FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Koben woke up a few minutes before his headcomp's alarm began to play the clashmetal wakeup music. He'd found that just the threat of such an awakening helped keep his own natural body clock in tune.

He gingerly swung furry legs off the edge of his bunk, and yawned hugely, his long tongue curling slightly at the end as his wide, grey-furred muzzle hinged open.

He rose and ambled across his small quarters, scratching idly at his belly. It still prickled where the hair was growing in. He scowled at the memory of how he'd lost the fur in the first place. Overall, the whole thing had been rather embarrassing. Less than half an hour after he'd touched down on Perdition, to join up with his new employers, the mercenary company called Farren's Fixers, he'd been jumped and kidnapped by a nutjob gene-thief.

He'd managed to get himself free, and turn the tables on the criminal who styled himself "Doctor Scrim," even before his uncle Mohrgan and the merc crew under his command tracked him down and came to the rescue.

On the bright side, everyone was impressed with how he'd managed to subvert the systems in the building where he'd been imprisoned. He'd managed to rescue himself, along with about a dozen other hapless males of various species, who were being farmed for genetic material, and who the so-called doctor had planned to later sell off to slavers to cover his illicit business.

That seemed to compensate for having naively blundering into the clutches of the thugs working for Scrim in the first place. And the best part was, his forays into the doctor's computer system had turned up all sorts of useful information, and ended up getting the Fixers leads on some good contracts.

Scrim had been selling gene samples, hacked bits of proprietary genetic bioware algorithms, and frozen sperm from gene-altered and engineered sentients to a lot of shady people and corporations. The original owners, and sometimes, copyright holders of some of the stolen information or samples were rather interested in finding and "educating" the buyers regarding the error of their ways.

Scrim had been in business on Perdition for months, and had also sold dozens of his earlier victims to slavers or worse. That meant possible search and rescue contracts, although Farren's would share those on the general boards with other merc companies, and some of it would be handled by the legal authorities of several planets.

But apparently, the renowned - some would say infamous - Aunt Aralia, purveyor of some of the most advanced biotech, genetech, and body-enhancement technology in the known worlds, had taken a special interest - Scrim apparently, had a history with her.

Koben, as it turned out, came from a wolvan family line that had been gene-tweaked by Aralia for several generations - and not just as part of the standard slow enhance-and-evolve programs available on wolvan homeworlds, he'd discovered his family had some sort of special arrangement with Aralia.

Mohrgan, as chief officer of the ship Indeterminate, had personally contacted Aralia's offices, by fast jumpwave, with Koben's information. They'd immediately jumpwaved a message back offering to put Farren's Fixers on retainer, and contracting the Indeterminate's crew for several tasks.

They were still working out the details, but Mohrgan had mentioned to his nephew that Aralia called him back personally, which was practically unheard of.

For one thing, she'd offered to cover the expenses for any retrieval of individuals sold off by Scrim, who didn't have family, governments or other parties to stick up for them. Scrim had focused most of his attentions on young males, newly on-planet and looking for work. Many of them didn't have anyone willing or able to go looking for them.

Koben had rested up in the ship's infirmary for a couple of days, recovering from his ordeal, but had been put to work data-mining almost immediately. It was light duty, but then, Koben's primary talent was as a systems specialist... and hacker.

The young wolvan pressed a stud on the small extruded plasteel desk by the bed, and the wall-sized vid screen shimmered and became a mirror. He stood in front of it and looked himself over. His fur was a bit rumpled from sleep, and he'd lost a couple of kilograms of weight while undergoing the unpleasant ministrations of Scrim's collection devices, but overall, he was more or less recovered.

Physically, he was a little under two meters tall, if he stood up straight on his digitigrade, lupine legs. He'd been told by several of his new compatriots that he didn't look like a comp systems expert, and they'd joked that he looked like he'd make better infantry. A rich coat of warm gray fur, fading to white on his chest and belly, covered a muscular, well-proportioned body.

Except, at the moment, for some patches missing from his tail, and his entire lower belly and groin. The pale, nearly-white fur of his chest and belly stopped abruptly at the bottom of his ribcage. Below that, his abdomen had been shaved bare.

It was a bit embarrassing, actually. It wasn't like when someone's summer coat was in, and their belly was naturally bare or sparsely-furred. There was a sharp line demarcating where the shaver had passed, and everything below was just... well... Koben laid his ears back, annoyed. It just looked weird. He wished it would grow back faster, so he could put the humiliating and unpleasant episode more firmly behind him.

Some of Scrim's other victims had come out of the experience emotionally traumatized. But Koben found that he was merely distressed. Angry, offended, embarrassed, but mentally whole.

And he knew why. It was, frankly, in his genes. One of the changes that he'd discovered had been made somewhere along the line were to how he and his family handled stress and trauma. He wondered how much of what he thought of as himself had actually been planned by someone.

He looked at the reflection of his unclothed body, at the large, heavy, sheath of his maleness, covered only in thin fuzz now. The bulge of his knot showed through the skin - the member within was slightly rigid from sleep. Below it, the two large, well-formed ovals of his balls rested in their almost black-skinned sac. Scrim had said something about Aunt Aralia being a "naughty-minded old biddy" and that she'd been sneaking in genes for... well... large endowments for males when she gene-tailored. He'd checked Scrim's computerized notes, and while the man himself was rather unbalanced, his notes and appeared well-organized. So apparently, it wasn't an idle jibe. As near as he could tell, it was true. Aralia actually... why would she do that?

Ah well, he thought. Best get cleaned up, and get ready to start the day. Got an hour and a half before I'm supposed to get on-task. And maybe work will take my mind off some of this crap.

He accessed his headcomp and ordered the smart agents he'd set up to begin sifting some of the infostreams he'd need for his researches later. With luck, they'd have ordered some useful info while he finished waking up, grooming, and eating some breakfast.

He opened up the small bathroom cubicle, and cocked a leg against the urinal. The quarters on the Indeterminate were designed to accommodate several different species, and while there were shared bathing and restrooms, even the lowest private's accommodations had their own bathroom. He was in the process of dialing the settings for the small shower unit, when someone buzzed his door. "Room: Open door com," he said.

"Yes? Who is it?"

"Koben? It's me, Kennard from next door, are you up? Can I come in?"

Koben smiled a little, and said "Yeah. Sure. Room: Open Door."

The door panel slid into the wall soundlessly, and a short, lightly-built young man with a close-cropped fuzz of red hair stepped in, wearing a rumpled set of workout clothes. The outfit was the trademark deep indigo of Farren's Resolution Services... aka Farren's Fixers, but it was loose, soft, absorbent fabric designed for comfort or exercise. He was carrying a small duffel, also indigo, and had a towel draped around his neck. The freckled face was covered with sweat from a morning run.

He noticed Koben's state of undress, and looked momentarily abashed. "Oh... hey... this a bad time?"

Koben just swiveled an ear, looking confused, and said "Nah, come in. Just woke up, and was going to take a shower."

Kennard, or rather, Ensign First-class Jeremiah Mont Kennard, stepped in, and the door slid closed behind him.

Koben was still not quite sure about some of the cultural standards here in the Outworlds. There were nudity taboos prevalent, especially among many humans and their offshoots, but they seemed sort of lax on board the Indeterminate - at least in certain circumstances. In the gym showers, for instance, nobody blinked an eye. Ah well. Until he got a bunkmate, the little room was Koben's territory, as far as he was concerned, and surely, Kennard could speak up if he was doing something culturally naïve.

"Nah, nah, go ahead," said Kennard, "Actually, I was gonna ask if I could use your shower, but I can wait till you're done."

