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BZZZZZZZZT

Kiori inwardly groaned. Dispatch always picked the worst time to call. He reached across his billet and pushed the comm button with is right index toe. The covers pulled over his head muffled his muttered reply. "What?"

"Is that anyway to respond to dispatch?" a female voice snapped back.

Of course it had to be Dispatcher Leenova. She might be joking; then again she might not. She always had a snarky tone to her voice. He pulled the covers down and keyed the button again.

"Sorry, _Dispatcher, w_hat can I do for you?"

"That's better," she said in that holier-than-thou tone. "Get your tail up to TRC Gamma Eight for a Priority One call. They'll fill you in on the details."

Kiori squeezed his eyes shut and lay there for a moment. He seriously considered calling in sick.

"Are you going to acknowledge?" the comm buzzed again.

"Aw come on! I just got off an extended shift," he complained. "The atmosphere scrubber units on deck 93 took 4 days to fix! I still smell like that crud caked all over the data boards. Can't you call in Jadalli? He's well rested since all he does is hang by his tail and surf the Fed-Wave all day."

"No can do," she said with a smirk in her voice. "Central wants our best and you're at the top of the list for sensor repair."

Kiori frowned but sat up in his bunk. "Well, why didn't you say so?" He huffed a sigh and said, "Fine, I'll be down there in 10 minutes. I'm not going anywhere until I get a shower cycle and a fresh work suit."

He could almost hear the frown on her face. "I'll inform Central. You'd better not be late."

He tossed off the covers and punched the button with his tail. "I won't. Orders acknowledged."

Kiori pulled up the soundproof curtain before he sat at the edge of his bunk. He flexed his hands and feet and found the latter a bit more stiff. He used them to hold an upside down pose in the low-gee repair area. Even in minimal gravity, the exertion took its toll on his body. He went through his flexibility exercises since his most precious commodity was his dexterous fingers and toes. Each of his four toes was just as nimble and prehensile as his fingers. This was the reason Linugads were sought after as repair technicians throughout the Federation. His tail curled and twisted of its own mind as he concentrated on his routine.

Finished with the exercises he yawned and swept his hands over his large, luminous eyes. At times he wished his eyes were not quite so sensitive, but in his line of work it came in handy. He made a mental note to grab his goggles before heading to Central. They liked to keep the lights at standard protocol levels up there. Without the goggles he was guaranteed a migraine by the end of a shift. The ability to see slightly into the ultraviolet and the infrared was not always a blessing.

He sincerely hoped this would only last one shift. He was definitely not looking forward to another marathon repair session. Especially after he just finished an extended shift and barely gotten a half a sleep cycle before Dispatcher called him.

Kiori jumped off his second level pallet and landed lightly in the narrow isle. It was an unspoken courtesy to be quiet in the barracks. On a ship like this, there are literally dozens of techs on call at all hours of the duty cycle, and that was just in this zone of the battleship. As he padded down the row of bunks he observed some of his neighbors had lights on. Other bunks where either dark or deserted. He idly wondered just how many techs there were aboard a colony ship like this; it had to be in the hundreds. The ship carried enough personnel to establish a new colony from scratch on an undeveloped world. "Techies" as his kind were known, only made up a small group of the types of workers the Federation commanded.

A few moments later he secured the last of the fasteners on his jumpsuit. The suit was durable but light, and had an extraordinary amount of pockets and loops to hold a wide array of implements. In addition to the tools, there were power cells and data ports built into the suit. This allowed a tech to be a mobile repair center complete with hyperwave link to the central data core. He also had his neural interface if he needed to dive into the ship's systems. After his previous extended repair session, a dive would just give him a splitting headache. He sincerely hoped the problem would not require it.

The tech glanced at the chronometer above his locker. It showed that he had about two minutes left before his ten were up. Just enough time to swing by a food station. He learned a long time ago that the officers don't care that the Techie needed a break. They just wanted stuff fixed, and fixed NOW! On one occasion, after he went two days without anything but a canteen of water, Kiori realized that a couple of extra nutrient bars could seriously make the difference. Now when he was called on site he always grabbed some extras. Just in case.

The hatch to Technical Repair Center Gamma Eight slid to a whispering close. Kiori crammed the last bit of a nutrient bar into his mouth and wiped away a few stray crumbs from his whiskers. He took a glance around and saw a familiar face at one of the monitoring stations.

"Well, well if it isn't Gar-."

Garren held up a finger to silence him as he walked up to the terminal.

"Acknowledge Tactical, Tech will be on scene in five minutes. I'll relay preliminary assessment as soon as it's available." The monitoring tech gave a smirk back to the repair tech. Just as Kiori was about to speak, Garren winced. A crackling response was heard over his earpiece.

"I WANT THAT TECH DOWN THERE RIGHT NOW! HALF MY SENSOR BOARD'S DARK AND THAT'S A HELL OF A BIG BLINDSPOT FOR THE CONSORTIUM TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF!"

Garren rolled his eyes and responded, "Affirmative Commander, tech is on route." He flipped the comm switch to standby and walked around the console to greet Kiori.

"Sounds serious," the tech said as he shook Garren's offered hand.

"Guess so. We just got the call 15 minutes ago. You're already supposed to be on-site." He pulled up a schematic on a nearby panel. "The station is at junction Alpha 54, Epsilon section, Deck 45. Just a heads up, there's a security officer standing by."

The Federation organized ships by compartments and decks. Deck numbers ran from top to bottom, and ship sections were labeled from nose to stern. The more important decks contained the sections devoted to the Combat Information Center, Weapons Control, and Hanger Deck. Epsilon section on Kragan's Claw held most of the officer's quarters. It was no surprise that officers and the workforce crew did not mix well. The "techies" were considered little more than custodial workers fit for cleaning the waste facilities. The officers considered themselves the ones who did the "real" work aboard ship.

Kiori blinked in surprise. "Whoa, all the way up on 45? Epsilon section even! This must be serious. They usually don't call the plasma monkeys into areas where we might rub elbows with the common folk." The word common dripped with sarcasm.

Garren grinned, "Yeah yeah, enough with the chatter. Better get your tail moving."

The tech adjusted his goggles as he walked out the hatch, "I'm on it!"

A few moments later, Kiori stepped out of a maintenance lift. He was a couple of bulkheads from the designated junction. As he walked up, the technician took mental inventory of his tools. He touched each one as he went down his suit. He was too preoccupied to notice the large security soldier who stood at attention in the corner of the nearby junction until he finished. He approached the soldier's left side and was not noticed. The soldier focused their attention down the other corridor to the right.

Kiori looked the soldier up and down and opened the goggle's infrared filter. The heat signature indicated this was likely a female Rudigar. They tended to be a few C warmer than the males from the extra fur. She was an imposing sight in her combat armor and assault rifle strung across her back. The large, but thin, combat knife strapped to the outside of her thigh did not escape his notice. She was easily over 2 meters tall, and dwarfed his diminutive 1.2 meter height. He imagined she outweighed him by at least 100 kilograms. Her gray-white fur contrasted the pitch black armor she wore. He noticed the armor plating did strange things to his vision. It partially absorbed the ambient light and shielded the other spectrums he saw. He deduced it was some kind of stealth technology. She clenched her three fingered hands in agitation.

The tech cleared his throat and said, "I'm Technician Kiori, I've been ordered to report to this section from-"

The soldier's head swiveled and her attention locked onto him. "You're late!" she said, eyes narrowed. "My commander's been waiting for a repair diagnosis for over 15 minutes!"

Kiori swallowed nervously and replied, "I'm sorry, I got here as fast-"

The soldier turned on her heel and stalked away down the right corridor. "Follow me, and be quick about it," she barked gruffly.

The tech ran to catch up with her longer stride.

Another turn and several meters down an adjacent corridor, the soldier stopped in her tracks. The tech trotted up behind her. He waited patiently as she searched for something. Another moment passed.

"I was told there's a problem with a sensor array, do you have any further information for me?" Kiori offered.

The soldier sighed softly. "No. This was the location I was told the problem originated from but I don't see a terminal inter-"

This time Kiori interrupted. "Ah I see! I should've known. On this deck, the terminals are hidden behind access panels." He inspected the wall of the corridor at one of the panel seams. "Okay, for this type of corridor the terminals are usually spaced every 10 meters or so. I think I remember seeing one when we turned the corner. That means the next one should be right about..."

His fingers found the specialized bolt sunken into the panel seam. A grin split his muzzle. "Here we go; an encoded hex bolt. Good thing I brought my panel key."

He held up the tool and flashed his smile at the soldier. She gave him a decidedly annoyed look. The tech quickly went to work and opened the bolt. The sensor array terminal sat exposed a moment later. For some reason the soldier was on edge as Kiori ran a quick diagnostic.

"Hmm, that's strange," he said as he examined the onscreen report.

The soldier scanned the corridor up and down preoccupied. "What's the problem?"

Kiori involuntarily swiveled his ears. He scanned the terminal readout and replied, "Well, it looks like there's a problem with the command routing subroutine. I can see where inputs are being sent from the tactical sensor panel in the CIC, but for some reason they're getting shunted into a looped buffer. The buffer queues up the commands and bounces them over to a diagnostics terminal all the way on the other side of the ship. Then it gets dumped back here again. When the command comes back it gets logged in a file. Strange; I've never seen a glitch like this."

