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A Renegade Reborn

Pt 15 - Favors

By H. A. Kirsch

—

“I see you haven't upgraded the administrative meeting space."

I didn't need someone to criticize me on my… third? Fourth? Seventh? Whatever day it had been since I took 'ownership' of Datix Station, aka D8X6. I especially didn't need it from someone who basically dressed exactly like I liked to dress. I especially didn't need it from a skinbag human. I think the correct term is 'dislytic human', although that also meant humans from Earth, and they were supposed to be so illegal they wouldn't ever show their faces. That explained why Marece and Varius had gotten in trouble dealing with them.

I wound up to complain. “In case you didn't notice, there's kind of a lot of stuff going on here. There's people who live here, people who didn't live here which we sent to live somewhere else, the guy who managed this place was blackmailing the guy who owned this place, and also, the guy who managed this place was-" Don't blow it, Hawk, “A big fucking asshole."

The guy's name was Yris, pronounced 'yee-ris'. He was bald, looked to be about forty years old, and was unhappily serious. He was a bit shorter than me, wore a leather business suit and what I like to call 'tactical' riding boots as was quite popular around the stations. I really had no way to sort out his ethnic complexion except that he was fairly dark-skinned; it didn't occur to me that over five hundred years, humans may have shifted in appearance. Notably, he had the same clipped king's english accent that was common with Selnari who lived in space.

He also didn't talk a lot. So I did. “Anyway. So, it's meeting time."

He stood; I sat. He walked up to the desk, then around it, and stood right next to me. “I can tell you have an attitude. I have one, too. Mine is that no one fucks with me. There's no moral discussion. Do not fuck with me." He cracked his knuckles. He didn't wear gloves. “Bran owed me people. Considering what I've seen on the news, I don't think you will be delivering those people to me. I paid him money, and I didn't get my return on it. You could pay me back, but that wouldn't settle my debt. I run just-in-time. That means I already had contracts out for all of those five hundred and thirteen people. That means they paid me. Even if you pay me, and I pay them, that isn't how things work in the dark circles. You make a mistake, you own up to it. If someone does wrong and leaves you with the bag, you do right. Do you understand?" He leaned very close.

I sniffed at him. He smelled like a skinbag. A leathery one. He also wore cologne, and not something pleasant. It was harsh and old-school, like something a salesman would wear. “I don't agree, but I think I understand." This is mafia shit, isn't it. I guess organized crime is organized crime, no matter what planet - or not.

“You need to give me something worth something like what Bran owned me. I understand your situation is unique in so many ways, so I will be lenient. You are not in network space. You are barely in subnet space. Anyone who works on this station who knows who I am can tell you what you might be able to do and what will happen to you if you don't. You have until the day after tomorrow. I will stay here in the administrative apartment, which you are not using."

There's an administrative apartment? News to me. I was living in Bran's apartment in the village, which was definitely not the administrative apartment. “Alright. I think I can come up with something equitable."

“Don't disappoint me. You don't have to approve of what I do. I know you don't. People depend on me." He then turned and walked out. He had bodyguards, who were also dislytic humans, and he joined them as he left the room.

Neer quickly rushed in. “Shit shit shit," he hissed through his canines. “Do you know what this means? Of course you don't, why would you know, I'm not being sarcastic now. Hawk, we have to give him a person. I think just one person. I thought that Bran was the end of that kind of… that kind of slavery stuff."

I want to say I felt terrified, except I didn't really. There were two reasons: one, someone sold me into slavery as soon as I was defrosted from my little cryo pod, so I probably earned the right to pass it along like all great bullies of history. Two, I had someone who could give me advice and that wasn't a frazzled but enthusiastic half-cyborg doberman.

Back at Bran's old apartment, which was now smelling more and more like the right kind of wolf, I lounged around in the master suite while Varius…

(“Wanna guess what I'm doing right now?") I said to Buck, through some dedicated secure channel set up through my scanbook.

(“Calling me while you're fucking isn't going to make me jealous.")

Varius was not giving me a blowjob. He was polishing my boots. My brand new knee-high black gunslinger boots. I even had them on a polishing stand which we found in the storage room full of Former Dungeon Crap. At least, the dungeon crap that Strake hadn't pinched. (“I'm getting a nice, loving and caring boot shine from a very pleasant horsey.")

(“If you're calling me, something's wrong, or you're really drunk.")

(“I'm not drunk. Yris showed up.")

Talking on the augment system is strange. The privacy shield stuff ensures people can't hear you or lipread you and that you don't seem like a lunatic. It can only do so much. I could hear Buck basically holler at the top of his lungs. (“FUCKING SHIT! I knew he was going to do it, just not so fast! Did he calmly and firmly explain his shit to you?")

(“Yeah. Neer says I owe him a person.")

(“Here's what you're gonna do,") Buck said. (“You're going to follow this exactly. I'm going to write it down after I tell you. Bleachers ruin people, so it doesn't matter what sort of person you put through that process. It only matters how physically built they are. You're going to give him someone he isn't going to bleach. That's what will make it worthwhile. The problem is, whoever that person is, will basically be indent contracted to him indefinitely, which is illegal, and probably shitty for that person unless they see eye to eye. You are going to find the person on your station that is the most aligned with what Bran was doing, so you won't feel bad about selling them to a slaver for your safety. You are then going to meet with Yris with the rest of the candidates. You are going to threaten that person with their life in front of everyone. Yris will try to talk you down and you will try to refuse. You will make the last minute decision not to kill that person and turn them over instead. I know it sounds weird, but you are trying to humiliate Yris by making him think he's wasting his time, and then have him humiliate you, so that might be unpleasant. I know you said that everyone there seemed happy for Bran's untimely end by tiger, but someone has to have wanted to get in on that whole 'people are an endless source of money if you can just sell enough of them' thing he was doing. If Neer tries to tell you what to do, listen to him but ignore him. Do not take his advice. He means well - I've met him, a few years ago - but he's just an upstart kid and he's not going to do the right thing here. It's a dance and he doesn't know it.")

I rubbed at my chin and looked up at the ceiling while I considered his words. Even if he didn't write it down, I had a speech-to-text log. (“Okay.")

(“How freaked out are you?")

Varius could tell I was doing something serious, as he had paused while I tapped my ankle around. (“I don't know anyone here, and I know Neer was part of some overall mutinous organization. I don't think he's going to point me to the right person even if I let him. However, I think I know how I can find who I'm looking for.")

(“Good. You tell me when Yris leaves, and I'll come by with some of my men to take a look around. You'll make sure no one disturbs us. And if you don't tell me when Yris leaves, I'll find out, and then I'll show up when it's convenient for me.")

(“Understood.")

(“You sound scared. Good.")

I sighed, and looked down at Varius. “Sorry. I thought I could multitask but it wasn't an easy conversation."

“I don't mind," he shrugged. “I finish one entire boot."

“Good. Finish the other one and we'll call it good."

—

I took Marece for a little drive in one of Neer's ATVs. We went to one of the disused part of the station, where we stood on an overlook for an area that looked like a selection of dwelling caves near the edge of a river. There was no water in the river, and without the sky simulation on, it looked like a movie set between takes.

“This place creeps me out," the hare sighed. “The whole idea of it."

“Well, I'll creep you out with something else. We need to find the person who was Bran's biggest supporter, or who least supported the mutiny. Specifically, I need a ranked list of people in the administrative org that Neer's in."

“What do you want me to do about it?" Marece shrugged. “I've been here as long as you have. Do you think this area was for some sort of… what were they called, cavemen?"

Hrrh. “Humans never lived in caves. That's just a legend. Don't change the subject. You know why you're here. You like digging into stuff. You were a criminal so you could dig into stuff, got a job digging into stuff officially with TARE, dug into my stuff until I convinced you to blow your cover and come with me, and I know you've been continuing to dig into stuff. Strake can handle himself but that doesn't mean he isn't single-minded and loose about it. You don't like that. You're helping him clean up his act so he doesn't have to fire his gun unless he has to. And in exchange, you're letting him plow you like one of those cattle fields."

“That's disgusting."

“He walks around dressed like some Gorean woman-slaver with his cock flapping about."

“I don't know what that means."

“Fair enough. I can hear him fucking you. And you really like it. You like screwed up, aggressive-"

“Okay, I think I get the point. Yes, I can dig up anything that's buried. What do I get out of this favor?"

“A job. You're gonna be on security. Strake wants to do his 'I'm not a pirate' piracy thing. You probably don't want to go with him. So you can stay here and dig into everything that needs digging. I knew you were really a bunny rabbit."

Hares aren't supposed to snarl but he managed. “So I agree to something and you insult me?"

“You love it. You love listening to my insults. Every time I say something like 'bunny boy' it comes on a wave of fuckin' lust that makes you wiggle your little tail. Strake sticks it in and I stick it to you."

He winced. “I suppose you're right. I don't understand how TARE could think you're not dangerous. You're… is it dastardly, and also ignorant, and perhaps the ignorance is the harmless bit. You aren't trying to mess everyone up. You're just waving a big stick around because ooh, big stick fun! By the way, are we just here to be private?"

“I kinda wanted to see what you thought of this stuff. I mean… do you really think we can pull it off? Changing this place? Making it into something? You know a lot of stuff. You've been around. I annoy you, so your opinion's worth more since it'll be in spite of my bad behavior." I leaned on the observation railing, boots crossed. I looked and felt like a gunslinger casing out a job.

He mimed what I was doing. “I think that it will work on one condition. You find more of those legacy Selnari like yourself, with the same problem. Strake is not one, and neither is Mike. Neither is… your brother. Harley is, however, it's not the same thing as you."

I was not expecting that answer. “Wait, what do you mean, what's my… whatever that ability is called, have to do with anything? I thought it was fuckin' annoying and possibly dangerous, like you just said. And what did you say about Harley?"

“Harley isn't just large and professionally intimidating. Strake is that way, and physically violent, too."

“I watched Harley pull a guy's arm out of its fuckin' socket once. He did also send him to the hospital and paid for the bill, so it was just to teach him a lesson."

“That's not the same thing as Strake. I mean, that the reason Harley's so instantaneously intimidating is that he emits anger. I've never encountered someone who is so… it fills the room."

“Cara said that about me and sex."

