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CHAPTER 11

"What's his status, Master Therapo," Ionious asked the attending physician of Vulpa Hospital's Observation and Assessment Ward. He marched very purposefully toward the room he'd been told the wolf was in, the physician and Sarah in close pursuit. He didn't slow down, even as Master Therapo struggled to keep up. As Ionious had feared the presence of the high-profile prisoner at the hospital had prompted an increase in security and he was sure he had not authorization to be here. But he wasn't about to show any hesitance. He'd learned early in his career as a bureaucrat that simply looking important was as good as any security pass.

Master Therapo panted as he half-walked, half-jogged behind Ionious while trying to read the patient's chart. Therapo was regretfully not as physically fit as he should have been. Two years of sedentary deskwork with the OAW had made him soggy around the midsection.

"Um, let me see here," he said around a lulled tongue as he breathed heavily. "He's stable now...pant, pant...and kept in a quasi-comatose state, just as a precaution. I see no reason why he couldn't be released today...pant, pant...I'm concerned though that the excitement of the last day will aggravate his neural regenerative progression."

The trio came to a particular door flanked by two military, not civilian, security guards. The wolf's room. As they approached the guards moved to block the way.

"Sir, I'm afraid that only authorized personnel are permitted to enter."

Master Therapo swallowed hard and, all too nervously for Ionious' comfort, explained the circumstances of their visit.

"Yes, hello uh...gentlefoxes, this is Master...um...Beltio and his assistant. He's an expert on extra-vulpine physiology. I asked him to come down and verify some tests for me because I'm not familiar with the wolf's alien biology."

The higher ranking of the two soldiers looked from Therapo to Ionious, down to Sarah, and back to Therapo. He had received strict orders from his chain of command that only specific medical personnel were allowed to see the wolf. That included Therapo, though these two newcomers were not cleared to pass. Frowning, he crossed his arms in a defiant stance.

"I'm sorry, Master Therapo, but my orders are to keep out anyone that does not have express permission from my superiors. Unless Master Beltio has clearance to go in here, I'm afraid I can't allow it."

The physician's tail nervously twitched ever so slightly behind his back, but Master Therapo managed to keep himself collected.

"And I appreciate that, sergeant, believe me I do. Security is certainly very important. But as I recall your directions were to ensure the security of the patient so long as it didn't interfere with my patient's medical treatment. I'm responsible for him while he's under my care, and I refuse to have him die under my watch."

The soldier shifted from one footpaw to another, his brow furrowed in a growing concern. "What do you mean by 'die,' master? I wasn't aware that he was in any serious danger." The guard took a small notepad from his chest pocket and scanned it, flicking his tail in confusion.

"Oh, yes," the physician pressed. "It seems that we misjudged some of his alien physiology during the operation. I'm afraid we don't really know as much about their biology as we should."

Therapo held up his data pad for the soldier to see, who bent over the chart, scratching his chin in perplexity, but keenly curious.

"You see, our patient here was suffering from an acute meningeal hematoma above the occipital lobe here." He pointed to a rather complicated diagram on the screen. "You know what causes that, right young sergeant?"

The guard's eyes widened, like he'd forgotten to study for an important test. "I..um..."

"Blunt-force trauma to the cerebral cortex just superior to the cerebellum, of course! Well, when the neurosurgeon exposed his hematoma to a sonic neutralizer he neglected to account for the relative density of the wolf's serum albumin. Am I going too fast?"

The soldier scratched his head in bewilderment, clearly overwhelmed by the physician's technical jargon.

"I'm sorry, Master, I don't really know-"

"Well you should, sergeant!" he scorned. "A mistake like this almost killed him. While our plasma composition is well known to us the poor wolf's specific immunoglobulin was denatured unexpectedly. This caused a rupture into the subarachnoid cavity in a first-order aneurism!"

While Ionious had to admit the master's performance was impressive, if not overdone, they were also pressed for time. Stepping in he put a paw on the physician's shoulder, breaking him from his rant.