Koben liked Kennard as soon as he'd met him. When he'd been released from the infirmary, the ensign had been assigned to orient the new wolvan recruit, introduce him around, show him the ship, and make him feel at home. He was outgoing, but not in that annoying, chattering, way some people seemed to have in the Outworlds.

"Sure, I don't mind. But how come you needed to borrow a shower?" he asked the human, as he finished fiddling with the settings on the unit.

"Well... I got done with my run in the gym, and when I went to use the showers there, a bunch of the lady officers were in there, kinda carrying on and whooping it up. I just kinda... well... I'm not quite used to unisex showers, and anyway, it seemed like they were having some kinda 'girl time' in there, and I didn't want to get ribbed."

Koben stepped into the little shower unit while he listened. The water sprayed out of multiple nozzles from all directions.

"Anyway," Kennard continued from the other side of the door, "I get back to my quarters, figure I'll take a quick shower in there, but Lorenz, my bunkmate is in there with, get this... Lieutenant Security Chief Luya Mikell."

"He in trouble?" asked Koben.

Kennard laughed, "Depends on what you mean by trouble. They're... umm... cohabitating."

"They're what?" asked Koben, rubbing lather into his fur.

"You know. Doing it. Having an intimate moment. Sexual congress"

"Oooh," said Koben, as he made the connection. "Wow. The two of them?"

"She likes big, dumb guys, I hear. But yeah, I didn't expect it. Anyway, I gotta get on task in forty-five minutes, and I ain't eaten yet."

Koben cued the shower to cycle up with a hard spray, and quickly rinsed the lather out of his fur. He turned off the water, and shook himself rapidly, sending water flying all over the small chamber.

"I love when you guys do that," said the red-haired human, from the other side of the glass.

"What," Koben said, smiling, as he activated the sonic dryer cycle in the shower stall, "Shaking?"

"Yeah. When you shake the water off. All you wolf guys do it."

"Heh. As opposed to what you ape guys do?"

"Ape guys?" said Kennard, with mock affront.

"Well, yeah, you guys are always calling the wolvan members of the unit stuff like 'wolf guy' and 'wolf girl', just because we're descended from wolves. Well, you're descended from apes, so now you're 'Ape Guy'"

"Heh. Okay. Point. But be careful who you call Ape Guy. Some of the guys are sensitive about it, especially the ones that well... look more like apes."

"Sorry. I was kidding. Is it some kind of racial insult? I won't do it if it is."

"Well, it's not the worst insult, but I'd make sure to smile when I said it."

Koben toweled off the remaining water, while Kennard stripped off his workout clothes. He noticed that the man made a point to face away from him, covered himself with a towel immediately, and only tossed the towel out of the shower after he'd closed the door. Of course, the door was clear glass, so he wasn't sure of the point of it.

"Hey," the human said as the water came on. Nice scenery in here! How'd you manage this?"

"Oh, the trees? I got bored and sprayed down the walls with vidpaint, popped in a controller unit, and set it to display scenery from home. You like it?"

"Nice, yeah. Heh. You know, most people just make their room feel more personalized by sticking up a picture of their mom or a potted plant or something. You put trees in the shower."

Koben grinned and had his headcomp cue up a different scene.

"Wow! Shit. Now I'm showering on a mountaintop. This is awesome, man! These scenes are from where you come from?"

"Yeah. I used to live right under that mountain. I shot these images myself, right before I left."

Koben took a few minutes to brush out his fur, and swirled some oral cleaner around in his muzzle, spitting it into the sink. Kennard finished his shower up quickly, and stepped out to dry off what the sonics had missed.

"Sonics never get all the water in these damn units. You always have to towel off after unless you want to feel moist in your underwear all day," the man said.

"You should try it when you're covered with fur," said Koben. "If I get some time off, I'll see if maybe I can figure out what's wrong with them, fiddle with the tuning or something."

He set the brush down, and grumbled, "Well... mostly covered with fur."

Kennard glanced down momentarily, and then back up. "Oh yeah, almost forgot. I passed the new doc in the hall, and he said to check in with him in C Medical. He says to tell you he might have a fix for your... uh... situation there." He sort of waggled his finger up and down indicating Koben's furless belly,

The grey wolvan's eyebrows drew up, hopefully, "Really? The doc that I saw earlier said I'd just have to wait for it to grow back."

Koben pulled out his standard, daily-wear uniform. The Fixers were informal about certain things, but still wore uniforms when on any sort of duty schedule. But members with digitigrade legs could opt for form-hugging shorts that ended above the knee, or loose full-length pants with ties at knee and ankle to keep them from flapping, as they liked. Koben preferred the former. The material was nycrex, durable, elastic and breathable, so it was fairly comfortable even if you had fur.

The upper uniform was, for informal duty, a, indigo tee-shirt of heavy nycrex with vidfiber, so rank could be displayed on the breast or sleeves, over which one could wear a sleeved shirt or jacket.

There was also a utility harness that strapped over one's shoulder and across their chest, with clips for some standard equipment, like small hand-coms, a duty knife, and a sidearm holster. Every Fixer was issued at least one sidearm, although medical and certain other technical staff normally didn't carry them around, except in extreme circumstances.

Koben slipped on the tee, and tossed the jacket over his shoulder. Kennard had almost finished dressing and was buttoning his sleeved shirt.

"I haven't eaten yet either. I'll head down to the mess hall with you, if you want company," the young wolvan said.

"Sure. I still have just enough time to get some breakfast. Let's go."

As they entered the hall, Lieutenant Mikell was standing by the next door, brushing some lint off her sleeve. She had olive skin, and shiny, dark brown hair in a single braid that went to the middle of her back. She was actually a pretty handsome woman, but with the short, muscular build of a heavy-worlder. Her fingernails were a deep brownish-black, a genetic trait of the people from her phenotype. They were also, supposedly, made of a substance that could score duracrete. She came up to about Koben's shoulder, and looked like she weighed about sixty kilograms, but it was closer to twice that. She could also dead-lift about two-hundred and fifty kilos with each arm the way someone else would pick up a briefcase.

She smiled and nodded, and waved to Kennard.

"Hey, I just wanted to apologize, Ensign. Lorenz thought you'd go straight on duty after your run."

Kennard blushed, and said, "Oh... heh. No worries Ma'am. I just borrowed a shower from Specialist Koben here."

"Thanks for being understanding, but if there's a next time I'll try not to let us surprise you like that. I talked to your boss, and told him I'd delayed you this morning, and to give you an extra half hour."

"You didn't need to do that Ma'am, but thanks. Really, it was no trouble."

"Hell. I gave Lorenz an extra hour. He'll need it to recover. Have a good day, gentlemen." She saluted, rogueishly, and headed down the hall.

"Wow," said Kennard.

"Heh. Yeah. By the way... I've been meaning to ask. I hope this isn't a rude question..."

The red-haired human looked up at him, "Ask away."

"Why does your skin get all red like that so often? Does it happen when you're embarrassed."

Kennard grinned, a little sheepishly. "Hah... yeah. It's called blushing. Everyone does it, really... well... most humans anyway. It shows up good on skin like mine, what with the freckles and with the pale."

After breakfast, Koben and Kennard parted ways. Koben's etherware agents had sieved through a lot of information, already. He could really sit anywhere and work, now that he had access to the ship's infonet through his headcomp, but he decided to report in to his superior in person.

Koben had been assigned to the specialist's pool. As such, he was outside most of the normal command structure, but could at times work closely with a team of various specialists competent in different fields. It was actually kind of refreshing. You had a team when you needed it, but could work on your own when that worked better. The organizer of this seemingly chaotic cluster of experts and technicians was Lieutenant Ibro Jax, a soft-spoken but imposing leopard catfolk male.