The soldier kept an eye on the corridor and moved closer. She asked in a softer tone, "Can you fix it?"

The tech twitched his whiskers a few times. He nodded once and replied, "Yes, I can fix it. It may take me a few minutes."

"Start your repairs, but make note of any other anomalies so I can put it in my report." She put a firm hand on the tech's shoulder and gained his full attention. "Don't go anywhere...for your own safety."

Her statement pulled Kiori's attention from the terminal. She gave him an intense stare. Her strong grip told him that it would be in his best interest to do as she said. She let go and moved a few paces down the corridor.

He turned back to the terminal and started his diagnosis. Every couple of moments he glanced sideways at the soldier. She covertly communicated with someone through a hidden earpiece. He guessed it was the superior who called in the repair order. She looked agitated by the way she clenched her jaw and her ears swept back. Kiori decided that he should stay on her good side since it looked like her superior was not taking the news well.

Kiori looked at the results of another diagnostic as the soldier came back to his side. He stayed focused on the screen even though his curiosity ate at him. He scanned the data and a prompt appeared.

"Strange," he said without thinking. He entered another query and got an unexpected answer. "Why aren't you accepting my request?"

The tech pulled up a subroutine and performed a protocol diagnostic. The terminal output did not match the information shown. Kiori pushed everything else out of his mind and mentally worked out what interfered with the operations of the terminal. He frowned as the true problem occurred to him.

"Oh, I don't like the look of this," he said softly.

"What is it?" the soldier muttered in his ear.

Kiori jerked back and gasped in surprise. It took a few seconds for him to control his breathing. He was focused on the data readout and forgot she was with him. The tech shook his head and smirked at the soldier.

"Please, don't do that to me." He shifted his focus to the terminal. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."

The soldier smirked and showed the tips of her fangs. Her tone softened with, "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you Technician."

"Kiori," he said.

"Excuse me?"

"My name is Kiori." The technician turned and smiled at her. "Pleased to meet you."

"Oh, uh, pleased to meet you," she hesitated. "I'm Assault Soldier Gralka, Second Lieutenant. Special attachment to General Kri'ad, Commander of the Star Nova commando squadron."

She paused a moment as the information sank in. Kiori's bewildered look amused her. "You can call me Lieutenant or Gralka," she finally said.

"Very well," Kiori chuckled slightly. "It might be cumbersome to say that whole thing every time I need to get your attention."

Gralka gave a rumbling laugh in response. "So what did you discover? You said you did not like the look of things?" Her expression turned serious.

Kiori turned back to the terminal. "Yeah, that," he said with a sigh. "A virus in this terminal is bouncing the commands around. I almost didn't catch it," he said in a somber tone, "it's subtle." He tapped out more commands on the terminal and nodded when he got strange, but expected, results.

Gralka's eyes narrowed. "A virus. So you're saying this is more than just a system failure or glitch?"

Kiori already had one of the suit diagnostic terminals plugged in. "Unfortunately, yes. A virus of this complexity could've only been written by someone familiar with Federation systems."

He consulted the small pad and smiled. "Fortunately for us, I was able to find it and now I'm just grabbing some of the code for analysis later. I should be able to have this terminal fixed up shortly. Then sensor control will be back to normal."

Gralka's expression darkened further at the implication of Kiori's discovery. Someone familiar with Federation systems did this.

"Very well, Technician; continue your work. I need to make a report to the General. I'll be back in a moment." She walked off down the corridor.

"No problem, I'll be here."

Kiori glanced after her. When she was out of earshot and engaged in her report, he muttered to himself. "Just leave it to good old techie Kiori, engineering janitor of the mighty Kragan's Claw." He entered instructions into his pad and confirmed on the terminal that virus cleanup commenced. "Thankfully, the hacker that inserted this virus was sloppy. Brilliant, but sloppy. Otherwise, I could've easily spent more than a day on this."

Kiori almost grumbled about how long he had until he was called away to another repair job, but Gralka walked up. Instead he decided to be nosey. "So, what did the Commander have to say?"

Gralka sighed, "It's General, and you don't want to know." She eyed him carefully and asked a question. "Based on your experience as a Technician, how hard is it to install a virus like the one you found?"

Kiori paid more attention to his repairs than his answer. Gralka's scrutiny escaped him. "Well, first of all the person would need access to the terminal. That requires one of the encoded keys like I used. I suppose anyone could swipe one from a repair center, but I think we would notice. They are only assigned to Technicians on duty. Secondly, a virus like this can't be whipped up in a couple of minutes. It takes planning to set up routines that will re-direct commands and not raise any alarms in the CIC. It looks like our hacker was probably in a hurry, which is why the sensor boards malfunctioned. Hard to say how long this has been lurking in the terminal. The protocol permission codes are changed periodically, so someone would have to know which sequence is active."

He looked up from his diagnostic terminal and faced Gralka. "It just occurred to me, I also need check that terminal where these commands are bounced to. It's a good bet that the other terminal also has a virus."

Gralka grunted unhappily but nodded agreement. "You're right. We have to go check the other terminal."

The tech's pad beeped softly and drew his attention. "Okay, we're in business here." He punched few queries to verify that commands were being routed, received, and executed correctly. "I'll let Central know that repairs are finished here and that I'm going across the ship to check the other location." He started to key his sleeve communicator when Gralka snatched his wrist.

"Wait!"

Kiori realized it was futile to attempt to break her hold. He simply asked, "What?"

"You implied that a tech is the only person that could've implemented this virus. If they were monitoring communications with the TRC they'd know that the virus has been found."

Kiori cocked his ears forward. "That's true. But I'm supposed to check in with my TRC before I relocate. So how do I let them know I'm done without, you know, letting them know?"

Gralka flashed her fangs in a gruesome grin. "Leave that to me."

A moment later, Gralka wrapped up another communique with her commanding officer. "Acknowledge, CIC. I'll update with a progress report in 2 hours, out." The soldier turned to Kiori. "I hope you didn't have any plans Technician, because you're now assigned to me and will follow my directives."

Kiori sighed lightly. "So much for more sleep," he muttered. He took solace in the fact that he had several nutrient bars stashed in his jacket. He even patted the spot just to make sure. The tech looked up into the eyes of the imposing figure before him. "So what's your directive, Lieutenant?"

"Our directive," she emphasized, "is to covertly determine the extent of this virus you've discovered, and implement whatever repairs are necessary. We're to do this without alerting the culprit to our repair operations, if at all possible."

Kiori noticed a glint in her eyes. She looked eager to take on such a challenge. He resigned himself to the plan, even if she intended to check every last terminal on the ship. He decided not to voice a protest.

"Very well," he said flatly. "May I suggest we proceed to the next terminal?"

"Of course," she said, "lead the way."

After a few moments and several corridors later, something occurred to the tech. "We may have a bit of a problem reaching the terminal." Kiori glanced sideways at the soldier. "It's deep in a maintenance crawl space, and...well..." The technician's voice trailed off as he struggled to find the right words.

Gralka twitched her whiskers in annoyance. "So?" she said. "I'm not worried about getting dirty in some crawl space between decks."

"It's not that," Kiori said almost too quickly. "It's just that you might be a little too...uh, bulky for a crawl space."

The soldier puffed out a derisive snort and rolled her eyes. "Nonsense, I've squeezed into tight spaces before. Let's keep moving; we'll figure it out when we get there."

Kiori was not wholly convinced, but led the way down the corridor. "Uh, okay whatever you say."

Gralka growled in frustration. She was stuck!

Kiori tried his best to stifle his laughter at her predicament. The tech had slipped past each of the 3 bulkhead portals with no problem. They were directly off the main corridor and spaced about 20 meters apart. The last opened into a small tunnel into the depths of the ship and the inner terminal.

Kiori had determined they were somewhere between decks 58 and 59 on the port side of the ship. They were also in close proximity to one of the plasma disruption cannons that studded the exterior hull. These cannons were the automated type directed from CIC. The thrum of energy from the relays reverberated throughout the duct work that surrounded the pair.

Gralka managed to scrunch through the first portal with little difficulty. The second portal caused her to shed some armor plating in order to squeeze through. The third portal was irregular shaped; more of a short rectangular tube than a portal. After the first attempt, her military jump suit proved to be a little too restrictive. Gralka stripped to her essential undergarments. After examination she decided to squirm through arms first, followed by torso and so on.

Gralka had failed to factor in her female anatomy and was wedged in place. Her head and shoulders protruded out of the opening, allowing her arms to move freely. However, her chest and back were firmly stuck in place. She could not find anything to give her arms enough leverage to help and there was nothing close by she could use to pull herself through the opening.

Exasperated, Gralka let out a growling sigh. Until this point she refused to let Kiori help. It was an insult to her military training if she could not accomplish this task on her own merit. Catching a glimpse of the Technician barely containing his mirth, the soldier smirked at him.

"I suppose I look pretty ridiculous, huh?"

