chapter 1, meet Kim
#2 of Earth, take two.
Chapter one. Meet Kim
All the alarms in the station were going off. Kim an unusually deep sleeper, slept through the sonic boom, now awoke to the noise of people running through the hallway outside her apartment. With one eye barely open the vixen looked over at the clock which read 4 am. She drearily climbed out of bed, flattening her ears to the obnoxious alarms.
"They should of turned them off by now dammit!" She exclaimed. But she was only complaining to herself. She was one of the lucky ones to have an apartment all to herself. But it wasn't without its drawbacks. She was one of the many nurses on this station, and was on call 24-7. She drug herself over to the monitor to see what all the hubbub was about. The display showed a projectile path and a large forest fire that it had started.
"Great, more radioactive space junk I bet. Just what I need at this time in the morning." Whined the young fox. Stuff like this was always happening. Stuff falls from space. Fire starts in the middle of nowhere. Firefighters go to stop fire before everything burns down. Kim helps all the handsome, strong firefighters who breathe in to much smoke. "Hmmmm, maybe I should get moving then."
All of a sudden the a window on the monitor opens. It was the station's head doctor, and he looked pissed. "KIM!! What the hell are you still doing there? Get your orange ass down here PRONTO!"
"But I'm hardly awake yet!" She exclaimed back at the large wolf.
"Or hardly dressed, for that matter. Hurry up we leave in 5 minutes!" He yelled back as the monitor went black. Kim slowly looked at the monitor's camera. She had left the cover off of it. Then she looked down at herself. "EEEP" she yelped as she noticed she had nothing on but the fur she was born with!
She finally made it down to the launching bay, just in time to see the last medic transport leave along with the last fire suppressor engines. "Oh shit." Was all she could say as the bay engineer closed the doors. Kim knew this was strike three for her. She had been living on her Mother's fame and reputation since she moved up here. She had been given a top floor apartment, the best vid channels, and way too much freedom to do as she pleased. Mother's attempts to straighten her out had all but failed. Until she forced Kim into this lousy job. A few little mistakes later and Kim was on probation. Now she would probably lose everything that she had here, and be forced to give up the apartment!
"NOOOO!" she yelled. "Start opening those doors!" she yelled at the doorman. He eyed her up slowly and stared at her. "NOW!" she screamed. He flipped the switch and the doors started to reopen. Kim looked over to her own car and saw that she was blocked in. It had been sitting for nearly a month now, but it should still have fuel in the tanks. She touched the panel and identified herself to the onboard computer. The turbines slowly spun up to starting speed and fired up. Seeing the vehicle in front of hers she knew the only way out was up. But vertical motion was forbidden in the garage. She looked over at the doorman and winked. He gave a knowing smile back and waved her on. The engines were nowhere near warmed up as she increased power to the thrusters. But with a loud whining from the engines, she was up. Just a few feet separated the ceiling from the vehicle beneath hers, but her overconfidence told her it was enough. Without a second thought she gunned it. And she scraped the hell out of the vehicle beneath hers roof!
"Sorry!" she yelled down at the doorman, whose eyes were wide with amazement. As she exited the doors, she opened up the turbines to full power. Her car was much faster than any personnel transport, and she knew she could catch up in no time at all!
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Kim's eyes burned. It was nearly noon and the smoke still blocked the sun. She had been with the crews as a nurse, helping those who managed to inhale too much smoke. Nothing serious luckily, although she hated to see anyone in pain. One guy had a decent size burn on his arm, and had to be sent back to the hospital in the city. But other than that nothing too bad had happened so far. Some teams where still in the forest stomping out the last remaining embers of the fire. It had been a dry year, but a fire this large was unusual.
"We found it sir!" A voice cackled over the Doctor's radio.
"What the hell is it? Another chunk of metal?" He replies.
"Ummm, kinda. I think your gonna want to see this for yourself. Its still running whatever it is."
"Radiation? Anything we need worry about?" the doc asks.
"Not that we can detect. Sir, we need you here right away, and bring a tow rig if possible." The team replies. The Doc scratched his head. Sometimes chunks from old space stations would fall to Earth. Sometimes they were shot down by war satellites that still "protected" the planet. But to have something survive reentry had been unheard of.
