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A Ranger's Tail

Book 4: Traitor

Chapter 1 A New Face

Aboard Captured Freighter's Bridge 8:39AM

He couldn't believe it. The Captain had figured that whomever the traitor was he was high up, but he could believe who it was.

"So what are you going to do Captain Reynolds?" the traitor asked again.

The Captain just stared at him, in total disbelief.

Mafeu chuckled, "I guess you never thought that the Consular himself would be working with the wolves eh?"

The Captain didn't even listen; he just stared at the traitorous falcon.

He finally worked up a reply, "You-You dirty piece of shit! How could you? How could you betray the Federation? You fucking piece of shit!" the Captain pointed the rifle right at Consular Otho's beak. The entire room froze. "You would try and kill my wife!"

He heard a wolf sergeant behind the consular say something about shooting the radio, then him, and the Captain knew he needed a plan. He prepared himself and waited to hear the first shot.

A full minute past, the Captain not removing his aim on the consular.

A shot rang out and the Captain turned and jumped over the consol, making sure to hit the "vent atmosphere" button, and as he did the radio exploded.

"Good," he thought, "they took the bait."

Instead of turning to fire he raised the rife and hammered the plexy glass window of the bridge, hoping to take the Consular and Alpha Prime in one shot. He felt a shake reverberate through the ship as one of the rooms violently decompressed. Then he heard another shot and felt a terrible pain in the back of his head.

Launch bay Aboard Consular Otho's Personal Transport 8:42AM

Emily sat in the cockpit waiting; she had a lot to think about. Her sister was dead, the Captain had now very well sacrificed himself for two women of the Federation, and would likely be killed this time to help her get away.

A huge boom filled the launch bay as the main doors opened. Bodies flew out and banged off the sides of the dropship, twisting and twirling in open space. Emily felt the dropship begin to lift off the floor and she strapped herself in.

The dropship twisted as did the bodies and, without striking any surface of the freighter, flew out into space. Emily looked out the window and saw the nearby planet. It was blue and green with white swirls of clouds above the surface. This planet of the system only had one moon and, as far as it looked, was uninhabited.

She began warming up the jumper engines and checked the last of the three jumps, and locked in those coordinates. They were to an empty part of space, between this system and the last jump.

She didn't know a lot about space operations, but she knew some standard protocols. When ships left a system with possible pursuers they would make many jumps in various directions, to throw of any hunters. The jumps made by the small dropship were all in a straight line, leading directly to this system, the Sol system. The jump back would take about two days, maybe less, but she had to do something else, she didn't want to, but she wouldn't forgive herself if she didn't.

Emily marked the system and prepared to jump. The ship was charged and as a last minute piece of information, she marked the direct location of the freighter, in orbit above the third planet of the Sol system, earth, and she jumped out of the system.

FN Endeavor, Holding at first jump location of Wolf Dropship 0928 Military Time

"So they're leaving a trail of bread crumbs aren't they?" Admiral Drake commented, "I wish they just used real breadcrumbs instead of our soldiers."

The finding of Private Abrams broken and raped body had definitely shown where the Alpha wolf was going, but it was an ominous sign. The entire fleet knew of what had happened to the poor Private, and it made known a fact that intelligence had tried to hide for the past two decades. Although Cathy's testimony had mentioned this form of wolf brutality, it was brief and went somewhat unnoticed.

General Osing sighed, "Yes, those bastards are fucking animals, I can't wait to get that Alpha off by himself."

"What did her autopsy show?" Cathy asked. She had been fairing badly when she had been informed of the raped soldier's body, and that only lowered her spirits.

Lt. Colonel Sterling looked through the relevant data and commented, "She died from a gunshot would from inside her rectum that traveled up through her body to her left lung. They must have thrown her out immediately after because the various fluids in her didn't have time to solidify and they flash froze in the same way they had been before she entered the vacuum."

"Poor woman," Osing commented, utterly astonished by the wolf's brutality. The poor woman had died during a rape, and apparently in about as horrible way as anyone could imagine.

Captain Atric sat up, he had been the most effected by the body, "I just don't understand what drives these wolves to do this. No other species I've ever heard of get such pleasure from another creature's pain."

They all nodded, the sight had horrified Cathy, and it had brought back horrible memories.

"So what's our next course of action?" Drake asked.

Cathy's head dropped, "Well, I guess we'll have to check all possible jump locations from here. Unfortunately I hope they might have left another bread crumb."

Sterling added in, with some sense of reluctance, "there's likely more than twelve million possible jump locations, we're going to have to split the fleet up to its limits to check even half of those in a few days."

"Then we'll do it," Sean replied. "We'll send out fighters on their own and search every single possible location. I'll go and send my pilot-qualified Ranger's out on a search pattern as well."

"I'm going with you Sean," Cathy reported, "if anyone's going to find the next trace it looks like it will be you."

He nodded and the group dispersed, ready to continue the hunt.

Chapter 2 Bargaining

Jail Cell Aboard Consular Otho's Personal Transport 7:00PM

He thought he had died.

Reynolds awoke to a sever pain in the back of his head. He could taste the copper-like sensation of blood inside his mouth. He felt cold and alone.

The Captain thought back to what had happened. He remembered the bridge, he remembered hitting the door control to allow for Corporal Gate's escape, he remembered shooting at the window, in hopes of killing everyone in the room, particularly-

"Consular Otho," he groaned.

He remembered now. That damn bird was the traitor. Mafeu was right, he could have Cathy killed. His secret operatives could have him killed just as easily now as they could before he met Cathy.

He thought of her, her face. He missed her. He knew somewhere she was looking for him, and he just wanted to know she was safe. The Captain no longer cared if he ever got to hold her or even see her again, he just wanted to know she would live and be safe. He remembered back to the last days, and the things he had found out.

"She is carrying my child," he thought.

Reynolds knew it, and that also upset him. They had both come from homes that had less than caring parents. Cathy's was obviously worse, few things could compare to what her own father had done to her, but Reynolds' were only a bit better. They almost never talked to him, or even met him. He spent most of his life with his grandfather, who had trained him in various things, shot his family's Thompson with him, and acted more like a father than his true one ever did.

Unfortunately for the young Reynolds his father had been a colossal figure in the Federation as well. When he retired he let the fame go to his head, and spent most of his days with Reynolds' mother, a trophy wife to begin with, going around and just plain fucking off. They went on cruises as Steve grew up. For the first few years of his life he only met his parents every few months.

Around the time he was born he wolves first attacked. No one was exactly sure why and it didn't really matter. An uneasy peace had always existed between the two groups. More often than not the Federation would use a sign of force to hopefully convince them to join the Federation. Every time they tried this the Alpha Wolf would respectfully decline.

Then, on one mission about thirty-two years ago, the wolves attacked and captured the small, but powerful, fleet.

Luckily for the Federation, before being captured, the fleet commander managed to kill the Alpha Prime, causing the full powers of the Wolf forces to be transferred to the current Alpha wolf; the previous's only son. That action alone caused a lapse in command of the Wolf forces that the Federation was able to mobilize. In that time they destroyed the entire captured fleet and forced the new Alpha Wolf to run with, literally, his tail between his legs.

"And the way he treats woman it looks like he'll be the last of his line," the Captain commented to himself.

For a moment Steve thought about his own line, but realized that unlike the wolf, his would go on. He remembered the lake, and he remembered having sex with his lovely vixen by the lake and in it. The Captain smiled at the thought and felt the warmth of her love, even from afar.

When Reynolds turned thirteen his parents took him and sent him to a junior academy, where he began his training for the Rangers. He didn't make many friends there, a few but he wasn't the "man about town" his father had been. He did make good friends with various high-ranking officers, and by the time he was sixteen he had become friends with many Generals and Admirals. He always had a good report with them, and he even, never realizing it, met General Osing as a young man.

Upon graduating the junior Academy at 17, a very uncommon thing, he was sent directly to special training. He still only saw his parents from time to time. He graduated the specialty school top of his class, specializing in the use of all weapons, wolf and otherwise. He was then sent to the special equipment and testing divisions, where he was given the needed training to dawn the Predator 9 armor.

Now thinking back he realized the extra training there was useless, it was just further conditioning. About four weeks after starting he graduated and was issued his P9 armor. It was nearly priceless and at first Reynolds didn't like it. He thought it was too bulky and to much of a "bark is worse than it's bite" kind of thing. His opinions were totally changed the first time he was shot with a tank round. He thought it was a sick joke at first, but then her realized that the training officers were demonstrating exactly how powerful the armor was.

After that it was about six years of hard fighting with the Rangers. He didn't have to take the normal training to join them, his family's history was more than enough to show that it was his birth right to be in them and command one of it's companies, but he did anyway. His family, since a great global war on the human home planet of earth, had served in the Ranger's, and for all 3000 of those years the Reynolds had commanded a company in them.

His line was one of the oldest in the Federation, of any species, which only further added to his natural borne fame.

For a moment he wished he was just another Ranger or soldier, but he knew that he had always been destined for more. He smiled; he knew he had been destined to save Cathy.

Then, as he remembered his own life, when he was about twenty-eight, his career took a downward spiral. Because of his apt to not hiding things from his men he ended up getting them all killed. For the next four years he actually hated being in the Ranger's, he had even considered leaving them and joining one of the dedicated sniper battalions, but, at that time, something had told him to stay.

He smiled again, knowing what that something had really been.

Now, four years later, he found himself in a small, pitched black jail cell dreaming of a fellow soldier he had fallen in love with and was hoping would come and find him, but in the least, live and be safe.

The Captain tried to rub the back of his head as he came back to a more conscious state, but he found that they bound his hands; they had learned and wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

He laid there, just thinking about his wife, wherever she was he hoped she was safe.

Conference Room Aboard Consular Otho's Personal Transport 11:00PM

"Well Consular Otho, like my prize?" Mafeu commented and smiled.

The bird shifted uncomfortably in the seat, he had gotten himself in way to deep, and all he wanted was some money.

"I'm amazed you captured him to say the least," Otho replied.

The wolf sat up, sending a shiver down the falcons back, "I forgot to thank you for your actions. How you managed to convince that prick Admiral Drake to back off is beyond me."

Otho clenched his beak, he wanted to kill that human right now, he didn't have to be here right now if he had just followed his orders.

"It wasn't easy, I had to convince a lot of intelligence people to agree that your better off caught alive," Otho reported, ever the politician, "So why are you keeping the Captain? There's nothing he can tell you I won't, and the Federation isn't looking for me."

The wolf chuckled, "Yes, that's true, but you didn't kill my only son."

The bird shifted his head, he wasn't even aware that Mafeu had a son.

"You know that bitch he picked?" the Alpha wolf began to explain.

Otho nodded.

The wolf's face went completely serious, which frightened the bird, "Well when he 'saved' her, it was my son who was using her. He killed my son to save that cunt, so I'm leading him along, until I can find a way to make him pay the same way. When I overheard him say that his bitch was pregnant with his cum, I knew exactly what I was going to do."

The Consular finally got it.

"Now," the wolf continued, "I'm going to hold onto him for awhile, then, when the opportunity presents itself, your going to bring his bitch and offspring here, so I can kill and eat them in front of him. You do that, and you'll have all the nova, money, and protection I can offer. You won't ever have to worry about suffering the same fate as past Consulars of the Federation and you can enjoy the same comforts as your last few predecessors."

Otho sighed at that. He had wanted to hear that for half a year now. He wanted to be able to live in peace and comfort.

"You know they've mobilized to track and capture you, and rescue him? She's the one who's leading it," Otho commented.

The wolf smiled and took a bite of the food on his plate; "I figured that would happen, which is why, after we have our dinner tomorrow, you are to return to the Federal fleet, and capture that fox, and bring her here. We'll hold onto her for some time, until she squeezes out the piece of shit the Captain put into her, and I'll make him suffer. The Federation won't ever find us here; this system receives almost no traffic and hasn't been inhabited in about 1000 years. That's why when you capture that vixen you shouldn't even run the risk of being followed."

The bird's eyes opened wide, "How do you expect me to do that? She's a soldier of the Federation and all eyes are on her, how can I capture her?"

"I leave that to you. Your going to have to bring in another ship, I won't risk him moving again, he's just going to stay in that cell and think about what he did," the wolf said.

All Consular Otho could think of was how he could play both sides; to double cross the Alpha Prime, but still get his money.

Wolf Dropship at Second Jump Coordinate 1:49PM Local Time

Emily decelerated the ship and brought it into normal space. She dreaded the next tasked but she had to, she wouldn't feel right inside without doing it.

She turned on the active scanner and searched for her sister's body. A day ago she had to dump it in space herself, at the orders of the wolves that she had just escaped. They raped and killed her, and she had to get her body back, she couldn't sleep or live knowing her baby sister was floating lifeless in space somewhere.

She started crying at the thought. Her sister had never even fired her gun in combat, she had told Emily so. She never hurt anyone and was always nice; they had no reason or right to do what they did. For many nights Emily had changed clothes and cleaned herself up to look more like her sister, so that the wolves would have their way with her instead. At one point they raped her for a week straight, thinking they were going back and forth between the two sisters.

Her entire body ached. She hadn't even wanted to inspect herself fearing what she might find. Her pussy was still on fire and bleeding, as was her ass, and she was having a hard time breathing. Her little tail hurt, and she figured she had at least a broken shoulder. Her ear's felt like they had been stretched an extra four feet and head was killing her. None of which compared to the pain in her heart. She had let her sister die and nothing she could do would bring her back. Her parents had made her promise to protect her and she had failed. Moreover she had died a horrible and torturous death, being raped repeatedly by wolves.

"Those fucking bastards!" she yelled through her cries.

She sat there for a long time, crying to herself and thinking of her sister. She had really loved her, and thought of paying back the Alpha Prime. She remembered the Captain back aboard that ship. She still had a job to do and she wouldn't let the Captain down, she understood what drove him. Emily remembered that, but she still had a duty to her sister, she couldn't let her spend eternity in the vacuum.

Emily cried for a good hour. When she was about to fall asleep the scanner went off, it had found Sarah's body.

She fired up the sublight engines and the ship moved towards the position of Sarah's body. About ten minutes later the ship slowed and her sister's body was displayed on the view screen.

She had flash frozen in the same position Emily had laid her down in the airlock. She cried at the sight and moved back to the airlock. There she found an EVA suit and she dawned it. It was a bit too big, mainly designed with wolves in mind, but the air seal checked out and she stepped into the airlock.

A loud popping sound went through the room and a sudden venting of atmosphere was seen. A moment later the doors opened and Emily looked out into the vastness of space. She secured her safety line and jumped out, her sister's body was less than 20 meters away.

The rabbit flew along, and was soon next to Sarah's body. She cried in the suit and cradled her dead sister's corpse. Emily initiated the winch and she felt herself being moved back towards the ship. Her sister had died with a look of pure horror in her eyes and her fur had been mated with blood and dried cum. She was frozen stiff and it pained Emily deeply to see her like that. Her urge to kill the Alpha Prime grew.

Once back inside the airlock she closed the doors and depressurized. The hiss of oxygen being pump in could be heard and she was allowed to reentered the ship itself.

She carried her sister's body to the couch by which she had died, causing further pain in Emily's heart, but their was nowhere else she could put her. She just stared at the poor broken body and wept. She looked around for a blanket and she, carefully, covered her sibling's body with it and hugged the figure, she still couldn't come to grips with what had happened.

"Why!?" she wailed, "She was such and innocent little girl, they didn't need to do this!"

She laid there just holding her sister's body, and eventually cried herself out. She dried her sore eyes and stood up. She saw the instruments of torture on the wall and wanted to throw them into space, but when she walked over to them she couldn't even touch them. Aside from the fact that most of them haunted her nightmares, she couldn't bring herself to touch them. They were stained with her, and Sarah's, and Private Abrams' blood. Just looking at them made Emily's head hurt.

She rummaged around, looking for something to eat and found a store of meat and water. Emily shuddered at the thought of where some of that meat may have come from but she was too hungry to really care. She picked some up and brought it to the galley. About five minutes later she sat down and ate the first large meal she had in about a month. She wished Sarah had been there to enjoy it.

When she finished eating she knew she had to continue on and make her way back to the fleet, but she had to see her sister's body one last time in the space where she had died.

The body had warmed up a little and the blood was flowing from her body, which horrified Emily. She viciously cleaned it up, not wanting her sister's body to be in such condition. In the back of her mind, deep in her subconscious, she was really hoping if she cleaned up the corpse enough her sister would come back, but she knew this was not to be so.

