FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Lost In The Mist © 2015 Sinclair Diavante

For Saku. 09/04/2001 - 01/07/2015 "Gonna get yer paws!"

Chapter 1.

We were on our way to the starport, and neither Zach nor I had spoken since we left the house; so far, we spent it in silence. The Hahkota was too massive to land locally, something about a-grav causing geological harm. At first, I couldn't even think of what to say, I was too astounded. Like a ruptured dam, slowly thoughts began to trickle in, and then they rushed in a torrent of emotion. For once, I knew it had nothing to do with my collar, since I wasn't wearing it for the first time in three years.

"Zach-"

"Call me Zeek, Keman." He turned his attention back to the road, piloting an expensive silvery groundcar across a winding road paved with crushed cellulose. Green trees and lush meadows passed us on both sides, calm, tranquil. My home. I was leaving so much behind me.

"Zeek. Did you plan this part? You said you designed my whole future." I kept worrying the situation, caught up in my shame and anger. I was ready to explode into self-loathing, as I feared this was all because of something I did wrong. Anything this bad was always my fault.

Zeek smiled, but his scent was sad. "Only in the best of circumstances."

"The best? This is the best?!?" I glared at him, anger took the lead. My emotions felt like unstable rocket fuel.

He stared at me. "Yes, the best. If your personalities didn't mesh, if you became unstable. This phase could be postponed, indefinitely, if need be."

"Phase." I squeezed claws into my palm pads, making a fist and relishing the pain. "How can you sit there and be so cold and calculating? I'm not some... quota to be met!"

"No, you're not. That's why you have your freedom, because we're not cold. You deserve this, you've earned it." He wiped his whiskers with a paw, shifting his hands on the steering gear.

"I don't deserve being ripped away from my Alpha." My mind slowed, tasting the concept. Yes, that's what this was. Being excised, like some malignant tumor. My nostrils flared, ready to search for lies.

He bared his teeth; the close confines were amplifying our scents, heightening both of our emotions. His began to reach the state where they interfered with his speech.

"Alpha? You use word as if you know what really means. But you don't, I designed recognition to dominance! Don't use word with me, human."

The reference hurt like a slap, and I was about to reply when the truth sank in. My whole upbringing, mom and dad, they were just thin smoke that wafted away when I tried to pull up details. I had no littermates, just a brother who had been dead for six centuries, from a race now nearly extinct. I felt very alone, and I clung to the past, which I knew was real. Nevertheless, Sin was a part of that, how could I just walk away? He meant everything to me; it wasn't fair to say I didn't know the meaning of what an Alpha was.

"Then what would you call it?" I asked. "When someone comes into the room, and you look at his eyes and take in his scent, in order to set your expectations?"

He said nothing.

"What would you call it, when your stomach rumbles and you think of what he might provide? This isn't my world, Zeek. It's his, and I would follow his lead, until I could only crawl, and then I would crawl, until I died." Truth.

Zeek's lips twitched, he wiped a tear from his eye, and kept driving.

"I know you think this is good for me, but it isn't!" I realized I was taking my anger out on him, but I had to. I couldn't twist the blade in Sinclair, Zach had to be the one.

"It is." He looked at me.

"No, it isn't! This is a mistake. You're so afraid of fucking me up? What the hell am I going to do, huh? I'm canine and I'm all alone, you know that hurts!" The lone wolf is usually the dead wolf.

Zeek turned his gaze back to the road. "You are not alone. Casey and Ash have refused every mission that didn't put them one step closer to finding you. That couldn't go on forever, you know. I never predicted that your personality would pull like a singularity."

I thought about that for a moment. Part of me was actually eager to see them again, but another had nothing to say to them. I couldn't mention anything about Sin, and he was the only thing I wanted to talk about.

"I don't have. Much. To say to them." I looked down at my paws. Thick, leathery paw pads, sharp claws.

"I think they're expecting that, Keman. But, before you go and treat them like shit, do remember that for the past three years they've been blaming themselves for leaving you behind." He glanced at me. "While you've been having the time of your life, they have probably not allowed themselves a moment of happiness. If they did, I never saw it.

"Why not just tell them the truth? They're trustworthy." I frowned.

Zach shook his muzzle quickly. "No! Private business, Sin's orders. Remember, they hunt people like him. Never understand, not capable of it. Learn you aren't real... never trust you." That was a concept I found hard to believe. How awful it would feel to come under their scrutiny. A concept to remember.

Thinking about it became too much to bear. My world went blurry again, and I turned to look out the side window. I couldn't see a single thing. I missed Sinclair, but my tears were my own, not for someone else to witness. I needed to contain my emotions, bottle them all up, to take little sips from in the future.

Silence was our only companion for the rest of the trip.

Chapter 2.

I felt like I was on autopilot when I walked up The Hahkota's boarding ramp. Ash and Casey were waiting for me at the top, and I saw some other faces I didn't recognize. Zero stared at me solemnly from in the back of the cargo bay, probably feeling responsible for my perceived situation. Zeek walked past me, smelling like indifference. He spoke to Zero in hushed tones, and the two of them left. I heard the anti-grav systems charging, the gentle whine of capacitors ramping up; we weren't sticking around.

I just stood there facing them, unsure of what to say. Where do I start? I bared my throat, they bared theirs deeply. No one wanted to speak at first; I decided that I needed to own this situation, to take control. They were probably afraid I was mad, and while many in my situation could be, I certainly wouldn't. I smiled, and the tears from earlier came back out. They lunged at me and held me so tight, I thought my ribs might crack.

"Keman!" Casey whispered, holding me tight. "Where have you been, dog? I'm so glad to see you again. So glad you're back. I missed you so much!"

"We looked everywhere!" Ash said, smelling fiercely satisfied, but I detected a level of exhaustion, too. "Zeek said you were either dead, or as good as dead. But... I just, couldn't," her tone hardened in a way I had not heard before, "stop."

"It's ok." I said. Again, I reminded myself. Own this, Keman.

Casey let go and backed up, staring at the sharp line of missing fur around my neck. "No, it isn't." His scent turned disgusted.

While I had just argued about how leaving Sinclair would fuck me up, now I had to say the opposite. I couldn't lie. So I compartmentalized my anguish and put it under a new label: the torture they were certain I had experienced. Different cause, same feelings.

I nodded, serious. "Maybe. But we move forward, now."

Ash raised her muzzle and howled the joyous note of the lost that had been found. Casey joined in, but I could barely find my voice to sing anything so happy, not with who I just left behind. My voice rose, though, it gained volume, easily eclipsing theirs. My one hope being that Sinclair could somehow hear it, as we passed through the atmosphere and blue faded to black.

Sinclair stared at his bed, breathing in Keman's scent. It was strongest here. He leaned against the doorframe and stared down at the collar in his paws. Closed, locked, inactive.

He wondered about things. The definition of complete. He weighed the benefits and costs, what was gained and now what was potentially lost. What the future could hold, so many calculations.

Abruptly, he shoved those thoughts aside, only to fall to his knees, howling as loud as he could. The howl to bring back a lost pack member from a hunt gone awry.

Later, I was in the galley, sitting at a table with Ash and Casey. Various other Rhenthar had been introduced to me. While they were in my periphery, their names hadn't stuck; I had no idea who any of them were. I felt dazed and discordant. Concentration was next to impossible, when all I wanted to think about brought me so much pain.

I had changed since they had last seen me. But it all felt for the better, to me. They could never understand, and such differences opened a big rift between me and my friends, a chasm we couldn't cross.

"Zeek unlocked the autodoc," Casey said, setting down a hypospray and several ampoules onto the table's softly glowing surface. "Said I could take anything I thought might help. So... I went shopping."

I stared at the ampoules and picked one up, curious. Several chemical names had been printed on it, along with a barcode and the date of its manufacture, today. Long names that meant little to me, I quirked a brow.

"A little of this, a little of that. Some Ultramorph, MDMA, and tetrameth. I call it wolf racing fuel with a fire extinguisher, all in one," he said, grinning mischievously.

Ash smirked. "Casey. I don't think that's a good idea to be giving to Keems right now."

Casey looked hurt. "Who said it was for him?" He picked up the hypospray and loaded it. Before I could object, he shoved it against my arm and it hissed suspension into my bloodstream. Inwardly, I reeled. Sin had dosed me with drugs, plenty of times, and this was a reminder of that.

My pupils grew large and the room took on a crystalline sheen, colors became more vibrant as warmth flooded into me. I became acutely aware of every single air current that touched all the fur covering my body, ten million hairs. I relaxed. My fur took on a disheveled appearance, as if I had slept fitfully and hadn't used a brush in a week. All my follicles released their tension, I leaned against Ash and gave out a huge sigh.

Ash smelled outraged, until the fire burned out when she noticed the grin at the edges of my muzzle. I couldn't keep my paws to myself, and I played with her thick white coat, sliding my claws through it dreamily.

"Why the fuck not?" She grabbed the hypospray out of Casey's paw and popped an ampoule into it, then dosed herself.

Casey put his paw below hers and caught it as it tumbled from her grasp, she was obviously new to recs. He loaded the last ampoule and nervously twisted the device around in his paws, hesitating.

Ash stiffened, then relaxed. "Oh! Oh." She turned and looked at me, gently petting my ears, cautiously at first. My eyes shut with each touch, soon she was massaging them and my tongue hung out as I panted.

I temporarily gained some composure, and mumbled "gimme that" to Casey. I snatched it from his paw, like I was the grand master of operating coherently while stoned, and injected it into his arm. I carefully set it down onto the table and glanced at the clearly empty spot on my left, then him. His eyes opened wider when he understood my message.

He got up and stumbled on his way around the table, plopping down next to me with a huge smile, his tongue was hanging out, too. I hadn't realized just how much I missed these guys. Maybe it was the drugs, but no, the memories of our past were all as real as anything could be in my life.

People around us gave each other knowing smiles, conversation picked back up a notch or two, we were going to be fine.

Eventually the Ultramorph wore off and the tetrameth took a more dominant role, we started talking excitedly. Ash told me about all the different leads they had followed towards me, of which none lead anywhere useful. Their hunt around the galaxy, once even finding an enslaved Rhenthar who looked similar to me.

"He killed himself, after we freed him," Ash murmured.

"After that, I was like," Casey said, looking at me. "What if you were like that?"

Ash shook her head. "No, Keems is strong, I never worried. I just wanted you back," she said. "I knew that if we got you back, everything would be ok." She rubbed my stomach and peered down at my sheath. "Still in there, isn't it?" Her ears went sideways.

I nodded. "Yeah. I've got a way around it, but," I shrugged. "I got used to it."

Casey perked up. "Hey, we found a way to take it off. Cut your whole dick off, grow a new one from clone stock, and splice that on..." He shook his head.

"I think I'll pass on that, thanks. While it can be frustrating at times, we've come to a truce, at this point. You wouldn't believe how awful it was, in the beginning." Truth.

Ash sat up straight. "Zeek wouldn't tell us any details, he said that was all up to you. What did he? She? Do to you?"

I sighed and stared at her. "I was a sex slave in a harem, serving a female Chihuahua," I said, grinning huge. "She made me lick her toes every night..."

Ash's lips twitched, like she was going to cry, then she got angry. "Shut up... that isn't funny!" Casey started laughing, she turned her glare on him.

I shook my muzzle. "Thinking about it all hurts, too much." Truth.

We changed topics. People were re-introduced to me, there was some laughing and yelling, music started up. The social machine shifted into overdrive and we cruised down the highway of life, leaving nothing but photons in our wake.

Eventually they carried me to my quarters and left me on my bed to sleep peacefully.

Chapter 3.

I woke up alone, completely rejecting the reality that sorted itself out in my head. I was convinced that this was a nightmare, one that I needed to wake up from, like now. After a few minutes awareness settled fully, with depression heavy on my mind. After-effects from the drugs?

No.

Just missing Sinclair like the desert misses the rain.

Zeek had recently been in my quarters. I could still smell him; I looked around and saw something lying on the table near the doorway. I picked up two plasteel squares. My name was engraved on one, the other was heavier and blank. My wetware pinged it in the kilohertz range, and received a small data packet. It contained planet identifier text, GPS coordinates, and Sinclair's personal information. I touched the tags together and they produced a very familiar noise. Hurf. These were dangerous to our secrecy, I would guard them with my life.

Zach had explained to me the negative effects of his project. After he had pulled my mind through space and time, engines fell off transports in mid­flight, airlock doors opened without command, rivers changed direction temporarily. Catastrophic stuff. That a wake had been performed became well known. Half of Earth was in a state of chaos for weeks.

I. Was hunted.

That was a critical aspect he had drilled into me repeatedly, about my new life. Throw in the connection with Sinclair, it would be all bad for everyone involved. Many people died in order for me to exist. Zach had been so nonchalant about it all. I suppose other people in history had killed more for less, all in the name of accomplishing their goals.

Oh well. I didn't care anymore. Zach said it best: such choices were outside the scope of my capabilities. You can't say no to your creator. Here I am, deal with it.

I curled my paw around the tags, briefly considering the idea of hanging them from a collar, one of my own construction. Wouldn't be the first time, but no. Sin might consider that a failure to live on my own.

Depression began to crush me in its spiny grip. I fired up old routines I had learned at one point, the best way out of it was establishing realistic short, medium, and long-term goals. I needed something to occupy my mind while I healed. I flipped to my financial applet, and shook my muzzle at all the zeros. A starship was definitely within my reach, even one with FTL capability.

I thought back to what Sin had said about disappointing him. I wouldn't opt for a ZPD setup, I'd get something older and much cheaper. A hydrosplitter, maybe even an ion repeller, though I couldn't handle the maintenance of that on my own, she would need a crew.

Something large enough to warrant FTL, yet small enough for me to pilot alone. I accessed the local 'net, looking for the nearest shipyards. I found one that looked perfect. It supported a DIY environment, offered short and long-term housing, tool rentals, refitting services, and had thousands of vessels to choose from via many sellers.

Next on my list was finding Ash and Casey to break the news. I wasn't staying on The Hahkota. I couldn't go back to my old life, that Keman didn't exist anymore.

"What? You're leaving? But... you just got back." Ash smelled very surprised.

"Keems..." Casey put his paw on my shoulder. "You can't leave yet, don't be absurd. This doesn't sound like you."

I stared at the paw, then his eyes. "Take a whiff, I don't even smell like I used to. I don't sound like I used to, because I'm not the Keman you remember. I'm sorry."

"But... I mean, wow," Ash said. "I just figured you'd be here for a while, to recover. I was sort of looking forward to having you around again."

"I'll be around. We can still meet up. Look. I have to go out and do this on my own. I have to see what this galaxy has to offer me. I need to be alone for a while, that's how I'm going to recover." Truth.

When I departed, Zeek whispered into my ear. "Good boy, Keman. I'll be in touch." I stared at him with my emotions in check, and nodded. I left my friends behind, again.

Chapter 4.

The combination starbase & starship graveyard, 1Z-Yoshi, was a lot bigger than I had expected. As soon as I walked through the airlock, thousands of smells assaulted my nose. The air scrubbers either were old, or overloaded, perhaps both. I waved to my friends and boldly went out on my own.

Booths and shops stretched out in a maze of levels before me, the ceiling of the central corridor was very high. A creature I couldn't identify approached me, and my wetware scanned it. Tentacles waved in maybe a threatening or friendly gesture. I couldn't decide, but I did have my 'blaster on me. A green outline surrounded it, a Chtolb, with a name that had no vowels and too many apostrophes. My wetware assigned a verbal component to its translation, generating a random but unique voice.

"Hello, Rhenthar. I am," I heard what sounded like a blender turning on, "and would be happy to assist you here at 1Z-Yoshi."

My wetware indicated that I could speak my response, and my words would be transmitted to whatever passed for wetware of its own. I assumed it had a similar setup, and wondered what "my" voice sounded like. All I actually heard from the creature were a series of wet squeaks and clicks.

"I'm looking for a ship to buy, something I can rebuild."

It paused, and its tentacles waved around, more squeaking, popping. It seemed to be staring at me from a central stalk, with two different lengths of tentacles surrounding its body. The dirty ones, I guessed, were used for moving around. It looked like a ball of cabbage being eaten by two different octopi.

"There are many ships here for sale by many different vendors. Would you like a recommendation?"

I nodded, then realized the Chtolb might not recognize such a gesture. "Yes, I'm looking for the smallest FTL-capable vessel available that can be rebuilt with less than 1000 labor hours." I hesitated, then added, "completely rebuilt, that is."

The octopi fought over the cabbage for a moment, then squeaked and writhed. "I would recommend you speak with," (Identity Transfer Complete.)

I stared, the cabbage pulsed softly while I saw another of its race rez into my upper right, identity information pulled from the local datanet matching what I had been given, along with where to find... it. I contemplated, then took another route.

"How about someone who speaks common? Here," I said, flipping to financial. I shot a payment of one hundred credits to the Chtolb. "For your time and effort. I seek efficiency."

Several tentacles shook. "My (cousin, offspring) will be disappointed, but between you and I, you should speak to Nod." (Identity Transfer Complete.) A giant lizard walking upright on two legs smiled at the camera. Yikes.

I thanked the Chtolb and continued deeper into the warren, tabbing a map from the 'net. In my second life, I had spent many years wishing for enough money to buy and rebuild a starship. I learned a lot of technical aspects from reading many author's guides and opinions. I knew a lot about the things to watch out for. The first offer, for free, was always a mistake. A small investment paved for a long ways when it came to information acquisition.

I entered a throng of creatures, most I could only vaguely remember having seen before. Occasionally, I saw other Rhenthar. Cautious, calculating appraisals met my eyes. Gazes lingered on the missing fur around my neck.

From near one of the booths, a laser shot at my eyes. I flinched, but it followed, tracking me perfectly. I saw in the corner of my vision a dozen different versions of me walking, slowing, and then standing still, as I stopped to stare. Each was a variant with my fur in wildly altered patterns of colors and stripes. Cost was displayed above each one. Staring at any given one brought it towards the center of my vision.

In just a few seconds, I had focused on sequentially finer and finer alterations, until I was staring at a life size version of myself, with much of my fur changed, steadily rotating before me. The white above my eyes was larger, my stripes were all black instead of gray. My muzzle was pure white below my nose, which now had a considerably darker brown bar running up between my eyes, ending in a star like on a Siberian Husky. Light brownish-orange patches spread out over my eyes, bringing out the green in them.

I'd always heard of being able to do this, but the opportunity just never presented itself, in the past.

I homed in and closed the distance to the Rhenthar and his booth, nodding. I was curious.

"I'm interested."

The Rhenthar grinned. "Beautiful changes for a beautiful Rhenthar. I could do that in just twenty minutes." He was from a breed I couldn't identify, because all of his fur was in shades of bright neon. He was a shorthair, that much I could tell. Half a meter shorter than me, with silver irises I knew couldn't be natural.

I saw the price, which wasn't cheap. Twelve hundred credits, and I knew that was an adjusted figure based upon as many factors as could be gleaned from my wetware's signature and identity. I hadn't used it in 3 years, such metadata would show no purchasing history, and so the price was likely the minimum.

"How permanent?" I asked. "How long will it last?"

"On you, the rest of the season, or until the hairs are shed. If you've got more money, and some more time, I could make the changes natural and they would last the rest of your life."

I thought about that, deciding temporary would probably be for the best. I felt impulsive, like I wanted to try something new that involved my identity. This would scratch my itch well.

"Let me ask you, can you do something about this?" I pointed at the bare spot around my neck.

"Well, sure. But why? I bet you look amazing in a collar. Are you trying to put that into your past, or...?" That he figured out what it was from felt disturbing. Then I realized, what else could it be?

"Er, yeah. Something like that. Let's do both, how long?"

"Extra thirty minutes." He went for the up sell, "while you wait, we could add any of this..." Another sparkle in my field of vision, me again, covered with different colored metal piercings. Rings hung from my nose, ears, nipples, lips. I glanced at my sheath and ears, everything else vanished. What remained was an alternating variety in and through my sheath, in different common locations. I saw one I liked, with a big ring hanging horizontally an inch below the opening. The system cycled through colors, but I left it at silver.

Matching rings appeared in my ears. Fewer, then fewer. Two in each ear, I liked symmetry. Single beads appeared in different colors and materials, weights listed next to each. I chose heavy gold beryllium, centered as a captive bead. The price at the top went even higher, and including the fur, the total was for more than I got from my last contract. I thought about all those zeros, what Sin might think. It was for me, and if he liked it, he'd buy the absolute best. So would I.

"Alright, I've changed my mind. Let's go permanent, can you do it all in an hour?" He smiled, and I noticed that his teeth had all been replaced with something like what a shark had. I began to wonder what the hell I was doing, but it would be too embarrassing to back out, now. He ushered me into a small standup booth. It looked like an autodoc crossed with a paint spray chamber.

The piercings were performed manually, while the machine worked on my fur, implanting vat-grown stock into my neck and coloring it. He explained that follicles would be reprogrammed to produce hairs with my desired colors, after the dyed ones fell out.

"Name's Jim, by the way." His movements were practiced and efficient, he wore surgical glove sprayed on his paws, sterile. He had a joint between his lips, and held it up to me. "Ease the pain?" I shook my head, that was paranoia I didn't need at the moment. He shrugged and the smoke wafted up and gave me a contact high, anyway.

Jim slid my sheath down, to position his piercing needle, and the joint fell out of his mouth when he saw the black tip of my dick, the parasite.

"That's... that's... oh, dude! That's a 'site... where did you get it?" He stared up at me in awe.

"Uh. It was a gift." I hid my eyes behind a paw, he smiled big and picked the joint back up.

"Rock on, buddy. On three, ok? Take a deep breath." I started inhaling, "one." He jammed the needle through my sheath, my eyes went wide as I finished the ragged inhale. In the stunned silence that followed, he carefully threaded the jewelry through the two holes and popped the ball into place. I saw no blood at all. "Two... three." He took a big drag and stared at the results. The ring wasn't actually through my dick, just the supple, furry skin housing it.

The rings in my ears hurt a lot less.

I paid him with a hefty tip, and walked away feeling good. The endorphins and the contact high boosted my sense of well being, I glanced down at my sheath. The jewelry caught my eye, hanging like a doorknocker through two holes near the tip. Staring at it, I started to have second thoughts, I even considered taking it out, but ultimately I decided to leave it in. I'm not a normal Rhenthar, and this announced the fact to anyone who cared to look.

I found Nod in a giant work area in a far corner of the starbase. He was leaning up against a small maneuvering thruster set onto its side. It sputtered with a low output, some parts of it were glowing red. A weldbot was busy in front of him, repairing something cryogenic. I saw lots of thick, high-pressure pipes, liquid oxygen storage, maybe. I hoped for all our sake that it was empty. I didn't see any areas covered in frost.

"Hey there." His eyes tracked me, "I was sent your way. I'm looking to buy a ship."

"Aint got not ships for sale." I noticed that he had hundreds of teeth. His tail looked strong enough to break my legs. My wetware had already confirmed his identity, so I felt confused.

"Let me rephrase. I'm looking for a rebuildable ship, for sale."

"Mmm. I got those. What kind you looking 'fer?" He reached forward and switched off the weldbot, then stared at me.

"Smallest FTL you have, something I can pilot all on my own. Less than 1k LH to proof condition." My heart quickened, it was hard to believe I was actually having this conversation. It was all coming back, what to look for, what to avoid, the lingo.

"Mmmhmm. Got somethin' small, needs 'bout two point five." He crossed his arms, and I noticed how thick his muscles were, like straight out of a fantasy book. He was only missing some leather armor and a chain with a spike at the tip.

"Two point five, no, can't be more than one." I shook my head, ears sideways.

"This fer you, er? I got's a cruiser, one would do 'er. Splitter, FTL one-point-oh. Check 'er out?" He sent me some open source BP's, exterior and interior pictures, and a long list of failed inspections. It was huge, almost as big as The Hahkota, but a lot older. The size intimidated me, but with just one thousand labor hours, I could actually manage that all on my own.

"Combat damage?"

"A'yuh." He nodded.

"From what kind of weapons?" Radiation was a no-no, projectile was almost as bad. I'd never find all the leaks, bullets ricochet. He cocked his head and stared at me, like he was surprised that I knew this much.

"Beam." He let the word hang in the air, all on its own. I nodded, laser fire was easy to fix, straight-through burns, edges all weldable with minimal surface prep. His expression implied that he had the same thoughts.

I moved on to something critical, I had almost forgotten. "Any structural damage?"

"Uh, yuh. At the front." I think he smiled at me, or he was bearing his teeth. The front was no big deal. At the back, it pretty much meant it was all throughout.

"Let's go take a look?" I wondered if I should trust him piloting me through space. He seemed professional, but this was where things got risky. I didn't want to insult him by hiring a transport.

"Ok, but you buy fuel."

He had a nice skip, it was pristine inside, and smelled clean. I should have known. His piloting skills were smooth and precise, he was very calm. He showed me some of his other vessels for sale, giving me the tour on the way to The Jefferson, the ship I was interested in. He had some very large craft available, but some of it was complete junk, only useful for parts. I identified half a dozen things that I might need to hit him up for, later, and I logged them all in my wetware.

His main arclamp lit up The Jefferson as we came up along side of her, I pushed my muzzle against the plasteel window, to get a better view. She was gorgeous, built during an era when form mattered as much as function, with smooth streamlined curves covering everything. Damage from weapons fire stood out like missing teeth. It was saddening, that such beauty could ever incur someone's wrath.

Space doesn't concern itself with smooth lines, it's all vacuum. Most modern starships are square or round, built on big universal chassis and custom outfitted inside with a modular design. Flying bricks.

The propulsion area looked intact. "Tell me about that splitter."

"She runs!" He grinned. Nod apparently wasn't much for words. I thought about that carefully, realizing nothing else needed to be said. If it could split deuterium and not explode, then everything had to be intact.

"She'll fuse, too." I looked at him with my mouth open, surprised.

"I know what yer thinkin'. Custom. Someone was in a hurry." Fusion drive was outlawed everywhere near a Class M planet. Torchdrive, with emphasis on torch.

I asked him the price. He told me.

"Oh, no, no." I folded my ears and shook my head. "What's wrong with her? Something you didn't mention, hazmat onboard? Biohaz, is it?" He wanted way too little, I could sell the engine alone, for that much.

"Nope! I just see you leanin' against that winder, and I knows you aint just gonna turn around and flip 'er. You got that look, this yer first ship?"

"Well... yeah." I splayed my ears sideways.

"Mmmhmm. Nod knows. So what'll it be? Take her or leave 'er?"

"Sold." I took his paw and shook excitedly. His hands were warm and smooth, dry, they felt good. I panted and stared through the window, using an electronic escrow service to manage the paperwork and funds. More money than I had made... in both of my lives put together.

Chapter 5.

+30 days.

I stared through the viewport nearest my rented dry-dock bay, watching an AMTB guide The Jefferson into her home for the next few months. AMTB's are like the forklifts of the sky, automated maneuvering transport bot. The one I had hired was trailing a fine mist of something liquid, which was definitely not normal. I had come to realize that not much on 1Z-Yoshi ever was.

The pressure doors opened slowly, and she was almost home. I received comms in my wetware, a request to finalize billing for services provided. A custom applet popped up, the real moneymaker for 1Z-Yoshi. More like money-taker, I thought, as I selected normal atmosphere, 02, H20, H2, H3, and MWatt electrical. The MWatt icon was grayed out, all I could select was KWatt.

