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Commander Mahim struggled against the straps that held him to the bed in the lab they'd taken him to. When he'd entered the barracks the room appeared empty and he had cautiously entered it. It was then that several men grabbed him from behind and the one shot he got off with his plasma rifle blew apart one of the bunks before someone had wrenched it out of his hands. He tried to reach his communicator but it was torn from his belt and they gagged him. After that his captors dragged him out of the barracks through a different door and down a corridor into a lab-like room that stank of stale vomit.

"Which ship are you from?" one of the men questioned with authority. He limped forward with a stiff right leg and wore a grime-covered guard uniform that was shredded on the right knee. The man had a wild look in his eyes that spoke of insanity while he removed the gag.

"Release me at once!" Mahim ordered.

The wild-eyed man brandished an injector. "I think not, meat. What ship are you from?"

"I am Commander Mahim of the Imperial Navy and your superior. In the name of Emperor William I demand you release me!" Mahim continued to struggle against his bonds. He noticed the handle of the knife he'd killed Hilkes with pressing against his side, the mad idiots hadn't fully disarmed him

The man and several of his compatriots started laughing before he responded, "Fuck the Emperor, he abandoned us. I'm in charge here and you will answer my questions."

"Blasphemy! All who oppose the Emperor's will must die." Mahim thought he felt the strap around his left arm loosen but not enough to free it.

"I am Riley, the will on this ship is mine and all who oppose it are meat." He backhanded Mahim with the injector, sending the vial in it flying out which caused it to smash against the floor.

Commander Mahim grunted from the hit and he stopped struggling to focus on his left arm. "You are cannibals and insane," he accused calmly.

Riley walked over to a lab table that had several trays of vials, many of which were missing, and picked one with a smirk. "No one on this ship has eaten another man, only animals are meat here," he said. "I wonder what dog tastes like, how about you guys?" he asked the three others with him while placing the vial into the injector and walking back over to Mahim.

"Do it, Riley!" one of the men cheered. Another shouted, "Turn the Emperor's dog into one!"

"Not yet, let's give the man a chance to answer my questions," Riley said and placed the end of the injector on Mahim's neck.

"Get that fucking thing off me!" The thought of being turned into one of the beasts and eaten started to make panic rise up inside him.

Riley's eyes narrowed dangerously and he replied, "Tell me what ship you are from and maybe I won't turn you into an animal."

Commander Mahim took several breaths to calm himself and collect his thoughts, they'd probably kill him no matter what he said. The wild looks in their eyes told him they had every intention of turning him into an animal and adding his bones to the pile in that storage room. His arm wasn't free yet, he needed to buy some time. He quickly ran through the names of several ships, and settled on one when Riley pressed the injector harder against his neck. "ENS Highguard! Please don't turn me into an animal," he didn't have much trouble sounding like he was pleading for his life to sell the lie.

"The Highguard? What kind of ship is it and how many are aboard?" Riley questioned as he relaxed the injector a little, he figured the man would be more honest if he made him think he was going to get out of this alive.

"A scout cruiser under my command, I have fifty-eight crew, though half of us are searching this ship," Mahim said. He was pretty sure that his left arm would pull free, now he just needed an opening, there was just one more thing he needed to know first though.

"You hear that, Riley? We just need to get to his ship and we'll be free of this hell!" one of the men exclaimed.

"How do you think we'll get there with most of this ship depressurized?" Riley asked with suspicion colouring his words. He pressed the injector harder against Mahim's neck and continued, "Where are you docked?"

"Please don't!" Mahim cried. "The airlock two decks above here, we were sent to rescue you, nobody needs to know what you've done."

"What we've done? We've done what we needed to survive because the Emperor abandoned us!" Riley yelled.

"H-he didn't, I've been searching for you for almost half a year now on his order." To sell the lie, Mahim spoke the truth.

"Searching for us? You mean the Earth human, our lives don't matter to the Emperor. Greene shot that animal lover as he got into an escape pod, there was no way he survived."

"He's dead? The Emperor will not be pleased, still, you should return to Haskel with me." There it was, confirmation that his quarry wasn't here. The fact these men had likely killed him meant they'd signed their own death warrants months ago. He shifted against his bonds and fished the knife from its sheath, preparing to grab it to free himself once he'd dealt with Riley.

Riley began laughing again, and unconsciously reduced the pressure he held the injector with against Mahim's neck. "Return with you to Haskel?" he asked incredulously and then answered his own question, "No, we aren't going to return to Haskel with you."