When the body was as clean as Emily could make it she recovered it and laid her head down on it. She cried again and felt herself falling asleep, but she couldn't stop. She thought of her sister playing as a child with her and of the happy moments in their past. Emily fell asleep a few minutes later, knowing that at least her little sister was now at peace.

Stateroom of Catharine Reynolds' and Karl Devon aboard the FN Endeavor 2010 Military time

It had been a long day of searching, and she hadn't wanted to stop, but Cathy knew she had to sleep, her decisions weighed heavily upon the Federation, particularly now it seemed she, although a Captain in reality, held the rank of Grand Admiral, General, and Director of Intelligence.

"If only Steve could see this," she thought out loud.

He probably wouldn't have believed it, his little fox was in control of the largest fleet to have been assembled since the beginning of this war with the wolves and it was only getting bigger. By tomorrow they expected to have roughly thee-fourths of every ship in the Federation, and if they kept bringing in results they would have all a day or so later. If assembled there would be more than 10,000 starships, ranging from heavy battleships, cruisers, destroyers, to a countless number of starfighters and bombers. Either way they would all be asking Cathy for orders, and that weighed heavily on her conscious. She really just wanted to rest; she wanted to rest with her Captain in her arms.

Karl on the other hand was loving this. Because he found the briefing and strategy room boring he spent the last few days, with an officer escort, on the shooting range. He really like his gun, and he kept asking if he was going to be allowed to keep it. The range officer said it was one of the strangest things he's seen, the little 12 year old puppy target shooting, and not doing to bad at it either.

What time he didn't spend at the shooting range he spent at the mess hall. He had never seen such foods and asked that, once he found the Captain, he could take a box of the new and strange foods to Lucy back on Chyane.

Now they were both tired and went to bed right away. This time she didn't even notice that Karl got right into bed with her. She had actually grown accustomed herself to sleeping with a partner, and she couldn't wait for Steve's return. She had felt awkward sharing the bed with the pup when he first asked if he could, but, to her, it felt a lot worse now that he had made it quite clear that "Little Lucy" was doing more than just sleeping over with him. Cathy knew that Karl had no feelings for her; hell, he probably saw her more like his mother than someone of sexual interest, but it was still a strange thing for her.

On the other hand Karl didn't even seem to notice her discomfort. He was, after all, a pup, and was barely aware of himself much less others. He was just glad he had someone to be around while, in his mind, he searched for the Captain.

"You really think we'll find him soon?" he asked Cathy, half asleep.

She smiled, "Yes, I'm sure of it. He's close and I can feel it."

Actually she could feel something, and it was starting to bother her. She was thinking a lot about certain parts of their relationship, and she was starting to feel it. For the past day she could barely pay attention to the various tasks that she was asked to complete, she just kept thinking about the lake, and being in heat, and doing all those great things with Steve. She knew that even horny vixen's only went into heat once every two or thee months, and that usually stopped when their lover had seeded them, but she could feel it in her bones she was having those urges again. She could feel her own pussy lips getting wet and she dreaded that. The last thing she wanted to do was go into heat with Karl hugging her in the bed.

Cathy reached down to her wet pussy lips. She tried to stop herself but she couldn't help it. She played with her wet cunny juices and brought her paw back up and tasted them. All that did was further excite her and she continued rubbing on out. She tried to do what Steve did, but he was quite... skilled at it. Nonetheless Cathy and her body were enjoying the attention and she started breathing hard and arching her back. Karl stirred and she froze, but when Cathy saw that he was still asleep she was excited further; the thought of being caught acted as a further aphrodisiac to her being in heat.

Her paw was now soaked with her juices, and she kept rubbing. She was so excited that with her other paw she started playing with her own tits, which were, up until now, feeling a bit sore. She started humping her own paw, hard. The bed moved enough that Karl stirred again but this time Cathy kept going, the feeling was taking her over. She started moaning quietly, just remembering back to the lake and Steve giving her cunt a good fucking. Cathy started moaning louder and louder, but thanks to God Karl didn't wake or stir anymore. She could feel the bed sheets under her starting to become soaked with her pussy juices and the smell was playing havoc with her mind.

She brought her paw back to her lips and licked her juices once again. Cathy even kissed her paw and rubbing the fur on it; in her mind it was the Captain's face. She put her paw back to her warm cunny and kept rubbing. She slipped a finger inside and she let out a high-pitched moan. This time Karl did stir and his eyes fluttered. He saw Cathy breathing hard and moaning but didn't understand.

"Are-are you okay?" he asked half asleep.

She stopped dead short, her breathing was still hard but both her paws stopped dead short where they were.

"I'm, ahem, I'm okay Karl, go back to sleep," she said nervously. The last thing she needed was to be caught rubbing one out around the prepubescent puppy.

He rolled over and without missing a beat she was back to her pussy. She cradled her breast and pat the fur on her belly, as the captain had did about a week ago. All that went through her mind was his cock going in and out of her tight pussy, again and again. She could feel herself starting to cum but she didn't want to. Cathy remembered her pussy tended to squirt her juices all over the place and she knew that would wake him up, if only making him think she "wet the bed."

Ill regardless, she kept going. She started moaning faster and finger fucking herself harder. Her back arched up and she could feel herself cuming. Her legs locked up and her moans silenced and she felt a hot, sticky stream of her cum shoot out her pussy. She came hard, not as hard as she did with Reynolds, but still pretty good.

Karl was still hugging her side and her movement awoke him, but this time he played asleep. He had no idea what was happing to her, and his leg felt wet, but she was groaning and he thought she must have been having a nightmare of sorts.

He started shaking her saying, "It's okay Cathy it's just a dream!"

Cathy's mind went white cold with horror as she turned her head and saw Karl looking right back at her. She couldn't even lower herself and act like nothing was wrong because she was still cuming.

Karl saw she was awake but she was still thrashing about and moaning and his leg was feeling wetter and wetter. He kicked back the covers and to his surprise he saw her paw shoved up her own shirt and her sweats at her knees, with her other paw buried in her privates. A huge stream of white liquid was coming out from her privates and at first he thought, as she had assumed he would, that she was wetting the bed, but he could smell it and it wasn't urine. He had smelled it before and he knew exactly what it was.

For a long moment the two stared at each other. Karl's eyes were full of embarrassment and surprise, whereas Cathy's were of horror and shame. When her pussy's convulsions died down she stopped cumming and pulled up her panties and sweats. She caught Karl's eye look at her exposed pussy for that moment and they both felt ashamed.

Again they laid there, not sure what to say. Cathy couldn't believe what she had done. She had put her pleasure above what was appropriate to do around a young pup and she knew she should feel terrible, and she did.

"I'm sorry Karl," she finally mustered. "I-I was just thinking of Steve and I don't know what came over me, I'm really, really sorry."

He just adverted his eyes and stared at the wall, he wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to offend her, but what she was doing bothered him, he didn't even like it when Lucy did that kind of thing with him.

"If you want I'll let you have the bed tonight, I'll sleep on the cot," she offered.

She didn't want to sleep with Karl tonight; she knew that would be so uncomfortable that neither would sleep. She was already afraid she had given off the wrong impression onto him.

Cathy tried to reassure him with, "I just miss Steve a lot, and sometimes when a woman misses her partner she has too, well you saw," she looked away.

"I know what you were doing," he said in a somewhat offended voice. "Lucy would sometimes have me do that to her with my paw or even my mouth, so I can understand why you did it I guess. If you want to do it again tell me and I'll go downstairs to get something to eat, I don't want to bother you."

Cathy could tell he was hurt; she had gone way to far with herself. It was more than apparent now that he knew exactly what she was doing and that just made her feel all the more selfish and embarrassed.

She sat up and pat the side of his body, trying to get his attention, "I have no excuse Karl, I wanted to make myself feel better and I should have done it when I was alone, certainly not when you were in bed with me."

She was so embarrassed that you could see her blushing even through her blood red fur. Cathy could feel that the bed was soaked and hopped out and circled the bed. Her tail hung in shame between her legs and she kneeled down facing Karl.

"You know I'm really sorry Karl, right?" she asked, still afraid of what she had done right next to the twelve year old.

He nodded and sat up, although he still looked offended. He was mainly angry that his uniform was wet, and he was going to make that known.

"I don't care so much that you were making yourself feel better, I know you miss the Captain, but did you have to wet the bed with your, your stuff?" he asked, unaware her "stuff" was in fact a rather large amount of cum.

The question only made her feel more embarrassed but she knew he deserved an explanation.

"Karl," she started, "when a woman, or a man, gets excited enough while their doing... that... they release those fluids and the-"

"I know what that was too," he cut her off, "I just want to know why you did that all over the bed."

"Well I guess some people just have more cum than other's," she stated, very embarrassed she was explaining a phenomenon that she herself hadn't known before she had met the Captain.

"Cum?" he asked.

"Oh boy," she thought, but she answered anyway. "Cum is that liquid that came out of me when I made myself feel better or," she could feel heat on her face from the sheer embarrassment, "from you when you and Lucy have sex."

She wanted to faint; she just couldn't believe she had to explain this to a 12-year-old puppy. A fitting punishment she knew, but she still hated it.

To ease her humiliation though, the puppy's attitude shifted to embarrassment as well at her blatant mention of his relationship with Lucy.

For another long moment they just sat there, both unsure of the next step. Karl finally stood up and took off his pants, which scared Cathy at first, but when she saw he was only trying to wash out her cum from them. She felt ashamed at the thought that he might have meant something more than that, she always harbored the fear that every man around her was eyeing her as nothing more than a sexual object, and in the past few weeks she had met nothing but men that had the complete opposite, particularly Steve.

She forced a weak chuckle and said, "I'm sorry about the pants Karl, I'll order you another pair right away."

He shook his head and very seriously said, "No, you can do that later, but right now you need to go and wash yourself and clean the bed." As if he was an old dog he added, "if I was you I would think about what you did and learn to control yourself and do that where its okay."

Cathy actually smiled and replied, "Karl your more mature than anyone on this ship."

He returned the smile and wagged his tail, he wanted to seem as old as possible to not only be seen as the little puppy he was.

As if she was following his orders she got up, scooted him off the bed and ripped off the sheets. She threw them into the hamper and laid out a new one and blanket. He pointed to the bathroom and she grinned embarrassingly and walked into it.

She undressed and turned on the water, but tested it carefully. She still remembered that first night she spent with the Captain and the incident with the shower. To her utter surprise she felt herself getting horny again. She remembered him rubbing her out the first time right after that event and she felt herself touching her swollen pussy lips again. This time she let into the feelings more but she moved herself into the water, letting it run over her fur.

Because she wasn't worried of anyone barging in on her she finger fucked herself more furiously this time. The water matted her bright red fur and she rubbed the fur on her tits, loving how her entire body shook each time she ran her soaked paw over her erect nipples.

Cathy leaned up against the wall and her tail made sensual circles as continued fingering herself. Her head leaned back and her tongue dangled out the side of her mouth as she panted. She was breathing so hard that her tits would rise so high she couldn't see her own finger moving furiously at her tight cunt. Her moans echoed off the showers walls and the steam made the room feel like a tight hug.

She closed her eyes and continued rubbing the inside of her cunt. Its walls quivered and sucked on her fingers as they invaded and felt around. As she felt herself starting to cum she could have sworn she felt Steve's arms around her body and her eyes shot open. To her disappointment she was alone in the shower but still horny.

Once again Cathy closed her eyes but this time she thought about that massage he had given her. He had managed to make her cum, hard, and he hadn't even touched her pussy. She removed her hand from her steamy pussy and started doing what he did. Her hands played over her sides, the inside of her thighs, even up to her breasts, and while it felt good it couldn't compare to what he had done. She laid down on the floor of the shower, letting the water envelop and circulate over, around, and in her open pussy lips. She restarted the self-massage but it still wasn't the same.

"It must be some kind of special movement," she thought and tried rubbing herself in a different way.

She rubbed harder on her sides and parts of her body, but again, it felt good and relaxing, but it wasn't... sexually stimulating, certainly not like the one he had given her back at the lake.

What she didn't know, and that he had learned from his data pad, was that the massaged worked on the simple idea of not massaging her, but massaging her fur. She never had patted herself, so she didn't realize that it was so stimulating. The fact was that he hadn't so much found out about the massage, he was trying to find out why she reacted so much when he rubbed the fur on her cheek, and he stumbled upon the massage's secret. All he had done was basically pet her as if she was lying at his feet. One thing that he didn't even realize at the time was that, she didn't necessarily cum because of the massage, but because it was him giving it.

Seeing that she couldn't duplicate his hand motion, Cathy sat up and set herself down on the shower seat. She reinserted her paw into her cunny lips and began rubbing herself out. She just dreamed of him giving her pussy a good pounding and it felt infinitely better, but not as good as he did it.

Once again she would have sworn she felt his hand pet the fur on her ears and she fluttered them and was once again disappointed to find that he wasn't really there.

Cathy felt alone and she wanted Reynolds back. She quickly finished herself off, rubbing her erect clit quickly. Within a few minutes her breathing increased and her moans silenced, and she saw a stream of sweet smelling cum shoot out her cunny. She found herself not really enjoying this though. The feeling was there, but she had grown accustomed to that feeling being accompanied by his love.

When the stream slowed and her breathing went back to somewhat normal levels, she stood up, her legs were kind of weak, and washed her body. Her fur felt good in her paws and she washed herself from head to toe. She didn't have too, but she figured she might as well.

When she finished, Cathy got out of the shower and dried herself off. As she dried off she poofed her fur, she always liked it like that when she wasn't in the field. She dressed in clean clothing and walked back into the room. The lights were off and Karl was sound asleep in the bed.

She smiled at the sight. Even though it was more than clear he was sexually active, he still looked very innocent when he was asleep. Carefully she laid down next to him and to her surprise he reached out, although asleep, and hugged her side. He snuggled into her and soon they were both asleep, both dreaming of their lovers who were far away, and, as they both knew, were dreaming of them.

Planning Room Aboard FN Endeavor 2200 Military Time

General Osing watched the screens, he had served in the Federation longer than most people had been alive and he had never, not once, seen so many ships under the same command. Moreover he couldn't believe that more were coming every hour, getting their orders, and jumping out system to continue the hunt for the Alpha Prime and, more importantly, Captain Reynolds.

He sipped his coffee and heard footsteps behind him. Admiral Drake walked up behind him and took the seat next to Osing and watched the screens as well.

"Your in the navy, have you ever seen so many ships?" Osing asked, not removing his gaze from the screens.

Drake shook his head and finally responded with a simple "no."

"You afraid she's gona pop?" Osing asked, this time with concern in his voice.

This time Drake was sure of the answer, "No, she's stronger than anyone here, maybe even as strong as the Captain. If I had a hundred more officers like her this war would be over in a week."

They both knew that more soldiers wasn't going to change how soon this war was going to over. Things were going to come to a head one way or another. It was obvious; the fates were conspiring just for this. The Federation was finally going to track down the Wolf leader, and coincidently, basically the largest fleet in the history of the Federation was working under one command. They both feared the coming weeks.

"What's wrong Fred?" Osing asked. His friend was being curt and seemed to be hiding something.

Drake took a deep breath and replied, "George, you managed to hide for lord knows how long you actions of stealing away soldiers. I know your going to think I'm a spy right now, but I cant help but feel like there's something worse your hiding, something that only you know."

General Osing turned his chair to face his friend. To his surprise he was holding an EMP grenade and Osing got the point.

"Lets take this to the Officer's club, it should be empty now," Osing suggested.

The two got up and walked to the nearby bar. As he had figured, it was empty and silent. Drake set off the grenade to clear any bugs and the two sat down at a table and Osing took a big swig from a shot of scotch.

"Tell me what you think you know Fred," the general started. He wanted to make sure his attempts to keep his plan a secret had gone better than his attempts to hide his smuggling of lovers away from the Federation.

Drake tilted his head, "I haven't a clue, seriously, just and inclining of something big."

"Well," he started, "you know, hell you have as well, that I've been in the army for well over 35 years, I saw the beginning of this war and I'm sure I'll see the end of it, but I've seen something else happening."

Now Drake was very interested, this sounded serious.

"I've seen and met almost every single Consular we've had since the beginning of this war, and I've seen a trait forming along all those years." Osing took a deep breath, "You know how after a consular ends his term he goes right back to whatever he was before hand?"

Drake nodded, now not wanting to hear the next part.

"Well, if you can remember, most consulars tended to be retired officers, Generals, Admirals, and such now-"

"George," Drake cut him off, "I don't think I want to know what your about to say."

General Osing just smiled and replied, "Yes, I think you do."

Drake just nodded and Osing continued.

"Well, since more and more high ranking officers are, like us, serving longer and longer, and when we feel we've done all we can do we just retire right?"