No, I thought, that can't be right. She'll need more juice than that. KWatt wouldn't even be enough for the deuterium containment fields. I tried to imagine how unhappy Yoshi would be if I started generating my own electricity with a microfusion reactor. Then I thought back to yesterday; didn't it look like my neighbors were using one?

The pressurization countdown had digits ticking in the hour and minute fields; I knew I'd have plenty of time to go wander before I could enter the large space. Now that she was in dry-dock, I could perform the roughest of repairs, the sort that would be a dangerous nightmare if I performed them outside in a suit.

The lights in the hallway above me dimmed as the artificial gravity in the chamber buzzed into life. The Jefferson touched down with a long groan that shook the floor; the lights dimmed twice more, and then resumed their meager output.

I had spent the last month working my tail off getting The Jefferson dry-dock certified. She had to pass a variety of tests to ensure safety before she could be brought into 1Z-Yoshi's facilities.

Tests, which she kept failing.

Any life on board? Nope. Well, what's this? Life signatures? No, that can't be right.

I found out the hard way what space rats looked like, and it's nothing like a rat. They're vicious little creatures that can exist happily in vacuum. They looked like a cross between a housecat and a fish, and they were able to generate their own microgravity to move around. There's nothing quite like being stalked by creatures in the silence vacuum had to offer. My 'blaster made short work of them though.

Then she failed some radiation tests, and imagine my surprise when I found a lump of Thorium-232 in what passed for a dresser drawer in one of the crew quarters.

The list went on and on, and Nod only smiled when I told him about my problems. He bested my stories with issues he had had on his first ship. Apparently, these things were considered a rite-of-passage. I tried to stay positive, when I wasn't pulling my fur out.

I stopped by Nod's work area, wondering if he was around. His telltale maneuvering thruster was rumbling in a corner, and he was near it, bent over a complicated piece of machinery I couldn't identify. He was using a tiny little wrench to turn an even smaller screw. He stared up at me and smiled, straightening.

"Hey, Nod. How's it going?"

"Mmm. Would be better if this Terellian reflex rejuvenator worked." He broke the head off the screw and tossed it behind himself. I stared, Terellis, a feline race. Ugh, I hated cats. I remembered who brought me to Sinclair. Fond memories of a terrifying time.

"Well, The Jefferson's in dry-dock! You ever hear of Megawatt electrical being unavailable?" I watched as he manually actuated some sort of... control arm. It terminated with what looked like a fake mouse.

"Mmmhmm. Sounds 'bout right. Neighbor's runnin' a fuser, he won't mind if you tap in."

I shook my head. Very unsurprising.

"Got somethin 'fer ya," he said.

He handed me a cube, about a foot on each side, maybe a third of a meter. That was a detail, which constantly confused me. Keman used metric, Erick had used imperial measurements. I could not decide which one to stick with, and it changed depending on my mood. The cube was metal, covered in dark etched patterns that resembled circuits. It felt heavy, and one side was warm to the touch. I looked at Nod curiously.

"Arcanian weapons platform AI core. Still active, runnin' off heavy isotope temperature differential. It's thinkin' right now, and gots no inputs."

"Er... Nod. What am I going to do with this?"

He waved his hand past a couple of holes, a weak red laser winked from within, it was trying to communicate. "Could make a good friend. Or enemy, might hate you, might hate life. Been separated from controlling anything for a hundred years." He paused, considering. "Maybe said... hundred thousand years." He seemed to second-guess his decision to give it to me, then shrugged. I had already proven to him that I knew my way around computing cores, I'd repaired several of his in exchange for parts I needed. I tucked it under my arm, hoping it didn't explode, or something.

"Nod, before I forget. I'm going to need a 1k roll of optical fiber, quantum mode. Know where I can find that?"

"Mmmhmm. Yuh. Chtolb named... hm. Ever hear the noise a broke pod door makes?"

"Yeah, Nod. I know just who that is," I laughed.

I stopped by Jimmy's house of pain, as I now referred to it. He wanted to make sure my fur was falling out and growing back with the right coloring. Plus, I had ordered a certain something and heard that it was waiting for me.

"Hi Keman..." His gaze sought the piercing between my legs, then my eyes. No throat shown, none needed. That marked me as an eccentric Rhenthar, but I didn't care. He had a real thing for me, wanted more than anything for me to mount him, parasite and all. It would be a while, before I was that comfortable. The last time I did that was with Sinclair.

"Heyo. My shipment came in?"

He set a small box onto his counter and sliced it open with his claws, pulling out a flat brown strap from within. He handed it to me, then started inspecting my fur as I looked at it. It was a Biothane dog collar, nothing fancy, just a chrome "D" ring and a buckle, with a second O-ring in the back. I had been having a hard time getting to sleep at night, and damnit, I missed wearing my collar. I felt naked without it. I didn't care what other Rhenthar might think, I badly wanted to go back to wearing one.

"Wanna let me put it on you? It's the size you ordered, 46 centimeters." My pupils got a little bigger when he mentioned the size.

"Ah, no. I think I can manage." I pulled it around my neck and dialed the buckle snug. A flicker in my vision, one of Jimmy's eye tracking lasers. A camera's eye view of me stood there, wearing a collar. I smirked at him and shifted my sheath around, it did feel good...

Jimmy took a smoldering joint out of his mouth and handed it to me, I took a long drag and handed it back. Since coming to the station, I'd developed a fondness for weed. The THC was good at loosening up some of the thoughts in my head. Life was so strange and new to me, at times. I missed Sinclair on a constant basis, but I kept busy. So far, it only felt like something he was making me do, like a task, a project. I would go back to him right now, if I could.

"Keman, I've got someone I want you to meet... I was telling him about you."

I had drifted off. "Hmm? Who?"

"He's a Rhenthar, Siberian Husky. White with black markings... his name is Mist."

"Oh really. Is that what he's calling himself, now?" I laughed. Zach with a new name... I cracked up.

"Er. He didn't say he knew you, but he did want to meet you." I was still laughing. My laugh died out.

"Yeah. I bet. I probably should." Guess he's checking up on me. Rhenthar as a whole almost never use their wetware for communication. Not unless it's the only avenue, the last resort. In a society built around trust and honesty, such electronic means offered one of the relatively few methods to get away with lying.

"He has a ship, he just left last night, but he told me next time he's at Yoshi, he wants to see you." Off on another mission. It almost sounded appealing for a moment.

"Ok. I'll check out this Mist." I chuckled.

"What is that, anyway?" Jimmy asked, pointing at the cube I had set on his counter. I patted its smooth surface.

"Just something Nod gave me, an AI of some sort. I'll tell you about it, later. My ship should be all the way in dry-dock by now. I gotta run!"

I made my way back to my ship, AI core under my arm. I saw the pressurization countdown stuck at six minutes remaining, but the equalization light was green. I opened the outer and inner airlock doors, and stepped inside to take a good whiff.

Smelled like burning metal. So sad, that anyone would attack this ship. There must be one hell of a story behind it. Luckily, there were no bodies onboard. The computing core had already been harvested along with plenty of other things I had had to obtain and reinstall. With it all gone, I couldn't view any logs or see any history of what had happened. The new core's logs were as empty as the ship. I sat the AI Nod had given me onto the floor and stared up at the nearest hole I could see. Installation is reverse of removal...

Chapter 6.

+30 days.

I was trying to pull some orange optical fiber through a conduit in The Jefferson, but it was caught somewhere. The tiny click as I pulled indicated I had just destroyed the glass filament inside. Fucking wonderful. I yanked on it and ripped the whole thing out in frustration, throwing it onto the floor, where it joined a few other ruined pieces.

I had managed to get all the beam damage repaired successfully, though I was having a hard time matching up the finish on the exterior panels, they had a strange texture which I couldn't easily reproduce. It looked like digital snow, up close. Oh well, scars told a story. I also subcontracted several pricey installations, crew quarters and facilities, along with a state of the art Autodoc. Always a good idea, it might save my life some day.

They were quickly completed by people I had never before seen on 1Z-Yoshi, and I humorously imagined them mechanically scurrying back into whatever hole they normally resided, silently waiting for the next contract to respond to.

The results were fantastic.

The smell of new polymers and fresh materials was a pleasant change from what The Jefferson originally arrived into my paws with. Cushy rubberized foam now lined all the floors, which felt wonderful under my paws.

She was cozy, with none of the lengthy hallways a Rhenthar ship typically had. The frame was compact for its size, with an engine module surrounded with cooling nacelles. That lead forward to a circular crew quarters, she could bed twenty. Bigger than I was after, but the smallest I could find which could still travel at faster-than-light speeds.

Hyperdrive version 1.0 promised an interesting ride. I had only read about it so far. The original space folder, the first of its kind. It was famous for feelings of nausea and the strange math which calculated, in all probability, when you switch it off you've entered a new, and slightly different universe. I applied centuries of software update patches to the control hardware, in hopes that such might be mitigated.

I picked up and inspected the AI core Nod had given me last month, turning it around to look closely at the only visible opening it had. A dim red laser winked at me querulously; as it did most times anything came near it. So far, the only use I'd had for it was as a stand to put my Solve-All diagnostics computer on. The days of having a lap big enough to put a laptop computer onto were long behind me.

Out of curiosity, I paused from my efforts on the ship, and disconnected the Solve­All from the fiber onboard systems. I used a short piece of patch optic cable to link the Solve-All to the AI. The cable end didn't fit, but some tape held it in place just fine.

I put the Solve-All's onboard optical port into "listen" mode, and dumped the output to the screen.

Nothing.

Duh. Of course not, the cube only emits data when it "sees" something. I transmitted a couple of bursts of data to the port, and watched the screen fill up as seemingly random data appeared rapidly. The cube was trying to send me something. After trying a few different kinds of modulation formats, the Solve-All froze. It refused to respond to any of my keyboard inputs.

Oh, great. This is exactly why I wasn't hooking the AI up to my ship any time soon. The Solve-All, that I could replace. I stared at the lifeless screen, and toggled the optical port, getting ready to power cycle the whole thing, when the graphics suddenly melted, and seemingly slid to the bottom of the screen, collecting in a squashed pile. I tapped a few keys, and green text appeared:

Target?

Hm. Now this is interesting. I typed no target and it displayed:

Idle.

I tried typing a few other things, like login and ? but it only kept repeating Idle in response. If I weren't so high on weed, I would have noticed the wireless activity light on the side of the Solve-All flickering like mad. But I'd been snagging green from Jimmy a lot, lately, and I completely missed it.

I folded the computer open and closed a couple of times, even power cycled it, but could get it to do nothing further. It frustrated me, and I wanted to get something done that day.

So I got up, went to one of the ship's maintenance display screens, and called up the trouble ticket system, deciding to skip the Solve-All, for now. There was plenty of time left in the day to dig up something more interesting. I'd ask Nod for additional information about the AI, later. I needed some login credentials or something before I could safely go any deeper into such alien technology.

Damage, Access Panel 1D-43. A 3D map rotated on the screen and I formed a decent idea of where that was, near the engine room. I stared for a few more seconds, memorizing it, then got up and headed toward the engine section.

The deuterium containment system hummed dangerously as I walked by it. I didn't relish standing so close to such massive amounts of stored energy, but I supposed it made no difference where I was on the ship, if it blew up I'd be dead no matter what. I stared at various indicators, all showing calm green, systems OK status.

I ran my paw over the cover of a superconducting cable, checking for condensation. The engine room was massive inside, with a trend in its cabling and support structure, most led to a diamond shaped housing in the center. In it was the space folder, a mysterious device created to ultra fine tolerances. A warning was written on its side:

No User Serviceable Parts Inside.

I knew little about how it worked, but I did know that it had parts which, if you held them between your fingers, they were immediately ruined beyond repair. The machined surfaces were that smooth. I turned my attention to the access panel in question.

Quarter turn fasteners dropping free, click, click. I plucked it from the wall, peering around inside with a tiny, powerful spotlight. Bullet holes stared back at me, too many to count. I leaned in and aimed the light down into some of them, and saw the floor of the dry-dock bay glimmering with its dull red surface.

Oh... lovely. Nod's going to hear about this, that's for damn sure. I aimed the light around, and tried to track some trajectories, but they went too deep, into areas which would be hard to reach. This was going to be like trying to dig out needles from a 300 ton block of Swiss cheese. There wasn't even any sense in going further with this one, it wasn't happening today.

I thought back to what I knew about damage repair, and remembered something which could specialize in this sort of problem. Nanobots. The little buggers could crawl from hole to hole and assess, and sometimes even repair, the damage. Eventually.

If programmed correctly.

If I got the right kind. Argh.

Chapter 7.

"How's it going, Nod?" He had his overpowered space heater apart, and glanced up at me.

"Better if my thruster was workin'. You?"

"Better if I didn't find bullet holes in The Jefferson. A whole lot of them." I crossed my arms and glared. He only smiled at me.

"Haaa! Really? That little thermawidget told me it was beam damage only. Can you get to it all?"

"I don't know," I responded, annoyed. "They go deep, the edges are all curled sharp, so I know it's high velocity. Probably went pretty far in, didn't go straight through, so at some point..."

Nod, well, nodded. "They bounced. Then prolly tore through somethin' else that was softer."

"Mmmhmm," I said, staring.

"Mmmhmm," he said, staring back. He got to his feet and walked a little ways away, reaching under a workbench to pick up a bucket of something. I could tell it was pretty heavy, by the way it moved around. He carefully set it down next to me.

"Got somethin' fer that." I stared down at the quicksilver liquid sloshing around inside. "Nanos. They's unowned, have ta' initiate 'em. But yer good with 'puters, still got that Solve-All, right?"

"I used to have a Solve-All, Nod." He looked at me curiously. "You know that AI core you gave me?"

"Yup," he said.

"Never mind," I said, shaking my head. "I'll tell you about it later, one thing at a time. Nano's? I'll take em. How much?"

"Free. They's hazmat, in that shape. Don't piss 'em off!" He laughed deeply.

I carried them away, thinking all the while... don't piss them off, Keman. Just what pisses off a nanobot? And what happens if you do?

I got back to my ship and was about to go inside, when I noticed one of the aft cameras swivel towards me, tracking my movement. There's no reason it should ever do that, unless someone told it to.

I don't know why I didn't set the bucket down, but I ran inside with it as fast as I could, thinking someone was fucking with my ship. I barreled up the ramp, into the cargo-bay-turned-workshop, and I misjudged the weight of the heavy mass sloshing around. Some spilled over the side, and I leapt out of the way, so none splashed onto my feet. I needed to get away from it, like right now, so I ditched the bucket entirely. It fell onto its side with a hollow thunk, and washed the floor with mirrored nanobots. I held my breath and righted the bucket quietly, staring at the puddle. Don't piss them off.

Nothing happened.

I remembered the original problem, and ran to one of the diag panels nearby and performed a scan for life aboard my ship. There was one: me. I brought up all the external camera scan routines, and saw that none were active. I glanced around, wondering if I was losing my mind. That camera moved!

I walked back to stare at the glossy mess on the floor. This was probably not something to try cleaning up with a mop. The bacteria living in the mop's fibers might constitute a biological attack, and they could try to defend themselves, somehow. Maybe eat the mop, the handle, and the Rhenthar holding the handle. That would be bad.

Oh boy.

Chapter 8.

+60 days.

I handed the joint back to Jimmy, feeling the weed settling in. I was behind the counter of his booth, lounging on a stool, taking a well-needed break from all the repairs I'd been making on my ship.

"So then, I tried using a squeegee, and the stuff ate it!" I busted up, we laughed hard together. I was explaining to him my disaster cleaning up the nanobots a couple of months prior.

"That's hilarious. So... when can we go for a spin?" His silver eyes were still disconcerting, but I was getting used to them. He had said they were great for making eye contact, I certainly believed it. I saw him wag his tail while he stared at me, and I knew the unspoken thoughts in them. Don't just take me for a spin, take me with you.

I shook my muzzle. "Soon. There's still a lot of problems. They say ships are never complete, merely abandoned."

Jimmy took on a lopsided grin. "Wow, that's deep." He suddenly sat up a little straighter, eyes even less focused than before. "Hey. Guess who's here?"

I looked around, seeing the usual crowd milling about. I could swear that these same people just aimlessly walked around the labyrinthine maze, day in and day out. I didn't see anyone near us.

"No, stupid. Here, at Yoshi. Mist. He just pinged me."

"Mist?" My grin vanished, and then came back even bigger. "Well, I'll just have to go say hi to him now, won't I?"

"Yeah, um. You sure you know him? Cuz, uh." He paused. "I've asked around. Some people said he's tied into some slavery networks. Not exactly the best person to know." Hah! I couldn't wait to pass that on to Zach, show him how well his espionage was staying under wraps.

"I'm not surprised you heard that. There's a lot more. I'd like to tell you, but. Just like my last boyfriend, there's certain things I can't talk about." I grabbed the joint and took another big hit, exhaling the smoke up into the air through my nose. "Where's he at? What docking station?"

"Thirteen, Level 2. You going to go see him now? I'll tell him." Jimmy reached under his counter and brought out a leather strap. "Wanna borrow my leash?" He pointed it at my collar with a big grin.

I laughed, pondering what Zach might say about that. "No, no. Not with him. In fact, I should probably take this off, even." I started fumbling with the buckle on my collar, and then hesitated. "No, wait. Fuck it! He can just bite my ass if he has a problem with it."

Jimmy shook his muzzle. "I don't think he'll have a problem with it. You apparently know him better than me, but... stuff like that was actually what piqued his interest in you. I sorta... told him about what's in your sheath. We were talking about 'sites, and I asked him if he could sell me one. He said he would do better than that, and give me one for free, but that it was a package deal. He said I wouldn't like what it came with." He paused, "I'm rambling..."

I considered that for a moment, trying to make some sense through the haze of the THC. "Well, he's trying to find out where they come from, that much I can say. He's very interested in finding suppliers."

"Him and me both..." He stared down at my sheath and panted.

I gripped his ears and forced him to look me in the eyes, trying not to laugh. "Jimmy, you don't want one. Ok? Trust me!" I pushed his muzzle away and ruffled his headfur, turning to leave. He was like the little brother I never had.

"Hey." He held the joint out. It was a lot smaller than when we had started. "One for the hyperdrive lane." I took it, burning my finger pads trying to get the last bit. I flicked it into a drainage grate.

As I walked away, I realized I was going in the wrong direction, towards level 1. I came back and looked all serious as I walked by his booth. He knew I was retarded and pointed at me while laughing. I almost fell over, trying to hold it in, whee.

I rang the airlock door outside 13-2.

A deep voice answered, "yeah?" I didn't recognize it, but there were a lot of new crew on The Hahkota.

"It's Keman." The airlock sprang open.

I wandered through, thinking about what I wanted to tell Zach. A part of me was still angry with him, but another part of me was happy. It felt good that I was respected so much. A part of me was even glad to be away, I had always wanted to rebuild a starship. But every single part of me craved Sinclair like a steak after a week of fast. I missed him so badly. Sometimes, he was all I could think about, and I was inconsolable, feeling such a great loss without his instruction. Jimmy had been there for me during those times, listening and comforting me. I kept the truth of the matters vague, but I could still talk about being owned. Being apart. He never hesitated closing up his shop to take me back to his small apartment in Yoshi. He'd get me blitzed, we would talk it through, and I felt better.

I was still very high, and I knew I was going to talk a lot, that was for sure. Zach would smell the weed on me, and he was the type who avoided recs. Too little stability in his past to accommodate them. But I didn't care. I'd start out angry, and then let on how happy I was.

I looked around, and noticed I wasn't actually on The Hahkota.

Uh oh.

I suddenly felt incredibly stupid and embarrassed; it felt like I had just walked into the bitch's restroom. I quickly did a 180 and hoped I could leave before the owner noticed. The inner door slid shut right in front of me. It clicked, status lights winked red, locked. I turned around and put my back up against it, raising my field of view to stare at: not-Zach.

He was certainly the biggest Siberian Husky Rhenthar I had ever seen in my life, easily as tall as Sinclair was. His fur was stark white with jet-black markings pouring down over his muzzle, like a puddle of ink had spilled on his head. Intelligent green eyes the color of a welding laser stared at me from within the dark.

"So you're Keman," he said. His voice was deep, and his scent was pleasantly dominant. "My my, a wolf. How unique." His gaze followed every inch of my body, and his eyes widened when they converged on my collar. I tried to think coherently through the weed. I've insulted him by walking in here, like this. He's locked the door, should I say something about that? I couldn't decide, my paranoia was doing all the thinking. I worried. How presumptuous it must look with me walking in here with a collar on. I tried to play it cool, it was all I could do.

"Hi, you must be Mist. I'm so sorry, barging in here like this! I thought you were. Someone else." He was still staring at my collar, and I pointed up at it. "This? It's nothing, um..." A lot of Rhenthar were highly offended by such things. C'mon, think of an excuse!

Mist walked up to me before I could say anything more. He passed right through my personal boundary of comfort to stand close to me, well within the invisible wall of protection all Rhenthar have. I stared up into his eyes in surprise, feeling the urge to look away, but not daring to. I pushed my back harder against the door, thinking that was a topic I needed to bring up, soon.

"Yes," he said. "It is nothing." He tugged on the "D" ring at the front, the part a leash attaches to. "A collar without a lock isn't really a collar at all, it's just a toy. Still," he turned it so that it was perfectly centered on my neck. "It gives my eyes a taste, tells me what you like. And I find that... absolutely fascinating."

I waffled between flattery and genuine fear. The combination was pushing my buttons, oh yes, and the weed had me horny in its grip. He was a Husky, a really big one, and that did it for me more than anything. Maybe it's because that was the first breed of Rhenthar I had ever seen, but his was my favorite. I stole a glance down at his big sheath, and my tail came up between my legs to cover mine. I stared back into his eyes, big pools of green with pupils large enough to see my reflection in. I swallowed hard, and put my ears sideways, finally looking away. The first step in submission.

He smiled, his scent turned approving. "Makes me wonder what other things you like. Activities which you might enjoy, perhaps things we could enjoy together." His paw knocked my tail out of the way and he gripped my sheath down at the base. He suddenly pulled his hand away, quickly, and his eyes narrowed. "You really are 'sited," he said, shaking his head. "I figured Jimmy was just full of so much shit. Who put that on you?"

"Er. Nobody I want to talk about, right now." The topic made me defensive and embarrassed. I kinda liked the way things were going, a moment ago. "It's not that bad, I have a way around it."

Mist barked a long, deep laugh, holding his paw against my ribs to steady himself. He leaned some of his weight through it, pinning me to the door. Not that bad? And you have a way around it? Oh, that... is a terrible crime, in the making." He growled for a moment, a deep sound that I felt as much as heard. He shook his head in disbelief. "Forgive my anger. You're not mine to punish. But if you were, Keman. I would make very sure you lacked such liberties," he said, sniffing inches from my muzzle. I felt embarrassed, and his eyes opened wider, dawning recognition. "You like that idea?"

Of course I did. I had almost thrown the stimulator Sin had given me, out through the airlock, numerous times. But I just couldn't bring myself to do it. While I loved not being able to paw myself off, I loved being able to paw, just a little bit more.

"Um. Er. Hurf." My ears went flat, I couldn't lie. I stared down at his deep chest to avoid his eyes. Submission felt like a long lost emotion, and I was welcoming it back. His attitude set my sheath on fire. Yes, I've been bad, punish me. I almost said it.

"Keman. There's something here I need to show you." He put some real growl into it, this time, and immediately turned around to walk deeper into his ship, giving me no opportunity to object. He barked, "this way..." as he vanished around the corner.

I stared after him, feeling my heart drive both my brain and my dick. The door behind me was still locked, I could ruin the mood and show him that I was some damaged freak who always needed a way out. Or. I could go and see what it was that he wanted to show me. Which was probably the whole length of his prick. My tail flitted around at the idea, it had been a long while. I followed his command, and went after him.

He was waiting beside a door, and after he punched in a few buttons on a control panel next to it, it slid sideways. I narrowed my gaze, staring up at him, knowing that I smelled like distrust.

"I didn't tell you to enter. Only look. What do you see, Keman?" I sought answers in those green eyes of his, but saw only dominance, pleasure, and lust. Three tasty emotions.

I turned my head and looked inside. It was just a small room with a bed in the middle, pressed up against one wall. I saw that the bed was covered with something that had the sheen of a tight weave, resistant to claws and fluids, perhaps. I saw no pillows or blankets, but there were a few things sitting on it. A thick black hose was coiled up near the foot, it strangely entered the mattress at the end. Near the head was an odd-looking device, primarily composed of two curved pieces of metal hinged together at one end. It was butterflied open, with thick glossy black rubber coating the sides that faced each other. A peculiar yellow tube trailed out from between the halves, about a foot long and as thick as my little finger. Two stubby, black projections stuck out next to where the tube attached, each a few inches long. I turned and looked at Mist, noticing the intensity of his gaze. He was watching my reaction closely.

I shrugged. "So you're a little kinky, too?" I smiled, showing some white.

Mist gripped my shoulder, digging his claws in a little too tightly for my comfort. "Unbelievable. All that. Means nothing, to you? You've never seen a setup like this before?"

I splayed my ears in discomfort. "Um. No?" I looked again, and this time I noticed a collar right next to the metal device. It was split open, and a chill shot down my spine when I saw that it had gold nubs facing inwards all along the inside. The hallway grew brighter as my pupils expanded, but I tried to cover up my reaction. It was hard to do, feeling his claws on my shoulder like that.

I turned my attention to them, then his eyes. My scent had changed in just a few seconds, and the look I gave him said that if he didn't take his paw off me, he was going to lose some of those fingers. Gimme those fingers...

He read me well, and let go with a disarming smile. But the curiosity didn't leave his eyes, nor all the scrutiny and thoughts that were in them. The weed was wearing off, and things were beginning to feel awkward. That was a slaver collar, and didn't Jimmy say something about Mist being a part of some slave networks?

Maybe I needed to get out of here, and I would go through him on the way to the door, if need be. I wasn't looking for another owner, I already had one, as far as I was concerned.

"Hey... you know, I'm working on a ship right now. I left some repair processes going, how about we meet up at another time?" I boldly reached forward to squeeze the base of his sheath, which was firm in my paw, he grunted. "Maybe you can show me what all that's about?" I hooked a thumb toward the bed.

He pressed a button on the control panel, and the door slid shut. Along with it, my fears. He flashed me a million credit smile, or perhaps it was something more predatory. I was trying not to look, as if it didn't matter.

"Of course. Maybe we can try this again, under different circumstances. Maybe when you're in a more... malleable mindset." His scent of disappointment was obvious, yet welcome. If it had been anger, I'd have run. I would later realize I should have ran, anyway.

I followed him back to the airlock, keeping my distance and glad to be behind him. Something about him didn't feel right. My ship had only cosmetic repairs left, for the most part. It was time to put Yoshi into my radiation wake.

The outer airlock opened and Mist gestured towards Yoshi's transit tunnel and beyond. As I walked by him, he reached out and ruffled my headfur. It felt good, his touch calmed my defenses, made me realize the weed's paranoia was probably leading me down the wrong path. Now I'll go back to my ship, alone, and paw myself off. I'll be angry with myself for missing out on some fun.

"See you around?" He asked, smelling hopeful.

I nodded and wagged my tail, turning to look at him with something lascivious, a look he could remember me by. I felt something sharp jam into my neck, a high frequency screech ripped through my nerves, and my legs gave out. I fell to the floor in a pile of fur and bones. From the tips of my toes to my fingers, everything shook. I could barely move, I glanced around in shock, trying to call for help. My vocal cords twitched like the rest of me, I couldn't make them function.

