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Chapter Eight - Human Resources Division

Erin hummed happily to herself as she made her way down the halls of the lab, her multiple tails swishing through the air as she walked. The other scientists made sure to watch out for her as she passed, knowing that the female feral wolf was no ordinary lupine. Despite not having the stature of many of the anthros that inhabited the Starpoint Facility she knew how to operate and it helped that many of the staff on hand knew and respected her. A lot of them were even very good friends, which said a lot for anyone that represented the Human Resources department as she walked into Dr. Winter's office.

"You wanted to see me, August?" the wolf said as she hopped up onto one of the bigger chairs made especially for her and made herself comfortable, the Siberian tiger male nodding on the other side of the desk.

"I just wanted to check in and see how things were going with the staff," August replied. "It's been a few days since the Bal'Kar has moved into the facility and I wanted to make sure that people weren't too unnerved about the prospect of having such a dangerous creature only a few feet away from where they ate or slept."

"I understand," Erin said with a grin on her muzzle. "As per your request I've been doing some one-on-one interviews with those that have the closest proximity to the creature known as Serathin and so far no one has reported any complaints, and though a few are unnerved everyone is acting as professionally as they can. I've also sent out a few surveys and so far the feedback has been overall positive with only a few people still expressing their concern about what we have housed here. Would you like me to scale up my efforts or look for anything in particular?"

"No... I think for now just keeping tabs on things will suffice," August replied as he sat back with a sigh. "Though make sure to keep on top of any complaints; ever since I took over this facility in what was essentially a coup the higher-ups have been keeping me under the microscope." There was a moment of pause and the lupine could sense that there was something that the anthro tiger wanted to say, tapping his fingers on his desk before he finally came out with it. "Given the nature of these creatures, it would be remiss of me to ask... have you noticed any complaints or reports of increased... salacious behavior?"

"Nothing that has been brought to my attention directly," Erin reported. "I do try to keep my ear to the rumor mill and I have heard some stories of people hooking up and one or two cases of slightly inappropriate conduct, but given the isolated nature of this facility it's to be expected. I'll make sure to come to you if there's anything else that you need."

The tiger nodded and after a few more questions about the overall nature of the facility the scientist dismissed Erin. "If I may ask," Erin finally said as she hopped off of the chair, "how is Nate doing?"

The feral could briefly see the look of anguish and concern on the tiger's face before August composed himself, looking down at Erin and giving her the best grin he could muster. "His condition is... not good," he admitted. "Even though I'm still holding onto the hope that we can find a way to synthetize the healing properties of the Bal'Kar bio-extract, I fear we're running out of time. He just wanted to take a dive into one of those goo pools and be done with it, but I'm not quite ready to have such a... squishy lover."

"Well I'm sure that we're going to find something," Erin replied cheerfully. "All the brilliant minds here and yourself will find the answer, then you can have Nate strutting around the place like he did before. I know you can do it."

Though it was clear the assurances did little to ease the tiger's mind she at least saw a small smile on his face as he nodded in reply. The two traded a few more pleasantries before Erin padded over and gave August a hug, her tails swirling about in the air as she stood on her hind legs. Once that was done Erin left the office and went back to do her rounds to make sure that the heads of the various labs were putting in their reports for the month. As she passed by the airlock that separated the Bal'Kar containment wing from the rest of the facility she paused; though she wouldn't go in there herself due to the nature of the containment protocols, she couldn't help but wonder about the creature that was contained within. She hadn't had a chance to talk to the being known as Serathin and given the nature of his species she doubt she ever would, but that still didn't stop her intellectual curiosity from making her wonder just what it would be like to talk to such an interesting creature.

The wolf just shook her head and continued to the lunch room, grabbing a tray with her mouth before going through the line and getting her lunch. Once she was done getting what she wanted she walked out into the mess hall and immediately spotted someone to sit next to. The snow leopard didn't even look up from his plate as she put hers down opposite him and sat down on the bench.

"You look like you're a thousand miles away right now," Erin asked, causing the anthro male to look up in surprise. "Something wrong?"

"Oh, hey Erin..." Newlyn replied. "No, nothing's wrong, just thinking about what happened to Arlo."