Drake nodded again, his interest now starting to perk up.

Osing seeing this took another drink of Scotch, as did Drake, and he continued; "That's why most Consulars in recent day are being drawn from either the senate, although that's pretty uncommon, or the civilian population, which has become quite the norm. Now while you would expect most of them to come from rich families, well to do or highly placed in society, that's not the case. The senate, fearing corruption because of a wealthy Consular, opted to elect them from poorer areas, just as Otho was."

"Otho? That bird lives like a king," Drake commented, he had always resented the bird for that, and the fact that he was indeed a bird.

"My point exactly. The senate's plan backfired, instead of having a rich consular that moved from one palace to another one, you have a guy moving from a shit motel to basically the best place in the Federation. He's catered to, eats the finest food, can go wherever he wants for a year, and then he's back to his crappy life."

Drake was starting to get it, and if he was right he was very frightened with what this might mean.

"Have you ever stopped and wondered what happens to these poor bastards after they leave the job and go back to their 'normal and poor' lives?"

Drake shook his head, no one did.

"We'll the first three who were like that stayed true; went back and live their lives in the same places that they came from. After them you start seeing these guys come back and start buying shit. You don't make any money being Consular, if anything you loose it because you can't ever really return to your old job, so where are they getting this money? You see I started noticing this after I ran into one of these fellows. He was living in quite the luxurious mansion with butlers and maids in those skimpy uniforms and he was just having a grand time. I looked what he had before he was Consular, and he didn't even live on that planet. He was a poor governor of Foc, funny enough Captain Gery's home planet. I started following this trend, and low and behold it's continued."

Drake sighed; he had to play Osing's little game, "So where are they getting this money?"

Now Osing smiled, this was the key part.

"I asked myself the same question after the first 10 years of Consular's acting like this, and I searched around for the next 10. Consular Otho is that tenth one, and I think I've finally figured it out. I have another question for you Fred; have you ever wondered why such a seemingly bad, yet easily beaten enemy has managed to survive against the Federation for more than thirty years?"

Drake shook his head; he had never given that aspect much thought. He always said this war had been going on too long, but he never stopped to think why.

"I've come to believe that Otho, and the past twenty or so Consular's have been making deals with the Wolves. The wolves give them money and Consulars give them military secrets and have us throw battles. What made this very apparent to me was first; Otho put a lot of interest in Chyane, manly because of what? It's nova reserves, yet much of the time we barely find piles as the wolves have been mining it. Second, we had come so close to capturing the Alpha, orders out in the open to stop at nothing to capture him what does Otho do? He orders you and many other officers to kill him on sight, now if he's supposed to be defending the Federation, why would he want to kill the enemy leader when we could cause more damage by capturing him? Because Mafeu told Otho that if he was captured he would spill the beans, and that would mean the end of Otho's life, not to mention that he couldn't enjoy his grand lifestyle anymore as you noted."

Drake sat there for a long moment, just analyzing what Osing had just said. It sounded right, he was probably right, it added up, but he couldn't believe it.

"But what if he just-"

"There's no other explanation Drake. He's been playing both sides for fools, as have the last twenty consulars. For all we know this war could have ended in a few years. So, all for money, tens of millions of soldiers and civilians, on both sides, have died, now you can see why I'm going to have to ask you to do me a favor," Osing concluded, looking at Drake whose face was white with fear.

The great fearless Admiral was terrified with what this might be, and he knew he would have to do it.

"I need you to help me prove this. If we can do that maybe we can end this, and I think, I don't know why, but I think that these two captains may very well be the key."

Drake smiled, "How are we going to go about this George?"

The two talked for the next two hours, and unknown to all, they planed out what was going to happen to the Federation. Change was on the horizon, and only the two greatest commanders in the Federation's history knew it.

Chapter 3 A New Pair

Wolf Dropship at Second Jump Coordinate 9:00AM Local Time

"No, No, No!" Emily yelled, hitting the control panel. "No, this can't happen!"

She cried hard, knowing she had failed twice in the past few days.

The wolf dropship was out of fuel; it couldn't jump. There was enough electricity being made by the dying reactor to leave all the electrical systems active, but that was it. She had got her sister's body, but it now appeared she was going to die in the same place, out of fuel and letting down everyone, the Captain, his wife, and her dead sister.

"I can't even kill that bastard now!" she sobbed.

There was nothing the rabbit could do, she couldn't even hail the Federation; the radio was disabled. All she had left was the small, close quarters emergency beacon. It could only be picked up from within the closest of other systems, and for all she knew the Federation hadn't even been able to get remotely close to the route they had gone.

She calmed down and said to herself, "alright, sooner or later a freighter will come through this system and they'll inform the Federation. Until then I have plenty of food and water."

Her voice was weak and tired. She felt dirty and she was starting to be able to smell herself.

Emily turned on the beacon and went in search of a bathroom; she needed to clean herself up. She walked through all the rooms, minus the one where her sister lay on the couch. She had awoken to the terrible sight of holding her body, and she hoped that she would awake to find her alive, but the cold fact was that she was dead, and the only thing the poor rabbit could hope for now was to take revenge on her killer.

Emily found the bathroom and walked in. It was rather simple for what she would have thought the Alpha Prime used for days, but what other choice did he have. She, although cautiously, removed all her tattered clothes and just inspected herself in the mirror.

She looked like a rabbit that had been... well... beaten and raped for about a month and a half. Her fur was matted with a mixture of blood, cum, and sweet from not just her. Emily's entire body itched because of it. She couldn't bring herself to inspect her sex organ, the outside of it looked horrible enough. It had cuts and laceration all over her once, as her various boyfriends had told her, beautiful pussy lips. She was missing fur all over the place and it just was eating her up inside.

She stepped into the shower and turned on the water. At first the water seemed to just slide off her, but after she started carefully scrubbing herself it started to take effect. The look of the water going down the drain sickened her to her stomach. It was a sickly brown and thick, and she could feel herself actually loosing weight from the lost dirt and dried fluids.

"How they could want to rape a furry is beyond me, much less one that was this filthy," she commented aloud.

The shower was almost as good as bed rest. Her various wounds burned but soon eased and for the first time in over a month she actually started feeling, physically at least, okay. She made sure to thoroughly clean her entire body, from the top of hear ears to her feet, but she skipped her vagina and ass for obvious reasons. Her fur started to return to its original creamy brown texture, and for the first time in weeks she could start to see how her belly which had been pure white. She washed her tits the hardest, mainly to get the mental stench of the wolves groping off of her. Her tail, which her parents had told her as a little girl, was about the most adorable, classic bunny tail on the planet. They had also said it may get her in trouble with men if she wasn't careful.

"Boy did they call that," she commented aloud once again.

She cleaned out every wound she had, most of which were on her head and belly. Only a few were deep and needed real washing. She finally felt that her body was actually clean, and she loved it. Her fur actually felt as it had when she had been free and that made her feel a bit better to her entire situation, but she became serious when she came to the point where she had to clean her sex organ.

She carefully washed her vaginal lips, which weren't as adverse to her touch as they had been before; the water was really helping. She soaped up her fingers and carefully inserted them inside. To her relief it wasn't as bad as she had dreamed, she only had about four cuts inside, two of which came from that last terrible event with her late sister. Emily remembered back to Private Abrams, and how badly she had been raped. She was so bad off that her internals were mashed, it was almost a mercy killing when they executed her, but she still deserved better. Emily's tubes were much better off, even though she had seen more "action" than her sister or Private Abrams, and they were both dead. She felt herself starting to cry, and it wasn't from the pain inside her pussy.

While she had never been a "sex freak" before this last month and a half of horrors, she hadn't been adverse to it either. She couldn't even imagine having sex again after this episode, but her more careful and easy touch was causing a reaction in her pussy. The last thing she wanted was to rub one out now, the cuts were holding up, but barely.

She shifted her attention to her asshole, which had taken the larger beating. It hurt as she just washed the fur around it and she didn't venture the same cleaning she had with the rest of her.

When she was completely satisfied she had washed herself free of the wolves she stepped out of the shower and dried off. Her fur was soft and bouncy as it had been long before all this happened and she gave herself a good rub across her belly.

She actually cracked a smile when she looked herself over again in the mirror. She barely recognized the rabbit looking back at her. She saw her still bloody and filthy clothes on the floor and she didn't want to put them on. Aside from the fact they were part of a terrible event she wanted to be nothing but a memory, but she didn't want to be to wear the dirty clothing now that she was clean.

Emily wrapped the towel around herself and searched the ship for anything that would be clean. She even ventured into the wolf's quarters and considered, for a second, wearing their clothes, but she opted for the towel over that. Knowing that she was likely stuck on board for the next few weeks she decided she was going to have to stay in the dirty clothing, at least until the former uniform fell apart. She put it on and she was filled with the pain of the memories it held.

She walked about the ship, and found herself in the room with her sister's corpse. The rabbit knew that it was a bad idea to just leave her in the open like that, and she knew were the freezer was, but she couldn't bring herself to just stuff her sister into it. She reasoned with herself and knew it was for the better; if she froze Sarah's body at least she could have it buried back home by her parents. Emily didn't even think she could face her mother and father after this.

So, after about an hour of self-convincing, Emily picked up and cradled her sister's body. She could feel Sarah's body shifting in her arms as she walked to the freezer, and it hurt her heart to think of her spending the next few weeks in a deep freezer, but she owed it to Sarah to have her buried at home where she belonged.

She carefully laid Sarah down in the freezer and she could feel the tears on her face starting to freeze. She stared at the corpse for a moment and walked out, shutting the door but leaving it unlocked; Emily still wished she would be okay.

Now that she was really alone on board the ship she laid down on what had been the only unused bunk on the ship. Emily didn't want to have to share the room that had once housed her captors, but she had little choice. She was soon asleep and was dreaming of a happier time that was long gone.

FN Endeavor at Station Keeping, Awaiting Reports from SAR Craft 0930 Military Time

"So how many now?" Sterling asked, amused by the news.

Drake smiled, "the entire First and Second fleets."

"Whose that leave?" Sterling asked, wondering if there was anyone else.

Drake smiled once again, "No one."

The dog let out a low whistle and stared at the view screen. It looked more like a solid wall of steel rather than countless starships. It was now the largest fleet ever assembled and the fact that not a single accident had happened was a pure act of God.

About a half hour later Captain Grey walked in with Karl in toe.

"Morning Captain, you look tired," Drake commented.

She shrugged and replied, "I couldn't sleep much; I had dreams of Steve all night."

Karl gave a small kick to the back of her boot, almost causing Cathy to die of embarrassment. The morning had been awkward enough; the last thing she wanted to do was have anyone else know what she had done.

"I think you'll be pleased to know that every single starship in the Federation is now under your control and on the search for those two," Drake reported.

She noted that his opinion towards furries of all kinds had greatly improved. The famous hatred that the Admiral had towards her kind had completely disappeared, and Cathy was completely sure that it was because of Karl. That little pup had a the most effect on people than anyone she had ever met, although Captain Atric would argue that.

Almost reading her thoughts Drake continued, "Captain Atric was looking for you before, he said that you two were going to go brief the starfighter pilots and send them out today.

She nodded and walked off the bridged, and too the launch bay. She found it busy and cluttered, and F-98 starfighters were taking off and flying off into space.

"Captain Reynolds!" she heard Sean yell at her from across the room. She walked over to him and he smiled. She was glad he accepted the name she had donned.

"You look tired, you okay?" he asked.

In an annoyed tone she told him the same thing that she told the Admiral, and he got the point.

"Well you slept a bit to late and I briefed the pilots already as you can see," he gestured to the 100 or so fighters taking off.

"I'm going to go out too, what's the most likely patrol sector?" she asked, hoping that some lead had been found while she had slept. With the entire intelligence bureau dedicated to finding this one target you'd think they would find it in less than an hour, but they just couldn't pick up a single lead.

"Unfortunately Cathy there isn't a 'most likely patrol sector' we're just running random searches now of all nearby systems. We actually have enough ships now that it's actually possible to really look around this Galaxy in a usable amount of time, but its not the only possible location," Sean reported.

Cathy sighed and replied, "Well where are you going, cause I just don't feel right sitting around being asked 'is this a good idea' or 'should we go here.' They think I know right where Steve is, but if I knew that I'd move this whole fleet there in a second."

He smiled and walked toward a pair of fighters, "Well get into yours, it's a bumpy ride."

The vixen ran along and hopped into the starfighter. As most intelligence solde- officers, she was well versed in all vehicles of the Federation and being she had originally wanted to be in the navy, she was a decent pilot.

They took off and made their jump right away, both hopping to find another clue.

Jail Cell Aboard Consular Otho's Personal Transport 9:14AM

His eyes hurt as the door was opened, he couldn't move and he couldn't cover his eyes so he basically flipped himself over to hide his eyes from the light.

"On your feet you piece of shit!" a wolf yelled at him from the doorway.

Although his eyes hurt he couldn't show any weakness, not now. Reynolds had managed to escape before and to kept the fear he had instilled in the wolves he needed to keep a persona that made it look like he could do so again as he pleased.

The wolf, almost hearing the Captain's thoughts, pushed the back of his head as he walked out. He turned and stared at the wolf, who did take a step back and didn't touch him again. The wolf led him to a small interrogation room, and he sat down on the cold metal chair. The wolf exited and for a long moment he felt very alone.

After about five minutes the Alpha Prime walked in. That superior grin he always had was gone from his face, which just made Reynolds feel all warm inside.

"What's wrong Mafeu?" the Captain asked mockingly.

The Alpha Prime sat down and replied in anger, "You just wait; your time will come."

"I'm sure."

The Alpha laughed at Reynolds' defiance, he always liked a good challenge.

"So Mafeu, why are you keeping me? You've that fucking bird on your side what do you need me for?" Reynolds asked.

He didn't care what the wolf's answer was; he knew that as long as it seemed like business as usual they would hang around in this system until Cathy came with the Federation. Even if he died the wolf and that bird would still pay.

"Nothing ever gets by you huh? I'm keeping you because there are certain things I don't believe Otho about, and I know, particularly now, your going to be even more compliant with my questioning. I know you wouldn't want Otho to have to order your wife's execution," the Alpha Prime grinned.

"Otho doesn't have the balls to try," the Captain replied, although the fear was apparent in his voice.

Mafeu chuckled and answered, "I bet you didn't think he had the balls to be a traitor or work with me no less, so if I was you I would stop assuming things about our mutual friend," he gave a toothier grin than before.

"How long until you eat him? End of his term?" the captain asked, hoping that he was going to be served for dinner real soon.

"Oh no, I couldn't do that, it would make me look bad to the next Consular and how could I convince that poor sap to let me continue the war, even if I did offer him tons of money."

The Captain's eyes went wide; he got it now.

"This is all over money?!" he yelled.

"As sorry as I am to say it is," the Alpha Prime replied with no hint of untruthfulness, "Almost ever Consular for the last twenty-two or so years has been making deals with us to trade wealth for secrets. We give them money so when they return to their 'normal' lives they can still enjoy the amenities that they had as Consulars, and in return they give us whatever we need at the moment to try and win the war."

"I don't believe that," Reynolds replied.

This brought the Alpha a laugh. "You don't believe me! The consular himself is onboard and you're going to have a nice meal with him later on and you don't believe he's trading secrets and equipment for money! You think he just hangs around because he likes me? I always knew you were a lot dumber than your legendary status made you seem."

Confused and upset, the Captain settled down. He didn't want it to be true, but it may very well turn out to be. He had fought in the Federation against the wolves for ten years of his life; the same war may make it so he will never see his lover again, and it was all because some bird and his predecessors wanted money. On top of that he had known hundreds of thousands of men and women that had died during this war and did this make their sacrifice in vain? Did they die defending the Federation or to line a greedy consular's pockets? It was too horrible to think about.

"So as I was saying," the Alpha continued, "your going to be cleaned up and," he grinned, "we're going to have nice meal with the consular tonight, I'm sure you have plenty of questions for him."

The Alpha wolf motioned to one of the guards and they took Reynolds from the small interrogation room. They walked down the corridors until they made their way to a shower area. The wolf instructed him to stand still and they tied him down on the floor, facing to the ceiling.

The Captain had no question in what was about to happen, particularly when the wolf guard hefted a rather large whip.

F-98 Starfighter, Searching for Possible second jump Coordinate 1030 Military Time

"Well my scanners got nothing, what about yours Cathy?" Sean asked over the COM line.

She double-checked her various monitors and instruments, but to her disappointment nothing was in the system.

"No, I don't read anything either," she replied, with a noticeable sense of frustration in her voice.