"Sergeant, I know it all sounds very complicated. We'd just like to run a scan of his brain to make sure his blood hasn't seeped further into his brain. It's all very simple, but we're worried his brain tissue will swell and inflame if we don't do something about it soon. He could fall into shock at any moment and die. We really don't want to have the death of a patient with such a high importance to the Senate on our heads. I'm sure you can understand that."

The soldier looked uncertainly from one master to the other, and then to the vixen, who raised her brow in reply. He did understand where they were coming from. If the wolf died under his guard he might as well kiss his next promotion goodbye. His orders were to protect the wolf, after all.

"If it's a medical emergency I suppose you have to do what is necessary..." His weight shifted again.

Ionious, reading his uncertainty closely, took the offensive. "If it makes you feel better we can leave now to get the proper clearance, but it could take hours. I just hope we will have enough time. The neurosurgeon that made this mistake in the first place is already under investigation-"

"No," said the soldier, stepping away from the doorway. "It's okay. Really. I'll just bend protocol for now."

The trio thanked him gratefully and pressed past the pair of guards. Once they were inside the sergeant turned to his companion and shook his head.

"I'd sure hate to have their job, eh? Nope. I'm fine right here: It's harder to make stupid mistakes like that idiot surgeon, eh?"

The other soldier flicked his ear in agreement.

Once inside the small observation room Sarah's attention instantly gravitated to the familiar creature lying on his back on a wide bed set against the far wall. Slowly she approached his side, wondering if she might wake him and if that would be a bad thing. Hadn't Therapo said he was under an artificial coma anyway? He looked about as peaceful as he could be; relaxed and still, save for the gentle rising and falling of his chest. On his head was a thin, round crown that wrapped around the back, over the temples, and across the forehead. A series of lights flashed sporadically with a display of multiple colors.

Master Therapo breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Oh, thank the Sons of Heaven. I thought they were going to report us."

Ionious grinned cheekily, feeling roguish for the first time in a good while. "I must say, your performance was perfect."

Ionious stepped up to the foot of Scott's bed and pressed a paw to the corner, activating the med-status display. He navigated expertly through the charts and read-outs, pausing intermittently to stroke his muzzle pensively. Reaching into his coat pocket he produced a cylentrical baton and pressed the top with a pawpad. A transparent sheet of polymer materialized along its length and flickered to life. When the wolf had first been brought to the rehabilitation center, all of his base-line vitals, statistics, and important measurements had been documented for future reference. The information he was studying now on his medical chart was useless to him without a base of comparison. He knew very little of his specific biology and how it compared to a fox's. Using his right paw he navigated the hospital's data while comparing it to his own data held in his left.

"Therapo, have you accessed his base-zero data before?"

"Uhm, actually I did," the fox said, looking nervously over his shoulder toward the door. "As near as I can see there's nothing to be concerned about for now."

Ionious nodded.

Therapo coughed, passing a careful glance to the vixen. Sarah was holding the wolf's paw in hers, the larger creature's easily enclosing the smaller's, and then some. Therapo pulled Ionious to one side, turning his back to the wolf and the vixen.

"She's not your assistant, is she?" he asked, his voice hushed.

Ionious looked up toward the door, but the guards weren't close enough to hear. "No," he admitted. "She is...was the wolf's slave."

"Slave!" he exclaimed, but remembering his surroundings he hissed under his breath angrily, "I could be dismissed for this!"

"Then you had better keep your voice down, Therapo."

Sarah rubbed the smooth pads of the wolf's paw with hers as she watched his face. His paw was warm beneath hers and even returned some of the attention with a slight curling of his digits. Reaching up to his face she gently stroked the bridge of his nose. His ears twitched at the touch and his muzzle tipped up into the affectionate caress.

She smiled shallowly. "Gods, Scott," she whispered. "What have they done to you?"

Therapo looked over his shoulder to the vixen and wolf for a brief moment. Ignoring the obvious questions that the strange scene conjured he turned back again to pull up one of the wolf's earliest charts on his tablet.