Jax saw to it that personalities didn't clash, jobs were assigned to individuals or teams that were needed to handle them, assigned the proper specialists to whichever unit might need them. He also saw to it that his crew were suitably cross-trained in all the disciplines that might possibly be required of someone who might on one day be rifling through encrypted records, and on the next be backing up a team in heavy assault armor as they breached a hull.

He was rumored to know everything. About everything. Including who to ask, and what to ask them.

Koben entered the office, and found the tall black leopard seated in front of a portable workbench, with an array of metal, plasteel, and crystalline components spread over it. The glossy black head looked up as the young wolvan entered, green eyes narrowing slightly in an expression that in felines denoted pleasure.

"Good morning, Good morning," he rumbled in his basso-profundo voice. "I hope you've been getting settled properly, Mr. Kobin."

"Well enough sir. Ensign Kennard has been showing me the ropes. All settled into my room, and been working on those projects we discussed. I think I've got some good leads to hand over... only a matter of which ones we want to follow fastest."

"Glad to hear it. You can send the data over at your leisure. The Chief's talking to Aralia right now. That scorpion pit you fell into was terrible, but there'll be some good business out of it. Farren's prefers contracts where we fix things that are wrong, and this is some very wrong stuff."

Koben nodded. He knew, from personal experience. And the worst part was that as he followed the various infostreams from Scrim's files, he kept uncovering more and more sinister doings.

"What are you working on, sir?" he asked the lean figure.

"Plasma accelerator. Sulmin was looking over a load of new shooters we just bought, and found something a little funny."

"Funny how?"

"Well, funny in that there's a nanoweb receiver worked through the insides, that if it picks up a certain signal, will tell the accelerator to drop the magnetic bottle suddenly when fired or fully armed. On a unit this size that would make a rather large noise and a big hole where the individual holding it was standing. It's pretty sneaky work. Needless to say, the Chief is vexed by this development, and we're attempting to decide what posture to use when discussing it with our vendor."

"They sold us heavy arms that someone can tell to explode from a distance?"

"Yes. But it might not have been on purpose. Some of this stuff... well... comes to us instead of an original intended purchaser. So we're trying to figure out if someone meant to sell us these, or meant to sell them to someone else, and then didn't, and we ended up with them."

"Should I..."

"No. I've got Sulmin and Korrul on it. They've been at this work longer, and I'd like you to keep your focus on your pet project. I'm guessing we'll want to move on that soon. There's a few of our folks really sharpening their teeth getting ready for this one."

"I am too, sir," said Koben. "I hope it doesn't come across as too unprofessional that I take it personal."

"Not at all. Farren's prefers to make things personal when appropriate, just as long as you keep your head clear. But I get the impression you're pretty damn level-headed. I looked through the record of how you got loose."

Koben closed his eyes for a second, and said "The experience was... it was pretty terrible, sir. Hard to keep my head."

"But you did. The way I see it, it looks like you took a split-second window of opportunity that you didn't know was coming, and then you worked on the problem for what? Four days? While going through all that mess? And you did a clean and perfect job, didn't get traced, your mark didn't know what hit him until it was all over, and you had a backup plan in case something went wrong. And you didn't jump the minute you were in. You felt out that whole system and made sure that you didn't do one thing sloppy, even though taking that extra time... must have been bad for you."

"Not as bad as making a mistake would have been. Sir."

"Well... I just wanted to mention to you. This isn't from your Uncle, probably because he doesn't want to look like he's favoring you. This was something I came up with and ran through the heads and we all agreed on. We're going to count you as having been retained by Farren's Resolution Services, during the time of your ordeal, so that it can go on your permanent record that even before formal training with us, you did a perfect security hack while under dire duress, without loss of life, and not only came through without external support in contact, but got us some very cherry contracts out of it."

Koben looked taken aback. "I... don't know what to say. I wasn't trying to do all that. I was just trying to get out of a scrape I fell into because I didn't know what I was doing. I mean... I fell into that like a fool. I didn't even see it coming. I mean... an hour after I set foot on planet, I was kidnapped, robbed, stripped naked, hooked up to... god, I don't want to think about it... and about to be sold into slavery."

"Your uncle tells me that about the first thing you asked was whether you could still join up afterward."

"Well... yeah. I kind of felt a little stupid."

Jax just gave him a look with raised eyebrows.

"You came into a situation where you didn't have good information. And that cost you. You were supremely unprepared, and frankly, the first time I stepped off a ship from home, I'd have probably got caught if they'd been waiting for me. Hell... you should ask your uncle Mohrgan about his first day out of Wolvan homespace, if he hasn't already told you."

He continued, "The point being: you got tripped, but you landed on your feet, and you turned it around. What you didn't know got you in trouble, but you used your head, and used what you did know to get out of it."

"Thank you, sir. I... really think that helps," said the young wolvan, his tail wagging slightly.

"Now. Have you ever heard of a shit sandwich?" asked the leopard.

"Uh... what?" said Koben, confused.

"Well... that's a management term I heard once, but I like it. A shit sandwich has something nice on the outside, to kind of cushion the shit on the inside. Basically, I've just given you the first half of the nice part. Now I'm going to unload the shit part on you, and then we'll finish up with something nice, so you don't go away upset."

"Uh... okay... I," said Koben.

"Something else I noticed was that you had the opportunity to call for help, when you knew we were probably back on planet and looking for you, with - I am not ashamed to say - a wealth of resources that could have helped you. Your uncle is the chief officer of this well-maintained and respected mercenary vessel, and had a personal reason to see to your safety. As it happens, you elected to handle it all on your own, while in a very depleted state, when at any moment your captor might have chosen to do something you didn't expect."

"You sent a timed message to call for help later, when the most tactically correct thing to do would have been to call in the cavalry and sit tight. As it happens, at the moment you sent that timed message - and I know only of it's existence, and not it's content, because you are a good hacker and there was no trace after you erased it - at that moment, we were actively searching for you and could have been inside that building within four minutes. You endangered yourself and others, and you let us continue searching blindly for you, wasting energy and resources, by not simply contacting us at first opportunity."

Koben looked down, and his ears drooped.

Jax continued, "There were other people in with you, who were in as bad or a worse state than you, injured, terrified, and some of them, I'm sorry to say, didn't have the kind of internal fortitude to come through it without scars on the inside. Most of those folks were pure civilians, some of them your own people, and one of them a doctor. You chose to go it alone instead of working with the people who were supposed to be part of your team, and that wasn't a tactically sound choice on your part."

Koben sat, digesting this for a moment. "I see that sir. And I suspected it at the time."

"But you did it anyway. Why was that? I'm not asking just to give you a hard time. I want to know your reasoning."

Koben lifted his head up and took a deep breath. "First. I was under 'dire duress' as you put it. I don't think my head was all that clear most of that time, and what I had clear I was using towards taking over that system and getting free. But also... I felt like I got into that situation, and it was my problem. I didn't think the fixers would approve of having to rescue someone who hadn't signed on."

Koben's fists clenched, he began to pace, and his voice had dropped to a growl. Muzzle wrinkling at the memory, he continued.

"And it was humiliating. It hurt. It was humiliating, and that capering crazy fuck made me ... he made me afraid. It was like being raped over and over, by a machine. And I kept thinking of someone coming in and seeing me trussed up in that ... thing, and seeing in their eyes that image of me with... but that was only part of it."

He took a deep breath.

