[D]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 st mission, the file that had been open described a failed experiment on one of the fighting races that served the gactic 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 arm 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 gssing a pnet.

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

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

  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 st. 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 particur 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 pce to y 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 gaxy. 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 simir.

  ‘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 decre?”

  “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!’

  [C]She had no idea what these people wanted and she didn’t really care.

  Moose had given her a task. That was all that mattered.

  All she needed to do was to get these people to let them dock and trade whatever Moose wanted to trade and she could tell Moose she did her job. To that end, she simply said and did the same things as st time. It was good enough for that security person, so it should be just fine.

  Then she would get her pets.

  “Do you have anything to decre?”

  “Um, no.”

  Not to these people. They didn’t need to know what she wanted to decre to Moose.

  Her ears flipped back at a sharp noise and she felt a rough hand on her shoulder.

  “Yes we do! We have a high-end shuttle for docking. Orphan cargo, ten pallets. Base trade goods. Five persons, preferred clearance for two. Docking can be negotiated ter.”

  She bounced on the balls of her feet back towards where Moose had sat back down and could feel a low growl working its way up her throat.

  That was her job!

  She was supposed to get pets, not this intruder!

  The emotions swirling in her chest were so intense and contradictory that the only reason she wasn’t acting was because she wanted to do everything at once.

  “Right… Who am I speaking to and why wasn’t that the first answer?”

  “I’m sorry. I have no idea how my daughter got access to the comms. I didn’t notice until I didn’t receive any replies to my queries.”

  Her tail bristled further. She wasn’t his daughter. Her faceless owner had taken so long to show up that she didn’t care about them anymore! This intruder couldn’t just come in here and say she belonged to him! She was Moose’s!

  “That means I have to start all over again. Do you know how many resources you have just wasted not controlling your offspring? I will be submitting a fine for this breach of protocol.”

  “Of course. I understand completely.”

  She was about to lunge at the intruder and shout her disagreement when she felt something grab her tail and her legs melt. She turned around to see Moose watching everything. Kitty was crouched on the floor, having moved from sitting on Moose. She didn’t look pleased.

  “Small thing games, not here.”

  She felt a stab of betrayal. She hadn’t done anything wrong! It was this intruder who was causing problems. She had done her job! She was that close to getting a pat from Moose!

  She could feel wetness gather in her eyes as she realized she had probably lost her chance.

  The anger and loss swirled in her chest, overpowering everything else.

  He didn’t belong in this pce. It wasn’t his.

  “Yes, that all sounds correct. I am gd that most things can be kept. She really doesn’t mean any harm.”

  She gred at him. At the lies falling from his mouth. She wanted to make sure Moose knew it wasn’t true, but he couldn’t understand what was being said any more than he could understand her. That was a small relief at least. Moose couldn’t fall for it.

  “What were you thinking, lying to them? We could have all be arrested!”

  The intruder had turned to her. Had started to accuse her. She had seen it before. Seen the sves throw each other into the jaws of a punishment they didn’t want to take. Even if she had tried to stay out of it, the other sves had always tried to use her as a scapegoat. Most of the time it backfired, her work more closely monitored. Sometimes it didn’t.

  She wouldn’t just stand by this time.

  She got back into a proper crouch and her legs tensed as she prepared to teach this intruder what she thought of his presence. As she sprang through the air, she felt a strange sensation. It ended with a brief sense of vertigo and a thump.

  “Kitty.”

  Her ears flipped back again as she felt the word boom through her. The feeling of a steel band around her waist and the heat pouring onto her back help to inform her of her new location. The rumbling coming from behind her enough to rattle her fur and set her limbs tingling.

  She had somehow ended on Moose’s p.

  She didn’t know whether to be shocked, unhappy, exhirated, or brain-meltingly comfortable.

  So she settled on everything for the moment.

  Kitty would speak up when Moose was done talking anyways.

  “Only words. Moose say.”

  The short message from Kitty seemed to utterly confuse the intruder, but she understood. She had lost her pce at the radio, she had to win this battle with words. She saw the value in that. If only grudgingly.

  The intruder sighed.

  “Look, I don’t know who taught you to talk to a station operator, but you can’t just say no like that.”

  She could feel the growl start low in her throat again.

  ‘What could this intruder possibly know about me! I’m doing what Moose wants!’

  “No one taught me anything. I’m doing my job and speaking to them. They don’t need to know what I want. Only that Moose wants to dock! That’s it!”

  She could feel a snarl on her face.

  “Wait, how did you dock st time if no one taught you?! Do you know anything about the proper use of this radio?”

  “No.”

  It was hard to keep it there. More something she thought she should have than what she actually felt.

  “Do you know anything about docking this ship?!”

  “No.”

  Moose’s warmth was making her flush and burning out the unpleasant feelings.

  “Do you know anything about properly flying any ship!?!”

  “No.”

  She did her best. She knew she needed to be angry. That she needed to hate this intrusion into her space.

  “If you don’t know anything than why are you opera--. Never mind. What did you even do before then? Surely you have some skill that transtes to this?”

  “Sve.”

  Her mind was having trouble focusing on the intruder’s words. She understood why Kitty sat here all the time. The soothing heat seemed to massage thoughts right out of her mind.

  “You’re a sve!? What happened to your colr? How did you even get here?”

  “Shush. Small things loud. Quiet words.”

  ‘Mmm, Kitty can handle it I guess. She can be useful in getting rid of intruders.’

  The warmth really was too much to resist.