Captain Atric chuckled, trying to lighten her mood, "Don't worry, we'll find him, just not here. Comon, we might as well jump back the Endeavor. You've got to start making sure all those new ships get out looking in the right areas."

"Don't remind me," the vixen replied.

Cathy was dreading the task. It had been interesting at first, to be in command basically of the Federation military, but it had gotten old, fast.

She sighed and began typing in the return coordinates for the fleet and said, "I think when I find Steve we're going to take a nice vacation, I need it and I can't imagine he'll want to get right back to work either."

Captain Atric chuckled, the thought of the two Captain Reynolds asleep on a beach somewhere just didn't seem to fit in with the image they both provided. They both just seemed so ready to serve, yet made exactly for each other.

As Sean was typing in the return address himself he received a small, yet noticeable, ping on his relay. At first he ignored it, but it kept receiving the small ping.

"Hey I got something Cathy," he reported.

With some excitement in her voice she replied, "What?"

"I'm not sure," he replied. He fixed in the location of the origin and found it to be an S&R beacon, "It's just a search and rescue beacon, I'll mark the location and give it to command."

"What if it's the wolf dropship?" Cathy asked, now very interested.

Captain Atric shook his head, although none could see it, "No, it wouldn't be. If you had the Alpha Prime on board do you really think you would put out a beacon that the Federation may pick up?"

"But what if Steve overpowered them?" she replied, now almost completely sure it was the dropship.

He chuckled, "How about this; I'll check it out right now, you return to the fleet. No sense in both of us checking out some S&R locator."

She sighed and agreed. A few minutes later she jumped out of system and back to the massing Federation Fleet. Sean tried to zero in on the exact location of the source. It was just to far to use the sublight engines, but what would be considered to close to need to jump. Ill regardless he typed in the coordinates and a few seconds later he was off as well, to investigate this strange signal.

Conference Room Aboard Consular Otho's Personal Transport 11:00PM

Otho sat and waited for the Alpha wolf's return. He hated meetings like this and he hated that damn wolf. The consular knew he had come very close to being caught, by both the Federation and the Alpha Prime. He had ordered Drake to kill him but the bastard opted to follow the suggestions, of all things, the now apparent spouse of Captain Reynolds, and happened to be the same fox he had to capture. It was like a bad dream to him.

"Why couldn't that damn human figure things out on his own? Since when does he listen to furries anyway, much less ones lower in rank!" the bird said to himself.

Had Drake followed his orders, like he was supposed to, Otho knew he wouldn't have needed to be here, he could have just taken what money he already had and sat back and waited for his term to be up. Instead he had just dug his hole deeper and was now worried that hole may turn out to be his grave.

Mafeu walked into the room, and was greeted by the sight of the nervous Consular Otho.

"Greetings Consular," he started as he sat down in his chair, "I see that you look well rested."

The bird shifted uneasily in his chair. Mafeu loved how he caused such discomfort in the weak falcon.

"Thank you very well, how did your meeting with Captain Reynolds go?" he asked, trying to remove all focus from himself.

"He's being," the wolf gave a toothy smile, "washed."

The bird shuttered, he knew what was going on and dreaded the thought.

"Anyway," the wolf continued, "our dinner plans are still on. I'm anxious to see what you two will say to each other, since you've both willingly betrayed the Federation you have more in common than you think. You did it for money, he foolishly did it for love."

"I didn't just do it because I want money," Otho replied, trying in vain to defend his actions, "I don't want to live life as poor as I did before. I'm just trying to get my well deserved comforts."

The wolf chuckled, "Whatever helps you sleep at night consular, whatever helps you sleep."

Otho frowned, he hadn't been sleeping well ever since he had been told by the previous Consular of this type of "wheeling and dealing."

"So when do you want me to," he paused, dreading the thought, "bring his 'wife' here?" Otho asked.

The Alpha went serious and sat up, "I'd say in a few weeks. The Federation's not going to find us here; it's just to unknown of a system. Hell, there's literally not one single trade route that goes through this system."

"What's it called again?" Otho asked; he wanted to know as much as he could about the system.

"Sol I think. I know it's where their kind started, before they felt the need to go into the galaxy and change the way we ran things," Mafeu replied, with notable resentment to the human kind.

"You know that Captain Reynolds' family line is almost as old as my own?" Mafeu asked, trying to get off the subject of the system, he didn't trust Otho.

"No. To be honest I only know that he's about one of the greatest soldiers in the Federation, and has a bit of a shaky history," the Falcon replied.

The Alpha Prime growled with bitterness, he hated the Captain more than the Captain even knew. He was going to get Reynolds back one day.

"Well," Mafeu started, "his line is more than 3000 years old, and famous for its military record, and I can't wait to end it, showing how it failed when it was most important to win."

He really wanted to pay the human back.

Trying to end the conversation asked, "When do you want me to leave and return to the Federation? They will start to wonder where I am; I kind of left at a bad time."

The Alpha wolf with a rare display of surprise tilted his head, "What do you mean, you didn't mention you left abruptly."

If Otho didn't have feathers you could have seen his face go pure white, he had made a terrible mistake.

"I uh, thought I did?" the Falcon replied, with obvious worry in his voice.

Now interests peaked, the wolf answered simply with a long, "No, you didn't."

For a long moment the bird just stared at the wolf, a mixture of fear and horror in his mind. He tried to think of a good lie to voice himself up but couldn't think of a thing.

"Well?" the wolf pursued, now with suspicion in his voice, which frightened Otho even more.

He finally got an idea, "I left so I wouldn't have to be part of the fox's trial."

"What was the offense?" the wolf asked, trying now to not sound so interested.

"Well for having sex with the Captain for one," Otho replied confidently, as it wasn't so much a lie as it was not telling the whole truth. "And for the other, she deserted the Federation; both carry a high price in the Federation."

"Hmm," the wolf snorted, "your rules and laws might serve us better than I would have thought. This does change things, I think it's best to wait until she's convicted, if we steal her away now they'll put up a better search. You are to remain here for at least another week or so."

This worked out for both of them. Otho didn't want to return to the Federation so soon after his hasty exit, and Mafeu wanted to keep a close eye on the possibly double crossing Falcon.

"I'd suggest you go and get cleaned up, tonight's dinner should be... interesting to say the least," the Alpha wolf suggested, with a toothy grin.

Otho nodded and exited, happy to leave this "den of wolves."

Mafeu sat and pondered what had just happened. He wasn't the brightest wolf in the history of his line, but he wasn't stupid, he knew Otho was hiding something. The falcon was definitely the most self-absorbed consular that he had worked with, but he also seemed to be the craftiest. Otho almost always tried to play both sides of the fence; he'll tell the Alpha minor detail, but then he'll, or at least it seemed so to Mafeu, have it so that any tactical worth from that information is only 90% effective. It was starting to appear to Mafeu that this bird thought he was in charge, and he was going to have to make it clear to him otherwise.

F-98 Starfighter, Investigating S&R locator 1300 Military Time

The F-98 starfighter reentered normal space a few billion miles from where he had left an hour or two previous. Captain Sean Atric tried to reacquire the search and rescue beacon he had picked up in the nearby system. He was all-alone, but he figured it was an old one; it was in a nebula somewhat close to a nearby dormant system of the Federation.

"Where did it go?" he thought.

He turned off all systems and scanned the vicinity. After about fifteen minutes he got a weak, but definite ping less than a few thousand miles away. He fired up the engines and set the autopilot to bring him right on top of the signal's origin.

While the fighter craft sped through space Sean found that he finally had a quiet moment to think. The past two weeks had been probably the most critical in the Federation's recent history. Although no one would talk about it, it was all too obvious that this drawn out war with the wolves was about to come to an end.

There were thousands of starships coming and going from the same point in space, wherever the Endeavor happened to be spending the night, and no one alive had ever seen so many ships at once. Whenever he wasn't in a briefing of sorts Sean would, alone, stare out into space and watch the ships come in and jump out. So far he'd seen every single major Battleship of the Federation, all eight of them; the Trident, the Victory, the Valiant, the Relentless and her sister ship the Adamant, the Colossus, the Hammer, and the Warrior. Never in the history of the Federation had all eight shared the same space, and that meant something to everyone. For the one night when they had all been in the same system Admiral Drake had pranced around like a man about town, since he was in control of all of them; through Cathy's authority of course.

"Hmm, of all things to happen to him. He gets to have every battleship and he has to still answer to a fox; poetic justice I guess," he mused to himself.

Although he had been doing considerably better around furries, Drake still appeared to harbor some disrespect to them. He did treat Cathy and Sean like equals, but others, particularly his bridge officers, still appeared to be resented by the Admiral. The little pup Karl seemed to be on his "like" list as well.

About ten minutes later he was coming within sighting range. It looked to be a dropship of some kind, but his approach angle made it to hard to discern what kind it really was. As he got closer though it became all to clear that it was a wolf dropship.

Sean keyed in Cathy's fighter, but she was still mid jump, and he couldn't call her. He was about to just forward the info to the Endeavor herself, but the nearby nebula was interfering with his com gear, so the captain found himself at a cross roads. He could fly back to the fleet and they would definitely mobilize here in a few hours, but if Reynolds was onboard he would need to be gotten back ASAP. He decided to investigate it himself.

Once he was within a few yards of the ship he started the docking maneuvers. Captain Atric reached under the seat and loaded his M88A9 carbine; he didn't know what he might find aboard. The entire starfighter shuttered as it docked with the one air seal of the dropship, and he felt the canopy open. Because there was no gravity in the air seal he had to float through, but staying vertical to the floor so he didn't fall once he entered the ship.

The door had a keypad on it and he rummaged through his gear for his universal key. He pulled out the pistol and shot the lock, instantly causing it to open. He carefully lowered himself and walked on board.

The wolf dropship was, needless to say, a dump. He could smell something that almost made his nose to bleed, a mixture of blood and death filled the air.

The fox cleared each room, very carefully, but he found no one. Each room was empty, and that bothered Sean each time. His ears were perk and rotating like radar dishes, but he couldn't hear a thing, only the small hum of the lights and electrical, but not a single sound or smell of life.

"I hope they didn't just abandoned this thing," he said aloud to himself.

To his surprise he did hear a stirring in the cockpits direction. He rolled into the room adjacent to it and kneeled by the door in one motion. His tail stayed perfectly still against his leg as he swept the room.

Behind him he heard a step and quickly turned and was met with the sight of the unhappiest looking brown rabbit he had ever seen.

For a long moment the two just stared at each other, Sean not moving the rifle's sights from the new face's head, and the rabbit just staring, without fear, at him. Not so much at him holding the gun, but him.

"Wh-who are you?" the rabbit asked weakly.

Sean was speechless. He couldn't even think. He just stared at the rabbit, not quite sure why he couldn't respond.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Finally as if coming out of a daze he replied, "I'm Captain Sean Atric, what happened to you?"

He didn't want to ask her that, but for reasons beyond his control he did.

She stared at the fox as well, she wasn't sure why either, he was the first new face other than the captain's she had seen in months that seemed to care.

"I-I escaped from the wolves two days ago, I was captured a month and a half ago on Chyane," she replied, forgetting the captain's message and request for a moment.

"You look beat up, what happened?" he asked, with much concern in his voice, something very, very uncommon for him.

For a long moment she just stared at him blankly, and she was over rushed by emotion. Each even that had happened in the last 60 days came back to her in one rush and she started weeping. She felt her legs give way and fell to the floor. Seeing this Sean lurched out and caught her by the arm, pulling her up right against his body.

She yelped at this and shook herself free and fell to the ground fully this time. He sat down next to her and patted her shoulder. She was crying hard and Sean felt for her. He didn't know why but he did.

In the calmest, most comforting tone he could muster he asked, "What's your name and how did you come to be captured?"

She dried her eyes with her paw and answered, "I'm Corporal Emily Gates. I was captured by the wolfs and brought around with the Alpha Prime and his guards with my siste-" she cut herself off with a sob.

Although hearing about the Alpha Prime, Sean didn't even register it, he just wanted to calm the rabbit down and find out what was so wrong.

"What happened?" he asked.

Emily cried harder and lurched out and hugged his chest, which surprised him to say the least. She didn't know why she did that herself but she wanted a shoulder to cry on for the past few days and she just let it all out.

"They took me and my sister and raped us for a month and then murdered her!" she cried out.

Sean was stunned. He thought back to Cathy and he realized that the wolves were just as bad, if not worse than he had already known. He unknowingly held her in his arms and she laid her head down on his chest, just crying uncontrollably.

He looked over what he saw. Her uniform was smeared and stained with blood, too Sean's horror, a massive amount towards her lower areas, and it was full of cuts and holes that had equal scars on her body.

Not sure what to say to her he just let her cry it out. Her ears were pinned back and she was no longer crying as much as she was moaning.

Emily had no idea why but she was feeling better while she was crying. She could tell that her bottled up emotions were getting out and this fox was apparently trying his best to comfort her. She could feel his paws rubbing her back and it relaxed her muscles.

"Why did they do it?" she asked aloud, not so much at him, but she just was letting go of everything.

"I know you won't believe me but everything will be alright," Sean said, once she had run out of tears.

She looked up at him and stared, his eyes were full of concern. For another long moment the two stared at each other, and she could feel another wave of emotion rush over her, but the fact that he was still rubbing her back stopped her from crying.

"I will understand if you can't, or don't want to, but you can tell me what happened, I'll understand a lot better than you'll think," he said, trying to find out what had happened in full.

She sucked up a deep breath and recounted her entire tale, but unlike Cathy she spared no detail. She went from capture to Reynolds aid in escaping, although she did omit the part of how Cathy should be weary of those around her.

By the end Sean, to his own surprise, felt himself being quite upset. This poor rabbit had hit the bottom and bounced a few times. She had been forced into the worse rapes imaginable and then even was forced to watch her own sister, who apparently she had loved deeply, be executed by the leader of the entire Wolf forces.

She sobbed again into Captain Atric's chest and he just rubbed her back, trying to bring some comfort to the poor rabbit.

Unbeknownst to both of them, the same situation that had arisen between the two Captain Reynolds was now beginning to form between them. She calmed down at Sean's touch and he only wanted to make her stop crying.

This time she looked up at him with a smile on her face, she was glad to have someone who was trying to comfort her, particularly after this horrible event.

Sean on the other side of things was glad to see she wasn't crying, he had come to the principle that he didn't want to see pain in the face Emily, and he was trying to make her feel as good as he could make her.

He smiled back at her and the two just felt the mutual comfort of the other's actions and reactions. Although she could still feel the pain of her sister's death she found herself... attached to the fox that had just came aboard the ship. She at first, while she had been weeping, accounted that to the mere fact that he was a new face that wasn't looking at her as a sex slave, but to Emily's disbelief, she found herself liking him. She pulled herself away mentally; Emily knew she couldn't have thought that.

Sean just found himself quite happy that he made Emily smile. He wasn't sure why, but he really didn't like seeing her sad.

"Will you bring me back to the Federation?" she asked, although she didn't break her eye to eye stare with him.

Brought out of his daze he replied, "Oh, ya, but I came in a single seat F-98, I'm not sure what to do about that."

He knew what the obvious answer was, but he didn't have to see it to know that she might be a bit... adverse to sit on his lap.

"I don't mind..." she replied, seeming to read his mind, she didn't want to be in this place a second longer than she had to.

The fox wasn't as blunt as most of the officers he served under and with, but for a moment he took a page from their books.

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to sit on my lap. Particularly with what has happened to you," Captain Atric said, trying to keep his voice strong and clear.

Embarrassed the rabbit looked away, which, to the surprise of Sean, hurt him inside, he didn't want to embarrass her, he just wanted to... protect her. He didn't know why but he was compelled to.

Emily's face hardened, "Well how do you plan to get us back to the Federation? This dropship is out of fuel."

"Can you pilot a F-98?" he replied, figuring he was better off sitting tight while she returned.

She wasn't expecting that. Emily did know how to fly the sleek starfighter, but she didn't want to go by herself.

"No," she lied.

"Well I'm not leaving you here," the fox said as he stood up, her grip was still tight on him as he did, "I'll send out a beacon from the starfighter. It will fly itself to the fleet and they'll come right away."

She nodded and he walked off, leaving Emily to her thoughts. She was not happy with the situation to say the least. It wasn't so much that she was stuck on this ship still, but that she was going to remain here with the fox, which wasn't bad, but had Emily worried. She knew herself quite well and could tell she was actually attracted to the fox, and she didn't want to be. Aside from the fact she had been a sex slave for the past month or so, she had just met him. Yet she was quite glad he was there.

Sean returned with a smile on his face.