"Kim, ready your transport. We need to get to the epicenter, pronto." He orders. Kim fires up the engines, and opens the passenger door for him.
"Jeez, I really hate your car." He says as he remembers that she still hadn't had a tail hole for the passenger seat. "Any chance that I could drive?" He says looking at her with a hopeful look. Kim just raises an eyebrow as she throttles the engines, and accelerates to high speed.
"I'll take that as a no!" He struggles to say as the G forces push him deep into the old fashioned seat. He had also forgotten how bad a driver she could be sometimes.
"There they are, about half a click to your right." He points out, motioning for her to land close. "Try not to kick up to much ash, alright?" He begs.
Kim opens the door and looks over to the team who found the space debris. Before she can step out of her car, a paw reaches out to assist her.
"What a lovely surprise." A familiar voice says. It was her ex-boyfriend, Rich. She refused his help.
"Hello, Richard. Good to see you again." Kim says half-heartedly. She had been avoiding him like fleas. He was yet another failed attempt in love. He barely lasted two weeks before she stopped talking to him. Arrogant bastard. The only thing in this world he cared about was his career and his status amongst his "friends". It was partly that which attracted her to him in the first place. His group of friends had been rather "close" to her a few times, and yet managed to remain decent aquantinces afterwards.
"Let me show you what I've found myself." He beckoned the Doctor and her over to the wreckage. "Well Doc, what do you think?"
The Doctor walked around the metal object. It was about 3 meters long and wide. And it was still buzzing with the sound of electronics. Most of the exterior was a melted mass with no real discernable shape. "Hmmmm, seems to be a old style escape pod. Maybe from a station still orbiting. Can't figure why it must have launched, but it seems that it was hit by a laser right about here." He says as he points to a hole about two centimeters deep.
The Doctor was more than just a medical person. He was the local authority on old human technology. He had grown up in the fringes of the wastelands, where some of man's machines still lay broken or in disuse. He had spent much of his childhood tinkering with it, and even managed to get some of it running again.
"Must have triggered the stasis field. Which if I remember right will deactivate in a few days or so.."
Before he could finish his sentence the sound of the field emitters slowly winding down interrupted him. The shell of the wreckage begins to crack, and pressure from inside the pod slowly leaks out.
"Everyone, back!" Richard orders loudly. But he is pretty much speaking to himself, as everyone there had already jumped for cover.
Kim peers over the hood of her car, waiting for an explosion. But none came. She looks at the wreckage, and watches as it breaks apart into two halves. Then the escaping gas hits her nose. A scent, male, and reeking of animalistic qualities. Fear grips her at first, realizing that something, someone is aboard that craft. Before she can see what, who it is aboard, she already knows. Wolf. Like the Doctor, only different.
"Be careful, Rich. For some reason, I don't think it's friendly." The Doc orders. And with that, Richard takes his prybar out. He shoves it in the cracked shell, which parts as he pries at it.
"SHIT" Rich screams. The face he sees under the wreckage scares the wits out of him. Before he can even think of his actions the prybar is already swinging into the monster's head.
THUNK!
A few seconds go by. The Doctor slowly peers over at this "monster" that Rich has bludgeoned. Blood starts pouring from its newly created head wound.
"Smooth Rich, real smooth. First contact with one of them in almost one hundred years, and you crush its skull."
"I, I didn't mean too! It just scared the crap out of me!" Rich whines, knowing that he fucked up badly.
"Whatever. At least we know it can't hurt us now. Get it out of there and let's see if he's still alive." The Doc orders. Stupid moron thinks the Doc. Its gung-ho idiots like him that have been running his rescue teams lately. Thinking first with their instincts and not with their wits.
Kim looks on in a state of bewilderment. She is overwhelmed by the scent of it, almost attracted to it. She can't think of any reason why, but for some reason, it's overpowering her. She walks over to the monster with a sense of amazement and pity. Without thinking she reaches out to the fresh wound on his face. She can see that he is still breathing, although somewhat labored.
"He seems alright, but we should get him back to the station now. Who knows what kind of damage your thoughtlessness has done to him." Kim says in an almost defensive tone. The others just look at her with scrutiny. They know how she gets when a new guy comes around. But this was, well, just weird.
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