"Like I said earlier his injury was nothing serious, but his brain chemistry was highly erratic when he was admitted to the hospital. His blood cortisol levels were elevated twenty-five percent from normal...epinephrine up seventeen...norepi up thirty! We only see these kinds of levels in cases of psycho-endocrinal abuse or torture."

Ionious shook his head. "Of course...Sozo," he growled. It was highly illegal, of course, to use manipulative technology to alter brain chemistry for non-medical or security purposes, such as torture, sexual abuse, and coercion. But it still happened. "This would have inducing his stress hormones to the point of blind rage. The bastard's lucky he didn't kill him."

"The report says he tried. Had to put him on security level four, hence the guards out there." He gestured toward the hall. "Hospital security would have been sufficient, but some high-ups insisted on a military guard."

Ionoius snorted derisively and stepped up to Scott's bed and stood beside Sarah, placing a reassuring paw on her shoulder.

"He'll be alright, Sarah."

"You don't know that." Though she had little reason to doubt his intensions were genuine and good, the vixen was tired of being lied to. Sadly, the only creature she knew she could trust was the one in a coma lying helplessly on a hospital bed.

"Is everything all right in there," asked the guard, his head turned into the ward.

"I think we've had a close call, sergeant," called Master Therapo, his voice soaked with relief. "We should thank the Sons of Heaven that it's not as serious as we thought."

The guard's ears bobbed up and down. "That's good news, master, but you'd better make it quick before our shift is over."

"Thank you. We'll be done here in moments," said Therapo, to which the guard nodded and disappeared once again. "He's right, Ionious. We should leave."

"No!" snapped Sarah, glaring angrily at the pair. "You've let enough happen to him already. Now I want to know what you're going to do to help him. He doesn't deserve this, as much as you or anyone else may hate him. He doesn't deserve any of this!"

Ionious held up his paws defensively and shushed the vixen, attempting to calm her like. "Please, Sarah. Let's not get excited. Master Therapo is going to file a formal report of abuse to the medical review board. By law they can't release him without an investigation."

The vixen leveled her glare at the physician, who shifted somewhat nervously under her murderous look. "Well? Are you," she demanded.

"Ahem...I suppose I should." His face shifted to his colleague. Ionious folded his arms expectantly. "Ah, well...there's more than enough evidence to support a claim."

But something in his tone did not sound very optimistic. To Sarah, he didn't sound especially willing to try. Her eyes fell to the floor, feeling defeated and cornered, as she turned back to her master's side. Sarah felt confused and alone in a hostile world. Was she truly free now? No longer a slave? Somehow she had imagined freedom would have come with a greater sense of hope than this. Here she was, supposedly among her own people, free to live for herself at the whims of no one else. And she had never in all her years as a slave on Triticum felt more alone than she did now.

"Oh Scott," she whispered sadly, placing a comforting paw on the wolf's arm. "I wish we were back home."

His ears twitched slightly in his sleep, probably dreaming. His throat swallowed roughly and his lips moved in slow motion.

"Jessica..." he whispered faintly, but clearly.

Sarah gasped, grabbing his paw with both of hers and holding it tightly. "Scott? Can you hear me?" she asked softly, but urgently.

"What did he say?" Ionious moved in close, tipping his ear to the wolf's muzzle, straining to hear.

"Jessica," whispered the wolf again, this time more pleadingly.

Sarah pressed a soft paw to his forehead, and Scott turned into the touch. "Yes, Scott. I...I'm here."

"What's a jezica?" asked Ionious, but Sarah shushed him with a paw.

Scott's peaceful face creased into a pained expression that was barely perceivable, but the vixen knew him well enough to see when the wolf was distressed.

"What is it Scott," she whispered caringly. "Please tell me."

"I'm sorry, Jess." His voice was strained.

The vixen's breathing became labored as she tried unsuccessfully to hold back tears. "Oh Scott," she said, stroking the fur above his nose. "There's nothing you need to be sorry about."