I spotted one of Yoshi's security cameras, and though my vision was blurry, I thought I saw it swivel towards me. Then Mist dragged me inside by my feet and the airlock snapped shut. I kept trying to pull up my wetware's comm suite, but I cycled way past it into other areas. Windows were opening rapidly, further obscuring my vision. Notepads, helpfiles, random letters and numbers skittering across all of them. Mist hooked a paw under my collar and slid me towards the room I knew we were headed to. My wetware finally coredumped, flashing a few fatal errors before winking out. Fuck!

The door slid open and I choked more when he picked me up by my collar. Biothane was made of nylon-reinforced polyurethane, it wasn't going to break. He dropped me onto the bed's spongy surface, on my back. I sank into the surface, still twitching and trying to reach what he had stuck in my neck. My claws only brushed at it, then my throat, shoulder, and my other arm. I grabbed at anything and nothing.

"See. That you didn't recognize this, at first, just blew my mind," he said, uncoiling the black hose and forcing its end up against the tip of my sheath. The hose wrinkled, collapsing under vacuum, then it slid inside, around my whole dick. I felt it lock in place behind my knot, then some sort of catheter forced its way up inside me, quickly reaching my bladder. The parasite twisted around in discomfort, but the pain it created was only distant compared to what had my attention.

"That says to me, you're someone very special... someone has put some serious money into 'siting you. And then you act so... normal! About it all. It's almost like you were made for this. I don't know who let you go, or how you got away, but this is where you belong, oh yes." I was still shuddering, but I dimly became aware of my bladder emptying.

I pawed at Mist, struggling to push him away. My efforts were weak and disorganized, he only laughed. "But, then you saw something in here you recognized! And I think I know what it was, yes I do... quit that!" He punched me hard in the stomach, and I gasped, trying to curl into a ball.

He had no trouble unfolding me, I had no strength to stop him, and his muscles were huge. I grabbed his wrist, though, trying with my other hand to claw out his eyes while he pried at my jaws, forcing them open. Ungh, no! I couldn't even bite down, trying to keep my muzzle shut. I saw him pinch the end of the yellow tube between two fingers until it crunched. It slowly expanded into the shape of a ball at the end, my eyes went wider with fear.

He took the ball and shoved it into my mouth, feeding it towards the back of my throat. I could only barely bite down, and the ball was blocking my airway, I couldn't draw any air with it there.

"Swallow, Keman... be a good boy... swallow for Mist. You can do it..." He rubbed my throat and squeezed my muzzle shut.

I couldn't even pull air through my nose. I coughed and sputtered, he pushed harder on the tube, and it edged further into my airway. I heaved and gagged, coughing, almost swallowing it, just to get it out of the way.

Because that's what he wanted me to do, I refused that, at least. I felt it getting bigger by the second. It was too big to swallow, now, way too big. I heaved again, but he pushed on it harder, and I still couldn't breathe. Oh, Dog, I need to breathe... I need to breathe!

Silence, time seemed to stand still. He was waiting and the clock was ticking. My body tensed up, further and further.

Fuck it, I swallowed, and it hurt. It went down, though, quick.

That was a big mistake.

As the ball sank toward my stomach, it pulled on the tube and yanked the device up onto my face. The ball still needed to go deeper, in order to reach my stomach. It wasn't done growing in size, and it already threatened to rupture my esophagus. The protrusions on the inside of the device were hard up against my nostrils, and I grabbed at the thing before they went inside. I was still twitching, but I held it there, pulling on it while intense pain grew deep in my chest, above my stomach. It felt like a heart attack, it doubled and tripled. I pulled on the device as hard as I could, my body heaved with my jaws wide, and I gagged some more, the tube was tight against the back of my tongue, but I couldn't pull it out. Mist was right there in my ears, laughing and speaking words of encouragement.

"Push it on all the way, Keman. Quit fighting it! The pain will stop once you force it the rest of the way on. The tubes go in your nose, no, no. It can't come back out! Do I have to do this for you?"

He grabbed the front of the device in his paw and shoved it onto my head, making the tubes slide painfully into my nose, while I gasped one last inhale. They were slippery but tight. When they bottomed out, two things happened quickly. The pieces of metal snapped shut around my jaws like a bear trap, and the ache in my chest was suddenly gone. I couldn't breathe at all, though. I pried at the device, trying to pull it apart, but it must have locked itself. Nausea battled for my attention, the tube was still tense against the back of my tongue, and it prevented me from pulling the whole thing off my face.

So that's what it was.

The muzzle from hell.

It had no straps I could claw, tear, or break.

My lips were too tight, I couldn't breathe through my mouth. I started panicking in a weak, obscure manner. I sucked as hard as I could, to draw a breath through my nose. My body shook from all the effort, on top of what he'd put in my neck that was still tearing my nerves apart.

Mist pulled a length of braided steel hose from a reel hidden in the wall above the bed.

"Here's your air, Keman..." He dangled the pointy tip in my field of vision, right in front of my eyes. My need to breathe had sharpened my awareness to razor precision; time was passing even slower now. He unbuckled my collar and tore it off with an expert motion of his wrist, and tossed it behind him. He pointed at the metal collar resting next to me on the bed, and I stared at it, then him, with very wide eyes. I was becoming frantic with need; I clawed at the muzzle and scratched at it, breaking the tips of my claws off on its metal surface. It didn't budge.

"Put that collar on, Keman. Only then will I give you your air." I lunged at the hose, and he lifted it cruelly out of my reach. A countdown timer was ticking away in my head, and the nearer it reached zero, the more I would do anything to get another breath.

Panic screamed at me, getting harder to hold in check.

If I put that collar on, I would kiss everything goodbye, including Sinclair. And if I didn't?

I'm dying.

Don't do it!

No... Oh, Dog, I need air. Anything to get air, just do it!

The primal urge to breathe finally took control fiercely, I saw my paws move, they weren't even my own, they shot out and grabbed at the cold metal. I struggled to pull it around my neck, still shaking, almost too weak to close it. The ends leapt together on their own, striking each other hard enough to claim a small bit of finger pad. The collar chimed in a peculiar manner, it was nothing like my last. It tightened down on my neck, all on its own.

Mist came through with his end of the deal, the steel braid found my paw, and I frantically jammed it at the end of the muzzle, poking and prodding, trying to make it fit. It clicked into place and I pulled in a deep breath through my nose. The breath of life never smelled so sweet, literally.

As I pulled a few more breaths, I could smell that it wasn't just air. I pulled at the hose and it detached from the muzzle, but couldn't breathe again. My mind started to blur, it wasn't just air...

"Oh, you don't want it anymore? Here, I'll take that back..." He reached for the hose.

I clicked it back into place, drawing another couple of breaths. I had no choice. I started to feel weightless, it felt good, too good. I fought the sensation, focusing on my hatred. My ears popped, the collar warmed up.

Mist yanked the neural stimulator from my neck with a sharp twist. It was almost dead, but I still felt everything in my body let go, I lay there motionless, gaining reality, and at the same time losing it to something else.

"Transfer of ownership complete, Keman. Now you're all mine."

I turned and stared at Mist with a combination of hate and fury. I was still fighting the drug, but even I couldn't hold out for too much longer. It was threatening to sweep me up in euphoria that even the most bitter of minds couldn't resist.

"Don't give me that look..." Mist's expression grew distant, then he refocused on me. "What the..."

Sinclair stepped into my field of vision, seemingly from the shadows in the room, but there were no shadows. He held a claw up to his muzzle: "Ssssh." My eyes went very wide, he stepped through the bed and peered closely at Mist. My breaths turned shallow and rapid, I whimpered again and again. Whimpers for him, though they were muted through the muzzle. Please, help me... oh, Dog! Am I hallucinating?

Mist grabbed at the collar around my neck, violently rotating it in order to stare at its little screen in disbelief.

"I don't fucking believe this! What do you mean, already owned? Piece of shit Mark Six!" He glared up at me, muzzle just inches from mine. "What are you looking at? You think this is funny?" I shook my head quickly, trying to hide my relief after seeing the ghost of Sin.

"You're looking at the rest of your life, Keman. This is where you belong, you were made for this, and this was made for you!" he said, gesturing with a sweep of his paw around the empty room. His hand swept right through Sin, almost as if he was pointing at him.

Sin smiled at the irony, showing way too many teeth. "He's right, little one. Just hold tight, cuz I'm coming for you." He leaned forward and snarled at Mist. I started whimpering again, uncontrollably. I just couldn't stop, not after hearing him say that.

Mist ignored me. "Ship! Plot course to nearest jump station, best speed, depart now!" He stared up at the ceiling.

Two beeps, a female voice. "Cannot comply. Docking clamps not responding."

"I don't care. Blow them!" A hollow crump rang through the hull, I felt a lurch before the inertial compensators came online. A queasy sensation built in my chest, and I knew we had just jumped into FTL. Sinclair vanished at the same time.

Mist got up and walked to the doorway, turning to face me. "This door won't be locked, Keman," he said. "Won't be necessary. Come on out, wander around. Only one place you can breathe, and you know where that is. I'm going to figure out what's wrong with your collar, then we'll see everything in that interesting mind of yours." He grinned a predatory smile. "Together, we can learn what needs to be put in there to make you perfect for me." He walked out.

I rolled over onto my stomach and choked, then heaved. My stomach was trying to push the ball back up, but it couldn't. I felt high and distant. I pulled on the muzzle, and as soon as it began to slide forward off my head, painful nausea spiked. I gagged again, only it was much worse than anything I had felt before. A continuous spasm tore at my stomach, it felt like I was going to break some ribs. I couldn't breathe, the pain lessened briefly and then I heaved again, tears streaming down my eyes from the effort. I seated the muzzle back in place and took several quick breaths. Holy shit, the ball was too big to come back up.

"Zeek. Mist's ship is preparing to enter warp. Follow?" Zero asked, glancing at his readout display in front of his seat, on The Hahkota's bridge. She was cloaked, and hunting. Watching prey run was making him itchy.

"Of course, stay right on his tail. Let me know when we're near his destination," Zeek said. "I'll be in my ready room." He walked through the doorway at the far end.

The Hahkota charged up its space folder and leapt forward, random photons bouncing off her hull for a split second, on its otherwise invisible surface.

A pair of Yoshi's pressure bay doors began their slow process of opening. Moisture and air rushed out through the widening gap, the interior hadn't been evacuated. They were only a few inches apart when an actinic blue blade of plasma erupted from within, vaporizing them in nanoseconds, along with a section of the starbase that was further away. Explosive decompression hurled debris and bodies into the cold vacuum of space. The Jefferson pulsed her maneuvering thrusters and backed out of the repair bay, her shields left glowing white metal everywhere they touched.

Her main engines fired again, this time in fusion mode. White veined with purple erupted from the concentration cones, bright as the sun and extending for hundreds of miles. Like a long sword, it carved through a corner of Yoshi as she turned and accelerated. She leapt into space, heading the same direction The Hahkota had warped, stretching out to infinity and then disappearing from local existence.

Chapter 9.

He fucking tricked me, and all I could do was lay there, feeling like an idiot. I never had a problem with swallowing things in the past. Food went down, and if it was an issue, it came back up quite reliably. A canine digestive system is almost a straight path. I've swallowed bones, gristle, cartilage, rubber chew toys. I have a real passion for chewing on things, and swallowing is always a part of that.

The ball in my stomach refused to come back up, it was too large. The tube connected to it felt solid between my front teeth, and it didn't stretch. It anchored the metal muzzle around my jaws and nose. The padding inside kept them firmly pressed together. Not much time had passed since Mist muzzled me, but already my teeth ached from the constant tension against the tube, and there was no way for me to alleviate it.

Just thinking about it made my mouth water, and not in a good way. Drool was pooling onto the bed's satiny surface, it gathered in puddles that went unabsorbed. Nausea was only a small movement of my tongue away, constantly lurking in the corners of my mind. All it took was swallowing the wrong way, and sickening pain flared in my irritated throat. Confused messages travelled to my brain: swallow, stupid, you didn't swallow all the way, something is still there.

My throat spasmed again, inducing a progressively deeper cycle of swallows which I couldn't stop, and another surge of saliva spilled between my jaws. My elbows and stomach were already soaked, no matter where I moved on the bed, the offal settled at the lowest spot, which was me. My stomach heaved, I gripped the muzzle in my paws and pulled as hard as I dared, trying to reposition it. The dull ache in my stomach rose brightly, only fading when I pushed it back.

Finally, my body relaxed somewhat, leaving me to my fuzzy thoughts of confusion, fear, and hatred of Mist.

I was pretty sure Jimmy didn't expect this to happen. He was just another kinky Rhenthar, obsessed with body modifications and anything else our ex-human culture said "no" to. He had done a pretty good job with my fur, re-patterning it to improve contrast, adding a few unnatural designs. He replaced the missing fur that my last collar had electronically removed.

Collar.

I felt the new one up, all the way around my neck. Metal, flexible, warm to the touch. Though familiar, this one felt heavier than my last. The springy gold contacts facing inwards were closer together. I counted eight touching my skin instead of the six I was used to. I had felt those for three whole years, and though I didn't like it for much of that time, my combined personality had felt naked once Sinclair stripped me of it. He sent me out on my own, to get a better understanding of myself, and to determine if I really did want to spend the rest of my life as his property. Of course I did, and I had felt sure that would never change, but now I wondered.

Who owned me at this point?

I thought back to what had happened after Mist made me put this collar on. Sin had stepped out of the shadows, and then through the bed. He must have been projected into my mind, somehow, maybe through the collar. Mist couldn't see him, but Sin seemed able to discern everything in the room. His snarl had flattened my ears. I'm coming for you, he said. I would have pee'd from that, which was perfectly normal canine behavior when big promises came from the Alpha.

But I couldn't, or maybe, I did. The black hose attached to my dick carried away my urine continuously. It was secured to the parasite that surrounded my prick. It, too, I had worn for three years, but unlike my collar, there was no way to take it off, it was a friend for life.

These were all slaver mods, and I wondered if I was wearing the whole ensemble, now. I hoped that was true, because if there was more, I didn't want to find out. I feared that there could be worse, waiting around the corner. Sin had 'sited and collared me to keep my mind separated, while it healed, and for fun. When I was a human, 600 years ago, this was all something I would have died to experience. In fact, I did, he pulled my consciousness through time and installed me into this half-man, half-wolf body, the likes of which only my wildest fantasies had ever contained. For ten years, I had lived as a normal Rhenthar, completely unaware of my past.

I would have fallen apart at the end of those ten years, when my human memories surfaced, were it not for the collar he had put on me. I hated him for it, at first, but in the end, I fell in love. The collar was powerful as it controlled what my mind could comprehend. The limitations kept me sane while I healed, and they kept me happy, when I was made to heel.

If Mist had control of this new collar, I needed to stop calling it my life. The fact that I could think at all told me something was wrong. After it had locked itself around my neck, he became frustrated, and the implications of his words hadn't yet worn off. What do you mean, already owned? He referred to it as a Mark 6. The last one I wore was called a Mark 5.

My wetware needed a cold reboot, at the very minimum. Whatever he had stunned me with damaged it, and I needed access to my Solve-All or something similar in order to help me repair it. Without my wetware, my comms were offline and I was on my own. Not the first time I'd been in a situation like this, I reminded myself. I giggled at the thought, then wondered what the fuck was so funny.

That was another problem. Steadily growing larger. The muzzle locked onto my head forced me to breathe a gas of some sort, and I was growing higher by the minute from it. Waves of euphoria that I really didn't want rushed through my awareness. It was a drug, and fight it as I tried, it felt really good, I had to admit. It was making it hard for me to gauge my situation. All I could focus on were those growing feelings of pleasure as they rose.

How much stronger would it get?

There we go, even better, ugh, that's amazing.

Even more amazing.

I knew a lot about drugs, and this was strong in an unhealthy way. I shouldn't be breathing it. I disconnected the hose from the front of the muzzle, there was nothing locking the two together. It released with a hiss that lasted for a half second. I stared closely at the end, I could see multiple tubes in a coaxial layout. The center dripped something dark and watery. That was apparently being fed into me as well.

Without it attached, I couldn't breathe at all, the short tubes in the muzzle were too tight inside my nostrils. I tried wiggling the muzzle around, but I still couldn't suck air past them. I spread my lips and bared my teeth, trying to suck air through my mouth. I got a little, but my airway conflicted with the big tube in my esophagus, the two couldn't access my mouth at the same time. I choked, then heaved with a fresh set of tears flooding my vision. I held still, hoping the cycle didn't start back up. My body settled, and I hooked the hose back up, drawing in a deep breath through my nose. I couldn't believe something like this even existed, who designed this shit?

A peculiar feeling kept circling through my mind. Not only was I blind to all scents in the room, but I couldn't open my jaws. I felt incredibly helpless because of that. Sure, I had sharp claws; but they weren't long. They were only designed to help me hold onto something when I bit it, sinking my fangs into its throat. Dog, I wanted to open my muzzle so badly, it was both a craving and an itch. I could still move around as far as the hose allowed, but without being able to open my mouth, I felt defenseless, powerless. Claustrophobic, as if I was in the smallest cage my body could fit in. I felt certain that it wasn't just the drug making me feel this way. It was a deeply rooted instinct, without my teeth, I could challenge nothing.

A chilling thought came to me. What if that was the desired effect of wearing a muzzle? How long could he make me wear it? It looked similar to my collar, and that was designed for very long-term use. But my front teeth were killing me...

I must have passed out, the drug's irresistible pull maybe got stronger, or my resolve had grown weaker, some combination of the two. Mist was leaning over me, the awareness of which pricked my attention like being stabbed in the kidney. I shook cobwebs from my mind, but they clung. My eyes tracked his movements, I held still, wondering what he was up to.

"Well well." His muzzle was close to mine. "Look. Who's. Awake. You've been out for twelve hours, and you're quite a mess. We're going to have to do something about that." I couldn't scent his honesty, but twelve hours sounded hard to believe.

He was inspecting what held my jaws shut, peering at the muzzle closely. Eager hopes that he might take it off began to brew, countered with my desire not to build up disappointment. He was probably not taking it off any time soon. I felt a sting just ahead of my left ear, and cold numbness flowed into my skull.

Only then, did I realize he was pinning me to the bed, and another hypospray delivered the same to the opposite side. The wall separating me from fear began to crumble as I fought my way up from the depths of the gas. What the fuck is he doing?!?

He released the pressure on my head, and held out something metal, showing me. It looked like a powered screwdriver, of some sort. It was compact and all metal, I had something like that on The Jefferson. Bottom toolbox, top drawer, on the left. I wondered if it needed recharging-

"Hey." He grabbed the muzzle and shook my head with it. "Pay attention, Keman. Quit zoning out. I'm only going to show you this once. Trust me, you want to know how to do this." He snapped off the hose leading to the muzzle, and I couldn't breathe, again.

He certainly had my attention, now.

I felt him take my paw and curl my fingers over the metal object, then he guided it up against the front of the muzzle, pushing one of my fingers onto an activation stud. The device whirred, engaging with a loud grinding noise, and I felt the muzzle loosen. The bottom metal half slowly spread apart from the one resting on top of my nose, the hinge was in front. The sudden loss of pressure my teeth had against the tube was the first real pleasure I had felt in a while.

"Sit up." He reached down and twisted the hose attached to my prick, the cath withdrew from inside me, and the outer part disengaged. With a tug, he pulled it off and set it aside. I pushed myself up onto my haunches and stared down at its glossy, wet opening. I couldn't see much with the muzzle open, the uncompressed padding raised the metal into my line of sight. I still couldn't breathe, panic was distant, but it was coming...

"Go ahead and pull it off." He sounded smug, like a surprise was in store. I didn't like that, but the thought of stretching my jaws open was only a close second to wrapping them around his throat. I grabbed the hated thing and pulled, the inserts in my nose had gone deeper than I realized, and they hurt the whole way coming out. Once I had it off, I inhaled deeply, then choked. The tube was still in my mouth, I tried to bite it, but it was solid and it only bounced off my teeth.

I dropped the muzzle and reached into my mouth on reflex, grabbing at it and pulling. It wouldn't come out, and my stomach tensed up, heaving, more than happy to assist. I spread my jaws wide and gagged, drool and fresh tears combined into a slick trail that had already matted all the fur on my jaws and face. Still more dripped onto the bed's surface while Mist laughed at me.

"What? Are you serious? You actually thought that was coming out? Oh. No, Keman. That's permanent. Get used to it, the sooner the better." Permanent? No way, he can't leave this in me! I stared down at the bed, noticing how red my snot was, coming out of my nose. I processed that, anger built up as I fought the nausea and the effects of the gas. The fresh air was clearing my head quickly, but I focused on the tube in my mouth. I couldn't swallow it, and I couldn't hack it back up. One had to happen, my body demanded it. Fuck this...

I turned and jumped at him, snapping my jaws around his neck. I missed on the first attempt, but on the second I felt his heartbeat through my fangs, they're built to detect that. I had an artery, now you die, I bit down as hard as I could, expecting singing pain from my jaw muscles, and a whole lot of red. My mouth watered for a new reason, the taste of his blood, I wanted it bad.

Mist caught my head in his paws and pulled my jaws off his neck with very little effort, I felt his fur slip through my teeth, feeling utter shock, that's impossible! He twisted his arms with something involving martial arts, my spine briefly had all of my bodyweight as I flew through the air, the world flipped on me as my head slammed against the bed's surface, along with the rest of me. I immediately felt his teeth around my throat, he bit down hard, and I exploded into whimpers when I felt a popping sensation, his fangs piercing my skin, he was tearing my throat out. I wanted to curl up, my instincts came alive, and I alternated from choking on the tube, to long peels of terror.

He let go and looked down into my eyes, licking my blood from his teeth, staring into my wide eyes with menace. I shook and stared with huge pupils, the room was excessively bright, and I was trying as hard as I could not to swallow what was in my mouth. His scent was sharp, now, along with my blood: he was very angry. I was a miserable wreck of surprise.

"The next time, I won't let up, I swear on it. I knew you would try this, and I wanted to teach you a lesson before you made me kill you, you're useless to me dead." He waved a hypospray around in a paw, "I took your jaw strength, for now. Normally, with the Mark 6 around your neck, I just lock out your jaw muscles. But that's a problem, one which I eagerly anticipate the solution to." He grinned, and I saw that there was still blood on his teeth.

I had been holding my paws against my neck, I let go and glanced at them. They were covered in blood, but it was nothing arterial. I fought back another paralyzing wave of choking, trying to find the right way to situate my tongue against the tube, holding it up against the roof of my mouth.

"Go ahead, hate me. I can work with that. But. I take care of my property, and you are most certainly mine, now. So go into the 'fresher, and clean yourself up. Brush your teeth, close that wound, and wash your fur. You smell like shit!" He picked up the muzzle up and thrust it at me. "Clean this off, too. It's going back on, whether you like it, or not. Trust me, though, if not now, then soon. You'll look forward to wearing it." He smiled.

Fat fucking chance of that, I thought, staring down at the metal device with just as much hatred as I had for him. Clotted blood caked the tubes that had been inside my nose, and it did smell bad, dried saliva was in every crevice. I took it and felt stunned, this was so surreal. My legs propelled me out of the room and into the rest of his ship, all with a mind of their own, and in fact, I didn't even know where I was going. I paused to look around, still feeling a mixture of adrenaline and whatever I'd been breathing moments ago. The initial numbness was fading, my throat started aching with such severe pain that I thought my legs were going to give out. Luckily his teeth were sharp enough that bruising would probably be minimal.

The walls were anodized dark brown, and recent memories of ship interior decoration came to my mind. I recognized the finish as something fine and expensive. Dramatic stripes of red contrasted and flowed around various access panels and displays. Light was indirect from hidden alcoves, it looked modern and well done. Furnishings were spartan, but that was typical. Although artificial gravity rarely fails, when it does, it's important that things don't float around when people do. The floor was padded with textured dark red urethane foam, my claws tracked well in it.

My ears went sideways, as I heard Mist approach me from behind.

"Down this hall, second room, on your left. I already told you that you could wander around, this is your home now." He gave me a push between my shoulder blades, and once again, I toggled through my options. I came up with a blank.

I walked forward, keeping my ears sideways. Obedience was nothing new to me, but this level of hatred certainly was. The inner wolf had woken up, horrified with what was going down. I focused on Sinclair, what he had said about coming to get me, and I latched onto the idea, clutching it to my chest protectively. I could handle anything with him on the way.

I walked into the 'fresher, and glanced behind me at Mist before I shut the door. I put some muscle into it, trying to make it slam, but the pneumatic assist dampened most of my effort. I discovered that there was no lock, so I held my back against it, then slid down onto my haunches, glad to have something between him and me. He was watching me closely, and I wondered how I was acting, compared with how other Rhenthar might respond in a similar situation. Fuck!

I know I'm not normal... if he learns who I am, what my past contains? I don't want to give him what he desires; I don't want to be appealing, or interesting. I want my old badass five self, the one that used to hate Sinclair so much. If I could just call him forth, somehow, maybe Mist might see that there is nothing desirable about who I am, or how I act. I'm just a bundle of claws and teeth, a big killing machine looking for the next opportunity to tear his throat out.

Where do I start, if I want to act that way?

Start with not walking onto his ship wearing a collar, Keman. Hurf. I stared down at the piercing through my sheath, thinking about the messages conveyed. What have I done? Who have I become? I did that... because I wanted it. But, I didn't want this!

I got up and faced the mirror, tossing the muzzle into the sink as I stared at my haggard appearance. Holy shit, that's a lot of blood. My fur was all matted, everywhere. I opened my jaws wide and stared at the tube resting on my tongue. As I had expected, the end was finely threaded, probably made of titanium, it had the right shade of gray to it. I pushed and pulled on it, ever so slightly. I could feel the ball in my stomach shift around, with a deep, sick sensation. I tried to imagine how big it must have become, for my stomach to determine that it couldn't pass it. It must be huge, and what's it filled with, could I pop it somehow?

I tried to speak, "Fu--" I choked, as soon as my airway tried to open into my mouth, it contacted the tube and I coughed. My eyes were watering again...

I turned my attention to the accessories in the 'fresher, noticing how similar they were to the ones I had installed on my own ship. A pang of worry dawned on me, as I wondered about it sitting there, on its own, in Yoshi's repair bay. Nod could probably check on it- if I could contact him.

I used a dermal regenerator to close the teeth marks around my neck, pushing its field emitter prongs through my fur and holding it steady. Pain began to recede as my tissue was re-bonded back together, at the cellular level. The destroyed cells would all need to be regrown naturally, but the holes were gone now. I glanced at the shower stall, a sacred place of relaxation and meditation, for me. Normally.

The gas I had been breathing earlier must have worn off, because I sure felt like shit. I climbed into the shower, and the hot water around my toes ran brown and red. My blood, sweat, and saliva, it all went down the drain into the recycler tanks. Stress clung to my fur, though, like thick grease. It wouldn't wash off no matter how much I scrubbed. I combed suds through my fur with robotic movements, concentrating on the idea of Sin showing up, how he'd execute Mist on sight. I wanted that, I needed that. How dare this fucker mess with Sin's property?

The air-dry cycle took a few minutes, and I stepped out feeling fluffy, but heavy, too heavy. I checked my fur, making sure that it wasn't still wet. The ultrasonic assisted drier had performed its function well. Still, each step took far too much effort.

I opened the door to the 'fresher and fell onto my hands, standing up required precision and effort I just couldn't muster. I stared up at Mist; he had been waiting for me. No. He's got control of my collar, and this is how it all starts.