Kiori nodded vigorously while the odd snigger escaped his muzzle. Gralka snorted once in amusement and that was all it took to release the floodgates for Kiori. He collapsed on the ground clutching his stomach and howled in laughter. The soldier snorted again, and finally let out a loud guffaw of laughter. This only made the tech laugh harder, so much that he nearly lost his breath. Gralka found this completely hilarious and laughed at his antics.

After a particularly strong bought of laughter, which included Gralka kicking her legs helplessly on the other side of the short tunnel, she felt her position shift ever so slightly. The soldier gasped and sobered up immediately.

"Hey!" she called out suddenly. Kiori writhed on the ground and did not hear her at first. "I moved!" she said loudly in his direction.

Kiori wiped tears from his eyes as he sat up. "What? You moved?" He quickly crawled over to her and watched as she wiggled back and forth.

"I think so," she said as she squirmed. "I definitely shifted that time. If I brace my knees on the side of the tunnel I might be able to push."

She looked up into Kiori's face, just beyond the reach of her arms. "I could use a hand," she said with what she hoped was a friendly smile.

The technician smiled at her and said playfully, "Are you sure you want my help? Just a few minutes ago you would not even let me offer any suggestions."

She grinned back at him. "The situation has changed. Now come here and grab hold of my hands."

Kiori reluctantly did as she asked, skeptical if he would be of any help. The tech's hands were easily engulfed by the soldier, and even though she was not squeezing yet she had the crushing grip of a vice.

"Please be careful when you pull on me, remember I have delicate hands.

Gralka lightened the pressure on her grip a bit. "Oh, right. I'll try to be careful. Okay, now when I blow out a big breath I want to you tug on my arms. Brace yourself as best you can."

"Understood," he nodded.

It took a few tries, but Gralka made much more progress with Kiori helping her. Much more of her chest protruded from the tunnel resulting in a considerable amount of cleavage. Kiori tried not to notice.

"Okay! I think I can it make with one more tug. Brace yourself, here we go!" With that the soldier blew out a gush and wiggled with as much force as she could muster. Kiori pulled with all his weight, leaning back at a ridiculous angle. Just as Gralka's form started to slide through the tunnel, the tech noticed his unfortunate position.

Gralka popped free. Unable to catch his balance, Kiori toppled over backwards, dragging Gralka nearly all the way through the tunnel. The soldier had nowhere to go and roughly tackled the technician. The female's breasts that caused her to get stuck now pressed firmly into the male's chest, effectively pinning him to the floor. She nearly panted in her sudden freedom from the confined space.

"Whew!" she crowed.

Kiori grunted up at her. "Not that I don't appreciate such a close embrace, but I'm finding it hard to breathe!"

"Oh, sorry!" Gralka quickly rolled off the flattened tech.

He in turn sat up slowly and took a few deep gasps. "No problem," he replied with a grin and the two sat for a moment recovering.

Gralka glanced at her watch. "Dammit, that whole thing wasted half an hour." She turned to the tech and gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry about that."

Kiori could tell that she was sincere by the way her ears folded back. "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you were able to get out of the duct. I can imagine it'd be pretty embarrassing if I had to call for help on account of a stuck soldier."

The pair shared a chuckle at the thought. The Lieutenant stood and offered a hand to the tech, and easily lifted him to his feet. Kiori was impressed and frightened in the same moment. He was glad that they were on the same side.

Gralka looked around and asked, "So where is this terminal? This place is so full of conduits and shunts I hardly know what to look for."

Kiori pointed down the somewhat narrow crawlspace and said, "It's down there several meters past the junction point. Also, remember we're in the guts of the ship, so be careful what you touch or grab."

The technician began making his way towards the junction when Gralka grunted in annoyance. Kiori glanced back to see her look through the duct she just escaped.

"I need a favor," she said. "Can you hop back there and get something for me?"

The tech almost rolled his eyes at the request, but could tell she was trying to be nice. She could have easily ordered him to go back through the duct.

Kiori walked back to her side and said, "Sure. What do you need?"

"I need my knife," she said simply.

The tech looked at her questioningly. "Your knife?" He could not fathom why she needed her knife when they were lost in the depths of the ship.

"Yes, my knife," she confirmed. "It's important to me."

"Alright," Kiori said still not understanding her motivation, "give me a moment."

A couple of minutes later, the tech crawled through the duct and thrust out the long blade of Gralka's combat knife in its sheath and strap. "Here you go. Now if you will follow me, I need to check out that terminal."

Gralka touched him on the shoulder as he turned to head down the corridor once again. "Thank you." She smiled as she strapped the blade to its familiar place on her thigh.

Kiori smiled back and nodded in acceptance.

The next terminal proved that the virus Kiori found was not an isolated incident. He was careful to reset the command protocols, and figured out a way to contain the virus. He set up a subroutine of his own that would intercept incoming commands and route them to the correct destination before the virus grabbed them. This routine fed a dummy copy of the command to the virus, and then redirected its output to a null file. This way the virus would think it was still performing its function, while the actual protocols were unaffected.

However, through his diagnostic repairs the technician discovered three more terminal destinations that needed to be checked out. This did not make Gralka happy, but she knew that the pair would need to investigate if they were to track down the culprit.

Surprisingly, getting back through the duct was easier the second time for Gralka. It only took a few minutes and in no time she was the imposing military soldier again decked out in her armor. The pair moved on to two more of the terminals when it was time for the Lieutenant to report in.

Her superior was filled in on the subroutines Kiori installed, and directed them to proceed with their efforts. So far no other outages had occurred from CIC, but they would be the first to know when something changed.

To Gralka's relief, the last terminal Kiori needed to check was in an out of the way storage bay towards the aft of the ship. This one took the longest to reach since it was in Tau section on deck 75.

The technician grinned when they reached Tau, which was distinctly different than the upper decks. The lighting was more subdued and utilitarian, which Kiori welcomed. This meant he could take off his goggles for a bit.

When they reached the entry hatch to the bay, Gralka drew her sidearm and nodded for Kiori to key the unlock code. The doors methodically split with a shush and Gralka motioned for the tech to stay and make no sound. The soldier slipped quietly into the bay and made sure everything was clear.

A moment later, she called out, "Alright, nothing here. Time to get to work."

She waited until Kiori entered, and then closed the hatch and locked it. Satisfied that they would soon be done, Gralka walked to the center of the bay where a large area of floor space was clear. She pulled out her assault rifle and the assortment of gear she wore and laid it on the ground.

Kiori watched a moment as she laid out her stuff and took a seat next to it on the ground. Just as she cleared the rifle of ammunition she noticed him.

"Aren't you going to get to work?"

"Oh, right," he said with a grin and made his way over to the terminal.

It did not take long for him to find the virus and test its routines. He began to set up the anti-virus routines he had installed previously when he noticed the behavior of this terminal was slightly different. There was a regular burst of data outbound from this terminal, and it was independent of the virus.

Kiori sighed and rubbed his eyes, thankful that he was able to shed the goggles he normally wore, at least for a little while. He spent a few minutes examining the data transmissions to the remote terminal and tried to figure out what was going on. It was frustrating work since the behavior seemed to act counter to what he had predicted with the virus. It was as if the data bursts were collecting non-essential data. Kiori shook his head and decided to take a break. That is when he first noticed the strange sounds.

He turned to look for Gralka. The terminal was towards the far back corner of the bay, and there were several large containers partially blocking his view. He could not see the soldier directly, but he heard several sharp noises coming from the center of the bay. The tech discretely peered around a box and saw Gralka run through some exercise moves.

She wielded her knife in combat maneuvers and grunted an *Ugh!* or *Kya!* when she reached a strike position. For as big and bulky as she was, Kiori found her quite graceful. She jumped surprisingly high and it was intimidating how effortlessly she flicked the knife with deadly precision. The tech had no illusions that she would not hesitate to kill an enemy in their tracks if she was threatened.

Kiori approached the open area slowly as Gralka ran through a series of kick and slash combos. She entered her final move with a tumble, and transitioned into a jumping roundhouse kick that culminated in a final thrust of her blade.

"Ha!" she barked out with force.

The tech clapped his hands together. "Very impressive!"

The soldier stood upright and bowed her head slightly. "Thanks." She dug out her canteen and took a long pull before she offered it to Kiori. He walked over and took a drink.

"You're very agile," Kiori said and pointed to the glinting blade she idly flipped around in her hand, "and deadly."

Gralka grinned and thrust her knife into its sheath with a *schook*.

"You have to be in this army. On the battlefield it's kill or be killed." She looked at the tired expression of the tech and said, "So how's it going? Did you finish up?"

Kiori shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. This terminal is different than the rest; there's something else happening. I haven't quite figured it out yet. I really need to investigate some more, I just needed a quick breather."

"Oh," the soldier said with a disappointed tone. "I was hoping we might be done soon." As the two stood silent for a moment, a distinct low grumble escaped from Gralka's mid-section.

"Guess we missed supper time," she said sheepishly with a grin and patted her stomach.

Kiori grinned right back. "You're in luck! I always stash a couple of extra ration bars when I'm out on assignment." He reached into his jumpsuit, pulled out two bars and tossed them at Gralka. "Hopefully that'll keep you until I can wrap this up. I'm not sure how long it's going to take, so I better get back to it."

The soldier was already tearing into the first bar. "Okay. I'll be here."

