Chapter 11
Chapter 11.
Chris padded up to the table Nick was sleeping at, his arms were crossed with his muzzle resting on top. She picked up the glass next to him and drank what was left, then slammed it down onto the table's surface.
"Oh! I'm sorry." She picked up the bottle that was next to it. "Did I wake you, Nick?"
"Huh? Last call?" His blue eyes were rimmed with red, they blinked as he looked around, he focused on her and wiped crud out of the corners. He was still a little drunk, and Chris had all the right curves in all the right places.
"Last call was last night," she said, screwing the top of the bottle shut. She set it up on a shelf, out of his reach. "And while corp has me doing things outside of my job description, I'm not your alarm clock!"
"Well." Nick sat up and stretched his arms out with a yawn, "I've got some drilling to do, wanna help? I need someone to hold my bit..." He stared at her Collie form, letting his tongue hang out with a grin. He was a red Siberian Husky Rhenthar with reddish orange fur around his eyes, a sharp white star ended above his forehead.
Chris stomped her foot on the wooden floor of the local outpost's pub, it also doubled as a dining area three times a day. "Out!"
"In?" He winked at her. This was his usual behavior, anything less, and people wouldn't be getting their Nickel's worth.
"Out!" Another stomped foot.
"Oh, baby, lets tie." He trundled toward the door with more effort than should have been necessary to keep upright. Gotta switch back to Gin, there's a reason they call it ta-kill-ya, he thought. "What's the hurry? Supplies don't arrive for another two days. You're interrupting my quality time here..." At least, he thought it was two days. Maybe tomorrow. What day was it again?
Chris held a paw over her eyes, shaking her muzzle. "You're hopeless. Two temps, for your team. Hello? Waiting at the landing strip?"
"I'm not hopeless, I've got all sorts of hope." He waggled his eyes at her, "tell me about this landing strip!"
Chris grabbed a wet dishrag and threw it at his head. "Out!"
Nick dodged the missile and opened the door, he jumped out. "In!" He laughed and shut the door before anything else could fly at his head. That's right, he thought. Two new temps... he just happened to have two openings on his sled team. Really, he had six, but who's counting?
He hustled down the snow covered street and shook his thick fur out, it was definitely cold out here. He spotted a temperature gauge hanging on a wall, and thought it felt a lot colder than twenty. Wiping some snow off the minus sign, he nodded, that's more like it. The sun was low in the sky, and it would stay there for the rest of the month.
Nick popped the door to one of the storage sheds lining the street, and reached blindly inside to flip a switch. A bare light bulb came on revealing his pride and joy. Four meters in length, he inspected it's fluorinated polymer coated runners, fired up the SAT/NAV. He opened each heated storage compartment of the sled, to make sure nothing had been left inside.
Supplies hung ready on the walls. Harnesses, straps, traces, snowshoes, ice shoes, poles, spikes, cleats, and shaped thermal charges... mmm, fun stuff. He thought back to the communication sheet he had read yesterday, er, the day before yesterday. These temps were supposed to come with their own gear. OK.
He took his harness down from where it hung on a peg and squirmed into it. A strap fell across his muzzle and he tried moving it to the right, then the left, but it wouldn't fit in either spot. He took the harness back off and laughed, it was upside down. He pulled it back on and got it all just right.
A few minutes later, he had the sled easing out of its parking spot. His legs were long and very strong, and though he couldn't run on all four, he had no problem tearing up through the snow to go pick up some newbies.
I watched as the transport plane built up enough speed to lift into the sky. The rumble of thunder reached my ears as it bounced off various things near and far, and it sounded strange through the cranial heater hugging the top of my head, in my ears and nose.
Zach had helped me put it on before we went outside, explaining that it was compensation for our lack of winter coats. He explained how most of my blood went through my head several times per minute, and the heater would pour much needed warmth into my body. A heavy-gauge coiled wire ran from it behind my forehead to my collar, delivering current to generate supplemental heat, preventing it from freezing to my neck.