"Where's your muzzle? Hrrm?" I flattened my ears, I had forgotten about the fucking thing. I was tired, and so sick... I just stared at his feet. I didn't want to ask him for help, and I knew if I even tried to speak, I'd only start coughing and gagging. The world pressed down on me, harder than before. I felt like I was dying, what's the matter with me?

Mist seemed unsurprised, he stepped over me and entered the 'fresher. I heard water running, ostensibly as he cleaned the muzzle off. I laid there on my stomach, holding my paws over my aching head, feeling sicker by the moment. Bitter laughter surfaced in my mind, as I concluded that puking was probably not possible now. The heaving, though, that was going to hurt.

He stood over me, and flicked one of my ears with a claw. "Get up. Follow me, Keman. I told you that you'd want your muzzle back on. You're a smart boy, do you think what you were breathing earlier isn't addictive?" I stared up at him with bloodshot eyes, making the connection. Oh, shit. "It's designed to be addictive, so get up!"

I followed him on all four, hanging my head. I didn't want to, in fact, I knew what was coming. I hated the association my mind was about to make, and I could do nothing to prevent it. The muzzle was about to make me feel good.

Mist was waiting for me at the door of what I still refused to think of as my room. He held the muzzle out in a paw, and his smile was huge.

"Put it on," he said, pushing it close to my mouth. I looked away. "You'll feel better with it on, right away, trust Mist on that fact." I stared up at him, and then looked at the floor. "Muzzle up, Keman. Do it now." He raised his voice, "If you make me put it on you, I'll thread it on so tight you'll spend the rest of the day heaving your guts out. Do you want that?"

I took it from him and stared at it, feeling weak as a puppy. I could come up with no resistance, he had won this, for now.

The muzzle was mainly two thick metal bands that would surround my jaws, one in the front, the other closer to the tip. I saw locking tabs at the point where they would touch when pressed together. The padding was shiny and black, waterproof, and I could clearly see the threaded engagement poking out, down in the base. That was the part my front teeth were having trouble with, I was forced to bite down on it continuously. The nasal tubes were fat and slick, made of a rubbery gel, designed to compress. I noticed a spring loaded "D" ring at the bottom, under where my chin would go.

My ears went flat as I guided the tubes into my nostrils, which were sore. It hurt much worse going in, this time, and I stared with wide eyes at the metal now in my field of vision. I knew it was about to swing down like the axe of the headsman, severing me from the one tool which could help me escape: my fangs. I parted my lips to let the threaded part inside. Once it was far enough on, the two halves snapped tight, squeezing my jaws shut with a ratcheting click. The speed of the action surprised me, even though I knew it was coming.

Mist handed me the tool I had used earlier. With a metallic grinding sound that vibrated my skull, the threaded part spun up against my tongue, caught the tube, and the muzzle pulled itself up onto my head. I released the pressure against the activation stud, hoping he would leave it that way.

"All the way..." He reached forward and shoved my finger against it, squeezing my paw in his. I whimpered through my mouth, a wet gurgle around the tube. The mechanism started back up, and the whole thing tightened down further, the tubes sank the last inch into my nose with a wet squish. He plucked the tool out of my paw, and I couldn't breathe. The ache in my stomach was back, and I tried very hard to ignore the desire to swallow the tube pulling against the back of my tongue. Where I had hoped that the muzzle could be looser this time, it was now tighter than ever.

"Up, on the bed. Hook yourself up, Keman. You can do it." Mist crossed his arms and watched patiently.

I jumped up on the bed, and found the end of the braided hose. I jabbed it at the metal tip of the muzzle, but I couldn't get it to engage. It had been so easy, before, but now it seemed like it didn't fit. I turned and looked at Mist with wide eyes. I can't breathe.

"Doesn't fit, does it." Mist walked up to me and I held the hose out to him, but he ignored it, staring at me. "You forgot to wash your muzzle, Keman. That's your job, not mine." I was running out of air, oh, fuck. "It doesn't fit, because I've instructed the system to prevent its insertion. The same way I can lock it on, I can also lock it out." I tried to whimper, I tried to draw a breath, but air wouldn't come. I wanted to howl in despair.

"Next time, you'll remember, won't you?" I need to breathe!

I flattened my body to the bed and shut my eyes to defend against my approaching panic. It rushed towards me like a screaming freight train, while I stood motionless on its tracks. I had no idea what I might try at the end. My claws would go to the muzzle, and I'd probably rip my face to shreds trying to get it off.

I'm dying.

This is it.

My lungs pulled, hard, harder. I couldn't stop them from trying.

Mist yanked the hose from my hand and clicked it home into the muzzle. I gasped in a deep breath of sweet smelling air. I pulled breaths as hard and as fast as the system allowed.

Calm violently crashed into my mind. The cold hand of Dog reached into my head and squeezed my brain. I felt each hair in my body relax, and I hadn't even realized they were all pulled so tightly. I felt good, then I felt better, and then way better, still. Euphoria slid down into me, and I fought it, but only for a moment, this time. The surge of pleasure would have left my dick leaking, if not for the parasite, but I got hard, anyway. I stumbled drunkenly around in my head, feeling my heart start to race. Distant knowledge of addiction, drug exposure, side effects, inhibition, it all faded under the fury of the bliss, the raging storm of pleasure.

Mist softly rubbed my head between my ears, and tears dripped from between my eyelids, which I kept shut tight. I was crying, because I wanted my Alpha to come and save me from this horror. I felt terrified that when he did, I wouldn't want to go. Not with how good this felt, nothing in my life had ever felt so wonderful.

Mist placed something long and round into my paw, then that hand was guided down between my legs. It slid into my sheath with a push and a twist, locking in place. I felt the cath inside it automatically slip into my bladder, the 'site pulsed and twisted, then went silent. I opened my eyes and stared, my glassy look of hatred had abated, for now.

"Enjoy this while you can, Keman. Pretty soon, you'll start earning every bit of it. Oh yes, this doesn't come without a price."

I shut my eyes, and hoped he was wrong.

Chapter 10.

Zero stared at his console in disbelief. "Casey, is that another ship following us?" It was giving off energy readings like a ship, and he didn't like the idea of anyone nipping at his heels.

"Hang on." Casey got up and walked to the sensor suite. "I think I see what you mean, it looks like something is in our warp window, that's creepy. Either one hell of a coincidence, or someone very advanced is following us."

Zero shook his muzzle. "I don't believe in coincidences. I've heard that they exist, but since I've never actually seen one... We're still cloaked, right?"

"Cloak is active and completely functional, sir. Let me triangulate where they're headed," he said, tapping a few buttons. "Same destination as Mist's ship, it looks like."

Most space folders couldn't fold all of the space between two points far apart. The process actually involved one small distance, with the exit point continuously adjusted to something further away.

Zero pondered. So it was headed to the same jump station. One of theirs, then. That makes it two versus one, odds he didn't like. "What kind of ship?"

Casey typed quickly. "Must be cruiser class, she's actually going to pass our trajectory in twelve seconds. Too far to get a visual, even at the apex. I'm reading a really strange warp field around her. Woah! Zero, we need to bail out of this window, like right now!" His console buzzed a warning.

"Why?" Zero barked. "Won't that destroy the folder?" He felt a peculiar shudder, a vibration the inertial compensators couldn't seem to cope with, and then he felt mild nausea rising in his gorge. "What the hell is happening?" His console beeped twice.

"Zero, report." Damn, Zeek had some interesting timing. He hadn't said anything about Mist having friends.

Casey growled, keying in a blur of sequences, adjusting the folder. "We're crossing warp fields, it's pulling at us! I've never seen anything like this, it's like it's... doing it on purpose!"

Zero blinked. Using a warp field as a weapon? Who would do that? "Get us out of here, eject the folder."

"Not yet!" More data entry. "If we fall out this close, the wake will tear us to pieces. It's bending space in a really dirty way."

"Guys." Ash's voice, from the console. "The folder's trying to tear itself from the ship, that's bad, right? Maybe quit what you're doing? You know, before we all die?"

Zeek walked onto the bridge and looked around, holding his stomach. "What the fuck?"

Zero held up a paw. "Not now! Trying to save our lives here." He shot a look at Casey. "Casey?"

Casey's eyes were shut; he was fully immersed in his wetware. He held up a finger, his eyes moving quickly below their lids. The ship's engines grew louder, pulsing in and out of phase, keeping pace with the growing sense of nausea. A sharp vibration rattled through her frame, shooting from one end of the bridge to the other. A loud BANG, then silence. Stars that had previously been long lines in all the windows were now stationary.

"Uhm. Problem... solved? Folder's gone, I've confirmed all bulkheads, a clean break, and they're sealed. We're dead in the water, though."

"Shit! Are you serious?" Zeek stared at Zero, showing his teeth. "How hard is it to follow ship? Huh? Now where they go after they get through jump station?" He reached forward and slammed a paw onto the nearest console. "Ash. Start breaking into jump station..." he looked closely at the readout. "X70-1. We're going to need to know where Mist's ship is going, when he passes through it. Hell, take it offline, if you can!" Zeek glared, Zero looked away in submission, folding his ears back.

"I'll see what I can do," Ash responded. "You know, Keems could do this in his sleep. I'm in it right now, but they've upped security, it's going to take me a while to get through their firewall."

Zero looked at Zeek, it was time to explain. "Another ship came up behind us. Practically ran us over with its warp field. I've never even heard of something so crazy or dangerous. We're lucky to be alive right now, and I'd be surprised to learn that whoever was on that ship is still alive, too."

Zeek shook his muzzle. "Unbelievable. I'll let you know as soon as I have more intel on where they are. Get this fucking ship fixed!" He stormed out, the door slid shut behind him.

Zero took a deep breath and exhaled. "Casey..."

Chapter 11.

"Keman." A distant, deep voice. "Keeeeman." I struggled to wake up, but everything felt too fuzzy, I couldn't tell which direction was up. I felt giddy, happy. That was Sin's voice. I was so happy to hear him, but the edges of something highly distressing pricked at my mind, I must have been having a nightmare.

"I fixed your teeth, you should thank me, I know they must have hurt." Buh? I opened my eyes; and the nightmare became real as I stared at Mist. I was lying on my back, I turned my head sideways and glanced at the surface of the bed right next me. I saw several chrome steel tools, one that looked like narrow pliers. Four small white teeth still attached to their bloody roots sat discarded in a tray. The muzzle was tight around my jaws, I couldn't smell through it, so my taste was absent, but the watery feeling on my tongue was probably my blood, and the pain in my front nibbling teeth was gone.

So were they.

The tube passed through the resulting opening, and now I understood just how permanent everything really was. My ears shook from being held so flat.

"Finally starting to understand things?" He shook the steel braided hose leading to my head. "I can feed you any number of substances and drugs through this directly into your stomach. Your days of eating and drinking are over, so nothing need ever come from here-" He shoved a finger up against my asshole, my body stiffened up. "Except for what I put up there, so we'll clean you out on occasion. Let's get rid of what's left up there right now, shall we?" I stared in horror, wondering what else he had done while I was unconscious.

"No, nothing like that. You'll always be awake when I'm under your tail, trust Mist on that fact." He disconnected the hose from my prick and shoved it under my tail, forcing its narrow tip inside. I felt pain slowly build as it expanded, locking tight with a lot of pressure against my prostate. Cold water flowed inside, along with the catheter; I felt the watery bubble pass deeper into my intestines, one section at a time. A sharp pain with a small vibration as it was sucked back out. He repeated the process a second time, then deflated the tip and pulled it free, coiling it up at the end of the bed.

"And just like that, you're completely clean, and now you'll always be ready. I don't like shit on my dick. Let's see what all you're made of." I kept drifting off, the painkillers he had fed me were mixing with the gas, and with the exception of when he spoke, time had no meaning. He snapped his fingers in front of my eyes.

"Hey! Wake up!" I felt something else under my tail now, his fingers. "Squeeze down as hard as you can. Show Mist what you can do." Whatever.

Suddenly, I couldn't breathe.

"I said. Show. Mist. What you can do." I blinked, realizing his eyes were just inches from mine. I clenched down on his fingers, my tail twitching. Mist shook his head.

"Harder." I still couldn't breathe. Fuck! I clenched down harder.

"That's the best you can do?" I still couldn't breathe! "Harder, I like a lot of pressure behind my knot. Either you show me what you can do, or I see how long it takes for you to pass out from a lack of air." I clenched down as hard as I could, using my leg and tail muscles to squeeze as tight as possible. Holy fuck, I can't breathe!

Mist shook his head and yanked his fingers free. "Pathetic." I suddenly drew a deep breath through my nose. "Absolutely pathetic. That's next on my list of things we need to change in your body. I won't be happy until you can almost break my fingers, Keman. I've got something that will help you with that, and as soon as we get back, it goes in and stays in."

Mist slapped down a canine dildo next to my head, making the bed shake. I stared, it looked real, all the way down to the blood vessels, it was shiny and smooth. It had a short, narrow base behind the knot, which was uninflated. The base was metal, and had several winking status lights.

"The only difference between it and me is the size of the knot. I am much bigger. I don't want to stretch you out, it's just big enough to keep itself in. Once this is locked in you, it stays in until I'm satisfied with your strength. In the weeks to come..." He paused, to let the thought drive home, continuing only after my eyes grew wide. "Whenever you're conscious, it will require you to clench down on it as hard as you can, frequently, if you want to breathe." He smiled.

"We'll strengthen that ass of yours, oh yes. That's going to be your only concern. You don't have to worry about eating, or shitting, or pissing. I'll keep you so high, the days will fly right by. When I'm done with you, you'll know only one pleasure, and that's making me feel good. I will teach you how, and you will learn."

Mist crossed his arms. "First, though, we need to figure out what's wrong with your collar. So far, I've been highly impressed with your attitude." Words I really didn't want to hear. "I can tell you've had a lot of training with one, already. That's what you recognized. Isn't it." It wasn't a question.

I stared at him, and then looked away.

"Yep. What a good boy I have! I'm dying to know who your previous owner was. I doubt you'd tell me, not that you can speak, but I have ways around both aspects.

"For now, I'll spare you the torture of extracting such information. Once your Mark 6 is working, it'll pave the way to a smooth acceptance of me as your owner, and along with that, comes everything I want to know. Everything."

He tossed a coiled up leash at me, it bounced off my side. A small chunk of metal rolled free from it.

"Time to go for a walk." He reached forward and disengaged the braided hose from my muzzle. I couldn't breathe, again, but there was something else, nagging at me.

I was disappointed at the hose's detachment.

I didn't like the gas.

I wasn't enjoying its effects.

Lies.

That told me everything I needed to know about my growing addiction. Still, I couldn't breathe, and that was an addiction which would never go away.

Mist took the round piece of metal and clicked it onto the front of the muzzle. I was able to draw in a deep breath of normal air through my nose, now. I took in the scents of my surroundings, noting his pleasure ripe in the air. I hated that this was a new functionality, it meant that I could wear the muzzle elsewhere. It meant I could, and probably would, wear it almost always.

He held the end of the leash towards me. "Clip it to your muzzle, Keman. "

I stared. If he wanted it hooked up, he could fucking do it himself. I pretended not to hear, you're not so in control when I'm not hooked up to your system. The drugs had my mind in a state where nothing was serious, I laughed inside.

Mist flattened his ears. "Oh. You want to be stubborn. Good, good. Better to get this over with indoors, where people can't see. And here I was, waiting for an excuse to teach you your next lesson. You think because your collar doesn't work, and you're not hooked to the system, I can't punish you? "

I finished exhaling, went to inhale, but couldn't. I wasn't hooked up, but he must have control over the metal block stuck to the muzzle. I reached up and tried pulling it off, disengaging it, prying my claws into it. I had almost no air left in my lungs. That meant panic would start only inches from my eyes, this time.

I let out a sharp whimper on reflex, and discovered that it would still let me exhale, but not bring any more air in. I realized how cruel that was, my eyes opened wide, yet what I could see only shrank as my heart started to race. I slowly brushed my hands over the muzzle, desperately wanting to try pulling it off, but I knew down that path lay insanity.

I looked around, hysterically trying to think of what to do. I should beg, plead.

The euphoria I had felt earlier was gone.

I had only seconds.

My lungs were nearly empty.

I shut my eyes and told myself no. No! Dog, no. Fight it. Fight it!

I lunged at the leash he was holding, and clipped the end onto the "D" ring, under my chin. It beeped after I snapped the weird looking hasp onto it, it was electronic and probably locked. I jumped off the bed and hugged the floor, craning my neck to stare up at Mist, holding completely still. I knew my pupils were big by how bright the room had become.

Mist shrugged. "Hmm. I think you've got a few minutes left, to work out what I want to see." Minutes? I had only seconds! I rolled over onto my back, and stretched my neck out, baring it to him. I would have peed myself, if I could.

"I see you, but I can't hear you. I wonder if I overestimated your intelligence."

I had only a tiny bit of air left in my lungs. If I used that for anything, and lost it... I would freak out, that's all there was to it. But, I was already starting to panic. So I fucking whimpered, loudly, for as long as I could. Every. Last. Bit. Of air came out with it. I paused, tightening my eyes shut, and drew in a deep breath, my body shook in fear.

This can't be happening, that didn't just happen. My sanity had hung on a string for a moment, and now I have it back. It almost broke, I almost broke...

Mist reached down and rubbed my throat, above my collar, with his claws. My body stiffened, it did not feel good.

"Yes. This is all real, Keman. I know that right now you're wondering if it is, so I'm here to say: Yes. That did just happen. And it'll happen again, and I'll take you so much further.

"I'll make you wait minutes past your last breath before I give you another. And I'll do it again, and again. I'll do it until you're unconscious, but you won't die. I'll wait for you to wake back up.

"I'll keep doing it. Understand?" His voice had been calm, matter-of-fact. Now he raised it.

"Think you want to test me again?"

I shook my head quickly, and stared at his feet. My games were over; the air entering my lungs was now precious. I had always taken it for granted, but never again.

"Let's go find out what's wrong with your collar. I'm hoping it's something simple. Then this brutality can cease. I assume you already know how to heel. Impress me with your behavior and you'll be rewarded when we get back." He smiled, all teeth.

"You've only felt the tiniest sliver of what this system can give you." If that was true, I wondered if it was a good idea to earn it. I wanted it, though. Hurf. Not good.

Together, we walked out of his ship, and into a seedier area of Trinity, on the planet Phaylact. Though I was still very buzzed out on what he had fed me, probably a slurry sitting in my stomach, I recognized where we were. The streets were dirty, the cleaning robots had been abducted and sold for parts a long time ago.

Here I was, on all fours, at the end of a leash, wearing a collar and a muzzle. I had no ability to paw myself off. Under different circumstances, it would be embarrassingly hot. I screamed at myself, in my head, for even considering the appreciation of my situation. It was because of the drugs, I couldn't help letting my perspective slip to something that felt good.

Mist wore a pocketed vest around his torso, along with a gun that looked big and lethal in a custom holster under his left armpit. After a few glances, I finally realized what it was. A Sunjet particle cannon, I had never seen one worn as a sidearm. It was very advanced, very dangerous technology. One of the most powerful handheld weapons in existence.

We took public transportation to a newer region, and people gave us curious glances, but they always looked away quickly. Trinity has a motto in common with all its residents: mind your own fucking business.

We walked into an electronics repair shop, I knew that because I'd been here myself, a long time ago.

Oh, Dog.

Phyx's Phyxation & Repair was packed with both new and used appliances, and all sorts of electronic goodies. The steel roll-up shutter in the front was only open three-quarters of the way. The windows were probably shielded, the shutter was ancient and heavily rusted. I had previously sourced unlicensed network interfaces from PP&R. I always figured Phyx sold other things, maybe like what was around my neck. Now I knew.

Mist nodded at the guy behind the counter, a black Mastiff Rhenthar, he nodded back. We walked around it to the back room.

Phyx glanced up from something he was soldering. He came from Rottweiler genetics, but was small for the breed, he had slender surgeon's hands. He set down the soldering iron onto a small holder, and stood up from the chair he was sitting on.

"All right, Mist. Let's see this malfunctioning col--" his words cut off when he saw me. I stared back at him and looked away, feeling a combination of embarrassment and frustration. He really wasn't the kind of person I could ask for help. Besides, I had no way to communicate to him. His scent turned into cautious amusement.

Mist stared back and forth between the two of us, and pulled my leash closer. I sat at his feet, while he clipped my leash to his vest.

"You two have already met. Interesting. Is this going to be a problem, Phyx?"

He shook his head. "No problem. I've done business with... Keman... in the past. I'm just a little surprised, is all. However, since he doesn't owe me any credits, he's not really a concern of mine. Is his team aware of this, ah, arrangement?"

"Team?" Mist narrowed his eyes, staring at me closely.

"A few years ago, he worked for some serious bounty hunters. I sold them some networking gear. He's never come by since. I just wanted to make sure they're not going to break down my doors, looking for him. I'm betting he didn't just hand himself over to you voluntarily."

"I'm unaware of such," Mist said. "If his collar worked, I would know more, now, wouldn't I?" He growled the last part.

Phyx approached me and knelt, inspecting my collar, pushing a few buttons on it. I wanted more than anything to tell him who to contact, how much he'd probably get paid to put a bullet through Mist's head, and save me from this situation. What was I going to use, sign language?

He stood back up. "It's working just fine. Check your wetware, it's registered and owned. You're the one who put the collar on him, right?"

"I never had the chance to register it. As soon as I tried, it rejected my attempt, and indicated that it was already owned. Are you sure it wasn't owned previously to my purchasing it from you?" Mist glared.

Phyx shook his head. "No, they don't work like that. You can't pre-own them. Ownership registration is only possible after it initializes on a living Rhenthar. These are anti-theft devices just as much as control collars."

"Well, clear the ownership out then, and make him mine. Obviously something screwed up."

"I can't," Phyx said, pointing a finger at me. "To do so would kill him. That's a safeguard that's been around since the Mark three."

Mist clenched his hands in frustration. "If you can't, then who can? Where do you get them from?"

Phyx's scent turned guarded. "Don't ask that, Mist. You can ask me anything, but that. My suppliers don't wish to be known. Such information is on a need to know basis."

Mist pulled out his Sunjet and leveled it at Phyx's head. "Great news! I need to know," he said, leaning forward, scowling.

Phyx held up his paws. "Whoa, whoa. Look, you can't threaten me, because if I give you their names, they'll fucking kill me. I'd rather take my chances against that," he pointed at Mist's weapon, "than anything they would use. So go ahead."

I watched, surprised at the situation as it spiraled into something unexpected.

Mist took two big steps up to Phyx and held the muzzle of the Sunjet under his jaws. The leash yanked my head in that direction and had to stumble to keep up.

"Is that so? Really? You disappoint me with your imagination." His other paw had been groping in his vest, he pulled a collar out, just like what I wore, and snapped it shut around Phyx's neck. It chimed twice and shrank. Phyx's eyes grew very large.

"See, that's how the ownership registration is supposed to work."

Phyx was whimpering and pulling at the collar, he backed into some computer parts on his desk and they fell to the ground, a can of screws tipped over and scattered everywhere. The guy we saw behind the counter peeked around the corner of the doorway. Mist pointed his weapon at him.

"This doesn't concern you, unless you want it to." He blinked and shook his head, quickly returning to the front of the store.

Phyx fell to his knees and grew quiet. I watched with a combination of interest and horror. I felt bad, like this was all my fault. I should have run from Mist's ship when I had the chance.

"So. Phyx. Where do you get these collars from?" Mist holstered the Sunjet.

Phyx shook his head, tears springing into the corners of his eyes. "They'll k-k­ kill me, Mist. Please don't make me answer that."

"I'm already here, and I'll kill you in the most painful way your body can comprehend, if you don't tell me. Where. Do you get these from?"

Phyx shook and stammered, turning his head back and forth.

Mist took up all the slack on my leash and stared at me, "pay attention, Keman." I watched. "Phyx. You want to tell me."

Phyx sat up straight, and quit shaking.

"Right?"

Phyx nodded, "yeah."

"Nothing bad will happen if you do." Phyx repeated those words, himself.

"His name is John. He's local, third left down my street, then a right. Last house at the end of the court." Despite his calm words, he smelled terrified.

"Good, good." Mist pet Phyx on the head, long strokes around his floppy ears. "See? This wasn't bad, at all. In fact, we were never even here. You just got curious and put one of your own products on, and you like wearing it. Don't you?"

Phyx's copper colored eyes went even wider. "N... yes. I do!"

"Do you want me to take it off, or leave it on you?" Mist cocked his head, curious.

"Leave it on." He was shaking his head furiously.

Mist sighed, bored. "I think it looks good. You want to wear it... forever."

Phyx nodded, more tears leaked from his eyes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. This was nothing like what a Mark 5 could do.

Mist stared down at me. "You smell surprised. You must have worn a Mark 5, didn't you. Haha, aaaah. Yes. Now I understand. Mmph. There's so much you're going to learn, Keman. C'mon, let's go." He paused, glancing at Phyx.

"Last chance, Phyx. Do you want me to take your collar off before I go?"

Phyx shook his head, but he was holding his muzzle in his paws, trying to get it to stop moving. "No!" He held his paws around his jaws before he could say anything more.

Mist tugged my leash and we went into the front reception area. I heard a sharp burst of air and saw the body of the black Mastiff fall to the ground right next to me, minus his head, before I realized what had happened. Bits of red white and gray clung to the nearest wall, wet gibbets sliding to the floor, he holstered his Sunjet. I was too scared to even think, my limbs turned into water.

"One less loose end. We have to go back to my ship. You're going to withdraw soon, I didn't expect this to take so long. I need to research this situation further, I have some growing suspicions that I don't like." He frowned. "Not at all. Not. One. Bit."

We walked out of the store, and I saw a Rhenthar leaning against a lamppost. I stumbled when I realized it was Sinclair. "Look away!" he shouted at me. I flinched, but Mist didn't seem to notice.

"Keman... where the fuck are you? How can there be no addresses on any of these buildings!" He gestured around him. "If you tell him about us, we'll lose everything. I can't let that happen. Stall for time, in any way you can. I wish I knew where you were right now." My eyes watered as we walked past, and away. Holy fuck...

Chapter 12.

As we made our way back to Mist's ship, what was becoming a familiar heaviness had begun to settle into my limbs. I was starting to withdraw. My heart was laboring, my nose dripped sweat within the confines of the muzzle. Irritation blended with my shock and confusion of having seen Sinclair again. I'm on Phaylact! Fucking shit, how the hell do I tell him?

"What a nice dog you have." I looked up and met the brown eyes of an old female German Shepherd Rhenthar sitting across from us on the subway car. She had more white around her muzzle than any other color. Our bodies collectively rocked and shuddered as the poorly tuned maglev's limits were surpassed into actual rail contact. I turned and looked up at Mist, sitting in the seat behind me.

"He's not so nice, lady. He'd bite your arm off, if he wasn't muzzled." Mist smiled down at me.

She squinted, looking closer at me. I wondered if she even realized I was a Rhenthar, like her. I tongued the empty sockets around where the tube entered my mouth, feeling anger add to my irritation. The muzzle hugged my jaws closer, now that my mouth was completely shut. Less metal in my field of view, but it felt more confining. It was tighter, more form fitting. My anger kept bouncing off a wall of submission, I felt so helpless without being able to bite something.

My days of eating were over. Out the window with speaking, too? Shit. I swallowed, feeling the thick tube all the way down in my stomach. I missed my ship, I missed Sinclair. I missed Nod and Jimmy. I had no hope, I had never felt so defeated. I should have stayed on The Hahkota. My old team would never have let this happen to me.

Well, that's not true, now, is it?