The tech shook his head in amusement and made his way back to the terminal. After running a few more queries from his access pad, he sighed and closed his eyes in annoyance. The transmission bursts sent packets in seemingly random directions throughout the ship. They had to be collecting somewhere. The only thing he had discovered for sure is that there was a remote terminal deep in the ship that checked in at routine intervals. From the activity he monitored, it looked like it would send an acknowledge command every 5 minutes. The frustrating part was that when he sent a trace, he ended up chasing ghost commands.

Why would a remote terminal need to communicate with this one? It was clear that his diagnostic queries did not get him the information he needed. The next step was going to require a dive.

Every technician on the ship had a neural terminal implanted. It enabled them to dive into the information nexus that connected everything on the ship. It took Kiori extensive training in order to learn and master. Now it seemed that he had to put his training to work.

Kiori dug out a connection cable from an inner pocket and grasped one end. With his left hand holding the connector, he felt up around his left ear until he came across the port embedded in his skull. The cable easily slipped into place and locked with a firm click. Grasping the other end, he located the receiver at the terminal and jacked in.

The dive would not commence until he mentally made the connection, and he knew from experience it could be a disorienting transition. He sat down on the floor next to the terminal, found a comfortable position and did a quick breathing exercise to mentally prepare. When he felt ready, Kiori closed his eyes and mentally engaged the connection.

He felt a strange pull on his mentality as the data connection sprang to life. In a flash his persona materialized inside the data stream. At the speed of thought, he pulled up a diagnostic query on the terminal and it instantly fed him all the information he had already learned. It was how he mentally got his bearings in the data stream.

The tech then engaged a filter that showed him all the out-bound transmissions from this terminal. The mysterious non-essential data could be seen shooting away along various paths, and Kiori decided to follow one. The transmission took him to several locations; a few of which were the previous terminals he fixed. Still the data traveled on and arrived at a terminal he guessed was the source of the strange acknowledgement signal.

The tech pulled up a query on this new terminal. He saw that except for this extraneous data, the only communication traffic was routine power management commands. The power management data was not even for an essential system, and that fact confused the technician. He stored the location information away and returned to his home terminal. Kiori decided it would be best to discuss this information with Gralka before making the next move.

He made sure that the newly installed sub-routines worked correctly at this terminal before he initiated the disconnect procedure. An awkward squeezing feeling pressed down on him briefly before the tech again felt himself. He popped out the dive cable and rubbed his ear as he opened his eyes. He heaved a sigh and secured all his equipment before he logged off the terminal.

Kiori again approached Gralka's position. This time her assault rifle lay completely stripped as she cleaned the parts. She peered through the charging coil and eyed the tech as he approached.

"All finished now?" she asked.

"Yeah, for now." He motioned to the various parts of the rifle spread out in a semi-circle. "That's quite a puzzle you got there."

"This is nothing, you should see how many parts are in one of those 3-barreled heavy cannons." She grinned up at him, "Want to see a trick? I bet you have a stopwatch somewhere in all that gear. My record's 18 seconds."

Kiori laughed lightly and said, "Sure, I can time you. Let me know when you're ready." He held a finger over his diagnostic pad.

Gralka took a few seconds to arrange the pieces easily within arm's reach and flashed her fangs. "Ready!"

"Go!"

Kiori watched how quickly the collection of parts formed a deadly weapon again. In a blur Gralka put together the fusion power source and snapped in the stock and barrel. In a few more seconds she had the sight attached and turned the rifle over to slap in the ammunition clip.

"Time!" she barked out.

Kiori shook his head in amazement. "18.36 seconds. I'm afraid it's not a record breaker, but still very impressive. It'd probably take me about 2 hours to put that thing together. Then again, I'd probably get distracted trying to figure out a way to improve the efficiency of the fusion pack."

"Bah," Gralka grunted. "What do you say we go get some food?"

"Yeah, I suppose I'm due for a meal. Do you want me to report back to you after the break?" "What?" Gralka asked in a confused tone as she packed and stowed all her gear. "No, you're staying with me. I'm taking you to the Officer's Mess; it's my turn to buy." She said with a grin and it was obvious Kiori did not get the joke.

Instead he looked at her nervously. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Officers and Techies don't exactly mix in normal company. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to consider you a friend, but I've had my share of run-ins with the rank and file and I'd like to avoid any unpleasant situations."

Gralka waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. Besides, at this time of the duty shift there probably won't be anyone about. Meal time was 2 hours ago."

Kiori nodded his head. "Yeah I suppose you're right." He donned his goggles again and adjusted them comfortably. "Officer's Mess, huh? I don't think I even know where that is, and I've been almost everywhere on the Claw."

The soldier walked over to the door keypad and punched in the unlock code. The doors again parted and she waved a hand. "Come on, follow me. I hope they have something other than the standard fare; I'm getting tired of that reconstituted meat."

Kiori waited for her to lock the hatch and followed in the direction towards the upper decks. "It's probably better than what the techs have to choose from. We get a vegetable block or a protein block."

"Don't worry, we'll get you bulked up in no time," Gralka said over her shoulder with the now typical flash of her fangs.

The pair took their time getting back to the upper decks. Kiori explained the strange behavior of the terminal he observed in the dive. Gralka said that she would try to help him work out what the problem was even though she only had a rudimentary understanding of the functionality of the ship systems. Kiori welcomed a fresh perspective and knew from experience that a solution could be found in the most unlikely of places.

As Gralka escorted the technician through the ship, he noticed the higher concentration of officers and soldiers. At one junction he was nearly run over when a squad of four soldiers bolted down the corridor. Gralka was used to such traffic and nimbly slipped out of the way through reflex. The technician however was roughly shoved aside at the last second by the leading officer.

Gralka frowned and advised Kiori to stick close. Thankfully, the rest of the trip through the deck was uneventful. When they finally arrived at a double wide door, Gralka pulled the technician aside.

"This is it. Now, I don't know if there will be soldiers and officers in here or not, but remember we are under a private directive. That means we should not talk about what we've been doing, since this is an unsecured location."

The technician nodded and replied, "Understood."

The soldier nodded in return and punched in her access code for the door. As it slid open she gestured for Kiori to enter first. "Welcome to the Officer's Mess, Technician Kiori."

"Thank you Lieutenant Gralka."

The technician was impressed with the array of food options available and Gralka told him he could get whatever he wanted. He picked up a tray and selected some fruit and a prepackaged dish that smelled like some sort of spiced meat.

Gralka meanwhile headed straight for the short order cook who roasted a spit of meat. Kiori could not quite identify the animal the cook prepared, but Gralka obviously did. She demanded three plates full of the stuff. When they arrived at a smaller table away from the central seats, Kiori inquired about the fresh meat.

"I guess they had something you like?"

"Oh this stuff smells good," Gralka said nearly drooling over her steaming meat. She inhaled with relish. "Ah! Just like when I went hunting with my brothers in the winter. This is so much better than that," she said with a point of her fork.

Kiori pulled the lid off his dish and sniffed. It smelled fine to him so he just shrugged and took a bite. It was a bit spicy but he found it a nice change from the protein bars he normally ate. He saved his fruit for dessert, since techs rarely ever got the chance for anything fresh like whole fruit.

The two struck up a friendly conversation between mouthfuls of food. Gralka was a ravenous eater and had easily finished two plates by the time Kiori was barely finished with his dish. They talked about their home worlds. What it was like going through training, and what eventually led to their current assignment.

Gralka recounted one of her training classes involving hand to hand combat. Kiori was fascinated by the grueling physical regiment the soldiers went through, especially for someone in a Special Forces squad like Gralka's.

Kiori absently heard the swish of the doors. A trio of soldiers walked in but he did not pay much mind when they went to the counter.

Gralka described how she managed to best the top ranked fighter in her squad. She had not noticed the trio's attention focused on them. Kiori noticed too late that the soldiers frequently motioned toward the pair.

Gralka finished her story with a wide toothy grin and raised another huge bite of food. Then she saw Kiori's gaze focused across the room. He seemed quite apprehensive and she almost asked him what was wrong. The other soldier spoke first.

"I didn't know you're allowed to bring pets to the mess hall? What's the matter, couldn't find a babysitter?"

Muffled laughter was heard behind the taunting soldier. Kiori shook his head and stared at his plate. He tried to ignore the soldiers.

Gralka's ears laid back but she did not turn around. She chewed another mouthful of food.

She was too preoccupied to hear that the trio approached from behind. When the lead soldier tapped her roughly on the shoulder, she nearly drew her knife out of reflex.

Kiori sat silently as he watched her reaction.

Gralka turned her head slightly and muttered, "What do you want?"

The lead soldier grinned and replied, "Maybe you should breast feed your little techie? I've heard real food can be hard on their stomach."

Gralka turned and shoved the soldier back with surprising force. She stood as the lead soldier stumbled back into the other two.

With a low growl she said, "I suggest you go back to your meal, grunt, while you can still chew it. Otherwise you may find yourself drinking your meals when I break your jaw."

The lead soldier pointed past her at the technician. "What is that doing in here? This mess is for soldiers, not plasma monkeys." He practically shouted at her.

"It's none of your concern, soldier. I can see by your rank you certainly have the right to eat here, but his presence is none of your business."