"Until I got that little toe-hold in the system, I was helpless. Completely helpless, and that terrified me. I wanted to rescue myself, because otherwise, somewhere inside, I'd know I only got away because someone saved me. I didn't want to be a victim waiting for someone else to come save me. I didn't want to start off my stint with this company, working under an uncle I love and respect, knowing that my first act was to have to be rescued because I'd done something stupid. If I could get out of it myself, I wanted to.

The young wolvan paused. Jax listened patiently.

"And yes," Koben continued, "I also wanted a piece of that crazy asshole so I could fix him myself."

Jax nodded. "That's a pretty good answer. Not stupid at all."

He continued, "The only point I want to make is that from now on, include your team. There will be times when you have to make judgment calls like that again in the future. Sometimes, the best decision will be exactly the one you made the other day, either to protect yourself, your team, a client, or a target. It won't always be clear-cut. But I want you to make damn sure you remember that you are part of a team at all times from this point on."

"I will sir. My people are descended from pack animals. But... in my head, I was alone, and didn't have a pack there with me. Even though that really wasn't the case, I know."

The black feline face wrinkled in a smile. The rumbling voice said "Good. Teamwork's in your genes, but obviously you can take care of yourself on your own. I see a lot of your uncle in you."

Koben thought to himself again,Yeah. Good genes. I guess he and I got them from the same manufacturer.

"I honestly didn't intend this to bring you down, kid. I wanted to make sure that you knew we recognized that you did well... you did amazing. But I also wanted to make sure that you know not to always strike off alone. It's my job to help you be a better Fixer."

"Thank you, sir."

"Now... the other nice slices. Aralia apparently has had dealings with this man Scrim before, and she paid you a bounty for catching him in the act. That's a bonus all for yourself. Should be a nice starting stake for you. Twenty-five thousand creds. We just turned him over to some of her people on your behalf. She wants to see him... personal-like."

"Also, we signed on a couple of those boys who were in there with you, just this morning. Including that doctor, the little coyote-male - he's already on ship."

"The little shunki signed on?"

"Yes. He said he wanted to see you, to extend his thanks personally, and says he's got something for you to help you with some... lingering problem?"

"Great," said Koben, grinning. "Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, sir. So... I have some stuff to do for the team, right?"

"At your leisure. I'm going to go over what you already sent, and we're waiting to see what Aralia comes up with when the Chief's done talking to her, so if you want to head up to medical, now's a good time."

"I appreciate it. Thanks," Koben said, still grinning.

"One more thing, I'd like to suggest," said Jax, returning his gaze to the disassembled weapon.

"Sir?"

"You mentioned not wanting to feel like you had to be rescued, and I have the impression that some of that is a matter of pride. Well, we've just signed a few recruits on who were in that same situation with you, and who weren't able to help themselves. Please be mindful of their pride, too."

"Sir! I wouldn't down on them for what happened. They couldn't help it!"

"But you'd look down on yourself if you hadn't been able to handle it yourself?"

"Well... but..."

"But?"

"I had something I could do. If I'd not done something when I could. If I'd just let myself be afraid. That's what I couldn't have handled."

The green eyes looked up and met Koben's own, and the short feline muzzle wrinkled in a smile, the long whiskers folding back against the arched cheekbones. "Good answer, son. Good answer."

--

When Koben got to the medical bay, the ship's chief medical officer, Dr. Hines Ramaan, was talking to the new addition to the crew. Ramaan was a small, thin-limbed older human, with skin the color of dark coffee, contrastingly sharply with the almost glaringly white, neatly trimmed hair of his head. He'd overseen Koben's care personally, and with great courtesy and discretion when the young wolvan had first arrived.

Standing before him, barely coming up to Ramaan's shoulder - and Ramaan barely came up to Koben's - was a somewhat familiar, golden-furred shunki. The small coyote-kin wore a spotless white doctor's uniform, perfectly crisp and neat, expertly tailored for his body shape. The stark whiteness was broken only by the indigo insignia of Farren's on the breast pocket. He carried a handheld medical imager in one neatly-trimmed clawed hand.

The last time Koben had seen him, the little doctor was naked, bedraggled, and running around trying to apply first aid to his fellow captives. He'd been trapped in Scrim's "collection" facility for two days longer than Koben, squashed into nearly a fetal position in a tiny, cramped container. Now, he was neatly groomed, smartly dressed, and looked energetic. His face brightened visibly at the sight of Koben.

Dr. Ramaan turned slightly, and said, "Mr. Koben. I believe you've met my new staff member, but perhaps haven't been properly introduced. Mr. Koben, this is Doctor Arrek, from Azure. Doctor Arrek, this is Mr. Koben, whose case we were just discussing."

The shunki interrupted, and walked straight over to look up at Koben. "Mr. Koben. Good to meet you under better circumstances. I hear you're the one who busted us all out of that horrible place, and you're indirectly responsible for getting me this nice new position. I've been wanting to thank you."

Koben grinned, and said "Honestly, I assure you it was my pleasure. I saw you helping out everyone else... I didn't really... thank you for that."

The shunki shrugged, "I'm a doctor. All part of the calling. I've been talking to Dr. Ramaan, here and if you're comfortable with it, I'd like to take over as your physician."

Dr. Ramaan said "Dr. Arrek just recently finished his internship, and this is his first posting as a full doctor, but he trained at a rather prestigious school and hospital. He's impressed me as being very talented and knowledgeable. I'm confident in his abilities."

Koben looked back and forth between them. "Uh... certainly. That would be fine. I got some messages that you wanted to see me?"

Dr. Ramaan said, in his cultured, deadpan voice, "If you gentleman will excuse me, I've just got a com telling me that someone has swallowed an ammunition clip. Really. I'm sure the staff in forward medical is more than up to the task, but this one I simply have to see for myself. Mr. Koben? Doctor Arrek? A pleasure."

"Well," said the shunki, gesturing toward a door, "step in here with me, and we'll see what we can do?"

"Okay, doctor. I'm all yours," said Koben.

Koben followed the much shorter male into a small examining room. Arrek shut the door, and turned on the indicator for privacy.

"Well... I'd like to actually sit down and have a real conversation with you, Mr. Koben," the doctor said, looking at Koben's chart, "But I'm only halfway through orientation and they've given me a whole list of things to do. But I wanted to make sure and see to you first. I got a little wrapped up with some of the more injured people back there the other day, and didn't even get a chance to look and see if the person who rescued us needed help, or to say thank you."

Koben shrugged, "It's okay. There were a bunch there that were way worse off than me. I walked out on my own... mostly," he grinned.

"Yes, well... I heard from Dr. Ramaan that one of your major complaints remaining, other than some minor discomfort, is... missing fur."

"Well... yeah, I feel silly complaining. I mean, it'll grow back, right?" Koben said.

"It's actually a common complaint among people who have lost fur during something traumatic or difficult, or after an operation. Since there's a simple remedy, I think it's in the person's best interest."

"I thought Dr. Ramaan said there was no facility on the ship for that," said Koben.

"Well... I brought a little something with me. Dr. Ramaan has approved it for use, and has ordered more brought on board. I'm sure that a lot of the crew will be happy, when they lose a patch of fur or hair to mishap, that they don't have to walk around looking like a bad day at the groomers any longer than necessary."

"Sounds good to me. I mean, it's kind of a silly thing to be bothered by, I suppose..."

The coyote face smiled up at him, and said, "Well, to be frank, I know how I felt, and I don't feel silly."

Koben nodded.

"Anyway, first, if you don't mind, I'd like to give you a quick exam, make sure you're all fixed up properly? You said last time you still had some discomfort?"

"It's mostly gone now. My testicles still ache a bit. Still a little, I don't know... bruised feeling down there, and... well... my member is a bit sore still. But they gave me some medical nano, and I've got a pretty good healing rate."