They didn't stop Sinclair from taking me. But, as much as I hated it, at the time, in retrospect it was easily the best experience of my life. Could I somehow turn this into the same?

I turned and looked at Mist again, considering. He caught my gaze and stared back. Oh, how I hated him! If he hadn't taken my nibbler teeth, maybe things could have been different.

Mist leaned forward and growled at me. I splayed my ears and looked away. The old lady poked me with her walking stick, I turned and shot her a look that should kill.

"Such a mean dog. You should have him neutered. That'll fix him." I froze, staring at Mist in the corner of my vision. Dog, anything but that.

"Hm." He started to pet me between my ears. "That's an interesting idea," he said.

My anger dried right up, evaporating into terror.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, though," Mist said, shaking his head wistfully. I exhaled a sigh of relief. "He's wearing a parasite that prevents him from breeding. Without his balls, it would kill him." Mist cocked his head and stared at me severely. He leaned close and whispered into my ear.

"You wouldn't be the first to try castrating himself to escape the attentions of his 'site. But. You don't act like someone who's been 'sited. What did you mean by... you had a way around it? Hm. Yes, we need to see what's going on."

The subway car ground to a halt with brake pads that were probably more backing plate than friction material, judging by the level of noise they made. I thought back to my conversation with Zach, a long time ago. He mentioned something about modifying my 'site, killing off some aspect of it. I kicked myself for not researching how 'sites worked, back when I had the chance. There seemed no reason to, I thought I knew them inside and out.

Mist kept the leash short as we exited the subway and walked back to his ship. It was parked in a crumbling starship landing area. A few empty hulks stood the tests of time, stripped of everything useful. Also present on the blast-scarred surface were a couple dozen other ships, which were well guarded by people and sentry weapons. They paid us no attention as we boarded, Mist authorizing his presence through his wetware.

He walked me to "my" room and patted the bed's surface. I jumped up and sat, eager to breathe the gas my body was craving. More thoughts of inhibition and addiction plagued my conscience, but what the fuck could I do about it? The idea of leaping onto him and breaking his neck sat a few miles in the distance. He seemed like a fighter, though, the move he had used to flip me onto my back was smooth and precise. He would only make things worse, that's all resistance amounted to: more pain for me. So I forced such thoughts to recede even further.

I heard a click in the muzzle, and he dug the heavy metal valve off the end and unclipped the leash. I had to hold my breath, closely watching his every move, staring at his hands. I glanced at the tip of the braided hose, it was retracted into a recess above the bed. I looked back at him.

"You sure smell eager. I bet you want more than just air, hm?" He stood tall and crossed his arms. "I want to know what you've done to your 'site. I want to know what you meant by having ways around it." My air was running out. I lay down on the bed and rolled over onto my back, showing him my neck. He laughed.

"So much submission. I know what you want, and now you know what I want. Do we have a deal?" He smiled, showing some very sharp teeth. I nodded my head, please, just give me some air...

He reached up to the recess and pulled out a length of the steel braid, clicking it into the end of my muzzle. I drew a long breath. I took breath after breath, feeling the withdrawal vanish like smoke. My mood brightened, along with the rest of the room as my pupils grew wide. My fur relaxed, euphoria climbed onto my chest and punched me in the face. I felt myself harden up in my sheath, and my previous concerns of the situation vanished.

This wasn't so bad, I could endure this. What's wrong with feeling good? This is better than I've ever felt, so what if it's artificial? This came for free.

Well, not quite.

It came at the price of... my life. With my owner, Sinclair. He wanted me back.

Euphoria fell a notch, or two. I shut my eyes and felt tears leak from them, wishing he were here. I knew no matter how good this felt, it would be even better if it were him doing this to me.

The buzz in my head kept intensifying, causing me to feel increasingly disconnected from my body. I felt distant, fuzzy, and tranquil. Mist pulled my sheath back all the way to the base, behind my knot, and even painfully past that. The sensation was only distant, though. I twisted my neck to watch him passively. A black thickness was behind my knot, abruptly transitioning to my white shaft, where the mouth of the parasite ended. He tried to dig his claws under the 'site, all the way around. The hard, calcified area was a part of my tissue, though, no such gap existed. The parasite squirmed inside me, pain in my bladder spiked. My body seized, tensing up on its own. Mist tried pushing and pulling at it, my erection had faded, and it wasn't corning back. He shook his head. "You're going to have to explain."

I had zoned out, caught up in the bliss. Mist set a large, flat square on the bed, next to me, and slapped the bed. "Roll over, sit up. That s a touch screen, use your claws to spell out the answers to my questions." I shut my eyes, what a weird dream...

"Keman!" I opened them, staring into his angry green gaze. I tried to draw a breath, but none came. Er, shit. I rolled over and sat up.

"Do I have your attention now? Huh?" I nodded, the steel cable shook with my muzzle. I resumed breathing.

"What did you mean, you have a way around your 'site?" Mist pointed at the flat tablet lying on the bed. I picked it up, moving in slow motion through the mind numbing pleasure.

I drew a claw across its surface, bold white stood out wherever it touched. Mist reached forward and tapped the upper right corner, the marks vanished. Even while stoned, I got it.

I wrote: I use a stimulator to get an orgasm. I looked up at Mist, he twisted his head, leaning over my shoulder to read what I had written.

"Not surprising. But what else have you done to it? It's not acting right."

I erased the surface, then wrote: Nothing. How should it be acting?

Mist was quiet for a minute, contemplating. "Keman, it should... oh. My my. Has it always been this way?"

I wrote: Yes.

Mist threw his head up and laughed. He pulled the tablet from my paws and tossed it onto the bed. "And here I thought you'd been wearing it for your whole life, and you just found some way to ignore it.

"But it's young, only a few years old, at the most. I can tell by the distance it's grown behind your knot. Just didn't make any sense, until now.

"I'll be right back. The hose is locked, stay, Keman."

Mist left the room and I sat there, buzzed out of my mind. Movement caught my eyes. Sinclair walked up to me, he pointed behind me. "Look that way." I did, staring at the open door, not quite understanding why. I looked back at Sin and he nodded, pointing to the tablet laying on the bed.

"Do you know where you're at? Write it down on that, quickly."

My heart began to race, I was almost too dizzy to understand but I'd do anything he asked. Anything. I grabbed the tablet, and it slipped from my paw, tumbling onto the floor. No! I strained to reach it, to pick it back up, but the braided hose wasn't long enough. I reached up to disconnect the hose from the muzzle, but it wouldn't pull free, it was locked. I strained to reach it again, turning my head to stare at the wall as my paw groped blindly next to the bed. I couldn't tell how close I was getting, since I couldn't look at it.

My claws brushed something hard, I snatched it up, pulling myself the rest of the way back onto the bed to quickly write: Phaylact, Trinity. South Side, starship landing zone. I looked up into Sin's magnificent yellow eyes, while tears leaked from mine. I missed him so badly, the pain was almost unbearable.

"Fuck yes! We're coming." Sin vanished, de-materializing like an unplugged viewscreen. I erased the text on the tablet, sniffing and swallowing my snot mixed with tears, feeling a whole new level of hope.

Mist walked back into the room, moving in like a dark thundercloud, to set several pieces of equipment onto the bed. He pushed me over onto my back. "Just lay there like a good boy. I've changed the mix you're breathing. This is your reward for earlier good behavior. Remember this, Keman. I want your associations carved in tritanium, when I say you get a reward, you get one."

Something did change. The scent of the gas turned sweeter, I could almost taste it.

I poked my tongue against my side teeth, and the pain felt... unlike pain. More like pleasure. I shuddered, and began to shiver as my body temperature rose. The room was too bright, colors felt threatening. I shut my eyes, then opened them, but still couldn't see. They were rolled back into my head. I had to consciously look straight out at the ceiling, seeing colors and patterns that shouldn't have been there, as they twisted and turned.

Mist slid a fat probe down into my dick, through the opening in the tip of the 'site, the one my urine was drawn from. The probe was long and metal, and the resulting pain was the most delicious sensation I had ever felt. I wanted him to push it deeper, I bucked my hips, trying to make him do it.

"You like that, eh? You shouldn't. I'm going to have to keep a close eye on you, so you don't do something stupid." Mist turned and stared at a small handheld screen, pushing various buttons while twisting the probe around.

I rubbed my stomach and my eyes grew wide, I pressed my claws into my fur, then pulled, rolling my eyes from the sensation. The shear intensity of the pleasure combined with having seen Sinclair earlier, I tensed up my stomach and drove my claws even deeper. Then deeper, more... I wanted more...

Mist grabbed my paws and pulled them away from my stomach. "That's enough of that. If you do that anymore, I'll paralyze you for the rest of this reward." I blinked at him muzzily, my eyes were still trying to roll back. I saw blood glistening on the tips of my claws, and a very distant part of my mind reeled, screaming at me to stop what I was doing. But I wanted more... shit, I wanted so much more...

I found a different way to get the same feeling. I simply played back the sensation I had just felt against my stomach, in my head... over and over again. Each time, I swore that it felt better than the last. I writhed on the bed, twitching my tail around, feeling each hair on my back rub against the bed's surface. Pure ecstasy.

"Keman, your 'sites stimulator branches are all dead. All it does is prevent you from getting off. I don't understand. That 'site cost more than my ship. Why didn't your owner just neuter you?"

I opened my eyes, staring glassily at Mist. I'd heard every word, but it was taking a while to swim from the depths of my ecstasy in order to make any sense of them. I laughed at him, or at least, tried to. It came out of the muzzle as a rhythmic exhale.

"Ah. Because you like it. You like not being able to get off, you like chastity. Your owner spent all those credits just to give you what you wanted. " Mist sounded enthusiastic, like he was slowly figuring out the world's toughest equation. A very small part of my mind was concerned with the efficiency in which he was figuring me out.

"Well, be that as it may. Things are going to be a whole lot different for you, soon. You're going to learn what being 'sited is truly all about. I won't ruin the surprise, but, haven't you ever wondered why it's anchored in your bladder? After all, it's bonded to your dick, you can't pull it off. So... why?"

I stared at him, wondering what he was getting at, trying to make sense.

Mist smirked, picking up the dildo he had shown me that morning, to spread something greasy onto its tip. "When you wake up, and gotta pee real bad, you get an erection for a very specific reason."

He pressed the tip under my tail, and then slipped it inside me; its cool surface sank deep. I started to firm up in my sheath, as the bulge of the knot wedged into me. He pulled a finger out, and my tailhole closed, the toy was completely inside of me.

"Half of all your sexual nerve endings are clustered around your bladder sphincter. That's why taking a big leak feels so good. In addition, it's also the same region that rhythmically pulses during an orgasm. That's all I'm going to say. Remember those words, the rest you'll find out on your own."

I felt a small vibration inside me as the knot swelled up. I thought it was as big as it was going to get, and then I realized it was still slowly growing larger. I swallowed and arched my back, squeezing what was inside me, realizing how horny it was making me.

Mist squeezed my thick sheath. "Too bad you don't have your stimulator right now. But maybe tomorrow... when your 'site finishes healing, it'll give you some temporary relief. On accident.

"'Sites don't like sperm, they feed on pre... you're going to learn as much about it, as it's about to learn you. Poor thing must be starving, for all these years you've fed it the wrong diet."

He slid a finger back under my tail and checked to see how deep the dildo had lodged, and seemed satisfied. He pulled his finger back out. It felt amazing to me, I clenched down again, and gripped my sheath in a paw, squeezing. I laid there on the bed, squirming, squeezing.

Then I couldn't breathe.

"So it begins. Clench down if you want to breathe, Keman..." I gulped hard on the tube in my throat, feeling all the pleasure around me fall away as I struggled to take a breath. I clenched down, hard, then harder, and finally as hard as I could. No air came.

"Quit lying down on the job. A different position will work better, c'mon. I've not made you that stupid. Think!"

That was the problem. I didn't want to think. I rolled over onto my stomach and hunched in on myself, a similar position to if I was fucking. My tail curled between my legs as I rose up onto my haunches, trying still more positions to squeeze the mass locked inside me, I was starting to feel desperate. I bore down with the new position, hugging an invisible body, constricting as hard as I could. Suddenly I could breathe, again.

"There you go. That's the ticket. I've set a reasonable expectation curve for improvement, in the device. For how much stronger I expect your ass to get. If I'm wrong, well, it won't let you die, but it'll suck to be you. Therefore, I suggest you keep up the good work and don't just squeeze enough to get some air. It will want more, and the times will vary."

He snaked the black hose between my legs and slid it into place, twisting it to lock it. The cath that slipped through my erection felt exotic and delicious to me.

"I'm going to leave you alone for a while," he said. "I have to go track down a lead on someone who can maybe fix your collar. I sure wish it worked right. By now, you'd be the happiest wolf in the world; this doesn't have to be so hard. Still. Give me your paw."

He snatched one of my hands and started cutting my claws off, one by one. I watched with a strange combination of fear and pleasure, disappointed that I couldn't rake them through my skin again, but a small part of my mind was relieved that I couldn't try it, now. He repeated the same process on my other paw, staring at them closely so as not to cut through the quick.

Mist collected everything lying on the bed and moved to walk out.

"I know you'll be a good boy, but here's something extra to help the time pass."

My vision rippled, like I was underwater for a moment. I couldn't breathe, I clenched down. Air came back. I couldn't breathe again... I looked around, and realized Mist wasn't in the room anymore. I constricted my ass, took a deep breath. Again, and again... each cycle was only a second apart. I pushed on the black hose, trying to squeeze it, to hump it, and then I tugged on it until it ripped free. The catheter whipped around, spattering drops of urine on the bed while it retracted into the hose, I briefly glimpsed its slick blue exterior.

Eventually, squeezing became a reflex. I didn't have to consciously think about clamping down on the big mass inside me. It just happened as soon as I couldn't breathe. My mind had more time to wander; I found that I could get the same muscles to move, when I was on my side.

I rubbed my paws up and down my body, feeling a rush of ecstasy as I worked myself back to the state I was in earlier. I slid my sheath back and tugged on the parasite, feeling my body convulse in spasms that normally took my breath away. I smiled something unhealthy, and decided I was already the luckiest wolf in the world.

Eventually I blacked out.

Chapter 13.

I woke up the next day with a very full bladder. I needed to piss something fierce, so I groped around for the black hose and slipped it into my sheath, twisting it to lock. The pain slowly faded, I took a deep breath and it stopped short. I knew what to do, I squeezed on the knot still locked in me. My ass ached, but my chest was on fire.

I was blurry, fuzzy, too out of it to understand the cause. The reward from earlier was clearly finished, and I felt a strong personal loss with its absence. It was an experience I could never forget.

Time was normal enough, now, as far as I could tell. It felt like many minutes before the system prompted me again to tighten down, but this time, when I did, I felt myself hardening up in my sheath. Fuck! I was horny, it felt like someone huge was tied inside me, clenching down was only making me harder.

I felt a twitch inside of my urethra. Then, again, in the spot between my bladder and my dick. Mist's words from the previous day were vague, and difficult to remember. When I felt it a third time, I remembered. He did something to my 'site. Uh oh.

I lost the ability to breathe, again, and bore down as hard as I could. Another couple of twinges, this time in my dick, with the barest sensation as if I was pawwing myself off, behind my knot. It felt really good, and then the sensation abruptly turned to fire. I wanted to yell, to scream, but the muzzle prevented it. I reached between my legs and twisted the black hose, yanking it free.

There was no difference afterwards, but the pain slowly faded on its own. Once again, I couldn't breathe. I squeezed hard, then harder, aching muscles in my back, tail, and legs, all complaining. Muscles which I had no idea were even used for this purpose, but they were incredibly sore. Air came back, and another twitch rippled up my urethra.

I felt the single, bold pulse of an orgasm, my hips bucked, I climbed onto my feet, breathing quicker. Another pulse, then another... my knot was filling out, and the cascade chain reaction from cumming shook my body, heightened by the knot under my tail. I stood there on all four paws, hanging my head, enjoying the minutes as they passed. My prick stuck out of my sheath, my knot was huge inside of it, and my tail slowly rose and fell, as did my nuts while they emptied. The parasite routed it all back into my bladder. Oh Dog, thank you.

Fifteen minutes later, the orgasm didn't trail off as it normally did. It pulsed hard, then harder, very abnormal.

Something was wrong.

The throbs became painful, my body shook, and I reached between my legs and squeezed my sheath, trying to massage the parasite. Stop, oh, please... stop... too much! Nevertheless, it kept going, and going. I reached under my tail and dug my blunt claws into my ass, trying to pull the device out, because clenching down on it while cumming was hurting the worst of all. I got a good grip on the base, but couldn't pull it out, the knot was too big. My claws were too dull to pop it, try as I might.

The orgasm finally let up, and I collapsed onto the bed. My tail twitched a few more times, but my knot stayed fully inflated in my sheath. I kept one paw on it protectively, as if that could help, somehow.

Several more breath cycles came and went, and weren't too much trouble to deal with. Then I felt another twitch inside of me, and I knew there was more in store. My knot had only just shrunk; I'd been dozing from the afterglow.

A much sharper sensation rolled up my urethra, the pain of having to pee, but greatly intensified. It burned, I squeezed my eyes shut. Then it changed, losing its edge, I squeezed my paw tighter around my dick as the pain slowly twisted into pleasure. Oh, Dog... stop that! We've been friends for over three years, you have to stop doing that...

An abrupt twitch scratched its way up into my bladder, and as soon as it reached it, I folded in on myself, squeezing my dick, the muzzle stifling my gasp. Another, and another... I was hard again.

I couldn't breathe, suddenly. Terrible timing, I clenched down on the fucking thing, harder, then harder still. My air came back, but another single orgasm pulse tensed my body up. I waited for the next, for the whole fucking thing to start all over again. But that was apparently it. Nothing. Then another nip, another pulse; weak. It repeated, weaker, then weaker.

I was horny again, now very hard. The system cut off my air, and having to clench down on the dildo was doing nothing to help me get my mind off things.

A few minutes passed, my dick slid back into its sheath, then a shudder inside it rippled into life. One full, hard pulse of an orgasm caught my breath, I jerked into awareness. A long scraping sensation moved its way up inside me, and I reached down and grabbed the tip of the 'site, pulling. That usually produced incredibly painful cramps. I pulled hard. Fucking stop that!

It twisted inside me, all the sensations immediately changed into pain and I let go, holding my stomach as it hurt to breathe. Then the system cut off my air, my eyes opened wide and I wanted to scream in frustration. I clenched down as hard as I could, got my air back, and the twitching started up again... it was feeding off my pre, just as Mist said it would.

The next time I felt the pulse of an orgasm, I gripped my sheath in both of my paws and tugged, pulling as hard as I could, humping my paws. The cascade grew, my knot filled out, and the pulses became my own with another real orgasm. A small smile of victory passed my lips. That's right, fucker. Keep it up, and I'll keep doing that.

I won the fight, but I was losing the battle. The next time, that didn't work. Between having to clench down on what was locked in me, and the parasite constantly finding new ways to get what it wanted, I started pounding on the bed with a fist in frustration. It was driving me crazy.

The braided hose leading to my muzzle was still locked on, I couldn't detach it. I wanted to go find Mist and punch his lights out. Despite the gas he was feeding me, my anger burned it all away.

I crouched on the bed, gripping my sheath tightly in one paw, while pounding on the bed with the other, as another ripping tickle shot up my urethra to blossom in my bladder. It turned into a sensation easily as strong as an orgasm, but with no relief. I glanced at the door as it slid open.

Mist walked in and took one look at me, then doubled over laughing. I shot him a menacing stare, you fucking did this to me! I flipped him my middle finger, and hunched in on myself. Another tickle shot up into a region I couldn't reach, an incredible itch I could not scratch. I was so horny I saw red, and my nuts ached as though I'd been crushing them in my fist.

Mist held up a split ring of chrome metal in one paw. "Well, I guess you don't want this, now. Do you? Not with that attitude." He dropped it onto the floor, well out of my reach.

I peered down at it, then looked up at him. I was getting better at expressing myself without the ability to speak. More than I ever did when Sinclair's collar took my words from me, since it usually took my intelligence, too.

"It's a 'site calmer ring. If you want it, you're going to have to apologize..."

Relief! Holy shit... I fell onto the bed and rolled over onto my back, letting out long, strong whimpers. They were cut short when the system picked right then to test my strength. I clenched down as hard as I could, got my air back, and kept on whimpering, holding my eyes shut tight.

I felt something hard slide down around the outside of my sheath. A twinge of pain as it caught on my piercing, then a little more pain as it slid past my knot, it was a little swollen, then it snuggled down at the base, around the hard part of the parasite. The twinges of pleasure ceased immediately.

I laid there.

Silent.

Quiet.

Long, deep breaths.

Euphoria slowly built, my mood came around, and I relaxed with a big huge sigh. I opened my eyes and stared at Mist.

"It has a magnet in it. 'Sites have a cluster of cells near their mouth with a high magnetite content. Piss me off and I'll take it away from you. This is all so new to you, isn't it. I'm honored to bring you up to speed."

Mist waved his paw in front of his nose. "Damn, it smells like sex in here. Your scent is making me horny, Keman. Tell you what, I'll suspend your anal training for a day, if you agree to be good with me under your tail. If you try to hurt me while we're tied, I fucking swear to you that I'll teach you new levels of pain and injury." He growled the last part. "Do we have a deal?"

I shrugged and nodded.

The dull ache of the device in my ass faded as it shrank, Mist threaded in a metal handle into the blunt base resting in me, and pulled the whole thing out to set it onto the bed. I stared at its steaming surface, it was completely clean. Normally, any toy left up there for this much time came out covered in yuck.

I got up onto all fours and he helped by lifting me by my stomach, careful of my self-inflicted injuries, positioning my body closer to the port that the braided hose came out of. He retracted most of it back into the wall, until my muzzle was only about a foot away from it. When I pulled, I could feel that it was now locked to that length. Like almost everything, he controlled the mechanism with his wetware.

He set his long knees to the left and right of my hind paws, and hugged me from behind. His neck rested between my ears, he was so much bigger than me. I felt him poke around until his tip jabbed my tailhole, he trailed his paws down my sides as he gave a good, solid thrust. Burning hot wetness penetrated me.

"Mmmf, yes, I've been wanting to do this since the beginning... I was going to wait until your collar was fixed, but fuck that, I can't wait. The other fucker, John, was of no use. I believed him when he begged me to. Seems like no one can fix your collar." He thrust at me with long, deep slams. My muzzle tapped against the metal wall in front of me, after my front paws slid forward. With my claws gone, I had no traction.

"When I tie, you had better be ready to squeeze down hard, impress me and I'll take your muzzle off, let you shower and clean yourself up. Need to look at your chest, I don't want it getting infected."

Mist held me tighter, twisting around on top of me as he thrust his dick into my ass, his knot kept slipping in and out, with slightly more resistance coming out, each time. I waited until I thought he was ready, and then bore down on him, holding him inside me. He shoved his claw tips into my ribs, and growled deep into my ears and shook, his knot filling up, further and further. I felt a hot spray shooting into me with pulse after pulse.

"Yes, yes... more... tighter!" He twisted his hands and ripped into my skin, through my fur. I whined and whimpered in pain, things had been fine up until that point. I felt his knot grow much bigger than the toy did. I lifted my right foot up off the bed and set it back down gingerly as the dull pain flared brightly in a way that I knew meant blood coming from my ass afterwards, surely. I gulped as the pressure against my prostate doubled, then tripled. My sheath filled out with my growing erection.

He tied in me so tight, I couldn't sit still, the pain was so intense. I kept lifting my feet off the bed, shifting around, gulping on the tube in my throat, panting in pain and pleasure, through my nose. Suddenly, he shifted around and climbed off me, lifting his leg over my back so he could face away from me on his knees. I felt the enormity of his dick slowly rotate inside of me as we went butt-to-butt.

"Keep... clenching, Keman..." He was shaking, and he leaned away from me. I felt the tug from inside me, I clenched down as hard as I could, but it hurt unlike anything I had ever felt. The pain made me flinch, it was too hard to bear down. I tried again, and pushed past it, tightening down. He grunted and groaned in response, taking another step away from me. My body dragged backwards, my paws all slid on the bed's satiny surface.

I craned my neck forward, toward the wall. Mist kept pulling away from me, didn't he understand how much that hurt? I couldn't... reach my head any closer to the wall. The muzzle was pulling at me, but the tube in the back of my throat couldn't move.

I was caught between two forces. The braided hose in the wall terminated in my stomach, and Mist's knot ruthlessly had my ass, deep as could be. I gagged and swallowed, my stomach didn't like being pulled on like that. I worried something was going to break. Mist kept the pressure there, steady. I heard him mumbling in pleasure, he mentioned my name several times. It felt like my body was being torn in half.

I stood there, while minutes ticked by, feeling the slow throb of his orgasm as his cock pulsed away inside me. His tail kept touching my back as it rose and fell. I felt left out, with no climax to call my own.

A half hour later, when I was sure I could handle no more, when I was certain my limbs were going to give out, that I would end up hanging from the muzzle while my stomach was torn open, I felt the pain in my ass dwindle, he pulled out of me with a deep SHLURP. Slick warmth drizzled down my nuts to pat quietly on the bed.

I stood there on all four, unable to turn my head to look at him. What's he doing, did he fall asleep? I couldn't lay down, my legs were tired, my ass was so sore. His big paws roughly pet my head from behind. I craned my neck to look at Mist, but the braided hose prevented me from turning very far.

"Very good, Keman," he said, shivering. He disconnected the hose from my muzzle with a soft hiss of air escaping. He handed me the powered driver, it must have been lying beside the bed, I hadn't seen where he had stored it.

Mist sat on the bed and watched me as I unthreaded the muzzle from the tube. The two halves swung apart, and I went to pull it from my nose. I stopped short, though, the pain when I pulled was unbelievable. It felt like it was pulling my brain out my nostrils. I grimaced, grunting, then yanked it free. Bright blood spattered onto the bed. My nostrils were incredibly pissed off. I wiped them with a paw and set the muzzle onto the bed, wiping my paw onto my fur.

Words cannot describe what I smelled.

Blood, sex, violence, anger, pleasure. Sweat, cum, piss. Just to start, the list went on and on... it took me a full minute to catalogue what I'd been missing, because of the sterile air the system had been feeding me. The scents made my eyes water, and I got hard again. No wonder Mist wanted to fuck so badly, I did too.

I turned and looked at him, but averted my eyes. I was exhausted, I hurt everywhere. I glanced down at my chest and cringed. Deep furrows from where I had sliced into my flesh the previous day. Blood matted my fur in thick clots. The shiny ring at the base of my sheath stood out, and I realized that it matched my piercing. It, too, had a gold beryllium section in the middle, I looked up at Mist in surprise and looked away.

He'd bought me something that matched.

He cared what I look like. And I liked... that.

Where the hell was Sin? Why hadn't he rescued me yet?

"Go into the 'fresher. You know the drill. Close those cuts. I'll recover the bed, this surface is toast." He handed me the muzzle.

I licked at the gaps at the front of my muzzle. Four of my nibbling teeth were gone, exactly half of some of the most precious teeth I had. I used them for everything, from stripping wire to chewing on my skin.

I got up and walked out on my hind paws, surprised that I could stand. I wanted to be on something other than all four though. I didn't feel dirty or raped. I rather enjoyed the experience, and I couldn't figure out how or why. I only knew that if Sin didn't come get me soon, I would never want to leave. I could actually feel my loyalty changing, at some deep, instinctual level. It made me angry, and I felt helpless to stop it.