“It's like there's this space around you, it comes over like a wave. It's very strange. I doubt you can understand it. Perhaps that's what a 'gut feeling is', that's an old saying, right? Hener say 'grabbing your ribs', but in TIL. In any case, considering that Harley feels angry and you feel horny, I can imagine that there must be others who came 'the long way around', or even perhaps on that ship you were on, who are similar. If you could have them work here, they could help… make people feel at home, welcomed, engaged, attracted, in lust, heated, whatever. Instead of the exchange of feelings, there would just be this… it would set the tone, consistently, all the time. Word would probably spread quickly. A strange station almost out in the dark circles, where you can do whatever you want, wherever you want, where you feel like you should? Honestly, I would try that at least once. Especially if none of it is like those Hener Shadows places. It's all so easy there and so plain and laid out. There's no real mystique."

“You actually think it'd work?"

“I didn't say you're going to make it work, or that it's easy, just that I think it could work. Maybe someone else thought that about this station, and they were wrong, and that's why you're here trying to find out who you can trade to a slaver so he'll leave you alone."

—

I was surprised to find out that while Neer was upset that I had vanished for a short while, no one else really seemed to be bothered. No one else meaning 'the crew I had', and what crew, I wasn't employing them for anything, they were just apparently as bored as I was of whatever they were doing in their lives.

Cara seemed ferociously busy; she breezed into the Wolf Apartment and then breezed back out after having some food. Strake simply wasn't home at all, and neither was Marece, although I had been just talking to him and he was likely doing what I told him to do. That left Mike and Varius.

I found Mike first. His room door was open but just barely, and I could hear sounds. So I peeked in. Did I mention before that I'm a voyeur? It's one of those minor kinks I have. The idea of watching someone else jerk off or fuck someone while they can't see me is just such a fun little zing. So I managed to stay out of sight and peeked through the door into a dressing mirror.

Mike was restrained, standing up, with his arms behind his back. He was wearing his latex 'superhero' outfit, complete with cape, without anything covering his cock and balls. His ankles were shackled to a spreader bar, and he was just held up by his heels. He was inclined back and struggling, though not tied to anything like a piece of bondage furniture.

Someone was holding him, arms interlocked with his. Tally. The robo-wolf was also wearing an outfit, a pretty medieval torture-wolf thing surely cobbled together from the Dungeon Junk that Strake and Varius had both raided. It didn't seem to matter how much Mike groaned and struggled; Tally stood firm, subtly moving to stay upright and braced.

Standing next to him was Neer, who was wearing… you could say it was an even more 'futuristic' version of my Mafia Wolf outfit. Straight zip leather coat, no shirt, leather 'driving gloves', leather pants with his cock out the fly, and a pair of black rubber and plastic 'stormtrooper armor' boots I swear I'd seen Mike wearing around. He had a leather hood, a canine 'executioner's hood' that looked a bit big for him. Neer, being a black and tan doberman hybrid, was not particularly big.

He held what I thought was a gun at first - no, it was a vibrator. Something like the 'impulse massagers' used for actual pain relief, though it buzzed more than thrummed. He nudged it at Mike's cock, first up underneath, then down against the top base of the shaft, then down against the very top rim of the glans.

That last motion made Mike squeal, and it really excited me, enough that I bumped the door and it opened all the way. Neer seemed a little startled, and his head whipped towards me.

Mike locked eyes and begged. “Pleeeease! Hawk! Hawk he won't let me go! He's been doing this for ow-hours!"

“Be quiet," Neer said, and had the most unconvincing Serious Dom Top voice I've ever heard.

“Hey, let him go," I growled, and started moving my hand towards my 'gun belt'. I had an un-loaded prop gun. I wanted to see if Tally would drop what he was doing and tackle me.

Instead, the robot just gave me one of his baleful flat stares. “Do not interfere," he said, then looked down at Mike. “You are too loud. You must be silenced." He adjusted how he held Mike's arms so he could grab both with one, reached over, and picked up a ball gag.

“Nn-noo! Please!" Mike wailed, while his cock strained and slobbered all over itself. Neer bumped the textured head of the vibrator against it, and it made a wet splattery sound. I could see well enough that it blurred the shape of the glans and some precum even spritzed off the tip. Thanks, augments, for letting me zoom in on that from across the room.

“Do not resist," Tally said, and then pushed the ball gag into Mike's muzzle. The fox made a big show of trying to dodge it, though he clearly opened his black muzzle and let Tally stuff it in.

“Mmmmffh!" Mike groaned and huffed and slobbered out every available gap between tooth, lip, and the scarlet rubber ball gag. Tally buckled it in place, while Mike groaned and coughed.

Neer reached over and held Mike's balls, pulling them downwards while shoving the vibrator against the underside of his cockhead. The fox wailed and then squealed into the gag, eyes squeezed shut, back arching strongly. Tally barely moved. Seconds later, a huge arc of spunk erupted from Mike's cock, shot my way, and missed my boot by about a foot short. The rest just blasted out onto the floor, then dribbled out onto the vibrator for more of that wet and lewd sound. Mike laughed and sobbed at the same time with overstimulation, chest and stomach heaving underneath his fancy costume-sculpted rubber torso piece.

The fox swiftly grunted three times, and Neer pulled the toy right away. To my surprise, Tally immediately pushed forward and helped Mike straighten up, then unbuckled the gag and pulled it out, then tossed it aside to land on the bed. “Are you okay?" the robot asked.

“Yeah! Yeah! I just, you know, I had to tell you to stop eventually, right?"

On closer examination as I walked over - I made sure to step in the fox-spunk, so I could make a few boot prints with it on the faux-wood floor - Neer was half-hard and his cock was already smeared with seed. There didn't seem to be any anywhere else.

“What's all this about, huh? I come back to take a nap and some fox is being tortured?"

“This was a simulation of sexual assault," Tally said.

“Wow! Okay, Tally, you need to learn to use better language. It was a BDSM roleplay scene. Neer was some villain guy and I was a superhero who was supposed to stop him, and Tally was his robot assistant! Tally, you did really well."

“Thank you. My intent is to perform my duties with confidence."

I squinted at the robot. Somewhat like Strake, his outfit included nothing to cover his groin, and he currently had a significant black dildo attached. It was a hybrid-feral wolf design, with faux balls below it. “You trust that thing to not snap you in half?"

“Oh he could carry an egg while doing parkour!" Mike said, as Neer helped him out of his restraints. As soon as he could use his hands, he twisted around and sat on the bed with a huff, then took his own ankle restraints off. “I uh, Varius wasn't here so I went into your room and had Tally kidnap me from in there, but I didn't make a mess or anything! I just wanted the space, I wasn't sure what would happen. He's way too strong and fast to fight, it's kind of weird."

“I am equipped with visible light cameras, LIDAR, ultrasonic sensors, and radar that provide a spherical zone of detection around my frame. You should not attempt to fight me," Tally said.

“Is he bragging?" I looked between the two. Neer looked a bit bashful; I don't think he expected to have someone just barge in.

“Hey! Like I said, Varius isn't here, I don't think anyone else is, so if you want to play around with Tally, he'd probably be more than happy to let you fool around. He also has a, uhh, what'd you call it?"

“Ass-light. Like a fleshlight," Neer said.

“Five hundred fucking years in the future, and you still call those fleshlights! I guess it's kind of an obvious pun, huh," I said. I felt conflicted; I was immediately aroused by watching Mike get tormented. I didn't really want to do anything with him myself; watching him act terrorized while helplessly ejaculating across the room? That kind of stuff will get me wound up one hundred percent of the time.

“Hey, I probably should get back to things, I really lost track of time," Neer said.

“No problem! You can keep that outfit for now!" Mike said, tiredly cheerful. Or was it cheerfully tired? The doberman gave him an ear rub, a grin, and then headed out. Mike continued. “I hope he goes to some business meeting about station stuff with all that on. They'll probably think you had him do it and it'll make your reputation level up."

“My positive reputation, or my reputation as a disgusting scoundrel," I snorted. I then looked at Tally. “Fine. I wouldn't have gotten where I am right now if I didn't try stuff. Come on, let's go see how good robots are at sex."

—

Tally stood in my 'master bedroom' - my Wolf Den - like he was an officer undergoing inspection. An officer robot with a curiously large erection. I took a look at that, first. “So is this just a dildo or can you get an erection, can you ejaculate, how's that work."

“This particular attachment is not intended for novice and-or casual sex. To answer your question, I can both become more or less erect, and produce an ejaculation if desired. I am incapable of experiencing an orgasm, as I am operated by virtual intelligences."

I rubbed at my chin. “Can you dress and undress yourself?"

“Yes. Would you like me to remove the clothing and gear Michael selected for me?"

“Sure. Go for it." I've noticed there are types of people when it comes to interacting with robots, at least when first encountering them. There are people who assume a robot or digital assistant will behave like a human, and treats it like them, even if that means ordering it around. There are other people who try to find the limits of what it can and cannot do. A third group tries to find the limits by being an asshole. Thankfully for Tally, I'm in the second bucket. I wanted to see what he could do, and not by humiliating him.

I stood back while he removed all of the leather gear he was wearing and neatly set it aside. He then resumed his at-ease stance. Maybe it wasn't really at-ease, I'm not in the army. I looked Tally up and down, squinted, tilted my head, walked around him.

“Do you find my appearance pleasant? There are no current malfunctions or external damage present that I can detect."

I wrinkled my muzzle up a bit. “Yeah. You're a pretty, uhh, handsome robot wolf guy. Maybe a little serious. I'm also looking at you to see how big you are."

“My physical dimensions are comparable to yours. I am unable to ascertain your weight by visual examination."

“You're pretty good at talking," I said, and went to my closet. At the moment, I was wearing my black gunslinger outfit, and had stowed away the brown leather 'renegade' one. I started taking it out and setting the pieces on the bed next to the 'medieval leather' stuff.

“I am designed for easy and useful interaction with humanoids and Tark."

“Are you aware of… how you are designed?"

“My conversational capabilities are limited. I am not a general-purpose artificial intelligence."

I nodded. “Alright. That makes sense. I noticed you like to watch things. Why is that?"

“One of my drive factors is to observe and learn from my environment, in order to provide data for intelligence model training." He definitely wasn't at standard military pose; he turned his head to look at me while I talked to him, though he didn't turn physically around if I moved too far.

“Drive factors, huh. Can you tell how other people feel?"

