn’t been delivered in such a simpering tone. Listening to the man speak made Kaitlyn set her teeth and she consciously loosened her jaw, keeping her face relaxed. No need to let them know how dissatisfied she was personally. She wasn’t under their direct command. No one would notice a lone panther in the jungle planet side, especially not at night. She’d do her own reconnaissance and report back to Dev.

  Her captain knew her too well. “Correct me if I’m wrong, gentlemen, but I believe your intention is to send your very specialized Kx9 team out for the recon?”

  Petrico-Calin’s brows drew together. He must not be accustomed to having another captain around to point out the obvious in his carefully laid plans. “You are correct, Captain Rishkillian.”

  Dev grinned. “No need to send one team when we can send two. Kaitlyn Darah will coordinate with your Kx9 team to help with the scouting on the ground.”

  “I’m sure we have any number of men between the two teams equally as skilled in scouting, Captain.”

  Oh no, he was not about to make it a gender issue.

  “Well, and that may be so in your opinion.” Dev rubbed his chin. “But I can guarantee Kaitlyn is the best scout I’ve ever encountered in all my years in service or out, and every man on my crew would agree. She’s got a given talent for scouting, goes right down to basic instinct.”

  Her captain could be a damned bastard about telling the truth even if the listener would completely ignore the panther sitting in the room; man was going to give her an ulcer.

  “Permission to speak, sir.” Tracer spoke up from the other side of the mess hall. “Max is good. He’s the best there is among the Ks. But there’s going to be a lot of jungle to cover and if Captain Rishkillian says Miss Darah is as good as any he’s encountered, we could cover twice as much ground and report to HQ that much faster. Speed is key if our boys are alive.”

  The pooch might be fast, but in terms of running speed, she had him. Of course, simple speed wasn’t the point. The pooch would be searching for signs of any of the military team, working with what scents it encountered at the camp. She knew Rygard’s scent already, had savored the lingering musk of him on her skin. She’d be able to find him faster, alive or dead.

  An iron fist closed around her chest.

  No. She’d deal with it if it became a reality and not before. She’d do him no favors by freaking over what ifs when she could be covering ground to find out what had happened to him and his team.

  The CO was watching her. Hell, everyone in the room had turned in her direction. One soldier had a particularly ugly sneer on his face. A big fellow, he leaned against one wall with his bulky arms crossed as if he was trying to make his biceps look all bulging and crisscrossed with veins. She decided to watch the dog. At least he didn’t have anything but puppy curiosity in his big brown eyes.

  “You have a point, Sergeant.” The CO didn’t seem pleased but he didn’t argue the logic either. “A coordinate scouting effort would be the most efficient use of resources. We need to determine how the communications were disabled as well.”

  Discussion moved on to the communications personnel. Again, it would be a joint effort. Kaitlyn wondered if she should tag Boggle and get him to nab the original distress message. She wanted to know who’d gotten it out and what details it might contain. The military might have locked it down, but she had yet to give Boggle a data search he couldn’t snag right out from under whatever layers of confidential encrypting any organi
zation chose to try to hide it.

  There were few people in the universe she trusted, and Boggle had earned his right to stand as one of them. He wouldn’t try to soften it if the details told what she wanted to know before she got on the planet’s surface to find out for herself.

  When they were finally dismissed, she noticed the big marine leave behind Skuld, stepping up right on her heels. Skuld didn’t notice, but the Marine gave her breathing room when Dev called her down the corridor to talk about something. Her captain was watching the man, and she would too.

  “Looking forward to seeing what you all find planet side, girl?” Bharguest passed her with his escort. “I’m thinking it’s what the ground team found that you’ll find more interesting.”

  Chapter Five

  “Psst. Katy!”

  There had to be some ingenious comment regarding the oxymoronic idea of whispering for attention then shouting a person’s name. At the moment, Kaitlyn was too tired to think of one. Honestly, her thought processes were reverting to non-verbal. She’d had a lot to think about in the space of one waking cycle. Sleep would be necessary for her to be at her sharpest when they hit planet side. She needed to find Rygard.