The lupine tilted her head in concern as the feline went back to playing around with his food. It was no secret what happened to Arlo, the researcher that had accidently fallen into one of the pools of bio-extract and had gotten himself turned into a Bal'Kar. Although she had to write the report she actually had very little contact with the victim, the main point of contact being Dr. August Winters. What surprised her more was how Newlyn was taking it; as far as she had known the two weren't really friends, or least he had never told her such, and they were pretty close.

Even though Erin attempted to casually dig for more information it was clear that was all the anthro snow leopard had to say on the point and eventually she gave up on her investigation in order to talk about other things. While she was curious on the mood change it was clear the line of questioning was making him unhappy, which was the last thing that she wanted for anyone. Though her desire to make sure that people were happy sometimes got her into trouble as a human resources manager, she was still very effective at her job. At this point, though, her personal and professional sides were in conflict as part of her wanted to see what was eating at Newlyn to make sure it wasn't something going on at the facility while the other part of her wanted to give her friend space.

Eventually the personal side won out and she chatted with the snow leopard about other things while they ate. Most of their talk kept drifting back towards the Bal'Kar, everything from what it would be like to change into such a creature to the ramifications of such a thing. Though Erin had very little knowledge on the subject being one of the administrative sections of the facility and not the research part she tried to keep up as best as she could. When she said she had never seen the Bal'Kar's actual form it seemed to cause Newlyn to perk up, looking around before asking if she wanted to.

Despite her initial reservations it was clear that this excited the snow leopard and Erin found herself agreeing to it. Newlyn quickly finished up what food he had left and motioned for her to follow him out of the mess hall and into the living quarters. She almost had to break her pace just to keep up as he led her to his room, once more the feline looking around before opening his door and then again while inside. Once Erin was in the room and he was sure no one else was he closed the door and locked it behind him before going to his desk and pulling out a tablet computer.

"What's going on, Newlyn?" Erin asked as he motioned for her to sit on the bed.

"I'm only showing you this because you're my friend and I know I can trust you," he said as he turned the tablet on. "Now before Arlo had his accident he managed to install a security camera in the Bal'Kar chamber and had given me the ability to access the feed. You said you never saw it before, now's your chance to take a look."

The excitement in the snow leopard's voice was almost palpable as he held the tablet for the feral wolf to see, Erin looking down as he accessed the illegal camera system. Newlyn must know that he could get in serious trouble showing her this, the lupine thought to herself as she waited for it to load, yet it looked like he almost couldn't help himself but to show her. When the screen finally loaded the high resolution camera showed the cavern system, but with the only light coming from the observation deck above and the glowing green bio-extract pools that were scattered about it was hard for her to see anything. Newlyn mentioned that with Arlo's conversion the cavern had also grown significantly in size, which meant that they might not in range of the camera at the moment before he suddenly stopped talking.

Erin could feel her eyes widen as something did come into the view of the camera; at first she thought it was just a shadow or something but as the device refocused she could see that what had moved there was anything but. Black tentacles glistened in the light of the bio-extract that gave off an iridescent green sheen from the goo that likely covered the Bal'Kar as well as the tips of some of the tendrils as it moved forward, punctuated by white bone that made up the spikes and other parts of it. From the saber teeth that could be seen whenever those glowing green eyes scanned the area she identified this one as Serathin, watching as it slid almost effortlessly on the floor with that glowing, almost bug-like abdomen. She could see why others may have thought of it as a monster, but as it wrapped its tentacles around something to drag it towards him she had a different way of describing it...

"It's kinda cute," Erin said out loud, causing the snow leopard to look at her in surprise. "What? I mean it might be the video doing it and it definitely has that squid quality, but putting the fact that it's bigger and shinier and with more tentacles than anything else it's a little adorable. Plus it's got a very boopable snout."

"Well I certainly didn't expect that reaction," Newlyn said with a laugh, the previously felt anxiety leaving his room. "I suppose it is cute in a way, I'll have to tell Serathin that when I go into the cavern for my rotation... which is actually probably pretty soon given that Arlo is out of commission. We can talk more about it tomorrow after the study is complete, should have much more time to speak with you then."

Erin nodded and gave the snow leopard a hug before leaving the room, heading back to her own in order to do the necessary paperwork to send in to Dr. Winters. Part of her had expected to forget about what she had seen and go back to her normal routine, but as she flipped through the special computer that was designed for her to work she could feel her tails twitching. "It wasn't that spectacular..." she said to herself as she sighed and sat back, thinking about the video of that creature in the cavern. "It might be a bit monstrous, but I don't see where all the fear of the form comes in. Now the getting changed into one of them, that I can see being afraid of... especially if Arlo is any guide to go by."