"I'm making it my business, Lieutenant," he said with menace.

"That is unwise," Gralka said with deceptive calm and squared her shoulders, prepared for trouble. The two companion soldiers recognized the stance and backed off to give the rivals some room. They knew a fight when they saw it.

The lead soldier grinned and stood relaxed in a confident stance. He was roughly the same height but looked to have a slight weight advantage. Gralka wasted no time and struck first.

The soldier was prepared for the attack and deftly blocked. He countered with a quick shot to Gralka's gut.

She grunted with the impact but quickly sprang out of his reach. The two swayed back and forth and attempted to predict the opponent's next attack.

Gralka feigned an attack from her left, which caused the soldier to move to his left. She quickly struck out with a kick at his knee. The soldier was fast, but not nimble enough to escape the glancing blow she landed.

By this point, Kiori backed away from the table and stood behind a support beam. He did not want Gralka to get hurt on his account, so he did something stupid. He taunted the lead soldier in an attempt to distract him.

"Hey shit for brains, why don't you go back to latrine guard duty? I promise I won't tell anyone how much you love taking it in the tail from your two boyfriends there."

All three male soldiers stood momentarily surprised at the insult. The lead soldier recovered first and instantly turned his attention to the technician.

"You little-"

He never finished his retort. Gralka's fist slammed across the side of his muzzle and sent him sprawling. She dove for the downed grunt and nearly wrestled him into a headlock when he cried out.

"Get her off me!"

The two lackeys roughly grappled Gralka off the lead soldier and forced her into a submission hold. The downed soldier got up and walked over to her. He harshly slapped her across the face.

"I'm going to teach your little pet there a lesson. You be a good girl and watch."

He turned towards Kiori, crooked a finger and said, "Come here little monkey. I promise I won't hurt you...much."

Kiori stepped out from behind the pillar, his bravado actions a stark contrast to the terror he felt inside. "For a tough soldier, your pride seems pretty fragile," he said.

"You better learn how to speak to your superiors better," the soldier said, all hint of playfulness gone. Now the soldier had the glint of destruction in his eyes.

Kiori's resolve fled him as the soldier approached with deadly purpose. He tossed a nearby chair at the soldier. This was casually swiped away. The technician flung his arms up to deflect the inevitable blow.

The soldier automatically applied his combat techniques and fluidly executed a combo strike.

In one motion he knocked Kiori's arm away, and in the next delivered a precision strike to his ribs. The technician heard a distinct, loud crack even over the whoosh of air from his lungs.

Gralka bellowed, "NO!"

Kiori crumpled to the floor in a heap of agony, and found breathing a torturous experience. He wheezed with the pain that lanced his side with the tiniest of movements.

The soldier stood above the downed technician and grinned evilly. "Who's fragile now?" He seemed to enjoy it as the smaller technician suffered.

Gralka reached her breaking point.

She flexed against the two soldiers holding her and surprised them as she suddenly went slack. The pair was caught off guard and she had a split second advantage. She knocked the one on her right off balance.

With one arm free, she grabbed the soldier on her left and flung him to the ground. She promptly kicked him in the gut and knocked the breath from his body.

Gralka left that soldier stunned and quickly jumped over to the other one. His head promptly rammed the nearest table.

The guy fell to the ground in a limp heap and she turned her attention on the lead tormentor. He aimed a kick at Kiori, but she pounced him before it landed.

He was strong but she managed to twist his arm behind his back.

As the two struggled, the main door to the mess opened.

"Atten-SHUN!" bellowed a commanding voice.

The pair stayed locked in their struggle, the command ignored.

"I said fall in line!" the voice called again.

This time the two soldiers recognized the tone of a superior officer and untangled. Gralka growled low in the other soldier's ear, "You better hope I never meet you again," and shoved the male away from her.

Both combatants stood at attention before the General. He eyed them up and down and approached the male soldier. He calmly, but firmly, said, "Care to explain why two of my soldiers have turned my mess into a training hall?"

The General's face filled the soldier's vision.

The male soldier stared straight ahead and shouted, "A minor difference of opinion, sir!"

The general flicked his eyes over at Gralka and smirked. His gaze returned to the male. "You realize I could toss your sorry hide in the brig for assaulting a superior officer?"

The male soldier's tail instinctively curled between his legs and his ears dropped a bit. He stood rigidly at attention and replied, "Sir!"

The grizzled general eyed the soldier for a moment.

"Listen here, private Simmons. I'm going to do you a favor. You and your buddies there report down to waste management on deck 68, I hear they have quite a few barrels of sludge to move into Gamma bay. I better get a report from Lieutenant Gruff that you three were the most cooperative grunts she's ever seen, you get me?"

The soldier replied, "Sir, yes sir!"

The General paused for a few seconds. "Well, what are you waiting for a signed invitation? Move it, move it!"

The solider nearly tripped over his own feet as he scrambled to drag his two companions out the door with him.

The general shook his head in amusement before he turned his gaze to Gralka.

"So what's your story?"

"Just teaching the grunt some manners," she grinned before adding "sir."

"Yeah, I'll bet," he said with a smile.

Gralka smirked but stayed at attention.

"At ease, Lieutenant."

"Thank you, sir," she said and saluted him quickly.

A soft moan instantly captured her attention and Gralka bounded across the room to where Kiori lay in a heap.

"Kiori, are you all right?" She bent to inspect the injured tech.

The tech had his eyes scrunched closed. Every shift caused him to gasp in pain. "Yeah, sure," he practically whispered, "it only hurts when I breathe."

Gralka gently smoothed a hand over his ears. "I'm sorry, Kiori. I had no idea that you would end up getting hurt. Try to lie still; I'll call some med techs."

He responded with a grimace of pain.

Gralka walked back to the General.

"Sorry, sir. I need to call medical first, then I can give you my report."

"Of course," he replied.

A few moments later, two lean medical technicians strapped Kiori to an anti-grav stretcher. "We're headed to medical bay seven the next deck up."

"Got it, I'll be there shortly," Gralka called after them.

In the time it took for the med techs to get there, she caught the General up on their operations status.

"Good work," he told her. "Don't worry about checking in with me every two hours, I trust your judgment. Just let me know if you uncover any further information about this security leak we seem to have. I'll keep an eye on things from my end."

He noticed the concerned look she gave Kiori.

"I take it you two are getting along?" he asked.

"Sir?" she asked.

"I've known you long enough to recognize that look, Gralka. I've never seen you warm up to anyone so quickly, let alone a technician."

He placed a hand on her shoulder and his tone took on a fatherly quality. "Just don't let it affect your judgment. The last thing I want to see is you get hurt."

She looked him in the eye. His meaning went beyond physical injury.

She nodded once and he smiled.

"Now move your tail and look after him. From your account, it sounds like he's our best chance at tracking down this silent threat."

The General leaned closer and spoke in a hushed tone. "It's serious if the Consortium is resorting to these kinds of tactics." He gave her a small nudge in the direction of the door.

"Thank you sir," Gralka said and trotted after her charge.

Sometime later Kiori floated up through the fuzzy layers of unconsciousness. It took him several moments to realize he lay in a bed covered with a sheet.

He tried to flex his fingers and felt the resistance of another hand. The groggy tech turned to see Gralka hunched over the edge of the bed. Her eyes were closed and she gently held his hand. The lights were set low and he quickly discovered that his goggles were gone.

He attempted to sit upright but winced at the sore muscles across his ribs. Thankfully, he did not have any pain when he took a breath. His movement was enough to stir Gralka and she sat up with a cavernous yawn.

"Hey there, how are you?" she asked him.

"Uh, fine I guess. Just a little sore. What happened? All I remember is that jerk in the mess hall punching me, and then I woke up here."

Gralka chuckled softly, "Apparently, Linugad bones are just as easy to heal as Rudigar bones. The techs gave you the five-star treatment since we need you back to work quickly. What normally takes two days, only took a few hours."

"Ah, lucky me," Kiori said.

He gingerly pressed a hand to his ribs and noticed a distinct lack of clothing. Apparently, the techs stripped him to the fur.

"You're already clear to leave when you're ready. I guess I nodded off waiting for you to get your beauty rest."

"Thanks."

Gralka stood and stretched. "So, ready to get back to solving our little mystery?"

Kiori spied his jumpsuit on a shelf across the room. "Sure, just let me get dressed again. Can you hand me my suit?"

Gralka grabbed the garment and tossed it onto the foot of the bed.

"Here you go. Maybe we should grab a few more of those snack bars on our way out?"

Kiori fidgeted under the covers before he replied, "Uh, sure."

She stood for a moment staring at him. "Well?"

The tech motioned significantly towards the door and said, "Do you mind?"

Gralka laughed throatily.

"Seriously? You didn't seem to mind when I helped the techs pull you out of your suit," she said mischievously.

Kiori's ears blushed and he replied, "It doesn't count if I'm unconscious."

"Oh, all right," she said with a friendly tone, "but I know what you look like under that suit. Especially that cute little furry butt of yours."

The technician's ears burned with embarrassment but Gralka did not tease him further. She stood by the door and gave him a measure of privacy.