My mind felt as stuffy and dampened as my ears, words were outside of my reach. My past was troubling, but my attitude was good, life might be good. Zach seemed aware of my issues, and spoke calm words that put my mind at ease whenever he saw me hesitate or turn solemn.
Despite my orders to follow his commands, he had a new submissive scent. Sin had secured all four of his paws to the floor and together we tormented him at both ends, for most of the night. He finally exceeded his limit and lost his load, spraying below him. At that point, the parasite lying in wait had no problem finding the source of what it sought. Sin kept his mouth occupied while it aggressively secured its new home. I couldn't get off, but the process certainly turned me on. Zach whimpered and whined a lot afterwards, but he seemed to enjoy the attention.
Now his movements were stiff, he mumbled to himself often and kept shifting his sheath around. We each had a metal penetrator in our pack, a device similar to what was in the urinals I used. I had been shown how to operate it, and it certainly was simple enough.
I wasn't prepared for the cold. When I stepped out of the terminal, the air stung my body like a living thing, I felt my nuts draw close and my fur stuck painfully on end. The word, cold, did no justice. It did not flay skin from bones, it did not evaporate water from blood. When I first felt it, I couldn't breathe, it didn't even feel cold, it burned. I staggered and looked at Zach, horrified.
He laughed and walked up to me, brushing his paws through my fur. Everywhere he touched left a long burning sensation as the skin that was retaining my heat suddenly lost it to the air. I yelped and batted his paws away, but he only laughed more.
The wind whipped up, and where I thought the pain was intolerable, it doubled. I turned from it and tilted my muzzle at the ground. Life wasn't feeling so good.
"Keman, don't look so down. Come here." I approached, he adjusted my heater and warmth flooded into my head to spread down to my extremities. "You'll get used to it, quick enough."
I let out a little howl of uncertainty, but held my tail out. When I breathed through my nose, the heater warmed and moisturized the air I inhaled, and caught the moisture from my breath when I exhaled. When I panted through my mouth, huge clouds of steam drifted up into the air and fell to the ground as they froze.
A hissing sound approached us, paws crunching in the snow. I had to turn my muzzle towards where it was coming from, before it became any louder, the microphone pickup in the heater was directional.
"Ahoy there!" A lone Husky Rhenthar halted in front of a long, narrow sled. He sat down just as the sled ground to a halt under him. "Name's Nickel, you can call me Nick. You two my new temps?"
Zach stepped forward, and I waited for the secret Siberian Husky handshake, but apparently there wasn't one. "Sure, that's us. I'm Zach," he pointed at me, "this here is Keman."
Nick looked at me, seemingly tasting my name. "Keman?" I wagged my tail. "We don't really bare our throats around here, but for you, I'll make an exception," he winked.
"That's ok, we'll do it your way. Keman doesn't talk much, Zach explained, "a traumatic event took his words, but he understands everything you say." He glanced at me with a smile, "most of the time."
"Not a talker, eh? Fair enough. I think he and Stew will get along just fine, don't think I've heard more than a dozen words from him in five years. Hey, are those the new heaters I've been hearing about?"
Zach nodded to that. "6000 btu, we'll stay warm. No winter coat." He pulled at his fur to emphasize how thin it was.
"Rich city folk, then." Nick laughed, "I'll keep you warm during the day, with this beast," he slapped his sled, "and at night, I can keep you warm, too!" He howled, his humor was contagious, my spirits rose despite the numbing cold.
"All right, I see you already have harnesses on under your packs. Let me guess, carbon nanotube?" Zach nodded. Nick held up his paw secretly and whispered to me, "I think someone likes harnesses." He pointed at Zach.
I glanced at Zach, grinning big myself. Zach's grin vanished and he yelped.
"Uh huh. Yessir! I've got you figured out. C'mon and help me turn her about and I'll get you all hooked up. Just remember, the view's always the same unless you're the lead dog, and that's me!" His tongue hung out as he made big plumes of steam while turning the sled. Zach and I walked up together and gripped the traces, lending a paw. The sled moved forward on the ice and snow like it was on glass ball bearings, but lateral movement was difficult.