“I am capable of understanding visual indicators of common humanoid emotions present in dislytic human and Selnari phenotypes. I am also capable of interpreting Tark emotive song. This information is used to inform my behavioral interactions."

“What am I feeling right now?"

“You appear curious. Your face also displays asymmetrical oral facial expressions in all situations, so you are not 'smirking' or 'sneering'. Did you receive a chronic injury from your recent facial impact?"

Hmm. That wasn't what I expected. “Uhh. No, I had a virus when I was younger, and it gave me something called Bell's Palsy for a few months, where the left side of my face was paralyzed. I only recovered about eighty percent there." I wrinkled my lips up in a performative snarl; I could see in a mirror and the left side only went up part way. Thankfully, I guess, it made me look like I was smirking instead of looking more 'different' or like something was actually wrong. I usually felt like smirking or snarling, so it was a good fit.

He made no attempt to move towards or put on the clothing I laid out. So: “I'd like you to dress in this outfit," I said, and indicated the new pile. Then, I went and sat down in the reading chair and propped a boot up on my knee to watch. “Hopefully it fits."

“I will not damage the provided clothing if it is sized incorrectly." He then started to dress. Despite whatever he said about his limited conversational abilities, he could put on arbitrary clothing, which was… that was something. He put the pants on, and then paused. “My synthetic penis will not fit inside of these pants."

“Just leave it sticking out of the fly opening."

He simply did as directed, and continued. [“Hey Mike, this thing is crazy. I mean not crazy like Marece looks, just, he can put on clothes!"] I brain-texted to the fox.

[“Oooh. Yeah, that worked better than I expected. I was thinking I'd have to help dress him, but it was only for things that aren't immediately obvious."]

Tally looked bigger than me, however he had no fur, and thus he actually fit into my clothing which was designed for wearing on top of fur. He just barely could close the vest, and when he started trying to close the coat, he paused. “I am unable to button this leather jacket."

“That's alright. It looks good like that."

The gloves just barely fit; he put them on just like I would have, tugging them over his hands and smoothing the leather around, then even grip-flexing to make sure they were on properly. I stared at that.

“Michael is attempting to observe us while hiding behind the door," Tally said calmly, and then turned to point. I looked over, and indeed, the fox was trying to look through the partly open door just like I had earlier. Maybe I oughta figure out how to have the doors close automatically. Or just let him watch.

“Busted," I laughed.

He whined but grinned. “Uh. I just. Well. Wow! That's interesting. Turn around, Tally! Let's see how you look!"

The robot turned about as if showing off, arms in, arms out.

Tally was not furry and also had a coloring that varied from a translucent off-white to an industrial gray. He did not look like myself, or any other wolf I'd seen recently, though he did very much look like 'a wolfy canine'. So seeing him in my leather outfit wasn't like looking at myself. It was just… it looked really good on him. It made him look much, much more human.

“Mike, are you trying to spy on me?"

“I just wanted to see… what you were doing. I figured you weren't doing anything yet."

I grinned. “Do you wanna watch? I don't really mind. Plus, I'm not sure… like can he roleplay?"

“Sort of. The 'personal companion' VI I have installed is pretty general-purpose. That's where his name came from. I've tried out the more detailed specific ones, and they're kind of silly, maybe too silly. For the most part, he'll do what you want."

“What if… I ask him to act like he doesn't want it?" I felt disgusting for asking; so disgusting that I got erect and had to move my cock in my pants as it was bending in half.

Mike screwed his face up as he tried to think. “I'm not sure. He's not very good at 'acting', like he's going to act like he acts. So think of 'obedient spaceship computer that sometimes sounds smarter than you'."

I got up from the chair. “Alright, Tally. We're going to have some fun. I am the leader of some western bandits. You're a cattle rustler that I've just recruited into my organization."

“I am currently employed by Michael Jasek, the fox standing in this room."

“I know that. Let's try this again. I am pretending to be the leader of some western bandits, and you are pretending you are a cattle rustler that I have recruited. That means you're employed by me and you need to do what I tell you."

“My conversational abilities are limited. I will attempt to defer to you as requested."

Mike and I looked at each other, and he shrugged optimistically.

“Okay. Tally, I want you to act like you're attracted to me while you do what I previously asked you to do."

He then turned to face me, walked up, and lifted a hand to touch my leather jacketed chest. “May I touch you, Sir?"

I wrinkled my face into a snarl; he moved just slightly back, and withdrew his hand but didn't put it down. “You don't call me Sir. I don't like that. Call me Mister Wolf."

“Sorry, Mister Wolf. May I touch you?"

Mike and I exchanged knowing eyebrow lifts. “Yeah. Go ahead."

He touched my chest again, then felt over it like he was stroking the leather. He stepped closer, and embraced me. My previous experiences with Tally was that he was fast and strong; this was unusually tender, although there was some definite about it that most real people lacked. Even though he wore a hat, he managed to nuzzle past my snout. “You are very handsome, Mister Wolf. Thank you for hiring me."

I felt him over as well. It was strange, since he wasn't soft or squishy under the leather gear, though if I tugged gently he moved subtly in that direction, and he also tenderly stroked me instead of just holding like a… robot. It still wasn't what a person would do, except I was having trouble explaining in my mind what that meant. If he'd snuck up on me in bed and slipped under the sheets and spooned me, I don't know how long it'd take for me to notice. Maybe once I realized he wasn't breathing.

I then pulled my head back, gently stroked under his muzzle, and looked him in the eyes. Tally's eyes weren't just cameras, and they weren't mechanical simulations of eyes, but very high resolution screens. Presumably there were cameras behind them; what I saw were surprisingly realistic wolf irises that flicked around subtly. That's actually what made his staring so unsettling - when he stared at people, he was staring at people, not just a robotic head that didn't look away. “You're awful tender for a cowboy," I said, and guided him to look me in the face. Then, I slipped a gloved hand up behind his head, and kissed him.

He kissed back. I guess I wasn't expecting him to have a tongue, although it wasn't wet with anything. I couldn't imagine what a robot needed with a tongue, except to look more realistic. He gently prodded my muzzle with it, then nudging my tongue around, and yet let me lick around inside his mouth.

“That's in-interesting," Mike said, both jockeying around to watch without getting closer, and looking a bit concerned. I kept an eye on him, since I was curious what Mike would do when I cuckolded his robot in front of him. The result was that I gave Tally a salacious partly-open wolf kiss while leering at his fox owner. “I wouldn't, I mean, I would be a little scared of kissing him, since his fangs are set up as tetanizing electrodes."

“He wouldn't do that to me," I backed off the kiss, and stroked the side of Tally's face. “Would he."

“I only want to pleasure you right now, Mister Wolf," Tally replied. His voice didn't sound any different at all, though when he spoke with his hand feeling my chest again, he sounded deferent instead of coldly present.

I gave Mike another look, while I moved Tally's hand down to my groin. He felt over my bulge, gently squeezing it, and again he felt very human about it, just… different. “I don't think I trust you yet, though. I get to know people by fuckin' them," I growled, and gave Tally another lick. “Especially when they have something like this that could rip a hole in a concrete wall." He reached down and toyed with his 'dick'. It felt like one of those realistic dildos, except it had softened and drooped and throbbed harder the moment I played with it. He subtly pushed into my hand, and when I stopped trying to kiss his mouth, he nuzzled at my neck. “And I mean fucking them. Hey Foxy, go get me what's in that drawer over there." I pointed to the open wardrobe.

“Uhh, oh, okay, I wasn't, I mean I can stick around, sure," Mike said, then went to do what I asked. His ears pinned back when he opened the drawer, and he turned around holding a pair of expensive padded leather handcuffs.

“You stick around, foxy, and make sure this cattle rustler isn't going to rustle me, just the cattle I point him at. You know what I'm sayin'?" You really have to imagine a dark and stormy cowboy wolf talking like he's making a backroom deal in some sleazy private club in New York here. I do not do country accents. I then beckoned Mike over, and took the handcuffs from him.

“Alright, you. I'm gonna make sure you keep your hands where I can see them, while I'm getting to work," I said, and stepped back from Tally. I had to hold him at bay by the shoulder to keep him from just moving forward again, and then he stood up straighter.

“Please be gentle with the restraints, Mister Wolf," he said.

“I've seen what you can do in a rough situation. You be gentle with the restraints, new hire." I buckled one on around one of his gauntlet-gloved wrists, then pulled it behind him. I cuffed the second wrist, and the short chain held them behind his lower back. I then moved up behind him and reached around, stroking his chest. I could touch the jacket leather, the vest leather beneath it, or his actual surface. He moved subtly each time, though he pressed his pecs forward when I actually touched him. I looked around and down; his 'cock' throbbed again, and seemed to swell to maximum hardness. “Hrrrh. I like how you smell," I said. He smelled like leather, and a general synthetic odor that I couldn't place. Nothing at all like a Selnari or 'dislytic' human. I didn't really like it the way I liked how someone like me would actually smell, but he didn't need to know that. I didn't even know if he could smell things like I could.

Tally subtly tested the restraints, and his arms jostled against me. I turned him a little so I could see his facial expression in a mirror. He did not make particularly big expressions, though I could see his eyebrows peak up in the middle, and he showed just a little 'teeth'. “I want to do good… for you," he said, and there was an odd pause in there for his speech pattern. Mike's ears flipped bolt forward and up. “Mister Wolf."

“Then bend over right there," I pointed to the edge of the bed. “Chest down. Ass out for me."

“Ahh, I think those pants don't have a-" Mike tried to interrupt.

“I know what my fucking pants have and don't have," I said, and guided Tally to the right location.

“Mister Wolf, I can't do it myself," Tally said, and squirmed in place. He truly looked like he was trying to bend over and yet unable or willing to go all the way, lest he fall. “I don't want to fall down. That's… embarrassing for a new hire."

Mike held his own tail around the side of his hip, and ogled the scene. I could tell from his facial expression that he was learning something.

I helped Tally lean forward, and despite him weighing quite a lot more than he looked, he just needed the extra balancing and soon was down on his chest. He twisted about and tucked his spine, then pressed his rump out backwards. His hat fell off; I set it aside on the bed. “There we go," I said, and felt over his leathered rump. It felt generically muscular, though didn't flex when I touched, although he made those subtle 'positive' movements. I reached around the front and undid his belt under the chaps belt, then the top fly button, then carefully pushed the leather down so it was tucked under his 'rump'. He had to pull his legs together to do it.