It was that moment Commander Mahim found his opening. He ripped his left arm free and grabbed the injector. Before Riley even realized what was happening he slammed the tip into the man's arm and pressed the button, causing the him cry out in shock.

"Kill him!" Riley screamed as the contents of the vial began their work, making the man double over in pain while Mahim grabbed his knife and cut the strap holding his legs. He rolled off the bed just as the first shot of plasma hit it and scrambled behind a nearby workbench. His situation had only improved marginally, there were three men armed with plasma rifles and insanity, while he only had a knife. Time was not on his side in this spot either, in seconds they'd be on him and there was no where for him to go without risking getting shot.

After a minute or so he did not hear anything other than Riley's continued groans of pain and started to wonder why the other three hadn't come for him. He chanced moving over to one side of the workbench for a look around. Two of the men were crouched down trying to hold Riley still as brown and beige fur replaced bare skin and bones cracked and distorted. The other was standing above the scene watching it with a hunger in his eyes that Mahim found unsettling. It was like they'd forgotten completely about him, which he would use to his advantage.

Commander Mahim got up quietly and readied his knife before moving behind the one that was standing. He stopped and crouched low when Riley cried out and thought for a moment he'd been caught until he saw the changing man's face contort and elongate in the shape of a muzzle. The three other men seemed to remain enraptured by what they were watching. When he realized it was clear he resumed sneaking up on the standing man, grabbed him with his free hand while jamming the knife into the side of the man's neck and quickly ripped it forward.

The man released his plasma rifle as he fell with a surprised look and Mahim took it, training it on one of the two other men as they looked up at him in shock. They both let go of Riley and went for their own rifles when Mahim shot the first in the head, at this range the shot blew flesh from bone and the second man slumped over dead with half his scalp and face burned off. Unfortunately this gave the other the opportunity to grab his own weapon and Mahim found himself in a standoff with a cannibalistic lunatic.

Riley stopped moving and went unconscious, unnoticed by the two men pointing their weapons at one another over him. He had taken on the appearance of a german shepherd and his uniform was ripped in several places during the change. It would take some time for the changes to complete on the inside but the man would never be human again, or alive for much longer regardless of which of the two men won the standoff.

"Drop your weapon," Mahim ordered with all of the calmness he could muster.

Insane rage burned in the other man's eyes as he yelled, "You turned Riley into meat and murdered the others!"

"All who oppose the Emperor's will must die. You know this," Mahim appealed with the hope that he'd reach what was left of the man's sanity.

"The Emperor abandoned us!" he cried and looked back down at Riley but kept his gun trained. "He made us turn each other into meat." Mahim wasn't sure which of the two, Emperor or Riley, the man referred to, possibly both.

"What happened here?" Mahim asked.

"The slaves, several of them helped the Earth human and captives make explosives and they destroyed half the ship."

"How could the slaves have helped? Their conditioning would've prevented it."

The man shook his head, "They did it! One set a fire in the starboard hanger and then others planted explosives a couple days later. They took out primary power, communications, main life support, the bridge, and the armoury."

"Why would the Earth human help them?"

"He assaulted Captain Young and was thrown into the holding cells," the man relaxed his weapon a bit. "The man was more loyal to animals than to his own people. Doesn't matter now, he's a corpse in an escape pod."

There was something Mahim didn't understand, only one pod was gone, not the others. "None of you used the other pods, why?"

"Riley said we'd all live if we stuck together and waited for the Emperor to send rescue."

"That clearly didn't happen, you've been eating each other!"

"We'd all be dead if we'd used the pods. It doesn't matter, half the ship was depressurized within a week," he pointed his plasma rifle at Riley. "He damned us to this madness." He jabbed at the unconscious dog, "All hail Emperor Riley, lord of the servants' barracks and king of meat."

"What happened to the crew? There should be at least 400 of you."

"Over a hundred were killed by the explosions, including Captain Young. As for the rest, attrition and nutrition." The man laughed at his disgusting pun.

Mahim had heard enough, he pitied these men and the circumstances that lead to their demise. Still, they had failed in their duties and descended into madness, the most he could grant them is a swift end to the horror that had been their last few months. He shot the man in the side, who slumped over with a peaceful expression as the smell of his own charred flesh added itself to his comrade's. That left only the dog Riley had turned into. He set the rifle down before taking his knife and cutting open Riley's throat. The dog didn't wake while his life's blood spilled out and his body stilled.

Once he finished watching Riley die, Mahim picked the rifle back up and stood looking around for a console. This lab's security logs would be separate from the rest of the ship to maintain the secrecy of what was done here, he'd need to grab them and the vials that bore the names of active spies too. Once done he would make his way to Deck 8 and find one of his men to use their communicator, it was time to send this ship to the hell it now resembled.