The shunki, nodded, looking at his chart, "Yeah. I'm guessing you have good genes."

Koben sighed a little, and said, "So they keep telling me."

"I've got excellent genes too, actually", the shunki smiled disarmingly, "My mother worked for Aralia. I went to medical school on her Moon. Okay, if you would, get undressed, so I can take a look?"

Koben shrugged out of his shirt, and peeled off the uniform pants. The shunki waited for him to finish, pulled up a short stool, and sat in front of him. He pulled up the medical imager, and positioned it in front of Koben's groin.

He brought one gold-furred hand up, and pressed his fingertips gingerly against the dark skin of the larger canine's scrotum, pressing gently here and there. "Okay, let me know if anything hurts or feels strange," he said.

"Seems fine, so far, doctor," said Koben, watching.

"I'm looking through the imager so that I can look at blood flow under the surface, and in your tissues, when I palpate. If you're curious, I can put it up on the wallscreen, so you can see what I'm seeing, but I find that a lot of my patients get squeamish."

"I don't mind. I'm not very squeamish. And I'm guessing that a mercenary shouldn't be, even if they're just a comp systems specialist."

"You'd be amazed," said Arrek. "Used to see people all the time on the Moon. Mercs that probably had to clean someone's burnt brains out of their hair a week before, and they turn green if they see their hand through a med imager."

The wallscreen flicked on, and Koben could see, magnified, his own testicles, only the imager cleared to an internal view. It was as if the outer tissues had become transparent. The doctor switched to a view that showed only the blood vessels, their tracery like a delicate net.

He continued to gingerly squeeze here and there about the skin, rolling it gently between his fingers, searching for the tubes that led to the organs within.

"Any soreness or anything?"

"Nope. So far, so good,"

The shunki carefully squeezed first one ball, and then the other. "Anything?"

"The left one felt a little... achey when you did that."

"Looks like just some minor inflammation. I expect it'll be gone in less than another day. My human patients would probably have to be sedated for this, or examined remotely," he said.

"I've gathered. All sorts of cultural taboos," said Koben.

"Not bothering you though, I hope? I like to actually touch and look with my eyes. Somehow, looking through a scanned re-creation just isn't the same," said Arrik.

"No, no bother. You're a lot nicer than the doctor I had last week," he joked.

"Tell me about it. I think he's got his just desserts though. Dr. Ramaan's staff mentioned to me that for some reason he had to have half a gallon of semen removed from his stomach?"

"Yeah... well... at the time, I think I was kind of, not in my usual frame of mind,"

"I'd probably have shot him, if I'd stopped to think about it, and I'm a doctor. Don't feel bad about it. Okay, now, let's take a look upstairs here a little..."

The dextrous little fingers moved up and pressed against his sheath, rolling his penis gently this way and that. Koben noticed that the claws at the tips had been neatly filed down to smooth little nubs.

"Any soreness?"

"No, not from you touching it. I guess it just kind of feels... I don't know... stretched inside."

"I'd like to see it in it's engorged state. Are okay with that?"

"Sure, I guess. As long as it doesn't involve any weird machines,"

"Trust me, Mr. Koben, I don't even want to look at my coffee maker after last week. No worries on that score."

The coyote felt around the base of Koben's sheath, until he found the place where the knot grew on his penis. Gently, he pressed his fingers in and gripped behind it, massaging the area slightly. As the blood flowed in, it was trapped by his grip, and Koben's shaft began to swell. The knot rapidly showed through the shaven skin of his sheath, and the shunki medic carefully wrapped a thumb and forefinger around it.

"You can't do this with a human, by the way, just cut off the blood at the base and bring on an artificial erection," said the shunki, conversationally.

"Different anatomy?" asked Koben.

"That, and they scream and threaten to sue or shoot at you," said Arrek, grinning.

Koben's penis was now rather rigid, swelling inside the sheath, the tip poking out the end. The doctor ran his other hand up the length of it, and gripping the end of the sheath, while maintaining pressure with the first hand, gently pulled the covering down, exposing the organ. He gripped the folds of skin down at the base with the first hand and said "Would you mind holding yourself down here, just for a minute?"

Koben reached down, and gripped himself behind his huge engorged knot. The shunki doctor carefully squeezed along the length of the shaft, and gently gripping it in one hand, bent the organ slowly up, down, and to either side, while looking at it through the medical viewer.

"You look fine, really," he said after a moment. "Looks like the chambers inside were stretched a little, but you're healing. You'll be fine. You can try and put that away now, if you like," said Arrek.

Koben worked his sheath back over his knot, and pulled it up to cover his erection, while the doctor fiddled with a datapad. His member was still fairly engorged, and the tip poked out.

"How are you feeling, mentally?" asked the shunki, without looking up.

"I'm handling it. I don't think I'm suffering from any neurotic shock or post-trauma syndrome or anything."

"I'm guessing not. A couple of the other fellows from down there at Scrim's had to be sedated so that medical staff at the city hospital could even look at them. All that posing as a doctor, on top of everything else he did. They're being treated as victims of rape."

"We were raped," said Koben.

The shunki put the datapad down, and said "Yes. I suppose we were. But you seem to be recovering pretty well."

"I checked that Scrim guy's notes. Apparently, my family line's had gene augmentations, and one of them helps make us resistant to traumatic shock."

"It's in your chart. I've got the same trait. Probably why I'm back on the job. Just keep in mind though, not suffering from shock trauma isn't the same as feeling okay. Do you have friends or family to talk to if you need help working it out? If not, I know there's counselors on the ship, and I'm not that kind of doctor, but my door's open, too."

"Thanks. My uncle Mohrgan's on board. I can go to him. And I've got some friends I've made. But the same goes for you, too, Doc. If you feel like talking, or if you just want to socialize, I'm around."

The little shunki smiled, and wagged his tail. "Thanks. I appreciate that. I really do. Anyway, about your complaint. And yes, I can see how it's annoying, with all the stubble, and the itching I know all about."

Koben grinned.

"We've got a simple solution. Basically, we cover the affected area with a paste loaded with nanofabbers, and I send them instructions with a control unit, and they'll rebuild individual furs out of keratin and other materials that are in real fur and hair. It should look very much like your natural fur. Kind of the reverse of how the nanoshavers remove it. It'll only take a few minutes."

"Sounds great. When do we get started?"

"Right now, if you like. I've got it all ready to go."

The shunki doctor took a canister from a nearby tray, and shook it, a few times. He pulled on a pair of gloves, and sat in front of Koben. He depressed the top of the canister, and a grayish foam sprayed out of a nozzle. He quickly covered the general area of Koben's belly - the stuff was sticky and didn't drip down - and used his gloved hands to carefully smooth the gunk over his belly, groin, and genitals. The surface of it quickly set and firmed.

"Oh... there's a couple spots on my tail, too," the larger wolvan said.

The doctor applied more of the foam to the affected spots on Koben's tail and waited a moment for them to set.

"Feels a little weird. Is it working yet?" Koben asked.

"Not yet. I have to send them the instructions with the control unit. Just a moment."

The doctor plugged a small device into the side of his datapad, made some adjustments, and then removed it. He held it near the substance on Koben's belly. Almost instantly, there was a funny sensation, like the mess was squirming. There was a brief flash like an all-over itch, and them a warm sensation spread over his belly and genitals. He felt smaller spots on his tail doing the same, as the doctor passed the little square device over them.

"Okay, now just try and hold still and wait for a few minutes."

After five or six minutes, the stuff had puffed up and changed to a dark charcoal color. The little handheld device beeped.

"You're done," said Arrek. "Let's see now."