Kiori slipped out of the covers and donned his work suit in just a moment. He thought he saw Gralka grab a discrete peek while he was getting dressed, but decided not to mention it. The tech took another minute and went over his gear to make sure that everything was in its place.

"Ready," he said as he walked up to Gralka. The difference in height emphasized the differences between their two species yet again.

"I think I have an idea of something to try," Kiori spoke as he leaned over to punch the 'open' button on the key panel.

Gralka gently grabbed his hand before he reached the button.

"Wait," she said softly.

Kiori, a bit surprised, looked up at her with his wide eyes.

Gralka placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "I'm sorry you got hurt, Kiori. I shouldn't have let the situation get out of hand like that. I tend to have a bit of a temper some times, especially when dealing with thick headed males like that asshole back there."

Kiori grinned up at her. "Hey, no big deal. I managed to survive even though I'm the one that made the stupid remarks. I just thought it was a little unfair being 3 on 1, you know? Thanks for kicking ass."

"Thanks for your brave, but foolish, action. It distracted the guy enough for me to get free," the soldier said.

"Don't mention it. It wouldn't be the first time my mouth got me in trouble with a bigger and stronger species. Sometimes I forget just how strong stupid people are."

He laughed a bit nervously and rubbed his sore rib as a reminder.

"Yeah, it can be tough. In this army, most of the enlisted males tend to forget that the females can be just as tough."

Gralka looked somber for a moment. "Despite what they might say we actually do have brains...and feelings." She looked away distractedly.

"Anyway, I owe you my thanks and apologies. You're the first guy in a long time that didn't just see me as a pair of tits with a tail."

She bent down on one knee and swept Kiori into her strong arms. He almost protested since he expected a spine crushing bear hug, but she surprised him with a tender embrace.

She was soft and warm and had an unusual but pleasant earthy scent. Kiori returned the embrace as best he could and the two found comfort for a brief moment.

Gralka stood and gave him a smirk. "I'm glad I got to meet you, Kiori. Under usual circumstances I probably would've never met a technician like you, much less regard you as a friend."

Kiori fitted his goggles in preparation for travel. "Well, you never know when you will meet someone new you can call friend."

His own comment stirred a deep memory and he punched the open button even before he finished adjusting his goggles.

"Come on, I need to check something! It could be important." He bolted out the door and trotted down the corridor leaving Gralka staring after him. "Come on, hurry!" his voice said bouncing down the corridor back to the recovery room.

Gralka grinned and grabbed her rifle as she sprinted out the door after him.

The soldier quickly caught up to the tech. He attempted to locate the nearest maintenance lift. The lift provided a means to get to a technician workstation and it was out of the way of ordinary personnel traffic.

A few minutes later the lift doors whispered open as they arrived and Kiori pointed down the corridor to the workstation.

"It's down this way, and at this time of night I doubt anyone is going to be there," Kiori said to his partner.

"What if there's someone else around? This is not exactly secure if we're going to discuss our objective," Gralka grumbled.

She looked up and down the corridor.

"Oh, trust me," Kiori said as he walked up to the workstation, "even if there were any other techs around, your presence would give them plenty of reason to find somewhere else to be in a hurry."

"Glad I can help," she said with a fanged smile.

The technician plugged in his access pad to the main terminal and initiated a data dump. Instantly the various control screens winked to life and a complicated array of information was seen.

The workstation was specifically designed for Linugad technicians and he took full advantage. There were different keypads Kiori used for each of his hands and feet.

The soldier was momentarily awed as the tech used all his digits at once. Kiori concentrated on a screen and momentarily forgot Gralka stood next to him.

"Come on, where are you," he muttered under his breath.

Gralka noticed a technician turn the corner several bulkheads down the corridor. The tech was apparently too occupied with their data pad and failed to notice the large soldier in their path.

Just when she cleared her throat, the tech looked up and stopped dead in their tracks. The tech gaped at the soldier that stood only a few paces away.

Gralka narrowed her gaze and shook her head a couple of times.

The tech took off running in the other direction. The data pad clattered to the deck in an afterthought.

The soldier chuckled softly and looked back to see what Kiori found.

He sifted through the captured code from earlier. Every few seconds he input a command or two and the data changed its appearance. The soldier wondered how he could find anything with all that data.

Kiori grinned and said, "I got you now."

More entered commands isolated a small chunk of code that blinked in first one screen, then another.

"What's that?" Gralka asked.

"That," Kiori pointed at the screen, "is how we find our mystery hacker."

"From a line of code?" The soldier seemed dubious. "How's that going to lead us to the right person?" "Well, it's simple really; I've seen this code before."

Kiori entered in some new commands and analyzed the data from the dive he completed earlier.

Gralka did not sound amused when she growled, "Why didn't you say something before? We could've already caught this hacker."

"Because, I didn't remember I'd seen it until just a bit ago. Our little talk must've brought up just the right memory."

More commands showed Gralka that he made progress by the way the information narrowed.

The soldier grew impatient but reminded herself that Kiori was her new friend and not some unknown grunt. She took a calming breath and asked, "Can you please explain it to me?"

"Of course," he said. "I'm going to finish this trace. If I'm right, this'll give me the location of the real terminal that our hacker's using to infiltrate the ship's systems. I couldn't find it earlier since my trace was getting bounced around to ghost locations. With this new algorithm I can cut right through to the source."

Gralka watched as he input a final command and was rewarded with a single terminal location address.

"So that's where you are," Kiori whispered.

The technician swiveled to face Gralka. "The hacker is definitely another technician I'm sorry to say," he said with frown. "In fact I know who the person is; her name is Zumara."

"What do you mean you know her?"

"Well," Kiori sighed, "I knew her several cycles ago. I just assumed she got transferred to some other assignment. She could've been across the galaxy for all I knew."

He pondered for a moment. "I wonder why she didn't call me when she came on board?"

"Well, we need to find her and stop her from creating any more virus programs on this ship. Are we going to have a problem with that?"

Gralka's attitude implied that she would not hesitate to stop the hacker by any means necessary, even if Kiori got in the way.

Kiori looked downcast and replied, "No, there's no problem. I know what has to be done."

"Good," she said. "Now how do we get to this new terminal?"

The technician transferred the location to his data pad before he logged off the workstation.

"I can lead you there, follow me," he said with a tired tone. The new information gleaned took the wind out of him.

Gralka noticed the sudden shift in attitude and followed closely.

The pair moved through the ship via maintenance corridors. It took an hour to reach the general section of the ship where they suspected the hacker accessed the ship's systems. They were at the bow of the ship where much of the sensor array was located.

"I'm afraid this is going to be a lot like the other section of the ship. It can seem like a maze with all the conduits and tunnels. The catch here is that we'll be moving into a part of the ship that's not fully under gravity control."

Gralka shrugged and said, "I've had my share of low grav encounters."

"It actually makes it easier to work on stuff in here, but it also makes it more complicated since there's so much more equipment in one place."

The tech keyed the access code to the large square hatch. It led into the nexus of the sensor arrays. "From here on in, be very careful what you grab or lean on," Kiori cautioned Gralka.

"Don't worry," she said with her fanged grin, "I'll be careful." She secured her rifle to the back of her armor and motioned for him to lead the way.

The pair noticed a significant difference in the environment once they passed through the portal. Kiori keyed the hatch closed and pointed down the tunnel.

Before he could speak, she motioned to stay silent. It had not occurred to him that they might catch the hacker in action. He nodded in agreement and proceeded on.

After several tunnels and turns, Gralka lost her sense of direction. The pair floated deeper into the ship, but Kiori led with confidence. The pair came up to a narrower tunnel and Kiori pointed to the other end.

"There it is," he said quietly.

Gralka groaned inwardly. She saw that it was a tight fit even for the technician; there was no way she would get through there.

"Is this the only way to get to it?"

"Well, we could take the long way around, but I can't be sure there's a bigger conduit to accommodate you." He already guessed what she implied.

The soldier grunted and pulled out her short range pistol. "Okay, slip through here and check on the terminal."

"Whoa! Did you hear me when I mentioned all the sensor equipment around here?"

Kiori stared at the gun but made no motion to take it away.

"One shot could take down the grid and the ship would essentially be blind. Just relax; I'll be back in a moment and you'll see me the whole time."

Gralka relaxed the grip on her gun but did not holster it. She nodded for him to proceed.

Kiori silently floated through the narrow tunnel to the terminal. After a moment, he nodded his head in satisfaction.

"This is definitely the right place. I can see Zu's handy work." The tech turned around and talked to Gralka through the stretch of tunnel.

"It looks like she hasn't been here in a couple of days, so I would expect her to show up any time now." Kiori pointed to the wall and said, "I can install a surveillance bug that'll notify me when someone comes by."

"Do it," Gralka said.

In another moment, Kiori floated back through the tunnel. "We should hide somewhere out of the way. I think I saw a good place a couple of turns back."

The tech led them back in the direction they came but took a side turn. This out of the way hiding spot had enough room for the two to move around comfortably. It was in the same space that granted access to some of the processing units for the navigational sensor array. The cooling system in place made the hiding space quite chilly.

Kiori checked his pad and shivered. "Looks like ambient is a cozy 1C. I'm not sure how long we're going to be able to stay here; my suit's not exactly designed for thermal insulation."