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Naco's, as it was known by patrons, primarily ship crews, was quite literally a hole-in-a-wall. There was no sign indicating it's location, merely a doorway set into the wall of the main landing bay cavern. The often over-crowded and cramped space was dominated by a bar carved from the same basalt as the room itself, and indeed seemed to rise up from the floor. Naco, the portly polar bear behind the bar he'd scraped from the stone nearly a century ago, was enjoying an unusually slow night by conversing with a pair of squirrels wearing doctor's uniforms. The bear looked at Marrin when he entered the space briefly and nodded once before turning his attention back to the conversation.

The wolf returned the nod and made his way over to what could almost be considered his "usual" spot at the bar, if coming here once or twice every few months could qualify as usual. Still, Naco was an old friend and he made sure to stop in whenever the Teshar was at Jinem. Beer being the one true constant in the universe and the polar bear's brew, Tooth and Claw, being famous amongst ship crews was also a reason to stop in.

Except Marrin didn't quite make it there when he noticed Captain Rels sitting alone at a corner table that was equally qualified to be called her usual spot. She looked particularily depressed and more than one sheet to the wind already despite it being early in the evening. Taking a calculated risk, he reached over the bar and grabbed one of the clear glass bottles full of the famed dark amber ale. That wasn't the risk though, Naco refused to take credits from the captain or any of her crew that'd served in the war, no, the risk was sitting down across from Captain Rels at her table.

<<I didn't think I would find you here tonight, Captain,>> the wolf said as he sat heavily on the stool in that spot. If she was not in the mood to speak he would find out soon enough.

Heoni Rels barely acknowledged him and snorted before taking a sip from a glass filled with another amber liquid that smelled a fair bit stronger than the beer. Once she had, she sat the glass back on the table without taking her four-fingered hand away from it. <<I came here to clear my head,>> she finally responded, her voice betrayed a sadness that her first officer picked up on immediately.

<<Clear your head, with that?>> He asked, indicating her drink with his own. <<You're thinking about Asham, aren't you?>>

Anger flashed across the somewhat intoxicated doe's face and it coloured her answer, <<I am allowed to think about him.>> Her expressioned softed again back to sadness and continued, <<It will have been seventy-five years in a few weeks. Seventy-five years, Marrin.>> Tears began to form in her eyes as she stared at the wolf, <<Every single day of each of those years I have woken up and...>> She didn't finish and instead consumed more of her drink.

<Wished you had not, because they are gone.>> He supplied gently. The wolf reached across the table and took the doe's hand in his paw. He knew this pain she felt, because he felt it as well. Every night he relived that day on Ganmur, like how Heoni Rels relived watching Asham Harl die during the war, when the invasion carrier attacked and human raiders burned his home. Every night he watched as his mate, Kethym, ran back into the burning building to rescue their infant son Gahn. Every night he watched it collapse in a fireball moments after she tossed their terrified child to safety. Tears of Marrin's own making began to water his eyes and he took a long drink from his bottle to help steel himself against falling into the abyss of despair left by the loss of one's mate.

<<We are not meant to do this, Marrin,>> Captain Rels said, <<I should have died with him.>> She bowed her head and snorted again as she tried to regain some composure. It didn't help and she sobbed softly, nothing could fill the void left by her loss. Rukot could only choose a mate once, and the majority committed suicide when their's died. Of those that remained most simply lost the will to live and perished anyways. She and Marrin were of a different ilk though, forced to carry on. For her it had been her duty during the war, and she'd revenged herself upon the Imperial Navy brutally for it. For the wolf, it was his son. Her reason to keep living was long gone though, yet still she persisted.

Marrin tightened his grip on his captain's hand, <<If you'd died with him, we might have lost the war, and later no one would have been there for me and Gahn.>>

<<Your family grows and mine will end with me,>> she replied flatly.

<<Aren't we your family as well, Heoni? You took us in, and practically raised Gahn for two years while I mourned. You're the closest thing to a mother he has.>> His words weren't meant to sound hollow, but felt as much. Nothing could replace his loss, just like nothing could replace her's.

The doe looked back up at him and questioned a little bitterly, <<Is that what I am now? Mother to children who have lost their parents? Is Leina my latest charge?>>

<<Leina?>> Marrin asked, not sure why the captain brought up his son's mate.

<<She comes to me, still barely understanding what she is now, and asks me for advice and help.>> Captain Rels' words began to slur and whistle as her intoxication reached the point where the harder sounds for non-human mouths to reproduce became distorted. Her eyes took a far-off look and she sobbed again before barely whispering, <<Oh Asham Harl, my Asham, a child would have helped me remember you.>>

The wolf tactfully ignored her whisper and sat in silence.