Tally's front looked a bit strange with his cock attached; he looked a bit like a mannequin with a sex toy attached. His ass, however, looked more natural, although it was easy to see where the… 'fleshlight' portion was set in.

“Please don't hurt me, and use lots of lube," Tally said, and I swear I heard a little pleading in his voice, although he generally did not change his tone much. If there was a 'tonal variation' slider somewhere in his control panel, it was set low, but not off, so he sounded like a butler and not a pure robot. “Mister Wolf," he added.

Mike grabbed for a bottle of lube and tossed it my way. I squirted some on my fingers, and then directly on the ring. It flinched. I touched it around; it flinched more, and Tally shifted forward an inch or two, then back. It was the same “oof" retreat reflex that most people made when having their asshole touched by someone else. Including me. No matter how much a person likes anal sex, the human brain probably didn't evolve with other people touching The Hole.

“I don't want to be loud, Mister Wolf, but I'll tell you if I need to stop," Tally said.

“He's… he's using contractions," Mike said, and moved a bit closer, though mostly off to the side so he could see both of us clearly. “I mean, when he talks."

I gently pressed a fingertip in; he felt like a fleshlight-style masturbation toy, except one that could squeeze on its own. Contractions, indeed. It wasn't very warm, although I could swear it was warming up a little bit. I tried to be careful, since he told me to, and also since I was wearing gloves and I didn't know how sturdy the material was. I focused on getting lube inside.

I pushed in and curved down, and Tally turned his head to the side and tucked down against the bed. “Ahh, Mister Wolf," he said, and squeezed.

“Yeah, you have one of those spots too, huh," I said, and slid my finger out. “Mike, he's really impressive."

“Ahh, yeah, uhm, this is kind of, I haven't actually done this stuff yet, you know, I didn't try it out, I was kind of afraid to and kind of embarrassed, especially once you started suggesting I m-made Tally to be a boyfriend, because I didn't really!" I had known Mike for quite a few years, and while he was as info-dump hyperactive as ever, he did seem palpably more nervous in space.

I pulled down the sailor-front of my leather pants, and my cock and balls flopped out. I stepped up against Tally's rump and moved my cock so it nudged at one of his restrained hands. “I want you to feel what's gonna go inside," I said. “I want you to tell me what you think of my cock."

The cowboy android touched, squeezed, and felt as much of my cock as he could with his wrists restrained. “You're very big, Mister Wolf. Please don't hurt me with it." Touching me got me harder; saying that got me hardest and drooling a little precum.

I gave Mike a shit-eating grin, then quietly said, “There isn't any kind of size problem is there?" He shook his head.

I held my cockbase and nudged the head up against Tally's ring, then pushed in. It didn't tighten in or press outwards like an actual person's body part, though I could feel him subtly move forward and then nudge back, as if uncertain whether to take it.

“I don't think… he can moan and stuff, so if you're expecting that, you won't get it. I'm not sure why. Maybe it sounds too fake," Mike said. I looked over at him when he talked; despite having just orgasmed all over his room, he had an erection again, and covered it when he saw me.

“You can play with yourself, foxy. I don't mind. C'mere, don't be shy." I worked my glans in and out of the ring, which Tally gently clenched whenever I pushed inside or was just about to tug free. In the back of my mind, I thought, Tally is really strong, what if this part is really strong, though the sensations were gentle and erotic.

Tally had nothing to say about Mike stepping up, though he did look at the fox. He didn't have anything to say about being fucked, without being told to say it, either. That was fine; I found thrusting into the synthetic passage to be a combination of overstimulating - I never was a big fan of those jackoff toys because I'd finish fast - and understimulating, because Tally wasn't a person and effectively just hunkered there for me to mount. Rather than thrust hard and fast, I just enjoyed working in and out. If I got my cock to angle downward, Tally flinched, as if I was giving him a prostate zap.

Mike hadn't bothered to put his cock away so his erection wasn't just obvious in his rubber suit, it was straining out into the open. He reached down and started to nudge his foreskin back and forth, and immediately wagged his tail.

“You might be a cattle rustler, Tally, but you work for me now. You understand?"

“Yes, Mister Wolf."

“And your owner here, he still owns you. You understand?"

“Yes, Mister Wolf."

“And since he owns you, he ought to mark his property. You understand, Mike?" Not only was I trying to rope Mike in on this - hey, maybe if I see him have sex, I'll understand him more - I wanted to see if Tally could untangle whether and who to respond to. Oh crap, this Hener mentality about knowing people through sex must be wearing off on me. Or maybe that's a Selnari thing and since I'm Selnari even if I'm a broken one…

“Please, Sir, please cum on me, so I know my place," Tally said, towards Mike.

I groaned and huffed through my teeth, and picked up my thrusting pace. “I bet he's going to get off when we both cum in him and on him," I said, to Mike.

“Oh, yeah, I loaded him with… uh… stuff… I wasn't sure if Neer wanted to see it but I figured if he wanted to try, we could try! And yeah, so uhm," Mike then looked down at Tally. “I bet you're real embarrassed, Tally. I thought you were a real tough cattle rustler and now you're being fucked by a famous gunslinger and your owner's about to cum on you while he watches you. That's not very tough." Mike didn't sound very assertive when he said it, though I didn't prompt him and there was an edge to his voice that he often used, an excited kind of embarrassment, that in this context sounded sadistic. This fox is the kind of guy who turns the tables really fast. I oughta remember that.

“I'm sorry, Sir," Tally said, looking Mike's way, and watching him jerk off. “I'll try harder."

“You better," I said. “Or I'll do more than just handcuff you next time," I growled. Tally rattled the cuffs. “If you know what's good for you, you'll do what it takes to cum after we do, from being fucked."

I found the situation a bit distracting, since Mike was jerking off and I was thrusting into Tally, and at the same time thinking I'm fucking a robot in the ass while a friend of mine jerks off on his face, which wasn't as erotic as it was meta-interesting.

I think Mike found it more exciting than he anticipated, as he lifted his shoulders and abruptly just held his cock, while the glans flared slightly and a thick splat of seed jetted out onto Tally's synthetic muzzle. Mike groaned - thankfully not some shrill fox noise - and sent out another, and another. Unlike his previous orgasm, it was thick and after three shots just dribbled down over his gloved hand. He twisted his face up even harder than he had before, and sighed hard once he'd finished.

“Now it's my fuckin' turn," I growled, and went up in deep, humping hard enough to smack my balls against Tally's taint. I could tell I basically was out of runway, although that was fine - he got tighter and tighter, and then I snarled and let go, pumping seed inside. Just as I was about to pull out, I felt his synthetic hole squeeze rhythmically, and when I pulled out, I could see his sizeable wolf-ish shaft spurting something out onto the bed. I gave it a few strokes - it was something akin to 'cum lube', creamy and translucent.

“I hope I've done a good job, Mister Wolf," he said. I'd never thought about how much that sounded like some dressed-to-impress cowboy thing to say, until right then.

“Yeah. You did good," I said, and gave him a pat to the shoulder.

Tally was just as dutiful about undressing as he was dressing up, and even neatly piled his borrowed leathers on the bed. I checked them out; no damage from any size differences. As he and Mike left, I grabbed the fox for a final private word. “Hey, you know, I've mentioned cowboy stuff a bunch and until I came here, to this station with a few people from our Earth or that alternate Selnar, no one's known what the fuck a cowboy is. So how come he does? I said western stuff, cowboy, cattle rustler, and he knows what I'm talking about."

Mike put his ears back and widened his eyes. “Oh. Uhh. It might be his personality VI." That was all the fox had to say on the subject for the moment. I didn't really understand - or rather, I understood what that would have meant on my Earth, and didn't want to assume it meant the same thing here.

—

Later that evening, after a dinner in the apartment prepared by that honey-drawled gay southern poodle, Marece told me he had the list I'd asked for. For a change of pace, we met up in one of the administrative meeting rooms.

“It's amazing that in the future, people still have offices with generic pictures on the wall, a few potted plants, and pens. What do we need pens for?" I picked one out of a cup on the desk and twirled it between my fingers. I was still dressed like a gunslinger.

Marece sniffed at the air. “I find it interesting that you have to do an important 'business deal' tomorrow, and yet you took the time to fuck someone."

“Some thing," I corrected.

“What's that supposed to mean? Have you degraded yourself to ejaculating in the landscaping?" Marece said, then flicked his ears as he seemed to surprise himself with the snark.

I chuckled. “No, just Mike's robo-wolf. That was kinda strange. Tally was all, 'I am incapable of roleplaying' and then proceeded to do it, kinda. You don't really want to hear about this. You're stalling."

He had a tablet, not a scanbook but a general purpose one. He tapped it against the desk, nervously, and sighed. “Here is the list. I added the citizen roster headshots because I doubt you know who any of these people are."

He set the tablet on its prop and I looked through it. “Well, I recognize a few of them. The guys at the top of the list are the ones I've seen in the big situation room kinda office. I guess that's not surprising."

“Indeed. I interviewed the administrative staff, casually, and then went digging. Anyone who was close to Bran was only close in order to ensure the maximum chance of obtaining something if Bran.. what is a good old saying for you… 'kicked the bucket'. What does that even mean?"

I shrugged. “It's not a regular bucket, like you put water in, I forget the real meaning. So basically, these guys were opportunists. I mean, I'm an opportunist. I had the opportunity to fly out here sight unseen and take over a station and see what happened, and now it's happening! At least Neer isn't on the list."

He made a very pained expression. “Neer isn't on the list… because Neer is at the top of the list, and I knew you'd be upset if you just saw his-"

“I'm sorry, say that again."

“I didn't even finish saying it the first time. Neer is at the top of the list of people most likely to favor Bran. And that's not all."

“Oh, it's not? I mean sure, he was Bran's assistant, though he was pretty quick to throw him under the bus once the wolf was dead. That's not a confusing saying. It means you set up someone to take the punishment instead of yourself. Like you throw them in front of a bus that runs them over, instead of you." I didn't like this idea. Neer was smart, and Mike liked him. Mike liked him. Mike was probably having some limerance fit over him, actually.