"You can stow your packs inside these compartments," Nick explained, once we got it turned around. He opened airtight lids on pneumatic struts. "Hot or cold, take your pick."
I slipped my backpack off and dropped it into the red interior of a "hot" storage area. I held my paw against the inside, and though it was only slightly above freezing, the difference was hot enough to seemingly burn my paw pads.
Our packs were the standard CI issue cold survival setup. The stuffy feeling in my head felt a lot like being stoned on weed. What had been explained to me didn't stick much in my memory, but I remembered that it had food and a thermal tent inside.
"Hey, what's that around your neck, Keman?" Nick asked, staring closely at the band of segmented bright metal.
Words I had certainly heard before. Hearing them previously had made me embarrassed, but I couldn't remember when or why, just that it had a sexual undertone to it. I grinned and shrugged.
Nick quirked his ears sideways at Zach, who stammered, trying to fit his pack into one of the other compartments. "My my... someone is a little kinky!" He howled into the air. Zach splayed his ears flat and didn't say anything.
"All right, dogs, line up!" Nick carved lines in the snow for where he wanted Zach and I to stand. Together, we approached them, I took the spot furthest back. When Zach got down onto all fours, he looked just like a real Siberian Husky, because of his small size. I tried to picture what that meant I looked like, a concept which felt strangely new.
I'm a big timber wolf when I get down onto all fours. Why did that turn me on? I focused on the concept, and decided that I felt great about my body, a foreign feeling, but there it was. I panted with a new level of excitement. Life was good.
Nick attached trace lines to each of our harnesses, explaining that the sled was empty and that this would be a test run back to the outpost, fifteen kilometers away. He asked if either of us had ever pulled a sled before, Zach had, but I shook my head. He explained to me that I needed to pay close attention to the tension in the traces attaching me to the sled, not to let them go slack, but also, not to try pulling it all on my own, speeding us up.
"Pulling a sled is a harmony of effort. You'll soon feel what everyone is doing, compared to your own efforts, and that'll be important when we've got the rest of the guys with us." Nick tied in to the traces at the front, I noticed his legs were so long, he couldn't run on all fours, and again, a curious sensation lingered in my mind. Legs which looked familiar for some reason.
"Forward, haaa!" We were off, picking up speed rapidly.
It wasn't long before my heart pounded in my ears, the warmth in my head faded as my heater's thermostat dialed back, I was generating all the heat I needed, on my own.
The sensation of pulling a sled was unique, as no matter how much effort I pulled, I gained no distance closer to Zach or Nick. The tightness against my shoulders was spread out comfortably with black rubber pads in strategic locations on the harness. My paws warmed up, claws dug into the snow with ease. A new clarity trickled into my mind.
Words formed, words I could speak, I knew. But Sin had been clear, I wasn't to try and speak, no matter what. I tackled some problems in my head, sorting my thoughts out, veering away from the troubling things. Sinclair, I missed him, yes, definitely. I snapped back to reality as the sled got harder to pull.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa there, Keman!" Nick, running backwards and holding his paws up. Behind him, and getting closer fast, were a tight collection of outbuildings. I was shocked, that was an hour?
But the sun hadn't moved... and what I could smell, hadn't changed. I peered up at the sun curiously, as we ground to a halt, staring at it through the tinted windows in my heater. I looked at Zach and Nick, each, with a troubled expression.
"Oh, that?" Nick hooked a thumb at the sun, low on the horizon. "It'll be there all month, Keman. It takes some getting used to, this time of the year. Makes some people crazy. I wouldn't know anything about that!" He howled. I glanced at Zach and we grinned at each other.
I could see only two streets, perpendicular to each other. The buildings were a mismatch of prefab plastic construction and hastily assembled wood and steel structures. The cold started seeping into my paws the moment we had stopped, and warmth flooded into the top of my head once more. My ears and nose were sore from the parts of the heater stuck inside them. A dull headache was building, making it easier to accept that I had just run for an entire hour. I was beat.