"Good news," he started, "my radio kicked in and about three hundred ships are in route to pick us up."

"Three hundred? Why so many?" Emily asked, not quite understanding this.

He chuckled, "Since it was apparent that finding Captain Reynolds would also lead to the Alpha Prime, the entire Federation is after this one target."

Emily's eyes went wide, "You mean a few fleets right?"

"No, I mean all of them, hell just the other day I saw every single battleship in one system. The senate was very much taken with Captain Grey's hearing."

Emily tilted her head, causing an ear to flop over.

"Oh, Cathy's been promoted. By the way, is the Captain okay?" Sean asked, concerned for his former CO and friend.

She shook her head, "I don't know, probably. He said that he would be to important to the wolves to kill, but I can't imagine he could evade or capture the entire ship by himself."

"Don't underestimate him, he was about as great a soldier as there ever was in the Federation, half the reason why there's such an effort to get him back."

Sean sat down next to her and instinctively cradled her, not even aware he had done it. To boot she didn't check herself in hugging him back.

For a long while, about a half hour, they laid sat there, the whole time Captain Atric massaged the rabbits back. Emily loved it, more so than she wanted, but she let him anyway. She almost fell asleep but he stopped for a moment, something that she wasn't happy about. The rabbit shifted herself and he restarted, returning her to a state of comfort she hadn't felt in what felt like and eternity. She just basically fell into him, and Emily, for whatever reason that compelled her, looked up, and kissed the fox, putting him in a state of shock to say the least.

He hadn't been expecting this, and he wasn't sure it was right. The whole time he had just been trying to comfort her, but he was afraid that maybe she had been detained to long and was just latching onto the first thing that didn't try and hurt her. The last thing Sean wanted to do was take advantage of her. He kissed her back though, enjoying it to say the least.

His mind caught up with his body though and the captain stopped, horrified with what he might very well be doing.

"I'm sorry," he said simply and tried to stand, but she let her weight go into him.

Emily wasn't sure why she had done it, but she had liked it. He was... nice, something new.

"It's okay," she finally replied in a tone that was happier than she had been in weeks.

"Oh boy," he thought, "Maybe it's me who has the effect on people," Sean remembered back to what he had said to Cathy.

Emily pinned her ears back, seeing that she might have frightened the fox.

"I didn't mean to scare you, I don't know why I did that," she said, realizing she did overstep herself; she had just been to caught in the moment.

"I just thought you... I mean you've been... I didn't mean to..." Sean was at a loss for words to say the least.

Emily giggled at the fox's embarrassment, the first time she had laughed in a months, he was kind of cute actually. Her ears perked up and she looked him over. He was quite well built, even by Ranger standards, which his armor was a dead give away of. His orange fur and white muzzle gave his face hard lines but he seemed to warm up to her when she smiled.

She became serious for a moment, "I think I understand, and I think I should say 'sorry,' I didn't mean to scare you, it's just your very nice."

He sighed with relief, he was afraid he had done something wrong, but he still needed to be sure.

"I'm not trying to come onto you, I just didn't want you to cry. We'll get that wolf and make him pay for your sister and all the millions who are also gone because of him," Sean replied, a bit uneasy.

That hit home to Emily. She remembered her sister still in the freezer and the rabbit's ears pinned back to her head. She didn't cry though, she knew she felt like she had too, but his touch was calming her.

This time when she kissed him he rubbed the rabbits back and held her closer. He thought this was wrong, but Sean remembered what had happened between Cathy and Reynolds, and it was quite apparent that this was going the same way, just a bit faster.

They kissed for a long time, and she was glad that Sean was trying his best to soothe her.

When he broke the kiss he told her "You know this is almost the same way that things started between Reynolds and Sergeant Grey right? You know where that led?"

She smiled and hugged him, "Ya, I guess, but having seen his conviction to his wife I'm pretty okay with that."

Sean smiled as well and this time kissed her. She was a little afraid when he moved in and the fox took note to remember to let her make first moves... how he could be thinking this now was beyond him. Captain Atric had been with women before, as most soldiers had, but they had been for a "quick fix," he didn't really have any other interest in them other than sexual. To him, he just wanted to make sure that Emily was happy; he didn't care about anything else.

They kissed for a long time, and then just laid there, which she soon fell asleep on him, quite comfortable now. For what must have been hours Sean rubbed her back, which just made them both feel quite content. He felt the rabbits fur on his paw, which was considerably softer than his.

He saw how tattered her uniform was and whispered in her ear, "I'm sure there's another uniform in the fighter if you want it."

"Sure," and she stood up, not wanting to stay by herself in the depressing wolf dropship. For a moment she realized she would have been quite fine flying home with him in the single seat fighter craft.

Sean rummaged through the F-98's cargo bay and found an extra survival suit, not really suited for this situation, but it would probably be a vast improvement. He handed it to Emily and she held it up to herself, in a vain attempt to see how it would fit, she had always liked clothes but this was far from any fashion statement. He grabbed a medkit and a space blanket; the ship was quite cold.

They returned to the dropship but this time she led him to the crew bunk, which brought mixed feelings to the fox's body. Emily hadn't meant anything by it, the crew compartment happened to be the warmest room onboard right now, but she could get the inclining of what he seemed to be worried about.

Emily shut the door behind them and he sat down on the chair, a bit afraid of the bed. She giggled at the sight and sat down on the bunk next to him.

"You want me to take a look at those wounds?" he asked, and motioned to the medkit in his paw.

She nodded and discreetly lowered a shoulder of her tattered uniform. The wound was impressive, obviously done by one of the wolf's claws. He gave a low whistle, it looked raw and painful, no wonder she liked his easy touch.

"That ones about the least painful," she commented. He got the point.

He cleaned most of her wounds that were accessible before she would have to remove more clothing than he would be comfortable with. Corporal Gates on the other hand realized he was quite good at treating the wounds wanted him to at least fix the ones on her legs.

Emily stood up and started to remove her pants, but he reached out and held them up, "I don't think..." she put a paw to his mouth.

"I just want you to clean the cuts on my legs, I'm wearing panties so don't worry," she said, understanding his concern.

She dropped her pants and revealed a monstrous amount of cuts and burses, increasing towards her pussy. To say she had panties on might have been an overstatement. They were torn themselves, although not in a way to reveal anything, but enough so that it caused Sean to lower his tail in awkwardness.

He began cleaning her leg wounds, which were much worse than those on her shoulders and upper body. As he moved closer to her groin she winched in pain, causing Sean to stop short.

"It's not your fault," she said, "they just hurt a lot."

Sean nodded and continued cleaning her wounds. After about thirty minutes he had the most painful and serious ones taken care of. She pulled up her pants and they stood with each other for a few awkward moments. It was becoming all to clear to both of them where this was leading, and unlike Captain Reynolds and Cathy, this was going a lot faster.

Emily laid down on the bunk and pulled the space blanket over herself. Sean sat down on the chair next to her and made himself comfortable, figuring he would likely be sitting here for the next few hours. The rabbit however, had other plans. Although not sure of what she was actually doing, she made a "come hither" motion with her paw to the fox sitting on the chair, who was, needless to say, not sure what to do.

"Corporal Gates," Sean started, still not comfortable enough to use her first name, "I don't think you're aware of... what's happing to you. You know I'm a Ranger, and we're trained to identify various stages of mental breakdown. I think you're latching onto the first kind face to help you after your... ordeal."

She was a bit embarrassed to say the least. She had figured that was the case the entire time, but she did feel something behind that. She wasn't sure how, but she knew he was wrong.

"You can still keep me warm without worrying about becoming attached to me," the rabbit said, trying to ease his mind.

Because she had said something about keeping her comfortable, and not necessarily what he preserved as signs of an urge for kind companionship, Captain Atric complied, although not without some hesitation. He stood up and she scooted over in the bunk, allowing for more room.

She was a bit worried that he might very well be right about her mental state; she did have what she thought was more feelings, but she wasn't sure. In either case she was indeed cold still, so his added body heat would be nice, if only for that purpose.

He carefully laid down next to her, laying on his back and not sure what he was to do. Realizing he was afraid to move first, Emily moved in closer to him, to the point were her leg and paws were draped over his body. He stiffened out, not quite ready mentally for that, but she rubbed the fur on his face, and that brought some ease to him. Captain Atric was still wearing his armor and it was making the situation a bit unruly, his added weight from the dense armor was actually causing the flimsy bunk to tip and it was obvious it would have to go.

"Take it off," she said simply, a smile forced itself through her lips, no matter how hard she tried to suppress it.

Knowing there wasn't going to be any buts about it he got up and went to turn it off, but stopped. He wasn't exactly clothed without it. He only had a TAC vest on, no pants.

Sean shook his head; "I can't do that, no matter what you say. I'm not sure if you're aware of how P9 armor works, but if I turn it off, I don't have any clothes aside from this vest."

Emily was, to her surprise, disappointed, and it wasn't because she would be cold, she was starting to enjoy this foray a bit more than she knew she should.

Seeing that she was disappointed Sean considered it for a moment, but only a moment; "I can't, and believe me, it's not you, I wouldn't feel comfortable, and I barely feel okay about this now, much less half naked."

About a minute past with the two just staring each other down, and Emily, always being very strong in spirit, managed to convince him with a stare alone. He sighed deeply and looked around, for any type of cover. He saw a towel lying on the floor and wrapped it around his waist. He turned off the armor and it zipped back into the gauntlet.

The armor tends to control blood flow, and certain thought progression, and now he was in total control of himself, so to speak. For the first time he was able to see how... nice the female rabbit actually looked. She was very small, even as far as rabbits go, which could have been attributed to her treatment over the last month. She was by far the "cutest" rabbit he had seen, and having felt her fur extensively while he cleaned her wounds, she was, in the unaffected areas, one of the softest he had ever touched. He could feel a hard-on forming and decided to think nothing more of it; the last thing he needed to do was to make her think he had anything other than trying to warm her on his mind.

Sean laid down next to the cream brown rabbit and this time positioned himself on his side, facing her. She snuggled up close to him once gain, and to his relief, wasn't anywhere near his sex piece. Unfortunately for his libido however, that didn't last. Emily wasn't sure why, and quite frankly, no longer cared, but she wanted to be as close as she could get to Captain Atric. As Steve had done for Cathy, Emily did for Sean. She lowered her paw down the covers and worked her hand from his furry chest down to his quickly hardening cock. She wasn't going to kid herself, Emily was perfectly aware that although she was taking over, there was no way she could go as far as her thoughts did. Hell, she was beside herself with internal conflict over the fact she was massaging his cock right now. Nonetheless she was amused watching his reactions, which, to the say the least, were a mixture of a new level of surprise, and apparent great pleasure.

On Sean's end of the spectrum, he lost all feeling of guilt, her warm paw rubbed up and down his rod and he rolled on his back. In guilt, he thought of how good she was at jerking him off, that she must have gotten quite good at it from the fucking wolves. He banished the thought, mainly because she moved even closer against his fur and removed his towel completely, but also because he was realizing that his assumption that she might be suffering from something like post dramatic stress disorder, was appearing to be more and more correct, yet he couldn't stop her. Sean knew he should, but he just couldn't.

Emily moved herself so close to the fox that she was nearly on top of him. She could feel a flutter in her nether regions, but it was still out of the question, she was soar, needless to say. The corporal could hear him moaning softly and she kissed the side of his face. She saw him smile and he turned his head on its side and kissed her. The fox brought both his paws up and pat the rabbit's head. He softly played with her ears and with his other paw pet down her back, and rubbed her small tail, which he had admired from the start.

She absolutely enjoyed his petting, being some of the first kind motions she felt from a male in quite a while. She could feel and hear him getting ready to cum, and she further increased her paw's rate of rubbing. Sean's hips bucked and he moaned loudly as he came on her hand. Emily didn't stop jerking him off as he came and kissed the side of his face.

When he stopped cumming he rolled back on his side and hugged her tightly, his cum still dripping on her paw and down his leg. They both kissed each other deeply, and feel asleep in each other's arms, both indebted to the other for their mutual care.

***

Cathy was excited to say the least. After receiving the message from Captain Atric she had almost jumped for joy, it was one more step on the road to reuniting her with her love.

"Five minutes to docking with the wolf dropship mam!" the pilot yelled over the COM channel.

Behind their assault craft was roughly two hundred heavily armed Federation warships, securing the system. Every minute more would arrive, as this would, as Cathy hoped, become the next point of origin in continuing their search. From Sean's message it was apparent that the one witness on board, some corporal, had seen her Captain only a few days before, and that alone almost made Cathy faint; her husband was still alive.

Because Steve had transferred her to the Ranger's prior to their escape from the Federation, and because she was reinstated and promoted to captain, she was permitted to take command of a Ranger unit herself, and would led them, in front of them, in every operation she would need to find Steve.

The assault craft shuttered as it began docking with the wolf dropship, on its last port. The nineteen Rangers and Cathy geared up and prepared to board the craft. Although it was obvious that no one but Sean and the corporal he had found were on board, it was better safe than sorry.

The doors opened and Cathy, to the surprise of the Rangers, ran into the ship.

"Captain Atric?" she called out, however not loudly.

She had expected to see him waiting for her to report the situation but he was nowhere to be found. She searched the rooms aboard the ship, each one a bit freighting to her. She walked into the normal loading bay, and she had to shy a tear away. This was the last place she had ever seen her Captain, and it had been a most emotional occasion. When she came to the room that had served as the wolves "play den," she was horrified by what she saw on the wall. Various items that would serve better as torture devices, rather than the sex toys they were supposed to be. Cathy shuttered at the thought at what must have took place on board, she was more aware than most of the horrors that the wolves were capable of.

Cathy motioned for the Rangers to continue working on the ships ventral sides, while she searched forward. She moved towards the cockpit, and to her right saw the crew bunks. She walked in carefully, and to her surprise she found Captain Atric and the corporal. The fact that they were both, alone, in the bunks didn't bother her so much as did the fact that it appeared they had been doing... something while they had waited for her arrival.

"Uh Sean?" Cathy asked; a bit amused by the situation.

The fox and rabbit didn't stir; they just remained tightly together below the space blanket. For a moment Cathy considered waking them by removing the blanket, but she really didn't want to embarrass her friend and his, apparent, close friend. Instead she walked over, and tapped the side of Sean's head with her rifle.

He rolled over and his eyes adjusted. He had a smile on his face, until his mind caught up with his eyes and he realized what had happened. Emily stirred as well and Cathy couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

When Emily realized Cathy was watching the pair she was frightened at first, but then, by chance, knew that she must be Captain Reynolds wife.

"Catharine Grey?" she asked.

Cathy just nodded, very amused by the situation.

She turned to Sean and said, "I guess you we're right, I just change everyone's lives I met uh?"

All Sean could do was muster a guilty smile and lowered his head, embarrassed at her observation and re-quote of his own words. He had never thought that he would follow Cathy and Captain Reynolds' lead.

"I guess its safe to assume you're the corporal who knows where my husband is?" Cathy asked, trying her best to make it seem to the two furries that all was okay.

"Uh yes ma'am," Emily reported, "the ship's logs show the last two jumps. Their in the... the... the Sol system, in orbit over a planet called Earth."

Cathy gasped and thought to herself, "that's his planet..." she shook her head, "Thank you corporal. Sean, I uh, heh, suggest you and your friend get ready, the entire fleet is moving here and were going straight to Steve ASAP."

Sean nodded but remained under the blanket, realizing he was still nude under the covers.

"A rabbit, Sean?" Cathy asked, poking fun at the pair. She actually thought, even just seeing the pair for a few moments that they made a cute couple.

"I guess me and Steve won't be the last pair to be in the Federation."

He looked at Emily, who smiled at him; he fell for her completely. She looked beautiful at this moment, as she was slightly embarrassed and she tried to hide behind him.

Before he could say anything in return Cathy turned and walked out, to go send the ships flight data to the Endeavor. Thankfully for the furry pair in bed she shut the door behind her.

"I guess we should get dressed," Sean commented.

Emily just smiled and kissed his check. Her furry paws wrapped around his neck and they kissed deeply.

"Do you really think we're going to turn out like her and the Captain?" Emily asked, somewhat eager with what his answer would be.

He smiled and replied, "I hope so."

She giggled and felt happier than she had in many years.

"Comon," Sean said and patted her back.

He stood up and re dawned his armor. She too redressed and then her mood shifted.

"What, you know, are we going to do?" she asked.

He tilted his head and replied, "That's up to you. I would figure you're going to want and go to the infirmary, but after that I'd figure maybe you'd stay in my room..." he trailed off, surprising himself with his eagerness to have exactly what Cathy and Steve had.