Gralka chuffed in amusement. "This is nothing. Winter's back home got much colder."

Kiori grinned back, "Yeah, but you have a thick fur coat. Mine is more for looks than warmth."

"That's true," Gralka grinned. She stretched out her hand to him. "I don't mind sharing."

He took her hand and she pulled him close. The pair floated in the middle of the space a comfortable distance from the panels and conduits.

Gralka partially unfastened her jumpsuit. Kiori instinctively snuggled in close to her warm fur. She curled up slightly to form a barrier against the chill.

He grinned up at her sheepishly and said, "Thanks."

In this intimate space, his memories of time spent with Zumara flooded his mind. Kiori asked quietly, "I don't suppose you have a mate or kits or anything like that, do you?"

The soldier flicked her gaze down at the technician cradled against her body. "No, I don't. Why do you ask?" she replied.

"I was just thinking about Zu. I mean Zumara, our mystery hacker. There was a point in time where we talked about such things. Of course we were both ranking Technicians and one of us would've had to give it up in order to have kits and take care of them. But at that time we were content just to enjoy each other's company."

The technician was silent in contemplation for several moments.

"I can't say I know how you feel," Gralka said. "I've never been in that kind of a situation. I ran away from home when I was young. Damned if I was going to let my father give me away in some arranged marriage. I bolted as soon as I hit the minimum age for enlisting; been in the force ever since."

Kiori looked at Gralka and asked, "So you've never been in love?"

She shrugged. "Never really thought it was something I needed. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a virgin or anything," she chuckled. "I enjoy a good fuck as much as the next girl, but I don't let that get in the way of my career."

He laughed lightly and gave her fluffy tail a playful tug. "So, you are a woman with needs after all."

"Shh, don't tell anyone," she playfully returned.

"I wish I could describe what it's like to make love while in a dive with someone else," Kiori said wistfully. "It's like two people literally becoming one; sharing each other's feelings at once." Kiori sighed. "It's a unique experience."

Gralka put her arm around his shoulder but did not speak.

Kiori continued. "But then she got a promotion and before I knew it I got the chance to transfer to the Claw. Like that," he said with a snap of fingers, "things changed and I never heard of her again. That is until just recently."

"When this is over, I'll be around if you want to talk about it," Gralka said. "You're an unexpected friend, and I think I'd like the chance to get to know you better."

She squeezed him lightly and Kiori was acutely reminded just how feminine she was as his head smooshed into her chest, despite the plated armor she wore.

He decided to lighten the mood.

"So you mentioned that you had some older brothers? How big of a family do you come from? I only had an older sister and a younger brother, and my childhood was pretty boring."

"Ha, things were anything but boring around my farm! Let me tell you about the time my brother Sven decided to take me on my first hunt in the swamp."

The two chatted amiably and quietly for a couple of hours and got to know each other on a personal note.

Kiori noticed a change in Gralka's personality as she opened the more they conversed.

"I sure do miss back home when the weather turned cool late in the year and we could go to the local harvest festival. As I mentioned before, I came from an agricultural settlement and for the most part we didn't have all the fancy gadgets some of the other settlements had. It just reminds me of the home cooked food and all the games we used to play as kids."

Just then Gralka's stomach gurgled loudly.

The pair giggled softly together and the soldier rolled her eyes comically. "Guess all that talk about food woke up my gut. I don't suppose you have any more of those snack bars do you?"

"You're in luck, because I've got one more tucked in my suit." Kiori fished it out and held it in front of her muzzle.

She grinned and said, "You're a life saver." Gralka snatched the bar from his hand and kissed his nose.

"You're welcome," Kiori said pleasantly surprised.

Gralka crammed the bar into her muzzle and the tech giggled silently. She stuffed the empty wrapper into Kiori's jumpsuit.

When he looked back in mock annoyance she claimed, "You have more pockets than I do."

Kiori almost responded with a snappy retort but his pad made a soft pinging noise. He glanced down and pulled up the proximity display. It showed a signature within a couple of meters of his bug.

"I think our culprit has arrived." Gralka nodded and gently pushed the tech away. The two exited the hiding space quietly.

"Remember; avoid shooting if at all possible. I may be able to confront her without having to do anything drastic."

"Okay, we'll try it your way," the soldier replied. Gralka motioned for Kiori to lead them back.

The pair carefully negotiated the route back to the access tunnel. Just as they rounded the last corner, Kiori pulled Gralka back.

"Let me approach her alone. She might get spooked if she sees you with me."

Gralka grudgingly agreed. "Be careful, Kiori," she cautioned.

The technician smiled and nodded. Kiori floated silently towards the end of the tunnel.

There at the far end, the female Linugad culprit typed quietly at the terminal completely focused on her task.

"What are you doing down here?" Kiori asked inside the tunnel.

Zumara flinched but did not immediately turn. She typed furiously at the terminal even as she responded.

"Oh, uh, just running a level 6 diagnostic on the sensor array. CIC said they were getting some ghosts? The sent me to track it down."

"Ah, I see," Kiori said and floated closer. "Mind if I take a look? I was tracking down an anomaly I found earlier."

Finally, Zumara glanced over her shoulder. She said, "Uh, sure." She input a final sequence and pushed away from the console.

Kiori smiled and reached out for the console. Just as his fingers touched the keys, Zumara kicked out with her foot and painfully cracked Kiori across the jaw.

He careened into a nearby wall and Zumara deftly pushed off a panel. She sailed down the tunnel in the opposite direction.

Kiori reeled for a few seconds and winced at the ache in his jaw. He bellowed out, "Gralka, she's running!" Kiori quickly darted down the same corridor in pursuit.

The female tech led him on a confusing chase through the maze of corridors. He slowly gained distance on her despite her nimbleness. Kiori nearly caught her once as her tail disappeared around a corner.

However, his lead was lost when he took a wrong turn at the next junction. Kiori took quick stock of the systems surrounding him and made a guess where she was headed.

He turned a corner and found Zumara frantically typing at an auxiliary terminal. He slowed his approach and held his hands open. "Zumara," he said softly, "what're you doing? Where've you been?"

She glanced at him and yelled, "Don't come any closer!"

His voice nearly faltered as he said, "Why didn't you let me know you came back?"

Her typing slowed noticeably but did not stop. "How do you know me? I've never met you before!"

Kiori stared at her in shock. The curiosity to know what happened to her gnawed at his brain and threatened to compromise his judgment.

"Zu," he pleaded, "please, stop what you're doing."

"No!" she shouted. "I have to finish!" She whimpered as if in pain but did not stop entering commands.

Kiori drifted a bit closer. He reached out for her arm.

"Zu," he said again slowly, "just stop and come with me right now. I promise I'll protect you."

She nearly pounded the terminal as Kiori drifted within reach. She sobbed as she kept working seemingly against her will.

Kiori laid a hand on her shoulder and she snapped out of her hysteria. A cold expressionless mask dropped over her features.

Quicker than his eyes could follow, she whipped out a shock pistol and pointed it right at his face.

"STAY BACK!" she screamed.

Kiori backed off and made no movement. He kept a wary eye on the pistol.

Zumara kept typing in commands with her free hand and quickly glanced between her captive and the terminal.

"Zumara, you don't have to do this!" Kiori urged. "I don't know what happened to you but please, let me help you!"

"You have no idea you stupid techie," Zumara muttered. "You'll never understand what I have to do, even if I dove into your brain and fed you the information."

Recognition dawned on Kiori as he noticed the commands she enabled on the terminal. The sequence she set up would have dire consequences if she finished the code and executed it.

His ears laid flat and he whispered, "No."

Zumara focused on the last bit of code. Her pace slowed a bit since her attention was divided. She clamped her jaw, determined to finish her task.

"Gralka," Kiori raised his voice. "If you can hear me, we're in trouble."

"Stupid techie," Zumara muttered again. "You've been dancing on the precipice for weeks now, and I'm going to push you off into the abyss."

"Gralka!" He called out a little more urgently. "You've got to warn CIC! She's setting up a cascade feedback program. If it launches, the sensor array will build up to failure. The power grid surge could detonate the engines. Tell them to initiate the infiltration lock down! Right NOW!"

Kiori's outburst broke Zumara's concentration for an instant. "That wasn't very nice," she said and reared to strike Kiori with her gun.

The technician took the opening and lunged for her with both arms. The two grappled for the gun.

The female growled in surprise as Kiori's momentum knocked her backward. The gun discharged and the bolt tore into a panel a couple of meters away where it left a large scorch mark.

The two Linugads wrestled in the weightless environment. Zumara bit and clawed at Kiori who tried to knock away the gun. The pair tumbled away from the terminal and collided with a nearby access panel.

Kiori managed to gain enough leverage to knock Zumara's hand into the wall. She lost her grip on the gun and saw it spin out of reach.

The male had just enough time to grin before Zumara slammed her knee into his gut. He saw stars and his grip slackened.

She pushed away from him with all her strength. The adversary pulled out a tool from the side pocket of her pants.

The implement bore a striking resemblance to a double-pronged dagger. It was normally used to measure the electrical distortion across a plasma relay.

Maybe that is where the term 'plasma monkey' came from? The stray thought crossed Kiori's stunned brain.