“I asked everyone how they heard about the plans to go against Bran. They all mentioned that Neer had told them that some others were planning it. Which means that it was Neer's idea, because eventually 'some others' included everyone who wasn't Neer."

“Wait, that's-"

“The idea was that everyone else would plan to turn against Bran, and Neer would tell on them."

“Did they say that?"

The hare shook his head. “No. Of course not. They didn't know. It was Neer's idea, their idea was to just turn on him."

“Did you ask the poor doggie?"

“No, because that would be stupid, although I interviewed him and he said that he'd heard others talking about a mutiny, so at least everyone has their story technically straight. However, the reason I know what Neer was doing is because I've done the same thing, and I wouldn't be sitting here doing your private detective work if I hadn't. Remember, I worked as a fraud dash for a small dislytic crime syndicate. Specifically, I was trying to get as much inside info as I could so I could spoil everything and turn them in. I don't think you understand how improper and illegal it is to get involved with anything dislytic."

I sighed and got up from my chair, and paced around the room. It was quiet, and Marece made little noise, so my boots and spurs and all the leather creaking made me feel self conscious for once. Maybe he was right; maybe I wasn't taking this seriously enough. “Neer's so energetic, and he knows how everything works…"

“Exactly. He could take over for Bran in a split second. Bran gets distracted dealing with the others, and Neer pulls what Strake did. I presume he'd do that, perhaps he'd be less violent about it. I think Strake likes to show off. And the second part - I managed to find a huge amount of information about what Neer did before he came here. I won't tell you how I did it because you'll get mad at me-"

“Okay, I'll ignore you said that since obviously you betrayed some privacy trust or something," scoffed.

“No one has any privacy. We have computers in our brains. Anyway, Neer obviously has a bunch of cybernetic implants and prosthetics. They're all made by Jaisin Biomedical Research, a company that usually works with the Hener Consulate, the GNSF, some of the very biggest private security companies… and their gear is not for sale to the public. Actually, they aren't for sale to anyone. They're custom-built, you could say prototypes."

“What, is he some sort of military operative?"

“No, he basically swindled his way into getting cutting-edge cybernetics. He'd get himself into some company of privateers, get injured, and pull off some hacking or social engineering to get cybernetics from JBR from someone on the inside. Then, he'd skip out. As far as I can tell, that's what he did when he ended up here. I'm not sure what he intends to do with them; he's probably as capable of fighting people as Tally is, despite being… is 'twink' a word you know?"

“It sure is."

“Neer is probably worth millions of credits in unreleased cybernetic enhancements. Does that make him a liability? Possibly, although I also know that Yris has bodyguards who make Bran's cat brigade look like kittens. I don't think Strake would come out on top if he fought with Yris and his people, and yes I know what that means. I honestly don't know what Neer's plan is; for all we know, he doesn't really have one. Bran seems to have made some really terrible mistakes around the people he got from Dominion Prime, and all of the record-keeping indicates that he made them on his own."

“So, what you're saying, is I have to give Neer to this Yris guy. Or he'll do something."

“Well, you can give anyone you want. If you don't give Neer to him, then you'll have two problems: Yris, who will want blood; and Neer, who will likely turn against you. I've certainly noticed that your foxy friend is infatuated with him. Do you think Neer is infatuated with him in return? He's a regular Selnari; myself, Varius, that poodle chef, we are all the same. You and Strake and, most importantly Mike, are not."

“I have an idea," I said. “I uh, I did a little research for how these kinda negotiations are supposed to go. I'm going to have the whole admin staff with me. I'm gonna pick the top of the list that isn't Neer. Don't tell him ahead of time. Then, at the last minute, after we do some back and forth, I'm gonna actually have them grab Neer. That way, he won't have time to react. Sure, maybe he knows that's what's gonna happen. That way, either he doesn't know and we nail him, or he does know and he blows his cover and we nail him anyway because between these supposedly elite bodyguards and a zombie tiger with a crack shot and seemingly no empathy, I think we can handle some hot-rodded twerp. Do you think he knows you know?"

“I doubt it. The first part, I figured out myself. The second part… well, let's just say there's no such thing as privacy, as I already have mentioned. I had access to lots of things through the TARE systems. Now, I don't have that access. However, I was coded in to control the restrictions for your augments, your apartment computer, your wristcomp. When you connected up to that scanbook we got you, I did a little bit of something to… keep my foot in the door? Is that the saying?"

I squinted. “So you can read all my messages."

“I will neither confirm nor deny that, but I can now access an alarming amount of data from the dark circles. I don't really know where Mike got that scanbook. I'm sure he used it during salvage operations that weren't entirely legitimate. And now that I have the fingerprints for all of that stuff, I could go digging."

I shrugged. “Well, thanks. So I'm gonna have to hand over some crazy half-robot dog and break a fox's heart. He'd had too much heartbreak in his life. Then again, this is the time to find something like this out." I paused. “Can you really read all my messages and stuff?"

“Only some of them," Marece said, and sniffed cryptically.

—

On one side of the room: Yris, and his two bodyguards. Neither of them looked armed with anything. They were two wolves, both white, both wearing slant-buckled suit jackets, riding pants, and armored boots.

On the other side of the room: ten administrative staff members including Neer, Strake as my bodyguard, and myself.

“Oh boy, I hate this crap," Neer grunted. Everyone else on my side aside from Strake looked queasy. The tiger wore his tuxedo - complete with the fairly obvious bullet holes and stained shirt - and very visibly had a rail pistol or whatever they actually were, clutched in his hand in front of him.

Yris stood up. “Hawk, is that how you want to be addressed?" I nodded. “You're aware of how this will proceed?"

“I'm pretty sure I got the gist of it."

“This station, Subnet Station D8X6, commonly known as Datix, was formerly owned by one Harley Benson of Corrin Station and managed by the Datix Management Enclave under direction of Bran Horek. Bran entered into a business deal with me. Then, during the transfer of ownership to you - Hawk - Bran regrettably passed away."

“I fucking shot him in the back of the head," Strake added, without being addressed. I started to get an eye twitch.

Yris did not seem fazed by the outburst. He continued, calmly and professionally. “However he passed away, his management organization reverted to the station ownership per its bylaws. As a result, my business deal stands with you. However, the artifacts of that deal have been surrendered to the Galactic Network Refugee Assistance Program and are no longer part of the deal. Per our usual ethics, I won't pursue them. As a result, you owe me something of equal value. Money is not good enough."

The way he spoke was like handing a microphone over to me to state my case. I looked back at the admin group. I only then realized that they were entirely canine. Either dogs - dobermans, german shepherds, rottweilers - or wolves. It was also quite obvious that Neer was the youngest one of them, and despite his augmentations, the least worse for the wear.

[“Okay, big kitten, you're gonna play along."] I brain-texted Strake.

[“Are you trying to get beaten up."]

[“No, but you're going do what I say and trust me. Remember when I shoved you in that room and took Marece's gun and everything worked out okay?"]

[“That's because Xyrex is your brother."]

[“When I pull the guy up here, handcuff him and put a contract collar on him."]

I had a tablet that I could hand over with information, even though I could have just done it through a hand-boop. I looked at it, then looked at the ten canines. I walked up to one wolf, who seemed to be the most authoritative-by-way-of-grizzled including a multi-notched ear and several facial scars, and grabbed him by the arm. Everyone else on our side tensed up; he put his ears back. “Ani Faranh, come up here with me." I had to pull him, but he approached. I brought him to one side of me, and kept Strake on the other.

“You are the most senior member of this staff. You have the most time on this station. And you also have the most time with the former manager, Mister Bran Horek. You were with him before he was brought on, for about three months. As a result of that, you are the most likely to have supported him, and thus, the person I want around here the least."

He started to open his gray muzzle, then looked panicked to either side as Strake grabbed him and put a bracket handcuff on him in one swift clack, then a contract collar on his neck with an equally swift motion.

[“I'm going to take your gun, and you're gonna act surprised. Not the one you're holding, the small other one you have tucked into your waistband,"] I brain-texted my 'bodyguard'. Then, I reached over and pulled it out of Strake's pants.

“Hey, what the fuck," Strake said, and sounded dutifully annoyed and surprised. Was he really surprised? Not being modern Selnari, only he would know.

I then put the gun to Ani's temple, and everyone really straightened up. My team of mutts started to break their line; Strake growled and turned, and made the most threatening 'I'm the one with the other gun' gesture he could without aiming at anyone on the rest of the team. Yris swallowed visibly; his white wolves tightened their grips as well.

“So that means Ani is worth a lot, right? Losing him means losing a lot of knowledge about how this station works. He's fit, he's been through shit and he's not dead yet, and he doesn't have any medical problems. He knows this place inside and out, so in case something happens, you'd know that, too," I said towards Yris. Ani made a noise; I held onto his wrists behind him with one hand while prodding him harder in the head. My augments gave me a warning: [“PERSONAL ENTRAINMENT OVERRIDE SUCCESSFUL - CAUTION: WEAPON DISCHARGE HAZARD"]. Yeah, I'll say so.

I continued. “Here's the thing. I'm not one of you." I motioned around the room with the gun, and I know for a fact that one of the dogs wet himself on the spot because I could smell it on him later. He wore leather pants, so it probably went down into his boot. “I'm one of those people from that ship, the Dominion Prime. I'm from another planet. I'm from another fucking dimension, if you believe those sex-addled harness-wearing weirdos. You don't have business with me. I should have been your product. You're a slaver. You take people and you fry their brains up and pour them back into their heads so they don't know what day is what and can't remember their own birthday."

I actually didn't really know what bleaching did to a person, only that it basically left them without any memory of their life before that moment while not losing a lot of skill faculty. “And where I come from, that's fucking wrong. My country on my planet had a civil war over slavery, and slavery lost, mostly, I don't wanna bore you with history. And not only are you a slaver, but you're a fucking dislytic human. You're not allowed to do any better anywhere in this fucking galactic network bullshit. There was a whole fucking war fought to eradicate your influence. Your own skinbag people fucking created the race of everyone else in this room, even myself as weird as that sounds to me, out of your own fear of fucking monsters."

I didn't really know a lot about Yris, except that he was actually a contract bleacher, a dislytic human. Was he from this dimension or mine? Earth or Selnar? Not sure. I was instructed to humiliate him. Armed with what I'd learned about things so far, I made a good attempt.

And it worked. He looked stern for a moment, and then his bodyguards tensed up.