The thought of that incident once more brought a frown to her otherwise cheerful face, remembering the fiasco it was to try and smooth it over with the higher-ups that they had lost a technician to the Bal'Kar. While management had predicted that they would all be sporting tentacles within the week it was clear that their concern was warranted, even with that hazmat suit on the arctic wolf had completely transformed in less than a minute after being fully submerged. Perhaps the declaration that Serathin had made was right... that the Bal'Kar were the future of the planet and they were just delaying the inevitable.

The lupine quickly shook that thought from her head and decided that she had done enough work for the day, opting instead to curl into her bed for the night. She called out for the computers to turn off her lights and once she was in the darkness kicked up her blanket to completely cover her save for her head. Sleep did not come easily for her, though, even as she closed her eyes and willed for sleep to come it eluded her for quite some time as her brain continued to dwell on the tentacle creature. Finally when it did come to her just before she dropped off into unconsciousness she almost awakened again as she felt the light touch of tentacles against her fur before falling asleep...

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The next morning Erin was immediately awakened by the sound of her phone ringing, opening her eyes to see that it was still early as she told the computer to answer it. "Erin, I need you down in my office immediately," the voice of Dr. Winters said that caused her to perk up immediately. "There was an incident last night and I need you down here as soon as you can to make a report of it. Hurry as soon as you can."

The wolf immediately pulled herself out of the burrito of covers she had made for herself during the night and went to the tiger's off right away. The last time she had heard his voice that strained was when Arlo fell into the bio-extract pool, and though she didn't like to assume, the thought that this was a similar incident crossed her mind. When she got into his office and saw his face it seemed to confirm her suspicion, though there was something else there that she couldn't quite place. Nevertheless she took the special tablet in her mouth and placed on the desk before using her voice to activate it, then nodding to August to start the log for the report.

"At four-hundred hours military time there was an incident in the Bal'Kar caverns that resulted in the transformation of one of our researchers," there was a moment of hesitation in August's eyes as he looked at Erin, then sighed slightly before he continued. "From the notes transcribed by the observation team it appeared that the researcher willingly removed his protective suit before giving himself over to the Bal'Kar known as Serathin, and as of right now we hypothesize that the reason was that while the abilities of the creature were not directly used to influence the researcher, they were likely a factor in his decision to expose himself. Therefore Researcher Newlyn is removed from duties and placed in the Bal'Kar quarantine area until further notice."

Erin felt her heart drop from her chest when she heard the name Newlyn, her jaw dropping open despite her attempt to remain professional. She had just talked to the snow leopard yesterday... and as her mind rapidly replaced the encounter for her she began to wonder if she hadn't missed a sign that he was going to do such a thing. While he had been excited to show her the Bal'Kar she didn't think that he was that obsessed... or was he? No... she thought as she shook her head, it had to be something that malfunctioned with his suit that cause him to be exposed, or something with the proximity of the Bal'Kar and him that made him take off his protective equipment and give himself over to those creatures.

"If we could go off the record for a little bit here," August said, snapping her out of her recall to focus on him as he rubbed his temples while she turned off the recording device. "I'm sorry Erin, I know he was a friend of yours and to hear that he did such a thing so recklessly makes me wonder if any of us are really safe in this facility. For all we know our sterilization procedures mean nothing and this creature... these creatures truly are unstoppable."

"Well given the nature of how fast exposed people transform, wouldn't we all be Bal'Kar by now?" Erin asked, attempting to keep up the spirits of the tiger while still processing her own. "I don't know why Newlyn did what he did, but given the reports that I'm getting I'm sure that it's an isolated incident. Maybe you can find out why after you talk to him..."

The tiger shook his head and pointed at the feral wolf, which caused her to look at him in confusion. "You're going to be the one doing the interview on this one," he stated with a firm look of resolution in his eyes. "As you said you were his friend and you have the specialized skills to hopefully get to the bottom of this and see if it truly is an isolated incident or the start of something that might bring down his whole facility. I'm sorry if this is going to be hard for you, but I have to know..."