As she calmed again, she finished her drink and looked up, saying, <<She is a strange one, Marrin. I did not know him long, but she does not act like Roger Keene.>>

<<I've noticed this too,>> he replied. He was grateful that their conversation was starting to steer in a different direction. He had thought on this very subject long and hard, especially after Leina accepted his son. He couldn't rationalize the serval's acceptance of her changes in such a short amount of time. The wolf wanted to believe that if the same happened to him he would've raged and fought against it until he either died or returned to normal, but it was Gyth who'd made him understand in the end. He shared the lioness' words with Captain Rels now, <<Her brain was altered in the same way as her body. The human we knew ceased to exist in that escape pod. Leina may have his experiences and memories, but she is a different person.>>

<<Is that what she has told you?>> she asked.

<<No, Gyth told me,>> he answered honestly.

At the mention of the lioness, the doe snorted again and shot out, <<Gyth,>> in a very bitter tone that betrayed the true source of her presently sour mood. Heoni Rels sloppily waved her current drink in the direction of the two squirrel doctors and said, <<Did you know she has asked to leave Teshar? Captain Pall has had a good couple of years and apparently Froan has used his share to buy a home here on Jinem. Naco is interviewing her replacement for me.>>

The news did not come as a surprise to Marrin, as he'd seen the doctor removing her belongings from her quarters only a few hours previously. <<I know,>> he replied. <<It's hard to see others have what we don't.>>

<<I should kick every couple off my ship and only hire old war relics to crew her,>> Captain Rels said with a short, bitter laugh. <<Go tell Naco we will not be needing those squirrels and get me another drink.>>

<<Captain, you know we need three doctors, and Kouhm will likely wish to remain with his family once his leave is over,>> the wolf advised, not sure if she was serious.

<<Then get me another fucking drink and talk me out of it,>> she ordered.

The old wolf's ears twitched at the sound of her drunken curse, but he moved to do as she bade.

====================================

"You have done well, Captain. You will be contacted shortly with your new assignment," Emperor William of the Milkyway Galactic Empire said in his commanding and song-like baritone to the man on the screen.

"I live to serve you, my Emperor. Thank you," Commander, now Captain Mahim, replied before the Emperor switched off the communication.

It was said that he was as old as the stars. William knew better, yet in this moment he truly felt as old as they were. Mahim's report confirmed his suspicions, and he knew that the accompanying logs from the spy lab would show the earth human, Roger Keene inadvertantly picking up several of the transformation vials. He also knew, despite the report, that the man was still alive, though no longer human. The Emperor had waited for this for well over two millenia, and he smiled and laughed as he stood up from the chair in his private study to walk stiffly over to a smooth metal wall adorned soley with a status display and input pad.

As he moved the lights in the study came back on, revealing an almost waifishly slim man of about two meters in height. His skin was very light, and freckled, and unlike most humans who sported black or brown hair, his was a dull coppery red, loosely curled, and shoulder-length. It matched the round beard and moustache that surrounded his large lips. He looked young, care of routine treatments, but Emperor William retained some of the roughened features of his subjects' ancestors, from his bulbous nose to the deeper set of his wisened blue eyes that betrayed his true age. His features were not matched by any other human, and intentionally so.

The ruler of the galaxy placed his right palm on the wall near the status display as he studied it for a moment. Still stable, still in stasis, still damaged beyond their ability to repair, but not for much longer.

"It's finally happening, just like you foretold," the ancient man said to the wall. "Soon you will be whole again, my love." Soon being a relative term, there was much to be done to prepare for that moment that was still decades away, but it was only decades now instead of centuries or millenia. All that time had taught Emperor William the patience to let things play out as they were set to and he was able to content himself with the knowledge his wait was nearing the end.

Just knowing that the time was nearing made the man feel as if the weight of all he had done for the past 2434 years was lifting. The dark shadow he had been forced to cast over the galaxy to ensure the future happened as it must would lift as well, but first it would be cast into a deeper dark.

He sighed wearily and spoke once more, "Know that I don't want this war, but you said it would come, and come it must." It was the truth, Emperor William did not wish to be the evil he was and had become, but evil was what he had to be. He wanted little more than to tear the shackles off both the Rukot and his fellow Humans, yet the future demanded he keep both in their respective chains, at least for a little while longer.

"Oh, the things we do for love," he said with a laugh as he sat back down at his desk and began to plan for war.