The wolf's head bobbed. "I love you, Jessica."

Sad tears dribbled freely into his paw as the vixen cried openly. Her voice cracked as she croaked out a mournful, "I love you too, Scott...I love you so much."

Scott smiled shallowly, his large frame relaxing and his head lulling gently to one side. Sarah fought desperately to get her sobbing under control, cupping her face with both paws and squeezing her eyes shut to block out the sight. Oh gods! Why did it have to be so tormenting to see him here like this, so weak and vulnerable? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Wasn't he supposed to be protecting her? He had done everything he could to always keep them safe. Why couldn't she do the same? Why could she not protect the ones she cared about!

Ionious exchanged a weary look with Master Therapo, who seemed to be most shocked by the vixen's emotion. Carefully, Ionious put a comforting paw on her shoulder.

"Sarah, who was he talk-"

"What are you doing in here!" came a gargled shout from behind, interrupting Ionious and making the three foxes jump. From the doorway stomped in a silver fox, his lips pulled back in a snarl. He coughed a little, a paw rubbing painfully at his throat.

"What makes you think you can come in here, Ionious! You've been warned not to interfere with military affairs. I'll have you arrested for this!"

Sarah stood up from where she had slumped over Scott's arm, wiping moisture from her face with the back of a paw. Stepping up to the silver-furred fox she met his scowl with a cold glare of her own.

"You're Sozo, aren't you?"

"That's right. And that," he jabbed a paw in the wolf's direction, "needs to be locked in a cage. It's a violent, sadistic animal!"

The fox had barely enough time to see her fist pull back before it connected solidly with his jaw, sending his head spinning and his body flopping to the floor. By the time he'd collected himself well enough to look up the vixen was standing over him, a lethal fire in her eyes.

"Don't you EVER say that again, you worthless piece of shit!"

Sarah could barely believe the words that were coming out of her own muzzle, and apparently neither could Sozo. The fox struggled in a wide-eyed terror to escape the enraged creature, crawling backward on his elbows. If Sarah had had her way he wouldn't have gotten far. But the guards had moved in to hold her back as she snarled murderously at him.

Sozo struggled to stand upright. The blow had given him quite a rattle, and he stumbled for a moment, catching himself against the wall. Raising a paw to his muzzle he felt a sharp pain on his lip and pulled it back. Blood stained his pawpad.

"Who the hell are you?" he hissed through his wounded lip and wounded pride.

"My name is Sarah Banks...ass. And he was my master."

There was a long pause as Sozo looked the vixen up and down, scrutinizing her stance and scent. She glared back with pure hatred and Sozo couldn't help but feel intimidated by Sarah, even in the guards' control. Why should this beautiful vixen defend the beast like this? It must be a feral response. Perhaps her fear of retribution from this wolf in the future compelled her to protect him. He'd seen during his youthful years how captivity can tame a slave so completely that they both expect and prefer captivity and abuse. Freedom was so strange and frightening a concept that they couldn't even bear to think of it.

"I should have..." He coughed painfully, his throat still raw from the attack earlier that morning. The physician aboard the Excedra assured him that no lasting damage had been inflicted and had given him a pain-blocker and anti-inflammatory for the injury. But it still felt raw. "I should have you thrown in the brig for that," he hissed more successfully, "but I doubt that would accomplish anything useful for either of us. Let her go."

The guards relaxed their grip on Sarah's arms and she shook them off defiantly. Sozo stepped closer to her-carefully-and gave her a reasonably pleasant smile.

"I know this must seem very strange and frightening to you, Sarah," he said in a calm, soothing voice. "But you don't have to be afraid of disobeying him here, not while he's safely controlled like this. He can't hurt you anymore. I used to be like you, so completely unused to freedom that I almost preferred to go back to the life of a slave. It's pathetic, really. Isn't it? How even the most painful of things can become a part of you?"

Sozo reached out to put a reassuring paw on Sarah's shoulder, but the vixen scornfully shrugged it off, glaring dangerously.