As Erin watched him trail off she knew what the end of that sentence was going to be, he was wondering if he had just doomed them all to becoming Bal'Kar by inviting it into their facility. The feral wolf quickly said that she would do it, not giving him a chance to second guess his decision as she then asked what she would have to do to get into the Bal'Kar cavern. Even though it would be hard to confront her friend she had just as much motivation to get to the bottom of this as August had. Once they were done with the particulars she was told to report to the Bal'Kar quarantine wing immediately in order to get suited up and ready to go.

Though the many-tailed wolf hadn't yet gone through her usual morning routine this time she decided to abandon it entirely and made her way to the airlock as soon as she left August's office. When she got there she was slightly shocked to find that it was open, an anthro dragon standing there with his arms crossed who spotted her instantly. "You must be the one they called me down here to help with suiting up," he explained, ushering her in with one hand while picking something up with another. "Don't have a lot of options for ferals like yourself but I think this one will do nicely enough, just needed a few modifications and some seal tests and you're good to go."

The process for getting her into the suit was a bit awkward, particularly when it came to stuffing all her tails into the limited space that was given in the suit itself. Eventually they managed to get everything in without hurting her, and once the air supply and integrity of the suit had been checked she was escorted through the observation deck and down the elevator into the cavern itself. Each checkpoint she went through seemed to be secure and functioning properly, a fact reiterated to her as they descended down to the stone floor, which made it unlikely that the sterilization features weren't malfunctioning. The answers would likely be in the newly created Bal'Kar, who currently was in the tentacle form wrapped around the others before the three heads turned towards her and she was suddenly looked at by six sets of glowing, green eyes.

"Hey, you know the rules," the one that had came with her shouted as he pointed at them. "Guise forms while there are people in the cavern. We told you that we were coming."

All three of them seemed to have smirks on their faces as they shrugged and began to transform, Erin watching in rapt fascination as they began to shrink as those slimy, rubbery tentacles began to compress in on themselves. She, like many of those in the facility, had wondered how such hulking creatures could turn back into the forms they used to hold, and even as she watched tiny green tendrils poking out from splitting flesh as they continued to shrink in on themselves she hardly understood what was happening. After about a minute or so the tentacle creatures were gone, replaced with a naked draconic sabrewolf, an arctic wolf, and a familiar snow leopard. Erin told her bodyguard that she would like to have some private time to get her investigation started and motioned for Newlyn to join her over where a number of heavy-duty chairs and tables sat.

"I suppose you have a lot of questions, Erin," Newlyn said as they both sat down, the thick metal creaking slightly under the snow leopard's new mass.

"You think?" Erin replied, trying not to show her obvious anger at the former feline as he continued to smirk at him. "Newlyn... when we talked yesterday you gave no indicators that you were going to do something this... drastic to yourself. Was this your plan all along or did something happen to you to cause you to act like this?"

"It took me a while to realize that I had been hiding from the truth," Newlyn admitted as he looked at his fingers with those glowing green eyes, watching as they turned black and shiny before reverting back into their disguised state. "The second that I laid eyes on the Bal'Kar I knew deep down that I wanted to be one with them, that their form is in fact the pinnacle of organic evolution. I'll admit that all the way up to when I took the plunge as Serathin calls it I was nervous, some part of me wondering if I was making a terrible decision. As soon as I started to change and joined the hive, ,though, I know now that this was the right decision... and not just for me, but for everyone as well."

Inside her suit Erin frowned as the mutated snow leopard sounded a lot like those that had been infected and transformed into Bal'Kar, and though he still acted and talked like her friend, whenever she looked into his eyes he could see the creature that dwelled behind them. When she pressed him on the events that led up to his need to join them he didn't recall anything in particular that seemed to trigger it, save for when Arlo transformed and watching it on the video feed. Though that might have been something Erin quickly dismissed it, thinking of all those up on the observation deck if it was merely sight-based then others in the observation deck would have turned a long time ago. As she continued to talk to Newlyn to get to the bottom of what had happened to him he remained somewhat aloof and elusive.

Erin wanted to continue to talk but her escort went up to her and told her that she had to leave. When she protested he stated that it was part of Dr. Winters' protocol that no one be down in the chamber for more than an hour, and even that was longer than he would have liked. It was clear that she would not be able to argue her way out of it and when she went to give her friend the usual hug the crinkle of her suit reminded her of where she was and what she was doing. The pullback was evident to Newlyn, who frowned slightly when he saw that.