Zumara brandished the tool menacingly and the intention to use deadly force gleamed in her eyes.

Kiori had no intention to get within striking distance again. He maneuvered closer to the terminal. It beeped softly and indicated that the code was ready to be executed. He cursed to himself.

If he took his focus off the female tech, he could diffuse the lethal code. However he would surely get stabbed in the back with the sharp tool. On the other hand, he was not sure he could subdue her in hand to hand combat, and definitely not in zero gravity.

Zumara closed in to press her attack while the technician weighed his options.

Kiori spied Gralka several meters away at the other end of a narrow tunnel. It was much too small for her to get through, but that did not concern her. She had her pistol out and aimed her sights on the attacker.

"No, don't shoot!" Kiori waved his hands frantically.

"Ha!" Zumara said. "You don't expect me to fall for that one do you?"

"I'd think twice about it, bitch," Gralka growled out loudly.

Zumara shot a glance over her shoulder. She kept her makeshift dagger poised to strike at Kiori.

"You even have your own trained attack dog I see," Zumara said to Kiori and taunted Gralka with her tone. "Does she roll over and play fetch too?"

"Gralka, don't shoot, we need her alive!" Kiori pleaded.

"Get out of my way," Zumara said and turned to Kiori matter of factly.

"I won't let you cripple the ship, Zu. You're going to have to go through me; I'm not going to move."

She smirked in twisted admiration. "So be it." She lunged forward with her plasma tool thrust out.

Kiori managed to deflect the direction of the thrust, just barely. Instead of plunging into his heart, he looked down to see more than half the length of the metal device buried in his right thigh. White-hot searing pain gripped his body and he screamed!

Zumara recoiled as his blood spewed out at her. She looked stunned, but only for a second. Her expression changed from surprise to grim confidence as her only barrier crumbled. She pushed the injured tech aside and floated toward the now vulnerable terminal.

"No," Kiori mumbled feebly.

THUNK!

Zumara reached for the terminal and Kiori saw her expression change dramatically. Her face grimaced in shock!

Her eyes twitched behind her goggles and she gurgled unintelligibly. After a few seconds her hands shook in a spasm and went limp. Her body slumped visibly but remained floating in place.

Kiori also floated in space and his precious life fluid leaked into the air around him. His world dimmed as he fought to hold on to consciousness.

With a detached sense of relief he saw the flashing display of the terminal waiting for the final command to initiate the destructive program. The rogue technician failed to execute her lethal plan.

Just before everything went black, Kiori noticed the knife handle protruding from the base of Zumara's skull.

**

Kiori again found that his consciousness floated in a fuzzy layer he struggled to break through. He thought he heard someone speak his name. He longed to answer but found his mouth did not work as expected. He attempted to bring his hand to his muzzle but found it restricted by something.

"He's coming around now," the med tech said.

Gralka nodded and laid a gentle hand on Kiori's shoulder. "Kiori, wake up." He tried again to bring his hand to his face. The blood transfusion tubes hindered his movements.

"Mmmghhhmr," he mumbled. The breathing mask strapped to his muzzle also restricted his ability to speak clearly.

"Lie still," Gralka said softly next to his ear. "You'll be fine in a few hours, but it was a close one."

The soldiers tone was that of a concerned friend. It was vastly different than the gruff and commanding voice Kiori had known over the last day.

That realization sobered him somewhat and helped clear some of the fog. Had it really only been a day since they started this mission? It felt like a week had passed.

Kiori cracked his eyes open slowly, thankful that the lights were not at full strength. He shifted his head over and met Gralka's penetrating stare.

Again he tried to lift his hand to his face but realized the machine held him in check. He opened his eyes a bit more and returned the stare.

"Cnyuutkk thssthnng uhffmm," the injured tech said unintelligibly.

It took a few seconds before Gralka realized that he asked her to take off his mask.

"Oh, right," she said. "I guess now that you're awake we don't need this anymore."

She clicked a release button and the tension on the mask slackened. Gralka slid the mask off Kiori's muzzle and smirked. He twitched his whiskers and opened and closed his mouth a couple of times.

"Ah," he said with some relief. "I guess this means we were able to stop her, huh?" Kiori's gaze shifted around the room to the various machines and med techs and came to rest back on Gralka.

"Yeah," she replied. "You were able to distract her long enough for me to take her out. I remembered what you said about not shooting anything, and all I had was my knife. Sorry I was not able to get to her before she stabbed you."

Kiori closed his eyes for a moment as the image of Gralka's knife lodged in Zumara's skull flashed in his mind.

In one instant he felt the regret of not being able to save Zumara, but also the relief that she had not been able to finish her mission of sabotage. He opened his eyes and looked to Gralka again.

"Your aim was true. I'm glad you were there, I couldn't have stopped her alone." Kiori smiled at the soldier next to him.

She looked down at the floor and her ears folded back. Kiori could see her eyes close in a pained expression.

"What's the matter?" he asked softly.

She started to look away. "Gralka?" he asked again.

The soldier inhaled and sighed. "I've been in so many battles I've lost count. I've seen so many of my fellow soldiers fall on the field, I thought it no longer affected me. But today, you nearly died and all I could do was watch."

She wrung her hands in frustration. "I could see you clearly, barely the distance across this room, but so far out of reach it could have been a light year away."

Kiori was slightly confused by Gralka's comment, but he felt the need to reassure her. "Hey, it's okay. I'm here now because of your actions. If you hadn't been there I would surely be dead right now."

She took his hand in hers. "It was agony having to wait for the recovery team to show up. I was afraid you were going to bleed to death before they could find us. Getting shot is less painful than that feeling of being completely helpless."

Kiori squeezed her hand and said, "So you would have rather been shot?" She glanced at his smirk and could not help but return it.

She shook her head and said, "No, of course not! But..."

The tech laughed lightly and tugged at her fingers. "But what? Why're you acting so weird?"

Gralka leaned close and spoke in his ear. "You're really smart, but you can be a dumbass sometimes. I was trying to say that I've become pretty fond of you."

Kiori's attitude shifted immediately. "Oh," was all he replied and became more serious. Before he inquired further the door to the room swished open and the General strode in.

"So, once again I find you two on my report."

Gralka detached from Kiori and stood at attention with a full salute.

"Sir!" she said firmly.

"At ease, Lieutenant. You can give me a full debrief later, but for now I'm glad to hear that no serious damage was done. I've been informed that Technicians are sweeping the systems on the ship to clean out any of that code that you found."

The General nodded his grizzled head at Kiori. "You're to be given the Silver Star Cluster for your exemplary action, Technician Kiori." He extended a hand to Gralka and said, "you as well."

"The Silver Star Cluster," Kiori said in disbelief. "I've never gotten anything higher than a good performance review." He looked up at Gralka and said, "Congratulations on your medal."

"You too," she replied.

"If I'm not mistaken," the General said arching his brows together, "this will be the first time a Technician has received a medal on board Kragan's Claw."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Gralka said and shared a secret smile with Kiori.

"You both deserve it. To think that we had a sleeper spy in our midst is unthinkable. There's no telling how far the Consortium is willing to go these days." The General shook his head in disgust.

"General," Kiori asked, "about the spy. What happened to Zu- I mean, how did the spy infiltrate the ship?"

Gralka noticed his discomfort in asking about Zumara.

"Ah, yes," the General replied. "While the med techs were busy patching you up, the autopsy lab went to work on the spy. They were able to determine that the former technician had been thoroughly brainwashed."

He shook his head sadly. "Must be some new technique those lizards have come up with. Damned if our guys have never seen anything like it. From what they can tell, the subject's memory was almost completely erased and a new personality was installed. I suspect the neural implant had a lot to do with that."

Kiori looked downcast at the news, but took a small amount of comfort knowing that the Zumara he knew was not the same person that committed those acts of sabotage. For all intents and purposes she was just the shell of the person he knew. At least he discovered why she did not recognize him.

"Well, the medies tell me that you'll still be in here for another half a day," the General continued on. "Better make the most of it, because I have a special project for you when you get back on your feet. Have Gralka bring you to me when you get squared away."

"Yes, sir," Kiori said. "If I may ask, what kind of project did you have in mind?"

He chuckled and commented to Gralka, "Not even fully recovered and rarin' to go eh?"

She smiled and nodded.

"I can see why you like him," he spoke in a softer, fatherly tone.

"Your new project," the General pointed to Kiori, "is to make sure something like this doesn't happen again, Technician. That means you'll be creating and installing a new layer of command subroutines to provide defense for our internal systems. It's a big undertaking but I'm sure you can handle it, right?"

"Yes sir!" Kiori said enthusiastically. "Thank you, sir!"

"Don't thank me yet son," he said with a smile. "Gralka here's going to be your point of contact for command staff to make sure that everything gets integrated smoothly. She's not as forgiving as I am."

"I'll take that under advisement, sir," Kiori said.

"Carry on, Lieutenant," he said to Gralka as he strode for the door.

"Sir," she said.

"So," Kiori said after a couple of moments, "you're going to be my boss a while longer?"

"Looks that way," she replied.

"I think I can live with that," he said with a smile and lay back on his pillow.

The medical gadgets whirred quietly in the background and Kiori looked forward to the coming days where he could work closely with his new companion Gralka.