We helped Nick park his sled in a metal storage shed, but he insisted we wait to take our harnesses off. "Normally, we just dive into the snow," Nick explained. "Where it's all nice and warm. Take the heat from the trail with us." He was in constant motion, shutting the door and walking us to a wooden structure.
The door opened into blackness, a rush of hot humid air hit me like a yawning mouth. Zach poked me in the back. "Just walk forward, Keman. You're a little snow-blind."
I held out my paws and wandered into the unknown. Smells, voices, people, dark shapes moved around me. I could see much better at my periphery, but when I looked at anything directly, that area was completely black. Nothing was within reach of the door, it was an empty area with nothing I could knock over. Probably intentionally so.
Zach helped me take the heater off my head, the gel inserts squeaked and popped as they slid out of my ear canals, the part in my nostrils hurt worse coming out than it did going in. I shook my fur out and wagged my tail, though my head was still a little stuffy, like earlier. Words were again absent from my vocabulary. I looked around with rapidly improving vision.
The interior was decorated with old dog sleds and various retired winter gear, all mounted to the wooden walls. Lighting was dim, above each small table, and I saw a half dozen with people seated. The floor was wood; it spoke of many years of wear and scratches from claws and objects dragged across it.
"Guys! Meet our new temps! This is Keman and Zach," Nick said as he pointed to each of us. "Who says CI doesn't appreciate our efforts, eh?" There was a general grumbling from the people present, some choice words spoken under their breath.
Nick brushed it off like he didn't notice, he pointed at various individuals seated at tables, eating and drinking. The smell of food and people made my mouth water, my stomach clenched up into a ball and growled at least as loud as I could.
"This here is Stewart, we call him Stew," he said, pointing to an Alaskan Malamute Rhenthar. He was big and muscular, white with gray going down his chest. "He talks at least as much as you do, Keman." Some curious looks came my way from that. "Over there," he pointed to a Rhenthar who clearly came from gray wolves, he had white around his muzzle. "Rico. He's our maintenance engineer."
"Lo." Rico waved. Nick looked at me and held a paw up to his muzzle, whispering "don't call him a janitor, or your toilet will stop working."
"Just yours, Nick." Rico laughed.
Nick winked at me and pointed at a female Collie Rhenthar, sitting behind a counter set up as a bar. "And the Lady Christine, in all her glory." She put her fists on her hips after standing up, glaring.
"You'll call me Chris, if you two have a shred of intelligence more than this clown." Black and white markings, shaggy fur, floppy ears. A little taller than Zach.
"Yes ma'am!" Nick wagged his tail, she snorted and looked away. "Last, but not least, Chiko is over there," he pointed at, what I first thought was a small black wolf, but the white in his ears and the star running up his muzzle terminating on his forehead said Siberian all the way. "Our very own gift from Mother Russia. He's just missing the bow on his head!"
"I tie bow on head hor you, Nick-ell. Eny time." I noticed his left eye was deep green, his other bright blue. He was short and smelled complex, like engine oil and spices, I liked him immediately.
"And that's why we love you, Cheeky!" Nick whispered to me, "any warm hole!"
"Don't cull me that, Nick-ell. I tie somethink else on head and let hang." Chiko drew a claw across his neck, "do eweryone fawor, ha ha!"
"Chris, what's on the menu for today? Our new guys are probably pretty hungry, I know I am!" Nick rubbed his paws together and licked his muzzle. Zach started helping me out of my harness, it was deeply embedded in my fur.
Chris picked up a steak in each paw from a cold storage bin, "Cow." She slapped them onto a grill, they started sizzling immediately. "Hot." She tilted her muzzle at Nick, "any other requests? Perhaps a Caesar salad, eggs hollandaise?"
Nick laughed, "she's just pissed cuz CI has her analyzing the cores from her
drilling platform." I noticed Zach staring with sudden interest.
"I'm a geothermal drill specialist. Not an archeologist!" She glanced at the grill and flipped the steaks with a metal spatula. "Steaks will be done in a minute, unless you like your cow extra crispy." She slapped another steak on the grill, then immediately announced, "Nick, your steak's done."