The doctor reached up and tugged at the edge of the hardened foam. It peeled off easily... it had reduced to a thin membrane over... fur. Pale, creamy fur. It looked perfectly normal, other than little bits of the dried foam stuff stuck in it here and there. The shunki removed the little bits from Koben's tail, and brushed with his fingers through the larger wolvan's belly fur, dislodging little bits of depleted nano-foam.

"There. Good as new. What do you think?" the doctor asked.

"I'm impressed! That stuff's great. Seems like it would be good for practical jokes."

"You'd probably have to tinker with it. Normally, it'll only grow fur where it's supposed to be, and not anyplace that already has it."

"Thanks. You've really made my day."

"Pleasure's all mine, really," said the doctor.

"Listen," said Koben, getting dressed, "I just found out that I came into a little windfall. I was planning on surprising a few folks, and asking them out for a night on the town or something. I don't know that many people here yet, but it seems like there's a few worth knowing. You're welcome to join us."

"Heh. I guess as long as we're careful not to run into any more trouble," the doctor grinned, "I took a walk into the wrong neighborhood, and the next thing I knew, I was supplying the gamete-harvesting black market."

"A bunch of mercenaries? Some of them experienced and highly dangerous? I think we'll be safe in most neighborhoods," said Aral.

"I get off at about 1850 tonight, will that do?"

"Sure! Most of the others won't be off until after that either."

--

As he left, the shunki doctor sighed, and thought to himself, Arrek, some of that might not have been very professional behavior on your part. But... something about him... I just found myself wanting to...

He wanted a cold shower. And maybe he should arrange some time off. Arrek wondered if maybe something was addled in his head after his weird experience. He'd just... well... had he just fondled a patient? Well not fondled. Maybe examined more thoroughly than he needed to.

Who was he kidding? Yes, he did prefer a more hands-on approach, because he felt it helped him connect to the people he worked on, and gave them more sense of connection with another caring sentient. But really, he could have looked over that young wolvan with a hand scanner from halfway across the room and gotten the same answers.

Arrek sighed. He'd get a rest, and he'd focus more, not let things distract him. He had just gone through a terrible ordeal, and immediately thrown himself into his work. He was put in charge of caring for the male who had rescued him from degrading and humiliating and painful abuse. The male in question happened to be... well... very attractive, and the places he'd required attention were... well. Good heavens. They wrote bad pornographic vids with that sort of setup, didn't they? Oh doctor, I'm feeling a little swollen down here. My my, let's just take a look, shall we?

Doctor Arrek sighed again, shook his head, and went to check on his next patient.

--

Koben sent messages to several of his new compatriots, starting with Kennard. He ended up inviting Lorenz, as well, although something about the man was rather grating. To his surprise, Lieutenant Mikell accepted his invitation - since Lorenz was coming, Koben thought he should invite her.

Jax chose to decline, and so did his teammate Sulmin T'Shelley... both Jax and the good-natured human female engineer were working on something interesting that had come up regarding the little exploding plasma launcher problem. Mohrgan tried to beg off, at first, but finally relented when Koben played the "Family" card.

There were two more attendees. Corporal Ven, a heavily augmented Tiger catfolk recently brought on with special ops from infantry, who had been part of the extraction team that came to the rescue, and his bunkmate, fellow Specialist Second Class, Wrahl Whitefell, another grey wolvan.

Wrahl's specialty was "Extractions." He'd been coordinating with Koben on the Scrim/Aralia contract, and they'd hit it off well. Wrahl actually turned out to be a distant cousin, and soon introduced Koben to his bunkmate... and lover... Ven. The two made sort of an odd couple, but seemed to be happy. Apparently, interspecies relationships weren't too terribly uncommon away from the homeworlds, and it wasn't like two males were going to be breeding anyway.

Ven worked with the vehicle pool a lot, and offered to arrange a ride for everyone. There was only one small catch. He had to make a delivery to civil patrol headquarters.

"What kind of delivery?" Koben asked him, as the young wolvan watched him lift the entire engine out of a small transport with his bare hands.

The tiger set the huge hunk of ceramsteel down onto the deck, with a dull "boom."

Ven always spoke with a slow, almost monotone voice, and some people thought he sounded... well... mentally slow. But Koben found that he was just very, well, deliberate. He gave the impression of being a stereotypical "huge dumb guy," but the only accurate part of that picture, was the "huge" part.

Ven stood well over two meters tall, and weighed about a hundred seventy five kilograms. He tended to move as slowly and deliberately as he spoke, but this wasn't because he had to. He was just very... careful. You had to be careful when your nervous system was wired for reflexes that made a lizard look slow, and your muscles were augmented to such efficiency that most of the world fell into the category of "rather squashy" to you. But he had broad, open, honest features, and there was just something likable about him, despite that fact that he was, basically, an engine of destruction on two legs.

"One of our extractions, from a while back. Small-timer with a bounty on his head, stole some kind of corporate secrets and tried to pawn them to the wrong people. But after we grabbed him, turns out that so many people were after him that Legal says it's just easier if we turn him over to Civ patrol and let them sort it. We might still collect some partial bounties on the guy, but it's a hassle. We've been dragging this poor strunz around for about four months, sealed in a stasis coffin. Anyway, I'm supposed to drop him off at Civ patrol this evening, since I was the "arresting party."

The tiger grinned hugely. "That was really kind of funny, actually. We posed as a client to draw him out. But he spooked early on, and got into this little hovercar and tried to make a break. So I had to jump on that car."

"I'll bet that scared the crap out of him."

"Oh no. He got unconscious before he could crap. I jumped on that car from about four stories up, and it got kinda squashed when I landed on it. He don't even know he's caught yet."

Koben laughed. "Well, I'm sure nobody will mind, since we all want you along, and you're the driver anyway."

And that seemed to be that. It promised to be a wonderful evening.

--

That night, everyone assembled on the port vehicle deck. Ven had set up a large, armored ground vehicle that didn't look too terribly non-civilian. Everyone showed up in their work clothes, although Ven had changed into his formals. The little shunki doctor looked like a tiny white dot in a sea of indigo.

Ven tossed the stasis-coffin into the cargo section, and called civ-pat while the rest of the bunch loaded themselves into the vehicle. There was a lot of the usual joking and ribbing. Lorenz kept complaining that the gathering was something called a "sausage fest." Koben had to ask what that meant, and Lieutenant Mikell gleefully responded that it meant that she was in her element and preferred sausage to fish... whatever that meant.

--

A quarter of a mile away, at the edge of the spaceport, a flying eye the size and shape of a football recorded the vehicle's departure from the ship. Somewhere in the city, a voice spoke into a com. "They're leaving. Make sure you get Scrim back. In one piece if you want full pay."

"How do you know they have Scrim in there?"

"Oh, I don't know. Let's see. Inside that vehicle are some of their heavy hitters and specialists, the chief officer of the damn merc ship, a couple of Scrim's 'ex-patients', and a stasis coffin headed for civil patrol headquarters. What do you think, they're just off for a night on the town? Aralia's reputedly offered big money for Scrim, but so have a lot of other people. He's on that transport, and the parties I represent want to make sure that he doesn't move beyond their reach."

"I have a team assembled."

"Can they handle this? The fixers have quite a reputation."

"That's what you pay the big bucks for. And that vehicle they're taking isn't too tough. Probably trying to be discreet."

"Remember. We prefer Scrim alive, but we'd rather have erasure than have him reach Aralia's people."

"Noted. I'll mobilize my team. I'll inform you when the target has been extracted."

"Don't screw up."

"This'll be a piece of cake. We have a well-deserved reputation of our own."

--

Ven ambled the transport into a long tunnel. Civ pat had arranged for the route, normally used for municipal vehicles, to be cleared for a period of half an hour.