Sozo frowned. "Hmm...I see it will take some time to heal the scars of servitude, Ionious. I sincerely hope you are prepared to do whatever you can to help them."

Ionious growled. "As if you had any concern for their well being at all."

Sozo, still gazing casually at Sarah, made a hurt expression. "There's nothing I want more than to see my people released from oppression, surely you can see that. But for now I need to see to my primary duty, and that is to ensure this...beast doesn't hurt another living creature again. Now, Master Therapo, if you would be so kind as to release him I can leave you to your business."

The clinical supervisor hesitated for a moment, first looking to Sozo and then Ionious, unsure of who he should listen to.

"That will not happen, Sozo," said Ionious before the physician had time to speak. "Master Therapo will be filing a formal request for a criminal investigation into your handling of Commander Banks. What a fool like yourself doesn't seem to realize is that it's very difficult to hide evidence of psycho-abuse."

To the surprise of those present the silver fox chuckled fiendishly. "Good thing for me I don't need your permission, Ionious. Nor yours either, Master Therapo. The director has already approved of his discharge back into my custody. Now if you'll excuse me..."

He produced a small thumb-sized magnetic key from his pocket and stepped toward the hospital bed. Both of the guards stood nearby, ready to assist should there be a confrontation. Ionious snarled as Sozo passed, but reluctantly allowed the fox to unlock the wolf's invisible energy restraints with the key and press a small chip to his chest. Pressing the chip with a claw the wolf glowed with a brilliant light and vanished.

"What did you do to him!" barked Sarah as she jumped up to the empty bed, her fur ruffled with distress. She reached for Scott, but found only empty air.

Sozo reassured her with a hushed voice and a knowing wink. "Don't worry, my friend. He hasn't been harmed. He's been transferred back to my ship to a secure cell."

The vixen turned to him sharply. "Listen, you! I don't care who you are or what authority you have, but I won't leave him, least of all with you. I demand to be taken to this ship of yours."

Sozo was going to say no but hesitated when a thought occurred to him. In this vixen he could see much of what he once was: The same anger, fear, and resentment that he had felt years before when he had first been rescued by his people. Unlike her, he had had nobody to turn to as a friend that understood his confusion. He pitied her-felt her anxiety-and a part of him felt obligated to be her guide.

"Alright then, Sarah. I'll take you with me. I think I can help you adjust to your new home. I unfortunately didn't have anyone to turn to when I was in your situation. There's a lot we should probably talk about anyway, about yourself and your former oppressor."

Sarah wasn't sure if she should be relieved or revolted. Perhaps a bit of both. If she went with Sozo, she had no way of knowing how dangerous it could be to entrust this hateful fox any further. It was clear to her that Sozo's personal qualms about Scott and his kind were clouding his judgment about her, and perhaps it would be best for them all if she let him keep believing this. Scott's safety is what was ultimately at stake, and if protecting him from further harm meant being close to this animal, then so be it. She cared for the wolf too much.

Sarah looked to Ionious, who shook his head. He did not think it was a good idea.

"Ionious," she asked. "Please tell my brother where I've gone when you wake him."

He flicked an ear in affirmation. "I will. I'm sorry for everything that's happened. I didn't intend for any of this to happen."

"I know."

Sozo put an arm across the vixen's shoulder, to which the vixen started at the sudden and unwelcomed contact.

"Sorry," he said guiltily, "but I can't take you as easily without doing this."

Before Sarah had any opportunity to object Sozo threw his other arm over her other shoulder and hugged her close to his chest. Behind her head he pressed the transporter bracelet around his wrist. In an instant the pair was over one hundred light years away.