Zach hung our harnesses up on pegs along the wall, I caught on that Chris wasn't about to serve me, so I stepped behind the bar and found some plates. I speared the huge pieces of meat with my claws, and dropped them heavily. There was very little plate left, the meat stuck out over the edges. My stomach clawed at my ribs, I couldn't wait to dig in. Nick moved up beside me and brushed his hips with mine as he produced a foul smelling oily brown sauce from a container up on a high shelf. I wrinkled my nose, it smelled like diesel fuel. He bumped my hips a couple of more times, I leaned back and peered at his tail, enjoying the view.
"Want some of the good stuff?" he asked, with a big grin.
"Don't poison him, Nick. That stuff's gross..." Chris smirked.
I shook my head and walked back to the table, handing Zach his plate.
Before we left, Sin had ordered me to stand upright whenever was possible, something new in my training. I fought the desire to drop to fours, eating my meal under the table. With a little extra effort, I pulled a chair out and sat in it, across from Chiko. Zach homed in on me, his mouth watering.
"Iz good you no dlink Neek's sauce. I use kep skeeds on sled oi-eld. Haw!" I stared at him and wagged my tail, using my back teeth to scissor the meat into chunks, which I swallowed whole. Pure heaven.
"Hum. You no talk much," Chiko stared at my neck. "That iz slav collair," he narrowed his eyes at Zach. "You own heem?" Conversation around us dwindled to silence.
I kept on eating, like I didn't understand, but it was an old defense. I couldn't remember when, but I had certainly worn collars before, in fact I'd been in this situation, before. I felt embarrassed, and Chiko's rising scent of anger wasn't helping.
Zach shook his head. "No. I don't own him." Chiko's nostrils flared... truth. "But it is a slave collar. It's the only thing holding Keman's mind together, right now. So lighten up? He's been through a lot, and we're fixing him up." Truth.
Chiko turned and looked at me. "Iz tlue? Whut you tink? Collair, locked tight awound nek. Canawt take oof. Look at taks, jinkle, you wear, like dug."
I had stopped eating, and was now staring at my plate, feeling further embarrassed, I slouched down on myself to give my sheath the most amount of slack. What was saying turned me on, the more I thought about it. Zach stared intensely at me, cocking his muzzle this way and that, observing my reaction.
Nick broke the tension as he walked by, looking over my shoulder, between my legs. "Keman! Put that away, before you poke someone's eye out." He turned to look at Chiko. "Cheeky, do I need to tell these boys about the first time I fitted you for a harness?"
Chiko jerked his muzzle up. "No! Iz priv-"
"How you wanted to be left staked out in the middle of the valley..."
"Nick-ell, shot up!" Waves of embarrassment flowed from Chiko. I started to eat again, Chris laughed behind me.
"...bottle of bitch in heat all over your rump." More laughter, from around us. Chiko stood up from his chair and walked out, muttering "hav verk to do on sled."
Nick took the abandoned seat and shifted around on it. "Yum, still warm!" He devoured his mostly red steak. I stared at him, deciding that I liked him a lot. He was cute in a sort of backwoods way. I thought of his narrow hips bumping mine, and thought of other ways they could bump together.
"Bartender! Who's leg do I gotta hump to get a drink around here?" Nick looked expectantly at Chris. She shook her head.
"I think you're well versed with where the bottles are kept. But I'll be happy to show you where the glasses are. You should try one for a change!" Hooting laughter followed.
Nick got up and found a bottle with amber liquid inside. "What was I thinking? You only serve virgins." He uncorked the bottle and sloshed some of the alcohol into a glass. He left it on the counter and walked back to the table with the bottle in his paws.
"Our only virgin just walked out," Rico chimed in, slapping paws with Stew. The two howled laughter at each other.
Nick rubbed my headfur as he walked past to sit down. "Don't let Cheeky get to you,
Keman. He's just jealous, he probably likes your collar." Nick stared at the bottle, like he was missing something. He spotted the glass left on the counter. "Keman, fetch?" He pointed to the glass.