Later, as I walked back from the 'fresher, I stared down at the muzzle which I knew Mist was going to lock back onto me. My nose was swollen and sore, it bled every time I sneezed. I thought about the possible fight I could put up, refusing to put it on. In which case, he would only put it on me. It would be much tighter, it would hurt worse. So that was my situation, go along with it, or be made to go along with it. Nothing changed.

Strangely enough, I felt a small desire to do what he wanted me to. These feelings were a small fire in an expansive field of flammable material. My resistance was all the water from having rained recently. Once the fire grew hot enough, it would cease limiting the fire, and everything would burn brightly. I enjoyed obedience and submission.

I entered my room with my head lowered, my ears flattened backwards. I caught glimpses of Mist's green gaze, but looked away immediately. I didn't overlook his trust in me with the full use of my fangs, and we both knew it was no mistake.

He wanted to see what would happen.

I set the muzzle, now clean, onto the bed and sat my butt on its smooth surface, noticing the cover was fresh. Mist stood off to the side, watching me silently. Other objects were now on the bed, ones that I didn't recognize. Small and metal, one an oval chrome ring, the other a shiny gold "t" shaped item with a hole through the center. The hole was roughly the same diameter as the tube resting against my tongue. I stared at them and looked away, knowing I'd find out more shortly.

Mist padded up to me and took the muzzle from me, inspecting it closely. He set it down, and I stared at it, telling myself to appreciate this time I had, not wearing it. Extracting as much as I could in the freedom I felt. I licked my teeth and nose nervously.

"I think we'll skip wearing that, for now. I have something else that will be easier on your nose. Even if your collar were functioning, the effects of your jaws being forced shut are valuable in your training.

"By now, it should be obvious to you what such produces in your mindset.

"Oh, I appreciate your previous training, the method your temperament has been modified makes you a rare commodity.

"But still. Muzzles equal good behavior. Plus, there will be times I am going to lie to you. Such is life. Accept it, Keman."

I thought about that. A rare commodity, property to be owned and controlled. Of course I liked the concept, it felt good, and it felt right, even. Nothing unfamiliar there, I realized. That I was worth something extra, though. That I was special, and unique... was appealing to me. I stared up at Mist and then down at the items on the bed.

Mist approached me and gripped my mouth, he mumbled, "Open says me," parting my jaws a few inches. He slid the gold "t" down the tube resting on my tongue, it clicked. It had prongs that stuck out from it; they poked between my back teeth, as if I was holding a stick between my jaws. He squeezed them together tight and slid the oval around them. It got tighter the further up my muzzle it went, finally clicking in place on the "t"; it prevented me from opening my mouth. I wore it like a horses bridle, with a bit in my mouth. I gave a huge sigh; my nose was so pissed off.

"Try to pull it off. I want there to be no ideas in your head that you're merely humoring me. That you can somehow get it out, or take off what I've put on you, when you're really motivated.

"Go on, pull on it. Do your best. If you can get it off, I'll leave it off."

I was already pulling at it, but after he spoke those last words, I doubled my efforts. I couldn't figure out how it had engaged the loop, which I could now see was flat at the top and bottom, to better distribute its pressure against my nose and jaws. There was no padding on this one, so trying to open my mouth was immediately painful, there was nothing to give. My fingers brushed a "D" ring hanging from the bottom.

If I could disengage it from the tube leading to my stomach, I would still have to break all of my teeth to get the bit out of my mouth. As usual, this equipment showed many signs of extensive research and development. Everything Mist used on me was efficient and well fitting. I already knew, it was extremely expensive. I wondered what his source of income was, thinking about what I had seen on his ship so far.

I hung my head and stared at his feet. My submission was real, my sheath was even a little firm.

He tugged on the "D" ring. "Mm. Much better." He attached a slender prong onto the end of the braided hose, and curled a finger to bring me closer, ostensibly to attach me to the system.

"I need to leave you alone for a little while. Have to check on a loose end, see what our old friend Phyx has been up to. That collar was too expensive to just leave on him, but it's been recording all of his interactions. I want to know who he's been talking to, and what he's been saying. I could download that remotely, but I do so enjoy things direct." The comment reminded me of something Sinclair would say.

I leaned forward on the bed and Mist pushed the prong between my lips, through the gap in my front teeth. He poked around until it found the opening of the "t" and clicked into place. Something cold started flowing into my stomach, and the world began to grow dim.

"No wandering, for now. This is locked. Enjoy some nice rest, you've earned it."

My nerves were buzzing, and a different sort of euphoria slowly built in strength, similar to the gas he made me breathe, but not quite the same. The onset was slower. I lay down on my side and stretched out, once again, noticing that I had been withdrawing without actually feeling it. It only became obvious in its absence.

My eyes shut as I drifted off. I opened them immediately, but perhaps not.

I looked around.

My room was empty, lighting was a low, comfortable dim red, as it obtained any time there was a lack of motion detected inside. My door was shut. I sprawled the rest of the way out on the bed, stretching out one last time, then curled up into a ball with my tail over my nose. I took a deep breath through it, and relished the sensation of nothing being stuck inside.

Where was Sin? Was this it? The rest of my life? Maybe I could live with this. The drugs, or reality?

I couldn't tell.

Chapter 14.

Ssrash glanced at all eleven of his team members, green slitted pupils staring at him widely. Ready. He pointed at each one, then himself. Follow him. This op had been rehearsed dozens of times. Break into Mist's ship, extract Element A, a Rhenthar named Keman. They had watched Mist depart a few minutes ago, and immediately began hacking his ship's security system.

Ssrash leaped forward, all of the weapons on his chest, arms, and legs making hardly any noise. Hard surfaces were padded with insulation. Rotary quick disconnect mounts and quick-grip attachment points covered his ceramastic body armor. His wetware showed biometric feedback from all his squad, he selected jujitsu wan do for his neural net, his muscles sang as they flooded with all the right substances.

Halfway to Mist's ship, his electronic countermeasure specialist broadcast a progress indicator that rapidly shifted from red, to yellow, to green, indicating the outermost security of Mist's ship had been compromised successfully; it was now blind to their approach. The cameras deployed in strategic locations on its hull saw only repeated footage of the starship landing area.

Crawling behind the last member of his team, and struggling to keep up, was a mass of tissue and tentacles, rolling along. It was a Chtolb, hired for its special abilities. While ugly, it would allow Element A to slip his bonds in just a couple of minutes.

His CMT rushed past and threw his back against Mist's ship, near the main airlock, and applied a direct entrance module to the external locks. Nanofibers extended from its surface and wiggled into the optical fibers on the other side of the metal. Ssrash stared as his team silently and took position around the door. Some were occupied with observing the other, neighboring ships. None were close, but a cruiser-sized ship was reported to be working with Mist. No ship matching that size was local or in orbit.

The team operated in silence, squirting data to each other's wetware as they operated like the fine machine all Terellian Special Operations forces were capable of. If you could afford them, they could attain your objectives, always.

The CMT held up his black paw and retracted all his claws, curling it into a fist. The sign that the system had been breached. The door slid open, and his arm flickered with heat waves, before falling to the ground amidst the acrid stench of burning flesh. His eyes opened wide as he stared at the cauterized stump, ending in the middle of his forearm.

Similar body parts and pieces of armor separated like shattering ice sculptures. All the neighboring parked ships were using ship-to-ship x-ray lasers to cut the ops team to pieces. With invisible beams, the sources couldn't be seen, but the remaining team stood no chance to even make such computations. They rushed inside the ship for the only protection they could get.

Twelve ships in the vicinity took part in the slaughter. The owners and people guarding them stared up in surprise at the various laser carbine and cannon, unsure what they were even seeing, as the hardware exited its respective mounting bays and swung into action, pointing at a small ship with a bunch of felinoids surrounding it. The capacitor discharges made it clear this was no prank, people were actually being carved up.

The rest of their ship functions remained in local control. No one wanted to stick around after such activities, so ships began taking off, launching into space for fear that the rest of their systems would become compromised.

"What the..." Mist stared at the feline bodies as he approached his ship, cocking his head sideways, was he imagining this? The black on black corpses wearing armor were difficult to recognize, at first. The charred remains had been easy to scent, he had caught a whiff while walking back from the subway. It only got stronger from there.

He pulled his Sunjet free from its holster and set it to narrow beam, activated his combat neural net programming. Endorphins flooded his system and his concentration sharpened, the world slowed significantly from his vantage.

He had just finished interrogating Phyx, he hadn't talked to anyone, and never will again. That left only one possible link. Someone, somehow, owned Keman's collar. It was a Mark 6. Obviously, they wanted him back, it all added up.

Shit.

They could use hyperwave with its virtual reality integrator feature. Everything Keman saw, the owner of his collar could see. And hear, and taste, and smell. From across the galaxy.

He wouldn't be able to transmit his presence often, due to power constraints. The internal power supply of a Mark VI wasn't enough to do that continuously, on its own. However, it would be often enough. Mist tried to think back to any time Keman had seemed distracted, staring at something that wasn't there.

The time when he first tried to activate the collar, Keman was staring at something.

Someone.

It was time to leave here, yes indeed, Mist thought. He plucked the black module stuck to the docking ring of his aft airlock, tossing it onto the ground next to a corpse missing its head. He accessed his ship's internal defenses, there were many, but he was surprised to find them already active.

"Keman!" I blinked my eyes open, someone was shaking my shoulder. When I tried staring at him, I saw only a fuzzy black shape, and he kept repeating my name.

"Keman! Wake up." My eyes shut just as he turned away and looked up at the ceiling. "Get in past the prime, lock down the sentry in this room. All right, good. Keman..." He shook my shoulder again, peeling my eyes open and shining a bright light in them. I squinted and twisted my muzzle away, fuck that was bright. Delicate, expert paws inspected the tube leading into my mouth.

"It's locked, can you get in past the third firewall? It's still jamming my 'ware." I heard other, distant voices, but couldn't make any sense. I drifted off.

Something violently shook me back awake. "Hey! Look, we're getting you out of here, but we have to collapse the lumen in your stomach. There's only one way we can reach it, so hike your tail and grin and bear it. This is going to hurt. Do you understand?"

I squinted at whoever it was. Hike my tail? What?

"It's live, take it out!" I jerked as weapons fire tore through the hallway beyond my door. Sharp, loud concussions rattled at a blinding rate of fire, echoing off the metal walls, amplified in the close confines. I held my ears flat, but they were ringing loudly.

"Bring the Chtolb through, it's clear. What the fuck, sarge? How can this thing be adapting, it's a standard GE Twenty-Fifty." More voices, distant. Everything was happening too fast for me to track, I wanted to shut my eyes and go back to sleep, the drugs welcomed me with a soft embrace.

Something pulled my tail up and pushed into my ass, it was cold and slimy. My eyes opened wide, the bright light next to someone's head shined into them. "Hold still, Keman. Think happy thoughts, all right?"

I turned and saw a mass of tentacles behind me, surrounding a ball of cabbage. It looked familiar, but I shut my eyes as it drove deeper into me. I felt a turning, twisting sensation deep in my body. It was feeding a ribbed arm covered in suckers, up into me, and it wasn't soft, the inside must have had some sort of bone structure, cartilage maybe. I kept feeling lumps squeeze into my hole, each bigger than the last.

I grunted and strained to open my mouth to cry out, it was tearing me open.

"Can we get some fucking lights on in here?" The soldier standing in front of me, I saw a long black tail thrashing around behind him. Feline, I could smell him. I shut my eyes tight as another bulge worked deeper into my ass. The Chtolb squeaked and clicked.

"Look, I can't tell what you're saying. Just keep going deeper until you reach it. Pop that thing!"

A distant voice: "It's not dead, it's repairing!" Another loud burst of concussions, several high pitched electronic discharges. The hallway beyond my door lit up with violent flashes of multi-colored light.

"Take it off, take it off!" Screaming. "Where's it coming from?"

I grunted and my world went insane with pain, it was like someone was trying to push their fully engorged knot into me. I whimpered and whined, something slick wrapped around both of my thighs, and it pushed even harder. The bulge went past, and cold pressure went deeper into me. I felt a sharp stab in my stomach, the metal around my jaws loosened. More squeaking, popping. Now the Chtolb was pulling out of me.

"Is it out? Is it out?" The soldier reached down and fiddled with the metal band around my jaws. My eyes went wide when I saw a white flame shoot from a small device in his paw, just inches from my nose. I stared at metal turning white hot, the heat slowly travelling towards the area touching me. Oh, shit. Then it was free, he flung it onto the ground, where it began sizzling into the rubber.

The soldier pried my jaws apart and grabbed the tube, pulling the whole thing out of me. A bitter trail of chemicals fell across my tongue and I heaved, my stomach was chasing out the intruder.

"He's ready! Let's go!"

I most certainly was not ready. The Chtolb was still buried in my ass. The pain of such had brought on plenty of endorphins to counter the drugs. "Ahh! Ahhh... Fuck, get it out of me!" My first words in a long time.

The soldier reached down and helped pull the Chtolb's tentacle out of me, but it only popped and squeaked loudly. The pain was incredible, it was stuck. I could feel it snaking around inside me, with panicked, sharp movements. The pain spiked sharply, then the whole thing ripped out of me while I gasped.

Strong arms picked me up, I told my legs to help lift me but I was still coming to my senses. I stumbled over the Chtolb. "Let's go, let's go! Element A is in the clear!" More shouting, weapons fire. He grabbed me tight and pulled me away from the doorway, slamming me against the wall next to it.

"That's ship to ship!" I heard through the hallway. "Marco is down, repeat! Marco is down, where the fuck is Reems? Medic!"

The soldier near me growled into my ear. "Look, when I tell you to run, you run for your fucking life. Ok?" I nodded quickly. "Run!"

I ran through the doorway, surprised my legs could carry me. I stumbled over black, charred bodies. It was too much to take in, but I was trying. Sparking, malfunctioning weapons hung from the ceiling. One rotated, tracking us as we passed, clicking repeatedly, but failing to fire. I saw another soldier up ahead, dragging someone screaming, "My leg, my leg!'

When he disappeared around the corner at the end of the hall, a piercing whistle and a bright light flashed, red mist sprayed up against it and dribbled down to the floor.

"Shit! Wait here." The soldier behind me ran ahead, crouched, holding a big carbine ready. He peeked around the corner and the top of his head exploded. The beam that did the damage continued past, setting floor on fire. It burned for a moment, then someone stepped around the corner and stomped out the flames.

It was Mist.

He looked pissed.

I sunk to the floor while he walked up to me, pausing to stare at one of his malfunctioning sentry guns hanging from the ceiling in disarray, frowning.

"No, no... I didn't... it wasn't me..." I didn't know what else to say, I lay on my back and showed him my throat while he stared at me.

He looked past me, apparently the Chtolb had just crawled from my room. Mist raised his Sunjet and took aim. The air ripped as a narrow beam of particles sliced it in half. It smelled like cooked vegetables. The after-image of the beam was bright in my vision, I wasn't able to blink fast enough.

Mist shook his head in anger. "There's some things we need to discuss." He walked past me and grabbed both halves of the Chtolb, dragging them down towards the main airlock. I crawled back to my bed and waited for the severe punishments I knew were coming.

Lighting returned to normal in my room, and I saw the yellow tube with its wrinkled up deflated lumen at the tip, I swallowed. He'd be putting another one of those in me. I whimpered quietly to myself. I didn't ask for any of this, I didn't do anything to deserve this. Fucking life, fucking unfair.

A cleaner 'bot entered my room and began cleaning the remains of the Chtolb from the floor. It was small, and it seemed to chatter angrily at me while it performed its task.

About fifteen minutes later, the ship's engine systems whined into life and Mist walked back into my room. I was still sitting on my haunches, next to the bed. I hung my head and stared at the floor.

"Wasn't you, eh? You're fucking lying to me. I just saw the video of you scratching Phaylact, Trinity, South Side, starship landing zone. Care to change your story? I should fucking skin you alive." He pointed at me.

"That collar is owned. I m not sure how, but whoever owns you obviously wants you back. So I'm going to make this simple." I hadn't missed the fact that he still had the Sunjet in his paw. He raised the end of it to point at my head, and spoke loudly to the room.

"With you owning that collar, he's just as useful to me as a corpse. Except as a corpse, he'd use fewer resources. I've won, release the collar now or I empty his skull of its contents, and throw his fucking body out the airlock. You've got thirty seconds, less if my hand gets tired."

I didn't quite understand what he was doing, until Sinclair appeared right next to me, crouching to whisper into my ears.

"I'm so sorry, I've failed you, Keman." He was crying. "But I will never give up trying to fix this situation. Obey him without any guilt, be good, be yourself. Stay healthy. I love you, Keman." If his words shocked me, seeing his tears obliterated my mind. He vanished and the collar fell free from my neck, onto the floor. I stared at it and sobbed, hiding my eyes behind my paws.

"Put it back on." I fell quiet, and stared up at Mist through my tears, staring into his bright green eyes. Mine grew wider when I saw him still pointing the Sunjet at me. "I've already dragged enough bodies from my ship, one more won't bother me at all.

"Put. It. On."

I wanted to refuse, to let him release me from this curse. I actually hated Sinclair, I hated what he said, I hated the kernel of hope he'd planted into my mind. I marveled at its power, that even the tiniest shred was enough to make me endure anything.

That told me all I needed to know. I would endure anything, to get back to him.

I reached down and picked up the collar, calmly bringing it around my neck. The ends jumped the last couple of inches, slamming together. It tightened down, chimed twice. I stared at Mist's feet. Obey what he says, Keman.

"Finally. About fucking time." He lowered the Sunjet and slid it into its holster under his left arm. "Knowing everything you know, I'm shocked that you obeyed. Why did you?"

"You told me to." I drove my tongue into the empty sockets at the front of my muzzle, unsure what to think or do. I was withdrawing, feeling irritable, confused, angry, and sad. The list just went on and on, and the humor of the size of it spoke of encroaching insanity. I didn't care, but I did care. I had no hope, but I had hope. I fell silent in my mind. There was no point to further analysis.

"That's another lie. Maybe... you have some hope that your last owner will rescue you?"

"Yeah." My lips quivered, I fought back my emotions.

Mist shook his head. "I've never seen that kind of loyalty. Your 'site is only a few years old. You weren't born into slavery; you're too capable of living on your own. I've already made you feel good in ways you've never felt before. What's the difference between him and me?"

I shook my head, eyes growing wet again.

"Who." The single word scared the hell out of me. I could resist, but it would be a candle to the wind. Tell him now, or later, after he's torn my mind and body to shreds. A mind and body that Sinclair was in love with. Obey what he said. Choices beyond the scope of my capabilities. You can't say no to your creator.

But Mist was not my creator. And some day, Sin would have me back. On that day, I will feel pride when I tell him I did not give up his information without a fight.

"No." I smiled. I wanted to think I was all badass, but the smile was fake, my scent was pure fear. I was terrified of what he could and would do to me.

"No?" He growled deeply, the sudden harsh sound echoing off the walls. "Don't you realize how much I hate that word? Did you see what I did to Phyx? There's a dozen fucking ways I can get the answer from you.

"Tell me what I want to know and I'll pretend I didn't hear your stupid insolence."

"No." As soon as I said it, pain lanced down my spine like liquid fire had been injected into each and every nerve. Just as quickly, it was gone. The floor came up and slapped my jaws together, I tasted blood from biting my tongue.

"Wait. No. I'm not going to use the collar. It won't be pain, and it won't be direct mind control." He laughed. "You're going to tell me what I want to know, completely free, on your own accord.

"That's what I want.

"Mark my words, Keman. Remember them well. From now on, the goal is to win your loyalty. You're going to do everything I ask, because you want to.

"And while I could make it easy, I could make you want to. But I won't. Not directly, it will always be your choice. I want the loyalty you have for your last owner. I want it bad. Your potential is so far beyond an expensive dick warmer."

Mist walked out, I stared at the empty doorway. The cleaning 'bot finished its task and left. I wondered what new torture this was. I wondered what came next. My head was throbbing.

He returned with a new yellow tube in his paw. He picked up the ruined bridle, disconnected everything from the braided hose coming from the wall, and threaded the new tube onto the hose until it clicked.

"This is going back in. I think you know how to do it. The days of me making things easy on you are over. Maybe once you show some loyalty, that can change. It's your choice. Your withdrawal will kill you in another hour or two. I have a mess that needs cleaning." He walked out and the door slid shut.

I got up and put my head on the bed, staring at the new yellow tube, sniffing at it. I did crave what it would give me, there was no doubt about that. My heart was laboring, my nose and paw pads had broken out in sweat. I felt uncomfortable in my fur, and a headache was building behind my eyes.

I climbed up onto the bed and inspected the tip of the yellow tube, it had some sort of integral valve in it. I couldn't suck the chemicals through it. At least I knew it wasn't truly permanent, now. Unless this one was different. Did it look thicker than the last one?

I made a pact, in my mind. I'd do anything he asked, except tell him about my past. That... I would try to take to my grave. I wasn't sure how, but I felt that if I told Mist about Sin, it would ruin my chances of a future with him.

I bent the tip of the tube until it cracked. It immediately started inflating into the shape of a ball. I pushed it into my mouth and swallowed it. I gagged once, and down it went. I grabbed the black hose and stuffed it into my sheath, twisting it to lock in place. I lay back and waited, closing my eyes.

The withdrawal faded, as did the rest of the room.

Chapter 15.

I woke up with a pounding headache. A huge variety of sounds and smells assaulted me as I rolled over, onto my feet. I scented blood, my own and something else's. That something else made my stomach clench up and growl. I was extremely hungry. Distant instincts warned me that I hadn't eaten for many days, and if I didn't eat soon, I would fall weak and die.

I scanned the area, glancing up into the blue sky, past large trees with thick foliage. Birds twittered at me as sunlight filtered down through gently swaying branches. The wind had a chill to it, but the freshly risen sun hinted at some heat on its way. I heard the buzzing of flies and glanced behind me, at a mauled corpse of a deer, its throat was torn open. When I licked my muzzle, I could taste it, I had killed it.

Scrutinizing the area slowly, I felt confusion despite the increasing awareness of my surroundings. It didn't make any sense, where was I? I glanced down at my hands, my paws, and my eyes opened wide when I tried to move my thumb. It was only a useless nub with a claw sticking out, right next to my wrist. My four fingers were short, I had no dexterity, and I could pick up nothing.

I stumbled trying to stand up, realizing that I was quadruped, and walking on only my hind paws was impossible. I nuzzled my sheath, and felt nothing but me inside, I twisted my neck around, no collar, too. My head throbbed, when I brushed a paw over it, I felt a big wet lump under my fur, at the top of my skull.

Something had almost killed me. I stared at the deer, knowing it was responsible. My mouth leaked drool.

I tore into its succulent flesh, uncaring of how cold and stiff it was. It must have been decomposing for a day or two. I ate as if it was both my first and last meal, and I stripped its bones of everything I could swallow. I cracked the bones between my teeth, chewed, and licked the marrow inside. Despite its size, I felt stupid and inexperienced; there really wasn't as much meat on its body as I had estimated. There were still its insides remaining, but I just couldn't bring myself to try digging into the soft sack of its belly. I was mostly full, anyway.

A new desire came next, intense thirst. I got up and blinked slowly as the world swam around me, but it righted itself and I trotted up a trail. Leaves crunched under my paws, thick bushes with green leaves and small red berries pulled and snagged at my fur. I felt completely out of my element, nothing made any sense at all.

What about Mist and his ship, was that all just a dream? I heard something small bolt through the forest ahead of me, it was running away. The sound startled me to a halt; I sniffed the ground and accidentally took in a big snort of dirt, sneezing repeatedly until the burning ceased.

This certainly was no dream. I raised my muzzle to the air and took in deep breaths, trying to sort out everything I could smell. I wanted water, and I caught a whiff of something clean and crisp. I picked up the pace in that direction and loped through the forest, travelling at a speed I knew I could sustain for the rest of the day, if needed. A log was in my path and I sailed over it effortlessly. I had narrow shoulders and forearms, my neck was long, and I felt light on my paws. I could have jumped much higher if I needed to.

Wasn't this normal? Something in my mind laughed at me, then turned grim. My past was only imaginary. Nothing but fever dreams after a near-fatal injury to my head. Ships, I knew about ships! I knew they were made of... what were they made of?

I stopped and stared at the ground, focusing, trying my hardest to bring up technical details that would surely prove my past. They would prove that this was the dream, that this wasn't real.

Nothing came.

I couldn't even remember what a ship was, almost as if it were a detail that I had felt plenty of times, right after waking up. Sourced from a dream, it would take another association to spring such clues, as my mind yielded to reality, burned up in the sun like mist. I felt like I had been lost in the mist, but as I ran forward, I escaped its clutches and took back the awareness of my surroundings.

The trail I was following led me to an open meadow, barren of trees and full of green grass and wildflowers shimmering in the wind. White clouds stretched forever into the distance. I looked around cautiously, entering such an open expanse.

What was I afraid of? What could hunt me?

I felt strong... the strongest. I raced out into the meadow and tore my way up a hill, overlooking a lake with a glassy surface unbroken by waves for half of its length. I stared around at the peacefulness and tranquility, but I didn't like it, something was nagging in the back of my mind. I was alone, and I didn't like being alone.

I ran down the hill to the water's surface, and lapped at it, cautiously at first. It was cold and tasted exotic, incredibly refreshing. I drank like I'd never satisfied my thirst in my whole life. Why had I no memories of it ever tasting like this?

Soon the taste faded, and I knew that if I drank any more, I'd get slow and stuffy. I stared down into the water's surface, watching my reflection. That's me, I'm a wolf, and I look the same as I always have. Yellow eyes fading into green, brown patches over my eyes, white above them. Black nose and lips, sharp white teeth. I growled low and deep, there were no teeth missing. When were they missing?

It must have all been a dream. What was my name? I stared at some animals swimming together in a group, not far from me. Ducks, they muttered quietly to themselves, swimming along. I recognized them, knew they would be tasty but hard to catch. Where did their name come from? Frustration peaked and I pushed it out of my mind.

I turned and raced through the meadow, to the forest at the other side, sniffing the ground to locate another deer trail. Those ducks, they had the right idea. Find your own kind, yes, I wanted that. I'd feel safe and secure if I found more of me.

I paused and did something that felt natural. I raised my muzzle to the sky and howled, as loud as I could. Here I am! Where are you? I stopped short and swiveled my ears around, listening for the response I wanted so badly. When I heard nothing, I felt a part of me sadden.

I explored the forest stretching out before me, making a map inside of my head of where things were. It felt good lifting my leg to spray little spurts of urine on things. I sniffed them afterwards with a sense of satisfaction that was unparallel. That was mine, and I lifted my leg to get it to go as high as possible, so if anyone else came along, they'd know how tall I was. That would make them think twice before trying to make it theirs.

The sky darkened as the sun set. I stared up at the moon, wondering what it was. The name had surely come to me from a previous dream. It didn't matter. I only knew that it would change as the days progressed.

I found a hollow under a tree that had fallen over, and it felt good to curl up under it. Laying there quietly, I played the day's events back, over and over through my mind. It felt like I was missing something, and the only thing I could think that to be, was more of my kind. I pined and yearned for them. I let out another howl, a long, lonely song, then swiveled my ears to try and catch any response.

When there was none, I lay my head on my paws and drifted off to sleep.

I woke up on the next day, feeling surprised and confused. I had dreamed that I could walk on my hind paws, and I remembered vocalizing in a strange manner, long drawn out growls that made me move my lips in sometimes-painful ways. So strange. I got up and stretched out, feeling my stomach wake up. I was hungry, and the other parts of that deer were suddenly appetizing. I remembered where it was, so I raced in that direction to find it.