"What, no hug for me now?" he asked as he stretched out his arms. "I thought you said that Bal'Kar are cute."

"It's just..." Erin said as she looked away, "I don't know if that's a good idea. Last thing I need is to end up down here with you guys."

"I would beg to differ on that, but alright," Newlyn said with a grin, though the lupine's powers of perception could tell he was slightly hurt by this. "Take care Erin, until the next time we meet."

The female wolf left feeling glum about what she had just done as she walked with the escort back to the elevator. Though she felt like the guard would have told her not to do it she didn't like denying someone of the simple joy that hugging could bring. But when she got back up and through the observation deck her concern soon turned to how she was going to move next on this. She knew that August wasn't going to be satisfied with the answer of why he felt like turning into a tentacle monster, she thought as she was helped out of her suit, which meant that deeper investigation would likely be needed...

Many hours later Erin found herself once more in the cavern of the Bal'Kar, Newlyn sitting opposite her with that same grin on his face. "I'm really not sure what else I can tell you," the snow leopard guised creature said as he leaned back. "In fact part of me wonders if you just made up that excuse to come and see me."

"You know that they're not going to accept you voluntarily changing yourself," Erin said as she found herself shaking head and hopping off her chair, walking over and putting her paws on Newlyn's knee and looking right into his eyes. "If you don't give me something then management might put pressure on Dr. Winters to do something more drastic or, heaven forbid, destroy the lot of you. Can't you understand that I'm trying to help?"

"Oh of course," Newlyn replied as he placed a hand on her gloved paw. "Look... I promise you that I will help you understand the Bal'Kar however I can, all you have to do is keep an open mind. Oh, and I will need one other thing as payment for my helpfulness."

"What on earth could that be?" Erin replied incredulously.

"Can I get that hug?" the snow leopard asked, stretching his arms out. Though Erin wondered if this was a bad idea she decided that it wouldn't hurt to give him one since he was in his guise form. As she reached up onto her hind legs and gave him one he could hear the guard shouting at her, but when they squeezed together it felt so good she didn't care and kept the embrace until Newlyn pulled back and looked at her. "You call that a hug, I know you can do better than that..."

Erin looked at the snow leopard in surprise as he grinned and winked down at her. "Since when are you a hug snob?" she asked, grinning despite herself as they remained pressed against one another, the wolf rolling her eyes. "Alright fine, what can I do better?"

"Just squeeze a little harder," Newlyn instructed, Erin attempting to do so with her forelimbs as he just shook his head. "Not like that, really get into it." As he continued to goad she found herself trying even more, finding that she was able to get herself around the chest of the male with a little work. "Oh come on, you're not even trying, really give it to me!"

Erin wasn't sure why but she responded to the challenge by giving it everything she got, squeezing the snow leopard as hard as she could as she grunted from exertion. Just as she was about to stop, though, her muscles continued to tense and her eyes snapped open wide as she heard her suit rip. She immediately looked down at herself in shock as she saw two rubbery black tentacles push their way out of her suit and around the waist of the male. When she tried to pull her arms back she found herself unable to and once more the fabric of her protective equipment popped and revealed patches of shiny skin where fur used to be as her arms stretched far beyond what they should have done. Her mind began to race on what was happening to her and how her lower body began to expand, more tentacles ripping out of her suit and coiling around the grinning snow leopard as she looked down at her.

"Now that's a hug," he commented as the helmet fell off her head, feeling more tendrils pushing out of her muzzle and head as Newlyn's mouth opened and revealed a glowing green tongue that slithered about in the air before pushing into her maw...

The night air was filled with a loud gasp as Erin awoke with a start, her scrambling body nearly causing her to fall off of her bed as she looked around in the darkness. When she finally stopped panting and managed to get her heart rate under control she realized that she had just had a really bizarre dream, one that combined her curiosity of the Bal'Kar with her fear of being transformed and managed to shoehorn in her guilt in not giving her friend a hug. As she shifted on her bed the tablet she had been using to take notes and do research on the strange species fell to the floor, something that caused her ears to flatten slightly before she decided to grab it tomorrow. Even with that dream fresh in her mind, her body still having the phantom sensation of those growing tentacles, she managed to get back to sleep so she would rested for what would be the long day ahead.