  Ignoring the summons at the door, she typed a quick message at her console and sent it off to Boggle. It was the wrong time on Dysnomia Station for him to be alert or anywhere near conscious, but he’d receive it when he got up, run a search and be ready to talk to her the next ship day. She wouldn’t be able to sleep otherwise.

  Skuld wouldn’t be ignored though. She tapped on the closed door to the med bay, paused then popped up with ammunition Kaitlyn herself had provided. “I could always send Chester through the vents to deactivate the lock from your side of the door. You taught him how.”

  Damn. The ferret would do it too.

  “I could eat him.” It’d be gross in human form, but hell, she was alone in the Med Bay, who was to know if she shifted just for a few minutes.

  “You wouldn’t.” The conviction in Skuld’s voice squelched the faintest consideration of doing so from her beast dominant mind. How did Skuld have so much faith in Kaitlyn when she herself didn’t?

  Besides, Kaitlyn owed the tube rat. He’d been key in letting her out of a cage back on Dysnomia Station. Plus she had plans for future training. He’d be a pain to replace.

  With a sigh, Kaitlyn walked back to the door and disengaged the lock. As it cycled open, there stood Skuld with Chester in her hands. She’d been about to send him in, seriously.

  “Ah, oh good.” Skuld breezed right past Kat and motioned for her to shut the door behind them.

  Kaitlyn hesitated. If it was shut, it’d take longer for Skuld to leave her to her nap.

  “Katy. Hello?”

  Rolling her eyes, Kaitlyn palmed the door closed and stalked past Skuld to sit on one of the stools by the examination area. Skuld skipped over and bounced on one of the patient beds next to her.

  “I need your help.”

  “Figured as much.” Kaitlyn eyed Chester as the ferret nosed around the room, making his way toward her personal effects storage.

  “I need you to help me find something.”

  “Chester can find things for you just as easy.” In fact, it was part of his training. He could find any number of tools or small parts on command, recognizing them by name and heading off to find the appropriate object. It came in handy when Kaitlyn couldn’t infiltrate a particular room and they needed to retrieve a small object, like a data stick.

  “I’m pretty sure Chester’s the one who hid it. So he could find it, but he doesn’t want to.”

  Whatever it was, it had to be a private lady type object then. The pervy weasel had a thing for them. And he had a tendency to steal what he took a liking to. Too many times, such things turned out to be Kaitlyn’s underwear. It was an ongoing issue between them, coming up on epic proportions.

  “Why do you think I could find it, then?” Stupid question. After all, she did know Skuld’s scent and an unmentionable item as personal as she suspected would definitely smell of Skuld, and in very intimate ways.

  Uh uh. No way.

  “Please, Katy.” Skuld gave her the big sad, blinky eye look. Good grief, but were those tears welling up?

  Kaitlyn bared her teeth. Skuld had to be faking it and crocodile tears wouldn’t work. She wouldn’t give in.

  “Okay, too much, I know.” Skuld wiped away the tears. “Still, I don’t want one of those soldiers to stumble across it. I’d die, I know I would. He’d know it belonged to one of us and you wouldn’t crack under the teasing but you know I couldn’t stand it.”

  Funny, Skuld had no issue using her toys with her partners in her occasional trysts. Kaitlyn wouldn’t have thought she’d be so freaked out just by the thought of a man seeing one. “A couple of those guys creep me out.” She was serious, quiet, and altogether sincere.

  A snarl rolled through the room. When she realized it was her own voice, Kaitlyn stopped. “Which one?”

  “No Katy, let’s just avoid giving any of them more of a reason to think of either of us, okay? You made it clear you’re supposed to keep a low profile. It’s only one.”

  The big marine would take every opportunity to make Skuld uncomfortable. His particular type of testosterone poisoning would guarantee it. In the few moments she’d been around him, Kaitlyn had read enough of him to know.

  “Please.” Skuld reached out and touched Kaitlyn’s hand. “Let’s lay low and find my stuff. I don’t want to cause you any trouble and I don’t want to lose you.”

  Skuld protected Kaitlyn in her own way. And sometimes, Kaitlyn needed Skuld’s gentle sort of leash for her wild side.

