[Baylor]

  The attack on the ship had left him shaken.

  Not from the attackers, they had been about what he expected. Well trained, expensive technology. In short, Specialists. People who spent their lives doing the thing they had come here to do, hunt him down and retrieve the data he was never supposed to have gotten.

  'I wish I knew why it was so important.'

  When he had found the data on his last mission, the file that had been open described a failed experiment on one of the fighting races that served the galactic military. Not really revolutionary in and of itself. The problem came as part of the description of the failure.

  It said that the races' previous design had caused a genetic conflict.

  It had been a small mention, but it stood out in the otherwise ordinary report. Had the report used any other word, evolution, biology, anatomy, anything, he wouldn't have given it a thought. But it didn't, it used design. As if they had been made that way. That had raised the hair on his neck and set off alarm bells. He knew what 'biological design' could accomplish.

  There weren't many others who had seen a War-beast in direct action after all.

  He knew it was a constant struggle in the council. All the old counselors who had seen reports of their deployment and understood what that meant did their best to suppress the knowledge and advocate for other solutions. The new ones coming in, the ones just trying to throw their new positions around, brushed off those warnings and advocated for worse.

  They only did that once.

  When they got confronted with the reports or consequences of their decisions, they all fell in line. Did their best to suppress the knowledge. They at least, could see reason when they had to confront it themselves. It was the fools who didn't advocate for use, but to make the Weapons stronger that didn't get the hint. The scientists and profiteers who thought a bigger bomb just meant a bigger explosion. And a bigger payout.

  They never had to read the reports.

  Never had to face the consequences.

  Never had to order troops into an unwinnable battle that nearly always led to glassing a planet.

  The council had learned early that you didn't use a super weapon unless you wanted to erase everything. Potentially habitable planet included.

  'If only the people who made those weapons would take the hint.'

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  He thought that was what he had found. One of those foolish bases where people more concerned with money than sense was trying to find new ways to destroy. It wouldn't have been the first. At the time, he doubted it would be the last. He had collected the data and destroyed the base. Finished his mission. It wasn't until he turned in the data that things had turned strange.

  The higher ups had tried to cover it up.

  Told him to forget everything.

  That never happened. It had always been a pat on the back for a job well done and confirmation that the data was destroyed. An end to that particular thread. This time? The data had been carried off and examined. He was commanded to keep his mouth shut. Told to forget everything that had happened. Even his direct superior had been taken aback, confused by the change. Enough to discreetly look into it.

  It all turned from strange to problem when that supervisor disappeared.

  It had signaled that it was time to retire. Time to leave while he still could.

  'What a mistake that was. Wish I had asked more questions back then.'

  Back when the cloaked figure had handed him the data disk. Told him it was the information he had found. That he was the only one who could get the word out, to stop it. That he had to be careful, people would be hunting for it.

  That he might end up dead otherwise.

  The short meeting had set a fire under his tail. Sent him seeking safe havens and unexpected trips, burning contacts and bridges as he went. His Crova companion the only reason he still had assets to use and a path forward. The threat to life and limb had sent him forward before he had even thought to ask questions, his combat training taking over. When Christy had first confronted him with a why, he had started to regret that.

  Especially when the data disk was encrypted.

  He had stalled after that. Told her it was too dangerous to know, which was true. It was probably why he didn't know either. Told her that they needed to find a place to lay low and let the heat pass. Only then could they find someone trustworthy to break the encryption and broadcast the right data. But only the right data.

  If his hunch was right, he was holding blueprints to a species wide weapon cache.

  'Not something I can broadcast to the galaxy. I just wish Christy hadn't gotten caught up in it.'

  He couldn't do anything about that now though.

  Her ignorance probably helped him here as well. The two giants aboard this ship had his instincts screaming. With what he knew, the female had to be a modified War-beast and the male was some unfathomably more potent weapon. Something so far beyond a War-beast, the female was no more than an unruly child. His mind was lost in conspiracy and plots. Everything tied to the disk he kept guarded and hidden.

  Christy didn't know that though. To her, a War-beast was a distant weapon. The two giants were simply a minor species she had never met before. It had taken her words for him to really stop and think. Her calmness off putting his paranoia. The hair and fur had thrown him off, but they were certainly similar.

  'Could they actually just be some random species? Have I become that paranoid?'

  He didn't know, but he could find out. Christy seemed to avoid the bridge for reasons he could understand. The light was low enough she probably couldn't see and the only time they could even try to enter was when the giants were present. It was locked otherwise.

  He preferred that. She should just stay safe and gather what she could from that safety. He would do the dangerous work.

  It was what he was good at.

  "Do you have anything to declare?"

  "Um, no."

  He wasn't good at walking into a disaster unfolding before him. He barked and rushed into the bridge.

  'Please, don't let this be the way we are caught!'