I arrived starving and panting. I smelled many other animals, though, and there was nothing left but bones. I was furious, growling, that was mine! I howled into the cold morning air. This was mine! Flies were everywhere, and small white worms inched their way around the bones. I needed to eat, and turned and ran through the forest, hoping to find something else.

Hunger drove me forward, I ran and ran, eating was the top priority. I scented both the wind and the ground, and eventually found something intriguing, something fresh. It smelled like the feet of that deer I ate yesterday. I turned around in circles, trying to figure out which direction it came from, the direction it was headed to. I picked one and followed, lifting my feet carefully, quietly. I felt the urge to be silent.

Something turned its head to look at me, and I froze. It was huge and very tall, that's a deer. I wanted it, but I had no confidence that I could kill it. So hungry, I wanted to eat it... I threw myself forward to leap onto it. The deer turned and bolted, and watching it run away made my muscles sing with the melody of strength.

Now I really had to have it, and I chased it through the forest to the exclusion of all else. Trees rushed by on my left and right. Obstacles I dove under or sprang over. Suddenly, I couldn't see it anymore, had it gone this way or that way? I chose a direction and kept running... but it was gone, I couldn't smell it. I turned around to find its path but I knew already... I couldn't catch it. Not alone.

The chase only intensified my hunger. I caught the flash of something small, running through the forest. Glimpses of white fur. I chased it down and easily had it by the neck, whipping it back and forth until it ceased moving. It was full of something hot and delicious, its blood tasted like life itself. I ate everything, even the bones. I just couldn't help myself, it tasted so good. I was thirsty afterwards and I trotted to the lake to drink from its calm surface. I stared at the mountains in the distance, knowing their snow-covered peaks would be cold, but unsure as to how I knew that since I'd never been there.

A week went by without finding any others of my kind. Then another, which served only to intensify my scrutiny of the passing days. Memories of my past were vague, everything I did felt new, like I hadn't experienced any of it before. All I could conclude was that I had been seriously injured taking down that deer. Such was laughable; I had not been able to take down any others. They always ran from me and I simply could not keep up.

My hunting skills were awful, and I had to try eating anything that moved. Meals were often surprising, as I would spend half the day following the scent of something tasty, only to not find it. Then I'd bump into something else and chase it down.

My last meal was a couple of days previous. I named it a salamander, unsure why I wanted to call it that. It was cold and rubbery, and flavorless, I really wanted something hot and bloody. It was all I could find. I was so incredibly hungry...

I was sniffing at the ground, searching, when I found marks that smelled... insanely interesting. I filled my nose with dirt, uncaring of the pain, as I breathed it in as fast as I could. It smelled just like me, but it was different somehow. I needed a name, so I called it female. A female version of me, and I knew some level of pleasure existed between my legs that was made possible by her. I had no idea how or why.

I sat up tall and howled, putting my whole body into the cry. Where are you? Here I am!

The forest seemed to fall silent from the noise, as if everything in it was allowing me listen in to the sad nothingness.

I heard her response. The sound was unmistakable, I turned my head in the direction it came from and locked on.

I ran.

Faster, faster! I pinned my ears back because the wind was so loud in them with the speed I possessed. My heart pounded, I had never wanted something so bad in all my life than to find more of my kind.

I stopped some distance away when I saw a white head peering at me from around a large tree. As I approached cautiously, the head vanished and I shifted from lope back into run. I reached the area she had just been standing, sniffing at the fresh scent of her prints. They smelled clean, healthy, and warm. I wanted to feel that warmth, to nuzzle against it and to play and howl. I raced around the tree, searching for her, but I couldn't find her. I sniffed at the ground and found her scent headed in many directions, this was an area of forest I had not yet explored, it was new to me.

I was about to give up, when I turned around and there she was, facing me. My heart ached from witnessing such beauty. She was the most gorgeous thing I had ever seen. Her head was low, she sniffed at me curiously, tail held in high defiance, ears forward. I craned my neck and sniffed, desperate to be closer. Please don't run away. Our noses almost touched, and then I was past her barrier of protection, I sniffed in the scents of her fur, everywhere. I knew she'd been eating well, and I smelled others, too! I sniffed between her legs, under her tail, and stumbled. The feeling stunned me.

The whole time, her nose and whiskers were alive as she took in my scent. Her tail flitted about, as she read similar things about me. How poor I'd been eating, and how lonely I was. There were no others of our kind in my coat.

Then I noticed other eyes gazing at us, approaching. I was still trying to sort out the thoughts in my brain that had become so jumbled when I smelled her sex. I stood tall and peered around at other wolves approaching us. The wind carried the scent of some, and it was caution, wariness, guarded anger. I brushed my stomach against the ground as I crawled towards one. He took a whiff of my nose and sprang away.

I turned around and sought another of my kind. He was bigger, and further away. His green gaze was intimidating, and fear trickled down my spine as strange familiarity fell through my paws like dirt. Before I could get close to him, another male charged up to me, snapping his jaws near my neck. I flinched away and rolled onto my back. He growled and snapped a few more times, nipping me hard on the shoulder. Another moved in and did the same. I whimpered and whined, feeling another set of jaws grab at my hind paw. It bit down hard and I yelped, scrambling to my feet.

I was nearly surrounded with growling, furious snarls. They moved in as one, and I knew immediately that my life was about to end. These were not friends. I pushed off with my hind paws and ran harder than ever. My hope and joy melted into bitter fear. I paused and saw that they were still chasing me, so I ran ahead in the direction I had come from, to areas I knew better, to places I could hide.

I hid.

My hind paw ached where I'd been bit, along with a few other bruised areas. I licked them all gingerly and sighed. Instead of considering where I could go next, to be further away from them, though, I felt something else brew in my mind.

How far away did I have to remain?

I hunted and explored, and orbited the pack that so despised me. I stayed at the edges, and they ran me off more times than I could count. They didn't chase me far, and if there was one thing I could do well, it was run. I ran like lightning.

That was another word I had come up with, while huddling in my makeshift den under the tree. Rain was pouring, and the sky was alive with light, dancing from cloud to cloud. When I saw a branch of white shoot from one cloud to another, I decided that was me, that was how fast I could run.

My name was Lightning. A word I could not speak, but the concept remained.

The pack ate deer often, and they didn't linger around its carcass for long. I could tell where they were from certain howls they made after a fresh kill. I knew not to move in, right away, to do so would earn a chase that lasted for a very long time.

If I waited until the sun moved through half of the sky, the remains were easy to find, and I ate alone. Often, I imagined others were around, with me, feasting like I was. Everyone was happy and wagging their tails, life was good.

Months went by, and my hunting skills gradually improved. What used to be gnawing hunger all day, every day, slowly faded. I was rarely hungry. I knew how to follow rabbit tracks back to their warren. I knew where opossum liked to hang, and how to avoid their sharp teeth when I attacked their motionless bodies.

I couldn't stop hunting, so I began to bury my uneaten food. It seemed like a great idea at first, but often when I went searching for my treasures, I dug up nothing, or found an empty hole that had already been dug up.

One day, I had something hot and furry hanging from my jaws, and I had an idea.

I made my way carefully to the inner dwellings of the pack, which had so violently rejected me. I sniffed the ground and picked up the scents that were not her. I avoided those, orbiting the circle that marked their territory. When I found her, I headed in, chasing down her scent. Her white coat was easy to spot, and she growled at me from afar.

She was warning me. Not you, again, come no closer.

I kept my tail high and I stared at her for a while, motionless. I dropped what was in my jaws and backed up. She refused to approach, but I saw her lick her muzzle, she knew what I was trying to do. It took a great deal of effort to turn around and run away, especially leaving behind something I prized so greatly.

But I did it.

I hunted, I ate, and I brought her gifts. Sometimes I'd watch from as far as my eyes could see, downwind and huddled at the top of a hill, near a tree. I'd see her eat my gifts. I once saw others in her pack try to take one from her, and it was only then that I realized exactly how violent fights amongst my kind could become. Apparently I had received only a small taste of violence. It somehow made the experience of them driving me away hurt less. They clearly didn't want to kill me, it felt more like they just didn't know me. This realization gave me confidence, watching her defend my offerings.

One day I was hunting in what I had decided was my territory, areas that only I ever ventured into, when I looked up and saw her dazzling yellow eyes from just a short distance away. She had snuck up on me.

Instantly, I was alert. I was worried that her pack was here to take more of my territory, a concept which I knew I would fight, but it would be a losing battle. I stared around and sniffed the air. It was just her, as far as I could tell.

She smelled different, the scent built excitement in me, I felt a burning warmth between my legs in a way that reminded me of how I felt right after waking up, but it was much more intense. She was in heat, and something in the back of my mind knew what potential that could involve. Distant instincts took the foreground in my head, and I sniffed and rubbed my body up against her.

She was receptive and did the same, her scent was calm and interested. All the food I had provided in the past made her seek me out, for reasons I would probably never understand.

Her scent was driving me wild, I had never before felt lust, the desire to fuck. I knew what that meant, and I wasted no time. I mounted her with a distinctly divine pleasure overcoming my body. That she let me, and even seemed interested in such, only made it all the better. I squeezed her with my front paws and arched my back, thrusting as hard as I could, shutting my eyes in ecstasy as she squeezed what I pushed inside her.

I felt pain when I tried to pull out, so I relaxed and panted, licking her ears, trying not to let anxiety plague my thoughts. My body was stuck inside of her, and I worried that that was a problem. It felt so good, surely nothing this amazing could be bad.

That was when I caught the whiff of someone else, another male in her pack. He was furious. I looked up at him, not far off, and felt a pang of guilt. I turned my muzzle and spotted another. The big white and black male with the green eyes. He ran up to me, snapping his jaws. The female under me tried to run away, but I was still firmly stuck inside her. I yelped as she tried to bolt, amidst a flurry of snaps and bites from every member of her pack. Both she and I received many painful nips. Finally, the part between my legs pulled out, and I raced away, my ears flat. They took chase, but I was Lightning.

None could catch me.

I continued bringing her tasty things to eat, but found her progressively more difficult to reach as the weeks passed. She seemed to be staying closer to the inner circle of her pack's territory. I was driven away relentlessly by her pack, again and again. Sometimes I even had to drop the food I'd brought, just to make a clean getaway.

The urge to find her grew, and I became more insistent. I didn't turn and run at the first sight of her pack mates. I stood my ground, and they had to join together in order to drive me away. The chase never lasted for more than few leaps, because I was Lightning and they all knew it.

Deeper and deeper I went, selecting a path past a wolf previous I had stood my ground to. He snarled as I walked by him, but since he was alone, he made no aggressive motions towards me. I ignored him, savoring the strange territory I had never before been inside.

Other wolves raced to confront me. I gave them all menacing stares. I continued forward, searching for her. When another got in my way, I stared into his eyes and padded right by him, silent.

The big white and black one with the green eyes confronted me. His gaze I avoided, a deep thought in my head said to respect this one. He snapped at me and I leapt out of his reach. The rest of his pack were uninterested in attacking me, and proving that fact, I knew, would undermine his authority.

When our eyes met again, I saw the same calculations in his head. So I ignored him. Her scent was strongest in a hole dug under a fallen tree. I crawled inside, sniffing heavily in the complete darkness. When my eyes adjusted, I barely saw her lying on her side. She growled at me at first, but then leaned forward to lick my nose, my whiskers. Simultaneously, something shattered in my mind and at the same time solidified.

She smelled hungry, and I would bring her something good. I left her den and none gave chase, but I turned and stood sideways.

I would be coming back. I growled the message and dared anyone to stare at me, to stand in my way. I pretended to ignore the green-eyed Alpha, and if he was smart, he'd let me do what I wanted to do.

In short order, a rabbit was between my jaws, screaming it's life's song as I bit down and shattered its neck. As badly as I wanted to eat it, the desire to feed her was much stronger.

None blocked my path back into the pack's territory. The big Alpha watched with approval in his scent. Everyone, upon seeing his lack of aggression towards me, surrounded me with a new emotion.

Happiness.

From the moment I left her burrow, I was assaulted with noses and paws and whiskers. Not a single tooth tried parting my fur. I rubbed up against everyone, tails wagged, I felt welcome in a way that made my eyes water.

Some number of weeks later, I tried bringing her some food, but was met with fierce snarls. Keep out! I scented others in her den, several new, innocent wisps of life. She sounded like she'd tear my throat open if I didn't leave, and I only reluctantly did.

Two weeks later, she came out on her own, thin and frail, but in good spirits. The rest of the pack surrounded her as she took a well-known path to a creek. I was going to join her, but something in her burrow had my mind's eye. I snuck into it and found five fluffs of fur staring at me. I licked blunt muzzles and tickled tummies, feeling satisfaction that went deeper than my blood. Their scent was just like mine and hers combined. It made an instinct in me come alive, I had never before felt so well and healthy. I exited the burrow and howled up into the sky the joyous note of happy. Others around me picked up on the howl and we sang into the air together.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks stretched into colder months. Our pups grew large under the direction of our Alpha. He knew all the right times and places to hunt. We never went hungry, our attack formations on herds of deer stunned them into silence. We did not chase, we surprised.

I continued to name things. She was named Snow, for the color of her coat. Our pups were two females and three males. The females I named Hopper and Bird, for their propensity to jump and try to play with winged creatures. The males took on more serious names. Fang, for his jaw strength when fighting. Goof, because that's what he was. And Streak... because he could run even faster than me.

Months stretched into years.

I was unsurprised to find our brood growing into bodies that resembled me and my mate's appearance. Snow and I were inseparable. Often I felt like I had the intelligence to even lead our pack, but we remained high-ranking members below beta. I felt certain Fang would run things, some day. It would be a long time before that happened.

The only time Snow wasn't by my side, was when she was off hunting to bring me something. A meal that's hard to catch gives a strong appreciation in the receiver. I knew how hard she had to run to catch whatever it was. She would lean against me and nibble on my neck while I carefully ate, enjoying every moment. Then I'd stare into her yellow eyes as she licked my muzzle clean. We would roll around on the ground and play like puppies at every chance, which given how old we were becoming, was quite the sight.

Our Alpha I had named Mist. It just seemed appropriate; he came and went like the morning Mist. It was rare that I interacted with him for more than a minute on any given day. His attention was intense, he would test me and sniff me and single me out from the others. I'd stare into his eyes while he looked me over, which he let happen only when no one was watching.

One day, we were chasing down a deer. I don't remember who had the lead, probably Mist. Occasionally, wolves get hurt during the chase, usually from sprained feet from uneven terrain. Snow yelped and fell, I saw her fly by me and felt my ears prick, I would go back to see that she was all right. The buck was down in just seconds after that, snorting and coughing as his arteries were punctured by fangs, pouring blood into his lungs.

I raced back to Snow and found her limping towards me, licking her muzzle in fright. My world seemed to slow down, she was trailing copious amounts of blood from her left thigh. It was bright and foamy in the sun, clearly arterial. The buck must have got her with his antlers. She collapsed next to me and I licked her muzzle while she whimpered.

There was nothing I could do...

I sniffed at the wound, all the blood. What could I do? Shouldn't I be able to do something? I raced back to her muzzle, licked, and sniffed. She stared into my eyes and gave me one last lick, then sighed.

She was dead.

I couldn't believe it, I refused to believe it. No! No, please no. Anyone but this, anything but this. I howled into the air as loud as I could, all anguish and despair. The rest of my pack came up to me and saw Snow laying there, all the blood. They whimpered and howled and nosed me.

No!

I ran. I ran as hard as I could, not even caring where. I knew the area for hundreds of miles in every direction, I could never get lost. But I wanted to be lost, I wanted to see nothing that reminded me of the time she was by my side. I ran to my old den, the oldest place I could remember.

I hated that I could even smell her here, as we'd slept on numerous occasion while apart from the pack. I took in that scent and stretched out, sighing. We weren't even hungry, why did we even bother going after that buck?

I spent a long time thinking about my past with Snow. I remembered the first time I had seen her, how beautiful she was as the wind tossed her fur around in the sunlight. Glacial, arctic white. Those were the concepts I attributed, but for why, I had no idea. I knew I had a vast imagination, and I even knew I was somehow different from the other wolves in my pack.

After a day, I returned to the site of the kill. My pack had remained, lounging around and fending off any scavengers. Some choice parts lay in the carcass, clearly left for me. I stared at Snow's crumpled body, and thought about how, as soon as we left, something else would eat her just like the deer sitting in front of me. That was entirely unacceptable, so I did the only thing I knew to protect the things that were important to me.

I dug a hole next to her.

I dug it deep, and the sun moved across half the sky before I was satisfied. I nosed and pushed her into the hole, cringing at the thump her lifeless body made when it landed at the bottom. I filled in all the loose dirt on top of her. The rest of my pack watched out of curiosity, and I would have chased any of them away if they had tried to help, but they didn't.

Only then did I fill my belly. I ate and growled at no one and everyone. I cracked bones, chewed on gristle. I felt angry at my loss, angry at the emptiness in my heart. Wolves mate for life, and when separated by instances such as these, they never find another. I knew that in my deepest mind's eye.

When I reached my fill, I howled long and sad. She wasn't there to lick my muzzle clean, and I couldn't lick hers ever again. I felt crushed, the act of eating was always so good, with her beside me. Now I felt alone, but my pack moved in on me, surrounding me. They didn't howl, they only stared silently. My Alpha nosed me with his intense green gaze. My young offspring looked at me with unsure expressions, tails low, ears back.

I needed to own this situation, I needed to be strong for the rest to see me as an example. So I stood taller and averted my eyes from my Alpha, but I licked my sons and daughters noses, staring in the direction we called home.

We left, and while it was probably the last time any of them ever came back to that spot, I returned at the change of every season. I curled up on the bare spot on the ground where I had buried my mate. I'd given up thinking of things I could have done to prevent her death, and instead focused on being the strongest wolf she would have wanted me to be.

The years continued to come and go with the seasons. Other pack members came and went, as strangers drifted in while others died. My own offspring were big and strong, and I could see gray coating my muzzle as I panted at my reflection in the water.

Yes, I was getting up in the years. I was no longer the fastest runner, but I didn't care. My name was Lightning. And it always would be.

Chapter 16.

I woke to a strange sunrise, it was very red. My body felt odd, like it was bigger. I had slept in a peculiar position; I couldn't seem to fold my limbs in on themselves, the comfy way. I lifted my head and tried to find Snow, which was an old habit. Even after all these years, I still missed her warmth pressed up against mine. Something trailed out of my mouth, I pawed at it, and then stared at my hand, which wasn't a paw.

I froze.

I could remember all of my memories from when I was a Human. From when I was a Rhenthar. And from when I was a Wolf. There they all were, all combined, but separate.

But... all those years were real. I could remember every single one of them, as clear as yesterday. There were no gaps, and the location of yesterday's deer carcass hung heavily in my mind. I wanted to get up and run to it, and tear off some tender parts I had left behind, to gnaw on some rib bones. Yes, that's what I needed. The light in my room brightened.

"Keman." Whose name is that? I turned and stared at... Mist. Of course his name was Mist. He was my Alpha. No, not was. Don't you dare use past tense on someone you respect so severely. But... but... everything he's done to me. But, our pack. I felt sick, like I couldn't tell what was real anymore.

I closed my eyes and thought about all the years I must have spent on this bed. Everyone by now bad forgotten about me. My ship was long gone. Sinclair... moved on. I squeezed my eyes tight, fighting back the tears, unsure what to think or do.

Mist sat down on the bed next to me. I wouldn't move, none of my body was the way it should be. I actually hated this new shape, I hated how big I was, this monstrous warping of a wolf. And yet... I did feel comfortable, because it was me.

"Six and a half years... in just six days." My eyes sprang open. "I would have preferred to have lived it with you, but I had to stay behind to make sure the program ran correctly. It can be dangerous. Imagine a lifetime of torture before safety protocols discovered the error. I needed to make sure that the mind that exited was intact and healthy, I can't repair that sort of damage."

Six days... impossible.

His words were so weird to hear. It had been so long since I had heard "common" and even longer since I had spoken it. I pulled at the tube trailing out of my muzzle, feeling the anchor still deep in my stomach. I thought about the meaning behind his words, and found it almost impossible to believe.

So it wasn't real. All that, wasn't real. Snow wasn't real, my offspring... weren't real. I shut my eyes and covered them with my paws. Reality crushed me, threatened to destroy my mind.

"Hey," Mist said, reaching forward to pull my paws away from my weeping eyes. "I know right now, you're hating how it all wasn't real. And I don't want you to think that, because it was real enough," he said. "The decisions you made were all your own. I only helped make it possible. That life was yours, and it still is, Keman. Everyone is waiting for you to return."

The thought of our pack wanting me back was so painful, the draw was so strong, I had to fight the urge to gasp. I looked up at his green eyes and bared my throat. Please. Memories of Sinclair were simply too distant to care about anymore. I felt the collar around my neck, and I knew who owned it. Mist said it himself, he won. I'm his prize, and my submission was real.

He trailed his claws through my throat fur and chuckled. "From my vantage, such a vast change in you has come about in mere days. I was able to step in to see your world, briefly, for a few minutes at a time. The system would slow the ratio to match mine. Then I exited it and returned. The interactions you had with me were real, I certainly remember them."

I relaxed and laid my head on his leg. Life as a wolf had taught me so much about physical comforts, intimacy, what closeness had to offer. I marveled as my unlocked memories could now bring up "civilization" and "domestication." I felt completely separate from society. Creature comforts I now preferred were nice weather, a full stomach, and sore muscles from running. I laughed at the idea of ever showering again, but I knew that was still expected of me. The strong scent wasn't necessarily the good scent, in this... section of my life.

I felt something in my chest shift. Mist pulled on the tube and it slid from my stomach, the end was a small wrinkled up ball. I gagged and swallowed, turning away to hold my jaws within my paws, my hands, licking my fingers and swallowing at the odd comfort.

"I have questions that need answers." I turned my head and stared at him. Though my body was young, the gaze I gave him was full of wisdom and years of experience. I knew his question was coming the second I had caught his scent. Mine was completely unguarded, what had I to hide? I felt old beyond my years.

"Who was your previous owner?" My world halted. Sinclair. I could not betray him. But. That was a lifetime ago, did it really matter?

I shook my muzzle and cleared my throat. "No. Ask anything but that, Mist." It felt so strange to speak, but my speech was clear. I expected him to get angry, but he didn't. He remained calm, which was alarming to me.

"I see. Pity. I could give you your mate back," he said, smiling huge. "The white one. What do you think of that, hmm?" He stared at me with a full, sharp smile. I was confused, at first. I wondered who he was talking about. The absurdity of the notion helped it to pass right over me.

Then I realized who he was talking about: Snow.

But... Snow wasn't real... and Sinclair was! I shut my eyes and covered more tears with my paws. It was so unfair. If I had to choose who to believe in, I would surely panic, I just knew. Everything was real, nothing was real.

"She's not real," I mumbled, shaking my head, keeping my eyes hidden.

"Oh no? What is real, Keman?" My name is Lightning. I almost said it, but I caught myself. He wouldn't understand.

Mist pulled one of my paws free and pointed at the doorway. "Look."

I stared through blurry eyes. A white muzzle peeked around the corner, sniffing at the floor and then high up into the room. Our eyes met, she approached me cautiously at first, but once our scents mingled, she raced up to me, oblivious of my new body shape. She regarded Mist like an old friend, and after all, he was our Alpha.

Her tail was a blur, she jumped up onto the bed and stood tall beside me, panting. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her, sobbing, breathing in her scent. She seemed so much bigger than I remembered. She licked my tears insistently, and I knew my efforts to keep her away wouldn't work, so I held still while she finished cleaning my muzzle. I sighed as we leaned against each other, relishing her warmth. The pieces of my broken heart, shattered so long ago... pieced themselves back together, as if by a miracle.

It was more than I had ever wished for.

"How?" I was shaking my head. Snow splayed her ears at my vocalization, not understanding. I showed her what opposable thumbs could do with her ears, and she shut her eyes in ecstasy, bringing a huge smile to my lips.

"That isn't your concern. What matters is the answer to my question."

I stared at him in silence, still squeezing Snow's ears. I considered my situation, and was completely unsure what to do. It was so strange, to have gone from gay to bisexual. But I loved her deeper than anything in the universe.

"Keman. I'm going to give you some advice. You cannot yet comprehend the level of control I have over you. My ability to grant you pleasure, and inflict pain, knows no limits. You are mine to do with as I please, using all of my creativity, which," he nodded at Snow. "Is significant, on that I'm certain you'll agree." He stood up and lowered his head to stare into my eyes, squeezing his claws into my lips so I couldn't look away.

"I am your Alpha. Tell me what I want to know." I whimpered, and if it wasn't bad enough, Snow growled at me. She didn't have to speak for me to know what she was saying. Stop being an idiot and submit!

I stared back into his eyes and lifted my head to bear my throat. The exact same way I had on countless occasions, this was nothing new, really. I felt the collar around my neck restricting my movements somewhat, and I remembered who owned it. Mist was my alpha. He nodded, satisfied, and let go to cross his arms. His gaze never left mine.

"Might as well start from the beginning." I said, reaching next to me to hug Snow, drawing the strength that I needed so badly. "Six hundred years ago," I said, looking at Mist. "I was actually a human."

Mist wrinkled his nose. "What? How was it done, some virtualization?" I shook my head slowly.

"No virtualization. Six hundred years ago, I was human. I had dedicated my life to becoming something else, something canine. You would laugh at the technology I had to work with, the genetic engineering. I also built collars-" I reached up and ran my fingers under the smooth metal, absentmindedly pulling the loose fur under it free, tossing it into a pile. Snow stomped on the fur and ate it. If my heart weren't already full, it would have burst from that alone. I had to consciously will myself back into this world, this body, this conversation.

"Like what I'm wearing, but again, archaic. One of my experiments killed me. My owner pulled my mind from that point, through time, and put me into this body. It's called waking the dead." I gestured down at myself. Mist narrowed his eyes. I could tell that he had heard the term before. And I wondered what he might do now.

The shock of transition from Wolf to Rhenthar was still prominent in my mind. But I had already experienced a similar transition, when I went from Human to Rhenthar. I was getting better at accepting changes at such a fundamental level.

I reached down and untwisted the black hose from my sheath, pulling it free to set it aside. Snow sniffed at the wet opening, while I reached down to rub my sheath gently, shifting the 'site calmer ring to alleviate a building itch in my fur. It felt good to have fingers and thumbs, to be able to touch myself in gentle, precise ways.

"I lived as a normal Rhenthar for ten years, unaware of my past. When my old memories surfaced, when the new had to fall apart, my owner took me into his paws and helped train me into what I am today. I had no choice in the matter, but it was geared specifically to be something I enjoyed.

"When everything was perfect, he took my collar off and kicked me out. Wanted me to go explore the universe, see if I still wanted to be his after a couple of years living on my own." I stared down at my hands. Dull claws, thick, leathery paw pads.

"My owner was Sinclair Diavanti." I looked up at Mist, gauging his reaction. His eyes had taken in everything previous with rapt interest. Now they seemed filled with shock.

"Sinclair... you mean the owner of Clair Industries? In the Gamma quadrant?" I nodded.

"Yeah, that's him. He would probably kill me for telling you." I buried my head against Snow's shoulder. "You've certainly won, Mist," I mumbled."You've made me break the greatest loyalty I've ever had." I turned and looked at him with hate, but as soon as I saw his eyes, my instincts yanked the emotion violently from my grasp and I had to look away.