Emily smiled; "I think that sounds perfect."

He smiled and walked out, and she instantly felt different. She loved him already. It wasn't anything else, it was love.

She walked out as well and was greeted by a pair of Ranger's with a mixture of horror and confusion played across their faces.

"Sir," one of the Rangers reported to Sean, "we uh, found something in the freezer I think you need to see."

Sean turned and saw Emily's whole face shift. He couldn't imagine the pain that was going through her mind.

"I know sergeant, have the medical teams come and pick her up and bring her directly to the burial detail teams, no autopsy please," Sean ordered, in a less direct voice than he usually had.

They saluted and walked off. Emily walked up behind him and whispered in his ear, "thank you."

He turned and she had a small tear in her eye. Sean whipped it away and gave her a kiss on the top of her head and rubbed her ear. She smiled and hugged him, and the pair walked off the dropship into the assault craft, ready to return to the Endeavor.

Chapter 4 Coming

Aboard Consular Otho's Personal Transport 6:40PM

Captain Reynolds had hated wolves before, but now he would enjoy watching as many of them as possible die. During his "clean" up session they had used high-pressure water jets on him, which burned and bruised his skin.

The wolf guards brought, rather carried, the tired Captain back to his cell where he was given back his uniform and told to be ready to eat in a few minutes. His arms hurt the worst, and his back didn't feel very good either. He thought of Cathy, and of Corporal Gates. He really hoped she would come and find him, but more importantly he hoped she was safe.

A few minutes later the wolf guard came in and led him to the dinning area. There Reynolds found the Alpha Wolf and Consular Otho.

"Good to see you Captain. You look... clean," Mafeu commented.

"Fuck you," Reynolds responded simply.

The Alpha Wolf chuckled and made a sitting motion with his large paw. The Captain sat down, across from Consular Otho. He wouldn't even look at the falcon. Reynolds knew that if he did he was likely to jump across the table and rip out the bird's throat.

Otho wasn't to interested in being around the Captain either. Aside from the fact that he would prefer to be anywhere else in the universe right now, the Consular realized that the Captain wasn't done. He had managed to go on a short rampage before, and would likely try again, and Consular Otho knew that he was definitely high on Reynolds' list.

Seeing the subliminal conflict between the two, Mafeu decided to have some fun.

"I'm sure you two have so much to talk about," the wolf said, grinning.

Reynolds sat up, actually having something to say; "Yes, yes we do. Tell me Otho; are you really capable of killing my wife if I'm not a good boy?"

The Alpha Wolf's smile faded, he didn't like that question.

Otho liked it less. He wasn't sure if he could pull of what Mafeu had asked of him, but he didn't know that he might have to kill anyone. Sure there were tens of thousands of lives that had been lost because of him, but he never did his own dirty work.

"Well?" the Captain asked, trying to make sure he was in control of the situation.

Shifting uneasily Otho replied, "Yes, you don't actually think that she's free somewhere? She's been under arrest since the Federation recaptured her." Gaining confidence he leaned back and continued, "It wouldn't take much to have her killed. I could even have it done in the open, and just convict her of treason at trial."

Reynolds' expression changed and the Alpha Wolf chuckled to himself. He couldn't believe how fast Otho had managed to come up with a full explanation.

"Crafty fucking bird," Mafeu thought.

Steve on the other hand was horrified. The consular could be lying, but his story was believable. The Captain knew that it was likely that she would go back to the Federation, he knew that awhile ago, but he hadn't thought that she would be in put to trial. But then he remembered, even if she was in a cell somewhere, she would be safe, for the moment, and when Emily told the Federation of his location, and the fact the Alpha was here, they would still come and find him. After that he wasn't sure, but he knew that somehow, he would make sure Cathy would be safe with him. Although aware of this, Reynolds played into the consular and put up a guise of fear.

"Well I guess that answer's your question Captain," Mafeu commented.

Steve remained silent, trying to seem as if he was playing it safe and was still believing the weak bird.

A wolf came in carrying several dishes, some actually smelling good to the captain.

"Ahh, I think you'll both be pleasantly surprised with the food, I had my cooks up all night preparing it," Mafeu announced.

The waiter placed a course of meat in front of each member of the dinner, but the Captain and Otho just stared at the plate, not sure if they really wanted to eat what it was.

Seeing this the Alpha Wolf explained, "Don't worry, it's no one."

That did little to ease the other two's thoughts, but both fearing that they would rouse suspicions, began eating. To both their surprise, it was quite good.

While they ate, and the wolf tried to poke fun at his two guests, the Captain thought of ways to break the two apart.

"Divide and conquer," the former Ranger Company commander thought.

He got it; "Tell me Mafeu, what types of information can you get from me that you wouldn't trust hearing from this Falcon's mouth?"

For the first time, Otho looked angry, and the Alpha Wolf looked surprise.

"What's he talking about?" the bird yelled, unusually assertive and brave.

For a long moment the Alpha didn't know what to do, much less say. He hadn't mentioned to the Consular all the details of his conversation with the captured Reynolds, and Otho was always... suspicious to say the least. He couldn't explain himself now, otherwise Reynolds would be aware of his true plans for him, or at least get the gist of it. In short: the Captain had asked the one question that put Mafeu against the wall.

"Yes, your Alpha Wolfship," the Captain commented, actually chuckling, "I'm sure we would both like to know what matters you deemed so important that you must know, but couldn't bring yourself to ask our 'feathered' friend here."

The Wolf still said nothing, in disbelief of the Captains play. The problem was there was nothing to say, nothing that would screw up his plans.

Otho was getting impatient, being the self-preservationist he was this was a direct threat to his life; at least it was in his eyes.

"Well!?" the bird asked, very angry now.

In an angry and hushed tone the Wolf replied, "You remember what we talked about Consular?"

"Yes I do, but you failed to mention any of this," the bird retorted.

Again the Wolf was caught. He gazed at the Captain, who was quite amused at the situation. He couldn't even threaten his "wife" now, as Otho wasn't likely to act very compliant, and he couldn't kill him now, he wouldn't get the satisfaction of causing him as much pain as the Federal soldier had caused him. In the end, no matter what the wolf would say, the Captain won, the question now was how much.

"Captain," The wolf began, much anger in his tone, "do you think you'll be rescued, do you still think there's any chance you'll see you so called 'wife' and she will come and rescue you?"

Once again Reynolds smiled, "I know she will, and she'll make sure your killed in the process. She's stronger than me, stronger than you, and she won't give up."

The Captain's confidence caused a visible amount of fright in the Wolf, something not commonly seen. He had to think of a way to break the captain, before he killed his bitch before him.

"We'll talk of this later Otho," the Wolf said, and before the bird could offer a reply he stood up, and walked, quickly, out of the dinner room, glaring at the Captain with murderous eyes.

Once it was clear the Alpha had retreated and wouldn't return, the Captain turned his sights on the consular; he had beaten target number one, now it was the traitorous Consular's turn.

"So what did you think of that Otho?" Reynolds asked. He couldn't believe how well that one question had worked.

"I think that he has some serious explaining, and so do you," the Falcon replied, still angry and more daring than he had ever been.

Before their conversation could progress, a wolf guard entered, and removed the Captain. He was retuned to his cell, and for the first time in many days, he knew he had really won a battle.

Medical Bay Aboard FN Endeavor 1852 Military Time

Emily was finally feeling the embarrassment of her injuries. When she had been around the Captain and her fellow captives, she had felt nothing but anger and disregarded what the wolves had done to her; when she was alone aboard the wolf dropship she had felt nothing but sadness, but not for herself, and when she had been with Sean, she hadn't cared for anything else, but now her injuries caught up with her for real.

Due to the nature, and most importantly the extent of her injuries, Corporal Gates was treated by a female doctor. She had commented that, "you are extremely lucky that your reproductive organs are intact, and that only the areas in the top and mid vagina were injured."

Emily was a bit embarrassed by the treatment, but she knew it was for the best.

When they had "patched" her up, she was released and given a room to report to for the time being, but was to go immediately to a debriefing. She disregarded the room's number and use; she planed to take up Captain Atric's offer. She was quite smitten for the fox, and it appeared he was for her as well.

Upon entering the debriefing room she was meet with eyes of some rather... high placed individuals. She saw Admiral Drake and General Osing, both about the most famous commanders in the Federation, Captain Grey, and a Lieutenant Colonel, a dog, also sitting at the table. Also in the room she saw Captain Atric, who smiled at the rabbit as she entered.

"Hello Corporal, I'm Lieutenant Colonel Renault Sterling, of the Intelligence Bureau, and we're going to clarify a few things alright?" the dog started, "Please, take a seat, and we'll explain what you've... missed."

She took a seat and the various officers explained all that had happened. From about the time of her capture, to the discovery of her. Each one told his or her part, where appropriate, but Cathy's story stuck with her the most. She wanted to help the poor fox find the Captain who had saved the both of them.

"Now," General Osing began, "you tell us, of course what you feel is alright, what has happened to you."

In turn Emily recounted her tail, but to the surprise and noticeable discomfort of all in the room, she spared no detail. They all, particularly Cathy, were disturbed by the extent of the wolves actions. Emily was a bit stronger, mentally, than Cathy though, and only became upset when she came to her sister's murder. The rapes that had been done to her seemed to be meaningless, but it appeared that it would be arguable that what had been done to her sister hurt Emily more than Sarah. By the end the room was taken aback, this was another, much more brutal, first hand account of what the wolves were capable of, and neither were easy to hear.

When she had finished the room remained silent, until Sean walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry Emily, we'll make sure things are made right," he said, trying to comfort her, he didn't like seeing her so upset.

She was thankful for the gesture, and was comforted, but the pain of loss was still there.

"Ma'am," she said to Cathy, who appeared to be in charge, "can I request my sister's body be sent back to my parents?"

Cathy let out a sympathetic smile, "Of course Corporal, it will be done immediately. I will understand if you want to go now, we've gotten all that we need."

"Thank you ma'am," the rabbit replied and she got up, and began to walk out, stopping to look at Sean.

He smiled but turned and caught Cathy's gave. Without words Captain Atric could tell that she was telling him to go with Emily, she needed him right now.

Feeling that it was the right thing to do, he turned and walked after the Corporal, and the pair walked to his room.

"Where's he going?" Admiral Drake commented.

Cathy looked him right in the eye and smiled.

Osing, watching this laughed and said, "Oh bloody hell, another pair! Jeeze, at this rate everyone's going to be paired up. Hey Fred you don't have anyone you've been keeping a secret do you?"

Drake shot him a glare and Osing only laughed harder.

"We have more important matters now sirs," Sterling injected, "we now know where the Captain is, and moreover where Alpha Prime is, so what, and more importantly, when are we going to act on this?"

Osing, becoming serious, sat up and replied, "We go and get that man back, and make sure we kill or capture that sonofabitch."

"I agree, but we need to figure out what to do," Sterling continued.

Drake now entered the conversation, "We don't need a plan. Plans are for when you don't have everything you could need, but we have more than everything we need. We have every ship now, and the best space assault troops every trained, all we need to do is bring them to the target."

"Okay, be that as it may, but when?" Sterling furthered.

"Tomorrow," Cathy answered, "we go tomorrow. We plan to arrive at about 0900 hours and encircle the wolf's ship, send in troops, and first find Steve, and then you can get the Alpha. We do it in that order and that order alone. The Alpha can be killed, we'll still win the war, but I'm not going to lose Steve."

Having heard such an assertive statement as that no one in the room had an objection or answer.

"We prepare tonight," she continued, "and jump to arrive as I said at 0900."

Drake nodded and got up, as did Osing, both eager at the chance to be part of the real, final battle of the Federation. Sterling left as well, likely to report to his superiors and clarify with them of Cathy's decision.

Cathy was left alone for a few moments, but soon left the room as well and went to her own room, and was excited at the concept of finally finding her Captain.

Quarters of Captain Sean Atric Aboard FN Endeavor 1903 Military Time

The two entered the room, gaining some stares from nearby officers, together and before the door was shut Emily kissed Sean on the cheek.

She finally felt safe. She was in a safe room, with someone she was really comfortable with, and she melted into the situation.

"So your okay?" he asked, concern in his voice.

She nodded and hugged him.

He smiled and pat the top her head, feeling better that she was feeling better.

"So what are we going to do?" he asked.

Not sure what he meant she twisted her head, lowering one ear in the process.

"Well how much do you love me?" he asked, trying his best to not faultier in his voice.

The rabbit smiled and replied, "more than you know."

He kissed her and held her side, noticing she wasn't adverse to his touch at all now.

Emily broke the kiss and became serious for a moment; she needed to be sure of a few things.

"I want to let you know, I am going with you when we go to get the Captain, I owe him just as much as you do," she asserted.

Seeing through that explanation Sean replied equally candid, "That's not why you want do go, or at least not the main reason. You plan to kill the Alpha."

Her eyes welled up a bit and she looked away.

With her back turned she replied, "yes."

She turned back with tears back in her eyes, to both of theirs discontent, "Will you stop me?"

For a long moment he weighed the thought, but to him the facts were clear.

"No," he answered, "I will let you do what you feel is necessary, but I'm going to be right beside you, I won't let him hurt you again."

Emily smiled and returned to his arms, he had passed her one important test; would he respect her wishes.

"I'm afraid to ask, but are you all okay" Sean asked, trying hard to ask it as plainly as possible.

The rabbit understanding his question smiled, and released herself from his arms. Emily walked over to the bed and laid down, her "parts" were better, and she wanted Sean, now.

Almost reading her mind Sean walked over and laid down next to her, and held her closely to his body. The two kissed passionately and Emily began undoing her shirt. She couldn't believe that she was doing this so soon, but she did love him, and she wouldn't let some group of fucking wolves' come between her and Sean.

The fox stopped her paw from the last button, and brought hers up to his face. He just wanted to kiss and hold her, for the moment. She was fine with that, and she rolled Sean on his back, and laid on top of him, running her paws through the fur on his head as he did the same to her exposed sides.

He was getting excited, as was she, and after awhile, it was clear they both needed to take it to the next level. Emily sat up on top of him and finished removing her shirt, and then took off his. Carefully, but forcefully, he rolled the rabbit on her back and cradled her as he kissed her more. Not skipping a beat she lowered her hands and undid the fox's pants and pushed them down as far as she could. She felt his cock tensing against her and with her paw she stroked it.

Seeing as she was playing with him, Sean massaged the side of one of her small tits. She cooed as he did and smiled. In her mind she completely forgot about everything, and was only going focus on this moment.

He nuzzled her and rolled off, removing his pants completely and she followed suit. Both now nude rolled under the covers and coddled for a few moments, just enjoying the feeling of each other's fur on every part of their bodies.

"What do you want to do?" Sean asked as he rubbed the fur just next to her now, surprisingly, moist pussy.

She moaned happily, she was glad that he was putting her in control.

"Let's just go slow," she said, and in reply he nodded.

Sean continued rubbing her moistening pussy, very, very gently. Although she had been treated, and it was "like new" he still was aware what had happened, and he was going to be sure that he did nothing wrong.

While he rubbed her out Emily rolled him on his back, and positioned herself right above his hard member. She was still a bit afraid of fucking him, but seeing how carefully he was petting, rather than massaging, her pussy lips, she knew that Captain Atric would be as gentile as a fox could be.

To get things rolling, Emily reached down, and grabbed the fox's cock, and guided it to her welcoming lips. His head pressed against her, and she felt the tip slide in. Trying to make sure that he didn't hurt her, he hugged her tightly and rested her head on his; they would have kissed, but they were both breathing to hard by now, being that they had never been so excited over a sex act.

After a few moments they locked hips, and kissed each other as Sean began, gently, thrusting.

"Good?" he asked. Although she was moaning pleasurably, he still needed the peace of mind.

"Mmmm, yes," she replied, and continued repeating, "yes" as he bucked his hips up and down.

Sean kept up a steady, but gentle rate, and the rabbit was loving it. Emily used one of her paws to prop his head up and gave him a long kiss as he continued his tender screwing. As they kissed she ran her other paw along the sides of his body, which just by his hip's change in movements, was apparently something he liked.

In turn Sean reached down with one of his paws and held onto hers, and he felt her let most of her weight go down completely onto him.

"Good," he thought, "she's completely relaxed."

Between his gentle fucking, calming touch, and more importantly, him, Emily wanted to cry. She felt... good. She had boyfriends in the past, but they were of the ordinary type; quick begin quick end. While this had a quick beginning, she figured, she knew that he wasn't going to leave when he was "satisfied." The plain fact was she was in love. She didn't even know how to even express it, but she kissed him deeper, trying to get the point across without words.