The big tiger looked over his shoulder, and in his slow, deliberate voice, said "I just lost contact with civil patrol. Could someone check the transmitter?"

And then all hell broke loose.

Koben felt a horrible buzzing in his skull, just as all the lights in the vehicle and tunnel flashed crazily and then went dead. There was a dull "thump" noise a moment later, and then a grinding "bang" from the engine compartment.

The whole vehicle just stopped, abruptly, as the engine just... froze. The field effects generators outside the transport flickered, twisted, and died. The occupants found themselves suddenly moving at 70 kilometers per hour, while the vehicle around them wasn't.

A moment later, there was a dull "Crump" noise, and Koben momentarily blacked out. When his vision cleared, the first thing he registered was that his headcomp's EMP shields had deflected the edge effects of a powerful targeted burst. The other thing he noticed was that suddenly, there was violence.

A group of armored figures had rushed the vehicle and the big sliding door to the passenger compartment was gone. Koben saw a brief glimpse of Ven kicking out the driver's side door and vanishing into the darkness. His uncle shoved him roughly down onto the floor. Koben realized that the diminutive shunki doctor was mashed underneath him.

"Stay down!" yelled Mohrgan into his ear. A moment later, a dark figure in ceramsteel armor appeared in the the gaping space that had once been the passenger door. There was a bright flash and a bang as it discharged a weapon straight into Mohrgan's chest, sending Koben's uncle flying over him to smack into the far wall of the transport.

Koben had a brief moment of horror. Someone had just fired what looked like a high-energy discharge weapon into his uncle's chest. And then a very angry, black-furred, indigo-clad, smoking figure shot back over him, and smashed a fist through the faceplate of the armored shape. The noise sounded like a grenade going off, as glassteel and metal suddenly ruptured under an irresistible blow. The black-furred fist yanked back out before the figure could drop, trailing gore and fragments of the ruined helmet.

Before Koben could make sense of this, there was a flash from the rear of the transport, and the whole back panel fell away with a clang. Another hulking armored shape reached in towards the stasis coffin in the back.

And Liuetenant Mikell fired a heavy blaster straight into it's faceplate. The figure fell back immediately and vanished. After a moment, Mikell was leaping out of the sundered transport, her weapon spitting out sizzling bolts and thunder. Lorenz crouched in the breach beside Koben and the doctor, Kennard beside him, both of them firing wildly out the ruined door with their smaller sidearms. Wrahl scrambled past Koben, crouching, a high-energy slug thrower in each hand. Abruptly, he flung one arm out behind him, without turning his head, and fired three booming shots through the wall of the vehicle. There was a muffled scream from the other side.

Koben knew that there was nothing he could do about big armored people with giant guns. He had to just hope that the heavy hitters would keep them away. But he didn't have to be told to call for help. Something had fried the com array on the transport, and it was a good zap, but it had been focused on the vehicle systems, and his shielding was enough to protect him from the "splash."

Koben laid as flat as possible with the doctor under him. He heard a scream of pain from Lorenz as a bright, sizzling light flashed through the inside of the vehicle. Over him, his uncle and Kennard were still firing away with hand weapons. Wrahl had vanished. The smell of ozone, charred flesh and burning hair was horrific.

Koben didn't lift his head to look up. He pressed his eyes closed, and tuned his headcomp and com unit to latch on to a faint signal. A moment later, he had a line to a municipal array that let him contact the ship.

He felt an iron grip on his leg pull him out the door, still clutching the shunki. A moment later, he was surrounded by the rest of his teammates. The huge tiger was smoking and bleeding from several injuries, his uniform a shambles. Koben had a momentary glimpse of a fine weblike tracery of glowing light inside a hole charred through the outer skin of Ven's thigh.

His comp agents handled alerting the ship's sensor and com arrays to their location. Koben himself pushed through a call to Jax.

Ven reached under the bottom of the vehicle, and, massive augmented muscles flexing, flipped it over onto its side. Mohrgan quickly dragged Koben and Doctor Arrek and piled them unceremoniously by the damaged transport.

A voice from the other side called out:

"We were hoping to do this a little more cleanly, but we're losing time here. You have something we want. We've got something you don't want... two plasma burners that will go through that piece of shit you were driving and cook whatever's on the other side. Toss out the stasis-coffin, and we'll walk away."

"What was this little shit into?" asked Mikell. "I could swear he's too small-time for this kind of heavy!"

Koben murmured to his uncle, "Keep them off us just for a minute. I got Jax and the ship on feed."

Mohrgan shouted back, "You'll hit your target that way, because we're right behind it. And if you move on us, we'll hole him ourselves."

The voice returned, "We're prepared to eliminate Scrim rather than let him leave, so that's not an effective threat. Come on guys, you ain't got good cover, we're gonna use the big guns, and you're cut off from support. We get paid a lot more if we extract our cargo alive, so if we can't do that, we're gonna be pissed and we're gonna make sure we leave you glowing and smoking."

Koben said "Jax says we need a signature. Can you get them to shoot one of those things if they got em?"

Mohrgan nodded and shouted, "If I had big guns, I'd use 'em, not talk about 'em."

A blazing, actinic lance of fire shot across the top of the overturned vehicle, and continued on to splash molten incandescence across the far side of the tunnel. Koben yipped as spots of burning metal spattered about them. Beside him, Mikell cursed. "Fuck! Dammit!" as she scraped at a smoking spot on her upper arm."

"Jax says he got it. He says just wait a second," said Koben, grimacing as he tried to swat the smoking holes in his clothing.

"All right," shouted Mohrgan, to their assailants. "But this ain't Scrim. You're trying to jack the wrong popsicle. This is a small-time grab."

"Bullshit," said the voice from the other side. "I think you're trying to stall. Your com feed's shut off, and we're suppressing signal. So if you're trying to raise help, it ain't gonna happen, or it ain't gonna happen quick. My intel says nobody's on the way from your ship, and by the time they cut in here, we'll have you smoked. So, I'm gonna count to three, and if I don't feel cooperated with, we're gonna hose down that whole area with plasma and accept our losses and leave."

"One."

Koben said "We got it, don't worry." His companions looked down at him, eyebrows raised.

"Two!" a dull hum began to rise from where their attackers lurked.

"Just another second, and we got it. Really, Cover your eyes." said Koben. Mikell just said "Shit. Got it means got it. Not almost..."

"Thre..."

There was a blinding flash, a shriek of tortured air, and a deafening explosion from the other side of the corridor. The overturned transport slid, scraping the group of them backwards by several feet. When it stopped moving, and the spots quit dancing in front of his eyes, Koben saw that the huge tiger had kept it from flipping on to them by holding it up with his bare hands. He pulled his smoking hands away from the hot metal with a grimace and a small grunt of pain.

The only light came from the glow of burning and molten plascrete.

"Jax says he got it," said Koben, coughing. "Can I get up yet?"

Mohrgan gestured to Whitefell. The dark wolvan seemed to flicker and vanish into the shadows. A few moments later, they heard "All clear."

When the tunnel lights came back on, there were five armor suits smoking and inert - the intial strike team that had hit them. The occupants of two of them were still alive, but badly hurt. The spot where their assailants had stood while making their threats was a rough star of slag and cracked plascrete with a shallow, rounded crater in the center. There was about half a small, low-slung vehicle right outside the circumference of the destruction. It looked like a giant burning cookie cutter had sliced a chunk out.

"What the hell happened?" said Kennard.

"We got attacked by someone who thought we were carrying that guy Scrim," said Mohrgan.

"No... I mean... what happened to them?"