***

Night had already fallen over the Lupine capital city by the time a squadron of five dark-hulled troop carriers hovered silently over the imperial palace. Under the cover of darkness they slowly descended toward the well-tended lawn within the outer grounds of the massively luxuriant Imperial Palace. Once nestled safely on the ground the hatches opened with a subdued hiss of pneumatic gasses and teams of marines poured from the craft and quickly dashed across the lawn to the edge of the royal estate. They diverged and scattered for their assigned positions to wait in the shadows, and with silenced pulse rifles raised each took aim through digitally enhanced night vision scopes at individual targets. A command was issued through their comms and in an instant over three dozen palace guards collapsed dead, their armored bodies making little more than dull thuds on the stone walkways that crossed the grounds and wrapped around the palace.

An officer standing inside the drop ship cupped his ear with a paw and listened to the muffled report from his field observer with interest. Nodding with satisfaction he leaned over his gunner.

"Knock it out," he said simply, and the gunner nodded as he tapped the control board.

A bright streak flashed across the night sky and exploded in a brilliant display of ice-blue light over the palace complex. The controls in the drop ship flicked and sputtered, and suddenly went blank.

"Switching to back-up now, sir," said an onboard marine as he pressed a button, bringing the controls to life once again.

"Status."

"Sir, the EMP disabled palace alarms and communications. Live-Net confirms we have an all-clear. An estimated five minutes before they're up again."

"Send the teams in."

"Yes, sir."

The halls and corridors were in a state of panic as the darkly uniformed marines converged on the blinded palace. Imperial officials, receptionists, and dignitaries staggered through the dark halls, yelling and cursing as they tried unsuccessfully to turn on lights or restore computers and equipment to life. The silent teams navigated the halls expertly with the aid of night vision visors, silently killing any members of the palace guard they came across. As they ran for the interior of the palace, knowing full-well that time was against them, a situation report buzzed through the comms line.

"Informant confirms target is in the royal chambers. Converge and bag, over."

Emperor Charles sat up in shock and fury as a crash sent his solid hardwood door flat against the carpet. The concubine he was currently bedding shrieked in terror as five helmeted and visored soldiers flooded the bedroom and flashed their weapons at them. Rapping a sheet around his naked midsection the wolf stood and growled at the marine closest to him.

"What the HELL is the meaning of this!" he shrieked, saliva spraying everywhere.

One of the marines stepped forward and, removing his helmet, the light tan-furred wolf raised a hypo-spray tranquilizer gun.

"Emperor Charles, by the authority vested in me by the Handshaw Accords of 2119 I am placing you under arrest for failure to unhold your sworn duty to-"

"This is treason! I'll have your neck snapped for this!"

"Sir, you can come calmly or under sedation. It's your choice."

Enraged the wolf grabbed for the closest marine's rifle, but before he could even get close a small barb buried deep into his neck, delivering a dose of sodium pentothal directly to his brain. He collapsed almost instantly into the marine's arms.

Aboard the Mourning Son a light flashed on a desk computer. A tired old wolf opened the secure channel on his computer screen. The transmission was audio only.

"Admiral, we've taken the emperor into custody. He'll be taken directly to Detention Station Romeo-Seven and isolated."

"Good." Fleet Admiral Samuel Royce smiled and took a sip of a sleep-aid tea, the soft brown liquid steaming. "Did he submit without trouble?"

"Nearly. They had to sedate him."

Royce chuckled under his breath. "Thank you, chancellor."

"No, Sam. Thank you," he said before the transmission ended.

Leaning back in his chair the Admiral allowed a grin to cross his lips.

"This calls for something special," he said to his companion as he reached into a drawer and brought out a bottle. "Nuwan Brandy. Seventy years old," he said proudly, pouring a splash in two tumblers and passing one to Captain Philips.

The white wolf sipped the harsh liquid carefully. He was never much of a liquor drinker himself, but he had to admit there was an appealing bite to the aged brandy.

"Do the fleet commanders understand their orders, captain?"

Captain Philips nodded. "Yes, sir. The commanders await your further instructions."

Admiral Royce nodded. "Congratulations, Admiral Philips. I think you're about to get that promotion you've been waiting for."

Captain Philips nodded and, raising his glass, finished the brandy in one quick swallow.