Zach mumbled something as I got up to get it.
"I'm just kidding," Nick glanced at Zach and followed my progress. "That one's on the house! It's all you, Keman."
I sniffed the alcohol, my nose stung, it was something very high proof. I lapped at it and my tongue caught fire, then my throat. My ass was clenching by the time I made my way back to the chair. I slouched with a big grin and finished the glass with a gulp.
"Now, that's my kind of dog! Bartender! Another round!" He poured me four fingers.
Zach reached across and took it from my hand, drinking it down himself. "He's probably had enou-" His eyes went wide as he stared at the bottom, swallowing again. "Oh my."
The world grew fuzzy at the edges, conversation became louder all around me. At one point, Chiko came back, and I remember him pouring me drinks. I don't remember much else.
Morning found me way too early. I was a little hung over, and memories leading up to it were fuzzy. I could remember a time when such a hangover would have left me crippled for the whole day. Such was not the case with a canine liver, I knew by the time I had my harness on, I'd be back in shape.
The living quarters we were assigned was barely heated. I could still see my breath, but the mattresses were soft and the covers warm. I squirmed into my harness and pulled it over my body. Zach was still asleep, so I went out on a limb and took his harness down and slid it over his head. His eyes popped open and I grinned at him, tugging it down his body. He grabbed his sheath and whined, pushing my paws away as he came fully awake.
"Erf, Keman." His ears went flat, "you don't understand my history with harnesses, ow, I can't believe he 'sited me." He pulled the straps the rest of the way around his body, and rolled over onto his stomach and hugged the webbing across his chest. "I didn't used to like these. Sinclair used association conditioning to build my appreciation, you might say. For years, I couldn't get off unless I was wearing one."
I wagged my tail and panted, that sounded rather interesting to me. I reached under his stomach and felt how hard he was, he batted my paws away. "No, no! Bad Keman! Don't make me shock you..." He quickly tilted his muzzle sideways, I had backed up a few steps, his words gripped my mind in a familiar, very pleasurable way. I felt through the trace of hate and resentment surrounding the emotion, what I found was highly erotic. I stared at the floor with a dopey grin, and panted.
Zach sat up, "you remember, don't you?" It wasn't a question, but I nodded a little. "Ohh Keman, there's so many questions I want to ask you, but it would hurt you in ways you can't comprehend. Just focus on those thoughts and don't think too deeply. If you start hating yourself, just remember... the real you is coming back. And believe me, he likes who you are, a lot. I would tell you more but it would only complicate things, make it harder for you to figure yourself out."
I tried to picture that, but I couldn't bring it together. The thoughts slipped out of my reach, I lost my footing and stepped into ice cold water. Too big of a part of me hated my collar, hated the control, hated everything about my situation. I pushed it all away and took a deep breath.
Zach sniffed my way. "Aww. There it goes... c'mon, let's go get some breakfast. That'll help." My stomach growled, I was starving. We took our packs and headed on out.
This time, there were three more of us in front of the sled, forming up two rows of two, then one, and Nickel out in front. The sled was loaded up with heavy power storage cells, freshly recharged from solar power. Each outbuilding had a roof glistening with arrays capturing the sun's energy. The outpost's location had been chosen because of the natural protection being in the bottom of a valley offered from winter storms. Walls of ice stretched like mountains a half click to each side.
The storage cells, basically high density batteries, powered a drill rig located thirty clicks to the north. That was an area of interest to CI, originally for its potential as a highly stable hot spot for geothermal power, now, as something else. The wind blew through my fur, stripping my body of its precious heat. I wondered how hot a spot it could possibly be, up here on the top of the world.
"Nick, you figure an extra ten cells with Keman and Zach?" Chris said, peering into the storage holds, inspecting the large brick-shaped objects. They weighed much more than they appeared.
"Ah, yuh. About that. Ten to one, is a half dozen plus four, to another." He was finishing with laying out the trace lines for our harnesses.
Rico shut a hot locker after putting food supplies in it. "Supplies for a week, as usual, but you should be back in two days." I stared at him, curiously. "Always bring three times the provisions you need," he explained. "Up here."