Koben looked up at his uncle, "Uncle Mohr.. I mean... chief. Remember those funny guns we got? Jax says that apparently, they got sold to a lot of other people. Including these guys. T'shelley and the team cracked the crypt on the signal that sets them off."

Mikell asked "How'd you get a line out? They were screening pretty hard."

"They were talking to someone. They had to have a line out, so I piggybacked on that."

Lorenz said "Hey, guys... I'm sure glad to know how exactly nerd-wolf saved us, but I'm bleeding here, okay?"

"You're not bleeding," said Mikell. "That stump's completely cauterized. That's just burnt subcutaneous fat dripping out. We'll have you fixed up in no time."

Lorenz responded with a stream of strangled profanity that should have turned the air purple.

Koben looked down at the coyote doctor beneath him.

"Does this mean we'll be taking a raincheck on dinner?" the shunki asked.

"Heh... yeah Doc. I suspect so. Are you okay enough to handle some first aid for everyone?"

"Yes, but could you... well... your knee is crushing some things I'd like to keep. And I think Corporal Lorenz will like some pain killers."

"Oh... sorry," said Koben, rolling off the little doctor. There were spots along his side that burned fiercely. When he touched them, there were spatters of hot metal from the warning shot. He winced, but knew it wasn't serious.

Lorenz had taken a good blast, and was missing his left hand well behind the wrist. Koben shuddered at the sight. Doctor Arrek was calmly spraying the charred stump with something from the emergency kit, and telling the man "Don't worry. I know this looks horrible, but we'll soon have you good as new."

"Aw man! There's bones all sticking out! I can't even look at it." moaned Lorenz.

"Well, stop waving the bones around, or I'm going to end up getting this trauma sealant in your eye, and then you'll have something to really cry about," said the shunki doctor, "The pain killer should already have deadened the nerves... is it hurting?"

"No, but I think I'm gonna be sick!" exclaimed Lorenz.

Wrahl was tending to his lover. The huge tiger had sat down and was leaning against the ruined transport. Koben could see that there were several scorched spots on his legs and chest. There was something shimmering oddly in the wounds. It looked almost like the skin had burned, but something under the skin had stopped the hit from going further.

"Shielding weave," said Mohrgan's voice from behind him. He turned to see his uncle sitting on his haunches. There was a blackened, scorched star just left of center on the black wolvan's chest. He'd taken a direct hit from a pretty big hand weapon. What looked like a net of shimmering filaments showed through the raw spot where the fur had burned away.

"I had it done too," the older mercenary explained, "I get it upgraded whenever Aunt Aralia comes up with newer. It gets most of the power from the incoming fire - turns it into a field effect, like a little tiny ship shield. Almost nobody's got this stuff. Aralia won't sell it to just anyone."

"But Farren's can get it?"

Mohrgan shrugged, "She's my aunt."

"You mean she's your actual aunt? I didn't know we were related to her,"

"More like great-great aunt. I ain't that old. Aralia's like two hundred and seventy, and I ain't gone that far past seventy yet. And it's hard to really say, exactly whether aunt's the precise term, since she did some mix and match with the family line. But yeah. Aunt isn't just a term of respect when I talk about her."

Koben said, "Jax says they have a team scorching air to get over here and pick us up. Civil patrol's sending guys too. It'll just be a few minutes."

"Sorry about dinner, guys," said Ven. "This was really just supposed to be a quick drop-off."

"It's okay," said Mohrgan. "Sometimes, even a simple errand ends up being a clusterfuck."

--

Koben scratched idly at a small burned patch on his arm. Forward medical was a settling down from a buzz of activity to more of a gentle, relaxed hum.

The excitement had been over for a little more than an hour. Now, they were back on the ship, being patched up. Koben suffered only a couple of burns, and had some painful punctures on one shoulder and leg. Apparently, Mohrgan's claws had gone through his skin while moving the younger wolvan to safer positions.

The doctor was completely uninjured, and was tending to Ven. They were lowering the huge tiger's naked body into a vat of nano-gel. Ven smiled and nuzzled at Wrahl's arm, as he settled down into the gook that would deal with his burns and injuries. The huge tiger's hands had been burned down to the reinforced bones, and he'd taken several energy and slugthrower hits.

From the next room, Koben could hear Lorenz complaining to Kennard.

"Man! My whole hand. Look at this, man? This is unbelievable. I got my hand shot off!"

"Doc Ramaan says they can grow another one for you in a couple of days, man. It's not like you're gonna have to use a claw or something."

"But I jack off with this hand, man!"

Across the room, her bare chest and back spotted with nano patches, Lieutenant Mikell rolled her eyes. "I gotta start taking an interest in big smart guys," she muttered to a nurse, "You want him? He's good in bed."

The nurse shook her head, smiling, and scurried on.

A few minutes went by. Mohrgan was still out conferring with the local civil patrol. Jax had gone to meet him. Koben's uncle had declined medical attention before meeting with the authorities. He said that often the sight of an angry mercenary chief covered with char and blood, asking questions about their security lapses kept them more amenable to courtesy.

Kennard wandered out of Lorenz' room, and sat down next to Koben. The young man had taken off his uniform jacket, which had been badly scorched by flying droplets of metal, and was covered with soot, plascrete dust, and small scratches. His pale, freckled, athletic stomach showed through a huge gash in the midriff of the tee-shirt underneath.

"That was nice shooting," said Koben.

"Thanks. I'm an interpreter and xenocompatriot. I'm training to be a liaison officer. I just shot at a bunch of heavily armored thugs who were shooting at me with much bigger guns."

"You didn't get hurt too bad though. Just some little burns and scratches and bruises, right?"

"Yeah."

"My uncle says that shooting at people is a form of communication that can transcend boundaries of language and societal customs."

"Part of one of Lorenz's fingers was in my shirt. That was pretty gross," said Kennard.

"Especially since he just told you what he does with that hand," said Lieutenant Mikell, shrugging her shirt on. Kennard closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Ew. Sorry.... I mean 'Ew, ma'am.'"

She grinned, "Look... you boys will get some praise from me on this one. You can expect some rep among the troops. I'd like to tell ya more about how I think ya done good, but it'll have to wait. Gonna go pick up our chief and get him to medical before he eats the chief of civil patrol. He says get some rest, and he thinks ya done good too. You get the day off tomorrow, but be around for debriefing."

"Oh. And sorry to heard about your room, Kennard. Lorenz is getting his pay docked, and he's going to be confined to quarters for the next two jumps" she said, over her shoulder.

Koben looked at Kennard. "What? Why? What happened?"

Kennard rubbed at his face with his fingers, and said, "You know those plasma weapons that had the thing that could make them blow up remotely?"

"Yeah?"

"Well... when the crates came in, Lorenz talked one of his buddies into sneaking him one of the hand models to play with on the firing range. He had it in his footlocker. So it didn't get disabled by the Specialists. And somehow, when they were doing that broadcast to blow our opponent's guns in that tunnel, the one in his footlocker went off."

"Aw. You're shitting me," said Koben.

Kennard turned and gave him a weary chuckle. "It was just a hand-unit. Partly depleted. But the room's frigged up, along with most of our stuff. Didn't even mess up the rooms to either side, cause this ship's made of good stuff. Chalmers said the picture of his mom came off the wall when it blew though."

"You got new quarters assigned yet?" asked Koben.

"I dunno. Probably. I gotta go check. All my stuff's ruined though."

"Hey, how about we go get cleaned up, and you can come hang out with me tonight."

"Can I use your shower?" the human asked.

"Of course," the wolvan grinned.

They said good night to Doctor Arrek, who patted Koben on the flank and suggested that perhaps they could have dinner on some other planet.