“Don't try anything, or Strake will kill all three of you before any one of you knows what hit you. And if you try to hit him first, you're going to learn what dispossessed means first-hand just like Bran did. It doesn't happen to modern Selnari or dislytic humans, does it."

Yris was now sweating all over his entire head, a terrific flop sweat that probably covered the rest of himself considering I could now smell him over his cologne. His already dark face turned even darker, he winced, and he made a fist with one hand that cracked the joints and popped his thumb hard enough that he winced again.

“So I have an idea. Instead of giving you what you want, I'm gonna make sure you can't get anything at all, starting with this poor son of a bitch," I said, prodded Ani with the gun, and pulled the trigger. What no one else saw, of course, was that while I was making my fucking gunslinger monologue, I was configuring Strake's pistol to tentanizing bolt mode. When I pulled the trigger, it fired like it was firing a regular bullet, with a loud crack and flash, but instead of actually shooting something, it popped a tetanizing charge out into the side of Ani's skull. He barked and gagged and fell over onto the floor.

There was an immediate ruckus; the admin staff bolted for the door, while Yris and his bodyguards trained their weapons on me and Strake. Strake, meanwhile, did one of his big-cat pounces and knocked Neer right off his feet onto the floor. Just as fast as he'd done it to Ani, he had the doberman collared and cuffed.

“Hey what the fuck are you fucking doing you fucking jackass? You can't-"

Strake did a configuration hand-boop to the collar and Neer barked and grabbed for it, then barked again and curled up into as much of a ball as he could with his hands behind his head. “Ha ha, that's right, dumb pup, it doesn't matter what kind of shit they put into your body when you have one of these on you."

“What the fucking hell are you doing to me? What the fuck? What the FUCK!?" Neer continued to holler.

One of the white wolves kicked Ani, who rolled over onto his back. He was very visibly breathing, bleeding from the side of his head, and his eyes quivered, teeth chattered. “He's not dead, he's just stunned," the wolf growled.

Strake stepped on Neer to keep him from moving around. Yris stepped right up to me.

“What kind of idiot are you? Just how did you get picked to take ownership of an entire class-D space station? You've completely disrespected this entire procedure, insulted me, you did it while dressed like a costumed fool, and ensured that I will destroy you and everyone around you." He then sniffed at me. “And you stink. Even I can tell that, even me, a dislytic human. What did you call me, a skinbag?"

I'll be totally honest: nothing he said bothered me in the slightest, except the costumed fool bit. That actually hurt, and I'm not kidding. For about the next five seconds, I actually contemplated my entire position in the universe, decided I'd completely botched everything in my do-over that I was so nicely granted, and should probably just take a lesson from that pedophile coyote who spaced himself right in front of my eyes back on the Prak station. Then, I realized I was holding my tablet, and shoved it at Yris. “This is a dossier on Neer Ashora, the doberman who is currently having a boot stomped into the side of his face. Strake, you don't have to hurt him."

“He won't stop swearing at me," the tiger growled, which was true - Yris had to speak up over the dog's continual stream of profanity as he tried and failed to fight the tetanizing collar.

“Neer set in motion a mutiny plan against Bran Horek that only failed because I interrupted it by showing up and wasting him," I said. “And that plan had him taking the wolf's place while everyone else took the fall, and they didn't know it."

Several of the wolves had left the room already, and one was about to cram out the door when he stopped, put his ears back, and turned around. He pulled the others back in.

“Prior to coming here, he had been on five different private ship crews, two of which were mercenaries and the most recent were pirate traders. He did the same thing to all of them. And, after getting injured intentionally in the ensuing mutiny fight, he then used some internal influence with a prestigious cybernetic augment corporation to divert research equipment into his own bodily repairs, using money stolen from the people he'd set up for mutiny."

Yris looked as if now he was the one who stank. He wrinkled his face, then walked over to Neer. “Is that true?"

The room went dead silent.

I expected Neer to deny it. “You and your fucking washed-up dash turned spy turned washed-up spy bullshit!" he growled. Strake finally stepped off of him; when he tried to stand, he howled and crumpled back to the floor. The tiger was surely controlling the tetanizing collar.

Meanwhile, I disabled the one that was shocking Ani, and he stopped twitching, then groaned and rolled onto his side.

“It's true, it's true, son of a fucking bitch!" Neer snarled.

Yris looked over the contents of the tablet, then looked over at him. “Your cybernetics are worth about twice what I paid Bran," he said. “I realize I said I wouldn't take money, however I didn't say I wouldn't take someone who I could strip for parts and sell off for pure profit. Pick up him and get him out of here," he said to his wolves, then turned to Strake. “You, transfer the collar to them."

Strake nodded and - without a smile - did as directed. The two wolves picked up Neer to his feet and had to actually drag him out of the room.

“I see someone coached you in what to do," Yris said to me, and he looked entirely less mad, and instead like someone who just had won a very heated argument.

I felt a bit woozy, because somehow, the entire situation had actually… gone the right way? “So am I really an idiot?"

“You're ignorant because you don't know how anything works, and someone told you what to do, and they were right, and that perhaps means you're lucky," he said. “Or trusting. I understand that you probably think I'm disgusting. That's fine. Would it help you to know that contract bleachers try to avoid people who are kidnapped, and generally trade in criminals who are caught in one way or another?"

“What about the fucking people from that ship I was on? Not like I'm really one of them, I was no billionaire back on Earth. I was a fucking punk, I ran a sex club and paid a hacker to switch someone out for me so I wouldn't die on the planet." While I explained, several people rushed into the room. Marece, Cara, and Tally, along with two other station employees I didn't really recognize beyond 'oh it's that fox and that badger'.

“Do you think billionaires are inherently criminals?" Yris said.

“Huh. Uh, basically, at least where I come from. You can't 'work hard enough' to get that much money. You take some opportunity and someone shoves it in your face, or you do some entertaining thing and negotiate into a big cut of the profits. And if it's not like criminal criminal, it's morally bankrupt."

“Your organization's debt to me is considered paid. And because I'm more equitable than you probably think a 'slaver' is, I truly will leave you alone. However, I will gladly buy anyone else you want to punish for mutiny." He then headed out to join his two wolves.

Tally immediately went over to the disoriented Ani, who seemed mostly concerned with the fact that he was bleeding. “You have been incapacitated by a tetanizing bolt. The wound is minor but does require first aid," he said. “Please comply."

“My… my hands are cuffed…" Ani groaned.

“Then you will find it easy to comply," Tally said, and opened his medical satchel.

I grabbed Cara. “Did you disconnect all of Neer's stuff?"

“Did it just before all this started. He probably had no idea it was coming. Marece is very clean and persuasive, I guess."

“Hmmf," was all the hare had to say. “You made your foxy friend cry."

Out of the entire proceedings I'd just caused and then resolved, the only thing I suddenly cared about was what Marece just said. “What?"

“He was watching everything, along with the rest of us, out in the vestibule there. As soon as you absconded with Neer, he started to freak out and paced around in a circle, then ran off trying very hard not to sob uncontrollably."

“Oh fuck," I growled. “Oh fuck, fuck fuck. I'll be back later, I'm gonna go find Mike. No one's in trouble - but if you wanna sit down with that Ani guy there and tell him he better not fuck with me or he's next, be my fuckin' guest."

—

I knew exactly where to find Mike. He was in the 'cyberpunk zone' test area, standing on the overlook bridge. While he wasn't crying at the moment, he obviously had been - his face fur was wet, and he had the sob heaves.

“Hey, Mike," I said, and he turned and gave me a sickening look that stopped me in my tracks. He grabbed onto the railing with both hands, and I rushed up and grabbed him.

“What are you doing?" he then looked surprised, though it didn't entirely wash away the expression.

I looked at my hand on his wrist. “Uhh. Uhh. Well."

“Do you think I'm going to jump off this bridge?"

“Do you think I think that?" I replied, dumbly.

He sighed. “I guess I can see why. I mean, I told you my life story, at least, most of it, did I tell you about the part where my mom had Munchausen's by proxy and that's why I was depressed as a teenager and why she abandoned our family and literally disappeared until I later saw her in disguise years later on a daytime talk show about people with Munchausen's?"

I grimaced. Ungh, Mike, cool the storytime a bit. “Look, I-"

“I'm not mad at you, and I'm not going to jump off the bridge. I just wanted to look at something big, and it reminded me of… him." he sighed, and then stepped back from the railing, and went to sit down on a bench near a big support pillar that was labeled. “Marece gave me the rundown before anything happened. I just… seeing it happen, I mean, I thought maybe it was some sort of mistake, or maybe he was fucking with us, Marece I mean, do you really think you can trust him?"

“I can't trust anyone, so I'll trust everyone," I shrugged.

He laughed. “I'm mad at me. I'm mad because I really liked Neer! I thought he was so cool! I never have feelings like that for people, like the kind that really rev you up inside, you know? I don't! I mean I think people are hot and I like doing scenes with them and all sorts of stuff, but mostly I don't really get it when people talk about falling in love. And then suddenly bam! I'm married to this guy and going all over space with him and it's amazing and it's like all the cool stuff I ever thought about actually exists and I only had to kill one person and watch a few other people die right in front of me to get there! And then he's dead, because he had a heart attack. And so I give up on that again, and I go back to doing stuff, and now I'm having an adventure and I find this awesome doggy guy who even likes dressing up even though he'd never done it before! And then I find out he's a con man and probably definitely dressed up for sex before."

I sat leaned against the pillar, too cowboy cool to sit. “If it makes you feel any better, I had no idea. He just seemed like a rambunctious upstart."

“Neer is really smart. Like actually smart. We talked a whole bunch. However, I saw all of the stuff Marece dug up on him, and I mean he covered his tracks - I totally get the bunny jokes, that man can dig stuff up. I don't think Neer had a plan, like a big plan. I think he just got excited by stuff and went from stuff to stuff for his own benefit. I mean his plan was to do the same thing he did before, I guess, just bigger." He sighed, and I thought he was going to cry again, only he wrinkled his nose, turned his head, and sneezed voluminously. The sound echoed around. “Anyway, I figured I'd come here to get away from people for a while, and then of course you show up. I mean, what did I think would happen?"

“I'm surprised Tally didn't follow me," I looked back to see if in fact the robo-wolf was breathing down my neck.