"Plus one," Nick added.
I lined up next to Chiko, at the back, grinning at him from behind the windows of my heater. He nodded at me, "You ohkay, en my buk. Any dog dlink much as you did iz good to me, no slav."
We were in motion not long after that, paws clawing at the snow, the whisper of runners right-behind, me, everyone forming a cadence as we followed Nickel. The Sat/NAV setup in the sled beamed course corrections to his wetware, taking us over the least treacherous ground conditions, avoiding raised walls of ice that could span dozens of meters into the air.
Once again, clarity trickled down into my mind, the pumping of my limbs and the sway of Zach's raised tail in front of me producing a hypnotic trance. I watched the way his body moved, and liked the flex of his muscles under his smooth fur. Black patches ended just above his knees, they reminded me of something I once built, it would have looked similar to that. But those days were over, this was a new life.
I watched his tail, and remembered the first time I had seen Zeek. How familiar his appearance had seemed, but I couldn't place it at the time. Now I remembered that tail, right up against my stomach as I buried my knot into him, how amazing that had felt. Such marked the beginning of my new life, and now I was past that, too, wasn't I? Third life, but the same body. My old mind, new body, but my new mind, too.
I felt like I could almost stretch my thoughts around it all, but it was like trying to imagine infinity. I just couldn't do it. Anxiety surged as conflicting opinions of my past bubbled forth. What I felt like, being human. What Keman the Rhenthar thought of once being human, so distasteful and shameful, and what Keman thought of the present. It just didn't mesh, not from the inside. I focused on my limbs pounding, panting, pulling.
I focused on what all of me appreciated, pounding, pulling, panting. Zach's tail, whipping through the air. The view's always the same, yep it was. My tags jingled as I ran through the snow. They jingled when Sinclair was on top of me, too, and that was an insanely hot thought. I almost stumbled when piercingly cold air startled me when my prick came out of its insulative sheath. It hurt something fierce, so I dialed those thoughts back. Damn, I was horny, pain shot up into my bladder in waves, the parasite didn't like the cold anymore than I did.
I focused on the fact that I couldn't paw myself off anymore, and that turned me on with a whole new passion. The fact that someone else had control of my sexuality. Control, like how my collar was controlling me. Ow, ow! Between my legs, such pain! I focused on the snow, passing under us. I looked up at the sky, limitless blue and ocean deep, periodically stars were even visible, the brightest of them. I wondered where Earth was, if it circled one of them. I wondered if I would ever own a starship, and where I might go with it. Could anyone ever want as much as me?
I thought about my wants and desires and wondered if anyone could ever have so much as I already did. Perhaps the two concepts were related, somehow. I pounded my paws through the snow, and we leapt through the arctic air, pure white flying in our wake.
We arrived exhausted, and per Nickels suggestion, I dove into a loose pile of snow and curled up to keep my warmth. Someone else could set up one of the thermal tents, if they wanted it, but if they were depending on me, it wasn't going to happen any time soon.
I could hear Chris working on the drilling rig. My curiosity got the better of me, and I made my way up to it while she swapped out power cells. It looked like a gun pointing up into the air with a big roll of cable next to it.
"It's a smart bit, see? No torsion rods, it pulls itself in any direction we want it to." She was staring at a graphical display which showed its position, speed, and a representation of where it was at below us.
She pointed off to the right, where the system had ejected sharply compacted pellets about a half meter long and a dozen centimeters wide. "That's what CI is so interested in, they couldn't give two shits about geothermal power."
I reached down and picked one up, it was heavy and had sharp edges. I saw layers of metal... chips of something fell away into the snow, showering like dust. It looked like what would come out of the business end of an industrial e-waste compactor.
Zach padded up next to us and held his paw out, gingerly taking the pellet from me. His eyes grew big, as more debris trickled out into the snow. He gibbered and squawked, shaking it briefly. I picked up a piece and held it up to the light, what looked like traces of circuitry were clearly visible.