Noticing that she was giving up, so to speak, to him, Sean held the side of her face, and when she broke the kiss, after what seemed like an entirety, but a good one, he left his cock buried in her, amazingly, velvety pussy and pat her ears.

"Do you love me?" he asked. Not in a challenging way, but with complete serenity.

Smiling she replied, "as much as you love me..."

Some challenge could be heard in her voice, but it was unintended, she could tell with how gently and careful he was with her that this was mercy or compassion; Sean loved her.

Sean smiled back and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, and resumed his sexing. She moaned excitedly as he held her hips, massaging them in the process, and instead of bucking, brought her down on him. She definitely enjoyed this, and her pussy juices flowed like a river from her cunny down and soaking Sean's fur.

Emily could feel herself beginning to cum, and she, as careful as he was with her, rolled Sean, while keeping him inside, onto of her. He continued fucking her, but even gentler now, because he had leverage and didn't want to hurt her. She felt her legs stiffen and she moaned, deeply, and her pussy lips and walls clamped down on his cock and she felt the warmth of intense pleasure envelop her. She almost yelled out for him and nearly broke his legs, which had been wrapped around hers.

Her pussy's compression on Sean's dick caused him to cum a second later, and he almost pulled out, but she was holding him down with both her paws and legs. Seeing her mouth wide open he leaned in and, welcomingly to her, kissed Emily.

Sean rolled her back on her side, and held her closely. Her fur rubbed against his and they both felt hot and tired, yet completely at ease. They both began falling asleep, but Sean reached out and turned off his alarm.

"Why'd you do that?" she cooed at him, not really caring.

"I figured we'd sleep in," Sean replied, which made her hugged him tighter.

Sean had no miss conceptions, he knew Cathy, armed with Captain Reynolds location wouldn't wait an extra minute, let alone day, to find him, but Sean still felt the need to let Emily sleep it out with him. Sean respected Cathy's interests, but as she was trying to save whom she loved, he was trying to protect whom he loved.

For the first time he truly realized what had happened between Cathy and Reynolds, and his last thought, before he fell asleep with his lover in his arms was that he wished that everyone could have this mutual feeling with someone else.

Stateroom of Catharine Reynolds' and Karl Devon aboard the FN Endeavor 1930 Military time

There was no way Cathy would sleep tonight. Not tonight and likely never again until she found her Captain.

Karl's sentiments were the same, the young puppy didn't want to sleep either because he was eager to help Cathy, and continue his personal vendetta.

"When do we go?" he asked, trying to make small talk.

Sighing the fox replied, "Tomorrow, the entire fleet is jumping to arrive at Corporal Gate's coordinates at about noon. I hope Steve's okay."

Seeing that she had a lot on her mind Karl let her be, he knew exactly what was going through her mind, doubt and fear. She was afraid she would fail, afraid he was already dead, but mainly afraid she would never find him.

"You know what, something funny happened today," she started, to the surprise of Karl who assumed she would sit and think the entire night.

"I think Captain Atric and the Corporal we found are..." she trailed off, not sad but amused.

"Are what?" the Karl said, tilting his head.

Cathy pushed herself on her belly and looked over at him, "I think their in love, and just in one day to boot."

"Are you sure?" the pup asked; glad to see Cathy in higher spirits.

"Mmm hmm," she replied, "I know that they left together and he likely is staying with her, or visa versa."

Getting the full picture now, both of them sat in silence.

They felt the ship accelerate and jump, it was on now.

"What are you going to do when you find the Captain?" Karl asked. The question had been burning in his mind since he had learned of the discovery.

For a long moment Cathy didn't answer. She had though of nothing other than finding Steve, but she hadn't thought once of finding him, the exact situation.

"I will hold onto him and never let go. They can take the both of us, kill us, or leave us be, but I won't let us be separated again," the fox replied, completely serious. Being away from Steve was killing her a little bit each day.

Karl didn't take to that answer quite well, he had grown attached to Cathy, and he didn't want to see her caught or killed, and he made a promise to himself to help the Captain as he had helped him.

"What about you? What are you going to do anyway? I mean, well, we both know what you want to do, and you're not the only one either, but what are you going to do?" Cathy asked. She knew Karl wanted to kill the Alpha, but he seemed to have quite the price on his head now; Cathy, Emily and likely Sean now, Karl, and she couldn't imagine Steve would hesitate to kill the Alpha. The big question was, who would get the kill.

He didn't want to answer, that was clear. Talking of revenge is hard enough, particularly when you're not the only one trying to gain it on the same target. The pup just looked at his feet.

"I guess, I don't know," he replied finally.

Smiling Cathy pat his back and said, "Here's a better question; what are you going to do once your satisfied?"

More willing to answer that he replied, "I will go back to Ronch and..." he trailed off.

"Lucy?" she ventured, noticing the puppy become quite embarrassed at the thought.

He nodded, not wanting to get into, but, for lack of any real reason, she pursued the issue further.

"Karl, if you don't want to answer me again, it's okay, but what did you and Lucy actually... do?"

He looked up, taken aback by the question. No one, other than Cathy and possibly a few of the members of their inner circle were aware of what he had done, and he had wanted to keep it buried as deep as possible.

"Before I thought it might not be right," Cathy started, her mind shifting back and forth from Karl's situation, to that of herself and those around her, "but after thinking back on what I've seen in the past few weeks... and in my life, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. You both love each other right?"

Karl nodded, still embarrassed.

"Well then, I think that's all that matters. I think if two people love each other; than it doesn't matter what other's think is right, all that matters is what the pair have with each other. What two lovers do with each other can't be judged by anyone," she continued, now talking solely about herself; Karl being to young didn't pick up on it however, but his attention was caught, "if their not wanted somewhere, they can go somewhere else. Here, there, anywhere, all that matters is that they're together and can stay together."

After that speech the two sat quite for a long moment. Cathy's mind focused on two things; Steve, and being with Steve. Karl's mind mirrored hers, and he, for the first time, fantasized about playing with Lucy as something more than a friend or even what he preserved as "pretend marriage," he wanted to be with her as much as Cathy did with Reynolds.

"The night my parents were killed by those wolves," Karl started, "I cried all night like I told you, and Lucy came into my room and slept with me, like I told you, but she also did something else."

Cathy took a deep breath; she knew that Karl was finally opening up completely, and that she needed to let him get it all out.

"She put her head under the covers and put my... thingy in her mouth and licked it," he said, the full level of his embarrassment hitting him, evident by his pinned back ears and every inch of fur on his body seemed to wilt.

"I didn't know what she was doing," he continued, "and I didn't think it was right, but I didn't stop her, I don't know why. Then she took down my pants and laid on top of me, and she put it inside of her... thing and she cried too like I told you before," Cathy thought back to the last time he had begun telling the acts of "little Lucy," "But then she started making these sounds and then it felt really good, and then she fell asleep on me. Did I do something wrong?"

With all things completely out in the open Cathy replied, "No, she just, I guess, wanted to make you feel better. Did you?"

Karl shook his head, "No, I was scareder, I thought I hurt her. When she woke up she told me that I was her husband and she would take care of me and she went back to sleep in her room. That's when I figured what we did was wrong, because she hid it from her parents."

"Lucy only did that because she knew that her parents wouldn't understand. I'm a bit more understanding of stuff like that than most and I don't even know where to stand on that, but don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong. You might have done something a bit... advanced for how young you are, but I guess it wasn't bad."

Karl, feeling a lot better looked up. It was the first time he'd talked about that and he was glad to hear Cathy's reply.

"Did it ever get better?" Cathy asked, wondering if this was more of Lucy pleasuring herself than being in love with him.

"Kind of," he started, "it started to feel good after time but she kept doing new things, like one time she made me put my tongue in her... hole thing, and it tasted weird. Not bad but weird, but the next night she made me lick her butt, and then she made me put my thing in her butt. She screamed loud that time, and I got scared she would wake up her parents. She always made me put my sticky stuff inside of her; she said it made her feel 'full.' Do you know what she meant?"

Now Cathy was a bit stunned. She had realized from the beginning that Lucy was a lot farther along than most furries or people twice her age, which would still be pretty young, but now it seemed she was along the lines of a pervert. She was having anal sex at twelve, with a puppy that didn't know what his apparent lover's parts where, let alone what he was doing exactly. Moreover again he had drawn her into this, which was something she was trying to avoid.

"The only time that made sense was when she put my thing in her mouth and... I guess you could say drank it, but that was only a few times," the pup added.

She still didn't want to answer, but this appeared to be something Karl had been putting much thought into.

A bit irritated, Karl asked, "I told you what happened, and you said things like me and Lucy was okay, so how come you won't explain what she meant?"

"That's just personal Karl," Cathy started, which was a bullshit answer, considering what he had explained to her, "I- ya- I know what she meant. She liked it because it made her feel better, and if she really loves you she might want something else from you."

Cathy thought of herself for a moment, of what Steve had said in the bay of the now captured dropship. She was carrying his child, whether it is a human or a kit. That had been far from her mind, because the thought scared her. The fox had grown up without family, and she didn't want her child to not have a father, because, for all intensive purposes, Cathy hadn't had a father either, she had a sicko, but not a father.

"What does that mean?" Karl asked, breaking her train of thought.

"Well, what you were doing, sex, is really for having pups, and for that to happen your stuff has to be inside her. If she said she wanted to be your wife, that means she wants everything from you, and she wants to be a mommy," Cathy replied, glad to have that behind her.

"Are you gong to have pups with the Captain," Karl added, not knowing the full extent of the situation.

"I'm already going to have his pups," she replied, but she smiled this time.

With a slight sense of fear he asked quickly, "Could Lucy have mine?"

"I don't think so," Cathy started, "I think she's a bit to young," Cathy checked that thought, it was clear Lucy wasn't really too young for anything, "I don't know Karl, I couldn't answer if I wanted to."

"When are you gong to have the Captain's pups?" he asked, finally done with himself, but now interested in this new fact.

Shaking her head Cathy replied, "I don't know. To be honest I don't even know if they'll be pups, they could be human."

Karl couldn't think of that, he hadn't ever even seen a baby person. He had only seen a few pups to begin with.

"Does he know?" he continued with his questioning.

Once again Cathy smiled and replied, "He's the one who told me."

The thought of that terrible moment was replaced by the thought of having him back. Surprisingly to Cathy, she was feeling tired, and laid down on the bed.

Karl tilted his head on the pillow, "So why did Lucy cry that first time and never again, only that time she made me put it in her butt, but then she liked it there too. Why is it bad at first but fun later?"

Cathy looked up at the ceiling and prayed to be anywhere but here, but she sighed and answered, "You know what a virgin is Karl?"

He shook his head, but after awhile whispered, "No."

"That's someone that hasn't had sex yet," the fox thought for a moment, "for girls its for their personals. By the way, her privates are called her vagina, and yours is-"

"A penis, I know, I just didn't know if you were okay with me saying it," the pup whispered back, a bit embarrassed to say things like that to an adult."

Cathy sighed again and continued, "Yes. Now when a girl is a virgin she has something inside her vagina, a little piece of skin. When you have sex the first time the male breaks this and it hurts a bit," she whispered, but then smiled thinking back to the first real night of sex she had, "but it feels good after that."

Karl, still not satisfied, sat up and added, "But what about her butt?"

Again, the fox sighed deeply, but she was feeling less and less awkward, he wasn't a pup in her mind anymore; "When you did that Karl," she paused for a moment, still not sure if she wanted to continue; she'd have to admit a lot about her experience, "The muscle that's there, well it doesn't want let stuff in, but when you get past it, it can feel good."

"Your sure? She cried a lot for awhile before she seemed to like it?" Karl asked nervously, not aware that Cathy almost fainted, she was trying to steer him away from her sex life.

Cathy chuckled and shook her head, burying her muzzle in her paws but continued anyway, "Yes Karl, it can feel good if you love your partner a lot. That's why she does these things with you, she loves you and wants to be as close to you as she can and share as many things with you as she can," the fox finished, realizing she had been tanking about herself, but Karl hadn't noticed.

"Can I ask one more thing?" Karl furthered as he climbed into bed as well.

She nodded, wondering what else could possibly be on his mind.

"You won't get mad?" he asked, apparently this was a big one.

She nodded once again, now interested, what else could they possibly be doing?

"What will you do if you... don't find the Captain or he..." Karl didn't need to finish.

She wasn't expecting that question and Cathy turned out the light, to hide her tears. She had been thinking of that possibility too though.

"I'll go to him, lay down next to him, and share whatever fate he did, but I won't let it come to that," and she rolled over and cried quietly, she couldn't bear the thought of loosing him, not forever.

She had looked up many things, and one thing, which to her fright had stayed with her, was an ancient human practice called Sati. It was done by widows and they would throw themselves onto their husband's funeral pyre, not being able to live without them. She couldn't see herself doing anything else if she saw him dead, and that scared her.

The two fell asleep, both with minds full of dread and eagerness.

General Osing's Private Stateroom Aboard FN Endeavor 2010 military time

For the first time in many years, George Osing was excited about a fight. This operation was going to do more than end this war; it was going to change the very fabric of the Federation.

Earlier today he had been given some information, information he had specially requested, and as he suspected, it showed him just as he had known it would. The few, meaning one or two, and not even Sterling included, in the intelligence community who were now aware of this fact, were in an uproar.

"George?" Osing heard from outside his door, it was Drake, as he had asked him to come.

"Come in," Osing yelled out, eager to spread this knowledge.

Drake walked in and sat down, he never asked permission, he wasn't big on manners.

"Well what's so important now? I don't even think I want to know," Drake commented, still not quite to terms with the last bombshell Osing had dropped on him.

Laughing the General replied, "This ones better, and worse."

Drake leaned back and made a "continue" gesture with his hands.

"Well," Osing began, "you remember what we talked about, well now I have proof. As soon as we got the coordinates for the Alpha's location, we sent in a probe, and you'd never believe what it brought back. Guess what he's hiding aboard?"

Drake shook his head, not fully interested, as he was quite tired. George never seemed to sleep and that always annoyed the Admiral.

"Our feathered friend's personal transport," Osing said, with a look of self gratification played across his face, "The bird's going to get his ass caught now, and by the entire Federal Fleet to boot."

Now Drake was wide-awake and alert.

"Wait, wait, wait. He's there, as in with the Alpha right now?" Drake asked.

Osing just nodded, he was absolutely excited over this entire situation.

"So what do you plan to do?" Drake asked, not sure what the answer could be.

In a nonchalant voice Osing replied, "Kill him, but first humiliate him before the entire Federation."

Drake shifted uneasily. He believed his longtime friend, and the facts were clear, but the thought of executing a Consular was not something that had ever crossed his mind.

Seeing his friend's discomfort George spoke up, "He is a traitor, a real one, and he will be treated as such. He's killed thousands, lord knows ruined the lives of millions. Hell, look at that damn poor fox and rabbit, they wouldn't be in the situations they're in now if he had ended this tradition of Consulars."

"But she wouldn't have meet the Captain," Drake pointed out.

Rather surprised by Drake's acceptance of the pair's love affair, Osing leaned back and said, "granted, but the fact still remains."

"So who else knows?" Drake restarted the conversation.

"Only you, me, and one or two intelligence officers. Word's going to spread like wildfire though, now doubt that Sterling will know soon, then the whole damn fleet will," Osing replied, but with eagerness and not resent in his voice, "I've been looking forward to this day for more than ten years, finally we'll catch one of these bastards in the act."

For a long moment the pair sat in silence, but Drake still was uneasy at this new task that Osing spoke of.

"Well? What do you think?" Osing asked, trying to check and see what was with the Admiral.

"I just don't feel right about this. I know your right, but it still doesn't feel right-" he was cut off by Colonel Sterling breaking into the General's room.

"General Osing," the dog shut the door, "I've just been... informed of your discovery," Sterling reported.

"Don't lie to me," Osing replied, shaking his finger, "you weren't informed, you listened in on us, but I don't particularly care, it was going to get out sooner or later anyway."

Embarrassed that he was caught in a lie the dog just stood there, not sure what to say.

Osing chuckled and added, "On the bright side of things our probe reports show only the consular's ship, so it should be an easy win."

Sterling nodded and Drake felt a little relieved, he didn't like any of this and preferred to let the army handle this one.

"So then sir, what do you plan to do exactly when you capture him?" Sterling asked, making sure that the General wasn't harboring any personal revenge scheme.

"Well, were going to bring him back to the capital for trial and execution, since there's more than enough evidence to get him on treason, but before we do all that I'm making sure Captain Reynolds is back with his wife," Osing explained, putting emphasis on the last part.