Mist laughed. "Such a small galaxy this is. Your previous loyalties are of no concern to me. I'm not as rich as Sinclair, but I'm well off, enough that money is nothing to me but many zeros. I have no desire to use you as bait or a bargaining chip.

"No. Just owning the collar around your neck gives me such immense satisfaction, and now that I understand your past. Oh. Oh my! I said it once before, and I'll say it again. You were meant to be owned. It was your destiny to be mine.

"I am very pleased. Are you ready to return to our pack, to your life with her?" He pointed at Snow. We leaned into each other, it was like she understood the question.

I shook my head. "But it isn't real!" Anger entered my voice, decidedly welcome.

Mist shrugged. "What is real? You aren't a real Rhenthar. So what?"

I sighed. Yeah, there was that. He was definitely right on that count. What the hell did I care about how real things were? I nodded acceptance.

"From Human to Rhenthar to Wolf. You amaze me with your mental stability, your capability to accept such profound changes. You're certainly no pushover, oh no. Once you had motivation, you entered my pack like you owned the place. The system predicted you and I would have to fight. You showed too many signs of Alpha capabilities. I'm not sure what to think about that." He stared at me, I looked back and then averted my eyes.

"That collar stays on for the rest of your life. That much is certain." He reached down and shifted the ring on my sheath. My 'site woke up and I started to get hard before I could position it back in the right spot. "This is great news to you, from what I just learned." He smiled something huge and predatory.

"So. The future." Mist stared. "She won't remember any of this. But do you want to? I'm offering you a choice, to either be oblivious of your past, or fully aware of it." I considered my options carefully. I was so tired of being segmented. I knew having no hands when I remembered having them was going to suck. But I could live with that. I realized that this was the first time any such choice had ever been offered to me beforehand.

"Leave me intact, please."

My world faded to black. The last thing I heard was: "This time, I'll be with you the whole time."

Chapter 17.

Crisp, clean air. Birdsong off in the distance. The loud rustle of wind through leaves. A wet scratching sensation on my nose. Again, again, and again. I opened my eyes to the flash of teeth, white fur, and a long pink tongue. I sat up onto my haunches and Snow head butted my shoulder, rubbing her muzzle all over me.

I stared down at my paws, feeling a wave of dizziness as my mind wrestled with how insignificant my body had become, how much smaller, I was. I felt young again, my heart raced with the vitality that came online. I needed no reflection to know that all the gray was missing from my muzzle.

I looked around and saw other members of my pack blinking sleep from their eyes, yawning, stretching out. I turned and saw my big Alpha approaching me. His wolf form was just as impressive as his Siberian Husky body. I saw the barest hint of his markings under all his fur, leaving no doubts to his heritage. His green eyes met mine, and I looked away with a small whimper. He sniffed me and placed his huge jaws around my nose. He didn't bite down, just held there.

"Remember who's boss, Keman." My eyes opened wide, he let go. Where did that voice come from?

Mist sat on his haunches and stared at me, with his head twisted. The look asked if I really wanted to be that stupid. I looked away, feeling absurd.

That day we hunted and took down what I knew was a Moose. It was the most fun I had had in a very long time. We stuffed ourselves, and lounged around in the sun, licking the blood off each other's fur. I thought about what I had gained and what I had lost, and still felt like I came out way ahead. I was the luckiest wolf in the universe.

I only wish it had lasted longer.

Chapter 18.

+720 days: Subjective.

Streak was nibbling on my muzzle insistently. Yeah, yeah. I know, you're hungry. I growled deep in my throat, enjoying my lazy nap for all it was worth. Life was good. My eyes opened fully when Streak spoke to me.

"This ship is without a registered owner. As there is still one life sign aboard, you have two hours to register as the owner or derelict status will be broadcast into local space."

I sat up. What... the fuck?

My whole world fell apart, de-rezzed into pixels and then faded to the bright glow of my room, I was lying on my bed, sprawled out. I felt very dizzy, blurry. More drugs, probably something hypnotic. Then I heard it again.

"This ship is without a registered owner. As there is still one life sign aboard, you have two hours to register as the owner or derelict status will be broadcast into local space."

I didn't want to move. I didn't want to think about what that even could mean. I brought my paw up to my muzzle and felt the tube still trailing out of it. The metal part around it wasn't in place. I would later recognize that my whole life hinged on Mist having not put it back on, feeling it was unnecessary.

I disconnected the braided hose from what was anchored in my stomach, and sat up, climbing up onto my haunches, while the world continued to swim around me. I looked around and got my bearings. Derelict status. Hurf. That's... an automatic process, why do I know that... of course I know that.

Oh shit.

I recognized that as an automatic process when the owner of a ship either leaves or dies, and no secondary is registered with the system. Eventually, it starts a general emergency broadcast. The first person to register the ship owns it.

I tried to bring my wetware online and remembered that it was dead. Fuck. What the hell was going on? I twisted the black hose inside my sheath and pulled it free, tossing it aside. I rubbed crust out of my eyes, and walked on wobbly legs to my doorway. I looked left and right.

I wandered down the hall and saw the first door on the left was open. I glanced inside and saw Mist, lying on his bed. He was intubated with something similar to what I wore, but it was gray and probably not anchored to something permanent. I put my paw against his neck, and felt no pulse.

Holy shit!

I stumbled backwards and slammed into the wall, kinking my tail painfully. A small rolling cart was next to Mist's bed, on it were a hypospray and several ampoules. I picked up it up and looked to see what was loaded, but didn't recognize what he had injected himself with. I stumbled again and knocked the cart over, landing with my elbows on the bed. I had to access the ship. I needed to register it as the new owner. Dog, this was unreal. This can't be happening!

I searched around for a data access panel, roaming the halls. What few I found offered no help. Of course! Who would be without a voice and wetware at the same time? And if you were, you probably needed help, thus the emergency beacon.

I thought about some random stranger taking the ship. I thought about who usually showed up to beacons like this. They would not be expecting me to be onboard. In fact, they would probably prefer me dead. Worse, with ownership they could probably pull all of Mist's authorization data. They could own my collar, too. My heart started to race.

I'd be sold with the ship.

This would be all bad, I had to gain control. I needed to register my collar before I could take it off.

I passed by an autodoc alcove and stared at it. It was modern, I pushed an emergency access panel button and a screen slid out. I selected Male, Rhenthar. A long list of capabilities displayed. I selected emergency foreign object removal, stomach. Local anesthetic only, I couldn't risk being put under with everything else swimming around in my system. I probably would never wake up.

The alcove tilted sideways and I lay down inside, putting all my weight onto my back. Then I shut my eyes while the system applied local anesthetic after shaving a patch of my fur bald, right over my stomach.

I noticed an inner access screen hovering near my head, and I realized that the system was built for interactive medical help. Of course, Mist lived alone on this ship. Everything would cater to that.

I switched it on and cancelled the last request. I fired up the ultrasound scanner and stared at the cross section display of my stomach. The ball in it was huge. I hoped it was hollow, like the last one. My worst fear would be if it were full of hardened epoxy foam, or something like that. I'd have to have the system cut my stomach in half in order to get it out. It probably wouldn't even let me perform such a dangerous operation.

I manually instructed the system to create a micro incision through my abdominal wall, through my stomach, and through what I estimated to be a couple of millimeters of silicone durometer.

A sharp snap from the ball deflating a few minutes later. I reached up and pulled on the tube, it slid free and I tossed it onto the floor while the alcove tilted back upright. I swallowed, exhaling relief, the feeling of nothing in my throat. I coughed and cleared it.

"Ship! Register new owner to me!"

Two beeps. "Cannot comply. Identity not known. Please register identity using wetware." Oh fuck. Figures.

Dog, I needed to find out what he was feeding me. I was going to start withdrawing. I really needed access to my wetware. Instead of exiting the alcove, I checked to see if the system could perform repairs on wetware.

It could.

I leaned my head back and instructed it to access my micropore access port at the base of my skull. I felt it pierce my skin and wiggle an optical fiber into the interface. The system began rudimentary repairs, simple synaptic burnouts. The interface came up, I focused on my nose and bright graphics swam into my vision. I instructed the system to detach and the fiber pulled free.

My wetware indicated that it needed to perform a full file system consistency check. I groaned, knowing how long that would take. Hours. If I had a remote operating system, I could mark the file systems as clean, but I had no access to anything like that, and single user mode required a remote display. I instructed it to continue, watching the progress bar. I had less than two hours to take ownership. I would never make it in time.

Wandering around, I looked for something I could use, maybe Mist had a Solve-All stowed away, somewhere. The ship had open access, I was able to go room by room. I was disgusted by the simple modular design, the lack of a bridge or even a control room. The whole thing was basically one big appliance.

I thought about how, all those years ago, I owned a ship. I never even had a chance to fly her. By now, it was long gone. I paused, forcing my brain to map out the time correctly. It had only been two weeks. My eyes watered from the effort, trying to wrap my head around that. All reality seemed vague and unimportant with this new data. I had no reference point, I felt like I had derailed from living my life, many years ago, and went sideways into some parallel reality.

Staring down at my hands, I felt like I didn't belong here. I leaned against the wall, and thought about Snow. I thought about my pack, and even Mist. My Alpha was dead. Oh, Dog. What am I doing? What am I supposed to do?

I put my back against the wall and slid down onto my butt, trying to make sense of what was real and what wasn't. Embrace the now, own the moment, take ownership of the situation. Sage words of advice, sure. But easier said, than done. I drifted off...

"Ownership timeout reached. Broadcasting emergency beacon." A shrill alarm sounded. "This ship is currently unowned. Please register this ship and complete a safety overhaul check at the nearest starbase."

The alarm continued, but I only sat there, feeling sorry for myself. I looked up at the ceiling. What if this wasn't real? What if it was just some sort of stupid test?

"Well? I bared my teeth. "Is this just another test? What the fuck! I'm tired of these games!" I stared around, and saw nothing. No white muzzles peeking around a corner. No quiet laughter. "You can't keep fucking with my life! I'm tired of other people deciding my fate." With building understanding, I saw what needed to be done.

"This ship is currently unowned. Please register this ship and complete a safety overhaul check at the nearest starbase."

I stormed down the central corridor to the main airlock, and palmed the high security access closet. It opened, and I stared at some of Mist's personal belongings. Armor, his tactical vest. I hefted his Sunjet particle cannon and pulled it free from its holster. Yes, that'll do nicely.

I carried it to what must have passed for a lounge, and sat down on his nice, soft leather couch. I shouted up at the ceiling. "Well, this is what I think of your choices... have fun wiping this from my memory." I pointed the business end under my chin, and was about to pull the trigger when the viewscreen on the wall rippled to life. I smirked at the graphical display, a dodecahedron morphing into a ball.

"Don't. Master repairer must not self terminate." I stared, confused.

"What did you just call me?" I wasn't yet ready to put the Sunjet down, the idea of finally having some closure had a great appeal, but I was curious.

"Master Repairer. I am weapons platform AI 18273456. I have followed you in protect mode, and per protocol thirteen, I have avoided contact until you made contact with me, desire known. Do you not wish contact?" It was speaking very quickly, with a grating, metallic voice. I had to play it back in my head a few times before I understood.

"Mist... this is lame. Why would you think I'd buy into this idea?" I paused, considering. "Ok, AI... something someth-"

"273456."

"Er, yeah. Provide credibility to your identity. Authenticate."

I watched the screen with a growing sense of alarm. Video footage passed quickly, Nod handing the Arcanian weapons AI to me. Everywhere I walked in Yoshi. Me pawwing myself off in my quarters. Every repair I made to my ship, it all flickered by the screen in ultra high speed, just a few frames at a time.

It suddenly dawned on me that Mist would have no idea about any of this. I sat there, stunned. Slowly, I lowered the emitter of the Sunjet, glancing down at it in surprise, shocked at what I was about to do. My whole life was almost forfeited by my paws alone.

Video footage continued, showing a bucket spilling nanobots onto the floor of my cargo hold, this part passed slowly, like it was important. The eerie metallic voice prompted a question of its own.

"Was this not your objective to bring me online?"

I watched as the footage continued, trying to remember where I had put the AI core. I'd done something with it... stored it somewhere, for a rainy day. Nod wasn't able to get me any information on it, and since it contained nuclear material, I decided trying to hack it might be hazardous to my health.

I watched as the mass of chrome tipped my Solve-All off the AI cube, then it floated the cube down the hallway, around a corner. Another camera showed it being lifted into an access hatch to a wiring closet. The hatch swung shut. Hey! That's... clever.

"Uh. Yeah... that was my intention all along." Thank Dog it couldn't smell me, I hoped. "AI, why didn't you rescue me earlier? Have you been watching all along?"

"Master Repairer did not need rescuing. Much analysis was spent, other of your species gave Master Repairer continuous great pleasure. Was analysis incorrect?" I sat thinking, and realized... the drugs. Of course. From the outside, it would look like I was indeed having great pleasure. Argh.

"Never mind, analysis was sufficiently correct."

Two beeps, female voice: "Ownership established. This ship is now owned." I felt a clunk ring through the hull. Uh oh.

"AI, what's happening?"

The AI responded, "Your ship is being docked by another vessel. Ownership has just been transferred."

"What? No! Oh, Dog, stop them!" I heard the airlock pressurization system start up, down the hall.

"Time needed to compromise system will exceed tactical objective." The tone dropped in pitch. "Target?"

"Target? Er, yes! Yes target! Fucking target ship and destroy!"

"Seek atmospheric protection immediately."

In the cold, soundless environment that is space, The Jefferson rotated and fired its engines in fusion mode, emitting a magnetically coherent mass of plasma hotter than the surface of a sun. It carved through the center of the ship that was docking. The resulting explosion sent debris and chunks that sliced through Mist's ship like tissue paper.

My ears popped from the explosion, something bounced through the air and tore into my left arm, numbing it from the elbow down. Available lighting doubled in intensity, the floor glowed in red moving lines, indicating the location of emergency survival gear, maybe even an escape pod. The rush of air leaving the ship was deafening, but the sound was steadily getting quieter, and I knew what that meant. Soon there would be no air to make sound as it bled away into space. Soon there would be no air to breathe.

I ran down the hallway, and was suddenly falling. I braced for impact, but none came, I was floating. Shit, the artificial gravity had cut out, but it's supposed to be modular. I brushed my paws against the nearest wall, trying to get traction as I drifted forward. My momentum carried me through the dead spot, and the next section slammed me down onto the ground, like I had jumped off a ladder. I landed on my arm, which certainly wasn't numb anymore. Pain flared brightly, I stared down at it and saw blood steadily flowing, pouring off my elbow, my fur was soaking wet. Droplets of blood floated around just behind me in the section without gravity.

I climbed onto all fours and ran the rest of the hallway, trying to prepare myself for another area to be dead, but gravity remained on my side, for now. The moving red lines terminated at an access closet, whose door was open. I pulled a spacesuit module out and stuck it against my chest.

Black polymer quickly flowed over my body, pressing down my fur and tightly filling every crack and crevice. I grimaced as my balls were painfully compressed, my ears filled with channels to electronic sound transducers. Clear bubbles covered my eyes, and an air duct formed under my chin and hugged my body down to the electronic module centered on my chest. Once the seal was complete, I could breathe for about four hours in space. I knew the system was trying to access my wetware, probably to complain about my injuries, but mine was still repairing.

"AI! Swing around and pick me up!" I shouted, hoping the air was still thick enough to carry my voice. I heard no response. Shit. I walked to an airlock and forced an override to open it into space. The last of the thin air rushed past me until it was all gone. I saw a large vessel tumbling, surrounded with debris. That some was shaped like bodies, I tried to ignore.

I needed to get off this ship, it was hella dangerous to be inside anything that suffered this kind of damage. If any of the power systems breached, I'd be safer swimming in vacuum than sitting inside a shotgun shell.

Talk about a leap of faith, I thought, backing up and building some speed as I leaped into the inky black depths of space. I easily escaped the pull of the ship's microgravity, from all its mass. The stars around me spun slowly as I rotated in space. I felt dizzy and tried my best not to puke. Oh, please don't puke.

The stars rippled near me, then that area rotated out of my view. I slowly spun around and saw the area again, but closer this time. The stars vanished, I saw blackness that had just turned to gray when it rotated past my view. I craned my neck, trying to watch. The next time my vision came around, I saw The Jefferson only a hundred feet away. Its attitude thrusters were small blue-white points of light as she came along... "under" me, I realized, as I was basically falling into her cargo hold. Up and down ceased to have any meaning, there was only inertia and direction of travel.

It gave me a great sense of pride to see her in space like that, coming to my rescue. Then I was past the outer airlock doors, gravity slowly spun into life and I landed on my side with a thud. Gravity rapidly rose to a full 1G and the door slid shut. I could hear the barest whistle of air pressurizing the small cavity, which grew progressively louder until it was deafening.

The module on my chest showed basic information, breathable atmosphere shifting from red to green. I triggered the removal process, and the material parted down my spine, flowing back into the module. I helped pull it out of my ears, and then reached under my tail and pulled some of it out of my ass. Argh, I hated this design, but it did have to void any air pockets. Blood spilled from the polymer onto the floor, creating a huge puddle. The sight of which made me dizzy.

There was no time to wait for the module to finish re-assembling itself, and instead I tossed it onto the floor and hit the inner airlock button. The door slid sideways and I walked onto my ship. My wetware came the rest of the way online, showing a deluge of incoming email. I pushed it all out of the way and staggered around the corner. Several red indicators popped up, showing substantial blood loss, critical. I stumbled to my autodoc, my vision was just a small circle surrounded with gray.

I made it.

I lay there while it repaired me, thinking, considering. It listed the drugs I was physically addicted to, and I had to scroll to the bottom to see them all. It recommended I undergo coma therapy, putting me under while it weaned me off them all. The process would take two weeks.

I nodded to myself, thinking that sounded like a good idea. I registered my collar, feeling a huge wave of fear fade when it responded. At least Mist didn't want to be buried with all his toys. I initiated release of ownership and an unlock. It hissed and fell from my neck into my waiting paws. I felt the bare area around my neck, and queried my autodoc to see if it could repair the lost fur.

Please purchase cosmetic module #2331 from your nearest authorized retailer.

"AI, just... keep us safe. I gotta sleep for a couple of weeks. Ok?"

I stared at the ceiling, wondering if it even heard me. I saw a small text window in my wetware.

"Protect mode, affirmative." I frowned and laughed.

"'Quit hacking things!" A watery cold sensation flowed into my limbs as my autodoc induced a coma. I gripped my collar in my paws tightly, and hoped I dreamed of Snow.

A single tear leaked from my eye as I realized I would never see her again.

Chapter 19.

My ship was adrift, as were my thoughts. No course plotted, no future set. I was alone in the galaxy, and for once, no one had control over my choices but me. I roamed the halls and saw various projects that still needed completion. Nostalgia ran thick, they were all things I hadn't seen, by my eyes, for close to a decade. I savored their lack of completion, feeling like if they hadn't been done all this time, why complete them at all?

It was almost impossible to accept that only a month had actually gone by. I answered Yoshi's threatening emails, and funneled a decent chunk of money from Sin's fund to cover the damage my ship had made breaking out of its repair bay. Surprisingly, no one was killed.

I laughed when I finally saw the video footage. My hero, my rescuer. I needed to thank Nod for the gift, he saved my life. I thought about contacting him via hyperwave. But I didn't.

I thought about contacting Sinclair. But I didn't.

Secondary explosions had cremated the ship that had tried to perform the derelict recovery operation. Mist's ship had remained, though. I spent some time harvesting as much data from it as I could, including recovering Mist's wetware primary storage. I extracted it from his skull with mixed emotions, then I left his body where I felt he would have preferred it to stay. The captain goes with his ship. I destroyed it from a safe distance, shocked by the potential weapon my ship's engines possessed.

I now had a lot of data, from some very proprietary systems, and I had no idea how to put any of it together. Snow was in there, somewhere, but such a project seemed pointless. She wasn't real, I just had to keep reminding myself of that.

I docked at 1Z-Yoshi. We were on friendly terms, now that I had paid the grossly overinflated repair fees. The place smelled cleaner than I last remembered it, all those years ago. Er. One month, remember. The damage hadn't even all been repaired, when The Jefferson drifted in to the docking cradle, I saw some of it still being performed.

A Chtolb with the name that had too many apostrophes approached me. I laughed and shook my head. "No assistance needed." Its tentacles wilted as I walked by, feeling déjà-vu. My ass twitched a couple of times, yikes.

Blending in with the crowd so I could get as close as possible, I went straight to Jimmy's house of pain, without him noticing me. I knocked on his counter and he turned and looked at me.

"Woah. What happened! You're here! Dude!" He was staring at the bald patch of fur around my neck, then the section over my stomach, the long pink scar down my left arm. All his work in my fur, ruined.

"Look, it's only been a month, to you. It's been over eight years, to me. I'll explain, some day. For now, how about you make a lot of credits fixing me up. And please... light me up a joint. I just went through the detox from hell."

Jimmy nodded, he wasted no time. He pulled a spliff from under the counter and touched it to the activation patch on the side of a pack of cigarettes, handing it to me without another word. He closely inspected my fur while I took a couple of quick drags, feeling my frazzled nerves start to unfray.

An idea came to me. A brilliant idea. One that I would probably regret. But I loved it.

"Hey. So. Dude." I grinned. "Like, I want all my fur black. Can you do that?" I handed the joint to Jimmy.

He took it from me and inhaled expertly, dragoning out through his nose while combing his claws through my fur, staring at the follicles closely. "That's the hardest color to do, but I can do it. Temporary or permanent?"

"Wouldn't it look like crap once it started falling out, if it was temporary?" He nodded and handed the joint back to me. I took some more hits. "Permanent it is, then."

"Ok, that's going to be expensive. It'll use up almost all my stock."

I shook my head. "Don't care. Double the price, keep the change."

His eyes went wide at that, he quickly brought out a stool for me to sit on in his modification booth. It was going to take a while.

"Mist was bad news, man. Wasn't the guy I thought he was. I wasn't in my ship when it left. I was on his, he fucking abducted me." He dropped the joint from his mouth, staring at me in awe. When he picked it back up, he stared at it and handed it to me, clearly realizing that I needed it a lot more than he did.

I spent the next few hours explaining everything that happened. He was floored speechless.

"So. You still want a 'site? I've got two on my ship, both for males." I grinned slyly.

"Uhm." He stared down at the calmer ring on my sheath. "Maybe... not... just yet."

I pet him between the ears. "They're more fun when you don't have a choice."

He panted and hid his waist behind the counter. I paid him and left. "I'll be around..."

"Nod! Man, am I glad to see you."

He straightened from what he was working on, looking closely at me."Who are you?"

"It's Keman ! I had my fur recolored." At the mention of my name, he grinned with his hundreds of teeth and stuck his paw out. I shook it warmly.

"Lemme tell 'ya, that was the best 'tempt to avoid Yoshi's bill I ever saw. Hah! The Jefferson treating you well?"

"Nod, she's fantastic. But I really gotta say, thank you for the AI core. It saved my life."

"Which? Er... oh yeh. The Arcanian one? Huh. Well, glad it was useful."

"You have no idea! Man, I gotta run. Got another project I need to work on. But we'll stay in touch, ok?"

"Mmmhmm." He winked at me.

I returned to my ship, and did something that surprised myself. I hacked into Mist's wetware memory module, and gained his authorization codes. I contacted Sinclair, sending him a message:

"I've grown bored with using your toy. He is intact and well, I've only a few details I need to discuss with you, in person. I will meet you on Phaylact, in Trinity, at the Armage Nightclub, 6PM local time, tomorrow. Come alone. If my agents spot any of your forces in the area, I will kill Keman and our meeting becomes pointless. Follow my instructions, and I swear you will leave Phaylact with him." It was perfectly coded with Mist's ID.

We made good time to Phaylact. The Al had made several modifications to my ship, including a cloaking field that I hadn't yet puzzled out the workings of. Arcanians had disappeared from space a thousand years ago, after living peacefully for over a million years. I had no idea how old the AI was, and neither did it. It had endlessly looped itself while disconnected from everything in order to preserve its code and sanity. All its memory that applied to time passing was intentionally corrupted.

I checked my 'blaster in the leather holster I wore, happy to have my sidearm back in its rightful location. I took all my piercings out, but the 'site calmer ring had to stay.

I cruised the streets of Trinity like I owned the place, staring at people until they looked away. I paused outside and stared at the entrance to the Armage.

It all started here, didn't it. I walked in and took a seat close to the back, one with a good view and nothing behind me, luxuriating in the hidden depths my new black fur was at home in. The first time I had seen myself in a mirror, I nearly jumped.

The nightclub was alive, with a dance floor spanning my right, bodies in motion, glow sticks and neon flexi-tubes spinning around. On my left were tables, like the one I sat at. I waved down a waitress, a slender female greyhound Rhenthar. She smiled at me and asked what I'd like to drink.

"Beer, something red. I'm in no hurry, so don't worry about earning your fifty credit tip." I squirted my charge authorization at the transponder she wore on her hip, and her smile became genuine. She brought my drink back in just seconds, and I lapped at it.

When Sinclair walked into the club, my vision narrowed to a tunnel, and all I could see was him. My heart doubled its rate instantly, and I watched him scan over the crowd with growing anxiety. His gaze passed right over me, and he took an empty table facing away from me, towards the entrance. I sighed in relief, he didn't spot me.

I watched him for an hour, making certain I really wanted to do what I was about to do. I thought of all the ways it might go wrong, and weighed them against what I wanted. When I came to a conclusion, I fired up Mist's wetware ID and 'cast Sin a message: "Ship propulsion problems. Delayed 24 hours. Nothing has changed."

A few moments later, I saw Sin's head jerk as he swore to himself. He got up to leave, signaling to the bartender with a claw across his throat: cash him out. I took that as my cue and got up myself, to follow him out.

I shot him in the leg with a microdart, and he didn't even seem to notice. The launcher looked like a credit chit, a flimsy piece of plastic. He paused and held the door open for me, I nodded his way as I walked past, hoping my freshly dyed fur didn't offer too much of my scent. I kept walking towards the street, and it took all my effort not to swivel my ears backwards to listen for him. I turned sideways and saw him collapsing to the sidewalk.

I quickly turned around and ran back to him, catching him before he fell.

"Let's get a cab for you, buddy." I bit my tongue so I wouldn't laugh. I helped his floppy arm over my shoulder and walked him toward the curb, where a cab I had ordered arrived, right on time. It was a private limo, all black and tinted. Perfect.

Sin's eyes were glassy, I had dosed him with something very short acting, very powerful. He mumbled a few things, and I worried he might still be able to call in the cavalry. When I had tested it on myself, though, I found that I was completely unable to navigate through my wetware. The effects only lasted about five minutes.

I helped him into the limo, fuck, he was heavy. I pulled his back up against my chest as I sat down. I told the driver to just drive, and not to worry about what we were doing. He nodded and raised the privacy screen. I thumbed the door stud and it swished shut. We were in motion, and I didn't have much time.

My Mark 6 collar was in the area of my holster reserved for extra charge cells, I fished it out and snapped it shut around Sin's neck. It chimed twice and shrank down until it was snug. My wetware registered it successfully. He was starting to struggle, he reached up and pulled on it weakly.

I licked the side of his big muzzle, and reached down to rub his stomach with my blunt claws. I massaged his ears while his strength slowly recovered. I whispered into them: "Now you're all mine."

His eyes went wide and he shot a look of terror at me. His nose flared, and then he relaxed, having taken in my scent. I felt him press back against me, he shut his eyes and I took his paw into my own and squeezed. He squeezed back.