"How deep are these from?" Zach asked, digging through the other pellets, some visibly contained more metal than others.
"Eleven clicks, roughly. Pretty crazy, ay?" Nickel answered as he walked up to us, pointing behind him. "Tents are set up, if you guys wanna get some rest."
Zach shook his head. "Dates. How old? How old would be that deep?" He turned and looked at Chris.
She shrugged. "Maybe ten thousand years, possibly fifteen. Somewhere in between. Why?
Zach laughed. "Um," he said, turning around slowly. He looked to me like he was making sure he really was at the North Pole. "This is impossible. No previous civilization has ever existed on this planet."
"Looks like someone was here, before us, eh?" Nick said, nudging one of the pellets with a hind paw.
"But all races have well documented colonization and civilization records." Zach sounded in his element. "And don't you see? None leave! None have ever left, not unless the planet was a carved out hulk of toxic waste, first."
No one responded to that.
"Keman, get some of those pellets all in a one meter square, please." I picked up the shiniest ones and started stacking them next to each other, while Zach picked through his backpack. He produced a small, cube shaped device that looked similar to a camera.
It emitted a line of brilliant white light, brighter than the sun, in a focused, sharp line like from a laser. Even through the heater, I smelled ozone as the line passed over each pellet. Snow surrounding them steamed and melted away. Zach held it steady until the last sample had been scanned over.
Nick cocked his head sideways. "That's, uh, not a Kodak, is it."
Zach held the cube up for everyone to see. "Mass spec, handheld. First of its kind." His eyes lost focus, and then he stared at the samples again. He stammered, yelped, and nodded. "Several unique alloys CI has never encountered are in there."
Chris smirked and shook her head. "Wait a minute, who are you guys? I thought you were just temps CI gave us to fill some missing positions we had."
Zach grinned. "Let's just say you're about to get a whole lot of funding, like right now."
She shook her head, "on who's authority? Are you pulling my leg?"
Nick got excited. "Ohh! The "F" word, I'll pull your leg for that!"
"No joke," Zach said., shaking his head. "This comes from the very top. Sinclair officially expresses his apologies. CI is a very large corporation. Big wheels, take a long time to get into motion. I am Sinclair's PA. Appropriate cost structure documents will be transmitted to you each personally, within the hour."
Chris grew quiet, she seemed uncertain about this.
Zach held up his paws in a placating gesture. "We're not about to take this project out of your paws. It remains yours, but certain criteria will need to be met. This whole site needs to be dug up, all the way down, for at least a dozen square kilometers. I trust you would want such construction powered by geothermal?"
Chris smiled. "Now you're talking... but tell me, who's he?" She asked, pointing at me.
Zach stroked the fur between my ears. "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Keman is someone... very special. Right?" I shut my eyes and panted from the attention.
Nick joined in and rubbed my stomach, "Well, I know who's buying all the drinks when we get back!"
Chris rolled her eyes and padded toward the tents. "Chiko, Stew, wake up! We got some planning to do! Big changes..."
Zach led me back to one of the tents. I was a lot more exhausted than I had realized. He popped the heater out of my ears and nose, disconnected it from my collar, and set it down next to me. I curled up on the satiny floor and watched him. The tent material popped and shook in the wind.
"You're doing really well, Keman. You've made a lot of progress in just three days. You're showing stability I wouldn't have expected for another year." He stretched out and laid down on his back. I sat there quietly and yawned.
I reached down and squeezed my sheath, letting out a soft howl giving Zach a shy grin.
Zach saw, and splayed his ears. "That's... something between you and Sin, I can't help you there. I would if I could, but maybe you forgot. Climax's are dangerous for you, Keman," I contemplated that, once again feeling a strange familiarity to his words. We had had this conversation once, before. A long time ago.
"Just trust me, they have to stay a rarity for now." I nodded and reached forward, grabbing his sheath. I squeezed the hard part behind his knot. Zach barked and gobbled to himself with a whimper.
'That's... something between me and Sin, too. Oif. I hate it, but that he put it on me... I think maybe you understand what that comes with."
I did.