  “How am I going to know which...toy it is?” Kaitlyn gave in. Somehow, there was going to be a whole lot of regret in agreeing to find the thing.

  Skuld brightened up, her smile lighting up the room. “Oh, it’ll be super easy. It’s the vibrator with the crazy batteries, you know, the ones that spontaneously combusted by accident that one time.”

  For the love of perverted tube rats and random karma, someone save her.

  There’d been no hiding from the smell of the thing for days as the air cycled the stink of burnt batteries and feminine secretions all the way through the ship. Air fresheners solved the problem for the humans on board and if any of the crew had a clue of what had caused the issue Dev had made sure none of the men dared say a single word. But Kaitlyn had been sneezing for at least a week.

  Yeah, she remembered the scent.

  “Fine. Let’s get this over with.” Kaitlyn rose and snagged Chester, shaking loose the brand new pair of turquoise panties he’d managed to slip out of one of her cubbies.

  “Pretty color.”

  “I thought so.”

  * * *

  They started in engineering. Part of the problem was that Chester could fit into the air ducts. In panther form, Kaitlyn could have easily hopped up and searched those, crouching, but still moving more easily than she could in human form. Situation being what it was, Kaitlyn couldn’t shift and look for it. She had to walk past all the vent openings hoping to catch the scent to figure out which access point was closest to where the thief had stashed his loot.

  “Think it’ll be easy to find?” Skuld wrung her fingers as she kept pace with Kaitlyn.

  “If we’re lucky, it’ll be in an air duct.” Kaitlyn paused, but no, no scent there. Someone on board might have a stash of partially smoked cigars though. No smoking on board, but some of the men smoked when they landed on planet.

  “Why? Won’t one of us have to climb in there to look for it?” Skuld walked over to the nearest vent and reached for the cover. She had to jump for it.

  Kaitlyn pressed her lips together. No smiling. She had to jump for it, too, only Skuld looked so damned cute trying.r />
  “We do not need someone stumbling across one of Chester’s little caches of stolen stuff.”

  “Ooh, he does manage to jam things into the funniest nooks and crannies.” Skuld joined her again as they continued down the corridor. “Good thing you trained him not to store anything in the engine.”

  “If he’s going to hide stuff from you, it’s not likely going to be in your room anyway.”

  “Remember when the weapons specialist found one of my other toys wedged in with his extra ammunition?” Skuld clucked her tongue. “That was crazy embarrassing, but he didn’t say a single word. Just handed it over.”

  The man had been as embarrassed as Skuld, maybe more so.

  “He was crew. They all know to respect you.” Kaitlyn didn’t bother to add that everyone on Dev’s ship knew not to breathe a single sound in regards to her penchant for bits of silk and lace no matter how many times Chester was seen scampering down the hallway with a stolen garment. They all had a healthy desire to live.

  While they searched, she kept an eye on Chester. The ferret displayed signs of anxiety whenever they neared one of his precious hiding places. He wouldn’t challenge Kaitlyn to defend his loot, but he did get nervous she might take something.

  “Ugh! All we’re finding are purloined pens or shiny things!” Skuld tossed her hands up. “And why does he want a piece of random pressed fiber packaging? At least the sock seems like a little Chester-sized sleeping bag.”

  When they’d come across the pulled pin to a grenade, Kaitlyn had raised an eyebrow but figured they’d have discovered which grenade it came from in a fairly spectacular way if it had been on the ship. Since the ship’s hull was still intact, she wasn’t going to worry about it, or tell Skuld what it was.

  They reached the weapons storage room. Although every crew member had their personal armory kept in the foot lockers, extra ammunition and standard fire arms were kept in this room. Also, any weapons picked up along the way from various missions were kept here if no one claimed them as personal loot. They were mercenaries after all. Once the stock pile got too large, Nibs weeded out the least useful to the crew and sold them at any one of their usual space station stops. He kept a comprehensive inventory of what was stored as ship’s property, but he didn’t do daily searches of every crate and storage rack. Not too many crew members came into the room without him.