Mike's emotional situation seemed to flip on a dime. “Oh! The other day when you fucked him! That was insane. I kind of think I've done something strange or unprecedented. Cara was taking a break from digging around in the station's computer guts - this place has to get so many upgrades, most of them physical because it's too much horsepower and storage to just squirt them through the QET lines." To save you listening to yet another giant expository cum squirt from Mike, that's Quantum Entanglement Telecommunications. “Anyway she was looking at Tally's guts and she pointed at this one part of his processing core and was like what the hell is that and I said oh, I bought some real high end stuff at this shady auction, and she said do you have any idea what that is, that's a top of the line neural training accelerator! There's only like three of them, they're so expensive! And now I'm wondering if maybe I'm just like Neer but I'm inside it and I don't know and I've been a bad criminal this entire time." Despite what he had just said, he seemed somewhat back to his usual enthusiastic self.

I rubbed at my face. “I'm just glad you're not gonna jump off this railing."

“You can't actually fall over the edge, there's a thing you can't really see. And people down there can't see up here, it'd look like the side of a building. Anyway…"

“Hey, do I stink?"

“You smell like you ejaculated in your pants and left it."

“Good. Yris picked up on it, I needed to make sure he had ammunition to humiliate me with. Buck said I… oops." My turn to overshare like Mike.

“Huh?"

“Nevermind. Hey, so, I've been thinking. You really like it over here, huh. This area. This little make-believe cyber-dystopia city block and a half or whatever."

“If you could let me into the buildings and stuff I would run around in a mad panic until I fell over from exhaustion, trying to see what kind of stuff there is."

“Look. I was gonna do it anyway, but I'm really gonna do it after this whole thing with Neer. You want this area? You got it."

“Did Buck tell you what to do? He's a pirate, he probably knows all about the dark circles negotiation stuff. I kind of try to stay out of that real stuff."

Now I wanted to sneeze. “God dammnit. And don't use his actual name. He's Xyrex."

“I know, he's kind of dreamy in his pirate armor stuff…" Mike said, and his face lit up with gleeful antagonization.

“Look. As soon as we sort out who's in charge of what and actually start to fucking do something around here, you are in charge of this area. We are gonna try to put people in it, make it into something. I want a crack at it but you really vibe on this particular spot so you can call the final shots. Now if you excuse me, now that I know you're as okay as you ever are, I gotta go make a few phone calls."

“There aren't phones anymore! Say hi to Xyrex to me!"

“MIKE, SHUT UP AND STOP TALKING ABOUT IT," I yelled at the top of my lungs.

I wasn't really sure where the best place to call Buck was, so I went back to the docking bay where he'd hidden his ship before. (“Well, I did it.")

(“Good. What happened?")

(“I tetanized some grizzled wolf guy but made it look like I was gonna blow his brains out, and then we nailed Neer like Jesus.")

(“You're an asshole.")

(“You're not Christian. Besides, Strake's the one who comes back from the dead. I also broke someone's heart, but it's okay, it was gonna hurt him anyway. If you knew the rest of the story you'd probably punch me for saying that.") I then I looked around, and started walking towards where a ship would be if one was there. (“You're not secretly here, are you?") I didn't bump into anything.

(“I'm not stupid. I tell you when I'm going to arrive.")

(“No you don't. You fucking commandeered my ship, woke me up while I was asleep, then snuck onto my fucking space station.")

(“I commandeered your friend's ship, being piloted by an undead biker tiger, while you pranced around like a fucking sex wolf.") Buck started to sound angry. Or excited. He had a limited range of emotions on his virtual call voice.

(“Anyway, that Yris creep gives compliments to whomever told me how to handle him. He tried to tell me that it was okay to sell billionaires as slaves.")

(“If he gives you any more trouble, you should have your lion friend change his mind about that opinion. Since I helped you, you help me. I'm coming over tomorrow. You better have picked out a perfect place for me and my wolf pack.")

(“Fifteen wolves, huh. You bought a twelve-pack and a few forties for that extra little pop, huh. Fine. Why not go from one crazy piece of bullshit to another.")

He'd already hung up.

—

I thought I was having a nightmare and woke up. No Varius; he'd left a note. Busy working. I find men who like horses. Why did I think I was having a nightmare. Someone had been screaming at me in my sleep, but I was awake, and there was no one. The apartment was empty; I'd slept in a bit too much. As cool as I tried to play it after the situation with Yris and throwing Neer at him like a gnawed rib to a hungry dog, I might have had some of that purple stuff and some of Mike's cannabis vape and greened out.

(“YOU'RE AWAKE - THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE SECURITY SYSTEM!") This time, it was not Mike, but Cara.

(“Well, you're the computer geek. Fix it.")

(“There's someone in there with you. They're in your room. And, also, there's no one in there. It kept registering a fault and I kept resetting it until I paid attention to where it was complaining-")

(“Are you still buried in upgrade junk? You don't have to do everything in ten fucking minutes, Cara.")

(“Hawk, are you listening to me? Someone's in your room. That creepy wolf guy you supposedly killed must have had bio-sensors installed, but the cameras don't register anything.")

(“First off, I didn't kill anyone, and Strake very much actually did. Second, you have cameras in my bedroom? You can watch? Did you watch me and Tally the other day?")

(“Also there's unregistered power draw from one of the maintenance docking bays, like a ship is sitting on the inductive shore power coupler, except there isn't a ship there, because the cameras don't see… anything. Oh my god, Marece told me about that coyote who had the cloaking device. What kind of crazy bullshit do you get up to around here?!") She actually sounded kind of upset.

(“Cara, you're gonna have to fuckin' trust me that everything you're seeing is absolutely true, and also, uh. Can you turn the cameras off. Wherever I am. Just… it's privacy. I don't care if there isn't privacy. Just pretend.")

I called out to my empty bedroom suite. “Alright, dread pirate Xyrex, am I gonna have to figure out where you are, or are you gonna show me?"

With a finger snap, he appeared, standing square at the foot of the bed. “Don't worry. The cameras and audio recording still can't see me."

Seeing him there made me feel panicked for a second, because I hadn't been panicked before and yet he'd been standing there the entire time. He could have punched me. Or worse. “Do you get off on sneaking around?"

He shrugged. He wore his armored getup, including his helmet. It looked a little different; he must have replaced it after I shot up the previous one. “You do what you have to do. Show me the place you have picked out, and then I'll see if I agree with you."

“Such fucking pressure," growled, and got dressed. Black gunslinger wolf time. I was just putting my hat on when I realized he was probably staring at me. “What?"

“You look ridiculous. A fucking cattle-rustling cowboy wolf." He said this like he hadn't seen me wear anything like it before.

“Excuse me? Are you unaware of the fact that the only people on this fucking station besides my little band of fellow idiots and the administration and a handful of dislytic crawling around in the sewer guts like plumber rats, are a fucking cattle ranch?" I headed for the door. “We can take one of the ATVs. I got one parked in the maintenance tunnel for this building." I led us down the apartment internal hallway to the emergency/maintenance exit. “When I say ATV, I mean these kinda all terrain golf cart kinda things. Like those Mule things from back home."

“You look like The Gunslinger," he said. “That was a tacky movie." Again, with the taunting.

“Are you trying to antagonize me? I'm about to drive your ass around the station. You think I won't drive your ass into a support pillar? You already saw this outfit. Wait, you saw the cattle rustler one. How dare you fuckin' call me a cattle rustler. I employ cattle rustlers in this outfit."

He might have called me ridiculous, but I felt it driving him around in a glorified golf cart. We looked like a pair of dorks at a science fiction convention who were too lazy to roll their own luggage around. “This place is weird. We're inside of an asteroid, right?"

“I guess. Also, I don't really employ cattle rustlers. Although I dressed up Tally in that other cowboy outfit, the one you saw, and fucked him. That was an adventure."

“What," he said, plainly, still wearing his helmet.

“The fox's robot. Anyway, so no one can see you?"

“No one can tell who you're talking to, hear what you're saying or lipread, and they can't see me even with their own bare eyes. This cloaking stuff is extremely expensive and it only runs for a short time."

“Where'd you get it?"

He shrugged. “I forget exactly. Through some very shady vendor. I might remember if you had a lot of money to give me."

“You didn't happen to do some vending of your own, and sell one to a coyote who looked like someone had blowtorched exactly half of his body off, did you?"

He looked at me through the helmet. “What the hell are you talking about?"

The route from the village apartment to the desired location that I thought he'd like, went entirely inside the maintenance tunnels. Supposedly the station's transport system would be functional after a bunch of computer upgrades, and since that used to be Cara's big-time job, I trusted her assessment. I figured having Xyrex around with me was probably safer in one of the carts. They seemed surprisingly low-tech.

I stopped at a gate, which opened into the 'test area' I'd picked out. “Okay, this is gonna blow your mind. You've never really been around in here, right?"

“Only in the docking section, even when we unloaded some stuff here years ago. Everyone was very secretive."

I opened the gate, and we drove out onto an observation corridor. We were in a cave. “What the hell is this," Buck said, and climbed out of the cart to get a better look. He looked down over the edge. “Is that fucking water?"

“Hang on, there's lights," I said, and managed to turn some on using my scanbook. Instead of regular lights, it appeared that there were fire sconces and hurricane lanterns all over the place, like some fantasy location from a game or movie. We were in a big cave. Both sides of it had structures made out of wood and beaten stone paths. The water was flowing; it was a 'river', which came from a rocky area at the pointed back of the cave. Up near the front was a wooden tall ship with planking leading to the deck.

Buck took his helmet off; even under it, he had a pirate-style durag. He set the helmet down in the cart, and then there was a shimmer all around him. He now looked perfectly clear, instead of mostly perfectly clear; I hadn't noticed anything was different until the change happened. He then wandered towards the edge of the railing, and down towards an access area.

“Hey, uh… don't just go running around," I said, and followed after him. We left the observation and maintenance platform and ended up on the actual cave walkway. Aside from signage pointing back up where we came, it looked like we'd walked right out of a hole in the cave wall even though we could see clearly from the other side we came from.

“Don't tell me what to do. I told you how to save your ass. This is a fucking pirate cove. What the fuck!" He hurried forward and I had to jog to keep up. He walked out onto the ship, opened a door, and disappeared. He reappeared moments later. “This is a whole-ass ship!" He then hurried back off the gangplank and towards the mouth of the cave.