Drake perked up and joined in the conversation, "What about the Alpha Prime?"

Both Sterling and Osing sighed, but George beat the dog to the answer; "As an officer of the Federation, I would like say we will do everything we can to make sure we capture him unharmed. However, as a soldier, and knowing soldiers, there is no way, no way possible, that the boarding party will let the wolf be captured. There is no one in Federation who wouldn't want a crack at him, and I think everyone would like to be known as 'The killer of the last Alpha Wolf,' so I hate to say it," he looked at Sterling, "but that Wolf, if found, is dead the moment anyone can figure out who he is and think about it for a moment."

Drake, surprised but understanding the answer looked at the Lieutenant Colonel. It was his department that wanted him alive, and the General had basically assured him that the first soldier to cross paths with The Alpha would murder the prized wolf.

"I know your right General," Sterling began, "and believe it or not, I would rather see him dead as well, but if he is lost, the blame will fall on you. Its not anyone's decision, it's just how it works."

"I'm aware of that Colonel, but there's something your both forgetting," Osing looked at the pair who were now very fascinated in what he was going to say, "but whose going to prosecute me for that? Like I said, everyone will be glad the Wolf is dead, I have no worries, or problems being tried for his murder."

For some reason the dog and human listening to this felt as though the General wasn't telling the whole truth, but they let it go. Few people questioned Intelligence's plans, but fewer questioned General Osing's.

"There's one last thing that worries me General," Sterling furthered, "what happens if Captain Reynolds is killed before or as we arrive to the system?"

Osing sighed; the thought had crossed his mind more than once.

"That, Lieutenant Sterling, I cannot answer. It is possible that he could be killed, or be dead already. I pray that he hasn't been, which is why we're going to board and capture that ship as fast as we can. I will say this though, I said that the Alpha Wolf won't likely see another day, but if he kills Reynolds, Cathy will do things to him I can't imagine. She'll stop at nothing to find him, and I figure she'll torture and kill whomever stands in her way or worse, kills her love."

"Hmm," Drake huffed, "I still find it weird that you're such a romantic George."

At that Osing had no response, he had never thought of himself as a romantic.

To get back into the situation Sterling broke in, "On the matter of the boarding, whose doing it?"

"Rangers, of course," Drake answered, gaining a nod from Osing.

"And what of these 'extras'?" Sterling added.

Drake tilted his head, not sure what the dog was talking about.

"Oh," Sterling began, "there are a few requests to be on this mission. Obviously Captain Grey, but the puppy that we picked up on Chyane, a few high ranking navel and army officers, and before the debriefing Corporal Gates asked to join the party as well."

"The pup, the Corporal, and Cathy will be allowed, and no one else other than the boarding party of Rangers," the General replied.

The two other officers nodded, and although both Drake and Sterling figured that the pup might be... out of place, they said nothing. Osing had been quite clear these were his wishes.

Smiling the General added, "You know I'm loosing Rangers and soldiers left and right."

Once again the other two officers looked at him in confusion, it seemed that Osing was making a point of always knowing more than Intelligence.

He chuckled and continued, "After the briefing you saw Captain Atric go and escort Corporal Gates to her room right? Well," the old General grinned, "apparently neither ever arrived at her room. I'll give you two guesses what that means."

Drake rolled his eyes and Sterling looked perplexed, he was all logic and this just went against all things he had been trained it. Actually everything in the last few weeks had been like that, so he was able to compensate faster than he had thought.

"You realize the Relationship Ban is going to have to be lifted," Drake chimed in, "Everyone, particularly after that hearing, is more than aware of what took place between those two, and I think we will see more cases in the near future."

The all nodded in agreement. That law was too old as it was, and it wasn't going to survive this.

"Well, I think it might be a good idea that we all get some sleep," Sterling said as he stood up, "Tomorrow will be a day long remembered in the Federation, and, I feel, will effect the future of countless lives."

Drake stood up as well and the pair walked out.

Indeed, the next day would be the most important day for any of them, and all three couldn't even imagine what could happen if they failed.

Chapter 5 War

Quarters of Captain Sean Atric Aboard FN Endeavor 0932 Military Time

Sean awoke to sounds of movement outside the door. Not fully aware he clasped Emily close. She awoke as well and smiled up at him, but saw a look of surprise on his face, which worried her.

"What's wrong?" she asked as the fox's face warmed a bit. She hugged him tightly.

"Nothing, I heard movement outside the door and I just thought something..." he trailed off.

Without words he had shown he feared for her, and Emily was quite taken with the display. She smiled and held him close, rubbing her fur on his.

They just laid there for about a half hour, not asleep and not talking, just being happy and warm.

Eventually he leaned over and kissed Emily, who welcomed it, enough that she pulled him on top of her.

For a long time they just kissed, their tongues intertwined and overlapping as they hugged each other. She felt his tail wrap around her leg and she rubbed the fur on his sides.

Their make out session was cut short by a knock on the door and the voice of Sean's XO; "Sir, we're needed down in the briefing room."

To Emily's surprise Sean ignored him, and continued kissing her lovingly. She missed a step, but was pulled back and was back to kissing him just as deeply as before.

"Sir?" the XO knocked, but the pair disregarded it, they both were content to lie there for the rest of time.

For a long moment the two were left alone, but then they both heard keys jingle on the other side, and that got their attention.

"Wait Aaron-"Sean was cut off by his XO, a rabbit as well, walking in looking a bit worried, but then very surprised.

"Sir I thought... I... sorry sir," Aaron saw Emily clutching onto his CO, and, after a bit of thought, realized what was going on; "We're needed in the launch bay in twenty minutes sir, I... uh... sorry."

Sean chuckled, which lightened both the frightened XO's and Emily's mood.

"It's okay Lieutenant, we will both be there as soon as we can," the captain reported.

He felt Emily squeeze his paw and looked down to see a fearful look on her eye, but she wasn't looking at him, she was looking off, as if into space.

The XO, not wanting to be there a moment later, walked out without being dismissed, but managed to shut the door behind him. Both Sean's and Emily's attuned ears could hear the other rabbit saying something to his friends.

"Well I guess the words out," Sean commented, lowering his head to meet hers. "You okay?"

She nodded, but remained transfixed at nothing. Sean rubbed her back, but she still didn't budge. Finally he tickled her little tail, which broke her concentration. She looked up, but with small tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

Sean laid her down and hugged her, letting her put her head between his and the bed.

"What's wrong?" Sean asked, very concerned.

Without moving her head she replied, "I want to go with you to the Alpha Wolf's ship, but I'm afraid."

"Of what? I won't let him hurt you, I won't let anyone hurt you," he told her, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.

"That's just it," she said, looking up, now with tears on her check, which Sean promptly whipped off, "He took my sister and I loved her, and I love you, and I don't want him to take you too. The thing's he did..." she broke off with a small sob.

Sean rubbed her softly and brought her close as he could get.

"I love you, and I wouldn't do anything, or let anything happen that would make you sad," he said right into her ear. He nuzzled the rabbit and she rubbed back, her crying slowing a bit.

"But what if you were in the same situation as the Captain?" she added.

"I would do everything I could to protect you," he said, without any hesitation.

She looked him right in the eye and replied, "I don't think I could do what Captain Grey's doing now. I don't think I could take loosing you like that."

Now Sean realized what Captain Reynolds must have gone through, it must have been the hardest decision in his life to do that.

"I don't know," he replied, "I don't know. I love you, and that won't change, and, by seeing Cathy's actions, I know that love is the most powerful weapon and strength, so in the end that's all that matters," he said, somewhat surprised by his own intuition.

The answer made Emily feel better and closer to him, but it wasn't enough, and she grabbed both his paws with both of hers, and looked him right in the eye, "I want you to vow to me, that you won't let that happen, and you won't let yourself get hurt, no matter what."

He wasn't happy with what he was going to say, but he had to; "I can't do that. I can't let you get hurt to save myself. I can see why Reynolds did what he did, and I know I would do the same. All I can promise is that I won't let us be separated, if that makes you feel better."

In complete seriousness she looked at him and swore, "I would be happier dead with you, than alone and without."

For a long while they laid there, paw in paw, thinking of her pledge to him.

Finally he smiled and replied, "I know it won't come to that, one day we'll be together on our own."

She smiled and whispered, "Your sure?"

"Yes, just as sure as I am that both Cathy and Reynolds will be together as well," Sean said, very sure of that as well.

For another long while they laid there, in silence over what might befall them in the coming hours.

Bridge of FN Endeavor 1119 Military time

"Coming into normal space in 10 minutes sir," the navigation officer reported to Admiral Drake.

The old naval officer strode across the bridge and looked out the forward window. There was nothing to see, but he felt like there was something looking at him.

On the old, yet large bridge there were now the three most famous people in the Federation; Admiral Drake, General Osing and Captain Grey, or what most were back to calling her, Captain Reynolds.

Cathy had been pacing back in forth like a wolf waiting for a kill. The tension was unbearable for her and she couldn't wait for this day to be over.

About four minutes later Sean and Emily walked onto the bridge together. Neither saw it but all three of the officers on the bridge smiled; they were all aware of what was going on between the fox and the hare.

Cathy walked over to them and greeted them as one, which caused them both a bit discomfort, "Have you both been to the briefing?"

They both nodded and Cathy returned to the sensors, she couldn't remove her eyes from them.

Sean and Emily took up positions on the bridge; Emily stood near the rear by the Ranger boarding party where she geared up, and Sean walked over to the two senior officers.

"How are you doing son?" Osing said, holding back a chuckle.

The young fox shifted uneasily and glanced back at Emily, who looked up and smiled.

"I take it that it's all to obvious sirs?" Sean questioned blatantly.

"Don't worry captain," Drake said, also amused by the situation, "we kind of figured it out when you two left together yesterday, but your XO has been..." the admiral searched for the right words, "proclaiming it for you."

"Is there going to be problems with this sirs?" the Captain asked, a bit unsure of what his real next course of action should be.

Osing chuckled, "Only you and Corporal Gates can know that."

Sean stared at the officer, and almost didn't hear the navigation officer report that they would be entering normal space in 60 seconds.

Cathy moved, rather ran to the main view screen; she had to see the ship holding her lover as soon as she could.

The other three officers came up behind her and watched with anticipation as well.

The ship began to feel heavier, and they all felt it decelerate. Stars began to form in the background, one peering through the blackness of the mixture of real space and sub space. The local planet must be close to the system's star.

A blue green orb came into view, and then the four officers, and every ship in the Federation saw it, it was horrible, and of all the people and furries there, it frightened Admiral Drake the most.

Osing, terrified for the first time in many years, commented, "This makes things a bit more complicated."

All Cathy could manage was a nod; she felt dead inside.

Aboard Consular Otho's Personal Transport 29 minutes earlier 11:00AM

The Alpha Wolf felt much better, actually proud of himself. He had finally found a way to break the Captain's spirits, a way to break him completely.

"What do you want Mafeu?" Consular Otho said as he barged in on the wolf's thoughts.

"Have you finally thought up an explanation as to what you were talking about yesterday?"

The wolf growled, but it didn't cause the usual reaction in the falcon, which bothered Mafeu.

"Don't worry your beak about that consular, I told him that to make his believe he actually had a purpose for me. I asked you here because I want you to see what he will see, what will break his will."

Otho didn't believe the wolf's answer, but he let it go, the bird was more interested at what the Alpha had conjured up.

The pair walked over to the dinning chamber, but the main window was uncovered, and you could see a substantial amount of the system. The small, green and blue planet the transport orbited put a small horizon on the bottom of the window, with its single moon in the corner. In the foreground the system's one star caused enough light that the room didn't need any lamps, but the Alpha insisted on having as much light in the large dinning room as possible.

About five minutes passed and the Captain was brought in. He looked tired and angry. The entire night the Alpha had let his guards take out their anger on him for their fallen brothers. They had managed to focus all their energies on his chest and it caused the Captain to walk somewhat doubled over. With all this having happened though, his eyes still had the look of hope in them, a look that the Alpha hoped to drive out of him.

"Have a good night?" the Alpha asked, somewhat jovial.

Reynolds grinned, "Fine, I managed to leave a few of your guards in worse shape than me."

The Alpha growled again, he couldn't wait to kill the human.

"Don't worry, you'll enjoy the pleasure of their company every night until you've outlived your usefulness-"

"Or Cathy finds me," the Captain interrupted, this time causing pure anger on the wolf's face.

"It's funny you bring that up, because I have something to show you that should remove any hope of that," the wolf said, grinning.

He motioned the Captain to the window to look at the view.

At first Reynolds didn't believe what he saw, but it couldn't be anything else. He had seen this planet once before, only once. He had even walked on it, but he never dreamed that the wolf and consular would have selected this system as a hiding place.

It was the Sol system, the origin of the human race and the home of his ancestors. For a moment the captain thought of his Thompson. He wondered for a moment what would happen to the rifle, but then his thoughts turned to Cathy, and hoped she was okay.

"Okay so you took me to Earth, big deal. What? You plan to kill me and throw me onto my home planet? Funny, I thought you wolves were without honor," the Captain commented, trying not to let any fear be heard in his voice. The fact of the matter was he knew he would never be found.

Now smiling at the Captain's ignorance, Mafeu replied, "No Reynolds, that's not the surprise. Take a look in system, near the area where this planet's moon meets the star."

The Captain moved his gaze to the area but saw nothing.

"Keep looking, should be any minute now," the Alpha Wolf said, eagerness in his voice.

Reynolds continued looking at the area, but now he saw something. The area flexed and bulged, a classic sign of a ship coming in from subspace. For a moment he expected to see a few cruisers, maybe a battleship at max, but to his horror this wasn't the case.

The three stood and watched as upwards twelve thousand wolf ships, every craft that the wolves operated, jump in space. What once had been a serene system, free of anything but what had formed naturally, was now completely engulfed in warships, enough so that the Captain couldn't even see the moon, and most of the sun was blocked out as well.

Each one had different thoughts and feelings at the sight. The Alpha wolf felt a sense of supremeness; it had been a long time since he had seen his entire armada assembled. The fleet could take any system by itself, no matter what the Federation wanted, and it was exactly what the Alpha wolf needed to do to show the Captain he meant business.

While the Alpha wolf felt elation at the sight, both Reynolds and Otho were terrified. Otho's first thought was what it had been intended for, to scare Captain Reynolds, but his thoughts wondered into a different direction. Being the fearful, self-preservationist he was, the Falcon assumed that this was part of a plot that Mafeu had been harboring, a plot to kill the bird. He was sure of it, his so called instincts made him believe entirely that this was a blockade, not a presentation.

The Captain felt fearful as well, but for different reasons. While the Alpha had intended this show of force to make the Captain believe that no one would come and find him here, the Captain saw it as a trap. He feared now that Cathy might very well come and find him, but in the end be killed, or worse, captured.

From what the Alpha read on the Captain's face, he was sure the ploy worked, a distinct sight of fear was played across Reynolds' face and it said one thing, he knew he would never leave the "care" of the Alpha wolf.

"Still believe your 'wife' will find you now?" the wolf commented, trying to "rub" it in.

The Captain, not answering, just stared out the window. By now the fleet had moved around the Consular's ship and taken up offensive positions around the planet. They made a literal blanket around the entire planet. The once beautiful blue-green orb now had thousands of matt gray warships hovering above it.

Then, off in the distance, the three saw another shimmering, the signs of more ships coming in system.

"M-more?" the falcon stuttered.

The bird turned to look at the Alpha Wolf, who had a confused look played across his face.

His features hardening the wolf commented, "Damn lazy bastards, I'll have them shot for being late."

As he said it about one thousand ships jumped in system, at the lead was a massive battle cruiser, almost as big as a battleship. The Alpha Wolf's eyes went wide with horror; it was a Federation ship. Behind it was eight enormous battleships, each one mounting massive turrets that could bore a hole through any ship in the wolf fleet.

The Captain smiled and turned to the wolf, "I guess you were wrong. No matter what happens to me, both of you," he looked at the horrified Otho, "will be caught or killed, and I'm not sure which fate will be worse for each of you."

With their roles reversed the Alpha wolf just stared at the assembling Federation Fleet. Now it was upwards of three thousand ships, and they were all moving at flank speed towards his fleet.

Otho was about to faint. Now he had no doubts that there was a plot against him. He wasn't going to go out like this; he wasn't going to get caught.

"So what are you going to do Mafeu? Do you think there's any chance for you," the Captain said, his confidence soaring.

The wolf turned to meet Reynolds' gaze, but horror was in his eyes, as the wolf knew very well he had no chance.

For the second time in recent day, a gun was raised in the Captain's presence, but this time only one shot rang out.