“Yeah, it's kinda crazy, there's like a hundred of these things, all different themes, some of them totally unfinished or full of weird small little test spots. This is one of the entirely built ones," I had to nearly yell for him to hear me, he was far enough ahead.

Outside the cave was a rocky and sandy shore with landscaping. There was an entire small village and harbor near one end of a body of water; we seemed to be nestled in a secluded fjord. That was simply to prevent having a fake 'wall' atop the water, where if someone was in a small boat, they'd bash into it without warning. The harbor and village was 'capped' by a huge mansion that could easily double for a hotel.

Buck walked out onto one of the docks. “This is amazing! This is incredible!" He picked up a small rock and tossed it into the water. It splashed and he got some on his hand. He sniffed at it, then licked it. “It's water! I think it might be a little bit treated, but I'm not sure." He stomped back towards me. “Do you realize that no one's seen this place? The people who live here rarely venture out and people aren't allowed to visit, or at least weren't. Even if they did, they must not have seen anything outside the docking area and where your apartment thing was."

“There's another one that's fully set up, kind of a cyberpunk city block, Mike's real excited about that one. So I told him he can do whatever he wants with it. Honestly, I might kinda hole up there, too. I've always done alright with urban kinda stuff. Oh! The best part is kinda hard to demonstrate, you can go all the way to the back where that river comes in, or there's a maintenance tunnel that kind of goes from under the village in this kind of secret stash place, all the way back into the station and down a direct elevator to a maintenance dock. I think it's for bringing in supplies and shit direct from the outside, but you could easily fit a whole two hands of those ships like we have, what are they, Teron somethings?"

“Your is an Acyix and mine's an Avenger and both are runabout cruisers or pocket freighters, depending on how they're configured. Hawk," Buck said, and stomped up to grab me by the shoulders. “Hawk, this is the most amazing day of my life. I can't believe it. I just can't. I've dreamed about this kind of stuff my whole life! I even went on a pirate vacation thing once, and it was alright, same idea but not at all like this, and full of regular fucking people. Like a dude ranch, but pirates, and not gay like that shit you'd always get into." He got a flash of that sad nostalgia on his face, the same thing Mike had displayed, as he surely remembered something about the old world. “When can I move us all in?"

I shrugged. “Whenever. There's probably some stuff we gotta do with the infrastructure. This one's been active for quite a while, though in a low maintenance state, I think kind of a demo mode if you will."

“Let's get going. I don't want to fucking wait. I'm going to bring all those guys here and I'm gonna surprise them all at once and they're gonna have a fit," Buck said. I had never seen him look happy. He still didn't really smile a lot, though he wagged his tail ferociously and he moved around gingerly.

We headed back up to the maintenance overlook where we'd parked the ATV. It was… a walk. I'd been focused on following him as he explored around, that I hadn't realized how big the place was. All of the test areas seemed to be roughly the same size; some of them tried to hide it in various ways, like the sandstone formations where I'd met Dwayne in the 'desert'. They were about one to four square 'city blocks' depending on if they were urban or not - this was one of the bigger ones. I was winded and panting by the time we got back up to the path leading into the optical illusion.

Very much up close, you could tell that the surface of the cave there was not really rock. There was an improperly finished piece as part of the doorway, and it looked like some rock I'd seen at a gem show while in school as a kid. It was fibrous, like it was made out of optical fibers, and if you put something on one side, you'd see it on the other side like a photograph. Likely the entire overlook area was basically a display screen of sorts, displaying the cave wall from one side and whatever was on the other side of the surface on the other. That would explain why Mike said he wasn't in danger of hurting himself - there was nowhere to even fall to. If you went over the railing, you'd just bang into the wall.

In this case, we went through a door, and immediately found Cara sitting in her own ATV cart. She had a scanbook and dropped it; we surprised her, as the doorway was hidden by shrubbery on both sides.

“Fuck! Hawk! What the hell are you doing down here? You turned on the main power! I told you to consult me before doing that kind of who the hell is that?"

“What are you doing here? I told you I'm doing somethin' private!"

“I couldn't see anything on the cameras! There was this distortion, and Mike saw it and said 'ooh it was like that coyote who tried to kill Hawk!' and I thought well, that's not good, and on my way over here I realized that something is really up with all this killing and nasty shit, and what did I get into by signing up to fix the computers here, and I shouldn't have let Mike make me coffee this morning because he makes it way too strong. And now you're here with some other wolf guy!"

Buck responded by pulling out his cyber-cutlass, complete with the plasma prongs ahead of the hilt. “Hawk, this is a problem."

“No it's not. People are gonna find out eventually. You can't just be a fucking secret forever," I tried to stall, and got in between Cara and the ATV where Buck's helmet was stashed. It didn' work - she quickly evaded me.

“What's this?" She said, and picked it up. She regarded the angular canine face, squinted, and then looked over at Buck. “Oh fuck." No one who didn't work with Buck knew what he looked like without his helmet. Most people with eyeballs and access to the news had seen Xyrex with his helmet, or not seen him at all. “WHAT IS HE DOING HERE!?" The hyena cackled and hollered, wide eyed and toothy.

Buck winced and stepped up, then snatched the helmet out of her hands. He looked like he was going to yell at her, and Cara looked like she was going to collapse down into a small ball out of fear. The wolf stood there, looked her over, and backed off. “You're kinda hot."

“You're fucking Xyrex! You're the space pirate guy! You kill people and put it on tabloid news shows!"

“I try to avoid killing people. If it's me or them, though, it'll be them," he said, and swung his sword up in front of his face, then tilted it towards her.

She stood up, though still looked visibly shaken. “And… and you're not a regular Selnari like me! I can tell!" She looked between us. “And you two… look kind of similar."

“Oh god," Buck rolled his eyes, then went back to the ATV and sat down. “Look, lady. You need to keep this to yourself, and to those people who've been with Hawk. You got it? Keep it to yourself."

“He's my half-brother," I said, and Buck instantly tensed up. “We're both from the other Earth. I guess he doesn't have that thing I do, which is too bad, I mean can you imagine me, but a pirate wolf? Everyone likes pirates. Why do you think he's so popular? He dresses fancy and cuts people's heads off if they don't let him just steal their luxury penis charms or whatever the fuck they're shipping around. Now imagine that, except when you got close enough, you'd get even hornier." After rambling, I then snapped a look over to Buck. “Did you say 'lady'?"

“Yeah. Lady. This person-"

“Cara Song," she said, and palmed her mohawk.

“Is obviously a lady hyena."

Then, to demonstrate her personality, and probably also to stop seeming so fearful of the situation, Cara grabbed the hem of her leather miniskirt and flipped it up. “See? I'm not wearing panties, either."

Buck wagged his tail, then made a snarly angry wolf face. “You Selnari are all sluts. You were just freaked out and now you're showing me your pussy."

“Hey, you're one of them too, just a weird one," I snapped back. “Cara, he's really my fuckin' half-brother, B-"

“Call me Xyrex, and if you listen to him instead, I'll cut something important off of both of you." Buck snarled. “I'm going to be moving into here. Into this place. With my fourteen other pirate wolves. You're the computer whiz, right? Hawk was talking about you. I'm gonna need to work with you, probably, since I'm assuming there's all kinds of complicated shit to keep the station from sending robots out to move every rock back into place." Buck had probably noticed that when he threw a rock into the water earlier, by the time we were heading back to our vehicles, a small domebot was sliding into the water to grab it and put it back where it came from.

“Moving in here? You're letting him live on this station!?" Cara's expression was now more excited than fearful. “Wait, you said he's your half-brother?"

“Yeah, he lives…" Buck started to give me a 'I'm going to use my sword or maybe just my fist' look. “On an old freighter somewhere, that's been scuttled and sealed back up. It's a dump."

“It sure is. And this is not a dump." Buck clearly ignored the question about relation to me.

“And… and he's… well, no wonder everyone was telling you that you look like him," she said. Buck continued to look rankled. Meanwhile, I felt a sense of dark glee over his reaction, at a level that I didn't usually feel towards other people. “I don't know if any of this is a good idea. You took over this station by killing people - did you actually kill people? - and you're a space pirate, and you both play sex dress-up?"

“What do you mean, play sex dress-up?" Buck held onto his helmet hard enough that his gloved fingers creaked against it. He angrily stowed his sword, as if he was trying to consciously avoid using it. “You're dressed like a biker chick who puts out. Don't tell me how I dress."

One of the things I'd noticed for a long time about Buck, was that he had the same interest in 'dressing up' that I did, though he acted and even claimed verbally that he didn't. He had an entire wardrobe on his ship that was different variations of pirate outfit, all leather and scoundrel, and yet Cara's insinuation was kinking his tail.

“Biker chick who puts out?" She cackled. “What's that mean? I'm not one of those skip bikers. I like cars."

“What the fuck - there aren't even cars on space stations," he growled, although his expression immediately cracked.

She whooped and walked right up to give him a playful smack on the arm. “Sounds like someone doesn't get around as much as he should. Okay, since this disturbance to the security system is actually just some of the crazy shit that seems to follow this guy around," she then smacked me as well, “I have to get back to work." She then headed back to her own ATV, climbed in, and drove off.

“Dumbass, she's literally driving a car right now. We're about to get in a car," I laughed. Buck crossed his arms and looked like he was using every ounce of his energy to avoid blowing up. He also stared after Cara, and wagged his tail until she disappeared back into the tunnel. I thought about teasing him again, with the first thing that came to mind, but I didn't. Instead, we took off back for the docking bay where his ship sat cloaked.

“I gotta tell you some stuff. Some rules I'm making up right now on the spot," I said. “Rule number one. You and your people don't leave this area or the corridors down to the docking station. You want to come anywhere else in the station, you need to do what anyone else would, and get permission from the admin. I'll even make sure you can't just wander out of here. I'm sure you can deal with that, we can probably arrange for some food stuff if there's gonna be mass shipments, and you can do your own thing."

“Uh-huh," he grunted. “What's rule number two?"

“No breaking rule number one. No showing up in my bedroom cloaked while you watch Varius suck me off and then start nagging me about how you wish you could suck me off. You want to do that, you ask me nicely."

Despite the fact that I was driving, he punched me in the face, just hard enough to hurt, not hard enough to knock me out or anything.